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Bikram Yoga’s True Fitness secrets unveiled!
His latest book outdid the sale of copies of Harry Potter in the global market. He is the yoga guru to celebs of the likes of Michael Jackson Nixon Reagan Clinton, Indira Gandhi, Dharmendra, Madonna, Deepak Chopra, George Harrison, Pandit Ravishankar and John McEnroe to name a few. What is more, the strapping six and half footer Roland Kickinger, Mr Universe and the Terminator of Terminator 4 swears that yoga guru Bikram Choudhary’s yoga technique has made a difference to his life.
More http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2008/11/bikram-yogas-true-fitness-secrets-unveiled.html
Bristol pupils join record-breaking singalong
Thousands of children in the Bristol area took part in a nationwide record-breaking attempt known as The Big Sing.
Among them were 227 pupils at Filton Avenue Junior School, many of whom had dressed up as their favourite pop stars – from Amy Winehouse to Michael Jackson – for the event yesterday .
Their teacher Lisa Finnimore joined in the fun in a costume to look like the singer Duffy.
More http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news...-charities/article-508355-detail/article.html
Comeback hell
Why is it that so many of the bands making a comeback are those best forgotten, while the truly inspired remain in pop history, asks Ed Power.
The comeback trail is a rather crowded place at the moment. Every day seems to bring news of yet another band coming out of retirement, motivated by the desire to ‘do it for the fans' or ‘reclaim their legacy' (and, coincidentally, earn shedloads of cash). Last week, for instance, it was announced 1990s pop moppets S-Club 7 are to reform – albeit minus four members (for reasons of mathematical correctness they are to trade as S-Club 3). In September, meanwhile, Queen, released their first album in nearly a decade. Okay, it's Queen sans Freddie Mercury, but Brian May has compensated by cultivating extra frizzy hair. Judging by the live reception they've been receiving it seems this is good enough for fans.
Even Boyzone are back with a new record – and a saucy video that has lit up the internet (Stephen Gately is shown cuddling a bloke and, more controversial yet, Ronan Keating 's mullet has returned).
Surveying the deluge of reunions, though, the ardent music fan will be struck by a depressing thought: how come none of our favourite bands ever get back together?
Why for instance, are Echo and the Bunnymen regrouping – again – while their 1980s peers, The Smiths, still aren't speaking to one another? Must we endure another bland Cure record when New Order are absent presumed mooching in their bed-sits somewhere?
And don't you just know that, sooner or later, The Thrills ('er, they have broken up, haven't they?) will go back to Big Sur, while classic Irish outfits such as A House and Fatima Mansions remain in abeyance.
Perhaps the problem is that the truly great groups tend to burn briefly and gloriously, exhausting themselves in the process. Leaving aside those undone by tragedy – Nirvana spring to mind – the annals of pop are littered with bands that lived musical lives of accelerated brilliance and then are gone forever.
The obvious example is The Smiths, three retro rockers and an oddball lyricist with a gladioli obsession who, frankly, seemed such a bizarre match it was perhaps a miracle they stayed together for as long as they did. In five years or so, The Smiths released four epochdefining albums, a prolific streak comparable to The Beatles. Of course, when they did have a falling out, it was nasty and perhaps irrevocable. Sick of Morrissey's control freak tendencies, guitarist Johnny Marr walked in 1987; later drummer Mike Joyce would seek improved royalties from Morrissey and Marr, culminating in an ill-tempered court battle.
Other candidates for the ‘bands you'll never see together on stage again' hall of fame include The Stone Roses. But they really didn't get on in the end – in 1996 genius-in-chief John Squire bailed, leaving singer Ian Brown to cheekily try to continue the group with a hired-hand guitarist. Still, he's since changed his mind. “Why look back?” he told me early last year, when asked about the possibility of reforming. “I want to keep moving forward. It's not about the money. It's about making music that excites me.”
We are also apparently to be denied a Jackson 5 reunion. Despite his recent legal travails – and their ruinous effect on his bank balance – Michael Jackson reportedly turned down an approach from brother Jermaine to reform the jiving flares-era tween juggernaut.
Led Zeppelin fans were granted a teasing glimpse of what might have been when the sexagenarian wild-boy rockers played a oneoff reunion show in London last year. A followup tour looked a sure thing, with guitarist Jimmy Page said to be especially enthusiastic. But singer Robert Plant had other notions: he had just released an album of blue-grass duets with Alison Krauss and was darned if he was going to let the prospect of resurrecting the greatest hard rock combo in history cramp his style. Since then, it's been mooted that Zep might hit the road without him – a prospect about as absurd as The Beatles cobbling together a track out of some John Lennon demoes and passing it off as a ‘new' single.
