Today is the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings. I was curious to see if there were any tribute-style YouTube clips about the event, since it did take place before the advent of widespread online video. Surprisingly, there are quite a few; more surprisingly, most are not altogether different from the graduation montages I looked at a little while back. Both are sort of sad, wistful, and nostalgic, and accompanied by very similar tunes–but instead of fun in the sun, you get pictures of horror and loss and death. But then they take an odd turn. Let’s take a look. More »
Come November, the UK charity War Child will… More »
Yes, that’s right: Judy Garland is going to play with the Boston Pops at the end of the month, and she’ll actually be walking around and talking and singing, and not wheeled around the stage Weekend At Bernie’s-style. To quote the people putting it on: “This is not a tribute show. This is not a Garland lookalike. This is Judy herself returning to the stage for the first time in 40 years–singing the great American songbook with America’s greatest orchestra, The Boston Pops. Cutting-edge technology unavailable just a few years ago has enabled NY-based production company Running Subway to present Judy’s larger-than-life passion and personal story to 21st century audiences in what can only be described as the greatest Judy Garland concert ever.” Or, as I like to put it, “just as blood-chilling as the whole Frank Sinatra/Alicia Keys duet that opened the Grammys, only creepier because it’ll be live!” (Er, “live.”)
Hey did you know that Rufus Wainwright likes opera? That he has a thing for divas? Word is, the dude is gay. If your response is “no…really?…him?” then you may not have heard that the mush-mouthed songbird has been commissioned to write songs and a libretto for an upcoming production with the Metropolitan Opera named Prima Donna. And it won’t be in English, philistine. Or did you not know that Wainwright’s from Canada too?
Rufus Wainwright tells the NME that he has no plans to “retire from pop music” in lieu of going full time into opera. However, if Kanye West outsells 50 Cent tomorrow, he will quit rapping. More »
Welcome to On The Shelf, Idolator’s weekly look at new releases hitting store shelves on Tuesday. Like it or not, the big album coming out tomorrow is Linkin Park’s 98% rap-free effort, Minutes to Midnight; after the jump, we give that album a once-over, along with new efforts from Wilco, Megadeth, Gretchen Wilson, and Rufus Wainwright.
Yet another reason to love British rock monthly The Word: This month’s cover story about Rufus Wainwright reveals that the singer-songwriter is, if nothing else, the most bitchily quotable pop star around. If it’s not enough that he refers to Kate McGarrigle as his “plain but fabulous Canadian mother,” there’s more after the jump.
