Ryan Tedder & Co. have an edgy lineup of features this time around. More »
Oscar has a little problem this year, and I’m not just talking about the fact that no human being likes The Reader even though the Weinsteins bought it a Best Picture nod. Actually, that is part of the problem. This year’s batch of Best Picture contenders are a moribund lot with no real consensus favorite and no Dark Knight-style blockbuster up there to boost ratings. Sure, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is doing alright at the box office, but it has to make about $100 million more to even recoup, and it has as many detractors as it has supporters. Slumdog Millionaire is the only real “story” to surround this year’s Academy Awards, so you can imagine that the producers of said awards show really want M.I.A. to perform a little bit of her song from the movie, “O Saya,” on Sunday night. There is just one problem: She’s worried about her condition, what with her recently having a baby and all.
Peter Gabriel has decided not to perform at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22 (although he will attend). And if the reasoning he presents for the decision on his Web site can be believed, I can’t say I blame him.
This morning brought the nominations for the 66th Annual Golden Globes, and the nominees for Best Original Song do collect a “who are some people who have never been in my kitchen”-worthy group—songs performed by Beyonce, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, and Clint Eastwood are up for the award, which will be given out next month. After the jump, the five nominated songs, just in case you haven’t gotten around to hearing Springsteen’s title track for The Wrestler or the Cyrus’ increasingly Bea Arthur-ish timbre growling through a song from Bolt.
I went to PS 112 in Astoria to vote this morning, and while the school’s lobby was bake-sale-free, casting my ballot and walking to the subway put me in a good mood. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the promise of not being bombarded with election-related speculation was close on the horizon, at least until some idiot commentator utters the word “2012” while scrambling to fill space on whatever cable-news channel has given him airtime. Which is probably why I had Andrew WK’s “Party Hard” in my head: Sure, it was barely after nine in the morning and I was on my way back to work, instead of heading out for the evening, but my heart felt right–like it was enjoying some wine, canapes, and total fucking raging. And isn’t that what matters? A counterpoint party song, and a rundown of some notable stories that got lost in the Election Day shuffle, after the jump.
Halloween is only four days away! Although the fun is rapidly being sucked from the whole holiday thanks to church-sponsored “Harvest Festivals” and the jackass who thinks a “FBI: Female Body Inspector” t-shirt is a costume, we hope to help you, the reader, inject a bit more excitement into the celebration with some costume ideas from your favorite music videos.
I suppose I would trust Peter Gabriel more than than most CEOs of music recommendation sites when it came to to selecting listening material. (At the very least, I’d hear some WOMAD-appropriate stuff.) Although he’s not really the person making all the music recommendations on his new site TheFilter.com, he’s developed what he calls a “life jockey” to help users find new music, movies, and other means of entertainment.