Category Archives: Popular Culture
Third World // First Class (Update)
Update: Oh well, according to Brit’s rep. there will be no Namibian birth for K-Fed’s number 4.
First is was Brangelina. Now Brit and K-Fed are setting their sights on a Namibian birth.
Following in the steps of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Britney Spears is considering a Namibian birth for her next baby, a government official said Friday.
Deputy Environment and Tourism Minister Leon Jooste said officials have received an inquiry on behalf of the 24-year-old pop star, who has a 9-month-old son, Sean Preston, with husband Kevin Federline.
“She has shown interest to come over to Namibia,” Jooste said by telephone from a conference in neighboring South Africa. “Nothing has been confirmed yet, but there is a definite possibility of that happening.”
He declined to provide further details, saying: “She wants to come in very low profile and have some privacy. She might change her mind if we reveal too much now.”
There was no immediate response from Spears’ New York-based representative, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, to requests by The Associated Press seeking comment.
Celebrities: There’s Nothing Like ‘Em.
link.
The King of Snark Caught By an Email Trail
Keith Olberman rubs me the wrong way. His show, Countdown with Keith Olberman is quick and to the point but his personality comes across as condesending and snarky. He also complains about what other talkshow hosts do on their own shows a lot. Whenever he does, it sends me over to their show to check it out. I guess when you’re up against ratings king O’Reilly a few veiwers turning you off isn’t going to matter much anyway.
Well, it seems that Olberman’s snarky attitude isn’t limisted to his show. Keith disdains just about everyone from Bill O to his new boss Dan Abrahms. Not only does Olberman complain on air he also complains through email.
Now that Dan Abrams has given up his MSNBC show to run the third-place cable news outlet, he might want to focus on the rising tensions between two of his prime-time personalities: Keith Olbermann and Rita Cosby.
Olbermann, whose “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” airs weeknights at 8, apparently has precious little respect for Cosby, whose “Rita Cosby: Live & Direct” airs at 10 p.m.
“Rita’s nice,” Olbermann wrote to a fan from his MSNBC E-mail account, “but dumber than a suitcase of rocks.”
Yesterday Cosby retorted: “Keith got it wrong. I’m not that nice.”But a Cosby intimate gasped when informed of Olbermann’s E-mail. “That’s incredibly disappointing,” he said.
An MSNBC spokesman didn’t dispute the authenticity of the months-old E-mail, which came to light this week after the recipient shared it with this column on condition of anonymity.
In his E-mail, Olbermann was also dismissive of then-MSNBC President Rick Kaplan, who left the network last week with six months to go on his three-year contract.
“And Kaplan?” Olbermann wrote to his fan. “He was the producer of that special last night — now known as the Kanye West Show.” It was a reference to an embarrassing incident during NBC’s Hurricane Katrina telethon on which the popular rapper departed from his script to claim President Bush “doesn’t care about black people.”
Olbermann, who didn’t comment yesterday, was said to be on vacation — though he managed to turn up Monday night at a book party for Al Gore at the American Museum of Natural History.
There, the media blog Jossip.com asked Olbermann — who was accompanied by “his self-described ‘friend’ Katie” — if he’ll now be answering to Abrams.
“I don’t answer to anybody,” Olbermann insisted.
We’ll see.
Week In Review (Updated)
It has been a long but awesome week.
I was formally introduced to the congregation and charged with leading the youth ministry last Sunday. The elders placed hands on us, prayed for me, and sent me into the fields. It was a humbling and exciting moment for me.
While in the office this week, I was again struck with how awesome my job is. Not only do I get to hang-out with students, not only do I get to tell them about my Savior, and not only do I get to walk with them through their teenage years but I get paid to study the Bible. I have been planning on teaching 1 Corinthians this summer so I have loved living in and with this letter over the past 2 months. This week’s time in the Word was just wonderful! Praise God!
I have also been reading Practicing the Presence of God by Bro. Lawrence and God is Here, a modern-day commentary on Bro. Lawrence. This is now the fourth time that I have read PtPoG and I am overwhelmed with how much this little book, written 400 years ago, speaks to me. Good stuff.
One of my jobs this week was to change the church sign out front of our church. I thought, “If I’m going to do this, I want to do something that is different from your typical church sign.” So…
Other events this week included buying tickets to Dave Matthews Band in August, getting a new desk for my home office, and a trip to the movies with my teens to see Cars. A fun time was had by all.
Well folks, that was my week in review. I hope everyone has a blessed week.
Peace.
Guilty Pleasure of the Week
All right, I have a confession to make.
