‘You’re only paranoid if they’re not out to get you,’ is an adage that’s self-evidently true. With that as a given, Massive Attack mainstay 3D (a.k.a. Robert Del Naja) has every right to feel more than a little suspicious and mistrustful, especially when it comes to matters of internet privacy, security and surveillance.
After the FBI passed on a list of 7,300 UK credit card numbers associated with various porn sites (some legal and some of an illicit nature) to UK authorities, 3D was swept up in the excessively wide net of an indiscriminate police sting in 2003. Though allegations of any wrongdoing were unfounded, the repercussions were severe for the outspoken graffiti artist, vocalist and music producer. His home was raided, and all his computers and hard drives were confiscated for several months. To compound the situation, despite the fact that no charges directly relating to the police operation were ever filed, the furor that surrounded the investigation and baseless accusations (which were leaked and sensationally reported by a tabloid newspaper) meant that touring plans to promote Massive Attack’s fourth studio album 100th Window had to be put on hold. The situation was all the more ironic considering the title of that album referred to a book that exposed the flaws in computer security and the rampant misuse of information in the internet age.
The time warp has flipped and landed The Rocky Horror Picture Show at its 35th anniversary. Marking three and a half decades as the premier cult classic, the “sweet transvestites from Transsexual, Transylvania” are celebrating by invading your homes. Comic-Con 2010 brought the announcement that Glee would be doing a RHPS episode (which is set to air on Oct 26th), and now it has been confirmed that Dr. Frank-N-Furter & Co. will also be taking over your games console with a Guitar Hero track pack.
You can’t always control the situations you find yourself in, but you can control how you react to them. This is a lesson that Runaways frontwoman, singer and rock & roll icon Cherie Currie learned the hard way.
After a chance meeting with vocalist/guitarist Joan Jett and demented pop n’ rock Svengali Kim Fowley (a producer whose credits at the time included the novelty hit “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa”), Currie found herself at the eye of the storm that was The Runaways at age fifteen. The year was 1975, and the male-dominated industry was keen to dismiss the fledgling Los Angeles-based all-girl quintet (which, during Currie’s tenure with the group, featured Lita Ford on lead guitar, Jackie Fox on bass, and the late Sandy West on drums).
Under the guidance (or, it could be argued, misguidance) of Fowley, who was a formidable taskmaster, the girls relentlessly rehearsed until they were a beyond tight unit and a force to be reckoned with. Creatively and musically, Fowley’s berating and bullying – his primary motivational tactics – paid off. Over the course of the next two very hectic years The Runaways would leave an indelible mark on the music industry, smashing the misconceptions of those who ever doubted that women could rock.
DC and Marvel have both made major announcements recently concerning the pricing of their comics. Seems the companies have more-or-less simultaneously decided to drop the price of many of their more expensive titles starting in 2011.
The move will see more than 80% of DC’s ongoing series drop priced at $2.99 (instead of $3.99). Days after DC made their announcement, Marvel also confirmed upcoming reductions on an as yet to be named “select” group of existing titles, as well as new books debuting in 2011.
The move sent a wave of relief over many financially strapped comic book connoisseurs, but let’s dig down deeper into the price adjustments to see if DC and Marvel really have the fan or the bottom line at heart with this recession-proofing move.
“Maybe the mustache will ultimately prove a useful analog for the music.”
– Chris Cain, bassist
We Are Scientists are known for making straightforward pop-rock, but they’re not known for giving straightforward answers in interviews. I didn’t want to be the millionth person to ask “Are you really scientists?,” so I set out to find the answer on my own. After reading through several conflicting accounts of the band’s various areas of scientific expertise, I finally found the answer. A piece from the college magazine at Pomona, the California school where the band originally formed, revealed that guitarist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain weren’t actually science majors of any sort. Well played, guys.
Needless to say, We Are Scientists like to keep people guessing. They first broke out in the UK with 2005’s formidable collection of indie-pop, With Love and Squalor. The 2008 follow-up, a less upbeat but more lyrically complex record called Brain Thrust Mastery, also climbed the British charts. A predictable band would stick with a major label and put out another album following the same formula. This is no predictable band.
In a recent interview with Pitchfork, former Nine Inch Nailer Trent Reznor promoted his score to the Columbia Pictures financed, fifty million dollar film The Social Network with a typical amount of brutal honesty:
“People’s wildest dreams are about to be answered.”
– Linda Blair
The Exorcist is considered the scariest movie of all time. Generations cowered before VHS copies, and new audiences got to see an updated version which retained the infamous upside down spider-walk in 2000. Now on Blu Ray, both versions of the film are re-mastered in high definition, and are packaged with a bonus behind the scenes documentary about the making of the film.
Linda Blair played Regan MacNeil, the teenaged girl possessed by a demon. She famously floated over the bed and her head spun 360 degrees with the help of old school special effects that still look better than any CGI creation. She then returned to the franchise for the critically panned Exorcist II: The Heretic and, in 1990, a spoof of The Exorcist called Repossessed (Leslie “Naked Gun” Nielsen was the comedy priest.)
