HOUSTON — A school district police officer suspended for creating and distributing a "Ghetto Handbook" has been fired.
Gang investigator Roby Morris, 34, had worked for 11 years at the Houston Independent School District before being fired this week, according to an investigation report released Friday.
Morris was placed on paid leave in August after school officials learned of his eight-page booklet subtitled "Wucha dun did now?"
The booklet was given to other police officers at a May roll call and tells them learning the definitions in it will allow them to speak as if they "just came out of the hood."
Police supervisors spoke with Morris shortly after the booklet was distributed and he was issued a written reprimand in June. But the report said there was little follow-up and school district superintendent Abelardo Saavedra wasn't told about the booklet until mid-August.
"This incident represents an egregious violation of our standards of conduct and decency," said school district spokesman Terry Abbott.
Morris told district investigators he made the booklet to get back at one of his bosses. He also pointed out he is married to a black woman and that they have three children together, according to the report.
Morris could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
The names of six officers were listed in the booklet as having contributed, but the investigation concluded Morris was the sole participant.
A Led Zeppelin fan has stripped naked in an attempt to get tickets for their O2 Arena reunion show.
Tickets for the rockers' gig on November 26 are sold out and not available for resale on eBay, so Virgin Radio DJ Christian O'Connell launched a competition to see what fans would do to get into the concert.
One listener was willing to take their clothes off and run around Soho in an attempt to gain entry to the show.
However, they lost out to another fan, Grant Marzell, who had his chest hair waxed on the radio show, before getting his arm tattooed with the radio station's logo.
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The congregation of Southland Christian Church is being asked to send letters of love and support to troubled pop star Britney Spears, described by the pastor as having made "devastating life choices."
"Take a few minutes and write a note to Britney Spears," pastor John Weece said in a sermon and in a blog on the church Web site. "No preaching. No criticizing. Just love. As a church, let's love Britney the way Jesus loves her."
Weece said the idea came as he watched repeated reports of Spears' reported problems with drugs and alcohol and the loss of custody of her children.
"If she were your next-door neighbor in the same situation without the money and success, wouldn't you care about her problems? Wouldn't you pray for her and offer her support and encouragement?" he asked members of the church.
Cindy Willison, the church's director of communications, was still collecting the letters on Friday and looking for the best way to get them directly to Spears.
"This is an opportunity for us to reach out to someone who probably doesn't have a lot of people in her life that care for her as a person," Willison said.
It may seem some time since British youth culture was in thrall to clubs like Cream and Gatecrasher and figures like Paul Oakenfold and Norman Cook were as popular as Oasis. But a poll released yesterday shows that the cult of the superstar DJ is alive and well, it's just moved to China.
Dutchman Armin van Buuren was named the world's favourite DJ this week in the annual readers' poll run online by DJ magazine. While most of the names at the top of the list are practitioners of a high-tempo form of techno music known as trance, the style of their music is perhaps of less note than the people who voted for it.
"We got 350,000 people voting this year up from 229,000 last time around," said Jason Robertson, the publisher of DJ Magazine. "That's largely down to a real appetite for dance club culture coming from outside the UK. The US was the biggest voting bloc, then the UK. But China was close behind them both and eastern European countries not far behind either. China was a big player this year. The market for dance music is shifting abroad."
The explanation for such a trend is likely to lie, as with so many things, in the continuing Chinese economic boom, which has funded outsized nightclubs in cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou. Dance music website dontstayin.com has community pages for eight such venues in Shanghai alone. A rise in the consumption of ecstasy and other drugs has been acknowledged by Chinese authorities which may have helped encourage an appetite for repetitive beats.
Bill Brewster, the co-author of dance music history Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, says a decline in appetite for big name DJs in the UK has forced them to look abroad. "In a parochial sense it's over," he said, "but there remains a higher echelon of mega-DJs who are huge all over globe.
"In countries where youth culture is a relatively new thing, there is a huge appetite for music like trance. In Russia and the former Yugoslavia they're experiencing the demand for clubbing that we did five or 10 years ago."
Robertson believes it is only a matter of time before the superstar DJ makes a return to these shores. "Cream had its 15th birthday party with van Buuren last weekend," he said. "Ten years ago there was a huge travelling clubbing community, it was like going to the football. Kids still want to be part of a community and a big name persuades them to go out. I really believe it's going to come back."
The main players
Top 10 DJs
1 Armin Van Buuren 2 Tiesto 3 John Digweed 4 Paul van Dyk 5 Sasha 6 Above & Beyond 7 Carl Cox 8 Ferry Corsten 9 Infected Mushroom 10 David Guetta
Swedish '90s popstars Ace of Base have announced a reunion tour for next month.
The band will play a series of dates in Russia, Denmark and Lithuania in November and December, but they have not revealed any UK concerts so far.
