Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Cat Stevens

Artist:Cat Stevens

Song:Moonshadow

Album:Teaser & The Firecat

Cat Stevens was one of the most popular singer songwriters of the 70s. Of course it is well known that he left the music business in 1977 and is now trying to return as Yusuf Islam. He was born Stephen Georgiou July 21, 1948 in London. He began performing in 1965 under the name Steve Adams. Former Springfields member Mike Hurst had become a record producer and took Georgiou into the studio. This got him a contract with Deram Records and he was renamed Cat Stevens. He had some chart success in England but contracted tuberculosis in Apr. 1968 and recuperated for a year. Stevens started writing more introspective songs and signed with Island Records in 1970. His album Tea For The Tillerman had some chart success and it was licensed to A & M Records in the US. The success of the single Wild World vaulted the album to the top ten in the US. Moonshadow was the first single from the 1971 album Teaser & The Firecat. Stevens was one of the biggest music stars of the 70s and that continued until he became a Muslim on Dec. 23, 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. His music remained popular despite his retirement. Yusuf Islam returned to pop music with An Other Cup in 2006. Reviews have been mixed. But there's no question that Cat Stevens' 70s music holds up very well today. Here's Cat Stevens performing Moonshadow in 1971.

Daizee Haze to Japan for Vader 20th anniversary show

As big a star as Big Van Vader was in WCW & WWF, you can multiply that by a thousand in Japan. He is one of the most popular gaijins in history. It was announced Monday that the 20th anniversary of Vader's debut in Japan will be commemorated with a show on Jan. 5 at Differ Ariake in Tokyo. The show is being promoted by the indy fed MAHEKEN. MAHEKEN owner Tomo Hashimoto is a long time pal and recently spent some time at Vader's home in Colorado. The show is called BIG VAN CRUSH. This is a pretty big show for a company that normally runs in much smaller halls.




It is not known as yet what Big Van Vader will be doing on this show. Maybe a match with his buddy Hashimoto. But a couple of joshi matches were announced for the show. The big news is that ROH & SHIMMER star Daizee Haze will make her first ever trip to Japan. SHIMMER owner Dave Prazak tells me she will appear on this show only. Her tag team partner will be K-Dojo veteran Yuu Yamagata. The opponents are JWP's Arisa Nakajima and MAHEKEN's Io Shirai. Io's sister Mio Shirai will face Fuuka in another match. It was also announced that Angel Williams will make her first ever trip to Japan to appear on this show.

Michiko Ohmukai retires

After 15 years in joshi puroresu, Michiko Ohmukai got married, retired on Dec. 9 at Shinjuku FACE and is off to Hawaii for her honeymoon. Ohmukai originally trained and debuted at All Japan Women in 1992. She grew up admiring the Crush Gals. She was injured and quit for a while and then returned with LLPW in 1993. Of course the key event in Ohmukai's career was when GAMI brought her to ARSION when the company started in 1998. Eventually she became one of ARSION's biggest stars with her combination of athleticism and sex appeal. After getting more involved in ARSION management, she left in Feb. 2003 when Hiroshi Ogawa sold the company to Yumiko Hotta. Ohmukai started M's Style in 2004 with Mariko Yoshida, Momoe Nakanishi & AKINO. That didn't really work out because Momoe retired and M's Style closed in Oct. 2006. It's been rumoured for a couple of years that Ohmukai wanted to retire but I'm not surprised she hung around for her 15th anniversary in January.

Generally speaking, the matches on a retirement show don't matter much. It's more about paying tribute to the retiree. Just about anyone who ever worked at ARSION was there except Etsuko Mita because she was working a NEO show at the same time. The opener had Cherry defeat Francoise with a diving knee drop to the back of the head at 8:50. Then Ran YuYu defeated Tomoka Nakagawa with the European Clutch at 12:10. Toshie Uematsu defeated Kyoko Kimura with a dragon suplex at 13:33. This was followed by an ARSION alumni talk show with Sakie Hasegawa, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa & Ryo Miyuki. The main event had Ohmukai teaming with AKINO, Tojuki Leon, Ayumi Kurihara & Bullfight Sora vs Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, GAMI, Ayako Hamada and the return to the ring of retired ARSION star Ai Fujita for one night only accompanied by Emiko Kado. The end of the match was very appropriate with all of Ohmukai's team ganging up on Aja Kong. Ohmukai finished Aja with the Shining Wizard at 22:01.

