All Cats Are Gray

In an article by UK GQ , writer Alex Bilmes has called Robert Pattinson as the silent superstar. Why? Because despite his fame and success, he still remains the aloof and silent young man from Barnes, London.

Rob is currently the hottest star to hit the net these days. He has remauined in the Top spot in IMDB Star meter, occasionally falling to second or third place but not dropping out of the top 10. Eventhough that he has no movie coming out in months, he still remains as the most searched and the most buzzed actor. Here is an excerpt of the article:

So far, this unassuming young man has managed to mostly avoid the limelight - he's a 107-year-old vampire, after all - but one suspects this situation can't last. Go into any Waterstone's or Borders or HMV and ask to see the Robert Pattinson wall. There you'll find him: not just in Twilight novels and DVDs, but in biographies dedicated to him, on posters and calendars, the latest in a long line of teen idols that stretches back further than James Dean.

To read the complete article, please click on the link above.

Also please dont forget that Picturehouse cinemas in London, Liverpool, York, Southampton and Aberdeen will be having a Rob filled day on June 20, 2009. Dubbed as Rob-O-Rama, they are going to show films made by Rob starting with the Goblet of Fire. For more information, visit the website of Picture House at www.picturehouses.co.uk.

Jonna Nygren, Finnish star, sporting the look.

We've been on top of singer Cassie's half-shaved-head situation from the beginning, with some of you digging the look. But deep down, I'm not sure any of us really thought the buzzed-head thing was going to become a major Hollywood trend. Well, new evidence--brought to our attention by a reader--suggests that perhaps we should be taking this shaving business seriously.

A recent shot of Cassie's hair, with some new side-stripes added.

Reader Jen Jones emailed us to point out that both Rihanna and Carmen Electra have also shaved off large patches of their hair recently. Wha? How did we not know this was going on? We immediately began to investigate. Here's the best shot of Carmen I have access to on the wires (but you should also click over to Popcrunch for paparazzi shots from different angles, which'll give you a much better idea of the hair situation we have going on here).

There's a bunch of hair missing from the right side of Carmen's head these days.

Next, go check out the Rihanna photos. Since I know we have many major Rihanna fans in the house, I'm dying to hear what you think of this new look of hers, so go check out the shots, then come back here and comment.

Think this is only something famous people would dare try? Not so. Two of our regular blog commenters recently fully shaved their heads--and they sent us photos! Here's TheLoverly ...

... and Mizteejay.

You two are brave; I'm dying to hear what prompted you to take it all off, so I hope you hop into the comments and share more details with us. I have to say you both pull off the buzz well, though that still doesn't mean I'd ever attempt to do the same!

So now that it appears that buzzed cuts are catching on, I think we need to have a more serious discussion about them. What do you think of the trend? Have you ever buzzed any portion of your head? When I was in high school, girls used to buzz underneath the back of their long hair; the shaved portion would only show when they put their hair up in a pony. Honestly, I was always perplexed about why, but maybe I was just never cool enough to get it (or rebellious enough to contemplate trying such a thing). Was that trend a thing where you grew up?

Let's talk, ladies. Girls with partially and fully shaved heads: A Do or a Don't? If a Do, what are the rules of getting this trend right?

While we're at it, what do you make of the whole harem pants trend? They're discussing it over at Slaves To Fashion, if you care to chime in.

http://www.glamour.com

Believe the hype

Lebron James. It's one of the first nice summer days of the year, and I'm lucky enough to spend the afternoon stealing a few minutes from Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the most enigmatic and intriguing frontwoman of the indie-rock moment, and all I can think of is Lebron James. But it's not just because I'm anticipating the upcoming NBA season.

See, nobody would know the media hype that Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase have endured better than King James, the 18-year-old basketball phenom. Sure, the band put on legendary live shows and top-notch EPs, and the skeptics were as conspicuous as the die-hards. But the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, without even a full-length to their name, were everywhere: magazine covers, television, you name it.

