What We’re Arguing About…

If you haven’t been to the Forum in awhile, or ever for that matter, well then you are missing out on sharing your opinions with us! Not only do we discuss every Reality Show you love and become Big Brother Central in the Summer, but we also discuss current events, Holidays, Movies, TV Shows and more!

We also however have a special section that we can debate (Argue) some more controversial issues. Currently, we are discussing how Hollywood seems to have a double-standard. How celebrities seem to be able to get away with things that the otherwise normal person, like you, can’t.

One of our members mentions Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, OJ, Lindsay Lohan… Saying the former three are abusers, Jackson of course with the child molestation, and well, you know the deal on the latter two.

Another member says “If you have fame and money, you can sleep with children, kill your wife, bite your girlfriend, etc. All of that is socially acceptable here. But if you even THINK about lighting a cigarette, it’s the end of the world; never to be forgotten or forgiven.”

Another one of our members feels that Celebrities are like Gods, and should be able to live the double standard.

I will not take sides out here, but sides are definitely being drawn in there. CLICK HERE to make your voice heard! You can post as a guest, or register for FREE to receive all the benefits of being one of our members! Plus, you can help out the one side, or the other, to try and win this argument!

Melodic Monday: Spotlight on Los Lobos

Los Lobos has been around a pretty long time, and yet, never seem to get older. Their music has found it’s way into many a gathering at my house, usually in the summertime with the BBQ smells filling the backyard, the Corona’s with lime cluttering the outside table (course I myself prefer Pacifico), children in bathing suits laughing in the sun… It’s almost a tradition. In fact, it just may be.

Today’s Melodic Monday is in tribute to them, and hopefully, a prelude to Spring to finally come upon us all. Enjoy!

If the video won’t load for you, CLICK HERE to watch!

Introduction from NPR:

Los Lobos has proven time and again that a universal shared experience will always trump culture and language. The group writes music that speaks to all of us as individuals, yet can make us feel connected when we pack ourselves into a club to watch them perform.

I’ve been a fan of Los Lobos since I was 18 and the band was playing mariachi music on the campus of UC-Davis. I’m 52 now. I’ve seen many,many Los Lobos shows and even interviewed the band a handful of times, and yet I still get excited when I get a chance to see its members play.

This past summer, the group released a new album called Tin Can Trust. Thankfully, for Los Lobos, there’s always a new record: songs to sing along to, stories to compare our lives to, cumbias to dance to. This short blast from behind Bob Boilen’s desk has something new, something old and something to dance to. So pull the chairs back and grab a partner — it’s time to dance.

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think! Are they a fave at your house?

Woah Woah Woah! Phil Eats Yak Meat? Say it ain’t so!

The Amazing Race’s host, Phil Keoghan has a new web series called “Phil’s Diaries”, depicting behind the scenes footage of The Amazing Race. The videos are actually very interesting. Phil, who absolutely loves to travel, is able to share all of his travel wisdom with us, as well as show us behind the scenes tidbits we would have never known.

As you know, last week in China, our Yak himself starred in one of the challenges the racers had to face, allowing the racer to ride on his back down a waterfall to receive their next clue. We saw pictures of the racers on their back, even a picture of Phil with the Yak. Well, turns out riding Yaks is not all they do over yonder in China, they also grill them! Seen below is Phil’s video diary of the trip, where he tries grilled Yak meat for the first time. We will give Phil credit here for saying that he doesn’t feel all that comfortable eating the animal he just tried to get a good shot (picture) with, but to Barry the sound guy, we say SLOW YOUR ROLL!

We are just glad that our Yak got out in time. Leave the Yak a comment below to show your appreciation for the dangerous mission he was sent on, just for the entertainment of us!

Flashback Friday: The Westside Middle School Massacre in Jonesboro

Today’s Flashback Friday in History, was a very sad moment indeed.

It was March 24th, 1998. 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and 11 year old Andrew Golden had, the night before, loaded Johnson’s mothers Dodge Caravan with camping supplies, snacks, two semi-automatic rifles, one bolt-action rifle and four handguns which they’d stolen from Golden’s grandfathers house. On the morning of March 24th, they drive the Caravan to Westside Middle School located in unincorporated Craighead County, Arkansas, United States, near Jonesboro. When they got to the school, Golden pulled the fire alarm while Johnson took the weapons to the woods outside of the school; Golden joined him after pulling the alarm. The two boys opened fire as teachers and students began filing out of the school. The boys killed four female students and one teacher, while wounding ten others. They then attempted to run back to the van and escape, but police captured them. Their plan was to run away, evidenced by the survival gear, food and camping supplies.

