Les Misbarack [Jibjab]

Source: Daily Intel | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:45 pm

GZA on His New Album, Revisiting ‘Liquid Swords,’ and the Problem With RZA

Photo: Getty Images

The first wave of Wu-Tang solo albums still elicits warm and fuzzy feelings for fans of the Clan. It was the mid-nineties, right after the game-changing Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and a string of classics — Method Man’s Tical, ODB’s Return to the 36 Chambers, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx — made the Wu seem infallible. But perhaps no one album was more fundamental in creating the can-do-no-wrong reputation than the GZA’s Liquid Swords. Everything about the album oozed a steely, deadly professionalism — the cover art; the spooky kung fu samples; RZA’s hard-nosed production; and, of course, that flow. It belonged to an unsentimental hip-hop assassin; it was never flashy, just airtight, with vibrant complete sentences tumbling one after the other. GZA, whose latest solo album, Pro Tools, came out last month, is revisiting the album on his current tour, which touches down at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza tonight. He talked to Vulture about the album’s blunt-fueled recording sessions, the divisive 8 Diagrams, and why fans should start getting excited for RZA collaborations still to come.

What are some of your memories from recording Liquid Swords?
Most of the memories is just being in the RZA’s house in that basement. The whole Clan was there. We didn't really have set hours. As far as the mood? Blunt. Not saying that was needed. I don't smoke now. But there was a lot of smoking going on. Sometimes weed just gets you in the creative state of mind. Analyzing stuff more, getting into it. The day would start, I would come over, it might be two in the afternoon, then he would start playing the beat. We might play chess. I'd start writing after playing chess. The beat would run and run and run, and it’d maybe like eight hours before I’d finish a verse.

Where were you getting your weed from back then?
I was getting it from Brooklyn. I was either bringing it or RZA had it. It wasn't the good stuff that people smoke nowadays, the greenery, scenery stuff. It had a lot of seeds in it. But I stopped smoking about two years ago. I smoked for so many years, blunts, since ’81, had to give the lungs a break.

Does it affect your writing?
No difference, whether I smoke or not. I don't really care for it now. I don't need it to write. I'm stronger lyrically now than I've ever been.

We’ve heard that you taught Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck how to rhyme in complete sentences — is that true?
Well, I schooled Masta Killa in the early days. I gave him a few pointers. And as far as Inspectah Deck, just based on his sentence structure, he's one of my favorites out the Clan. And his graphic lyrics — he paints good pictures fast, without using a lot of words. We were talking one day, and he was saying, "I learned from you," and he pointed to me. He said, "Once you told me just write sentences, and I just took it from there." If he's giving me the credit, I'll take it.

You talk on Pro Tools about seeing fans with Wu-Tang tattoos, and how much that means to you to have a dedicated fan base. When did you start thinking that way — that having a thousand dedicated fans is better than having a million ambivalent ones?
It's always been like that for me. It's always been about shelf life. Long-term parking, not short-term. That's why I take the time that I do when I write.

What was your reaction to 8 Diagrams?
Well, some of the group weren’t pleased with the album. To me, I wasn't saying I was displeased. I wasn't totally satisfied. I just thought that it could have been a whole lot better. It just wasn't what I was used to. It was nowhere near Wu-Tang Forever. Wu-Tang Forever is like a ten, and that's more like a two. I'm not gonna blame it all on the beats. You can't really blame it on music. You have to know what to do with the music. What the vibe is going. Some MCs don't take the time to take a beat home, or just vibe with it and just figure out, "How do I attack this track?" We have to come together as a producer and an MC. [But] I wasn't too excited with the music like that. It was more or less scoring music, for different [movie] scenes, which is great. [But] I know I can get with RZA and do a hundred times better.

So you think RZA was just too caught up in his cinematic scoring work at the time?
I think it’s been like that for years.

You think you and RZA will ever do a full album together again?
I want to. Yeah. I want to. We need that. That's needed. We have that chemistry. We had that connection, even when he wasn't a producer. When he was just beating on tables, when we were beating on our chests.

Source: Vulture | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:45 pm

Ben Silverman's Peacock problem

Front Page: NBC chief has most riding on fall schedule -- Ben Silverman's ears are burning. In a town known for its schadenfreude, a favorite topic of conversation is the status -- and the future -- of the NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios co-chairman and his top lieutenant, NBC Entertainment exec veep Teri Weinberg.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:33 pm

'Shrek' musical team work over time

Front Page: DreamWorks creates its legit identity -- "Shrek the Musical," which opened here Sept. 10 in its pre-Broadway engagement, has been percolating for five years, including three readings, a seven-week workshop and a month of previews.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:26 pm

LAX Police Dupe Paps with Decoy Spears

Paps are fooled by a look-alike Jamie Lynn Spears leaving LAX with police.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:23 pm

We’ve Seen the Flaming Lips’ ‘Christmas on Mars’ — And It’s As Weird As We’d Hoped!

Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Christmas on Mars, the Flaming Lips' long-awaited film debut, will finally be shown to the public this year. We attended a special advance screening alongside several Santa-clad Superfans at 7 a.m. this morning at Off–Off Broadway mainstay the Kraine Theater in the East Village and can indeed confirm that it's basically as weird as you'd hoped.

As B-movie sci-fi epics about humans, Martians, and the Christmas holiday go, we still prefer the 1964 film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Of course, that film didn't feature a vagina-headed marching band from hell, a spaceship captain who dresses like a seventies gym teacher and is fond of saying things like "I will grudge-fuck your grandmother in her grave," or SNL's Fred Armisen singing "Silent Night" to comfort people suffering from space-induced existential psychosis. Other balls-out highlights include an animated silhouette of a buxom Viking lass who urinates to test the surround-sound system of your movie theater and Wayne Coyne as a silent, dignified Martian who "might just be the best Santa Claus" there ever was, and travels via spaceship through a glowing vagina superimposed on a map of the galaxy.

All of the Lips appear in the film, as does Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, indie film actor Adam Goldberg as a supremely hostile psychologist, and — although we couldn't find him in the film — Elijah Wood (our bet is that it's him as one of the vagina-headed aliens in a space suit with his … er … mouth opening and closing, holding a dead baby in a dream sequence). It's probably best if you follow the instructions the Lips give you at the beginning of the film: laugh, cry, be happy, be sad, have sex, and smoke pot while watching it.

Source: Vulture | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:00 pm

Chris Russo’s Regrettable Voice-overs, Michael Kay’s Dilemma, and Announcer Camp for Kids

Some guys are too cool for ties.
Photo: WireImage

After nineteen years with his bromantic-comedy partner Mike Francesca on WFAN’s “Mike And The Mad Dog,” Chris Russo is now officially his own rabid canine. On Monday, Russo’s show on Sirius Radio debuts, with his “Mad Dog Radio” station launching in October. Russo talked to us about suddenly having to care about sports in Arkansas, whether he misses his old friend, and the shock of providing the soundtrack to Harvey Keitel’s penis.

So, how much do you miss Mike?
I have not talked to Mike. I think I’ll give it a little time. I’ve stayed away from FAN, I haven’t really called that much. I think there’ll be a little bit of a friendly rivalry. I’m a little curious about what Mike does over on FAN. But it’s not like I’m looking back. I’m looking forward. I’m a little bored stiff sitting around not doing shows.

You’ve talked almost exclusively about New York sports for twenty years now. Are you really going to be able to be a college football expert now? Are you in a room poring through media guides, cramming, like Sarah Palin on the Middle East?
I have been studying up on college football. I mean, finding out who's the offensive lineman for the Hogs of Arkansas … can I handle it? We’re gonna find out. My job today is gonna be making sure on a day-to-day basis that I find a niche from a national perspective. Getting a talk show on the train tracks and moving it in the right direction is not easy, whether you’re doing it locally or nationally. But yeah, it’s now a little harder nationally.

And no co-host. Just you.
Yep. Not gonna do a co-host. I’m gonna have an update person, but as far as the show is concerned, I’ll do the show Monday through Friday solo. Now, sidekick is different than co-host. But will I have a guy in there taking calls with me? That’s not gonna happen. Yeah, it’ll be an adjustment. There’s gonna be some growing pains. It could take me six months to find what works and what doesn’t. I don’t dispute that.

Hey, it’s satellite radio. You can curse now!
Oh, I can curse, but I won’t. I’ve never done it in twenty years, and I got to this channel without having to do it. I don’t see me doing that. Maybe the occasional “hell” and “damn,” but I mean, as far as bad language — I mean, I got kids listening. That’s not my way.

Didn’t you provide a voice-over soundtrack in that Harvey Keitel movie where he was the masturbating cop?
I did not know how rough [Bad Lieutenant] was. I did the soundtrack to that, because the guy was a big sports fan, so he was in his patrol car a lot, listening to sports talk. And I was the host he was listening to. I did not realize that it was gonna be that violent throughout the film. You would be amazed how many people watch that film. I still get a royalty check out of the damn thing! $10 a month, but I still get it.

A lot of people think you’re gonna do this for a while, then come back to New York radio, like you’re just kidding.
This is a new endeavor. I’m going into it hard, really into it. I can’t wait to get started. But, I mean, can I tell you for sure that when I’m 54 years of age in the year 2013 that I will completely be in love with it? I’m certainly hopeful! But I can’t say. Will I miss that local passion? I’m sure that’s possible.

