Daily Reviews » Woman

Jersey Shore’s Sammi Sweetheart Accused of Repeatedly Punching Woman in the Head

Admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:17:07 +0000

A woman has accused Jersey Shore’s Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola of punching her twice in the head at a Florida nightclub, according to The Associated Press.

Lawsuit against Jersey Shore moves forward

Kristen DeMinco claimed the reality show star …

Fyfe Dangerfield – ‘She’s Always A Woman’

Admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:24:44 +0000

Here’s a quick (and patchy) history lesson for you all:

Once upon a time, you could guarantee to get a song into the charts because it was in a TV commercial – usually one for jeans – and people hadn’t heard it in ages. Then you could guarantee to get a song into the charts because it was in a TV commercial and no-one had ever heard it before. Then there were a LOT of songs in TV commercials, so you couldn’t guarantee anything would get into the charts.

Then the charts started to become dominated by download sales over CD sales, which meant releasing songs from TV commercials was a lot easier to do. Then advertisers realised that interesting covers of classic old hits really fires up the public’s imagination (hello Glee!), and now some songs from TV commercials get into the charts and some do not.

This song is doing quite well. It is currently being used in a TV commercial.

(No video. You’ll never guess, it’s a TV commerical.)

I’ve always had a bit of trouble with the lyrics to this song. It’s not so much the lumping together of various characteristics and behaviours – some pleasant, some less so – and chucking a big sign on top saying “THIS IS WOMANHOOD, AS I SEE IT”, lovely as that is.

It’s more that, having described his composite girlfriend as being aloof, ditsy and manipulative, and of having a devastating effect on any poor sucker who is unlucky enough to fall for her and her tricks, Billy Joel (who wrote it) signs off each verse with that “she’s always a woman to me” line, as if to say “well, I knew the risks – she is female after all – but let’s face it, she looks smashing in a dress.”

He might as well sing “eh, whaddya gonna do, GURLS, EH?” and go back to crying in his beer.

Well I for one won’t stand it. YES it’s a tender, lilting ballad with a beautiful melody, straight off a production line of classic ’70s radio hits. YES it’s a reflective meditation from a man who has seen too much, on the ups and downs of his troubled love life. YES Fyfe Dangerfield out of the Guillemots has a name like he’s a spy, code-name double-oh banana – with a license to peel, and YES he makes a decent fist of it, without getting in the way of the original too much.

But at the end of the day, it’s still a guy moaning on about how evil women can be, and how men just have to put up with it because, well, they’re women. And this is a classic love song?

People are WEIRD.

Download: Out now
www.fyfedangerfield.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

Twenty-Seven Views says: “The track sounds incredibly similar to the original but is just as endearing.”

View full post on BBC Audio & Music | Radio 1 Chart Blog

Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kim Zolciak: I’m Involved with a Woman

Admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:00:46 +0000

Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak has gone public about being in a relationship with woman.

The 31-year-old mother of two tells Life and Style that she is romantically involved with …

Wiley ft. Emeli Sandé – ‘Never Be Your Woman’

Admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:21:14 +0000

In these globally conscious times – where wasting precious resources on trivial things would be a shooting offense, if we could only spare the bullets – everyone loves a good recycler. Music is no different, in this regard. You can recycle old sounds, or old guitars, old ideas, old clothes or old poses. You can re-use the swagger of an olden-days singer or the hairstyle of some rock grandad or other. It’s all there for the taking.

The trick is to find something which hasn’t been recycled so often it loses its original shape and starts to get a bit baggy at the seams, so you end up having to basically remake the whole thing from scratch (Glee people, I am looking at you).

Credit to wiley old Mr Wiley then, for finding a sample of a late ’90s hit which itself contains a sample of an old song from the past. This is therefore double recycling. He can basically drive a Hummer into a panda now, and he’ll still be ahead of most of us.*

(Here’s the video. It’s a mini-biopic.)

The sample in question is from White Town’s ‘Your Woman’, a No.1 hit in 1997. It was notable at the time for being an early example of a home studio hit, as it was recorded entirely using a free music software program which was free on the cover of a magazine.

‘Your Woman’ used a sped-up sample from a song called ‘My Woman’, as written by Bing Crosby and sung by Al Bowlly in 1932. New song, new title. And now it’s happened again. This time, the tinny brass and clarinet refrain has been sped up (still) further, and welded to some…well it’s a modern production compared to that of either previous version of the song, but defiantly old school techno/drum & bass by anyone else’s standards.

And what better setting to tell a story as old as time itself. Men wandering around, picking up girls, leaving chaos in their wake. Girls pining after the man that got away. Air freshener, wild orchid. We’ve all been there.

In fact, put this up against Alexandra Burke’s ‘Bad Boys’ and you’ve got yourself an ethics class debate, set to music. AND some musical history too. Isn’t education amazing?

Download: Out now
CD Released: February 28th
www.myspace.com/eskiboywiley
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

* No he can’t, and nor should you.

View full post on BBC Audio & Music | Radio 1 Chart Blog

Eli Roth Producing Psychological Thriller ‘The Other Woman’

Admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:14:24 +0000

Even though Eli Roth is starting to develop himself as an actor (Inglourious Basterds) and a director of other things besides just horror (with Endangered Species), he still loves horror, and he’s been producing films in that genre recently as well. He has an exorcism film called Cotton that is shot and finished. Variety reports that Lionsgate just picked up the US rights to the film, which will be called The Last Exorcism. On top of that, Roth just closed a new deal with StudioCanal and Strike Entertainment to produce another psychological horror/thriller called The Other Woman. Wait till you hear what Roth has to say about it.

The Other Woman, also written by Cotton co-writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, is about a scorned mistress who makes a film for her ex-lover. That’s it? Oh no, there’s more. Roth says the film will delve into “the worst nightmares of those who have had extramarital affairs, and the sickest fantasies of those who have been scorned.” Bam! Sounds pretty intense now, eh? Shooting is already set to start in late spring with Botko and Gurland directing (they last directed Mail Order Wife in 2004). I know not everyone likes Eli Roth or his movies, but The Other Woman sounds pretty damn interesting. I wonder who they’ll cast?

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First Black Woman POW ‘Still Standing’

Admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:45:03 +0000

Shoshana Johnson was one of seven American POWs rescued alive 22 days after the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in An Nasiriyah, Iraq, in March of 2003. Her capture made her the first African-American female prisoner of war in U.S. history. Host Liane Hansen talks to Johnson about her new memoir I’m Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen, My Journey Home.

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Temple Grandin: The Woman Who Talks to Animals

Admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:46:23 +0000

Temple Grandin is one of the world’s greatest animal behaviorists. She is also autistic — and has put that to work for her. Grandin has written several books on animals, including Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. This weekend, HBO will premiere a made-for-TV movie based on her life.

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