The post match ceremony began with Michiko Ohmukai in the ring with her parents. Ohmukai's childhood idol Lioness Asuka was the first to enter the ring with a bouquet of flowers. This was followed by tributes by just about every wrestler Ohmukai ever worked with in her 15 year career. This was followed by a paper tape tribute from the fans and a shower of flowers. She was also given the Queen Of ARSION title belt. Then the ten bell salute and Michiko Ohmukai's wrestling career is over. She thanked all the wrestlers and fans for all their support over the years. And according to her blog, Ohmukai went backstage and popped open a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. On behalf of joshi fans worldwide, I want to thank Michiko Ohmukai for the entertainment you have given us for the last 15 years. We will miss you and we wish you a happy life. And as a special tribute to Michiko Ohmukai, here's the match that probably made her a star. It's Michiko Ohmukai vs Aja Kong from ARSION Feb. 18, 1998.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Tamia

Artist:Tamia

Song:Questions

Album:More

R &B singer Tamia Washington was noticed very early in her career by one of the biggest players in the music industry. The early success almost sunk her but she has found a reliable producer and works well with him. She was born May 9, 1975 in Windsor, ON. She took singing & acting lessons as a child and won the Steve Ross Music Scholarship in 1993. Steve Ross was Chairman of Warners. This got her invited to a party in Los Angeles for Luther Vandross in 1994. She was spotted by Quincy Jones and he proceeded to have her sing You Put A Move On My Heart on Q's Juke Joint. The song was a monster hit and earned Tamia a solo contract with Qwest Records. Her 1998 debut CD Tamia did well but she was having creative disagreements with Jones and she moved to Elektra for her second CD A Nu Day in 2000. Meanwhile, Anita Baker introduced Tamia to NBA superstar Grant Hill and the two were married on July 24, 1999. They now have two children. She first worked with producer Shep Crawford on A Nu Day and that has turned into a very good partnership. Crawford started out in the gospel music business in Florida. The 2004 CD More was delayed because Tamia was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The CD did well and Questions was the third single. It was written & produced by R. Kelly. She returned to working again mostly with Crawford on her latest CD Between Friends on Image Entertainment. Tamia's music continues to do very well on the R & B charts and her videos are popular because she is gorgeous. I like her voice. It has more substance than some other popular singers. Here's the video for Questions by Tamia.

Tamia - Questions [Kobra]
Uploaded by classics007

Michiko Ohmukai gets married

Joshi superstar Michiko Ohmukai was married on Saturday and her retirement show was on Sunday. I'll have more on that tomorrow as I am waiting for an additional report. But I have some pics from the wedding courtesy of Rumi Kazama's blog. Of course Michiko looks beautiful in her wedding dress and she and her husband are a fine couple. Just about everyone in the joshi business was there. You'll notice that one pic includes Ai Fujita and her baby. On behalf of joshi fans worldwide, I wish Michiko Ohmukai and her husband all the best.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Eddie Hinton

Artist:Eddie Hinton

Song:Poor Ol' Me

Album:Direct Hits From Bullseye Blues

Eddie Hinton was a renowned Muscle Shoals session guitarist who was just getting his due as a performer when he died in 1995. He was born June 15, 1944 in Jacksonville, FL. After working with bands like The Spooks & The Five Minutes, Hinton became the house guitarist at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama from 1967-71. This was at a time when Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler turned Muscle Shoals into a soul hit factory. Hinton played on records by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and with his partner Marlin Greene he wrote Cover Me for Percy Sledge. Hinton's 1978 solo album Very Extremely Dangerous went unnoticed when Capricorn Records went out of business. Another unsuccessful attempt at recording and a divorce left Hinton living on the streets of Decatur, AL in 1982. He encountered old friend John Wyker who helped Hinton and got him recording again. The resulting album Letters From Mississippi got the attention of Bullseye Blues owner Ron Levy and suddenly Hinton was in demand all over the world. Poor Ol' Me is from his 1993 CD Very Blue Highway and this various artists comp is a good intro to Bullseye Blues artists. Hinton was just finishing a new CD when he died of a heart attack on July 28, 1995 at age 51. You may not know Eddie Hinton but you have heard him play guitar on plenty of records. Here's Eddie Hinton performing Letters From Misissippi in Decatur. AL in 1986.

