Life's So Beautiful

Archive for the ‘Amazing & Wacky Things’ Category

Yuto Miyazawa is a 10 year old Japanese child prodigy who has shaken rock and metal music lovers around the world.  He was born on February 21, 2000 in Tokyo, Japan and currently lives there with his parents. In August 2008, he was named “The Youngest Professional Guitarist” by Guinness Book of World Records.

Child prodigy Yuto Miyazawa

Yuto Miyazawa has been playing guitar since the very tender age of three. Although he has had a few guitar lessons, the bulk of his expertise comes from truly wanting to play…all the time. Commonly, if he is’nt in school, he has a guitar in his hands. That love of guitar is quickly making Yuto the internet’s latest sensation, as his videos rack up views on YouTube and Vimeo, and his name is scattered across hundreds of forums and blogs. Yuto’s influences are  apparent, as he is often seen playing his official Randy Rhoads edition polka-dot Gibson Flying V guitar, which dwarfs him. Along with Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads, Yuto is influenced by Eric Clapton, KISS and Metallica. His extraordinary talent started him on the road to fame in Japan a couple of years ago.  But it was his appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show  in May 2009 that catapulted him to international fame. He stunned the audience with his performance of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” After the show, Ozzy Osbourne came on stage to give words of encouragement and awarded him a plaque framed in gold.

Since his discovery, Miyazawa has performed with numerous music legends over the past year including Ozzy Osbourne, G.E. Smith, Galactic, Les Paul and Deep Banana Blackout. He has appeared at Madison Square Garden, the famous B. B. King’s, Chris Noth and Steve Walter’s The Cutting Room, and Rodeo Bar in New York City. Yuto appeared on stage at Live BlizzCon 2009 with Ozzy Osbourne to play “Crazy Train” as the first encore performance.

In 2010, Yuto came back on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and played “ Paranoid.”

An amazing kid!

The internet is inundated with claims that that there will be “two moons” in the sky tonight as Mars will grow to the size of the Full Moon. Is there any truth to such claims?

In a hoax dating to 2003 and the great Mars opposition of that year when Mars made its closest approach to Earth in about 60,000 years in August, the claim wasn’t true then and sure isn’t true now. Yes, while Mars got brighter that year, it didn’t even get as bright as Venus.

Don't be duped by the 2 moons rumor.

The Mars/Moon hoax came back into the forefront when Mars came to a far less spectacular opposition this January and, now that it’s August, it is resurfacing again.

The August 27 2010 two moons is a rumor spread through emails. The story behind the rumor is that in August 2003 Mars came so close to our earth that it appeared on the sky like another moon. Since then these emails are spread by the people in every August. The event that took place seven years ago shall not take place this year so there would not be two moons 2010.

Don’t be duped, ok?

Well I’ll be damned! And Adolf Hitler is probably turning over in his grave with the latest revelation that DNA tests have proven that Hitler had African and Jewish ancestors. Hitler was responsible for the slaughter of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

Adolf Hitler

Hitler’s heritage has been called into question before, with some suggesting his grandfather was Jewish. But this is the first claim with any scientific data to support it.

The tests were conducted by Jean-Paul Mulders, a Belgian journalist, and Marc Vermeeren, a historian. The pair tracked down 39 of Hitler’s living relatives throughout Europe and America to obtain saliva samples which ultimately suggest African and Jewish ancestry. The relatives included an Austrian farmer, identified only as a cousin named “Norbert H.”

A chromosome called “Haplogroup E1b1b” or Y-DNA was discovered in his relatives’ saliva samples, which is very rare in Germany, but it is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.

Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.

Russia possesses artifacts from Hitler that would contain his DNA, and that researchers could end the speculation if they were allowed to test those items.

Many victims of Hitler’s Holocaust, like Anne Frank, were Ashkenazi.  Anne Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary “The Diary of A Young Girl” which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Her diary has sold over 31 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages, making it one of the most popular books ever.

