Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Dances With the Stars

The award winning
jazz / retro swing Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, rocks the ever popular Dancing with the Stars tonight, dazzeling America into a swingin' frenzy. BBVD is set to release a new album entitled
How Big Can You Get (Big Bad/Vanguard Records) on April 21, 2009. The 11 song CD, their eighth album, is a tribute to Cab Calloway, the legendary band leader and jazz singer, and was recorded in honor of what would have been Cabs 100th Birthday.
According to bandleader Scotty Morris making the album was one of our biggest musical moments. Delving into Cab's music made us see the high level that his songs were written and arranged at, and why they've lasted. We went top-to-bottom live in the studio and chose the best takes for the album, because Cab's originals were live performances and radio broadcasts. People got a glimpse of him when he stole the show in the Blues Brothers movie. We want people to know he was more than the King of Hi-De-Ho-we want to put a light on Cab's legacy more fully."
Produced by Morris and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the record includes some of Calloway's classics including Minnie the Moocher, The Ghost of Smokey Joe and The Jumpin' Jive alongside some of his less obvious, yet just as powerful tunes like Reefer Man, Calloway Boogie and The Old Man of the Mountain all performed with the bands usual enthusiastic approach and great interpretation.
Formed in Ventura, California in 1989 by Morris, the band released two records independently before breaking nationally in the cult comedy film Swingers. They went on to release ten additional albums on various major labels before striking a deal to develop their own label Big Bad Records through the legendary Vanguard label. Their videos have been regularly featured on MTV and VH1 and they have appeared as musical guests on numerous television shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live with Regis and Kelly, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and now Dancing With the Stars. Known for their hip sensibility, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has built and loyal and consistent fanbase over the years, and has sold over 2 million albums.
The title track How Big Can You Get now unbelievably poignant to our time with lyrics that reflect corporate greed - is also the first single off the album. The song will be serviced to radio and a corresponding video is being shot in Los Angeles in March. The band is a tour circuit favorite-playing over 200 shows a year. They'll start a major tour in support of this album in April.
The band, which received support from Cab Calloway's family throughout the project says, We felt like we were hugging an old friend when we made this album."

drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, aka Shorty, Makes Forbes Criminal List

Mexico finally makes the Forbes list. Wait I thought that list was for "honest businessmen", not Mexican immigrants. No, you say, he's a Mexican, not an immigrant. well then there must be something wrong with this fellow. Oh yea he's a big shot drug lord in sunny Mexico, not a real businessman. Nay he escaped prison through their laundry service and then retained his drug cartel pulling in 19-39 billion in wholesale cocaine proceeds. I'd have to say that's pretty real, or at least pretty clever. Guzman Loera is the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The Attorney General of Mexico was not pleased:
"I will never accept that a criminal could be recognized as someone distinguished, even if it is by a magazine like Forbes," Medina Mora said at a drug traffic summit Thursday in Vienna, Austria, CNN reports.
Forbes is "comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen," he said.
Nor is the Mexican president:
"It is very sad the intensification of a campaign, which seems to me, has been launched against Mexico," President Felipe Calderon said.

True we've launched a campaign against you, but you can't keep a homicidal drug lord in prison, and then you can't track him down after he escapes with his dirty laundry, take his money and disperse it among the poorest in your country? Shame shame Calderon, it is a dirty game this country running eh. Forbes has other wrong doers atop the list, trust me on that one. How do the druglords file thier earnings anyway?

Van Morrison Plays The Royal Albert

Our favorite Irishman has got a few new tour dates popping up in London. You can go see him at the Royal Albert Hall if your closeby, or your just a fanatic. Van Morrison has worked some magic recently in Hollywood too. You can pick up a copy of his live showat the hollywood bowl, its available on video. They went all out on this one. Captured on film its pretty impressive to see this old time rocker in action on the screen. If your not familiar with Van Morrison, you may be with his songs. He crafted hits such as"moondance", "tupelo honey", and of course the classic "Brown eyed girl" which was included in the album "Blowin Your Mind!" and in2007 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Even though Van Morrison isn't touring like a madman, his agents did have enough ]since to put this classic Irish superstar on film. A little known date coming up for him in June, The Millennium Centre in Cardiff. I hope you make it friend, we don't know how long this clock will be tickin'.

St. Lucia, Relax in Heaven

They don't call the biggest mountain in St. Lucia the Jade Mountain for nothing. This place might as well be made of emeralds. Views of the sparkling deep green are no longer hard to come by in St. Lucia. I kept pinching my wife as if she would wake up and then slap me silly for slobering all over our good sheets. The views and ocean air aside, this is less becoming an all inclusive "fantasy resort" destination and new hotels are popping up on every other outcrop. Sandals alone has around three resorts there on an island smaller than cape cod. Service is still very high, and of course amenities are easy to come by. At least 1,000 hotel rooms have been added last year and another 1,000 are expected to be completed in 2010. Not to bring down the tone on this little sunspot in the caribbean, but not so many palm tree ladden white sizzling beaches to behad at St. Lucia. Still, the craggy vistas and lush jungles make the Lucia an adventurer's ticket. The next time I get vacationmoney for the caribbean, I'll take another good look at this sweet islanders emerald. If you like being up high, and you need a lofty perch to roost your bones upon, I'd surely recommend it.