However, the group have denied rumours that they have reformed to participate in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.
Gigwise quotes them as saying: "This is not correct! There's never been any official request from SVT [Swedish Television] if the band is interested to participate for Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest."
The pop group had hit singles in the UK between 1992 and 1998, including 'Cruel Summer', 'Don't Turn Around', 'The Sign' and 'All That She Wants'.
Their albums The Sign and Happy Nation sold around 23 million copies and went to number one in 13 separate countries.
The Sex Pistols played their first show in four years at the legendary Roxy on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip last night (October 25).
Original members John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook gave a raucous hour-long performance for a packed house that included Bush's Gavin Rossdale, Dirty Pretty Things' Carl Barrett, Velvet Revolver and actor and long-time Sex Pistols fan Julian Sands.
"Hello LA!" boomed Lydon as he took the stage. "You've got the fucking floods, fires and earthquakes and now the Sex Pistols. You ain't doing too bad at all!"
The band played classic tracks including 'EMI', 'Submission' and 'God Save The Queen', which whipped the front rows into a mosh-pit frenzy.
At one point a woman jumped onstage to hug and kiss Jones, after which Lydon said, "Could the ugly birds stop getting up on stage, it's fucking embarrassing," in traditional punk rock fashion.
A scowling Lydon couldn't help smiling throughout the night, soaking in the adoration of the capacity crowd. Things turned confrontational when an audience member drenched him in beer, to which he responded, "I don't tolerate fucking cowards."
The band concluded the night with a climactic encore of 'Anarchy In The UK', which ended with Lydon repeating the phrase, "Fuck them all."
The private show was the Sex Pistols' only scheduled US date. It was sponsored by LA radio station Indie 103.1, which gave away tickets to a handful of fans to fill the 200-capacity venue. Tickets were reportedly being sold on the internet for as much as $500.
The Sex Pistols are set to play several UK dates in November, as previously reported.
Chicago already has an elaborate network of surveillance cameras to detect crime — 560 cameras with plans to install 100 more.
Now, the city is teaming with IBM to launch what is being billed as the most advanced video security network in the United States: a system that could be programmed to recognize and warn authorities of suspicious behavior, such as a backpack left in a park or the same truck circling a high-rise several times.
IBM's Roger Rehayem says smart cameras using analytic software can send out alerts for vehicles of certain colors, models and makes. And if a camera is positioned right, it can pick out license plates or even recognize faces.
One of the limits of the technology is that the system is only as good as the sharpness and clarity of the pictures, Rehayem says. And as far as the technology has come in recent years, the picture quality still can be dicey.
The American Civil Liberties Union says it doesn't oppose the use of surveillance cameras in public places, per se. But a spokesman says he does worry about how smart cameras are used — so as not to lead to racial profiling or unwarranted stops and searches.
Jonathan Schachter, public policy lecturer at Northwestern University, says there's little evidence thus far showing that security cameras really prevent crime or terrorist acts.
But he says that doesn't mean police departments shouldn't use the technology if they can.
Chicago officials say they're not completely sold yet on the smart surveillance technology. They say visual and audio advancements, such as gunshot recognition, just haven't been perfected enough yet to justify the cost of installing smart surveillance cameras citywide.
Ok, so I'm going through my music collection when I stumble onto a track that I LOVED back in 1992. Midi Maxi & Efti's "Bad Bad Boys" on Columbia Records. It made a little bit of noise for a hot second, but then *poof* it dropped off the radar. So what happened people?? Were you not ready for this back in the nine deuce? To edgy for ya?
I mean, c'mon! Beavis lost his mind over this track on a vintage episode of Beavis & Butthead, and all who truly know Beavis are well aware that the boy KNOWS music.
They also sample part of the drum roll from the intro to Led Zeppelin's "D'Yer Mak'er"!
This track could be released as-is right now and it'd be a hit. That's my word. - Ace:)
Anyway, just wanted to get that out... You can peep the video below....
Oh yeah, here's what Wikipedia.com had to say about them
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Midi, Maxi & Efti was a Swedish musical group with African influences from the early 1990's. Their two biggest hits were "Bad Bad Boys" and "Ragga Steady".
The band consisted of the two twin sisters Midi and Maxi Berhanu and their friend Freweyni "Efti" Teclehaimanot, all of them born in 1976. Midi and Maxi were refugees from Ethiopia and came to Sweden with their parents in 1985. Efti was born in a refugee camp in Eritrea and also arrived in Sweden in 1985. The three girls finally met in the Stockholmsuburb of Akalla.
