161st Street

It has been a while since I last posted but, I'm back and ready to go. For all major fans of MLB (Major League Baseball) the Trade Deadline passed on Monday and teams were wheeling and dealing and many trades big and small went down. The biggest trade that went down was ace pitcher Sonny Gray of the Oakland Athletics going to the New York Yankees. After a huge game of chicken between Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Athletics GM Billy Beane the deal was finally agreed upon and the Yankees were able to avoid trading Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres. In the end this deal cost the Yankees: Jorge Mateo, James Kaprielian and Dustin Fowler. In my opinion the Yankees made out like bandits in this trade and I will tell you why. Mateo was never really going to see the majors because there was a logjam in the infield with Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro and the outfield is log-jammed also. James Kaprielian is not going to be pitching for a while because he needs to undergo Tommy John Surgery so he is going to miss a significant amount of time. Finally, Dustin Fowler who came up to play for the Yankees earlier in the year, tour his knee up in Chicago trying to run down a fly ball and he is going to need surgery. The only risk the Yankees have is that Sonny Gray has had some arm troubles over the years but, he is starting to look healthy again and he is pitching well. They know have another ace along with Severino and Tanaka to make a deeper starting rotation. So with all the speculation and rumors in the past few weeks about Sonny Gray going to the Yankees, writers and reporters have been coming up with song lyrics to describe that they are waiting for him to arrive. One of my good friends Tom Albano (@thomasjalbano) part of my "Undetermined Podcast Network" and does "The Unspoken Podcast" (@theudup), decided to write a song parody for Sonny Gray arriving in New York. He sent me the lyrics to this parody and he explained to me that it is a Sesame Street parody and I couldn't believe what I was reading. So I basically said to him let me play with the lyrics and I will record something. The name of the song is "161st Street" which is a take on "Sesame Street". I'm going to put the link below so everybody can laugh and enjoy the song that Tom and I worked together on. Enjoy the parody and please leave comments and share the link so other people can laugh and be entertained. If everybody likes this song parody we will do more...we have more creative ideas up our sleeves!!!!



Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlXq1YI3aBE

Brody Jenner “Not” Keeping Up with The Kardashians

       Sorry for the delayed post as I was falling a little behind schedule but, better late then never.

Everyone who knows reality TV knows there is one family we have all come to dislike with a passion... the Kardashian family. It seems like Kim, Kourtney and Khloe are always facing some type of drama, whether it is with each other or relationship drama. For starters we have been hearing rumors of Kim and Kanye possibly getting a divorce. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kim divorced him because of all the stuff he has done in the past few months, including getting into Twitter fights with people. Lets not forget he tried to tell Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to invest a billion dollars in him. A quick tip for you Kanye, when you are 53 million dollars in debt you shouldn’t be telling people they should invest in you. Kourtney has the most drama out of the three sisters with her three kids and facing an on again- off again relationship with Scott Disick. Scott has not been there for Kourtney or the kids and instead likes to go out and party but Kourtney feels bad for him and keeps trying to keep him in the picture for the kids’ sake. It looks like finally she is willing to move on from him, but it took a very long time. Khloe has also had her fair share of drama, but not as bad as Kim and Kourtney. Khloe got married to former NBA player Lamar Odom after dating for one month. Who can know someone well enough to marry them after becoming friends with him or her after a month?

Brody Jenner has become annoyed with the Kardashians to the point where he wants nothing to do with them anymore. Brody is the son of Caitlyn Jenner (formerly known as Bruce). Yahoo is reporting that he is “distancing himself away from his famous step-siblings because he doesn't think it is "healthy" to be around them”. I find this interesting that the Kardashians even piss off other parts of their own FAMILY!!! Brody directly said, "I'm sick of the Kardashians' drama and I want to distance myself from the family”. I don’t blame him, who wants to be around a family that always causes drama and will do anything to get their name in the spotlight. I could also understand why he got very upset when his girlfriend Kaitlynn wasn’t invited to Kim and Kanye’s wedding. No wonder he boycotted the wedding after that decision. Apparently the family isn’t the only issue, he also went on to talk about how being on reality TV isn’t a normal way of life. Brody said,  "Growing up on reality TV isn't normal. I've grown out of it now and am quitting it for good. It's time to settle down and have kids and I can't wait." When Kris and Bruce, now known as Caitlyn, divorced that pretty much split up the families for Brody. People need to stop tying together the Kardashians and the Jenner’s because they technically don’t have a connection anymore.

