Though Katy Perry is stacking ultimate fame via her #1 single “I Kissed A Girl” (remember the time Jill Sobule already wrote that song? I DO!) her fundamentalist Christian parents are not amused:

Instead of getting praised, the daughter of evangelical Christian preachers is deemed “shameful and disgraceful” with the lyrics of the song that promotes “sin”.

Speaking to DailyMail.co.uk, Perry’s mom, Mary Hudson said, “I hate the song. It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting.” She added that this is no longer a secret, saying, “Katy knows how I feel. We are a very outspoken family and she knows how disappointed her father and I are. I can’t even listen to that song. The first time I heard it I was in total shock. When it comes on the radio I bow my head and pray.”

Her parents of course, long for the days when Katy Perry was Katy Hudson, Christian pop singer and girlfriend of Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen. But man, look at her scans! Just give her a few years and then she can repent, get born again, shit out a bunch of kids and live off the residuals for the rest of her damn life, the true American Christian way!

Today, while discussing Big Foot, the topic of Chewbacca came up, which led to me looking up the “Star Wars Holiday Special.” Somehow the ill-received, quickly-churned-out-to-meet-insatiable-demand 1978 TV special had slipped past me for many years. I never actually saw it. But now, thanks to YouTube, I can see the best five minutes of the 2-hour special.

I want my 5 minutes back.

When he’s not busy pwning Mark Spitz and winning over 9000 gold medals, Michael Phelps is seemingly always rocking some shit on his iPod. Since for at least this week he’s bigger than Miley Cyrus, Yahoo! Sports lurked into what’s on Phelps’ iPod, and guess what? It’s mostly shit, shit and more shit:

While his pre-race tracklist varies, Phelps has said that “I’m Me” by Lil’ Wayne has been on his playlist in Beijing. Other artists that populate Phelps’ iPod include: Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Eminem and Outkast. (What, no ‘Pac?) Occasionally, he’ll throw some techno into the mix, but usually keeps things rap-centric. Phelps doesn’t speak much about the specific songs he’s listening to, but he did tell NBC in 2004 that Eminem’s “‘Til I Collapse” was on his most-played list at Athens. In 2005, he created a playlist for the website Rhapsody that included the songs “Roses” by Outkast, “Burn” by Usher, “Overnight Celebrity” by Twista and  “Smile” by G-Unit.

A groups of Ecuadorian little people, the Laron Dwarfs, have, through the magic of inbreeding become immune to both cancer and diabetes, giving scientists hope that this immunity can be transferred to the general populace:

There are a little more than 300 people in the world with the condition Laron dwarfism, a third of whom live in remote villages in Ecuador’s southern Loja province.

Sufferers of Laron – believed to be caused by inbreeding – lack a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor 1, or IGF1.

Research uncovered during an investigation by Channel 4’s More4 News suggests this is the reason for their longevity and apparent immunity to cancer. In ordinary humans, too much of the hormone can lead a person to develop breast, prostate or bowel cancers at an early age.

Dr Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, a hormone expert from the Ecuadorian Institute of Endocrinology, who has been studying Laron dwarfism for more than ten years, said: ‘We’ve discovered that people with Laron simply don’t get cancer.

‘Cancer can be detected in their relatives of a normal size, but never in my patients – not one single case.

‘Every experiment has demonstrated that high levels of IGF1 are associated with cancer, but these patients have low levels of IGF1 and an absence of the disease.’

According to Dr Guevara-Aguirre, finding a way to reduce levels of IGF1 could mean finding a way to prevent cancer from developing. ‘Medically, this is very, very exciting,’ he said.

The Laron dwarfs could also have implications for the prevention of diabetes, he said. Despite a tendency to obesity due to overeating and a poor diet, it is another condition to which they appear immune.

Post # 3 - To all you haters

Okay, I’m a bit fired up about some of the comments I’ve received.

First, dude, give me a break I just got into this whole blogging thing. I’m sorry I’m not as awesome as you and missed some typos. My “One-horse town”, London Derry, NH USA Google it!  Okay, okay Vermont might take the prize for syrup, not NH but I thought I was being witty damn it!

Ever stabbed your self with fish barb that pops out from under the gills? It hurts! This internship is uh, I don’t know, better then stabbing myself with a slimy fish.  It happens to be the most interesting thing that I have to talk about right now. You ask what school would take my first born? Try Berklee College of Music, Boston MA.  I assure you I am a very real music intern, living with very real new city allergies.  I guess If I had a nickel for every time someone doubted my existence I would have a nickel. HA! I crack myself up.

And another thing…

I worked in music retail in NH when I was 17 for a year.  It was Christmas time and the guy came up to the register saying in a low voice “I have a gun.”  Every fool knows the registers a loaded with cash at those times and thus a very real, very scary moment in my life. Oh, and When I went to school in Boston, I tried to transfer so hard to the store there, but I guess I wasn’t a snarky enough scenester with my tight clothes and handle-bar mustache.

I am real!  Phew, sorry. I’ll attach a pic to lighten the mood.

So I tuned pop music out for a minute, preferring a steady playlist of ’70s glam rock, Willie Nelson and Black Sabbath to the sugarhooks and fashionable looks populating the TRL world, and by the time I start paying attention again, I am flooded by constant blogs and article about folks like Jeffree Star, Trace Cyrus, Ronnie Radke… Not their music, but their fascinating drama. For a second I wondered why it’s more interesting for folks to talk about their feuds than their actual music. Then I listened to their music…

Egad, no wonder. Side note: it sounds a lot better when you listen to all three simultaneously than one at a time. Just open their My Space Pages in your tabs. See? Way better.

A plausible solution: