Friday, 27 June 2008
Boubacar Traore
Artist: Boubacar Traore
Genre(s):
Other
Ethnic
Instrumental
Discography:
Macire
Year: 2000
Tracks: 11
Kar Kar
Year: 1994
Tracks: 10
 
Allun
Monday, 23 June 2008
Britney Spears Cleared Of Car Accident
Spears was attempting to reverse out of a parking spot at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles on November 14 while surrounded by the paparazzi, with videos of the incident circulating online.
The charge evaluation sheet uncovered by TMZ shows that the photographer filed a police report almost six months after the incident.
Deputy district attorney Joseph D. Shidler writes, “The video indicates that there was a lot of noise and confusion as the photographers were jockeying for position… The driver of the car (Spears) was driving at an extremely slow rate of speed and in a straight path. The only way the victim’s foot could have been where the video indictes it to be was by the victim placing it in that location.”
He adds, “We have no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect was aware that the victim’s foot had been struck by the car.”
Photo courtesy of Jive.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Debut novel 'Dear American Airlines' slams carrier with perfect timing
Book review: "Dear American Airlines" by Jonathan Miles (Houghton Mifflin)
There could never be a debut novel more perfectly timed to enter the world than Jonathan Miles' "Dear American Airlines."
The book is a novel-length complaint letter written by one angry American Airlines passenger who has been stranded in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and may miss his daughter's wedding in Los Angeles.
Sound familiar? Just a few months ago, hundreds of thousands of actual American Airlines customers were stranded in airports across the country when the airline was forced to cancel 3,100 flights to check or redo something called "wiring bundles." The universe, or at least the Federal Aviation Administration, has apparently gift-wrapped a marketing campaign just for this book.
So we can credit Miles, the cocktails columnist at The New York Times, with excellent timing. But we can also credit him with a sharp and funny first novel that will outlast the particular troubles of the modern airline industry.
Bennie Ford's letter begins as a request - check that, a profane demand - for a refund of his $392.68 ticket. He's desperately trying to get to Los Angeles for the wedding of his estranged daughter, whom he hasn't seen in years.
From the first paragraph, we hear Bennie's distinctive voice: angry and outraged, literate and funny. If the cancelled flight weren't awful enough, he has to sit in a "maldesigned seat in this maldesigned airport," a limbo without clocks or cigarettes, where everyone seems to be playing sudoku, "the analgesic du jour of the travelling class."
It may seem like faint praise to call a novel "funny," as if laughter were a guilty pleasure in serious literature, something enjoyable but slightly disreputable. But what good is satire without humour? It shouldn't hurt Miles' reputation as a writer to point out a simple fact: This book will make you laugh. Out loud and repeatedly.
Bennie grew up in New Orleans, "where cirrhosis of the liver is listed as 'Natural Causes' on a death certificate." Holding his daughter in his arms for the first time, Bennie reflects, "She was so beautiful and small - a gorgeous pink speck of life. But I should also confess that I was drunk almost beyond recognition."
Later, in the middle of a domestic dispute, he finds himself locked out of his apartment in the rain. He screams his wife's name only once before it hits him: "You simply cannot shout the name Stella while standing under a window in New Orleans and hope for anything like an authentic or even mildly earnest moment."
Even in his despair, Bennie can't resist a good one-liner at his own expense.
Admittedly, whether you enjoy this novel may depend on your tolerance for a certain stock literary "guy": the brawling and boozy tough-guy poet, a little too sensitive for today's world, a little too broken inside to hold together a relationship. The template for Bennie Ford might be well-worn but Miles never falls into the cliched traps of drunken sentimentality or self-pity.
Bennie's letter soon becomes something more, a sincere confession about his failures and regrets, charting the collapse from his early years as an aspiring poet and young father, to his divorce and estrangement from his family.
He's a bad father and a miserable husband but he doesn't flinch from the truth of it. As readers, we admire his honesty and his righteous anger at modern life and modern airports. And in the end, Bennie is blessed with a moment of redemption, a touch of grace for a man stuck in O'Hare's interminable purgatory.
