Posts Tagged ‘united states’
January 25th, 2010
Original Article from Rolling Stone
Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the two biggest players in the $4.4 billion worldwide concert business, received U.S. Department of Justice approval Monday for a merger that is likely to affect every live-music fan, artist, agent, manager and promoter. In a statement, Ticketmaster’s chief executive, Eagles manager Irving Azoff, called the decision “a great win for fans,” but some in the business fear the companies’ combined power will make it difficult for outsiders to promote shows and sell tickets. “It’s disappointing to me. It’s just another step in eliminating competition,” says Buck Williams, a Nashville agent who represents R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. “They’ve pulled the rug out from under the entrepreneurs, to some degree.”
The new Live Nation Entertainment, which will begin merging its operations as early as Wednesday, will own a huge chunk of the business: Ticketmaster’s Front Line management company represents the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Christina Aguilera and many other artists, while Live Nation’s exclusive clients include Madonna and Jay-Z; Ticketmaster has exclusive ticketing deals with most of the major U.S. arenas, while Live Nation owns and operates 140 top venues overall, including most of the amphitheatres; and, of course, Ticketmaster sells some 140 million tickets a year.
These combined assets make reps for some music stars optimistic. “My hope and belief is that there is going to be an expanded opportunity for touring artists to [experiment with] a variety of different products,” says Jim Guerinot, manager of No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails and others. “And I look forward to trying those things.”
Azoff and Live Nation’s CEO, Michael Rapino, spent much of 2009 arguing the merged company would have the clout and flexibility to fix the “broken” concert business. The new Live Nation Entertainment, they said, would have the power and flexibility to cut costs, make more money from the lucrative resale market and ultimately reduce ticket prices and service fees. In one of the first major antitrust decisions during the Obama Administration, the Justice Department agreed — to a point. Before approving the merger, U.S. attorneys forced Ticketmaster to license its software to top competitor AEG Live and forbade the merged company from retaliating against any concert venue that uses a non-Ticketmaster ticketing outlet.
The agreement “promotes robust competition for primary ticketing services and preserves incentives for competitors to innovate and discount, which will benefit consumers,” said Christine Varney, an assistant attorney in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, in a statement. (Executives for Live Nation and Ticketmaster were unavailable for interviews. Several of the new companies top competitors refused comment or didn’t return phone calls. AEG reps would only give a statement saying its Justice Department deal “will foster our ability to compete effectively in the ticketing, venue operation and live event promotion businesses.”)
Will the merger lower ticket prices, as Azoff and Rapino insist? It’s too early to say, but several artist reps were skeptical. “I don’t think prices are going to come down,” says Tom Windish, a Chicago agent who represents Animal Collective, Hot Chip, the Knife and dozens of other top indie artists. “I don’t think it’s going to change that much. I don’t see Live Nation getting less money, I don’t see artists getting less money and I don’t see Ticketmaster charging a surcharge that’s lower than [what] they can possibly get. If anything, it’ll be higher.”
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January 19th, 2010
Original Article from New to TV
White Collar will return from its break on a new night tonight on USA at 10 p.m.
In the new episode since the cliffhanger, 1.8 “Hard Sell,” Neal (Matthew Bomer) must infiltrate a company of corrupt Wall Street brokers to preserve his deal with the FBI. When Peter (Tim DeKay) is forced to go undercover alongside him, a discovery is made that could change their partnership forever.
Post from: New to TV
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December 31st, 2009
Original Article from PopCrunch
Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking music video horror flick has been immortalized among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. Jackson’s 1983 short movie “Thriller,” featuring an unforgettable graveyard dance that helped revolutionize music videos, will live on in the U.S. National Film Registry.
The 14-minute “Thriller” video is among 25 films the Library of Congress added to the registry on Wednesday. It is the first music video included in the 2009 list of cultural treasures that will be preserved for all time.
“Because of the way the recording industry is evolving and changing, we thought it would be good to go back to the developmentof an earlier seismic shift, which was the development of the music video,” says Steve Leggett, coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board.
Joining the King of Pop in the 2009 class are The Muppets, who have earned acclaim for their 1979 film The Muppet Movie — which featured the big screen debut of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
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December 31st, 2009
Original Article from PopCrunch
Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking music video horror flick has been immortalized among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. Jackson’s 1983 short movie “Thriller,” featuring an unforgettable graveyard dance that helped revolutionize music videos, will live on in the U.S. National Film Registry.
