There are few things I love better than Radiohead. I firmly believe they’re my generation’s Beatles and will argue with anyone to the death, otherwise.

I will go Chip Douglas on your ass and take you to Medieval Times and fight you, Star Trek style.

Please do enjoy this nearly full length concert of Radiohead in Japan.

I saw them twice last summer on this same tour at APW while under the influence of mild magical brownies and a couple of Jager bombs. It was magical. I think I cried a little. Great lights, great sound, great band… great, Scott.

Check this out! You just cant top mixing traditional religious holidays with modern technology.

Not this one.

This one!

I just wanted to throw this out there. I am moving into this sweet-ass house which comes equipped with 3 fireplaces, is in walking distance to the metro-north (a comfy 30 mins train ride to midtown manhattan), has a back yard and gardens, and is all-round redonk. My friend described it as “part Harry Potter, Part Flowers in the Attic, kinda spooky, kinda lovely.” I think that’s a pretty accurate description. We want a third room mate. More significantly, we want a third roommate who rules.  We’re hoping for someone mid 20’s to early 30’s, and if you’re a dude you have to be especially not creepy. If you are a good fit, or know of anyone who fits this bill, please pass it on! Also, you can’t be allergic/hateful towards animals… send me an email if you’d like to come seeee! (randomizer @ popserious . com 

Now I have heard it all, people. MTV decided to make a movie based on the life and struggles of Pedro, the HIV activist made famous from his televised life and struggle on Real World San Fransisco. Um, yeah.  Didn’t we all see the Pedro Zamora story already? On the Real World?  Apparently MTV thinks this story is good enough to tell again, but this time with different people pretending to be the real people, dressed as the real people doing the same things in the same house, saying the same words and re-enacting scenes they already shot in reality for the Real World 15 years ago.?

OK. I get it. Pedro was pretty groundbreaking in that he was the first gay person living with AIDS to be on a reality television show. His story was moving, brave and inspiring. I totally got into it when it was TV…in 1994. But why would MTV simulate something they already captured in total, candid authenticity? Who needs this fakery??? Uhh…here’s a novel idea: show me some reruns and put your money towards the indentured servant staff you have working over at MTV studios. Yeah, I said it.
I’m not a fan of remakes of anything, however I will be interested to see how they handle the Puck character in this “interpretation”. Will he be even more vilified? Will he be driving actor Pedro crazy by sticking his fingers into the peanut butter again? Will they show actor Puck sitting in a tree complaining about actor Pedro “I get it already. AIDS AIDS AIDS. Gay, young, AIDS.” Man, that Puck was such an asshole. And kind of the best thing on that whole show.

If we have learned anything from this bizarre experiment, its that after 21 seasons, and over 150 “roommates”, MTV can only find only one person worth remembering from the entire epic “Real World” series. Personally, I would have chosen Isaac from Sydney who dropped acid so many times in his life he saw black birds on a daily basis and could tell the future.

You’d think with a global recession on our hands, The Wall Street Journal would have enough financial news to knock over a bull.  But there are more pressing matters to report on involving devious behavior in your own back yard, that latest trend drug designed to ruin children forever.  This scourge is called Smarties.  No, that’s not a fancy street name for anything, I’m talking about the frigging candy.

Am I the only one who read this and thought it was from The Onion?  Any article containing the phrase “frequent use could lead to infections or even worse, albeit rare, conditions, such as maggots that feed on sugary dust wedged inside the nose” can’t be taken seriously.  What happened to the days when toddlers shoved bits of Chex up their various orifices and parents would laugh, stating that ‘it’ll come out sooner or later.’  I’m not saying smoking Smarties is well, smart, but these schools are making possession of sweets a detention-worthy crime.  Kids will have to begin buying Kit Kats on the black market run out of that bathroom on the third floor nobody ever uses.  Those cheerleaders making out behind the bleachers are just pimping themselves in exchange for Pixie Stix.  To think students at my high school were outraged when they banned Midol, claiming it to be a dangerous drug.  Add no chocolate to that list and school administrations have a million very angry, very hormonal teenage girls to deal with.

But my absolute favourite part of this article, besides the absurd subject matter, is Jeremy Froncek.  How they singled him out to represent the Smarties smoking community, I don’t know, but he is a most excellent spokesperson.  Unfortunately only the last paragraph features him prominently, but I would like to see a follow-up where he does more than just find “giant Smarties” at the mall that “were really big.”  Perhaps Mr. Froncek guiding us through an underground Smarties lab built by some dude in his Chem class?  Okay, I got my jokes in, but seriously, this guy is my hero.  Just take a look at how he handled Fox & Friends, wearing a Comadre shirt of course, to further stick it to the man. The video of him speaking Swedish in a silly hat and sunglasses is worth a watch as well.  I also salute him for providing The Wall Street Journal with a snarling Facebook pic when they were clearly expecting the typical school photo.