Anne Frank

Diary of Anne Frank

The enigmatic “U Smile 800% Slower” has become a sensation on the web. “U Smile,” the second single from Justin Bieber’s new album, was slowed down 800 percent and uploaded to the web by Nick Pittsinger, a 20-year-old aspiring music producer in Florida. The song’s trippy atmospherics have attracted more than 1.7 million plays online. You can listen to the 35-minute “U Smile 800% Slower” here.

Justin Bieber

“U Smile 800% Slower” is eight times as long as the original four-minute pop song , turning the high-pitched bleats of the pubescent signer into primal howls and cries that seem to linger forever.  The song is reminiscent of late ’90s work from Icelandic singer Bjork, with Biebert’s voice heavily deconstructed and eerily intimate. This YouTube video is a watered-down version of the “U Smile 800% Slower”.

Compare this with the original “U Smile” which sounds much less memorable.

The Bilderberg Group has come under fresh and timely attention after Fidel Castro released an article warning the world about the power and influence that the group now has. It is alleged that the group has become a kind of global government, controlling not only international politics and economics, but even culture. It is rumored that a number of famous individuals including the Clintons are a part of the group.

Castro quoted almost verbatim what Daniel Estulin said in his 2006 book, “The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club.” Castro drew attention to Bilderberg’s plan to “install a world government that knows no borders and is not accountable to anyone but its own self”. Castro’s decision to put the spotlight on Bilderberg, knowing that the international media would take the bait, produced a familiar outcome, with the corporate press repeating Bilderberg’s talking point that it represents nothing more than a casual get-together and has no power to set policy. It has sparked a fresh round of international media coverage some four months after the Bilderbergers last met in Spain.

The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club by Daniel Estulin

The ultra-secret Bilderberg Group is a meeting of a hundred or so of the world’s most powerful people, including heads of state, prime ministers and even royalty. Incredibly, the fate of the world is decided at these annual meetings that are strictly off-limits to all the rest of us. However, there is one big thorn in their side – Daniel Estulin. He has been infiltrating their mysterious meetings for a number of years and uncovering their plans. For instance, in 2005 he predicted that oil would hit $150 a barrel – it hit $147. In 2006 he predicted the crash of the US economy, a truth that we all know so well. In 2008 he announced that the Bilderbergs had decided that Obama would win the race for president.

According to some sources, the group decides on a set of standards or morals that they will govern with, and then each member is responsible for keeping those morals alive in the areas that they have control over. Alex Jones has been leading the resistance against the Bilderberg group, but the fact of the matter is not everyone is even aware that the group exists. It is scary that a group that could potentially have so much power is so unknown to most people.

Crusading filmmaker Alex Jones

This is part of a global awakening to the new world order in which millions of people around the globe are finally discovering where the true power lies and why the world is being driven headlong towards serfdom and dictatorship,

In reality, Bilderberg attendees are mandated to implement decisions that are formulated during the annual conference of power brokers. As Willy Claes, former Secretary General of NATO revealed during a Belgian radio interview, members are required by Bilderberg to set the agreed upon policy within the environments they have influence over. This is why when a consensus is reached on certain issues at Bilderberg, such as the Euro single currency, the invasion of Iraq, and which politicians will run for major offices, it routinely then plays out in the real world.

Bilderberg is now an open conspiracy, with the agenda for world government an undeniable reality and no longer the fodder for sophomoric jibes about conspiracy theories.

Two key Bilderberg films that contributed to this unraveling of Bilderberg’s cloak of secrecy were crusading filmmakerAlex Jones’ Endgame and The Obama Deception. In Endgame, Alex Jones draws attention to the 2006 Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa Canada, garnering front page coverage in major newspapers as for the first time Bilderberg’s efforts to preserve their low profile agenda were blown wide open. For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world’s population, while enabling the “elites” to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, Endgame reveals their secret plan for humanity’s extermination. Jones tracks the history of the global elite’s bloody rise to power and exposes how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest wars—creating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world’s agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.

