On Christmas day of 2006, James Brown died at the age of 73.   The official cause of death was determined to be congestive heart failure, brought on by complications with pneumonia.   To anyone that remembers his haggard mugshot and takes into account the age of this man and the life he lived, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.  He was an amazing innovator who had a great run and left a stamp on the world forever, but it appeared that “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” was all worked out.  Although the 3 separate New Years Eve performances/appearances that he was slated to make were canceled due to his demise, that didn’t mean that the spectacle was over. In fact, there was 3 separate memorial services held for him instead.  The first was at the Apollo Theater in NY on Dec. 28th, followed by a private memorial for family and friends in North Augusta, SC on the 29th, and then another large scale event on the 30th at James Brown Theater in Augusta, Ga.  Throughout these various services/presentations, the following was included: a open gold casket, a white glass-encased horse drawn carriage to transport it through the streets of New York, nachos, Michael Jackson, Bootsy Collins, a dance by MC Hammer, costume changes for the body, and more (yes… we’re fucking serious).

As is far too common these days with the deaths of celebrities, and even more-so legends, there was a lot of disputes regarding both Brown‘s will and where his final resting place had been.  Much like we witnessed last year with the death of Michael Jackson, family members and others actually argued about where to rest the musician’s body.  They had already transported it all over the goddamn East Coast as it was, so I guess they figured that they could shift it around a bit more.  I’m sure it’s all in keeping with whatever they feel James would have desired because, honestly, who wouldn’t want their lifeless corpse dragged around by horses, redressed constantly, put on display, and then buried and reburied after their death?  First his body was temporarily placed in a temperature controlled room at his estate, before being moved to an “undisclosed location“, as his common-law widow, Tomi Rae Hynie, and his children viciously argued about where it’s permanent resting place should be.  It only took a little over 10 weeks after his death for both sides to come to an agreement “amicably”.  The decision was to build a public mausoleum and, in an effort to keep milking the cash cow, transform the former legends estate into an attraction the likes of Graceland.  Until then, it was chosen for the body to be held temporarily in a crypt at the home of Brown‘s daughter Deanna Brown-Thomas.  Another private ceremony was held at Thomas‘ home, which was officiated by Reverend Al Sharpton, just like the previous 3.  Since that date on March 10, 2007, this is where the body has been laid to rest (or rather, “SNOOZE”) for the last 3 years.  Or has it?

As reported by the New York post, a 48 year-old woman by the name of LaRhonda Pettit is actually claiming that JB‘s body has gone missing. (more…)

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On Sunday night, Sean “Har Mar Superstar” Tillmann and his crew of band-mates rolled into Seattle.  The second to last show of their West Coast tour was held at Chop Suey, and it was the fucking jam.  Before his set, I sat down and conducted an interview with Tillmann, which was filmed with a flip video camera.  Two other past Monster Fresh interviewees/friends were also in attendance at the show: artist, Thea Wolfe and musician, Kimya Dawson.  Although it would have been nice to see a little more movement from some in the hipster Seattle crowd, we still had a full-on R&B dance party throw-down.  Some of this was recorded on the flip cam too.

The next morning I woke up with a message from Thea, who had been messaging  on Facebook with Har Mar bassist, Denver Dalley.  They band finally had a day off and wanted to go to a dance party, before heading up for their last show in Canada the next day.  Thea was set to throw it at her house.  Although the last minute party still went down, and went down well, Tillmann‘s crew never made it.  After partying and traveling for 6 straight days, their bodies decided to crash out under them and use the day off for what it was intended for… regeneration.

I still need to go through my footage and decide how I want to edit and present the material.  Until I am able get all that shit together, however, we’d like to tide you over  by presenting you with a recently posted Har Mar Superstar tour video that was filmed on a  flip camera of their own.  In this video, taped on Jan. 22nd,  Tillmann shows of his dance skills and expresses his love for pop-star Hannah Montana by singing along to her hit track, “Party In The USA“, while driving a van up I5 to Portland. (more…)

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I just don’t get it.  Why the separation between white and black culture in America?  We have so, so many things that we celebrate in common; it’s just that we haven’t searched youtube deep enough to find them.  I found this today and I offer it as proof that black people have as much utter disdain, disgust and hatred for the dead as we honkies do.