Elsewhere in the sports media bubble…
Will Someone Let Michael Kay Know How Mad He's Allowed to Get? Today, the media columnists for both Newsday and the Daily News discuss the Yankee announcer, who earlier this week referred to the Yankees as "disgraceful and an embarrassment." Newsday's Neil Best explains that YES brass is fine with Kay criticizing the Yankees, presumably because there'd be three hours of dead air if he couldn't. But Bob Raissman argues that Kay wouldn't dare mention the name Joe Torre, or sufficiently "spread the net of accountability." So basically, Kay is allowed to criticize the Yankees, as long as he doesn't? We'll say it again: This only ends with Kay crying, on the air, à la Suzyn Waldman.

This One Time, at Broadcaster Camp… Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle have started a camp for kids who'd like to become sportscasters when they grow up. This actually sounds like a total blast. Sessions include Eagle's presentation, "Marv Albert Will Steal Your Job One Day," and "How to Fill in for Mike Francesa for Twelve Straight Weeks," with NBC's Beck.

Source: Daily Intel | 12 Sep 2008 | 7:00 pm

"Project Runway" final six make it work in NY (Reuters)

Reuters - The final six contestants on U.S. television's "Project Runway" showed their design collections on Friday, hoping to become the hit show's winner and someday join the professionals on the fashion show circuit.

Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 12 Sep 2008 | 6:35 pm

Donnie Wahlberg As Baffled As You Are Over the Continued Success of New Kids on the Block

Photo: Getty Images

"Now the fans are older we can no longer attribute their adulation and hysteria to puberty. We have to chalk it up to something else and what that is we do not know." —Donnie Wahlberg [Sun UK]

"We have a short list of names that we are considering. My 2-year-old (daughter Sloane) is pretty set on the name 'Freeka.' She also likes 'Laurie Berkner,' but that sounds weird in front of Corddry. We may just go with 'Baby the Entertainer' in case she grows up to be a black comedian." —Rob Corddry discusses baby names [People]

"[It's] kind of freeing because you're so worried about what people will think of your wang, and then once you're out there doing the scene, it's far less about your wang and certainly more about the character and the scene, so that was kind of freeing." —Neil Patrick Harris describes his first time naked onstage [After Elton]

"He's the main guy, but we always remind ourselves that nobody liked The Emperor compared to Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies. He's got the same lightning bolts, but when The Emperor was this figure that you just saw obliquely it was like, 'Shit, Darth Vader is bowing to someone? That guy must be really cool!' But then as he talked more it was like, 'Alright, enough.'" —Jon Favreau on the possibility of including supervillian The Mandarin in Iron Man sequels [ComingSoon]

"It wasn't like we had time to discuss our periods, and sit down and clink our glasses, what shaving cream we were using. We had to do our job like any other movie." —Debi Mazar responds to questions about what it was like working with an all-female cast in The Women [CinemaBlend]

Source: Vulture | 12 Sep 2008 | 6:30 pm

Katie Holmes Not Selling Tickets on Broadway

Photo: Getty Images

Earlier this summer we told you Katie Holmes was not selling tickets to the revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. But according to a recent report in Variety, we were maybe wrong! "Producers of the Broadway revival of All My Sons are countering rumors that co-star Katie Holmes is not selling tickets by announcing advance sales of $3.5 million … if the advance figure released by producer Eric Falkenstein is accurate, All My Sons looks to rank alongside Equus as one of the fall season's biggest nonmusical box office performers." Wow, right up there with Harry Potter. Okay, ticket buyers, be honest: Who's just hoping to see Pacey? [Variety]

Source: Vulture | 12 Sep 2008 | 5:56 pm

Cutting edge to meet classic at London Fashion Week (Reuters)

Reuters - Fashionistas from around the world will descend on London for a week of catwalk shows and cutting edge clothes starting on Sunday when the best of the young talent brush with some classic names in British design.
Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 12 Sep 2008 | 5:55 pm

Critics Rave Over 50 Cent’s Performance in ‘Righteous Kill’!

Photo: Getty Images

As Hollywood slowly eases us out of awefulsome August and into mediocresome September, Righteous Kill, the long-awaited first-ever movie in which Robert De Niro and Al Pacino share significant screen time, finally lands in theaters. But while most critics are understandably focusing on the topliners ("There's no getting around the fact that the erstwhile young lions are long in the tooth," raves the L.A. Times), what we want to know is this: How is 50 Cent's — excuse us, Curtis Jackson's — performance?

