Live Blogging: Miss Universe 2007

Okay...so it's time for the Top 5. The show itself becomes a two hour tourism junket for the host country...not to mention the girl from the host country is guaranteed a top placement. Wow...Viva Mexico! Slater stop trying to speak espanglish you maricon!

NBC Online voters picked...

Miss Philippines as most photogenic. She is cute.

Miss China: Miss Congeniality (I think I heard her say...you nice gentleman...)

Top 5 next. Miss India is a mess this year...don't like her at all..

Live Blogging: Miss Universe 2007

Mario "Slater" Lopez (world's phoniest Mexican) and the Lachey Filipina are seriously annoying. The girls (contestants) got to visit Chiapas...interesting...Mexico's ultimate playground?! The Evening gown contest is on now...

The Scores:

The Brazilian really fills up that dress...full bodied woman. Voluptuous would be an understatement. 9.599

India: 7.825 (terrible!) She had on a terrible dress/sari and performed one of the lousiest struts I've ever seen--all the while holding up her dress. Blah!
Japan: 8.943 The girl can strut! Great flowing dress and showing tremendous confidence.
Angola: Go Angola! Hot (8.363) Her red dress looked trashy/cheap.
Venezuela: Too much makeup...overly done. 9.510 She really fills up that dress! Voluptuous.
USA: Fell on her ass! Oh My God! Holy Shit. Ha. Ha. 8.754 Bogus score! That's total BS. What is this sympathy points?
Korea: She is cute as hell. I totally feel the need to get a massage. 9.163
Tanzania: Beauty. 8.488 (Boo!) Her dress looked like off-the-rack prom dress. Cheap. Poor strut.
Nicaragua: 7.674 (lowest so far) Dress looks like nightgown.
Mexico: 7.850 (low) Can't understand why she got such a low score??

Live Blogging: Miss Universe 2007

The Top 10 has been chosen. Go Tanzania! What the hell is Miss USA?! I can't figure out what mix of ethnic nuts she is, it's making me crazy. Oooh, Miss Nicaragua is stunning as well...and she is 5'7", which is like 7" taller than the average woman in Nicaragua. The bikini contest was frustrating...the downfall of Western Civilization....not terrorism, not changing demographics...the fact they don't show ass on television or in film. Ever. Show these women's backside! Why not?! What is wrong with this country....

Live Blogging: Miss Universe 2007

Live From Mexico. The Miss Universe 2007 Contest. Woo!

The Top 15. How the Top 15 are chosen is a great Miss Universe mystery. In an instant the majority of the 77 contestants are disqualified, practically before the show has even begun. I have my favorites...Miss Tanzania has the most beautiful face I've ever seen--and she is bald--any girl that doesn't hide her face behind big hair is well...special. My other top picks are, Korea, Brazil, and Angola.

Fresh Fish On The Line.

Two of my favorite people in the whole wide world. Kat Williams & Terry Crews in this hilarious clip from Friday After Next. I love black people. Just for the record, when the revolution comes, I'll be on the side of my black brothers. Right. I will watch any god awful crap film if Terry is in it. All of his roles are memorable--well to me anyway--Cheeseburger Eddy (Longest Yard), Singing Guy in Car (Click), Latrell Spencer (White Chicks), Benchwarmers, and he'll be in the upcoming Get Smart movie with Steve Carrell. I can't wait. I am a Terry Crews fan. The man breakdances. The man raves. The man makes me smile. Greatest actor of our generation so far as I'm concerned.


I'm a nice guy when you get to know me
--OG Triple OG (Damon)

Starting tonight, I will post a new Terry Crews (Terry du Jour) clip every night until I can't find any more clips of him on the YouTube. Here's a sampler montage.

Night Disturbances

The New Denny's Slamburger:

Our exclusive late night burger is here. We take our juicy burger, add cheesy hash brown casserole, add an egg, cooked to order, top it all with cheese sauce and place it on a sesame seed bun. Served with a heaping side of French Fries.

Denny's.com (Specials)

This will never be part of a nutritiously balanced meal....had this tonight with a side of fries and Denny's Santa Fe ranch dressing. I had been doing so well in recent weeks...working out...eating healthier...don't know why I ordered this tonight. Pity thy arteries. I seriously (no joke) felt sharp pains in my chest after eating this thing. Mild heart attack it must've been. Now if we just removed the bun...the late Dr. Atkins would be proud. I wonder what homeboy cook concocted this...it's like hey, people like has browns, eggs, cheese and burgers! Why not put it all together?! Hey!

