Author Archive
‘Sunny’ Singer Bobby Hebb Dead at 72
August 3rd, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
Bobby Hebb, famous for the ultra-hit “Sunny,” died Tuesday at the age of 72
Bobby Hebb’s opus “Sunny” is recognized as one of the most covered songs in music history. According to blog Sunny Covers, there exist some 801 versions of his 1966 classic. You’re probably thinking you don’t know the songs but trust me, it’s almost impossible to have never heard it before.
From Cher to The Four Seasons, Dusty Springfield to Frank Sinatram this track, as Roosevelt would say, “will live in infamy.” He described the song as a response to the killing of his brother outside of a Nashville nightclub and to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy just days before. Not only did Hebb write one of the catchiest, lovingly sincere tracks of all time, he was one of the first black musicians to play at the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville, TN.
Hebb is dead (hate to be disrespectful, but doesn’t that sound like Tarantino movie?) but the “Sunny” has tons of life left.
Check out the song and some of the better covers below.
Stevie Wonder
Ella Fitzgerald & Tom Jones
Johnny Rivers
Spinner’s Lollapalooza Celebration: Free MP3s For All
August 3rd, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
Spinner Celebrates Lollapalooza with an MP3 free-for-all.
Created back in 1997, Lollapalooza has always featured the biggest and best names from rock, rap, electronic and any other genre in between. The Chicago area festival was on shaky ground several years back, but since its rebirth in 2005, the two-day music explosion has attracted thousands of people to a small, condensed and often sweat-filled park just a stones throw from Lake Michigan.
The festival kicks off August 6th, and now you can hear some tunes from this year’s best artists thanks to the people over at “Spinner.” It’s actually an extensive and pretty good list, which features acts like: Hot Chip, The New Pornographers, Chromeo, The xx, The Walkmen, The Cribs, Royal Bangs, Flosstradamus and tons more!
So go to Spinner.com, groove out and try to not be too bummed that you’re not going.
Voices Of Reason: Directors Against 3-D
August 3rd, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
As 3-D movies become more and more popular, some directors are finally speaking out against the trend
I have to admit a few things up front: I never saw “Avatar.” Nor have I seen any movie 3-D movie (besides “Honey, I Shrunk The Audience,” “Jim Henson’s Muppet Vision 3-D” and “T2 3-D: Battle Across Time”). I get a little sick from 3-D, and maybe I don’t want to feel I’ve been duped into thinking a film is spectacular simply because it’s in 3-D and I can almost reach out and grab Justin Bieber’s hand. Either way, I’ve resisted the rampant 3-D craze. But now it’s not just me—bona fide directors are coming out in opposition to the film industry’s newfound raging boner for 3-D.
Yesterday, the “New York Times” published an article wherein directors Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams proudly voice their opposition to Hollywood’s heavy-handed shilling of 3-D movies. According to the article some 5,000 digital screens will be installed by the year’s end; furthering demand and viewership of 3-D movies. Their main opposition to the over-hyped 3-D movie craze are movie quality and director freedom.
“When you put the glasses on, everything gets dim,” J.J. Abrams admitted. And it’s true. I said earlier that I have never seen a 3-D movie—that was a little bit a misleading. I did see half of “Avatar” online. But, the version I was watched was a bootleg of the 3-D version. The picture quality was off. It was dark and didn’t glow on the screen like everyone said it did. Then again, I wasn’t wearing the glasses. But in Rodger Ebert’s Newsweek article published a few months back he comes to the same conclusion: “Its image is noticeably darker than standard 2-D.”
So picture quality seems to be lost in the arduous post-production process associated with special-effects heavy films. Aside from that point, Whedon admits that shooting a movie in 3-D adds unnecessary bother and strain to a process that is already physically and mentally taxing. “It hasn’t changed anything, except it’s going to make it harder to shoot.” The extra time and the cost of 3-D cameras doesn’t seem to irk industry execs, who rake it in with increasing ticket prices.