The Kardashians need to take a look in a mirror because they are alienating people to the point where they want nothing to do with them anymore. They get bashed so much that instead of addressing it they just ignore their social media accounts and they ignore the reporters and the cameras. The only reason people follow them on social media and watch their TV show is to see what stupid crap they are going to get into so they can laugh at them. The same cycle keeps happening with them where one of the sisters has a child, another sister dates an athlete and then they break up and everyone goes crazy. The Kardashians need to be taken off the TV because no one gives a crap about them anymore! Here is a tip… stop putting every aspect of your lives on reality TV because there are way more important problems in the world that need solving before your dramas!!

I give credit to YAHOO for writing this story to show how the Kardashians are alienating people and that their reputation is not as good as they think it is. Also, this story proves that when you have such a sour reputation that you could even destroy relationships within your own  family.

Here is the link to read the whole story: 

http://news.yahoo.com/brody-jenner-sick-kardashian-clan-060000824.html;_ylt=A0LEVrx3ceBWGTgAgCsnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEzYWplMmczBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDRkZSVkJLXzEEc2VjA3Ny

Check out the rest of blog posts on behindthemicwithnickmorgasen.blogspot.com and check out my podcast on I-Tunes and YouTube as I have interviewed: Cesar Milan, Neil Sedaka, Adam Carolla, Linda Cohn and many more!!! 

Blake Shelton Buys his “Honey Bee” a New Horse

            Celebrity relationships are the hardest to figure out when it comes to how serious they actually are. The relationship between Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani has confused everybody from the start. People thought that Blake and Miranda Lambert would be together forever and that there was nothing to worry about, but typical celebrity drama kicked in causing them to split up. It was reported that Blake would “Drink on it” a little bit too much. Well, that was Blake’s way of having fun… do you think he let the booze get to his head to the point where he wasn’t completely in control of his actions? Celebrities love to have fun and sometimes they do at their own expense. This led to a typical celebrity divorce, which I feel we see on a regular basis because they rush into marriage and then they realize they aren’t right for each other. Everybody, including the tabloids, knew this would be a huge story when one of the biggest duos in Country music got divorced. They went from power couple, to power outage. Blake didn’t wait long as he met somebody on “The Voice” … “No Doubt” star Gwen Stefani. Gwen Became a judge on seasons 7 and 9 and sat next to Blake during the TV show. They must have developed a quick chemistry because while the Miranda Lambert drama was coming to and end it was reported that he was already with Gwen. All I could say at that point was wow…this guy works faster then anybody I’ve ever seen!!! Now that “GWAKE” has been together for months, there has been many rumors and speculation. First of all, I have never seen a couple so loving and affectionate for each other like Gwen and Blake. They are practically inseparable as they do everything together. I guess “GWAKE” is the new “BRANGELINA” of celebrity couples.      

            Now that I spoke about the background of this relationship between Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, there are some weird quirks. You know how in some relationships the guy will do everything in their power to win over the girl he is dating? Well, I think Blake might be doing that. Last month Blake bought Gwen and himself horses. I thought this was a little strange because it’s not every day that people go out and buy horses for their significant other. On the other hand, if you were doing it to show affection for your partner and their interests then it shows that you care and love that person. Blake explained why he bought the horses to ET’s Nancy O’Dell, "We got her a horse and I got myself a horse at the same time.  Gwen, she loves riding and she loves horses. It's actually so funny that people are so shocked by that, but if you can name me one girl on the planet that doesn't love horses or just think that they are beautiful..." I don’t see a problem with Blake buying the horse for Gwen as a loving gesture. Sometimes the media needs to realize that they over-accentuate stories and headlines and they try to start drama when the story is about something small and innocent.  The media should focus on stories that are more important in our community then trying to trash celebrities on stories that don’t need attention. How would the media members feel if people wrote stories about them that were over exaggerated??? They would get angry and frustrated because they would feel they are making big news out of nothing!!! The other issue is I think people are jealous of the celebrity status of Blake and Gwen so they will find any angle they can to insult and put down their reputations.

