dijous, 24 de setembre del 2009

jà estic més tranquil...


Fuente: EFE

Marilyn Manson informa, en su blog de MySpace, que padece influenza AH1N1; Desafortunadamente voy a sobrevivir, dice el cantante


LOS ÁNGELES, Estados Unidos, sep. 23, 2009.- El controvertido cantante estadounidense Marilyn Manson aseguró en un blog de la web MySpace que había sido diagnosticado con la influenza AH1N1, según recogieron hoy varios medios en Estados Unidos.

Manson indicó que había sido atendido por un "doctor de verdad", quien le informó que estaba contagiado por el virus tipo AH1N1.

"Desafortunadamente, voy a sobrevivir", afirmó el artista de 40 años, quien desmintió que su afección tiene algo que ver con algún encuentro sexual con un "cerdo".

"El doctor dijo que mis pasadas elecciones de mujeres no han contribuido de ninguna manera a que yo adquiriera esta misteriosa enfermedad", declaró.

Manson estrenó el pasado mes de mayo el álbum "The high end of low", el séptimo trabajo de estudio de su carrera discográfica, definido por el autor como "un ave fénix surgiendo de las cenizas, un ejercicio de rendición y resurrección".

El cantante, cuyo nombre real es Brian Hugh Warner, creó su identidad artística asociando Marilyn Monroe y el apellido del asesino Charles Manson.

dimecres, 16 de setembre del 2009

Woodstock ¡el musical! (en previsió)

Woodstock the Musical coming to Broadway

Free love for $75 a ticket – does Woodstock the Musical mark the end of the legendary festival's countercultural cachet?

Woodstock festival music jam

A great big song and dance... can Broadway capture the Woodstock spirit? Photograph: Bill Eppridge/Time Life Pictures

It's been a while since uptown audiences could expect a psychedelic experience on the Great White Way (though I suppose some could argue that Starlight Express was a pretty bad trip), but Michael Lang, one of the promoters of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair has announced plans to turn three days of peace and love into a Broadway musical.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lang announced plans for a production that would draw upon his memoir, The Road to Woodstock, revealing "the human condition and stories affecting people's lives" as well as "something of what we experienced on that weekend". Lang rejected the idea of capturing the event in showtunes. (So audiences cannot, alas, look forward to Oh, What a Mud-Covered Morning or My Fair Hippy). But he mentioned that instead musicians who performed at Woodstock might be called upon to write stage-appropriate songs – though it's hard to imagine Joan Baez or Pete Townshend agreeing to do so. (Maybe Grace Slick needs the work?)

Of course, there's plentiful irony in turning the consummately countercultural experience into a mainstream musical, but Woodstock has long since become a T-shirt and pop-culture staple. The current Broadway revival of Hair is a useful example of how a piece once considered daring now plays to family audiences. Its songs namecheck LSD and fellatio, yet even speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi got onstage at one performance and boogied with the cast. Can you really fight the man when she's dancing with you? It's also important to remember that while promoters eventually declared Woodstock a free concert, it was initially designed as a commercial venture. The $18 tickets would today retail for $75-$105 – not dissimilar to a Broadway ticket price.

But Woodstock does have a few natural plot points. The production of the festival – recently chronicled in the Ang Lee film Taking Woodstock – was certainly full of drama, and during the course of the festival there were births, deaths, miscarriages, and many hearts united and broken. And yet, containing the festival within a theatrical scenario doesn't really seem like the right approach. Michael Lang might do better to worry less about "the human condition" and more about great music. He could create a concert-style musical of the order of the West End's Thriller Live, or Fela!, soon to open on Broadway.

Some amalgam of Richie Havens, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival could make for a pretty super original cast recording. (I think we can probably leave the Incredible String Band out of this.) And who knows, Lang may have a hit on his hands – 40 years from now, people might joke that if you can remember Woodstock the Musical, you probably weren't there.

dimarts, 15 de setembre del 2009

Jim Carroll 1950-2009


Acabo de saber de la mort, sembla que sobre la taula de treball (la seva ocupació principal era la poesía). El coneixía de una película molt dura que la protagonitzava Leonardo Di Caprio (una de les poques vegades en les que m'ha estat creible el personatge), sobre una autobiografía de la "tendra" adolescencia de Carroll en la que compartía els estudi, la poesía, el basket, i la heroína... La peli és The basketball diaries, encara ara m'estic repensant si recomanar-la als meus fills adolescents...
El fet és que he descobert que havia col·laborat amb la penya de la Warhol Factory, amb la Patti Smith... i que té alguns LPs que, sincerament, desconeixía.
He aconseguit, gràcies a la inmediatesa de la xarxa, Catholic Boy. Us el recomano sincerament.

dimarts, 8 de setembre del 2009

Videojocs o agafa directament l'instrument...

Guitar Hero under fire from Rolling Stones legend Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman

Wyman believes fewer young people will take up real instruments. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

Bill Wyman, the former Rolling Stones bass player, has criticised music video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, claiming they will lead to fewer young people taking up real instruments.

"It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble. It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument".

"I think it's a pity," he said, speaking at Abbey Road studios while recording a charity Beatles song for Children in Need.

His concerns were echoed by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, who described the games as "an interesting new development".

Pink Floyd had not ruled out working on one in the future as a new way of selling music. But, he added: "It irritates me having watched my kids do it. If they spend as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons, they'd be damn good by now".

The news comes on the eve of the release of The Beatles: Rock Band game, which allows players to play along as The Beatles through their career in environments such as The Cavern Club in Liverpool, and Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets.

But Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, which created the Rock Band series, refuted the musicians' claims.

"We're constantly hearing from fans who were inspired by Rock Band to start studying a real instrument," he said.