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Every Tuesday I make sure that I buy my weekly copy of Heat; my life just doesnt seem complete without it.
It is mainly dedicated to celebrity news, gossip and interviews although it does also feature beauty and fashion advice. Even though many magazines are based on the same idea I think that Heat does it the best. I enjoy the irreverent way in which they interview celebrities. They are not afraid to say what actually happened and if somebody is rude they will not try to cover it up. I remember an interview that they did with Girls Aloud over a year ago where the girls where being horrendous to the interviewer. The interview that was published was basically copied off the tape, therefore including all the deep sighs and stroppy comments the girls made. Not a highlight in their career Im sure.
Another favourite feature is torso of the week which everybody can guess what it is. Although this is mostly somebody along the lines of Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom it has also featured people such as Tony Blair and Simon Cowell in the past. There is no accounting for the Heat staffs taste!
Another weekly feature is the Spotted pages. This includes sightings of celebrities: where when and what they did. I guess it sounds a little bit perverted to find this interesting but I love it! A recent addition to this page is spot Amy after Amy Winehouse had been spotted 2 weeks in a row randomly abusing people.
The fashion pages always feature high street stuff that the regular reader could actually possibly afford and they also give lots of ideas on accessories. If you wish you can write to them and ask them to find out where a certain item of celebrity clothing is from.
What makes Heat so much more entertaining than other magazines is the humour they employ while writing the magazine. The captions to photographs are always absolutely hilarious and by themselves would make the magazine worth buying.
Sure, I realise this is not an intellectual thing to read and that it wont really do the world much good but then again, its not meant to. It entertains me enormously for a few hours every week and I know more celebrity gossip than anybody I know (maybe not something to be proud of, huh ?). I think for £1.65 it is more than worth having a read. It always manages to make me smile even after a bad day so it must be doing something right.
I buy Heat every week without fail becasue it is the best magazine available for useless celeb news that we all love to read about.
One of my favourtie bits of the magazine is the fashion section and I often find myself running down to the shops to but whatever I find I like on these pages. I have also discovered various new fashion websites that are great value for money and provide celeb fashion to the masses.
Each week there is a different in depth interview with various celebs, including Paris Hilton and Noel Edmonds. The pictures on thses pages featuring the celebs are soooo funny becasue they show your favourtie celebs dressed as you wouldn't expect.
The magazine has also become more interactive because you now get to spot Janine Machine in the magazine, who is the fitness instructor to one Heat's lady killing writers. She helps you with dieting too, with advice such as ...."Put less food one your plate, you'll eat less."
You also get full TV listing with picks of the day....usually Lost or Corrie. Plus information about what celebs like to watch on TV and what makes them turn off.
Tuesday's would NOT be complete without this Celeb mag, BUY IT!
Now before I write this review I must reiterate to you all that I am not really a bimbo and have got a degree and a good full time job just in case you are going to start thinking you sad git.
Now I love a bit of gossip and what is the best way to do this, well gossip about celebrities as lets face it they are very entertaining. Heat magazine is a great glossy colour magazine that satisfies my need for useless celebrity gossip and stories each week and therefore I can carry on with the rest of the week knowing I have got my weekly fix.
Now I will take you on a brief but full review of exactly what you can find within heat.
Heat magazine;
You will always notice heat magazine in the shops because of its great big red letters spelling heat. The front cover is always very bright and is filled with short catch phrases telling you what the main stories are which are usually the stories that are in the latest celebrity news. For instance in this weeks heat you can read an interview with Jordan, about Kate Moss rehab hell and remember Brad and Jen the way they were before the horribleness that is divorce.
Now lets go through the regular sections in the magazine.
Inside you will find the what everybody is talking about section. This is a short snippet of the hottest celebrity news in the past week. You will also find the contents here at the beginning.
Letters section. Readers offer their views on the world of celebrity and TV.
Quite a new feature to the magazine by the letters is a fun look at how the heat staff think. Now at first it just looks like a list of who does what at heat but when you look further you will see that the staff get asked a question each week and they all give their answers which sometimes prove very funny to read. This weeks question is which three words best describe the person immediately below you in the masthead? with answers like likes little people and pays my wages. Some of the questions can be more entertaining though such as who is the most famous person you have met?
The next familiar section is about breaking news again in relation to celebrity gossip. Within this section you can also find fast gossip which gives you about 3-4 stories per page. This can be about A list or Z list celebrities so stories can be about anything.
Next is a love page which is snippets about celebrity romance and which relationships are on and which ones are off. As always I am not sure whether to believe any of it but its fun to read.
The week in pictures is perhaps my favourite part of the magazine as I find looking at the pictures more interesting than reading about them half the time (well who doesnt?). This section does exactly what it says on the tin and shows what celebs have been up to all week by pictures with just a small box of information letting you know what they are doing. The pictures can be of anything and are quite entertaining.
Next we have circle of shame which again I love to look at. Now I know it is not clever to laugh at other peoples mishaps such as sweat stains or strange toes as it happens to he best of us but come on it is funny isnt it? Plus they are celebrities and are rich and beautiful so to be fair we deserve the right to be glad when reveal that they are not perfect after all. This week in heat you can see Mariah Careys four boobs, Teri hatchers nose hair and Lindsay Lohans disgusting nails. Cruel but funny!
Then we have star style so for all of us fashion lovers we can ooh and ahh over all of the gorgeous clothes. On this page I do tend to see a lot of styles that I would love to try but could not get away with and even though I am jealous that all of the celebs look so pretty I just love looking at their clothes. If you like fashion you will like the next page too as it gives you a little taster of what looks are in at the moment. This week it is ruffles and I have noticed that there are a lot of ruffled clothes in the shops this autumn. Also in star style we dont just get to see good clothes but the bad rear their ugly head to. Yes we have a section called what were you thinking? Oh my god some of the clothes they think they can get away with is ridiculous and you have to laugh at them. The last section is find it which sometimes is quite good. It is where people really want the clothes celebrities wear and heat finds where you can buy them so if you spot a celeb wearing something you want then you can write in and you may get what you wish for.
Spotted is a section of the magazine which details where celebrities have been spotted and what they were doing.
Now ladies the page where they do torso of the week is well worth a look as it shows a half naked stunning looking man which is always nice to see. This week it is Johnny Knoxville who has an amazing body.
Surgery spy scrutinises a celeb and asks 3 experts if they think that they have had surgery or not. You can also find your horoscopes on this page which also gives you your weekly love planner.
Every week heat will interview a celebrity which makes for very interesting reading. This weeks interview is with Stephen Fry so is a very good read.
Next is the review section which will give you the low-down on what new films, cds, books and DVDs are out. Also on the cinema, DVD and book pages there is a chart on the right hand side. They rate everything in stars with one star being rubbish and five stars being excellent.
Then we have the TV section so you have the weeks TV to study and enjoy. Me myself cannot cope if I havent got a weekly TV planner by my side in the week. The heat staff helpfully pick out the best programmes for each day too so you know exactly what to watch.
For the puzzle lovers in you there is a crossword at the back that is all about you guessed it celebrities. If you manage to complete it you can even send it off and maybe win the weekly competition.
And finally at the back pages you have say what which basically tells you some silly quotes that celebrities have said.
Last couple of essentials you need to know are that heat magazine is out every Tuesday and costs £1.55.
My verdict;
Well after writing that review I can honestly say I feel really good. That review has taken me over 3 hours because as I have been writing it I have been getting engrossed in the magazine again and I have already read it once! This is the problem with heat though that it is addictive. I only bought it once for something to read on my train journey from Birmingham to Aberystwyth and now it is one year later and I am still buying it every week.
I am like many people though addicted to knowing what is going on in the world of celebrity and this is precisely why I buy heat magazine because it gives you enough gossip to last me the week. I know it may seem sad but everybody is obsessed with the celebrity world, I mean it is just so glamorous and these people have money and beauty and I love to see how they live their lives. I have to admit that sometimes I do not even read all of the articles and just look at the pictures. I also read it and then during the week before the new edition is out I find myself looking over the magazine several times. Yes I know its sad before you all scream it at me.
Now you all know I am a big DVD fan and heat always has the same opinion on films than me so I love the review section. They give a very in-depth look into not just the good parts but the bad too so it gives you a good idea on what to expect.
I also love the fact that heat gives you the weeks TV as it is a nice colourful and easy to read TV guide and for £1.55 it is good value for your money.
There are adverts in the magazine every now and again which to be honest are not too annoying as the majority of the time they are just over the one page and there is still some useless celebrity information to read on the other page.
In conclusion I think heat is the best magazine you can buy each week if you like a bit of celebrity gossip, a bit of fashion and your TV programmes thrown in too. The magazine looks funky and every Tuesday I see it as my little treat to buy it and then read it while in the bath that evening. Then I keep it by my bed all week so whenever I am bored I can just see what is on TV. I will continue to buy this magazine weekly as it is rubbish yes but a bit of fun and we could all do with a bit of fun in the middle of the working week.
Thanks for reading.
Heat is probably not a magazine I would have ever picked off a shelf and made the decision to buy. Unfortunately I got sucked into doing just that, and have done every Tuesday for heaven knows how many weeks, ever since getting a free copy with a newspaper I bought at WHSmith. Well I think that was the offer, like I said I've been reading this magazine for so long now...the issue I have infront of me is 23-29 April 2005 (so obviously not the most recent) and that is Issue number 318.
So I know what you're thinking, it's just ANOTHER celebrity magazine. Fair point. With no less than six "celebrities" (it does rather depend on your definition of the word) adorning the front of the aforementioned issue I have in front of me (23-29 April 2005) it can't really claim to be anything else.
