Okay so been a bit lack on this mainly because there's no interesting properties about. Although we would like to see who might buy the £25 Million house up for sale on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea.
Remember the information is taken from a number of sources and should not be seen as direct fact and the views are of the author's own and should not be taken to seriously.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Crime Pays: Berine Madoff's New York Pad
Where: East 64th border Midtown East/ Upper East Side
Previous Owner: Bernie Madoff
Price: $9.9 Million (About £6M)
Basic Voyeur: 7 Room Duplex Penthouse, High Floor Apartment on the Upper East Side, 3 Bedrooms, Large Terraces in a White Gloved Co-op.
Boyfrapp Views: They say that crime pays, although judging by the living room decor, doesn't always bring good taste, this is the New York, soon to be former, home of everyone favourite Ponzi Scheme operator's Bernard Madoff. Whilst he was downtown blowing people's life saving in the lipstick building in NYC financial district Madoff's wife lived a life luxury in this 3 bed duplex with it large terraces great for relaxing on in those warm New York summer nights. Bernie was even the president of the Co-op board, the strange apartment system, that judges whether your good enought to live there, oh dear! Well now that Bernie's has been bang up for the remainder of his days poor old, of course 100% Innocent wife ;-), who apparently has a bit of reputation in the UES social circles is being kick out in order to pay some of the debts owned. The only major selling point we can see is that it offers good space for UES standards, its on two floors and has those terraces, of course if it was on Fifth or Park Ave it would have a few more millions on the asking price. Anyhoo this is just the tip of the iceberg for Madoff's properties his Palm Beach vacation home is also on the Market for $8.5m whilst another New York state property away from Manhattan is also on the market for a few million. Of course whoever wants to buy this tainted penthouse, will have to prove themselves worthy of the co-op board, the very same co-op that had Bernie as president!
Update.............
Okay we have some property Porn updates for you:
1) A couple of months back we told you about how Madonna's former Los Feliz home, which was the singers LA base for between 1996-2000, being on the market for a cool $9.99m yet had no pool. The house was then owned by lesser known showbiz people including Leela from Futurama, well at the time we said the price was a bit steep! Well it now has had a major price drop and the lovely Wallence Neff 1920's Spanish style home could be yours now for a more reasonable $6.99m (about £4.2m) we told you they should off found some way to put in a pool!
2) Elle Finally Sells in Notting Hill: Everyone knows that the UK property market has been going through a rough time of late. Well a couple of months back we told you that strapy Aussie model Elle McPherson had her stylish Notting Hills townhouse on the market for around £7.5 mil, after originally putting it on for a piss taking £9.5m, well she has finally sold it but for another price cut we heard it went for around the £6million mark know doubt to some rich London based European or American after a taste of the Notting Hill lifestyle.
1) A couple of months back we told you about how Madonna's former Los Feliz home, which was the singers LA base for between 1996-2000, being on the market for a cool $9.99m yet had no pool. The house was then owned by lesser known showbiz people including Leela from Futurama, well at the time we said the price was a bit steep! Well it now has had a major price drop and the lovely Wallence Neff 1920's Spanish style home could be yours now for a more reasonable $6.99m (about £4.2m) we told you they should off found some way to put in a pool!
2) Elle Finally Sells in Notting Hill: Everyone knows that the UK property market has been going through a rough time of late. Well a couple of months back we told you that strapy Aussie model Elle McPherson had her stylish Notting Hills townhouse on the market for around £7.5 mil, after originally putting it on for a piss taking £9.5m, well she has finally sold it but for another price cut we heard it went for around the £6million mark know doubt to some rich London based European or American after a taste of the Notting Hill lifestyle.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Uppers & Downers
Uppers
1) Norway
Has the highest standard of living in the world according to the United Nations. Time to pack the fur coat and leave this dump behind.
2) Jewish Superstars
First Sacha Baron Cohen took over the world with Borat and Bruno. Now Barbra Streisand beats Mariah to number one spot in the US.
3) Cagefighing Cross Dressers
The News of the World reports that Jordon's new lover like to put on the suspenders and then a couple of Cagefighter colleagues dish some drag justice on the streets of Swansea. How Butch! If they feel like outsiders they should head to Manchester on a Saturday night.
Downers
1) Champagne
High profile Tory's banned from the Harvey Nic's Champagne tent at the Conference in Manchester. Poor Champagne its hard when friends turn on you
2) Cougar Cash
The Sun reports that Madonna has given toyboy Jesus Luz 1.7 M to buy an pad near the singer new Upper East Side home. If he were a girl and she a man , gold digger and foolish
3) Silvio Berlusconi
The man who divides the Italian Intellectuals from the rest of Italy had been strip of his legal immunity. I don't know you would never have a British PM that could accused of breaking any kind of law.......................................
Thursday, 8 October 2009
The Pitfalls of a Single Gay Man?
Last week I wrote an article on how despite all the images and claims about the fantastic living of single life in the city, the reality is that its better to be a two or three or a four than a one. Shortly after came the sad news of the suicide of Kevin McGee better known as the former civil partner of Little Britain's Matt Lucas. Suicide is horrific regardless of who's done it and for what reasons and must be devastating for the loves ones, friend and family of the Vitim. However in a world where equality is forever being fought after the sad truth is that certain social categories are more likely to be vitims of suicide than others.
Gay man, thanks to those who suffered major discrimination and whose campaigning, brought such issues of inequality to the fore, have experience great leaps in equality over last 10 t0 20 years. Most gay man recently asked thought that being gay had no impact on employment chances, at least in the sectors that they wanted to work, whilst in certain areas such as media, fashion etc.........being a gay man was seen as a distinct advantage. The passing of civil partnership's meant that now gay couples could be legally recognised and in most major cities gay man feel free to go about the business without the need to feel they have something to hide. This is not to say that homophobia has completely gone, as that would be foolish, there is still a problem in schools and in certain areas of the country, but its a lot better than it once was. Yet despite this great leap forward gay people are still more likely to face certain problems than heterosexuals. Gay people are still more likely to suffer from mental health issues such as depression and, relating to my previous article gay people, when either very young or as they get older are also more likely to find them alone and isolated not necessary in terms of their careers or even social life, but in terms of the personal .
Yes there are gay couples who have a long term loving relationship throughout the vast majority of their adult lives but in reality this is only the luckily half of the gay world. Gay people are still less likely to find themselves in a life long relationship than straight couples. Gay man are still much more likely to find themselves single throughout their 20's,30's and 40's. There is still a stereotype of the single gay man having fuck and go relationships, which although is not the case for many, there is an element of truth in it and there nothing wrong with this after all if you are young and single what is wrong with having fun, as long as it safe, with other single people. Yet most psychologists would still argue that in reality this is no substitute for a loving relationship and is what, including gays, most people still want. The sad truth is that the gay world now louder and prouder than ever helps creates lonely gay single men. Ian McKellen said in a newspaper article that whilst it was great that gay men now could be open and proud with nothing to hide, and that the growing equality was also great, there were elements of the bad old time he missed, when the gay world was underground there was a comradely about it, everyone working for the common cause of freedom and equality, the down side was that many gay men never became a part of it having to live secret lives. However now the gay community has let equality bring in bad elements, with freedom has come body fascism's, the need for gay guys to have an image of success, the idea that they don't need of have to contribute to a gay community and instead just get on with their own goals and lives and as such more elements of selfishness and bitchiness. The problem with this is that fuck and go relationships of free proud gay men starts to wear thin after a while and instead we have free and proud but still lonely gay men spurned by the gay world's image to look fashionable and to keep face. This leads to hidden loneliness and hidden isolated. Reasons for suicide are always very personal and i have no idea about McGee's circumstances, whatever they were they didn't deserve such a young ending, but loneliness and personal isolation, even in a world of freedom and friends, can still be a killer for the successful, accepted single gay man.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Its Official Single Life Sucks!
