“Gimme Sympathy” Metric

We’re so close to something better left unknown….My friend Amin seems fascinated by this song, so I checked it out. He’s been alluding to it for days. It’s quite cool. He certainly digs EuroPop. The tune mixes in both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and ties into the philosophy the chanteuse is spinning. Nice really.

“Gimme Sympathy”

This link, Lyrics and Meanings, takes you if you’re curious to full lyrics and a small discussion going on regarding this song and the band.

The Darla Show: Give Us Something to Talk About

Twitter. Who knew the many different things you can do on and with this 140 character internet haven? Some people utilize it to promote what they sell, services they offer, promote themselves.

Other folks are there for the entertainment, the interaction, and well, if you look in the right locations, you can get news from around the world all of this simultaneously. Now too, you can join in and play with a fun loving group that hangs out at The Darla Show.

Several weeks ago I met a new Twitpal who introduced me to a charismatic, charming and gracious lady. Darla started and runs the unique Twitter page, The Darla Show. (For those uninitiated to Twitter, a page is somewhat like your own virtual home base, or as some refer to them, your ‘nest’.)

The Darla Show is geared toward discussions pertaining to Adult themed topics including but not limited to sex and relationships and the variety of viewpoints coming from some of the men and women on Twitter concerning those topics.

The main body of folks tweeting on The Darla Show have been playing together for quite some time from what I gathered in my conversation with Darla. She originially was operating what she named a “Questions Session” from her original account, @MNmissy, but with rules on Twitter being what they are she was compelled to alter how she operated to avoid being sent to “Twitter Jail” in which, basically, your account is suspended for a certain designated period of time.

Darla enlightened me regarding this duel account situation about a week ago, explaining the development of her alternate Twitter site, @TheDarlaShow, “When I would look back at those who were following me under the MNMissy account, I saw my audience was between 40-90 people per night. That was another reason why I created the other account. Now I can see everyone clearly in the nest more in a conversation format. Life is good! Daily I have an audience of 200 (includes the twitters in the DM nest) and the tweets during the show average 570.” (DM is simply short for Direct Messages.)

I asked Darla, When did you start The Darla Show and have you any thoughts about carrying on this show type off of twitter in any capacity?

She replied, “I started the questions back in March sometime. Usually during the day between 10am-12pm daily. Then I moved it “after dark” due to the kids schedule.”

Darla expressing a pleasant shock at seeing The Darla Show link featured and up in the Google pages said, “I just happened to Google The Darla Show, and it came up in the results. Completely shocked to see it out there! lol. As far as Digging it..yea…that would be cool. Not all up on the Diggs.. and attempting a blog myself which should be available by the end of the week. One of my friends @DamienCripps was gracious enough to allow me to use one of his songs for the show. It’s something I plan on adding to my blog. Also am looking into doing radio. I’m not much of a cam person. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cameras, but, if I don’t have to dress up I’m always greatful for a helping hand. If you would you would like to blog it, etc.. that’s cool with me.”

The Darla Show set up in a radio type format would be fun, very cool and certainly would see a surge in audience. Perhaps incorporating some of the regulars with ‘roles’ much like what you hear over radio formats with a group dynamic would make it more fun for the listeners who don’t want to say much and just be entertained.

I agree with her regarding the camera situation, but who knows maybe a little down the line we could see that incorporated as well. Personally I think, initially, having The Darla Show within the radio show format would work the best sticking to a chat format as well as audio for who ever wants to talk. Having guest speakers about a variety of Adult Swim related content would be also interesting and certainly entertaining.

What brought this funny, adult swim concept to mind for you when it started or has it just morphed from conversations?