See Also
Monday, 16 June 2008
Donald Trump - Trump Argues Case For Worlds Greatest Golf Course
Property mogul DONALD TRUMP has urged Scottish officials to grant him permission to build a $2 billion (GBP1 billion) golf resort in Aberdeen, insisting failing to do so would be a "terrible blow" to the country.
The American tycoon is currently in the Scottish city to argue his case for the project to be given the greenlight after coming up against opposition from environmental protestors.
The campaigners claim Trump's luxury 18-hole golf course - which will include a 450-room five star hotel, 900 vacation homes, and 500 luxury homes costing up to $2 million (GBP1 million) each - on the north-east coast of Scotland will cause significant damage to the environment
But Trump denies this is the case.
A public inquiry into the ambitious project began on Tuesday (10Jun08) at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC), where Trump told the ministers: "People won't play a course if it is environmentally harmful. They don't like it, they don't feel good about it, and they won't play it."
When confronted by claims the plans are not popular with locals, Trump responded: "I see polls showing 93 per cent in favour. You can say what you want, but this is a very popular project..."
Trump went on to claim the resort would be "the world's greatest golf course".
He added: "If you reject this, there will be a terrible blow to Scotland."
Trump needs to secure the approval of Scottish Government ministers and win over the public if he is to secure the planning permission for the golf resort.
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Carrie Underwood keeping Ride going
NEW YORK -- Carrie Underwood has extended her maiden headlining tour, dubbed Carnival Ride, through mid-December. The new leg begins Sept. 23 in Cleveland and wraps Dec. 14 in Gainesville, Fla., with support from Little Big Town.
Underwood is also celebrating her latest No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart with "Last Name," which jumps from No. 5 this week. The inspiration for the tour, "Carnival Ride" the album has sold 2.16 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The first leg of the tour concludes June 24 in New Orleans. Before the fall portion begins, Underwood will play a host of fairs and festivals in July and August, including Wisconson's Country Thunder and Country Jam events.
For a full list of newly announced shows and on-sale information, visit Underwood's Web site.
Tv Guide Makes A Comeback
TV Guide
, which last month reported its first profitable quarter in nearly four years,
announced Thursday that its TV Guide Online unit had experienced record growth
in May. It said that more than 12.1 million unique visitors logged on to
TVGuide.com in May, a 58-percent increase over May of last year. (The figure
actually pales in comparison with the magazine's circulation of more than 20
million in its heyday.) While the magazine underwent a total makeover in
October 2005, doing away with its video-log format, the online division said
that the number of visitors to its online video guide increased 205 percent
from May of last year to 540,000 unique users.
06/06/2008
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Robert Downey Jr. saddles up for 'Cowboys'
In talks to star in the film that's a mix of sci-fi and Western
The deal would be Downey's first since propelling Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" to $500 million-plus in worldwide loot (and growing). He next will be seen in the comedy "Tropic Thunder" in August, followed by the drama "The Soloist" in November, both for DreamWorks.
Imagine Entertainment partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are producing. Platinum Studios chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg also will produce, along with DreamWorks mainstays Steven Spielberg, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Ervin Rustemagic and Rich Marincic will co-produce.
"Cowboys & Aliens" derives from a graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley from an original idea by Rosenberg. The story centers on an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey), that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz.
The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the "savage" Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens' assault on Earthlings, who must join together to survive the invaders' attack.
The project has been in development at several studios during the past 10 years. Among the writers who have drafted versions of the adaptation are David Hayter ("X2: X-Men United"), Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer ("Sahara"), Jeffrey Boam ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"), Thompson Evans ("Wedlocked"), Chris Hauty ("Never Back Down") and Steve Oedekerk ("Evan Almighty").
The most recent draft by "Iron Man" and "Children of Men" writers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus clearly hit the right notes, as the project looks to gain its major players quickly.
Downey, Fergus and Ostby are repped by CAA.
Gregg Goldstein in New York contributed to this report.
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R. Kelly found not guilty
The jurors found the R&B star not guilty on all 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography. If he had been convicted, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison.
The Grammy-winning singer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, has consistently denied the charges that he taped himself having sex with a female as young as 13.
The 12-person jury reached their verdict after just seven-and-a-half hours of deliberations, reports the Chicago Tribune.