The 14-minute “Thriller” video is among 25 films the Library of Congress added to the registry on Wednesday. It is the first music video included in the 2009 list of cultural treasures that will be preserved for all time.
“Because of the way the recording industry is evolving and changing, we thought it would be good to go back to the developmentof an earlier seismic shift, which was the development of the music video,” says Steve Leggett, coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board.
Joining the King of Pop in the 2009 class are The Muppets, who have earned acclaim for their 1979 film The Muppet Movie — which featured the big screen debut of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
Read more articles from PopCrunch
December 8th, 2009
Original Article from Rolling Stone
Next year is shaping up to be a busy one for three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Eric Clapton: In addition to a trio of concerts with fellow Yardbird Jeff Beck, Clapton has also announced plans to embark on his own trek starting in February 2010. Following the jaunt across the U.S., Clapton will once again team up with his Blind Faith cohort Steve Winwood for a joint tour of Europe starting in May 2010.
Check out photos from Clapton and Winwood’s ‘09 tour opener.
Clapton has yet to reveal who will comprise his touring band or what aspect of his acclaimed musical catalog he’ll focus on for his U.S. tour, but the Cream guitarist did reveal that the Who’s Roger Daltrey will be “on the bill to kick off the show.” As Rolling Stone< previously reported, Daltrey will also perform in front of hundreds of millions when the Who serve as this year’s Super Bowl halftime performers.
Clapton’s concerts with Beck actually take place between the opening dates of his own solo tour, so maybe, fingers crossed, Beck will join Clapton’s touring band full time. Throw in Daltrey’s involvement and that’s the makings of a pretty kick-ass supergroup. We’re just saying…
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck
February 18 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
February 21 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Center
February 22 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Center
Eric Clapton
Feb. 15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mellon Arena
Feb. 27 – Nashville, TN @ Sommett Center
Feb. 28 – Birmingham, AL @ Birmingham Jefferson
Mar. 2 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK
Mar. 3 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
Mar. 5 – Memphis, TN @ FedEx Forum
Mar. 6 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Arena
Mar. 8 – Raleigh, NC @ RBC Center
Mar. 9 – Atlanta, GA @ Gwinnett Center
Mar. 11 – Ft. Lauderdale Bank Atlantic Center
Mar. 13 – Orlando, FL @ Amway Arena
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December 5th, 2009
Original Article from The Hollywood Gossip
Note to Miley Cyrus: you’ve showed signs of maturity these days, deleting your Twitter account and trying to keep your private life to yourself.
But you’re still 17 years old.
That was the same reaction a bouncer had when Miley’s posse showed at the 21-and-over Club LIV at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.
The establishment’s manager and owner both confirmed to TMZ that Cyrus was turned away at the door. She likely tried to argue that she once dated a guy over 21, but illegal sex with Justin Gaston doesn’t make one of legal drinking age.
Sorry, Miles.
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December 3rd, 2009
Original Article from Rolling Stone
Photograph by Jordan Corey courtesy of Kiss108.com
Last night in Boston, at a venue traditionally reserved for Broadway shows like The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, Lady Gaga opened the American leg of her highly anticipated The Monster Ball tour. The choice of locale couldn’t have been arbitrary. Throughout the evening, Gaga — a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta, a.k.a. Tinker Bell (more on this later) — aimed for a kind of pop theatricality that might potentially cement her burgeoning status as “performance artist.”
The pre-show scene outside Citi Performing Arts Center was all blonde-wig-wearing Lady Gaga imitators, face glitter, oversized shades, and the occasional light-up replica of that “disco stick” scepter featured in Gaga’s “LoveGame” video. Inside, the same crowd looked out of place amongst the venue’s marble columns, wide staircases and elegant opera house chandeliers.
At 9:15, following sets by Semi Precious Weapons and Kid Cudi, Gaga took the stage behind a giant, black-and-green scrim and proclaimed, “I’m a free bitch, baby” — the first of several moments during her performance that gave parents in the audience consternation. (Latter instances included crotch-grabbing during “Teeth,” a simulated three-way during “Alejandro,” and Gaga smoking a cigarette on stage between songs.)
