Shinedown

This is probably a post you can skip, not terribly important, but I'm at a loss for what else to write about and this happened to be on my mind today.

Heard a song on the radio today, that I liked a lot. It's been at least a decade since I've heard any decent metal, I was starting to think it was a dying art... this is Shinedown's "Diamond Eyes":

(this is not the official video, but the official video is pretty lame, this one is much better)

They also have a very good cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgFQ6WmxdMs

As well as a song called Devour that I like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QXNtLaOnSE

Strangely, it appears that the song they released that has become the most popular, according to Wikipedia, is one called "Second Chance" that I don't find the slightest bit interesting or pleasing to listen to... in fact, I would have thought it belonged to a category of music that my mind pretty much just skips over and never remembers, because it's so boring. But I guess when the same group can sound so many different ways, that's a testament to their flexibility. Even though the 2 I like the best are unoriginal in that, one sounds kind of like a Metallica-ripoff and the other is just a guy with a better voice resinging Lynyrd Skynyrd's song (wow, I had never tried to spell his name before in print--odd that the only vowels in it are y's!). Both Lynyrd Skynyrd and Shinedown are bands from Jacksonville, Florida.

Tom Cruise

The most recent books-on-tape I just finished listening to was "Tom Cruise : An Unauthorized Biography" by Andrew Morton. Nothing terribly surprising that I didn't know, but it was a good read (er... good listen).

It goes into a lot of the Church of Scientology's dubious practices, but also covers Tom's upbringing--including a rocky relationship with his father, and difficulties in school, such as his dyslexia (which according to him, was miraculously cured by Scientology, even though he was apparently on record stating it had already gone away, before he ever joined the church of Scientology). One big thing the book deals with I hadn't realized before was the extent of his relationship with David Miscavige (the head of the Church of Scientology). The book spends a while comparing their personalities (which are very similar), and mentions that Nicole Kidman felt kind of envious of their close relationship, feeling pushed aside at times. (No, it wasn't sexual in nature or anything like that, just a close friendship.)

I think this and Drew Barrymore's biography are the only two Hollywood celebrity bios I've read, but they were both very fascinating. I either happened to pick two extremely good ones to read, or Hollywood celebs really do have very interesting lives!