These two boys were amongst the youngest ever to be charged with murder in American history and were it not for their ages, the prosecutor stated he would have sought the death penalty. The maximum sentence under Arkansas law at the time was confinement until the age of 14! They actually served longer than that due to the additional weapons charges; Golden was released on May 25, 2007 and Johnson was released on August 11, 2005. If they’d commited their crimes years later, even at the ages they were at the time of the crime, they could have possibly been sentenced to life. Obviously, for Johnson at least, the confinement did nothing for his character as on January 1, 2007 he was arrested for drug posession and carrying a prohibited weapon; he’d been riding in a van with his roommate, who ironically had been sentenced in 1999 for killing his father with a crossbow. They claimed that their original motivation for the shootings was due to bullying and they only wanted to scare, not kill people.

This brings up a major Catch-22 for me, as it did at the time of the shootings. On one hand, bullying is a major issue and has been for a long time. It is horrific the things that kids do and say to each other and as adults, it’s our responsibility to set an example and show why bullying is wrong. On the other hand, obviously it’s not the right thing to kill people who have bullied you. So where is the balance? What do you all think?

American Idol Finalists Moved, House Haunted?

The finalists for American Idol are being moved to a new home today, and out of their Beverly Hills mansion. Apprently, the Idols became convinced that the house was haunted, and insisted on leaving the estate, according to reports.

They began believing the house was haunted a couple weeks ago, when the lights began flickering, and there was a “spooky spider invasion” in the house. However, what put a few of the finalists over the edge was a bed sheet reportedly taking on a life of it’s own, and floating down an empty hallway last week. In addition, after the heavy rains So Cal experienced a couple of days ago, the roof of the home began to leak. At that point, the Idols insisted on moving to a new location.

We will keep you updated with the latest as we hear it! In the meantime, head over to our FORUM where we discuss the show live! You won’t regret it, and we kinda promise the forum isn’t haunted, but then, you never know.

Film Legend Elizabeth Taylor, Dead at 79

LOS ANGELES (AP) By DAVID GERMAIN and HILLEL ITALIE — Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the classic movie stars and a template for the modern celebrity, died Wednesday at age 79.

She was surrounded by her four children when she died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, said publicist Sally Morrison.

“My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love,” her son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement. “We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts.” “We have just lost a Hollywood giant,” said Elton John, a longtime friend of Taylor. “More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being.”

[singlepic id=377 w=320 h=240 float=right]Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work. One of those Oscars came for a searing performance in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She played an alcoholic shrew in an emotionally sadomasochistic marriage opposite real-life husband Richard Burton. For all the ferocity of her screen roles and the turmoil of her life, Taylor was remembered by “Virginia Woolf” director Mike Nichols for her gentler, life-affirming side. “The shock of Elizabeth was not only her beauty. It was her generosity. Her giant laugh. Her vitality, whether tackling a complex scene on film or where we would all have dinner until dawn,” Nichols said in a statement. “She is singular and indelible on film and in our hearts.”

Taylor was the most loyal of friends and a defender of gays in Hollywood when AIDS was new to the industry and beyond. But she was afflicted by ill health, failed romances (eight marriages, seven husbands) and personal tragedy. “I think I’m becoming fatalistic,” she said in 1989. “Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic.”

Her more than 50 movies included unforgettable portraits of innocence and of decadence, from the children’s classic “National Velvet” and the sentimental family comedy “Father of the Bride” to Oscar-winning transgressions in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Butterfield 8.” The historical epic “Cleopatra” is among Hollywood’s greatest on-screen fiascos and a landmark of off-screen monkey business, the meeting ground of Taylor and Burton, the “Brangelina” of their day. She played enough bawdy women on film for critic Pauline Kael to deem her “Chaucerian Beverly Hills.” That sauciness was part of her real life, too. “She had a sense of humor that was so bawdy, even I was saying, `really? That came out of your mouth?'” Whoopi Goldberg said on ABC’s “The View,” recalling how Taylor gave her advice about her own Hollywood career. “She was just a magnificent woman. She was a great broad and a good friend.”

