Katy Perry, Kanye West and Christina Aguilera volition perform at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.
It was confirmed earlier this week that Britney Spears would receptive the ceremony.
The awards host Russell Brand revealed at a press conference that Perry would be vocalizing a insure of Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' at the event.
He joked: "There's a lot of virginity and lesbianism going on at the show."
Aguilera will be playacting her modern single 'Keeps Getting Better', which will feature on her approaching best of album.
She told reporters: "You're going to get a first look and a first heed at my new figure of speech and my new sound."
West will close the express, despite previously claiming that he would never return after failing to win an prize in 2007.
The ceremony takes place in LA on September 7. Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Shia LaBeouf and Michael Phelps will hand out gongs at the event.
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Tuesday 9 September 2008
Saturday 30 August 2008
�Weeds�: Nancy, Rat
We've heard of jumping the shark, but shooting it?Photo: Courtesy of Showtime
Is 13 too young to be having sex? Nancy thinks so. "What happened here last night?" she asks Shane and his two pierced girlfriends who had stayed over. Shane, surlier than ever, isn't about to let his "slaphappy drug dealer" of a mother dictate his sex life (a refreshing development from recent Oedipal entanglements). "Where were you last night?" he asks. "Quit pretending to be a mom."
Doug, meanwhile, is desperate to get laid. He move into a divey apartment with Maria, the Mexican immigrant, who learns what a sleaze this sad, tall, angry baby man is when he begs her to see even just "one boob." "I spent 25 years with a woman who wouldn't put out. I deserve some. I smuggled [Maria] here," he whines to Andy. It's too gross to be funny, but thankfully Maria has Doug's number: "He is a terrible man," she tells Andy. "He is a criminal and wants to make me his whore. He has warts on his genitals."
Speaking of calling out criminals, traffic through the maternity-store tunnel continues, and Nancy is no longer able to turn a blind eye. After asking her hunky mayor what's coming through the tunnel � pot, heroine, girls? � she is told to go back to her children. But the problem with that is Nancy's kids are out of her control � Shane learning life's facts and Silas busy with his now-booming �sandwich� business. So she makes a call. Till, the FBI dude whom Nancy once threatened to rat out for corruption, shows up while Nancy sits in some garden, swathed in a straw hat and playing with a Rubik's Cube. "Thanks for coming," she says.
There being two episodes left this season, this rat-out comes at an opportune time: Will the Botwins stay in Ren Mar? Will Nancy continue her lascivious affair with Mayor Esteban? Will Celia, sequestered away in a low-rent rehab facility (the fancy place worked out that her insurance belonged to a deceased Korean woman and shipped her out) come to Nancy's rescue, as Nancy did her when Guillermo's men caught Celia snooping outside the warehouse? Can Nancy's conscience be sustained without the death of a major character, or at least another relocation? And if it's the latter, where won't the Mexican mafia find her?
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Wednesday 20 August 2008
Mp3 music: Gorillaz
 Artist: Gorillaz: mp3 download Genre(s): Pop Rock Pop: Pop-Rock Dance Electronic Gorillaz's discography:  D-Sides (cd2) Year: 2007 Tracks: 9  D-Sides (cd1) Year: 2007 Tracks: 13  Dirty Harry (Single) Year: 2005 Tracks: 7  Demon Days Year: 2005 Tracks: 15  Dare (Single) Year: 2005 Tracks: 6  B-SIDES and REMIX'S SINGLES Year: 2005 Tracks: 19  G-Sides Year: 2002 Tracks: 9  Gorillaz Year: 2001 Tracks: 15  Clint Eastwood (Single) Year: 2001 Tracks: 5  Tomorrow Comes Today (Single) Year: 2000 Tracks: 4  Laika Come Home Year: 2000 Tracks: 12 Conceived as the first-class honours degree "virtual rap group," Gorillaz blended the musical talents of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Blur's Damon Albarn, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz with the stunning visuals of Jamie Hewlett, best known as the creator of the furore laughable Tank Girl. Nakamura's Deltron 3030 cohorts Kid Koala and Del tha Funkee Homosapien rounded out the creative team obtuse the Gorillaz quartette, which included second, the cute simply spaced-out singer/keyboardist; Murdoc, the flyaway, possibly Satanic bassist and the brains behind the group; Russel, a drummer equally godlike by "Farrakhan and Chaka Khan" and possessed by "funkyphantoms" that on occasion ascend up and furnish some zombie-style rapping; and last-place merely non least, Noodle, a ten-year-old Japanese guitar virtuosa and warlike liberal arts master. The group's internet site, wWW.gorillaz.com, showcased Hewlett's visuals and the group's euphony in centre and ear-catching contingent. Gorillaz debuted in late 2000 