Will South Etobicoke ever get a REAL community centre?

After Thursday's dog & pony show with the City Of Toronto Parks & Recreation staff, the answer is probably not. This was at 7PM at the Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School. This is what happens when you're dealing with shortsighted myopic bureaucrats who are more interested in serving their own agenda instead of serving the community. And the end result is likely to cost Councillor Mark Grimes his job in the next civic election due to his inaction.

The Etobicoke Lakeshore community wants a real community centre. We have $1.8M seed money from developer Daniels Corp. The city made a deal several years ago to use that money to build what they are calling The Ken Cox Community Centre. Of course that's not what it is. The name is a smokescreen to make it appear that the city is actually doing something for the community when they're actually not doing much of anything. Then they can pat themselves on the back. Someone should have told them that a pat on the back is 18 inches from a kick in the pants. This "community centre" is essentially an extension to the school gym. And the biggest joke is it's not even a full size basketball court. It will be impossible to run diverse programs in this space. It is designed to make things business as usual for Parks & Rec. staff. That's the most important thing to them.

One has to wonder why these people even bothered with this dog & pony show when they knew what the reception would be and they didn't intend to listen to the community. Of course the explanation is that this is what $1.8M will buy. But an event occurred that should have changed the agenda. That was the announcement that the Toronto Maple Leafs are building a new practice arena and will leave the Lakeshore Lions Arena on Birmingham St. The site is owned by the Toronto District School Board. Common sense says this space should be considered as the site for a community centre. It's simply a much larger building and more diverse programs could be run in that space. The building was not available when the current deal was made.

I have been involved in a program at LAMP to reverse this decision and consider the Lakeshore Lions Arena for the community centre. All we want is the space and the $1.8M intended to help build a community centre. Of course we know that isn't enough money so our plan was to fund it privately and operate it ourselves. So why isn't the city looking at this alternative? Well, Mark Grimes has been silent. He's letting the Parks & Rec. staff take all the heat for this. He'll get his. The Parks & Rec. agenda is that they lose control if we arrange private funding. And that's what this is about. We're thinking outside the box and they want to keep the impenetrable bureaucratic status quo. Of course that doesn't make any sense.

The message from the Parks & Rec. staff is this plan is written in stone. We're getting this excuse for a "community centre" despite the fact that they know it's not adequate. They prefer to lie and give lame excuses instead of using logic & common sense. Government bureaucrats don't live in the real world. They live in a parallel universe that has no relation to reality. When a presentation is received as poorly as this, why would anyone continue on this disastrous course? The answer is they care more about adhering to their own bureaucratic agenda than the real needs of the community. They won't admit that or anything else but we know the truth. Of course common sense could still prevail and the desicion could still be reversed but will it?

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Freddie King

Artist:Freddie King

Song:Same Old Blues

Album:Getting Ready...

The popular blues guitarist Freddie King is somewhat forgotten today because he died prematurely. He had a significant following in the late 60s-early 70s. He was born Sept. 3, 1934 in Gilmer, TX. His family moved to Chicago when he was 16 and he started playing in local blues clubs. He played sessions and recorded for King Records through the 60s. The records didn't sell but he built a following among other musicians, paricularly Eric Clapton & Leon Russell. Russell signed King to his Shelter label. Getting Ready was his first album for Shelter in 1971 and it sold very well. Russell brought in some of his buddies like Don Preston and also brought in Don Nix from Memphis to produce. He wrote several songs for the album including Same Old Blues. Nix was a sax player for hire and member of The Mar-Keys. He also recorded for Shelter. Later on Eric Clapton got King a contract with RSO Records. Freddie King was at the height of his popularity as a live performer when he died of a heart attack on Dec. 29, 1976 at age 42. Here's Freddie King performing Goin' Down in 1972.

