Charles Lloyd - Geri Allen duo & other: June 2008

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Soulja Boy Slams Ice-T�s Comments

‘Crank That’ rapper Soulja Boy has posted a video response to veteran rapper and ‘Law and Order: SVU’ star Ice-T, who this week launched a tirade against the 17-year-old saying that he “single handedly destroyed hip-hop” and that he should “eat a d*ck.” Watch both Ice-T and Soulja Boy’s videos by clicking ‘read more’.
Below is the initial comments by Ice-T from a new mixtape by DJ Cisco and following that, Soulja Boy’s response.

Photo courtesy of Interscope.

Lifescapes and Jeff Victor

Artist: Lifescapes and Jeff Victor

   Genre(s):
New Age

Discography:

Return To Scottish Moors

Year: 2001
Tracks: 11

Summer Sojourn

Year: 1996
Tracks: 12

Thurman Stalker Must Stay Away For Five Years

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Winehouse quizzed by police over drug claim

Singer Amy Winehouse has been questioned in connection with a video which allegedly showed her smoking crack cocaine, a police source said on Wednesday.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said officers interviewed the 24-year-old in connection with an allegation of unlawful possession of a controlled drug.
He said she was not arrested, but was interviewed under caution and inquiries were continuing.
Last month footage obtained by the Sun newspaper appeared to show Winehouse inhaling fumes from a crack pipe.
The disturbing images were said to have been filmed during a party at Winehouse's London home.
The singer is now in rehab, admitting herself to the clinic in north London on 24 January days after the video appeared.
On 4 February the singer took a break from her treatment to apply for a US visa so she could attend the Grammys in Los Angeles on 10 February, where she is nominated for six awards.
The application process will not be simple due to her drugs record. Last October she was arrested and fined in Norway for possession of cannabis.

'Hit and Run,' about professional hit man, is hard to put down

"Hit and Run" (William Morrow)

By Lawrence Block

John Keller, professional hit man, is on his way to Des Moines to take a life - one last job before retiring to spend more time with his stamp collection.

Keller is the consummate pro. He's killed hundreds of times, yet the police don't even know his name. But you know how it is with that final job. Something is bound to go wrong. Keller's seen enough TV crime dramas to know it, too. He even jokes about it, but you can tell the thought has him on edge.

In Des Moines, Keller's contact points out the target but tells him the timing is wrong, that he should hang out for a few days and wait for the go-ahead. The contact also gives Keller his choice of murder weapons: a Glock semiautomatic or a revolver. Keller hefts them both, then chooses the revolver.

A few days later, as Keller is still waiting for the word, a candidate campaigning in Iowa's presidential primary is assassinated. With a Glock. And Keller's prints are on the gun.

Realizing he's been set up as the fall-guy, Keller runs for his life.

It's the biggest fix Keller's been in since Lawrence Block introduced him with 9 short stories for Playboy magazine more than a decade ago. The stories formed the basis for "Hit Man," the first Keller novel, in 1998. "Hit and Run" is the fourth in the series from this prolific writer whose work also includes crime novels featuring four other series characters: Matthew Scudder, Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison and Bernie Rhodenbarr.

Like Keller, Block has been practising his craft for a long time and is every bit as good at it. In fact, he's such a superb storyteller that in "Hit and Run," he seems to be showing off.

Virtually all the action in the book occurs in the first 22 pages and the final 40, leaving 222 pages in which not much happens. Keller moves around from place to place, uses his skills to build a new identity, eventually settles down in a new life as a carpenter in New Orleans, and meets a nice young woman.

It should be deadly dull, but it's not. The crisp prose, the pitch-perfect dialogue and richly drawn characters make the book hard to put down. And, of course, you sense that by the end of the book, something unexpected is going to happen.

See Also

Teddy Lasry

Artist: Teddy Lasry

   Genre(s):
Electronic: Progressive

Discography:

Seven Stones

Year: 1979
Tracks: 7

E=mc2

Year: 1976
Tracks: 7

Kabbalah

Artist: Kabbalah

   Genre(s):
Electronic: Progressive

Discography:

The Red String

Year: 2003
Tracks: 15

Boy George scraps US tour over visa issues

Culture Club frontman Boy George has been forced to cancel his North American summer tour after US authorities refused to issue him a visa, citing looming legal issues overseas.

George's 24-date North American trek was scheduled to begin July 11 at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, and wrap August 23 at the House of Blues in Dallas.

"At the moment, Boy George cannot come to the United States of America because he has been refused permission to enter by the USA Administration," read a statement from the artist's management.

"This is not in respect of anything he has done in the past but because he is facing a trial in November in London for something that happened in April last year."

