MORE WHITNEY DRAMA : Was Bobby behind Tina’s tabloid tell all?
by TFSnewsRoom/EurWeb.com
MORE WHITNEY DRAMA: Singer was hanging with 80s singer Cherelle. Both reportedly owe $17,000 in back rent. Was Bobby behind Tina’s tabloid tell all? Where is Bobbi Kristina?
*Where or where to begin in the “snow” balling story surrounding Whitney Houston’s sad state of affairs?
Days after Bobby Brown’s sister Tina gave pictures and personal accounts of Whitney’s crack addiction to the National Enquirer and The Sun tabloids, Fox411 entertainment columnist Roger Friedman has written of new details surrounding Whitney’s downward spiral, including the singer’s dire financial state and the whereabouts and welfare of her daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
Also, Cherelle of “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” and “Saturday Love” fame is suddenly in the picture, having taken Whitney in for a period of time at her townhouse, Friedman reports.
According to Friedman, who has known Whitney since her “You Give Good Love” days, the entertainer is not only on crack, but dead broke “with no current income and huge expenses.”
Friedman says Whitney’s generosity was ultimately her financial undoing, as she has spent most of her earnings taking care of her own family and her husband’s. She her assets include a five-acre estate in posh Mendham, N.J., assessed in 2005 at $5.6 million; her current Alpharetta home, purchased in 2003 for $1.8 million, almost all of which was borrowed, writes Friedman.
“The Mendham property has become to Houston what Neverland is to Michael Jackson: a bank account against which she can draw loans,” Freidman writes. “Unlike Jackson, however, Houston does not have investments like the Beatles catalog to fall back on now that she’s in trouble. Public records show Whitney has borrowed millions of dollars and taken out many staggering mortgages in her time — enough to give Michael Jackson a run for his money.”
For some reason, Whitney left the Alpharetta crib last fall and moved in with Cherelle, but the two were recently evicted from Cherelle’s townhouse, reportedly for making too much noise, keeping the place dirty and failure to pay rent.
Friedman writes: “A local Atlanta lawyer told me that he recently had housemates Whitney and ‘80s pop star Cherelle (real name Cheryl Week Norton) evicted from the luxury townhouse he’d rented to the latter last fall. Houston’s name was not on the lease, but the landlord says she was living there and has witnesses to back him up.”
According to Freedman, the landlord claims the two ladies owe him about $17,000 in back rent and about $8,000 in damages for leaving the place a complete mess. “That includes carpets and furniture ruined by burn marks and broken windows,” Friedman writes.
“When the landlord went to speak to Houston about the noise and filth emanating from the townhouse, he told me the singer appeared ‘disheveled’ and her voice was gravelly. On the plus side: ‘She was very pleasant,’” writes Friedman.
According to sources Whitney and Cherelle abandoned the townhouse and moved into the Buckhead section of Atlanta, but Houston has since returned to her Alpharetta mansion, as has Bobby, after his own partying stint in Los Angeles, Friedman writes. “There, Brown told friends alternately that Houston was pregnant and that they were divorcing.”
Friedman, who calls Whitney’s disastrous fall from grace “the worst kind of show business tragedy,” says that Bobby Brown may have been behind Tina Brown’s decision to sell the story to the tabloids so that he could get a cut of her fee – which could be as high as $200,000, Freidman writes.
Ironically, sources say Whitney took care of Tina Brown’s children – all six of them – when Brown went into rehab herself. Houston’s friends tell Friedman that she always tried to keep Bobby’s relatives happy, even when she was at her worst.
“There are 30 members of the Brown family,” says an insider, “and they’ve all sponged off of Whitney.”
While her generosity and real estate expenses have contributed to her alleged financial ruin, Friedman says a huge factor also comes from receiving poor money advice throughout the years. Because Houston doesn’t write her own songs, she does not profit from the royalties provided by owning one’s own publishing, as do singer/songwriters Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Madonna. This is why Houston is reportedly broke despite all of her platinum-selling hit records.