Their self-titled album was released in 1991 and spawned three singles, "Bad Bad Boys", "Ragga Steady" and "Masenko". Although the girls contributed lyrics, most of the Africa-inspired songs were in fact composed and produced by the men behind Army of Lovers – Alexander Bard, Anders Wollbeck and Per Adebratt, assisted by E-type and Stakka Bo. Styling was done by Jean-Pierre Barda and Camilla Thulin.
In 1992, the album was released in the U.S. by Columbia Records, and a video was made for "Ragga Steady", directed by Frank Sacramento. The band split up after a few short tours of the U.S., South Africa and France.
Their songs have been featured in the TV series Beavis and Butthead and the movie For Love or Money (starring Michael J. Fox). The members have since recorded songs separately, but nothing has been released.
The video for Duran Duran's new single 'Falling Down' has been banned from TV.
The veteran rockers' promo features semi-naked women undergoing breakdowns and dealing with the stresses of rehab.
During the video, the band dress up as doctors and force feed patients drugs. There is also a scene where the group sit and watch nurses dressed in stockings bathing nude patients.
An insider told the Mirror: "It's a shame because the film is stunning. It's very arty, dark and deals with the whole celebrity culture of rehab.
"There has been so much coverage of young celebrities running off to rehab that the band wanted to poke fun at how ridiculous they are - but it's backfired on them.
"The band had shot two versions of the video but the one they wanted to release was deemed too risque, so a more toned-down and censored video will be used instead."
'Falling Down' is reportedly inspired by the recent public breakdowns of stars such as Lindsay Lohan and was co-written by Justin Timberlake.
from foxnews.com Billboards make their debut in the Dallas area Tuesday urging Texans: "Don't Be Lame, Elevate Your Game."
Some billboards, including "Represent Yourself Like You Present Yourself," and "That's Not Hip-Hop That's Flip Flop" will go up at busy intersections and highways.
Some billboards, including "Represent Yourself Like You Present Yourself," and "That's Not Hip-Hop That's Flip Flop" will go up at busy intersections and highways.
The front door to the master bedroom from the home of Rock legend Jim Morrison lived in for six years of his life is up for sale on auction website eBay.com.
The door, which fronted the Clearwater, Florida home owned by The Doors star's grandparents Paul and Caroline Morrison, was carefully removed by contractors working for building company Triangle Development when the house was demolished to make way for a condominium project, which is currently under development.
Triangle bosses, realizing the importance of the door, preserved it and other artifacts to memorialize the late singer/songwriter.
In a tribute to Morrison, St. Petersburg, Florida artist Judith Dazzio painted the door with the mural she calls When The Music's Over.
A doorbell on the frame plays three different short clips from the song when pressed.
The auction ends on October 28; the current bid stands at $3,551. Proceeds from the auction will go to charity.
** Go to Ebay and do a search by item number using #110181655876. This will take you to the auction.** - Ace:)
Madonna's debut album: My story - by Ace:) Can you say 'classic album' boys & girls??
I remember vividly rushing to the mall to grab a copy of the vinyl LP to play at my first DJ gig @ America On Wheels Roller Rink in NJ. It was release day, and my dad agreed to take me there on the way to the rink. He parked outside and waited while I literally ran into the store to buy it. I handed the clerk the cash, he stuffed the record in a bag, and I was off. I got back into dad's car, yanked the LP out of the bag, and started gazing at both the front & back of the album jacket. Up until that time there really weren't many photos of Madonna floating around, and it was great to finally hold the album in my hands.
See, my fellow teen DJ's and I had been playing Madonna's "Everybody" and "Burning up" 12" vinyl singles to DEATH for the longest. We all were STARVING for the full album to come out, and now I had it in my hands and would soon burst through the door of my beloved rink and show it off to everyone.
Once I walked through the door, I started waving it around as my friends grabbed for it. "Get away!" I said. I ran to the DJ booth, quickly slid the disc outta the sleeve, placed it on the Technics 1200 turntable, and dropped the needle on side one/track one: "Lucky Star". I then quickly pulled my 'Disco' skates out of my skate bag, laced 'em up quick, and hit the floor. I played the entire first side of the album (complete with the silent spaces in between), and then skated back up into the booth, flipped it over, and once again dropped the needle. This time it was the first cut on side 2: "Holiday" - WOW!! We all skated through the rest of the album, and were all pleasantly surprised by how great the songs were, and how it was a fine album to skate to as well. It would be a few months before Madonna-Mania swept the world, and for those few months, Madonna was ours. The 'Rink Rats' as we called ourselves.
While there are obviously MEGA classics on this album, my favorite song on it has to be "Physical Attraction" with "Think of Me" a close second. Most think my second choice is an odd one, but there's something special about that tune, especially during the breakdown towards the end of the track.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 24 years, Madonna did indeed go on to 'rule the world', and sell a gazillion records. - Ace:)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A 59-year-old convicted sex offender in Illinois tried to castrate himself using a filet knife after he got the urge to "touch and hurt children," according to the Daily Herald.