There’s even talk of converting 2-D films to 3-D, a proposal Whedon is vehemently opposed to. He’s staying true to his stance and has denied converting “The Cabin in the Woods” into 3-D. A wide-spreed 3-D backlash is growing, and fans purportedly cheered when it was announced that “The Hobbit” films would be released in 2-D at this year’s Comic-Con.
We will soon have 3-D televisions, and possibly 3-D computers—who knows where the future will take us. But as Rodger Ebert eloquently put it, “I’m not opposed to 3-D as an option. I’m opposed to it as a way of life for Hollywood, where it seems to be skewing major studio output away from the kinds of films we think of as Oscar-worthy.”
Shark Week Has Come – Day One Photo Recap + Live Shark Cam
August 2nd, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
Get out of the water, Shark Week is here! (I had to make on “Jaws” joke)
The annual gore-fest known as Shark Week is finally upon us and everyone from selachimorpha enthusiasts to people who just like watching animals brutally kill each other are strapped to their couches, hoping to satiate their yearly blood-lust.
For those of you who just can’t get enough, this year Discovery Channel has introduced a live Shark Cam on their site so you can watch at work. Here are some photo highlights from last night and instructions for how to stream Shark Cam at the office
This year’s seal-chomping frenzy began with the premiere of Ultimate Air Jaws (the sequal to both Air Jaws and Air Jaw 2) directed by Jeff Kurr along with expert Chris Fallows. This show isn’t for the faint of heart. They filmed great white sharks eating seals, jumping into the air, munching on cameras and swimming dangerously close to the shore. I know they were trying to inform people about the true power and beauty of the animals, but it’s hard to empathize when an 18-foot shark flies 2 meters into the air with a shredded seal in its mouth.
The way they get the sharks to go into frenzy-mode for the camera is pretty simple.
It goes something like this:
They get a shark to think this:
Is this:
Then the ever-hungry sharks does this:
Pretty simple. The show got a little monotonous—frankly even boring, but the ultra slow-motion shots were pretty entertaining. Plus there’s something about a scientist getting overly excited about an animal killing something in the worst way possible that is hilarious/disturbing.
After the enthralling Ultimate Air Jaws, a semi-informative show titled Into The Shark Bite aired, which revealed one of the most terrifying eventualities I can imagine: An under-water cave full of sharks! You thought caves were already creepy, well how about one full of sharks and eels and you can’t see a damn thing around you? I’d never do that in a million years, but luckily I don’t have to because the Discovery Channel already found some dopes to do it. Here’s some shots from my own personal hell:
Shark Week has just begun, and the the entire week will be full of scientists worshiping the killing power of sharks, while Craig Ferguson makes his not-so-witty remarks. One feature of this year’s Shark Week that I enjoy is the Shark Cam feed. They’re piping in live video from the “Ocean Voyager” exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Ga and will feature live, daily events like feedings and sharks just swimming around. Sounds better than watching oil spill into the Gulf, if you ask me. So enjoy, and feel like a shark by enjoying some sushi.
Check out the live feed here (link).
Listen To Samples Of Arcade Fire’s Newest Album
July 21st, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
The Arcade Fire’s newest album, The Suburbs–set to release in just a few weeks (August 3rd in the US and the 2nd in the UK)–is sending the blogosphere into hyperdrive.
First they previewed eight different album covers, and now a Seattle radio station is streaming 30-second clips of every song off of the new album.
This is kind of like sneaking into your parents bedroom a couple days before Christmas and rummaging around for all your presents. But instead of tearing all the wrapping paper and playing with them right there, you just peak inside the boxes just to get yourself really excited for the inevitable gift-giving.
The 16-track LP looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty powerful third release for the indie-rock gods. There are plenty of things I loved about old AF releases, such as songs sequel songs (see: “Neighborhood #1, #2 and #3 from Funeral, and “Half Light” and “Half Light II” from The Suburbs). Also, plenty of tracks have the kind of soft, yet extremely intense feel to them that sets AF apart. But it’s kind of hard to tell from listening to 30-second clips—you make the call!