“It’s kind of surprising that Houston fell into this trap,” writes Friedman. “She’s watched both her mother, Cissy Houston, and cousin, Dionne Warwick, neither of whom wrote their own hits, tour endlessly every year and work to keep up with their expenses. You’d think she would have learned something from their experiences. …Depending on just record sales to get her through bad times was a mistake. While Houston had many bestsellers, they are well in the past. Simply singing a hit record is not enough if you’re not going to save your money.”
As for Bobbi Kristina, she is reportedly staying with her Uncle Gary and Aunt Pat (Whitney’s brother and sister-in-law) close to Houston’s home in Atlanta. But Friedman believes that the Enquirer story will inevitably lead to an investigation by Child Protective Services in Alpharetta.
“If 50 percent of the [Enquirer/Sun] report is deemed true, Houston and Brown could easily lose their daughter for good,” Friedman writes. “One wonders if that will be enough of a wake-up call for the singer who once represented the best of America’s youth.”
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James "Blood" Ulmer at Jazz Standard, NYC (through 4/2)
Vernon Reid plays 3/31 and 4/1
WHAT: Jazz teacher-funk preacher returns for a week of different
incarnations: solo, Odyssey Band and Memphis Blood (SEE VENUE SITE FOR SCHEDULE). WHEN:
Two sets, 7:30PM (solo) and 9:30PM (band); Third set Friday and Saturday at
11:30PM. HOW MUCH: $25 Tuesday-Thursday, Sunday; $30 Friday and Saturday. INFO:
jazzstandard.com or (212) 576-2232. WHERE: 116 East 27th Street between Park
Avenue South and Madison Avenue.
SFJazz Collective at Carnegie Hall, NYC (through 3/30)
Featuring Joshua Redman and Bobby Hutchinson
WHAT: San Fran's premier jazz group performs the music of Ornette Coleman,
John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. WHEN: 8:30PM. HOW MUCH: $32 and $38, depending
on seating. INFO: (212) 247-7800 or carnegiehall.org. WHERE: Southeast corner
of West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Gordon Chambers at Tribeca Lounge, Houston, TX
WHAT: Award-winning singer/songwriter makes his Houston debut. WHEN: 8PM. HOW
MUCH: $15. INFO: (713) 783-2025. WHERE: 2707 Fountainview at Westheimer.
ARTIST SITE: www.gordonchambers.com.
The Dirtbombs at The Independent, San Francisco, CA
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk-soul unit tours the states. WHEN: 7:30PM doors/8PM
show. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO: (415) 771-1422 or theindependentsf.com. WHERE: 628
Divisadero Street. ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.net.
Steel Pulse at Majestic Ventura Theatre, Ventura, CA
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. WHEN: 7:30PM doors/9PM
show. HOW MUCH: $30. INFO: (805) 653-0271 or venturatheater.net. WHERE: 26
South Chestnut Street. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Michael Franti at University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30
Jonesbones at Arlene Grocery, NYC
WHAT: Chick-guy rock returns to Arlene's. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $7. INFO:
arlenesgrocery.net or (212) 995-1652. WHERE: 95 Stanton Street between Ludlow and
Orchard Streets, Lower East Side.
Sugabush/Fin-O-Tee/Asika at Crash Mansion, NYC
WHAT: Soul sister led showcase Crash Mansion. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO:
crashmansion.com or (212) 982-0740. WHERE: 199 Bowery at Spring Street, Lower
East Side.
Pillow Theory/Signal Effect/Funkface/DJ Crunchy at Sputnik,
Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Worldeater Black alt showcase at Sputnik. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $5.
INFO: barsputnik.com or (718) 398-6666. WHERE: 262 Taaffe Place between Dekalb and
Willoughby Avenues, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
The Screening at Sputnik, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Monthly showcase of cutting edge shorts at Sputnik. WHEN: 7PM. HOW
MUCH: FREE. INFO: barsputnik.com or (718) 398-6666. WHERE: 262 Taaffe Place
between Dekalb and Willoughby Avenues, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. ARTIST SITE:
www.flatfootfete.com.