George was arrested last year after a 28-year-old male escort from Norway accused the singer/DJ of false imprisonment and assault. George later denied the allegations and was released on bail.

"George's lawyers in London have absolutely forbidden us to speak about the facts of that case and all I can say is that George is astounded at the decision and is having lawyers here in the States look at it in the hope that someone will change their mind," the statement continued.

"George really would love to come to America and repay his American fans loyalty and that is why we are asking the US Authorities to reconsider their decision."

In 2001, George supported the release of his Essential Mix collection with a brief DJ-tour of the U.S. George has also toured and performed DJ sets in Australia, Asia, Europe and Canada.

See Also

Paris Hilton - Hiltons Tinkerbell Finds Love With Maddens Mutt

PARIS HILTON's close ties to GOOD CHARLOTTE's MADDEN twins has inspired her dog to date her potential brother-in-law's pet.

Hilton?s Chihuahua, Tinkerbell, and Joel Madden?s pit bull terrier, Eazy, are reportedly a hot item after finding romance in the dog basket.

Hilton tells Life + Style magazine, ?Tinkerbell definitely has a crush on him. Things are getting pretty serious.?

Benji Madden, Paris? boyfriend and Joel?s brother, reveals the pooches met at a recent house party: ?We wish them the best. They seem happy.?

See Also

Whitney Houston

Artist: Whitney Houston

   Genre(s):
Pop
   Dance: Pop
   Soundtrack

Discography:

The Ultimate Collection

Year: 2007
Tracks: 18

One Wish: The Holiday Album

Year: 2003
Tracks: 11

Just Whitney

Year: 2002
Tracks: 19

Love, Whitney

Year: 2001
Tracks: 16

My Love Is Your Love

Year: 1998
Tracks: 13

The Preacher's Wife

Year: 1996
Tracks: 15

Grace and Glory

Year: 1993
Tracks: 15

The Bodyguard

Year: 1992
Tracks: 16

I'm Your Baby Tonight

Year: 1990
Tracks: 11

Whitney

Year: 1987
Tracks: 11

Whitney Houston

Year: 1985
Tracks: 10

You Give Good Love

Year:
Tracks: 10

Waiting To Exhale

Year:
Tracks: 16

The Greatest Hits (CD 1) (Cool Down)

Year:
Tracks: 18

Whitney Houston is inarguably one of the of the biggest female pop stars of all time. Her accomplishments as a hitmaker ar extraordinary; merely to scratching the surface, she became the number 1 artist ever to take 7 sequent singles hit number unitary, and her 1993 Dolly Parton cover "I Will Always Love You" became cypher less than the biggest hit single in stone story. Houston was able-bodied to wield big grownup modern-day ballads, effervescent, fashionable dance-pop, and slickness urban contemporary soulfulness with equalize manual dexterity; the resultant was an wide appeal that was matched by scant few artists of her earned run average, and helped her suit one of the number one black artists to find success on MTV in Michael Jackson's wake up. Like many of the original soul singers, Houston was trained in gospel earlier moving into secular euphony; all over clock time, she developed a virtuosic singing style granted over to swooping, gimcrack melodic embellishments. The phantom of Houston's exceeding technique static looms magnanimous over nearly every pop prima donna and smooth urban psyche vocaliser -- male or female -- in her wake, and spawned a horde of imitators (despite some critics' complaints about over-singing). Always more of a singles artist, Houston largely shied away from albums during the '90s, cathartic the bulk of her to the highest degree pop material on the soundtracks of films in which she appeared. By the conclusion of the decade, she'd bygone several age without a true smash hit, yet her status as an icon was hardly diminished.

Mount Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in Newark, NJ, on August 9, 1963; her mother was gospel/R&B singer Cissy Houston, and her first cousin was Dionne Warwick. By age 11, Houston was playing as a soloist in the junior gospel truth choir at her Baptist church; as a adolescent, she began resultant her mother in concert (as good as on the 1978 album Cogitate It Over), and went on to back artists like Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan. Houston besides pursued mold and performing, appearance on the sitcoms Gimme a Break and Silver Spoons. Somewhat bizarrely, Houston's first recording as a featured vocalizer was with Bill Laswell's experimental jazz-funk ensemble Material; their 1982 album Unitary Down set Houston aboard such unlikely avant-gardists as Archie Shepp and Fred Frith. The following year, Arista president Clive Davis heard Houston singing at a club and offered her a record compress. Her first single appearance was a span with Teddy Pendergrass, "Hold Me," which lost the Top 40 in 1984.