Watch Endgame in full below.

With the majority of Americans under the notion that Obama was a populist man of the people who would enact real change, Alex Jones in his movie The Obama Deception exposes how Obama was personally chosen over Hillary Clinton at the 2008 Bilderberg meeting by Bilderberg luminaries and how Obama is in actual fact a compliant servant for the Bilderberg globalists who he answers to, people like Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Watch The Obama Deception in full below.

Now that you have watched the two videos, it is up to you to decide whether these videos are just some amateur conspiracy videos found on YouTube or is Alex Jones really on to something so huge that it is mind-blowing? A lot of people are now convinced that the latter is the case and that these two movies have truly exposed the Bilderberg conspiracy. If that is the truth, it’s scary!

It is the time of the year when superstitions reign supreme for a lot of Chinese people. We are right now in the midst of the Hungry Ghost Month which runs from August 10 to September 7 this year, with the Hungry Ghost Festival  or zh?ng yuán jié falling on August 24.

The fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Festival and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the netherworld, wandering in search for food. On Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.

On Ghost Day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mache form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living. Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from Ghost Festival because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the former only includes older generations. Other festivities may include releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.

Chinese celebrate this festival in order to remember their dead family members and pay tribute to them. They also feel that offering food to the deceased appeases them and wards off bad luck. It’s important to give them a sumptuous feast, to please them and to bring luck to the family. Taoists and Buddhists perform ceremonies on this day to ease the sufferings of the deceased. Chinese perform these rituals due to fear that the revengeful spirit may come back to take revenge. Some even think that the ghosts would seek revenge on those who had wronged them in their lives.

Offerings during a Hungry Ghost Festival

There is also the belief that some entertainment be provided to please those wandering ghosts. The Ghost Festival in Singapore and Malaysia is modernized by the ‘concert-like’ live night performances on outdoor stages in some neighborhood. The live show is popularly known as “ge-tai”, performed by a group of singers, dancers and entertainers.  Nowadays performances by young girls wearing trendy revealing attire have become very popular. The festival is funded by the residents of each individual residential districts. Karaoke too can be heard and funny Mandarin or Hokkien pantomime is played to the delights of the older generations. Many chairs are lay in front of the stage where the first rows are reserved for the souls of the dead.

Audience at a Hungry Ghost Festival getai show..the first row of seats are reserved for visitors from the netherworld

A scantily-dressed performer at a Hungry Ghost Festival show in Malaysia

The Chinese also do a lot of offerings to the deceased. These offerings are made by burning fake money notes, known as hell money, and even paper television sets, houses and cars to give to their dead relatives. The Chinese feel that these offerings reach the ghosts and help them live comfortably in their world.  Some Chinese even burn paper hand phones, computers and other modern gadgets but there are some Chinese who shy away from burning such modern gadgets as they fear that their dead ancestors may not know how to use these gadgets and would therefore “drag” them to the other world so that they can teach their dead ancestors how to use the gadgets.

Almost as important as honoring your ancestors, offerings to ghosts without families must be made, so that they will not cause you any harm. Ghost month is the most dangerous time of the year, and malevolent spirits are on the look out to capture souls.

Going swimming during the Ghost Month is considered bad as an evil ghost may cause you to drown.This makes ghost month a bad time to do activities such as evening strolls, traveling, picnics, moving house, or starting a new business. No late night are tolerated during the seventh month. Most mums or grandmothers nag for all to be home before midnight. In addition to this, children are also advised to return home early and not to wander around alone at night. This belief is due to the reason that the wandering ghosts might possess children. And during the seventh month, if any death is reported it will be pointed out that, it is due to disobedience. Do not step on the burnt incense papers, you could be possessed. Weddings and business launches are not held as it may bring bad luck. Whistling should be avoided as it may draw souls to one’s home.

