Live Music

So this weekend I saw two great concerts here in the Live Music Capital of the U.S.: Harvest Moon featuring Stoney LaRue and Roger Creager at Waterloo Park, and a local band called SPEAK played at Threadgill's.

Friday night was a great turnout for the concert benefitting the ARC of Austin. Some companies, such as The Quarters on Campus, even took the liberty of getting some publicity by handing out free koozies and t-shirts to attendees as they entered the concert.

Roger Creager, an award-winning Texas Country singer and songwriter, performed first with his backup band, and played a great show, full of energy and appreciation for the crowd who took their happy hours out of the day to bring their own booze and show up early in the evening. Halfway through his performance it seemed most of the crowd had arrived. Roger even brought out his father, Bill Creager, to assist him in singing one of his most famous songs, "Rancho Grande."

Stoney LaRue, the main act of the Harvest Moon concert, came on around 9p.m. His performance was just as energetic as Roger Creager's, if not more so due to the growth in the audience. Roger Creager riled up the audience for Stoney's performance, which delivered a rowdy end to the night before the park curfew at 10p.m.

The second concert I attended this weekend was SPEAK, a local band formed here in Austin. Their genre is a mix of electronic and "innovative pop," which is how they refer to their genre on their MySpace page. They performed at Threadgill's an historic restaurant, bar and music venue. The band, though not well known yet, has just signed with Playing In Traffic Records, who also signed the Los Lonely Boys.

SPEAK's performance was indescribable. For a small-scale band they attract quite a crowd, and are one of the rare bands that sounds fabulous when performing live. The lead singer, Troupe Gammage, has one of the most versatile voices I have ever heard. He was able to sing covers of Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" and The Breakfast Club theme song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds, as well as their own pop-rock-electronica original songs.

Overall, definitely a great weekend of live music in Austin, Texas. Everyone in town should try and see SPEAK when they perform next at a local venue.

Lindsay Lohan's feud with her father...going full steam ahead.

So Lindsay Lohan is in the spotlight once again, having a feud with her father, Michael Lohan about his very public comments about her behavior. According to E! Online and TMZ, Lohan is now taking legal action against her father for secretly recording a phone conversation with her with the intent to release it to show her current state, which, he accuses, involves drug use and other inappropriate behavior.

The 23-year-old is now seeking legal action against her father, and her lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley has said that Lohan simply wants to "explore all legal options" for now.

It seems Michael Lohan believes his daughter is going through a rough patch, and needs assistance, which he has been claiming for some time now. Lindsay simply wants him to shut up.

Lindsay is constantly posting new tweets about her father, one of which said "Its so sad that I even have to share this w/everyone, but I haven't had a real relationship w/Michael Sr. in years. That is the truth. Xox."

Maybe Lindsay needs to listen to her father and accept the fact that she has a problem? The star has been in and out of the spotlight for her outrageous behavior, however now she is trying to show that her father is the one with the destructive behavior.

What Lindsay is trying to get at her father for doing is recording and releasing her voicemails without her consent, which is a legitimate crime, but what is at the root of the problem is Lindsay's destructive behavior.

Of course, we all remember Lindsay's rebellious behavior, and from what her father recorded it seems she is still having a tough time. According to entertainment news outlets, she was crying claiming that no one cares about her and that she is still having problems with her on-and -off girlfriend, Samantha Ronson.

Back in April, Lindsay was spotted carrying a bottle of Neuro Bliss, a drink targeted to "relax neural tissues, to enhance brain activity, focus, and provide a sense of well-being." She obviously has some issues that she needs help working out, and perhaps her father is right. She needs to work her own problems out before she can start any others with her parents; her father is only trying to help her.

Miley Cyrus Voted Worst Celebrity Influence...By Tweens!

According to E! Online, tweens (typically known as 9- to 15-year-olds) voted Miley Cyrus as their worst celebrity influence, above Britney Spears and Kanye West. The survey was run by JSYK.com, which reported the 13-question survey results on its blog.

Why, might you ask, is Miley at the top of their "bad girl" list, when many of these girls love to listen to her music (i.e. "Party In The USA" which is STILL in the top 10 list on iTunes)?

According to E!, it is because of Miley's multiple scandals, such as the photos in "Vanity Fair," her stripper pole dance during the Teen Choice Awards (of all places!), and the fact that she was dating a much older man.

