Friday, February 27, 2015

20 Reasons why Madonna is awful and needs to just go away.

Yes, there was a time, 30 years ago or so in the 1980s, when Madonna could do no wrong, her name synonymous with damn entertaining music and videos that broke cultural boundaries and redefined pop music like no one other than Michael Jackson. But since then, Madonna has seen a sad and slow decline, one which even her billions of dollars and the best dancers and producers and concert promoters in the world could delay, but not avoid. Now, pushing 56 years old, Madonna has become a weird cautionary tale, diluting her legacy past the point of repair and becoming a bizarre caricature of herself. If it was just bad music and uncomfortably awkward performances befitting someone 30 years younger, she’d join the ranks of Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones and we wouldn’t think much more of it. But Madonna is a victim of her own fame, one which she refuses to relinquish as she gets older and so keeps making desperate and futile attempts to reinvent herself and become relevant once again. In summary, there is no more narcissistic, out of touch, self-possessed, and generally b-a-n-a-n-a-s superstar in the world. While there are countless examples of her bad career choices and scummy misbehaviors as a bad human being, we collected these 20 reasons why Madonna is awful and needs to go away.

1. Her recent concert at Hyde Park in London failed to sell out, despite the fact that she hadn’t played there in 4 years. Of course she didn’t endear the fans by saying, “I love you Poland,” at one point. It turns out, many concert goers walked out early, calling it the worst concert they’d every seen.

2. Although in her mid 50’s, Madonna tried to rely on her typical sexually charged bag of tricks at that concert, putting on a strip tease show that had people yawning – or just grossed out.

3. That’s still better than her 2012 concert in Istanbul, Turkey, where she pulled down her lingerie to expose her nipple to 50,000 concertgoers…in a conservative Islamic country.

4. To further trample on and disrespect the cultures of millions of fans who put money in her pocket, she wore Hindu facial markings during her MTV performance of the song Ray of Light. Unfortunately, the markings signify the ideals of chastity, purity, and devotion in the Hindu religion, and she wore them while simulating sex acts and basically making a mockery of their religion.

5. By the way, her 11-year old son is now on stage with her as a backup dancer at some of these concerts as his mommy writhes, gyrates, simulates sex acts, and exposes herself. Mom of the Year?

6. Apparently her new album and concert tour, MDNA, is all a shallow attempt to be cool with a younger generation who sometimes use the designer drug Molly, or MDMA. Just to remind audiences how “hip and trendy” she is in case they didn’t catch on, she’s been known to yell Molly references to the crowd during concerts.

7. Never one to avoid a cheap prop to try to shock audiences and critics into giving a shit about what she’s doing, Madonna had a music video where she was holding prop guns to her head and pointed at other people, as well as another video where she committed all sort of violent crimes, both of which were censored off of MTV and VH1. (Just imagine the backlash if she was black and singing rap music?!)

8. She once put out a book called Sex, which of course she starred in because apparently, she invented sex. In the book she posed in compromising erotic positions with Vanilla Ice, Naomi Campbell, and other sycophants.

9. Because her ego couldn’t be confined to music and had to spread like a fungus over cinema, too, she made the movies Evita, Shanghai Surprise, Swept Away and Who’s That Girl. We really wish she hadn’t.

10. Her brother is homeless. Let that sink in. Anthony Ciccone lives on the streets in poverty. Says Ciccone about his rich and famous sister, “My sister’s a multimillionaire, but she earned it. I have to give her credit for that. But you’d think there’d be some more family loyalty, and that’s not the case. Just to communicate would be nice.”

11. She talked trash about Lady Gaga in a classless display, while Gaga had done nothing but show her reverence and give her credit as being a huge influence on her music.

12. She wrote a children’s book called English Rose, filled with lessons from the Kabbalah after she adopted those spiritual practices. Is Madonna really the person we want teaching our children, and what makes her an authority on Kabbalah after following it for like, 5 minutes?

13. She once tried to sabotage her appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994, dropping 13 F-bombs and disparaging the host during the live network television broadcast. Luckily, her foul language was bleeped out and Dave gave it right back to her, but why would she do that? It’s funny that she got all sorts of mad at MIA during their 2012 Super Bowl performance when MIA flipped the national audience the bird.

