by Brad Warner
“John Lennon’s alcohol stinking spittle in my face…”
– Mark Mothersbaugh
There was a peculiar notion going around my high school in the white bread and meatloaf suburb of Akron, Ohio where I grew up that said that bands like DEVO were “wimp rock.” But seeing DEVO at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood where I had the privilege of sitting in on the final rehearsal for their current tour gave the lie to that. Even with several members of the band having passed sixty years old and the rest closing in quick, DEVO rocks like no other band on Planet Earth.
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by Fred Topel
“I don’t listen to anyone else.”
– Robert Pattinson
Three years ago, anyone who wanted to talk to Robert Pattinson could have probably just phoned up his agent or publicist and gotten a lunch date with the struggling actor. Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire didnt exactly have groupies, and that was his only really visible role.
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By Erin Broadley
There are drummers, and then there are street drummers – the guys who truly aren’t afraid to get down and dirty with their craft. The musicians in Street Drum Corps are both, having played played traditional drums in rock bands for years before lending their sticks to something decidedly more free-form and experimental.
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by Fred Topel
“I’m good at starting things.”
– Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam movies are hard to explain anyway. Try to encapsulate 12 Monkeys in a logline about time travel, or pose The Fisher King as as simple drama about grief. The lengths Gilliam had to go through to finish what tragically became Heath Ledger’s final film take things to the next level.
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by Nicole Powers
“We have fittings and sip violet champagne.”
– Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is one of the world’s most dazzling women. The Swarovski-adorned mistress of striptease has done more to preserve and promote the hallowed art of burlesque than any other performer alive today. Her sexy and spectacular shows feature stunning costumes and larger-than-life props, but are always grounded in the purity of the classic art form. Thus they have an innate dignity that never relies on the kind of bump and grind sleaze that many of Dita’s contemporaries mistake for erotica.
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by Nicole Powers
“I realized that I’d outgrown porn.”
– Tera Patrick
Tera Patrick has one of the most recognized names, faces – and bodies – in porn. The Asian adult film actress made her first movie in 1999 and has managed to stay at the top of the proverbial pile for over a decade. Over the course of her career she has won numerous industry awards, and was inducted into the elite AVN Hall of Fame earlier this year.
The product of a broken home, as a teenager Tera craved attention. Her ambitions were simple: she wanted to be a model and marry a rock star. She achieved her fist goal early in life when she was discovered by a talent scout at the age of 13. She subsequently signed with a Japanese agency, and moved halfway around the world to fulfill her dreams. Alone. When she was just 14. Though successful at landing assignments, without any parental supervision, Tera’s life soon spun out of control.
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by Andrea Larrabee
“The goal is the journey”
– Benji Madden
Though they may have joked about the trappings of fame in their 2002 breakout hit “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” brothers Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte appreciate everything their success has brought. Having come from a broken home – and suffered the financial and emotional hardship that resulted from it – they also know the value of family, a theme which lies at the heart of their latest release Cardiology.
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