Aquila Online

Remember the earplugs if you’re attending a Katy Perry concert

// November 14th, 2011 // No Comments » // Celebrities, Music, Video

Judging by this live video of Katy Perry’s performance of Last Friday Night – TGIF at her Rock in Rio concert in Rio de Janeiro, the audience should at least have been issued with earplugs. Normally I would give the artist the benefit of the doubt and blame dodgy sound equipment, or more specifically the sound engineer, but not in this case.

There was a definite false note on many occasions [time 00:30] and it seemed as she was forcing it. She also often sounded out of breath [time 01:39] – which could probably be explained by all the dancing and jumping [time 02:53].

On the other hand, the studio produced version of this song sounds so much better – No earplugs required.

José González A Musical Genius

// March 18th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // Celebrities, Music

Some time ago a good friend of mine introduced me to the musical genius that is José González. 

It’s not that I haven’t heard his music before.  I previously heard his critically acclaimed rendition of ‘Heartbeats’ on the Sony Bravia Bouncy Balls advert, while ‘Crosses’ was featured in the final episode of The OC.

Heartbeats, by the way, is a remake of the original sung by Swedish band, The Knife on their album Deep Cuts.

Regardless, both songs are featured on the Swedish-born minstrel’s debut album Veneer, which has been rocking the European charts.  The single ‘Heartbeats’ has also been playlisted on the UK Top 10 charts . 

Not bad for a 27-year old, born into a family teeming with musical variety.  Apparently his father, also a singer, has a natural taste for Latin American music along with American and UK pop classics.

It’s also interesting to note that his minimalism in his music (his voice and acoustic guitar) is echoed through his production of the first album. As the write-up on his website quips:

It’s uplifting then, in an age of spin, hype and wall-to-wall hyperbole, to note that José’s music has required no lavish production (he records on basic equipment, at home) no exotic packaging or gimlet-eyed marketing strategies, to make it cherished by thousands. For once even the Sun got it right: ”In a world of musical clones, the Argentinean Swede is a thrillingly original new talent”.

B-Sides Completed, his exclusive South African mini-album, features José’s reinterpretations of Kylie Minogue’s ’Hand On Your Heart’ and Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

Unfortunately though, we missed his exclusive one performance only show in Joburg earlier this year, but from what I read over at The Muso, the Cape Town one was brilliant.

If you like artists such as Damien Rice, Jack Johnson and Nick Drake then this will definitely not disappoint.

I’m definitely looking out for more from this artist in the future.

Scott Sigler Rocks

// January 30th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Celebrities, Podcasting

Man what a blast. Just had a quick chat with the master of sci-fi gore, a damn good novellist, podcaster and celebrity, Scott Sigler.

Some of my friends here in South Africa and pretty much all over the world, will agree with me that Scott is one seriously cool dude. It still baffles that he still makes time for the little people – dude you rock, again.

Okay, with that out the way on to business. If you haven’t listened to The Rookie, Infection, Ancestor or Earthcore you probably should get out more*. Once you get listening, words like earthcrack, junkies, Rocktopi, Krakens, Sklorno, Quyth, triangles and xenotransplantation in cows will become part of your daily vocabulary.

Things are heating up in the latest podcast novel, The Rookie and I can’t wait till this download of Episode 17 finishes – a full 55 minutes of story, which is just enough to get me through my morning commute which took me little over an hour and 15 minutes today.

Take my word for it – it’s all good stuff. So, what I want you to do is pop over to Scott Sigler’s site, subscribe to the podcast, send a vote for him on Podcastalley (or via his site) and join the Yahoo group and go buy all the merchandise you can.

If you don’t, well let’s just say I know people who know people who are connected to some really bad people. You don’t want anything bad to happen now do you?

You still here?

* Or the reason why you haven’t listened is that you don’t have an internet connection, in which case, let me know and I’ll hook you up with the good stuff (Scott’s audio that is).

2007 Golden Globe Award Winners

// January 16th, 2007 // 7 Comments » // Celebrities, News

Normally I don’t really care that much for the Golden Globe Awards, but I was rudely woken up at 04:00 this morning with thunder and lightning, in what could only be likened to flash flood status in our complex. It looked like two of my neighbours got flooded yet again.

So anyway, as the thunder died down and DSTV returned a signal, I had some breakfast while watching the final moments of the Golden Globes. Thank goodnesss, because damn that show is slow. There’s an ad break between each award presentation. Clearly not as slick as the Oscars, but I’m digressing.

Admittedly I have not seen all the movies on the nominations list as yet – I’m slowly working through them. However, our entrepid movie reviewer and king of all things titillating, the Salami from Killarney has probably seen all of them and quite recently the movie “The last King of Scottland“, which secured Forest Whitaker a best male actor in a drama award.

The actual funniest bit (at 05:00 in the morning) was when (Hoppalong Cassidy) Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hobbled on to the stage to present the final award for the evening, with the opening line, “It’s good to be back…..”.

If you intend on watching the rerun of the awards tonight, then skip the next bit, otherwise check out the rest of the winners after the jump. (PS: Sorry if you’re reading this in a feed reader – spoiler warning up next)

(more…)

Britney Spears Files For Divorce

// November 8th, 2006 // 12 Comments » // Celebrities

The world is abuzz of the news that Britney Spears has filed for divorce from Kevin Federline. Celebrity blog TMZ obtained the legal papers, which cited “irreconcilable differences”.

It now also seems as though K-Fed turned nasty too. Apparently he may fight for custody of the children, but I doubt if he would be able to win that battle.

Further reading on TMZ:
Britney Ices K-Fed
Divorce Docs Prove Britney Faked Her “Wedding”