Posts Tagged ‘reality TV’

Q&A with Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed

Jul 22nd, 2008
by soph.
3 comments

As promised, excerpts from my interview with Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed. These were my questions but it was a group telephone interview so any of the other journos were free to use them. I admit to being a little annoyed sometimes, especially when I read other articles that were written using mostly my questions and not their own but like I said, it was a group interview and it’s perfectly normal and acceptable.

What sets Gene Simmons Family Jewels apart from all the other reality TV shows out there?
Shannon Tweed: We’re real and we’re not a car accident.
Gene Simmons: I think women around the world, especially in Malaysia, would love to see a woman like Shannon. Shannon is a modern 21st century woman who doesn’t define herself by any man – certainly not me. I think that’s a great wake up call to women around the world. I don’t care what religion or culture you are from; you are more important than you think you are. Maybe you’re even more important than the men in the world, and that’s a self-empowering message. If the women of the world want to see what a super 21st century woman is like, you watch our show and you’ll see Shannon, who speaks her mind and if she doesn’t agree with me…
ST: You know, just because I kick your ass doesn’t mean I’m modern.
GS: That’s what I mean.

You and Shannon have done a fantastic job of bringing up Nick and Sophie. What is the secret?
GS: The secret is Shannon Tweed.
ST: It’s not.
GS: Go to your local store and buy the deluxe Shannon Tweed model. Whatever it costs, go and buy that model. That will bring you lots of happiness.
ST: The secret is not a secret. It’s how to say ‘no’ and mean it and how to say ‘yes’ and mean it. When the kids were growing up, they would try to play one parent against the other. You have to have a unified front, and you have to not fight with each other in front of the children. You have to show them that you’re the boss and you mean what you say. They could never change my mind about anything, so they never tried to beg me for things. If I said they couldn’t go out, they didn’t ask me twice. They know that ‘no’ is no and it never changes to ‘yes’ so it was always very clear what we were doing and they didn’t question our authority, and that’s important, I think.
GS: Love your mother, fear your father.
ST: You can fear your mother too.
GS: I do.

What if your kids wanted to become rock stars, would that be a ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
ST: I don’t have to give them permission to be what they’re going to be when they’re grown up. When they’re adults, they make their own decisions and then my job is over. [Laughs]
GS: That would be fine with me, as long as they had the work ethic. No lazy way out, no expecting somebody else to do it. If they work as hard as I do, they’ll have a great job whatever they do. You have to love labour, not look for a job. Don’t get a job; love working, whatever you do.

What won’t you do on Gene Simmons Family Jewels?
ST: What won’t you pay for? Let me think.
GS: Oh my god, I already jerked off a bull, what else do you want me to do?
ST: [Laughs] It’s more like, what won’t they film?
GS: I’m saying, once you do that, who the h*ll cares after that? By the way, there’s nothing that smells like that.
ST: Oh my God.
GS: There’s nothing. It’s not like turpentine, not like anything.
ST: There’s one thing… [Laughs]
GS: [Laughs] For those of you who don’t know, one of the episodes had me, well, let’s just say it had to do with a big bull – 1200 pounds – and how the bull’s sperm was actually worth more than the bull. You’ve never seen anything like this in your life.
ST: Why you had to go get some, I have no idea.
GS: I had to tie up the cow. That part I liked. I had to put on these long gloves and a catcher’s mitt – this kind of thing that caught it. You’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unbelievable.
ST: So, to answer your question – nothing.

What about maybe getting married on TV?
ST: Good question.
GS: I’m not familiar with that term.
ST: There’s something he won’t do, isn’t there? But you know what the happy news is? There’s something we’ll also never do, and that’s get divorced on camera.
GS: Or off camera, Shannon Tweed.
ST: I feel better already.

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Posted in: Celebrities, Movies Music TV, Parenting.

A gem of a reality show

Jul 19th, 2008
by soph.
3 comments

I’ve never been one for celebrity reality shows, but I must say Gene Simmons Family Jewels has piqued my interest. The combination of Gene Simmons, who is quite the character, and his close-knit family, the “happily unmarried” partner Shannon Tweed and their two kids Nick and Sophie, make for a pretty interesting watch. Plus, they’re really funny.

It’s one of their biggest quirks that a controversial rockstar (of KISS fame) and a former Playboy model would produce two perfectly-behaved, smart, witty and all-round fantastic youngsters. Really makes you think about what society perceives as “good parents” versus what it really takes to be a “good parent” and to raise a wonderful family.

Earlier this year, I did a telephone interview with Gene and Shannon so I got to ask them what their secret is. Gene said the secret is Shannon (awww). Shannon said the secret is to say no and really mean it. Nick and Sophie never ask twice, she said, because they know she means what she says.

