Search Results for: super american

If you were among the 90 million or so Americans who tuned in to Super Bowl XLI, you were no doubt left with a few questions to go along with your Monday morning hangover: Is Rex Grossman just Neil O’Donnell reincarnated? Do people honestly find Carlos Mencia funny? And what was Prince doing working a version of the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You” into his high-octane halftime set? Well, we may not have the answers to all those quandaries – though we do suggest guzzling some Pedialyte to cure that crippling crapulence. But we can try to get to the… Read more »

You can’t blame U2’s concert promoter for wondering just how big the band’s Vertigo world tour could have been if it had simply kept on playing. After all, not one ticket went unsold for the 131 shows on the trek, which began March 28, 2005, in San Diego and wrapped December 9 in front of 47,000 fans at Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium. Having been on the road in fits and starts since March 2005, U2 was clearly in a celebratory mood in Hawaii, as Bono danced onstage with a woman from the crowd during “Mysterious Ways” and even pulled a lucky… Read more »

One sunny afternoon not long ago, Dick Copaken sat in a booth at Daniel, one of those hushed, exclusive restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the waiters glide spectrally fro table to table. He was wearing a starched button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Every strand of his thinning hair was in place, and he spoke calmly and slowly, his large pink Charlie Brow head bobbing along evenly as he did. Copaken spent many years as a partner at the white-shoe Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and he has a lawyer’s gravitas. One of his bes friends calls… Read more »

Virgin Records has announced the signing of acclaimed punk-pop outfit the Starting Line via a worldwide deal. The Philadelphia-based quartet will record and release their much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s smash Drive-Thru/Geffen release, “BASED ON A TRUE STORY” later this year. “I cannot express how excited we all are about this,” says TSL guitarist Matt Watts. “Everyone at Virgin that we’ve met with are fans of the band and we’re looking forward to this relationship and making the best TSL record possible. To have a new life with Virgin adds a fresh level of enthusiasm to our band and to our… Read more »

The big surprise on “Saturday Night Live” was supposed to be Paula Abdul’s cameo mocking the Corey Clark scandal. But System of a Down managed to upstage the embattled “American Idol” judge. During a performance of their new single “B.Y.O.B.,” both singer Serj Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian were seen – in close-up – mouthing the song’s profane refrain, “Where the f– are you?” with the expletive bleeped out by the show’s censors. But near the end of the song, Malakian screamed “F– yeah!” and the profanity made it by the censor. At least one fan rejoiced in the slip,… Read more »

New York – Radio’s playlist liberation movement hatched in late 2001 at a birthday party in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A radio was blasting when Howard Kroeger, director of operations and programing for CHUM Broadcasting’s Winnipeg stations, arrived at his friend’s 40th-birthday bash. It was a competitor’s classic rock station, and Kroeger used the occasion to conduct an informal focus group among the partygoers, most in their mid- to late 30s. Whenever Boston, the Cars, Meatloaf, Supertramp or some other ’70s staple came on, it got an overwhelming thumbs-up from the Molson-enhanced crowd. But there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm when… Read more »

Miami – The glitz and glam of the MTV Video Music Awards are returning to sunny Miami for the second straight year, the network said Tuesday. MTV said it was seeking to repeat the success of last year’s show, which featured arrivals by yacht by stars such as Shaquille O’Neal and Usher, an appearance by the Kerry and Bush sisters and a tribute to Ray Charles. The show is scheduled for Aug. 28, the steamiest time of the year for South Florida. It’s also in the middle of hurricane season. “Miami radiates an energy that was clearly visible in last… Read more »

GEORGE, South Africa – Former South African President Nelson Mandela, playing host to his second AIDS awareness concert on Saturday, told a crowd of 20,000 that women bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic that has infected some 25 million people in Africa. The disease “carries the face of women,” whether through infection or caring for those who are ill with the deadly virus, said the 86-year-old Mandela. Mandela, who lost his eldest son to the disease earlier this year, compared the plight of women coping with AIDS to the isolation he felt when imprisoned for 27 years on Robben… Read more »

Los Angeles – The 47th Annual Grammys on Sunday were long on tributes and short on controversy thanks to a self-censored performance by punk trio Green Day and Sheryl Crow ‘s peek-a-boo yellow gown, which covered just enough. The Grammys were carried live on CBS, the same network that drew fire and regulatory fines following Janet Jackson ‘s now-infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at last year’s Super Bowl. So Green Day’s performance of the group’s title song from its Grammy-winning and politically charged “American Idiot” was a potential flashpoint for controversy. But in a move apparently aimed to beat network censors, lead… Read more »

Washington – A year after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl, all the excitement surrounding indecent content this year seems to be taking place in Washington, D.C. Among recent developments: The House is considering indecency legislation that would authorize $500,000 fines for broadcast licensees and performers, as well as license revocation hearings for repeat violators. The bill easily passed the Energy and Commerce Committee Feb. 8 and now goes to the floor for almost certain approval. Phil Lombardo, joint board chairman of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, is charging the Federal Communications Commission with inconsistent and discriminatory indecency… Read more »