The man, who was not identified, removed one of his testicles, flushed it down the toilet and severely injured the other one.
He called a friend for help and when paramedics and police arrived, they found him bleeding profusely.
The man's sex offense happened in 1984 and as a result was required to register as a offender.
Prostitutes to strip and walk naked down the streets - in protest.
Some 50 prostitutes have threatened to march naked down the streets of El Alto in Bolivia after locals closed down the strip bars.
Unsurprisingly locals who usually have to pay to get an eyeful of the buxom beauties have not met their demands.
The strippers who double up as prostitutes in the South American country have also said they will refuse to eat until the strip joints and bars that they ply their trade in reopen.
"We've all taken our HIV-AIDS test and we're going on a hunger strike," the protest leader said inside a local AIDS clinic where the street workers have holed up.
Last week El Alto's residents demonstrated outside the town's 32 bars and strip joints forcing them to close, complaining that they attracted criminals and were a bad influence on children.
Unofficial estimates put the number of prostitute in El Alto at between 400 and 500.
British pop supergroup SimplyRed are to split in 2009 once their current tour ends. Frontman Mick Hucknall has revealed the group's Stay album - released in March (07) - will be their last studio album but they're not ready to call it quits just yet. The "Holding Back The Years" singer says, "I've kind of decided that 25 years is going to be enough."
Hucknall, the driving force behind Simply Red, reveals he decided to disband the group after recording a solo tribute to R+B legend Bobby `Blue' Bland. He says, "It's a solo project and I've really enjoyed it - so much that I feel the time has come now to just put a book-end to the (Simply Red) story. "I want to invent a new form of music... It's a big challenge but I can't do it under the name of Simply Red."
Simply Red scored their first hit in their native Britain way back in 1985 with Money's Too Tight (To Mention). The group's current single, "The World and You Tonight", will be their last. In 25 years, the group has enjoyed huge success around the world with albums like "A New Flame" and "Stars." They have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.
Samsung has announced that it has developed the world's first 64Gb (8GB) NAND flash memory chip using a 30nm production process, which opens the door for companies to produce memory cards with up to 128GB of storage and flash SSDs with capacities of half a Terabyte.
With flash memory becoming increasing used in consumer electronic devices, such as MP3/MP4 players, digital cameras and mobile phones, the increased capacity would allow for a significant increase in the quantity and quality of data stored. For example, a single memory card built using 16 of the new chips would be capable of storing the equivalent of 27 single-layer DVDs.
Perhaps more interesting for Custom PC readers is the prospect of solid state drives (SSDs) with capacities that rival typical hard disk drives. In our Dream PC Labs test we found that the Vadim system, which uses four 32GB SSDs in RAID 0, was significantly quicker than PCs using conventional hard disk drives, so two (or four) 512GB SSDs in RAID 0 could prove to be the ultimate storage system.
That said, given that the price of Samsung's current 32GB SSD is £243 inc VAT from Scan, you'd probably need a bank balance to rival that of Roman Abramovich in order to buy four 512GB drives. You've got time to save up though, because products using the chips aren't due to appear until 2009.
O'Reilly Radar's Andy Oram notes that the European equivalent of the RIAA has proposed a plan in Denmark whereby ISP users would pay a flat monthly fee in order to download unlimited music via P2P. Each broadband subscriber would pay sixteen Euros ($23) a month, whether they downloaded music or not.
BOOK and DVD online retailer Amazon saw international third-quarter sales rise by 40 per cent to $1.47 billion (£718.7 million), boosted by music from Amy Winehouse and the "halo effect" from Harry Potter.
Although Amazon, which has distribution centres in Gourock and Glenrothes, made no profit from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due to the discount prices it offered, UK managing director Brian McBride said the firm had benefited from other purchases made by customers ordering the novel.
Amazon worldwide, which includes the US, saw sales rise 41 per cent to $3.26bn (£1.5m).
At its international arm, which encompasses UK, as well as German, Japanese, French and Chinese sales, gross profit rose by around 50 per cent to $302m (£147m).
McBride said Amazon's UK business is expecting to increase Christmas sales by around 30 per cent this year from last year's 700,000 parcels a day.
During the quarter, the firm launched a shoe store and a babywear store
Although high street retailers fears the impact of recent interest rate hikes on spending, McBride said he expected internet sales to be strong.
He said: "The great British thirst for the latest gifts and toys remains undiminished. We're still enjoying migration to the internet."
BOOK and DVD online retailer Amazon saw international third-quarter sales rise by 40 per cent to $1.47 billion (£718.7 million), boosted by music from Amy Winehouse and the "halo effect" from Harry Potter.