** 'This week's hottest celebrity news' **
This sits in medium-sized black front above the large red title "heat" and below it we can find the price and the date of the magazine. This is constant week in week out, as you'd expect, and the cover obviously changes from week to week. There's often lots of red and yellow used, so the magazine stands out quite a way on the shelf, and there are - as I've said - lots of pictures on the front each week.
"Britney's Baby News!"
"Michelle McManus loses 5½ stone!"
"Which do men prefer? Skinny or Curvy? Heat Poll: We ask 100 blokes (many of them famous)"
"Brad & Angelina spend 2 days in hotel suite"
These are just some of the exciting goings on in the lives of famous people you can expect to read about - their weight, their fashion choices, their lifestyle choices, what they think is better - skinny or curvy, blonde or brunette, daddy or chips....Heat magazine always boasts of having the first pictures, an exclusive or a shock report.
As you open the magazine you'll find an advert on the left hand side (so the inside of the cover) and the contents on the right hand page. This is a great thing about this magazine - it's not the thickness of a telephone directory with half of that being adverts. It works out to be between 120 and 130 pages each week, though you do get bumper issues from time to time. You won't find terribly long feature articles that you'll find in the telephone-directory size magazines like Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan either. There's a large picture to text ratio.
Ok, so back to contents. The first page is 'Everyone's talking about...' and briefly outlines a story that's made the headlines that week. In the issue in front of me, everyone is talking about 'Britney's pregnancy'. The contents then runs down the right hand side.
Readers get to voice their opinions about the latest scandal in Tinsel Town or the latest offering to reality TV. Letter of the week wins a prize, lately it's an LG C3300 phone from T-Mobile with £10 free credit.
**Fast Gossip/ LA Confidential**
Quick gossip basically - on both sides of the pond.
**Love & Stuff**
"What they're up to & with who!" basically sums up what this section is about, with the 'On' and 'Off' section so you can see at a glance who is with who.
**The Week in Pictures**
The titles of these features are pretty much self explanatory, this normally spans about 20 pages. Each day spans a couple of pages and has pictures of a certain 'celebrity' or a celebrity couple doing something 'interesting' - again I use the speech marks because it really does depend on your own definitions - for example Coleen McLoughlin becoming a fashion model, or Darius wearing a kilt, Keira Knightley learning to sword fight, Javine rearranging her pants in public, Sharon Stone with 12 pieces of luggage at Heathrow Airport and James Bourne (formerly of Busted) getting into a fight with a photographer...oh what a week that was!
**Circle of shame**
I've seen this kind of feature in several magazines - it's a nice reminder that celebrities are infact human and do sweat or spill things down themselves etc etc. The eagle-eyed people at Heat Towers don't miss a thing.
**Star Style**
Since under going a bit of make over itself, the magazine now focuses much more on fashion than it used to. If fashion is what interests you I wouldn't buy Heat specifically for this section, but it's an interesting change:
Best Dressed - high praise for those celebrities who've got it right in the fashion stakes this week
This Week on the High Street - They take a high street shop and there are pictures of must-have items from there, and also celebrities who shop there. In this issue Warehouse is the 'must-visit' high street store.
You Look Amazing - A make-up section with a celebrities setting a good example, and advice from a make-up artist on how to copy the look, including info on the products you'll need, and a few tips on application.
What Were You Thinking? - Celebrities in some truly shocking outfits!
Everyone's wearing... - In this issue it's 'chunky beads' - it tells you who 'everyone' is (Teri Hatcher, Carmen Electra, Nicole Richie) and tells you where to get them from.
Find it! - This is a great section in my opinion, readers write in having seen a celebrity wearing something and they'll tell you where you can buy it from.
-- If you're interested the e-mail address for this feature is email@example.com --
Steal her Style! - Similar to the 'You Look Amazing' feature, only this time they take a celebrity and tell you how to copy their whole outfit, but on a high street level, so the items are just slightly more affordable. In this issue they manage to copy a Brittany Murphy outfit for £216. At the bottom of this page there is stockist information.
For all you celebrity stalkers out there, this is an entire double page dedicated to descriptions of where celebrities have been cited. There are some pictures, and at the bottom there are pictures taken by readers - you can currently win £200 for these photos.
**Heat Torso of the Week**
Now this feature is fairly new to the magazine, but it has already stirred quite a bit of controversy. In the issue before the General Election, the Torso of the Week was none other than...Tony Blair! And it provoked quite a mixed response. Well I'll let you make your own mind up, but just think...it could have been Michael Howard *shudders* hehe! This week it's Matthew McConaughey, in past issues I've seen the likes of Usher, Justin Timberlake and Will Young - much more pleasing on the eye than Tony Blair, but each to their own I guess!
**Surgery Spy**
Have they or haven't they? They have a comparison of two photos of a celebrity and then three panelists - a registered plastic surgeon, a professional make-up artist and a dermatology specialist give their verdict. Also on this page you'll find the horoscopes.
I always find this an interesting feature in a magazine, it's much more concise than it used to be, at the bottom is a weekly love-planner which rates how much love you're going to have on any given day for the next week.
**Heat Interview**
Whoever does the interview gets to dress up - there have been some quite funny ones, though word of warning - this weeks issue (21-27 May) has an interview with Gordon Ramsey and the picture is NOT pretty! You've been warned....lol!
I enjoy reading the interview, sometimes they can be quite funny - they ask the questions the celebrities really don't want to answer, and sometimes you can see the reaction they get is very amusing. They also transcribe a lot of the interviewee's gestures and so on and put their own thoughts on the celebrity at the beginning.
They review films, DVD releases, books and CDs
- One long film review and two shorter and 'Your top ten films'
- Two album reviews and five short single reviews
- Two DVD reviews and 'Your top ten DVDs'
- Two book reviews and 'Your top ten books'
They also include upcoming releases. The reviews are fairly good, but obviously nothing in comparison to the likes of DooYoo and Ciao ;)
They have star ratings and fairly detailed opinion plus information like date of release, price for some products, certificate rating for films/DVDs.
There's also small boxes on these pages called 'Star selection' in which stars like Alex Carter (Lee from Hollyoaks) and Claudia Winkleman tell you the last film they saw, the last CD they bought, the last DVD they bought and the last book they read.
**Heat TV**
This section is a TV guide and then some. They include interviews with the stars of new shows, and information on the concept behind new shows, quotes from old shows that are ending or are just good (they've done this for the likes of Little Britain, Friends, Sex and the City and The Osbornes). In the issue currently before me there is a low-down of the celebrities taking part in Celebrity Wrestling and an interview with a Michael Jackson lookalike.
Fast Gossip TV gives exclusive gossip about new projects that stars have lined up, things that have happened on American TV and so on, like Justin Timberlakes guest appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' in the US with his girlfriend Cameron Diaz.
There's also TV Top 10, which gives the viewing figures for the top ten programmes that week, and My Favourite Telly - where stars talk about their favourite programmes, their TV pin-up, their favourite TV snacks, and what makes them turn off.
The TV guide itself is pretty well laid out, covering BBC1-Five in a tabular kind of format as you'd expect from most TV guides, with the time slots so you can compare what's on at the same sort of time. Then they have Pick of the Day where one programme is explained in a lot of detail, and three others in slightly less detail. There's a slight giving away of the plot in some cases, though mostly they're just quite humorous. I particularly enjoyed how sarcastic they were about Katy from Coronation Street's awful hair! Hehe. Haha and reading through what they wrote for Coronation Street on the 24 April you can see what I mean: I'm ruining nothing because this episode has since passed.
'When Karon McDonald left t'Street, we swore we would never, ever support her ex-husband getting together with her arch nemesis, the evil Tracy Barlow. But time passes, feelings fade, and top o' the morning, she's better than that Louise, isn't she? (Notice how we didn't mention Louise's hair the whole time she was in Corrie even thought it was blatantly awful?' That's because we don't want you to think we're obsessed with barnets, and also because we feel a tad guilty about driving Katy to suicide. She might have said it was because she killed her dad, but we know the truth.)'
They include highlights of what's on on digital on this page, but the digital TV does have it's own section. I don't use this very much as I find it a bit confusing - in fact I don't use this TV guide very much just because I love Radio Times too much - Heat obviously doesn't take account of regional differences, which isn't too much of a big deal. I certainly wouldn't buy this magazine for the TV guide alone, but it's a handy extra I guess.
There are also radio highlights. The handiest part of the TV guide has to be right at the end though - 'The Week's best TV shows' - a top ten for both terrestrial and digital, which, proving you agree with it can prove a handy reminder of what's on when, to ensure you don't miss anything!
This is really a test of your showbiz knowledge more than anything else, but you can win some pretty nifty prizes - it changes week in week out - in this issue a personal DVD player is up for grabs. The answers for the previous week's crossword are given too.
Oh. My. God. Maggie Wheeler's Friends character (6)
Peter Andre's classic made-up word and single (7)
**Say What?**
This is a compilation of things celebrities have said, with often sarcastic retorts from the Heat writers:
'Shoes are cute, but food is really important'
- Well said, Alicia Silverstone
'I do all right when it comes to line dancing, but as soon as I move my hips, it's kind of an issue'
- The fact that you do line dancing is the real issue here, Ashton Kutcher
**My Overall Opinion**
Phew, they manage to pack quite a lot into those 130 pages in my opinion. I do think that it can be a bit over the top sometimes, I don't really care to see pictures of Peter Stringfellow in a thong sunning himself on holiday it has to be said, and I do find the double page spread on J-Lo picking her nose a tad ridiculous but still it is nice to know that these celebrities are human and now that's it veered slightly away from the celebrity gossip and there are also sections on fashion and they've improved the TV section I think the magazine is a great weekly read.
The writers who work at Heat Towers have established a really good writing style that is pretty much unique. As a magazine, they claim to love celebrities - after all without them their magazine would be pretty empty, but they say that they don't put them on a pedestal.