National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY
(through 4/2)
WHAT: Eighth annual gathering of the scribes. WHEN: DIFFERENT EVENTS AT
DIFFERENT TIMES; CHECK EVENT WEBSITE. HOW MUCH: $75 on site registration/$25
student on site registration. INFO: (718) 270-4811 or mec.cuny.edu/nbwc. WHERE: 1650
Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
KUDU at The Five Spot, Philadelphia, PA
WHAT: Sexy dance-rock-electronic sensation plays the City of Brotherly Love.
WHEN: 9PM doors. HOW MUCH: $8. INFO: thefivespot.com or (215) 574-0070. WHERE:
Five South Bank Street. ARTIST SITE: www.kudu2u.com.
Saul Williams at El Paso County Coliseum, El Paso, TX
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH:
$32.50-$38.50, depending on seating. INFO: (915) 533-9899. WHERE: 4100 East
Paisano Street. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Steel Pulse at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA (through 3/31)
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. WHEN: 7PM doors/8PM
show. HOW MUCH: $25 advance/$29 door. INFO: catalystclub.com or (831) 423-1336.
WHERE: 1011 Pacific Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Michael Franti at Uptown Theatre, Calgary, AB
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
FRIDAY, MARCH 31
bloodsugar at Tonic, NYC
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. WHEN: Midnight. HOW MUCH: FREE.
INFO: tonicnyc.com or (212) 431-2201. WHERE: 107 Norfolk between Delancey and
Rivington Streets, Lower East Side. ARTIST SITE: www.blackballuniverse.com.
African Dance Party at S.O.B.’s, NYC
Featuring Cheikh Tairou M'baye and Sing Sing Rhythm
WHAT: Senegalese drum and dance company plays S.O.B.’s. WHEN: 10PM doors/11PM
show. HOW MUCH: $20. INFO: (212) 243-4940 or sobs.com. WHERE: 204 Varick
Street at West Houston, Soho.
The Dirtbombs at Dante's, Portland, OR
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk-soul unit tours the states. WHEN: CONTACT VENUE. HOW
MUCH: $12 advance/$13 door. INFO: (503) 226-6630 or danteslive.com. WHERE:
One SW Third Avenue at Burnside. ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.net.
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
Burnt Sugar at Tonic, NYC (Late)
WHAT: Greg Tate’s Davisian ensemble returns to Tonic after CD launch party
(see below). WHEN: Midnight. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO: tonicnyc.com or (212)
431-2201. WHERE: 107 Norfolk between Delancey and Rivington Streets, Lower East Side.
ARTIST SITE: www.burntsugarindex.com.
Kyp Malone at Knitting Factory, NYC
With Scout Niblett and Mike Wexler
WHAT: TV on the Radio guitarist takes a solo turn. WHEN: 11PM. HOW MUCH: $10
advance/$12 door. INFO: knittingfactory.com or (212) 219-3132. WHERE: 74
Leonard Street between Broadway and Church Street, Tribeca.
bloodsugar at Snitch, NYC
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO:
(212) 727-7775 or snitchbar.com. WHERE: 59 West 21st Street between Fifth and
Sixth Avenues, Chelsea/Flatiron district. ARTIST SITE:
www.blackballuniverse.com.
Blackalicious at B.B. King’s, NYC
WHAT: Bay Area alt-hip-hop duo returns to B.B.’s. WHEN: 10PM doors/10:30
show. HOW MUCH: $19.50 advance/$22 door. INFO: (212) 997-4144 or bbkingblues.com.
WHERE: 237 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, Times Square.
Burnt Sugar at Corridor Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (Early)
WHAT: Official CD launch party for Greg Tate’s Davisian ensemble's new double
CD, "More Than Posthuman." WHEN: 6PM-9PM. HOW MUCH: FREE. INFO: (718)
431-2201 or corridorgallery.org. WHERE: 334 Grand Street. ARTIST SITE:
www.burntsugarindex.com.
Andy Bey at NJPAC, Newark, NJ
WHAT: Noted vocal virtuoso performs at NJPC. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH: $37.
INFO: (888) GO-NJPAC or njpac.org. WHERE: One
Center Street.
Saul Williams at Aladdin Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 6:30PM doors/8PM show.
HOW MUCH: $42. INFO: (877) 333-9474 or aladdincasino.com. WHERE: 3667 Las
Vegas Boulevard South. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Michael Franti at McPherson Theatre, Victoria, BC
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
SUNDAY, APRIL 2
The Exit at Avalon, NYC
Opening for Straylight Run and The Spill Canvas
WHAT: Punk-pop-reggae-ska trio plays Avalon. WHEN: 7PM doors. HOW MUCH: $15
advance/$17.50 door. INFO: (212) 807-7780 or nyavalon.com. WHERE: 47 West 20th
Street at Sixth Avenue, Chelsea/Flatiron district. ARTIST SITE:
www.theexitrocks.com.
Michael Franti at Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
MONDAY, APRIL 3
"Steve Coleman Presents" at Jazz Gallery, NYC
WHAT: M-Base co-founder and sax virtuoso takes residence at Jazz Gallery.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO: jazzgallery.org or (212) 242-1063. WHERE: 290
Hudson Street below Spring in West Soho.
Renee Neufville at Jazz Standard, NYC
WHAT: Former lead vocalist/songwriter for Zhane performs solo material. WHEN:
Two sets, 7:30PM and 9:30PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO: jazzstandard.com or (212)
576-2232. WHERE: 116 East 27th Street between Park Avenue South and Madison
Avenue.
TUESDAY, APRIL 4
bloodsugar at Trash Bar, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. WHEN: Midnight. HOW MUCH: $6. INFO:
(718) 599-1000 or thetrashbar.com. WHERE: 256 Grand Street at Roebling,
Williamsburg. ARTIST SITE: www.blackballuniverse.com.
Stanley Jordan Trio at Jazz Standard, NYC (through 4/9)
WHAT: Finger-tap guitar magician does a week at The Standard. WHEN: Two sets,
7:30PM (solo) and 9:30PM (band); Third set Friday and Saturday at 11:30PM.
HOW MUCH: $25, Tuesday-Thursday, Sunday. $30, Friday and Saturday. INFO:
jazzstandard.com or (212) 576-2232. WHERE: 116 East 27th Street between Park Avenue
South and Madison Avenue.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5
Michael Hill at Terra Blues, NYC
WHAT: BRC blues griot returns to Terra Blues. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: $12. INFO:
(212) 777-7776 or terrablues.com. WHERE: 149 Bleecker Street between Thompson
Street and LaGuardia Place. ARTIST SITE: www.michaelhillbluesmob.com.
"What is Jazz?" at B.B. King's, NYC
Featuring Christian McBride Band, Charlie Hunter Trio, DJ Logic and Bobby
Previte
WHAT: Soundclash of future jazz virtuosos. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $18
advance/$20 door. INFO: (212) 997-4144 or bbkingblues.com. WHERE: 237 West 42nd Street
between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, Times Square.
King's X at Beta Bar, Tallahassee, FL
WHAT: Pop-metal-punk-funk trio launches a national tour. WHEN: 8:30PM. HOW
MUCH: $15. INFO: (850) 425-2697 or thebetabar.com. WHERE: 809 Railroad Avenue at
West Gaines Street. ARTIST SITE: www.kingsxonline.com.
THURSDAY, APRIL 6
Steel Pulse at Irving Plaza, NYC
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM
show. HOW MUCH: $23.50. INFO: irvingplaza.com or (212) 777-1224. WHERE: 17 Irving
Place at East 15th Street, one block east of Union Square. ARTIST SITE:
www.steel-pulse.com.
King's X at The Peppermint Beach Club, Virginia Beach, VA
WHAT: Pop-metal-punk-funk trio launches a national tour. WHEN/HOW MUCH:
CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (757) 422-6372. WHERE: 1801 Atlantic Avenue at 18th Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.kingsxonline.com.
