Celebrities continue to dominate radio

A few weeks ago I wrote about the radio industry's unwillingness to cultivate new talent and opting to go for celebrity hosts.  While that post was prompted by a heckle from my former colleague, this is in response to Kuli Roberts' appointment as Bob Mabena's cohost on the Kaya FM Breakfast Show.  As far as I can tell, gossip and man bashing are her specialities and oh, she's famous.

I'm not suggesting that she will not be good on the radio or that she shouldn't work but the scourge of shoving semi-celebrities onto the mic in hope of big ratings is not unique to South Africa.  In the UK or instance, Johnny Vaughan went through a string of them - during his 8 year tenure as the Capital Radio Breakfast Show host - in search of that much sought after female voice.  In the US it's a bit different, every blogger you know could have a prime time radio/TV show in the next 5 years. Harvey Levin of TMZ and Perez Hilton both have radio shows and, as far as I can tell, their only qualifications are that they're the purveyors of gossip and at any given time they can tell you which black sportsman the Kardashians are fucking today.

If you're not a celebrity, you'd have to be very lucky or connected to get started on the radio today.  Even then forget about what your vision of what you want to do on the radio, there are formats and playlists that are researched and you have to adhere to them.  By the time you make it to a mainstream station, if you do, you'd be indistinguishable from all the dross that permeates the medium and that will be that.  You'll realise that it's just like any other job: you do as you're told.  If you're under 20, I'd say don't even bother with radio.  Research suggests that your peers with access to smartphones are shunning the radio and cite the net as their dominant new music discovery method, so I would head there and start building an audience.  You do what you like and there are no gatekeepers.

The radio is at the bottom of the showbiz ladder.  It used to attract the people who liked and wanted to play music or were just talkative and thought they were interesting or funny that were not good looking enough to be on TV.  Now, thanks to the advertising budgets it's able to commands, it's all about companies fulfilling their your licence conditions and selling as much advertising as they can.  Screw creative ideas, originality and entertainment.  If they're doing it across the road and it's working for them, we better do it here too.

I suspect that's why Ms Roberts has been brought in to "add a female voice" as Greg Maloka, Kaya FM's General Manager puts it and it doesn't hurt that he's on a TV gossip show. This is one of Howard Stern's least desirable legacies to radio: female voices the extent of whose contribution to the alpha male's show is giggling on the background as he pontificates and reporting celebrity gossip.

This is just another example of how ungrateful radio can.  Bob Mabena has put in two decades worth of work,  toiling, honing his craft and almost overnight, he gets a gossip monger foisted on him.

Oscar Pistorius flies the South African flag

The Paralympic games kicked off in earnest yesterday and although I have not seen the opening ceremony yet, I hear it was quite a spectacle.  Fittingly, Oscar Pistorius was chosen to be the flag bearer for the South African Paralympic team and I can't wait to see him in action and I have no doubt will pick up some medals.

He becomes the first amputee runner to compete at both the Olympics and the Paralympics.  There was a lot of controversy before the olympics started with some people asking if his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage.  Yeah, because a guy with prosthetic legs can have an advantage over able bodied athletes.

I think it's quite telling that there hasn't been any objection from the Paralympians over his participation.

Desmond Tutu redefines retirement

There's a good reason people retire at 65.  You've been working for well over 40 years, you've paid up your house, hopefully your kids are adults who can fend for themselves and your brain is not as sharp as it once was.  If an 80 year old  retired bricklayer was to go to a building site and start pontificating on what should be done, I bet he's be (politely) escorted off the site.

But it looks like we happily waive this rule for men claim to be spiritual and spend an inordinate amount of time wearing dresses and if you're a winner of some peace award, doubly so.  (Another example of religion getting a pass. If I were to wear a dress on the grounds that I feel comfortable in them, I doubt I would be waved through in this society).  John Paul II was still harping on about condoms even as he was edging towards the grave.  And there's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who announced last year that he was retiring from public and there was a collective sigh of relief.

