Search Results for: new years day

NEW YORK —- The 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade wound its way through Manhattan streets under sunny skies on Thursday, as thousands of marchers carried giant balloons past throngs of holiday revelers cheering them along the route. Quincy Kersbergen of Wyckoff, N.J., found a prime viewing spot – perched on a police barricade near the beginning of the parade – and proclaimed herself a big fan of a giant dog balloon. “This is just fantastic!” the 11-year-old Kersbergen said. “So amazing to be here in person! I’m just so excited about today!” New to the revelry this year were… 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 »

The Gym Class Heroes have experimented so much on their latest CD that even frontman Travis McCoy can’t quite describe the group’s newly formed sound. “It’s like our last two efforts combined in a sense, but pushed further. Hence the title ‘The Quilt.’ It’s like a patchwork of sounds, different arrangements (and) real lyrics,” says McCoy, trying to explain the CD, released earlier this month. “Musically, I think it’s a big cocktail of everything that’s inspired us over the past two years,” he said. “It is definitely rooted in hip-hop and hip-hop is like the main course on the plate,… Read more »

A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart, a researcher said Thursday. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as important find. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer. “This is absolutely new,” Leisinger said in a telephone interview. “We have new music here.” “His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable,” he added. “There’s no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart.” The work, described… Read more »

Cuba has ordered jailed punk rocker Gorki Aguila, an outspoken critic of Fidel Castro and the communist government, to stand trial on Friday for “social dangerousness,” a charge that could carry up to four years in prison. Authorities arrested the 39-year-old lead singer of Porno para Ricardo at his Havana home on Monday, shortly after the band had completed work on a new album. Cuban law defines “social dangerousness” as behavior contrary to “communist morality,” and police use it to detain offenders before they have a chance to commit a crime. Performing songs with angry lyrics that poke fun at… Read more »

When Hartmut Ostrowski was an up-and-comer in Bertelsmann’s printing and services division in the 1990s, his bosses were discouraged from speaking at meetings of the top executives. In the glamorous world of Bertelsmann, a global media empire with music, television, and publishing properties – Germany’s answer to Time Warner – services were viewed as strictly a backstage function. Now, with Mr. Ostrowski at the helm of Bertelsmann, the stagehands are striding into the spotlight. Two weeks ago, he named Markus Dohle, a 39-year-old German who runs the company’s printing operations, as chief executive of Random House, the world’s largest consumer… Read more »

Never-before-seen photos have surfaced of Elvis Presley rocking Madison Square Garden in all his jumpsuited glory. The images were taken in 1972 by George Kalinsky, the official photographer of the famed arena, the singer’s estate said Wednesday. Kalinsky came across the photos while working on a campaign for a billboard company called “Great Moments in New York.” Now one of them is on display as part of the campaign on a three-story billboard atop the Virgin Megastore in Times Square; it shows The King glancing up, his outstretched arms holding the cape of his glittering jumpsuit. Kalinsky needed to get… Read more »

As expected, Nine Inch Nails is utilizing the Internet to disseminate its new instrumental album, “Ghosts I-IV,” which went live at 9 p.m. ET tonight (March 2) via the Trent Reznor-led group’s Web site. “Ghosts” will also see physical release via RED Distribution on April 8, Billboard has learned. Fans can receive the first nine songs from the 36-track project, which was recorded during “an intense 10-week period last fall” and likely to spawn additional volumes, for free, or the entire album can be obtained digitally for $5. “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for… Read more »

It appears hot tubs can now be powered by green energy. On Dec. 8, newbie garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs launched its website with the six-song EP Stop Drop and Roll available as a free download. It didn’t take long for music junkies to realize this new band might not be so new after all. “The internet is ablaze!!!!” proclaimed celeb blogger Perez Hilton last month. “A band called Foxboro Hot Tubs has released an EP of six songs that has people speculating that it’s the Green Day boys experimenting with a new sound.” The songs were pulled a short… Read more »

Lily Vasquez, a marketing manager from Clifton, New Jersey, spent nearly eight years trying to break into the music business as a singer before she stumbled across SellaBand.com. The Web site is one of several where artists can have their albums funded by fans — a proposition that takes advantage of digital technology, online social networking and the current uncertainty in the established music industry. The sites are reinventing the relationship between artists and their fans, upsetting the traditional role of the record label as the tastemaker, promoter and distributor of music. “I didn’t really understand the site when I… Read more »