FRIDAY, APRIL 7
"Rock Against Racism" at The Delancey, NYC
Featuring Will Dailey, Paragraph, Brian Bonz, The New Marvelaires
and Honeychild Coleman
WHAT: Political rock-fest gathers at The Delancey for a benefit for Southern
Poverty Law Center. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (212)
254-9920 or thedelancey.com. WHERE: 168 Delancey Street between Clinton and Attorney,
Lower East Side at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
The Wailers at B.B. King’s, NYC
WHAT: Bob Marley's musical backbone returns to B.B. King's. WHEN: 8PM. HOW
MUCH: $25. INFO: (212) 997-4144 or bbkingblues.com. WHERE: 237 West 42nd Street
between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, Times Square.
Fred Ho and the Afro-Asian Ensemble at St. John's Lutheran Church, Brooklyn,
NY
Featuring Raul Salinas
WHAT: Revolutionary jazz composer and band join forces with noted activist,
poet and author. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: $12 suggested donation. INFO: (212)
760-4980. WHERE: 155 Milton Street, Greenpoint.
bloodsugar at Abilene, Philadelphia, PA
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. HOW MUCH: $5. WHEN: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: (215) 922-2583 or abilenephilly.com. WHERE: 429 South Street at South
Fifth Street. ARTIST SITE: www.blackballuniverse.com.
__________________________________________________________________
UPCOMING DATES
BLOODSUGAR AT URB ALT AT MO’ PITKIN’S, NYC, 4/8
VAN HUNT AT CANAL ROOM, NYC, 4/8
TOSHI REAGON AND BIG LOVELY AT NJPAC, NEWARK, NJ, 4/8
KING’S X AT JAXX, SPRINGFIELD, VA, 4/8
KING’S X AT THE STARLAND BALLROOM, SAYREVILLE, NJ, 4/10
KING'S X AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/11
KING’S X AT NORMA JEAN'S, LONDON, ONT (CANADA), 4/13
THE SQUARE EGG AT LION'S DEN, NYC, 4/14
BLAKBÜSHE AT THE HOOK, NYC, 4/14
CHRISTOPHER HALE QUARTET AT TONIC, NYC, 4/14
Featuring Josh Roseman
BLOODSUGAR AT SAFARI SAM'S LOUNGE, HOLLYWOOD, CA, 4/14
KING’S X AT THE MARQUEE, TORONTO, ONT (CANADA), 4/14
ALANA DAVIS AT CODA, NYC, 4/15
TALIB KWELI AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/15
MICHELLE CRUZ AT WORLD MUSIC CAFÉ, PHILADELPIA, PA, 4/15
TV ON THE RADIO AT BOWERY BALLROOM, NYC, 4/18
THOMAS MAPFUMO AND BLACKS UNLIMITED AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/18
KING’S X AT THE PYRAMID CABARET, WINNIPEG, MANITOBA (CANADA), 4/18
BEN HARPER AT KOKUA FESTIVAL (MAUI ARTS AND CULTURAL) CENTER, KAHULUI, HI,
4/19
With Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson and The Planetary Bandits, Henry Kapono,
Paula Fuga and the One Love 'Ohana Band, ALO
RICHIE HAVENS AT THE BITTER END, NYC, 4/21
TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS/SOULIVE AT NOKIA THEATER, NYC, 4/21
TV ON THE RADIO AT SPANISH MOON, BATON ROUGE, LA, 4/21
BEN HARPER AT KOKUA FESTIVAL (WAIKIKI SHELL), HONOLULU, HI, 4/22
Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson and The Planetary Bandits, Henry Kapono, Paula
Fuga and the One Love 'Ohana Band, ALO
THIRD WORLD AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/23
MONTYALEXANDER AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/24
KING’S X AT THE RED ROOM, VANCOUVER, BC (CANADA), 4/24
HUGH MASEKELA AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/25
COREY HARRIS AT THE CUTTING ROOM, NYC, 4/26
TV ON THE RADIO AT MARQUEE THEATRE, TEMPE, AZ, 4/27
NEW ORLEANS JAZZ AND HERITAGE FESTIVAL, NEW ORLEANS, LA, 4/28-30, 5/5-7
TV ON THE RADIO AT "COACHELLA VALLEY MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL" EMPIRE POLO
FIELD, INDIO, CA, 4/29-30
"WHEN FRIED EGGS FLY," AT AMC THEATER, NYC, 4/30
____________________________________________________
CONTACT:
Here's how you can reach us here at the B.R.C.:
SNAIL MAIL: Black Rock Coalition
P.O. Box 1054
Cooper Station
NYC, NY 10276
WEBSITE: www.blackrockcoalition.org
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Naomi Campbell charged with assault in NY
By Jeanne King
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supermodel Naomi Campbell was arrested at her Park Avenue home on Thursday and charged with assaulting her housekeeper with a cell phone, New York City police said.