It looks like we were duped. You can't get him off the headlines.  Just the other day he was protesting some silly TV show in the US.  Yesterday he reminded us again that he's still knocking about when he announced that he was pulling out of the leadership summit where he was scheduled to appear alongside Tony Blair.  The reason: Blair's decision to invade Iraq when he was British Prime Minister which he describes an "indefensible".  Of course the fact that he's getting a lot of mileage as the "principled Arch" is completely incidental.  

I was looking forward to my retirement but if it means a constant streak of protests, I think I'll keep working until my last day.

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Want attention for your painting? Paint Zuma penis.

There was a huge brouhaha earlier this year when artist Brett Murray unveiled his painting of President Jacob Zuma with genitals exposed, The Spear.  There were protests, court actions, threats and climb downs and we thought that it had gone away.  It looks like we're back to tread that same water again.  The Cape Times reports that the AVA Gallery in Cape Town is currently festooned by another painting with Mr Zuma's privates.

You can expect this to be in the news for the next couple of weeks but there won't be the element of racism this time around as the artist is very black.  Defending his painting aptly named Umshini Wami and perhaps in mitigation, the artist, Ayanda Mabulu says:

“He is not naked; I did not paint him with an uncircum-cised penis. “This is a metaphor that shows he is not a boy; he is a man, an elder, a father, a leader,”

And then he goes into the whole spiel about how this is a metaphor for how the President's abandonment of the nation and reneging on his Presidential duties.  And I say bullshit.  This painting will get the ANC bigwigs' backs up and they'll go into bully boy mode and summon their sheeple supporters to march to the establishment where it's kept, threaten anyone who publishes it's photo with legal and the media will be there to capture it all and it wouldn't be bad for his paintings either.  Who knew of these penis painting artists before this whole debacle?

On the plus side, I now know who to contact in the unlikely event that I require a portrait of me with my privates in full display.  He really knows how to insult and flatter his subject in the same painting.  Either that or he ordered more paint than he needed.

Prince Harry finds support in net exhibitionist service comrades

After being deluged with outrage for a week for doing what every single guy in his 20s with an endless supply of cash would do, get drunk, get naked and play sex games with young blondes, Prince Harry may have felt lonely and neglected.  But his fellow serviceman are stepping up to show him support.  The Sun reports that a facebook group that encourages members of the armed forces to strip and upload their photos to show their support for the ginger Prince has clocked well over 12 000 members.

Click here to go to the group's photos section

So, it looks like after Rupert Murdoch tried to use the incident to throw his weight around and flip a bird to the Leveson enquiry and then appeared to offer the Prince advise on how to avoid the debacle in the future, it looks like the status quo remains.

Oh Harry, take us to Vegas with you next time, we'll do a better job of ensuring that cameras and phones don't make it to the "restricted area".

Happy Simfy day South Africa

While people in Europe, North America and Australia have been enjoying the music streaming service, Spotify for some time now, South Africa has been feeling rather left behind.  From today South Africans have access to a similar service called Simfy Africa, an African arm of the German company Simfy..

The service comes as a reprieve to the long suffering internet savvy Saffas who are usually the last to get the nice and shiny things the internet has to offer.  Unlike Spotify you have to pay for Simfy as they don't appear to have adverts yet.  We all know that since Al Gore created the internet it's known as a source of free stuff as Spotify have found out, only 8% of their 32.8 million users are willing to pay for it.

They've done well to convince the record companies to agree to the idea of downloading the music for offline listening.  R60 per month for access to 18 million tracks with the ability to download and listen afterwards is a pretty good deal.

So why don't you sign up for their 14 day free trial and see if you like it?  At worst, you'll get to listen to music for free for a fortnight and at worst you ears will bleed and that will not be Simfy's fault.

2oceansvibe reveals twitter accounts with "fake" followers

Hot in the heels of the Dewberry report, which revealed that the online streaming radio listening figures that the high profile outfits were boasting were the work of fiction, the South African e-commerce sector looks set to be heading for another showdown.

This time, 2oceansvibe has conducted an investigation using a tool called status people and uncovered a number of local ad agency calibrated twitter accounts whose follower numbers seem to be artificially enhanced.  Of course the people concerned are going to plead ignorance and some people might even question 2oceansvibe's motives but this one looks like it's going to run and run.  If anything, it's hardly going to inspire the confidence of media buyers who are still skeptical of the cyberspace as a viable medium.