” The concept was a silly thought one day. I was out working in the yard and thought.. Wow.. wouldn’t it be nice to have a cabana boy? I usually date younger men (not too young) and they pretty much fit the mold of the cabana boy toy. So to grab people’s attention I would mention that CB Thor is giving me swimming instruction in the wading pool today. (Why the wading pool? Because I can’t afford the pool I was going to have installed prior to losing my job with the airline). Cabana boy Thor and I can’t forget my robot CB boy could only do so much. Therefore, I brought in another character Handyman Hank. Hank is a man I know and we have always had a running joke regarding the Handyman tool belt. In real life he’s a banker. lol. The robot Cabana boy… CB Thor and Handyman Hank usually handle my robot tweets when I’m away from the desk. Every now and then I’ll bring them into the show. Going to add some other characters in the near future for he men. I think they’re feeling left out!”

Who all in the group now, have been with you longest?

“Great question! There are way too many to name. The first 5 or so follower pages are friends that I’ve tweeted with for months.”

Have you considered perhaps taking the show only a few nights a week to see if with twitter publicity you attract more or do you think that trying to have it almost nightly a better thing? Sometimes with a regular schedule it easier for some to become regular contributors and attendees. Then again sometimes not.

“Funny you should mention that. I was just discussing it with one of my friends yesterday afternoon. The answer is, yes. I do plan on changing the times and days of the show. Need to figure my schedule with the kids which should be decided in another day. The start time of the show will be moved to 10:15pm CST and run for and hour. Not sure on the days yet. May do Saturday-Thurs. I would love to meet the East & West coast tweeps, but, it’s not going to be possible.”

The ’show’ runs along almost like an open format radio program with callers incoming and the live dialogue, the followers getting to play around and get to know one another is interesting and fun. I think it’s quite cool you thought of doing this.

“Thanks Sunny! I grew up in the entertainment industry and probably spent too much time in recording studios. Not for myself, but some bands I use to manage in the past. I’m looking for a site where I could do the FM format along along with Tweeting. I would probably give up my end on working Yahoo IM side of the show. Yes.. there are others outside the nest that are participating. lol. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks and can get the radio gig up and running.”

Do you know of any other twitter sites like yours or format similar maybe different topics? I know the TWIBES were talked about for a while, but haven’t heard anything about them in a while.

“No, I haven’t seen any. I noticed that others have attempted to copy the “POLL” portion where they are asking general poll questions. Some of them use to tweet with me and no longer follow to try it on their own. The difference is the “timeline” that makes it interesting. Plus I’ll start introducing twitters to each other if I see there is a lack of interaction. That will usually rock the nest.

You, I and some other tweeple in the nest are kind of like Legos. One will put out a line… another will add to it and so on…and so on. The building block format. lol. If you do a blog on me or the show.. I would be honored! Actually… speechless. lol”

The Darla Show on Twitter can be found running on Sunday through Thursday nights beginning at 10:15 p.m. Darla has designated a cut off time at 11:15 p.m. considering in the recent past we’ve been going sometimes until almost 1:00 a.m.

The best way to enjoy The Darla Show is to follow her and some of the regulars. There is also a useful live running timeline that you can find at: TheDarlaShow. Once the show kicks off hit that link and with each refresh the fun continues!

I plan to follow up on The Darla Show and enlighten you dear readers, more about some of the regular crew that makes my time on Twitter such fun.
“Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About” Bonnie Raitt

Isn’t This a Great Photo?

This is one of my favorite guypals on twitter, met when we were voting (still voting) for Taylor R Hicks for Mr. Twitter. Some of you helped me out voting for him, you knew him as ‘@servibar’. Didn’t I tell you he was gorgeous? And Shiny. Amin certainly fits that ’shiny’ descriptor. (I can certainly pick them.)

This is a stunning photo, the way it’s shot not to mention the subject.

He has been going through a rough time in his personal relationships, it is a pleasure being one of his friends. One of the most intelligent people I’ve met on that site.

“Courage” for Amin, My Beautiful New Friend

“Courage” Whitest Boy Alive – live:

(he loves this band)
video c/o inksomnia

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

What’s love got to do with it?

Perhaps a new project shooting off from Twitter. More information to come soon.

