mccain hits obama with new ad with berlin britney and paris hilton

helena christensen teams up with odd molly

the stockholm based label that counts anthropology in the u.s. among its clients, has announced that the danish model, helena christensen will be the face of their spring/summer 2009 collection. the official announcement will come next week during copenhagen fashion week.

christopher nolan vs. james cameron

can christopher nolan’s ‘the dark knight’ topple james cameron’s ‘titanic?’ well, we know the score won’t. i guess the batman producers neglected to insert a bonafide pop tune into the soundtrack. might be why the film is a runaway hit.

drop in u.s. homeless population

according to the new york times, the u.s. homeless population is falling. hmmm. there was a time when you couldn’t help but stumble over homeless people around bryant park. but we all know that’s because rudy giuliani pushed them to the burbs and beyond (like new jersey).

contrast this with the onion’s assertion that the nation’s poorest 1% controls 67% of soda can wealth.

mcdonalds sponsors fox news with a cup of java

not sure why one has to read an irish newspaper to find out that the placement of a couple of coffee cups on fox news is a new form of integrated advertising (read, product placement) for rupert murdoch’s network. according to ireland’s independent, mickie’Ds “has bought the right to have two cups of their branded frappuccino appear on the desk in front of the anchors on fox 5″ in the u.s.

my daddy’s name is donor

this article in the london times is about 8 months old, but it’s topical, don’t you think? this article raises debates how contemporary methods take into account only the wishes of the parents, not ivf (aka petri-dish) children.

obama in paris

the weekly standard pauses for a moment to take into account barack obama’s trip to paris. sarkozy notes that france will do well with john mccain, who he met with earlier this year, or barack obama.

madonna without makeup part 2

here’s another shot of madonna from a different angle with her kid loudres from the german rag bild zeitung. you know, the same scandal sheet that recently ran an article entitled i worked out with obama.

is this really madonna without make up?

or is this a hoax. the headline reads, queen of pop. that used to be cher, but that photo surely doesn’t look like cher. the photo isn’t that bad. i mean, it’s like she’s having an okay hair day. and well, yes her eyes are half shut (which is never a good photo for anyone) and her mouth looks a bit odd. maybe whoever this photo is really of was in between cheek lifts.

the heart of poland in a bottle of cognac

the heart of frederic chopin, the 19th century romantic pianist, has been lying in a jar of alcohol, which looks an awfully lot like cognac, in poland since his death in 1839. the native son’s heart was removed from the holy cross church in warsaw during ww2.

dna experts are keen on examining chopin’s heart to find out if perhaps chopin died from cystic fibrosis as opposed to tuberculosis. as yahoo tends to move their links around, if you read this post after 26 july, perhaps you’ll have to do a search for the original article.

obama misses his money shot

the image of barack obama among a sea of bodies at the victory tower in germany was beamed around the world. but, unfortunately for obama germans don’t vote in the u.s. elections. although we’re pretty sure some american expats were among the 200,000.

but perhaps the powers that be within the obama campaign, missed their real money shot for the american public. according to fox news, barack obama made the call not to go to landstuhl regional medical center, where wounded u.s. troops from both the iraq and afghanistan wars are cared for, because he didn’t want to involve them in what could be perceived as a campaign event. also, according to the article, if obama’s plane had touched down at the ramstein base in the country, the pentagon would’ve considered it a campaign stop. but it’s not really clear what that means. obviously the pentagon is presently controlled by the republican party and W wouldn’t want to be seen as helping out obama. it’s not clear if obama could’ve just landed anyway and just had his campaign foot the bill or what. but i somehow think the gipper would’ve gone for the money shot and chucked the victory tower speech.

is this a controversy? who knows. but obama definitely missed his money shot.

obama german love fest and what about the troops stationed there

obama opted out on visiting a hospital with wounded u.s. troops from the afghanistan and iraq wars stationed in germany. according to the wall street journal, he did not visit the military hospital in landstuhl germany, but managed to speak before 200,000 in berlin germany. apparently, obama’s campaign would’ve had to foot the bill for going to the military hospital. the details in the article aren’t 100% clear. i had read elsewhere that some people from his campaign would’ve been denied entry. but not sure where i read that or if i’m ‘misremembering’ things, as W might say. if i find the info, i will post it later.

