PunditGuy — Home

Month: August 2005

The Real Derek Zoolander

Ben played him on the big screen…

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But now, the world has a real-life ‘Ken’ doll.

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30 cosmetic surgeries and $250,000 dollars later, this guy is now officially a circus freak.

Be afraid.

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Gasoline fight anyone?

MORE: He could have saved $50,000 and did what this guy did.

Walken Isn’t Runnin

I said it here, but now the denials are coming from his reps. Christopher Walken isn’t running for president in 2008.

A claim that Walken had launched a campaign for the White House caused a stir as it made the Internet rounds in recent days, fueled by a sophisticated website (www.walken2008.com) that lists a campaign platform, testimonials and bits of purported Walken wisdom intended to carry him far with voters in red and blue states.

Only, it’s all a joke.

Walken’s representatives say they aren’t sure who masterminded the website but speculate that it might have been prompted by Walken’s latest film, “Wedding Crashers,” a hit comedy starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. In it, Walken plays the U.S. secretary of the Treasury.

“The person who put this together was just trying it as a hoax, I presume,” said Mara Buxbaum, Walken’s publicist. “My take on it is it sounds like the person who put this on the Web took his role … in ‘Wedding Crashers’ too seriously and now wants him to run for the presidency.”

Go back to your lives citizens.

Reid Suffers Mild Stroke

WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saw a doctor after feeling light-headed Tuesday and has learned he’d suffered a mild stroke, aides said Friday.

Eeeevil Carrot Top

Before.

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After.

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UPDATE: Yikes, there’s more pictures. Hello, Mr. Steroids. Forget about his hair and his body. Cripes, what happened to his face? From here forward, Carrot Top is dead to me.

MORE: The Carrot Top transformation.

STILL MORE: This is disturbing.

FedEx Furniture

Yep, it’s real furniture built from those (practically) indestructible FedEx boxes.

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They’ve got a couch, dining table with chairs, a bed, and a computer desk. Jose, the proprietor at fedexfurniture.com, says it’s 100% functional.

“FedEx Furniture is furniture put together by empty FedEx Boxes, and held together by FedEx packaging supplies. The couch is standing/sleeping approved, I sleep on the bed every night, I eat at the dining table, and I work at the desk almost 20 hours a day.”

I don’t think he gets out that much.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, the real FedEx hasn’t been too friendly with Jose. You can read their latest love letter sent to him by a real live FedEx lawyer. (pdf)

MORE: Jeremy Pepper talked to FedEx about this, and he also spoke with Jose.

STILL MORE: Steve Rubel thinks FedEx has blown a big citizen marketing opportunity.

EVEN MORE: This is cool.

About the Size of a Tic Tac

This has been around a bit, but it was new to me.

Created and introduced by Scott Kelby at a Mac Design conference in June, a spoof ad for the iPod Flea (see video).

Ipodflea

As with any new technology, this will need some tweaks in order to get it just right. Hopefully, they’ll solve the battery problem.

The Cosmetics

See anything different?

Maybe it’s a mid-Blog crisis, but for some reason I felt like I needed to change the design of PunditGuy. I guess it’s kind of like standing in front of the mirror and parting your hair on the other side just to see what you look like. Sometimes it works well enough that you actually go out of the house and face the public that way.  I suppose a blog redesign is no different.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on here.

The Kenny G Smack Down

I was reading a post over at Michele Catalano’s place about ‘Worst Band Ever’ lists. If you’re into music as much as I am, you won’t be surprised by the submissions (Air Supply, Poison, Wilson Phillips – you get the idea).

It’s one thing to read opinions from people about why they love or hate a certain band – I can do that in my sleep. It’s quite another to read criticisms by musicians against other musicians. I’m not talking about rivals trying to get publicity, like when Elton John accused Madonna of lip syncing her ‘live’ concerts. I’m talking about people slamming people because they play bad. They don’t have any musical talent, yet they are widely famous and sell millions of CDs (boy, could I compile a list of bands who fit that description!). If your rant is to be taken seriously though, you have to be a master player. Otherwise, it’s nothing but sour grapes.

But, band on band cat fights are just about cheesy pop music groups, boy toy groups, and east coast/west coast rapper wars right?

Apparently not. It appears that a feud has been brewing in the Jazz music industry. A commenter of Michele’s linked to a jazz fan website containing this question posed to jazz guitarist Pat Metheny:

Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G?

OK, this shouldn’t be too tough right? Pat is a master guitar player, and has the credits and awarded accolades to back it up, so he’s as qualified as anyone to give an informed answer. I expect Pat to say how Kenny is a ‘great person’ and fun to be around and how they played together at some weekend jazz fest and the crowd loved it, yadda yadda yadda.

Wrong. Pat takes the opportunity to unload on Mr. G.

“I first heard him (Kenny G) a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble – Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music.”

Wait! There’s more!

“But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs – never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, played horribly out of tune – consistently sharp.

Oh, but there’s even more. Pat goes on for paragraphs about how bad a musician Kenny G really is. Not only does Metheny disrespect him, but apparently, every other respectable jazz musician thinks Kenny stinks.

Meanwhile, I have yet to find a response to this criticism from the sax player. Oh, he has plenty of defenders (middle-aged housewives who curl up in a comfy chair with their favorite cup of chamomile and Kenny’s greatest hits), but no one of Metheny’s caliber has stood by the G’ster (yet).

I just hope this war of words doesn’t lead to a bullet flying confrontation on a street in Vegas. The tribute albums and benefit concerts would drive me crazy.

Stay tuned.