Bryan Adams: 11...sample his new CD inside my blog and on my page..
Current mood: electric
Category: Music
In March, Bryan Adams put out his new CD, 11, which is named meaning, it is his 11th. full leangth studio recording.
The title track I thought I'd Seen Everything has already gone to number 3 in his native Canada and the Cd its'self has gone number 1 there as well as in other countris including the UK.
Now 11, will get its's USA release this month, and the second single is Tonite We Have The Stars. For those who have not yet heard these or any of the other songs from 11, you can get to hear, very good samples from the Bryan Adams music player here in this blog post as follows. And also the player can be found on my myspace home page.
This blog needs no intro or explanation. However I will say that in addition to the next Batman film (The Dark Night),this animated film is a stand alone film. And even though it is produced by some of that team from that film, it has a whole mix of the entire Batman lore and creative forces that brought us other Batman projects in the past. So if you are a fan of The Batman, than you will love this new animated film. And even better, it is the first time Batman is done with the top Animie directors in such a way.
Ask the Doctor & Auntie Drew...
Current mood: amused
Category: MySpace
Bloggers Notes: Use the link at the bottom of the blog entry to get to the Auntie Drew part of the blog. You can ask and/or leave us questions here or there:)
Greetings and salutations everyone out there in the myspace and the blog Internet worlds. This is The Doctor, I am here teaming up with Auntie Drew for a bit of fun for the weekend.
And we are going to be taking your questions and seeing what is really on all your minds out there. No questions are too much to ask, and nothing is out of the ordinary that we cannot answer or talk about. So get those little fingers typing on those keys, and ask away at us than.
And in the mean time, if you are wondering just who the heck I am. Just think of me as like the Doctor character from Doctor Who. For those of you in the know, more like the Doctor of the current series on BBC:) Now I must go see what Auntie is up too, I’ve waiting on that Tea she offered me for some time now. And I told her that if we could have tea, we would take a nice little trip in my Tardis;)
The Doctor&AuntieDrew...who are they and what do they do...
Current mood: animated
Category: MySpace
Just a quick note to the readers that I may have left out here. And to any new people that may be browsing on by. I will be hosting a joint blog with a friend of mine sometime over the weekend, Saturday or Sunday. The joint blog will be a fun segment in which my friend Drew, does every now and then where he asks readers to ask his alter ego persona, Auntie Drew fun questions or serious life situations they may need help on. Kinda like a dear Abbey kind of thing. And it is really quite fun to partake. It is a very nice change from the same ol’ same of everyday blog type stuff.
And this time around, I will be joining him err her rather lol, for a character I made up in honour of one of my fav shows Doctor Who. So when you log on to this blog or Drew’s, you will see over the weekend, The ask The Doctor & Auntie Drew segment...And than just write us a question on the blog or by way of e-mail. And we will answer you back as those characters would.
The following post is an article from a few years back, that was conducted with singer/writer/pop star/icon Cyndi Lauper. I do not recall in which paper I had found the article in, but the interviewer's name is still attached to the piece. I wanted to post this article in honour of Cyndi's second year of her True Colours Tour in which kicks off soon across the North America. For those not familiar with the tour it is a group effort that helps raise money and awareness for the LGBT community. And now on to the article...
Cheers!!
*Mike*
She still bops by Michael Dwyer
Twenty years after she became an overnight sensation, Cyndi Lauper is still having fun while taking her craft very seriously. She spoke with Michael Dwyer.
It now seems likely, looking back on a century of women infiltrating the male-dominated world of entertainment, that girls always wanted to have fun. For Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, an absence of the stuff essentially defined their art. Mae West and Marilyn Monroe made impact by implying it was all they cared about. Madonna had the audacity to claim it as her birthright, with a steel fist that shook the world.
But the girl who put it in so many words 21 years ago, Cyndi Lauper, is less likely to be remembered in that pioneering company. Like Madonna, she was a product and proponent of the music-video era, when a larger-than-life image was successfully sold as equal to or greater than musical substance. Few stars made it out of that system with dignity intact.
So it' something of a surprise to note that she sounds anything but spent as she speaks from her home in the Apthorp building on Manhattan' well-heeled West Side, on the eve of her Australian tour next month. Her voice is still that of the raggedy Brooklyn guttersnipe that captivated the pop world with an album called She's So Unusual in 1983.
