Prejudice, vanilla, and a very good song

I have never been a fan of Justin Timberlake.
Maybe because he was too mainstream, whereas I tend to favour alternative; or because he was a member of a boy band and I have never liked boy bands since Menudo was around. It could be because I was under the impression that he was a bit too... vanilla. You know, whishy-washy, watery, innocuous, insipid. To me, he was just like all the other fabricated icons, including another quite different member of the Mickey Mouse Club, scandalous, clueless, ubiquitous Britney.
So, why am I talking about him in this post? Because I am revising my concepts. Justin is now on probation as far as I'm concerned, on his way to redeeming himself as an artist, since he was co-opted onto Madonna's posse. And since I saw this bit:



And heard this song:


I just loved the song. I don't care for this video, though.

For a full review of Madonna's latest album, Hard Candy (could we translate this into Portuguese as Rapadura - que nada mais é que um doce duro?) see the following link: http://dancetechnomusic.suite101.com/article.cfm/madonna_4_minutes_review

For info on Justin Timberlake, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Timberlake

ImprovEverywhere

According to wikipedia, a flash mob is "a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse".
The guys from ImprovEverywhere took it a bit further. Their action is unusual, is sudden, but is more than a simple improvisation.
They call them missions. People of all ages and from all walks of life become agents and perform these actions, or scenes of chaos and joy around the world.
There have been many interesting ones, but here's the one that I liked most:

Hugh Laurie as Dr. House

Grumpy has never been so charming.

Hugh Laurie has never been this famous, but he has always been this good. Playing an American was deeply odd for him in the beginning1, but I doubt any yankee could do it better, accent included. Those of you who know him only from House MD should check him out on BlackAdder, Jeeves and Wooster and A bit of Fry and Laurie.

Now, about the character (who by the way seems to be casting his surly shadow over the actor himself if you are to believe the news2), House is everything a doctor shouldn't be: sardonic, blunt, unsociable, surly, bitter, totally sceptical about the human nature, lazy when it comes to ordinary duty at the clinic, sometimes even sleazy. But still... he's irresistible: clever (or rather, absolutely brilliant), passionate about his work, and surprisingly sweet and sexy. His attitude towards people has been summarized in an aphorism which has occasionally become the motto for episodes, and has been stamped on promotional T-shirts: everybody lies. And that was, I think, one of the first House-isms.
I can't wait for the rest of 4th season of the series to come out.

Here are some House-isms
“There’s something freeing about being a loser, isn’t there?”
“I’ve heard not all lawyers are as ethical as the ones we see on TV.”(Both from the episode Games, 4th season)
"You always trust me. It's a big mistake." *(From Detox, Season 1)
Chase:"You can trust me."
House:"The problem is, if I can't trust you, I can't trust your statement that I can trust you. But thanks, you've been a big help." (From Mob Rules, Season 1)
"I ask you, is almost dying any excuse for not being fun?" (From Forever, Season 2)

If you want to know more about Hugh, check out the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie
http://www.hughlaurie.net (from which I quoted the photos)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/

1.http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/laurie%20finds%20playing%20an%20american%20deeply%20odd_27_02_2006
2. http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/11535859.html and also http://backseatcuddler.com/2008/01/20/hugh-laurie-unhappy-in-london-and-los-angeles/hugh-laurie-and-wife-jo-2/