If you’re one of those people who seem to be taken by surprise every holiday season, then yes, it’s time to start Christmas shopping! I know, I know. Labor Day is still on the tips of our tongues and you haven’t even thought about the kids Halloween costume yet. It may feel too early, but unless you’re expecting some type of financial windfall between now and December, it’s definitely time to start Christmas planning! With just over 100 days until Christmas, it’s time to start your preparation for the holiday season. The reality is that when you’re not prepared, you make what could be and should be an amazing time of year far too stressful. Far too many of us become overwhelmed by trivial things; From the decorations most people won’t even pay attention to, to what to buy co-workers we barely like, we spend money we don’t truly have because of both commercial and self-induced pressures. Getting into the holiday spirit doesn’t have to break the bank. You can do it by simply asking yourself these questions to ensure you are stress-free and financially ready for this holiday season. What did I spend last year? The best indication of what your holiday spending may be this year is determined by what you spent last year. Check last year’s bank statements or gather every last receipt for each purchase you made or expense you incurred during the holiday season (November 20th – December 31st). Include everything from gifts to additional food, wrapping paper and decorations. Tally it up and add at least $100 for all the small things we know you’re going to forget. This number represents what you need to save over the next few months. Where will my holiday money come from? Based on your findings, create a holiday fund. Divide the total dollar amount of what you need to save by the number of paychecks you plan on receiving between now and Christmas. Begin stashing money away in a separate account as soon as you possibly can. If you don’t trust yourself, utilize online banks like ING Direct . They typically takes 48 hours to transfer funds, so that should help you think twice before spending your holiday fund on anything not holiday related. 3.What’s in my spending plan? Categorize every holiday-related expense imaginable. Write down how much you anticipate spending on each. Add everything up. If it exceeds the budget, prioritize and adjust your list accordingly. Remember everything is negotiable. Don’t feel pressured to go beyond your means. READ MORE The Frugalista Files [BOOK REVIEW] 10 Ways To Avoid Overdraft Fees
A bunch of uptight, bible-belt-y moms have decided to wage war against the good folks at ABC for allowing Chaz Bono to appear on “Dancing With The Stars” with a female partner. These mothers and general LGBT haters feel like watching Chaz on DWTS would be traumatizing to children. They also feel like this is just another attempt to the LGBT lifestyle onto people who think its wrong. But our question is: how would your child know that Chaz Bono wasn’t born a man unless you told him or her? And for the kids who are big enough to know, don’t they kind of already know what’s up?
With Nevermind anniversary weeks away, music’s biggest bands reflect on the other indispensible albums from a great year for rock. By James Montgomery My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless Photo: Sire On September 24, Nirvana’s epochal Nevermind album turns 20, a milestone that will be marked with much coverage, celebration and consternation in the media … not to mention a sundry of other events, including a high-profile benefit concert at Seattle’s Experience Music Project and a Jon Stewart-hosted Q&A with Nirvana’s surviving members. And understandably so. After all, Nevermind was a game-changer in every sense of the term — the kind of album that brought about seismic shifts in music, fashion and culture in general, one that defined a generation and, as such, deserves to be mythologized. And, in the coming weeks, we suspect you’ll see no shortage of stories that do just that. And while Nevermind casts an indelibly lengthy shadow, it bears mention that there was no shortage of other magical, massive and equally mythological albums that hit stores in 1991 … ones that, had Nirvana never broken through, would probably be getting the royal treatment right now. In 1991, rock truly rocked, so, in celebration of that fact, we’ve asked some of today’s biggest bands to discuss their favorite albums from that rather amazing year. Don’t worry, we’ll give Nevermind its due … but right now, we’re paying tribute to 1991’s other indispensible albums, in the words of their biggest fans. Dinosaur Jr., Green Mind Sludgy, somnambulant fourth album from Amherst, Massachusetts’ premier purveyors of bad-posture rock, Green Mind represents Dino Jr. at a great divide: Not only is it their first album without original member Lou Barlow, it’s also their first for major label Sire Records. Still, neither of those factors managed to sap its power, as mastermind J Mascis shouldered the load (it’s basically a solo