Search Results for: carr

Are the re-formed Smashing Pumpkins set to rock Lollapalooza? Will the long-dormant Police return at Bonnaroo? How about a reunited Nirvana taking the stage at South by Southwest, only with Ben Kweller playing guitar and singing Kurt’s vocals? All three sound too good to be true, little more than the pipe dreams of manic music buffs with way too much free time. But incredibly, they’re all “100 percent confirmed” by sources with intimate knowledge about such things. But don’t go crazy just yet. It’s entirely possible that absolutely none of the above information is true. After all, we’re smack-dab in… Read more »

No big surprise, but apparently Marilyn Manson is more of a Halloween guy. At least, that’s the holiday he cited as the date on which he and estranged wife Dita Von Teese went their separate ways, disputing her claim that the glam-Goth twosome uncoupled on Christmas Eve. Manson counter-filed for divorce last Friday in an attempt to block Von Teese from being awarded spousal support, although the burlesque performer did not request it when she filed her own divorce petition Dec. 29. Her heavily made-up hubby has also stated that he wants Von Teese to pay her own attorney fees,… Read more »

Fears of race clashes on Monday led organizers of Australia’s biggest outdoor rock concert to bar fans from carrying the national flag, sparking a furious reaction from the country’s prime minister and war veterans. After fights between ethnic Croatian and Serbian fans outside the Australian Open tennis tournament last week and 2005 race clashes on Sydney’s beaches, Big Day Out concert organizers said Australia’s flag was a “gang color” which could incite hatred. “It was racism disguised as patriotism and I’m not going to tolerate it,” event producer Ken West told Australian newspapers. The concert Web site said the flag… Read more »

A Sacramento area radio station fired 10 employees Tuesday, including three morning disc jockeys, in reaction to a tragedy in which a woman died Friday after an on-air water-drinking contest at the station’s studios. The hosts of the KDND-FM “Morning Rave” show – who go by the on-air names Trish, Maney and Lukas – were fired a day after the station suspended the show and said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. Jennifer Lea Strange, 28, died after participating in a water-drinking contest on the hit music radio station, which calls itself — playing on the sound of… Read more »

LOS ANGELES – Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris resents that MTV and other cable music channels built multibillion-dollar businesses around videos given away by record companies anxious to promote their artists. So when he saw his own grandson watching 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” video on Yahoo, it got him asking: “How much are we getting paid for that?” The answer – nothing – led Morris to pull all of Universal’s videos from the giant Web portal until it agreed to a licensing deal in 2005. He wrangled similar arrangements from Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and other Internet portals… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s new iPhone appears to be the clearest statement yet of what Steve Jobs’s impact has been on consumer electronics. It is not that he invents new technologies. He refines existing ones. Mr. Jobs himself acknowledged that when asked during an interview on Tuesday whether he thought the iPhone represented a trend toward the convergence of computing and communications. “I don’t want people to think of this as a computer,” he said. “I think of it as reinventing the phone.” If the iPhone succeeds commercially, it will be new proof of Mr. Jobs’s power and influence over… Read more »

In a sobering, businesslike, 25-minute speech that aired during prime time Wednesday night (January 10), President Bush announced new plans for the war in Iraq. Those include the much-discussed addition of 21,500 troops, the demand that Iraqi forces take over major combat operations by November and the infusion of $1 billion to help build up the country’s infrastructure. “The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people and it is unacceptable to me,” Bush said during the speech, which had been delayed from late 2006 as he gathered more opinions and shook up his national security team . “Our… Read more »

One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google. The iPhone, which won’t be available in the United States until June, represents a close development partnership with America’s largest wireless phone company (Cingular, now a part of AT&T, has 58 million subscribers), the world’s largest e-mail service (Yahoo has a quarter-billion subscribers worldwide), and the world’s dominant search company. Although speculation was rampant… Read more »

The meeting between two of the most improbable cultural icons of the 1970s lasted all of 30 minutes, but it has fascinated the nation for years. A photo of a cloaked and bejeweled Elvis Presley solemnly shaking hands with a grim-faced President Nixon remains the No. 1 requested document from the National Archives, nearly four decades after the secret meeting took place on Dec. 21, 1970. Now, on what would be the King’s 72nd birthday, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Birthplace is giving the curious public a good, long look at the relics of the coming together of The… Read more »

The end of 2006 also marks the end of the current congressional session in the House and Senate, closing the door on the Deleting Online Predators Act. Let’s take a look at why this legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this summer, died such a slow death. Those of you who’ve been following this blog from the get-go are undoubtedly aware of the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA. But for those of you who don’t frequent my humble column on a regular basis, here’s the skinny. DOPA, introduced last May by Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick and a coalition of… Read more »