Fries with Gravy

If you thought that the media isn't government influenced (dare I say controlled?), think again.  Here's the 30 second spot that NBC refuses to air on the grounds that it's disparaging to the Presidency - the advertisement for the Dixie Chicks new movie (Rated R), made in response to the backlash they received for anti-Bush comments post 9/11. 

I'm not ready to make nice either.

A positively (or negatively? hahahaha) hysterical song/video from the archives of my misspent youth. I play it annually at Halloween and crack up at the me who actually went to a Type O Negative concert.  They don't mean to be campy, which is the very best part.  The fellow concertgoers were the scariest group of humans (using that term very loosely) I've ever spent two hours bumping into.  Most had...fangs.

Best lines of the song:

"Oh baby, Lily Munster ain't got nothin' on you"

"Yeah, you wanna go out cuz it's raining and blowing.  You can't go out cuz your roots are showin' - dye 'em black."

And who can resist the charm of a songwriter who senses that you really CAN'T go out cuz your roots are showing?

It just goes to show ya that I missed my calling as a record company executive!  I *knew* that Lukas would win this season's Rockstar - I just knew it.  He gets plenty of crap on the Internet for being too gothy or too growly or too Canadian or whatever, but as frontmen go...he's top notch.  He has that whole Mick Jagger swagger (hee) going on and I think at least Tommy Lee had decided on him from show one. 

This was the first year that I watched Rockstar.  I've heard from plenty of fans who watched last season that this year's competition was lame in comparison to the INXS year, in that the band wasn't as proactive in their constructive criticism of the rockers.  I'll agree that the Supernova guys (save Gilby, who tried to be serious, at least) weren't the most consistent or necessarily...intelligent.  I thought the blatant sexism was tiresome, but I don't guess I was as offended as some - I mean, I know what I'm signing up for when I'm watching Tommy Lee on tv!  In all though, I enjoyed the season and I think the best contestant won.  So rare to feel that way at the end of a reality season.

You know you have four minutes to spare.  It's obvious that I spend too much time on YouTube, now isn't it?

WATCH IT!

Justin's Sexyback to Britney's Slave 4 U video

It's just incredible how much she's changed.  I forgot how hawt that video was.

Said U2 singer Bono “He was more than wise. In a garden full of weeds - the oak tree.”

I'd heard plenty of Johnny Cash music while growing up, but for some reason had never discovered the recordings he made in the 1990's after signing with Rick Rubin and American Records. I recently got the CD The Legend of Johnny Cash and was really surprised to hear his version of Soundgarden's Rusty Cage. It's awesome!  I was definitely listening to Soundgarden at that time (1996, I believe), so I was sorry to realize that I'd spent 10 years without hearing Cash's version.  How much more enriched would the past decade of my life have been??  Another song, The Wanderer, was recorded with U2 and is absolutely spine-chilling. I've played it four times this morning.

Now that Walk the Line  is safely past trendiness (and I can pull off being more than a hysterical Joaquin groupie), I'm think I'm gonna scan ebay for a CASH t-shirt.

LOL! If Supergroup (VH1) isn't the funniest thing on television... you probably weren't raised in the 70's or 80's.  Or your mama was smart enough to keep you away from rock music.  I grew up in the heyday of hair metal and my greatest obsession was Sebastian Bach, FORMERLY (he makes that very clear) of Skid Row.  Last night's Supergroup was as hysterical as the first, with the band meeting a wardrobe consultant (Ted Nugent *might* wash his hair, but dye it? comb it? nuh-uh) and trying to go out for a nice dinner in Las Vegas.  Favorite line of the night... Sebastian: "Will you just let me ROCK?"

One time (at band camp), a friend and I went to a small nightclub to see Sebastian perform as a solo artist.  His band was extremely....theatrical, nothing at all like Skid Row.  We were a little surprised.  Sebastian came on wearing a silver jacket and some kind of wing like...things on his back, lol - I don't even really know how to describe it.  I think he was going through some kind of adjustment period.  He's done some theater and doesn't seem to be experiencing the same career death as most of the formerly glorious (hee) hair metal dudes.  Can't wait 'til next week - gotta love a show that substitutes for Sunday night shock in the absence of Grey's and Desperate.