Now a 51-year-old mother and pro-choice and gay-rights activist, she still harbours a striking passion for her craft, as emphasised by her ambitious new album of 20th century standards, At Last.
"Music, in its higher state, for me, is worth living and dying for," she says. "It's worth traipsing around the globe, it's worth the accolades and the other side of the accolades. I don't care about that because I always have sung to the angels and the higher parts of people's souls. And that's where I'm singing from."
She's So Unusual was no idle boast for Cynthia Ann Lauper. More than half of it was comprised of hits: Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time, She Bop, Money Changes Everything, All Through The Night and Prince's When You Were Mine.
She won a Grammy for Best New Artist and, more ominously, another for Best Female Video Artist. MTV and Rolling Stone bestowed their highest honours in '84, the year Australia gave her seven of a total 27 platinum sales trophies.
As far as public perception goes, she lost it almost as fast as she arrived. While Miles Davis was impressed enough to cover Time After Time, radio programmers were less enamoured of her second album, True Colors, and Lauper made the most bizarre diversion of her career. She morphed into a bawling advocate for women's wrestling, with all the cartoonish hyperbole the sport entails. There she was, shaking her fist at the camera with Hulk Hogan and other B-actors grimacing at her side in a seemingly desperate ploy to arrest flagging public interest.
"Well, the wrestling was a means to an end, wasn't it?" she declares with an unapologetic directness consistent with her New York/Sicilian roots. "No one would play the music. We got two radio adds a week and Dave Wolff, who was my manager (and boyfriend) at that time, he looked at me and said, 'I'm not gonna believe 'em. I think we should hook up with wrestling'."
In the short term, it was a shrewd publicity move that even gave her a leg-up into a parallel career in Hollywood. She starred opposite Jeff Goldblum in the lightweight comedy Vibes, and met her husband, actor David Thornton, while filming her second movie, Off and Running. They were married in '91 with Little Richard officiating and Patti Labelle singing Come What May.
Despite occasional bursts of critical approval and consistent sales in Japan, Lauper's musical career remained in the doldrums through the '90s. She won an Emmy Award in '95 for her regular guest appearances on Mad About You but a planned sitcom vehicle co-written by Thornton failed to materialise as the decade drew to a close.
Again, these are not pursuits she's inclined to defend in retrospect. "The television, that was a way of escape from the (music) industry because it became so corporate," she says. "The movies were really a definite escape. 'Please, let me out of here, let me read what's on the page so I can escape and become that other person for a minute.' Then I realised the movie industry was just as bad as music, maybe worse.
"My path, I guess, in the end, was just to be," (her voice softens dramatically here, like a camera slipping focus as the violins swell in the last minutes of a black-and-white Hollywood fable), :a great artist one day. To write one of those great songs, or maybe 10 of those great songs, that invoke people's feelings, that are other-worldly. Because when I sing and when I play music, it is other-worldly.
"Every time I play, I wanna create a place I could step into that is other-worldly, cause that has always been my freedom and that has always been my strength. For all my life, from the time I was two, I dreamed of the same thing. I always came back to my work and it's always been about the work."
Since her first flush of fame, when her mother Catrine and younger brother Butch were regular fixtures in her videos, Lauper has credited her home life as crucial to her self-belief and success. "I grew up in an Italian-Sicilian home, so it was a little Puccini," she says with a raucous cackle. "I came from a working-class family, the strap-hangers, the ones that took the trains into the cities and worked to build them.
"I think it was extraordinary in the sense that people had big feelings. Were they able to use their words really well? Nah, not all the time. But there were moments of great courage, moments of despair, moments of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and that's very inspiring."
Elen Lauper, Cyndi's older sister, is an active member of the Socialist Workers Party and once ran for public office in Phoenix. A resolute sense of honest, working-class grit is palpable in the pop star, too; it seems to have played a part in Cyndi's late 1980s falling out with her former partner Dave Wolff, in the wake of the wrestling fiasco.
"He wanted success no matter what," she says. "I believe in my heart of hearts that success can be gotten with a conscience and something that you feel in your soul, something that stirs your soul. I don't wanna get up and lie. I don't lie about that stuff. I don't lie in bed and I don't lie on stage. I'm just not that kind of gal who can fake it.
"It has to be about something that you contribute to the world, for me. The people that inspired me the most contributed to the world. I'm in the humanities field, so I wanna contribute to humanity. That's what I dreamed about all my life and that's why my career took this path, because the truth is any which way. If the wall's in front of me I will find a way around it because I was born to do this work."
