Michael Jackson, who had gone into default on the $24.5 million Neverland ranch, transferred the deed to a company he partially controls Monday. The company, Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. LLC was a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC. What will become of the 2,500-acre property in Santa Barbara’s wine country? No one has said yet.
Recent photos show that the ranch is falling into disrepair. Jackson has not stayed there since he was acquitted of his 2003 charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. Ever since his arrest, Jackson’s financial status has begun to crumble, just like his abandoned zoo, ferris wheel, and roller coasters. Not to mention his dignity.
It was close for a seco… haha not even close at all. Ludacris said it best: “And all you other politicians tryin’ to hate on my man / Watch us win majority vote in every state on my man.”
The Stay hotel, newly carved out of the Cecil Hotel on Main Street between 6th and 7th, advertises using model-actors who are paid to hang out in glass-walled rooms. The 20-somethings stand in stark contrast to the rest of the area, well known for its low-income residents.
In fact The Cecil Hotel has served low-income residents for years, and advocates for the poor worry about where they will go if the neighborhood morphs into another glitzy, expensive tourist trap.
Advocates say they find it frustrating to see businesses once again catering to young, chic tourists rather than helping the down-and-out residents. But the man who created and runs the Stay, William Lanting, says the Stay will help create a “new neighborhood” he hopes will be more vibrant.
Either way, the Stay offers rooms for under $100 a night, shared room and bunk bed options, and even an Xbox game area. So for those of you who have always wanted to visit a poor neighborhood, but just couldn’t find suitable accommodations, the Stay’s got you covered.
I forgot to include this in my top whatever albums of 2008, but it deserves to be somewhere in my top 3 for the year. This album is perhaps the most mysteriously beautiful thing I have heard in a while. It starts off like a lullaby and progresses with each song. A woman’s eerie vocals can be heard by the second song, followed by a man singing a soft folk tune. The next few songs begin to sound like a strange and highly experimental Cocorosie, some building from a delicate piano to a creepy pyschedelic organ accompanied by dark vocals. Keep in mind this album is entirely in Finnish and the band is apparently Christian. I did not know this or anything about them upon purchasing the album, I simply liked the cover. I mean, look at it:
This album is weird, I will admit, but when searching for music I tend to stay away from painfully experimental music that I sometimes consider trash; this I might consider the strangest masterpiece I have heard in a while. The subtle piano, violins, and finnish humming/singing intertwined with the right amount of static, beats, and strange samples makes this album tastefully haunting.
