I think we've touched on this subject here a while back.I heard this story this morning on the radio.

Evidently the Beach Boys (or their record producers) are suing Katy Perry & Snoop Dog for their song "California Gurls" because at the end of the song Snoop Dog says "I wish they all could be California Girls", copying the Beach Boys lyrics.

According to the story on the radio Brian Wilson says he loves Katy/Snoops song and it's his record producer not the BB's themselves suing. Admittedly, I have not heard the entire song, but can you sue for mimicking one line of a song??? I'm guessing, yes. What do you think? I don't feel like searching for the link to the entire song to post but assume most of you know it anyway.

TIS





http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/beach_boys_vs_katy_gurls_PP7YxCik3Vv329HgOWvkJM

That's a whole post in and of itself and maybe I will do one very soon on that topic but the question always comes down to did the person/group pay royalties/give credit or is it fair use. It's ironic that it's the Beach Boys linked to this, albeit through their record producer. It was the Beach Boys who lifted the entire melody, harmony and rhythm from "Sweet Little Sixteen" for their song "Surfing USA". Berry did NOT appreciate it and sued successfully IIRC. Humble Pie did the same thing with their song "Natural Born Boogie". I don't know if Berry sued on that one. Berry also sued the Beatles for using the lines "Here come old flattop ..." from "You can't catch me" in the song "Come Together". I think that was settled out of court.

Now personally I don't think that one line is worth suing over but then again I don't have the experience of having being ripped off for decades either.

Giuliani Daughter Shoplifting -Caroline Steals Cosmetics By: John Lester
Staff Writer Published: Aug 5, 2010

Rudy Giuliani's daughter was caught shoplifting cosmetics and arrested.
Giuliani daughter shoplifting arrest is shocking. The daughter of Rudy Giuliani, Caroline, was arrested for shoplifting cosmetics. Caroline Giuliani is a senior at Harvard and no one understands why Rudy's daughter was caught shoplifting.

The Harvard senior was arrested after allegedly stealing $100 worth of cosmetics from a Sephora store in Manhattan. She was busted on camera stuffing her pockets at the pricey cosmetic shop. Caroline is the younger of the former New York mayor's two children with ex-wife Donna Hanover, a television reporter and actress.

I saw her on TV being picked up by her mother yesterday. She's a beautiful girl. What a foolish thing to do.

No doubt her transgression resulted from the liberal upbringing she received from parents who are products of the drug-crazed, free-love, anything goes 60s when they attended college.

When I read of this, I immediately thought about Bristol Palin whose out of wedlock pregnancy probably has its roots in the same liberal environment in the Palin household.

We used to go to this every year as kids. It was one of the harbingers of the end of summer.


The Michigan State Fair, the first of its kind in the United States, now has a more dubious distinction -- the first to go out of business. During a time of year when final preparations are usually being made for the fair, exhibitors and customers are struggling to deal with the loss of a staple of rural life for 160 years.

For country folk, it's one more sign that their way of life is vanishing.

"It's hard to think of Michigan without a state fair," said Alma Fisher, 78, a Marine City farm girl who was queen of the 1950 fair. "It was fun just to be there, to be part of it all."

For city children, it offered a rare glimpse of farm animals. Many kids are more familiar with exotic zoo animals than ones that figure prominently in their diet and country's history.

For both urban and rural Michigan, the closing means a loss of community.

The fair brought people from all over the state to Detroit, supporters said. City and country dwellers rarely mingle in Michigan, but they did every August at Eight Mile and Woodward.

"It was like the whole state would come together," said Mike Turner, 47, an architecture draftsman from Dearborn.

The fair reminded him of childhood summers at his grandfather's farm in Tennessee, where he chased cattle, mended fences and picked blackberries for cobbler.

Once upon a time, the Michigan State Fair was a big deal.

Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe performed in 1951. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye appeared in 1964. The Supremes and Four Tops came a year later.

But then families began to find entertainment elsewhere.

Attendance began to fall after peaking at 1.2 million in 1966. Just 200,000 attended last year.

The $5 million enterprise began losing money, which was covered by the state. But Gov. Jennifer Granholm, facing a $1.6 billion deficit in the state budget, eliminated the state support last year.

A Toronto group proposed an entertainment and business venue that would have allowed the fair to continue operating, but the plan wasn't financially feasible.

"It's dead," said Tami Salisbury, executive director of the Eight Mile Boulevard Association, an economic development group. "It's a shame."

Truth be told, long before it closed, the fair was no longer the fair.
......

Full Article

Lilo,

I am sorry to hear that. I did not regularly attend the State Fair, but do remember going once or twice. I don't really even remember where it was held. Lansing?????? Or did it change every year?