`The Best part of the nite was the music playing overhead...heard, the Cure, Altered Images, DM, New Order...one of the ex-homeboys at Denny's must've had an old Richard Blade's flashback favorites CD. Ended the night watching Hostel again in anticipation of part deux. I hears Bijou Phillips is in it. I love Bijou. Wonder if she'll play the trashy girl role...that would be a strech.

Cannes Control

Continuing the theme of dead icons...I've been scouring the net to find some clips of Anton Corbijn's (iconic photographer/video director) b&w biopic of Ian Curtis (Joy Division), called Control. The official film website doesn't offer much info. Alas, some lovely soul just uploaded the trailer for the film. Once again, thank my God for the YouTube. Ace! Apparently, it has been receiving glowing reviews since its debut at Cannes Film Festival last week. I've been looking forward to seeing this since I heard Anton was directing...but we'll have to wait several more months for the stateside release. Looks..um..dramatic. With Anton Corbijn directing, at least it's guaranteed to be visually stunning. Wonder how it will compare to 24Hour Party People's depiction of Ian....the second clip is a long Dutch interview (subtitled) with Anton that includes several clips from the film. And that's a good thing. So exactly what is Emo?

The Award For Coolest Guy Ever...

If such an award existed (and why doesn't it?)...goes to...Frank Tovey aka Fad Gadget--anyone who can perform on stage tarred and feathered or covers himself in shaving cream (not for the faint of heart) and have any credibility left is simply remarkable. Like the tale of Robin Hood, unique in literature--in that everyone knows the story but no one has actually read. Fad Gadget, a band I've known of for years, but never really listened to until recently--which is a terrible shame as the guy was amazing! So I'm getting to the party a couple decades late...but thank my God for the YouTube, I can share him with you all. And by all I mean the three people out there that read my blog...I know who you are...thanks.

Surprisingly, very few of the of the post-disco/punk electronic "futurists" dance music new wave exponent "pioneers" survived the 80's. As for Mr. Frank Tovey, I reckon he was either A. Ahead of his time. 2. Too full of himself/took himself too seriously/considered uncool for dropping out of art school. Or C, just didn't give a flying falluja. And in the ironies of ironies, Fad Gadget, after two decades, resurrects his musical career opening up the band that was once his opening act. In a stadium no less.

Watch the montage video below, then tell me if there is anyone cooler than he? Finger biting, hand licking, feathered, raving, stage diving (years ahead of his time), shirt ripping, microphone wire strangling, pogoing, power drilling ball o' synergy...

R.I.P. Frank Tovey.

From Mute UK:

The early eighties saw the emergence of the electronic/dance phenomenon in Europe. At the forefront of this movement were four names: Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League, The Normal, and Fad Gadget (Frank Tovey). Tovey released his first single Back to Nature in 1979 and was the first signing to Daniel Miller's Mute label. Miller (as The Normal) had previously put out his own composition T.V.O.D. c/w Warm Leatherette and was thinking of starting a label when he met Tovey. As Fad Gadget Tovey played solo with a drum machine and synthesizer confusing audiences at the time used to the standard rock format. Now, obviously, the scene is radically different with electronic sounds and beat boxes being the norm.

His name is quoted by Depeche Mode and Erasures Vince Clark as a major inspiration and the influence of Tovey's early experiments in electronic music can be heard in the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, New Order and all the Techno/Dance Bands of the 90s. The main characteristic of Tovey's work that distinguished him from his contempories and his followers was the quality of his lyrics. Not satisfied with singing pseudo science fiction (a la Gary Numan) or crass love songs, Tovey developed a style more akin to Dylan or Lou Reed, his black humour often confusing the punters at the time more interested in style than content.

His songs 'spoke of the diseases and fears poorly hidden from view. They spoke for and against the little man, the ubiquitous civilian bewildered by the speed of events threatening to sweep him up or leave him behind. And they spoke in a variety of voices: dead pan, severe, sardonic, satirical and, finally, disarmingly sincere....' -Biba Kopf '91.

Image wise, Tovey never played the pretty pop singer role preferring to be photographed by Anton Corbin covered from head to toe in shaving foam or tarred and feathered. His stage shows have often been mad acrobatic events. Where most performers remain untouchable he would purposely goad an audience, sometimes somersaulting from the stage (before stage diving became an international sport), like a latter-day cockney version of Iggy Pop his audience passing him around above their heads before depositing him back on the stage and screaming for more.