Although Amazon, which has distribution centres in Gourock and Glenrothes, made no profit from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due to the discount prices it offered, UK managing director Brian McBride said the firm had benefited from other purchases made by customers ordering the novel.
Amazon worldwide, which includes the US, saw sales rise 41 per cent to $3.26bn (£1.5m).
At its international arm, which encompasses UK, as well as German, Japanese, French and Chinese sales, gross profit rose by around 50 per cent to $302m (£147m).
McBride said Amazon's UK business is expecting to increase Christmas sales by around 30 per cent this year from last year's 700,000 parcels a day.
During the quarter, the firm launched a shoe store and a babywear store
Although high street retailers fears the impact of recent interest rate hikes on spending, McBride said he expected internet sales to be strong.
He said: "The great British thirst for the latest gifts and toys remains undiminished. We're still enjoying migration to the internet."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British folk singer Yusuf Islam is tentatively returning to show business, almost three decades after converting to Islam and retiring from the business to focus on his religion, family and charity work.
Late last year the artist, formerly known as Cat Stevens, released his first mainstream pop album since 1978, "Another Cup," and in March played his first full British concert in 28 years at Porchester Hall in London.
Among the 250 people present were his wife, daughter and granddaughter, as well as old friends from around the world. The concert was broadcast by the BBC, and has been released on a DVD package, "Yusuf's Cafe Session," which also boasts a BBC documentary and various music clips:
Q: Was it nerve-racking returning to the stage for a full-length concert after such a long absence?
A: "I made it as comfortable as possible so I wasn't as nervous as when I do, for instance, the large gigs with 40,000 people, because this was only 250 people -- many of them were invited by us! I made it as homely as possible. In that regard I kinda recreated my own cafe, which brings me right back to Shaftesbury Ave., where I began my life anyway."
Q: Was the audience instructed not to cheer once the songs started? They seemed very placid.
A: "I think that there tends to be a response to me sometimes that almost verges on the reverent, y'know! They may be expecting a halo to pop up or something like that. There's just that kind of respect I think they had for me. It's always a great and infectious, warm reception that I receive."
Q: Any post-show adrenaline rush to rekindle memories?
A: "This time I had a family to go home to! It was completely different from the old days where I'd have a lonely hotel room somewhere and a mirror to look at, and that was it. Now I've got a great family and a great support from my family, and meeting my old friends. Some of them traveled all the way from L.A. to come and see it."
Q: You look good on the DVD. Do you work out or have dietary strictures that keep you so well preserved at 59?
A: "I look after myself. I try not to over-eat. I don't do that much exercise. But it's my constitution, I suppose, slightly nervous, so I don't necessarily get too heavy or too overweight. But it's nothing special I do."
Q: What's your biggest indulgence?
A: "Let me think about this ... tea. I have to say tea, because I love tea and I love to drink it."
Q: Do you get out to concerts? Will you go and see the Led Zeppelin or Sex Pistol reunion shows?
A: "I saw Roger Waters, his last tour. And that was great, I really enjoyed it. He's an expert. He's a perfectionist, sound and visual. I loved it. I recently also went to a Steven Seagal concert because I thought it was so unique to have this guy -- a brilliant actor but also quite a developed Zen Buddhist -- playing blues guitar."
Q: Have you thought about writing your memoirs?
A: "I've pondered it, and in a way I've done bits and pieces throughout the years, through my talks, through my interviews -- not all of which have been conveyed 100 percent in their accuracy! And my songs. The job of writing the book is something I tend to put off, but I'm being chased."
Genesis takes a trip down memory lane on "Live Over Europe," which chronicles the first portion of the band's reunion tour. Due Nov. 20 via Atlantic, the double-disc set includes a number of songs the band hadn't performed in decades.
Among them are Peter Gabriel-era tunes such as closer "Carpet Crawlers," "Firth of Fifth" and "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)." The group also dusted off the two-part instrumental "Duke's Intro" and oldies like "Home by the Sea" and "Ripples."
The band's Phil Collins-led hitmaking period is represented by tracks such as "Turn It on Again," "Follow You Follow Me," "Invisible Touch," No Son of Mine" and "Land of Confusion." Also included is a double drum solo sequence featuring Collins and Chester Thompson.
Genesis wrapped its tour Oct. 14 in Los Angeles. Also on Nov. 20, Rhino will issue a 12-disc boxed set featuring expanded editions of the group's albums from 1983-1998.
Here is the track list for "Live Over Europe":
Disc one: "Duke's Intro" - "Behind the Lines" - "Duke's End" "Turn It on Again" "No Son of Mine" "Land of Confusion" "In the Cage" - "The Cinema Show" - "Duke's Travels" "Afterglow" "Hold on My Heart" "Home by the Sea" "Follow You Follow Me" "Firth of Fifth" "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"
Disc two: "Mama" "Ripples" "Throwing It All Away" "Domino" "Conversations With Two Stools" "Los Endos" "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" "Invisible Touch" "I Can't Dance" "Carpet Crawlers"
Senate Hearing to Take Up Royalty Fees for Online Stations
Internet radio webcasters are hoping a Senate hearing today will renew legislators' interest in their negotiations with the recording industry over royalty fees.
