Shabazz the Disciple

   
Artist: Shabazz the Disciple

   Genre(s): 
Rap: Hip-Hop
   Dance
   

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Discography:


   
 The passion of the hood christ

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 20


   
 The Book of Shabazz (Hidden Scrolls)

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 21


   
 Organized rime pt.2

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 8

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One of the original Wu-Tang Clan affiliates, Shabazz the Disciple (natural David Collins) didn't spill his solo debut until 2003, with The Book of Shabazz (Concealed Scrollz). Before that, however, he had striking guest muscae volitantes on 6 Feet Deep, the 1994 debut of the RZA/Prince Paul-helmed group Gravediggaz, and put out a smattering of singles -- including the provocative, thinking "Last Be the Penalty" on Tommy Boy. Signed to GZA Entertainment, Shabazz was jell to release his LP in 1998, merely when the pronounce dissolved and dealings with RZA became strained, he and blighter Killa Bee and longtime affiliate Killah Priest started their own bunch, Sunz of Man, although he left field the mathematical group before its official full-length, The Last Shall Be First, came out in 1998. Eventually The Book of Shabazz found a home on Battle Axe Records, and Shabazz coupled up with Sunz of Man once more, as well as on some tracks with Killah Priest, and continued to release material on his have.

Phil Spector - Judge Sets Date For Spector Retrial

Legendary music producer PHIL SPECTOR will face a retrial over the murder of actress LANA CLARKSON later this year (08).

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler - who presided over the first trial - set the new trial date of 29 September (08).

Spector is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra, California mansion in 2003.

Earlier this year (08), Spector launched a legal bid to disqualify Fidler from the music producer's murder retrial over allegations of bias.

In March (08), Spector's newly appointed lawyer Doron Weinberg filed a 44-page document to the Superior Court in Los Angeles claiming Fidler withdrew a jury instruction and crafted a new one after jurors first announced they were deadlocked in September 2007 - causing the trial to be declared as a mistrial.

The California Supreme Court is reviewing the allegations and is expected to reach a decision in the next few weeks.

Spector, 68, famed for his work in the 1960s with artists including The Beatles and Tina Turner, faces 15 years in prison if found guilty.

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Phats and Small

   
Artist: Phats and Small

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Now Phats What I Small Music

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 10

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Shawn Wayans On 'Little Man' Defense In R. Kelly Trial: 'He Wouldn't Be A Good Alibi!'

Shawn Wayans talked about the "Little Man" defense in the R. Kelly trial.

Selena Gomez To Replace Miley Cyrus?

Selena Gomez has dismissed claims that she and fellow Disney starlet Miley Cyrus are rivals.

It's been rumoured that Gomez was being lined up by Disney as a more clean-cut star for the family-friendly channel, following the recent scandal surrounding Cyrus' recent semi-nude Vanity Fair photoshoot.

But Gomez – who has starred alongside Miley in Hannah Montana - insists there is no battle for the crown of Disney princess.

She says, "We're literally like, 'It's fine. It's all good.' She's Miley and I'm Selena."

But Gomez, who stars in her own Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place, does admit she finds the comparison flattering.

She adds, "It's a little overwhelming, but I think really, it's a compliment.

She's obviously extremely successful, and I think she's a wonderful performer...So being compared to her, I was very, very flattered."

Waters discovers dark side of owning a giant inflatable pig

Roger Waters has lost his pig. Perhaps you've seen it.Somewhere out there, either in the skies of California or many miles beyond - floating down the Thames, wafting across the Mississippi, bobbing over the Sargasso sea, - there is a gigantic inflatable pig that belongs to the Pink Floyd frontman. And he wants it back.Waters' giant pig balloon was last seen on Sunday, during his closing performance at the Coachella festival. As Waters played Pigs (Three Different Ones), the two-storey-tall dirigible was released over the crowd.










If the pig had been real, it would doubtless have been covered in mud, keeping cool in the desert heat. But of course the pig was fake, just a load of hot air, and was instead emblazoned with antiwar graffiti ("don't be led to slaughter!") and an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.As it broke away from the festival, sailing off over concertgoers' heads, Waters observed: "That's my pig."Contrary to what you'd think, this is not the first time that a giant pig zeppelin has gotten away from Waters. During photo sessions for Pink Floyd's 1977 album, Animals, a helium-filled pig made a break for it from above Battersea power station. Flights were cancelled as the pig passed near Heathrow Airport, on its way to the dark side of the moon.But this time, Roger Waters wants the pig back. Coachella organisers are offering a reward of $10,000 and four lifetime tickets should anyone find the blow-up porker. How to get in touch with them? Email lostpig@coachella.com, naturally.

Groovy ZooTunes music among the wild things - and some animals, too

They run, they prowl, they jump, they screech. And you should see them devour food!

We're talking about the wild animals at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. And we're talking about the kids, too — the kind you see running around at ZooTunes, the annual summertime series of outdoor shows there. Its 25th season kicks off next week, with two nights of bluesmen Keb' Mo' and Taj Mahal, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The kid-friendly ZooTunes concerts are fun for grown-ups, as well. The shows are held on the expansive green of the North Meadow, where there's plenty of room around the edges for kids to work out their energy while those intent on seeing the show and hearing the music can gather close to the stage, on blankets or in low-back chairs, with their picnic food close at hand.