14. To reignite her failed persona of a sexual icon, Madonna appeared at the 2003 Video Music Awards and shared a faux-passionate tongue kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. But instead of turning people on it was just sort of pathetic and creepy.

15. She’s literally had plenty of “No eye contact!” moments, like when her security guards ordered her own volunteers to turn the other way while she passed at the Toronto International Film Festival.

16. For some unknown reason, Madonna released a series of photoshopped promotional photos via her Instagram in which she likens herself to civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and others, except she photoshopped in cords wrapped around their faces and torsos. All this while she calls her white son “#disnigga” on Instagram.

17. Never one to turn down a ridiculous display of self-importance, Madonna appeared hanging on a cross during her performance of “Live to Tell “ during her 2006 Confessions Tour. So now she’s Jesus-like?

18. Even worse, her face appears with a Nazi swastika on it during her MDNA on-stage video performance, as well as superimposed on the forehead of the French president.

19. Madonna steals. A lot. Like, a whole lot. It’s a fact that during her career she’s made a mockery of copyright laws by ripping off songs, beats, lyrics, and just about everything she can from scores of other artists. She’s dealt with hundreds of lawsuits but has the money and the power to make them go away without redress. Her photo shoots, too over the centuries – oops, I mean decades –that’s she’s been in the public eye have blatantly imitated Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol photos, and many others. She has absolutely no respect for other artists.


20. Just a week ago she took a tumble on stage at the 2015 BRIT Awards show, when her cape wasn’t unfastened and a backup dancer pulled her to the ground in a choreographed move gone terribly wrong. The spill, in which she adeptly reenacted the gyrations of a newborn giraffe, kindled a barrage of hilarious memes and tweets in which people expressed concern that she didn’t break a hip or fell and couldn’t get up.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Biggie Small’s song, 'Ten Crack Commandments' is actually genius business advice.

There is no debate that the Notorious B.I.G. was one of the best rappers ever, captivating and energizing worldwide audiences with his honey-smooth flow of shockingly raw lyrics. Unfortunately, he was a victim of the East Coast-West Coast beef, shot to death in 1997 as a young man and artist just reaching his prime at 25. But the musical legacy Big Poppa left us still endures, and he’s widely known as one of the top three rappers of all time, if not the best.

We all know him as a rap prodigy, street poet, musical vanguard, neighborhood poet and even part time drug dealer, but Biggie Smalls was a genius businessman?

I been in this game for years, it made me a animal
It's rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual
A step by step booklet for you to get
your game on track, not your wig pushed back

He sure was if we look closely at the lyrics of his song, Ten Crack Commandments. In it, Biggie spits flow about the ten fundamental rules of dealing crack in his native Brooklyn, or anywhere. While on face value it seems he’s just laying out base street knowledge how to illegally vend a controlled narcotic, his advice is actually apropos to any business or product. In fact, suits in the boardroom and investors on Wall Street will find his advice just as prudent.

Let’s break down the genius business lessons of Biggie’s 10 Crack Commandments:

Rule numero uno: never let no one know
how much, dough you hold, cause you know
The cheddar breed jealousy 'specially
if that man fucked up, get your ass stuck up

Lesson:
Nothing good can come out of people knowing how much money you’re making or your financial position. Too much and you’ll incite jealousy, envy and become a target. Too little and people will perceive you as weak or unsuccessful. Always keep your financials close to the vest.

Number two: Never let em know your next move
Don't you know bad boys move in silence or violence

Lesson:

Always keep your opponents guessing. Don’t talk too much or reveal your strategies, desires, or plans. In business, action should be your only language.


Number three: Never trust no-bo-dy
Your moms'll set that ass up, properly gassed up

Lesson:
Simply and plain, don’t trust anyone. Of course you can still take on business partners, team up with people, and form alliances, but everyone looks out for themselves in business. Even your best friend – or your own mother- has a price where loyalty goes out the window, so don’t ever let your guard down and fully trust someone.

Number four: Know you heard this before
Never get high, on your own supply

Lesson:
Don’t over invest in your own product, or one product at all. Always diversify to keep a balanced portfolio so you’ll be able to profit in the good times but won’t be wiped out when things crash. And never get emotional or become too excited about your own commodity.