            In my opinion I feel their relationship is different and more legitimate… but anything could change at any moment. Blake was getting ready for the start of season 10 which kicked off Monday and NBC told him he needed to pick an advisor for the season. Blake called Gwen and this was the conversation they had, "I am like, 'Hey, you want to be my mentor this season?' She's like, 'Sure.' [I said,] 'OK, Gwen said she will do it." I feel we need to give this relationship some time and see where it goes. There have been rumors of a possible marriage and that Gwen is pregnant with twins. This has all happened so fast and we can’t assume anything until they both officially confirm it. 

            I give credit to Sophie Schillaci from Entertainment Weekly for writing an article on Blake buying Gwen a horse. This just shows how stupid the media can be sometimes when it comes to reporting news and what passes for high level entertainment these days. Just leave them alone and mind your own business. If you want to cover serious drama in the celebrity world that has real meaning, then go do that.

            Here is the article if you would like to read the whole thing:

            https://www.yahoo.com/tv/exclusive-blake-shelton-reveals-why-221300669.html

            Check out my podcast “Behind The Mic with Nick Morgasen” on I-Tunes and Youtube as there are some great guests I have had on including: Neil Sedaka, Cesar Millan, Jackie Mason, Todd Newton plus others and my most recent podcast that was just posted was with Linda Cohn of ESPN’s Sportscenter.  

“Tik Tok” Goes The Clock

         We all know that celebrities face many lawsuits all the time, but some situations are more serious then the public actually understands.  A few days ago it was announced that singer/performer Kesha is trying to get out of her contract with producer Dr. Luke because of alleged allegations of rape and abuse. People in the music industry are under a lot of pressure because they are held to the highest expectations possible. On the other hand, you’re only hearing one side of this story about Dr. Luke. You’re not hearing the other side of the story as to whether Kesha did anything to cause any problems in the first place. So the two sides went to court and Kesha was claiming that she was drugged and abused physically and mentally. Of course Dr. Luke is denying all claims (shocker). When you’re in a fight that involves personal issues and a lot of money these battles can get really ugly and can take a lot of evidence to prove what the actual truth is.

         Kesha is fighting to be released from her contract with Dr. Luke so she no longer has to put up with the alleged abuse.  I don’t see why this is an issue… if you are having personal problems then you should just both get out of the contract. Why would you want to work with somebody who treats you horribly physically and mentally? It would be really hard to work under those conditions. On the other hand, sometimes contracts are written so you can’t break the contract and if you try to it makes your situation much worse. In the end the judge ruled against Kesha and wouldn’t break the contract.  Kesha who has been fighting this issue for a while spoke out in August about her issues saying, “Dr. Luke has been tyrannical and abusive since our relationship began.” Kesha explained in the affidavit about going to a party with the producer when she was 18 and being given what he called a “sober pill.” “I had only had a few drinks but after I had taken this ‘sober pill’ I blacked out,” she said. “Then came Dr. Luke’s threats. I specifically remember him telling me that if I ever tried to get away from him for any reason that he would tie me up in litigation until my career was over.” No one should be treated this way regardless of how famous they are or not. Kesha ended up developing severe problems including suicidal thoughts and a major eating disorder. These are serious allegations and it is going to have to be looked at very seriously.

