[HOT]
Tweeting of the Minds
Kanye West is at that level of “tabloid celebrity” where joining Twitter is such a huge event that it makes headlines. The bizarrely hilarious star’s adventures in Twitterland have yet to disappoint. While he has over a half million followers, he chose to “follow” only one random Tweeter, a teenage U.K. follower who asked West if he cleaned his diamond-encrusted grill with Colgate. The press (as well as cyber-friend-wannabes and jealous detractors) began hounding the teen, leading the kid to quickly grow tired of his insta-fame and stop posting and talking to reporters. Before he did, the teen told his local newspaper he wasn’t a huge fan of Kanye’s, which probably explains why Kanye stopped following him (this is the ego-driven man who recently compared the process behind his upcoming album to Michelangelo, Picasso, the Egyptian pyramids and Avatar). Meanwhile, Kanye’s actual buddy, comedian Aziz Ansari, has been “Predicting Kanye Tweets” on his Twitter account, dropping potentially prophetic gems like, “Hans Zimmer needs to write a score for whenever I eat a cookie … when I eat cookies shit is mad suspenseful.”
[WARM]
If He Was President
Wyclef Jean’s run for Haiti’s presidency hasn’t been met with the kind of universal support he probably imagined. Or at least his “cool celebrity support” has reached Republican-candidate levels. Sean Penn (pause for collective conservative pundit eye roll) has called ’Clef a “non-presence” during Haiti’s rebuilding following January’s catastrophic earthquake, claiming he saw the rapper/musician cruising around with a “vulgar entourage of vehicles” and accused Wyclef of stealing money from his own Haitian relief charity. More surprising was the non-support of Wyclef’s former Fugees bandmate (and fellow Haitian) Pras Michel, who said Wyclef lacks the vision needed and also questioned his extravagant ways. Minimum Gauge would also like to announce our non-support for Wyclef because in his song “If I Was President” he sang, “If I was president/I’d get elected on Friday/Assassinated on Saturday/And buried on Sunday.” Seems a tad fatalistic. And we’re still holding out hope for a proper Fugees reunion.
[COLD]
Cleveland Critic Counterattack KO’d
A Classical music critic at The Cleveland Plain Dealer has lost his lawsuit against the paper, filed after he was taken off the Cleveland Orchestra beat after writing too many negative, critical reviews. Donald Rosenberg — who was reassigned after numerous complaints from orchestra officials — sued the orchestra and paper (while remaining a Dealer reporter) for damage to his reputation. (The paper’s editor said the demotion was due to “the community” feeling that he was biased and unfair.) Ironically, the lawyer for the orchestra cited her client’s First Amendment right to defend themselves in her victory speech. In fear of being demoted to “Classified Ads Copy Editor,” Minimum Gauge staffers immediately sent lovely fruit baskets to Courtney Love, Nickelback, REO Speedwagon, Creed and Yin Yang Twins (oh, and Teddy Bear-Grams for Wyclef and Kanye go out first thing tomorrow morning).
