Search Results for: void of vision

In early 1984, when Epic Records executives presented their slate of upcoming releases at the convention in Hawaii of parent company CBS Records they couldn’t resist playing up the success they were experiencing. So between the pitches for new albums, Epic inserted stock footage of semi trucks and a voice-over that thunderously announced, “There goes another load of Michael Jackson’s Thriller albums!” Trucks weren’t really leaving the warehouse every few minutes, but Thriller was still shattering expectations more than a year after its November 30, 1982, release. Epic was selling more than 1 million copies per month in the United… Read more »

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort… Read more »

When the culture began to change in the late 1960s – when the old one-liner comics on the Ed Sullivan Show were looking pretty tired and irrelevant to a younger generation experimenting with drugs and protesting the War in Vietnam – George Carlin was the most important stand-up comedian in America. By the time he died Sunday night (of heart failure at age 71), the transformation he helped bring about in stand-up had become so ingrained that it’s hard to think of Carlin as one of America’s most radical and courageous popular artists. But he was. Carlin started doing stand-up… Read more »

Juvenile is in mourning. A teenage gunman shot and killed the New Orleans rapper’s infant daughter Thursday along with her Sheriff’s Deputy mother and older sister in their Lawrenceville, Georgia home, authorities have confirmed. The victims–39-year-old Joy Deleston and her two daughters, 11-year-old Micaiah, and 4-year-old Jelani–were gunned down by Deleston’s 17-year-old son, Anthony Tyrone Terrell. Jelani was the daughter of Juvenile. Police discovered the bodies in the residence on Thursday and took Terrell into custody Friday, booking him on three counts of murder and three counts of aggravated assault after he pointed them to the location of the gun… Read more »

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the… Read more »

Los Angeles – Fans will be able to build libraries of their favorite music videos because of deals set to be announced Wednesday (March 16) involving digital entertainment companies CinemaNow and MediaPass Network. CinemaNow announced agreements with Warner Music Group, Epitaph Records and TVT Records to sell music videos on a download-to-own basis. This marks the first time music videos will be made available specifically for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile-based secure devices, a category that includes Portable Media Centers, Pocket PCs and Smartphones from many different manufacturers. The videos also can be viewed on PCs and laptops. The company is set… 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 »

New York – Inside the giant factory of cool known as MTV headquarters, a crew of hip twentysomethings has been hard at work creating a two-headed monster. This beast wants to be man’s new best friend. On Sunday, during the Super Bowl halftime, MTV2 is relaunching with a new focus on 12-24 year-old guys – and a new logo. This silhouette of a dog with two heads (you may have seen the intentionally vague posters) is at the center of the new MTV2. The revamped network will maintain most of its current music programming, bonded with swirling graphics and constant… Read more »

New York – Dreams of world domination must be hard for MTV executives to avoid when they host a party at the Kremlin, with a Russian diva and Queen dueting on “We Will Rock You” and Russian soldiers performing a hip-hop dance routine. MTV Networks will reach a milestone in February when the turn of a switch starts an MTV outlet in Africa, the company’s 100th channel worldwide and first based on that continent. Most of its American audience is probably unaware of the extent to which MTV and its sister networks have blanketed the world in an aggressive expansion… Read more »

New York – The year began with the Super Bowl halftime show fiasco and ended with aftershocks from Howard Stern flipping his detractors the bird and taunting the Federal Communications Commission with a just-try-and-get-me-now move to satellite radio. Between those two seismic events, the FCC levied a record number of indecency fines, responding to an avalanche of complaints carefully orchestrated by conservative zealots and election year political pressure. The results from the government crackdown were widespread. Top-rated personalities were fired. Zero-tolerance edicts were issued. On-air delays and indecency tutorials became commonplace. Warhorses like Pink Floyd’s “Money,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”… Read more »