Thursday, December 20, 2012

Marilyn Manson Needs Stitches In Ear After Drunken Fall

Marilyn Manson Needs Stitches In Ear After Drunken Fall

Marilyn Manson got into a fight in Basel, Switzerland and needed 24 stitches on the inside of his ear. Manson was in Switzerland with Rob Zombie as part of their co-headlining Twins of Evil Tour.

Manson posted a picture of his bandaged auricle on his Twitter account. It’s gross but not half as bad as the singer looked on the cover of Mechanical Animals.

Details of the incident have not been released. All we know is what Manson Tweeted:

"I was hit by a glass table in a dangerous fight. I was however, the victor but had to have 24 stitches to keep my ear from becoming Van Goth[sic]."

Those 30 words tell the entire story. All we have to do is interpret them.

The phrase “I was hit by a glass table…” means Manson fell into a glass table. No one throws a glass table. No one throws tables in a fight. They throw chairs, maybe an ottoman, but never a table.

“In a dangerous fight…” was Manson’s attempt at humor. He was covering the fact that he was actually fall-down drunk, fell, and hit his ear against a piece of furniture.
 
“I was however, the victor…” means he didn’t vomit on the way to the hospital.

“Van Goth” is not only a clever reference to “Van Gogh”—the artist who cut off part of his ear and gave it to a prostitute—but will likely be the name of his next album.

What was even more amusing then reading about the “brawl” that almost cost Manson an earlobe was the tangents his incident inspired various Web sites to take.

Most outlets just reported Manson’s ear wound and tapped out, but some used the incident to go off on bizarre non sequiturs.

She Knows Entertainment morphed into a discussion about school shootings. They even included a sagacious quote Manson gave about the Columbine massacre.
 
Asia One spent most of their lengthy article detailing a project about the West Memphis Three—Manson contributed a song to a soundtrack to a film about the killers.

Mail Online shared a brief rundown of the musician’s romantic relationships. Manson has bedded Dita Von Teese and Evan Rachel Wood and is currently seeing American photographer Lindsay Usich.

After reporting the gammy lug, NME detailed Marilyn Manson’s brush with Charles Manson. The latter sent the former a letter from his prison cell. After citing a bizarre and incoherent passage from the dispatch, NME revealed that Manson is conservative in the bedroom.

A few articles made a more obvious segue into either Manson’s current tour with Rob Zombie or his upcoming trek of North America.

From late January through the end of February, Marilyn Manson tickets will be collected all over the United States and Canada. This will be a solo campaign with Manson headlining.

Manson’s expedition begins Jan. 18 in Milwaukee and concludes Feb. 21 in Los Angeles.

Perhaps we should give those aforementioned Web sites a break. How much column space can you devote to a 30-word Tweet and a photograph of an ear? If this article is any indication then you can devote 532 words.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Rod Stewart Teams With Steve Winwood For North American Tour In 2013

Rod Stewart Teams With Steve Winwood For North American Tour In 2013

When I was young I had this coffee table book that profiled a bunch of rock stars. One of the rock stars profiled was Jim Morrison. His section began with a story detailing a degenerate night in which he ingested cocaine and imbibed blood with a witch.

I was devastated and disturbed. I couldn’t believe what I had read. My father, who knew the book was published by Rolling Stone magazine, doubted the yarn’s validity. Still, it took a long time before I got that tale out of my system and I could listen to The Doors again.

Laugh if you must but I just didn’t have enough life experience to realize rock stars were, for the most part, sad pathetic people you wouldn’t want to invite into your home for dinner. I was such an innocence child.

Nowadays, I don’t care about rock stars and the sordid details of their licentious and decadent lives. All I care about is the music (that’s why I can still listen to John Mayer). So when I learned that Rod Stewart once took cocaine anally I nary batted an eye.

Early in 2013, Stewart released “Rod: The Autobiography.” The fun read included the confession that he used to get high by taking cocaine suppositories.

What he and his friends did was buy cold medicine in capsule form from a pharmacist (called a “chemist” in the U.K.). They’d replace the cold medicine with coke and then stuck it where the sun don’t shine. The body would eventually dissolve the capsule and the cocaine would enter into the blood stream.
 
Stewart worried that snorting cocaine would damage his vocal chords. Yeah, that was his ONLY worry.

