Tuesday, 2 September 2008

Little Jackie, The Stoop

Imani Coppola remains topper known for her US Top 40 hit, 1997's Legend of A Cowgirl. But after being dropped by Columbia Records when further hits failed to materialise, she set verboten on her own as a sort of DIY pop star, self-releasing her own home-recorded music and making some quite unexpected friends: early Faith No More frontman Mike Patton, for example, who invited Coppola to join his many-limbed pop supergroup Peeping Tom. He then released her fine 2007 solo record The Black And White Album on his label, Ipecac.



Little Jackie � a collaboration between Coppola and producer Adam Pallin � is an unashamedly pop album, a blend of feisty R&B, soul, and funk, although lyrically, it's a issue above to the highest degree records in a similar vein. Witty and with a strong narrative articulation, Coppola is clearly a pretty voguish cookie, falling casually clever rhymes (''It's a typical day in the universe/Another MC spits a puny verse/I taste to receive through my day without saying curse/Cuz I curse too much, and such and such'' goes single girl's anthem 28 Butts) in a seductive, lightly husky drawl. The should-be-a-hit here is The World Should Revolve Around Me, bright soul-pop garnished with violins, horns and piano and with a chorus that beams like a smile. Elsewhere, Liked You Better� is a sweetly melodic, craftily barbed break up song (''I liked you better before you knew me/Didn't heater cigarettes, you didn't drink coffee'') spell Cryin' For The Queen appears to take draw a bead on at Amy Winehouse - or some other tottering, car-crash starlet - Coppola singing, ''Sick of your behaviour and your junky routine/It's time for you to get clean and stop creating a scene' atop an irresistible 60s girl mathematical group swing.



Mixing sweetness with sass, The Stoop mightiness just be Coppola's topper album to date, and if there's any justice, it'll see her render from the margins to pop's nitty-gritty stage.




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Saturday, 23 August 2008

"The Notebook" Romance Lives!

Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling ar back on again. The two were in Toronto yesterday looking nauseatingly precious.
Ryan  Gosling  and Rachel  McAdams
Just get married already.




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Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Palm Springs ShortFest lineup announced

Includes films by Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst




The 317 short films selected for the 2008 Palm Springs International ShortFest include movies directed by Kate Hudson ("Cutless"), Kirsten Dunst ("Welcome") and Matthew Modine ("I Think I Thought") and films narrated by Whoopi Goldberg ("The Descendant") and Robert Redford ("The New Environmentalists").

ShortFest, scoring its 14th year, runs Aug. 21-27 at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs. Festival director Darryl Macdonald and film curator Kathleen McInnis have assembled 53 earth premieres, 47 North American premieres and 24 U.S. Premieres, collected in 51 themed programs.

The opening night screening on Aug. 21 at 6:30 p.m. will be highlighted by award-winning films including "Life's Hard" (Romania), "Manon on the Asphalt" (France), "Procrastination" (U.K.), "Sikumi" (On the Ice) (U.S.), "Tadeo Jones and the Basement of Doom" (Spain) and "The Wednesdays" (Ireland).


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Thursday, 26 June 2008

50 Cent - 50 Cent Seeks To Sue Ex For Defamation


Rap superstar 50 CENT is to sue his ex-girlfriend for defamation after she accused him of causing the fire that burned down her New York home.

The In Da Club hitmaker - real name Curtis Jackson - has been locked in a bitter court battle with Shaniqua Tompkins, the mother of his 11-year-old son Marquise, for months, after he tried to evict them from the Long Island mansion he owns.

The property went up in flames last month (May08) in what police have called a "highly suspicious" inferno. Tompkins later alleged the rapper had started the fire himself in a bid to force her and their son out of the house.

Shortly after the blaze, she told the press: "He tried to kill me and his own child. I know this came from 50 Cent."

But 50 Cent has slammed the claims, and his lawyers are now preparing a defamation complaint against Tompkins, reports the New York Daily News.

His attorney Brett Kimmel says, "There comes a point where you can no longer sit on your hands and listen to her spread these falsehoods. Besides hurting his reputation, they have a damaging impact on their son."

The star also claims Tompkins has refused him access to Marquise since the fire - while calling 50 a bad father for failing to get in touch with the boy.

In a petition filed in Suffolk County Family court, 50 alleges Tompkins has "made it practically impossible" for him to contact his son, by not notifying him of where they were staying.

And, when 50 learned Marquise's cell phone had been destroyed in the accident, he sent a new one for his son, along with a bag of new clothes.

However, he claims Tompkins has "failed and refused to give the cell phone to Marquise. The only way (50) can communicate with his son is to call (Tompkins') cell phone."

The legal papers state Tompkins' behaviour is a "willful violation" of their custody agreement and the rapper is requesting a judge allow him access to his son.

50's attorney is due to argue the case in court on Friday (20Jun08). The star will not be in attendance for the court hearing as he is currently on location in Louisiana for new movie Microwave Park.





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Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Merzbow / Christoph Heemann

Merzbow / Christoph Heemann   
Artist: Merzbow / Christoph Heemann

   Genre(s): 
Other
   



Discography:


Sleeper Awakes on the Edge of the Abyss   
 Sleeper Awakes on the Edge of the Abyss

   Year: 1993   
Tracks: 5




 






Monday, 9 June 2008

Clint Eastwood Versus Spike Lee

Photo: WireImage
Hooray for feuds! (Take that, Doree Shafrir!) Joining Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara in the ranks of beefing auteurs are Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood. At Cannes a few weeks ago, Lee blasted Eastwood for not including any black actors in his duo of World War II movies, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. "Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total and there was not one Negro actor on the screen," Lee said. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that — that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."



Today Eastwood fires back in an interview with the Guardian, in which the director snaps, "A guy like him should shut his face." He defends his movies by noting that no black soldiers were among the ones who raised the flag at Iwo Jima, which is true, but not exactly the point — Lee wasn't demanding that Eastwood change a real-life person's race. Those movies had plenty of soldiers in them, not all of whom were based on actual people (say, Marines 1–4 in Letters From Iwo Jima) — couldn't one or two of them have been played by black actors?

But whatever, it doesn't matter that much — everyone's pretty much already picked a dog in this fight. As always, we're just cheering for the fight itself, and more windy, outraged speeches from Spike, followed by more terse, clenched-jawed responses from Clint.

Spike Lee gets critical in Cannes [HR]
Dirty Harry comes clean [Guardian]


Sunday, 1 June 2008

Tabloid Reports - Foster & Partner Split

Actress Jodie Foster has split with her long-term partner Cydney Bernard, according to U.S. tabloid reports. The news comes just five months after the intensely private star paid tribute to her alleged partner of 14 years at an award ceremony. The 45-year-old, who had never before acknowledged Bernard in public, gushed about her during an acceptance speech at a Los Angeles film gala in December. Foster called her friend, "My beautiful Cydney, who sticks with me through with me through the rotten and the bliss." An insider tells the National Enquirer, "Jodie breaking up with Cydney is shocking. Right now it's the best kept secret in Hollywood, and it's not just because Jodie is legend and an intensely private person, either. She and Cydney have been together for so many years and have two children together, the potential fallout and legal wrangling from this split could be monumental." The couple has two adopted children together; Charles, nine, and Kit, six. Foster's publicist was unavailable for comment as Wenn went to press.


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