"Sure we love their films, TV shows and CDs but we love them even more when they wear awful dresses to the Oscars or fall over drunk outside the Met Bar."
This is very much reflected in their writing style - they do like to take the piss, it has to be said - I think the extract from the Coronation Street highlights this quite well.
I ought to just mention that since Big Brother is starting next week, Dermot O'Leary will be writing his weekly column once more - hooray! This is his views on the housemates, the goings on in the house and so on.
The magazine comes out every Tuesday and can be bought from most newsagents and supermarkets. You might even be able to read a copy in your local dentist/doctor's waiting room :P
It costs £1.50 (Euros - 3.25 excl. ROI) and if you want to get in touch you'll require the following information:
heat 7th floor,
Endeavour House,
189 Shaftesbury Avenue,
Tel: (020) 7437 9011
Fax: (020) 7859 8670
E-mail: email@example.com
To subscribe visit www.greatmagazines.co.uk
For 51 weekly issues (inc p&p)
Airmail Europe, Eire & USA: £125
Airmail rest of world: £250
The website says it'll cost you £18.95 every 3 months for free delivery to your door and the free gift is currently a Rimmel set worth £20.
Quick word of warning - nothing major, but this magazine doesn't always tend to censor out some of those four-word expletives that naughty celebrities use so that might be worth bearing in mind.
Thanks for reading!
wow, what a magazine!! I have to admit that it is the only magazine that I buy on a regular basis, other magazines try to be heat ( shame on you now, new and closer, there is only one heat). my freinds are always joking about how i have a problem and that I need to go cold turkey for a while! I am not hurting anyone and for only £1.45 a week it is a bargain for my little fix! First i suppose I should talk about the bad parts of this magazine. The first thing that annoys me a little about heat is that it is so nosey! Some of the stuff they put in there I do not really want to see, for example last weeks mag had a picture of Ben Affleck eating a burger, there was a whole story to go with it. why? I do not really care what Ben Affleck ate for hais dinner! Another bad thing is that there is a whole two pages devoted to where people have spotted certain celebs. I sometimes wonder if anyone actually goes through all of them to see where that celebs hang! However there are many good things about this absolutely fabulous magazine. My favorite section of it is the reviews section, and this is were my addiction really kicks in. If I have missed an issue of heat, I will often end up wondering about what they would say about the new movie that has just come out, or the new album that I am not too sure whether to buy. I have often been known to go out and watch/buy/rent something on the bases that heat said it was good. And they have never been wrong, yet..... I love the interviews, the interviewer is never afraid to ask those questions that we all want to ask but would be to scared to ask ourselves. The result- we often see the real celibraty behind the image. An example is when I read an interview with Atomic Kitten and they were so mean about the questions, it just showed us what drama queens thay are in real life! (not a fan of Atomic Kitten anyway I have decided that my mild dislike has turned to hatred for them!) The pictures are alway
really good as well, I always have to look twice to see what they are actually showing me. Another favorite section of mine is the 'they said what?' section. Some of them are absolutely classic! I just break down in to giggles after reading this page. the TV section is also good, again if there is something that i would not have normally turned on to watch on and heat says that it is good then i will probably giive it a look and see what it is like. They are also a big fan of Eastenders, which is my favorite soap, this is always good! The 'Scandal' section is always good to read, you can see dodgy pics of celebs before they were famous ( i have seen quite a few in what look like porn films!), there is also the funny pictures of celebs looking very stupid! The final thing to mention is the fashion pages, this is sometimes a little hit and miss, and is usually based around what celebraties have been wearing alot of. This is one page that I usually do not take advice from, however thay do have nice things and if I had a little more money... The magazine has recently gone through a face lift, which is fine but has not really changed it much. It is just the same mag with fancier writting. We love you as you are Heat!
Yes, you can never claim theediscerning shirks his responsibilities. Rather than review a brilliantly healthy food item that will revolutionise your family's eating habits, and completely ignoring the next novel that will change your lives utterly and wonderfully for the better, theediscerning can reveal Chris Moyles picks his nose and eats it, and he can tell you all about the proof. In a world chocka with the most hectic sources of endless information regarding our lives and those of future generations, isn't it nice to sit down for a while, relax, and dream our cares away with pictures of celebrities having ugly moments? That seems to be the sole purpose of Heat magazine. Gone are the days when you bought magazines for the words ~ there are hardly a hundred to each page here. Instead what we are buying into is the complete opposite to those celebrity-hugging C2DE-bracketed-housewives' magazines. So that makes it friendly for the yoof of today, which makes it fine for us all to "read" and be all smug and knowing. Indeed, who wouldn't be smug if they could see pictures of Britney with bad skin, Cate Blanchett having builder's crack when she squats down, and Sadie Frost having a bit of a greaseball off day? Whereas much celebrity fodder makes us feel we can live like them, or live with them, Heat at least makes us think we can be better than them. And what celebrities we have here. Ignore the above-mentioned, there is also real, important talent in these pages. Stand up, Sara Cox, in your retro flapper frock (only one consonant wrong, there, of course). It's page 105 (really? It only reads like page 34, there's so much depth) for an interview with the unfortunately named Jon Tickle. Instead of being a porn star, as it sounds he should, he?s come fresh from losing Big Brother to showing "science" to Sky One's viewers. But who on earth is this Peter Brame character? Answ
ers not on a postcard, but on a huge, full-colour, almost A3 double spread. Such is the hard graft put into each page by Heat journalists, each main picture of the spread comes with not one but two captions. Double the value! As far as the writing is concerned, there is actually a small amount that might count as news, but it must all be taken with a pinch of salt. There's a back of a house, which they say is not what David Beckham is married to, but where he is finally renting in Spain. There's news about Corrie people doing Children in Need ~ given a few days, would we not have found that out for ourselves? There's also Nicole Kidman talking about her miscarriage, which is fine, except she was talking to Marie Claire at the time ~ this is just second-hand reportage, and merely an excuse to cobble together old photos with old publicity for our fresh reconsumption. All this is put together by a cast of several dozens. Read their names on the masthead page, which each week asks each one a pertinent question about their current tastes, which is generally an excuse for the editor to tell us how little he likes Radiohead. Rather than get personal, however, in criticising them, let's just assume for their sakes that the graphics people got a degree in order to present pictures of Simon Cowell getting an unfortunate French kiss from a dog. And how the literary members of staff find TWO books each and every week for us to read reviews about, why, the mind boggles. To take the magazine as seriously as it itself does for a minute (half the time it takes to read the thing, then), the pap is well-produced, and its chosen market has made it incredibly successful, so it must be doing something right. One gets all the apparently relevant celebrity photo gossip, style tips and how-to-dress-like-[insert minor name] articles. The major interview will cover three or four pages, mostly with pictures, of course, but also with the eve
r-important questions about the subject's past romances. The three films under review will assuredly include only those *everyone* has reviewed elsewhere, and provide you with nothing new. Similarly, the music pages will not let you experiment with anything but the safest pop, lest the ridiculous amount of people advertising Friends DVDs in the same pages get cold feet. The magazine closes with seven days' of television listings, giving the fullest detail about the important documentaries and current affairs programmes (sorry, that bit was fantasy), the largest-print prize crossword imaginable, and the horoscopes page. Even here the brilliance of the writing comes across ~ just witness the recent column matching Britney (Sagittarius) and Madonna (Leo), and asking "And what would their babies be like?". It is unfortunate to report that Heat is just so successful. The only real enjoyment that may be derived from flicking through the trashy pages is the inherent comedy to be had from some celebrity outfits. Thankfully, Heat staff have decided they're so much better than the famous people they depend on, and are not at all afraid of pulling them down a peg or two, if what has come off the peg is particularly stupid. What makes this collection of nonentities' opinions about others so worthy of publication is just a mystery. Unfortunately it's just another sign of the times in which we live, a world in which soon people will be too brainwashed and stupid to even understand the phrase "dumbing down". Just witness the cutting-edge questioning on Channel 4 recently, to a Blazing Squad member ~ "Your single got five stars in the latest Heat review; do you think that's right?" In a world where the Heat opinion is gospel, there is no hope. So why on earth does theediscerning have such knowledge of this magazine, if he thinks it completely rubbish? Well, he?s a sucker for a
"free" film screening, and Heat has one more often than not. Of course, it doesn't always reach his own provincial area of the country, and so far has proved to be a complete waste of time. The first time theediscerning bought Heat and took it to claim cinema tickets for a preview showing, they gave out twice as many tickets as seats, so when he turned up fashionably on time, the screen was full. The repeat attempt a month later was only to find the reverse, and that the cinema had no tickets to give away anyway. That is just an aside, really, but a note of some import after all. You can rely on Heat for pictures of brazen hussies and brainless hunks you have no interest in, with a few snippets of personal interest scattered throughout, but where the only worthwhile reason to buy it is concerned, you are dealing with third parties that are much less reliable. To conclude with Heat, if anyone really is that interested in a pictorial record of Christina Aguilera's MTV awards wardrobe, then they are pitied. There are more important things in this world for us all to consider than how ugly the Cheeky Girls are ~ and how the journalist could claim pride in knowing what each one is called is equally bizarre. The buyers of this magazine will hate the above for stating a different view to the one they carry ~ they buy Heat in their thousands each week knowing just what they'll be getting, and deserving every stupid page of it. Perhaps this should close with the news that Heat costs £1.45 weekly, or 3Euros on the Canary Islands, but if you still consider it worth purchasing, you're lost to us already. In a world where these preening buffoons count as newsworthy celebrities, and in reviewing such trash here, a world with no stars as an option would be very welcome indeed.