Campbell, who was later released, could face up to seven years in prison after she was charged with second degree assault for throwing a cell phone at housekeeper Ana Scolavino. Police said it struck her on the back of the head and opened a cut that needed four staples.
Campbell's lawyer, David Breitbart, said the maid's injury was self-inflicted. He added that Scolavino had been working for Campbell for two to three months and was being fired because several items were missing from the house. "When this happened this morning, all hell broke loose," he said.
Campbell was ordered to return to court on June 27.
Prosecutors asked the judge to order Campbell to surrender her passport but the request was denied after Breitbart said she was scheduled to fly to West Africa on Friday to do some charity work with Nelson Mandela.
Campbell, still one of the biggest names in fashion at the age of 35, was fingerprinted and photographed at a police station and arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of her arraignment wearing a black baseball hat, a white fur poncho and sunglasses. Her hands were cuffed behind her back.
"The police have been really nice. They are treating me great," she told reporters.
Campbell's agent, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement: "We believe this is a case of retaliation, because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier this morning. We are confident the courts will see it the same way."
'MOST RECOGNIZED MODEL'
Prosecutors asked Judge Richard Weinberg to set bail at $3,500, a figure Breitbart scoffed at as "unsightly" for the high profile model, who was released without bail.
"She is not a risk of flight," said Breitbart. "She is the most recognized model in the world."
It was not the first time the British-born Campbell has had troubles with the law -- in February 2000 she pleaded guilty in a Canadian court to assaulting her former assistant, and was given an absolute discharge, meaning her record was cleared.
After that incident, in which she assaulted her assistant Georgina Galanis with a telephone, she blamed her fiery temper on lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child.
Campbell, who grew up in South London, said that her father abandoned the family before she was born and her mother was often gone because she worked long hours to send her daughter to prestigious schools to study singing, drama and ballet.
"I've not always displayed my anger in the appropriate time," she said in a 2000 TV interview in which she said she had attended a U.S. clinic to help manage her anger. "It's a manifestation of a deeper issue, I think. And that, to me, I think is based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness."
Campbell has also admitted to drug use in the past. In 2004 she won a British court battle with a tabloid newspaper that was found to have invaded her privacy by running a story saying, correctly, that she had visited Narcotics Anonymous.
Spotted on the streets of London's Covent Garden when she was 15, Campbell was the first black model to appear on covers of the French and British editions of Vogue magazine. Nearly 20 years later she remains one of the biggest names in fashion.
She has also acted in several movies, tried her hand at singing and launched her own cosmetics range. She also published a ghostwritten novel called "Swan," about a supermodel who is blackmailed.
R. Kelly's Not So Brotherly Love
By Sarah Hall
Thu Mar 23, 3:48 PM ET
R. Kelly's brother, Carey, believes he can't lie.
The "Trapped in the Closet" singer's younger sibling has released a low-budget DVD on which he accuses his brother of trying to get him to commit perjury, according to MTV News.
According to Carey Kelly, his brother wanted him to take the fall by claiming that he was actually the star of the infamous sex tape that prompted child-pornography charges against R. Kelly.
On the DVD, released Tuesday, Carey Kelly alleges that his more famous brother offered him $50,000, a house and a record contract if he would agree to testify that he appeared on the tape, but that he turned the offer down because he did not want to lie.
"I got a call about a year and a half ago," Carey claims on the DVD, produced by Drahma Magazine. "My brother wanted me to do some s--t pertaining to this case that would leave me behind bars with a record deal. It doesn't make sense, so I turned it down.
