Stars! They’re just like… us?

Brilliant.

Can we all just accept the fact that celebrities are NOT like you and me. Every magazine or gossip show loves to have a little section or segment where they tell us how celebrities are JUST LIKE regular people.

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Let’s cut the crap. In general, big celebrities live in a ridiculous Never-Never-Land nightmarish fantasy life that you and I can’t even begin to imagine. It’s probably like being trapped in an orgy in the middle of Willy Wonka’s factory — it’s a paradise until 12 hours later when you want to GET THE F*CK OUT! And an hour after you get out, you want back in. Just ask Gary Coleman.

Historic

Will Shepard Fairey become a household name?

Even before he takes office, President-elect Barack Obama’s image will become part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery, the museum announced Wednesday.

The gallery acquired the iconic red, white and blue collage by Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey, depicting Obama with the word “Hope.” The image _ later modified with the messages of “Change” and “Vote” for the Obama campaign _ became one of the most memorable images from the 2008 election. The curators at the Smithsonian Institution museum plan to hang it by Inauguration Day.

“What I think is so fascinating is the ubiquitous nature,” said Carolyn Carr, deputy director of the portrait Gallery. “When people think of a portrait of Obama, they think of this image.”

Best Tracks of ’08 (i love best ofs)

We’ve given in. We love best ofs. And we prove it by sharing with you the best tracks (our favorites) of ’08:

“Elvis”, These New Puritans

“London”, Frida Hyvonen

“Oh My God”, Ida Maria

“William’s Blood”, Grace Jones

“Psychotic Hate Man”, The Bellrays

“Evident Utensil”, Chairlift

“Six & Three Quarters”, Ipso Facto

“Somebody’s Baby”, El Perro Del Mar

“The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless”, Her Space Holiday

“Tape Song”, The Kills

“Lights Out”, Santogold

“Jailbreak”, Susanna

“Back Of The Van”, Ladyhawke

“28 Butts”, Little Jackie

“Wrecking Ball”, Mother Mother

“Glitches ‘N Bugs”, The Shortwave Set

“If He Should Ever Leave You”, Tom Jones

“Everywhere”, Common

“Bomb”, Inara George

“Close To Something”, Kath Bloom

“Dear God Please Help Me”, Marianne Faithfull

I hate best ofs (pt.2)

Yeah.  Best of’s suck.  But secretly I love them, because maybe there was something I missed this past year that I can now enjoy, a great band or a singer/songwriter that got lost in the proverbial shuffle.  So here they are, for you, our best albums of 2008 (a little late, perhaps) in no particular order:

David Byrne and Brian Eno
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Amanda Palmer
Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

Sebastien Grainger
Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains

Grouper
Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Air France
No Way Down

The Bellrays
Hard Sweet and Sticky

The Cure
4:13 Dream

El Perro Del Mar
From The Valley To The Stars

Frida Hyvonen
Silence Is Wild

Tilly And The Wall
O

Fucked Up
The Chemistry Of Common Life

Ladyhawke
Ladyhawke

Grace Jones
Hurricane

Megapuss
Surfing

Ida Maria
Fortress Round My Heart

Jean Grae
Jeanius

Department of Eagles
In Ear Park

The Kills
Midnight Boom

Los Campesinos!
We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed

Dead Confederate
Wrecking Ball

MGMT
Oracular Spectacular

Tom Jones
24 Hours

Mother Mother
O My Heart

Of Montreal
Skeletal Lamping

The Rosebuds
Life Like

Jessica Lee Mayfield
With Blasphemy So Heartfelt

Santogold
Santogold

Max Richter
Postcards In Full Colour

The Subways
All Or Nothing

Those Dancing Days
In Our Space Hero Suits

These New Puritans
Beat Pyramid

Girl Talk
Feeding The Animals

Deerhunter
Microcastle

Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst

TV On The Radio
Dear Science

Promises, Promises

Nice.

According to a study released earlier today, teenagers who have taken a “virginity pledge” are still just as likely to engage in premarital sex than those who have not pledged their abstinence. But worse than that, the study found that those same abstinence-swearing teenagers are far less likely to use a form of birth control – condoms, etc – when they do become sexually active.

Monitory/Rights

An awesome piece by Twanna A. Hines detailing her first foray into electronic censorship:

I heard Facebook removed an obscene picture of a breastfeeding woman, and Craigslist tightened the reins on their erotic services section. However, like many people, I wasn’t overly-concerned with electronic censorship — that is, until it directly affected me.

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I go to the library because the threesome that includes my work, laptop and little brown me are welcome there. At least I thought we were until we were thrown into the lot with child pornographers.

