Here’s one to chew on: If God forbid you’re an artist and you put up graffiti or wheat paste on a public wall and get caught, get ready to have the book thrown at you. You can expect to be treated like a criminal and it might even ruin your life.
I’ve been seeing these red widow spiders on many walls throughout New York and they look quite cool. Knowing the process of what is involved in putting up art in public on the sly, you gotta give these gigantic pieces respect.
Then, I discovered that there is no art involved and in fact, these are teasers for the new Spiderman movie that is scheduled for release in 2012! What a double standard! You can even see the spiders are painted over a wall that formerly housed legitimate street art (a popular spot for Hanksy’s work, just to name one artist who puts up work here).
I am assuming the movie studio offered the city a chunk of money to put up “legit street art,” and the city has bent over to take it while seeing huge dollar signs. RIDICULOUS!
Corporate Street Art is a crime! There’s nothing artsy about a boardroom full of slightly creative people going through an approval process and then bribing the city so they can show off their advertising. Are these people going to be arrested? I don’t think so. They might snow the masses, but we all know better.
One of the hottest men on the planet Matt Bomer has acknowledged his male partner in a recent public speech, so the press is using this opportunity to announce his sexuality to the planet. Coming out of the closet is such a strange phenomenon because so many gay people fear that moment more than any other in their life and once the moment happens, most people’s lives ease up. There are always different circumstances of course, but one of the best things about coming out, I found was that I had finally reached a point in my life where it was less about my sexual preference and more about saying to the world – if you don’t give me the exact amount of love you’d give a straight person, you can GO FUCK YOURSELF! There is nothing wrong with me being myself and not hiding my honest desires and if you think otherwise, something is wrong with YOU! I say this not to go off on another one of my rants, but in the off chance that any of my readers can benefit from this knowledge. As Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys says, “you’ve gotta throw those skeletons out of your closet and come outside.” Welcome to our little soiree’ Matt!
Congratulations to Adele for sweeping the 2012 Grammys. I was out living my life so I didn’t see any of the awards ceremony, but I will say this – I’ve met Adele on two occasions and she was so nice both times that it warms my heart. I could not be happier for her and I wish her continued success! She’s so talented and worthy of all the accolades she receives. It makes you wonder why we bother wasting energy on untalented hacks when we’ve got treasures out there like Adele! Change begins with YOU!
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Released February 4, 1977
Happy 35th anniversary to one of the greatest albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.” If you only know the music (and not the back story) of Fleetwood Mac, you are missing out on one of the most intense Rock and Roll stories of all time about one of the most dysfunctional bands in history.
Fleetwood Mac, a British Rock/Blues band was enjoying success in the late 60s when several of their members left the band. Los Angeles based couple Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the group around 1975 and they released the successful self titled “Fleetwood Mac” album. During the recording of the follow up album that would become “Rumours,” Lindsey and Stevie were breaking up. Also, Fleetwood Mac’s co-lead singer Christine McVie was breaking up with FM bassist John McVie. Should we also mention that around this time, Stevie Nicks and drummer Mick Fleetwood also had an affair? The songs on this record were all written about what was going on in their lives, and that translated into mass appeal and global success.
The lyrics of most every song are jabs at their former lovers such as “When times go bad, if you can’t get enough, won’t you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff” (about Stevie’s infidelity to Lindsey on “Second Hand News”); “There you go again, you say you want your freedom, who am I to keep you down” (from Stevie to Lindsey in “Dreams,”) and “If there’s been a fool around, it’s got to be me” (from Christine McVie’s “Oh Daddy”). The album also features songs dedicated to drug addiction such as “Gold Dust Woman,” staying together as a unit in “The Chain,” and an inspiring song for the future “Don’t Stop,” and the ultimate kiss off in “Go Your Own Way.”
The book “Storms” written by Lindsey Buckingham’s girlfriend from 1977 – 1984, Carol Ann Harris begins during the Rumours tour and chronicles the massive amounts of sex, drugs, betrayal, love, abuse, rock and roll and is filled with so many juicy stories, you’ll wonder why Hollywood has not yet made a bio-pic of the Fleetwood Mac saga. I highly recommend the book as it will fill in the answers to so man unanswered questions and like I say to people with most biographies – if only one out of every ten stories are true – it’s still enough to make your head explode!
Opinions are opinions obviously, but based on some of the ignorant comments I’ve heard in regards to the singer Lana Del Rey since her weekend appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live that I’ve heard, I thought I’d offer my two cents about Lana Del Rey. I’m only saying these words as someone who sees HUNDREDS of live acts a year. That might not qualify me as an expert in live music, but I’ll tell you one thing – for some of the shitty things I’ve heard about Lana, I certainly did not see YOU at her show and I’ve certainly not seen YOU going and checking out live music night after night to expand your musical horizons and trust me, I’d remember!
Lana Del Rey became a Youtube sensation in 2011 and based on the strength of two viral videos, many doors have opened for her. She’s gotten international exposure by appearing on many TV programs and up until now, her performances have been pretty solid. She performed two songs on Saturday Night Live, a TV show that everyone seems to say “has lost its thunder years ago,” and yet everyone seems to watch it and complain about how bad it is. So anyone that falls into that bucket, which I’ll conservatively estimate as A LOT of you, deserves to have their words discredited as ALL of the people in that bucket DO NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR WORDS! If you don’t like something, DO NOT SUPPORT IT! Please don’t support it and then complain about how bad it is (that goes for awards shows and reality TV also). It’s a double standard and anyone with half a brain (such as myself) can see right through it! Don’t “watch” train wrecks – GET OUT AND HELP because one day YOU might be on that train!
Yes, Lana Del Rey’s appearance on the TV show was nowhere near as good as her videos and was disappointing, but suddenly, the same people that watched Lana’s videos and made her an internet sensation are doing everything in their power to tear her down. If you believe what you hear on the internet, there has never been anyone ever in the history of music as bad as Lana Del Rey! That makes NO sense! Before you utter another bad word about Lana, PLEASE remember that the world has allowed someone as talentless and tone deaf as Katy Perry to break records set by someone truly talented like Michael Jackson. Please remember that the world has allowed pop auto-tune and lipsynching icons such as Britney Spears and Rihanna to be hugely successful and sell out stadiums across the world! Let’s see them perform acoustically!? It will never happen because it will expose their lack of singing talent. It will prove that they are frauds and that the world is filled with idiots who are incapable of making decisions for themselves!
It’s been avoidable to hear reports that she bought her way into stardom or slept her way to get where she is. SO BE IT if any of that is indeed true. It sure worked for Madonna and look where she is now. We’re not going to get into Madonna’s preaching to the masses about destroying your ego while she maintains one of the largest egos on the planet either, because that’s a diatribe for another day. I’m not on Lana Del Rey’s payroll, but UNLIKE YOU at this point in the game, I’ve seen her perform a full set and I found her songs to be great. Certainly she’s not the best singer in the world, but she’s certainly not the worst either. I found myself intrigued to hear more, and I think that her recent performance was an off night instead of a lack of talent as the armchair critics of the world are condemning her for. Her album will be released at the end of the month and time will tell if the old adage that all publicity is good publicity is still true in 2012.
So with that in mind, revist a live performance of “Video Games” that I recorded from a small club show in December 2011.
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