“What IS It”? Me in the band… it will be “Epic”

A new cover we’re spinning in the pub concert and later likely in the Fall Charity Concert will be “Epic” by Faith No More. We’re dividing up the vocal in that Rob will do the rap/speaking parts, then points at me and I do what I do with, “You want it all but you can’t have it…” Apparently I had a damn good time playing that part at our last party so now I get to do it in the show. (Jack Daniels’ fortified.) DMan’s thumping the bass and Bro takes lead guitar. Patrick will do his keyboard thing but man, I wish we had this half naked drummer guy. Rawr.
“Epic”

Let’s Talk About Sex Baby: This Explains Pretty Much Everything

This past Spring I met, as cliche’ as it might sound, a new man friend, on-line. I had been reading his entertainment blog on and off for the past few years and always thought he had to be an incredibly fun, insightful and interesting person. Writing a post about Taylor Hicks one afternoon, I decided to link up with some articles Stuart (scroll down my post in that link) had written about Mr. Hicks in the past. They were of course, hilarious and fit into the post storyline – which also included sparkly Twilight vampire, Robert Pattinson.

Anyone who has read my blog(s) know I had a health related situation that affected me last Winter. I suffered an intense Lupus flair up that had affected my heart, my lungs. I thought, surely, this time the Lupus was going to kill me. I wound up emerging from this flair up, basically waking up one morning feeling damn good. I got out of bed, pain free, I could breathe, it was like some sort of story book miracle. I joked around with family and associates that it was likely some sort of Euphoria-Before-Death sort of thing. I had read stories in which people, having been ill for a lengthy period of time have this brief time slot where they feel completely cured, energized, and then turn around and fall over dead. I was more than half way wondering if that was to actually be my fate.

That brings me back to the subject of my new friend I made shortly after emerging from that little scare. Stuart Heritage and I hit it off pretty well from the start. I appreciated his fast, witty banter. Thing is, when I “met” him there wasn’t any talk he had a girlfriend. Nothing on his facebook page he had invited me to join, nothing anyplace on his personal (now private) blog that I posted on with him. It was a short time into our friendship before he told me that he did have a girlfriend. He told me he had been thinking more about me and it was affecting his relationship with his girlfriend; importantly, he was feeling wracked with guilt. His said, “everytime I think about you it’s like a knife into my heart”.

We wound up having disagreements, he began communicating less with me, told me it was for the best for both of us, this a situation that was not going to be good for either of us. Stuart was absolutely right. Our last argument I lost my head, my mind and completely flipped out at him. I embraced my inner 14 year old. I can have a powerful temper and be idiotically and highly irrational when I lose it. Thankfully that doesn’t happen very often. My asinine actions toward Stuart created a snowball effect in which he shut me out of everything and everyplace we communicated. I think he might possibly understand I’m not always a lunatic but I am always a human, fallable and capable of being a complete ass, just like he is.

What occurred to me over the past months since his stomping away, from what I have seen, he’s working on advancing his image, his career, and his stature. The man has a more than fair amount of ego and pride and certainly does not need anyone such as myself to create problems for him. He, as I, as anyone, quite capable of creating our own bits of Hell by all by ourselves. One thing confirmed to me, regarding my past assessment of Mr. Heritage, from reading between the lines in his often off-color, satirically driven entertainment blog, Hecklerspray.com, he is indeed an incredibly unique individual. (I love being right. I hated being wrong about the potential I saw between he and I but that likely just some sort of Euphoria-before-death-that-didn’t-happen residual effect.)

Stu had at one time, taught Kindergarten children and had enjoyed working with them. Seriously, how many men have you met, dear readers, who would want to teach Kindergarteners? That takes a huge amount of patience and more than a fair amount of humor. Well now, on top of his editorship of Hecklerspray.com and writing for publications, including the Guardian, Celebrity Juice and SkyNews.com, Mr. Heritage is devoting time to the Youth Task Force Blog.

The Youth Taskforce Blog is apparently designed as a site for youth to turn to for words of wisdom and advice with the contributors acting as role models representing fields in writing, acting, modeling and television. The initial paragraph reads:
“Welcome to the Youth Task Force blog, where we’ve gathered a diverse group of creative, hip, and well-known people from around the world to bring you stories, advice, and words of wisdom about life, relationships, and contraception, all in celebration of World Contraception Day on 26 September.

