Pulp Free

In order to move my post about Kelly Clarkson’s house being for sale, it’s time to get a new post up on Pulp Free… Not that I couldn’t take a ribbing from my friends about it… But you’d think I was in love with her or something by the way I was being harassed… No matter – a new update in my series of Earworm efforts comes your way with this new track from Alesha Dixon called “Radio“.

You may or may not be familiar with her… Not a lot of airtime has been used up in the States for Alesha Dixon but that’s pretty common with English Pop singers. I had actually listed one of her tracks a few years ago called “Breathe Slow” so there’s some staying power here so far. In this particular instance I came across the remix first and then hunted around for the original. Glad I found the remix first… I quickly passed on the original as it’s mostly a half tempo version of this dance remix. It’s not that it’s bad per se – more similar to having a really good steak and then hitting White Castle a few hours later for a night cap (how’s that for a metaphor?)

In any case, this tune has been bumping around in my head for the last few weeks so it seemingly qualified to be listed up here as a qualified contender. Your thoughts?

Radio (7th Heaven Remix) – Alesha Dixon – (Song Sample)

(It has been noted that this song is pretty reminiscent of another track I have on here – Robyn’s Dancing On My Own track… Hmm… Pop Dance music does only use the same chord progressions, don’t they?)

A few days ago I received a promotional e-mail from Zillow.com, an online real estate database, that had listings titled “No Turkeys Here! See Celebrity Kitchens”. I usually just delete e-mails from Zillow.com because it saddens me to know how much value my own home has lost according to their “Zestimates”. But since the preview had already started to download I was interested to see that it listed Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson on the top of the page.

Celebrities entertain us, but how adept are they at whipping up a Thanksgiving dinner? Since we’re in the throes of holiday madness, here are some celebrity kitchens for inspiration. Plus, they’re all for sale!

Lady Gaga I could mostly care less about… But oh yeah… Kelly Clarkson has been my imaginary girlfriend since I first saw her on American Idol!! Here was a chance to own Kelly’s own house!! Now Kelly has only lived in it for the last three years but wouldn’t that be a nice piece of Kelly Clarkson memorabilia? (And, yes… It does sound a little creepy!!)

At a little less than 5,000 square feet and around 3/4 acre lot, I’m thinking the size is okay… But perhaps the $1.49 million price tag might be a bit much for me to swing as a second home. And I’d have to figure out a way to want to live in Nashville, Tennessee.

One of a kind stone home in Belle Meade! Awesome screen porch w/ FP. 2 Bedrooms on Main Level, including Master, Updated Kitchen & Master Bath. This home has it all! 5 BR/5BA, Rec Rm, Den, Study, Office, 3 FP, 3 car Garage, Irrigation & new Landscaping.

Personally I was impressed with the pictures of her house, inside and outside. I’m a fan of red front doors and all stone exteriors. Colored walls, white trimmed woodwork, and wooden floors mimic a lot of what I already have in my own house today. Personally I was hoping to see some recording studio tucked away in the basement but didn’t see anything like that in the listing. Maybe if Kelly would just autograph one of the walls, I could live with that…

So – does anybody want to help start a “Buy Kelly Clarkson’s House Fund” with me? Maybe Kelly could offer up an imaginary boyfriend discount? Or if she met me, perhaps she’d want to stay… get to know me, make it permanent? LOL!

So it’s not exactly 200 years… But this post marks my 200th update to this Web site. I thought I’d reflect a little about this momentous occasion… At least pull a few amusing facts that maybe even I didn’t know about.

History

PULPFREE.ORG was registered on March 25th, 2006. However, the first actual post on this Web site was really on July 23rd, 2006 and was essentially a “Hello world” posting with my logo and not a whole lot more. If you’re paging back through all the posts you’ll see that I have a earlier posting from November 24th, 2005 called “Why You Should Wear Seat Belts” – but it’s actually a posting from my first blog called “Dave Pad” highlighting, well… why you should wear seat belts. Simple math also makes my average posting about once-a-week. Not too bad considering – but I’m always aiming to publish as often as I can.

Popular Posts and Keyword Searches

I’m a metrics kind of guy and I’m always amazed at what draws visitors to this site. You can view a few months of Web stats on my locally hosted stats Web site, but these are a few highlights…

Instant Addiction – Falling Sand

This was an addiction for me… And obviously for a lot of other people as well. Essentially this is a Java applet game which you draw like a paint program elements such as ground, wax, sand, oil, seeds, fire, water, and salt and let those elements interact with each other. I haven’t been back to play since seemingly everybody is playing FarmVille now… But it’s still a high draw for my Web site.

Taylor Swift – Love Story (J Stax Edit) and Lady GaGa – Poker Face (Glam As You Radio Mix)

These two top posts I believe get their ranking mostly from image search engines or potentially an easy MP3 download. They’re both part of my Earworm category which does have a 30-second sample of songs which at some point in time were endlessly stuck in my head. It could also be simply the over exposure of both of these ladies and seriously – those GaGa songs really were like a virus.

Heart Attack Grill – Triple Bypass Burger

How doesn’t love a good burger? Mmmm… And this burger joint made plenty of headlines in December of 2006. So not only do we get nice burger pictures… But side by side with scantily clad nurses!