For the past few weeks I have been causing quite a stir at the bookstores that I frequent. I haven’t been doing anything destructive or mean-spirited. Nothing like that. It’s just…well…
I’ve been asking the sales people if they have ever heard of some book called The DaVinci Code.
Sometimes I’ve asked them this while standing near the giant pro-DaVinci/anti-DaVinci sales displays. And to be honest, I never get tired of the looks that people give me. Sometimes I let on that I’m kidding and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just act fascinated by the number of different books at the tables.
I’ve done this at Books-a-Million, Barns and Noble, Borders, Lifeway, and Family Christian.
I can probably only get away with this for a few more days. It’s been quite a ride.
(RED) Hot
Nobody Knows Where They Might End Up
The last two minutes of last night’s Grey’s Anatomy were the best two minutes on television all season.
Here’s a quick recap:
Izzie lost her ever lovin’ mind!
George’s new haircut is still goofy.
Mrs. Dr. Shephard played the fool in front on the entire hospital.
Christina was upset about something (shocker)
Dr. McDreamy and Merideth’s dog, Doc, is dying.
but the big shocker was that…
Burke got shot and he’s the only one who can save Izzie’s boyfriend who she killed so that the boyfriend could get the new heart that Burke went to pick up at Mercy West!
Wow. Did I mention that Izzie went off the deep end?
Catch the 2hr Finale tonight on ABC.
Meet the New Boss… Update
Meet the New Boss… Same as the old boss!
In Daughtry, America had the opportunity to choose distinctiveness, confidence and cool. Instead, it chose bland and boring.
My personal opinion on this whole American Idol phenom can be summed up from one of my top 10 favorite movies. In Almost Famous, Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) warns young William that the people who manipulate popular opinion of music don’t care about anything but money and that “they will ruin Rock ‘n Roll and strangle everything we love about it. They are trying to buy respectability for a form that is gloriously and righteously dumb. And the day that it ceases to be dumb is the day that it ceases to be real. Right? And then it just becomes an… industry of cool. This is a very dangerous time for rock ‘n roll. They won. The war is over. I mean 99% of what passes for music today… Silence is more compelling.
Quit watching American Karaoke American Idol people!!! For a great education on real music check out the following…
The Theme Time Radio Hour w/ Bob Dylan
iTunes School of Rock: Lesson 1- Roots and Blues (iTunes Only)
Roots of Rock ‘n Roll Study Guide (iTunes Only)
No Commentary Today, Just Read
A girl is to become Britain’s youngest mother after becoming pregnant at 11.
The girl smokes 20 cigarettes a day despite being eight months’ pregnant. She conceived aged 11 when she lost her virginity to a boy of 15 on a drunken night out with friends.
The 15-year-old has since been charged with rape by police, and is due to appear again at Edinburgh sheriff court on July 10.
Her 34-year-old mother, who gave birth to her youngest child eight months ago, said she was ‘proud’ of her daughter.
She will be 12 years and 8 months when she has the child next month. Jenny Teague, Britain’s youngest mother until now, was a month older when she gave birth in 1997.
The youngster, who lives near Edinburgh, says looking after her younger brothers has prepared her for motherhood.
But the girl admits she “panics and cries” when babies are unwell and does not feel able to bathe them.
The mother-to-be, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had unprotected sex with the teenage boy, who also cannot be identified, while drunk last August.
She told the Sun: “I didn’t think I’d get pregnant because it was my first time. But I’m really excited and looking forward to being a mum.
“I can’t wait to take the baby swimming and out for walks in the pram. I think I’ll be able to cope as I’ve had lots of practice looking after my brothers. I know how to feed a baby its bottle and I can change nappies. But I panic and cry if they’re sick and I don’t like giving them a bath because I’m a bit frightened. It’s good to know I’ll have my mum here to help me if I need her.”
Concerned she might be pregnant, the girl visited a GP three times but tests proved negative. She learned the truth after buying a home-testing kit from a supermarket.
After the device displayed two blue lines, indicating she was pregnant, she pleaded with a female relative to break the news to her mother. The girl, who has been suspended from her first year of secondary school for fighting, said: “I was paranoid about what my mum was going to say and just frightened about being pregnant too.
“I knew straight away that I couldn’t have an abortion because that’s something I don’t believe in. I was upset and so was my mum, especially as she’d just had my wee brother. We had a big argument and I ended up locking myself in my room and running away to a friend’s. It was really hard but it’s brought me and my mum closer, which is good. I knew my mum would stand by me no matter what, but I told her straight away I was going to keep the baby. The social worker suggested I got rid of it but I’d never do that.”
