L.A. was an easy fit for Vidal Sassoon, whose modern cuts changed the rules

When most people think of Vidal Sassoon, who died Wednesday at age 84, they think Carnaby Street. But he also had a role in shaping Los Angeles as a city of style.</p><p> "He opened a salon on Rodeo Drive when Beverly Hills was just coming of age among trendsetters," says Rose Apodaca, author and former Los Angeles bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily. "And he saw Los Angeles as this exciting place where rules were being broken. We know about swinging London; he saw Los Angeles as an extension of that."</p><p> The British-born hairstylist created wash-and-go hair in the early 1960s. He liberated women from having to wear curlers to bed and make weekly trips to the salon by creating modern, geometric cuts that fell into place without a lot of fuss. It was the equivalent to what fashion designer Mary Quant was doing with miniskirts in London and what Rudi Gernreich was doing with unstructured knitwear in L.A. They were all using fashion and beauty as instruments for social change. Read the rest of this entry »

The Voice Winner Speaks! Did Adam and Christina’s Feud Affect the Voting?

Win or lose, all the contestants sounded eager to keep in touch with their coaches and figure out what’s next. “I’m going to see her tonight,” Mann said of Coach X-Tina. “I’m excited to just kick it and probably have a couple of drinks and talk about what’s next. We talked about maybe working together, which would be amazing.”

Simms and her coach, Cee Lo Green , wasted no time in planning a possible collaboration. “He’s become a really, really great friend of mine. We’re going to make music. He’s already sending me a song tonight.”

The same is true for Paul, who said he and Shelton would “definitely” work together despite their different styles. The former Alicia Keys back-up singer said rehearsing with his coach had been his favorite part of The Voice

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Against Me! singer/founder Tom Gabel comes out as transgender …

Tom Gabel, the lead screamer of Florida band Against Me!, has come out as transgender and plans to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, according to excerpts from an interview published Tuesday night on the website of Rolling Stone magazine. The singer, 32, founded Against Me! in 1997, and over the course of the past 15 years it has risen to become one of the most successful of a new wave of punk rock bands.

According to Rolling Stone, Gabel, who is married, will soon begin the process of becoming a woman by taking hormones and receiving electrolysis treatments. He will take the name Laura Jane Grace.

Gabel isn't the first high-profile musician to undergo sexual-reassignment surgery; in the 1972, "Switched on Bach" creator Walter Carlos became Wendy Carlos — but she announced the news quietly seven years later in a Playboy interview. Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P-Orridge in the mid-'00s underwent a series of surgeries to become gender-neutral.

But for a major rock star to announce the news is unprecedented. Online, Against Me! fans are trying to come to terms with the news, even as they note a particular lyric in the band's song "The Ocean" in which Gabel sings honestly about his desire:

And if I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman

Read the rest of this entry »

Jermaine Paul Wins Season Two of 'The Voice' | Movies News …

. “My wife, my children, my father, my mother, my mother-in-law.”

Shelton did not comment after Paul was announced the winner, however he did embrace his contestant, look him straight in the eye and exclaim, “You did it!”

Paul quickly became a frontrunner in the competition with his powerful, soul-drenched vocals. The singer had previously been a background vocalist for Alicia Keys. Numerous times throughout the competition host Carson Daly made reference to his evolution by stating Paul was “no longer a background singer.” Paul's breakthrough performance came in early April when he put a soulful spin on Bon Jovi's “Livin' on a Prayer”;last night he gave an impassioned rendition of R. Kelly's “I Believe I Can Fly.”

The season finale included live performances by all four finalists – including third-place finisher, Tony Lucca, and fourth-place finisher, Chris Mann – all of whom were joined by many of this season's since-departed contestants. Justin Bieber gave the first live performance of his new single, “Boyfriend,” while iconic crooners Hall & Oates performed their 1977 classic “Rich Girl,” country trio Lady Antebellum sang “Wanted You More,” and rapper Flo Rida served up a medley of his hit single “Wild Ones” and new cut “Whistle. Read the rest of this entry »

AP Photos: Supermoon glows around the globe

By The Associated Press

It may have been only an optical illusion, but what a sight. The biggest and brightest full moon of the year arrived Saturday night and glowed around the world.

In Brazil it illuminated the landmark Christ the Redeemer statue and later set behind a shanty town. In Florida, fishermen worked their lines amid the moonlight in Bal Harbour. And near Athens, tourists watched as the moon rose behind the Temple of Poseidon.

The moon was the closest it will get to the Earth this year – and appeared 14 percent larger because of that. At its peak it was about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average.

Here are images of the supermoon from around the world.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Being a high end student could propel Tannehill beyond NFL …

There’s no doubt Ryan Tannehill is excited about his opportunity with the Miami Dolphins. Tannehill has found his calling and will try to play football for a living in what most think can be a successful career.

But it leads some to wonder, what if he had never been switched back to the starting quarterback after being a stud receiver for A&M in his initial years.

