Friday, 26 June 2009
Radio Show of Rosie O'Donnell
LOS ANGELES (AP): Rosie O'Donnell is returning to the airwaves. The former talk show queen will host a daily radio show for Sirius XM Radio Inc. Launching this fall, "Rosie Radio" will feature the 47-year-old comedian-actress discussing news and entertainment as well as chatting with occasional guests.
O'Donnell said she was approached by the comapny after she appeared on Howard Stern's Sirius XM show earlier this year.
O'Donnell, who left "The View" in 2007 after a single tumultuous season, plans to broadcast her two-hour radio talk show from a studio being built inside the guesthouse on her New York property where she raises four children with partner Kelli Carpenter. She said she's looking forward to working again after being out of the spotlight.
Sex sells in new Chinese cultural revolution
A mannequin dressed in bondage gear fronts a shop window at Boutique De L'Amour sex shop in Beijing. Stores selling sex paraphernalia are on seemingly every block in many parts of Beijing, catering to what experts say is a swelling sexual revolution led by a growing middle class, particularly the younger generation.
BEIJING (AFP) - – Shopping for a new negligee, Beijing resident Ha Li is looking for something that is, as she puts it, "as easy to take off as to put on".
Filling such needs is getting easier for Chinese like Ha, 23, who browses an array of vibrators, bondage gear, and other assorted goods like "Go Deep Oral Sex Mints" in a new Beijing sex shop.
Stores selling sex paraphernalia seem to be on every block in many parts of Beijing, catering to what experts say is a swelling sexual revolution led by a growing middle class, particularly the younger generation.
"It is very attractive to younger people," said Ha, a repeat customer at the shop, Boutique De L'Amour.
"These kinds of shops help to lead you to new things. They raise the consciousness of sex and keep up with changing needs. Being more open is a very positive thing," she said.
While prostitution has made a conspicuous comeback in China from the puritan days of radical communist rule, open personal expressions of sexuality remain modest compared to the West.
But the atmosphere has loosened after 30 years of exposure to the outside world, said Li Yinhe, a well-known commentator on sexual issues.
Despite government efforts to rein in Web porn, the sexual frontiers are being pushed by a more adventurous generation of mostly urban young people, she said.
"China's youth is at the forefront of this. Youths today have grown up in the Internet age and have been exposed to new things as never before, which has had a huge impact," Li said.
In a reflection of the changing attitudes, the Ministry of Education in December called for sex education to begin as early as primary school, amid fears about AIDS and unwanted pregnancies as more young people experiment with sex.
"Previously this sort of information was for high school students only, and teachers would pass over those pages in the textbook and leave them to read on their own," Xinhua news agency said in a recent report.
State media have said that Beijing and Shanghai each have more than 2,000 sex-related shops -- many of which call themselves 'adult health" stores -- catering to increasingly discerning shoppers like Ha.
"In Beijing, good quality sex products have only begun to come out in the past year," said Ha, an aspiring painter.
"The demand is big and the consciousness of sex is steadily growing."
Yang Zi, 25, opened Boutique L'Amour last month to tap this market.
While the vast majority of Beijing's sex shops are tiny cramped collections of cheap and low-quality Chinese-made goods, Yang pushes the envelop both on price and raciness with her mostly imported products.
In the front window stands a mannequin in a leather bondage bikini. Nearby, a 5,000-yuan (730-dollar) harness used for upright intercourse hangs suspended from the ceiling with accompanying stirrups.
Other sex toys range in price from 200 yuan up to a princely 7,000 yuan.
Splattered red paint covers the floor like blood stains, while a loft upstairs features a bed on which sex paraphernalia is displayed.
China's new prosperity is allowing people to think more about sex, Yang said, quoting a Chinese adage that translates as "Only once you have enough to eat and warm clothes to wear can you satisfy sexual desires".
Most of her customers are women unfulfilled in bed, said Yang, who often fields follow-up calls by customers confused by what they bought.
"It doesn't matter which country you live in, every one needs it (sexual pleasure). It is an extension of life, the essence of living," said Yang, who perches on four-inch heels and sports a nose ring.
Yet, she said, deep-seated conservatism about sex endures in China.
It took some convincing to get city authorities to approve the Chinese name of her shop, Ao Tu -- two characters which resemble the female and male sexual organs.
And Yang still hasn't found the courage to tell her parents back home in the northwestern province of Gansu about her business venture.
"They are very conservative and I don't want them to worry needlessly about me. They might think I have gone bad," she said.
Michael Jackson Dead: He was a Greatast and King Top of Pop Singer in the world(1058---2009)
Michael Jackson
was a leader of
Music world.....................................................
OS ANGELES - Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.
Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.
"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.
"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."
"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."
Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.
The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.
The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."
Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light.
Associated Press Writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
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