And unlike the last scandal to rock the online community I don't think this one will be quelled with the promise of DMMA intervention.  We'll watch the space.

Survey: Brits oppose storming Embassy but want Assange to go to Sweden

Picture credit: wired.co.uk

Julian Assange emerged from the the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy yesterday where he's been holed up for two months, to say well nothing we didn't already know.  Earlier in the week it had been feared that the British police were going to storm the Embassy and arrest him for skipping bail and send him to Sweden where he's wanted to answer to accusation of sexual assault.

Well the Great British public have had their say via their computer mouse clicks.  They oppose storming the Embassy as it would violate all manner of international laws, believe he'd get a fair trial in Sweden were his extradition to go ahead but don't believe he'd get the same if he was shipped to the US to effectively face the death penalty.

I think Mr Assange missed a golden opportunity yesterday.  Surely he has another cable lying around, he should have released it yesterday live on TV while the world media was focused on him.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Mrs Zuma III takes centre stage

“We can’t have prisoners released because the President woke up feeling happy.”

You'd be forgiven for thinking that those are the words of somebody like Lindiwe Mazibuko OR Justice Malala, but no.  They came from one of his wives, Tobeka Madiba-Zuma (I have no idea what her name is - I've seen Tobeka, Thobeka, Mabida, Mabhida, Mabija, Mabhija and Madiba.  Can she release her ID document and settle it once and for all?)  Anyway, she was addressing some public gathering in KZN midlands and said she was perturbed by the news that one of the prisoners who had benefitted from a presidential pardon was already behind bars.

Traditionalists will be troubled by this apparent deviation from normal Presidents' spouse duties such as cutting ribbons and smiling for the cameras by publicly rebuking the President.  Some will even see it as undermining the President's integrity.  Mrs Zuma also reminded her audience that she doesn't need to go through the many layers of government bureaucracy to get the meeting with her husband.

That may be the case, Mrs Zuma, but let me remind you that you're the third lady.

Adam Curry predicts failure for Nick Grimshaw as successor to Chis Moyles

Outgoing Radio 1 breakfast DJ Chris Moyles (left), successor Nick Grimshaw (right)

Adam Curry is a broadcasting genius.  He started in the early doing radio in the 80s, was one of the founding VJs on MTV - he was interviewed at length and quoted in the book I want my MTV  - was one of the first people to do a podcast and was rightfully crowned The Podfather.  So when he expressed his opinion on Chris Moyles' axing as a Radio 1 breakfast host while I was listening to the latest episode of No Agenda, my ears pricked up.

Adam understands the medium and when he talks people ought to listen.  This is the man who called into The Howard Stern Show and offered him $100 million to defect to his online broadcasting company when Stern's initial Sirius contract was drawing to a close in 2010.  Back to Moyles.  Although I only listened to his show sporadically, I felt aggrieved by his axing because it was one of very few radio talk shows that is not about immigration or David Beckham right foot.  And the reason I don't think Grimshaw will prevail is I think he's lightweight and according to his cheerleaders, The Guardian, he loves music and has a lot of celebrity friends.  That about says it all.  I can understand BBC Trust wanting to lower the average age of the Radio 1 listener but I have a feeling this is going to drive oldies like me away.

Adam being the veteran that he is feels doing away with sung jingles will be the undoing of Grimshaw's breakfast show.  Whatever the reason, I say hello Greg James breakfast show within twelve months.

Dear Media, Malema is no longer the ANCYL leader

Picture credit: twitter.com/ewnupdates

UPDATE: 29/09/2012

David Bullard, somebody with a better command of words and an intimate knowledge of newsrooms, has put it better than I could.

"They (the media) know that no Juju will mean they have to search around for something else that will sell papers and that's such an effort."

Read the rest of his biting piece on Politicsweb.  Bookmark that link and check it every Thursday for new thought provoking columns from a writer who knows how to use words and pulls no punches. 

Somebody need to tell the media that Julius Malema is no longer the ANCYL leader.  Remember when his appeal against his expulsion was rejected, that was the day he seized to be.  Why then is he still being given the airtime and referred to as "a leader"?

