My New Year's Eve 2009

In the heyday of his youth, the Blog used to dj New Year’s Eve parties; one night I dj’ed five hours in a row without a break (and for the curious, the spirits were served to me so I would not have to leave the deck). How times change. Tonight, in lieu of the 16th Street Mall festivities or the 11th and Lincoln Arby’s festivities (I wonder if the police are barking up the wrong tree; perhaps the gangs were dueling over the last roast beef sandwich instead of E-40), I took my son to Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo. What better way to remind one’s self of what 2008 represented than a trip to the Pachyderm House? Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Gone With the Wind

It was almost like the Wizard of Oz, but in this case, the Wizard of Odd, as hurricane-force wind gusts blew the entire city of Brighton into Kansas (and the eagle to Arkansas). No word on whether the city transformed from black-and-white to technicolor after the dislocation. Also no word as to whether The Dark Side of the Moon was playing in the background or what happened to the Judy Garland groupies. Kansas officials refuse to comment, but there are rumors that they are working around the clock to construct a wind-turbine to send Brighton back to Colorado (or some other state). Brighton residents were equally dismayed becuase they could no longer utter their favorite saying, "You're not in Kansas anymore."

Club Vinyl -- $20 Cover, Open Bar, and Free Shootings

Intersting details are arising from the investigation into the fatal shooting of five people outside Club Vinyl early Saturday morning. One, I discovered that the Arbys is actually open at 2 am. Two, the police and City Council are trying to place some blame on E-40, the rapper who performed that night, saying he tends to attract rival gangs. How do they know this? Did they conduct a study of all the venues he has played? Three, E-40’s moniker refers to the fact he is 41 (presumably he came up with it when he was 40; in which case it should now be E-41). The “E” apparently refers to his first name, Earl. Certainly one thing we should blame this guy for is his lame rap moniker. No one gets it. WD-40 would have been a better choice. Or even French Vanilla Ice.

This is what the soon-to-be-defunct Rocky had to say:

The rapper, originally from Vallejo, Calif., is 41 and on his MySpace page, boasts he's a "rap innovator, a business-savvy tycoon and one of the music industries most consistent success stories."
His raps are varied - a track called Earl urges youths not just to dream of being athletes or entertainers but to become lawyers as well.
However, he also raps about being a drug dealer and a pimp and has a track, Pole, as an homage to strippers.

Apparently his message encouraging law as a profession got lost in the translation. Or perhaps the shooters thought he was encouraging them to get to know the legal system and/or hire lawyers.

I will keep you posted regarding further developments.

I finally moved past . . .

. . . the stunning picture of Jennifer Aniston on the cover of GQ to actually read the article. It turns out she might have been the dumper in the initial break-up with John Mayer. And it is nothing to do with the fact that he is a playah. Apparently he likes to kiss and tell in his blog and that irked the very private Jen. But they are back together trying to sort these issues out. She had not heard any of his songs, including Your Body is a Wonderland (he was smart to keep the "your" nondescript), prior to meeting him. I guess she was living under a rock.

Did I tell you . . .

That LiLo is also loves Ladyhawke (not in the same sense that she loves Samantha Ronson; then again who knows). Here is what she had to say as she takes a break from recording her new album/hangin' in da clubs:

more music!!!!!!!!

i love this group.
i was actually searching on itunes not too long ago and was getting the album for "the black ghosts" and saw Ladyhawke on the same page. mixture of 80s pop/new wave and i'm pretty much obsessed with their entire vibe.

check out: my delirium, magic, and paris is burning.

whole record is dope but those are my personal favorites so far... hope to hear more from them!!

lots of love
LL

 

Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

From today's Washington Post:

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

Does this mean that The Jonas Brothers actually may be getting jiggy with it?

Movies of the Year, Part I

This is going to take a while mainly because I have not seen many of the contenders. But I have one that I know will be near the top of the list, if not the top of the list – Slumdog Millionaire. Danny Boyle, the man who gave us Trainspotting, manages to morph into a Bollywood director. But the songs and the dancing get lost in transit. What does arrive is a movie that one could deem staggeringly linear but with many detours along the way. While it eschews many of the standard Bollywood elements it does capture its essence, a man and woman in love facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles with tragedy or joy being equally likely outcomes or perhaps even co-existent outcomes. The narrative style is original beyond compare, and the insight into the New India culture and the widening rich/poor gap, as well as the caste structure morphing into a mafia culture, are some of the many gems this movie so generously offers. And, oh yes, a song and dance finally arrives.