No. No. No. No.

Seriously?

From msn.com:

Did Mischa Barton beguile or bore James Blunt during a
recent tête-à-tête in the Hamptons? According to the New York Daily News, the statuesque starlet, 21, made a beeline for the "You're Beautiful" warbler, 33, at a James Taylor concert, leaning down to wrap her arms around him and exclaiming, "There he is!" The two gabbed and noshed, but as Barton yammered away, "Blunt became less and less enthused," according to the paper. The inexplicably seductive singer, who was once briefly linked to Lindsay Lohan, eventually moseyed over to chat with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen before returning to Mischa, whom he later accompanied to local club. But the actress ended up making an early exit, leaving Blunt to get his flirt on into the wee hours with "with blondes and brunettes alike."

Us Weekly, however, has a slightly different take on the evening. A source tells the mag that Blunt was "constantly hovering" around Barton, with another piping in, "He's obsessed with her and has been trying to get with her for a while." But he apparently doesn't measure up to the actress' oh-so-high boyfriend standards (her previous beaus include Cisco "Dangly Drawered" Adler and oily oil heir Brandon Davis). An insider tells the mag she "just wants to be friends."

Yes, I know. What's it to me? What it is to me is I can't stand the idea of James Blunt dating cause you know that's going to one day end up as little James Blunts toddling around all over the place, and I don't think we need any more of that do we?

No. And I told myself, almost as an unwritten rule for this blog that I'd ignore James Blunt and his...work cause it'd be too easy to make fun of him. But I can't help it, especially if he's hanging out with Lindsay Lohan or Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I really hope it was a slow news day in the newsroom and stuff had to be made up to fill inches cause it's just really sad when you're a sad songwriter sadly hanging out with girls 10 years younger than you.

Ryan Adams

Though I’ve never been one to like thrash metal, or even something as relatively tame in that genre like Metallica, I think my current taste in music is skewing, well, old.

Case in point, my latest musical love, Ryan Adams. Upon my first listen to his latest CD, Easy Tiger, I am instantly taken with his voice, but a nagging voice inside my head says “Doesn’t he sound a lot like Jackson Browne too?” That can’t be right. Jackson Browne is music fit for my father. To add insult to injury, my iTunes software gently mocks me, revealing that it has decided to categorize Easy Tiger as….country.

Though, yes he produced an album for Willie Nelson, George Jones he isn’t. He once sang in his old band, Whiskeytown that he decided to sing country cause it was easier on him than singing punk. One of his more famous songs is a cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” Please don’t confuse him with that Canadian light-rocker either. I’ve only listened to this album twice now (I just bought it this weekend) but Ryan Adams seems more like had he been born 20 years earlier, he would have been right at home on stage for The Last Waltz with The Band, not quite kicking it up at the Grand Ol’ Opry. But his sound is definitely more rootsy than twangy and his singing voice is quite lovely, too, a tenor voice that easily stretches into falsetto when he wants.

I remember rumblings about Ryan Adams from when I was in university. He was, at one point, named The Person Who Will Save Rock and Roll. Only 32, he has put out a whole mess of albums since he was 16 -- some people in fact deliberately using the word mess to describe some of his past efforts.

True to form with those rockers marked for greatness, or at least cult status, Adams is not without his problems. Reportedly he is as mercurial in nature as his music – one never knows if they paid good money to watch him walk off the stage three songs in because he is unhappy with something about his performance, or the venue, or the fans. But in recent interviews, he claims all of that is behind him now. He is ready to play to his fans and work for his record label.

Only time is going to tell whether that is really the case. People who have been rock music fans for years can certainly say they’ve heard that one before from some other voice of a generation that imploded too soon. In any case, I’m looking forward to looking into his back catalog to see what other treasures I can find.