He turned up at the Lonmin mine this afternoon to use the tragedy further his political career  show his solidarity with the grief stricken striking miners.  And he just couldn't resist the temptation to take pot shots at those who expelled him from his beloved ANC.  He actually blamed President Jacob Zuma for his failure to lead and Cyril Ramaphosa for being rich while employees at the mine where he has a stake are having to make do with low wages. Oh, the imperialists didn't escape his wrath too.  And all the world media was there to catch every syllable and every frame of his diatribe.

And therein lies the problem.  He's constantly referred to as an expelled ANCYL leader or a youth leader and I'm assuming this is to give his view some validity or a sense that they're somehow representative of the youth of this country.  But I think it's just the media trying to hold on to their cash cow.  I used to work for a news website and everytime you feature a Julius Malema story you were guaranteed to double your traffic that day.  If we were in the USA TMZ would update use about his every move, who he's dating, where he partied last night, what he's eating etc.

We get it.  He shoots from the hip, he's a one man quote machine and he gives good copy.  But he doesn't occupy any office, not anymore.  You'll do well to find another cash cow.  And to use the mourning miners for political capital and profit is just shameful.

Gotye finally embraces Somebodies that he used to know

For a long time I've thought that Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know was beginning to suffer from the James Bunt You're Beautiful syndrome:  Getting played by all pop radio stations twenty four times a day to the point where you want to jump off a bridge everytime you hear it.

It's also very susceptible to internet jokers and pranksters.  And it may well be the most "youtube covered" song of all time (I have no actual proof of this and have no idea where you'd go to look for it but that's never stopped me before).  Artists tend not to have a sense of humour about it but Gotye seems to be taking it in his stride.  He compiled the above video remixing some of his favourite covers and it's been very well received. Here's a link to the list of all his videos and here's one to the tutorial by Barry.

It's great to see a recording artists embracing the internet and endearing himself to the audience in an industry that only seems hellbent to extract dollars out of their audience, whatever the cost.

'Sexting' makes the dictionary

News24 reports that 'Sexting' among new words in dictionary: Popular phrases such as " cloud computing", "bucket list" and "f-bomb" are among the new entries in the 2012 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, according to a list released by the company.

As someone who aspires to get his own words/phrases into any dictionary I'm a bit annoyed to say the least.  I can only console myself with the knowledge that this dictionary is inferior to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Rock on Nicola Adams

Yesterday I managed to temporarily suppress the pre-historic chivalrous man who lurks somewhere inside me and enjoyed an Olympic female boxing match.

Nicola Adams, a Leeds native beat the living hell out her Chinese opponent, Ren Cancan to be crowned a champion and rightly don the gold medal.  And I was amazed by how much I enjoyed it given how uncomfortable I usually get whenever I see women fighting.  It just feels wrong but I suspect its one of those things evolution will eventually sort out for us and a few generations from now men will be able to sit through a female heavyweight boxing match without so much as a flinch.

But can I use this space to send a word of warning to the guy who's currently dating Adams:  If you're even thinking of cheating on her, you better break up with her now.  Trust me, the beatings will be less severe than if you do it a few months down the line.

Robert Harting shows us how to celebrate like a boss

Usain Bolt eat your heart out, there's a new kid in town.  Robert Harting has set the bar rather high when it comes to celebrating an Olympic gold medal.

The German discus champion ripped his shirt ala The Incredible Hulk before launching into a hurdle negotiating victory lap around the Olympic stadium.  It's reported this morning that he enjoyed a few well earned ales on his afterwards, fell asleep on a train and getting robbed of his Olympic village accreditation and getting refused entry at the village.  Sports people are so choreographed and PRd these days that if you didn't know any better, you'd thing they were running for public office so it's always refreshing to see one who bulks the trend every now and then and show their real emotion not only when they lose but when they win too.  Not that there's been a shortage of that at this year's Olympics.

He later tweeted a photo of himself posing with his gold medal so it would appear all is well.  Robert Harting, we speak your name Sir.