Number five: never sell no crack where you rest at
I don't care if they want an ounce, tell ‘em bounce

Separate your personal and private life exclusively. This advice applies to your physical space, privacy, and also your time and energy. If you’re doing business, then it’s all business. If you’re not, then you won’t touch business.

Number six: that god damn credit, dead it
You think a crackhead payin you back, shit forget it

People who want to borrow money from you do so for only one reason: because they don’t have the money to pay you back.  It can be tempting to extend credit because we all have a desire for profit, but it rarely works out. Move on to paying customers and keep it simple.

Seven: this rule is so underrated
Keep your family and business completely separated

Don’t do business with family. You’ll usually enter into business arrangements with family because of familiarity, comfort, convenience, and a sense of trust, not because it’s the smartest business decision. But all sorts of lines get blurred and expectations violated when money and business mix with familia, so don’t do it!

Number eight: never keep no weight on you
Them cats that squeeze your guns can hold jobs too

Lesson:
This is Biggie’s lesson in reducing liability. Take reasonable precautions, slow down and make sure you do things right, and always plan to minimize risk. Remember that it’s not how much you make but how much you keep – and how long you stay in business – that really counts.

Number nine shoulda been number one to me
If you ain't gettin bags stay the fuck from police (uh-huh)
If [ninjas] think you snitchin ain't tryin listen
They be sittin in your kitchen, waitin to start hittin

Lesson:
Be careful who you talk to and are seen with. Even perceptions are very important in maintaining and elevating your business brand. Don’t do entertain business deals with snakes or people with a bad reputation, or you might be guilty by association. Biggie knew that not all money is good money!

Number ten: a strong word called consignment
Strictly for live men, not for freshmen
If you ain't got the clientele say hell no
Cause they gonna want they money rain sleet hail snow

Lesson:
Don’t over extend yourself in any business deal, or essentially write checks that you’re not positive you can cash. Also, don’t let a client or business partner get too indebted to you before righting the accounting.


Thursday, February 12, 2015

30 Interesting facts about the Grammys!

1. The first Grammy awards were held on May 4, 1959, incredibly, as a way to keep the newly emerging Rock & Roll threat at bay.

2. Perry Como and Ella Fitzgerald one best male and female artists at the first Grammys.

3. The first year, there were only 22 awards. These days, there are more than one hundred every show.

4. That didn’t last long, as a Best Rock & Roll award was added in 1962. In 1974, a Latin music category was added to the Grammys.

5. The most prestigious honor in music is to win the Big Four Grammy awards: album of the year, recording of the year, song of the year, and best new artist.

6. Only two artists have done it: Christopher cross in 1981, and Norah Jones in 2003.

7. The first rap music award was given in 1989, which Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won.

8.  Michael Jackson won the most Grammys in one night with eight awards in 1983, followed by Santana in 1999.

9. Sinead O’Conner won best alternative album but refused the award and boycotted the Grammys because of their  ‘extreme commercialism.’

10. Believe it or not, Elvis Presley never won a rock & roll Grammy. He was nominated and won three in the Gospel genre.

11. The Beatles, for all of their decades of success and hit songs, only won eight Grammys total.
A category for heavy metal was added in 1989, with the first award going to Jethro Tull.

12. Classical conductor Sir George Solti has the most lifetime Grammys, with 74 nominations and 31 awards.

13. Quincy Jones holds the record for the most nominations with 79.

14. Billy Gillman was the youngest to ever win a Grammy at 12 years old, followed by LeAnn Rimes at 14.

15. Snoop Dogg has never won a Grammy, despite his career longevity and popularity. He has, however, been nominated for 12.

16. That’s not the record for futility; Brian McKnight has been nominated 16 times and never won.

17. U2 is the only band to win 22 Grammy awards.

18. Stevie Wonder has the most ever Grammys for an artist with 28.

19. 1971 was the first year the Grammys were broadcast live with musical performances.

