Cool Hexdrix Kicks Conversely Honor Hindu Culture

Converse is longer selling a pair of Chuck Taylors that depicted guitar legend Jimi Hendrix as a colorful, multi-armed Hindu deity.

The company says the shoe--a part of a fall collection in memory of Hendrix--will no longer be sold because it offends Hindu culture.

The Hindu and the Times of India reported on the story today, quoting Hindu leaders who complained to the company.

"When I heard about these shoes, my immediate concern was to express my own feelings and request for action and also indicate that many other Hindus also would feel as I did. I am sure other Hindus did likewise," said Beth Kulkarni.

She wrote a letter to the Converse, explaining that the shoes would be offensive to Hindus worldwide and requesting they be removed from the market. According to Kulkarni, the company replied by email:

Converse designed the Converse Chuck Taylor Jimi Hendrix/Axis shoe to demonstrate our support of music culture and to celebrate the contributions of the global music icon, Jimi Hendri. With approval of the Hendrix estate, we applied artwork taken directly from the 1967 Axis: Bold as Love album cover. The cover art included images of Hindu deities. Our ambitions were to honor the music of Jimi Hendrix. It was not our intent to offend Hindu culture by having Hindu deities on footwear.

The shoes are no longer available on the Converse website or Zappos, although the other two in the collection, one inspired by a military-style jacket Hendrix wore and the other with an image of Hendrix in orange, are still for sale.

Lone Star Guitar

Guitar World magazine has compiled a list of the Top 10 Star Guitars You Wish You Owned. Topping the list is Stevie Ray Vaughan's battered Fender Number-One Stratocaster. It's followed by:

• Jimmy Page's double neck Gibson SG
• Rick Nielsen's Hamer five-neck
• Eric Clapton's Blackie Strat
• Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat
• Ace Frehely's smoking Les Paul
• Dimebag Darrell's ML Dean
• Brian May's homemade Red Special
• Peter Frampton's custom three-pickup Les Paul
• Jimi Hendrix's 1968 Stratocaste

Pam Anderson; "Regrets... I Have a Pair."

PAM ANDERSON IS BACK IN THE NEWS -- SHE'S DOING AN INTERNATIONAL TOUR FOR PLAYBOY, AND NOW SAYS SHE REGRETS EVER DOING ANY NUDE MODELING -- SHE SAID IT ON A TV SHOW IN ROMANIA -- ACCORDING TO PAM "MY CHILDREN ARE MADE FUN OF BECAUSE I'VE POSED NAKED. WHEN YOU POSE, YOU'RE NOT THINKING THAT ONE DAY YOU'LL HAVE CHILDREN WHO'LL SEE IT"

-- PAM ALSO SAYS THAT HER TWO SONS (AGES 14 AND 13) ARE CONSTANTLY TEASED ABOUT HER SEX TAPE (WHICH, APPARENTLY, IS REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ALL THEIR BUDDIES) -- MEANWHILE, TOMMY LEE IS JUST GLAD THEIR KIDS ARE BOYS -- HE SAYS "IF WE HAD DAUGHTERS, A FEW YEARS FROM NOW, THOSE GIRLS MIGHT BE FOLLOWING IN THEIR MOM'S FOOTSTEPS"...

Welcome to Bear Week

Video of a Chicago fan passed out at last week's Bear vs. Cowboy match-up at "Jerry World" in Dallas.
Did he get the last laugh? Yes.
Did he miss the first 1000 - Absolutely!
GO PACK!

Number One Vision

Freddie Mercury has been voted the Greatest Rock Legend of All Time in a poll conducted by OnePoll.com. Mercury topped a list that included Elvis Presley at number-two, David Bowie at number-three, Jon Bon Jovi at number- four and Jimi Hendrix at number-five.

1. Freddie Mercury
2. Elvis Presley
3. David Bowie
4. Jon Bon Jovi
5. Jimi Hendrix
6. Ozzy Osbourne
7. Kurt Cobain
8. Slash
9. Bono
10. Mick Jagger
11. Axl Rose
12. Steven Tyler
13. Jim Morrison
14. Paul McCartney
15. Dave Grohl
16. Robert Plant
17. Jimmy Page
18. Bruce Dickinson
19. Brian May
20. James Hetfield

Can you say, Armegeddon II"...? Steven Can.

"Brand Tyler" seems to be in full effect or special effect in this case.

Aerosmith may or may not be on the rocks but Steven Tyler is not retreating. Tyler’s plan to be an American Idol judge is all but confirmed and now Blabbermouth.net reports the rock legend has penned a ballad, ‘Love Lives,’ for the upcoming Japanese movie ‘Space Battleship Yamato.’ An acoustic, a piano and an instrumental version of ‘Love Lives’ will be released on November 24. Space Battleship Yamato stars Takuya Kimura and Meisa Kuroki and opens in Japan on December 1.

Also, is Steven Tyler getting his own website? Check out StevenTyler.com

R.I.P. Simple Man

Leonard Skinner, the high school gym teacher who inspired the band name Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at age 77 in a Riverside, Florida nursing home.

Skinner, born Forby Leonard Skinner, never intended to become a piece of rock-and-roll history. He was simply enforcing a dress code at Robert E. Lee High School in the late 1960s when he fatefully sent a few teenagers to the principal's office for violating new rules about hair length. "The hair had to be two fingers above the eyebrows, couldn't touch the collar," Skinner explained in an interview several years ago. "One of the ones I sent down was in this band ... called the One Percent," he recalled, referring to the band that would later become Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Though he claimed to dislike rock music, Skinner gave the band permission to use a snapshot of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign on the inside album artwork for their 1975 LP "Nuthin' Fancy." Because his real work phone number was included on the placard, he wound up fielding many calls from curious fans over the years.