         There are always two sides to every case. Of course you’re going to have Dr. Luke defending his side now saying he didn’t do any of the alleged things that Kesha is accusing him of doing. We don’t know what to believe at this point in the case, but in December he made a strong statement saying, "All of the horrific allegations of abuse, threats and other purported misconduct by me against Kesha are completely untrue and deeply hurtful”. Also, his lawyers said, “he wants his name restored”. This is what you typically hear in a high profile case where the person accused comes out and takes a stand and wants their name cleared.

 Being in the music industry can be both a positive and negative experience. It can be great from the standpoint that you get all the positive media attention (your music becomes popular, your songs climb to the top of the charts, you sell lots of CD’s and you tour all over the world). The bad part is that your life becomes an open book to the public and the media can give you a bad reputation (if something happens and you get into a legal battle, your career and your life will become public to everybody).  Dr. Luke is now fighting back (with his lawyers from Sony Music) because with Kesha not recording, she is violating her agreement with the company. I know that business is business and everything doesn’t stop just for you, but when issues come up you need to fix them as quickly as possible so things can go back to “normal”.

         There is one famous celebrity who is coming to Kesha’s aid and that is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift agreed to donate $250,000 to help Kesha with her legal fees. I think that this is really nice of Swift to help out a fellow artist get through tough times. Apparently Demi Lovato had a problem with Taylor Swift by throwing nasty comments at her but they might have been misunderstood. So I guess the “Swifties” got to Demi about her comments and she clarified she was trying to raise awareness for women’s rights. Demi said, “As most people know, I tend to get fired up about the things I believe in, and although my heart and intentions are always in the right place, unfortunately sometimes my passion gets the best of me and causes me to say things that I probably shouldn't say. And when doing so it takes away from the real reason I am speaking up in the first place. Our focus should be on the topic of victims of sexual and physical abuse being afraid to come forward with their stories. They're more likely to face retaliation and harassment than to see justice being served. Especially women. It baffles me that when it comes to serious issues like equality and abuse, too often women are not taken as seriously as men. All I want to see is women coming together and actually making a difference. A real change and shift in society. Everyone has their own way of giving support to others, and at the end of the day, helping victims is all that matters. Ultimately, the message I want people to hear is it's okay to come forward with your abuse and if you do decide to take action, you are not alone." I think Demi is coming from a positive place and I think she meant well but sometimes, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”. Haven’t we heard that cliché over and over again? In the long run, Taylor and Demi are there to support Kesha and there are so many others that are stepping up to help. That is great to see the positive part of the music industry (being there for each other), trying to help her get her back to where she should be.

When something bad happens just pick yourself back up and work harder to accomplish what you want to do. Kesha, you need to keep making music, or else people are going to forget who you are. The last time you made an album was 2012… 4 years ago… this seems like an eternity in the music industry. According to lawyers for Dr. Luke and Sony they said, “she doesn’t have to work with him personally, though he has the rights to produce at least six songs on each of her albums and could pursue damages if he doesn’t.” We are all rooting for you Kesha (to get back to normal and produce music again), you deserve to be happy.

         I give credit to EW.com’s Eric Renner Brown, Jennifer Peltz from the Associated Press and popsugar.com’s Caitlin Hacker for talking about the issues in this story. They really showed you that even high profiled people in the music industry can face serious issues and they have to fight hard to get back their reputation and stay strong.

Here are the links to the three stories if you want even more analysis from their full points of view:

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/19/kesha-denied-preliminary-injunction-dr-luke

https://www.yahoo.com/music/kesha-goes-court-nyc-over-clash-producer-dr-190425278.html

http://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Demi-Lovato-Clarifies-Taylor-Swift-Comment-February-2016-40298058

         Check out my podcast, “Behind The Mic With Nick Morgasen” on I-Tunes and Youtube. There are some great interviews with: Adam Carolla, Jack Hanna, Cesar Millan, Jackie Mason, Neil Sedaka, Peter Noone and many more…   

    

50 Cent "Making it Rain"

Plenty of people face money problems everyday which affect the way they live. Sometimes people don’t realize how bad their situation really is!!! People do stupid things to the point where they make their situations a lot worse then they have to be. The biggest contributors to this problem are entertainers and athletes because they don’t know how to control their money and fame properly. You have to realize when you’re in a bad situation you need to stay out of the spotlight so you don’t bring more attention to yourself. Silence is more powerful then speaking your opinion.