[singlepic id=378 w=320 h=240 float=left]But her defining role, one that lasted past her moviemaking days, was “Elizabeth Taylor,” ever marrying and divorcing, in and out of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, standing by Michael Jackson, Rock Hudson and other troubled friends, acquiring a jewelry collection that seemed to rival Tiffany’s. She was a child star who grew up and aged before an adoring, appalled and fascinated public. She arrived in Hollywood when the studio system tightly controlled an actor’s life and image, had more marriages than any publicist could explain away and carried on until she no longer required explanation. She was the industry’s great survivor, and among the first to reach that special category of celebrity – famous for being famous, for whom her work was inseparable from the gossip around it.

The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a screen sweetheart and martyr later reviled for stealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bed Burton, a relationship of epic passion and turbulence, lasting through two marriages and countless attempted reconciliations. She was also forgiven. Reynolds would acknowledge voting for Taylor when she was nominated for “Butterfield 8” and decades later co-starred with her old rival in “These Old Broads,” co-written by Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

Taylor’s ailments wore down the grudges. She underwent at least 20 major operations and she nearly died from a bout with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in February 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and pain killers. Taylor was treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993. As she accepted it, to a long ovation, she declared, “I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being – to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.”

The American Foundation for AIDS Research, for which Taylor was a longtime advocate, noted in a statement that she was “among the first to speak out on behalf of people living with HIV when others reacted with fear and often outright hostility. She leaves a monumental legacy that has improved and extended millions of lives and will enrich countless more for generations to come,” the group said.

[singlepic id=380 w=320 h=240 float=right]The dark-haired Taylor made an unforgettable impression in Hollywood with “National Velvet,” the 1945 film in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase horse to victory in the Grand National. Critic James Agee wrote of her: “Ever since I first saw the child … I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were in the same grade of primary school.” “National Velvet,” her fifth film, also marked the beginning of Taylor’s long string of health issues. During production, she fell off a horse. The resulting back injury continued to haunt her.

Taylor matured into a ravishing beauty in “Father of the Bride,” in 1950, and into a respected performer and femme fatale the following year in “A Place in the Sun,” based on the Theodore Dreiser novel “An American Tragedy.” The movie co-starred her close friend Montgomery Clift as the ambitious young man who drowns his working-class girlfriend to be with the socialite Taylor. In real life, too, men all but committed murder in pursuit of her.

Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn Monroe were Hollywood’s great sex symbols, both striving for appreciation beyond their physical beauty, both caught up in personal dramas filmmakers could only wish they had imagined. That Taylor lasted, and Monroe died young, was a matter of luck and strength; Taylor lived as she pleased and allowed no one to define her but herself. “I don’t entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I’m me. God knows, I’m me,” Taylor said around the time she turned 50.

She had a remarkable and exhausting personal and professional life. Her marriage to Michael Todd ended tragically when the producer died in a plane crash in 1958. She took up with Fisher, married him, then left him for Burton. Meanwhile, she received several Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.

She was a box-office star cast in numerous “prestige” films, from “Raintree County” with Clift to “Giant,” an epic co-starring her friends Hudson and James Dean. Nominations came from a pair of movies adapted from work by Tennessee Williams: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Suddenly, Last Summer.” In “Butterfield 8,” released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. Taylor never cared much for the film, but her performance at the Oscars wowed the world.

Sympathy for Taylor’s widowhood had turned to scorn when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the death of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalized from a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and Taylor underwent a tracheotomy. The scar was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her best actress trophy for “Butterfield 8.” To a standing ovation, she hobbled to the stage. “I don’t really know how to express my great gratitude,” she said in an emotional speech. “I guess I will just have to thank you with all my heart.” It was one of the most dramatic moments in Academy Awards history. “Hell, I even voted for her,” Reynolds later said.