20. The name ‘Grammy’ was actually chosen from entries in a contest. A normal music fan named 

21. Jay Danna was the winner, and he received 25 LP’s for his contribution.

22. Before that, it was called the Gramaphone Awards.

23. Those little Grammy statues weigh 5 lbs., 2 ounces each!

24. Can you believe that Led Zeppelin, The Who, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, and Chuck Berry never won a Grammy?!

25. The awards are chosen through a voting system conducted by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

26. The Academy passes out 20,000 ballots to musicians and music professionals every year. 

27. On average, they get about 7,000 ballots back to determine the winners.


28. Milli Vanilli is the only Grammy winner to have their award revoked.

29. Kanye west went on stage TWICE to interrupt awards to other artist he though weren't deserving; first with Taylor Swift, and now with Beck.

30. He's now the first artist to our knowledge to be banned from all future award shows! 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Vegas, baby! Fun and crazy facts about America's favorite playground: Las Vegas. (Part 1)

As of 2011, 368 million people visit Las Vegas every year, and visitors stay 3.7 nights on average.

It’s estimated that 38% of all Americans have been to Las Vegas in their lifetime!

17 of the 20 biggest hotels in the United States call Las Vegas home.

There is one slot machine for every 2-½ resident of Las Vegas!

Every year, nearly 20,000 conventions hold their meetings in the city.

Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the U.S.

Every year, players lose $6-8 billion betting and gambling at Las Vegas casinos.

Las Vegas became a city in 1905, with 100 acres of land bought at auction.

The first hotel and casino that opened in Las Vegas was the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in 1906.

Gambling wasn’t always legal in Las Vegas and Nevada: a 1910 law made it illegal, though that was later repealed in 1931 by the Nevada Legislature.

 Second only to South Africa, Nevada is the next largest gold producer in the world.

The Golden Nugget Hotel displays the largest gold nugget ever found, weighing 61 pounds!

During the era of gangsterism, the slot machines in Vegas used to be fixed to give smaller and less frequent payouts. It was largely the work of one engineer under employ of the mob, but when he threatened to go public with the admission, he was found murdered.

Now, it’s mandated and carefully regulated that video slot machines pay out a minimum of 75 percent on average.

Vegas Vic, the huge neon cowboy likeness on Fremont Street, is the largest mechanical neon sign in the world.

There have been many notable eccentrics in the history of Las Vegas, but non wackier than Howard Hughes. He once came to Vegas and stayed at the Desert Inn. After a few months of not leaving the management complained and asked him to leave…so he bought the hotel.

Hughes went on a hotel-buying spree, including the Castaways, the Landmark, New Frontier, the Sands, and the Silver Slipper. Although he also did some horrible, bizarre things, Hughes is largely credited with ending the mob stranglehold on the Vegas gaming business.

Las Vegas has a dark history of racism and segregation that largely has gone unrecanted. In the 1950s, the city was known as the “Mississippi of the West” because of its brutal Jim Crow practices. At first in the 1930s, it was partially racially mixed, but as Southern racist visitors started complaining about black people in the casinos, hotels, and restaurants – even if they were working – the black population was forced to West Vegas, which had dirt roads, tents and shacks, and often no running water.

Even famous performers like Lena Horne and Nat King Cole had to come and go through the Blacks Only exits in the back of casinos and hotels when they performed.

It was actually the Rat Pack and Sammy Davis Jr. who can be given some of the credit for shifting Vegas’ segregation. Davis suffered horrid racist treatment like the rest of his less-famous black people, including the hotel pool being drained after he swam in it at the request of white patrons.

In the 1950s the Rat Pack, with legendary headliner Frank Sinatra, refused to keep playing at the Sands Casino unless Sammy Davis Jr. was allowed to stay in the hotel like the rest of them. That brought some new attention and forced a crack of progress on the issue.

In 1960, the NAACP planned a massive march down the Vegas strip to protest the racial conditions. City officials met with hotel and casino owners because they were worried the march would cripple their tourism, so they decided to end formal racial segregation in the city.

The Moulin Rouge became the first racially integrated hotel in Las Vegas in 1955.

Quite a few fortunes have been lost at the Las Vegas casinos, but a few have also been made. In 1992, a man named Archie Karas turned $50 into $40,000,000! Imagine that! But then he kept playing and ended up losing it all.