Whilst standing in the newsagents recently, trying to decide what magazine to buy, in order to have a little light reading, the front cover of ?Heat? jumped out at me from the shelves. Various small pictures of celebrities in less than flattering poses, are scattered across the front of the magazine. I suppose there is a little part in all of us that loves to see people who are usually portrayed to be glamorous beings, at their absolute worst, so I picked up a copy and bought it home. ?Heat? costs £1.45 and is published on a weekly basis. The magazine claims to have the hottest celebrity news each week, so I read it from cover to cover, to ascertain whether I could sue them for libel. ?Heat? is glossy, but of a smaller size to ?OK? and Hello? magazines. However, the quality of the paper used it in its manufacture is not particularly thick, there are about ten less pages, and the magazine is 55p cheaper than ?OK?. The ?Everyone?s talking about?? section deals with a newsworthy item from the week of publication. In this issue, the article is about the phenomenon that is Reality TV, as there are literally dozens of this type of show on every channel at present. Later in the magazine another section deals with stars of reality TV shows, and asks the question ?Where are they now?? The articles start off pleasantly enough, and focus on the shows which made the stars famous, but culminate in a sarcastic comment for most of them, and gives the reasons why the majority will never make the big time. Following the same theme, the magazine devotes three pages to the fact that Madame Tussaud?s have seen fit to create a waxwork of Simon Cowell for their exhibition. Visitors are encouraged to sing karaoke style, after which the waxwork will utter some of Simon?s immortal phrases. A short interview with the man himself is contained in the article, together with a large picture of the waxwork, with speech bubbles depicting the put downs that are
uttered from the dummy. ?Hot off the Press? is a six page section, dealing with stories that are the most recent in the celebrity circuit. The main story in this issue deals with the rumour circulating that not only is Justin Timberlake dating Cameron Diaz, but that his ex-girlfriend, the obnoxious Miss Spears, may or may not be seeing Cameron?s ex-boyfriend. The article is quite sniping towards Britney and revels in the fact that her career has hit the doldrums of late. However, not all articles follow this line, and there is a sympathetic report regarding one of the Big Brother housemates of the last series, Nush, who was recently mugged, and left badly injured. Of course ?Heat? has a letters page, where the letter of the week is given a substantial £100 in HMV vouchers. Letters sent in by readers deal with celebrities in the news, articles featured in past issues, and the public?s thoughts on television programmes currently being broadcast. ?The Week in Pictures? is exactly as it says. Eleven pages devoted to stars going about their daily business, unwittingly caught on camera. This week sees Lee Ryan from the band Blue, constantly in the news, but normally for the wrong reasons, trying to tip over a portaloo in which one of his friend?s was trying to relieve himself. The story does state that Lee ran off before the person emerged, which only reinforces my suspicions that he is a total idiot. Each story bears the date and place in which the photographs were taken, and one such story shows Sadie Frost and Kate Moss relaxing on a recent holiday together. Kate is looking her glamorous self, yet ?Heat? imply that she may again be pregnant because of her ?bulging? belly. If that is their definition of bulging, mine must be whale like. The journalism is witty of course, and sometimes scathing, but in the case of this story, laughable. Oh, how I?m going to bite my tongue if she indeed is pregnant! The story that made me laugh the most was one
about the mother of that Big Brother reject, Jade Goody. For anyone who has seen Ms. Goody?s mother, they will realise that the poor woman is no oil painting. ?Heat? have some hysterical photographs of her out on a recent night out, looking decidedly worse for wear, and daring to show her bra to the photographer. Not a pretty site, but the journalist?s comments about her being the next Jordan, had me diving for my tissues, as tears of laughter streamed down my face. ?News and Stuff? is spread out over six pages, and features both long and short articles, about lesser known facts about celebrities. Only one of the stories in this issue, actually had an interview with the person in question, but the best piece by far was a section entitled ?On or Off?? which pictures star couples and speculates how long they will stay together. Why bother? All of them will split up eventually, most likely blaming the pressures of fame?..This section also has top tens of the most popular programmes on the main television channels over the past week, and also films showing at the cinema. There is also a top ten music chart, and ?Heat? give their hot tips for future number one spots. If competitions interest you, ?Heat? is not the magazine to buy. In this issue, I could only find one, which was a crossword, for which a day at a health spa was the first prize. There was however the chance to have free tickets to see the film of the moment ?Calendar Girls?. A voucher is printed in the magazine, which has to be taken along to the cinema for two free entrances. No magazine would be complete without fashion pages, and ?Heat? is no exception. ?Starstyle? focuses on one fashion accessory, and displays photographs of celebrities wearing their version. This week, the item in question is a charm necklace, and a small section is devoted to stockists of the said item. There is also a cosmetic section, which this week looks inside the make up bag of Alesha Dixon. I am so g
lad I am not a celebrity, for if they looked in my make up bags, there would be a great many lipsticks that Amber has seen fit to ruin in her quest to become alluring to various boys at her school! Also within this section, is a page devoted to photographs of stars reading their favourite books this Summer. Interestingly enough, Chris Evans is pictured reading a spiritual enlightenment book. Forgive me for saying, but all he needs is a good wash and feed, and he would be a different man. ?Oooh Scandal? is a twelve page pull out section of the magazine, which is an absolute bitch fest. Stories abound about the ever tacky Jordan, whether or not Sarah Jessica Parker has had a nose job (who cares, she?s still weird looking?) and even a picture of Jude Law?s nipple. Of course, there are the normal celebrities caught on camera at a most inopportune moment, be it eating, kissing, sweating profusely or wearing clothes that do them absolutely no justice, but this part of the magazine proves that everyone has their off days. Sarcastic headlines and putdowns abound throughout, as in ?Summer Holiday Disasters? which shows Jennifer Aniston looking very fetching in a red bikini, standing at the edge of a pool, picking her nose, as well as yet another picture of poor Leslie Ash, with her infamous ?trout pout?. The ?Film Review? section pulls no punches. Latest releases to hit the cinemas are pulled apart in true ?Heat? fashion and absolutely all have a section entitled ?What?s wrong with it??. There is also a listing of the top ten films showing at present, which also outline a brief plot. This theme continues with the music reviews, yet reviews of books, DVD?s and videos do not get the same harsh treatment, and are mainly positive. ?Heat? also includes a weekly pull out television guide, in which interviews with the stars of programmes for the forthcoming week abound, as well as a comprehensive listing of the week ahead. The one thing I do not like abou
t the guide, is that terrestrial television for the week is listed first, followed by satellite, digital and cable. If you are looking for a celebrity magazine that is kind to the stars, do NOT buy ?Heat?. The magazine has constant put downs, sarcastic one liners and unflattering pictures. While I like ?OK?, I do feel that at times, the magazine is too nice to the celebrities it features. Will I be buying ?Heat? again? Definitely. Especially on those days when I wake up and think I look awful, and need a reminder that even Jennifer Aniston can look as though she has been out on a beano for a whole weekend. I have however, taken one star away as when I wrote this review I was in the mood for some celebrity slating. There are times of course when I am not, and end up feeling quite sorry for the celebrities concerned (although not if they are Victoria or David Beckham!)
Robert De Niro once said in a film "A guy once told me, "Do not have any attachments, do not have anything in your life you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner." That's kind of the way I feel about Heat Magazine, my sister buys this magazine on occasion and I'll flick through it but never really read anything other than the TV listings in it. However thanks to a painful case of kidney stones earlier on ths week I was forced to read this from cover to cover through sheer boredom. At the end of it I don't know what it worse, waiting in A&E for 10 hours or having to read Heat magazine. I've come to despise some forms of celebrity status in recent years thanks to the likes of Big Brother and those other lame reality TV shows. Well Heat magazine bases it's content on this kind of thing and it's quite frankly the pits. The reason that Heat is a popular celebrity gossip magazine is because it manages to present it's trash stories in a stylish way. The magazine doesn't look knocked up in a couple of hours after lunch. It has decent layout and presentation as well as photographs. it's just that it's content is completely non-existent. Heat seem to have a criteria for each issue, a list of commandments and at the top of it is the following. 'THOUT SHALL NOT LET AN ISSUE GO BY WITHOUT FEATURING POSH & BECKS AT LEAST IN THREE ARTICLES' Yes Heat is so far up Posh & Becks arse it's untrue. The real sad thing is though is that Heat seem to be like the schoolboy peering through a frosted window at the goodies inside the sweet shop. Apparantly this week everyone is talking about Beck's departure for sunnier climates. Personally I couldn't give a ................ Heat's insightful interviews and articles feature such amazing insight with the likes of David Furnish bleating on about how Liz Hurley had to get i
nto the boot of a car to avoid the press, yes the same Liz Hurley who uses the media when it suits her and it's time to promote another one of her crap films. She could have done with some recently seeing as her latest movie's gone straight to video over here. This is about as far as the writing goes. The majority of it is made up of inane comments about the long lense photos of celebrities. it's very thin meat hanging off the bones throughout every page. Of course there's the Big Brother coverage, thanks Heat for plugging this show as I really can't wait for it to end......... forever. My only thin bit of praise is that they do highlight shows such as 24 and Six Feet Under in their TV listings. This should make readers check out these great shows rather than Neighbours from Hell on the other channel. Apart from that I pray I never have the immense pain of kidney stones again so I don't have to go through this tortured read.
