Searching for Utopia

It may be a slow news day, but it doesn’t stop us from getting “that” book. So go grab your copy and make sure you don’t miss Chapter 16!

Ouch, I’m a C-lister! What about you? Click here to find out.

Yay!!! Just when I thought shitty music has gone out of fashion in 2006, John Mayer came and saved the day. Click here to watch his live performance on MSN Music. Now I just wished Viva would read this blog *sigh*

[MSDN]

“Apparently I spelled ‘harass’ wrong. It was horrible! I couldn’t remember whether it was one ‘r’ or two, and I asked like four people, and they said two!” [Female First]

Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightly when they were being harrased (sic)

While googling about Paypal in Hungary, I found this interesting piece on Conics.Net:

Click on the picture for the full-sized picture

Okay, I have heard many times about Indonesian credit card scams. Everyone has their own right not to accept payment from Indonesian credit cards. It is I think the same reason as why Paypal is not available there (I suppose Hungary is getting better in fighting the frauds). But is it okay to call the whole nation as terrorists or THEIVES (sic) as the Conics.Net does? In any case, this one goes out to Conics.Net: It’s “thieves”, sir!

Index.hu reported that Paypal is now available in Hungary. I honestly have been waiting for this good news for so long. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it turns out to be true. Paypal’s official website says:

Well then I guess from now on we can also sell Britney Spears’ half eaten sandwich on eBay. Yay!

Sixties singer Lulu has ruled out touring with Take That on the European leg of their reunion tour, saying, “I’m not going with them to Europe. I know I said that last time and then they talked me into it. “They’re adorable but no, I’m definitely not going to do it.”

I read the article and ended up very excited. No disrespect to Lulu, but my only question is whether there will be any Take That European tour at all. The ex-TT-cum superstar Robbie Williams held a concert in Budapest, so I hope the rest of the gang would not snub us. The British reunion tour was reportedly sold out in only thirty minutes and it landed a $10 million record deal with Polydor.

“The Making of A Boyband”: Can A Boyband Dance?

“The Making of A Boyband”: Can A Boyband Sing?

Thanks to Youtube, we could watch the highlight of the UK gig that is “Making A Boyband” scene, including “Can A Boyband Dance?” and “Can A Boyband Sing?”. It’s kinda great to know that the guys still have it after ten years of hiatus—considering that they are way too old to be called as boyband with Jason Orange (38) being the oldest. It was quite surprising as well since they had confessed that they had not got the stamina anymore to do the dance routine. Li’l Mark Owen said that he was left puffing and panting when he went clubbing after the premiere of the group’s new documentary. He said: “I went for a little dance after the premiere the other night. I only lasted an hour, I was out of breath. So I don’t know what we’ll do. We can’t sit on stools - that’s too much like Westlife.” Ouch! Westlife was my favorite boyband after Take That era, but Mark has hit the nail right in the head: they can’t dance!

True enough, singing and dancing are the most essential parts of being a boyband; so I guess it explains why most boybands lack the skill to compose songs. After TT split in 1996, the boyband era was blooming bigger than ever with names such as Backstreet Boys, *NSync, Boyzone, and of course Westlife. Note that they shared the same song writers for their hits. Right now I can only remember Max Martin, but I’m sure there were others. One could even tell that there was not so much difference between Celine Dion’s “That’s The Way It Is” and Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”.

TT songs were very different in that sense, yet they had their own style. Thanks to ole fat Gary who had apparently learned how to dance on the last concert—proud of him. Gary Barlow, the man who had been the object of Robbie Williams’ wrath after their bitter break up, has actually continued to write songs for other singers, such as: Elton John, Delta Goodrem and Christina Aguilera. However, “Back for Good” remains to be the best boyband track ever. My apologies goes to Robbie Williams. He is a great entertainer, but the song was made for Gary Barlow. But I agree with him: no more fighting! So, kind readers, pray let me know if you knew more about this European tour plan

The original “Back for Good” as sung by Gary Barlow and Take That

“Back for Good” as sung by Robbie Williams featuring Mark Owen

Related Article: Boybands and Their Folks: Now and Then

Nothing is better than having a supermodel doing a commercial for McDonald’s. I’m sure Heidi Klum loves her french fry. One piece won’t kill, right? *sarcastic mode turned on*

Nicole Kidman and 84 other Hollywood A-listers have taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in Los Angeles Times newspaper:

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” the ad reads.

“If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

“We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”

That poor lass, I thought she was smarter than that. Certainly she needs to pay a visit to Budapest before September 20. Our lovely city is hosting an exhibition on Israeli conduct in an independent country called Lebanon. She may have her reasons to brand Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but she must not forget that it takes two to tango.

“During 33 day of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, Israel killed 1300 civilians, wounded 4000 and displaced about a million person when destroying their houses,” Lebanese national Agency quoted Lebanon’s ambassador to Budapest Hussein al-Mosawi as saying.

War is bad, people—especially for those who are fighting in it. So why does it keep on happening?