Sindustry

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer Mon Jul 23, 4:35 PM ET

NEW YORK - Of all the names in music, Chantal Kreviazuk may be the least likely to appear in a headline. Though she recently released her own album, the songwriter usually stays behind the scenes to pen hits with artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.

But earlier this month, Kreviazuk rocked the pop music world by suggesting that Lavigne was a collaborator in name only. Although she quickly retracted her comments and others defended Lavigne, the flap illuminated a long-standing fraud that has become more prevalent than ever: “singer-songwriters” who do much less songwriting than their publicists would have you believe. (more…)

It’s been a sad summer. Two months ago, I had to put my favorite dog down after she deteriated over night from a brain/spinal tumor. I held her in my arms as the vet euthanized her. I know she was just a dog, but it was one of the saddest days of my life. We got Casey on our honeymoon. She kept my wife company all the years I worked nights. She was my excercise partner, and when the kids came, a playmate and protector of the kids. I miss her alot.

Two weeks ago I took the family on vacation to the same lake we went last year up north in Michigan. For the most part we had an awesome time. The weather was great, we got to swim, eat well and hang out at Lake Michigan. But I realized a couple things this year. I’m an avid indoorsman. I’m not cut for life in the outdoors. I always dreamed of saving enough money to buy a cottage on a lake one day, but I think I may have to give up that dream. For some reason, no matter what precautions I take, I get that cursed swimmer’s itch….that shit, just loves me for some reason. I had bites all over my legs. Thank God it spared the kids this year. We also had an incident with leaches. My kids were swimming at sunset and my middle son said he had “a worm” on his arm he couldn’t get off. Well, he ended up having more than one…five to be exact. My worst fear was realized as I checked inside his swim shorts. You guessed it, a leach attached to his pecker…right under the piss-hole! Jesus….I gotta admit, he was a trooper during the extraction and handled it much better than I. The wife and I decided next year we’re going to go to Florida….

I checked my email a couple days into our vacation and got one from a friend. He wrote he was sorry to hear about my co-worker who was killed. I raced to the local news website and read the account of how he was shot in the head. It was very hard to read. He had a daughter who looked much like my own he left behind. The funeral was tough to handle.

Then, yesterday, I opened up the newspaper to see on the front page that my oldest son’s gym teacher from school shot his estranged girlfriend then himself. How the fuck do you explain that to a five year old?

On the way back from our vacation we made one stop….

Here is a short video clip which pretty much sums up how I spend a typical Friday night….drinking beer on the steps of my studio building on the northwest side of Grand Rapids. As depicted, it’s a beautiful area located one block north of the Grand Rapids Correctional Facility. This clip features myself and Killbraincells.com co-host Todd, sitting on the steps looking for a bum to interview for our internet radio show. If you’re into fucked-up humor, check out the show HERE

If you can’t view this embedded video for some reason go HERE to view it directly on youtube.com.

If you’d like to help me out by voting for the podshow go HERE to cast your vote. It only takes about thirty seconds and it really helps us alot by getting us into the Podcast Alley charts which enables us to attract more listeners. Thanks in advance!