'Heat' as it has been explained actually started off as a magazine with genuine journalistic pretentions and a remit to provide an in depth look into the world of film and entertainment. I have read it since day one and so I remember the "100 stupid things that villains do" articles culled straight from email virals. Okay, plagarism was there from the start but I felt that the mag had its heart in the right place at least. It had genuine content and was readable. But sales were low and something had to be done, the move was gradual but extremely cynical. Best summed up in the change of tagline from "Best Entertainment news" to "Best celebrity Gossip" (paraphrasing). Celeb gossip has its place but what annoyed me the most about 'Heat' was the way it actually *changed* its remit and focus and like an insidious carpet bagger sought to grab the "National Enquirer" & "Now" constituancy with notions of being a more sophisticated, young and witty type of celeb rag. There is no such thing! Once you buy into the cult of celebrity your critical faculties fly out the window. The deterioration of the review section is proof positive of this (as well as the irrational deification of Davina McCall who's 'brilliance' is in its entirety down to the fact that she hosted "Big Brother") Films, books and albums are rated well if they are made by fashionable people and accompanied by lots of hype. How good they are doesn't even come into it anymore, the section is a complete farce. A scientific measure of this is comparing the stars a film might score on release compared to the amount it garners on video/DVD release. In 'Heat' there is always a significant discrepancy since their minds are so easily dazzled by fame and razzmatazz. The interviews are sycophantic and banal. The 8 page photo spreads are tedious in the extreme, Jordan leaving her house
, Kate Winslet going shopping...yawn. A lot of people have agreed that it makes a very short read, this is including the now page long 'Spotted' section, basically a verbal version of the photo section but *even more mundane*. How many celebrities must the average Londoner see a week? The only pleasure in the 'Spotted' section is for the person who does the reporting! It's so unintelligent and lazy. Other things I hate about 'Heat': Horoscopes? For god's sake how old are we? The TV section no longer has spoiler warnings. There is no rundown of the weeks films. Posh is always on the front if there is no Big Brother to be had. Mark Firth (editor) is going to front 'Liquid News'. Noooooooo! He hasn't got 2 brain cells to rub together. Usual tabloid hypocrisy (and sometimes downright malice) of chastising celebs for being too thin one moment, too fat the next. Complaining about "do nothings" like Lady Victoria Hervey and printing her picture and writing what she's been up to *all the same*. Badly written regardless of content & unfunny with it. Significantly more expensive than "Now" or the "National Enquirer" who, ironically, often get the best gossip first (as do 'Popbitch', 'Aint it Cool' and numerous other FREE internet sources) Shamlessly nabs backpage quotes from the above mags (and others which I tend to read anyway). Symbiotic relationship with Reality TV dreck like "Big Brother" and "Pop Idol". Arrrgh. That's it, I'm spent ;)
I am an intelligent woman. I have O Levels and A Levels and a degree. I have a higher than average IQ. I can complete the Times and the Guardian crosswords. So why, oh why can't I stop myself buying Heat Magazine? It is a source of endless shame to me. Every Saturday I slink into the newsagents with my hat pulled down and my dark glasses on. I furtively pick up my copy and hide it between the pages of my extra thick weekend snoozepaper, like a dirty old man with a girlie mag. I refuse to meet the sales assistant's eyes as she rings up the sale. Then I slink guiltily home, put on the kettle and sit and read my illicit material from cover to cover, whilst swigging gallons of tea and pigging out Cadburys Twirls. Heat is, first and foremost, a gossip magazine and therein lies my dilemma. Gossip isn't important is it? Shouldn't I be guzzling my tea and choccy bars and leafing through Time magazine or something equally worthy? Heat is trash, isn't it? Very cleverly, Heat's advertising opines "the higher the IQ, the greater the need for gossip". That makes me feel a little better about my dirty little secret. A very clever bit of marketing that, trying to pitch the mag away from the Shar and Trace brigade and towards the intelligent, independent career woman. Clever marketing or not, I'm hooked. Like an alky at an AA meeting, it's time for me to stand up and say "My name is Allie and I am addicted to Heat". Shameful, but true. So what is it about this magazine which gives me such guilty pleasure, you may ask? Well, it's a weekly and costs just £1.45, so it's fast moving and up to date, and cheap. It champions all the populist shows we say in public that we hate, but secretly watch and video to watch again (like Pop Idol and Big Brother). In the three years or so since its inception, Heat seems to have put itself in the enviable p
osition of being the mag everyone important in the world of showbiz wants to talk to, so it is usually the first place with the hot new interviews and photos. You want pictures of Spencer from Big Brother with his shirt off – they got em! You want to know the hot new fashion trends for the coming season – Heat can clue you in, and tell you where to buy the budget version. Plus, Heat has a very good television listings section, which saves me the cost of a TV times. Along with the usual crop of topical interviews and features, there are the regular items. Everyone's talking about – the week's hot gossip. Letters page The week in pictures – one of my favourite sections…normally gorgeous stars photographed looking terrible and unkempt (that's gotta brighten up your day!) On or Off – Celebrity relationships, who's luvved up and whose relationship is down the toilet. 100% Unapproved – stars making utter fools of themselves! First Look – exclusive pictures from new films, videos and tv shows. Starstyle – the hottest new fashion trends amongst the showbiz glitterati. Spotted – celebrities spotted out on the town. Party people – pictures and gossip from the week's hottest celebrity knees ups. Reviews and top ten lists – films, dvd, video, television, books, music. Crossword and horoscopes Say What – the week's best celebrity quotations (these are hysterical!) This week's issue, number 172, boasts exclusive pictures of Darius' new video shoot and a surprisingly interesting interview with "shamed" TV presenter Jamie Theakson, where he discusses that evening in that brothel. There is also a fascinating pictorial feature entitled "Just how o
range are they?" which is a scream, and a feature on celebrity thongs. And it runs to a very satisfying 130 pages. What more could you ask? All in all, Heat is quite a useful magazine. The television listings are usually accurate and quite well laid out, although they only cover the basic channels. The reviews section is surprisingly good, covering a wide range of film, music and reading material and the quality of the reviews themselves is surprisingly high. It's a bright and easy read, vaguely glossy, but not quite. It has a zingy, poppy layout, which is fun without being a pain to read and the articles are generally light, funny and interesting. On the whole, I have to give it a red-faced thumbs up. And how did I begin this terrible addiction, you might ask? Well, I was in the casualty department waiting to have my ankle x-rayed and there was a choice between a Cosmo so old the model on the front was wearing a beehive, and Heat. I chose Heat and a new friendship was born. Give it a go. You might like it. Let me know when you are going to buy it and you can borrow my dirty mac and sunglasses! Heat is widely available in newsagents and supermarkets. It is published by Tower and subscriptions are available at £73.95 (including postage) by calling the hotline on 01858 438884 (so you don't have to risk being seen buying your copy!) © ajools 2002
Being a nosy little girl when I was younger, gossip magazines naturally enough seemed to make their way into my hands over and over again. I've tried them all and, if the spare wardrobe in my room is anything to go by, I still have them all. It's Easter holidays at the moment and I'm supposed to be revising. As you can probably guess though, I'm not. I'm doing anything but, in fact, from writing ops to prancing around to my old exercise videos to tidying my room. It was while doing the last of these that I happened across part of my old stash. Box after box of 'Hello's and 'Ok's. A couple of shelves of 'Here's (who remembers that?) and a couple more of 'Now's. A scattering of National Enquirers sprinkle liberally over the top like hundreds and thousands on ice cream finished us off. Under my bed I have mags too, although they're not your average under the mattress affairs – instead of glossy pics of naked unknown types, these are full of, erm, glossy pictures of known famous types, because this is where most of my 'Heat's seem to have accumulated. Heat's cover's by-line is "This week's hottest celebrity news". The issue in front of me has a grinning Gareth Gates and a stroppy Spice girl (no prizes for guessing which one) on the front with previews of 5 of the stories to be found inside the cover. Once you delve in you'll find it's your average run of the mill gossip weekly. There are stories, in this issue, about everyone from Britney to Vic Reeves along with reviews of soon to be released films, books and videos. There's a full TV guide for all terrestrial and most sky / digital channels and behind the scenes pics and interviews. I don't buy heat every week or even regularly, but now and then it's not that bad. They seem to be on a bit of a promotions kick at the moment, and I've r
ecently picked up free copies in Tesco and WH Smiths which is always nice – unlike with some other publications, these are full sizes issues and not taster copies. My favourite part is the very last page where they publish a bundle of quotes from celebs who, in their words, are "oversexed, overpaid and overheard". Some of these are just classic, illustrating fully how completely insane / up themselves / boring the majority of celebrities really are. They also have original interviews unlike a few too many other mags I've read recently whose staff have never even met the celebrity involved, preferring instead to pay to use someone else's data. On the negative side? There's an awful lot of photographs which while occasionally nice to look at, don't provide me with much reading material. Why have a huge humdinger of a picture of Tom and Penelope when you could have a juicy story? Or am I missing the point? Maybe I am. This magazine is hardly aimed at serious readers as an alternative to a book. It's the type you'd pick up at my Dr's surgery if they ever decided to switch from Hello which, if it's possible, has even more pictures and even fewer words. Their idea of fun is to poke fun at those in the public eye, from pointing out their cellulite and sweat patches (bleugh) to publishing pictures of, wait for it, famous men bawling like babies. Each week's issue includes a detailed look at various couple's love lives with triumphant exclamations of delight when they reveal who has split up in the last 7 days. Some articles are interesting while others simply worrying. When someone devotes an entire page to the fact that Jennifer of Jennifer and Brad fame has finally changed her surname to Pitt, there's something a leeetle wrong. Heat has been going for a couple of years now and seems in no way to be slowing down. I suppose it's lucky for them that the worl
d of celebdom is so fickle, with new faces appearing all the time. The average issue is 100 pages long and contains the odd competition, maybe a voucher or two and a pop culture based crossword. It's published weekly, on Tuesdays I think, with a bumper double issue for Christmas and the New Year. Copies are slightly larger than A4 and nice and bright. There are't all that many annoying inserts falling out as you flick through – I found only a scratchcard and a book catalogue. Heat seems to be aimed a little lower than Hello and Ok, if only age-wise. If the advertising men have done their jobs properly then the average reader of heat is also a More reading, in HMV shopping, Fiat driving, herbal tree drinking, lip moisturizer. Or something like that. While I'll not be turning down a free or dramatically cheap issue of this, it's also never going to be the top item of my shopping list.