Make a day of it, and you may even be able to get the kids tired enough to sit and enjoy the music with you. Go early and see not only the giraffes and lions and rhinos (check for feeding times) but also the new pink flamingos exhibit. Hand-feed the birds at Willawong Station (feeding sticks cost $1), ride the 1918 vintage Carousel ($2) or watch butterflies emerge from their cocoons at the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit.

While the running, screaming kids can test your patience — especially if you're trying to enjoy the show — one of the best things about ZooTunes is watching children dance to the music. Even toddlers will bounce when the beat gets to them. And seeing little kids dance with their dad or mom — priceless.

Besides playing, there are other things to occupy the little ones at ZooTunes. Docents man portable information tables, with bones, feathers, pelts, snakeskins and other hands-on experiences, and they can answer all your animal questions (with reference books at the ready).

Concession stands have ice cream and cookies, hamburgers and hotdogs, pizza and pasta, and vegetarian offerings. You can bring your own food or pre-order a picnic lunch (via www.zoo.org). And there's a beer and wine garden with excellent choices (profits benefit the zoo).

ZooTunes does it right. They start the series in late June and end it in late August — usually skipping our traditional early-June rains and early-fall chill. The ticket prices are reasonable (always under $30). The shows start at 6 p.m. and end by 8:30, and they're always on time. The venue is not oversold, so there's plenty of room. The sound is good, not deafening. ZooTunes parking is free.

The acts are well-matched to the setting — they're mostly mellow, and varied. This year's lineup runs from the folk-influenced melodies of the Indigo Girls to the funky blues of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, from the smooth pop of Boz Scaggs to the lively traditional country of the Avett Brothers. The biggest name is Emmylou Harrris, the great country/folk singer-guitarist. Her show is sold out, as are some of the others. All the shows will probably sell out, so get tickets while you can.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312

or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com

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Pittsburgh museum showing 2008 Carnegie International art exhibition

PITTSBURGH - It's a contemporary art exhibition uniquely rooted in the past, with a history that stretches back more than a century and a tradition fostered by a Gilded Age industrialist.

But the latest incarnation of the Carnegie International, the oldest exhibition of its kind in North America, remains firmly focused on the complexities of today's world and grapples with existential questions about life beyond our realm.

In more than 200 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and other works, 40 artists from 17 countries ponder what it means to be human in a world where global events challenge or threaten our daily existence, organizers say.

The 2008 Carnegie International, which runs through Jan. 11, 2009 at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, is the 55th in the series and the first to have a title, "Life on Mars."

The show's name was taken from a song by British rocker David Bowie. The song alludes to a world spinning out of control and longingly asks, 'Is there life on Mars?' according to the exhibition's curator, Douglas Fogle. With that rhetorical question, he says, the song's narrator could be thinking, "Is there a better place than this? Or, are we in a strange world ourselves already?"

With those thoughts in mind, Fogle travelled the world, visiting artists' studios over a two-year period to select works for the exhibition. He assembled an initial list of 150 artists before paring it down to 40, with the help of other curators.

Some of the artists, such as Austrian painter Maria Lassnig or Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, may be largely unknown in the United States, despite having gained recognition in their home countries and elsewhere, he said.

Others, such as Los Angeles-based painter Mark Bradford, are better known among stateside art enthusiasts.

More than half the pieces in the show are new to Pittsburgh and the United States, and slightly less than half are "straight out of the artist's studio," said Fogle, who was previously a curator for 11 years at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

The artists - all but two of whom are living - range in age from 29 to 89 but Fogle insists the quality of their artwork is not a function of age. "Sometimes the oldest artist in the room can be the youngest artist in the room," he said.

At the show's start is a wall-covering work by Bradford that entails advertising posters from the streets of Los Angeles that carry a melancholy-tinged appeal from a law firm to fathers seeking child custody, divorce or visitation rights.

On the roof of the museum, Bradford has spray-painted what Fogle calls an "invisible" piece: a large-scale homage to victims of Hurricane Katrina that reads, "HELP US."

"It's supposed to be invisible until maybe Google Maps goes over and takes a picture of it," Fogle said.

Among the other works in the exhibition are sculptures made in the 1970s by the Italian artist Mario Merz, who died in 2003, that incorporate stacks of newspapers, neon lights, wire and fabric.

One untitled work by Merz illustrates the Fibonacci sequence - a mathematical progression that involves adding a number to the two numbers before it, a pattern found in nature and referenced in the novel "The Da Vinci Code." The numbers appear in a column of neon lights topped by a stuffed lizard that's apparently crawling away, as if trying to escape.

Another piece, "Cavemanman," by the Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn, invites visitors into a large cave fashioned from packing tape, cardboard and other ordinary materials. Its recesses are littered with aluminum cans, and copies of pages from books by radical philosophers and novelists line the walls, attached to fake sticks of dynamite shaped from tin foil.