Greater drama awaited: “Cleopatra.” Taylor met Burton while playing the title role in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanizing Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate. Taylor found him boorish; Burton mocked her physique. But the love scenes on film continued away from the set and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi, then an emerging breed, snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced the happenings as the “caprices of adult children.” The film so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money even though “Cleopatra” was a box-office hit and won four Academy awards. (With its $44 million budget adjusted for inflation, “Cleopatra” remains the most expensive movie ever made.) Taylor’s salary per film topped $1 million. “Liz and Dick” became the ultimate jet set couple, on a first name basis with millions who had never met them. They were a prolific acting team, even if most of the movies aged no better than their marriages: “The VIPs” (1963), “The Sandpiper” (1965), “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967), “The Comedians” (1967), “Dr. Faustus” (1967), “Boom!” (1968), “Under Milk Wood” (1971) and “Hammersmith Is Out” (1972).

Art most effectively imitated life in the adaptation of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – in which Taylor and Burton played mates who fought viciously and drank heavily. She took the best actress Oscar for her performance as the venomous Martha in “Virginia Woolf” and again stole the awards show, this time by not showing up at the ceremony. She refused to thank the academy upon learning of her victory and chastised voters for not honoring Burton. Taylor and Burton divorced in 1974, married again in 1975 and divorced again in 1976. “We fight a great deal,” Burton once said, “and we watch the people around us who don’t quite know how to behave during these storms. We don’t fight when we are alone.” In 1982, Taylor and Burton appeared in a touring production of the Noel Coward play “Private Lives,” in which they starred as a divorced couple who meet on their respective honeymoons. They remained close at the time of Burton’s death, in 1984.

[singlepic id=379 w=320 h=240 float=left]Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London on Feb. 27, 1932, the daughter of Francis Taylor, an art dealer, and the former Sara Sothern, an American stage actress. At age 3, with extensive ballet training already behind her, Taylor danced for British princesses Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret Rose at London’s Hippodrome. At age 4, she was given a wild field horse that she learned to ride expertly. At the onset of World War II, the Taylors came to the United States. Francis Taylor opened a gallery in Beverly Hills and, in 1942, his daughter made her screen debut with a bit part in the comedy “There’s One Born Every Minute.” Her big break came soon thereafter. While serving as an air-raid warden with MGM producer Sam Marx, Taylor’s father learned that the studio was struggling to find an English girl to play opposite Roddy McDowall in “Lassie Come Home.” Taylor’s screen test for the film won her both the part and a long-term contract. She grew up quickly after that.

Still in school at 16, she would dash from the classroom to the movie set where she played passionate love scenes with Robert Taylor in “Conspirator.” “I have the emotions of a child in the body of a woman,” she once said. “I was rushed into womanhood for the movies. It caused me long moments of unhappiness and doubt.” Soon after her screen presence was established, she began a series of very public romances. Early loves included socialite Bill Pawley, home run slugger Ralph Kiner and football star Glenn Davis.

Then, a roll call of husbands:
– She married Conrad Hilton Jr., son of the hotel magnate, in May 1950 at age 18. The marriage ended in divorce that December.
– When she married British actor Michael Wilding in February 1952, he was 39 to her 19. They had two sons, Michael Jr. and Christopher Edward. That marriage lasted 4 years.
– She married cigar-chomping movie producer Michael Todd, also 20 years her senior, in 1957. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958.
– The best man at the Taylor-Todd wedding was Fisher. He left his wife Debbie Reynolds to marry Taylor in 1959. She converted to Judaism before the wedding.
– Taylor and Fisher moved to London, where she was making “Cleopatra.” She met Burton, who also was married. That union produced her fourth child, Maria.
– After her second marriage to Burton ended, she married John Warner, a former secretary of the Navy, in December 1976. Warner was elected a U.S. senator from Virginia in 1978. They divorced in 1982.
– In October 1991, she married Larry Fortensky, a truck driver and construction worker she met while both were undergoing treatment at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. He was 20 years her junior. The wedding, held at the ranch of Michael Jackson, was a media circus that included the din of helicopter blades, a journalist who parachuted to a spot near the couple and a gossip columnist as official scribe. But in August 1995, she and Fortensky announced a trial separation; she filed for divorce six months later and the split became final in 1997. “I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to have a love affair, you get married,” she once remarked. “I guess I’m very old-fashioned.”

