El Somnambulo’s 25 Favorite Songs of 2013

El Somnambulo’s 25 Favorite Songs of 2013

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I am El Somnambulo, and I'm a listaholic. I listen to lots of music so that you don't have to. I don't like my Top 25 list this year, I love my list this year. If you sample these songs, I can almost guarantee that you'll find some stuff you'll want to investigate further. (BTW, Cecile McLorin Salvant's 'Womanchild' would have been high on this list if only I could have found an online version. She's great and, if there's any justice, she'll make tons of money.) So here we go, as always, counting down from #25 to #1:
My Thoughts On The Miley Cyrus “Incident”

My Thoughts On The Miley Cyrus “Incident”

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First, I refuse to buy into the parent "outrage" over their precious children witnessing such an "outrageous" display.  Hello?  It's MTV.  It's what they do - it's their flippin' business model.  Second, if you're one of those people who still thinks MTV is a music video channel... let me enlighten you.  Here's a sample of MTV's programming lineup: 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Real World, Engaged and Underage, Jersey Shore, Lingerie Football League, and, of course, Snookie and Jwoww.  There's plenty more, but that gives you the idea.  So, I'm not going to waste my time over parents who were shocked by a show on MTV. Back to the Miley incident...  (If you haven't seen the VMA video, here it is.) I am not disgusted or outraged by her performance.  I am embarrassed for her. 
N-n-noooooh!! ‘Tony Soprano’ Sleeps With the Fishes

N-n-noooooh!! ‘Tony Soprano’ Sleeps With the Fishes

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James Gandolfini reportedly dead of a heart attack suffered while he was in Italy.
Actor James Gandolfini died suddenly after a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Rome to attend the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. He was 51. Gandolfini will be forever known for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano on the seminal HBO series The Sopranos, which eventually won him 3 Emmy Awards and a $1,000,000-an-episode paycheck. Overweight, balding, rough around the edges with a thick New Jersey accent, Gandolfini was the opposite of a marquee leading man, destined to be a character actor. Yet he proved through his masterful acting that he could make Tony Soprano sexy and smart, towering and powerful.
More inside....

Jake Tapper Signing Books in Wilmington on 14 January

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On Monday, (next Monday!) January 14th, Jake Tapper (from ABC News, now at CNN)) will be in Wilmington signing books and participating in an event to discuss the topic of this book with 4 of the participants. Tapper has a recent book, called The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor. This book tells the story of an attack on an American outpost in Afghanistan -- Compound Outpost Keating -- where 53 American soldiers were attacked by 400 Taliban fighters.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

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1. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. 2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. 4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake. 5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.