Source: Vulture | 12 Sep 2008 | 5:45 pm

Review: 'Burn After Reading' disappoints

After the exceptionally hard-hitting "No Country for Old Men," the Coen brothers have flipped back to their default mode -- screwball farce -- in this disappointing return to the indifferent form that has plagued them over the past 10 years.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 5:26 pm

Jury acquits 'Milkshake' singer

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 5:04 pm

Pop Tarts: 'Great Kisser' Eva Mendes Plays Other Woman

Eva Mendes plays the "other woman" in Jada Pinkett Smith's steamy on-screen lesbian relationship in Diane English's all-female film "The Women," and gets down and dirty with former model-turned-actress Natasha Alam.
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 4:32 pm

US pop icon Madonna performs during a concert in Duessldorf

US pop icon Madonna performs during a concert in Duessldorf as part of her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour, September 4. Friday's Bundesliga match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Karlsruhe has been postponed...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 12 Sep 2008 | 4:17 pm

Movies go back to the future with 3D

In the future, viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses may not just be the prerogative of the naive.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 4:13 pm

Calvin Klein: Creased Chic (Fashion Wire Daily)

Fashion Wire Daily - The models in the Calvin Klein show on Thursday, Sept. 11, did not so much walk down the catwalk as waft; their clothes as light and insubstantial as a heat haze, their fabrics creased and folded like rumpled bed sheets.

Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 12 Sep 2008 | 4:11 pm

Batman Comic Book Accidentally Reveals Obscenities

DC Comics is asking stores around the country to destroy tens of thousands of copies of a new Batman comic book because of a "printing gaffe" that revealed obscenities, the New York Post reported.
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 4:10 pm

Casting directors pact with AMPTP

Front Page: Tentative labor deal reached for new contract -- Casting directors have reached a tentative deal for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. The AMPTP made the announcement Friday morning, following three days of negotiations with reps for Intl.  Brotherhood of Teamsters.  

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 12 Sep 2008 | 3:59 pm

Reese Witherspoon's quest against cancer

Every three minutes in the United States, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 3:48 pm

George Putnam dies at 94

Front Page: Paved way for talkradio movement -- George Putnam, a fixture in Los Angeles television from its early beginnings in the 1950s and one of the forbearers of conservative talkradio, died of a kidney ailment Friday in Chino, Calif. He was 94.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 12 Sep 2008 | 3:46 pm

First Reality TV, Then Fashion, Now Books

"Hills" star Lauren Conrad, 22, inks deal to write 3 books based on her life.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 3:11 pm

'Lost' Star Pleads No Contest to DUI Charges

"Lost" star Daniel Dae Kim pleaded no contest to drunken driving charges and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 3:08 pm

Live from New York, it's Michael Phelps

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:59 pm

Olsen Twins' NYC Neighbors Resent 'Military Presence'

Residents of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's quiet block in downtown New York City's West Village are annoyed by the famous twins' "military presence," the New York Post's Page Six gossip column reports.
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:35 pm

At Vera Wang, an Artist's Spirit as Muse (Fashion Wire Daily)

Fashion Wire Daily - Vera Wang's runway backdrop featured two dramatic slabs of a faceted mirror sculpture in homage to the whimsical art of Niki de Sainte Phalle, the free-spirited woman whose life and work as a sculptor, painter and architect was the muse of Wang's Spring 2009 collection, which she showed in Bryant Park on Thursday, Sept. 11.

Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:26 pm

Havel, Forman plan Munich pact pic

Front Page: Pic looks at annexation of the Sudetenland -- Former Czech President Vaclav Havel and helmer Milos Forman are working on a screenplay about the Munich Agreement in 1938 and Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland, a point in history seen by some as having parallels with Russia’s recent invasion of Georgia.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:17 pm

Snoop Allowed to Travel Down Under

Australia grants a visa to rapper Snoop Dogg after reviewing criminal record.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:14 pm

New NY fashions appeal to stay-at-home traveler (Reuters)

Reuters - Imaginative styles evoking journeys to far-off lands dominated New York fashion shows this week, with experts saying the spring lines reflect consumers' economic woes and desire to escape uncertainty.

Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:09 pm

Will Lindsay Lohan Become Mrs. Ronson?

Lohan BFF Samantha Ronson says "my love" will be Mrs. Ronson by year end.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 12 Sep 2008 | 2:05 pm

FOX411: Robert Kennedy Jr. Movie in Turmoil

I told you more than a year ago that filmmakers were busily putting together a documentary based on Robert Kennedy Jr.’s book, “Crimes Against Nature,” sort of his “Inconvenient Truth.”
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 1:32 pm

Paparazzi Duped by Jamie Lynn Spears Look-Alike

Cameras flashing and films rolling, a crowd of paparazzi surrounded a police escort, trying to get the perfect shot of Britney Spears' little sister. But the woman wasn't Jamie Lynn
Source: FOXNews.com | 12 Sep 2008 | 12:57 pm