This Day in Music…February 16

Cats to be tagged to show if they’re mass murderers

It may be a pussycat at home, but behind your back your pet moggy is a ruthless assassin.

Millions of other small animals fall victim to our feline friends, with researchers claiming that each cat takes about five lives every year.

Now some of these soft-pawed mass murderers are to be electronically tagged to discover exactly how many wildlife deaths they are responsible for.

* I had a cat that could do that in a week if I had let him

Jacksons star in Nigeria resort row

One of pop superstar Michael Jackson’s brothers, Marlon, is involved in a controversial plan to develop a $3.4bn (£2.4bn) slavery memorial and luxury resort in Badagry, Nigeria.

The historic slave port is to be transformed through the bizarre combination of a slave history theme park and a museum dedicated to double Grammy-winning pop-soul group the Jackson Five.

The idea is that the band will help attract African-American tourists keen to trace their roots back to Nigeria.

The men behind the plan say it will honour the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and provide employment opportunities for Nigerians.

But the plan has been condemned by Nigerian commentators.

Tour managers tell wild tales of bands on the road
Those who made the rock ‘n’ roll fantasy for Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Red Shoes, Radio 4, REM, Mudhoney and others reveal all

The music industry might be a sinking ship, but there is no shortage of people trying to get on board. As sales have dropped and record-company desk jockeys receive the boot en masse, live music has remained a strong facet of the business. But while facilitating someone else’s rock’n’roll fantasy has become a growth industry, there probably is no pay scale that relates to the work tour managers actually do. On any one day, he or she has to be a driver, an accountant, a confidante, an ego masseuse, a security guard, a wet nurse and a drug courier. And that’s just to get the band to sound check.

“There are times when I’ve wondered how people in certain bands live when I’m not around,” says Mark Duston, currently a tour manager for the famously punctual and well-behaved American indie stalwarts Death Cab for Cutie. He hasn’t always been given such easy charges. “I remember, with one of my old bands, pulling up to a venue that none of us had ever been to, and before I’d even got out of the van, somebody said, ‘Hey Mark, where’s the bathroom?’ I had to explain that I don’t have a magical ability to know where bathrooms are at all times.”

Such childlike dependency is standard; it’s referred to as “tour mode” and can leave band members unable to figure out which city they’re in unless it’s written down for them on a sheet of A4 with the word “itinerary” in block capitals at the top. This state of detachment from the real world is exacerbated by the fact that name bands are constantly surrounded by employees, sycophants and shady go-to people who are willing to provide whatever it takes to keep the talent happy.

American Idol 8: Who is Felicia Barton?

At the time the audition and Hollywood episodes of American Idol 8 were edited for airing, Felicia Barton was just one of many who didn’t make it through the grueling rounds of cuts. In her place was petite Joanna Pacitti, who was recently disqualified after her many ties inside the music industry became public information.

Now, Idol watchers have been presented with a Top 36 contestant they’ve barely seen and never heard on FOX. So, just who is this Felicia Barton anyway? Find a clip after the jump.

The Amazing Race: Don’t Let a Cheese Hit Me (season premiere)

(S14E01) Tonight’s season premiere of The Amazing Race shows how to do a reality show the right way. Exciting, entertaining, teams to both hate and love, plus a whole lot of stunning scenery. I’ve long contended that this show is the best reality show on television. It consistently wins Emmy Awards. Hey, American Idol … what have you done for us lately? What? Eliminated Jamar and kept Tatiana and Nathaniel? Feh. Give me The Amazing Race any day instead! I mean … we’re talking adrenalin rushes, excitement, flying wheels of cheese, and bungee jumping in the Alps! It beats drama queens no holds barred.

Phil Keoghan blogs ‘The Amazing Race’: episode 1

What can I say? Season 14 is officially under way. It’s actually pretty crazy to write season 14. I think we’ve really outdone ourselves this time around and also performed some spring-cleaning, if you will. We freshened up the graphics, the music, the maps, and we’re letting the show breathe a little more when we have the opportunity to show off the spectacular places that we travel to each week. Maybe a little less airport process and a little more postcard moments.

Love our cast…so diverse and colorful, including our first-ever deaf contestant, a pair of Harvard grads, a carpenter, a jockey, former NFL cheerleaders, a Hollywood screenwriter and even a gay rights activist/minister. Of course, the other big stars of the show are the locations, including first-ever stops in Siberia and Romania. Because we never repeat ourselves by going back to the same locations, we have endless opportunities to keep it fresh. We have tons of drama, adventure and even a few occasions where I was forced to mediate several Mat meltdowns.

Fantasia Talks Foreclosure, Heading Back To School For Her High School Diploma

Fantasia Barrino has a little something to clear up.

Despite December reports that her $1.3 million North Carolina home was in foreclosure, Fantasia told Access Hollywood she is still safely living in her abode.

“We’re still in my home. I take care of my whole family so there’s no way I could [let] anybody take it,” she said. “It wasn’t a foreclosure, it was just somebody trying to take it away from me, but that’s the industry and there’s a lot of people out here, but as you can see I’m still a strong tough cookie, I got that from Miss Celie.”

Miss Celie, the character Fantasia has played in “The Color Purple” is something the “American Idol” Season 3 winner is returning to, she also revealed.

“Yes, Miss Celie. [I'm] going back, end of June around my birthday time, so another birthday with Miss Celie,” she said.

But Fantasia won’t just be spending the months ahead in a musical, but in school. Fantasia revealed she is gearing up to finally get her high school degree.