Soon, the scrim — which resembled an electric math grid — lifted to reveal Gaga, solo, singing “Dance in the Dark” and wearing a sparkling, silver leotard. Smoke filled the floor as Chippendale-esque background dancers joined her, and the concert’s general formula was set. Two main variables existed during the night. One, of course, was Gaga’s wildly over-the-top wardrobe. Clothed by her own design team, Haus of Gaga, the Lady went from rhinestone-keyboard-carrying Flock-of-Seagulls member (”Just Dance”) to 300-style golden headdress warrior (”Fashion”) to ’80s corporate maven with huge shoulder pads (”Eh, Eh”).
Check out Lady Gaga’s wildest wardrobe moments
Video screens lining the back of the stage were another shifting element, serving as sound-generated screensavers for the song in question. Sometimes just flashes of color (a la the iTunes Visualizer function) served as a backdrop for Gaga’s dance moves, while at other times images were matched up with specific songs (like a close-up of a bird’s wing for “Monster”). In between songs when Gaga was busy with her elaborate costume changes, the screens displayed arty poses of the singer looking like a Goth version of Twiggy. Following Gaga’s performance of “Bad Romance,” which featured many of the twitchy dance moves from her music video, the evening ended with an almost painful-to-watch video of Gaga getting a heart-shaped tattoo on her shoulder, blood and all.
Gaga opened up as the show progressed, both in terms of instrumentation (she ditched the beats for live piano, guitar, drums, and keyboard on “Speechless” as well as an nearly unrecognizable blues version of “Poker Face”) and stage banter. At one point, she asked the audience whether they thought she was sexy. When fans screamed their approval, she casually joked, “I don’t believe you,” before issuing the following dictum, perhaps an insight into her current meteoric rise: “I’m kind of like Tinker Bell,” she explained in a tiny, childlike voice. “See, if you don’t clap for Tinker Bell, she dies!” Given the deafening ovation after the packed show, it seems Tinker Bell is safe for now.
Set List:
“Dance in the Dark”
“Just Dance”
“LoveGame”
“Alejandro”
“Monster”
“So Happy I Could Die”
“Teeth”
“Speechless”
“Poker Face”
“Fashion”
“The Fame”
“Money Honey”
“Beautiful, Dirty, Rich”
“Boys Boys Boys”
“Paper Gangsta”
“Paparazzi”
“Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)”
“Bad Romance”
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Lady Gaga Explores Seedy Side of Fame on “Monster” Re-Release
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November 18th, 2009
Original Article from The Hollywood Gossip
Michael David Barrett, the man who allegedly secretly filmed ESPN reporter Erin Andrews nude in various hotel rooms, stalked her around the U.S. to do so.
That’s according to federal investigators building their case against him.
The feds claim that Michael Barrett called seven hotels in Columbus, Ohio from January 28-29, 2008, trying to find out where the reporter would be staying.
After striking gold with a Columbus Hotel, the peephole perv got a room next to hers, altered the door of her room and secretly shot the Erin Andrews tape.
Barrett then got on the Internet to send the Erin Andrews nude video to his email account. Bada bing, you’ve got yourself some authorized, creepy footage.
Michael Barrett is Erin Andrews’ alleged peeping tom.
Fast forward to July. He called 14 hotels in Milwaukee, Wisc., and found where she was staying. Again, he checked in, altered the peephole and shot video.
In September, Barrett called a hotel, located Andrews’ reservation, requested a room next door and the next day, altered the peephole and filmed her nude.
The email he sent the video to: handsfouryou@yahoo.com. Eww. He also posted the tape on Google video account, calling it “Erin Andrews Naked Butt.”
Classy guy, that Michael Barrett.
Two questions: 1. Does this guy have a job? 2. Why would multiple hotels possibly reveal that a semi-famous guest is staying there, and in what room?!
A statement from Barrett’s lawyer reads: “Mr. Barrett would like to express deep regret for the circumstances that caused the issuance of the charges against him today. It is his hope that this matter can be resolved as soon as possible.”
Read more articles from The Hollywood Gossip
November 10th, 2009
Original Article from US Magazine
He earned as estimated $75 million last year
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November 4th, 2009
Original Article from The Insider
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