Friendly Fire From Blue Oyster Cult

Posted Apr 13, 2007 by Clarisa Gerlach

Updated Apr 13, 2007 at 09:17 AM

Blue Oyster Cult was one of the hardest touring bands of the ‘70s, taking their white-hot live show into every nook and cranny of the U.S. No surprise then, that its second best selling album is a live one, 1978’s “Some Enchanted Evening.” It was their second in-concert release, with only two studio albums between it and 1975’s “On Your Feet or On Your Knees.”

“Our motivation at time was we didn’t have time to start writing and recording” new material, lead singer Eric Bloom says by telephone from his Long Island home. “I remember a discussion with (producer-lyricist) Sandy Perlman at the time because I didn’t think it was the right time to make another live album. He proved me wrong.”

The album, and the 1977 studio album which preceded it, “Spectres,” were reissued in remastered editions February. “Spectres” features four bonus tracks including a remake of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.”

“Some Enchanted Evening” gets the deluxe treatment, expanded from seven tracks to 14 and packaged with a DVD featuring amateur footage of a 1978 show. It’s the only visual document of the band’s now legendary laser show.

The band had to bring a professional on tour to operate the lights. “You can’t got out with lasers without a professional laserist,” says Bloom.

More intrusive were the officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration who tagged along for a later tour.

“We had these guys in lab coats walking around trying to protect the youth of America,” Bloom says with a sigh. After holding hearings on laser usage at concerts - your tax dollars at work! - BOC was forced to retire the system.

Lucky me, though. I saw the laser show on its initial outing in the summer of 1976.

The fact that I’d never heard a note of Blue Oyster Cult’s music, nor that of opening act Rush, mattered not. If you were a rock-crazed 15-year-old growing up in Enterprise, Ala., you went to see any band booked into the Dothan Civic Center, 30 miles away.

The show was, of course, a mind-blower. Rush had just released “2112,” and BOC was touring behind the brand new “Agents of Fortune,” soon to spawn their first Top 40 hit, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”

And somewhere in a drawer in my parents house is a ticket stub signed by Bloom and BOC lead guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, who proved to be genial, unaffected guys willing to hang out and talk guitars with geeky teenagers.

“Me and Buck can count many life-long friends we’ve met on tour, close friends who were fans first,” Bloom says.

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Preview: “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08”

Posted Apr 12, 2007 by Wes Phillips

Updated Apr 14, 2007 at 10:52 PM

Release date: Oct. 2007
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

I spent a day at Electronic Arts’ Tiburon studio this week and got a look at this year’s lineup of sports titles. One of the biggest revelations is that the “Tiger Woods” series will now be produced at the Orlando studio, or as I like to call it “The House That Madden Built.”

EA wants to consolidate all of its sports resources in one office. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Tiger Woods lives just down the road in Windemere. They didn’t show much of Tiger’s gameplay, but EA did unveil a couple of features that flesh out a sport that I often find dull.

Kind Of Like YouTube

The online component of “Tiger 08” is getting a major overhaul. It’s still golf, but EA is creating what they call “GamerNet” as a way to stake their claim in the world of “user-created content.” Aside from the normal stroke play, GamerNet will allow you to save your best and craziest shots and creates a competition with gamers all over the world who are trying to emulate your greatness. (more ...)

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EA likes to compare it to YouTube, except here you save your best golf shots instead of videos. From there you post them on GamerNet with a set of conditions that must be met for the downloading public. And it doesn’t have to be in the hole. You like hitting spectators? Post it. You want to go off the cart path into the bunker? Post it.

Meeting these challenges will net points depending on the challenge. An ace is obviously going to be worth more than a par or a simple drive to the fairway. The points will tracked on a leader board, but there can be million possibilities for having fun if you don’t care about being No. 1. If you’re anything like me you’ll make a career of water hazards.

Really In The Game

If you want to be like me, which would be a little creepy, EA is making it possible with improvements to the Game Face feature. You’ve seen it before. It’s the option that lets you import your photo on to a character’s head in the game.

In the past, the image was just wrapped around a generic model of a head and didn’t show emotion or true profile features. With the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, EA is getting closer to the kind of technology used in the movies.