album) on tracks like the squalling “The Wagon” and the roiling “Puke & Cry.” Of course, the band would later reconcile, but Green Mind still stands as a high-water mark, one that, from its iconic cover image to its shambolic moments of pure grandiosity, still stands the test of time. As remembered by Mark Hoppus, Blink-182 : “I got it when it came out and I just loved it, from the second that I listened to it. And I remember going to watch them at the Hollywood Palladium, and I think, actually, Nirvana opened that show maybe, or maybe not. [ Editor’s note: Nirvana did, in fact, open for Dino Jr. at the Palladium in June 1991. ] But they played the Palladium, and it was the loudest show that I’d ever been to and my ears rang for three days afterwards and I was deathly afraid that I’d permanently ruined my hearing, which I probably did, but it was well worth it.” My Bloody Valentine, Loveless The rare album that can be summarized entirely by its cover, MBV’s Loveless is 48-odd minutes of guitars slowly corroding, collapsing and combusting into a gloriously woozy, decidedly pink hue. Then again, you should probably listen to it, if only to marvel at the sheer size of the thing: an epic sonic collage that echoes for days, full of ringing, winging chords, ruddy drum loops and ethereal, barely there vocals. It sounded like nothing else at the time and, really, that’s still true today. Recorded in 19 different studios over the course of two years, it brought the band and its label, Creation, to the brink and was so huge an endeavor (in every regard) that, 20 years later, MBV have yet to record the follow-up. But that hasn’t stopped an entire generation of musicians from taking cues from Kevin Shields’ masterful din, most notably, the rather tricky art of learning how not to play guitar. As remembered by Brian Oblivion, Cults : “In the same vein as Nevermind, Loveless is another game-changing album. There’s that clich
“My wife [Luciana]‘s nickname for me is ‘Red Alert,’” he says with a laugh. “I sometimes check to see if the kids are breathing.” When it comes to parenting Stella, 10 months, Gia, 3, Isabella, 5, and Alexia, 12, “I tend be a little overprotective without trying to be a helicopter parent,” Damon explains. Being a father has turned Matt Damon into a cautious man. “I’m probably more protective than I’ve ever been now that I have children,” the actor, 40, told reporters Saturday at the press jun
Don’t pray for lighter burdens, pray for a stronger back. – Anon Growth often requires you to embrace pain and use it as fuel for your journey. The fool sheds tears over his scars. The wise turns wounds into wisdom. Adversity may be tough but it will groom you for success.
US Banks take in over $38 billion in overdraft fees, which equate to more than 75% of the fees they charge on consumer deposits period. With the economy so tight these days, do you really have additional money to throw out the window? As I often remind my clients, banks are not charities; they will capitalize off of you as much as you allow them to. Sure it’s highway robbery to be charged an average of $35 for taking a quick swipe at McDonald’s, but the bottom line is if you didn’t have the money in your account, it’s your fault. Banks don’t care if the kids where whining about a happy meal. Your negligence just cost the family $35 for a toy that costs $0.035 cents (yes, less than a nickel) to produce. If this happens to you a couple times a month, we’re talking about nearly $1000 a year that could go towards paying down debt, building up emergency savings or even college and retirement planning. So, here are a few ways to avoid those pesky overdraft fees. • Keep your Register Updated . Simply put, if you don’t know how much money is in your checking account right now, then you are at risk of overdrawing your account. Many people falsely believe that keeping a check register in their head is a good idea. It’s inevitable that you will forget something. Instead, make it a habit by entering each check or debit card purchase as it is made. Set aside time when you get home to check your receipts and balance your register. Do this every time you spend, and soon it will be second nature. • Don’t Forget ATM Withdrawals . One of the easiest ways to lose track of your money is to forget to record cash you withdraw from an ATM. It happens to people all the time – they forget to record the withdrawal and when the bank statement comes they find out they have hundreds of dollars less than they thought. Nip this potential problem in the bud by always getting an ATM receipt. Place the receipt in a safe place. When you get home refer to the receipt to enter the withdrawal into your register. • Remember to Record Automatic Payments. Having your utility or insurance company automatically take payments out of your checking account can be very convenient. Overdrawing your account because you forgot to record an automatic payment is unquestionably inconvenient. READ MORE Birdman: Birdbrain Or Businessman? Are You Suffering From “Frugal Fatigue?”