Kelly Clarkson’s Hunt For A Boyfriend

Last but certainly not least, searching for “Kelly Clarkson Boyfriend” on Google brings up this listing on their first page (though right now at the bottom of that first page…) It’s clearly no secret that Kelly is #1 on my “Make Believe Girlfriends List” (still yet to be published). So Kelly – if you’re Googling Yourself and you’ve stumbled upon my Web site, don’t make yourself a stranger… Send me a quick note hello!

By The Numbers (Web Stats)

What update wouldn’t be inclusive without a few page hits and visitor log info. Perhaps I could have done a front page odometer style counter but really – this isn’t GeoCities now is it?

Okay – maybe a little nostalgic… Hold on for some pretty bland Excel charts…

My peak time of day is around 1pm Central with a majority of my visitors coming from the United States and Great Britain, then following up with China, Canada, and Germany. Most of my visitors are using Windows (80%) or a Macintosh (9%). From those Internet Explorer is still in the lead (54%) with Firefox and Mozilla providing the other 30%. It is good to see Safari (7%) and Google Chrome (4%) making an appearance as well… Last fun bit are browser screen sizes with 1024×768 the most popular (37%), 1280×800 (14%), 1280×1024 (14%), 1440×900 (8%) and 1680×1050 pulling almost 5%.

Final Thoughts

I’ve actually had a good time writing about a fair amount of random information that I hope has served to help, amuse, delight, or at the least – waste a little bit of your time. While probably more popular with Google, Bing, and Yahoo than any sort of regular visitors – I pledge to continue this sort of online therapy as long as it suits to amuse me… Which seemingly does keep me coming back for more.

So my make believe girlfriend from American Idol has a new album out so she’s been making the media rounds lately. Saturday Night Live, this season’s American Idol, Good Morning America… along with magazines and radio visits. I’ve been listening to all the different versions of “My Life Would Suck Without You” and it’s getting close to an Earworm entry… But that’s almost a given… And you can’t turn on the radio without hearing it anyway.

But my attention turns not to her new single… Although I’m quite happy enough that she’s back in the spotlight after a rather disappointing “My December” release. It turns to a recent article from BANG Showbiz courtesy of AskMen.com:

The ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ singer is on the hunt for a boyfriend because she “badly” wants to fall in love for the first time.

She said: “I’ve never been in love. I want to be so badly – I’m a hopeless romantic, but I haven’t been there yet. I’d prefer to wait for the right one than settle for second best.”

The 26-year-old beauty – who won the first series of hit TV talent show ‘American Idol’ – has found it hard to trust men since an ex-boyfriend treated her badly.

She said: “I don’t think I’d fall in love easily – I had a boyfriend, who I discovered was only with me because he wanted to be famous. Oh, and he had a girlfriend the entire time we were together. I can spot a cheat a mile off these days. I was hurt but karma’s a b***h and I’m sure he’ll reap what he sowed.”

Although she is looking for a man, Kelly won’t settle for anybody and says any prospective boyfriend would need to have some very specific attributes.

She explained to Britain’s Cosmopolitan magazine: “A good sense of humour is essential. And I like a man with facial hair! He also need to be independent – it’s so easy to lose yourself when you’re in a relationship, so I like a man who already has a strong sense of what he wants out of life. I love my career and being independent, so if I’m going to make time for a man, he has to be worth it.”

I’m tossing my hat in the ring (much to the dismay of most of my friends… and my wife! LOL). Not sure about the facial hair… But I’ll do whatever it takes to please this pop singer goddess! I’m sooooo worth it!

American Idols Live “performed” this last Thursday at Scott Trade Center Auditorium. C and I were treated with tickets in one of the Club rooms so obviously I had to say yes. I’ve been a huge follower since my first obsession with Kelly Clarkson (or just the nice to look at Katharine McPhee):

Well – I knew neither of them were going to be there but there was going to be free hot dogs, chicken fingers and nachos!

While I had some hopes of a good time, my expectations of something more than a glorified chorus line or group karaoke like the TV show were quickly dashed as soon as the group came on stage. I now know exactly what it takes to be able to sell tickets to families at $65 a piece…

1. A singer must point to the audience at all times (must be an old television camera trick)
2. When singing male/female duets, the couple can only pretend to like one another, and then move away from one another like somebody just caught them making out as “just friends”
3. A singer should left their legs up one at a time as an excuse for “dancing” or “choreography”
4. Shouting “Hey Saint Louis” or which ever town you’re performing in as a last ditch effort to excite the crowd can only be used a few times in a single show.
5. Running up and down stairs does not qualify as choreography (neither does just walking around)
6. Equally – strobe lights and disco balls don’t make up much in the way as lighting effects.
7. If you’re near the audience and your fans are lining up to get a glimpse of you – when you’re done pointing around (see #1 above) – reach out and try to touch your fans. Don’t shake hands – just touch… or slap – or high five.
8. Most of the group can’t sing very well to begin with – but a horrific mix in a live venue sure doesn’t help much either!
9. If you’re going to sing covers all night – you could at least make them more original… That is unless you’re Blake and then you’re just going to screw it up with your beat-box fads and bad A cappella.
10. Covers of Whitney Houston songs usually never do a singer justice – however LaKisha Jones did a really good job with “I Will Always Love You” – the only stand out (by far) song sung all night.
11. And lastly – Sanjaya Malakar. No more to say about that…

So all in all – an okay night. I can say I’ve hit an Idols show in person now – but I’ll probably never go again… (Unless they’re Club level tickets!) If those tickets weren’t free – I would have thought that the event promoters were out to steal our money! They even had a 30 minute intermission! So – until next season…