Amish "Bombshell" Breaks Up Sandra Bullock's Marriage

Okay, the world is crazy, but this is the craziest thing I've heard in a long time. If you don't follow the tabloids (I don't either, but I still found this out) you may not realize that Sandra Bullock, who just won an Oscar for The Blind Side, learned this week that her husband, Jesse James, is cheating on her with a tattoo model, Michelle "Bombshell" McGee.

Among other salacious details from Bombshell McGee is that she grew up Amish, left the church when she was 16 and her parents won't speak to her. (You don't say!) Who knows how much if her story is true, but if she really did grow up Amish, you can be sure that her real name isn't "Michelle McGee." But then who is going to pay to see a tattoo model named Amanda Yoder?



I guess if Amish can grow up to be lawyers, then why not sluts?

Obscure Fact: Dylan Wrote A Song About My Town

I was skeptical at first, when a friend posted on Facebook that the great Bob Dylan co-wrote a song about Champaign in 1969 with Carl Perkins. I'm a Dylan fan and I had never heard of it. But my friend, Google, found this excerpt from a book by Clinton Heylin, which confirms it. Apparently he never recorded it, and when he was here for the first Farm Aid concert in September, 1985 (where I was present,) he didn't sing it. I particularly like the first lines:

I got a woman in Morocco
I got a woman in Spain
Woman that done stole my heart,
She lives up in Champaign

Here is a Youtube video of Carl Perkins singing the song, with some great photos taken around the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. Cool.

JACK Report: Get Your Lawyers on This!!!

I'll bet you're wondering what has been happening to the JACK Quartet (actually, you're probably wondering whether I haven't been reading any good books or seeing any good movies lately. I have. Reports will come in due time. Or not.)
Last week, the New York Times had another rave review of JACK, accompanied with a four column picture. To just pick out a few random blurbs: "young, hip JACK Quartet"; "this brilliant ensemble"; "viscerally exciting"; "eclectic thoughtful program"; "riveting performance"; "a tour de force of intensity and color."

The reviewer comments that he previously heard JACK perform in black t-shirts, but the performance last week was in suits and ties and that the Quartet proved it can do both. That review has been widely reprinted, not just because it was about JACK, but because it is by the New York Times.

Now, lo and behold, some internet t-shirt purveyor in the United Kingdom is using the quartet to sell t-shirts -- not JACK t-shirts, just t-shirts in general. The ad quotes the review as saying the Quartet is comfortable in either t-shirts or suits, and then goes on to basically say, "you too can be comfortable. Buy a t-shirt from us." Take a look at the ad, it's weird.