Image: FameFlynet Pictures.
I know I’m with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with… I won’t let this woman get away.
Literal or figurative? We’re going to find out now, aren’t we…
Category: Icons Of Our Time
Bill Hicks: The More Things Change…
Image: AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis.
This photo of a beggar lying in a Athens street beneath a photo of the Greek national soccer team reminded me of a quote by legendary comedian Bill Hicks from 1993. Bill was talking about defence expenditure coming before third world aid, but the current financial crisis that has seen the disparity between rich and poor only widen further is just as relevant a context.
Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.
I doubt Bill, if he had survived pancreatic cancer that eventually killed him in February 1994, would have been surprised that his comments would still be so relevant nearly twenty years on. He may have been a cynic, but he was also a realist.
Gene Simmons: No “Fake Bullshit”? Seriously?
Yes, and presumably that’s all your own hair too, Gene. Image via thegrio.com.
And the ‘Keepin’ It Real in Rock Award’ goes to Gene Simmons of Kiss, who has emerged from behind the clown make-up, disturbing tongue calisthenics and spangly costumes that defined his career, to slag off Rihanna for “being fake” and “using karaoke machines“ in her performances.
What’s the matter, Gene? You not liking this new fangled equality business, or sumthin’?
Houston? By God, Do We Have A Problem
Image: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.
Black-Scholes. Not as you might first think, a hideous pox that caused peoples faces to peel off in the 16th Century, or even a descriptor for the bruising suffered after a (rubbish) tackle from a notorious Manchester United midfielder, but according to mathematician Ian Stewart, one of the possible reasons for the global financial meltdown we are currently experiencing.
I’m not going to even attempt to explain what the damn thing means – Ian can do that – but upon reading his article on Sunday morning in a semi-conscious fugue, I found myself making parallels between that and the death of Whitney Houston.
I know. Saturday night was a hell of a night.
How Technology Ruined The World: Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ Speech
Image: Reuters Pictures.
“I have a meme” just doesn’t have the same impact, does it?
Andrew Stone: Scientific Genius Or Massive Burk?
Andrew Stone. Bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘virtual reality’. Image: Tim Whitby/Getty Images.
For people of a certain age, the sight of a hapless individual wrestling with a ludicrously unwieldy plastic prototype of a future piece of ‘everyday’ technology was staple of Thursday evening TV.
The BBC’s flagship science show ‘Tomorrow’s World’ spent almost forty years predicting the advent of the mobile phone, the home computer, astro turf and many other things we can’t live without now, although at the time, I seem to recall spending most of the show hoping someone would set themselves on fire while testing a flame retardant suit.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Continue reading “Andrew Stone: Scientific Genius Or Massive Burk?”
Christopher Hitchens: A (Literary) God Is Dead
Controversial author and journalist Christopher Hitchens died yesterday after a long battle with esophageal cancer. During his career, he managed to piss off pretty much everyone with his refusal to allow a commitment to one political ideology to prevent him from speaking out against it, plus, of course, his vehement opposition to organised religion in any form.
In 2008, in preparation for an article in Vanity Fair, Hitchens allowed himself to be subjected to waterboarding. He sought to learn whether the technique, which was used and defended as a tool of interrogation by the US government in the War On Terror, could indeed be described as torture. After wards, he said:
…if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.
He will be missed.
Trent Reznor: A Man For All Demons
Likelihood of Trent being allowed into the Vanity Fair post-Oscar party after picking up the Best Soundtrack statue for ‘The Social Network’: 97.6%. Image: Getty Images, Daylife.
How exactly did Trent Reznor go from being a serial killer in waiting to the darling of the mainstream movie soundtrack? Did he undergo a personality bypass, or did we?
Madonna: Uncut & Unaware
Let’s be honest. The only fame-hungry whores featuring on eatblogordie.com this week are the dudes who chose to sell these photos of Madonna and the people who think they’re funny and scandalous.
Tools.
Image: Jason Merritt/Getty Images.
Icons Of Our Time: Sandra Nasic, Guano Apes
One of only a few female singers who has managed to retain her credibility and her clothing while performing lead vocals in a hard rock band. Admittedly singing about snowboarding while being pursued by creatures from another planet betrays a hint of lunacy, but we’ve all been there after one too many ribenas.
Top tune.
Kelly Welles 