Sure, the thunder clap cannot raise the dead, but it can definitely raise awareness.  If we can all just look past the prejudices that divide us and into these beautiful gyrating lumps of liberty, I am more than confident that the reflection will be red, white and blue.  Not black and white.

This video was originally posted on Worldstarhiphop.com, a site that can boast an “Official Honeys” page, which features a collection of amateur, pornstar, and model ass shaking videos.  Below is the original caption that they posted on WSHH, along with the cemetery footage above (the caption is unedited for grammar…. clearly):

One of our viewers sent us this footage. They reports “Some kids shakin they ass on people graves. SMH what has this world come to?”

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By now, you’ve probably seen the sketchy, and now infamous, images above.  The mugshots are of Vince Shlomi (aka: Vince Offer) of ShamWow! infomercial fame and were taking back in Feb. 2009, after an altercation with a prostitute in Miami.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Shlomi was arrested for slapping the hooker across the chops repeatedly, resulting in fractures and lacerations all over her face.  The blood on his face corresponds with his claim that the woman had bit into his tongue and that he was forced to lay his goon hand down in an attempt to get her to release it.  If you look into Offer‘s past, you’ll see a history of other questionable moves, including a terribly misguided and vulgar comedy movie ,as well as three separate, bizarre lawsuits that he tried to file against The Farrelly Bros. , Anna Nicole Smith, and the Church of Scientology.  For the large majority, who were only aware of Shlomi from his ShamWow! and Slapchop infomercials, the arrest was shocking and extremely incriminating.

After the scandal, the airing of both commercials slowed tremendously.  At the end of June, Shlomi‘s arch rival and Oxyclean pitchman, Billy Mays died of complications relating to cocaine use and an existing heart condition.  Since, then, I began to see Shlomi‘s commercials resurface slowly, but his presence hasn’t ever really been as strong as it was before the release of the mugshots…. until now.

A couple of hours ago, I was relaxing on my couch when I realized that the the Slap Chop information was on television.  I was a little faded and thought that I was imagining it at first, but something was definitely different.  There was a song playing in the commercial that featured a crazy remix of the dialogue, processed through an auto-tuner and mixed over a techno beat. (more…)

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lf you’ve seen and/or been following our post updates about the Har Mar Superstar viral videos, then this new music video and track is going to seem familiar to you.  This first hit to drop official-style, with a video and the whole can of Pringles, is called “Tall Boy“.  As it has been mentioned repeatedly over the last few months, by us and many others, the song was originally written for Britney Spears and, subsequently, rejected by her “people”.  It’s too bad that she wasn’t able to, at least, make a small cameo because, visually, this is definitely her steez.

Seeing this mini-film finally ties each of the teasers together, which all appear to have been pulled from and created during this video shoot.  Just like the teasers, the “Tall Boy” video features appearances by Eric Wareheim, Alia Shawkat and Eva Mendes.  Push the fucking play button and check it out fools!  Then scroll to the bottom and read on, because I’m hopped up on pork sandwiches and TWIX and I want to bark some more orders at you.

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It has already been 5 years since Sean “Har Mar Superstar” Tillmann released The Handler, his last full-length album.   The Har Mar persona has picked up steam in places like the United Kingdom, where Tillmann has even become a product/commercial spokesperson, but, for the most part, the artist has shelved his character to pursue other interests.  He’s been involved in numerous other musical projects, short films, and has even popped in with a Hollywood cameo here and there [Starsky and Hutch].  This coming October, the hiatus officially ends with Tillmann‘s latest Har Mar R&B Dance release, Dark Touches. (more…)

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