Anyway, I know Michigan is worse off than many other states economically and I'm sure this isn't good news for the state.

TIS

Some more state fair info. However, the Texas State Fair expects to attract upwards of 3 million visitors this Sept-Oct.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/world/americas/16iht-fairs.2501312.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Will the Michigan State Fair be replaced by the "What Michigan Used to Be State Fair / Remember Detroit State Fair" . Very sad the direction of the United States, which will someday be renamed the Multi-Cultural-NO-Middle-Class-No-Longer-United States of America. Global Economy...what a concept!

Poleeeese!

It was always in Detroit. Well strictly speaking it's on the Detroit border but close enough.

How many times I been telling you to stop texting on phones? Never write down anything you don't want anyone else to see, my friend...

Detroit -- Interim Police Chief Ralph Godbee is apologizing for sending text messages of a "personal nature" to a colleague he says then tried to "misuse these text messages to strike a deal with the City of Detroit."

According to WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), attorneys for former Police Chief Warren Evans tried to get his job back recently by sharing the texts sent to his girlfriend, Lt. Monique Patterson, by Godbee.

In late July, Evans' attorneys met with Deputy Mayor Saul Green, who oversees public safety for Mayor Dave Bing, and shared the messages sent by Godbee to Patterson using personal cellular telephones, according to WXYZ-TV. The content of those messages haven't been released publically. Patterson's texts to Godbee's phone were not included.

Evans' attorneys suggested their client should get his job back based on the texts because they put the city in a "problematic position," Green told WXYZ. Patterson's attorney also asked the city to make an offer to the couple. An offer wasn't made by the city.

Attempts to contact Evans by The News were unsuccessful. Mark Zausmer, Evans' Farmington Hills attorney, was not available for comment this morning.

Bing cited several factors in seeking Evans' resignation in July, including Evans and Patterson having a romantic relationship, and Evans' desire to air a reality television show based on his role as chief.

Godbee, who remains on the job and is the city's fourth chief in two years, issued a statement Tuesday in which he apologized to his family for the issue.

"This is a personal challenge that I must work through with my family and myself," Godbee said in a release given to The News. "I ask the media and public to respect my family and the effort to resolve this privately. I also ask that this situation not be allowed to distract form the hard work of the department as we continually strive to improve public safety."

Godbee, a candidate to be the permanent successor to Evans, is still in the running to become chief, Bing said in a statement.

"Ralph Godbee was selected as interim chief based on his experience, dedication and commitment," Bing said. "He will be considered for the permanent role based upon the same criteria as other candidates."

But Bing also warned in the statement that those trying to get ahead at the expense of the city will fail.

"Appointees, all of whom serve at the pleasure of the mayor, are retained or released based on their uncompromised ability to lead," Bing said. "Failed attempts of personal gain at the expense of the police department and city at large are unfortunate and should not be tolerated at a time when our efforts ought to remain focused on our priorities of education, financial stability, job creation and public safety."

Text Messages

Our local Community center pool has been closed down for 24 hours so the management can clean the pool in accordance with CDC regulations. Officials closed the pool yesterday after an "incident". Picture the pool scene in "Caddyshack" except the Baby Ruth candy bar was "the real thing"!
That's a true story.

Imagine being the person who discovered the problem in the pool AFTER they were already in the pool.

My mom used to rent a condo with her two sisters down in Florida. One of the residents let their grandchild, who was NOT toilet trained, swim in the pool. Baby had an "accident" and pooped in the pool. They drained the entire pool, scrubbed it with bleach, and had it refilled.

Here's another rich one from the Land of the World's Stupidest Criminals:

Local paper tells of a 15-year-old girl arrested after she was found trying to get an altered prescription filled at a supermarket pharmacy. Pharmacist became suspicious because the prescription looked as it it had been "traced over." Turns out the girl had had dental surgery. Dentist gave her a prescription for 16 Percocets. She added a zero at the end. Sure--everyone gets 160 Percocets for dental surgery!

Levin hit in face with pie in Big Rapids
Nathan Hurst / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Washington -- Sen. Carl Levin was hit in the face with a pie this morning at a question-and-answer session on what should've been friendly ground in Big Rapids.

The Democrat from Detroit was speaking to members of the Mecosta County Democratic Party when a young man -- who described himself as a student -- began chastising Levin for his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which helps direct military and war policy.

After a few minutes of speaking at Pepper's Café and Deli, a woman who accompanied the student to the event walked up to Levin and hit him in the face with a pie, a source with Levin's office confirmed.

Big Rapids Police arrested the woman on assault and battery charges.