World Contraception Day (WCD) is a worldwide campaign with a vision for a world where every pregnancy is wanted. Its mission is to improve awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health.

This year, the motto of World Contraception Day is Your Life, Your Voice: Talk Contraception. The aim of the campaign is to encourage young people to talk about sex and contraception so they have all the information they need to prevent an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection (STI).

Launching on 21 August 2009, the Youth Task Force will be writing, musing, chatting, making videos and talking with teens about these topics. They’ll be gathering voices and encouraging more people to take part in the contraception conversation all over the world, all of which will then be posted here!”

I think that this is wonderful and a worthy subject to devote your time and energies toward. Certainly there are completely way too many unplanned pregnancies; children brought into the world by young people who are children themselves, unprepared to deal with and raise them properly. Too, increasingly, in society, we’re finding a growing need to converse with our kids about STDs and transmission of them through sexual acts at earlier ages. The thing is, in reading this by-line for this blog, the Devil who rides my left shoulder could not help see some irony and give a little chuckle. The, “… talk about sex”, portion sort of leapt off the page at me.

I was told I’d understand more soon enough and now I do. I do wish more would have been laid out sooner but I guess then some powerful lessons learned would not have happened.

Salt N Pepa – Let’s Talk About Sex (The Original)

video c/o BitchHunter2000

Taylor Hicks’ Vimeos from Smith’s Olde Bar

Taylor Hicks’ performed in Atlanta, Georgia the weekend before this one at Smith’s Olde Bar. There have been many enthusiastic replies regarding the performance he and his band gave the crowd so I’ve hit several of the videos to watch what the buzz is about.

This particular video, surprisingly is one of my favorite. I am not in love with the song presented on the latest Hicks’ CD, “The Distance” but I do like this rendition. Hicks’ playful delivery, the minimalist delivery with the acoustic guitars and harmonica really work well. I must add the videographer did a great job, there’s fantastic audio, no camera shake.

Taylor Hicks’ “Wedding Day Blues”

Wedding Day Blues – Smith’s Olde Bar – RagsQueen from RagsQueen on Vimeo.

“Seven Mile Breakdown” another good vid and song that transfers well into this minimalist format. Watching Hicks carefully on that tambourine for pointers… I’m going to send this video out to the guys and see what they’d think about covering a version of it for the City concert coming up in the Fall. I think our singer, “R.” could do it some justice.

Taylor Hicks, Smith’s Olde Bar:

Seven Mile Breakdown – Smith’s Olde Bar – RagsQueen from RagsQueen on Vimeo.

videos provided by the grace of RagsQueen

For anyone who is unable to view vimeo, hit this link Taylor Hicks on Youtube for a vast selection of vids from this concert.

Looking forward to B’Ham in September.

Taylor Hicks Cone Ranger: Saga of the Cone – Getting Soggy?

Okay, so it was cute initially. Taylor Hicks selected to make a little fun about his time riding the large plastic ice cream cone prop in his current gig as Teen Angel singing “Beauty School Drop-Out” in the national touring company, “Grease”. He’s been tweeting out various flavors in his tweets on Twitter to the fans who have come to congregate on that site. Why Twitter? It’s 140 characters of brevity and it it seems fans find more information on Twitter about him than almost anywhere. Wait – there is that Boogie site. If you dare go there. Understand treading into the land of Boogie you may get access to some information and videos, but word: best to just read or to see and be not heard.

Anyway so we have Twitter and Taylor Hicks with my focus on the subjects of Mr. Hicks’ Twitter tweets. (Say that five times fast.) As we’ve gone along on Twitter, Mr. Hicks has journeyed from seldom to never posting to actually knocking out about a tweet a week. Does he actually talk to his fans like I see other musicians and celebrities do? Not so much. Instead he relegates his tweets increasingly to naming ice cream flavors. Yes, flavors, like Cookies and Cream or Boysenberry. Hilarious reading some of the responses who immediately start vowing that flavor their favorite, or they don’t like it but what about another flavor; it goes on and on. Apparently, from what I’m reading, some fans are even imagining he’s sending secret messages with his flavors. I imagine Mr. Hicks sends those flavored tweets out then sits back reading and laughing at the result. I know I would.

