So much for this being it: Tomorrow night, the British cable channel Sky 1 will broadcast a séance in which psychic Derek Acorah attempts to contact Michael Jackson from the great beyond. The interdimensional chat, which will apparently be held “on an island… in a secret location familiar to Jackson” for the purposes of extra paranormal gobbledygook clogging up the transmissions, will be broadcast live. Acorah is a TV pro, hosting TV shows and embarking on tours in the UK, so I’m sure that something will happen during the telecast even if nothing really does, you know? After the jump, the Vaseline-smeared promo for the telefestivities. MORE »
The nimbus of his fame
The Michael Jackson Séance: A Live-TV Experiment That Will No Doubt Be As Revelatory As “The Mystery Of Al Capone’s Vault”
f2k
32. Smash Mouth, “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)”
Baloo would be rolling over in his grave if he heard this. MORE »
names in the news
Dear Aerosmith: I Love You (Well, Most Of Your Output) But Maybe You Should Think About Calling It A Day
Aerosmith’s been having a rough go of it lately, what with an injury-plagued tour that was eventually canceled over the summer and lead singer Steven Tyler’s declaration that now was the time to work “on the brand of myself — Brand Tyler” after a recent show at Abu Dhabi. Not that he hasn’t been honing that particular brand for a while now; that gig was apparently one of many of recent years in which Tyler didn’t make his presence known to the rest of the band until right before they went on stage. Classic Rock correspondent Peter Makowski, who was apparently at the show, noted that while Tyler’s off fine-tuning his brand, the rest of the band is set to sit down and have a long talk about its future, which may not involve Tyler at all. MORE »
videodrone
Rihanna Takes On The “Spokeswoman For Domestic-Violence Survivors” Role
This morning’s Good Morning America showed the first snippet of Rihanna’s interview with Diane Sawyer, her first sit-down chat with a reporter since the February pre-Grammys incident in which she was assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. And it’s a pretty gripping—if somewhat quease-inducing—part of the discussion to lead off with, as Rihanna talks about how she now feels embarrassed to have fallen for Brown, what led her back to him in the immediate aftermath of the incident (complete with statistic-citing), and how she finally decided to break things off with him for good. The part where she says “Eff love” will probably be quoted the most out of context, but the words surrounding it are, I think, the real message that she wants to send out to young women involved in abusive relationships: MORE »
News
Berlin To Bono: “Tear Down This Wall… No, The One Your Show Just Forced The Building Of”
As part of MTV’s Katy Perry-hosted celebration of the Berlin Wall’s destruction in the wall’s former home city this week, U2 will play a free show at the Brandenburg Gate later today. Freedom and free stuff! Yay! But with freedom comes responsibility, and those people who didn’t get their act together to get tickets for the gig—they, unsurprisingly, went pretty quickly—will have to watch on TV at home. They can’t even head down to the area near the Gate and try and hear the show… because a 12-foot fence draped with white sheets is being thrown up so ticketless people will have to stay at home and drive up the telecast’s ratings. MORE »
tv party
Making A Joke About The Stale Nature Of Kanye/Taylor Swift Jokes Is The New Making Kanye/Taylor Swift Jokes
Above, a preview of a promo for this week’s Saturday Night Live, which will feature Taylor Swift performing and hosting. Why do I have a feeling that Swift’s eye-rolling at Bill Hader’s insistence on making a Kanye joke doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be three or four or 10 references to the notorious Video Music Awards incident during the 90 minutes of this week’s program? Oh right, because of SNL’s writing staff, which never met a joke it couldn’t bludgeon to death. [MTV] MORE »
synergies
Four Artists Who Might Want To Branch Out Into Infomercial-Inspired Licensing
Never one to let a good joke just settle, Weezer is packaging the deluxe editions of its new album Raditude with a Snuggie, the As Seen On TV “blanket with sleeves” that’s both functional (it really is pretty warm) and hilarity-inducing (ah, recession-era cable ads, the last bastion of UHF-style production values). Surely the amount of press that Weezer has received for this move will result in other artists borrowing from the ever-expanding world of cheap commercials. After the jump, we envision a few pairings. MORE »
year-end analysis
Amazon Beats The Christmas Rush, Crowns Neko Case As 2009’s Best
Twangy spitfire Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone was selected by Amazon.com’s editors as the best of 2009, while U2’s No Line On The Horizon was the online retailer’s best-selling album this year. That’s according to a just-released year-end package that jumps the “happy new year” gun by quite a few days. Sure, boosting these albums now will probably be great for the holiday sales, but it’s too bad that publishing the list now means that the likes of R. Kelly’s Untitled and Shakira’s She Wolf didn’t get their critical due. Oh wait, there are no pop-as-pop albums on the editors’ list anyway. Silly me! Top 25s for both lists after the jump.
THE GOOD: It sure is fascinating to see the sales demographics of Amazon out themselves via the Bestsellers list—U2, Susan Boyle, Diana Krall, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan make up the top five, while younger-skewing top-selling 2009 releases like the Hannah Montana soundtrack, Eminem’s Relapse, and the Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. land at Nos. 16, 24, and 25, respectively. At least all generations can agree on Green Day (No. 6)! And it’s nice to see Case’s editorially beloved album performing well on the sales side, too (No. 11).
THE BAD: In addition to Boyle’s pre-order mania landing her at No. 2; two albums on the bestsellers list have been released in the past few weeks: Michael Bublé’s Crazy Love (release date 10/9, No. 9) and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Night Castle (release date 10/26, No. 12). That sort of implies a low bar for high sales, methinks.
THE WHAAAA? This might be a wild and crazy question to pose, but is Steve Martin’s banjo album really the best of its breed to come out this year? MORE »
arena rock
Lady GaGa Jumps On The Yankees Bandwagon
“I’ve actually been making a lot of Yankee analogies in my interviews lately because I get asked, ‘Do you feel pressure? How do you feel when someone says this? Or do you feel like you have to top yourself?’ ” the Yonkers native told MTV News. “I say I do feel like I have to top myself. But I feel like I’m Rivera. I’m a closer.” On the one hand, this statement dovetails nicely with Popjustice’s claim that GaGa is the greatest pop star of this decade, although I’m not sure I’m going to totally co-sign that assertion yet. On the other, man do I hate Yankee fans’ sense of “we got this” entitlement, for real. [MTV] MORE »