Stephanie Cohen, editor of the JSYK.com blog, stated that Miley is merely "trying to shed the Hannah Montana image," which reminds me of Britney Spears' song, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," which was quite controversial since it happened in her between girl- and woman-hood phase as well. Miley seems to have taken this a tad too far, in my opinion.

However, among the favorites on the poll were Taylor Swift, who has seen a rise in her music and tour sales since the whole Kanye West incident, and Taylor Lautner of the Twilight series movies, who surpassed Robert Pattinson as the tweens' "favorite male movie star" AND "cool guy you would most like to hang out with." Ironically, the two Taylors are the teeny boppers' hottest new celebrity couple, so it is only fitting that they were voted the favorites.

What does this mean for Miley Cyrus? I think it means she still has some growing up to do, seen by the picture I found of her on Google. Although she is a teen in a world of teens acting the same way, she is constantly in the spotlight, so anything she does is spiraled out of proportion. She is just one of the wild bunch, and no one can punish her for that but her own parents.

Link to E! Online Article

Okay, due to some errors on Blogspot, this blog is late. For some reason it wouldn’t even let me log in to write a blog. So here’s yesterday’s news:

Chris Brown and Rihanna have apparently turned into the new Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, taking stabs at each other through their music.

Rihanna released "Russian Roulette," everyone knew it had to be about Chris Brown, her ex-boyfriend who was accused of beating her last year. Brown has now come out with his own song about their relationship, "Crawl." Some of the lyrics quoted on E! Online show that his song took a different route than Rihanna's. "Crawl" is more of a "let's get back together, give me one more chance" sappy love song, whereas Rihanna's was more of a "you beat me, you girlfriend beater, I never want to see you again" song.

This just reminds me of when I was younger and Britney and Justin were going through the same love affair. Justin Came out with "Cry Me A River," directed at Britney Spears, because she supposedly cheated on him. Britney then came out with "Everytime," directed back at Justin. Justin then came out with "What Goes Around Comes Around," a stab back at Britney.

I guess Justin won that battle. We'll have to see whether Rihanna or Chris Brown prevail this time. I'm rooting for Rihanna, personally. No one likes a girlfriend beater. It just seems to me that Chris Brown is trying to save face here.

Letterman's Mess

It also seems as though David Letterman's extortion case has opened an even bigger can of worms than anyone anticipated. I also found on E! Online that a Connecticut judge agreed to leave warrants pertaining to police raids on his alleged extortionist's house unsealed, opposing the wishes of prosecutors. It seems they were looking for other things as well as evidence of an extortion plot against David Letterman, to which the accused, Robert "Joe" Halderman, is pleading not guilty. Here's the article on that from E!:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/david_letterman/index.html

I also just found this article about CBS News and how they are investigating the case. It seems also that the "48 Hours" staff is worried that since CBS News is investigating Halderman, the producer of the show, that they will be "guilty by association." Other organizations and universities are also looking at the scandal in a negative light, saying they will raise more awareness before sending students to intern for him, which could leave Letterman in a bad place. I don't really think it's too horrible, and he formally apologized for the situation, so I think he learned his lesson for sure. It just seems like he realized his mistakes were to catch up with him eventually, and you can't hold someone's past against them. Here's the FOX News link:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566980,00.html?test=faces

Taylor Swift Revenge on Kanye?? Quite possible...we will have to see.

So, I found this article while perusing EOnline's twitter site, which suggested that since Taylor Swift is set to host Saturday Night Live on Nov. 7, that she will seek revenge on Kanye West for essentially ruining her first MTV Video Music Award acceptance speech, which we covered in our entertainment briefing earlier in class. Saturday Night Live is known for making fun of celebrities, even having celebrities make fun of themselves. For example, I remember when Mary Kate Olsen was going through her what we like to call "anorexic phase," she made fun of herself on SNL saying "EAT A SANDWICH!" to a character that was supposed to be playing herself in the skit. Not many people take SNL seriously, due to their spoofing of politicians and celebrities. It will be interesting to see whether Taylor Swift actually addresses the Kanye West interruption issue in a skit, which I'm sure SNL would love. However, I do think it would be very classy of Taylor if she avoided addressing the issue on SNL, but it probably will come up somewhere, I'll have to watch and find out.

Here's the link to the short article:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b149086_will_taylor_swift_slam_kanye_during_snl.html?sid=twitterfeed_topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_topstories