• Has American Idol taken over all of Hollywood? In two weeks time comes the release of American Dreamz, a film about a singing contest that has more voters than presidential election participants. Gee, imagine that. Now there is a rumour that Prince, who once called himself a slave to his record label, may appear on the show because his new label saw how Barry Manilow’s sales jumped after his appearance. The New York Post says there is just one hitch: “Prince apparently hates the show and has never even watched it." I wonder if the label is just showing him who’s boss.• Someone ought to keep their eyes on The Clash – they are sounding a little seditious. A man was pulled off a London-bound flight after a cabbie found his choice of music suspicious. Harraj Mann was able to play his own music on a cab’s stereo on his way to airport, some of which raised the cabbies suspicions. Lines like "War is declared and battle come down" from The Clash’s London Calling and “The hammer of the gods will rive our ship to new lands, to fight the horde" from Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song gave his cabbie the idea he might be a terrorist, so he called the police. While I agree the Zeppelin lyrics are criminal, I think the police might need to listen to some decent music and realize that a little angry punk does not a bomber make.
• What is the best way to increase the circulation of a magazine that has fallen out of favour with younger readers? Create some controversy. And lo, there was Playboy with the Top Ten Party Schools. Montreal’s McGill got picked as No. 10 and the Canadian media followed. The free publicity should help the pick-up rate (and the naked university girls shouldn’t hurt either.) Of course blogging about this could be seen as an underhanded way to drive up a person’s search engine hits, but I couldn’t imagine anyone that cynical. And the above photo is only for illustrative purposes. Honest.
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