- Being a washed-up, has-been rock star may pay well
depending on how much of a commercialized sellout one is willing to become. James
Blunt has never really been a true rock star, but he did have one bit hit,
“You’re Beautiful,” from his 2005 album “Back to Bedlam” and the song’s success
on mainstream, Top 40 stations and networks like VH1 helped him sell 11 million
copies of the album. He never reached that level of success again and his most
recent album, “Some Kind of Trouble,” dropped in 2010 to little fanfare.
Cognizant of the fact that the further he gets from his initial success, the
more difficult it will be to gravy train off of it, Blunt has decided to hit
the eject button and get out of the music business. Technically, he wants to
"take more time for himself,” which is code for, “I’m a one-hit wonder
with no hope of regaining my world-famous status, so I’ll quit now and cite a
more noble reason rather than say no one cares about me and just fade away
after a series of forgettable albums.” As a former member of the Queen’s Royal
Guard who saw action in Kosovo, Blunt has a different background than many
musicians and maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s walking away now
and insists he has no further plans to write music. “I just want to take some
time out for myself. I haven’t got any plans to do more songwriting. I have
been chilling out since I finished my world tour and I’ve spent a lot of time
in Ibiza, where I have a villa," he explained. Yes, a villa in the south
of Spain where you can chill and live the lazy life on whatever fortune you
have amassed with your albums and just-completed world tour sounds ideal. Now
that he’s out of music, his mother doesn’t have to worry about cracking back on
critics who often rip him for being posh and snooty. Back in January, Blunt’s
mother decried the music industry as "snobbish.” From here on out, Blunt
can simply tune those snobs out and rest in near-tropical warmth and comfort………
- It took a year longer than the Boston Red Sox wanted and
forced them to suffer through one of the most miserable seasons in franchise
history, but the team has finally hired the manager it wanted all along after
firing Terry Francona following the 2011 season and intentionally running a
despicable smear campaign against him using members of the local media. After
firing Francona and dragging his name through the mud by planting bogus
allegations of marital troubles and painkiller addiction rumors with friendly
members of the Boston media, the team hired Bobby Valentine in an attempt to
bring more focus and discipline to the clubhouse. Instead, the outspoken
Valentine clashed with his players almost immediately, threw veteran leader
Kevin Youkilis under the bus for not caring enough and irked his roster so much
than players ended up having closed-door meetings with the front office to
voice their displeasure. Had the Red Sox been able to pull their former
pitching coach and then-Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell away from Major
League Baseball’s only Canadian team prior to this past season, the failed
Valentine experiment never would have happened. Under Bobby V, them limped to their
worst season (69-93) in more than four decades. He was fired immediately after
the season ended and now, the Red Sox have found a way to pry Farrell out of
Toronto. To make the deal happen and get Farrell out of the one year remaining
on his contract, Boston will send veteran infielder Mike Aviles to Toronto and
the Blue Jays will send a player to the Red Sox along with Farrell. Before
settling on Farrell, with whom they have already agreed to a multiyear deal, the
Red Sox formally interviewed four candidates -- Los Angeles Dodgers third-base
coach Tim Wallach, New York Yankees bench coach Tony Pena, San Diego Padres
special assistant Brad Ausmus and Baltimore Orioles third-base coach DeMarlo
Hale. They ultimately landed the man they wanted and after last season, odds
are their road can only lead uphill from here………
- Holland is not merely a magical place with an amazing
capital city where smoking copious amounts of the hippie lettuce is legal
(although it is all of those things). It is also a place where sophisticated,
high-end art thefts take places and if you doubt that fact, ask curators at the
Kunsthal museum in the northern city
of Rotterdam if it is true. Those sad curators are trying to piece together the
details of how thieves stole seven paintings from their museum, a collection of
works by Picasso, Matisse and Monet and others, worth millions of dollars. After
reviewing security tapes and examining the physical evidence, police and museum
officials concluded that the thieves took advantage of an automatic
door-unlocking system. In an official statement, the museum admitted that it
uses an electronic locking system that is activated after an alarm is
triggered, but deactivates again shortly afterward for safety reasons. Armed
with detailed knowledge of how the system works, the thieves apparently waited
until the electronic system deactivated, broke a physical lock on an emergency
door, and were in and out in less than two minutes. They clearly had a precise,
detailed plan for the theft and ran their playbook to perfection. By the time
police arrived at the museum, five minutes after the alarm first sounded, the
thieves were long gone and left no direct evidence to their identity.
Detectives are still analyzing tips and clues in the Oct. 16 heist and have no
suspects, at least none that they have identified publicly. That means the
thieves either made a clean getaway or police are still playing it very close
to the vest………..
- One Clearwater, Fla. business owner may want to keep a
wary eye on the horizon for a diminutive, über-rich ball of religious fury sure
to be headed his way soon. Travis Wilkinson owns Berry Beautiful Salon and Spa and
he clearly should anticipate a visit from the mentally unstable ball of
insanity that is Tom Cruise after posting a new sign outside his business
attacking Cruise’s beloved religion of Scientology. Alongside signs promoting
special offers at his spa, Wilkinson has a new display declaring his business
to be one of the few spas in the area "not owned by a Scientologist."
However, he wants everyone to know that he isn’t discriminating against anyone,
but merely stating the truth. "It's important for people to understand
it's not discrimination; it's a statement of fact," Wilkinson said. "People
may not consider this politically correct, but there's nothing illegal about
it.” He’s right and also a clever guy who understands that what he’s doing will
create controversy and that in turn will increase his exposure and hopefully,
his profits. Wilkinson moved his spa to downtown Clearwater from Largo less
than a year ago and has struggled to generate new business. Controversy sells
and coupled with his belief that the Church of Scientology may be linked to his
troubles, the idea for the sign was born. "My uncle wrote a handbook that
says 'Diabetes Handbook', and it looks very similar to Dianetics Handbook,” he
explained of a book key to the Scientologist cause. “People would just assume
that we were Scientologists and turn around and start to leave.” Like it
or not, the sign seems to have worked. Wilkinson claims that his business has
doubled since posting the sign last month and he has taken to encouraging other
businesses to do the same, which seems odd unless they too are selling a
diabetes handbook and have been mistaken for a Scientology-based enterprise. To
further his cause, Wilkinson created the Clearwater Small Business Coalition
and is offering the first 30 businesses who post the sign free membership. So
far, there haven’t been any takers……..
- Theoretically, sunscreen is supposed to prevent burns for
people who will be spending extended periods of time in the sun. Typically, its
side effect do not include causing actual burns via a user’s skin going up in
flames. Not every sunscreen manufacturer offers this unique benefit, but Banana
Boat does courtesy of one of its
spray-on product. Manufacturer Energizer Holdings is pulling nearly two dozen
formulations of UltraMist off store shelves after a small number of claims of
people catching fire after applying the product to their skin. So far, the
company claims it has received five reports of people suddenly bursting into
flames after applying the sunscreen in the last year. Four of the cases
occurred in the United States and one inexplicably occurred in Canada, where
winter lasts year-round and the sun isn't known to shine for more than five
seconds at a time – just kidding, Canada. The recall will be difficult because
more than 20 million units of UltraMist have been sold since 2010 and people
tend to stick bottles of the product in places they don’t access often because
the only need sunscreen at sporadic intervals during the summer months. Why is
sunscreen causing people’s skin to go up in flames instead of protecting it
from sunburns? According to Energizer Holdings, the spray valve is to blame as
it is over-applying the product. Too much product means the sunscreen does not
dry properly and when that happens, it can catch fire………
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