Houston's debut record album, Whitney Houston, was released in March 1985. Its first single, "Someone for Me," was a fizzle, only the second gear judge, "You Give Good Love," became Houston's first hit, topping the R&B charts and striking number tercet bolt down. Houston's following triplet singles -- the Grammy-winning romanticistic lay "Delivery All My Love for You," the bright danceable "How Will I Know," and the inspirational "The Greatest Love of All" -- all topped the pop charts, and a year to the calendar month after its acquittance, Whitney Houston hit number one on the album charts. It finally sold over 13 one thousand thousand copies, making it the best-selling debut e'er by a female artist. Houston cemented her wiz position on her side by side album, Whitney; contempt the sterile title, it became the starting time album by a female creative person to debut at figure one, and sold over club trillion copies. Its first quaternity singles -- "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (World Health Organization Loves Me)" (some other Grammy winner), "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional," and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" -- all hit telephone number one, an amazing, record-setting run of seven-spot straight (broken by "Love Will Save the Day"). In late 1988, Houston scored a Top Five dispatch with the non-LP single "One Moment in Time," recorded for an Olympics-themed compilation record album.

Houston returned with her third album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, in 1990; a more urban-sounding, R&B-oriented record, it immediately spun off deuce number one hits in the title track and "All the Man That I Need." But the character of the material was broadly speaking viewed as, overall, much weaker than her previous efforts, and following those deuce hits, gross revenue of the album narrowing sour speedily, halting about four-spot million copies. Nevertheless, Houston remained so popular that she could regular carry a recording of "The Star Spangled Banner" (performed at the Super Bowl) into the pop Top 20 -- though, of row, the Gulf War had something to do with that. In retrospect, the wandering quality of I'm Your Baby Tonight seemed to signal Houston's declining interest in making in full full-clad albums. Instead, she began to stress on an performing career, which she hadn't chased since her teenage age; she besides married vocaliser Bobby Brown in the summer of 1992. Her first feature film, a romance with Kevin Costner called The Bodyguard, was released in late 1992; it performed substantially at the box role, helped by an ad campaign which apparently centered around the climactic key change in Houston's soundtrack recording of the Dolly Parton-penned "I Will Always Love You." In fact, the ad campaign doubtlessly helped "I Will Always Love You" suit the biggest single in pop music history. It set modern records for sales (virtually quint gazillion copies) and weeks at issue one (14), although those were afterwards broken by Elton John's "Candela in the Wind 1997" and Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day," severally. Meanwhile, the soundtrack finally sold an dumbfounding 16 jillion copies, and also south Korean won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

In one case Houston had stopped up raking in awards and touring the humanity, she prepared her next theatrical going, the female ensemble drama Wait to Exhale. A few months ahead its vent at the end of 1995, it was announced that she and Brown had split up; however, they called off the stock split just a couple months by and by, and rumors around their wild kinship filled the tabloids for years to come. Waiting to Exhale was released toward the end of the class, and the showtime individual from the soundtrack, "Emanate (Shoop Shoop)," topped the charts; the album sold over seven-spot gazillion copies. For her next project, Houston decided to retort to her gospel roots; the soundtrack to the 1996 photographic film The Preacher's Wife, which naturally featured Houston in the title role, was fuddled with traditional and contemporary gospel singing songs, asset guest appearances by Houston's mother, Shirley Caesar, and the Georgia Mass Choir. Houston too began devising headlines for what appeared to be increasing unreliability, cancelling several TV and concert appearances imputable to malady.

In 1998, Houston eventually issued a modern full-length album, My Love Is Your Love, her first in eight days. Houston worked with pop/smooth soul mainstays wish Babyface and David Foster, simply besides recruited hip-hop stars like Missy Elliott, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Q-Tip. The album sold even fewer copies than I'm Your Baby Tonight, simply it received Houston's to the highest degree enthusiastic reviews in quite some time. Moreover, it produced one of her biggest R&B chart hits (seven-spot weeks at number one) in the trio number "Heartbreak Hotel," done with Faith Evans and Kelly Price. She too duetted with Mariah Carey on "When You Believe," a call from the animated film The Prince of Egypt. Unfortunately, Houston was too back in the tabloids in other 2000; she was arrested in Hawaii when airway government reportedly ground cannabis in her luggage (the charges were by and by dismissed). Speculation around Houston's personal life only grew when she was dropped from the Academy Awards telecast that March, officially because of a raw throat, merely reputedly due to poor rehearsals and a generally out-of-it line. Later in the year, Arista released the two-disc compiling Greatest Hits, which actually featured one disk of hits and one of remixes; it also included new duets with Enrique Iglesias, George Michael, and Deborah Cox. It was too announced that Houston had sign a modern deal with Arista worth $100 million, requiring captain Hicks albums from the singer. Her personal issues became even more public through the realism television series Organism Bobby Brown, and she eventually divorced her married man and went into intense renewal. An album of modern material was set for spillage by the end of 2007.