Attention since ‘Drop a Body’ video ‘is crazy,’ Joe tells MTV News. By Steven Roberts Fat Joe Photo: MTV News Fat Joe ‘s video for “Drop a Body” was filled with volcanic eruptions, lightning and a mountain of dead bodies, but when the video dropped in June, Joe’s appearance overshadowed all of that. A considerably slimmer Joe stood atop said mountain, raising eyebrows and the clip’s number YouTube views. Joe said he was just as shocked by people’s reactions to his weight loss, because he was just trying to save his life. “I’m not trying to impress nobody or nothing like that,” Joe told MTV News. “I’m just trying to get healthy so I can be here for my family and take care of my kids and live the life that was intended for me to live, so it was crazy when I started getting all this attention. Two weeks from now, CNN is coming to my house, Sanjay Gupta, a big special, and all this attention is crazy.” Joe said he was 360 pounds when he started losing weight, and after finding himself at much-more-manageable 260 pounds a year later, he still wasn’t satisfied. Initially, he wanted to lose weight because in the past year, several of his friends have lost their lives due to their weight. Joe recalled attending one of his friends’ funerals and seeing himself in that position. He knew then it was time to make a change. “I went to my friend’s funeral in the Bronx, and he was just the funniest, coolest dude on earth,” Joe recalled. “He’s got a daughter, she’s the same age as my daughter, and it just felt like I was there, and I could just see my family in the funeral and I was like, ‘Damn, he left his daughter, and she’s only 5,’ ” he explained. “That was the wake-up call. Then I just jumped on that treadmill and started eating right. It’s not rocket science: It’s the same thing they keep telling you to do, you actually just have to do it.” Joe said he always asked God why he continued to bless him, despite his past and him not being a perfect person. And then he realized his weight-loss battle might be his calling. He hopes that he can inspire others to do the same. “One of my boys lives in Detroit, he said he came out his building, he got two dudes that been the fattest dudes on the block forever, they have weights outside and was running around the block, and he was like, ‘Yo, what’s up?’ and they were like, ‘We on that Fat Joe wave!’ ” Related Artists Fat Joe
Attention since ‘Drop a Body’ video ‘is crazy,’ Joe tells MTV News. By Steven Roberts Fat Joe Photo: MTV News Fat Joe ‘s video for “Drop a Body” was filled with volcanic eruptions, lightning and a mountain of dead bodies, but when the video dropped in June, Joe’s appearance overshadowed all of that. A considerably slimmer Joe stood atop said mountain, raising eyebrows and the clip’s number YouTube views. Joe said he was just as shocked by people’s reactions to his weight loss, because he was just trying to save his life. “I’m not trying to impress nobody or nothing like that,” Joe told MTV News. “I’m just trying to get healthy so I can be here for my family and take care of my kids and live the life that was intended for me to live, so it was crazy when I started getting all this attention. Two weeks from now, CNN is coming to my house, Sanjay Gupta, a big special, and all this attention is crazy.” Joe said he was 360 pounds when he started losing weight, and after finding himself at much-more-manageable 260 pounds a year later, he still wasn’t satisfied. Initially, he wanted to lose weight because in the past year, several of his friends have lost their lives due to their weight. Joe recalled attending one of his friends’ funerals and seeing himself in that position. He knew then it was time to make a change. “I went to my friend’s funeral in the Bronx, and he was just the funniest, coolest dude on earth,” Joe recalled. “He’s got a daughter, she’s the same age as my daughter, and it just felt like I was there, and I could just see my family in the funeral and I was like, ‘Damn, he left his daughter, and she’s only 5,’ ” he explained. “That was the wake-up call. Then I just jumped on that treadmill and started eating right. It’s not rocket science: It’s the same thing they keep telling you to do, you actually just have to do it.” Joe said he always asked God why he continued to bless him, despite his past and him not being a perfect person. And then he realized his weight-loss battle might be his calling. He hopes that he can inspire others to do the same. “One of my boys lives in Detroit, he said he came out his building, he got two dudes that been the fattest dudes on the block forever, they have weights outside and was running around the block, and he was like, ‘Yo, what’s up?’ and they were like, ‘We on that Fat Joe wave!’ ” Related Artists Fat Joe
