Twostepcublog

Snowbound again , and totally through with it! It's time for spring! Actually, it's time for my top tunes for the week. This week Lady Gaga spends another week on top, while French rock band Phoenix (pictured above) make a big move in the top-10. Former big hits by Plumb, Dierks Bentley, Kings Of Leon, Green River Ordinance, and Uncle Kracker drop out, while Lady Gaga & Beyonce, Adam Lambert, and Pearl Jam make the biggest jumps. Link-O-Rama is back in effect, so you can click on the highlighted name of any of the artists to go to their website. Cupcakes are ready! This Week Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa (1) 2. Someday - Rob Thomas (2) 3. Kings & Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars (3) 4. Fireflies - Owl City (5) 5. Never Gonna Be Alone - Nickelback (6) 6. 1901 - Phoenix (10) 7. Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble (9) 8. One Love - David...

Tonight's DSS is by Frenchman Eric Greff, who performs under the fictional moniker of Helmut Fritz . The storyline behind Fritz is that he's a German inheritance kid ex-patriot that lives in Paris, and the album behind it, En Observation , is a comedic foray into the decadent "clubby" lifestyle. His third hit single in France, produced by the guys behind the funky Francodisco group Discobitch , is "Ça Gère", which roughly translates to " That Rules! " The Whole album is awesome for a novelty act, and worth seeking out. Now I can't embed the original video, which you can check out by clicking here (it's better seeing and hearing him) but below at least is the audio with pics... If you likey, you can pick up the import of Fritz's "Ca Gere" at Amazon's French site by clicking here .

Last night, on the beloved Facebook , someone I knew had answered a poll about whether they'd vote for Obama in 2012. It came with a "R U NUTZ ". I have no idea why I even would pay attention, since I could care less about all those polls, games, apps, whatever in there. Yes I guess after a day with no heat, I was a little cranky. I made a comment about what was the better option: McCain/ Palin ? That started a string of typical talking point bullying that wasn't backed up by any fact. One thing stuck out, this guy kept repeating about how the economy and the country is going to hell, and somehow history leading up to this doesn't matter. And as I have a real valid problem with people in Obama's economic team and their priorities (read: Geithner / Sumners ), the one thing that I did grasp was the need for a stimulus program to spark the flaccid job market (though I agree with economists like Krugman that it should have been larger). Well the proof truly is ...

Tonight's DSS is by German rock band Unheilig , fronted by singer "Der Graf", or "The Count. The outfit mixes darker elements of Kraut-Metal with the blippy accessibility of electronica, in a style known as Neue Deutsche Harte . Another band of the style, Rammstein, recently had a smash (Pussy) that even made my twostepcubchart. Unheilig's new song, in the top-3 in Germany and top-20 in Austria, is "Geboren Em Zu Leben", or "Born To Live"... If you'd like to know more about Unheilig, you can visit the band's website or Myspace . And if you'd like a copy of the single, you can order at Amazon's German site here .

So last week it was bad enough that after a lunatic flew his plane into the IRS building in an act of domesstic terrorism, right wing pundits and politicians such as Scott Brown thinly veiled almost lauding the act by equating it with the faux "teabagger" anti-government outrage that is just a sham for a bunch of angry white people who hate having a "darkie" for president as well as their shyster enablers (Beck, Breitbart, Limbaugh et al). This morning brought ABC news, hungry for disaster porn since Haiti got old, interviewed said lunatic's adult daughter, direct from Norway (who buy the way has a public, taxpayer provided health system, just sayin') to talk about her father. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen." Oh my gravy. Immediately she tried to whitewash the statement saying... Bell said she offered her deepest condolences to Hunter's ...

Hey folks, I'm back from Manhattan, and it's time for my tunes for the week. This week Lady GaGa remains on top, while 30 (or Thirty, I can't keep track) Seconds to Mars (pictured above) jumps into the top-3. Former big hits by Jason Derulo, Reba McEntire, and Mariah Carey drop off, while Robbie Williams, Tony Moran, and Orianthi make the biggest jumps. Link-O-Rama is back, so you can click on the highlighted name of any artist to go to their website. ZZZZZZZ.... This Week Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Bad Romance - Lady GaGa (1) 2. Someday - Rob Thomas (3) 3. Kings & Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars (6) 4. White Liar - Miranda Lambert (4) 5. Fireflies - Owl City (2) 6. Never Gonna Be Alone - Nickelback (5) 7. Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas (7) 8. One Love - David Guetta f/ Estelle (10) 9. Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble (9) 10. 1901 - Phoenix ...

So. Wednesday found me ranting off on Sarah Palin for going on a media-ready Facebook tizzy about the Family Guy episode that featured a character that dated the son Chris. The girl had Downs' Syndrome, and the show included the throwaway line "My father was an accountant, and my mother used to be the governor of Alaska". Even though the show actually showed the character in a real and non-special way (she bosses Chris around, acts like any diva high school girl), somehow that translated into an attack on "her" child. Well in response, the actress who provided the voice for the character, Andrea Fay Friedman, sent out an e-mail to the media giving her take on it. It's better than I could've imagined. My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blond...