ODD-BALLRECORD
Even less likely to tour the world together are 70s art-funkateers Talking Heads. Though front-man David Byrne remains a creative force – last week he put out a properly oddball record with Brian Eno – his relationship with 'Heads bassist Tina Weymouth is said to be so bad it makes Georgia and Russia look like high-school pen-pals. Nor is cutting Byrne out of the picture an option – the rest of the band already tried that in the 1990s, when they recorded as ‘The Heads'.
Of course, with record sales continuing to dry up, one can never say never. For years, received wisdom had it The Pixies were too estranged to regroup – before a promoter waved a cheque book beneath their noses.
For now, though, it seems certain bands have about as much chance of setting aside their differences as Madonna and Guy Ritchie have of taking a romantic walk together on Christmas morning. Something to chew over when your kids are nagging you to buy tickets for S-Club 3 in the New Year.
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/day-and-night/features/comeback-hell-1556300.html
LETTER FROM KABUL
In tiny burqas, hope for Afghan women
The Tribune's Kim Barker writes about the difference one American has made by showing her Afghan sisters how to be entrepreneurs.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Most of these women do not like burqas, which conceal everything and make women look like giant blue shuttlecocks. One complained that when the Taliban forced her to wear one, she could not fit her glasses under the tight headband, so she could not see. Another remembered how her daughter, unused to the long garment, tripped and scraped her knees.
The women here, each a kind of entrepreneur, have experimented with what foreigners like. One woman sews Taliban dolls. Another sews doll families, a cross between voodoo dolls and Bollywood movie stars. Another invented the wine-bottle apron, with the word "Afghanistan" crudely stitched near a camel. Another woman is such an artist that she can take a picture of a pet or scene and embroider it perfectly on a pillow. Next she wants to make a Michael Jackson pillow.
Full story http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-afghan-women_letter_frinov28,0,7803934.story
(another one of his days off work. Geniuses also needs their breaks)
His latest book outdid the sale of copies of Harry Potter in the global market. He is the yoga guru to celebs of the likes of Michael Jackson Nixon Reagan Clinton, Indira Gandhi, Dharmendra, Madonna, Deepak Chopra, George Harrison, Pandit Ravishankar and John McEnroe to name a few. What is more, the strapping six and half footer Roland Kickinger, Mr Universe and the Terminator of Terminator 4 swears that yoga guru Bikram Choudhary’s yoga technique has made a difference to his life.
More http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2008/11/bikram-yogas-true-fitness-secrets-unveiled.html
Bristol pupils join record-breaking singalong
Thousands of children in the Bristol area took part in a nationwide record-breaking attempt known as The Big Sing.
Among them were 227 pupils at Filton Avenue Junior School, many of whom had dressed up as their favourite pop stars – from Amy Winehouse to Michael Jackson – for the event yesterday .
Their teacher Lisa Finnimore joined in the fun in a costume to look like the singer Duffy.
More http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news...-charities/article-508355-detail/article.html
Comeback hell
Why is it that so many of the bands making a comeback are those best forgotten, while the truly inspired remain in pop history, asks Ed Power.
The comeback trail is a rather crowded place at the moment. Every day seems to bring news of yet another band coming out of retirement, motivated by the desire to ‘do it for the fans' or ‘reclaim their legacy' (and, coincidentally, earn shedloads of cash). Last week, for instance, it was announced 1990s pop moppets S-Club 7 are to reform – albeit minus four members (for reasons of mathematical correctness they are to trade as S-Club 3). In September, meanwhile, Queen, released their first album in nearly a decade. Okay, it's Queen sans Freddie Mercury, but Brian May has compensated by cultivating extra frizzy hair. Judging by the live reception they've been receiving it seems this is good enough for fans.
Even Boyzone are back with a new record – and a saucy video that has lit up the internet (Stephen Gately is shown cuddling a bloke and, more controversial yet, Ronan Keating 's mullet has returned).
Surveying the deluge of reunions, though, the ardent music fan will be struck by a depressing thought: how come none of our favourite bands ever get back together?