Last week one those pointless social researches that gain press exposure by stating an outcome related in way some to modern human life, but that either states the bleeding obvious or something that we all knew or suspected already. This time it was the result that after months of social research Sociologist found that people who had fewer friends and less contacts were on average far more likely to die younger than basically popular people. There were a number of reasons for this from the just fucking depressing: people who spend a lot of time in own company are far more likely to blow their brains out- see farmers- to more social demographic reasons for example less likely to exercise because they don't have anyone to go to the gym with and are more likely to have shitter diets- lets be honest people can't be arse putting the effort in when cooking for one.
Then there is what Sociologist would call Social Capital, now this was often use as one the reasons for class diversions but can also be applied to the popular and the unpopular regardless of class. Popular people have more, unpopular people have less. This is completely organic, people with lots friends, regardless of quality, are more likely to learn little bits of information that can make all the difference over a life time, pointers on simple things such as the best exercise group nearby, good cooking books, even which therapy is good and which is not, and important economic capital i.e the more people you know the more chance one of them could lead to a new and exciting job opportunity etc.........all these little bits of social information can make a big difference to the quality of a life in all respects whether financial, health or quality in terms of going out and having fun. I mean there is an advert for a phone provider at the mo that only gives you a good deal if your popular so HOW MANY FRIENDS YOU HAVE EFFECTS WHAT FUCKING PHONE CONTRACT YOU CAN GET!
Now we're not against the idea of individualism the need not to be in a group I have actively champion the idea of being a lone wolf but lets be honest the lone wolf in cartoons and books always dies first just like humans according to this research. Yes there was Sex and the City which showed how you could be single whilst still having lots of sex and better quality sex, and certainly more variety, and yes there are people, girls in a a particular who jump into any old dull relationship with boring missionary shagging with someone who is steady but boring, but again lets be honest, the single attractive well educated, well cultured and intelligent friends i know are not going out of having the best sex of their lives every weekend. Whilst Tracy Emin says that the only reason why single people don't miss nightly sex is because they forget how good it is. The modern world of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter all have some aspects of a popularity contest about them regardless of what people may say. Finally I once read an psychologist say in an newspaper that if they was an advert to avoid risk of suicide the tag would be 'keep old friend and make new ones'. So lets be honest lone wolfs, sex and the city girls, single life in this modern world sucks!
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Uppers & Downers
Uppers
1) Regal Madonna
Looking fabouls and relax on the Letterman show although saying she not a cheese person might be disagreed by some. Also celebrated 11th UK number Album now 3rd on all time list!
2) David Letterman
First the Madonna interview then turns out he been Shagging the staff and gets away with it. What a good PR week
3) Indian Summer
Better late than never
Downers
1) Never mind the Buzzcocks
James Corden should not be allowed on TV! Even Noel Fielding looked laboured. Plus really annoying guests
2) The Sun and News International
Think its still as important as it once was. Also ganging up on poor Gordon like that!
3) Tories in Manchester
private schooled toffs and a socialist city shouldn't mix!
Monday, 28 September 2009
Lets Celebrate Our Provincal Cities
This weekend Frapp Mag was in London having a lovely time in one of the great capitals of the world, when flicking through the entertainment section of the London Lite, we had a sudden and surprising passionate defence for our home city of Manchester. This was because of a small article by a London base journo, who was actually praising northern clubbing, yet started the piece of by saying that in his youth he spent his time moving from one grim urban sprawl to the next, this was Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, so at least it was criticism across the board!, and that as soon as he visited London he never wanted to go back to those grim awful waste lands. Apart from being dreadfully out of date, its true that cities such as Manchester were on their knees in the early 90's, but since then have been rewarded by some of the best best urban regenerations in Europe, the piece was in the vain of the well trodden paths of being in two camps: London is great, everywhere else is shit! or Cities like Manchester or Leeds are the centre of the universe (which is clearly bollocks) and London is overrated and shit!
So i ask why can't we celebrate our great Capital without the need the slag of our other big cities and visa-a- versea. We can all at some point be accused off being in at least one of the camps. I, myself remember first living London thinking it was great, because it is! but at the same time in some strange way needed to justify this by making out that living in some other city was being on par as being sentence to living on death row. I had nightmares of moving back to Manchester! Then thanks to reasons out of my control it became a reality and its not so bad and not perfect either. Manchester has a few good restaurants, like London Journo admits, some good clubs, and some people (though not me) would argue without the expense and hassle of London. On top of this we can probably also at some point also be accused of non-London in-fighting, people from Manchester and Birmingham feel the need to slag each other off, 'Birmingham's a shithole', 'Manchester thinks it bigger and better than it is' whilst people in Leeds bang on about 'being the London of the north' which it ain't' purely because it had a Harvey Nicks first. People will always want to live in London and so they should it an amazing city one of the World's greatest, but it good enough to stand on its own, without the need for people who move there to big it up by slagging of the Britians other urban cities. Instead we should be grateful that we have a capital that is one of the worlds best but that we can also back it up with some great second and third cities. So from now on we're going to love London and appreciate the others too, although still think Leeds is overrated :-)
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Twittering Demi: How Modern Technology became the Friend & Foe of the Modern Celeb
Over the last year Demi Moore has seemingly stepped back into the A-list limelight, because she has re-launch he career with a major blockbuster picture, a Oscar for a critically acclaimed smaller art house movie? No because she has become the celeb queen of Twitter with an impressive 1.92 million followers, following her every twit whether be her telling us about what she's had to eat or some philosophical Kabbalah rambling. Can anyone actually remember the last big film Demi appeared in? Yes there was the Charlie Angels film but there she was a secondary almost novelty character to the angels themselves. Yet thanks to a social networking site she is a big relevant star again and that why she's the best example of the relationship between modern technology and the modern day celeb.
This was never more apparent this week when, as we like to keep our fingers on the pulse, we dropped in on Twitter, and saw that Demi had basically accused celeb bitch gossip Perez Hilton of being no more better than a paedophile, and that the hundred of thousands of people who follow him were supporters of distributing child porn. Now this was all because Hilton had posted a pic of Demi's 15 year old daughter kissing dad Bruce wearing what can only be described as short shorts. Perez, a slimly gay ugly celeb obsessed man who has made huge money through no talent but the ability to be a good bitch and to invade the privacy of the rich and famous, and once wrote an delightful article in a British rag predicting who would die first Britney or Lindsay? Nice? doesn't come across as the noblist of people but to accuse him of a vile and hideous crime is perhaps taking it a step too far. What the hell was Demi thinking? Apart from giving Hilton the one thing he craves more than anything else, exposure, and meaning that many more people have now seen the pic that she was so outraged about, Moore has left herself open to a huge libel case to be slapped on her. Hilton has tweeted that he's already contacted his lawyer and this is the crutch of the twittering celeb. It may help them connect with us ordinary folks and create a new bigger fan base keeping them in the public eye but like all of us on social networking sites it opens them up to the unguarded moment of stupidness, a click and a moment of madness set to millions of people, who intern sends it on until it can become career destroying.