Fred Smith, the CEO of Fed Ex, saved his young company in 1970 by gambling his last $5,000 in Vegas. He turned that 5k into $32,000 at the Blackjack tables, which was enough to keep his company expenses and payroll afloat a few days longer, at which time the company was saved with an $11 million investment.

In 2004, a British gambler named Ashley Revell sold all of his possession and material things, including his wardrobe, and best his last money in the world, $135,300, all on red for a single spin of roulette. He actually won, doubling his money to $270,600!

In the United States (not just Vegas), the legal gambling industry creates more revenue than all pro sports, theme parks, cruise ships, movies, and music combined!
An estimated 87% of all people who visit Vegas gamble.

On average, those gamblers spend $580.90 on betting and gamble 4 hours per day.

The largest age demographic to Las Vegas is actually the 65 and older crowd, at 22% of all visitors.

Only two decades ago, it was legal to gamble in only two states. Now, gambling is legal in some form in 48 states, with only Hawaii and Utah still strictly banning it.

Nevada is one of only seven states in the U.S. that does not have a state income tax. The others are Alaska, Florida, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.

An astounding 84.4% of Nevada’s land is owned by the federal government, by far the most of any state.

Counting cards at the blackjack table is the subject of many movies. However, not many people realize that counting cards is not technically illegal in Las Vegas. But it is considered cheating, and violators who are caught may be suspended or banned from casinos.

Speaking of bans, the Nevada Gaming Control Board started keeping a black leather-bound book in the 1930’s with the names of people with a “notorious or unsavory reputation.” These people were blackballed from playing, owning, or even entering any casino or gambling establishment within the city limits.  The book still exists, though it’s called the List of Excluded Persons, and currently includes 66 cheats, mobsters, card counters, and other unsavory elements.

The minimum age to gamble in Las Vegas is 21, not 18. Minors are allowed in the hotels and casinos but only to pass through to their rooms or destination and they are prohibited from lingering around the gaming areas, even if they’re with an adult.

While Vegas may be the gambling capitol of the world, it’s not universally embraced in Nevada. In fact, only 25 miles off the strip in Boulder City, gambling is illegal.

In Chinese culture, the number four is considered back luck, so to cater to Asian tourists and gamblers, the Wynn Las Vergas and Rio hotels and casinos have elevators that skip from 39 to 50 to exclude the 40s.

There are many famous handicappers in the history of Las Vegas, but the one so good he was called King or Guru is Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. He started the first sports and race book at the Stardust Hotel and Casino and his likeness was made famous as a character in the movie Casino (played by Robert de Niro).

Las Vegas even has mayors larger than life, as Oscar Goodman, who came to office in 1999, used to show up at public appearances with two showgirls at his side, rejected the attempt to make Vegas family friendly, called himself “The Happiest Mayor in the Universe,” and showed up at a Q and A for 4th grader sipping martinis and responded to a question by saying his favorite pastime was drinking gin.

If Las Vegas and neighboring Nevada aren’t famous enough, Area 51 boosts its claim to the weirdest place on earth. Area 51 is a place in a dry lakebed in central Nevada where the government operates a top-secret military research facility, though it denied its existence until recently. Area 51 is where it’s rumored the government captured and researched aliens.

Area 51 employs hundred of civilian contractors, but as it’s an 8-hour commute to the next city, the government flies them in and out on a private plane for work every day. The fleet of private unmarked 737s is nicknamed “Janet Airlines” due to the call sign they use.

The first casinos lacked safety features like water sprinklers in the entire building. There was an epic fire in the MGM Grand Hotel in 1980 where 85 people died, 679 were injured, and 2,000 people airlifted to safety from the hotel roof on helicopters.

Despite rumors and even common practices, prostitution is not legal in Vegas. In fact, the law only allows legal prostitution in Nevada counties with less than 400,000 residents, which was originally made the cut off number to keep brothels out of Clark County.

Speaking of legal, you are allowed to carry around an alcoholic beverage in Las Vegas with some restrictions: you can only leave an establishment with said beverage if they allow and it’s not in a metal or glass container (no beer cans). Also, you can’t drink within 1,000 feet of a school, hospital, or place of worship.