Die Antwoord: South Africa is pretty fucking retarded

Picture Source: facebook.com/dieantwoord

If you hear sounds of jubilation the likes of which you'd normally expect yourself to make if your favourite athlete were to win a gold medal at the London Olympics, you're probably in the company of a talk radio producer, a columnist a blogger or anyone who deem their opinion worthy of being heard by people outside their immediate circle of friends.  And these people are about to bloviate incessantly about what Die Antwoord are reported to have said about this country while being interviewed in the US.

When asked if they think they represent South Africa well, they went into a long spiel about not being understood in their home country before delivering this zinger: "it's like doing magic tricks for retarded children." That will get the reactionary among the opinion formers frothing for days to come, if they're not too transfixed by the Olympics coverage.  It's multilayered.  They can sink their teeth into the language issue and claim that the "r" word is hurtful to disabled kids etc.  But the biggie seems to be that "they disparaged the country to foreigners on foreign soil".

I don't recall colluding with Tourism SA to talk up South Africa whenever I speak to a foreigner and I don't think they did either and I speak as a non fan of theirs.  So if they don't feel they've been embraced in their home country and they get asked about the reasons for that then they have every right to let everyone know reasons, no matter how uncomfortable.  And then there's the whole whole "role model" thing to which I say, if your child has to look to singers for a role model, then get a time machine, go back to a minute before they were conceived and pull out.

We are a young democracy and we're still trying to come to terms with the benefits such as free speech and many a times when people who is not altogether wholesome, like Die Antwoord, exercise theirs the sensitive among us get their backs up.  But give us time and I think we'll eventually accept that free speech does not only apply to speech we agree with, in fact it's more valuable if it's speech we don't agree with.

If you have access to Mila Kunis' boobs, don't let them go

Unless you're Ashton Kutcher now or a D list Hollywood actor in 5 years time, chances you'll ever have access to Mila Kunis boob are currently hovering somewhere between never and only in your dreams.  If Macaulay Culkin is a our point of reference, then you're probably better off  just fantasising about them.

The National Enquirer has been consistently reporting that he was left distraught when they broke up a few years ago, so much so that he took up drugs to console himself.  They've even gone a step further, challenging him to take a drug test to prove them wrong and claiming he has months to live.  If I were in his shoes, I'd be a bit miffed too.  Not because she left me but because she was with me until her career took off and she was off.  

So in the unlikely event you ever work yourself in a position of unlimited Mila Kunis' boobs, hold on to them for dear life because if you let them go the results could be catastrophic.

Who's this man who tried to stop Usain Bolt from winning the Olympics?

Usain Bolt won the London 2012 Olympics yesterday.  I say won the Olympics because let's face it, they could show just the 100m and nothing else and nobody would complain, apart from the athletes who participate in them, their families and people who want to watch them.  Other than that nobody cares.  Not only did he win but he clocked 9.63secs to break his previous record making him the fastest man on the planet.

But some asshole decided to throw an empty beer bottle behind the athletes just before the gun went off.  It looks like Bolt had exchange a few worlds with the man minutes before the race kicked off and appears to be saying  (see video below).  

Needless to say Scotland Yard have got him in custody and let's hope he feels the full Majesty of the law.  He almost ruined The Olympics a transgression which, in my administration, would see him visit the tower never to return again. 

Neither we nor America landed on Mars

I wanted to stay up last night to see Curiosity land on Mars last night but I couldn't.  And as expected I woke up to the news that WE landed on Mars.

No we didn't.  NASA did.  This is a giant step in technological advancements.  Either way, that's President Obama's re-election in the box judging by the outwardly exuberant enthusiasm with which this news was received by a lot of Americans.

Full report is here

No more Australian brilliance at the Olympics?

Brilliant: South Africa's Chad le Clos

A few Olympic games ago, you have expected Australia to be near if not at the top of the medals table by now.  They used to excel at the swimming events and dominate at the entire event but this time around they are no where to be seen.

They used to be so dominant, my British friends would often joke that the only reason Australia was invented so that they can win medals on behalf of Britain.  As you can see in the chart above, Great Britain is doing quite well by itself.

And, as we can see here the Aussies are not even in the top 20.  Even their arch nemesis Maybe it's time Her Majesty wound up the country and hand it back to the indigenous population.  G'day mates.

