Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.
President Barack Obama’s promises of change are falling short for one core Democratic constituency: gays and lesbians, whose leaders say Obama’s administration is not keeping up with the times. Gay rights campaigners, most of them Democrats who supported Obama in November, have begun to voice their public frustration with Obama’s inaction, small jokes at their community’s expense and deafening silence on what they see as the signal civil rights issue of this era. His campaign promises to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and the military ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers have not been fulfilled. And the news,… Read more »
MySpace pulled all Project Playlist widgets from its site yesterday. The move apparently came after MySpace received notices from several “major music companies” demanding that the popular playlist sharing widget be removed.”MySpace has received notices of infringement about Project Playlist at different times from several of the major music companies currently suing Project Playlist,” MySpace said in statement. That’s PR-speak for some or all of the major labels, as well as, a big publisher or two. (There’s more of the statement after the jump below.) Owen Van Natta, Facebook‘s former chief revenue officer, recently became CEO of ProjectPlaylist… 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 »
Universal Motown Records’ artist, Forever The Sickest Kids, announced new US tour dates today. Co-headlining with Metro Station, the band will cross from New York to their home state of Texas. The debut album from Forever The Sickest Kids, entitled Underdog Alma Mater, will be released on April 29th. The six man band has been touring the U.S. successfully and building a fanbase from the grass roots up. The hard work has paid off with a major label release next month and coveted spots on the current Alternative Press Tour, the Warped Tour as well as the co-headlining tour… Read more »
Like Al Pacino in “The Godfather Part III,” just when eco warrior Al Gore thinks he’s pulled himself free of Washington, D.C.’s partisan politics, he gets pulled right back into the muck. Former Democratic Vice President Gore, one of the organizers behind the July 7 global-climate-crisis-awareness concert Live Earth , has run into opposition from Senate Republicans over his plans to have one of the eight worldwide shows take place in D.C. And, depending on who you believe, the objection to the concert is either a matter of simple parliamentary procedure or just politics as usual. Oklahoma Republican Senator James… 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 »
Nineties alt-rock lives as a new tour launches this weekend. The New World Disorder Tour features co-headliners The Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, with Seven Mary Three and Sponge. Expect to hear all the classic Gin Blossoms hits like “Hey Jealousy” and “Till I Hear It From You,” and watch out for four releases from the band this year, Dusted, (their first pre-A&M Records release that had only been available on cassette until now), New Miserable Experience Collectors Series (an expanded 2-CD version with bonus tracks, demos and outtakes), plus a couple of solo ventures, The Poppin’ Wheelies from singer… Read more »
So you’re too young to be sweatin’ to the oldies with Richard Simmons. And with musical tastes that lean closer to the Buzzcocks than Britney, you’ll feel a bit dorky getting your body started with the Pink-inspired Bally Total Fitness Center cardio-workout. The beach season is creeping up faster than you can say “Gabba Gabba Hey,” so what’s a self-respecting rocker who wants to get toned to good tunes gonna do? If said rocker can get their flabby butt to Boston or New York, they can shed their spare tire to the sounds of the Sex Pistols, the Stranglers and… Read more »
The 16th annual South by Southwest music conference drew to a close Sunday, and the only thing that lasts longer than the seemingly perpetual hangover that results from four debauched days of a music industry on spring break is the buzz emanating from the bands and key moments that defined this year’s festival. Of the more than 1,000 bands showcasing their chops before press, radio programmers, managers, lawyers, label execs and promoters in 48 venues strewn throughout Austin, Texas, a handful traditionally rise above the chaff to become the targets of hype hucksters and topics of critical discussion for weeks… Read more »