Asked about her agenda when she first caught the spotlight, Lauper is clear and direct. "I was gonna do something for women. I was gonna kick down some doors for myself and the people that followed. And I think I did."
Like all famous people, her social agenda was easy to confuse with media smarts as her profile soared. Ever-present cameras caught her contribution to USA For Africa's We Are The World blockbuster in '85, her artistic exchange visit to the Soviet Union in '88 and her role in Roger Waters's ensemble performance of Pink Floyd's The Wall on the ruins of the Berlin Wall in 1990.
As she wound down to prepare for motherhood six years ago (Declyn Thornton Lauper was born in late '97), she found herself drawn to a more localised form of activism. Today she's an outspoken member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
"I have a son and a husband," she says. "I have a sister and a brother. I come from a family. I speak from there. When I was pregnant I had time to answer letters. Mostly what struck me was how many people said that when they were teenagers and they realised they were different, they were suicidal because they thought they would be disenfranchised from their families.
"My mom always said no matter what, if we came ridin' in on horseback, we're still her kids. When I read these letters and I was pregnant, I realised you can't make your kids what you want them to be. They are who they are and you have to help them to succeed in the world as best you can. That's when I became more outspoken. If you attack my family, I stand up. They're my own."
Cyndi Lauper's new album has posed no threat to Avril Lavigne, or even Australian country princess Kasey Chambers, who had a hit with her cover of True Colors last year. Nor is she likely to cause much concern at the wrestling ring in the foreseeable future. But the fearless individualism that made Lauper a breath of fresh air in '83 appears in good nick.
Asked if the modern music business isn't too rigid, too conservative to let this quality prevail today, her voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper, like she's imparting some mystical wisdom. "There's an element of that that's been there from the beginning of time," she says. "If you focus on that, then that's all you'll see. But if you take a step back and you see all of it, you'll see a way around it.
"You always have to remember, there'll always be somebody to tell you what you should be and when and how you should be it. But if you feel a calling within you, to stand on your feet and feel grounded and feel elated and happy and free, you don't have to go along with it. Yeah, you have to get along with other people, but you don't have to be in shackles."
The key to having fun, it turns out, isn't in smash pop videos at all. It's much closer to home. "We tell our son all the time, my husband and I, 'Be in the moment! Don't forget to look around! Cause all these wonderful things are going on and you'll miss them if you don't look'. Now, I'm telling you this," she cackles, "but that's what I always gotta remind myself."
Andy Roddick Fan Of The Month...
Current mood: good
Category: Sports
I love finding/reading and posting these kinds of things:) I think the rest of you will as well. So I really do not need to write much for this entry the article is simply fine alone and very self explanatory.
Enjoy
*Mike*
February Fan of the Month February 11th, 2008 02:42 am By Andyroddick.com Staff
Congratulations to Erica Wiley – Andy's February Fan of the Month. Erica was nominated by her Mom, Kim:
"I would like to nominate my daughter, Erica Wiley for Andy's fan of the month. Erica is 18 and lives in West Plains, Missouri. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know. To say Erica is an Andy fan is an understatement.
"She has been an Andy fan for years and she lets everyone know it.
"Her bedroom walls are covered with his posters, her glass display case is full of signed tennis balls, programs, magazines, No Compromise bracelets, Andy ducks, bobbleheads, calendars etc…Pictures of her and Andy together fill picture frames, some with Andy's autograph. Her notebooks, calculator and lockers are filled with Andy's pictures. She has a box that is full of Andy clippings. She wears her Andy tee shirts with pride.
"Erica has been fortunate enough to meet Andy on several different occasions and to get autographs and pictures. On her 16th birthday we met Andy and he wished her a Happy Birthday and gave her a hug. It goes without saying that was her BEST present. On each occasion, Andy has taken time out of his busy schedule for a picture and autograph. As a mom, I can't tell you how much that means to me.
"She spends countless hours on Andy Roddick.com, has her homepage set there, is a member of Club Roddick, and she has done research papers and art projects using Andy as her subject.
"She is on her high school tennis team and uses a Babolat racquet. She recently won the Hustle and Most Valuable Player awards. Her high school cafeteria had a huge Andy Roddick Got Milk ad on their wall—needless to say it now hangs in our garage.
