For Father’s Day I got RB a 40gb iPod. Going quite a while back he’d said he’d have no use for one. I knew better. A couple of months ago he started realizing that having an iPod would be much better than bringing twelve cd’s with him every day he went to work. So I got him one of the 40gb ipods so he could put everything he wants on it from his cds and still have room to add more. He likes his iPod so much he’s now added some kind of cable onto the home entertainment system in the living room that all he has to do it plug it into his iPod and now he can listen to his iPod on the big stereo at home.

Auditions for the eighth season of American Idol will be beginning this month. The cities where auditions are being held in this year, as well as their corresponding dates, are:

• San Francisco, CA: Thursday, July 17 at the Cow Palace
• Louisville, KY: Monday, July 2 at Freedom Hall
• Phoenix, AZ: Friday, July 25 at the Jobing.com Arena
• Salt Lake City, UT: Tuesday, July 29 at the Energy Solutions Arena
• San Juan, Puerto Rico: Saturday, Aug. 2 at Coliseo de Puerto Rico
• Kansas City, MO: Friday, Aug. 8 at the Sprint Center
• Jacksonville, FL: Wednesday, Aug. 13 at the Veterans Memorial Arena
• East Rutherford, NJ: Tuesday, Aug. 19 at the IZOD Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex

Mariah Carey’s been around for a long time. One of my brothers has had a thing for her for as long as I can remember, and I’m talking years. I had the tv on the other day but wasn’t paying particular attention, and I looked up and Mariah was on my tv. She was in a Macy’s commercial, as were Carlos Santana, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart. I wondered what she was doing for Macy’s so I went online to see what I could learn.

The first thing I found out is that Mariah has her own perfume M, and that is why she was in the Macy’s commercial. The other thing I found out is that Mariah has a new album coming out called E=MC2. I found myself on the Walmart Soundcheck page where there is an almost ten minute interview with Mariah about the album and how she got to where she is today.

In the Soundcheck interview Mariah mentions she started singing when she was about four years old. She cites classical r&b artists as her biggest influences. I didn’t know that she began her career when she was in middle school, in seventh grade, as a backup singer. She discusses learning to enjoy performing and bettering herself while learning to produce. Mariah calls this album extremely diverse when it comes to the styles of songs on it, and said she had a lot of fun making it. The diversity is evident to anyone that listens to the five song samples included with the interview. Fans will definitely be interested in the part of the interview where she discusses each of the songs on the new album.

Mariah’s new album E=MC2 is on sale now.

Seriously. Now I enjoyed ZZ Top’s music back in the day, and still do. But as I look at them on my big tv performing live at the California Speedway for the Nascar race they look like they need to call it a day. The drummer is the only one that doesn’t look absolutely ancient. Back in the day their beards made them look funky and unique. Now their beards jut look gray and aged. They opened with Gimme All Your Lovin. The singer’s voice is, well, old and weak. They’re not hitting their own notes and sound out of tune vocally. The guitar work isn’t awful but it sounds much slower than it used to. Now they’ve moved on to I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide and it’s just bad.