Odds & Ends: Morrissey, Beastie Boys, Neal Schon

GoldieBlox issued its own open letter to the Beastie Boys today saying they “were completely unaware that the late, great Adam Yauch had requested in his will that the Beastie Boys songs never be used in advertising.”

On Monday the surviving members of the Beastie Boys issued an open letter after being sued by GoldieBlox over the toy company’s use of a parody version of the band’s song “Girls” in a recent video.

Mike and Ad-Rock wrote, “As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads.”

GoldieBlox, which aims to break down gender stereotypes and inspire future female engineers, changed the lyrics to the 1987 song to proclaim, “Girls – to build the spaceship, girls – to code the new app, girls – to grow up knowing that they can engineer that.” The original song wants girls to do the dishes and laundry.

The company said it sued the Beastie Boys because it claims the band’s lawyers had threatened GoldieBlox with “copyright infringement.”

Now GoldieBlox says it’s doesn’t want to fight with the band because they love the Beasties and “are actually huge fans.”

“Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect [Yauch’s] wishes and yours. Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team.”

Click here to read GoldieBlox’s full open letter.

When Journey’s Neal Schon marries “Real Housewife of D.C.” Michaele Salahi (aka the woman who crashed Obama’s inaugural ball party with her then-husband Tareq Salahi), it will mark the first time a wedding has been carried live and un-edited on pay-per-view.

The event will also be the first time a wedding is held at San Francisco’s Palace of First Arts. This historic event – which will also feature performances from Journey, Tower of Power and other special guests – will take place Dec. 15. You can bet that Schon is excited for the big day.  

“We were approached by a few networks wanting to tape, edit, and then broadcast the wedding as the beginning of a reality series focusing on our lives together,” Schon said. “Ultimately, we thought, ‘Hey, why give up creative control when we can do the whole thing live and share the wedding and the music directly with our fans, who have been so incredible!’”

His bride-to-be added that proceeds are going to a good cause.

“Neal and I are always looking to do all that we can to make a difference in the world, and believe it or not, our wedding event has given us a perfect opportunity to do just that,” Salahi said. “A portion of the proceeds from Pay-Per-View will go directly toward typhoon relief, where the money is needed most.”

Journey has already donated $350,000 to help victims of the typhoon that hit singer Arnel Pineda’s native Philippines earlier this month.

Tune in to watch the three-hour “Neal & Michaele: The Winter Wonderland Wedding and Music Event” on Pay-Per-View Dec. 15 at 8 p.m. EST for the low, low suggest retail price of $14.95.

Morrissey, why don’t you tell us how you really feel about the White House’s annual turkey pardon.

And, of course, he did exactly that in a Nov. 26 post on Morrissey fan site TrueToYou.net titled “Thankskilling.”

“Please ignore the abysmal example set by President Obama who, in the name of Thanksgiving, supports torture as 45 million birds are horrifically abused; dragged through electrified stun baths, and then have their throats slit. And President Obama laughs. Haha, so funny!

“As Ingrid Newkirk from PETA points out, turkey ‘meat’ is one of “our nation’s top killers”, causing heart-attacks and strokes in humans due to saturated animal fats and cholesterol. And President Obama laughs.

“Further, the meat industry is responsible for 51% of human-caused greenhouse-gas emission, therefore the embarrassingly stupid White House ‘turkey pardon’ is open support for a viciously cruel and environmentally irresponsible industry.

“And President Obama laughs.”

Oh, and by the way, The Washington Post agrees that “the turkey pardon is America’s dumbest tradition.”