obama’s 250M euro speech in berlin

on thursday, obama is set to give a speech in the haupstadt of germany. with security and what not, the whole thing reportedly will cost the city, that is already like 60 billion euros in debt, 250,000 euros. that’s what, like almost $400,000. and loads of people aren’t happy about it. the whole event costs almost $800,000.

public realtions problem for christian bale

how to fix it. well, next week for sure christian bale will be on the cover of us weekly, people, and the sun and mirror. what can he do? well, he should sit down with his publicist and spill the beans on his mother and his sister. this is called character assasination.

for instance, has his mother ever been hospitalized for depression, does his sister have a drinking problem? have either of them ever had a peaches geldof moment? does either of them have a police record. you know the usual stuff people dig up to smear those they dislike. the only problem is, it’s his mother.

christian bale marriage on the rocks?

batman’s marriage, apparently is on the rocks. and according to the daily maily the stress of a deterorating marriage coupled with christian bale’s mother making outrageous comments about bale’s wife and himself pushed him over the edge. but not so over the edge that he touched anyone. let’s speculate for a moment. in the article he said he cursed. what do you think he said. fuck you you little cunt. or something like that. that’s what johnny rotten would’ve said and well, isn’t christian bale british too?

christian bale’s mom and sister

we hesitate mention the ‘a’ word. and i don’t mean asshole. because we here love christian bale and are trying to figure out how one man (whose not all that tall) could assault two women. we don’t believe it. and how did he do it? did he throw a lamp acrosss the hotel room and one end his his mom and the other end his sister. mind you this is all speculation. perhaps they were trying to hit him up for some batman cash, not realizing that the 155M take for the dark knight will almost cover the production cost, but they probably got another 155M to go to recoup the marketing and advertising costs.

but we love christian bale, and will suport him through thick and thin. because, well, he was brilliant in american psycho. don’t let them shake you down christian. we’ve watched entourage. we know what happens when there’s a movie star in the family. everyone wants his cut.

bits of final berlin fashion week finale

here’s a bit of the finale from the 3rd mercedes benz berlin fashion week. vivenne westwood’s post 1970s retrospective closed the show. you can view a short video of her 80s flash and 90s style that completely dominated the urban landscape the last 2 decades of the 20th century. both kim cattrall and the winner of this year’s germany’s next top model featuring heidi klum also turned up.

berlin fashion week more images

berlin fashion week ended last night. here’s a longer and better video of vivenne westwood and kim cattrall. cattrrall selectively made the rounds this week. she turned up for hugo boss’s opening show.

the dark knight 155 million opening weekend

the biggest weekend ever, they’re saying. the opening numbers best spiderman 3 by a cool 4 million.

let’s let the brits make more films. we all know that the dark knight, the new batman film is technically a british flick. and now we know that ridley scott isn’t the only englishman who can make great fluffy movies. now we have christopher nolan. but we know he at least can make the intellectual stuff too. memento is a mini-classic.

dmx isolated in jail

dmx is in jail in arizona he’s been isolated from the other prisoners because according to the local police, they may night like his music. lol!

video vivienne westwood and kim cattrall berlin fashion week day 4

here’s a video of vivenne westwood and kim cattrall during the final show of the mercedes benz berlin fashion week. a better video will be added to the blog later.

berlin fashion week day 4 vivenne westwood

vivienne westwood closed the event. the show, entitled angolmania ironically kicked off with a tune by the american band ministry. it featured classic pieces post 1970s. needless to say, the clothes were nothing less than amazing. vibrant yellows with black zig-zags and bold gold hip-hop inspired chains.