Her 8-year-old son, James Wilkie, wants to be an actor, and he’s eager to start auditioning. But don’t get too excited, she isn’t sure when it will happen. Sarah Jessica Parker was interviewed for this Sunday’s PARADE magazine and the actress opened up about her home life and the future of “Sex and the City”. Check out some of the interview below: Her 8-year-old son, James Wilkie, wants to be an actor, and he’s eager to start auditioning. “I don’t want him to do it until after he goes to college: But part of me thinks maybe it’s better if he knows the truth now about how hard it is to be a working actor. I don’t know that he grasps what it took to get us here.” Parker acknowledges that her childhood left her with money anxieties and that she’s eager to capitalize on her earning power. “I have a lot of responsibilities outside myself. I have a large family. I want to know I can always be helpful. I guess I worry.” On tying with Angelina Jolie for the top spot on Forbes’ list of highest-earning actresses. “Where do they get these numbers? I didn’t plot a future like this, although I know some people do. When Matthew and I started working, all we knew is that we wanted to be great actors. I don’t think I ever thought about money or that people would know my name. I loooove the work! When I was a little girl getting free lunches in Cincinnati, could I imagine being on a list in Forbes magazine?” On the difficulty of balancing career and motherhood. “We’ve had two occasions recently where both Matthew and I were working, and it was so hard on the kids. Especially James Wilkie, because he can really articulate how he feels about our absence. On the other hand, there are big chunks of time when we’re home a lot more than conventionally working parents. So you hope to make up for it.” On fraternal twins Loretta and Tabitha. “They’re talking, they’re running, they need me. Loretta is deeply inquisitive: ‘Do you see that, do you hear that, Mama?’ She constantly checks that we are connecting with her.” Her sister is the family princess: “Tabitha does not give; she receives.” Babysitters? Yes. Live-in help? Not for them. “We love closing the door and having the only people in the house be our three children and us. It’s such a good feeling to know that we’re competent and capable and that it’s private.” On the things Broderick has helped her appreciate after nearly 20 years together. Baseball, Parmesan cheese, color (“Matthew’s mother was a painter, and he taught me to love colors and break all the rules”). She also says that “he’s given me a little cynicism,” noting that she used to take the world at face value but that her husband is more skeptical. “I’m less Pollyanna now. That’s probably healthy.” For her part, Parker has shared her love of ballet, and, she says, “I make him [get out and] do things. We go to the theater and we travel because I plan it.” Any chance for a third Sex and the City movie? “There is. I know what the story is. It’s a small story, but I think it should be told. The question is, what’s the right time to tell it?” There you have it folks. A lot of people were not happy with “Sex And The City 2,” with the money they could make off a third movie it seems like a given it will happen, but do you think it’s a mistake? What would you want to see happen in “Sex And The City 3″???
We drop in on the band during rehearsals at the iconic Forum and see parallels between the two, in Bigger Than the Sound. By James Montgomery The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis Photo: MTV News The Forum — the slightly decrepit, strangely Roman arena on the corner of Manchester and Prairie in Inglewood, California — first opened its doors on December 30, 1967, and has, in the years that followed, played host to both the “Showtime” Lakers and the Gretzky Kings, not to mention just about every L.A.-area concert you’ve ever heard of, or were too drunk to remember. Parts of Led Zeppelin’s live How the West Was Won were recorded here, as were live albums by Cream, Steppenwolf, the Bee Gees and P-Funk, to name just a few. Over the course of its existence, it’s been known alternately as “the Fabulous Forum,” “the Los Angeles Forum” (even though it’s in Inglewood) and, in a move of corporate branding so subtle most locals didn’t know the difference, “the Great Western Forum.” Now, it’s mostly just an oval located in the center of an asphalt ocean in a less-than-desirable part of town. The Lakers and the Kings bolted for the shiny new Staples Center in 1999, and the live shows dried up soon after. A church owned it until last year and now people just jog around it. It is a fate unbecoming of such a legendary venue, really — a slow decline into obsolescence and calisthenics — and yet, this is how these things tend to go. Michael Balzary and Anthony Kiedis — the slightly graying yet strangely sculpted half of the Red Hot Chili Peppers — first opened their doors (or, you know, were born) on October 16 and November 1, 1962, respectively, and have, in the years that followed, arisen from the L.A. punk scene to achieve the kind of heights few in the music business can dare dream of: 65 million albums sold worldwide, nine Hot 100 singles in the U.S., and seven Grammy Awards, to name just a few. Over the course of their existence, the