By Odemaris Gaku Byrd

Us LOST fans are now more lost than ever. How is John Locke also the Monster? I think I sense a reference to the trinity here with John Locke, Dead John Locke, and the Holy Ghost Monster. As for Jack, has he ever had a good idea? What a disappointing hero. He’s constantly coming up with these ludicrous plans based on crazy and arbitrary facts. He’s like, “Hey guys the socially retarded scientist thinks if we set off this nuke it will be like nothing ever happened.” OMG JJ Abrams, are you for real? Yet, people listen to Jack Shephard and not Jack Bauer. What has network TV done to heroes, beside dress some of them up in cheerleading outfits?

Along with more questions, the time travel confusion is at an all time high. They seem to be living simultaneously in the past, present and what would be. Huh? Highlights would be a reappearance from Boone (He’s sexi, grrrr), the kick ass sound design, and…that was about it I guess. The ending of the premiere left me thinking, “So if they weren’t stranded on a Island moving catastrophically through time, life would have been much worst.” Jail was a shoe in for half the passengers on Oceanic Flight 815, and alcoholism for the other half. However, I and about a few other million will still finish what we started and hope it pays off. We’re counting on you JJ!!!

The whackadoo of the week goes to a class act individual Rex Ryan. The Jets’ head coach made sure Miami fans are number one by giving them the middle finger. Due to his inappropriate mannerism towards Dolphin fans,The Jets fined the rookie coach $50,000. Stone Cold Rex Ryan must’ve thought he was in the WWE Universe where he can get away with such action. Just a thought….. If you can’t do you victory dance after a touchdown, what makes you think you can raise the finger of doom to your rival fans.

By Michelle Vaccaro

While still seeking treatment for pain medication addiction, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has given a few surprise performances in some unlikely places.

Aerosmith may be without their lead singer, but Steven Tyler is still taking his voice to the airwaves, at least through PA systems. On January 19, the 61-year-old front man saved some karaoke competitors, who were getting booed while singing his 1998 hit “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” at The Tilted Kilt pub in Palm Desert, CA. To the amazement of the crowd, he jumped on stage and serenaded the crowd with the rest of the Armageddon theme. According to the DJ, Tyler did not intend to sing when he arrived at the pub with his publicist and management team, wanting to stay incognito and not allowing pictures.

That wasn’t his only impromptu performance. Home Depot shoppers in Rancho Mirage, CA got a surprise Jan. 23 when the “Crazy” singer came over the PA system. He belted out parts of Aerosmith hits “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” TMZ reports that Tyler inhaled some helium from a helium machine and continued singing while signing autographs for the customers.

Tyler’s manager Eric Sherman explained the singer’s bizarre behavior, telling People that Tyler is “a performer 24/7 – whether he’s on stage, at the Home Depot or singing karaoke.” Sherman went on to point out that Tyler is still in rehab for his addiction to pain killers (a result of orthopedic injuries from stage performances over the last decade). He is in a 90-day residential day treatment program and “has privileges to leave the grounds.” So what’s the reason for his Home Depot appearance? Sherman says, “He was shopping.”

Despite his strange antics, the front man is supposedly doing well with his treatment. Sherman said, “We are all really proud of Steven’s continuing successful therapy and look forward to the day he returns to the stage and recording studio with Aerosmith to make new music for the fans.”

When Tyler entered rehab in late December, he reiterated his plan to return to the band in a statement saying, “With the help of my family and team of medical professionals, I am taking responsibility for the management of my pain and am eager to be back on the stage and in the recording studio with my band mates.” He has already finished a 30-day intensive sobriety treatment, but it seems as though the rest of Aerosmith can’t wait to get back to work. After some confusion on whether Tyler was quitting the band to go solo or not (he plans on staying), guitarist Joe Perry said, “he has to have leg surgery and foot surgery and it’s basically going to take him out of the picture for about a year, year and a half. So, in the meantime, the rest of the band wants to play. We’re gonna find somebody to get in there and fill that spot.” Auditions for the band will begin in February with hopes for finding a replacement by the summer so the band can hit the road.

by H.Jules

Gothic, Rock & Punk

Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, infrequently doleful, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes black dyed and crimped hair and black garments. Both male and feminine goths sometimes wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernails. Can’t put my finger quite so well on why EMO kids like the dark nails, but then goth inspires us all in some way. I say they should use pink and reds. Styles are typically borrowed from the Punks, Victorians and Elizabethans. BDSM images and paraphernalia are also common. Some haute couture designers, especially Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, have been associated with the goth aesthetic.

Cintra Wilson declares that “The origins of recent goth style are found in the Victorian cult of mourning.” Valerie Steele is knowledgeable in the history of the style. Fashion is like poetry, it suggests much but actual says nothing. It comes up from what is around us.

Punk fashion is the styles of clothing, haircuts, cosmetics, jewelry, and body alterations of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely from Vivienne Westwood styles to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, rude boys, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Punk fashion has similarly influenced the styles of these groups, as well as those of popular culture. Punks use clothing as a strategy of making a statement. Rancid, one of my all time favorites personifies this in some many ways. You cannot deny the Mohawks and the torn leather. Now that these genre is so popularized, you see EVERYONE sporting Mohawks and faux-hawks these days.