I have never purchased the magazine Heat before, I bought it for the first time yesterday and it is a brilliant magazine and good value for money. It has many regular features mainly about celebrities such as On and Off which tells you about stars relationships, and which ones are on, and which ones have split up. News and Stuff, shows you all the top ten programmes on all the five channels of television the top ten UK and American films, and all the lastest news about stars and celebrities. Party People is where they go to a stars party at a club or venue, and show you who was there and what they drank and ate, and what music they played. They have lots of reviews for the latest muisc, videos and books. The is a fantastic magazine, unlike a lot of other similair ones, they don't have page after page of adverts, most of the pages are full of reading material, which mainly focuses on famous people. At the back is a full seven day tv guide, including listings for digital, cable and satellite, also they tell you what they think are the pick of the days programmes. I found it to be a really good magazine and worth every penny. I'll buy it every week from now on, instead of my usual one, which is getting a bit boring anyway.
Heat used to be a good magazine. What on Earth went wrong? When did Heat change from being a quality magazine to being a trash-filled overblown gossip column? I was a very keen reader of Heat in the early days. From the very first month (yes, I know it's a weekly magazine, but I started getting it at around issue 3, so I'm saying the first month) I loved it and decided never to miss an issue. I was trying out a whole load of different magazines, trying to find a weekly that had a good TV guide. The Radio Times was all right, but focused on soaps and period dramas too much, and the other TV listing weeklies were too downmarket to grab my attention. Heat really had me hooked, though. Honest, barbed movie reviews, inspired CD Reviews and charts of which TV shows had managed the best viewing figures, with an analysis of the major battles of the week. The TV listings were great, giving enough of the plot of episodes of each show to help you work out whether you'd seen them before or whether they were going to be interesting without spoiling the show for you (unlike Radio Times which often gives away the big surprises of an episode). The weeks choices were good as well. Many newspapers and TV magazines have a column called "today's choices" and fill it with TV shows that they want to talk about rather than the day's best TV shows. They'll include a piece of Reality TV just so that they can talk about how terrible it is and ignore the quality shows. Heat tried to actually choose the best shows so that they could advise you to watch them. They had some brilliant features, such as a whole page of quotes from Norm out of Cheers or a whole page of silly answers given in Family Fortunes ("Name something a blind man might use." "A sword.") and they even had some book reviews full of quality books rather than easy-reading drossy romance novels. Within the first yea
r, though, the magazine started to change. Out went the quality book reviews and in came one book a month, usually either written about the music industry or by someone like David Beckham. The number of pages given to TV listings changed from four per day to two per day, meaning that terrestrial and satellite had to be squeezed onto the same page and that the information about each show had to be written in one line. Out went the interesting news about TV shows that were being made and in came pictures of Geri Halliwell. Who on Earth wants to look at pictures of Geri Halliwell? There are magazines designed for that sort of thing; people can read Hello and see pictures of famous people and their homes or they can read the Sun or the Star to see pictures of famous people walking around in the streets or on the beach. Why put them in Heat? Out went the quality shows being picked as the day's choice viewing and in came features about Dawson's Creek! Dawson's Creek, for those of you who don't know, is a teen show full of people who refuse to speak a single sentence which has less than 20 words in, and at least 5 of those with more than 5 syllables. A bunch of 25 year olds who look like they're in their early 30s play 16 year olds who almost kiss each other and then spend weeks overanalysing their actions. I don't know what kind of people watch the show, but I suspect that they're the kind of people who read Smash Hits, Sugar or Just 17. Why can't the show remain limited to those magazines? They've got pictures of Geri Halliwell in as well. As if to highlight the changes, they introduced a column called "They're just like you and me". Each week there was a picture of a celebrity doing something normal. Like Meg Mathews buying a pint of milk, Jordan going into a newsagent or George Michael going into a public toilet. Actually, I made that last one up. You can te
ll by the fact that it might actually have led to something interesting! That wouldn't have been the point of the feature, they purposely designed it to be full of people not doing anything interesting whatsoever! I finally stopped buying Heat when Big Brother started on TV and they started getting obsessed with it. I don't have the slightest interest in watching a load of normal people doing normal things unless they're normal people who I know, in which case I'll just walk into a room with them. If I want to see someone who isn't famous clean some dishes, I'll go to my kitchen. There's a certain amount of interactivity there as well, since whoever's cleaning the dishes will force me to join in and help. Now I know what a lot of you are going to say. You're going to tell me that there's a big market for this type of thing. You're going to tell me that lots of people want to read about Big Brother, see pictures of Geri Halliwell and read in-depth interviews with actors out of Dawson's Creek (containing questions such as "What's the best thing about being famous", "Are you anything like your character" and "Why is Dawson's Creek so great?"). Maybe that's true, but so what? Why did they have to ruin a perfectly good magazine to cater for that market? Why couldn't they create a new magazine and leave Heat be? Why couldn't they find a magazine such as Sugar or Hello that were similar to that already and read by the kind of people who want to see pictures of celebrities not really doing very much and change them slightly? And why on Earth aren't there any magazines written for blokes who can read and who aren't interested in finding out which car could theoretically go the fastest if you weren't sitting in a traffic jam, which you always are if you live in London? Sorry... Rant over...
Our current media and celebrity obsessed society has spawned a huge range of entertainment magazines. Heat claims to have the hottest celebrity news and at a weekly £1.45 at the current time of writing, I would have to agree that it is one of the best value celeb gossip magazines on the shelves. Recently Heat has profited from the recent huge popularity of real TV shows, with special coverage of Big Brother and Survivor. At other times 'Heat' has always provided comprehensive coverage of the biggest stars, films and crazes of the moment, with exclusive interviews, articles and pictures. It also provides weekly features such as 'the week in pictures' 'news and stuff' and 'star style.' My personal favourite section is 'Say What' a page of the funniest or strangest quotes uttered from the mouths of the rich and famous. For your money, you also receive a comprehensive seven day TV listing guide which is easy to follow and very handy and a section on reviews of books, films and music. By incorporating these features, Heat becomes great value for money and appeals to a wide range of people, it's not gender specific and could appeal to all ages, though is particularly aimed at the late teen market. The criticism often levelled at 'Heat' is that it is too obsessed with particular fads, profiting from the current craze gripping the nation, for example Big Brother. It is true that sometimes Heat is quite narrow in its range, with celebrities such as Posh and Becks and Madonna and Guy always to be found somewhere in the mag. However true this may be, it is also unfair as why else would you buy a celebrity magazine. If they are the stars people want to read about it is inevitable that they will appear for something as irrelevant as a shopping trip. I wouldn't buy Heat every week as it may become too repetitive, however I would certainly grab a copy every month or even fortnig
ht to ensure I keep up with all the celeb gossip and news and enjoy a damn good magazine.


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David Meunier Joins The Equalizer
He be big pimpin' with Chloe Moretz
Another day, another Equalizer casting story. There was a time when the movie adaptation of the hoary '80s TV series seemed stuck forever in development hell, but with the arrival of Antoine Fuqua as director it's now steaming ahead, and the latest actor to join Denzel Washington, Chloe Moretz and Melissa Leo is David Meunier.
Meunier's film credits to date pretty much only add up to bit-parts in the likes of The Incredible Hulk and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End. But he's a much more familiar face on television, with credits on Jericho, CSI, Castle, Bones, The Mentalist, Nikita, Revolution and, most prominently, Justified, where he has the recurring role of reprobate Johnny (cousin of Walton Goggins' Boyd Crowder).
Moving some distance from his current good-ol'-boy comfort zone, The Equalizer will see him playing a Russian pimp called Slavi. It's not too much of a stretch to infer he'll be the scumbag running Moretz's prostitute Teri, the catalyst for the plot in which Washington's Robert McCall finds himself on the wrong side of the Russian mob.
The Equalizer's screenplay is by Richard Wenk (The Mechanic, The Expendables 2), and shooting is set to start imminently in Boston, for a release date of April 11, 2014.

subset: commoncrawl


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Manipur Public Service Commission registration open till 9th September 2013
An online notification is issued for the recruitment of various posts in the Manipur Public Service Commission for 91 vacancies.
Candidate's age should be less than 21 years, should not exceed than 30 years and the age relaxation is also applicable as per the norms by the government.
Candidates should have completed degree from any of the reputed institute or university.
The applicants have to pay application fee of Rs.200 for general/OBC candidates and the SC/ST categories need to pay Rs.50 to the secretary, Manipur Public Service Commission, Imphal and the fee is exempted for the PWD category candidates.
Interested candidates can send the complete application form with the attachment of all necessary documents to Manipur Public Service Commission by post or directly handover the form to Manipur PSC.
For more clarification candidates can visit the below link


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Big Brother Casting News!
Robyn Kass, Casting Director (or as she likes to say, Kassting Director) for Big Brother on CBS announced today that casting has officially begun for it's upcoming 13th season via Twitter! According to Ms. Kass, putting together tha casting process will take about a month or so. At that point, she will be able to…Details


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Thursday, April 5, 2012
The Hand of Sabazios
Hekas Hekas!
Hekas Hekas, Este Babeloi!
Hear me, illustrious father, dæmon fam'd.
Great Saturn's [Kronos'] offspring, and Sabasius [Zabazios] nam'd;
Inserting Bacchus, bearer of the vine, and founding God, within thy thigh divine,
That when mature, the Dionysian God might burst the bands of his conceal'd abode,
And come to sacred Tmolus, his delight, where Ippa dwells, all beautiful and bright.
Come blessed Phrygian God, the king of all, and aid thy mystics, when on thee they call.