In a time where many parents are trying to abandon the rod in favour of communication and reasoning, Gene and Shannon are sticking to strict parenting and discipline. I think it’s ridiculous that parents are trying to negotiate with their children these days, he said. And he has a point.

I can totally imagine them being strict parents. Gene – who claims he’s never been high, drunk or smoked in his life (and expects the same of his kids) – is apparently known for not tolerating ignorant or silly questions from the media. When the interview started, a computer went off in the background and Gene stopped. “What’s that? Who did that? Turn it off immediately.”

I immediately moved my phone, which I had already put into silent mode, off the table just in case it decided to vibrate. Throughout the entire 30 minutes, nothing else went off anywhere. You don’t want to piss off Gene Simmons.

I’ll put up the interview another day. It makes a real interesting read.

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Rockstar INXS – My Swan Song

Sep 27th, 2005
by soph.
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If you still have no idea what Rockstar INXS is, please find out. Or you can not care, that’s fine too.

After browsing through much of the final four weeks – I would have gone on but my ears were starting to hurt from the earphones and I didn’t really wanna watch Rockstar till 5pm no matter how big a fan I was, here is my quick list of must-sees in no particular order, conveniently short so you have no excuse and bearing in mind that I only watched but a sprinkling of the 11 weeks’ worth.

1. “Imagine” by Jordis Unga in Week 8
Sent chills down my spine. More on “Imagine” and John Lennon later.

2. “Live and Let Die” by MiG in Week 8
Watch this if only to see that one note he held for over 40 counts, though I reckon the song was pretty darn good anyways.

3. “Baby I Love Your Way” by MiG in Week 6
The only video I saw from a week earlier than 8. Highly recommended by a colleague who raved endlessly and made me listen to it on her computer previously. I suggest you watch it before listening to it. Watching it has made me a true fan of MiG now. Weirdly enough, his appeal to me stems partly from the fact that he’s married and wore his wedding band throughout the competition. He also plays the piano for this song, which really makes me wonder what is it about a man who plays guitar/drums/piano that makes (most) girls fall in love. I don’t see the same effect on men when girls play musical instruments.

4. “Trees” by Marty Casey in Week 9 and 10
My favourite of the final four’s original compositions. Very catchy. And I like the lyrics.

Back to John Lennon.

What is it about Lennon that drives so many to be cult followers and another to kill him? I don’t really know much about him, and I have never been a fan of the Beatles, but there is something about him that stirs something within me. I’ve decided to attribute it to a combination of his song “Imagine” – which I totally love, and the fact that he was assassinated (don’t ask, I don’t know why).

“Imagine” is a beautiful song. It’s sings of so much hope, and that makes it a sad song all the more, because you know his hopes will never come to pass. It is the song of a dreamer, of one who is seeking a better world, and it is sad because you know the world he seeks does not and will not exist.

The lyrics in “Imagine” sound almost communist, so why did a Cold War generation living in fear of communism worship it? Did the fact that he was an Anglo megastar supercede the communist tenets of his song? Perhaps it was because he was one who dared to dream, and in those dreams he carried the hopes of a people living in fear and unrest. He sang of peace, equality and a brotherhood of the human race, of living life without suffering, hunger and fear (the fact that he wanted no wealth and no religion, no countries no heaven and no hell must have escaped the masses). Perhaps they were attracted, not to the ideals of which he sang, but because he had ideals in the first place. I don’t know. But this I do – the John Lennon memorial in Central Park New York is a mosaic bearing only one word – IMAGINE. And that song still stirs something within me every time.

Imagine by John Lennon

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Rock Fan

Sep 15th, 2005
by soph.
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Burnett has done it again.

All it took was half an episode of Rockstar: INXS and I was hooked for good. Granted I was a wee bit late considering they were already down to the final six when I discovered it, and I blame it fully on some long-haired dude I unfortunately witnessed in the earlier stages who thought screaming unintelligibles into the mike would totally rock (pun intended).

I’d promptly changed the channel, never to give it a thought again, until that fateful day when something compelled me to keep my finger off the “channel up” button. The combination of the black choir, the elaborate sets, the stakes, the flame-licked words “A Mark Burnett Production”, and the fact that they sang both “Imagine” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” in one day won me over.

I am so a fan.

Now it’s down to the final four and I honestly couldn’t pick a favourite to vote for even if I was voting in the first place. One goes home tonight and then there will be three. I can’t imagine how the voters are going to choose because to my untrained rock ear, they are all pretty damn good. And I still can’t believe the winner becomes the next INXS frontman.

Trust Mr Burnett to take the already successful Idol franchise and top it a thousand times over.

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Malaysian Idol highlights.

Aug 13th, 2004
by soph.
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For the interested and the bored. It’s so worth watching, believe me.

Special thanks to Mun Keong, on whose blog I found this.