Her philanthropic interests included assistance for the Israeli War Victims Fund and the Variety Clubs International. She received the Legion of Honor, France’s most prestigious award, in 1987, for her efforts to support AIDS research. In May 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Taylor a dame – the female equivalent of a knight – for her services to the entertainment industry and to charity. In 1993, she won a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute; in 1999, an institute survey of screen legends ranked her No. 7 among actresses.

During much of her later career, Taylor’s waistline, various diets, diet books and tangled romances were the butt of jokes by Joan Rivers and others. John Belushi mocked her on “Saturday Night Live,” dressing up in drag and choking on a piece of chicken. “It’s a wonder I didn’t explode,” Taylor wrote of her 60-pound weight gain – and successful loss – in the 1988 book “Elizabeth Takes Off on Self-Esteem and Self-Image.”

She was an iconic star, but her screen roles became increasingly rare in the 1980s and beyond. She appeared in several television movies, including “Poker Alice” and “Sweet Bird of Youth,” and entered the Stone Age as Pearl Slaghoople in the movie version of “The Flintstones.” She had a brief role on the popular soap opera “General Hospital.”

Taylor was the subject of numerous unauthorized biographies and herself worked on a handful of books, including “Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir” and “Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry.” In tune with the media to the end, she kept in touch through her Twitter account. “I like the connection with fans and people who have been supportive of me,” Taylor told Kim Kardashian in a 2011 interview for Harper’s Bazaar. “And I love the idea of real feedback and a two-way street, which is very, very modern. But sometimes I think we know too much about our idols and that spoils the dream.”

Survivors include her daughters Maria Burton-Carson and Liza Todd-Tivey, sons Christopher and Michael Wilding, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A private family funeral is planned later this week.

Melodic Monday: Spotlight on Lizz Wright

We here at the Yak like to bring you some very talented yet underrated artists that deserve not only more recognition, but also more exposure. One of the greatest places to find such artists is over at NPR, yes, the same one that is currently fighting for funding in Washington. Many people in America don’t have any idea of the vast content provided by NPR, mainly because the media only seem to focus on their News shows or Sesame Street. Just for a moment, forget all that. Put aside what you have been told, over and over, about NPR. Forget the news stories, forget the politics.

NPR is possibly a music revolution. So many “unknown” artists after being featured on NPR, whether in first listen, Studio Sessions, or Tiny Desk Concerts, have gone on to win top awards and become fan favorites. Arcade Fire and Esperanza Spalding were featured there, and went on to win top Grammy’s this year.

So, whatever your opinion about NPR funding and it’s politics, we would like to present to you yet another underrated and exceptional performer, featured recently in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Press play, sit back, and enjoy. Oh, and turn it up.

Introduction to Lizz Wright from NPR:

She hasn’t yet broken out commercially in a big way, but singer Lizz Wright has long seemed poised to follow in the platinum-selling, Grammy-festooned footsteps of Tracy ChapmanNorah Jones and other contemporary singers who infuse elements of blues and folk music with jazzy, smoky soul. Raised on church music in Georgia, Wright is well-versed in the freedom songs of Sweet Honey in the Rock, without whom none of the music here would exist; “I Remember, I Believe” is by that group’s leader, the great Bernice Johnson Reagon, whose daughter Toshi Reagon (Wright’s best friend) co-wrote “Hit the Ground.”

In this short but satisfying two-song set at the NPR Music offices, the ever-evolving Wright channels the gospel of her past (as she does on last year’s Fellowship) while remaining coolly understated. It helps, of course, that she’s got a subtly crafty band with her: guitarist Robin Macatangay, bassist Nicholas D’Amato and drummer Brannen Temple, who MacGyvers some Tiny Desk-friendly percussion instruments out of an upturned wastebasket and a pizza box, among other detritus. The result is a sweet surprise: as spiritually uplifting as it is graceful, grounded and unmistakably cool.

Let us know what you think about Ms. Wright in the comments below!

Flashback Friday! Dough Boy and Stones

Hungry for a biscuit? Remember the ones that mom used to make? That savory, luscious smell of fresh baked rolls wafting out from the oven as you waited in hungry anticipation, your mouth watering as you wait. Well folks, 50 years ago today a gastronomical tradition began in many a household. March 18th, 1961 saw the introduction of the Poppin’ Fresh Pillsbury Doughboy, that iconic symbol of biscuitry everywhere. Poke that stomach, hear that giggle, open your mouth and in goes….sorry, I couldn’t find a word to rhyme with biscuit!