Berlin Fashion Week VivenneWestwood and KimCattrall

full metallic mini skirts and plastic shoes in pinks and yellows topped off with bold red plastic hearts. needless to say, she got a standing ovation.

berlin fashion week day 4 part 1

the big show for the day is vivienne westwood, the closing catwalk show of berlin fashion week. the second posting will include ms. westwood’s new line. as for this morning….

the berlin based designer with an irish given name, kilian kerner, launched his show with a band called spinter x. an anorexic man all in white with a white pleated shirt and white droopy trousers tied together with a wide white belt, sauntered across the stage clutching a microphone bellowing yaz-like 80s music complete with synth. oh yeah, and of course he was blond and well, white.

hunger men

the show was an endless parade of 80s retro all in grey, black, beige, and well, white. one hesitates to attach the word chic onto retro in this instance as that just might validate the whole show. and who would want to do that. the designer might want to have a sit down with a p.r. person. he or she would probably tell mr. kerner that well, white, light greys, and beige don’t photograph well. after the show, i could see photographers from major news agencies having a helluvatime shifting through the photographs trying to find ones that weren’t completely over-exposed.

this berlin trend of anorexic clothing for men with cigarette-sized legs and pre-pubscent bodies, typified by mr. kerner’s line, is nothing less than scandalous. let’s hope this trend does not catch on. while arnold schwarzenegger type muscles shirts are so out, the polar opposite is even worse. in germany, such anorexic guys are called ‘hunger men.’

batman 60 million opening day on friday

the dark knight opened to coast-to-coast sell out shows in the u.s. on it’s first day, chris nolan’s follow up to the hugely successful batman begins raked in 60 million dollars.

berlin fashion week day 3

day 2 took us from the gorgeously texturous louis xiv style of basso & brooke to a catwalk show focused on backpacks and suitcases to finally loads of light, flowing backless silky ‘the spy who loved me’ 70s style dresses. the heavily inspired diana von furstenberg unrath and strano show was packed to the rafters. and motorola and vanity fair germany threw the dynamic duo a fabulous party at weekend in berlin. but i have to admit, their winter line seemed more geared toward december in australia or southern california rather than in say, london.

you can watch bits from the shows here.

berlin fashion week continues upward trajectory

now in it’s third season, berlin fashion week continues to steadily grow. although it’s not quite paris or new york, it has a vibe that’s all it’s own.

Lac et Mel at Berlin Fashion Week

the event kicked off this morning with hugo boss. followed by the coco chanel inspired designs of gregor clemens for lac et mel, a leipzig based fashion label. later in the afternoon designer suzana peric, who has a penchant for tie dyed and bohemian prints, gave a much stronger show than last january.

suzanne weibe, whose conservative lines fit snuggly with german department stores, was cheered on by a couple of cross-gender fans in the front row. she rounded out her show with a parade of middle-aged female german stars. that was the most daring part of her event. which is not a dig. she probably does quite well with mainstream consumers who might get slightly adventurous every few years.

joop tied up opening day of the event. i emailed the german label a couple of weeks back asking for an invite as you can’t enter a show with merely a press pass, you also need a hard ticket, which you can only get from the label. someone from their p.r. office emailed me a few days ago saying well, basically ‘no.’ so the press office says, ask the designer. and the designer replies, basically we can only give you a ticket if you were personally invited by us.

earlier in the day i accidentally got a ticket to sissi wasabi, the berlin based label that’s i guess inspired by either japanese culture or merely sushi. when i asked for an invite to their gig, i was basically informed that loads of people had asked for tickets and i just might get on their list. and i thought, what does that mean? who emails someone to tell them, you just might be on our guest list?? with the exception of one or two pieces, the show was rather impressive. lots of detailed stiching with orange and gray leading the charge as their dominate theme.

here’s a short video from day 1.

more video clips from batman

if you can stand the buffering, you can go to the comcast website to watch some video clips from ‘the dark knight.’ but don’t get too excited. the new christopher nolan film, starring welshman turned american, christian bale, features stuff like filming in chicago and how they made the clown masks. or something like that. and you have to endure the endless buffering. aren’t you tired of hollywood being so paranoid that they won’t even allow fans to legally download a one minute video clip. instead, they force people who don’t have a highspeed connection –and even those of us who do, to watch less than quality level video.

