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05 Mar 2012 20:57

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Music: Michael Jackson’s musical output reportedly stolen by British hackers

  • 50,000 of MJ’s song files reported stolen source
  • » Two British dudes are facing trial over the alleged heist: You have to be a dedicated MJ fan to steal tens of thousands of Michael Jackson songs — including unreleased songs that Sony planned to milk by releasing over 10 albums in the next seven years. James Marks and James McCormick, the suspects in the musical heist, deny having done so, but that may not be enough to sway prosecutors. Sony, by the way, is basically a broken record when it comes to hacking, so this latest incident comes as no surprise.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2011 14:28

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Culture: Michael Jackson death: Conrad Murray sentenced to four years in prison

  • Murray gets the max: Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor issued a sentence for Conrad Murray today, opting for the maximum imprisonment (four years) and coupling that choice with scathing denunciations of the disgraced former doctor: “Not only isn’t there any remorse, there is umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr. Murray against the decedent… Michael Jackson died not because of an isolated one-off occurrence or incident. He died because of a totality of circumstances which are directly attributable to Dr. Murray, not some mistake or some accident in the early morning hours of 2009.” During the trial, the prosecution argued that Murray delayed summoning paramedics to help Jackson after the singer suffered cardiac arrest, and lied to emergency responders when they arrived. (Left: Murray’s booking photo.) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Apr 2011 13:19

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Offbeat: This week in misplaced tributes: MJ statue bugs soccer fans

  • A misplaced memorial: The man you see above is Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of the Fulham FC soccer team (or football, as everybody else calls it). The fellow immortalized in statue form behind him is clearly the late Michael Jackson, who was a friend of Al Fayed’s- the owner commissioned the statue after MJ’s death, and ultimately placed it just outside his team’s stadium. Some fans have claimed that the statue is inappropriate, or at best a bizarre display for an athletic stadium, to which Al Fayed responds thusly: “If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift they can go to hell. I don’t want them to be fans. If they don’t understand and don’t believe in things I believe in they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Nov 2010 20:51

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Culture: Michael Jackson’s mom hits Oprah for first interview since his death

  • Why didn’t he take care of my child? Why did he give that [propofol] to him? It’s very dangerous; why did he do it? … I can’t accuse him of murder. I don’t know if it was accidentally done or it was intentionally done. I don’t want to get into that, but I have my thoughts.
  • Michael Jackson’s mom, Katherine • Explaining her feelings on Conrad Murray, the guy who administered the drugs that killed her ultra-famous son. Jackson was talking to Oprah today in her first interview since Jackson’s death, and the pop star’s kids were with her, too. She’s raising Paris, Prince Michael and Blanket, and didn’t like the way that her son was hiding them away from public view. Now, the trio is going to normal schools and living a relatively normal life. Hopefully they grow up to be a little less messed up than their father became. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2010 11:38

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Culture: Slowly but surely, Michael Jackson’s kids becoming normal(ish)

  • They don’t have any friends. They don’t go to school, they have private lessons at home – but that will change in September, when they are due to enroll at private college.
  • Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson • On her grandkids’ future as actual human beings who may actually have friends. The three kids – Prince, Paris and (our favorite) Blanket – plan to go to school. RIght now, they spend their days hanging around and listening to their father’s music. They have big aspirations, though – Prince wants to produce movies and Paris is musically-inclined. And we’re pretty sure none of them own llamas yet. When they’re old enough to buy one, we know where they could get one on the black market. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Mar 2010 23:36

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Culture: Oops. Dr. Conrad Murray reportedly chose cover-up over CPR

  • bad Michael Jackson – a.k.a. the King of Pop – just had cardiac arrest. You’re his doctor. You live there and give him the insane sleeping medication that probably killed him.
  • worse You reportedly stop doing CPR on him so you can pick up a bunch of drug vials. A witness says this. This information gets unsealed. Your lawyer freaks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Mar 2010 09:52

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Culture: Dead guy surprises everyone by signing recording contract

  • $250 million for King of Pop’s recordings and soul source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

13 Feb 2010 19:32

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Johnny Cash is the new 2Pac is the new Nick Drake

  • This weekend’s release of “We Are the World 25,” which features Michael Jackson taking on a few lines beyond the grave (both in the song and the video), got us to thinking about the artists with seemingly never-ending vaults, in part because we’re sure Jackson himself will be a victim of this kind of musical grave-robbing. Here’s a sampling of the state of posthumous releases:

  • 1. Johnny Cash died way back in 2003, but he has a new album coming out, and “Ain’t No Grave,” held together by a rhythm made of dragging chains, is actually pretty good. Surprising it didn’t get a release back then, honestly (he recorded a lot of tunes with Rick Rubin in the years before his death). It’s one of Cash’s better late-period tunes.
  • 2. Nick Drake’s “Family Tree” probably never would’ve seen the light of day had Drake lived to an old age, but the 2007 release of privately recorded demos stands above the fray of most of the grave-robbing reissues by the guitarist. On “Bird Flew By,” you can hear a lot of the blues influence in his guitar-playing.
  • 3. Jeff Buckley may perhaps have the legacy most damaged by posthumous releases – even moreso than 2Pac. He had one amazing album and one aborted attempt at a second album that was released as an incomplete work. And a lot of live recordings. “Live at Sin-é” may be the key example: A short EP initially, it was reworked as a monster 34-track compilation in 2003. It’s not necessarily the worst release of his, just the best example.
  • 4. 2Pac has tons of posthumous releases (including a live album for a show he wasn’t even headlining), but some of these at least have interesting approaches. In the case of 2004’s “Loyal to the Game,” Eminem produced the entire thing off of some tapes Tupac Shakur’s mom gave him, which means it has some interesting productions and top-of-their-game guests. But it still feels kinda grave-robby, even though it’s respectfully done.
  • 5. Michael Jackson will likely follow the same path as the other stars here, and “This Is It” is really only the beginning. We gave the song a good review when it first came out, and the reason it sounds solid is because it was recorded during his still-interesting “Dangerous” era. We’re sure he has some huge vaults. And there are significant financial reasons for digging into them. We’d like to see them go the Elliott Smith route here, with compilations respectful of his legacy. But a Jeff Buckley-style “everything must go” is more likely.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Feb 2010 14:44

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Culture: Conrad Murray charged in Michael Jackson’s death. Twitter reacts



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Feb 2010 20:40

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Music: Surprisingly, people actually watched the Grammys this year

  • 35% increase from 2008; 26.6 million watched source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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