Why for instance, are Echo and the Bunnymen regrouping – again – while their 1980s peers, The Smiths, still aren't speaking to one another? Must we endure another bland Cure record when New Order are absent presumed mooching in their bed-sits somewhere?
And don't you just know that, sooner or later, The Thrills ('er, they have broken up, haven't they?) will go back to Big Sur, while classic Irish outfits such as A House and Fatima Mansions remain in abeyance.
Perhaps the problem is that the truly great groups tend to burn briefly and gloriously, exhausting themselves in the process. Leaving aside those undone by tragedy – Nirvana spring to mind – the annals of pop are littered with bands that lived musical lives of accelerated brilliance and then are gone forever.
The obvious example is The Smiths, three retro rockers and an oddball lyricist with a gladioli obsession who, frankly, seemed such a bizarre match it was perhaps a miracle they stayed together for as long as they did. In five years or so, The Smiths released four epochdefining albums, a prolific streak comparable to The Beatles. Of course, when they did have a falling out, it was nasty and perhaps irrevocable. Sick of Morrissey's control freak tendencies, guitarist Johnny Marr walked in 1987; later drummer Mike Joyce would seek improved royalties from Morrissey and Marr, culminating in an ill-tempered court battle.
Other candidates for the ‘bands you'll never see together on stage again' hall of fame include The Stone Roses. But they really didn't get on in the end – in 1996 genius-in-chief John Squire bailed, leaving singer Ian Brown to cheekily try to continue the group with a hired-hand guitarist. Still, he's since changed his mind. “Why look back?” he told me early last year, when asked about the possibility of reforming. “I want to keep moving forward. It's not about the money. It's about making music that excites me.”
We are also apparently to be denied a Jackson 5 reunion. Despite his recent legal travails – and their ruinous effect on his bank balance – Michael Jackson reportedly turned down an approach from brother Jermaine to reform the jiving flares-era tween juggernaut.
Led Zeppelin fans were granted a teasing glimpse of what might have been when the sexagenarian wild-boy rockers played a oneoff reunion show in London last year. A followup tour looked a sure thing, with guitarist Jimmy Page said to be especially enthusiastic. But singer Robert Plant had other notions: he had just released an album of blue-grass duets with Alison Krauss and was darned if he was going to let the prospect of resurrecting the greatest hard rock combo in history cramp his style. Since then, it's been mooted that Zep might hit the road without him – a prospect about as absurd as The Beatles cobbling together a track out of some John Lennon demoes and passing it off as a ‘new' single.
ODD-BALLRECORD
Even less likely to tour the world together are 70s art-funkateers Talking Heads. Though front-man David Byrne remains a creative force – last week he put out a properly oddball record with Brian Eno – his relationship with 'Heads bassist Tina Weymouth is said to be so bad it makes Georgia and Russia look like high-school pen-pals. Nor is cutting Byrne out of the picture an option – the rest of the band already tried that in the 1990s, when they recorded as ‘The Heads'.
Of course, with record sales continuing to dry up, one can never say never. For years, received wisdom had it The Pixies were too estranged to regroup – before a promoter waved a cheque book beneath their noses.
For now, though, it seems certain bands have about as much chance of setting aside their differences as Madonna and Guy Ritchie have of taking a romantic walk together on Christmas morning. Something to chew over when your kids are nagging you to buy tickets for S-Club 3 in the New Year.
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/day-and-night/features/comeback-hell-1556300.html
LETTER FROM KABUL
In tiny burqas, hope for Afghan women
The Tribune's Kim Barker writes about the difference one American has made by showing her Afghan sisters how to be entrepreneurs.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Most of these women do not like burqas, which conceal everything and make women look like giant blue shuttlecocks. One complained that when the Taliban forced her to wear one, she could not fit her glasses under the tight headband, so she could not see. Another remembered how her daughter, unused to the long garment, tripped and scraped her knees.
The women here, each a kind of entrepreneur, have experimented with what foreigners like. One woman sews Taliban dolls. Another sews doll families, a cross between voodoo dolls and Bollywood movie stars. Another invented the wine-bottle apron, with the word "Afghanistan" crudely stitched near a camel. Another woman is such an artist that she can take a picture of a pet or scene and embroider it perfectly on a pillow. Next she wants to make a Michael Jackson pillow.
Full story http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-afghan-women_letter_frinov28,0,7803934.story
Today in
Michael Jackson History
Michael Jackson History
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(another one of his days off work. Geniuses also needs their breaks)
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