Fuuka gets NEO double title shot

NEO held a press conference on Thursday to announce the main event for their tenth anniversary show Jan. 6 at Korakuen Hall. The main event will have NEO Singles & NWA Pacific Champion Haruka Matsuo defending her titles against...drum roll...EWA Womens Champion Fuuka. Of course the obvious reason for NEO GM Koda to do this is though Fuuka is by no means a main event wrestler, she is a draw. Koda is also trying to sell the match as unique because these two have never faced each other in a singles match. But it is a tenth anniversary show and should have a sense of history and Fuuka has no history with NEO. Fuuka does have a history of choking in big matches and it's doubtful Matsuo can change that. It's not suitable as a main event of a significant show. He also announced 30 woman battle royal. Toshie Uematsu, Ran Yuyu, Sakura Emi, Aoi Kizuki & Makoto have signed and more wrestlers will be announced. And three or four more matches are to be announced including the return of Mima Shimoda.


FreeVideoCoding.com

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-The Penguins

Artist:The Penguins

Song:Earth Angel

Album:The Doo Wop Box

This is yet another classic from Rhino's fabulous 4CD box set The Doo Wop Box. The Penguins were all students at Fremont High School in Los Angeles. The group was Cleveland Duncan, Curtis Williams, Dexter Tisby & Bruce Tate. Duncan was the lead singer but Williams was the group leader. Supposedly Williams learned Earth Angel from singer Jesse Belvin or maybe he wrote it alone. Then Gaynell Hodge of The Turks sued successfully and got a songwriting credit in 1956. The Penguins signed with Dootone Records in 1954. Earth Angel was the B side of their first single Hey Senorita. But Los Angeles radio stations received more requests for the B side and it topped the R & B charts and reached #8 on the pop charts. The Crewcuts' whitebread cover of the song was an even bigger hit. White groups covering black doo wop songs was very common in those days. The Penguins left Dootone in 1956 and recorded for Mercury & Atlantic. They also worked with a very young Frank Zappa in 1963. But they were never able to repeat the success of Earth Angel. The song is an all time classic. A Duncan led version of The Penguins continue to tour the oldies circuit. And here are The Penguins performing Earth Angel.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Artist:Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Song:I Put A Spell On You

Album:Cow Fingers & Mosquito Pie

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was one of the most outrageous performers in music history. I Put A Spell On You was his signature song. He was born July 18, 1929 in Cleveland. He was inspired by the legendary Paul Robeson to be an opera singer. When that didn't work out, he played piano for Tiny Grimes in 1951. Hawkins recorded for smaller labels until he signed with Columbia's Okeh label. Hawkins originally intended I Put A Spell on You to be a love ballad. But session producer Arnold Moxon suggested Hawkins give a vocal performance as spooky as the title. He also brought in food & liquor and it became a drunken party. The session included guitarist Mickey Baker & sax player Sam "The Man" Taylor. The more they drank, the more outrageous the recording became. Supposedly Hawkins didn't remember most of what happened during the session. The song became an all time novelty classic despite being banned by radio stations across the US. This comp from Epic/Legacy has all his hits. Hawkins had some other hits but nothing to match I Put A Spell On You. But he did have an insane stage act which had him emerging from a coffin and carrying a shrunken head among other things. He also became a cult figure through his role in the Jim Jarmusch film Mystery Train. And most of those fans never heard the original 1956 version of I Put A Spell On You. So Screamin' Jay Hawkins was very successful until his death on Feb. 12, 2000 at age 70. Here's Screamin' Jay Hawkins performing I Put A Spell On You on Nightmusic around 1989.

