Elvis Presley Statue Sells For $20,500

Burglar Stuck In Grease Vent For Six Hours

“Police in South Carolina said a burglary suspect was stuck in a grease vent at a restaurant for more than six hours.

Idiot Lives In Small Apartment With Eagle, 3 Snakes, Croc & Monkey

“Filming with animals can be frightening for actors but a man living in a tiny apartment in Tehran with his crocodile, three snakes, an eagle and a miniature monkey says he can help.

Taio Cruz a Symbol for Newly Emerging Dynamics in the Music Market!

Taio Cruz`s new video Dynamite packs a punch. Nothing all too original. Rather, the usual display of beautiful girls that follow him around as he sings his song about partying. This sort of thing has been around for a million years as a marketing tool! Sex sells every time, if it`s packaged right. And Dynamite has garnered 16, 749,870 hits on YouTube.

Another single from his newest album, Break Your Heart, has managed to be viewed 35, 975,048 times already. Not bad, but the album Rokstarr has sold only 93,000 in its first 12 weeks. An article in The New York Times was an eye-opener, especially for us old-timers. It`s titled: Platinum Is So Passe. In itunes Era, the Singles Count. By Joseph Plambeck.

Album sales are no longer an accurate measure for the popularity of an artist. Single sales, especially on itunes, and customer counts of their video can be better harbingers for how they fare in the marketplace. Therefore, the Billboard 200 is not such a great gauge these days. A new service has come along called Ultimate Chart, created by BigChampagne, that is a more accurate barometer of the current music marketplace.

If you use Ultimate Chart, Taio Cruz is the No, 2 artist, right behind Eminem. This is starting to make sense for me. When we go over to itunes we just buy one song off the album, probably the one with the biggest popular bar next to it. Then we race over to YouTube and pick up a freebie video viewing of the rising star`s megahit. This helps us test the waters, to see if we want to continue to support this artist.

But who knows, this new formula could be dumped overnight, and the album format, that witnessed a meteoric rise in the late 1960s, could return. And history repeats itself; you might remember that the single format was tops in the mid-1960s. What comes around, goes around, to use a popular cliche.

Composer of “What A Wonderful World,” George David Weiss Dies

The co-composer (with Bob Thiele) of What A Wonderful World, George David Weiss, 89, died on August 23rd. George David Weiss also composed the ballad Can`t Help Falling in Love for Elvis Presley, for the 1961 film, Blue Hawaii. Weiss made a small contribution to the hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which was a No. 1 hit for the Tokens. David wrote the line, “In the jungle, the mighty jungle.”

What A Wonderful World got off to a slow start, but was recorded by Louis Armstrong and did well in England. A music executive here in this country thought the lyrics were too corny. Lines like: “I`ve seen babies cry, I watch them grow, they`ll learn much more than I`ll ever know, And I think to myself, What A Wonderful World.”

This was 1968. The song didn`t really take off until 1987 when it was used in Robin Williams hit comedy Good Morning, Vietnam. The optimistic song is often played against footage of warfare, which creates an irony that raises questions in the mind of the audience. “I`ve seen friends shakin` hands, saying how do you do, they`re really sayin` I Love You.”

The song has been covered by hundreds of artists, I even did it with The Bubbles many years ago, but I still prefer Satchmo`s original version. George David Weiss wrote a classic that will live forever. “I see trees of green, red roses too, I see `em bloom, for me and you.” The tune makes ya happy and forget your problems for a few minutes. What more can you ask for?

Frontline`s “Law and Disorder”-The Case of Henry Glover

If you haven`t seen Frontline`s Law & Disorder yet, you should certainly make a point to do so. You can watch it online and I will link it for you here (Law & Disorder). 11 civilians were shot by the New Orleans police in the days after Katrina. The Frontline special mainly reports on the case of Henry Glover, but also covers the shooting of six civilians at Danziger Bridge.

You may have to watch this several times before it will completely sink in. On the link that I`m giving you there are a number of excellent articles that will spell out for you what happened in New Orleans right after Katrina. Reporters from Frontline, The New Orleans Times-Picayune and ProPublica worked together to bring us this shocking news.

A few of the important questions addressed in Law & Disorder are: was Martial Law ever declared in New Orleans? Were the NOPD told to shoot looters once things starting getting crazy after Katrina? The New Orleans Police have a history, and much of this is documented under Timeline.

If you don`t mind getting some cold water splashed in your face, you`ll want to study up on this. I`m so in disbelief about this, that I`m focusing all the more on this. Katrina obliterated New Orleans. Once it did this, it looks like the NOPD lost it. At this point the police become the criminals. I can think of nothing as scary as this reality.

Prisoner Escaped: He Longed For A Beer

“A prisoner who gave police the slip at a north Australian airport and was eventually found drinking beer in a pub said he’d only wanted to see his mother.

30-Year-Old Loser Still Plays With Toy Robots

Spike Lee`s “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don`t Rise”

Five years later, the devastation that is Katrina, its lasting effects on New Orleans, are obvious when watching Spike Lee`s If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don`t Rise. I`ve seen and recorded hour two, three and four, but still need to see the first hour. If God Is Willing is essentially a sequel to When the Levee Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

Spike Lee covers many topics, but attempts to trace the complex developments of New Orleans from August 29, 2005 up to the present. He initially intended on painting his documentary update with an optimistic brush, but the BP spill came along to snuff that out. So, the last hour takes up the BP spill as if it was a part of the Katrina story; somehow, the two are connected.

I will link for you two pertinent documents that will help you begin to get a grip on this sweeping new documentary of Spike Lee`s. Dave Itzkoff with The New York Times conducted an interview with Spike Lee, where he talks about his experience in making If God Is Willing. The other great piece I would like to link for you, is the only full-blown review that I could find on this documentary. It`s a review by Hank Stuever in The Washington Post.

Scratch that, I`m now finding some good reviews, like The Whole Damn Crew by Cynthia Fuchs for Pop Matters. My personal take is this is a wonderful follow-up to When the Levees Broke. We sink into the mire of the controversy, how can we rebuild New Orleans? I`m sorting through these problems now. Spike Lee spells out these issues and allows you take a fresh look with equal measure of hope and despair.

Evil Old Lady Kills Rattlesnake

“A 79-year-old Wisconsin woman said she used an ice chopper to kill a rattlesnake she discovered on her patio.

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