Artist: Tiki Obmar
Genre(s):
Industrial
Discography:
High School Confidential
Year: 2003
Tracks: 7
Led Zeppelin - Plant Lands First Americana Awards Nominations
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Tiki Obmar
Artist: Tiki Obmar
Genre(s):
Industrial
Discography:
High School Confidential
Year: 2003
Tracks: 7
Led Zeppelin - Plant Lands First Americana Awards Nominations
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
SAG chief risks striking sour note
Balancing negotiation tactics with membership wishes
SAG president Alan Rosenberg faces a fight on two fronts.
Confronted with opposition from studio reps at the bargaining table over key contract demands, Rosenberg and SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen are aiming to regain negotiating leverage by going against sister union AFTRA's recent deal with the majors.
The problem: There is significant opposition to that strategy from within his own ranks.
"To ask me to vote down one of my union's contracts is about as absurd a proposal I can possibly imagine," said Paul Christie, SAG national board member and former second national vp. "I think it's probably unprecedented in American labor history. Nobody is going to walk off a cliff for them."
AFTRA struck a deal on its primetime TV deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on May 28. It was the first time the performers union negotiated the contract without SAG in 27 years. The decision to bargain separately increased the animosity between SAG and AFTRA that had been brewing for the past year.
Rosenberg and Allen are set to meet in person and via video conference with members of its national board Friday to discuss the negotiations. At the top of the agenda is whether to push the 44,000 members of SAG who are also members of AFTRA to vote down the recent deal. Additionally, the SAG board is expected to discuss strike authorization and try to determine whether members would vote in favor of a walkout.
Meantime, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank report released Thursday indicates another industry strike would be devastating to California's economy alone.
The report, "The Writers Strike of 2007-2008: The Economic Impact of Digital Distribution," suggests that the recent three-month scribe strike tipped California into a recession. And while the strike lasted 100 days, its effect will be felt through the end of 2008, with a projected loss of 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output by the end of the year. Personal income is projected to decline by $3.1 billion, while wages and salaries are expected to hit a $2.3 billion loss as a result.
The state could recover in 2009, but if another strike were to be called, it wouldn't be until 2010 before the industry and state would see a recovery, the report says.
"If the industry were to shut down yet again due to a SAG strike, it would deal a serious blow to California's prospects for economic recovery," the report concludes.
Hollywood has been bracing for another union walkout, with studios essentially throwing themselves into de facto strike mode for the summer, penciling in few, if any, projects on their calendars.
But SAG has yet to ask its membership for a strike vote, though that could change Friday.
Veteran Los Angeles labor attorney Howard Fabrick, a former chief negotiator for the AMPTP, said a strike threat would not give SAG much leverage in the talks. Rather, it would create animosity and cause added tension in the negotiations.
"The attitude across the table in dealing with a union that has sought strike authority tends to harden, as opposed to a union that is bargaining in good faith and trying to make a deal," Fabrick said. "The employer may find the strike authorization the equivalent of an ultimatum. That undercuts the effort.
"If they failed to get a strike vote, it would put them between a rock and a hard place," he added.
Allen and Rosenberg may have already muddied the waters with the AMPTP when they met Monday with execs at Sony Pictures, Fabrick said. Such actions are often considered an attempt to undercut the authority of the collective bargaining representative, he noted.
"I would be rather upset if someone went around me and went to members of my committee or the groups I represented and tried to sabotage my role as a negotiator," Fabrick said. "I think (the AMPTP's Nick Counter) would react the same way I have."
While members of the WGA negotiating committee met with studio heads during the strike, those meetings had the blessings of Counter because of the breakdown between the Writers Guild negotiators and the AMPTP.
"Frankly, the AMPTP bargaining committee was going nowhere and the Writers Guild couldn't bargain with them," Fabrick said. "The AMPTP elected essentially surrogates to deal with it."
SAG board member Christie said SAG's leaders would have to present "a real good case" to convince members to vote for a strike. And right now, he doesn't believe there is enough there to justify a strike vote. He also suggested that any bid to undercut AFTRA's pact by blocking ratification would further lessen SAG's chance that the membership would authorize a strike.
SAG and the AMPTP said after their meeting Thursday that talks will continue Monday.