The hearing, held by the Senate Commerce Committee, will focus on the future of radio, the number of women and minorities who own radio stations, expansion and protection of community radio, and other aspects of a medium that is rapidly changing through technological advances and the recording industry's crumbling business model. The most contentious of these issues, though, involves what online radio stations will pay in order to sustain both innovations in radio and the artists whose music they feature.
Webcasters have argued that a royalty fee schedule set by the Copyright Royalty Board last spring would put online radio stations, and the independent musicians whose work they often play, out of business. This spring, legislators from the House and Senate proposed legislation to set Internet radio royalty rates at the lower levels used for satellite radio and jukeboxes, but then asked webcasters and copyright holders to try to negotiate a compromise.
Webcasters have been negotiating since July with SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties on behalf of music copyright owners, over a new fee schedule. Webcasters say they are growing impatient with delays in the discussions.
"We made a royalty rate proposal on Aug. 23, and we have not heard a reply back," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, which is negotiating on behalf of a group of 27 large Internet radio providers. "With this hearing we're now working to gather support for the Internet Radio Equality Act." The House version of the bill has 143 sponsors; its Senate counterpart has five.
SoundExchange said that discussions are continuing and that the organization has been meeting with individual webcasters to better understand their finances.
"We're moving as fast as we can considering there are so many parties involved," said Richard Ades, a spokesman for SoundExchange.
SoundExchange has already proposed a fee schedule that is lower than the Copyright Royalty Board's rates for commercial webcasters whose annual revenue is less than $1.25 million, and Ades said about 30 companies have accepted it. SoundExchange and the Digital Media Association also agreed in August to cap the total amount of per-channel fees that a Web service would have to pay, an issue that was of particular concern for webcasters such as Pandora that have millions of channels set up by individual users.
Still, webcasters say that even if there are favorable results to the negotiations, they are hoping for long-term legislation that will force all radio platforms -- including traditional AM/FM radio, which does not currently pay any royalties to SoundExchange -- to pay the same rates.
"We are in a strange situation of offering services that compete directly with terrestrial and satellite radio but have a different rate structure," said Tim Westergren, chief strategy officer and founder of Pandora. "There needs to be parity if we are going to survive."
BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of conservative Chinese songwriters has denounced the emergence of "vulgar" pop music on the Internet which they say is poisoning youth with weird lyrics and lustful themes.
The 40 composers, some of who have written songs for Peng Liyuan, a famous singer married to Shanghai Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, signed a petition calling for a boycott of unhealthy online music and vowed to improve young people's music appreciation through their own "outstanding" output.
"Music workers should firmly observe the socialist honors and disgraces," a transcript of the petition carried by the official People's Daily Web site people.com.cn said, referring to a 2006 campaign launched by Communist Party chief Hu Jintao to instil moral values in society.
"(They should) resist the incursion of unseemly content, abandon vulgarity ... and work hard to compose outstanding online works that the people, and especially the broader youth, love to hear."
With state television and radio broadcasts limited to bombastic patriotic blasts from the past and benign pop, the popularity of online music has exploded in China.
China's censors have so far failed to control the Internet, despite a massive surveillance machine and government campaigns to stamp out "unhealthy content."
The petition was signed at a seminar held by the official Chinese Music Association last Friday during the recently concluded Communist Party Congress, the newspaper said.
Delegates singled out online hits, including "Na Yi Ye" -- "That One Night" -- by Xie Jun, a song about a couple who get drunk and spend the night together.
"That one night you didn't refuse me!/That one night I hurt you/That one night you were all tears," are the raciest lyrics.
The attack on vulgar online music follows campaigns against online pornography and bans on crass reality TV shows and "sexual sounds" on the country's air-waves.
from foxnews.com - by Sigal Ratner-Arias, AP Writer
NEW YORK — Throughout his career, Colombian rocker Juanes has insisted he doesn't need to sing in English. Hefty pre-launch online sales from his latest CD, "La Vida es un Ratico" ("Life is Just a Moment") prove him right.
Universal Music says he has sold more than 6 million digital songs _ from legal Internet vendors and mobile phone downloads _ from the CD before its Tuesday release.
At a news conference Monday, the 35-year-old guitar hero said he has often been asked if he could translate his records into English, and that his response was always: "I can play my guitar in English, but my songs will always be in Spanish."
He noted music fans throughout the Spanish-speaking world have long listened to music sung in English, often without knowing what the words meant.