            One guy that didn’t get the memo was 50 Cent. We all know that 50 has been facing bankruptcy issues for a while now, but I think it is about to bite him big time. For a guy that claims to have no money he loves to show off on social media that he has a lot of bills!!! Last time I checked, if you’re having money issues then maybe you should keep your escapades out of the news where people can blast you for it including the bankruptcy judge. Acting not so smartly, 50 posted some Instagram photos of himself with massive rolls of $100 dollar bills on his bed watching TV and him playing with money and ironically spelling out “BROKE” with the bills. This is a whole new level of stupidity for him and he isn’t going to win any sympathy from the judge in the case he is facing on money he owes to some important people. The Judge had a lot to say to 50 Cent’s attorney talking about the allegations saying, “I’m concerned about allegations of non-disclosure or a lack of transparency in the case." "There's a purpose of having a bankruptcy process be transparent, and part of that purpose is to inspire confidence in the process," the judge said, adding that bankruptcy court is where "an honest but unfortunate debtor can come into court and seek relief." Celebrities do stupid crap all the time and they don’t realize that the things they do harm their situation even more, making it impossible for them to solve their problems. Look at Kanye West, he is in 53 Million dollars of personal debt and asking for money from billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. He put out he was able to produce and release his new album which he keeps taking down from his website and music streaming services. When you owe money to banks, an electronic company and your former significant other, then maybe you shouldn’t be putting your personal business on social media. 50 cent also got caught posting pictures on Instagram of him doing a live performance that he probably made big bucks on. Also, 50 tweeted about his new house and he said, “My crib is almost finished in AFRICA. I'm gonna have the craziest House warming party ever”. This is definitely what he should NOT be doing right now… go figure!!!! 

            Celebrities feel they can do whatever they want and that they are invincible to the world when it comes to money and power. Also, they don’t think the laws apply to them when they do stupid crap. There are many celebrities who have gone bankrupt for stupid reasons. Burt Reynolds went nearly bankrupt because he massively overspent his money putting himself millions of dollars in debt. Toni Braxton filled for bankruptcy a few times after being 50 million dollars in debt AND STILL WENT OUT AND BOUGHT AN EXPENSIVE HOUSE!!! Even Pamela Anderson, who was too busy running slow motion on the beach, went bankrupt because she had so much work done on her body. I could keep going… but the stories of bankruptcy get even more disturbing then the ones I just listed. When you make deals with people YOU HAVE TO PAY THEM BACK!!!! When you earn money put it away and DON’T GO SPEND IT ALL AT ONCE!!! Also if you have filed for bankruptcy you can’t go on social media and MAKE IT RAIN WITH $100 BILLS!!!! In the long run it would just be smart to hold on to your money so when your career or 15 minutes of fame are over then you could live off the money. Wow, wouldn’t that be such a crime, saving your fortune that you earned from being famous so you don’t have to work anymore.

            I give credit to Jose Pagliery for exposing 50 cent and his money problems. He also showed how stupid celebrities really are when they are having legal problems and they can’t stay out of the spotlight for two seconds. One of the dangers of using social media. Pagliery showed that sometimes when you take to many risks it is eventually going to bite you in the ass. Also, I give credit to myfirstclasslife.com for exposing celebrities and their stupidity when it comes to their money and eventually losing it all. They actually show you how stupid you have to be to make the dumb ass decisions they make. In the long run, if these famous people didn’t have money problems, then the websites, blogs and tabloids wouldn’t have material to write about.