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Justin Timberlake: 'Cameron Diaz Taught Me About Life'
Justin Timberlake has credited his ex-girlfriend Cameron Diaz for helping him learn how to put his life in perspective.
The SexyBack hitmaker admits he is still confused by the fairer sex, despite having dated some of the world's most famous women, including Britney Spears and his current beau Jessica Biel.
But he credits Charlie's Angels beauty Diaz, who he split from in January 2007 after almost four years together, for helping him to figure out more about the female form.
He tells Cosmopolitan: "I know a couple more things than I used to, but us men will never understand women. Ever!
"I think I learnt a lot from my relationship with Cameron, notably that you should always put things in perspective.
“As much as I've learnt though, I'm still a man, so I have some kind of learning disability. And women wouldn't have us any other way."
The SexyBack hitmaker admits he is still confused by the fairer sex, despite having dated some of the world's most famous women, including Britney Spears and his current beau Jessica Biel.
But he credits Charlie's Angels beauty Diaz, who he split from in January 2007 after almost four years together, for helping him to figure out more about the female form.
He tells Cosmopolitan: "I know a couple more things than I used to, but us men will never understand women. Ever!
"I think I learnt a lot from my relationship with Cameron, notably that you should always put things in perspective.
“As much as I've learnt though, I'm still a man, so I have some kind of learning disability. And women wouldn't have us any other way."
Amy Winehouse Taken To Hospital After Fainting
Amy Winehouse [ tickets ] was taken to a hospital Monday (6/16) after fainting at her north London home, a spokesperson for the singer confirmed to reporters. An assistant to Winehouse's manager reportedly caught the singer as she fell. Though Winehouse quickly recovered from the fainting spell, her father took her to the hospital as a precaution. At the hospital, Winehouse underwent precautionary tests and was kept overnight for observation. Tests so far have been proven inconclusive.The 24-year-old performer is expected to perform later this month in London's Hyde Park at a gig marking the 90th birthday of former South African president Nelson Mandela.
GZA Maps Out Summer U.S. Tour Dates
GZA plans to tour his classic 1995 album 'Liquid Swords' in the U.S. during the Summer months.
This will be first time the Wu-Tang founder has toured the seminal record, where on nineteen dates in August, he'll be playing selections from the album on each date.
Fans also have an even bigger reason to witness the rapper live, as GZA will be airing new material from his forthcoming album 'Pro Tools' at the shows.
August Dates:
21 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey
22 - Santa Cruz, CA - Moe's Alley
23 - Petaluma, CA - Phoenix (performing Liquid Swords)
25 - Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
26 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
27 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
29 - Salt Lake City, UT - Palladium
30 - Denver, CO - Cervantes
Dates:
1 - Dallas, TX - Palladium
2 - Houston, TX - Warehouse
3 - Austin, TX - Emo's
4 - Minneapolis, MN - Cabooze
5 - Grinnell, IA - Grinnell College
6 - Madison, WI - SoCo Music Series
7 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues 09-10 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head
11 - Atlantic City, NJ - House of Blues 09-12 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
13 - Boston, MA - Harper's Ferry
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Amy Winehouse in Russia billionaire gig
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse is due to play on Thursday at the gala opening of an art gallery run by Daria Zhukova, the girlfriend of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, organizers said.
Dozens of workers polished glasses, shifted chairs and dabbed paint on concrete walls at an old bus shelter that is due to become an art gallery, just outside the city centre.
At one end, the stage stood empty with "Amy Winehouse" emblazoned in gold capital letters across the background.
"Amy has confirmed she'll play an exclusive performance next week at the gallery for contemporary art and culture in Moscow," the singer said in a recent statement on her Web site.
Winehouse has won awards for her music but her colorful private life has often overshadowed her musical successes.
Socialite and former model Zhukova is hosting the party for 300 guests -- to include celebrities and art world figures -- at the opening of the gallery, called The Garage.
Zhukova plans to host exhibitions in the building, which is twice the size of a soccer pitch. She also plans to install a library and a coffee shop.
Last weekend, Abramovich berthed his $300 million yacht in the centre of Russia's second city of St Petersburg when he attended an economic forum there.
Abramovich has also started showing an interest in modern art. Earlier this year he spent $33 million on a painting by British artist Lucian Freud, a specialist art newspaper reported. Abramovich has not confirmed he was the buyer.