In the past the only time a celeb would be in such danger would be on live TV and even then most big celebs go into robot mode to make sure no stupid slip ups happen, a rare occasion of near career destroying slip ups were Madonna on Letterman in the 1990's, other than that they have the PR's and Publicists who at magazine interviews, radio shows etc.....keep a close eye on proceeding, stepping in whenever the subject matter moves on to something risky, stepping in before a celeb has chance to say something dumb. But on Twitter, with a twitter like Demi, its gives the celeb the control and this is dangerous, one on the spot reaction sent via Twitter and its out there in a instance where it takes on a life of its own before the publicist can do anything about it. Whats even more interesting in the fact that it drags in other celebrities as the orginal celeb friends without thinking jump in making themselves at risk, where as in the past they would of be guarded and kept out of it. On this occasion it was Kirsty Allen making a prat of herself in the row, Perez has threaten to sue her too, but then again she is a Scientologist. Also what Demi forgot before twittering and banging around the word Paedophile, is that there are probably real victims of such horrible crimes on twitter, who could be affected, by this row amongst the self-centred celebs, but she didn't and the tweet has backfired with Demi looking like a Pratt. So whilst Twitter, Facebook et al are great tools for celebrities to connect with a huge net of people and rejuvenate their careers, its a risky business as it allows for one instance of madness to ruin it all.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Uppers & Downers
Uppers
1) David Bowie's Cat People in Inglourious Basterds
Great film but the inclusion of this song in the theatre scene is just inspiring
2) Lourdes
Age 12 already being touted as the world's next superstar
3) Celebration
Proving Mum's not done yet releasing another dance buster
Downers
1)Madonna Fainting
The queen bee appeared to pass out during last concerts of her fab Sticky & Sweet tour signs that's she been over doing it or age is finally acting up!
2) Celebrity Twitter Feuds
Modern technology showing us just how pathetic these people really are i.e Demi, Kirsty et al
3) Failure to Launch Boys
More and more men are staying in the family nest way into their 30's. Don't! Its depressing we know!
Friday, 28 August 2009
Weekly Property Porn
Every since medieval times property as been the one aspirational commodity that everyone looks up to...........so it no wonder we are all property porn voyeurs
Here's our selection of this weeks property porn........the theme is: Rich bitches
Remember Deers: This is just a bit of fun so don't be a dick and rocked up to the houses below front doors you will be arrested and even rich bitches have a right to privacy
Disclaimer: All the fact and figures in this section come from a variety of sources and should not be taken as direct fact..........the views in Boyfrapp views are of the authors only and should not be taken seriously
Here's our selection of this weeks property porn........the theme is: Rich bitches
Remember Deers: This is just a bit of fun so don't be a dick and rocked up to the houses below front doors you will be arrested and even rich bitches have a right to privacy
Disclaimer: All the fact and figures in this section come from a variety of sources and should not be taken as direct fact..........the views in Boyfrapp views are of the authors only and should not be taken seriously
Cher's Jaw Dropping Malibu Estate
Where: Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, Los Angeles County
Who: Cher
Price: Jaw dropping $41,000,000 (about £25m)
Status: For Sale
Basic Voyeur: Massive Malibu Italian Renaissance Villa, 1.72 Arces, Direct Pacific ocean views, 6 Beds, 7 Baths, Theatre, Gym, Suspended tennis court, Infinity Pool, Guesthouse
Boyfrapp: They say if you stick around long enough you're always be rewarded well that is certainly the case for, she's been around since the creation of time, Cher who has amassed not only a huge personal fortune but a massive property empire to boot. With this Malibu pad being one of the jewels in the collection. It first went on sale last year for an eye watering $45 million but had no offers so generous Cher has re-launch the property with a measly $4, 000,000 price cut. For that you get 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, what is it with Americans and the need to have more bathrooms than bedrooms?, you also get your own personal theatre, a cool large pool and a suspended tennis court which we're not exactly sure means. Also due to current planning permissions today such a huge compound wouldn't be allowed on the coast of Malibu so its has a unique appeal. Apart from the astronomical price the only downside is that its a bit far from the main action of LA, a good 90 mins on one of LA's ghastly freeways.
Don't worry about Cher herself she wont be homeless. Amongst her massive property collection she has other homes in LA including reports of a massive Beverly hills compound, a penthouse up the way in the swanky Sierra Towers in West Hollywood, a good guess at a NYC pad, and a measly modern East London apartment in the docklands near Canary Wharf, in the past she has also owned two Miami estates one currently up for sale by the current owner for $7,900,00
while the other one was up for sale by Cher herself a couple of years back for around $20,000,000 it wouldn't surprise us if since then she has bagged another multi-million dollar vacation home.
Madonna's New NYC Pad
Address. East 81 ST, Between Lexington & Third Aves, Manhattan's swanky Upper East Side
New Owner: Madonna Louise Ciccone
Sold Price: $ 32, 500,000 (about £19.5m) + Several Millions of dollars in Renovations
Basic Voyeur: Georgian style Townhouse, made up of three separate townhouses, 26 Rooms, including, 2 Kitchen's, 13 Bedroom's, huge (for Manhattan) garden, roof terrace, 2 private Garages
Boyfrapp View: When news came that Madonna had signed a contract on this huge super wide townhouse back in April NYC property bitches went into melt down. Apparently because of its location, although it was well known Madge was looking at multi-million mansions on the more conservative Upper East side for over a year after falling out with the Co-op board of her Central Park West abode, about purchasing another apartment in the buildings to add to her already huge pad there, the board refused so Madonna had to do what she always does threaten to sue them and eventually getting her own way. But we can't help feeling this led to some bad blood between the superstar and the neighbours. Anyway the location of this townhouse was in what the snobby upper east siders called the 'Far East' away (a 10 min walk) from the prime UES locations of Park Ave and Fifth Ave, and of course Central Park itself. It was the garages that did it allowing Madonna private in and out access. However it now looks like Madge has had the last laugh completing the purchase of the vast property by knocking off a cool $9.5 m of the asking price of $42,000,000.
Even though Madonna is meant to be a bit of a traditionalist at heart we can't help feeling the decor is a bit old womanish even for Madge. Plus the floorplan could be vastly improve from its current state, essentially at the mo its split into two with one side for the residents and one smaller side for staff, how very Victorian. So get the gay interior designers in and blow a few million to get it back up to the $40 mil mark. Already Madonna has pissed off the neighbours with mass renovations and redesigning under way whilst the queen is on tour. Apparently the work is so big the road itself had to close, with angry residents yelling 'there goes the neighbourhood', nothing like endearing yourself to the neighbours. Anyway the location may not be prime Upper East Side at the mo, but it will soon be the coolest, not because of Madonna living there, because Lourdes will be.