“Yep, going back to school to get my diploma,” Fantasia, 24, told Access. “Well of course I can’t go in a school because I would probably like, start a riot , but I’m gonna get a teacher to come teach me everyday. I’m gonna get my diploma starting in maybe three weeks. So you know, it’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be hard, but it’s gonna be a testimony to a lot of young people and a lot of people who are in my shoes. I wanna go back to show them you can go back, it doesn’t matter, never too old. Go back.”

Clarkson Didn’t Know Aiken’s Sexuality

Kelly Clarkson never realized her fellow former American Idol contestant is gay – until he made the revelation while the pair were on tour.

Aiken, 30, put an end to months of speculation after confirming his sexuality in a September 2008 interview with People magazine.

And Clarkson insists she had no idea that her one-time touring partner preferred the company of men.

“The funniest part was when Clay told me on tour and I honestly had no clue!” Kelly told Attitude magazine. “I have zero Gaydar. No, I’ve actually dated someone and then they’ve told me later on that they actually had experimented and I was like ‘Really?’

“I would never have guessed that. I have the worst Gaydar in the world.

“And he caught me off guard because he is very dirty! He says dirty jokes about girls, he’s got that Frasier wit, so smart. I didn’t see it coming. But I remember Clay told me one night on the bus, and I was like ‘What?’ Not. A. Clue.”

Paris Hilton Wants Role on American Idol

Paris Hilton wants a role on American Idol. The socialite has begged Idol judge Simon Cowell for a spot on the hit reality show. Hilton says she will even settle for a role on his British show ‘X Factor.’

“I want Simon to know if he could get me on American Idol, or on one of his shows, I would be delighted,” Hilton says.

‘Idol’ can live with softening ratings
The changes for Season 8 haven’t stemmed the slide in Nielsens, but producers say the descent has been slow compared with the competition.

In fact, among adults under age 50, this is the lowest-rated “Idol” (10.6 rating for the Tuesday episodes) since the first season back in summer 2002 (4.9 rating).

But Mike Darnell, Fox’s president of alternative entertainment, whose job includes overseeing “Idol” for the network, said the network has no regrets about the changes.

“I wake up every morning and I cannot believe that a show in its eighth season is as dominant as this show is,” Darnell said Friday morning.

He added that most network programs have suffered ratings drop-offs far bigger than “Idol’s” and that Fox’s singing competition still retains a huge advantage over its nearest competitors.

“If we hadn’t done these things, who knows?,” he said. “We might have been 25% or 30% off, which everyone else has been over the last few years.”

The ultimate fate of “Idol” is of huge consequence not just to television but to pop culture generally. The series has spawned numerous hits by Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry and other former contestants, just when the music industry has needed a shot in the arm. As a lead-in, the series has played a key role in boosting the dramas “24″ and “House” to hit status while giving programmers room to experiment with other shows.

And for nearly seven full years “Idol” has prevented other networks, with the notable exception of CBS, from doing any midweek business worth mentioning between January and May. (CBS is the only network to post an increase this season, up 6% in total viewers on the strength of series such as ” The Mentalist.”

NY Post Reveals ‘IDOL’ Cast-Off Pacitti’s Sexy Pics

She was almost an “ANNIE” and was hoping to be an “IDOL”, but that all changed with word that Joanna Pacitti let go from the competition. Now the New York Post has discovered a series of sexy bikini shots of the young singer that were taken for a Brazilian bikini company line last October.

To see the sultry photo shoot in the Post click here.

Pacitti was “determined to be ineligible to continue in the competition” a statement from the Fox Network said in the early morning hours of Thursday February 12th, 2009.

She has been replaced by Felicia Barton, 26, of Virginia Beach.

Fox has not released any more information on why she was deemed ineligible.

Rumors had swirled for weeks about Pacitti being close friends with someone at 19 Entertainment (the production company behind Idol) and last week celebrity gossip site TMZ reported that was the main factor of her shocking dismissal from the mega hit show.

She was said to have been forced to exit and at first rejected the very notion of quitting sources told TMZ.

Wicked-Pedia! Millions trust its every word. But Wikipedia, the error-ridden encyclopaedia, has become a dangerous tool

Did you know that Gordon Ramsay is a pigeon fancier on the quiet, whose birds have won several prizes? Or that Simon Cowell has a parrot called Piers? Or that Israel has secretly developed a ‘death ray’ that kills only non-Jews?

Of course you don’t, because I just made all these ‘facts’ up. Yet if I wanted, whether for a joke or for malicious, political reasons, to make them public and watch them seep insidiously into the public consciousness, I would know exactly what to do.
A few years ago my choices would have been to stand up at Speakers’ Corner in London and rant, or to write on a lavatory wall. But all I’d need today would be to fire up my computer and go to Wikipedia on the internet and type away.

…….And the very moment when Bruce Springsteen, Obama’s superstar supporter, was launching into his song Born To Run at the Super Bowl’s half-time show earlier this month, his Wikipedia entry read, simply: ‘Bruce Springsteen. This guy kinda sucks.’

Later, visitors to the page were given a little more to go on: ‘Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born, September 23, 1949), nicknamed-”The Boss” is a FAG.’ Anyone who then pressed the ‘refresh’ button on their computer found the entire entry was translated into Japanese…….

‘Wash by hand… in coleslaw’: The hilarious examples of mangled English from around the world

It is the most widely spoken language on Earth and has produced some of the most wonderful literature known to man.

But for non-native speakers, the English language’s inconsistencies in spelling and grammar mean that it is often frustratingly difficult to make yourself understood.

Found on everything from poorly translated signs and menus to bizarrely worded adverts and strange t-shirt slogans the mis-use of English can be found everywhere.

More at: http://www.engrish.com/

Take care Kac, glad you are safe and sound.