The last day of the Ghost Month is when the Gates of Hell are closed up again. The chants of Taoist priests inform the spirits that it’s time to return, and as they are confined once again to the underworld, they let out an unearthly wail of lament.  To make sure all the hungry ghosts find their way back to hell, people flow water lanterns and set them outside their houses. These lanterns are made by setting a lotus flower-shaped lantern on a paper boat. The lanterns are used to direct the ghosts back to the underworld, and when they go out, it symbolizes that they have found their way back.

When it comes to memorable goal celebrations, Roger Milla’s corner flag hip-shaking immediately comes to mind. But the effort from Icelandic side Stjarnan blows Roger’s feat out of the water. Taken hook, line and sinker – there’s no doubt that this is the best goal celebration we’ve ever seen.

During a match between Stjarnan and Fylkir in Iceland at the end of last month, the goal celebration after a game-winning kick ended up being better than the actual winning goal. After striker Halldor Orri Bjornsson scored on a penalty kick in extra time to take a 2-1 lead, he pulled out an imaginary fishing rod and casted his line out.  Then he proceeded to reel in a huge catch – defender Johann Laxdal. Displaying wonderful technique the ‘catch’ flapped his way across the turf and was hauled up by Bjornsson and a number of his team mates. The players then posed with their big catch for a photo take.

Millions have watched the YouTube video of the Icelandic “The Angler” goal celebration and the Stjarnan FC has achieved a newfound stardom. But the club now admits that they are now under pressure to make fans laugh.  They have to keep trying to stay fresh and brainstorm for more novel goal celebration routines. It was hard to do better than “The Angler” but since then the team has come up with “The Bicycle” and “The Birth”.  “The Angler” was the brainchild of Bjornsson who thought that one up when he was on a fishing trip with his father. Watch the video and be amused  at the Icelanders’ fishing routine.

The bar has now been set very high just before the start of the new season for professional footballers everywhere.  No longer will the one arm held aloft, or shirt over head routines suffice. Creativity is the name of the game now and it will be hard to beat this elaborate Icelandic fishy routine.

Kudos to the club for taking the art of goal celebration to a whole new level.

Jackie Evancho

Jackie Evancho, a cute 10-year-old young blond girl from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, gave an amazing performance on America’s Got Talent, singing the aria “O Mio Babbino Caro” (Oh my dear papa) from the opera Gianni Schicchi. The judges loved her and she got a standing ovation. Jackie said that she wanted to prove to America that the best things come in small packages. And she has done just that!

I am a fan of  Charlotte Church and watching Jackie Evancho sing immediately reminds me of Charlotte Church. Jackie said that she started singing when she was  eight years old. Seriously, this little girl has immense talent.

The August 10 show featured acts that auditioned on You Tube for the opportunity to perform on the America’s Got Talent show with a chance to advance to the semi-finals. In fact, Jackie was the contestant who actually received the most votes on the You Tube competition, winning a trip to Orlando for her family. She was truly the gem of the show.

She may look like an average kid, but she has an amazing set of pipes. She is one of those weird children who sound like they’re 40 years old. Watching Jackie sing felt surreal. How could such an amazing, deep opera voice come out of a 10-year-old.

Will she win America’s Got Talent? Is she the next Charlotte Church? Hmmm….I think she’s got a good chance.  Enjoy her rendition of “O Mio Babbino Caro.”

MU wins the Community Shield

Did you read the CNN news “United defeat Chelsea in season opener“? Oh my, I am really shocked…. CNN really goofed badly in the report! I reproduce below the first part of the CNN report:

Manchester United got their revenge on double winners Chelsea with a thrilling 3-1 victory in Sunday’s Community Shield, the traditional opener to the English Premier League season.

United only had the League Cup to show for their efforts last season and had to watch as Chelsea plundered the Premier League and FA Cup to secure the first ‘double’ in their history.