Deliberately offensive T-shirts were popular in the early punk scene, for example the famous DESTROY T-shirt sold at SEX, which featured a reversed cross and a Nazi Swastika. These T-shirts, like other punk clothing items, were often torn purposely. Other items in early British punk fashion included : Anarchy symbols; brightly-colored or white and black dress shirts at random covered in slogans ( like “Only Anarchists are pretty”); fake blood; patches; and deliberately controversial images (such as portraits of Marx, Stalin and Mussolini ) were popular . Who can think of punk and without some spikes? Leather rocker jackets and customized blazers were early, and remain a common fixture of punk fashion. Accessories these babies with some rivets and spikes and we have a hit!

Punk fashion has been intensely exploited at numerous times, and many well-established fashion designers – such as Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier – have used punk elements in their production. One cannot deny the powerhouse influence that Ed hardy has, thus you see tattoo and punk symbolism everywhere because of this. Now HARDCORE-punks would despise any shirt costing more than a case of pabst, smokes and round trip fares on a metro card but it has taken hold of contemporary culture. Punk clothing, which was at first home made, became mass produced and sold in record stores and some smaller specialty clothing stores by the 1980’s. A online store like www.treatsandthreads.com has perfect examples of these styles mass marketed.

Well now that you know some background of the culture, maybe you are willing to go buy some it. Perhaps you already have some goth and punk clothing on right now. It’s deeper than basic blacks and safety pin shirts. ENJOY life and rebel BORING

H. Jules

By Odemaris Byrd

Sadly, J.D Salinger died Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at the age of 91. It’s amazing that Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher and the Rye, published in 1951, has stood the test of time despite its controversial content and narrator. Salinger lived a good portion of his life as a hermit and his book was promoted by some of the most notorious assassins in American History, Mark David Chapman and John Hinkley Jr.

Charles McGrath wrote about Catcher and the Rye in Salinger’s obituary saying,

“Though not everyone, teachers and librarians especially, was sure what to make of it, “Catcher” became an almost immediate best seller, and its narrator and main character, Holden Caulfield, a teenager newly expelled from prep school, became America’s best-known literary truant since Huckleberry Finn.

With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “goddam”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young. Reading “Catcher” used to be an essential rite of passage, almost as important as getting your learner’s permit.”

Salinger’s son announced the death, saying it was of natural causes. “Despite having broken his hip in May,” he said, “his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year. He was not in any pain before or at the time of his death.”

By Odemaris Byrd

The IPad, which sounds like a Jersey Shore cast member pronouncing IPod, is the new apple product getting hyped in the hipstersphere. It combines the applications and style of an IPhone with the screen size of a small laptop for a whopping $500. This device is said to be “revolutionary” because it can be used to read books, surf the web, and listen to music.

Specifications

Capacity: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
Processor: 1GHz
Battery Life: 10 hrs
Display: 9.7-inch

It wouldn’t be the Apple we know and love without its fair share of capitalistic consumerism. For $500 you get a large IPod, but with the nickel and diming of accessories you can have a more expensive Netbook.

Camera adaptor- 30$
Keyboard- $70
IPad case- $40

A new gadget for nerds to brag about- Priceless

With limited outputs, this glorified Kindle is sure to have enough limitations to leave much to be desired from even the starkest Apple lover.

Web TV DeLuXe’s glorious Mid-Week Whackadoo trophy is awarded to Gary Coleman. The artist formerly known as Arnold Jackson was arrested in Utah on Sunday after he failed to appear in court in connection with a domestic violence charge. The 41-year-old had his escapade with the cops over the summer when his wife locked him out of their house only to set Mr. Coleman on a wild violent rampage in their driveway. Web TV DeLuXe hopes that his inmates didn’t ask Arnold for different strokes in the cell…… Mwuhahahah!

By Odemaris Byrd

Media conglomerate Rainbow Media and Sundance festival organizers will premiere three Sundance films nationwide for the next 30 days on Video on Demand (VOD). This is great news for the future of the independent festivals circuit.

Now, more than just a few festival winners will have opportunities for distribution with this new way of exposing Independent films. This technology takes some of the power away from large distributors and places it in the hands of the audience. With more viewers laying eyes on these films there is much more potential for other sleeper hits like “Paranormal Activity” to become a success.

Each of the VOD movies will be available beginning the night of their premiere in about 40 million homes via Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Time Warner and satellite provider DirecTV. It costs about $7 to view each movie. YOUTUBE is also jumping on board by offering renting services for several of the Sundance films.

The three films picked for VOD include “Daddy Longlegs”, a drama about a divorced father taking care of his two young sons; “7 Days”, a revenge tale of a man who tortures a murderer; and “The Shock Doctrine”, a documentary about how capitalism is used in exploiting countries in crisis. Now these films will have the ability to touch families outside of cultural hotspots of New York and Los Angeles.