Joan Rivers NYC Penthouse
Address: East 60's just of Fifth Ave in Manhattans swanky Upper East Side
Seller: US Comedian Joan Rivers
Status: For Sale
Price: Whopping $25,000,000 (About £15m)
Basic Voyeur: Old School Upper East Side Duplex Penthouse, Top of a limestone 1903 mansion, 3 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, Terrace, views of Central park and Manhattan, Restored original features by museum trained artisans
Boyfrapp View: Who knew being a bitch could be so profitable? This place is a little bit to Palace of Versailles for our liking but at least the plastic faced comedian has shown some class by getting the experts in to restore the original architecture of the place, and a quick glimpse on the wonderful Google streetview shows that its at the top of a particularly beautiful old school NYC townhouse. Can't fault the location being just off Fifth steps from Central Park in a prime UES location, although for $25m you could bag yourself a real 5th ave address. Its a condo so no horrible board approval is needed. Right time to be more bitchy so we can bag ourselves a London equivalent.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Cat Litter News
Here our snippets of news that we have found interesting, funny, and goddamn scary over the last week:
Going Going Gone
This week came the news that the show that defined the decade for both good and bad is comming to an end, yep Channel 4 has seen sense and is going to dump Big Bro after the next series. Now when big brother started like everyone else here at Frapp Mag we also became hooked on the reality series that would change all reality series but quickly the show became a victim of its own success. In series 1 the contestants were relativity normal ( yes they had been pick by Producers who thought they would make good TV but for TV essentially they were normal) you had builder Craig, our personal favourite Anna, and even Nasty Nick, who made news headlines, had some form of credability about him. There was a genuine social interest and experiment appeal to it, it was exciting and new. Then as each series went by the more it became a parody of itself, the contestants weren't ordinary people wanting to appear in a TV show, they were freaks who had watched the show already, knew how to gain quick fame by being exaggerated characters, after Jade, we had Nikki who was rewarded for being a retard, then Brain did the same and again was rewarded for being a retard. It was no longer a reality TV show because the contestants knew exactly how to behave and to act in order to make a name for themselves. Big Brother showed how such shows exposing those desperately wanting quick fame could become TV gold and now we have the X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent, who pose as talent shows but in the opening weeks are nothing but jumped up freaks shows and we all know it, this will be Big Brother's legacy but the original idea was much better and what a good idea it was.
London News
The biggest gob smacking news came from the fact that at one point this year London fell to 27 in the list of the world's most expensive cities. Yes London!. The Scandivian captials dominant the list with Oslo named the most expensive city of all. London's drop was blamed on the falling value of the pound against the other global currencies. Yet even with this information anyone who lives or has lived in London can't help but been sceptical about this, and so it turns out that if you put travel and property into the mix London suddenly shot back towards the top. So as long as you don't live in property or travel anywhere Londoners have nothing to complain about.
Second London news is that the hottest underground lines have been idenified with the Central and Bakerloo being the one's to avoid on a hot day, yep, we couldn't believe the Victoria line wasn't top too.
Thrid London news is that a man was brutally attack in east London after answering an ad on Gumtree, this is shocking news especially after here at Frapp Mag we spent years treding to various London Counicl estates looking for a room after answering numerous of Gumtree ads.
Manchester News
Soviet Manchester: Reports the Soviet Union planned an invasion of Manchester back in the 1970's by marching tropps down Washway Road into the centre of the city. Now there are those with BNP rhetoric who would argue that it has happed anyway 30 years later but not us of course we much prefer the Polish bus drivers to the Mancuian one's!
Baltimore Manchester: Shadow Home Secrety Chris Grayling has sparked fury by comparing Moss Side in Manchester as being as bad as the ghetto's in Baltimore as dramatised in the TV programme The Wire. Now although the most harden Mancuians probably wouldn't relish being alone in the area late at night we always had the impression that its one of those area's where repretation preceeds reality. I even had to do my driving lessons around there once in front of the gangs, boy that was the quickest 3 point turn the instructor had ever seen. Before i demanded to the next time being done on Pine Road in Didsbury. Anyway former NBA ace John Amaechi says that Baltimore makes Moss Side look like Alderley Edge which means Baltimore must be one hell of a Shithole.
Can't Catch a Break News
Bad week for Bernie Madoff first his ex-lover tells all about their affiar in The Sunday Times including that he wan't very well endowed then in prision he tell us he's dying and you thought you had a bad week.
Bottom of the litter
Big Brother may soon be over but the press obession with talentless wannabees certainly isn't this week in the news we lernt that Kerry Katona was back on the crack and Jordan's new fella the cage fighter stared in a porno and that they like talking what their going to to sexually loudly on a plane. It was Easyjet
Uppers & Downers
Uppers
1) End of Big Brother: It been on life support for a long time finally Channel 4 do the decent thing and kill it off!
2) Return of Wacky Shakira Songs: Apparently women you all have a wolf in your closet
3) Super High A-Level Results: Bad news for 16 year olds you can't get into any universities with three B's, great news for those of us who went to uni years ago when you could blag your way into a red brick with a couple a C's and now be university snobby!
Downers
1) Return of X-Factor: Get the tomato's at the ready
2) The Grey's Domination of Property: The Average age of buying a house independent of parental financial help is now 37. Where as those who brought property before the booms of the late 90's and most of the 00's continue their strangle-hold on property. Great if your aged between 45-65 if not your fucked
3) R.I.P theLondonPaper : Okay so you had basically a free Sun shuffed in ya face every time you walked down Oxford St but at least it was something to read on the the tube that wasn't owned by the Daily Mail company
Monday, 24 August 2009
Sport: When No.1 Mean's No.4
Back in the late 1990's and early Noughties there was a lot of sniggering in the Music world about manufactured British pop bands like Westlife, Steps and that one that Rachael whatshername was in releasing singles deliberately on weak sales weeks just so they could get to number 1 and appear to be more successful than they really were. A similar thing happens in sport Manchester United ended top of the Premier League last season with a modest record against the other top 4 teams yet always manage to roll out a 1-0 win against the crapper sides where as Arsenal had a decent record against the other big boys but finished fourth. However in recent years Tennis has been the sport in which being No.1 has been more like a confirmation that your good but not the best in the world especially among the women.
