4waystop

Not so hot...

Is there no end to the dangers of the iPod?!  First they've caused hearing loss and now the damn things are bursting into flames.  Danny Williams of Douglasville, Georgia nearly had a case of flaming testes when his iPod Nano caught fire and melted in his pocket.
Can you say "out-of-court-settlement"?
If Apple knows what's good for 'em they'll make people sign a liability waiver before they can buy one of these little health hazards.

BONO KNIGHTED?

Yeah Bono from the band U2 Knighted!....The last righteous rock & Roll band has sold out!
In Fact Neil Young said "Rock & Roll will never die" he was wrong!
Rock & Roll is dead and the "Rockers" are all knighted and buried in the Rock & Roll Hall of fame.
Rest in peace !

MARIAH CAREY BATTLES PORN STAR

Oh yeah this is a good one!
Grammy-winning pop singer Mariah Carey is trying to block porn star-turned politician Mary Carey from trademarking her similar-sounding stage name, saying that fans could get the two performers confused.
Personnally I think it should be the other way around Mary should trying to block Mariah. Funny, I have always thought what Mariah did was pornographic!
More

CBGB's TAKEN APART

Well now its official CBGB's has been closed with much fanfare and no defense from the Rock & Roll Royalty at THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME. Now the hollowed Rock Club is being dismantled and boxed until the owner Hilly Kristal finds a new location. As far as I'm concerned the magic can never be duplicated elsewhere. It has been mentioned that Hilly is going to relocate to Las Vegas. Yeah that would be great make it another plastic, pasteurized mausoleum of Rock & Roll!
Hey Hey, My My , Rock & Roll is dying!

SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO

Should Tony Blair stay or should he go.........He sings it to the Clash song
I say he should go.
Listen

VIEW YOUR STATES VOTERS GUIDES

Since its election time we would like to offer all you voters out there an opportunity to review your states voters guides and or the voters guides of any other state. But remember don't forget to vote!
Voters Guides

DIDDY, NOT DIDDY NO MORE IN THE UK

Not since Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali have I seen any one so preocuppied with his name. At least Mohammad Ali had a good reason to change his name, he was  proffessing his comitmet to his faith.
But OOOOPS Sean Combs, P Diddy, Diddy....or whatever his name is, cannot be called Diddy in England because he agreed to a settlement with a music producer  Richard "Diddy" Dearlove. Dearlove, best known for his dance remix of the Blondie hit Atomic, had used the name since 1992. So what is old Sean gonna do when he goes to England? Will he have to fly over using a fake passport? Maybe he should use a combination of names and go by the name of Sean Diddy P Combes. SDPC for short....oooo yeah that sounds marketable and cool! It's all in the name of marketing.........

K-FED: ONE MORE REASON NOT TO WATCH MTV?

For all you snarky bastards who crapped on poor Vanilla Ice, for each and every pop-snob who poo-pooed Milli Vanilli....behold the anti-Christ of rap/pop:  K-Fed's music video for the single, Lose Control.

By linking to this garbage I know that I have made 4WS a vector for whatever disease leads atonal, barely verbal white boys to think they can rap, but truly...I blame Britney.  She did this.  Let's not heap all of our horror and disdain on poor Kev.  Without Brit, he'd still be a poppin' and lockin' nobody, knocking up D-list actresses.

Once I'd watched the whole video once, I had to go back and listen to some of the more appalling lyrics a second time.  Let's see, which line of drivel do we find most nauseating:

"Don't hate me because I'm a superstar! And I'm married to a superstar! Nothin' come between us no matter who you are!" Uh, Kev, you're a never-was and you're married to a has-been.

"A lifestyle of rich living and fast cars/Don't hate cause I'm a superstar."  Don't worry sweetie, we hate you for other reasons.

"Look man I’m in a whole ‘nother tax bracket.  Don’t matter what you blow boy, you can’t match it.”  Probably not.  I mean how many mega-wealthy, ding-bat, pop stars are there who'll marry a leech like you?

"Let me take you back to 5 o'clock when I drove the Lamborghini off the block/but not before I made them chop the top and throw some twenty twos on them socks."  If you weren't using Brit's charge card, you'd be driving a Yugo 'off the block'.

