Actor, filmmaker, and artist, James Franco, shares stories from growing up in California, from his bad-boy days in Palo Alto to a brief stint in the UCLA cafeteria. Franco shares the inspiration beneath his many hats as a performer in California Inspires Me, a Google Play x California Sunday Magazine collaboration.
‘Elstree 1976’ Doc Details The Unheard Actors And Extras In ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy
These people came from a wide variety of backgrounds and went on to have unique careers and lives. This is resolutely not a ‘Making of Star Wars’ documentary. Star Wars is merely the common ground shared by these people and just a starting point for collecting the experiences of this generation of performers. It tells the story of six decades of British theatre, cinema and movie conventions from the perspective of working actors whose characters’ fame often seems to eclipse their own. The film explores the industry, the craft and the acting life. It reflects on what makes and sustains a pop culture phenomenon, how it feels and what it means to be a part of that legacy. Most importantly, it forms a portrait of a generation of performers and the British film industry, which facilitated the rise of the Hollywood blockbuster.
Roger Waters Discusses Pink Floyd Album ‘The Wall’ In The Eponymous Documentary
Roger Waters, co-founder and principal songwriter of Pink Floyd, fuses the epic and the personal in Roger Waters The Wall, a concert film that goes well beyond the stage. Based on the groundbreaking concept album, Roger Waters The Wall could be called a concept film: it’ s a state-of-the-art show that dazzles the senses, combined with an intensely personal road trip that deals with the loss Roger has felt throughout his life due to war.
The film will be available for digital HD download November 17 and on Blu-ray & DVD December 1, 2015.
Music PEI Releases Economic Impact Analysis of the Island’s Music Industry
In 2014 Music PEI embarked on an economic impact analysis of the Island’s music industry. Little Island, Big Voice is the first of its kind and we commissioned Nordicity to complete it. They are a well respected company with years of experience and a history of similar studies for other provincial and national organizations similar to Music PEI.
The study included surveys and focus groups along with comprehensive data collection and analytics. The results provide us with a much needed benchmark we can now use to assess the performance and growth of our industry for future years.
The Music PEI Board of Directors will now use this data and input from membership to create an update to our first Strategic Plan created in 2008. The new strategic plan will map out the course of the organization for the next 5 years.
Sir David Attenborough Narrates Adele’s ‘Hello’ Video
Adele’s Hello video gets the brilliant Sir David Attenborough voiceover treatment on Greg James’ BBC Radio 1 show. As poster remarked, “I think Sir David Attenborough should get an attitudinal knighthood for that video.
Sir Sir David Attenborough. That’s what he deserves.”
Drummer Plays 71 Beatles Songs in 5 Minutes
Starting from 1962 and ending at 1995 (don’t forget Free As A Bird, ya know), Kye Smith, a drummer based in Newcastle, Australia, plays the signature parts of all your favourite Beatles songs. Like, all of them. And he did it on top of a building, a nod to the fab four’s final concert on the top of Abbey Road Studios.
On his Facebook page, Smith writes:
Way before I found out about punk rock or even knew what a snare drum was I spent my childhood playing vinyl records at my grandparents place spinning artists such as Slim Dusty, ELVIS PRESLEY and The Beatles.
This chronology called for some special treatment and got me out of the studio and onto the rooftop of The Great Northern Hotel – Newcastle, Australia for a pretty stunning view of Newcastle, New South Wales in the background.
Thanks to everyone at The Great Northern for letting me make some noise up there and to Eluminate for helping me shoot it and lug heaps of gear up 7 storeys of stairs!
(1962)
0:06 – Love Me Do
0:09 – P.S. I Love You
(1963)
0:13 – Please Please Me
0:17 – I Saw Her Standing There
0:20 – Do You Want to Know a Secret?