During the trial, Kelly's defence team defence team argued he'd been wrongly accused and insisted he was not the man who appears in the video tape at the centre of the case because he did not have a mole on his back, as R Kelly. does. They said the tape had been doctored and implied that Kelly was the victim of an extortion plot.
Kelly never took the stand in the case, nor did Kelly's goddaughter, who witnesses testified was the young female in the tape.
The explicit video shows a couple engaged in oral sex and shows the male urinating on the female.
The not-guilty verdict puts an end to the case that has been languishing for nearly six years.
--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.
The Digital Freedom Campaign 'DJ for a Day' Celebrates Music and Technology
innovation made possible by the digital revolution, the Digital Freedom
Campaign today will host a "DJ for a Day" event, allowing artists,
innovators, and consumers to demonstrate how they use digital technology
and what digital freedom means to them.
Featuring Digital Freedom Campaign Artist of the Month The Kin, the
event at Lounge 201 on Capitol Hill will bring together policymakers and
digital innovators to demonstrate how digital technology and balanced fair
use rights have propelled an increasingly vibrant independent music scene.
"Tonight's event will be celebration of the experiences digital freedom
can bring to artists and consumers," said Maura Corbett, spokesperson for
the Digital Freedom Campaign. "We all succeed when we present music fans
with compelling digital music services, and treat them as customers rather
than criminals."
"Digital technology empowers individual artists, musicians and
filmmakers to distributes and monetize their works while developing close
relationships with their fans," stated Michael Petricone, senior vice
president, government affairs, Consumer Electronics Association. "'DJ for a
Day' will illustrate the extraordinary possibilities when consumers, artist
and innovators have the freedom to participate in the creative process."
"Digital technology has blown open the traditional ways that artists
can get their music out there to people and let them know about it," said
Isaac Koren of The Kin. "From ringtones to 'per click' ad revenue and
downloads on digital TV, the artist and their audience now have fewer
boundaries between them and more ways for the artist to earn a living."
The Digital Freedom Campaign protects the rights of artists, innovators
and consumers to use digital technologies free of unreasonable restrictions
or punitive lawsuits. For more information about the Digital Freedom
Campaign, and to see photos of the event, please visit
http://www.digitalfreedom.org.
About Digital Freedom: Digital technology enables literally anyone and
everyone to be a creator, an innovator or an artist - to produce music, to
create cutting-edge videos and photos, and to share their creative work.
Digital technology empowers individuals to enjoy these new works when,
where, and how they want, and to participate in the artistic process. These
are basic freedoms that must be protected and nurtured. The Digital Freedom
campaign is dedicated to defending the rights of students, artists,
innovators, and consumers to create and make lawful use of new technologies
free of unreasonable government restrictions and without fear of costly and
abusive lawsuits. http://www.digitalfreedom.org.
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Jake Gyllenhaal - Gyllenhaal Biels Nailed Hit By More Problems
LATEST: Production on JAKE GYLLENHAAL and JESSICA BIEL's new movie NAILED ground to a halt on Friday (23May08), after more financial difficulties hit the cash-strapped project.
A number of staffmembers failed to show up for work at the South Carolina set on Thursday (22May08), after union leaders at the International Alliance of Theatrical + Stage Employees (IATSE) called for a boycott when they learned below-the-line crews were not being paid.
Production is expected to resume this Thursday (29May08), reports industry publication Variety.
It is the third time director David O. Russell's independent movie has been shut down. Workers belonging to the IATSE union also held up production on 15 May (08) for similar pay reasons, while Gyllenhaal and Biel, both members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), walked off the set on 9 May (08), after producers failed to show they had enough money to pay the cast.
In April (08), veteran James Caan quit his cameo role after a bust-up with Russell.
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Brad Pitt - Pitts Mystery Tattoo Is A Tribute To New Orleans
BRAD PITT has paid an odd tribute to his adopted New Orleans, Louisiana in the shape of a new tattoo on his lower back.
The movie star was spotted showing off a new tattoo over the weekend (10-11May08), but left those who saw it puzzled about what the black lines and boxes represented.
Experts told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, which ran with the photos taken in Monaco, that the markings could be inspired by a map of the levees in New Orleans, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Since the disaster, Pitt and his family have bought a home in New Orleans, and the movie star is at the forefront of a major rehousing project in the city.
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