Ayumi Kurihara returns at Pro Wrestling WAVE

Pro Wrestling WAVE held thei latest show Dec. 4 at Shin-kiba 1st Ring. The big news is the return of Ayumi Kurihara from injury. Most fans are aware that she suffered a shoulder injury in the summer and she look longer than expected to return but as long as she's healthy, who cares. Her match was a three minute exhibition with Michiko Ohmukai. Toshie Uematsu was special ref. Because Kurihara trained at M's Style, she really wanted to return for the Dec. 9 Michiko Ohmukai retirement show. I think she would have been very disappointed to miss that show. She's a good little wrestler and it's good to see her back in the ring.





Once the exhibition was finished, it was Ran YuYu vs Aska Ohki in Challenge WAVE. Ran controlled the match and Ohki tried some flash pins but Ran won with a diving knee drop at 12:34. Next was the continuation of Resurrection WAVE with Yumi Ohka facing Hiroyo Matsumoto. Matsumoto won their match a couple of months ago. It looks like Ohka has improved lately and is getting better results. It was a very good seesaw match that ended in a 20 minute draw.





The main event was Comical Hyper WAVE. It was Michiko Ohmukai, Bullfight Sora & Yuki Miyazaki vs GAMI, Kyoko Kimura & AKINO. You may have heard that GAMI is wearing an afro wig as part of an angle she's been doing with Kimura. You'll be pleased to know that AKINO didn't wear an afro. Of course it was the kind of comedy shtick that you would expect sprinkled with a little lucha since Sora just returned from Mexico. There was actually a double pin with simultaneous hurricanranas. So the match was restarted and the end came when GAMI & Kimura bumped heads. Miyazaki kissed GAMI (paging Mickie James) and Akino hit a tiger suplex for the pin at 20:10. Afterwards, GAMI gave a bouquet of flowers to Ohmukai. There were 118 fans at the show so the gate is improving.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson

Artist:Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson

Song:Whiskey Drinkin' Woman

Album:Country Sugar Papa

Blues guitarist Luther Johnson is best known for his stint with the Muddy Waters band in the 70s. But he's proven to be a very strong performer and is still touring today. He was born July 15, 1939 in Itta Bena, MS. By the time his family moved to Chicago in the 50s, Luther was already hooked on the blues. Luther plays what was called the West Side style of Chicago blues. He was heavily influenced by blues legend Magic Sam and played in his band for a couple of years. Johnson joined the Muddy Waters band in 1972. The Guitar Junior nickname was because Waters' former guitarist was also named Luther Johnson so it was just to avoid confusion. Johnson went solo in 1980 and moved to Boston. He got together with keyboard player Ron Levy and made several excellent recordings for Levy's Bullseye Blues label including this 1994 CD. Johnson moved to Telarc Records in 1996. He hasn't recorded since 2001 but he's still out touring the world with his entertaining brand of blues guitar. Here's Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson & Pinetop Perkins performing in Cambridge, MA in the 80s.

Matches added to Dec. 26 Smackgirl show

Led by its new management, Smackgirl held what is likely the most important press conference in the history of the promotion on Dec. 3. Not only did they announce the bulk of the Dec. 26 Korakuen Hall show called STARTING OVER and as you will see, it is stacked with the biggest female MMA stars in Japan along with several gaijins. But they also announced a significant rule change that will make MMA fighters and fans worldwide very happy. Plus the World REMIX Tournament will return in 2008 and the Dec. 26 show will be shown in its entirety on Fuji TV in Japan. So there's a lot of news to cover.





The press conference was held at Fuji TV studios because it was announced that Fuji will have a special broadcast of the STARTING OVER show on Jan. 26 in prime time in Japan. But the big news is that Smackgirl will finally eliminate many of the special rules to conform with MMA rules worldwide. This is somrthing that has been demanded by top fighters like Yuka Tsuji & Megumi Fujii along with fighters and trainers around the world. The 30 second limitation on sleeper holds & ground and pound is the first change. I don't know if they will get rid of those damn mittens but it's a good first step to open Smackgirl to fighters everywhere. Smackgirl also announced the return of the World REMIX Tournament in 2008. The opening round will be Feb. 14. The semi finals will be Apr. 25 and the final will be July 24. All shows will be at Korakuen Hall.