Take Dinara Safina she has been number 1 on the WTA ranking list since april of this year she is just under 1000 points ahead of her nearest rival Serena Williams, therefore she is the best player in the world right?. Unfortunately for Safina the world and his misses knows that this is bollocks, yes she's been to three glam slam finals in one she lost to Serena winning a mere 3 games and in her most competitive, the French Open versus Ivanovic, now not even a top tenner, she won a grand total of seven games. Even Kutznetsova never someone with an persona of a champion manage to out do her at the French Open. This was followed by even more humiliation at Wimbledon, when she should of loss to Mauresmo in the round of 16, but somehow battled through to the Semifinals only to then get trashed by Venus Williams winning a mere game. The reason for this is the way the ranking system of tennis works, despite various changes to focus on the slams over years, the system still and will always favour the work horses. The ITF argues its fair because it takes points from your best 15 tournaments. The problem is that someone like Safina can play 30 tournaments a year have 15 good ones and 15 shit one's but only the 15 good ones count. Instead Serena and Venus the unofficial 1 &2 in the world play about 10 tournaments half of which are treated like a practice in the park yet are still able to kick arse when it matters in the majors. Serena has won just a mere two tournaments this year, it just so happens they are the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the last tournament Serena won before the Aussie Open, yep the US Open. Clearly she is No.1 the WTA knows it, Serena definetley knows it and Safina knows it. This was never a problem 10 years ago in the early 90's Seles was number 1 and boy was she number 1 no fucker could get near her not even Graf, people came to watch her because they knew they were watching an all time great and with the persona of a champion, so much so to stop her being number 1 a mad bastard had to stab her. Then Graf became no.1 who had been a solid no.2 before the Seles incident, but with Seles off the tour, at least Graf also had the persona of a great again so much so that the fellow female players bet on the length of time it would take for them to get beaten by her. The WTA has now lost this since the late 1990's there have been a whole host of number 1's who everyone knew weren't really no 1's they didn't have the persona of champions Jankovic ended last year no.1 but didn't win a major and it was left to Venus Williams who won the end of year championships, beating Jankovic on route, to say that the tour needs to award quality not quantity. The US open will start next week Safina will be the top seed but the bookies will put five other women ahead or her most likely Sharapova, Dementiavia, even Perhaps Kim Clijsters after two year lay off and of course the true 1&2 Venus and Serena. Whatever happens there's a big chance Safina will remain number one after it, most probably not having won it, unfortunately for her like a crap no.1 record that made it to the top spot selling a few thousand in a particular slow selling week she will never be remembered like a classic number two, three or four even.
The Last of the Famous International Playboy's?
Dear hero in prison sang Morrisey on his hit song based on the the Krays. Now one of the last international playboys is back to being a free man in Britain no longer a hero in prison but to many a hero who beat the system and 'the pigs'. Common sense dictates that Biggs should be freed from his prison sentence as if reports are to be believe he's a sick man with perhaps only months to live and even if he does recover his freedom will be confided to that of a nursing home in Norfolk. So at best his freedom is only a muted victory but the point is this shouldn't be seen as victory at all, after all Biggs turned his back on British freedom a long time ago and instead flaunted his freedom in Brazil for the world to see activity self promoting all the time so that he could be put up there with the Krays in that long line of strange British hero's, the homegrown working class gangster, most famously from the east end. Although Biggs never committed crimes as brutal as the Kray's, he did perfectly characterised himself in the same vain so well in fact that when he was finished living it up in Brazil, poorly, and wanted to come home The Sun, whose readers include a large proportion who are poor and working class, spent a huge sum of money bringing him back on a private jet. What for? great deeds to society? representation of the great and good of human kindness? No because he was a salt of the earth geezer from South London never mind the life of crime that paid for his endless fun in the sun. We love the geezer because in our minds they are one of the people, Guy Ritchie makes films about them, people go to Eel pie cafes in East London to pretend they are them and worst of all Babs Windsor talks about how lovely they were on endless TV shows. The problem is most on them weren't lovely or decent they were scum and violent bastards to boot Babs may say the Krays were a great laugh down the Nag's Head but the bloke whose bollocks they had in a vice probably had different views. The main problem of this hero worship is that is creates the idea the geezer gangster is okay, this is why recently we have seen a raise in old school gangster style crimes, the loan shark in Manchester who prayed on the poor to fulfil his own financial needs, who led people to live in fear, lives made a misery, now we have the 40m jewelery thieves, what a laugh straight from a Micheal Caine film, after all they're only stealing from rich bastards in Mayfair. No like Biggs, like the Krays they are harden criminals who have chosen a life a crime instead of work, they will strike fear into originally decent hard working people to get what they want as quickly as they want. So yes it was common sense to make Ronnie Bigg's a free man at this time in his life but lets not see it as victory or turn him into a hero or treat him as a hero like The Sun did when they laid on that private jet, he didn't contribute anything to British Society I mean even at the a basic level he didn't pay any taxes to the NHS which he has now benefited from, when he was partying in Brazil, so instead let him die where his life choices have led him to die a weak lonely death in the very unglamourous surrounding of a Norfolk care home.
Friday, 21 August 2009
Weekly Property Porn
Here is your dose of this week's property porn
Remember Deers: This is meant to be a bit of fun, so don't be a Dick and rock up on the front door of any of the houses below not only are you likely to be arrested but even public figures and rich people deserve a degree of privacy
Disclaimer: The Facts and Figures featured in this section are taken from a number of sources and should not be taken as direct fact. The opinions stated in the Boyfrapp Views section are of the authors only and should not be taken too seriously
Remember Deers: This is meant to be a bit of fun, so don't be a Dick and rock up on the front door of any of the houses below not only are you likely to be arrested but even public figures and rich people deserve a degree of privacy
Disclaimer: The Facts and Figures featured in this section are taken from a number of sources and should not be taken as direct fact. The opinions stated in the Boyfrapp Views section are of the authors only and should not be taken too seriously
London Home We Wanna Live In of the Week
Where: Gilston Road SW10, London
Status; For Sale
Price: £8,500,000
Former Celeb Owner: Tom Ford
Basic Voyeur: Fashion Queen Tom Ford's former London Townhouse, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 Bathrooms, Set off the Street Behind a high Wall, A period London Semi with stylish contemporary
interior
Boyfrapp's View: This house was sold by Fashion Daaahing Tom Ford a few years for a figure we haven't the foggest about. It is understood that the uber stylish interior Mr Ford renovated the house in has been largely untouched so you could find yourself living a Ford original photoshoot. Now some Chelseites get a bit Snotty about a SW10 postcode, due to its closeness to the more gritty Earls Court and long stomping distance from Sloane Square, but the big deal about this place is that its located in an area know as 'The Bolton's' a prestigious conversation area off the Fulham Rd. Geogre Micheal had a pad here later owned by Chris Evans which was later sold for £15m and Hugh Grant is said to be trying to buy up a whole road nearby. The main cons are that for 8.5m you could bag yourself a townhouse in Notting Hill with twice as many bedrooms plus in his super stylish renovations it looks like Mr Ford as done the unforgivable sin of getting rid of the original period features! American's they just can't be trusted with old things, except Madonna.
Celeb Global Home We Do Wanna Live In of The Week
'Where: The Brentmore, 88 Central Park West, Upper West Side, NYC
Sellers: Sting and Trudie Styler
Price: $ 19,000,000 (About £11.5m)
Status: For Sale
Basic Voyeur: String and Trudie's pre-war Central Park West Duplex co-op in the exclusive Brentmore, with 5 beds 4 bathrooms, 2 Kitchens and views over sheep meadows in Central Park
Boyfrapp View: This majestic duplex, originally made up of two separate apartments, hence the two kitchens, is in one the nicest buildings on the celeb filled and world famous Central Park West. 88 cpw aka The Brentmore is a 1910 exclusive co-op and is possibly one of the most attractive apartment building's in Manhattan. String and Trudie's style seems to be good looking at the snaps posted on Trulia we especially love the red bedroom it reminds us off what went on in the red bedroom in Sebastian Faulks novel The Birdsong and we're sure Sting and Trudie's famous tantric sex went down a storm in the brightly coloured room. String and the wife put the apartment up for sale last year for a whopping $26m only to have no offers and than took it of the market. Since then the power couple have brought a new pad in the new boy of Manhattan's celeb filled Apartment blocks the Commodioum 15 CPW also where Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman reside. So 88 cpw was slammed back on the market with a price cut of $7m where it has remained. The only con's we can think off is that the floorplan (see above) could be improved by a couple of gay designers perhaps turn the second kitchen into another bedroom and add a gym, plus it looks like the apartment is on a couple of the lower floors and if you're spending close $20m in NYC it good to be high up for the best views. The only other fly in the water is that you can't just rock up to somewhere like The Brentmore with $19m you need to be accepted by the dreaded co-op board first and since most apartments at The Brentmore start at around $10m we reckon they can be choosy.