"Since I couldn't lie for him in a court of law, we're back to beefing again, and we ain't brothers no more."
The rumor that R. Kelly planned to finger his look-alike brother as the star of the sex tape first circulated several years back, but the R&B star's lawyers denied that the ploy was part of their defense strategy.
Carey Kelly also claims that his brother beats his wife, Andrea; tried to molest their other brother's daughter; molested their 12-year-old second cousin; and--oh yeah--that he's bisexual.
"He trapped in the closet for real," Carey Kelly said in a radio interview with New York's Hot 97.
A spokesperson for R. Kelly declined to comment on the allegations, beyond calling them "ridiculous."
"This is not the first time Carey has made ridiculous accusations against his brother," the spokesperson told MTV News. "We're not going to dignify them with a comment."
Though Carey Kelly claims all of his allegations can be proven, his own credibility isn't the strongest, seeing as he was recently released from prison on theft charges. He also openly holds a grudge against his brother, whom he claims owes him royalties for his contributions to several tracks on the 1993 album 12 Play.
For his part, R. Kelly has pleaded innocent to the charges against him.
His case continues in a Chicago courtroom on Apr. 7.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 4:26 p.m. ET
By LISA CORNWELL Associated Press Writer
BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) -- A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.
Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: "I just killed a kid."
Police, who released the call's contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up."
Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the chest with a shotgun. The high school freshman was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Martin, 66, allegedly told police he had several times had problems with neighbors walking on his lawn. He remained jailed without bond Monday. His jailers said no attorney was listed for him.
Neighbors said Martin lived alone quietly, often sitting in front of his one-story home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and Navy flags flying.
Joanne Ritchie, 46, said Mugrage was known as "a good kid," but she always also considered Martin to be friendly.
Union Township is near Batavia, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati.
King Floyd III, the soul singer and songwriter best known for his 1970 hit "Groove Me," died March 6 of complications from a stroke and diabetes, his record label said. He was 61.
As a young man, Floyd sometimes sang with the house band at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street. After serving in the Army, he tried to launch a career as an entertainer. On the West Coast, Floyd met Harold Battiste, a fellow New Orleans expatriate who was an established producer and band leader.
Battiste produced Floyd's debut album, "A Man in Love," which featured songs written with Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. The album did not fare well, and in 1969 Floyd returned to New Orleans and took a job with the post office to support his family.
A year later, Wardell Quezergue, an arranger of R&B scores, brought Floyd to the Jackson, Miss., office of Malaco Records where he recorded a song he had written, "Groove Me," during the same session that Jean Knight recorded her classic "Mr. Big Stuff."
Atlantic Records picked up the song and promoted it nationally. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 6 on the pop chart.
A teenager was shot Monday afternoon after he was arguing over tater tots with another teen, San Antonio Police said.
The shooting happened close to 5 p.m. at the Spring Hill Apartments off Raybon on the northeast side.
Neighbors told police the uncle of one of the boys told the teens to stop fighting. They were ready to stop, but investigators said a 20-year-old man would not let them.
“Another person out here in this apartment complex, I think wanted to see the young boys continue fighting,” Sgt. Rudy Cran with SAPD said.
The man then walked into a nearby apartment complex, grabbed a gun and started shooting, authorities said. He fired several shots into the living room where the boys were watching television, police said.
“One of those rounds from that 45 automatic, hit the young man in the back,” Cran said.
The boy was rushed to University Hospital, officials said. His condition was unavailable Monday night.
The suspect remained on the loose Monday. Police were looking for him.
Johnny Rotten has nothing but disdain for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame..
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Sex Pistols lead singer Johnny Rotten has nothing but disdain for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is why he won't be attending Monday's induction ceremony.
The singer, who now goes by the name John Lydon, appeared as a guest on ABC's late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Friday, and was asked why he and his two surviving partners from the ground-breaking punk band were snubbing the hall.
"They never cared who we were," Lydon said. "They never bothered to correct the incredible fatal, bad mistakes about our legend and legacy in their museum and up until now, they've rejected our nomination for three years running, and now they want a piece of us.
"Well, guess what? KISS THIS!" he said, making a rude gesture.