But Carlo Ancelotti’s side have had a series of poor results in pre-season and United were full value for their victory on a warm afternoon at Wembley.

United took the lead five minutes before half time when man-of-the-match Paul Scholes played a superb diagonal ball to Wayne Rooney on the right.

The England striker saw Antonio Valencia running into space in the center and he found his teammate with a perfect ball — the unmarked Colombian doing the rest by firing past goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

First of all, Antonio Valencia is not Colombian but Ecuadorian.  And if Antonio Valencia had fired past Edwin van der Sar, it would have been an own goal! The Chelsea goalkeeper is Henrique Hilario, NOT Edwin van der Sar. Edwin is the Manchester United goalkeeper. I still find it hard to believe CNN can goof up so badly!

I have printed a screen shot of the CNN report in case CNN discovered their errors and have made amendments to it.  Just click on the screen shot:

CNN Goofed

Oh my, what a joke!

Tomorrow will see former first daughter Chelsea Clinton tying the knots with investment banker Marc Mezvinsky. For the past couple of weeks, US media hype over the nuptials is verging on hysteria. America being America, the internet has been abuzz with questions and rumors about Chelsea’s upcoming nuptials, a ceremony that is shaping up to be a potent combination of D.C. power and Hollywood glitz.

Chelsea Clinton with Marc Mezvinsky

Who’s this lucky groom Marc Mezvinsky? He is a 32-year old Goldman Sachs banker and has known Chelsea since their teens. The two first met as teenagers in Hilton Head, S.C., during a Renaissance Weekend, the annual intellectual and spiritual fest popularized by the Clintons. Both attended Stanford University, though their romance did not bloom until a few years ago. And both know firsthand the price of political loss and scandal.  Chelsea is an only child, but Marc is one of 11, some adopted. Mezvinsky is Jewish and Clinton is Christian. Stolberg said it’s likely both a minister and a rabbi will preside at the nuptials, but it’s unlikely Chelsea will convert to Judaism after the marriage.

Mezvinsky’s mother, former Representative Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania, is a one-time television journalist who was elected in 1992 on President Clinton’s coattails. She lost her seat two years later after voting for the president’s budget.  She currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where her spring 2010 course offerings included “Dealing With the Media.” She is divorced from the bridegroom’s father, former Representative Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa.

Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky

Ed Mezvinsky’s nickname among pool reporters in the 1970s was “Fast Talkin’ Eddie.” The former star athlete turned politician spent four years in the U.S. House of Representatives before going into business for himself, hatching a string of fraudulent activity the FBI later said infiltratated nearly every one of his business deals between 1980 and 2000. After pleading guilty to 31 of 69 charges of bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud in 2001, Mezvinsky went on to serve federal prison time and was released April 11, 2008. He is now living in western New York, and working as a health advocate for low-income people and refugees.

Ed Mezvinsky

Americans are eternally fascinated with presidential children, and perhaps none more so than Chelsea, who arrived at the White House as a gawky 12-year-old with frizzy hair and braces, and grew up before the nation’s eyes, under a cone of silence that she has broken only rarely, to campaign for her mother, for instance, when Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the presidency was in jeopardy. Today, she is a chic strawberry-blonde, with experience working at a hedge fund, a deep interest in public policy and, as of January, a master’s degree from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Yet for Americans of a certain age, the enduring image of Chelsea Clinton is that of the 18-year-old college girl walking on the White House lawn, her back to the camera, holding one hand of each parent — literally the glue binding her family together after her father’s painful confession of marital infidelities. Even then, she seemed to exude a combination of dignity and distance.

Chelsea holding one hand of each parent after her father's confession of marital infidelilities

Always extremely private, Chelsea Clinton was 12 years old when her family moved into the White House. When Bill Clinton was revealed to have been unfaithful, it was Chelsea who seemed to keep the family together. A doting father, Bill Clinton once postponed an overseas presidential trip to help her study for exams.