pair have been known as Flea and, well, Anthony (or maybe Sir Psycho Sexy). They have recorded some of the most celebrated albums of both the alt-rock heyday — namely, Mother’s Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, — and the uncertain times that followed (1999’s Californication ), and they most certainly do calisthenics. And yes, you can probably see where I’m going with this. Because it’s not exactly difficult to draw parallels between the three entities: The Forum, a grandiose (and somewhat gaudy) monument to ’60s idealism and the excesses that followed, Flea and Kiedis the poster children for the decay that set in once that idealism gave way to cold hard fact, when those excesses devolved into plain old addictions. All three grew preternaturally old beneath the hazy sunshine of Southern California, and all three proudly wear the scars that came with that aging. They have each witnessed incredible highs and crushing lows, triumphs and tragedies, and they are all still standing. And because of that, both the arena and the Chili Peppers, which Flea and Kiedis formed in the obtuse shadow of the arena back in 1983, have become Los Angeles icons, the kind with pock marks on their faces and dirt beneath their fingernails; the real kind. In fact, about the only difference between the Forum and the Peppers seems to be that the latter is still fully operational. Other than that, they belong to each other. And yet, it is perhaps due to nothing more than grand cosmic coincidence that the Peppers have chosen the Forum as the rehearsal spot for their upcoming world tour, a very big endeavor in support of their very big I’m With You, the first new Chili Peppers record in more than five years. Or at least that’s what they told me on Wednesday when I stopped by to host the premiere of their brand-new “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” video. “We just got the call to show up to the Forum for rehearsal and were like, ‘Yes, that’s a good place to do it!’ ” Kiedis said. “They needed space to goof around with our stage and our lights … [but] I was warming up in one of the cavernous bowels of this beautiful institution, and I looked up and there was a great old photograph of [former Lakers’ guard] Nick Van Exel, charging me with the ball, number nine, looking me down, big head, big heart, big eyes … remember the time he got the ref?” Of course, I got the feeling, based on the second part of that statement, that it wasn’t mere coincidence that brought the Chili Peppers to the Forum, nor was it a love of Lakers ball (though, to be fair, Flea did point out that “This building is the home of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Byron Scott, Norm Nixon [and] many, many Bob McAdoos”). Instead, it was something much bigger; a love for the old building, or even a sense of purpose. After all, the Forum was where they learned how to be musicians, much like the long lost Club Lingerie, the punk spot operated by the late Brendan Mullen, who is eulogized on I’m With You ‘s “Brendan’s Death Song.” It is where they underwent several passages of manhood. In a way, they grew up here. “The second rock show I ever saw here was with [Anthony],” Flea laughed, peering up at the vaulted ceiling. “We came in here to see the Who, we snuck in, and we snuck in to see Queen here, too.” “We used to not have any money was the thing, but we wanted to go to the shows,” Kiedis smiled. “So we’d get right up to where they let you in at the turnstile, and we’d get down and go [through], and if they’d catch us, God bless ’em. But they never could.” So, in a sense, without the Forum, there probably would be no Red Hot Chili Peppers. Which is why they treat the place with such reverence, why, during rehearsals, they joined drummer Chad Smith and new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer to tear through old songs with a fury usually reserved for the actual live shows. It was almost as if they were paying tribute to the old ghosts that haunt the twisting corridors, or, more probably, to the bands that have brought the roof down over the past four-plus decades. It was an amazing thing to watch, and I couldn’t think of a more fitting setting. After all, the Forum and the Red Hot Chili Peppers share a bond much stronger than you could possibly imagine. They are both survivors. And to witness the band still operating at their peak, nearly 28 years after they first began, well, it somehow fills you with hope for the venerable old venue too. After all, the Forum deserves a comeback too, or at least a better fate than folks jogging around its perimeter. And maybe, in some small way, the Chili Peppers’ rehearsals — buoyant, fun, funky and, most important of all, loud — can help breathe new life into the old place, to lift it up and set it back on its feet. You get the feeling Flea and Kiedis feel a sense of duty to at least try. After all, it’s the least they could do. Related Videos MTV First: Red Hot Chili Peppers Related Artists Red Hot Chili Peppers