Celebrity House of the Week We Don't Wanna Live in
Where: Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Price: £5,500,000
Status: Said to be under offer
Former Resident Cristiano Ronaldo
Buyer: Big signing City Player
Basic Voyeur: Footballer and professional playboy Cristiano Ronaldo's massive 7 bedroom Cheshire pile, in WAG central Alderley Edge Cheshire, Gym, Indoor Swimming Pool, Large Motorcourt
Boyfrapp View. Personally we would rather throw ourself's off the actual edge in the village of Alderley than live in this more money than class area of Cheshire, or anywhere in Cheshire for that matter, we are more urban creatures. Yet with its indoor Swimming Pool, Trophy house splendour ( although some have said it looks like a flash Sainsbury's) and a motorcourt for several of those flash cars footballers love we can guess that this is a WAGS dream home. Ronaldo brought the property in 2006 for a reported £3.65m then upset the neighbours with various extensions and renovations. Before this playboy Ronaldo lived in a more modest Cheshire home in dreary Woodford. Since his current home hit the market it has been reported that a number of big signing Manchester City players have been in a tussle over who can get their hands on this soccer mansion nicknamed 'Gold Trafford' Carlos Tevez, Kolo Tourel and Santa Cruz have all been reported to be interested in the property. At this moment it is widely reported that Santa Cruz has been the successful bidder with an eye watering 5.5m deal. One of the first adjustments the new owner might want to make is to change the CR7 steel Window bars that Cristiano had installed.
Out of Touch Lily
Lily Allen likes complaining, in her last song 'Not Fair' she was complaining about finding a great boyfriend who was perfect only for him to turn out to be a 3 minute man, the rest of the time she's complaining about men who are great in bed but absolute bastards out of it. Now in her current song 22 she is complaing about the predicament of young women in 21 st century life. The gist of the song is about a woman (lily) who spends her life having a great time shagging and partying at the age of 22, but hen regretting it at the age of 30, because she's in a dead end job, lonely, looking past it and getting one night stands when she really now wants to settle down. My issue with this is that Lily is about 10 years too late, Sex and the City change the image of 30 something singles back in the late 90's they were happy to be still be partying, having one night stands without desperately seeking 'the one to settle down with'. The average age of women getting married in the UK is now 33.6 and later for those living in London the truth is leisure activities prioritises don't really change that much between 22 and 32 so my advice would be don't worry about problems of turning 30 in this day of age it no longer matters.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Paternalism or Patronising ?
There has been a big Who-ha about a programme Sarah Ferguson made in which she helps the poor blighted lives of residents on a grim isolated south Manchester Council estate. Now i know this will come as shock to you deers but here at Frapp magazine we actually know the estate in question. Well we once drove through it as fast as possible on the way to a dinner party in Altrincham a few years back. Unfortunately when you actually know the estate in question in these programmes it normally spoils the illusion. Whilst we are not going to deny that areas of the estate are deprive and there are some people living in poverty there, after all a poll in the Manchester Evening News showed that 85% of its readers thought the programme gave an accurate image of the place, the television always polishes it a bit to create the correct image the producers want in the edit. Some examples include one youth who said the whole of south Manchester was shit even though its generally regarded as the best side of the city, it also made it out to be in some kind isolated deserted urban dessert, what it fails to mention is that a 15 min drive either way you find yourself in some of the most affluent areas of the Northwest with uber middle class Hale/Altrincham on one side and the trendy and expensive Manchester suburbs of Didsbury & Chorlton on the other, and that the Northern Moor estate itself is actually quiet small and the residents can and do venture into the bars and restaurants of these better parts of town. Its a bit like when you see Hackney on similar kinds of programmes, yes we all know that there are people there living with crime and poverty, but we also know its full of art students and that the houses near the park sell for 800k. Any-Whoo it seems like the Duchess has cause quiet a stir both with the residents of the estate who say it presented the wrong whole picture of life on the estate, and also some disgruntled (mainly middle class) Mancunians who don't like the idea of an old monied aristocrat making Manchester and the north in general look like one big Chav fest after years of successful regeneration.
On one hand you have to applause Fergie for giving it a try even if there was self promotion in the back of the mind. In her words putting her head above the parapet in order to help those at the bottom of society which lets face it is more than what most members of the Royal Family do. Although Fergie has now made the threat that she might not do it anymore given the backlash she received from angry residents on a recent radio show which does bring into question how committed she was in the first place. Netheraless there was some good out of her actions whether selfish or selfless. However the reason why I think people are becoming sick of such programmes this that it has been the last in the long line of such Paternalist shows. First we had the Secret Millionaire which was based on the uneasy process of normally a self made millionaire going to some god awful area of a northern city or a poor part of London and after a week of gaining a real insight to the plight of the poor hand selected certain organisations, charities and people deserving of their cash. But the programme makers got round this by showing the teary affect the experience had on the millionaire, the heart warming response of those given the cash and ultimately the good that in the end came from the cash injection. After this the same production company, who must be making a killing of such programmes, came up with a more watered down version 'How the Other half Lives' this had no selection process in it, expect of course that of the programme makers, and two random families from extreme spectrum's of wealth and class were brought together to see what they could learn from each other and what financial help the rich family could give (if wanted) to improve and in some cases save that of the poor's. The upward side of this is that at least the wealthy are prepared to have connect with the poor and if they so choose provide help by sharing their good fortune. The downside view of this old fashioned Victorian paternalism is the one of Judge, the sense that the wealthy are being given an opportunity to judge the poor and then decide whether they want to help or not, after all it is the wealthy who occupy the position of power in such situations. It also always amazing that so many of the Millionaires suddenly start popping up on numerous TV shows after the class experiment has finished where as the poor are never to be seen again.
What I think really annoys people is that in the 21st Century we are still relying on this essentially Victorian way of paternalism and this shouldn't be the case. However grateful a poor community maybe for the money of a secret millionaire or like in the case of the Duchess the help in setting up community based groups to turn things around and using their high profiles to give focus to the needs of poorer communities, the point is that in this day of age the poor shouldn't still be reliant on such paternalism and indeed at the mercy of such paternalism. Instead through all of the political developments over the last 100 years we should be in the situation where by the poor have there own power to help themselves or at the very least mechanisms of the state should mean that they are not reliant on the selective lottery of paternalist handouts.