"For years Erica has raised money for her favorite charity-St. Jude's Children Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and she has volunteered at our local hospital. She shares Andy's desire to help kids in need and has looked up to Andy as a shining example of that.
"I feel Erica is deserving of this honor. This is why I am nominating Erica to be Andy's Fan of the Month and because she would never nominate herself. She doesn't know that I am nominating her. I hope she will log on to Andy's website and be surprised to see herself as Fan of the Month."
What a great fan! Thanks to Kim for taking the time to write in, and thanks to Erica for your magnificent support of Andy! Erica will receive a poster of her choice from the Proshop which will no doubt adorn her bedroom wall along with all her other Andy memorabilia.
If you'd like to feature on the andyroddick.com homepage as one of Andy's best fans, or know someone else who deserves that honour, then get writing to fanmonth@andyroddick.com. Don't forget to send a photo!
Good Luck! http://www.andyroddick.com/3871/february-fan-of-the-month/
Join the Official Humans Reborn page...Details inside blog...
Current mood: determined
Category: MySpace
Well it's finally February huh? January is always such a long month. I want to start the month off with a good dose of promotional bloggage.
Last entry I stated that I would do more to help a friend of mine Michael Loyd, with getting more word of mouth out here about his works. One in particular is his first novel, Humans Reborn.
So over the weekend I set up a Myspace page just for the book alone. Here is the link for anyone who would be interested in adding us to your friend list.
That way you can keep up on the contests I will be holding from time to time for people to win copies of the book. You will be able to see the complete info on details on how to buy your own copy of the book. And also share your opinions with others among some of the things you will be able to do.
The page also has a blog, so you may want to join that too while you are at it. Since I will be doing some writing there from time to time about Humans Reborn and some of Michael Loyd's other works that will be coming in the near future.
Also for those of you who are part of my Myspace group. If you have not noticed, I changed the group over to support Humans Reborn as well. So if you are a member, on your groups part of your settings, you will now see that you belong to the Humans Reborn group, instead of the Journey to Equality group. If you are not a member and would like to join. Here is the link for that as well.
I hope everyone will join and enjoy the cool things that I and Michael are brining to you all. And for those of you who have already got a copy of Humans Reborn, than a big thank you to you all out there:)
If not, than what are you waiting for! Get your copy today:)
Changes...For The Good...
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes
The new year has begun, but this is not going to be a blog about much of that sort of thing. But I will be doing a blog on the holidays and new Years sort of stuff soon.
For now, this entry is just a short bit about, some changes to my profile.
First along with the new layout, just for a short time it is for the new year start. Than I will be changing my profile to center on promotional things instead of myself.
For example, I do everything I can to give PR (Public Relations) to a very good friend of mine Michael Loyd. So far he has two wonderful, books out, Humans Reborn, and Pondered Years. Which both can be seen on my profile and also there is info in which how to get your copy.
But I would like to point out that when you go to get your copy, of Michael's books. You must after going to lulu.com, make up a free lulu account. That way you can buy the books. If you need anymore info please contact me.
So I really want to do more to help Michael out this year. Last year I had fun making up contests for people to get free copies of his books. And even though I spent a good deal amount of money to do that, I really did not mind. Since I know it helped Michael, and I actually met some wonderful people in doing so. Not to mention one cool guy who became the younger brother I always wanted, not to mention needed.(Jeff shout out to you again) even though he is leaving myspace, he will see this so I will be happy about that:)
But also doing the work and contest, actually helped me get to know another side to my creative self. I found that along with my creative writing, I also have a good knack for editing, and doing interviews/editorials.
I did an interview with Michael via the net and I was really happy with the work. I went back and did edits on it. The finished project will be posted on the new version of my website in the near future, Journey to Equality in which will feature a page just for Michael Loyd's works too.
So yeah, I think this will be a good fun venture. Myspace after all is a huge marketing conglomerate anymore so, I figured what the heck. Promotion, promotion, promotion.
With that I leave you with one last note, I have found out by my own experiences by helping others, that you truly do feel much better and the things you get back are just unlimited. I highly recommend that anyone who has not ever done anything for anyone but themselves. Start giving it a go. You will ever be the more better for it, and it will change not only your life, but the people you come to help.
Love has in deed been the topic of the last few blogs I have done. Of course that goes hand in hand with the time of the year in which we are in. The holidays and looking back at how the past year was for people. And than looking ahead at what the new year my bring us all.