0:22 – From Me to You
0:24 – Thank You Girl
0:27 – She Loves You
0:30 – All My Loving
0:33 – I Want to Hold Your Hand
(1964)
0:36 – Can’t Buy Me Love
0:40 – A Hard Day’s Night
0:43 – I Should Have Known Better
0:46 – If I Fell
0:52 – I’m Happy Just to Dance With You
0:55 – And I Love Her
0:59 – I’ll Cry Instead
1:01 – You Can’t Do That
1:04 – I Feel Fine
1:07 – She’s a Woman
1:10 – Eight Days a Week
1:13 – I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
(1965)
1:18 – Ticket to Ride
1:22 – Yes it Is
1:29 – Help!
1:33 – Yesterday
1:41 – Day Tripper
1:45 – We Can Work it Out
1:47 – Drive My Car
1:51 – Norwegian Wood
1:55 – Nowhere Man
2:01 – Michelle
2:03 – What Goes On
2:08 – Girl
2:10 – In My Life
(1966)
2:14 – Paperback Writer
2:18 – Rain
2:22 – Taxman
2:24 – Eleanor Rigby
2:29 – Yellow Submarine
2:33 – Good Day Sunshine
2:37 – Got to Get You Into My Life
(1967)
2:41 – Strawberry Fields Forever
2:47 – Penny Lane
2:51 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2:56 – With a Little Help From My Friends
2:58 – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
3:05 – A Day in the Life
3:11 – All You Need is Love
3:15 – Baby You’re a Rich Man
3:20 – Hello Goodbye
3:23 – I Am the Walrus
(1968)
3:24 – Lady Madonna
3:29 – Hey Jude
3:34 – Revolution
3:39 – Back in the U.S.S.R.
3:41 – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
3:46 – While My Guitar Gently Weeps
(1969)
3:50 – Get Back
3:54 – Don’t Let Me Down
3:58 – The Ballad of John and Yoko
4:02 – Come Together
4:07 – Something
4:12 – Octopus’s Garden
4:15 – Here Come’s the Sun
4:19 – The End
(1970)
4:24 – Let it Be
4:32 – You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
4:37 – For You Blue
4:39 – The Long and Winding Road
(1995)
4:50 – Free as a Bird
Stream Talib Kweli And 9th Wonder’s Indie 500
Two of Hip Hop’s most cherished icons, Talib Kweli and 9th Wonder have come together to create what undoubtedly will go down as an instantly classic album. INDIE 500 features an All Star supporting cast, including Problem, Slug (of Atmosphere), Rapsody, Pharaoh Monch, Brother Ali, Hi-Tek, NIKO IS and more.
After exploding on to the scene as one half of the legendary Black Star alongside Mos Def in 1998, Talib Kweli quickly followed up in 2000 with the album Train of Thought, his collaborative effort with producer Hi-Tek. As fans,critics and his peers unanimously agreed, Kweli was cemented as one of hip hop’s top lyricists and continued to release one acclaimed album after another – garnering direct praise from Jay-Z on his song “Moment of Clarity” from Jay-Z’s classic The Black Album. Meanwhile as the early 2000’s progressed, a new trio was bursting on the scene from North Carolina known as Little Brother. Behind the boards of this trio was producer 9th Wonder, who very quickly established himself as one of hip hop’s best producers.
As their 2003 album The Listening reached a fever pitch, 9th Wonder’s buzz became so hot he claimed a highly coveted production spot as well on Jay-Z’s The Black Album. Through the years both Talib Kweli and 9th Wonder have gone on to work with a staggering list of hip hop royalty. However both of their respective works outside of the recording booth have become prominent pieces of their stories as well. 9th Wonder has established himself as Hip Hop’s top educator, working as a professor at Harvard, Duke and North Carolina Central University, while Talib Kweli has become one of Hip Hop’s most vocal and respected voices, who appears regularly on news outlets such as CNN and programs like HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
A collaboration between Kweli and 9th almost seemed to make perfect sense, but INDIE 500 represents even more to the artists. “I’ve always been a fan of collectives, like Native Tongues and the Dungeon Family,” explains Kweli. “INDIE 500 is a tribute to the spirit of unity exemplified by some of great hip hop artists that influenced us.” Collectives are nothing new to the two, who have both successfully run their own labels in Blacksmith, Javotti (Kweli) and Jamla (9th Wonder), helping to break a number of popular artists over the years.