The Daily Mail discovers David Guetta, finally

Credit: dailymail.co.uk

The Daily Mail introduced the world famous hit maker DJ David Guetta to its middle class ageing readership this morning.

Obviously Guetta is good at what he does and makes a lot of money doing it as he features a lot in those highest paid DJ lists that people fight about incessantly online, the latest of which purports that his net worth is $13.5 million, but he may want to find a new audience.

Maybe I'm biased here but anything The Daily Mail endorses is ruined.  And kids don't want to listen to the same music as their parents.  So, au revoir Monsieur Guetta, it been great.

Man refuses to be a prop at a cake eating function, gets sued

News24 reports that a man has been taken to court for breaking off engagement.  It's reported that the woman he was due to marry is keen to claw back money she has spent organising her big day as well as "monies he never paid while they were living together even though he had promised to do so", which sounds like rent to me.  She's also seeking compensation for what is termed to be "wounding her pride, humiliating her and decreasing her chances to marry someone else in the time she has been with him".

I've always maintained on my show (within Ofcom regulations) that for a lot of women marriage is really about wearing a nice dress like a princess, taking nice pictures, eat a cake, have a party and go on holiday.  That's it.  Nothing to do with the health of the relationship they're in, the guy might as well be a prop that should be ready for the ceremony and that's that.  Obviously we don't know the details of this relationship so we won't go into it but it seems money was the root cause.

And if the relationship has failed before it even takes off, what's the point of getting married?  Traditionalists are would be lining up to throw their usual line that "if they hadn't lived together before getting engaged none of this would have happened", which actually militates against marriage.  It actually means that marriage is something you throw yourself into with your eyes closed and pray to whatever sky daddy you pray to that you make it through and you shouldn't be able to get out of it once in without some sort of pain.  They're angry at the guy for realising that despite all the societal pressures to "do the right thing" he's better off without this woman.

Maybe it's time to move with the times because marriage is no longer what it used to be with almost half of them ending in a divorce (when you consider traditional ones that will never registered at the Department of Home Affairs).  Not everyone will/should get married or have kids and those who choose not to or are not or just don't meet their mate should not be looked down upon (men and women).

Baby haters delight as Unbaby me is released

If you have facebook friends who feel compelled to broadcast their babies' every move word and are sick of it, Chris Baker and his friends have a solution for you.

Unbaby me could be the best invention of our time since internet porn and that's saying something.  It's a Chrome plugin that blocks baby pictures from your facebook timeline.  Instead of seeing "little Johnny's first step" you'll see cool stuff internet meme while the show off parent will be none the wiser.  While exhibitionists will slate users of this plugin as baby haters maybe they should consider the possibility that not everyone wants to drool over their baby pictures.

If only there could be a plugin that blocks self portraits taken in front of a mirror, unless they belong to Scarlett Johansson.

Boris Johnson stars in The Dark Knight Rises

After Boris Johnson's shenanigans yesterday, which I think will come back to haunt him blogger Ravin has superimposed him into a "Dark Knight Rises" poster with hilarious consequences.

I myself wish he would stop impersonating a politician and get back on TV but why would he?  Have I Got News For You can only hope to get the audience that he commands in his current act.  So I'll take him in any form I can.

Oprah continues to grace the cover of O Magazine 12 years in

It must be nice being Oprah:  You got to pontificate on social issues and got the world to share their most profound stories with you for a quarter of a century and became a billionaire for you troubles, people know who you are everywhere you go and you get to festoon everything you splash your money on, be it a magazine, a school for impoverished girls in South Africa or a TV channel, with your trademark O - Just to remind yourself that "yeah bitch I own that shit".

But you really have to be in love with yourself to put yourself on the cover of your magazine every month for 12 years, in various poses and showcasing different hairstyles.  Her own website remarked on the magazines's 10th anniversary in 2010 that she had gone through "19 outfits, 74 hairstyles, 15 puppies, 2 convertibles" just being awesome.  She's so awesome only two other people have been allowed to share the cover with her in 12 years of the magazine history: Michelle Obama presumably to share with the women of the world that her awesomeness had propelled her husband Barack Obama to the job of President of the United States and Ellen deGeneres to share brag that she's in an awesome lesbian relationship.  And they had to kiss the  "Godmother's" ring and humble themselves before her.

