Thursday, July 01, 1999
Blessid Union has fan in Cindy
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Well dang, looks as if Cincinnati's Blessid Union of Souls has turned supermodel Cindy Crawford into a fan — enough of one to write a fan letter.
And what a relief to lead singer Eliot Sloan.
The letter was about Blessid's rapidly climbing “Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me),” a song about an ordinary guy who's amazed a woman has fallen for him, even though he doesn't look like Leonardo DiCaprio or sing like Pavarotti and isn't cool like Cindy Crawford.
Except he uses phat — street slang for cool.
Then he worried about it: “I was hoping Cindy wouldn't misunderstand and think I was calling her fat,” Sloan said. (She's preggers and due any day now.)
But she understood perfectly and said so in her fan letter, “How could I be anything but flattered? I'm a big fan of your band — I was addicted to "I Believe' and the entire Home album. Thanks for calling me phat.”
Sloan's response? Whew.
He's now wondering if she might want to name the baby after him.
TAKE A RIDE: So why, you were wondering, is marketing exec Marilyn Hyland, driving around town with a van full of garbage? Real garbage and a real van (ie. the one she hauls her kids in).
Wellsir, says co-worker Fred Anderson, it's art.
Come again?
Seems Hyland developed an exhibit called Be a Waste Wizard — Earth Friendly Choices for Managing Our Garbage, an environmental number that focuses on recycling.
One of the pieces was the Great Wall of Garbage, a 10-foot archway visitors could walk through.
It was made of, you guessed it, more than 2,000 hunks of household trash — milk cartons, cans, bottles, papers, basic junk.
The exhibit ran six weeks in June at the Museum Center's Museum of Natural History, then moved to Washington Park School for a Greater Cincinnati Environmental Educators symposium.
Moved quickly, at that. So quickly that Hyland had to kick her four kids out of the van and move the Wall herself.
Which she did, though we understand the kids had to be awfully creative getting to all those practices kids go to.
The exhibit is off-display now, but Hyland is talking to several venues about a fall run.
SING: Oh, and can we have a round of applause here? Clap it, if you will, for songwriter, pianist, singer Paul Rogers.
Rogers leaves this weekend for Harrisburg, Pa., and the International Messianic Jewish Alliance conference, where he has been invited to sing and to present Praise Awaits You (QCA; $15,) his CD full of songs on traditional and not so traditional Judaic themes.
The July 4-7 conference is nothing if not diverse: 4,000 Christians, Jews, ministers, rabbis, priests and a heck of a lot of music lovers.
Hence, the afternoon concert and the invitation to bring a batch of CDs to sell afterward.
And also why he gets one of these: ClapClapClap.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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