The Big Rapids Pioneer newspaper reported the woman's name as Ahlam Mohsen, a 23-year-old senior at Michigan State University; and her friend who instigated the incident with Levin as Max Kantar, 23. MSU lists Mohsen as a student, but it's unknown what school Kantar attends.

Levin hasn't made a public statement on the incident.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100816/...s#ixzz0wnt1aCS4

Festival's gun ban lifted
Royal Oak yields to state law, OKs carrying in plain sight
The Detroit News

Royal Oak -- Coming to Royal Oak this Labor Day weekend: The city's first Arts, Beats & Eats festival -- and the first one allowing open-carry guns.

Bowing to pressure to conform to state law, the City Commission on Monday night struck down a gun ban in the festival contract to allow holstered guns in plain sight at the event Sept. 3-6.

"The law is the law," said Mayor Jim Ellison. "I don't agree with it, but we have the right to change that law so those gray issues are gone," he added, referring to modifying laws that allow guns in public.

Not to be undone by open-carry advocates, city officials passed a resolution calling on state legislators to amend a law that allows gun carriers to enter local public buildings.

That didn't ruin the win for gun advocates Monday night.

"The fact that the city recognized the law and supported the hundreds of thousands of people who carry firearms every day is a huge victory," said Scott Webb, regional coordinator for Michigan Open Carry Inc.

The commission and open-carry proponents had locked heads for weeks over a clause in the Ford Arts, Beats & Eats festival contract that prohibited guns at the Labor Day mainstay.

Proponents say state law and the Second Amendment allow a person who is licensed to carry a firearm, holstered and in plain sight.

"It's been a complex issue," said Jon Witz, the festival's organizer, but he said he supported the commission's decision.

"We don't anticipate any incidents" at the festival, Witz said.

Some residents and festival supporters balked at the idea of guns at a family-friendly venue, one saying it "has turned the city into a circus."

Recent campaigns by gun owners have pushed the issue into the public forum. In March, advocates strapped guns in their holsters and headed to local Starbucks to test state laws. Blanching at being the center of the gun debate, the coffee chain said that it was sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal. Businesses can choose to ban guns from their premises.

Rick Ector, the owner and chief firearms instructor at Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit, said the issue is grabbing headlines because more people are carrying guns once they learn they are allowed to.

"A lot of people think that it was never legal to carry a handgun out in the open," said the 42-year-old from Detroit. "But it's legal because it was never illegal, and now you're seeing a lot more people do it."

Forty-three states, including Michigan, allow open-carry practice.

Provisions ban people, except police officers and security personnel, from openly carrying firearms in banks, churches, courts, theaters, sports arenas, day care centers and hospitals.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100817/METRO02/8170375/Festival-s-gun-ban-lifted#ixzz0wrB0pfXq

Hey Lilo,

I just got back from Michigan yesterday. The big (celebrity) news in Grand Rapids (IMHO) was that Kurt Russell was filming a movie there in the area. I forgot exactly which city he was at but they filmed a scene in a local high school right in old stomping grounds. Big news for Grand Rapids.

Years ago, they filmed a railroad scene from Pacino's "Scarecrow" in my hometown but didn't publicize it until afterward when I saw it in the paper the next day. Damn!!!!!! I would have gone to try to check it out, even way back then.

TIS

Hi, TIS.
One of the things that the outgoing governor oversaw was a very generous package of tax packages and subsidies designed to lure filmmakers to the state. It's worked quite well in some aspects.

As long as they're adapting Elmore Leonard, Lilo .

The greatest novelist to ever write about the city of Detroit (from this carpetbagger's point of view ).

That's why I am hoping that with the filming of the new cop show, Detroit 187 (?)it'll help Detroit. Although, I don't know exactly how, it seems it could be a boost to a city that is in horrible shape. Detroit has always had the potential to be another Chicago in my opinion. It could be really neat, BUT needs a complete overhaul.

TIS

I wouldn't disagree with that...

Apparently the jury has a verdict in the Blagovich trial. I know the jury had asked the judge what they fill in if they couldn't come to a verdict on various charges. Now, today I hear the jury also asked the judge for a copy of the oath that the jurors took. hmmm Anyway, I'm curious to see how this ends.



TIS

Just coming in....Blago guilty on one count of lying to the FBI.






TIS

Yeah, I just heard that too TIS.

Heck, if lying is all it took start building more Federal prisons for 89% of Congress.

The judge declared a mistrial and the prosecution says it definitely will go to trial again. I don't know if that means it "really" is definite or if they'll offer deals, etc?

Anyway, Blago cracks me up. He seems like nothing phases him, talks out of his ass. I have to wonder if he's a hapless twit!!

TIS

Ahhh, the Chicago way. Gotta love it. Only in Illinois!