"The language of music is universal," he said. "It's like what goes on with us, that we've listened to music in English for years and maybe we don't understand it, but we like it."
Universal said the 6 million pre-launch sales was a record. Spokeswomen for the Recording Industry Association of America and the Nielsen music ratings company did not respond to requests for confirmation Monday.
IF you've hummed along, tapped your feet, or even danced in your seat while watching "Purple Rain", "Saturday Night Fever" or "Trainspotting", you're not alone.
The soundtracks from those movies have been named among the 50 greatest by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine.
The full list will be revealed next month in a one-time Conde Nast magazine, Movies Rock, for subscribers of its 14 titles.
"Purple Rain"topped the chart even though it was described as "perhaps the best badly acted film ever", editors at Vanity Fair said, while "Trainspotting"came in at No.7 and "Saturday Night Fever" was eighth.
The Vanity Fair editors said the "Purple Rain"soundtrack was a flawless combination of "Funk, R&B, Pop, Metal, and even Psychedelia into a sound that defined the '80s".
"A Hard Day's Night"came in a No.2, followed by "The Harder They Come", "Pulp Fiction", "The Graduate" and "Superfly".
"American Graffiti"and "The Big Chill"rounded out the top 10.
"Saturday Night Fever"'s soundtrack is "required listening for anyone looking to heat up the dance floor", the editors said.
"The white suit? Not so much."
Movies Rock, which will feature stories and photos of the projects, stars, directors and musicians who created the selected movies, launches ahead of a two-hour CBS broadcast of the same title in December.
While taping an episode of The Tonight Show last Friday, Halle Berry apparently made an anti-semitic comment that was subsequently cut out of the show. While looking at a photo of herself in which her nose appeared larger than usual, she said "here's where I look like my Jewish cousin!" She has since apologized via Page Six, saying the comment was prompted by something of her Jewish employees said when they saw the pic. Apparently, Berry was "near tears" when she called the Post to apologize.
More B-sides and rarities from everybody's favorite animated band.
November 20th, 2007, will see the release of D-Sides, a new B-sides and rarities collection from The Gorillaz.
The album will encompass music from the band's sophomore effort, Demon Days, in the form of early demos and previously unreleased tracks. It is the "follow-up," in a manner of speaking, to G-Sides, the rarities and B-Sides collection that was tied into the band's self-titled debut album.
In addition to including remixes, rarities, and demos, D-Sides will feature several collaborative tracks such as "Bill Murray" with The Bees and "Stop The Dams" with the Sugarcubes' Einar Orn, protesting against dam building in Iceland's wilderness.
A special edition of D-Sides will be available in a debossed glossy dual box, and will include two exclusive Jamie Hewlett prints, a collection of Gorillaz badges, stickers and a "Choose Pazuzu" patch. The track listing will be the same as the standard edition.
D-Sides Track Listing
CD 1. 68 State FEEL GOOD INC. B-SIDE 2. People DARE DEMO 3. Hongkongaton DIRTY HARRY B-SIDE 4. We are Happy Landfill WEBSITE ONLY DOWNLOAD 5. Hong Kong WARCHILD 6. Highway (Under Construction) DARE B-SIDE 7. Rockit DEMO - DEMON DAYS SESSION 8. Bill Murray FEEL GOOD INC. B-SIDE 9. The Swagga DEMON DAYS LTD EDITION 10. Murdoc is God DIRTY HARRY B-SIDE 11. Spitting Out the Demons FEEL GOOD INC. B-SIDE 12. Don't Get Lost in Heaven DEMO VERSION 13. Stop the Dams KIDS WITH GUNS/EL MANANA B-SIDE
Bonus Disc 1. DARE (DFA Remix) 2. Feel Good Inc (Stanton Warriors Remix) 3. Kids With Guns (Jamie T's Turns To Monsters Mix) 4. DARE (Soulwax Remix) 5. Kids With Guns (Hot Chip Remix) 6. El Manana (Metronomy Remix) 7. DARE (Junior Sanchez Remix) 8. Dirty Harry (Schtung Chinese New Years Remix) 9. Kids With Guns (Quiet Village Remix)
Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown, already locked down for assault, was thrown in the hole for 76 days.
As previously reported by SOHH, the rapper born Inga Marchand is serving a year-long bid at Rikers Island for hitting her neighbor with a cell phone.
Her latest drama, according to the New York Post, finds her in the hole after three violations at the prison this month. The first occurred on Oct. 3. Foxy and another inmate were on their way to the dining hall when the two broke out in a shoving match. Officials said corrections officers were able to jump in before anyone was seriously injured. While the other inmate only received 11 days in solitude for the scuffle, Foxy kept up the bad behavior.
She got her second and third strikes the very next day, verbally abusing a correction officer and refusing to take a random drug test.