Around 2.7 million women around the world 300 thousand of them in South Africa (probably more now with the advent of tablets) lap this stuff up.  They go through page after page of just work hard, be happy, make your hair look nice, believe, ride a bike, have nice clothes, pray to God etc and everything will be okay.  And if that's not enough, you can even superimpose your face onto mama Oprah's body and really feel what it's like to be rich and happy. 

Oprah is the woman who gets held up as example of a successful woman in show business.  She's been at the top of the food chain for over two decades and her career is now on a downward spiral and it's probably unfair to pick on her for being out of touch with the common man or woman and lack of self awareness.  I'd probably do the same if every person I came in contact with was either my employee or a member of public screaming in excitement, I'd expect a pass for assuming every person in the world would benefit from hearing my wisdom.  But she's looks like nice lady and helps those less fortunate than her.

A cursory look at her TV successors would probably give you a course for concern.  It comprises of the Kardashians and the like.  Their version of helping the less fortunate is adopting black babies to top up their liberal credits in Hollywood.  But if you're a black man who enjoys a big booty (don't know any who doesn't) and own a camcoder, you could be in luck with the Kardashians.

Howard Stern's website can't handle pervert traffic, collapses

If you're even vaguely interested in the Radio business regardless of where you live in the world, you've heard of Howard Stern.  He's been getting up in the wee hours of the morning and speaking into the mic for well over 35 years.  If you're under 20 or are a religious nutjob you probably know him as a disgusting pervert, sexist, racist etc or you know him as a judge on America's Got Talent.

Howard Stern

But the truth is, Mr Stern is a broadcasting genius and innovator the likes of which we'll never see again.  He was a hellraiser and a rebel at the forefront of what is now known as reality TV in the '80s.  I was first introduced to him as a teenager growing up in South Africa when an American exchange student gave me a tape with his show and was immediately blown away by not only his fearless and provocative delivery but the willingness to go where other broadcaster were not willing to, reveal a lot of his personal struggles and triumphs.

I've followed his career since and was encouraged when he signed the biggest contract (rumoured to be $500 million over 5 years) with Sirius Satellite Radio in 2005.  This is not a eulogy, he's alive and well, now for the boobs.  Yesterday, she invited a young woman with very nice boobs but wanted to have them reduced into the show.  Kelsey, the young woman stripped from the waist up for him and his studio staff so they could assess her assets before they advised her not to reduce them, and she heeded the advise.  They then took her pictures and put them on his website but it crashed immediately afterwards due to the sheer amount of traffic.  They fixed it but it crashes everytime the replay comes on and new people hear about the boobs and are keen to have a look and arrive at their conclusions.

Being the nice person that I am I've decided to help my fellow perverts by publishing the pictures here (I lifted them off my browser cache).  It seems none of Mr Stern's 30 odd army of staffers can work out how to keep the website online, but I, an England based community radio guy with no producer can at less than $100 a year.  And unlike all the people who have copied him all over the world, when I finally break free of these terrestrial radio shackles and do a show similar to his, I'll credit Mr Stern for the inspiration.  Unlike the countless copycats the world over who pretend they've never even heard of him.

Snoop Dogg "Reincarnated" as Snoop Lion

If a man who's notorious for smoking weed, pimping bitches and dealing drugs was to be reformed, see the error of his ways and find "spiritual enlightenment", what religion do you think he'd be more likely to opt for?  If the man you're talking about is the artist formerly know as Snoop Dogg, then Rastafarian is the religion he'd go for although he denies that it's a religion and chooses to refer to it as a way of life.

Snoop now goes by Snoop Lion and is doing Reggae now.  Of course the ability to smoke weed willy nilly and the ability to have your way with women of the faith had nothing to do with the decision.  You can never begrudge people for pursuing happiness and "spiritual fulfilment", I love these words, but this smacks of a career reboot by the ageing rapper.  The battles with law enforcement are not the draw they used to be and Dr Dre is chilling at home with his millions so something had to be done.

I'm going to reminisce while listen to Doggy Style and wonder what sexual innuendo could be spun off a lion.  Somehow I don't think Lion Style quite trips off the tongue.