too bad warner brothers decided not to have a worldwide opening for this films. those of you who live overseas might get so anxious that, well you, downloading is always an option innit, as michael caine might say?

the spectator and personal responsiblity

here is a hilarious line from an article recently posted on the spectator.”Being fat can have a genetic component, of course. But more often than not it is the consequence of stupidity, laziness and gluttony.” it’ not a quote from david cameron, the head of the conservative party in the uk, but the article makes a reference to a recent speech he gave on personal responsibilty. and the journalists is arguing that you can help being fat or a drug addict.

david cameron wants to be like obama

but there’s a distinct difference between barack obama, who is black (and was raised by a slighly overweight unattractive single parent), telling black fathers they need to step up the plate and david cameron, the head of the british tory party (and possibly the next prime minister of the uk), who is white and was raised under well above average circumstances (with more than one but less than three parents), telling absent black fathers that they need to take care of their babies and their babie’s mama. or something like that. but cameron seems to have taken this issue to the african-caribbean churches in the uk and according to the guardian, they are in agreement with him. perhaps camron gets a pass because he generally doesn’t come across as racially insensitive and he can give a 50 minute speech without notes.

will obama say i am a jelly donut?

when john f. kennedy jr. visited berlin many moons ago in the pre-acid 60s, he said these infamous words: ‘ich bin ein berliner.’ translation. ‘i am a donut.’ when amanda from ’sex in the city’ attended the premiere of the aforementioned film in berlin last summer she said, ‘ich bin ein berliner.’ ‘i am a donut.’ hopefully obama won’t make the same mistake’

newspaper industry spiraling out of control

the l.a. times, an organization with around 1200 bodies 10 years ago, now has about 700. and the editor -in-chief of the chicago tribune is gone. but no matter what they say, the u.s. still has a lot of quality journalists. unfortunately, many of them are out of a job.

mike huckabee meets with fox about show

mike huckabee is meeting with fox execs this week to discuss hosting his own show. huckabee, who resurrected the legend of chuck norris earlier this year, is leaving for rwanda shortly with john mccain’s wife as well as tom daschle.

is madonna’s publicist putting pressure on media not to cover tell-all book on madonna

that’s what gawker thinks. according to gawker, madonna’s aging, long-time publicist, liz orsenberg, saw a promo of an interview with christopher ciccone, author and brother of the forthcoming scandalous book, and has been leaning on outlets like etnertainment week and the insider to not cover the book. weren’t madonna’s last 2 albums flops? is that the real reason why she’s no longer on warner brothers?

michael ballack marries girlfriend of ten years and mother of his three kids

it used to be first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. but not for michael ballack, who just married simone lambe, the mother of his three kids and with whom he’s been together for upwards of a decade.

the chelsea fooballer and captain of the german national football team, michael ballack wed his long-term girlfriend today. according to bild zeitung, the 400 guests included football legend (that’s soccer to north americans), franz beckenbauer.

john mccain leaves no email trail

although the headline for the uk paper, the daily telegraph screams, ‘john mccain technology illiterate,’ they fail to explore the finer points of mccain’s decision to remain partially in a digital black hole. as mccain prefers to rely on the phone, just like george w. bush, so unlike bill clinton and richard nixon, there will be no paper trail when (or if) john mccain gets into and leaves the white house.

obama used as pawn in german election

seems like every german politician wants to get close to barack obama. from head of state, the well-respected yet dowdy angela merkel, to the dour yet popular frank-walter steinmeier, the present foreign minister, to the gay mayor of berlin, klaus wowereit.

barack obama, in his reported quest to speak at the brandenburg gate, where ronald reagan famously demanded, in an alzeheimer induced haze, that gorbi ‘tear down this wall,’ has sparked a diplomatic fight. the mayor of berlin is anxious to one day become the first homosexual chancellor of germany, although one might argue he would be the second, while angela merkel is anxious to win re-election and increase her party’s national standing.