But while James has yet to answer his critics' worries, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs dropped Fever to Tell, one of the year's best rock records, and put nay-sayers to bed. In a surprisingly pleasant chitchat, a down-to-earth Karen O talks about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs explosion. If I didn't know better, I'd say this girl didn't know she was a rock star.

Prefix Magazine: Hey Karen, how's it going?
Karen O: Good. I'm good.

PM: The day's been pretty good so far?
Karen O: Yeah, it's kinda just starting for me

PM: You just got up?
Karen O: No, no. I got up a couple hours ago

PM: Are you a morning person?
Karen O: I don't know. Well, if you consider 11:30, twelve to be morning.

PM: Ok. You're not a morning person then. How is it decided who gets interviewed for these things?
Karen O: It usually is decided for us by our publicists, depending on other requests. I probably get about twice as much as the boys.

PM: Along those same lines, obviously you get the most attention in the band. Does that ever cause any tension within the group?
Karen O: No, I don't think so. I think maybe in the beginning it did because we were so damn egalitarian. With three of us, we'd split everything three ways. But then when the press and the media got a hold of it, all of sudden they were just like - "Karen!" Obviously, we weren't blind to the fact that might happen with a girl, but then when it happened it wasn't the easiest.

PM: How long did Fever to Tell take to record?
Karen O: Let's see. We did it sort of on and off for maybe two-and-a-half weeks.

PM: Did you think it'd be pretty much in and out like that?
Karen O: Well, no. Actually it felt kind of long and drawn out to us. Because our other experience recording. We did the EP in two-and-a-half days at Funhouse, which was our first session recording ever. Then we went back to Funhouse to try to record the album before we had the right songs that we wanted to put on, and that only took like four or five days.

PM: So two-and-a-half felt drawn out. Interesting.
Karen O: It might have been even longer than that. I don't know. It's kind of a blur for me now.

PM: Regarding the album, there was obviously a lot of hype and press that came with it.
Karen O: Right.

PM: How did you feel about all the press and hype coming into making the album?
Karen O:  We're not a band that's constantly on tour like 365 days a year. And so we rely on press a bit more than other bands to get the word out. The downside of that is that people can really be skeptical.

PM: I think a lot of people felt there was no way you guys could meet the hype since you'd only released two EPs at that point.
Karen O: Right, right.

PM: Did you ever feel like underdogs because of all the hype and press?
Karen O: Yeah. It's strange. It's a really exceptional position to be in due to the nature of how everything went and how young of a band we were. Our release date was about a week after the big White Stripes album came out. So we definitely feel like underdogs. It's strange, too, because when the reviews started coming out, a good bulk of them were really positive. Still, it's interesting to me because despite all the press we have, we still haven't made a dent in the sales. (giggles)

PM: I think that's often how it is with the critically acclaimed.
Karen O: I had a discussion about this with my manager the other day. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that we're not on some crazy 365-day tour.

PM: Is that something you ever consider. Do you think about doing some crazy humongous tour?
Karen O: No. Not really. Because this last year and a half, when everything kind of exploded for us, it was all this big learning experience and getting a feel for our limitations as far as playing live shows. At this point, and this could just change any day, I've been a real purist, wanting to give 300 percent every show.

PM: I could see how it'd be tough to give it your all if you're playing shows every night.
Karen O: There are so many bands that crumble. You can't put on a great show everyday of the freakin' year. That really bugs me to see a band you're in love with and have them play a mediocre show, especially if they can do better. But, that's a conflict for me now. I know what my limitations are.

PM: What are your feelings with how the album turned out? Is there anything you would have done differently looking back?
Karen O: No, not really. We're really sensitive with having our labels, Interscope and Polydor, not shoving it in everyone's faces. We didn't want posters of us pasted all over cities. That would be like -- ugh. That would just be miserable. We wanted to go mostly off of the press that we generated even before. We had a feeling. We kind of wanted to ease into the whole thing. We made such a major leap from being a five-song EP that we distributed ourselves most of the time, then finally gave it over to Touch and Go, an independent label, to like the big-time thing.