- Orphic Hymn to Sabazios
Posted by Jack Faust at 10:17 PM
1 comment:
- Brother Christopher said...
love that image! and the orphic hymns
- April 6, 2012 at 12:05 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Michael Symon's Strip Steak with Compound Butter
Spice-Rubbed Strip Steak
- Ingredients
- step-by-step directions
Michael Symon's Strip Steak with Compound Butter
- 4 8- ounce Strip Steaks
- 3 tablespoons Canola Oil
- 1/2 pound Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 1/4 cup Roughly Chopped Cilantro
- 1 Garlicclove
- 1 small Shallot
- Juice and zest of 1 Lime
- Salt and Pepper
For the Rub:
- 2 tablespoons Coriander Seeds (toasted and ground)
- 2 tablespoons Cumin Seeds (toasted and ground)
- 1 tablespoon Chipotle Powder
- 1 tablespoon Sweet Paprika
- 1 tablespoon Kosher Salt
- For the Rub: In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the rub ingredients and set aside. Preheat a large cast iron sauté pan over medium high heat.
- Drizzle some oil onto the steaks. Season the steaks on both sides with the rub, being pretty liberal with it. Cook for about 3 minutes per side for medium rare then remove to a plate or cutting board for 5 minutes to rest.
- In the meantime, mix together your softened butter, cilantro, garlic, shallot and lime juice and zest with a pinch of salt in the bowl of a food processor, scraping down the sides as you go.
- Place your rested steak on a plate adding 1 dollop of Cilantro Lime Compound Butter to the top.
- To freeze butter for future use: On a sheet of plastic wrap, spoon half of the mixture in a line down the middle. Fold the plastic over and roll up into a log, twisting on both ends. Repeat with the other half of the butter. Freeze the logs, and slice them as you need them in the future.
Similar categories: Dinner Courses & Meals
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text: Ribbon cutting ceremony The After Show guys with some fans... And onstage to welcome everyone to the event! Dominick was demonstrating how to complete a self exam using a couple of pears! More super fans! There were so many great breweries on site to get the party going Vince with some listeners This man was a huge fan of the show! This area was full of carnival games like ring toss and sack races! The wake boarders out on the water The dunk tank was a huge hit for people of all ages! This girl is playing the ring toss! A fan of A&G! The After Show guys with more of their fans! Dominick with a loyal listener. People were signing up to win free pizza! She loves A&G! People were lined up to try and dunk this guy! Vince enjoying the festivities! The guys on stage reminding people to buy their raffle tickets! People were so happy to take a picture with their favorite morning show guys! All these people signing up to win free pizza! Announcing all the raffle winners! Photo 1 of 1 Continue Gallery


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This was Rhea Aker's response to my questions on posted online and private email channels from 18-22 Jan 2013 after she posted the following:
On 18/01/13, Rhea Aker wrote:
To Every American Citizen: Please watch these two vids containing rock solid evidence of High Treason by Obama Administration and BP Top Executives. Government documentation provided that proves beyond all question that BP Exploded 2 Wells, Not 1 AND... Sank 2 Rigs, Not 1! The first well they exploded in March 2010 has left an unrepairable Crater that they placed a huge Containment Dome on that is only causing the seafloor to fracture even more. I'm pleading with everyone I can reach to please contact John McCain and demand charges be filed immediately. Senator John McCain's contact information: 202-224-2235 and firstname.lastname@example.com I beg you to please share this with your audience. Sounding of the Trumpets Part I http://youtu.be/oFPdj_X5A7k Sounding of the Trumpets Part II http://youtu.be/v0pNdDszvTc Links to all Official Government documents available at http://rheaakervsbp.blogspot.com/ Thank you for ALL that you've done and continue to do! God Bless ~Rh ea Aker, Cincinnati OH
Why was she posting UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIMS to detract us from our job of exposing BP's lies which they cannot answer without incriminating themselves of the crime of mass destruction and deception? The Real Rhea Acker might exist somewhere but the recent
must have been the work of BP's shills who had hijacked her identity on cyber space.
Would you believe a 40+ single MUM who is "broke" and facing foreclosure of her home, to work with no pay since May 2010?
She did not even have a website (until recently) to seek donation or sponsorship for her work. She claims to work solely out of the library as there has been numerous "black vans" tracking her. With tons of data and documents to pore through, we could only scratch the surface of the most important and incriminating evidence that are "publicly available". And that was working 24/7, 15 hours (average) for the last 2 1/2 years.
You think these high and mighty strategic planners of this multi-trillion Fraud Scandal would leave such damning incriminating documents for a novice to find? Come on. Sandy Hook discrepancies are a joke compared to the BPGOD fraud scandal. They are giving out "crumbs" to trails that lead nowhere.
So we all thought Watergate was huge and unthinkable. Well guess what? Nixon had cleverly opted for the least heinous crime ...illegal bugging of political opponents. Check out http://bklim.newsvine.com/_news/2012/12/30/16247195-top-secret-america-lisaleaks
for Nixon's more insidious involvement in the Kennedy assassination and attempted murder of several others including Wallace and Trammel. They would rather take away Nixon's presidency and let him live out his miserable life alone than to stir up the honest nests which included a couple of the Presidents still alive, the Neocon Nazis who escaped from Germany after WWII, the elitist cabals and corrupt oil companies. Well you know why after more than 50 years, lingering doubts exist on the Cock & Bull official version.
It is the same "lead to nowhere" tactic being perpetrated by Rhea Acker now. Ask yourself this question. Would any one with no professional qualification or prior work experience in the industry be so bold to make these unsubstantiated claims against the high & mighty US govt and the Oil companies?
Yes all means join the masses to demand justice for the Gulf Victims and the environmental damage caused by BP. But the shills' tactics of muddling the truth with distorted truth or absurd unsubstantiated claims seem to be another of the many desperate attempts to derail our truth movement which had remain steadfast, unshaken by numerous BP's sponsored onslaughts since July 2010.
After more than 2 1/2 years, dozens of murder attempts, infiltration into our inner circles of insiders and psy-ops, they know they cannot counter the truth we are putting out with technical ambiguities, distorted truths, doctored evidence and massaged statistics. We, as the true insiders, knew their often played tricks, manipulations and deceptions. Many of our colleagues had paid for their lives in mysterious ways that have remained out of the limelight out of the respect and wishes of their loved ones.
So if they could not beat the Truth, obviously the next step was to join in the truth movement and muddle up the truth with distortions and unsubstantiated claims which they claimed to be backed by documents. However, after checking a few of them we find the most critical memos, details and drawings blackened out. Some with the more interesting title and subject remained blocked.
Now she claims the BOEM had deleted the most incriminating links (which she should have saved). After spending hours, we could only find information that we already knew or those that were already published. Of course, we do not expect Rhea Acker to work alone as she had claims. Past correspondences we had with her, now confirm she could not have work alone and that this is yet another infiltration pys-ops that was designed to gobble up our limited valuable resources. And we are not falling into that "sink hole". Rhea Acker is just the "rabbit bait for the blood hounds" to track down the diversion route. It confirms that BP and their master minders are at wit ends to keep the truth from exploding out.
Oh yeah, her claim that I worked for ENI is exactly the distorted truth they want to spin out. If you had read my articles, you would know that I made no such claim. I had previously worked for Fugro and RPS, the world's largest geohazards investigation-survey company and leading QC consultant company. Oil companies like Shell, BP and ENI (just to name a few) employ them for site specific geohazards surveys, investigation into disasters, project studies and recommendations, consultation and advice for new breaking projects. So the experience is across major oil companies and worldwide broad-based. So you see we are under very very strict orders never to leak out our sources.
Quote by Rhea Acker on 22 Jan 2013:
And if anyone should want my SSN to run a background ck, i'd be happy to provide that as well as my birth certificate to prove to you I am who I say I am. In the meantime, pls lookup the rescue i ran for 12yrs "Destiny's Rescue" and my home address is 5610 Betty Lane, Milford OH 45150. And yes, I'm in foreclosure due to my voluntary work on the gulf, but in the end, I know it was worth it even if I lose my home.
For those who are wondering, BK works for ENI - the very company I'm exposing as working hand in hand with BP & MMS!!!


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Get Thinner with Cold Air
Yes, it's cold and nasty out, but it could help you shed a few pounds.
Scientists have known for years that bears, other hibernating animals, even newborn humans, have a substance in their bodies known as brown fat. It differs from white fat in that it exists solely for the purpose of giving off its energy in the form of heat.
That is how bears survive the long, cold winter. They go into their shelter all big and fat, burn off that brown fat to keep their body's core temperature at the necessary level though the winter, and emerge in the spring sunshine skinny, svelte and ready to go.
New research has found, adult humans have brown fat, too. "Apparently now it also happens to adults to a small degree, and it can be inducible by cold," Dr. Ashok Balasubramanyam, assistant professor of medicine in the section of diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism at Baylor University, tells KTRH News.
A study in Japan had a group of participants spend two hours a day in temperatures around 62 degrees for six weeks, and they noticeably lost body fat. It is important to get past the shivering stage, which also burns fat – but white fat – before your body kicks in your brown fat burners and churns off warm calories.
So when we warm up, which we will soon, spend a few hours outside when its just below 62 and melt off the pounds.


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Space Shuttler Carrier 747 starts eight-mile move
Published 9:44 am, Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A special Boeing 747 started an 8-mile trip from Ellington Field to Space Center Houston on Monday night.
The 318,000-pound aircraft is one of two 747-100s that were adapted to ferry the space shuttle orbiters between landing sites and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Houston didn't win a competition for one of the retired orbiters. In fact, it had to send the full-fuselage mockup used to train astronauts to Seattle's Museum of Flight. So it plans to mount the space shuttle replica Independence atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to create an attraction that will be taller than an eight-story building, featuring interactive exhibits inside the jet and shuttle replica. It's scheduled to open next year.