in germany, it’s all about percentages. and right now, steinmeier and wowereit, members of the SPD (social democratic party), have watched their party’s percentage quickly erode over the past 3 years and increasingly so over the last 12 months. the present SPD candidate for president, gesine schwan is currently polling at 17%. a photo op with obama, who 72% of germans apparently like, would be a big boost to the local politicians.

it would make more sense for obama to touch down in london, ireland, and perhaps poland or denmark. all of which are countries involved in the iraq war.

would you use germany to research happiness

according to the bbc, economists from france, the uk, and the u.s., studied a group of germans for 20 years. and found that for germans, happiness is immune to life events. perhaps the economists should’ve take a look at this 2005 report fromthe bbc about germany and depression.

angelina jolie gives birth to twins

is this the most boring headline ever. but now we know that they are fraternal twins. one boy one girl. i mean, this was already prematurely announced a couple of months ago. and we already knew she’s been hiding out in nice behind windows of james bond proportion. but now we know that she had to have ac-section. according to eonline, knox leon and vivienne marcheline are the names of the addition to the white side of the jolie-pitt clan.

now that she and pitt have 3 white ones, 2 asian ones, and 1 black one, do you think they will balance the kids out by adopting a latino kid? or god forbid if they were to venture into an adoption agency in the u.s. and try to adopt some african-american or latino kids. guess helping the home team isn’t that interesting to brad pitt and angelina jolie. do they suffer from a form of anti-americanism? is that why they can’t give birth to kids on u.s. soil? or are they just determined that their kids will never have the possibility to run for president of the united states?

obama seeks photo op with gay berlin mayor

is it that big of a deal? no, not really. but is this the headline barack obama wants to see in kansas city, kansas? or lincoln, nebraska? following the ill advised long-playing interview with his kids malia and sasha obama on access hollywood. well, that’s the headline he just might get, at least in the blogospher, after he touches down in berlin, germany. the mayor, klaus wowereit, who has also in the past extended an official welcome to a controversial international sex festival is anxious to roll out the red carpet for obama as well. perhaps he should speak with jesse jackson about that one. obama would most likely love to be seen with angela merkel, the present head-of-state of the european union’s largest member.

hillary clinton was politically minded enough to blow off the ex-german foreign minister, joschka fischer at a new yorker party last year, so she wouldn’t have to live down being photographed with the ultra-liberal, ex-street fighter who caused a lot of left-wing ruckus in germany in the 70s and 80s and whom some believe helped sew the seeds of anti-americanism in europe.

american expat faces murder trial in italy

this story is about 9 months old. although it seems like it’s from 2 years ago. amanda knox, from seattle washington, had been in a italian jail since last november or december waiting to be charged for along with her italian boyfriend an a guy from the ivory coast with the murder of her roommate, british student meredith kercher.

austrian authorities question elisabeth fritzl while one child goes to camp

the woman who was allegedly kidnapped by her father, josef, and held in a dungeon for 24 spoke to the police about her ordeal. according to the telegraph, one of elisabeth fritzl’s incest children attended summer camp this summer on the D.L.

ethan hawk weds former nanny

it’s not always a good idea to link to yahoo webpages, they tend to move them around a bit. so if in the future this ethan hawk link doesn’t work blame yahoo.

farming makes comeback

in detroit, a local charity is transforming whole areas with a simple idea. set up local gardens manned by the locals and let people take what they need. so far, they’re finding that this is exactly what people are doing. and as the concept spreads around the city, the areas where the farms have cropped up have seen their crime rates drop

feel sorry for christie brinkley’s kids

maybe christie brinkley isn’t online. although she just settled her court case, doesn’t she realize that this story will follow her kids around for the rest of their lives?

uptown girl husband slept with 35 women

according to the daily mail, the ongoing saga that is the divorce of christy brinkley (aka the ex-mrs. billy joel and the ex-super model), and her husband peter (i’m not really sure what he does) cook, gets a bit more entertaining. the uptown girl admitted to stockpiling gas maks and being obsessed with cancer clusters.