Would Tannehill still be making the jump the NFL?

No one will ever know but one thing is certain, but as Keith Randall writes for the TAMU Times Tannehill would have been just fine if he didn’t make it to the NFL.

He majored in biology at A&M and graduated with a 3.63 GPA. Tannehill was a three-time First Team Academic All Big 12 scholar, while also being named a Texas A&M Athletics Scholar four times and a member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll four times.

That’s a large academic resume for the future NFL quarterback who was drafted No. 8 overall in last week’s draft. Tannehill still plans to become an orthopedic surgeon someday and assuming he can find the time to attend medical school it would make for a nice career once he retires form his current day job.

For now he’s excited to reunite with former head coach Mike Sherman in Miami.

“I’m blessed that I will be joining coach Sherman,” Tannehill said. Read the rest of this entry »

Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita suspended 3 games for Saints bounty …

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns linebacker Scott Fujita has been suspended without pay for the first three games of the season for his involvement in the Saints’ bounty scandal, the NFL announced today.

He’s one of four players suspended, according to the statement released by the league . Fujita can appeal the ruling within three days. All four players will appeal, according to ESPN.

Fujita can participate in organized team activities (off-season practices) and play in the preseason games.

The NFL’s investigation established that Fujita, a linebacker, pledged a significant amount of money to the prohibited pay-for-performance/bounty pool during the 2009 NFL playoffs when he played for the Saints. The pool to which he pledged paid large cash rewards for “cart-offs” and “knockouts,” plays during which an opposing player was injured

Fujita had told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King that he directly paid teammates for big plays but not to hurt opponents and not as part of the bounty system. Read the rest of this entry »

(6) New Jersey Devils (0-0) at (5) Philadelphia Flyers (0-0), 3 p.m. (ET)

A pair of Atlantic Division rivals will face off in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals this afternoon, as the Philadelphia Flyers host the New Jersey Devils at the Wells Fargo Center.</p><p>The Flyers and Devils are the fifth and sixth seeds, respectively, in the East and the clubs finished just one point apart in the conference and division standings. Philadelphia had 103 points in the regular season compared to 102 for the Devils.</p><p>Philadelphia entered this postseason as a considerable underdog to win its first-round series, but Peter Laviolette’s club surprised many by ousting the Pittsburgh Penguins from the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in six games.</p><p>The Flyers simply proved to be too much for Pittsburgh, a trendy pick to win the Stanley Cup heading into the playoffs, scoring 30 goals during a wild series that ended with Philadelphia’s 5-1 home victory in Game 6. With the win over Pittsburgh, the Flyers advanced to the second round for the third straight spring. Philadelphia last made it to the East finals in 2010.</p><p>Philadelphia’s best player all season was Claude Giroux and he was undoubtedly the top skater in the conference quarterfinals against the Penguins. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Week In Mock Drafts

Yup, you read that correctly. Not a single mock draft prognosticator that was featured in the many TWIMD I wrote up for GMEN HQ had Wilson going to the Giants. If you were to count them all up there was a total of 22 mock drafts that I covered, and if you include my mock draft , then that number would be 23.

You may not think this but not having a single mock drafter out there mocking Wilson to the Giants is a good thing, as it proves just how useless mock drafts can be. Anything can happen in the world of the NFL and a mock draft for the 2012 NFL Draft from May 2011 is pretty much worthless the moment it’s written. How about we go back to that very first mock draft I covered on May 30, 2011 to see what the crystal ball said the Giants should do but never did?

Before I do that though let me first give Ryan Van Bibber of SBNation.com some credit, as one of his mocks was the only one I could find that had the Giants taking Wilson at 32; some good guesswork there.

Now back to Chad Reuter,  who put together a mock for CBSSports.com in May of last year, where he had the Giants selecting 19 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft. Read the rest of this entry »

LSU's Morris Claiborne stunned by Dallas Cowboys move to pick …

One team, however, evinced zero interest. In one of those oddities that mark the draft, that team, the Dallas Cowboys, moved up in the first round Thursday night to get him, making Claiborne the No. 6 overall pick.

He wasn’t sure what to make of the call.

“I thought it was a joke at first,” he said. “They showed no interest at all in me, none whatsoever. You know that call you get where they just want to update your number and make sure they have it? Well, I didn’t even get that call.”

The voice on the other end was the Cowboys famous owner Jerry Jones.

“Once I realized who it was I looked at my family and they were like, ‘who is it?’ ‘Who is it?’ and I said, ‘the Cowboys,’ and I could just see the stunned look on their faces,” Claiborne said. “Then the voice asked me, ‘Do you want to be a Cowboy?’ and I said, ‘yes.’”

The pick made Claiborne the first Tiger to go in 2012. Adding irony was the fact the second, defensive end Michael Brockers, had wanted to be a Cowboy all his life and thought Dallas might take him. Read the rest of this entry »