She was then sentenced to 76 days in "punitive segregation," reportedly, and will spend 23 hours alone in her cell. She is allowed to see visitors, meet with an attorney, exercise, or browse the library in an area apart from other inmates for only one hour each day.
The rapper could be looking at more time by her lonesome when officials go over her latest case, in which Foxy twice refused to board a Rikers Island bus headed for her Oct. 12 court date. She subsequently skipped the date, but made the rescheduled proceeding.
Amy Winehouse has blamed her insecurity about how she looks for causing her to drink excessively.
Speaking in a forthcoming DVD documentary, Winehouse says that she's always had a problem with her appearance.
"I'm quite an insecure person. I'm very insecure about the way I look. I mean, I'm a musician I'm not a model. The more insecure I felt, the more I'd drink," she says.
Jermaine Dupri doesn't mince words when discussing the star factor of Justin Timberlake in his new autobiography "Young, Rich and Dangerous."
The veteran music producer is still sour about Timberlake's unwillingness to stand up for his girlfriend Janet Jackson following her Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" debacle - when it was Timberlake who removed the fabric to expose Jackson's breast in the first place.
Dupri writes: "I think Justin Timberlake is a talented performer. But he's very ordinary-looking. He could be any skinny white kid from the suburbs of Orlando. You could go to the mall and find another Justin. He doesn't make his style interesting even when he's onstage. To me, he just doesn't look like a star."
Notorious B.I.G. will be immortalized via a wax sculpture which will be unveiled in New York this week.
The unveiling of the sculpture will take place on Thursday (October 25) at 11a.m. at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Manhattan.
Biggie's mother, Ms. Voletta Wallace will be in attendance.
The rapper's sculpture will sport a white suit with a white hat and white shoes . Visitors will be able to use parts of their body to break moving multi-colored light beams to trigger clips of Biggie's songs. They can also take pictures and hug the wax figure.
After the sculpture's unveiling, members of the Brooklyn High School of the Arts' choir will sing Diddy's tribute song to Biggie , "I'll Be Missing You," and a gospel song, "I'll Fly Away."
Biggie was shot and killed on March 1997 after leaving a music industry party in Los Angeles. His murder still remains unsolved.
Crippling agoraphobia left British singer Alison Moyet a prisoner in her own home. Moyet, 46, believes the debilitating condition was a result of overnight success with 80's pop group Yazoo.
She says, "I never went out. For months and months I wouldn't even go into the garden. There were kids outside my door and I even hid in cupboards because there were people pressing their faces to my window."
by Raphael G. Satter - Associated Press Writer British, Dutch police close pirate site
British and Dutch police shut down what they say is one the world's biggest online sources of pirated music Tuesday and arrested the Web site's 24-year-old suspected operator.
The invitation-only OiNK Web site specialized in distributing albums leaked before their official release by record companies, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
Many among OiNK's estimated 180,000 members paid "donations" to upload or download albums, often weeks before their release, and within hours albums would be distributed through public forums and blogs across the Internet. Users were invited to the site if they could prove they had music to share, the IFPI said.
The IFPI said more than 60 major albums were leaked on OiNK so far this year, making it the primary source worldwide for illegal prerelease music.
Prerelease piracy is considered particularly damaging to music sales as it leads to early mixes and unfinished versions of artists' recordings circulating on the Internet months before the release.
Police in Cleveland, in northeast England, said they were tracing the money generated through the Web site, expected to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The arrest of a 24-year-old IT worker at a house in Middlesbrough, northeast England, followed a two-year investigation by Dutch and British police and raids coordinated by Interpol.
Cleveland police said the man, whose name was not released, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law.
OiNK's servers, in Amsterdam, were shut down by Dutch police, the IFPI said.
"OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of prerelease music online," said Jeremy Banks, the head of the IFPI's Internet Anti-Piracy Unit.
"This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online."
The IFPI is spearheading an international fight against all forms of Internet music piracy amid declining sales of physical CDs. Recorded music sales have fallen by more than a third internationally in the last six years.
NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A man who was convicted in the New York strangling death of a young woman in the 1980s has been arrested again on charges of cocaine dealing.
Police said Robert Chambers Jr., the so-called Preppy Killer, was arrested with Shawn Kovell after officers broke down the door to their apartment, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Chambers was also charged with resisting arrest after two officers suffered hand injuries while apprehending him.
Chambers pleaded guilty in 1988 to manslaughter in the strangling death of Jennifer Levin in Central Park. Chambers contended that the death was an accident that occurred during "rough sex."
He served the full 15-year sentence, often finding himself in trouble for having marijuana or other illegal drugs in his cell, the Times said. He served a 100-day jail sentence in 2005 after police said they found heroin traces in his vehicle.
