So, we’ve been hearing about this band “Foxboro Hot Tubs” for a while now.  It’s reportedly Green Day’s “side project.” 

Click here to listen for yourself and read the article at NME.com

Here are 10 of the top April Fool’s Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

– In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

– In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets. Sid Finch was said to have mastered his skill — pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed — in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans’ celebrations were short-lived.

– Sweden in 1962 had only one television channel, which broadcast in black and white. The station’s technical expert appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.

– In 1996, Fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.

Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax. Then-White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.

– In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.

– In 1992, US National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was, “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” They even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon’s voice actually turned out to be that of impersonator Rich Little.

– In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the “Biblical value” of 3.0.

– Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today in 1998 announcing the introduction of the “Left-Handed Whopper,” specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees. The chain said it received thousands of requests for the new burger, as well as orders for the original “right-handed” version.

– Discover Magazine announced in 1995 that a highly respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool), had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. The creatures were described as having bony plates on their heads that became burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speed — a technique they used to hunt penguins.

– Noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the radio in 1976 that at 9:47 am, a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth’s gravity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they would experience a floating sensation. Hundreds of people called in to report feeling the sensation.

John Mayer loves baseball… but he should stick to singing and songwriting.  Branching out isn’t always the best idea- no matter who you are!  Here he is calling a game the other day in Japan… and that happens…  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrrx5CgdZaA

Shawn Mullins dropped by the Sophie@1037 Lounge last week.  You can check him out doing his big hit ‘Lullabye’.    http://www.radiosophie.com/Shawn-Mullins—Lullabye/1900396

Stolen from John Mayer’s blog and posted on ours ’cause I liked it so much:  

FROM THE HEART….

I need to write this.

I’ve been traveling alone in Japan for the better part of three weeks now, and It’s been so remarkable an experience for me that I can’t book a ticket home yet. I haven’t spoken very much out loud these days, but I’ve been thinking to myself in what feels like surround sound. I can see so many things clearly, and feel so connected to myself and the world around me that I need to share the perspective with you.

I’m already aware that when I sing, say or write anything, 50 percent of the response will be in support of it and the other 50 will want to discount it. This blog, though, is directed to 100 percent of people reading it. If my blog truly does have any cultural effect, then it should be used for more than just pictures of sneakers and funny youtube videos. (If you don’t think my blog has any effect, than you can’t by definition be reading this right now and therefore don’t have to respond to it in any way. Isn’t that tidy?)

What I’m about to write isn’t about fame or success or celebrity or the media. That’s my business.

This is about us all.

This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it’s actually toxic.

This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she’s awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She’ll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she’s happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she’s done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like ” I don’t give a f*ck what you think about me.”

This is about the person trying out for American Idol, who while going off about how confident they are that they were born ready to sing in front of the world, are trembling so badly they can hardly breathe.

This is about me, the guy who walks through a throng of photographers into a restaurant like he’s Paul Newman, but who leaves a “reject” pile of clothes in his closet so high that his cleaning lady can’t figure out how one man can step into so many pairs of pants in a week.

This is about a young guy who maintains a celebrity blog that subsists on tearing other people down but who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man.

This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it’s incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we’re all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don’t want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn’t going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn’t feel the negativity, but that’s because I couldn’t feel much of anything. And I think I’m done with that.

I’m not the first person to admit we’re all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to  do is to shed a little light on why we’re all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.

And really? Really? It turns out we’re just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually.  And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain’t gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he’s following ain’t gonna be Bob Dylan. It’s just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right.

What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me.

Root for others.

Give more and expect the same in return, but over time.

Act nervous when I’m nervous, puzzled when I don’t know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that.

And when it’s all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you.

I’m going quiet now.

John

WOW. The Idol contestants are really stepping it up this year! Click here to watch David Cook’s performance of Billie Jean. It’s almost good enough to make me switch from Team Carly!

Time to update your Christmas card list and stockpile stamps.  Apparently, we’re all related to each other.  Or at least that’s what some people with too much time on their hands from the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston say. 

But wait it gets better.  They diagrammed trees for the two democratic presidential hopefuls and concluded, Hillary Clinton is a distant cousin of Madonna, Celine Dion & Alanis Morrissette.  Barack on the other hand is a distant cousin of six presidents including Dubya.

I hope I’m related to Steve Madden.  And Victoria… I’ve always wanted to know what the h*ll her secret is and I’d much rather get underwear from her than Grandma.  No offense Grandma, but ya know…

It’s not that we’ve never heard of Leech Therapy before, but WHY Demi??  What in the world would make a healthy person want to do something so ridiculous?  This has PLACEBO written all over it if you ask me.  I think rich people just get bored and suddenly they have nothing better to do with all their loot. 

I cringe at the thought of mosquitos sucking my blood (hey, no one rides for free!!), let alone LEECHES…and PURPOSELY sticking them all over yourself!!??  In fact, it reminds me of the movie “Stand By Me” with River Phoenix.  The kids are taking a shortcut through a swamp on their way to see a dead body; on the way out of the swamp, eeeuuuwww!!  Leeches are all over them!!!  I remember being so creeped out by that scene as a ten-year-old seeing the flick for the first time.

Read about Demi Moore’s Leech Therapy HERE.  By the way, she says the leeches prefer a clean work area, so consider a Brazillian wax before getting this done. 

:)  Tony

If you haven’t heard of “Chocolate Rain”… in about 30 seconds from now you’re either going to love me or want to gouge my eyes out for putting this little ditty in your head.  Having said that, this “masterpiece” has won the YouTube award for Best Music Video in 2007. 

And now, I present to you, singing sensation Tay Zonday and his award winning video “Chocolate Rain”. 

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA

Um, what? This NY Post article catches up with the members of Michael Jackson’s family, none of whom (besides Janet) seem to be particularly successful these days. For example: 

Marlon Jackson, 51, an original Jackson Five member who stocks shelves at a Vons supermarket in San Diego, had to temporarily move into an extended-stay hotel.

My first question is, of course, how on earth did that happen to a member of the Jackson 5? My second question is, WHICH VONS???

Have Jackson hands caressed my Eating Right  Frozen Vegetarian Masala? Awesome!!!