Obviously, the anecdote was included to help sell copies (by the way his book makes a great stocking stuffer). What I find funny isn’t that he revealed such an embarrassing account but the fact that it’s really not that embarrassing—at least by today’s standards—although it’s sure to make him the butt of more than a few jokes.

Of all the crazy things rock stars do nowadays, Stewart’s attempt to get high via the rectum so he can protect his voice reeks more of responsibility than reprehensibility. Dare I say it’s a cute story (relatively speaking of course).

It was a big year for Stewart. Also in 2012, he released a holiday album, Merry Christmas, Baby, and announced plans for a tour of North America.

Dubbed “Live the Life,” Stewart’s trek begins April 10 in Chicago and ends May 1 in Toronto. Right now, there are just nine dates planned, all in the eastern part of the U.S. For example, Rod Stewart and Steve Winwood visit Boston on April 13, Rod Stewart and Steve Winwood will be in New York City on April 19, and Rod Stewart and Steve Winwood roll into Atlanta on April 28 for a show at Philips Arena.

I don't have a crystal ball but it's very likely that more Rod Stewart concerts are forthcoming.
Since his recent touring partner Stevie Nicks will be busy touring with Fleetwood Mac, Stewart has tapped Steve Winwood to join him on the marquee. It should make for quite the night of blue-eyed soul.

More good news for Stewart fans, the singer is planning on releasing new material in 2013. Even better news, it won’t be like his American Songbook series but a “sequel to Gasoline Alley.”

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

5 Top Christmas Shows For The 2012 Holiday Season

5 Top Christmas Shows For The 2012 Holiday Season

The Nutcracker. A Christmas Carol. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Mannheim Steamroller.

Those are five of the most popular and well-known live Christmas shows in the United States but they are far from the only ones. Below, we look at five lesser-known Christmas/Christmas-related musical performances organized for the 2012 holiday season. Some of these live events aren’t really Christmassy they’re just scheduled near the Dec. 25. Still, what they lack in Yuletide atmosphere they more than make up for it by providing attendees with a great evening of live entertainment.

British Invasion X-Mas Party
We doubt there will be much “Fa la la la la-ing” but on Dec. 22 the House of Blues in San Diego, California is hosting a British Invasion X-Mas Party. HOB is welcoming four of the best tribute acts in the country to its stage. If you’re in to The Beatles, Elton John, Billy Idol, and Elvis Costello then Christmas comes three days early. It should be both a “jolly” and “groovy” time.

Hollywood Christmas Spectacular
The Hollywood Christmas Spectacular is set to go down Dec. 22 at the California Theatre of the Preforming Arts in San Bernardino, California. This show features singers, dancers, and of course, the big guy in the red suit. The spectacular employs music from some of Hollywood’s most famous and popular holiday flicks like Home Alone, Elf, The Muppet Christmas, and Polar Express.

Miracle on State Street
Getting your mittens on Miracle on State Street tickets earns you the pleasure of seeing Train, Karmin, and Ed Sheeran in concert at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Planned for Dec. 14, this Christmas party is sponsored by radio station 101.9 The Mix. San Diego singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman has been tapped to open the night’s festivities. Yes Virginia, there is a great concert in the Windy City this holiday season.

The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas Show
Get yourself into a holiday mood with one of country music’s most beloved and enduring acts (the quartet was founded in 1947; the current lineup has been together since 1973). The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas Show visits Florence, South Carolina on Dec. 6; Dodge City, Kansas on Dec. 16; and Lincoln, Nebraska on Dec. 18. The band is supporting their sixth holiday CD, Christmas Time’s A-Coming.

Singing Christmas Trees
A lot of cities have singing Christmas Trees shows. Two of the oldest, and most successful, are found in Edmonton, Alberta and Charlotte, North Carolina. You can catch Edmonton’s 43rd version of the crooning Christmas tree at the Northern Alberta Jubilee from Dec. 7 through Dec. 9. In Charlotte, residents are celebrating the 58th Annual Singing Christmas Tree at the Ovens Auditorium on Dec. 8. The star of that show is the 80-plus members of the Main Stage Choir. There are also singing Christmas trees in Portland, Oregon; Jackson, Mississippi; and Muskegon, Michigan.