The journey requires a 1,000-foot convoy, moving at walking speed. The largest piece is the fuselage, which is 25 feet wide, 35 feet tall and 190 feet long. The move is scheduled to resume at 9 Tuesday night.
Once at Space Center Houston, a Boeing team will reassemble the aircraft, a process expected to take 44 days.
"I think it will be a great landmark," Space Center Houston Director Ellen Ochoa said. "Just being able to put the shuttle on top and show how it was ferried back and forth, it was pretty amazing when people first came up with that concept. I think the initial thought was: That's a crazy idea. But our folks made it work, and that was part of what made the shuttle program successful."
Business Media OS playlist
The caravan began moving Monday afternoon, crawling along roads through the former Air Force base and stopping while utility crews moved overhead lines.
"I just wanted to see it," Phil Williams, 83, a retired NASA employee said as he and his wife, Ardis, 87, walked up close to the carrier. "I wanted to see a real shuttle here, of course, but that's not to be. That's all right. I'm not going to get upset with the small stuff."
The former American Airlines passenger jet was obtained by NASA in 1974, was renovated and was used first on test flights with shuttle prototype Enterprise. Its twin, NASA 911, a former Japan Air Lines plane, was obtained in 1989 and retired in 2012. It's been serving as a parts source for other NASA 747s and for experimental flights.
Click through the gallery above to see photos of the move.
This story includes information from The Associated Press. Read more aerospace news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. Reach Aubrey Cohen at email@example.com or (206) 448-8362.


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Just like it did with its first original series acquisition, drama House Of Cards, Netflix has outbid an established pay cable network for the rights to new episodes of short-lived Arrested Development. Netflix and Showtime had both been pursuing the new installment of the Emmy-winning series, which will now be available to Netflix subscribers in early 2013. The exact number of episodes has not been determined, though at an Arrested Development panel discussion last month, where series creator Mitch Hurwitz broke the news of the series revival, he indicated that the idea is to do a limited 9-10 episode series, which would serve as a bridge between the original series and the long-gestating Arrested Development movie. The plan is for each episode to focus on a different member of the Bluth clan. Arrested Development producer 20th Century Fox TV has no deals with the cast, but all have expressed interest in reprising their roles. Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Alia Shawkat and Jessica Walter supported the idea at the panel last month. "Arrested Development… has stood the test of time," 20thTV chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman said, noting that this is the third canceled series the studio had produced, along with Family Guy and Futurama, to come back. "Everyone, ourselves included, seems to feel like the Bluths left the party a bit too soon," said Brian Grazer and Ron Howard of Imagine TV, which co-produced Arrested Development with 20th TV (Howard also narrates the show). "Bringing a series back from cancellation almost never happens, but then, Arrested always was about as unconventional as they get, so it seems totally appropriate that this show that broke the mold is smashing it to pieces once again." At Netflix, Arrested Development joins 2 recently acquired original series, drama House Of Cards and comedy Orange Is The New Black.
Netflix Picks Up New Episodes Of 'Arrested Development'
37 Comments
So can there be some actual hope for Las Vegas coming back for a handful of episodes and close up the loose ends on that show? if this show can do it, why not that one as well?
No actors confirmed or signed yet?
Yeah I'll wait a bit before celebrating.
another place for viewers to ignore this show. remember Jericho?
I hope Will Arnett will contractually be allowed to do this… that's a subject that doesn't seem to get addressed in regards to these new episodes.
The more we laugh, the all the better we stave off disease. Wish I could click on the TV tonight and see new episodes of Arrested D. In the interim, I content myself from reruns I occasionally catch by accident on cable.
This is the one and only thing that would make me resubscribe to Netflix.


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Cersei isn't known to care much about anything beyond herself and her children…
One could only imaging what she is feeling about now… I doubt she is worried about you (or your feelings)… Continue reading "Cersei doesn't care about your feelings…"
Unbridled Geekdom Punctuated with Parenting…
Cersei isn't known to care much about anything beyond herself and her children…
One could only imaging what she is feeling about now… I doubt she is worried about you (or your feelings)… Continue reading "Cersei doesn't care about your feelings…"
April is a storied month in the Mistak household.
Less than two weeks ago (April 12th) Jessica and I celebrated John Michael's 4th birthday. During the first 48 hours of John's life celebrating a fourth birthday seemed like the remotest of possibilities. While he was a generous weight for a 28 weeker at 4 pounds 1 ounce, he was born very ill. In a lot of ways he was more symptomatic of a 24-26 weeker. His blood pressure remained far too low and his prognosis would become far more grim if that didn't change soon. Luckily his blood pressure did eventually normalize. Though John would require a surgery prior to leaving his 52 day stay in the NICU, two surgeries since graduating from the NICU and a small army of doctors and therapists; John is a happy and dare I say healthy 4 year old. John has been a blessing to me, his Mother, his Grandparents and all of our extended family and friends. This would not be possible without the research funded by donors such as you.
Now, in less than two weeks (April 30th) we will celebrate the first birthday of John's brother Patrick. Patrick is also a success story for the March of Dimes. Knowing that following a premature birth, expectant mothers have to be particularly careful; Patrick, through his Mother's diligence and the accumulated knowledge and experience of the March of Dimes, was the product of a full-term pregnancy.
Finally, this Saturday (April 27th) Jessica & I will be participating in our 4th March of Dimes March for Babies. While I am generally uncomfortable with soliciting for donations, I ask that you consider making a donation (no matter the size) to our team for the March of Dimes March for Babies. As the recipient of not 1 but 2 miracles that the March of Dimes undoubtedly contributed to, I can think of no greater reward than to help future parents be capable of stating the same thing.
One of the main reasons I started blogging was to have a record of John's entry into this world including:
Two years ago today marked the beginning of the first of the milestones above (something I first wrote about last year): Continue reading "Two Years Ago Today"
(Spoiler alert: my penance will hopefully be of a benefit to raising funds for the March for Babies)
Forgive me readers for I've been lazy. Its been weeks since I've completed a full week's planned workouts. Unfortunately in some cases getting in one of my workouts has been an accomplishment.
Unfortunately up till this point of my new fitness journey I've set a number of unrealistic expectations on myself. Up till this point I've treated my fitness goals as a kind of "bolt on accessory" to the rest of my life (an afterthought). As with many afterthoughts it's that thing you do last if you get to it at all. It's liking trying to put out a fire using a bucket with a hole in it. As I feel I've already set up too convoluted of a metaphor, I'll leave it at that. Continue reading "Training Plan Confessional: Forgive this father for I've been lazy…"
In an individual's life there are those random moments that return you to remembering what's important and how far life's journey has taken you down a path that you could have never imagined before.
For all of the things people blame on the internet, I wish that people would recognize those stories you happen upon online that make you look back to a time in your own life where you may have experienced a great triumph or tragedy. When I see the story of a preemie in critical condition, or hopefully one beating the odds, I more often than not will find myself thrust back to the time John spent in the NICU.
I know that regardless of the ups and downs of that family's individual story that they will be changed in ways they can't imagine (not that they have any time at the moment for imagining or, for that matter, even thinking about anything at all other than their present human drama).
Stories like this remind me how lucky we are to have organizations like the March of Dimes and the advances they have pioneered over the years. My family is tremendously privileged to have witnessed John's success story. We are reminded of this every time one of John's doctors from the NICU sees how well he is doing. Seems like we're long overdue for a visit.
It seems to be a normal desire. The desire to know whats going on in your child's head. What are they thinking? Why are they behaving the way that they are?
For some parents the desire to know whats going on in your child's head takes on an entirely different dynamic. Continue reading "Wondering What's Going on in Your Kid's Head"
The following is my first post recapping Jess' initial premature labor, her subsequent bedrest, John's birth and his stay in the NICU.
"Something doesn't feel right."
I'm not sure those were her actual words. In fact they probably weren't. The actual words weren't all that important. What was important at that point was that it was clear to us that our first action should be to call the doctor. We were both quite convinced that it was probably nothing, but we seemed to have an unspoken agreement to not to follow our usual inclination (to see how it goes after a night's sleep). Thankfully we took the course of action that we did. Continue reading "Recap: What you don't want to hear from your wife when she's 26-weeks pregnant"
For a number of years I have considered writing my own blog. At various times I thought I had something to contribute to "the series of tubes". This thought was usually brought on by a temporary surge of ego that was soon squashed by reality:
In short — I didn't think I had something worth writing, the time to write it, or a venue worthy of presenting it.
In the past year (plus a little bit) I believe I have lived the experiences that are worth reading about, and I've resolved to take the time to share them. Continue reading "Until I had something to say…"


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BHP Billiton started legal action against FerrAus in the WA Supreme Court, after the companies failed to finalise a rail haulage agreement.
FerrAus wants to haul iron ore from its project in Western Australia's Pilbara region on BHP Billiton's Mount Newman rail line, but has not been able to secure a deal.
FerrAus said on Monday it had held talks with BHP Billiton Minerals and its Mount Newman joint venture partners, Mitsui-Itochu Iron and ITOCHU Minerals and Energy of Australia, with regard to the legal action.
"FerrAus expects to keep the market informed on the progress and status of the discussions," the company said in a statement on Monday.
The BHP Billiton joint venture proceedings seek "declarations and injunctive relief" in respect of possible steps leading to the appointment of an independent expert to decide the matter, FerrAus said.
FerrAus had asked BHP Billiton Iron Ore and its Mount Newman joint venture partners to agree to appoint former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman
The joint venture had not agreed to the appointment of Professor Fels, FerrAus said in a statement on Thursday.
FerrAus also said it would ask the Engineers Australia president to appoint an independent expert if the joint venture partners did not agree to appoint Professor Fels.