(Reporting by James Kilner; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Dozens of workers polished glasses, shifted chairs and dabbed paint on concrete walls at an old bus shelter that is due to become an art gallery, just outside the city centre.
At one end, the stage stood empty with "Amy Winehouse" emblazoned in gold capital letters across the background.
"Amy has confirmed she'll play an exclusive performance next week at the gallery for contemporary art and culture in Moscow," the singer said in a recent statement on her Web site.
Winehouse has won awards for her music but her colorful private life has often overshadowed her musical successes.
Socialite and former model Zhukova is hosting the party for 300 guests -- to include celebrities and art world figures -- at the opening of the gallery, called The Garage.
Zhukova plans to host exhibitions in the building, which is twice the size of a soccer pitch. She also plans to install a library and a coffee shop.
Last weekend, Abramovich berthed his $300 million yacht in the centre of Russia's second city of St Petersburg when he attended an economic forum there.
Abramovich has also started showing an interest in modern art. Earlier this year he spent $33 million on a painting by British artist Lucian Freud, a specialist art newspaper reported. Abramovich has not confirmed he was the buyer.
(Reporting by James Kilner; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Seth Lakeman, Poor Man's Heaven
When you’re hot you're hot. With Poor Man's Heaven, the man who would be folkie cross-over king is certainly giving off a lot of heat. The instrumental palette may be largely the same as 2006's Freedom Fields but the reach is bigger and you can hear an ambitious stadium-sized appetite rattling around in the fusillades of up-front drumming which open the album. Such is the rock and reel quotient present, there are moments where you could imagine Jimmy Page and Robert Plant coming up with some of this stuff; the thundering pattern utilised The Hurlers bears a passing resemblance to the flurry of energy sizzling between the guitar and drums of Led Zep's Four Sticks.
With a cover that has him alongside a rocky shoreline there's no great surprise that nautical themes and imagery ripple through many of the lyrics, and none more dramatically than on Solomon Browne. Here the Penlee lifeboat disaster, in which 16 lives were lost, is recounted in much the way it might have been had the tragedy occurred in 1881 instead of 1981. Aping the kind of stoic reportage of catastrophic events that was the bread and butter of traditional folk music has worked well for Lakeman, enabling him to blend contemporary events with an old-world patina like a stylistic camouflage. You can never be sure if the song you're listening to wasn't handed down through the generations or has just been whipped off the hard-drive.
Throughout the album Ben Nichols' acoustic growls like a predatory beast, pouncing and gnawing at the bones of songs such as I'll Haunt You and the ebullient banjo-fiddle driven, Race To Be King and most spectacularly in the spine-tingling runs and slides of Greed and Gold. Pentangle's Danny Thompson himself would be proud to turn in work of this calibre.
His song writing continues the gold-yielding formula of its predecessor with energetic strumalongs, voracious fiddles and a sparkling delivery that'll do nothing to diminish his rising star; folk music for people who don't want to stick their finger in their ear or don the Arran Isle sweater just yet.
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Jonathan Butler
Artist: Jonathan Butler
Genre(s):
R&B: Soul
funk
Discography:
Mix Album
Year: 2006
Tracks: 14
The Source
Year: 2001
Tracks: 14
Head to Head
Year: 1994
Tracks: 13
Jonathan Butler
Year: 1990
Tracks: 16
More Than Friends
Year: 1988
Tracks: 12
Introducing Jonathan Butler
Year: 1986
Tracks: 10
The Best of Jonathan Butler
Year:
Tracks: 12
Do You Love Me ?
Year:
Tracks: 7
South African expatriate Jonathan Butler isn't actually a malarky artist, merely his laid-back, slightly jazz-tinged approach to R&B/pop has earned the Butler has enjoyed a following since the previous '70s, although he reached his commercial tip in the late '80s, and he continues to spell and record in the twenty-first c. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 1961, Butler was only a child when he started singing and playing acoustic guitar. Butler, world Health Organization was the youngest of about 12 children, captive a variety show of music when he was a kid. He was an admirer of South African stars like singer Miriam Makeba, only he was as well hip to the American someone and malarky artists world Health Organization lived thousands of miles by in the United States. Stevie Wonder became a major influence, and so did former-hard George Benson.