Settling in for a long day’s work at the Mid-Manhattan branch located on 40th Street and 5th Avenue, I ride the elevator to the second floor, set my personal laptop on the docking station table, tap into the free wifi and pull my chair to the table’s edge. Creativity, like all living sources, requires feeding; therefore, I write regular entries on my blog, www.funkybrownchick.com, to keep the momentum going.

“The site you are trying to access has been blocked by the New York Public Library,” the warning screen shouted. Sites containing visual depictions of obscenity, child pornography, and materials that are “harmful to minors” trigger the block.

I’d been banned, tagged as a “sex” website. Not surprising, I guess. I’m a dating, sex and relationships writer. I scribble articles about men who wear thongs, technology and sex, how to enhance consensual adult play with toys and other juicy topics that (I hope!) bring pleasure to people who read my work.

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I mouthed off on Twitter, blasting my complaint to more than 1,400 of my followers. Dishing about the incident on my high-traffic blog — Funky Brown Chick, the same one that NYPL banned — I typed, “Book burning = bad. Banning sex ed websites = good. Okay. Got it.”

To be clear, I don’t expect NYPL to give underage patrons access to images of porn.

Where’s the line and who decides what’s on the wrong side of it?

The full article is a must read.  Find it here.

Regressive

King George & Co. continue to propagate their “science is anathema” mantra even as they’ve got one foot out the door (and Cali bites back):

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is suing the Bush administration to block last-minute endangered species regulations that are intended to reduce input from federal scientists, state Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Tuesday.

Brown said the president is trying to gut the Endangered Species Act before he leaves office next month.

“Unfortunately, the Bush administration has had an antipathy to using sound science,” Brown said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “This is the latest assault as Bush goes out the door. It’s intolerable.”

The lawsuit was filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The Interior Department issued the revised rules this month. They allow federal agencies to issue permits for mining, logging and similar activities without getting a review from federal wildlife biologists if their own research shows the project will not affect plants and animals.

The changes also block agencies from using the Endangered Species Act to consider the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on ecosystems when reviewing projects such as new roads or coal plants on federal land.

Waste Not

Commit to this:

Well here’s a new resolution for you. It’s easily achievable, it saves you money and it’s good for the environment. Kick your bottled water habit! The reasons to quit are as transparent as the product itself.

This year, Americans will spend over $12 billion on bottled water, double what the category sales were only 8 years ago. Why do people continue to spend their hard-earned dollars on a product that flows freely and cleanly from the pipes in their own house? In a single word… Marketing!

The Cola giants got into the bottled water business back in the mid-1990′s and have been extremely successful launching brands Aquafina (Pepsi) and Dasani (Coke). Despite the fact that these two brands are not spring water, but simply purified tap water, they make up over 30% of all bottled water sold in the USA. How is that possible? Convenience. The cola companies have a goal to always make a cold beverage available within an arm’s reach. They have vending machines and coolers at every deli, every gas station and nearly every school. They have replaced the old public drinking fountain. Why do people drink bottled water – because they make it easy!

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It’s a fact that tap water is regulated by the EPA under much stricter guidelines than the manner in which the FDA monitors bottled water. And a home filter like PUR or Brita can replicate the quality of Aquafina, Dasani and other brands at far less cost.

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But kicking the bottled water habit can not only help to save you money, it can also help to save the planet. According to the Container Recycling Institute, less than 10% of PET plastic water bottles are actually recycled resulting in over 30 million bottles going into America’s landfills – every day! Plastic is particularly dangerous because it is non-biodegradable and eventually becomes part of the food chain. Neil Seldman, a waste recycling expert, has labeled our growing plastic waste problem as, “potentially more dangerous than global warming.”

DECK.

Stereogum compiled it’s own 2008 “indie rock” crushes, which immediately begs the question: what the fuck is “indie rock” anyway?  According to their list, it has nothing to do with labels and everything with look; either beardy or pale (or a combination of both), brunette a plus, waif a must.

Anyhoo, they have their list, and so do we.  Here we present SB’s own 2008 “Any Rawk” crushes, in no particular order.

Alice Glass (Crystal Castles)

Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk)

Ida No (Glass Candy)

Kevin Barnes (of Montreal)

M.I.A.

Gio Black Peter (Black Peter Group)

Ladyhawke

Sam Sparro

Santogold

Devendra Banhart

Roisin Murphy

Matthew Followill (Kings of Leon)

Allison Mosshart (The Kills)

Paul Banks (Interpol)

Beard Love.

Apparently Portland is the beardiest city in the USA. The Portland Monthly has some proof:

More Beardos here.