Unbelievably, Chris got the boot last night.  What happened?  Was he too overconfident for the voting American public?  I feel guilty now for not voting.  I think even Simon was a bit shocked.  I'm inclined to believe it's a conspiracy - American Idol set up a glitch in the telephone system or something, just to eff with all our heads.  Yeah.  A total conspiracy.

Even my dad hates this show now.

Check out the new Neil Young album on the right hand side of this page - he's truly a voice of the times and back to protesting...woot! Song #5 is especially poignant -- Impeach the President. Keep on rockin' in the FREE world, peeps.

I sprained my wrist over the weekend and spent most of yesterday avoiding the computer as well as housework.  Left to my own devices, I discovered that using the DVR remote control didn't hurt. The DVR is still new to me, so I've been doing that "Ooh, new toy!" thing and recording any and everything that I might want to watch if I were held captive in the house by three tiny people for days on end.  Wait, that's for real.  I've been recording a lot of stuff.  Tim McGraw's April 7th NBC special, Reflected, among it.

I kinda like Tim McGraw.  There's no question that he wears the hat well.  He sang the Barbecue Stain song.  He seems like a good husband and dad.  But I think maybe fame and Faith have gone to his head.  That t-shirt that he's wearing in the photo (a concert was filmed for the special at the Avalon Club in New York City) had SPARKLES all over it.  It wasn't the random glitter that sometimes appears on a dad's shirt after he's hugged a Tinkerbell clad toddler.  Purposeful sparkles on his arguably purple t-shirt; that's what I propose Tim was workin'.  Now, I don't have anything against purple sparkly t-shirts, on men even.  If that's your thing...work it.  However, I've been sold on black cowboy hats and white t-shirts.  Remember the Barbecue Stain, Tim?  (I had a barbecuue stain on my sparkly t-shirt, it was NOT)  I was not prepared for Barbie wear.  Come to think of it, maybe one of his little daughters picked that shirt.  But honestly, I think it was Faith.  She seems like she might try to convince him that he's rock n' roll enough for that.  And I *don't* think the daughters had anything to do with those jeans.  Faith was obviously playing with the Bedazzler.  It was a really questionable outfit. 

In addition to the outfit, which honestly had me pretty beside myself... Faith and Tim welcomed the camera crew to their farm in Tennessee.  They live in a house formerly owned by Hank Williams.  Hank Jr. was on the special, reflecting briefly about time spent at the house when he was a kid.  Tim and Jr. did a little "Family Tradition" jam out on the porch but he never actually let young Hank in the house, lol. The rest of the farm clips were Tim and Faith singing at each other in a room devoid of furniture, but with plenty of candles.  Oh, and I think they filmed Tim singing in a more manly outfit, but in another room with no furniture.  I wasn't convinced that anyone actually lived in the house, much less three little kids. 

I found Toby Keith's Outlaws concert on CMT more entertaining.  There certainly wasn't any glitter. 

Pictured with mom, Courtney Love.  Making the sign of Satan?  Nice.

According to Jossip.com, little Frances Bean has an internship offer from none other than fashion designer and daughter of Paul, Stella McCartney.  What a summer job!  And how nice that the senior rock princess is taking Frances under her wing at H&M.  I wonder what Kurt would say.  I think he'd tell her than H&M was part of the machine, maaan.   I think I'm just totally jealous, because *I* was selling donuts at that age.

You can watch the video for the Chicks' new single "Not Ready to Make Nice" here.  The song isn't very Dixie; more pop than ever, but I guess I can understand why they'd feel a certain distance from the country community.  After Natalie Maines' controversial comments a few years back (she said she was embarrassed that George Bush was our president), the Chicks were ostracized from the country scene, yanked off the radio & many country radio DJ's encouraged mass burnings of their albums for publicity stunts.  Way to support free speech, country fans!  I'm not a big proponent of politicizing your celebrity but I'm even less supportive of McCarthy era tactics like album-burnings based on an offhanded comment made by an artist.  The lynching that the Chicks experienced made me want to see them rise from the ashes.  Hope the new album can do it for 'em. 

And for the record...since I'm not a celebrity and this is my blog and I can politicize and pontificate alll I want,  I'll readily admit that I'm embarrassed by George Bush too.