So, mellow out, schools, parents and Fox News!  Just pop a Juicy Fruit; your worries about those pesky kids with their Youtubenets and the Smarties and the emu music will melt away.  And Jeremy, call me! ;]

Cindy the Poodle’s owner passionately insists on her website that the dog is abolutely cool with walking around like a mutant cotton candy and loves the attention. I am sure Cindy totally loves getting “creatively groomed” and looking like a horrifying acid trip someone takes while watching 1987 Saturday morning cartoons. What dog wouldn’t feel like a million bucks walking through life like this? Alls I’m gonna say is this: Owner- ’tis not natural to shave/dye your dog into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I’m anticipating exciting things for you in the next life, woman.

 Someone looks really sexy…Cindy’s camel hump is totally realistic!

This dragon dog is my worst nightmare. The lesson here is dont smoke the Angel Dust while in possesion of Manic Panic hair dye and a willing (dumb) dog.

I dont care what anyone says. Cindy DOES NOT look happy here as a Mutant Turtle.

NOT FUNNY. You’re gonna degrade man’s best friend into being a spray painted chicken? Someone call animal services, STAT!

A few weeks ago, I attended Soundwave Festival and interviewed singer Ace Enders.  Due to a strange series of events which occurred pre-interview, it didn’t go as I’d expected, but turns out I didn’t make as big a fool of myself as I’d thought. That’s always a good thing.

Ace’s new album When I Hit The Ground is out as of yesterday and for all of you in the Philadelphia area, he’ll be doing a CD release show at the Trocadero on April 13th.

Danielle: A bit old news, but how stoked were you to sing ‘God Bless America’ during the Phillies’ winning World Championship season?
Ace: I was really really excited.  It was great, I’d never done anything like that before so it was a great feeling.
Ace Enders and a Million Different People is your latest endeavor, but what makes it different from your last solo project, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business?
I guess there’s not really too much different, it’s just a more mature, older perspective on things. That’s pretty much it.
A lot of the bands playing today you’ve toured with before and many of them are from the East Coast, so you’ve probably known them for a while.  Do you feel like you’re at Warped Tour or Bamboozle again?
You kinda do, yeah.  Only everybody’s like a little kid because we’re in a different country. It’s kind of funny because we’re all jet-lagged and out of it, but it’s great.
You and Forest from Hellogoodbye have been touring together for a while and he has a reputation for being a silly guy. Do you have any favourite pranks or stories from the Barbeque Tour?
I think the best prank was the Barbeque Tour itself.  He had us all geared up for grilling food after the shows and we didn’t barbeque once.  Which was an excellent prank, very well thought out.  Not everybody can do that.  It was good. Oh, we did sort of barbeque once, if you count hot dogs cooked in a coffee pot.

[At this point, my recorder beeped at me angrily and ceased to function. I fumbled with it, nervously trying to figure out what the problem was as Ace told me about the recording studio he built in an old store basement.  The studio is on recording hiatus until he can secure enough funds to run it again, which he hopes the new album will help raise.  I commented on how DIY it was to essentially sell records and merchandise to afford recording more music.  We then had a little discussion about how this process was considered much more normal in the pre-Myspace days of the New Jersey/Philly scene, where basement shows and liner notes were how you discovered new bands.  I also used this time to give him a package of Tim Tams, which he was tempted to open, but his wife suggested he wait because they could be melty and he’d make a mess.  “Like Nobody’s Business!” I said, way too enthusiastically.  Note to self, lame puns referring to the person you’re interviewing aren’t as clever as you initially think.  I then realized that I stupidly hadn’t cleared the recorder’s memory and continued on.]