After four critically acclaimed albums Tovey dropped the Fad Gadget tag and continued to make albums for Mute under his own name. Throughout his career he has influenced and been influenced by many styles, mixing electronics with rock, punk, folk, and dance music. This has inevitably made it hard to pin him down. His last two albums, for instance, featured an electric banjo which he had custom built for Paul Rodden a member of his previous touring band The Pyros. Tovey has continually toured Europe and has over the years built up strong fan base who flock to see his shows never knowing what to expect this time but always leaving stunned by his performance.

The mark of a talented artist is there for all to hear in the ten albums he has created. All challenging musically, all intriguing in their lyrical content. Fad Gadget has recently come out of semi-retirement and done his first performance in six years for Elektrofest 2001 at the Mean Fiddler, London. The eagerly awaited show has left people wanting more. 'It's about time electronic music comes back to something more organic, soulful and powerful, but at the same time meaningful and song orientated.'

Life On The Line - Fad Gadget

Frank was starting to look a lot like Sacha Baron Cohen towards the end however...

Synergy: [noun] a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements.

Minimalism.

Credit: Unknown

Late nite music with warmth

Awesome cover of The Normal's (Daniel Miller) Warm Leatherette with Peter Murphy on vocals, Trent Reznor (looking like he's just come back from boot camp) on keyboard/vocals along with Jeordie White and some other bloke in makeshift studio with small audience.

Anticipating The Pirate Shirt Revival

Two great clips from the 20th Century Box. 1981. London's South End. Depeche Mode. Crocs. Disco Futurism. Pirate Shirts. Wish I could've been there...complicating, circulating, new life.





Dave Gahan and I shared a moment in the backstage dressing room bathroom @ the Warfield in San Francisco a couple years ago...I like that fact that he washed his hands really well.

On Naming Names

Sarkozy look-alike?

Arturo Sarukhan (Mexican Ambassador to U.S.)

Spending my Friday nite watching C-SPAN with the Mexican ambassador giving speech/q&a at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on trade, immigration, and security. Now what surprises me is first and foremost, the man's name, then his odd English-Aussie accent. Bizarre. I could be wrong but I don't think Sarukhan is a common Mexican name. Not even among our mestizo friends...So who is this guy? He is former General Consul of Mexico at New York City and more recently, Felipe Calderón's (New Mexican President) Int'l affairs policy coordinator during his campaign.

Mr. Sarukhan on Vicente Fox:

“That you had a Mexican president willing to stake and invest political capital in the relationship with the United States and that he has nothing to show for it puts everyone in a very tight spot in Mexico.”

I'm keepin' a eye on this guy...si se puede.

High speed became go slow...

Courtesy Todd Roeth ART 256

It's nice to have favorites. I've had one song on repeat in my head for the past 3.4 weeks.

179 seconds of pure bliss. Camera Obscura's Before You Cry. That song is just special. And just whence you think it's over...the most beautiful feminine vocals appear like something that appears when you aren't expecting it to appear. Like the mythical sacred firebird...never mind. Someone find an illegal upload someplace and send me link...Sssh...don't talk.

Before You Cry

No sense no style
I said I loved you for a little while
When you cried no
High speed became go slow
Come back this time
Wishful thinking is going to make you mine
Push turns to shove
I got no more room for love

I hope you hear me
I can’t stand you next to me
Get lost goodbye
I’ll smile before you cry

I love you baby
Please don’t hate me
You’re feeling a little sad tonight but you’ll be alright

The Head Scratcher

"This is such an amazing idea - I had been looking to purchase a piece of unique art online and this 100% fits the bill."

Teresa Critien, UK

First it was that a-hole who sold celestial bodies in the heavens...then the kid who sold pixels on his single web page...now this...



One Thousand Paintings [1000 Numbers = 1000 Paintings]. I can't believe I'm even giving this guy any more publicity.

One thousand numbers = one thousand paintings. All beautifully painted on canvas (approx. 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches). Each number is unique - the number and the demand define the price. An experiment of art & mathematics, on the web, the first of its kind.

The guy paints a number on a small canvas. Makes tens of thousands of dollars. I can sell my hair off my thighs. Each hair is unique and without doubtization, artistic.

Organic

Fun little java applet created by some bloke called Sala. Cheers. Simply add your url...press the button and watch the app create a "tree" of your website. Hint: use a simple website (not yahoo!) for a clearer/larger image. Prnt Scrn the image to save. Check out the dedicated Flikr page with several website graphs/trees.

God bless the memory of Eazy E.