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Malaysian Idol – my take.

Jun 19th, 2004
by soph.
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Episode 2 has come and gone, and I haven’t said a word. Unusual? Perhaps. But the message couldn’t be clearer – there’s nothing really worth writing about. I must say I totally didn’t know what to expect. On the one hand, it’s the Idol franchise, done by 8TV – who’s trying everything and anything it can to stand out among the crowd and be different (ya, try getting a decent receptionist for a start, and by that I mean one who is both polite and understands English).

But on the other hand, it’s, well, Malaysia. Can we even begin to try and achieve a semblance of Idol predecessor – American Idol? Well, some might argue we shouldn’t. After all, as 1/3 of the judges – Mr Roslan, said, we’re Malaysian Idol, we should just be ourselves and not copy others. Right. So please tell me why we’re buying the franchise in the first place again?

We have 3 judges – 1 white male (Mr Paul Moss), 1 non-white male (Mr Roslan Aziz), 1 nice female (Ms Fauziah Latiff). Surprise surprise. But here’s the interesting part: the programme is conducted in both Malay and English. And so we have both Malay songs and English songs, (as well as a few Chinese songs and one Tamil song, but you don’t want to know about those). Judges’ feedback is given in both Malay and English, and as a result of this wonderful multi-culturality, we have *drumroll* two hosts instead of one *cymbal clash*. Yep, we have one talking in Malay and the other responding in English. It must get quite confusing for them.

But speaking of hosts, that is where we fall terribly, sorely, short. Forget Ryan Seacrest, our hosts are far-from-smooth, barely-interesting, and how shall I put this subtly, not-as-aesthetically-blessed. Though Jon did say the more irritating of the two is actually the nicer person in real life. Knowing that helps when you watch the show.

But lest you get discouraged, do not despair. Malaysian Idol is not all lacking. Someone mentioned wanting to audition next year with the aim of being so bad they’ll get their 10 seconds on TV. I tell you this now: you’re in for some very, very stiff competition. We have some really, really untalented people in this country. And I know William Hung made it big, but seriously, how many William Hungs do you expect the world to love? In this aspect, Malaysian Idol shines. I really do think they’re on par, if not better, than the worst auditions America/Australia had to offer. As for the talent, it’s too early to tell. Maybe next week. If I decide to sit through all the advertisements that is. Now that’s another long, long story. Literally. Like, every 10 minutes.

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LaToya, you will not be coming back next week.

May 18th, 2004
by soph.
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If Jennifer Hudson caused a storm when she was voted out of American Idol – undeservedly, so they say, LaToya’s elimination is a minor natural disaster. Her very impressive final performance probably didn’t help.

But even though I was shocked, I have to confess a small part of me expected, almost wanted this to happen. There’s no doubt that LaToya is very, very good, but like Paulini, I think she was beginning to stagnate a little. It doesn’t matter, she’ll probably get a recording contract anyway. After all, William Hung didn’t even make it past the preliminaries, and he’s arguably the biggest star of the Idol phenomenon.

I wonder if the American public are getting bored with all this. Maybe they’re toying with this whole series of Idol after Idol after Idol. They voted a small white and a big black for Idol 1 and 2 (this sounds more like coffee than anything), maybe now they’ll vote an Asian. By the way, is this American Idol 3 or 4?

Now all eyes will be on Jasmine Trias. And my sister put it all into perspective when she said, “I feel so sorry for Jasmine, now she has to stay on in the show knowing that everyone thinks she shouldn’t be there.”

Well, I hope she redeems herself. Last week was just bad. And it would be kinda nice to have her win Idol.

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There’s something about Miriam

May 14th, 2004
by soph.
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If you haven’t already heard, this is the most controversial reality TV show ever. The premise starts off innocently (and unoriginally) enough. 6 guys, 1 girl, who will she choose? Now this girl is the typical Latino beauty. She even has the accent to go with it. Some say she looks like J. Lo. And of course all the guys want her.There’s just one problem. She’s a man. Miriam is a transsexual. She/He is on hormones, but she/he also has male genitalia. Why is it that the Brits are the ones who keep coming up with all these weird shows? They started Big Brother, Pop Idol… you get the idea.

Not surprisingly, the 6 guys flipped when they were finally told the truth. They sued the producers and wanted the show banned, but it was settled out of court when they were paid 305,000 pounds each, or something to that amount. (I would personally have asked for more). You know how these shows are like, there’s lots of physical contact, affection, kissing… I can see all the guys freaking out already.

Being girls however, my sister and I aren’t as grossed out as I imagine the guys would be (I don’t know why girls just don’t have the same violent response to male-male erm… physical love and affection). But we do have one question:How does she/he wear all those short, tight skirts with her/his… you know, manhood?

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