The Weakest Sex
This week there has been lots of discussions about sex, for once though not about the activity, but its more basic biological meaning what some people refer to as gender. The controversy surrounds Caser Semenya (Pictured) the 18 year old South African from a poor provincial town in the north of the country who swept to victory in the Women's 800m final at the World Championships in Berlin. Now this would merit at best a few sentences in the sports pages, but now thanks to the IAAF asking for a complex, and grim sounding, Gender test the 18 year old now finds herself at the centre of a media storm regarding what must be one of the most important and intermit factors to a person's sense of self. Apparently the rumour mill went into overdrive when Semenya came from seemingly nowhere and smashed the world leading time at the African Junior Championships. Quickly there was also rumours about the 18 year olds 'masculine build' and 'deep voice'. It is widely believe that IAAF are working on the basis that, while Semenya 100 per cent considers herself female, she may have a rare intersex condition where by she was born with the genitalia of a female but has the Chromosome make up of a male which can be seen to give her an unfair advantage. Its is believe that there are between 20 to 30 intersex conditions and not just of the most obvious kinds.
What is sad about this story is that it displays the status of intersex gender in both society and the human Psyche. Inevitability there has been an human freak show aspect angle applied to the story, a sniggering aspect, and even an awkwardness to it, the wish that such matters would just go away. The panel in the BBC studio did their best to deal with it sensibly but there was also an undeniable under current of awkwardness, the tabloids have had a field day with The Sun calling her 'the 800m and Two Veg' athlete, even more depressing were the comments left by readers 'can't they just look at her in the shower' rather missing the point about the complexities of intersex conditions. Semenya fellow competitors haven't exactly helped the situation apparently during the warm ups there has been blatant gossiping, pointing, and staring aim directly in the presence of Semenya herself. Sixth finishing Italian Elisa Piccione stated 'that for me she's not a woman' , this being base on rumour rather than fact and whatever the case Semenya clearer thinks she is a woman, for me Piccione is a bad loser. At least British bronze medalist Jane Meadows was more level headed saying 'if it's not true i feel really sorry for her'.
Whether the doubts about her gender do turn out to be true or not, Semenya insists she is 100 per cent female, or even if it turns out she has an intersex condition I feel sorry for her. Mud sticks, people won't remember the great runner they will remember, and some will snigger, about that athlete who had doubts raised about her gender, or if it does turn out semenya is intersex there will be those who will inevitable never see her as a woman and refer to her 'as that man' One more issue this episode has brought up is the attitude towards successful women in sport, they have always been labelled masculine, remember Martin Navratilova, the very feminine Williams sisters have already been mentioned in the comments of readers in newspapers 'someone needs to check out the Williams Sisters while there at it' said one sun reader, they have repeatably been refer to as men on comedy panel shows, maybe its just that middle aged men don't like wealthy famous successful female athletes.
One more example this week of the lower status of transgender and intersex people comes from the New York Post, about the horrific killings of a transgender woman in Syracuse NY, the tactful headline 'New York Man Gets 25 Years for Tranny Slay' can you imagine any other murder getting such as cheap headline? Also normally with murder stories you get good and bad comments about the awfulness of the crime what should happen to the killer, for this story there were none.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Happy Belated Birthday to Madonna!
Here at Frapp Magazine we want to wish the Queen Bee of fame Madonna a happy belated birthday. Yep 51 years ago on the 16th of August the world welcomed Madonna Lousie Ciccone of Bay City Michigan. Having recently seen her on the fab Sticky & Sweet Tour the old girl is still at the top of her game and is looking amazing nearly as good as my Auty Christine of similar age.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Cat Litter News
Here is our summary of some weird, wonderful and something just goddamn scary and funny news:
Correlation Between UFOs and Television shows
In the news this week we learnt that there was a report into the unusually high UFO sighting during the mid 1990's. Apart from the fact that there wasn't much going on during most of this period so people were looking for anything of interest officials now believe that this increase can be put down to the popular television programme X files, remember with Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, he went on to become a sex addict, she went on to become British. So no real difference. It doesn't however say why a programme on now beginning with X, hasn't had the same affect. After all most of the people who appear on the X-Factor during the human bear baiting freak show first few weeks certainly live on a different planet to me.
Recession Part One: Most Effected British Towns
The latest news from the recession was that the cities who had risen the furthest over the last 10 years were the one's that have fallen the hardest during the recession. London, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle were all fairly high up on list, with cities like Manchester being particular dependent on the financial services. Ironically Edinburgh was one of the cities that has faired pretty well in the recession given the fact about all that who-ha with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Bristol the lovely yet slightly overrated city of the Southwest turned out to be one that is hardest hit which will inevitably mean of a mass migration to east to London think off Clifton with all those empty deli's and hills.
Recession Part Two: Success of our Continental Neighbours
Just when things can't get any worst we suffer a great big kick in the nuts by learning that France and Germany are now officially coming out of recession. Germany is easier to swallow after all they are well known for their hard work and superior technology but France. A county where everyone takes the whole entire summer off, have two hour lunches and strike at will if they are not happy with the quality of the staffroom coffee. So its simple getting out of a recession is not about hard work its about being more like the french.
Size Matters, Not in Bed Silly, Commercially
Apparently Durex have been swapped with calls from men for which regular rimmed is simply not doing the job and are now demanding extra large condoms ( here at Frapp we have been fooled into such boosts before and only to find it was delusion). Anyway whatever the truth its opened up a nice niche market for Durex as Tesco's and Salisbury's are rushing to fill up their shelf's with extra large.
More Commercial suaveness has come from cock size with the establishment of a dating website for women who like their Men big. All males on the site must boost at least 7 inches and more, but this isn't about sex apparently its for women who want love but have particular requirements. Ahh....feministism has come a long way.
Really? News of the Week
Most pointless research of the week goes to the news that women eventually married men who look similar to themselves. Doesn't this apply to everyone of which we have all known for years. I mean when when was the last time you saw Kate Moss dating a 22 stoner.
Uppers & Downers
Here a selection of what has been getting us up and down this week.
Uppers
1) The Fame- She maybe annoying us with the endless strange provocative dresses, the tea cup, and the feature film length videos with weird Swedish men for a 3 minute song- But Gaga has come up with the pop album of the year
2) The Street - Jimmy's McGovern excellent Manchester based drama has been the best thing on the box for a long time. Shame that ITV North cuts means this seasons was probably the last.
3) Remedy by Little Boots - The uber hip music reviewer in The Guardian criticise this song for being like a 1980's East European Eurovision entry- But that's why we love it!
Downers
1) Self Centred Americans- Apparently the right wing middle classes have been showing their distress at Obama turning the USA 'into a socialist state' by buying Car Stickers with slogans like Honk If I'm paying your Mortgage (Pictured Above)
2) Sunny in Neighbours- The most pointless character in the shows history - and that's saying something
3) Start of the Football Season - Signaling the beginning of the end of the summer as well as pleasant Wednesday nights drinks in the local pub
Monday, 17 August 2009
Arctic Monkeys: Good Musicians Shit Comedians
Here at Frapp magazine we've been seeing the morning through by listening to Jo Whiley on Radio One. Today's guests were ultra hip northern band via East London the Arctic Monkey's. Now don't get us wrong we will admit that Alex knows how to pen a good tune every now and again and even the new song has us tapping our feet's against the floor. The problem we have is when the monkey's revert back to that Northern Cynical Sarcastic stereotype. Now if you have never been outside of the home counties then I'm sure this seems really cool and funny. This would explain Alexa Chung, but than again this is a woman who spends her time complaining about how she hated growing up with the horsey set, hated being a model, and now hates being in New York. She also said in a recent interview that she loves East London because everyone dresses the same, its such a shame Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China no longer exist Alexa would off loved it.