I sincerely don't know whether to laugh or cry.

THE IDOL BRAIN IS THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND

On Tuesday, August 8, an estimated 10,000 people turned out at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to audition for American Idol.  Over the next few weeks many thousands more will wait for hours, in the blazing heat, hoping to caterwaul their way to national television fame - or infamy.  Millions more will piss away two or three hours of their week, for three months or so, eyes glued to their TVs and asses glued to their chairs, watching this colossal waste of time.  Before it's over, millions will have frantically dialed their cell phones dozens of times in order to raise one mediocre, possibly even abysmal (Taylor Hicks?), 'talent' to the position of "American Idol". 
Sure the first few shows, where they cull the herd, are entertaining.  But mostly because of the abject cluelessness of so many of the would-be contestants.  Are that many people really that tone-deaf?  Has no one ever told some of these folks that they can't sing?  Some are barely capable of simple, comprehensible conversation. 
I used to watch bits and pieces of this show.  I can't anymore.  It's too awful, too frightening.  We live in a country where the same folks who will devote so much time, effort and thought to a mindless TV show won't lift a finger to help change their lives for the better by voting in a national election or spend even 30 minutes a week reading a newspaper (no, the Enquirer is NOT a newspaper) or listening to candidates debate one another.  Making some moron famous is more important to them than helping make their lives and their children's futures better.
That being the case, I don't know why we can't make politics more appealing to the 'Idol'-oriented masses.  The people running for office in this country are often just as tone-deaf, not seeming to realize how bald-faced their lies sound.  Many are incapable of completing a sentence without contradicting themselves.  Often they have dirty little secrets that should, and occasionally do, get them kicked off the show.  Some of them try to win by sucking up to the judges. 
Maybe, as we head toward November 4, 2008, we should try taking a stab at real democracy (by the way - and I don't want to go off on another tangent - but we do NOT live in a democracy.  Ours is a republic...like the Romans?  Remember how well that worked?).  Let's try having the presidential candidates (and all other candidates for public office) speak for three minutes only and then have weekly, viewer driven, phone-in eliminations.  Ryan Seacrest can host.  Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher and Kofi Annan can be the judges. 
There might be cheating you say?  People might vote more than once?  Someone with an unscrupulous agenda might tinker with the results?  Oh, ye of little faith!  This would be a Presidential election!  This is the United States of America!  That couldn't happen here!
But, alas, we will never know.  Because come 2008, those few Americans willing to get off their fat asses and able to afford the gas to drive to the polls will find themselves standing in front of the electoral equivalent of Vegas slot machines and pondering which touch-screen button they will absently brush to cast their vote for whichever bumper-sticker name has stuck in their heads on the drive over.  The machines will be far less secure than their cell phone, as they are said to be easily hacked and none produce a hard copy for the voter.  No matter what the final numbers really are, the electoral college system or some well-paid, highly connected partisan scumbag may negate the true will of the people.  It could happen. 
But, then again, even if none of that happened, and the real 'will of the people' prevailed, we might still get screwed.  Last season the 'people' picked Taylor Hicks as their American Idol, a mediocre-voiced, none too bright, southerner whose stage 'moves' bring to mind a bear with an itchy butt and no tree to rub against.  I think he was chosen because he was an average Joe whose marginal talent was something average Joes everywhere could relate to.  By 2008, let's hope we expect more from our next president and ourselves.

HOW CAN A POOR MAN STAND SUCH TIMES AND LIVE?

I always thought I didn't like Bruce Springsteen.  To me he was yowling about things that I couldn't relate to - overblown tales of blue collar woe.  Lately I realize that I hadn't really listened to his music.  I've changed my mind about Mr. Springsteen and his music slowly, mostly since 9-11. 

Today I sat in traffic wondering how much gas my car uses when it idles, fretting over next month's 50% increase in my wind (hurricane) insurance and listening to the radio with increasing despair over updates on Israel and Lebanon and wondering where, and if ever, that might end.  Eventually I switched stations and heard Springsteen's updated version of Pete Seeger's How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? played on a talk radio show (it's not on his Seeger Sessions CD).  As I listened, I noticed the bumper sticker on the car in front of me, it said:  If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. 

Now I understand: Bruce has been paying attention all along.