If you have a front and a profile photo of yourself (which can be taken from Microsoft’s Live Vision camera, Sony’s EyeToy or a normal digital camera), you’ll be able to use a set of markers on your face to build a head from scratch instead of just plopping a flat image on a head. If you have a big schnozz, you’ll have a big schnozz in the game.

EA demonstrated the process, which only took about five minutes. It’s hard to decide which is more weird, an emotionless version of yourself or an uncanny virtual re-creation.

We’ll have more coverage of “Tiger Woods 08” in the months to come, but be sure to download next week’s podcast for an interview with “Tiger” senior producer Mike Taramykin.

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Survivor: Fiji—- 04.12.07

Posted Apr 12, 2007 by Chris Kuhn

Updated Apr 12, 2007 at 09:02 PM

We’re back on the island on Survivor: Fiji (CBS/Thursdays) and the previews have alluded to a merge tonight. But if that should happen, the real question is where will the real power lie now that Ravu has dwindled down to four fierce but lonely guys. Moto is like club med with plenty of luxury items – toilet paper, toothbrushes and mouthwash. Yep, life’s really hard on Moto.

And then everything changes. Both tribes get tree mail that requires them to gather their personal belongings and paddle to Exile Island. They cannot bring their luxury items won and there’s some hesitation at Moto. Stacy, Boo and Cassandra have never suffered the way the Ravu tribe has. They truly have no idea just how bad it can really get on Survivor. But at Ravu, the self-proclaimed “Four Horsemen” are already plotting who each member will go after to make their alliance stronger. I like that. These guys are really playing the game and I dig that. I suspect Yao-man and Earl are similarly strategizing, but it’s nice to finally see some smart gameplay going on at Ravu. I thought they were busy starving and losing.

Tribes gather on Exile Island and there’s confusion. No one knows if they’re merging or just living there. They have no instructions and no party waiting for them. And then they head up the ladder to the Exile Island treehouse and find new purple buffs and news of a merge. Everyone’s elated—-they’re all going back to Moto. Hurrah! These bursts of joy are especially loudest from the Moto members who’ve never had it tough on the island. Mookie’s really excited because he’s the only Ravu member who hasn’t seen Moto in all its Taj Mahal glory. The team finds new strength as they paddle back to Moto to enjoy their luxurious spread only to find… nothing! The island has been stripped of every comfort, reward and luxury item once available. I love it! Call me a meanie, but I think it’s just terrific that all of the Survivor players will finally have to experience roughing it on the island.

Edgardo reads new instructions for the tribe to come up with a name and paint their new flag. The group in a moment of whimsy decides on a name, Bula Bula which means Hello, Hello in Fiji. They should have found out what Goodbye is in Fiji and called it Bye, Bye instead, don’t you think?

The Four Horsemen get into chit-chat positions. Mookie and Dreamz chat with Cassandra and Yao-man and soon learn that they want Boo out first and Stacy next. Alex also learns from Stacy, his former Moto teammate, that she wants Boo out, too. It’s clear that these four guys are playing a better game and then Mookie slips. He lets out that he has the hidden idol in front of Dreamz, and Alex is worried that Dreamz will tell Cassandra and everyone else. Dreamz shares with us privately that he is ticked that he was left out of this big news originally. And I really don’t blame him. Don’t trust them, Dreamz. They’re just using you.

Earl and Cassandra talk a little strategy and think with their buddies Yao-man, Dreamz and Michelle that they have the numbers necessary to win this thing. We shall see. And it’s time for tonight’s immunity challenge. Just as I suspected, it looks like no reward challenge tonight. Then, host Jeff Probst asks the men to draw stones from a bag and the ladies from a separate bag. This creates two separate teams who will play against each other for immunity and…a feast! Oh, so it’s one of those double-mint competitions. Two - two - two rewards in one! Teams will paddle out to gather puzzle pieces and then assemble the symbol pieces back on the shore. As always, the team with Yao-man is doing well and the team with Alex and Edgardo sucks. (I’m seeing a pattern here.) Yao-man’s team is paddling to shore but Alex’s team has a lot of catching up to do. When it’s time to assemble puzzle pieces, Earl and Yao-man are struggling and Michelle and Alex are catching up. Boo actually helps out Yao-man and the gang keep their wits about them. And they win it!