After months of hate speech running to a boil since President Obama's election, it was only a matter of time when some anti-guvmint kook took drastic action. Corporal Coward first class Andrew Joseph Stack apparently set fire to his house and then took his plane and flew it into the IRS building in Austin, Texas , killing himself and injuring 2 people in the building and leaving one more missing. It's very lucky that more people weren't hurt or killed, as the gas-full plane slammed into the building causing the damage above. That day, Stack changed his website to a long rambling anti-tax anti-government screed that somehow includes rants on communism and capitalism. I'm not going to give voice to this blather, as you can read it in any of the links to news stories, other than note that there was nothing in it that would discern from the extremo-libertarian slash teabagger mentality that conveniently only surfaces when there's a Democrat president who just happen...

Tonight's Distant Shores song is by Swiss singer Baschi , and the only thing I really know about it is it's from a film called Zweiohrküken , which in English is " Chicken With Two Ears ". Yeah. Riiiiight. The song is "Unsterblich" ("Immortality"), and it's better than I thought a song from a movie called "Chicken with Two Ears" could be... If you really like this song, you can pick up the single on Amazon Germany's site by clicking here ...

Since you apparently have no problem throwing around racial, social, ethnic, and sexual stereotypes, without knowing a damn thing about what you're talking about, I don't give two shits about Family Guy putting a fucking reference to your famewhoring presence with your fucking token kid. Who still isn't proven to be yours, and not Bristol's. Actually, to tell the truth, the show is notable for treating someone with Downs to be just as human and fallible as everyone else. You and your whole genetically defunct cess pool of a family can go fuck off back to Alahhhhska.

Tonight's Distant Shores song (songs from overseas that have caught my ear) is by singer Eric Carter , who hailed from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. That country packs over a million people in under 800 square miles, and has been mostly under French control until independence in 1968. And it's France that Carter's music has been popular, and his latest, "Unification", reminds me just a bit of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)". Do you agree? Eric Carter's "Unification" isn't available in the States, but you can order it from Amazon's French site by clicking here .

This week's Cee U Next Tuesday award for female excellence in the male-dominated field of douchebaggery is a grim one. Amy Fisher, professor at University of Alabama-Huntsville of microbiology, disgruntled over being denied tenure, came to a staff meeting and shot six people and killed three. Since then, a history of violence that includes the shooting of her brother that was originally judged an accident, but the circumstances do not in any way point to that.. After the 1986 shooting, Amy Bishop told police she thought she had ruined the kitchen, but did not realize she had hit her brother. She said she ran away and thought she dropped the gun, which went off a third time. She did not remember anything else until she was taken to a police station. But police and witnesses say she fled with the gun to a car dealership, where she pointed it at employees and demanded a getaway car. Police said it took 11 days before they could interview family members because they were so distraug...

And it seems the circle of victimization for pseudo-libertarian wingnut reality stars is complete. Wurzelbacher touched on several different points during his speech, and many of them were surprising. He said he doesn’t support Sarah Palin anymore. Why? Because she’s backing John McCain’s re-election effort. “John McCain is no public servant,” he told the room, calling the 2008 Republican nominee a career politician. I pointed out he’d just be plain old Sam Wurzelbacher of Ohio — Joe the Plumber wouldn’t exist – without McCain. His response was blunt. “I don’t owe him s—. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.” Wurzelbacher said, “McCain was trying to use me. I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.” Read the whole article - it isn't too long. Classy. We don't miss you either, dillweed.

Tonight's DSS is by France's answer to Jack Johnson, Tom Frager , and his followup to "Lady Melody". This one is all in English, and it's a breezy mindless winner. Perfect for imagining yourself on a beach in Martinique or Reunion. Here's "Give Me That Love"... Right now Tom Frager's music isn't released in the US, but you can listen more on his MySpace , or you can order his album Better Days from Amazon France by clicking here .

So in the mass exodus from the apparently self-imposed prison Congress appears to be, Senator Evan Bayh (which means "Dick Hole" in the native Estonian) did a shock-announcement usually reserved for gay or philandering governors or forthcoming indicted politicians, and declared that although he's been plastering his mug around the pundit programs saying he will run for a third term, he is retiring from the Senate after this term. “Congress is just dysfunctional. It is not getting the people’s business done nearly the way it should. I kept hoping that things would get better; that we’d be getting more done. And it just has not been happening,” Bayh, 54, told reporters this afternoon. Later, he added: “I was not a creature of a legislative body before I went there, so perhaps other people would have a greater tolerance for that sort of thing than I do.” Oh, honey, please. The lady doth protest. Since President Obama's election (and most revealingly his snub of not bei...

With all the focus in the "all flirt no substance" performances Sarah Palin has been putting on lately, it's easy to neglect the army of Manchurian sexbots that the Republican party have been accumulating as their plan for a new wave of ascendancy. This includes cougar whackjobs like Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota (fun fact - if you Google "Minnesota Congresswoman Whackjob" her official site is the first entry), Marsha "I'm waiting for my Desperate Housewives cameo" Blackburn, and former Miss I-Will-Never-Concede Marilyn Musgrave. However, the GOP is growing a bench of himbos as well, cut from the Mitt Romney mold but with more of the hunk and less of that pesky Mormonism. One of their brightest upcomers (pun intended) is Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock (pictured above apparently on a break from his beer commercial audition tape). Before the nude model from Massachussetts stole his thunder, Schock was considered so much a hottie that even the ga...