Of course the main event of STARTING OVER has Yuka Tsuji defending her Smackgirl Lightweight Title against Korean Ham Su Hi. Ham was at the press conference and they're still selling the match as Tsuji getting revenge for Ayumi "Edge" Saito. The big news is that the icomparable Sambo Queen Megumi Fujii is on the show facing newcomer Mika Nagano. Fujii's record is 12-0 and is considered one of the best MMA fighters in the world. Nagano is new to MMA but she has been an amateur wrestler for 11 years. She wrestled in the famed womens wrestling program at Chukyo Womens University and finished fourth in the 2002 Queen's Cup. Her MMA debut can best be described as baptism by fire.




DEEP Flyweight Champion Satoko Shinashi is on this show. Of course Shinashi is another little girl who packs a mighty wallop. Her record is 25-1-2. Her opponent is called Anne and appears to be another Thai kickboxer making her MMA debut. Good luck to her. She'll need it. Megumi Yabushita is in tough with Lana "Lethal" Stafanac. She's 5'10" 210lbs. and her record is 4-0 with three submissions. Saori Ishioka (3-2) will face Thricia "Little Evil" Poovey. You may recall that Poovey gor hammered by Yuka Tsuji back in April. Her record is 3-4. Madoka Okada (3-1) will face Shawn Tamaribuchi. Her record is 0-2 and she lost on the recent Fighing Femme Fatale show. I assume a few more matches will be announced shortly.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Crazy Horse

Artist:Crazy Horse

Song:I Don't Want To Talk About It

Album:Crazy Horse

Of course Crazy Horse is best known as Neil Young's longtime band but you don't want to overloook this outstanding 1971 album minus Young. The group started in 1962 as the doowop group Danny & The Memories with Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot & Ralph Molina. They settled in California in 1966 and renamed themselves The Rockets. In 1968, Whitten & Talbot met Neil Young. Young had just left Buffalo Springfield and planned to go solo. He jammed with them and asked them to record with him. The result was Young's 1969 classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and the group was renamed Crazy Horse. While Young was recording, he also joined Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. So Crazy Horse signed their own contract with Reprise. The album was well received. Jack Nitschze produced and Nils Lofgren sat in on guitar. Whitten was the main songwriter of Crazy Horse and I Don't Want To Talk About It showed a lot of potential. Later the song was a hit for Rod Stewart. Just when it looked like Crazy Horse would take off, Whitten became addicted to heroin. He was fired and died on Nov. 18, 1972. As a seperate entity, Crazy Horse was never able to recover but the remaining members continue to work with Neil Young. Not surprisingly, there is no video footage of Crazy Horse without Neil Young. However, there is a very surreal Danny & The Memories Scopitone on Youtube. Here's Neil Young & Crazy Horse performing Cinnamon Girl from Rust Never Sleeps.

Gina Carano on American Gladiators

I'm sure many pro wrestling & MMA fans will recall American Gladiators. Maybe you still watch reruns on ESPN Classic. You may also know that NBC will debut a new version of American Gladiators on Jan. 6. It will be hosted by Hulk Hogan & Laila Ali. So now you're asking "What's this have to do with womens MMA?" It's been announced that Gina Carano will be one of the gladiators. She will be called Crush. It's interesting because the other women on the show are all from the fitness & bodybuilding industry. Obviously I don't know how this will affect Gina's MMA schedule with EliteXC. My guess is it won't affect anything. For more info on American Gladiators, check out their website at http://www.gladiatorszone.co.uk/international/america/new/

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Robert Lowe & Generations

Artist:Robert Lowe & Generations

Song:Praise, God Most High

Album:Together Again

Robert Lowe is a pastor from Queens, NY. He has led the Mount Moriah AME Church for the last 16 years. He has recorded in the past with the Queens Community Choir but he's now trying to establish his own group Robert Lowe & Generations. He released a CD a few years ago independently so nobody heard it. Well, I did and it featured Monique Walker singing a gospel version of the Deborah Cox hit You Didn't Have To Be Here. This new CD has a guest shot from the legendary Twinkie Clark of The Clark Sisters. Now it appears that the label Jordan Entertainment Group has recently signed a distribution deal with Koch Records so maybe more folks will get to hear Lowe's music. And there's even a video. It's called I Won't Go Until You Bless Me by Robert Lowe & Generations featuring Andrea Brown.