But the show's signature work is something more modest, an image of the globe viewed from space, painted by the late American artist Paul Thek on the yellowed newsprint of a 1970s edition of the International Herald Tribune.

"He's painting the world on top of the world," said Fogle, noting the ephemeral nature of the paper. "The medium . . . which is the newspaper, is also the events of the world that you're seeing him paint."

Bringing the world of art to Pittsburgh was one of Andrew Carnegie's objectives when he founded the exhibition in 1896, just months after the start of the world's oldest contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Biennale.

Through the shows, currently held every three or four years, the industrialist sought to build a collection by purchasing works by the "Old Masters of tomorrow," while educating and inspiring audiences, according to the museum's Web site.

The museum's permanent collection is sprinkled with works acquired through past exhibitions, such as Winslow Homer's "The Wreck," from the inaugural Carnegie International, and Auguste Rodin's sculpture "Sorrow," which appeared in the 1920 show.

While initially devoted to painting, the exhibition later grew to encompass works in other media.

The current show brings art from around the world to Pittsburgh, and it also attempts to show visitors that the world may not be as it seems. Says Fogle: "If you think about Mars as a metaphor, each artists' space that you go into in the exhibition shows you your world reflected in a very different way."

-

On the Net: "Life on Mars": The 2008 Carnegie International: http://blog.cmoa.org/

The Carnegie Museum of Art: http://www.cmoa.org/default.asp

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Craig David Says Avid Merrion Jokers Have 'Type Of Tourette's Syndrome'

Once again Craig David has said he holds no grudges with Bo’ Selecta! and laughs off people coming up to him repeating the catchphrase of his character on the comedy show.



The R&B singer told The Daily Telegraph: “I'm not angry about Bo’ Selecta! I was flattered at first and even appeared on his (Avid Merrion’s) show, but he just went on to become more vicious, knocking down everything I did.



"People would come up to me on the street and say, ‘Craiig Daavid’ in that northern accent, but I didn't mind - it was like they had a form of Tourette’s syndrome.”



He revealed that the only problem he ever had was the fact that people would only associate him with Avid Merrion’s portrayal.



“Even if people liked my records, I felt they might not buy them because I wasn't cool. People expected me to be sad, but I'm not at all. It didn't hurt me, but it hurt the brand.”



Never mind Craig, I’m sure Kez still thinks your cool.

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Lester Young - Teddy Wilson Quartet

   
Artist: Lester Young - Teddy Wilson Quartet

   Genre(s): 
Jazz
   

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Discography:


   
 Pres and Teddy

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 7

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"30 Days" with Spurlock, 13 nights with meerkats

TV Lookout |

It's a new year of "30 Days."

Morgan Spurlock's "I'll-try-anything" spirit infuses this FX reality series, which dispatches an explorer to experience 30 days in an alien world to see what lessons are waiting there.

Spurlock, host of the six-episode season, will also take the plunge for two of them. He will spend 30 days on a reservation with a Navajo family.

And for the premiere (airing Tuesday at 10 p.m.), he returns to his West Virginia roots to live with a coal-mining family — and spend 30 days as a rookie apprentice working in a coal mine.

The good news: Mining pays pretty well, an average of $60,000 a year.

The bad news: It's still grueling and life-threatening. Respirators are furnished, but they're hard to breathe through, so nobody uses them. The results are no surprise. (Spurlock persuades a career miner to join him in getting tested for black-lung disease. Spurlock tests negative. The other man tests positive.)

Other episodes in this, the series' third season: An avid hunter spends 30 days living with an activist at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. And former NFL player Ray Crockett spends 30 days in a wheelchair.

Other shows to look out for:

Road trip! Four young Arabs set out across the U.S. for a 12-part documentary series airing on Sundance Channel. Originally produced for Middle East television, "On the Road in America" is a journey toward a better understanding of two cultures. The travelers include Ali, an Egyptian who is studying accounting in Cairo, Egypt; Sanad, a Saudi at the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Mohamed, a Jordanian who has completed medical studies in Beirut, Lebanon; and Lara, a young Palestinian who lives in Beirut and is serving as a member of the film's production team.

Traveling by RV in summer 2006, cast and crew take time during their 10-week odyssey to stop off in New York, Chicago, the Mississippi Delta, Los Angeles and California. The series premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m.

There's dissent in the ranks. There's rivalry for the leadership position. So begins the fourth season of TV's most unlikely reality show, "Meerkat Manor," which finds the Whiskers clan in disarray after the death last season of its matriarch, Flower. "Meerkat Manor: The Next Generation" premieres the first of its 13 episodes on Animal Planet at 9 p.m. Friday. Stockard Channing is the series' new narrator.

Oscar-winner Jessica Lange plays a psychiatrist who helps her client heal a psyche splintered into 16 separate, distinct personalities in the new TV film "Sybil." It's based on the best-selling nonfiction book by Flora Rheta Schreiber (which also inspired a 1976 TV film starring Joanne Woodward and Sally Field).

In this version, Tammy Blanchard stars as Sybil, who, with the help of her doctor, begins the road to recovery by reconstructing the abuses inflicted on her as a child by her mentally disturbed mother (played by JoBeth Williams). The film airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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