Asked why there is such fascination with Chelsea’s wedding, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times told Today: “We don’t have royalty in this country. We’re particularly fascinated with Chelsea, because she was such a gawky teenager. She grew up obviously into a lovely young woman.”

Because the Clintons are keeping even the most mundane details of their daughter’s wedding private, the whole affair has been shrouded in secrecy. However, within the tight-knit circle of New York wedding coordinators, some tidbits are beginning to leak.

While the public has demonstrated a voracious appetite for details about the wedding, no factor has gotten more attention than its projected cost. It is rumored that the lavish wedding will cost anywhere between $2 to $5 million. As far as recent presidential weddings go, Chelsea Clinton’s will take the cake.

It is now almost certain that the wedding will take place at Astor Courts, the former 50-acre estate of John Jacob Astor IV in the picturesque town of Rhinebeck, N.Y. The Astor Courts is a 13,000-foot Beaux Arts pavilion built between 1902 and 1904 for John Jacob Astor IV and designed by Stanford White to evoke the Grand Trianon at Versailles.The mansion boasts an indoor tennis court and white marble swimming pool. The property is now owned by Kathleen Hammer, a contributor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential and Senate bids.

Astor Courts

Inside the mansion

The postcard-pretty Rhinebeck, a little town of upscale boutiques and pricey homes 90 miles north of New York City, has witnessed an avalanche of security personnel, reporters and rubber-neckers. Signs congratulating the 30-year-old former first daughter are posted on shop windows in the Hudson Valley town.  Rhinebeck, population less than 8,000, is laying out the welcome mat.

Rhinebeck at dusk

Best wishes from the residents of Rhinebeck

“It’s like having the Olympics in your town,” exclaimed Alex Batkin, manager of the up-market Wing and Clover arts-and-craft boutique. Batkin’s store revealed at least one success: a painting bought as a gift for the betrothed. The picture is emblazoned “Chelsea and Marc” over a naive-style depiction of a wedding cake surrounded by trees, squirrels and a fish-filled river.

Painting by Diana Huff depicting Chelsea Clinton's wedding in Rhinebeck

Another entrepreneur seeking wedding joy is Rhinebeck Deli, where the menu features the Hillary Clinton-themed “Secretary of Steak.”

Even the Hudson Valley Renegades, a minor league baseball team, wants to get in on the act. Their mascot, a man dressed as a raccoon, stood at Rhinebeck’s main crossroads Tuesday with a sign reading: “Chelsea Will U Marry Me?” Locals and bemused tourists grinned at the sight.

Mascot of the Hudson Valley Renegades getting in on the act

The wedding planner is Bryan Rafanelli of Boston, who has worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton and produced inaugural balls for Mr. Obama. Rafanelli’s reputation for orchestrating sumptuous parties has won him high-profile admirers from Boston to Washington to Palm Beach.

Bryan Rafanelli

“Bryan is the Chanel of party-planning,’’ says Boston socialite Lisa Pierpont, a friend and occasional client of Rafanelli’s. “He can talk to the prince and the pauper, and he has an impeccable eye. When people hear it’s a Rafanelli event, it’s like, ‘OK, we’re going.’ ’’

The wedding gown, expected to cost about $25,000, will either be a creation by Oscar de la Renta or Vera Wang.  The New York Times is certain it will be de la Renta.  But a lot are now saying it will be a Vera Wang.

Vera Wang

Some of Vera Wang's creations

Oscar de la Renta

Some of Oscar de la Renta's wedding gowns

Both Boston-based Winston Flowers and Four Seasons George V Hotel’s artistic director Jeff Leatham will be handling the flowers. The flowers alone could cost $250,000.

Jeff Leatham

Jeff Leatham's floral arrangement

A stylish floral arrangement by Winston Flowers

The catering job will be shared by Blue Ribbon Restaurants, St. Regis Hotels and Resorts, and Olivier Cheng Catering and Events. Chelsea is a vegan. The food will include vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes, but there will also be grass-fed organic beef on the menu. It’ll reportedly be gluten-free complete with a vegan wedding cake.