I am working on a Christmas blog, which some of you have asked me to write. At least I think that was what I got from some of the responses on one of my last blog entries. Also I have a special blog that I am going to do on a few people that have in deed had an impact on me this past year. So that will be I guess my new years blog.
But for this particular entry, I wanted to continue the love. After, my last entry that was about Michael Loyd's take on love. A found a another blog done on the same topic. This time around it was by Jeff Cannon. Jeff, is someone that I call my brother, and after I read it, I asked if I could post about and share his blog as well.
Jeff was more than happy to have others read his work. So here is the blog in full along with the link to his blog so perhaps if you would like, you can leave him comments as well. I have to say, from reading Jeff's blog and seeing the impact that my last blog and Michael's, had on us all, that I think we have set off some type of chain reaction. I hope that these last few blogs have touched others in the way that they have us. And also show, how really powerful love actually can be in all of it's many forms.
Here with out any further ado is Jeff's blog on what love has meant to him.........
LOVE: BY JEFF CANNON
I just read a blog by a very close friend Mike Fox about love. He was responding to a blog by his good friend Micheal Loyd who is the author of humans Reborn, a book I won in a contest over the summer some of u may remember me mentioning. when reading the blog about love it really got me thinking, those who are close to me know that love is a very strong topic with me, and i was inspired after reading the blog to write one of my own on my views, experience's, and take on love.
I will start off by admitting ever sense I was little I was a hopeless romantic. I know that that is a very "typically gay" thing but it is true regardless. I was brought up on Disney movies and tv shows with the theme of the perfect love and the perfect couple. This is and has always been one of my dreams. Love is one of things I inspire for in life, I believe that it always will come as a surprise, I cannot look for it, or try to force myself to find it, I feel that true love will sneak up on you.
Love I feel has many forms. when someone thinks of love they typically think of the relationship love, between two lovers, this is indeed one form of love, however the love of friends, family, are also strong forms of love. The people who I love and care about are the people that keep me alive. The thing I strive for most in life is to know that people love me. its the greatest feeling in the world, and I wouldn't give it up for anything.
I also have learned that love can be the greatest feeling in the world and the worst. I do say though however that, at least with my experience's love is always worth it in the end. No matter what form love takes, it will be wonderful and it will be horrible, but in the end love is going to be good, it will help you love, it will help you grow.
As many of you know I have had love in my life in many forms many times. I feel that i am so lucky to have had that. I know what love is, I know how wonderful those feelings can be, there are times where I fear it, love can be a scary thing, especially when it is new. But I am doing my best to embrace it, and let my heart and feelings guide me. When I love people, I put my whole heart into it and I am very true to my feelings, I hope everyone knows that. Caring about people and knowing them to that level of real love is one of the greatest things to me. I wish everyone luck with love, its something everyone deserves, and I feel everyone will receive at one point or another in their lifetime. My advice on love is to embrace it, cherish it, and remember how lucky you are to have it, in all of its forms.
This is in deed the time of year to not only celebrate life and how lucky and thankful we are as humans to be alive. But also, it is the the time of year, in which, we should be saying to on another, about how much we love each other. We should be rejoicing and relishing in the love of our fellow family and friends. Some of us our lucky enough to have such wonderful people near or far. And some of us may not be so lucky. But for those of us who are, we need to be able to share that love with those who may not be so fortunate.
I always love this time of year, it is in deed my time to shine more than any other time of the year. Anyone who knows me or some what knows me, can/and will tell you that Christmas is my thing.
One of the things I love to do, is of course give. And last week, I read a wonderful blog entry from my very good friend Michael Loyd. Some of you may recall him from his books I have promoted over the last year, like Humans Reborn and Pondered Years.
Well, in this particular blog post entry, Michael has both elegantly and eloquently described, his feelings on the topic of love. How love should be expressed and shared with one another. I felt very compelled by his blog to share with some of the people I know and hopefully that you out there too will find the inspiration of Michael's blog to share your feelings as much as it did for myself. Even if you are the type of person to do so, I think you will find the essay he wrote very moving. Enjoy, it at the following link, and feel free to share your thoughts with Michael too!!
Merry Christmas to all my family and friends out here who read my blog. And have a wonderful and joyous time throughout the rest of the holiday season!!
Cheers!!
*Mike*
Currently
watching
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Scrooge Release date: 23 September, 2003
electric
ecstatic
amused
cheerful
good
determined
accomplished
loved