Now, while the Dough Boy kept us all in good humor as we ate, the Rolling Stones had something else in mind on March 18th, 1965 as they were fined 5 pounds for public urination. Maybe that’s why Jagger bounces all over the stage when he performs, hmmmmmmmm. Either way, on that day Jagger, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones tried to use the toilet at a gas station in West Ham, England but were turned away. When you gotta go, you gotta go. And went they did. Busted! But really, what’s 5 pounds to relieve your bladder?

So, on this day in history, we got biscuits and we got…well, relief. What do you have? Tell us about it in our forums here!

Foo Fighter Mania: New Movie, No Glee, Concert in Your Garage

[singlepic id=376 w=320 h=240 float=left]Dave Grohl, lead singer of the Foo Fighters is joining the ranks of Kings of Leon and Slash in just saying “no” to Glee. In addition to just saying no, he also takes a swipe at creator Ryan Murphy, who you may remember talked smack previously to the bands that said no to him, saying their careers are over in Slash’s case, and actually saying “F*$k you” to Kings of Leon.

“It’s every band’s right, you shouldn’t have to do f*!king Glee,” Grohl tells the Hollywood Reporter following the SXSW premiere of the band’s new documentary, Foo Fighters: Back and Forth. “And then the guy who created Glee is so offended that we’re not, like, begging to be on his f^$king show…f**k that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.”

Grohl wasn’t finished.

“The Glee guy, what a f*#king jerk. Slash was the first one. He wanted to do Guns N’ Roses, and Slash is like ‘I f%$!ing hate musicals. It’s worse than Grease.’ Then [Murphy’s] like, ‘Well of course he’d say that, he’s a washed up ol’ rock star, that’s what they f*&*ing do.’  And then Kings of Leon say, ‘No, we don’t want to be on your show.’ And then he’s like, ‘Snotty little assholes…’ And it’s just like, ‘Dude, maybe not everyone loves Glee.’ Me included.” Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the Foo Fighters then chimed in “Yeah, f$!k that shit.”

Grohl said he gave Glee a try, “I watched 10 minutes. It’s not my thing.”

As for this writer? Yeah well, I’m a little rocker girl, so good for the Foo Fighters! (My apologies Gleeks) This news just makes me love them more. (It makes up a little for my disappointment in another one of my faves, MCR, for allowing their song on Glee AND American Idol. Sigh.)

The Foo Fighters also have a movie hitting theaters soon. (Check out the trailer below) The film, a documentary entitled Foo Fighters: Back and Forth will open and close April 5th, yes, a one night only event, in 80 theaters around the country, and will be followed by a broadcast of a live set from the band. Pretty cool huh?

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth chronicles the history of the band, from cassette demos recorded by Dave Grohl while he was still Nirvana’s drummer to the group’s stadium headlining tours.

James Moll (The Last Days) produced and directed the documentary, which also covers the making of Foo Fighters’ upcoming album,Wasting Light, which will be released April 12. Trying to get back to their roots, the band recorded the entire album in their garage.

The doc will be broadcast on VH1, VH1 Classic and Palladia on April 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Set your Tivo/DVR!

As stated above, the upcoming album was recorded in it’s entirety in a garage. Well, the band is giving the chance to eight lucky fans to have them play in their garage as a concert venue! “The Foo Fighters have teamed with BlackBerry and local radio stations to give eight lucky fans the opportunity to host a Foo Fighters live performance in his or her actual garage. Fans who want a shot at turning their garage into a concert venue can either enter the contest directly by explaining in 25 words or less why they (and 50 of their friends) deserve to win and then sending in a picture of their garage.” Detailed instructions can be found at the Foo Fighters website HERE.

Participating radio stations and dates are:
April 08 New York (RXP 101.9)
April 13 Washington DC (DC 101)
April 14 Toronto (102.1 The Edge)
April 19 Chicago (Q101)
April 20 Minneapolis (93X Rocks)
April 25 Denver (Channel 93.3)
April 26 Dallas (102.1FM The Edge)
April 27 Seattle (107.7 The End)

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think! Are you a Glee fan? Are you a Foo fan? Are you going to try and get the band to play your garage?