Speaking of music changing, you just did a cover of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ for Save the Music. Did you choose that song because the line about ‘A Million Different People?’
Yeah, and because it’s just always been one of my favourite songs.  I think the whole thing is like the idea I had behind it, that wherever I am and whatever mood I’m in, it can always take me to the same place.  That’s what music is supposed to be and it fits for Save the Music.  That’s the song that does it for me, so hopefully it works for other people.
Do you know what the profits from that are so far?
Not sure totally, but I know we’ve reached what we wanted to raise for it.
Awesome! There’s lots of other famous names who helped you with that cover, did you contribute anything to their bands, like backing vocals, in return?
We haven’t done anything like that yet.
Yet? Are you planning on it?
If the day ever comes, I would gladly do it.
Hmmm. Not helping out today with anyone?
Not today.
Mysterious!  So, how did your friends and family take it when you told them The Early November was going to disband?
They cried for months.  It was terrible, my grandparents took it the hardest.  It was so tough on them they stopped eating. I’m only kidding, everybody understood why we had to do it and they were very supportive.  They were like, ‘You’re doing the right thing.’
I remember one of the first things I thought when I heard was ‘Aw, his Dad’s not going to be able to crowd surf anymore!’ (Note: I have no idea why I told him this.)
One day he will again!
What do you have to say to the fans who are still bitter about The Early November breaking up and not willing to embrace your individual pursuits?
They’ll come around eventually.  You realize that people like that are why the music business is the way it is today.  It’s like how we were talking about basement shows and that bands don’t really do that anymore, well, it’s because fans don’t support that now.  Some of them, anyway.  There’s a great amount that do, but the people like that who are bitter about things unfortunately are the majority.
I completely agree, it’s strange how it’s all changed so fast since the early 2000s when you first began as a musician.  Now, how old were you when you started writing songs? Were you a poetry kind of kid?
Ha, no.  I didn’t do anything until I was a Senior in high school. That’s when I decided I was going to start writing.
Lots of magicians…
Magicians? Ha, lots of magicians do lots of tricks!
Sorry, lots of musicians from New Jersey usually move to New York or even LA.  Why did you decide to stay in Hammonton?
Well, you know, it’s home.  It’s a comfortable place where it’s not crazy and it’s very quiet there.  And we’re not home very much, so it makes it nicer when we are.  You can just relax and not worry.
Other than ‘bringing back love,’ what do you hope to accomplish by 2020?
In a perfect world, just seeing people rely on each other rather than just being so black and white about how everything is revolving around money.  If that makes sense.  I would really love to see people sort of take a step back to realize and understand why we do things, why we’re here.
With your new album coming out, what made you decide to release that as an actual, physical disc instead of an internet release like you did previously?
A lot of reasons, it’s my first CD in a while.  I mean, the free Internet one was just for the people who’ve been supporting me…

[The crowd for Jack’s Mannequin starts screaming incredibly loud nearby and some of what Ace says is drowned out.  This also unfortunately cuts my interview slightly shorter than anticipated, so I jump to my last question.]

The question on many fans mind is when will the DVD of the last The Early November concert finally be released?
Not sure, it should be soon, hopefully!

Behold!!!! The Tampon-fanged Vampire!

You know, I was able to buy Edward as a compassionate human-lover in “Twilight” because I wanted to believe that he could control his bloodlust and fall in love with a human girl and no, I’m not 14. But this OB tampon ad is going a step further and insinuating that there could possibly be a breed of vampire that exists that would also not rip out your throat for a little fun and food- as they would be more than happy to absorb your menses with their cotton tampon fangs.

Initial Thoughts:

A) Disgusting. Period blood is like the crunk juice, the natty light, the moonshine of human fluids. I imagine blood from one’s corotid artery is way more refreshing than expelled uterine lining, but hey..thats just me.

B) What EXACTLY is OB saying here? Will this vampire come when he senses someone is on the rag and stick his absorbent teeth down there to lap it all up? Then what??? Does he walk around with two fully blossomed tampons hanging out of his head. That is one low level vampire.

C) Is this considered sexy, funny or cute? I say no. This ad has obviously made my head go to places I just shouldn’t go, and look…now I dragged all you innocent people into it to think about period juice.

D) Sorry, I guess.

Yes, I’m a total loser for watching/liking/remembering every episode of “Rockstar Supernova”. Now that we got that admission out of the way, hows about the time when contestant Dilana did a slow, sultry, sitar-y version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”? I dont expect you to remember that, so here’s a refresher:

 click the pic!

Last night Adam Lambert did the SAME bizarre rendition of the song. Pretty much exactly except that he channeled ”The Final Countdown” by Europe meets “Im a Slave 4 U” by Britney.  I’m not saying it wasnt good. I actually clapped. All I’m saying is that its just strange that two contestants on performance competitions sing a famous country/rockabilly song with a Middle Eastern/Indian vibe.

Note: I still think Adam Lambert is the best performer on the show because he is entertaining, interesting, flashy and looks like a young gay Elvis. YAY him!

Hey all, I’m planning on collecting for these guys. Please let me know if you have anything you can donate!