Here are the links to the full stories for Jose Pagliery and myfirstclasslife.com if you want to see more information on celebrity money issues:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/19/news/50-cent-bankruptcy-instagram/index.html

http://myfirstclasslife.com/20-celebrities-went-broke/?singlepage=1

Check out my podcast, “Behind The Mic with Nick Morgasen” on I-Tunes and Youtube as I’ve had the chance to interview many famous people including: Adam Carolla, Cesar Millan, Neil Sedaka, Jackie Mason, Jack Hanna, Peter Noone, Graham Russell and many others.

The Best Team Money Can Buy

The New York Yankees are the best team money can buy. Let me clarify that, I’m not saying they’re the best team lately… What I am saying is that they buy all their players instead of trying to make the team balanced. There are five players on the roster that have contracts that are 100 million dollars or more. Trust me the Yankees have plenty of money, but sometimes they complain about the worst problems and then they use their Yankee muscles to put a new policy in place.

Since the Yankees don’t make enough money on tickets they felt they had to screw a bunch of fans that can’t already afford tickets by making it impossible for them to buy tickets now. The Yankees announced on Wednesday that the fans could no longer print out their tickets from their house for the 2016 season. I understand what the Yankees are trying to do because they want to stop ticket fraud and stop people from being scammed out of their hard earned money. That argument is a good one, but there is another side of the argument everybody is missing. Could the Yankees be trying to remove the secondary market so people don’t go and buy premium tickets for a lot less on sites like StubHub and Ticketmaster? Yankees COO Lonn Trost was on WFAN Thursday echoing this sentiment giving his opinion on the issue by saying, “The problem below market at a certain point is that if you buy a ticket in a very premium location and pay a substantial amount of money. It's not that we don't want that fan to sell it, but that fan is sitting there having paid a substantial amount of money for a ticket and [another] fan picks it up for a buck-and-a-half and sits there, and it's frustrating to the purchaser of the full amount. And quite frankly, the fan may be someone who has never sat in a premium location. So that's a frustration to our existing fan base.” So let me get this straight… you’re trying to penalize the fans that manage to find a great deal over the fans that spent more money. If you really want to go to a big time event you need to figure how to get the best value for your buck. Are you going to spend five hundred dollars plus ridiculous fees the Yankees add on, or are you going to go to StubHub and buy tickets for two hundred dollars with practically no fees? It’s just the Yankees being the Yankees.

         One more important issue that the Yankees are forgetting about is getting the younger fans to the games. The average family of four can’t afford to go to a game anymore because of these tickets prices. Also, don’t forget that you can’t afford a bottle of water or food because everything is overpriced at Yankee Stadium. What is happening is that those families are staying home and watching the games on their HD TV’s in the comfort of their own home not fighting the elements. You’re alienating the fans and now they are going to go to fewer games because you are making it more difficult to purchase the tickets. I have one solution that could fix this issue… it is to LOWER THE PRICES!!!! If you made the tickets more affordable then people wouldn’t go to secondary markets. By the way, rather then come up with a solution lets just take it away and punish the fans. The Yankees like to make a statement when they make a decision and right now they are the only team deciding to go against Stubhub and Ticketmaster and make a scene.

         In the long run more people are watching baseball on their TV’s and if they are going to do stupid crap like this to piss off the fans then you might as well kiss the fans goodbye. If you have enough money to be the highest payroll in MLB and own your own network then you can afford to lower your ticket prices so fans can have a great experience. Fewer kids are able to go to games cause their parents can’t afford it and they have to say, “sorry kids we can’t afford to go let’s watch on TV instead”.

I give credit to Chris Cwik for writing this story about exposing the Yankees for being difficult and inconsiderate to fans. We need to get the message out that their other important things in life besides money. All the Yankees care about is money and not about the fans and this is why the Yankees are, “The Best Team Money Can Buy”.

Here is the link to Chris Cwik’s story:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/yankees-exec-gets-snobby-when-defending-new-ticket-policy-235122871.html

Check out my podcast, “Behind The Mic with Nick Morgasen” on I-Tunes and Youtube. There are some great interviews with: Adam Carolla, Tommy James, Cesar Millan, Jackie Mason and others!!!