Random Thought Thursday: Nuclear Boy, oh boy.

How can your random thoughts not be on Japan right now. We have all seen the devastating images. In all my life, I have never seen anything so profound, so life-shattering. They lost lives, some have lost absolutely everything they had except the clothes on their back, all the while more trouble looms. Where will it end?

[singlepic id=373 w=320 h=240 float=left]The earthquake, then tsunami was mind bending. It looked almost like an ash cloud pouring over the land. Cars on rooftops, houses floating by, everything destroyed in seconds. I grew up in Southern California. Of course I have been through a nice share of earthquakes: San Fernando, Loma Prieta, Whittier, Northridge… I look at the destruction in Japan and count my blessings every day. Are we prepared? Probably not. I serious doubt anyone could be prepared for what happened there. My thoughts and prayers are with them every minute.

[singlepic id=372 w=320 h=240 float=right]The people there are just beautiful, inside and out. There have been no reports of looting, criminal activity… It’s amazing to see. In fact, reporters there are telling us that even those who have lost everything are still offering food to them. Just amazing. If anything, I wish America could learn a lesson or two. There are just so many here that lead their daily lives with blinders on to the world around them. It’s a dog eat dog world here, tunnel vision to selfishness. It can be seen in previous disasters, where the looters come out to take what they can get. It can be seen in daily traffic, everyone in a hurry to get somewhere, as if they are more important, cutting you off, or you them. The latest generation have grown up with this sense of entitlement that isn’t deserved. No, you didn’t deserve ‘Student of the Month’, and no, you shouldn’t have gotten that ‘participation trophy.’ Your opinions are better than mine, your ideas are better than mine, you are first, take take take. No one listens to others’ ideas anymore, if they differ from their own. We keep to our own little world, and in our little world, our mind is open, we are charitable… but that isn’t the case. Our minds are small. We are charitable only in judgement. In disasters like this one, it seems people would take a look at the world around them, and see the human side of things, but as of today, I still don’t see it. We have built this wall around us, blinded to world, but I digress…

I feel a loss of control, nothing I can do to help. You hear about places to donate, then read how you shouldn’t donate… that the money and help isn’t making it to those who need. You can’t go there to help, not with the reactor’s in the state they are in. There is absolutely nothing one can do, but watch the terrible pictures that show up on the news. It’s frightening, sad.

[singlepic id=371 w=320 h=240 float=left]To that end, we are also, supposedly, not hearing the whole story. Information on the state of the Reactors is being withheld from us. You watch the news, and you are being told that this is no big deal, that it won’t affect you. Yet we really have never dealt with this before. We had 2 instances in the past. Just two. Who really knows what this could do to health around the world? Who really knows what this may do to our environment? No one. Scientists are ushered in and out of the news rooms, touting how it’s all ok, how nuclear energy is a good thing, how it won’t hurt us. How can we believe any of that? Because a paid for correspondent, or a paid for commentator (on ALL News networks) tells us so? There is big money in nuclear energy, and those same holding companies own the networks, or pieces of the networks. What to believe?

Well, I guess the only thing any of us can do is just go on living. It will affect us, or it won’t. UK Scientists tracking the radioactive cloud say it should hit Southern California late Friday. They say if it causes any health problems, it will be “extremely minor”. More questions come from that statement don’t they? What can we do to prevent ANY health consequences? When will it be gone? What do they deem as “extremely minor” health problems? Potassium Iodide is disappearing from shelves all over the country. I understand not wanting people to panic, but to what end?

I don’t know. I just don’t know. We seem helpless to help those that need in Japan, helpless to this cloud coming overhead. Helpless to the parade of commentators telling us that radioactive material won’t hurt us, helpless to the scientists telling us our nuclear facilities are safe, all the while telling us some did not pass safety inspections, or sit on fault lines, but have renewed their lease for another 20 years.

So yeah, go on living. I guess that’s all we can do at this time, and try and treat everyone just a little bit better. Let us know your feelings below, and swing by the FORUM where we have been discussing the disaster since it happened.

Here is a new video put out to try and explain the nuclear problems to children in Japan.