Again, granted in the beginning, Mr. Hicks’ ice cream tweets were a witty little concept, the tweets had the flavor, from time to time of “Where in the World…”, or a hint of what might be coming up next in the Hicks’ ice cream career field. The thing is – that’s about all he does – the ice Cream tweets. That or he’s promoting his next show with dates and places. There are, occasionally, some vague references to where he might have dined that day… Frankly for me it’s getting redundant and downright soggy. It would be different if he’d intersperse the tweets about ice cream flavors with tweets with concert pics, an occasional short video or say something actually TO the fans not AT the fans. There’s a big difference in “To” and “At”. One guy who talks ‘to’ his fans, Chris Daughtry. Now I’m not using Daughtry as a jab at Taylor or anything idiotically related to the asinine A.I. battle but rather as an example since they both hit mass public consciousness around the same time. Talking “to” your fans works to attain connection, talking “at” your fans embodies a rather superior feel, incorporating a Distance…

I for one am glad I’ve other interests on Twitter and other interests in my life, period. If I were one whose main interest on Twitter was a person who once a week shouted out “Strawberry pimping” or some such, I’d likely lose interest. If I were a potentially new fan I’d be thinking by now, ‘What in the Hell?”. Of course, the old diehard fans from the American Idol days won’t be thwarted; if Taylor Hicks just tweeted odd noises such as “ARGH” or “PFFFT” or “GAAAH” they’d likely be as entertained, respond back in kind and have a happy-jolly laugh about it all.

Now I know some of you dear readers will say there I am trying to tell Taylor Hicks what to do, but if you read carefully I’m doing no such thing. Instead I’m writing about what I am finding swirling into a boring little soft served idea from what, if utilized with other Twitter tweets might actually be worthy of two scoops in a sugar cone. So to those who disagree with me on my thoughts about the ice cream pimping, PFFFTTT! Oh, and by the way, lately my favorite ice cream flavor is coffee.

Life and death of and Ice Cream Confection:

Captain Beefheart – Ice Cream for Crow (HIgh Resolution)

Brother Water

Prologue

And again the Spirit spoke to him. Sometimes Brother Water was almost silent, whispering along through small brooks, lapping peaceably at the shores in ponds and lakes. But Brother Water could be loud, throwing Himself against the rocks and beaches of the ocean; cascading down into falls of Himself. In this place, a land of red rock and desert land, Brother Spirit was loud, He was boisterous and wild. The roar echoing off the sides of the red wall canyon was deafening. No matter the voice Brother Water used, Frank could hear him. Frank understood the words, the messages sent to him from his Spirit Brother.

Brother Water spoke to him here in His loud Water words, He bucked and lept over the rocks, exuberantly exalting Frank and his resuming of The Mission. Throwing Himself with wild abandon spraying into the air, leaping into the Big Real of All That There Is. Brother Water called to Frank, cheering him on just as He had in days gone past. Frank was pleased Brother Water needed something from him; this time The Mission would be bigger than ever before.

Being one with his Brother the Water, Frank rode the rapids with ease and grace, his boat seemingly becoming another part of the flowing, churning, coldness. Hurtling along guided, as Frank knew from harsh rocks and injury by his Brother, speeding toward that destination that Brother Water had in mind.

A solid beast had been erected to stop and tame the wildness of his Brother’s heart. His mission as in other times, other places had always been to free his Brother. “Hoover Dam” the words his Brother spoke to him, over and over through the sound of the rushing fluid force that is He.

Frank Martinez once again freed by the ridiculous machine that man constructed called a Legal System was open and able and willing to continue his quest to let the waters flow and the dams to break. The song he had listened to repeatedly in his Time of Incarceration continues in an unending loop in his focused and ultimately devoted mind….
“Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.”

Yes, this would be his greatest endeavor yet in serving his Brother Water. The Mission would not be stopped.