Jack White's fabulous rider

Jack White had a date booked at Oklahoma University. Have you ever wondered what sort of rider Jack might have?

Well, now we know. It even includes a guacamole recipe:

• 8 x large, ripe Haas avocados (cut in half the long way, remove the pit—SAVE THE PIT THOUGH--, and dice into large cubes with a butter knife. 3 or 4 slits down, 3 or 4 across. You’ll scoop out the chunks with a spoon, careful to main the avocado in fairly large chunks.)

• 4 x vine-ripened tomatoes (diced)

• ½ x yellow onion (finely chopped)

• 1 x full bunch cilantro (chopped)

• 4 x Serrano peppers (de-veined and chopped)

• 1 x lime

• Salt & pepper to taste

• Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, careful not to mush the avocados too much. We want it chunky. Once properly mixed and tested, add the pits into the guacamole and even out the top with a spoon or spatula. Add ½ lime to the top later so you cover move of the surface with the juice (The pits and lime will keep it from browning prematurely.) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until served. Please don’t make it too early before it’s served. We’d love to have it around 5 pm.

The thing about the pit in stopping the browning is rubbish; it's the foodie equivalent of 'using an old tape machine will capture the spirit of Hank Williams'.

There's more, though:

White ends the night with a New York strip steak, cooked medium, with steamed vegetables on the side and no sauce. “This should be made/picked up just before the show ends,” according to the contract.

Hospitality for the performance must be set up and ready to go prior to the tour group’s arrival, with the exception of alcohol and deli/cheese platters. Those can wait. It’s a different story for the 36 bottles of spring water, four bottles of fresh juice smoothies, 1 pound of “freshly sliced, high-quality prosciutto and aged salami with a sharp knife,” though—all for White’s dressing room.

Man, he eats a lot of meat.

So far, so amusing - if he came round here it'd be a tub of Sainsburys hummus and a choice of pepparamis. But perhaps the student paper which ran the story mocking the rider should have paid more attention to this bit:

No photos of White in or directly outside the venue, and any reporting of the event on social media sites are discouraged until “well after the performance is over.” This is because White and the crew like privacy.

Yeah, the guy just wanted to be left alone to eat all that meat (what is he, a werewolf?) in private.

The whole 'pointing at his demands and laughing thing' isn't going to go down well, is it? Either with some New York Strip Steak.

So it proved - White has now added 'little hissy fit' to 'Carey-style demands', and the agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, has put the OU on its blacklist:

The company said they won’t book anymore bands or other talents to come to OU because the article mocked Jack White and they don’t want any other artists treated that way, said Layne Ferguson, Campus Activities Council chairperson.

There's two things here - first, it was a little gentle ribbing (and we can only imagine how Jack likes his ribs) and perhaps he should be a little more resilient.

The second is the agency wants a change in policy at the OU to stop this ever happening again - but the policy of releasing documents like this, if asked to, isn't in the University's gift:

This policy refers to the Oklahoma Open Records Act, which requires any public entity of the state of Oklahoma, such as OU, to respond to request for records. OU must respond to requests for records involving the administration of public funds or transaction of public business, including budgets, faculty emails and other records.

So, it's actually a state law that public-funded bodies have to reveal details of business dealings.

Maybe they should think about suggesting artists stop making demands that make them sound like Little Lord Fauntleroy, rather than whining when people find out about it?

Polka News Network: Lips

Hello, if you're a young person joining us through the Facebook for the first time. We're grinding the terrible, out-of-touch, decision the Grammys organisers made in dumping polka from the awards in their faces.

(A moment's pause as the young persons joining us through Facebook scramble for the exit again.)

If you need further evidence of just how huge polka is, though, look no further than The University of Oklahoma's Academy Of Contemporary Music. For who should turn up there to play a polka masterclass than Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips:

When Steven Drozd was growing up, his father led a polka band called Vernon Drozd and the Texas Brass, which recorded several songs in the late 1960s. Sitting behind a drum kit, Steven Drozd pounded away to “Juarez, Mexico,” a 1969 recording by his father the younger Drozd had on his iPod Nano.

“I remember my dad bought me a little toy drum set when I was about 5, and I tore it up in just a couple of days,” Drozd said. “But I loved it, and I think my dad saw that and thought, ‘Maybe there’s something here.’”

In other words: banish polka, and you banish the whole world.

Flaming Lips flap flames

After Oklahoma voted against Do You Realize being adopted as state song because, in part, of the band's response to an earlier honour, presumably Wayne Coyne is making soothing noises to try and sort out a solution, right?

Right?

Oklahoma lawmakers who voted against making a Flaming Lips tune the official state rock song represent a minority of "small-minded religious wackos," the band's lead singer says.

Well... I suppose that's one approach to soothing things over.

The governor of the state has since stepped in, and used his powers to sign the song into Official status, thereby overriding the democratic decision of the senate. Remember how we used to love it when Bush did that sort of thing?

Lewd slips sinks Lips

Oklahoma were all about to adopt Do You Realize as the official state song.

Trouble is, some people carry grudges:

Republican Rep Mike Reynolds also spoke against the band, opting to diss the Lips because singer Wayne Coyne once dropped an F-bomb while expressing gratitude in 2007 for Oklahoma City naming an alley after the band.

“Their lips ought to be on fire,” Reynolds said.

Do you see what he did there?

They might have been able to get past the rudeness, but unfortunately Michael Ivins made the mistake of assuming it was the same year in Oklahoma as in the rest of the world:

A state representative took offense because Ivins wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a hammer and sickle – the longtime symbol for communist Russia when it headed up the now defunct Soviet Union – during the band's visit to the state capitol.

Republican state representative Corey Holland said he was bothered by the emblem,” reports The Oklahoman.

“I’m rising in opposition because of my disappointment in one of the band members’ decision to come in here wearing a communist T-shirt.”

In the end, the house voted against adopting the song as an official tune. Mainly because of a t-shirt.

In other business before the Oklahoma Senate on the same day, proposals to try and drag the state into the 21st Century were rejected by unanimous vote, while attempts to overturn the motion decrying electricity as "the clear and ill-intentioned work of a demon or demons unknown" lost by 49 votes.

State searches for a tune

Oklahoma is currently seeking an official state song through the always-prone-to-disaster medium of an online vote. This is shortlist:

“After Midnight” J. J. Cale

“Heartbreak Hotel” Mae Boren Axton

“Oklahoma” The Call

“Never Been to Spain” Hoyt Axton

“Move Along” All-American Rejects

“Home Sweet Oklahoma” Leon Russell

“Endless Oklahoma Sky” John Moreland and the Black Gold Band

“Walk Don’t Run” The Ventures

“Do You Realize?” Flaming Lips

“Let’s Have a Party” Wanda Jackson

The appearance of All American Rejects is surprising - you can see why a well-meaning judge might include something of the moment to prove 'down with kids'-ness, but surely not something of the moment from three years ago.

More surprising is the inclusion of Do You Realize - it's a wonderful, wonderful song, yes. But does Oklahoma really want itself represented in song as being similar to withdrawing from smack?

If you're thinking the title song from Oklahoma - the musical - might make a more appropriate state song, you'd be right. It's been enshrined in state legislation as such since 1953; but this search is specifically open to rock songs. Hence no Okie From Muskogee, either. Which is a pity:

MmmmmClot

Isaac Hanson, who with his brothers thingy and the other one Hanson were in the band Hanson, is currently not being in Hanson, as a "potentially life-threatening clot" has put him in hospital in Oklahoma. It's not known yet how serious his pulmonary embolism is; the band pulled their gig in Tulsa last night and, obviously the rest of the tour hangs on how Isaac does.