1950s Ads And Jingles From Green Giant, Chevy, Keebler And More
These commercials are for both well-known brands, such as Green Giant, Chevy and Keebler, to companies more local like Nekoosa Paper and Burny Brothers, who, according to one online reader, “were proudly featured at Wrigley Field well into the 1970s.” You never know who’s now working in advertising that might just be the next music star. When Mark Foster formed Foster the People in 2009, he wrote and recorded “Pumped Up Kicks” in five hours while working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics in Los Angeles.
1.) Green Giant Music Bed (MP3)
8.) Burny Bros. bakery products (MP3)
Amy Ray of Indigo Girls on how to be an effective artist/activist
It’s interesting how much thought goes into being effective activists. Because there is definitely a right and wrong way to do it.
We love writing and playing music, but it wouldn’t be as poignant to us if we didn’t have this other stuff going on. It’s energizing to work on some kind of fundraising campaign for a school for refugee kids at the same time that we’re working on a new record. It gives us more of a purpose. It’s like, “If this record does really well, we can do a bigger ‘Honor the Earth’ tour.” That’s how both of our minds work, so we’re lucky in that way. It makes it fun to connect our strategy for our music with our strategy for our activism.
Is there a key to doing it without sounding preachy?
I don’t know, sometimes we do sound preachy, and it’s just because we’re enthusiastic and we get carried away. Something else I’ve learned along the way is that things are not black and white. For instance, if you’re working on the environmental impacts of coal mining, you need to be thinking about the jobs that are in that community from coal mining, and what it means to those people to have a job. You try to talk about things in a way that is in the interest of the people in the community and not just in the interest of your self-righteous principles. It’s really important to let people in that community talk. So if we were working on an issue around buffalo and cattle farmers out in Yellowstone, we’d work with some ranchers who were pro-buffalo to talk about the issues to other ranchers, because it’s ridiculous for us to go in there as southeastern white people who know nothing about ranching. It’s not effective, either. It’s like the hippies invading a conservative town. You have to have empathy for the other side of the equation. There are a lot of gray areas, and you really need to respect the other side no matter how self-righteous you feel.
Toni Morrison on the Rewards of Adulthood is the greatest thing you’ll read all month.
Toni Morrison’s commencement speech to Wellesley College might just be one of the greatest talks of all time. So many wonderful pieces of advice and wisdom, but this is my favourite. You can listen to her words below, or get the book with this, and many other speeches in Take This Advice: The Best Graduation Speeches Ever Given.
I’m sure you have been told that this is the best time of your life. It may be. But if it’s true that this is the best time of your life, if you have already lived or are now living at this age the best years, or if the next few turn out to be the best, then you have my condolences. Because you’ll want to remain here, stuck in these so-called best years, never maturing, wanting only to look, to feel and be the adolescent that whole industries are devoted to forcing you to remain.
One more flawless article of clothing, one more elaborate toy, the truly perfect diet, the harmless but necessary drug, the almost final elective surgery, the ultimate cosmetic-all designed to maintain hunger for stasis. While children are being eroticized into adults, adults are being exoticized into eternal juvenilia. I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, target of your labors here, your choices of companions, of the profession that you will enter. You deserve it and I want you to gain it, everybody should. But if that’s all you have on your mind, then you do have my sympathy, and if these are indeed the best years of your life, you do have my condolences because there is nothing, believe me, more satisfying, more gratifying than true adulthood. The adulthood that is the span of life before you. The process of becoming one is not inevitable. Its achievement is a difficult beauty, an intensely hard won glory, which commercial forces and cultural vapidity should not be permitted to deprive you of.