But here at Frapp Mag we know the true North, we even been to Rochdale! So the whole old school northern act doesn't impressive us, after all if it did we would just hang out at the Stockpot Pool Rooms. So making sarcey comments in that exaggerated northern accent ( it has to be or even Alexa would off battered Alex to death by now) about going to a Britney Spears Concert or how Blackpool is there favourite location etc..........doesn't impress us. Worst is when they try and be ironic and postmodern in humour displayed twice at the Brit awards once accepting an award dress as Characters from the wizard of Oz and then as shown above turning up as Stereotypical upper class country gents.....Get it because there meant to be gritty northerners........have to give them a clap for trying but unfortunately they are 20 years to late, it been done many time before.
So the lesson is where you might excel in one aspect of life it doesn't apply to many others.
PS.............
Up in Arms about Madge
The latest controversy surrounding Madonna is the state of her arms the popular opinion is that the old queen has been over doing a bit whilst others believe that is pure sexism and no one mentions that Iggy Pop has been looking like this for years and they may have a point. Now I'm not going to argue that Madonna's arms look great or that they are no different from any other woman's because clearly they are whether be a another 50 year old or 21 year old graduate. Yes they have become increasingly muscular without an once of fat on them and for some tastes very unappealing and lets be honest no normal person has arms like that. But people are missing the point Madonna isn't average she is a global superstar the queen bee of global superstars, and to compete in this body obese, highly competitive area Madonna in many ways is no different from a sports athlete. A recent trip to see her live in concert confirmed this on two levels not only is it about looking good and the overall product is the flesh is unbelievably good, but more importantly Madge has to be in tip top shape to do what she does best put on a bloody good show much like an athlete has to be in phenomenal shape to compete. You try dancing a highly energetic dance routines for endless nights in a row across the globe for two hours straight pretty much none stop under the heat of powerfully lights surrounded by body gorgeous dancers half your age, and yet who you can still dance the socks off. We have seen in recent weeks, in stark comparison, in one of Madonna peers what happens when when a performer try's to embark on such a demanding profession without being in peak condition, even 2o something stars have shown us the disaster that can happen on stage if a star is not in top shape remember Britney at the VMA's a few years ago. So laugh at Madonna's endless quest for the perfect body performance but like an athlete it allows her to do what she's got a do and by George she still one of the best in the biz at it but yet we don't criticise Martina Navratilova who roughly the same age as Madonna also has the same type of muscular non fat arms because she's a sports star and that's okay.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Katie Price: Remarkable Woman
Katie Price aka Jordon aka a number of other things is an remarkable woman the ability to make Peter Andre look like a credible celebrity is quiet a feat. Andre for his part seems like a decent bloke if not the brightest spark in the box. The first time I encounter Katie Price was back when she was Jordan in fact back before she was even famous. Using the loosest definition of fame. It was in the late 90's in a reality series about three girls wanting to become Glamour models (what can i say i was a teenager) Jordan as she wanted to be known then was the s0-called expert telling how to heighten their profiles. This mainly consisted of a delightful story about how she and her then boyfriend Dane Bowers were caught having sex in the living room of her Brighton home by a convenient photographer. Surprisingly the relationship didn't last and Jordon gained more media coverage by telling the tabloids that he was useless in bed and hung like an elf. Its amazing how the penis size of a b-list boyband member and the buttons he can press under the duvet, or in this case on the lounge room floor with the curtains open, can gain such column inches in the media, more than the member itself by Jordan's accounts. This was then followed by an infamous debut on the Graham Norton show where she lovingly made a comment about the wideness of an audience members vagina. In between this there were numerous spreads in lad mags and a one night stand with pizza face Gareth Gates.
Then she appeared in I'm A Celebrity hooked up with Andre and came out as Katie Price, earned a 30 million pound fortune and rocked up at polo events with a love of horses. Although my advice would be Katie you could add an extra nought to that personal wealth figure and Henley Polo Club still ain't going to accept you darling. Now it seems she back to the beginnings back to Jordan. Now I don't know Jordan, she could be delightful, and my initial feeling that she was a talentless slag could be unfounded and put down to pure middle class snobbishness but then I read her interview in the 'Q & A' section of the Guardian mag, yes the Guardian. Here she told us that her favourite word was 'Cunt', classy lady! A more insightful answer came from the 'which living person do you despise?' question. Katie's answer was "Murderers, paedophiles and rapists" now there's nothing wrong with this after all who doesn't but you can't help but feel the groan of the Guardian Journalist I mean its a bit like asking someone what food do they dislike least? and the reply being 'Shit'. Plus the question asked for a person which useless Katie knows one bad bastard wasn't really giving us an answer. Anyway as this latest episode of Katie's live continues to put minor issues such as deaths in Afghanistan, global warming and even swine flue off the front page you can guaranteed that the ability ,through many ways and stories to keep her in the press , will serve Jordan for the years to come.
PS Couldn't be bothered finding a free photo of Jordan so just put a pic of my dog up instead draw your own conclusions!
covering my arse!
Boyfrapp would like to point out that the views in these blogs are purely that of the author for all we know Madonna former Los Feliz house could be cheap at $9.99 m
The information is collected from a number of sources and should not be taken as direct fact! Sources include blogspots very own real estate stalker, the LA times, Trulia and Zillow and a number of other sources if you find the property section interesting we suggest you check the above out!
The information is collected from a number of sources and should not be taken as direct fact! Sources include blogspots very own real estate stalker, the LA times, Trulia and Zillow and a number of other sources if you find the property section interesting we suggest you check the above out!
Castillo del Lago- Madonna' s former Hills home
Address: Near the Lake Hollywood, East Hollywood Hills 90068, LA , USA
Status: For Sale
Price: $14,950,000
Former Owner(s): Madonna Louise Ciccone
Basic Voyeur: 1920'S Mansion high up in hills of hollywood, Nine bedrooms, wine cellar, even a look out tower, something of an area landmark, one in a kind of opportunity
Boyfrapp's View: This pink palace has something of a chequered history, before Madge it was owned by gangster Busgy Sigel ( don't ask we don't know) back in the 1930's then in 1993 the queen of pop brought the place partly because of its spanish revival and its secure feel thanks to that tower! According to M's little brother's bio she spent $5m on the place in 1993 then he spent a further $3m on renovations, brothers you just can't trust them! Not only was little bros work expensive it also cause some tension with the neighbours it was white then chris painted it pink with stripes. Which we actually quite like! Castillo became something off a poison property for M not only did it sell for around $5m three years later despite the $3m updating by brother chistopher, Madonna swiftly moved out after a stalker broke into the grounds one sunny afternoon (no it wasn't us!) since then no idea who been living there however we still think its a great house, unusual, pretty and castle like the only cons is that its in the wrong part of the Hollywood Hills 90068 is not as fashionable as 90069 daahlings' plus secure and private it may be but its a treck from the sunset strip and the celeb havens of beverly hills & bel air etc.............
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