Monday, April 28, 2008

Foxy Boxing in New London Town With Blokes

It's a story heard time and again. Bitched out diva gets in brawl and gets out on probation. Here's the story in hard news. On Friday night, troubled pop star Amy Winehouse was cautioned by the British police after confessing to allegations of assault. The hitmaker, 24, is reported to have head-butted a man outside a pub in Camden, north London in the early hours of Wednesday, after a boozy night out. Winehouse was arrested on suspicion of assault on Friday when she voluntarily turned herself in to authorities at London's Holborn Police Station to be quizzed about the incident.
She was held in custody overnight after a doctor ruled she was "in no fit state" to be questioned. But, after explaining her actions to police on Saturday morning, she was released without charge. In a statement, the star's spokesman says, "Amy Winehouse was questioned this morning at a London police station in connection to an incident in Camden in the early hours of April 23, 2008. She admitted to a common assault by slapping a man with an open hand and accepted a caution. Amy was fully co-operative with inquiries and apologized for the incident. She thanked the police for their professional handling of the matter. There will be no further action taken. Amy is looking forward to continuing her work on new music in the studio." The caution means that although Winehouse escaped any formal prosecution, the incident will remain on record and could count against her if she faces any similar allegations in the future.
This could look like bad P.R. (NO P.R. IS BAD P.R. RIGHT?), but its likely to be good advertising as a cold hard bitch who'll knock the french toast out of you if you step on her moccasins. Chances are this little incident will help her new album top the charts. Her record company couldn't be prouder of the good rhetoric she displayed and the money they'll be tossing in their bath tubs filled with golden licorice.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Part Deuce: The Argument Continues A.K.A. Electric Boogaloo

In any band there is drama. Arguments, fights, whatever, it’s all Rock and Roll. Sometimes these quarrels turn deadly and the venomous scabs left by the bite are untreatable. This is when each band member gives a rhetorical response (a press release) to a media oulet and all hell breaks loose in the form of smack talk. In the case of the Hard Rock band Velvet Revolver, all the lip smacking rhetoric came out of left field and has sent this band not just out of the park, but into a black hole.
For months now internet blogs and music journals have been speculating about the end of the band. Is this the end of Velvet Revolver? Is STP (the lead singers former band) back in business? Are Guns and Roses (the rhythm sections former band) kickin out the jams once again. Lead pipes Weiland said, “I’ve made many attempts to remain cordial with the members of VR, but mainly, the likes of you. Funny though — this is your FIRST band, as opposed to being a hired gun. I’ve been making records (now on my ninth), which have sold over 35 million copies worldwide and have maintained a level of professionalism regardless of how many drugs I’ve ingested into my system.”
Weiland made the rhetorical response to drummer Matt Sorum's claim in his blog about how unprofessional the singer is and why this the last tour for the soon to be defunct band. His rhetorical response, “I have only canceled one tour during the entire course of my sixteen-year run and that was the ‘make-up’ Australia tour." This in house bickering is one of the many reasons why the supergroup is imploding into their older music that we all know and love. We have rhetoric to thank for this imploding.
Stone temple Pilots will soon be opening the Austin City Limits Festival and the new Guns and Roses might have a new album sometime this millennium (just maybe). Is it possible that if the members of Velvet Revolver used good rhetoric that they could have saved the band and put out more than 2 albums. I think so.
Is Velvet Revolver finished? Slash thinks so. He went on to say about Weiland, ““I thought He could be a little bit more imaginative. I’m not sure if that was meant to be a pot shot or what. Whatever, it’s not worth any real drama.” In my opinion they should just stop arguning and make some grooves. As A. Richards said about rhetoric, “Rhetoric is the understanding of misunderstandings and their remedies.”Maybe the boys should have listened to A. Richards advice before saying sianara to Velvet Revolver.