PM: It would've been too big of a jump?
Karen O: It would have been like throwing a baby in ice water. Probably would've traumatized us if there was a major push with the album. It still feels like it's organic. It still seems like people catch on everyday and not because it's been shoved down their throats, but how they've been catching on the whole time.

PM: One song on the album, "Maps," seems to deviate a great deal from the rest of the album. What pressed you to make that song?
Karen O: I think we wrote that a year ago or a little over a year ago. We had just started touring a lot. There was a lot of emotional unrest going on. The dirt was being kicked up and the water was getting really murky. It also had a lot to do with the fact that I just had fallen in love and settled down with someone, but I was constantly going away and coming back. All that caused the bleeding-heart song that kind of music that I kind of wrote out of the blue.

PM: I love that song and I think a lot of people do.
Karen O: Well, it's authentic. It's at least me and Nick's favorite song on the album. Nick also really loves "Pin." Brian's favorite is "Y Control."

PM: Do you worry about all the attention is given to the fashion style of the band? Do you think there's too much of a focus on that and not the music?
Karen O: Yeah, of course. And that comes with being a female lead singer of a band. You'll see that with tons of women in rock. It's pretty unreal how many offers I turn down that are strictly fashion stuff. It sort of goes hand in hand with me. It sort of rounds out my persona better. But the press of course is going to focus on things like that since its exciting and it's a very trend-centric kind of writing. But then every now and then we get Thurston Moore writing an amazing piece on our music having nothing to do with our clothes. That kind of balances out the hundreds and thousands of other reviews.

PM: Do you feel you or your bandmates changed a lot since the band first formed 3 years ago?
Karen O: Oh yeah. There's definitely been a transformation. Not so much with me. I always take the approach that no one's going to change me, I'm going to change them. I still stand by that. It's just my life's changed a lot. But personally I haven't changed.

PM: Is Unitard (another project with Nick and Karen) still going on right now?
Karen O: Well, it's hard to say. I've been doing a lot of solo stuff, but without Nick. That's sort of how Unitard started anyway, with me doing stuff and then Nick came on and did stuff with me. I'm not sure if I'm calling it Unitard or anything like that, but I'm still writing sort of sweet, small kind of soft little love songs all the time.

PM: How would you compare playing Letterman or Conan? Which one did you like better?
Karen O:: It's hard to say because Conan was our first TV experience ever and so it was really, really nerve racking. We were really, really, really nervous and freaked out the whole day. It was really exciting since I've been a big Conan O' Brien fan since high school. It was sort of like popping our TV cherry. By the time we did Letterman we had already been in Europe and done some big TV shows there. So, we almost felt seasoned by the time we did Letterman. We felt much more comfortable on Letterman and probably had more fun. But the exposure from Letterman was probably like 100-fold more than we got on Conan.

I don't know how she did it. Fire
She was shaking all over. It took
her hours to put her make-up on.
But she did it. Even the false eye-lashes.
She ordered gin with triple
limes. Then a limosine. Everyone
knew she was the real heroine of
Blonde on Blonde.
oh it isn't fair
oh it isn't fair
how her ermine hair
turned men around
she was white on white
so blonde on blonde
and her long long legs
how I used to beg
to dance with her
but I never had
a chance with her
oh it isn't fair
how her ermine hair
used to swing so nice
used to cut the air
how all the men
used to dance with her
I never got a chance with her
though I really asked her
down deep
where you do
really dream
in the mind
reading love
I'd get
inside
her move
and we'd
turn around
and she'd
turn around
and turn the head
of everyone in town
her shaking shaking
glittering bones
second blonde child
after brian jones
oh it isn't fair

how I dreamed of her
and she slept
and she slept
forever
and I'll never dance
with her no never
she broke down
like a baby
like a baby girl
like a lady
with ermine hair
oh it isn't fair
and I'd like to see
her rise again
her white white bones
with baby brian jones
baby brian jones
like blushing
baby dolls

Patti Smith
Seventh Heaven (1972)
Telegraph Books, Boston, MA, USA