with the Tomorrow Comes Today EP, which they followed early the next class with the Clint Eastwood single; their self-titled uncut debut arrived in bound 2001. Gorillaz was a massive universal success and achieved platinum-level gross sales in the U.S. The group's Svengalis were ready to capitalise, and released the B-sides collecting G-Sides, the Form One: Celebrity Takedown DVD, and the dub-inspired remix album Laika Come Home in 2002. The project went on hiatus as Albarn resumed work with Blur for their seventh album, 2003's Think Tank. When he was ready to start the adjacent Gorillaz album, Albarn turned to Danger Mouse, the DJ behind The Grey Album, the notorious mash-up of the Beatles' Patrick Victor Martindale White Album and Jay-Z's Shameful Album, and a legion of other collaborators, including De La Soul, Shaun Ryder, Debbie Harry, Dennis Hopper, and Martina Topley-Bird. Although Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Nakamura did non return, second, Russel, Murdoc, and Noodle were all submit and accounted for on Demon Days, some other Top Ten strike, which arrived in leaping 2005. |
Sunday 10 August 2008
Damon Albarn wades into GCSE music row
Damon Albarn says it's "disgraceful" that it is possible to gain an A level in GCSE without existence able to read or write music.
Composers and musicians have been arguing over the merits of eruditeness musical committal to writing techniques this week after it emerged that it is possible to score top examination grades without knowing how to understand or write music.
"If you don't memorize to learn music, then that's a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive and it shouldn't be," the Blur and Gorillaz man told BBC Music magazine.
"I victimised to write for small orchestras when I was 15. I sold my soul to the monster and became a pop star and forgot about it, simply in the past few years I have got back into orchestration," he added. "I think anyone interested in music should be strained to learn that correction."
However Richard Baker, head of composition at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama, disagrees with Albarn.
"It depends what you believe a petty school musical education is for," he suggested. "If it's about accessing the western classical tradition, then of course you demand to get word staff notational system. If you think it's about giving children some understanding of a wide range of musical traditions, then teachers should have the flexibleness to talk about other ways in which euphony is transmitted," he said.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's opera 'Monkey: A Journey To The West' was recently staged at the Royal Opera House in London.
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Composers and musicians have been arguing over the merits of eruditeness musical committal to writing techniques this week after it emerged that it is possible to score top examination grades without knowing how to understand or write music.
"If you don't memorize to learn music, then that's a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive and it shouldn't be," the Blur and Gorillaz man told BBC Music magazine.
"I victimised to write for small orchestras when I was 15. I sold my soul to the monster and became a pop star and forgot about it, simply in the past few years I have got back into orchestration," he added. "I think anyone interested in music should be strained to learn that correction."
However Richard Baker, head of composition at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama, disagrees with Albarn.
"It depends what you believe a petty school musical education is for," he suggested. "If it's about accessing the western classical tradition, then of course you demand to get word staff notational system. If you think it's about giving children some understanding of a wide range of musical traditions, then teachers should have the flexibleness to talk about other ways in which euphony is transmitted," he said.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's opera 'Monkey: A Journey To The West' was recently staged at the Royal Opera House in London.
More info
Tuesday 1 July 2008
Britney could open MTV Awards again
Troubled pop star Britney Spears could perform at this year's MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, despite being ridiculed after last year's wayward appearance.
The singer was laughed at for her shambolic showing at 2007 ceremony, appearing dazed as she struggled to remember the lyrics and dance routine to Gimme More.
However, bosses have not ruled her out as a potential performer at this year's bash in September.
Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music Group, said: "Everyone deserves a second or third chance, right?
"I'm not sure how we top Britney opening the show. We are working on it every minute of every day."
Britney was reportedly spotted "crying badly" backstage after her performance in Las Vegas last year as her comeback was described as a "disaster".