elderly bryan ferry steps out with lily cole, can’t stop text messaging

it looks like granddad bryan ferry is saying ‘where’s the full-stop on this nokia. ahh, there it is.’ british fashion model, lily cole looks like she’s trying to pretend like ferry is back in the 70s when he was nimble and young and didn’t have to worry about silly items like mobile phones.

germany double standard for immigrants

in germany, if you’re an immigrant and you beat up a german, you’ll get 8 – 12 years in prison. if you’re a german and you beat up an immigrant, you get a slap on the risk and a suspended sentence. the message here seems clear, xenophobic/racist attacks are okay as long as they are committed by germans.

california fires still out of control

we know california has been on fire for years. and i’ve only been peripherally paying attention to this story. 1700 fires started in a 48 hour period starting june 21. if i were into nostradamous, i might start trying to tie this to something. 960 square miles have been scorched and according to bloomberg 10K building are under threat. the big sur fires are within 200 miles of the bay area and less than 90 miles of los angeles.

now that the governator has been replaced by christian bale in terminator iv, can arnold schwarzenegger, the fake republican, save california?

malia obama gives interview in cornrolls

i thought i might give the obama’s a tip. although hip-hop is more popular with suburban than urban youth in the u.s., no one in the apalachians gets cornrolls. here’s malia obama giving access hollywood the scoop.

christian bale house reposessed

well, 5 years ago. not sure if it could have been batman begins, which bought him out of a slump. but this information just makes me want to give him a big ‘ole hug.

vice president choices

will john mccain or barack obama be the first presidential candidate to roll out their VP choice? i think it will be john mccain since earlier this week wesley clark took himself out of the running on the obama list.

in terms of speculation. well, it is quite curious that charlie crist, the overly tanned governor of florida, whom comes across as being far too sparkly, announced his engagement this week –to a woman.

germans forget not allowed to vote in us presidential election

germans have a special relationship with the u.s., considering it was, like panama (aka john mccain’s birthplace), once a colony of the u.s. at least, the former western part was. now they think americans actually care who germans would vote for in the u.s. presidential election. some organization went as far to take a poll.

angelina jolie checks into nice hospital, just in case

yes, this news is old. on july 2, the bbc reported that angelina jolie, checked herself and the twins into a hospital and will stay there until she gives birth to the dynamic duo. according to the report, jolie’s doctor says there’s no problem.

okay, wouldn’t we all like to think that if we were pregnant that we could at month 8.5 decide that it’s too much for me, this wobbling around and gorging on everything that moves. and what about the hormones those special hormones that turn pregnant women into monsters from hell? what if i break water while i’m at the spa getting my nails done? i’ll just check myself into a hospital for 4 weeks, so the french paparazzi can’t get the water shot or my crying in my fish soup. who cares if the whole thing might put me back 100k?

fire and brimstone hit california

over 500K acres of land scorched. and it’s not just northern california anymore. the original fire, which started in big sur 2 weeks back, according to the article, may not be contained until the end of july. a new fire threatens the santa barbara area.

as arnold schwarzenegger is presently governor of california, one can’t help but think of his financial dud of a movie from 1999, the end of days.

gstar raw at bread and butter

you can tell the organisers of the twice yearly bread and butter streetwear fashion tradeshow speak english as a second language. the event, sorted out by krauts, is pure organized chaos. for the next handful of days, it is the happening spot in europe.

but what person in the fashion industry would ever dream of ingesting carbs or even implying the possibility? or could you imagine clogging your arteries with dairy products?

at the moment, the anti-carb faction is in paris oogling haute couture. while the carb munchingbunch are bopping about to the hives and pigging out on barbecue and brautwurst.

g-star, the dutch label, kicked the runway end of the tradeshow off. it’s great that the organizers provide multiple viewings of each show throughout the week. other runway events include ed hardy.

bill clinton and anne hathaway 6 degrees of separation

who would’ve thought we could play the kevin bacon game with billary clinton and anne hathaway via her ex-italian boyfriend whose presently in the slammer. it’s not exactly a ‘princess diaries’ kinda story but more like ‘the devil wears prada.’