Check out the streaming songs here (via: The End).
And in other Arcade Fire news, they will be playing two shows at Madison Square Garden in NYC in two weeks. But don’t be upset if you don’t live in New York or weren’t able to get tickets, because YouTube will be streaming the whole thing live online. Check out the pretty cool promo video below.
Untitled from Arcade Fire on Vimeo.
Roxy Music Touring Again After A Decade Hiatus
July 16th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
This year is starting to become the “year of reunions,” and the geniuses from Roxy Music don’t want to be left in the dust. Bryan Ferry, one of the group’s founding members, announced that Roxy Music will be going on tour early next year for the first time in a decade. But don’t get your hopes up for a Brian Eno appearance, because, just like their last tour in 2001, the iconic musician will not be showing up for any of the shows. See the dates after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Bargaining A Murderer For Oil: BP Shows How Black Its Heart Truly Is
July 16th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
If you didn’t think BP is an evil, self-serving company already, their admission to lobbying for the release of the only convicted Pan Am 103 bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi should change your mind.
After pressure from a number of U.S. senators, BP has finally admitted that they played a part in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last August, because of their interest in Libyan oil fields, as well as their desire to further the stigma surrounding powerful oil lobbies around the world. It’s like Clinton’s oil-for-food program, except it’s oil-for-convicted-mass-murderers (both are equally corrupt). Read the rest of this entry »
Save Me Batman, The Westboro Baptist Church Is Coming!
July 15th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
Is it really a surprise that the infamous haters from the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) are protesting something again? They’ve made headlines for their outlandish signs that tell pretty much everyone except themselves to go suck it.
The next target for the WBC is the annual geek-gathering Comic-Con, and they feel it’s time that comic book lovers around the world feel the wrath of their abhorrent signs. Read the rest of this entry »
Could A Ball of Trash Be Your New Front Yard?
July 15th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
As our society moves forward, and we destroy the earth more and more, we have to ask ourselves: What next? Some say the Moon, some say Mars, but the people at The Netherlands Architecture Fund have a better idea: A giant trash island!
That’s right, trash. Currently there is a giant ball of trash the size of France and Spain put together sitting in the mid-Pacific Ocean. Also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the gyre of marine litter is composed of plastics, chemical sludge and random debris. Sounds like the perfect place to settle, and people from New Jersey will feel right at home. Read the rest of this entry »
Preview of James Franco In Ginsberg Biopic Howl
July 15th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
When I heard there was going to be a movie based on the epic, book-length poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg (played by James Franco), I wondered how they were going to turn one of the most influential pieces of creative writing into a feature film.
The trailer is finally circulating around the internet, and as it turns out, the movie–which turns out to be a biopic–looks just as amazing as I hoped it would be. Check out the trailer after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Fool's Gold Remix Local Natives Into Hip-Hop Summer Jam + Tour Dates
July 8th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
Question: What makes a great summer jam? Answer: A tune that is super casual, you can sing along to and has a head-bobbing beat that gets you psyched to do anything. Lewis Pesacov of Fool’s Gold has discovered this formula in his remix of the Local Natives track “Wild Eyes” from their Gorilla Manor album. Check out the track after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Big Brother Gets A Little Too Real
July 8th, 2010 by Nick Nicoludis
I used to be one of those weird kids in high school that believed the government is monitoring everything everyone does. I’ve somewhat grown out of that phase, but in light of the NSA’s announcement of the “Perfect Citizen” program, old paranoid feelings are starting to rise up in me again.
The point of the Perfect Citizen (Big Brother) project is to protect America’s vital infrastructure from cyber attacks that could possibly knock out our electricity grid or nuclear power plants, but I’m still wondering what that has to do with being a perfect citizen. Read the rest of this entry »