Wearing a sparkly black bra and hot pants, she looked bleary eyed and unfit as she struggled to keep up with her energetic backing dancers, who threw themselves around stripper poles.
Cameras revealed celebrity guests, including 50 Cent, scoffing at Britney's performance, while Rihanna was seen in fits of laughter.
Following the song, comedienne Sarah Silverman came on stage and sarcastically said: "Was that incredible? Britney Spears, everyone. Wow. She is amazing. She is 25-years-old and she's already accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in her life. It's mind blowing."
Since then, Britney's career has been in decline and she has struggled to get her personal life back on track following her breakdown earlier this year.
However, she has been pictured recently looking healthy and happy emerging from dance studios and last week was granted overnight access to her sons, Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, 21 months.
*Should Britney open the MTV Awards again? Post your comments below.
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Wednesday 18 June 2008
Harrison Ford - Ford Im Not Marrying Flockhart
HARRISON FORD has blasted rumours he is planning to marry longterm girlfriend CALISTA FLOCKHART this summer (08).
A number of magazines have suggested the pair, who have dated since 2002, will make their union formal as soon as Ford finishes promotional duties on the new Indiana Jones movie.
But a representative for the 65-year-old insists marriage reports are "tabloid rumour and nothing more".
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Monday 9 June 2008
Debut novel 'Dear American Airlines' slams carrier with perfect timing
"Dear American Airlines"
Jonathan Miles (Houghton Mifflin)
There could never be a debut novel more perfectly timed to enter the world than Jonathan Miles' "Dear American Airlines."
The book is a novel-length complaint letter written by one angry American Airlines passenger who has been stranded in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and may miss his daughter's wedding in Los Angeles.
Sound familiar? Just a few months ago, hundreds of thousands of actual American Airlines customers were stranded in airports across the country when the airline was forced to cancel 3,100 flights to check or redo something called "wiring bundles." The universe, or at least the Federal Aviation Administration, has apparently gift-wrapped a marketing campaign just for this book.
So we can credit Miles, the cocktails columnist at The New York Times, with excellent timing. But we can also credit him with a sharp and funny first novel that will outlast the particular troubles of the modern airline industry.
Bennie Ford's letter begins as a request - check that, a profane demand - for a refund of his $392.68 ticket. He's desperately trying to get to Los Angeles for the wedding of his estranged daughter, whom he hasn't seen in years.
From the first paragraph, we hear Bennie's distinctive voice: angry and outraged, literate and funny. If the cancelled flight weren't awful enough, he has to sit in a "maldesigned seat in this maldesigned airport," a limbo without clocks or cigarettes, where everyone seems to be playing sudoku, "the analgesic du jour of the travelling class."
It may seem like faint praise to call a novel "funny," as if laughter were a guilty pleasure in serious literature, something enjoyable but slightly disreputable. But what good is satire without humour? It shouldn't hurt Miles' reputation as a writer to point out a simple fact: This book will make you laugh. Out loud and repeatedly.
Bennie grew up in New Orleans, "where cirrhosis of the liver is listed as 'Natural Causes' on a death certificate." Holding his daughter in his arms for the first time, Bennie reflects, "She was so beautiful and small - a gorgeous pink speck of life. But I should also confess that I was drunk almost beyond recognition."
Later, in the middle of a domestic dispute, he finds himself locked out of his apartment in the rain. He screams his wife's name only once before it hits him: "You simply cannot shout the name Stella while standing under a window in New Orleans and hope for anything like an authentic or even mildly earnest moment."
Even in his despair, Bennie can't resist a good one-liner at his own expense.
Admittedly, whether you enjoy this novel may depend on your tolerance for a certain stock literary "guy": the brawling and boozy tough-guy poet, a little too sensitive for today's world, a little too broken inside to hold together a relationship. The template for Bennie Ford might be well-worn but Miles never falls into the cliched traps of drunken sentimentality or self-pity.
Bennie's letter soon becomes something more, a sincere confession about his failures and regrets, charting the collapse from his early years as an aspiring poet and young father, to his divorce and estrangement from his family.
He's a bad father and a miserable husband but he doesn't flinch from the truth of it. As readers, we admire his honesty and his righteous anger at modern life and modern airports. And in the end, Bennie is blessed with a moment of redemption, a touch of grace for a man stuck in O'Hare's interminable purgatory.
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