A creation by Olivier Cheng Catering And Events

Jimmy Vali, whose Web site boasts that his clients include Glenn Close, is coordinating the music.

Jimmy Vali

Unlike everyone else on the planet, Chelsea Clinton’s wedding guests won’t need gas masks to do their business in a porta-potty — because Bill’s daughter is renting the swankiest outhouses in town. The portable latrines have actual porcelain toilets, stereo music and hot running water — oh yeah, and they’re HUGE. Rental for these porta-potties is estimated to be $15,000.

A luxury porta-potty trailer

Interior of Porta-Potties Trailer

Americans are also intrigued about who are included in the ultra-exclusive guest list. With the invite list limited to 500 names, Chelsea has apparently instituted a strict no-strangers policy: She must personally know every invitee. It’s an intimate gathering for a family that knows the most famous people in nearly every walk of life on the planet.

Knowing the former president or the secretary of state isn’t good enough to get in. To make the cut, guests must have had a personal connection to Chelsea, 30, and her groom, 32, and not just to her famous parents.

President Obama — Hillary Clinton’s boss — is on the list, but the White House says he won’t go. It is rumored that the Obamas were invited but declined, in an effort to help keep the press corps from swamping the proceedings. But don’t count them out.  Though the public has been led to believe that the President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama won’t be attending, security plans are still being developed for such a possibility.

The big question: Will the Obamas be attending the wedding?

Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, and Ted Turner are among the 500 guests. Also attending will be various members of the Clinton “inner circle,” including former British Prime Minister John Major, former deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Democratic donor Denise Rich.

As secretary of state, the mother of the bride, or MOTB, as she has taken to referring to herself, is accustomed to keeping secrets, and this one is no different.

In an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell in Pakistan, Hillary Clinton said, “My lips are sealed. I am under very strict orders not to talk about it, and I think for the right reasons, because it is hers, and it is a family wedding. The people coming are her friends and people who have been meaningful in her life, as it should be.”

When CNN’s Crowley asked her which was harder — negotiating Middle East peace or planning this wedding — Hillary replied with a smile, “Well, I’d probably call it a draw.”

Former President Bill Clinton, the father of the bride, had previously told TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager that his role is to pay for the wedding. At Chelsea’s request, he’s taken off 15 pounds so he looks his best walking her down the aisle.

Chelsea Clinton with her parents

Stolberg said the mother of the bride has been minutely involved in Chelsea’s wedding.

“She’s been absolutely hands-on. She’s been viewing flower arrangements by e-mail. She said that she’s been squeezing in tastings and dress selections. She’s obviously very excited about this, as is her husband,” Stolberg said.

Is Bill helping mastermind the nuptials? Yes, to a limited degree. Though he had said that his role was limited to walking Chelsea down the aisle and paying the bills, he told NBC that his daughter had opted to tap his world-leader expertise: “Chelsea has been good enough to include me in the decisions…so I love that.” Still, Bill is making sure to keep the focus on the bride. “I am going to try not to cry because this isn’t about me, it’s about her. And if I am crying then it becomes partly about me and I don’t even want to be mentioned in the story except that I didn’t stumble walking down the aisle. So I am going to try but I may not be able to do it,” he said at June’s Fortune/Time/CNN global forum.

“My daughter is happy. I like and admire my future son-in-law, so I couldn’t be happier about it,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley in a January interview when asked about what he thought of his future son-in-law.

Should any wedding, even a Clinton wedding, really cost that much? Between the $15,000 deluxe portable toilets, several hundred thousand dollars worth of flowers, glass-walled tents, and premium security the bill for the nuptials is being estimated at between $2 and $5 million. Should we expect no less for the daughter of political royalty?