The Karate Hottie loses in Ring Of Fire

The Dec. 1 Ring Of Fire show in Bloomfield, CO featured three womens matches. One of the matches was the semi main event on the show. The promotion was looking to make a big deal about a fighter named Michelle Waterson. She's known as the Karate Hottie. She's a former Hooters girl and one of the stars of the TV show Fightergirls. Like a lot of women getting into MMA, her training is in Muay Thai. She has been training at Greg Jackson's camp in New Mexico. Her opponent Lynn Alvarez had other ideas. She is also a Muay Thai fighter. Waterson charged Alvarez but was caught in a guillotine choke. She escaped but after a Waterson takedown, Alvarez got her in another guillotine choke and Waterson tapped out at 1:19 of round one. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Cat Albert wasted no time with Nikki Garcia. She took her down and pounded her until the fight was stopped at 45 sec of round one. After the fight, Albert said she wants Gina Carano. Doesn't everyone? In the other match, Kate Martinez won over Sharya Hefner with an armbar at 2:30 of round one. One unrelated note. The womens match on the USA vs Russia Bodog Fight show was canceled when Julia Berezkova got sick.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Big Joe Turner

Artist:Big Joe Turner

Song:Flip, Flop & Fly

Album:Joe Turner/Rockin' The Blues

R & B shouter Big Joe Turner was one of the pioneers of Rock 'n' Roll. He was born May 18, 1911 in Kansas City, MO. The key event in his early career was getting together with boogie piano master Pete Johnson. They worked together for 13 years until Turner moved to Los Angeles in 1945. It was there that he first met producer Herb Abramson. Turner recorded for a lot of small labels but wasn't doing that well until Abramson & Ahmet Ertegun caught Turner filling in for Jimmy Rushing in the Count Basie band at the Apollo. They signed Turner to Atlantic Records and he had a string of hits in the mid 50s including the classic Flip, Flop & Fly. This twofer from Collectibles consists of two of his Atlantic albums from 1957-58. Turner left Atlantic in 1959. His career faded but was revived when Norman Granz signed him to his Pablo label in the 70s. Turner continued to tour until his death on Nov. 24, 1985 at age 74. Big Joe Turner was known as the Boss Of The Blues and was an important figure in the development of pop music. Here's Big Joe Turner performing Shake, Rattle & Roll in the 1955 film Rhythm & Blues Revue.

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-Whitney Houston

Artist:Whitney Houston

Song:How Will I Know?

Album:The Greatest Hits

Of course Whitney Houston has been a huge star with superior vocal ability. But her personal issues have waylaid her career and it remains to be seen if she can come back. She was born Aug. 9, 1963 in Newark, NJ and her mom is R & B singer Cissy Houston. She started singing backup vocals in 1978 and also pursued modelling & acting. Her first featured vocal was with Bill Laswell's group Material in 1982 alongside Archie Shepp & Fred Frith. Imagine that. Arista Records head Clive Davis saw her in a nightclub and signed her in 1983. Her 1985 debut was a monster and How Will I Know was a big hit in 1986. The song was written by by George Merril & Shannon Rubicam AKA Boy Meets Girl for Janet Jackson. She turned it down and Arista talked Narada Michael Walden into producing the song for Whitney. He would produce a lot of hits for her. This 2CD comp includes an entire CD of remixes. It's probably a bit much for most fans and Arista has recently released the more concise comp The Ultimate Collection. That's the one I would recommend. I'm not going to get into Whitney's personal problems but I'll just say that I prefer her earlier records and I'd like to see her get back to being a great singer and less of a celebrity. There are rumours that she's working on a new CD with Clive Davis. Here's the video for How Will I Know by Whitney Houston.