CAROLE KING AND FIRE

CAROLE KING
“You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face, And show the world all the love in your heart, Then people gonna treat you better, You're gonna find, yes you will, That you're beautiful as you feel”

Carole Klein, 9 February 1942, Brooklyn, New York, USA. A proficient pianist from the age of four, King was a prolific songwriter by her early teens. When friend and neighbour Neil Sedaka embarked on his recording career, she followed him into the New York milieu, recording demos, singing back-up and even helping arrange occasional sessions. As a student at Queen's College, New York, she met future partner and husband Gerry Goffin whose lyrical gifts matched King's grasp of melody. She completed a handful of singles, including "The Right Girl" (1958), "Baby Sittin'", "Queen Of The Beach" (1959), prior to recording "Oh Neil" (1960), a riposte to Sedaka's "Oh Carol". Although not a hit, her record impressed publishing magnate Don Kirshner, who signed the Goffin/King team to his Aldon Music empire. They scored notable early success with the Shirelles ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"), Bobby Vee ("Take Good Care Of My Baby") and the Drifters ("Up On The Roof") and were later responsible for much of the early output on Dimension Records, the company's in-house label. The duo wrote, arranged and produced hits for Little Eva ("The Loco-Motion") and the Cookies ("Chains" and "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)") while a song written with Bobby Vee in mind, "It Might As Well Rain Until September", provided King with a solo hit in 1962.

GA GA NEWS
LINDSAY LOHAN WITH GUN IN MOUTH

Lindsay Lohan has defended as "art" a photo of herself holding a gun to her mouth that sparked alarm about the former A-list actress whose life and career have spiralled downward in recent years.Lohan, 23, said the photo that she posted on Twitter was from a shoot for a book about the dark side of glamour by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields.Other photos on Shields' website show Lohan in high heels and underwear, smothered in fake blood and brandishing guns.

"It's not softcore porn hunny, it's called ART," the Mean Girls actress said on Twitter, responding to criticism on the micro-blogging website.

Lohan, who is currently on probation for 2007 drinking and drugs offences, has been setting celebrity websites abuzz in recent weeks with stories and pictures of hard partying and erratic behaviour.

The gun photos came a week after reports that Lohan was dropped from the movie The Other Side because producers were reluctant to finance the film with her in a lead role.

Last week, her estranged father brought police to her Los Angeles apartment and threatened to seek a court protection order like the one that handed control of pop star Britney Spears' personal and business affairs to her father in 2008, after Spears' was hospitalised when her life seemed to be near disaster.

Michael Lohan issued a statement earlier this week saying he "intends to do everything in his power to prevent Lindsay from becoming another Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger" - all of whom died in tragic circumstances.Lohan has fired back in a series of angry tweets, calling her father "the devil's advocate".

Still, her nights of clubbing have attracted the attention of producers on the TV show Celebrity Rehab which, according to celebrity website TMZ.com, offered her $US1 million to enter treatment and be filmed undergoing counselling. Lohan refused."I don't know why I am such a target, but I think there's a big misconception of who I am as a person," Lohan told a Los Angeles radio station in an interview on Wednesday."I am doing a clothing line, I am starting a movie soon, I'm producing some shows. I've just been working a lot, and it's not a crime to go out and have fun with your friends."Lohan shot to fame in 1998 as a cute, freckle-faced 11-year-old in the Disney movie The Parent Trap. As a teenager, she scored a hit with 2004's Mean Girls and won fans among critics in 2006's A Prairie Home Companion.But her last movie, Labor Pains, went straight to television in 2009, and she won a Golden Raspberry award for worst actress for playing a stripper in the 2007 low budget thriller I Know Who Killed Me.

GA GA PHOTOS

FISHY STORY BUT TRUE

A guy who lives at Lake Macquarie (50 kms north of Gosford) saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange in the lake and went to investigate. It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a basketball which became stuck in its mouth!The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The bloke tried numerous times to get the ball out, but was unsuccessful.
He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry
catfish.



GA GA WORD

FIRE

Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born. ~George Bernard Shaw





There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke. ~Vincent van Gogh

How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? ~Christy Whitehead

To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world. ~Charles Dudley Warner

Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb

The most tangible of all visible mysteries - fire. ~Leigh Hunt

One can enjoy a wood fire worthily only when he warms his thoughts by it as well as his hands and feet. ~Odell Shepherd