Sadly, Butler conditioned about the horrors of South Africa's anti-Semite apartheid torah at an early age; when he was development up, South Africa had an tyrannous system of racial segregation that was quite comparable to the jim crowing pentateuch that plagued the southerly U.S. until the early '60s. Apartheid (which, thankfully, has since been abolished) was the national of some of Butler's '80s recordings. Although he was never a hard-core protest singer à la Gil Scott-Heron, Peter Tosh, or Bob Marley, he wrote some antiapartheid songs here and at that place. Butler, world Health Organization radius Afrikaans before comme il faut fluent in English, was a teenager when British producer Clive Calder signed him to the London-based Jive Records in 1977; Introducing Jonathan Butler, his largely instrumental debut album, was released that year and employed Bob Cranshaw (world Health Organization is best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins) on basso. At the time, Butler was often compared to Benson, a man world Health Organization, like Butler, has been praised for both his singing and his guitar playing. It wasn't long earlier the adolescent Butler north Korean won a Sarie Award, which is the South African combining weight of an American Grammy or a Canadian Juno Award.
Only Butler didn't continue in South Africa much yearner; in the early '80s, he at large from apartheid and affected to England (where Jive's main position was located, and where Butler remained for 17 days). Butler retained a loyal following in the '80s and '90s, not only in his aboriginal South Africa, only as well, in the U.S. and Europe. One of his biggest releases came in 1987, when Jive released a self-titled album that contained a hit report of the Staple Singers' "If You're Ready (Descend With Me)" (which ground him acting a duet with British urban contemporary singer Ruby Turner). And Butler's succeeding Jive album, 1988's More Than Friends, was likewise a prominent marketer; that CD gave us the major hits "Lies" (which was nominated for a Grammy) and "Sarah, Sarah." Butler continued to record for Jive in the early '90s; then, in the late '90s and early 2000s, he provided trey albums for N-Coded Music: 1997's Do You Love Me?, 1999's Tarradiddle of Life, and 2000's The Source. After that, Butler (world Health Organization turned 40 in October 2001) left N-Coded and stirred to Warner Bros., which released Surrender in June 2002.
Barack Obama campaign sets up rumor-busting site
Fed up with all the nasty rumors, Barack Obama and his campaign have set up fightthesmear.com, a website devoted to zapping the recalcitrant untruths that have been dogging him for months, especially online.
Clearly Obama is acknowledging the necessity of addressing, rather than ignoring, the growing number of virulent online rumors that have repeatedly received wide attention despite a lack of establishing evidence.
Topping Fight the Smear's four-item list is the canard that Michelle Obama used the word "whitey" in a speech at her church. The site marks this as a lie, saying, "No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word."
This is more a denial than a fact-filled rebuttal, but it has the effect of putting the Obama campaign on the record about the issue, whereas it had declined to comment before. You would suppose that if there had been any truth to it, a flat-out denial would not have been a good idea. I wonder whether this will finally satisfy commentators like Larry Johnson, who took Obama's refusal to comment on this rumor as evidence of its veracity.
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Mike Myers: Justin & Jessica Don't Need the Love Guru
One couple who definitely won't be seeking out The Love Guru's advice is Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.
"I don't need to give them love advice," the guru himself, Mike Myers, tells OK! at the film's premiere. "They're unbelievably lovable and much loved."
The funnyman isn't the only one who thinks so. Justin's partner-in-crime Trace Ayala gives the couple's yearlong relationship the seal of approval as well.
"They are awesome," he tells OK!. "She's the best."
Although the saying goes that "opposite attracts," that's not the case with J&J. The two work well together because they're "very, very similiar," Trace says.
So can we expect wedding bells soon?
"I hope so, to be honest," Trace says. "They're awesome together. He's happy, man. He's so happy."
By David Lasky
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Lindsay Lohan wants to marry Samantha Ronson
Lindsay Lohan has said she wants to marry her gal pal Samantha Ronson.
The ‘Mean Girls’ actress, 21, was seen sporting a huge ring at the Dolce and Gabanna party at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and reportedly told her former lover, British model Calum Best, the pair are engaged.
Lohan and openly gay Ronson — whose brother is top music producer Mark Ronson — were also spotted at one of P. Diddy’s infamous boat parties kissing passionately and draped over each other.
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