The girl, who has shoulder-length dark hair, began smoking at nine and started drinking tonic wine and vodka cocktails at ten. She claimed her cigarette habit was not harming the health of her unborn child.
She said: “I can give up smoking at any time, but I don’t find it affects my pregnancy.”
The girl, whose parents split up several years ago, said she would like a baby boy – and may call him Leo.
She is currently being educated at a local community centre but knows she must return to school.
She told the Sun: “My mum has said she will look after the baby so I can go to school. I don’t know what I want to do with my life when I leave. I used to want to be a nursery nurse, but now I’m not so sure.”
Her mum said: “I’m not ashamed of my daughter at all – in fact, I’m proud of her for keeping the baby. I know she’s worried what other people will say but she can walk out there with her head held high. At first I wasn’t too happy about becoming a gran. But now I’m used to the idea. I’m really looking forward to having another baby in the house.”
IPAC, I’ll Take a Free iPod For TechEd!
If you are a Senator who has received thousands of campaign dollars from the entertainment industry (including the RIAA) and then you are given an iPod by a non-profit organization highlighting the need to change legislation that could affect technology forever, what do you do with the iPod?
Apparently, you send it back.
The people over at IPAC, whose tagline reads, “Defending the public intrest where culture and politics meet,” recently sent a number of iPods to various senators and congressman for the purpose of encouraging these public servants to take a serious look at technology and see how congress can better serve it’s people through new or improved legislation.
The letter that was enclosed with each iPod explained further the reason behind the gift:
Why did IPAC send my campain an iPod?
Though iPods are best known for playing music, they can also be used to assist your campaign. You can use the device to store contact information for donors or manage your busy calendar. You can archive footage of your public speaking engagements or view recorded television and radio interviews on the road. We hope you find other uses for the device as well.The iPod is also a useful illustration for many complicated copyright and technology issues. In fact, pending legislation in the Senate will make some of your iPod’s uses illegal. For example, if Senator Gordon Smith’s “Digital Content Protection Act” becomes law, it could prohibit the transfer of digital broadcast content to personal media players and stifle American technical innovation. We believe that hands-on experience with the same devices that your constituents use can provide a new perspective on these topics.
Other legislation would make this device more useful. For example, the House has been considering Representative Rick Boucher’s “Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act”
(DMCRA, HR 1201), which would amend our copyright law to protect American consumers and technological leadership.
What is on my iPod?
Your iPod has been pre-loaded with video, music, images, and text that is in the public domain or released under permissive terms like those provided by Creative Commons licenses. This means that everything on your iPod is free.But that does not mean it isn’t valuable.
Far from it. In the “Notes” section, you’ll find the complete works of Shakespeare, the Constitution of the United States, and other important literarature. The audio content includes music by David Byrne, the Beastie Boys, and scores of independent artists. We also included a slideshow with 101 photos selected from the millions in flickr.com’s Creative Commons image pool. Under “Videos,” you’ll find a special presentation from Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on the importance of balancing copyright law with technical innovation and the rights of the public. A full list of your iPod’s contents is available here:
https://ipaction.org/campaigns/ipod/content.html
If you are pleased by the richness you see and hear, we also hope that you are troubled by what you do not. In the public domain texts there are very few female and non-European authors. That is because in America, the public domain was essentially frozen in 1923, when our national chorus was only open to certain voices. The public domain has become an island, cut off from our cultural mainland and populated by ghosts.
Copyright policy shouldn’t only be concerned with expanding copyright – it should focus on calibrating these policies to support artists, the public, and access to our common heritage. We look forward to working with you and your campaign in the future to ensure American innovation continues.
Apparently, these issues are not high on Senator Conrad Burns’ priority list. IPAC recieved the iPod back with a note that read, “Thank you, but we cannot accept this gift.” There was no leagal reason for Burns to send the gift back because IPAC followed the law regarding donations to a T. So why send this small gift back? According to IPAC, Burns’ campaign spokesperson said that the iPod, “is the first time (Burns’ campaign) has received something technological” as a donation, adding that ‘it’s just not a donation that we want’ and confirming that while Burns does not presently own an iPod, ‘if he wants an iPod, he’ll buy one.'”
The concerns that IPAC raise seem pretty important and I think that sending these iPods to our nations leaders was a wonderful, creative, out-side-the-box approach to change. I think the next step for IPAC should be to send these iPods to consumers thus educating the people who vote for these elected officials.
IPAC, you can reach me a kickingattthedarkness(at)gmail.com. I’ll send you my address. I’m ready to be educated.