The losing “team” made up of Mookie, Alex, Dreamz, Stacy and Michelle is headed to Tribal Council. And Jeff drops a big bomb on them right after their loss—- they’re headed to Tribal Council RIGHT NOW. That’s right, no time back at camp to discuss strategies and plot out voting. Hmmm… based on who’s there, I think Mookie, Dreamz and Michelle will vote for Stacy and Alex and Stacy will single out either Michelle or Dreamz. But without any real discussion beforehand, who the heck knows what will go down!

It’s time for Tribal Council and it’s really unpredictable who will be going home even though I have my theory. It is possible that Mookie and Dreamz might be ticked at Alex and could single him out. Troublemaker Jeff does his usual job trying to stir up the pot and the only thing we really learn is that Alex is probably going to vote for Michelle. The players vote and it’s a Michelle-Stacy tie up until the fifth and final vote. And clearly, Dreamz has set his sights on knocking out Michelle. Bye, bye, Michelle—- I thought you might win this thing and certainly thought you were smart enough to do so. One of my favorites is hitting the road.

Should the producers really shake things up as much as they do or let the tribes determine how things evolve? Each week, I ask myself this question because this season Mark Burnett and the gang appear to be guiding this season pretty significantly. And I don’t like this. If a team is strong and dominant, let them be strong and dominant.

Next week, we see Dreamz spill the beans about Mookie’s secret idol (oops, he did it again). There’s a shock. Stay tuned…

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American Idol’s Haley Would Have Been A Choir Girl

Posted Apr 12, 2007 by Walt Belcher

Updated Apr 12, 2007 at 01:06 PM

If Haley Scarnato had not been voted off “American Idol” she planned to wear a choir robe and “be fully clothed” next week.

The 24-year-old singer from San Antonio may have been joking during a telephone news conference today but that was her response after numerous questions about wearing short shorts during the competition.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that distracting,” she said. “They are just shorts. It is was it is.”

Early on during the competition the judges seemed to like her legs. But eventually snippy Simon Cowell said “I think you have a very good tactic at the moment Haley, wear the least amount of clothes as possible.  Because, and look I’ll be honest with you, you can’t do well in this competition based on your voice because there are much better singers.”

In Thursday’s interview session she said his comments “hurt a little” but “you have to brush it off and go on.”

“You can’t please everybody,” she said. “I didn’t go shorter or wear less clothes”

She said that when she first wore the shorts she got a “good vibe” from the judges and the fans. “I did not want to lose it,” she said.

“It’s just legs and I’m OK with it now,” she continued. “If I had come back next week I would have worn a choir robe.”

She said she just tried to do the best she could. And wearing playful sexy clothes is who she is.

  She said that when she performs she does what fits the song. If something has a funky vibe she struts to that beat, she said.

“It’s who I am and I like to have fun with a song” she said.

  Haley is planning a wedding which has been postponed from a Nov. 10 date because of the “American Idol” tour.  Beyond that tour, she is hoping for a recording deal.

She said she won’t sing at her own wedding.

Of the celebrity guests she said “Lulu was amazing” and she loved Jennifer Lopez.

She said that she wasn’t aware that showing her legs had become an issue with fans (flamed by media coverage) because the contestants are isolated from outside information.

“Since Hollywood week when I showed my midrift I tried to stay true to who I am,” she said. “I have fun dressing up and playing the part for every theme week. On the Latin week, there was more of a sexier vibe but I don’t think I wore less clothes than before.”

As for Sanjaya Malakar, the teen singer with questionable talent, Haley said it doesn’t bother her that she got voted off and he stayed on.

“He has a great personality and a great energy backstage and on stage. And he did a great job last week,” she said. “I root for him and all the other contestants.”

 

 

 

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You Write The Caption

Posted Apr 12, 2007 by Janine Dorsey

Updated Apr 12, 2007 at 09:58 AM

This gal is seemingly unaware that her companion is about to attack his cuddly koala friend. You write the caption!

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