"When I began as a Sex Pistol, there was no Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and suddenly this organization is put on top of us like we have an obligation to them. Well, it's the other way around. Don't use my name to prop up your ... nonsense."
When it was first announced the group would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Sex Pistols declined the honor with a coarse message posted on their Web site.
Other inductees into the Hall of Fame this year include Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, Lynyrd Skynyrd and music executives Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.
Welcome to all the new people who signed up to join the BRC e-mail list. This
is your prime location to find out what's going on with the BRC and things
related to Black rock in all of its forms.
As always, the good people at the multi-national corporate conglomerate known
as America Online have graciously asked my infinitesimal Black behind to
remind you, if you wish NOT to be a member of the BRC weekly e-mails, simply reply
to info@blackrockcoalition.org with the word "unsubscribe." WE ADAMANTLY
DISCOURAGE SPAM, BUT… we won't get mad if you choose to forward this list, but only
if it's to parties with genuine interest in BRC activities. Please ask
permission first!
REMINDER: The deadline for getting listings in This Week In Black Rock is
every Tuesday at noon. T.W.I.B.R. gets sent out Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
E-mail listings to: BRCMembersInfo@aol.com.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE INCLUDE SHOW TIMES, ADMISSION PRICES AND CONTACT
INFORMATION! (And if you're playing outside the New York metropolitan area, please
include city and state).
DO NOT SEND ANONYMOUS/UNIDENTIFIABLE ATTACHMENTS! THEY WILL BE DELETED
UNOPENED!
TWIBR HAS ADS, CLASSIFIEDS AND ARTIST LINKS! For info about taking out ads in
TWIBR, contact Darrell McNeill at BRCMembersInfo@aol.com.
Darrell M. McNeill
BRC Director of Operations
___________________________________________________
All respect due…
CARLTON "CQ" NEWBERN
(1959-2006)
From Beverly Milner, BRC-L.A executive director:
Family - we lost one of our long-term BRC-LA members the other day. Words
can hardly express our shock and sorrow at being dealt this unexpected blow to
our black rock community.
Carlton "CQ" Newbern passed away on February 28th from a massive heart attack.
"CQ," as he was known, was a long-standing BRC-LA member and a 'power
drummer' in several BRC bands throughout the years, the last being, Capitulate.
In addition, he was a professional sound engineer, owned a ton of equipment
and was always down to help supplement equipment for BRC shows.
His quirky off beat humor and kind nature will be sorely missed.
A fundraiser for the family is being planned. Keep following TWIBR for
updates.
_______________________________________________________________
KIRBY PUCKETT
1960-2006
Acknowlegding a flawed hero...
I wasn't quite sure how to do this, because I didn't want to send the wrong
message...
Then I remembered that all my heroes and sheroes are flawed. MLK. Malcolm X.
Miles Davis. Billie Holliday. Jimi Hendrix. Zora Neale Hurston. W.E.B. DuBois.
Winnie Mandela. Their flaws make their lives real and their accomplishments
attainable in the realm of us "mere mortals."
I remember him for the good and bad he's done in his life. I take his best
examples to heart and take counsel (and counsel others) against his worst. You
can make of it what you will from here...
He was still one of the best ever in the game...
_______________________________________________________________
BRC ON MYSPACE.COM
Check us out at www.myspace.com/blackrockcoalition.
___________________________________________________
BRC RADIO ON THE INTERNET
The Black Rock Coalition hosts two (2) Internet radio shows:
For all the latest Black rock music (major, indie, DIY), check out "BRC@WPS1"
on www.wps1.org.
For all-time Black rock standards and hallmark performers, check out "BRC
Classics" on www.soul-patrol.net.
____________________________________________________
TWIBR is now and forever on Urban Voyeur, the most comprehensive online
archive of the progressive Black music scene. Log on at: www.urbanvoyeur.com.
____________________________________________________
Congratulations to my e-dawg, Kevin Powell, who’s throwing his hat in the
ring for US Congress in the 10th Congressional District in Brooklyn!
________________________________________________
Congratulations to BRC member April Silver, who’s co-host of the new BETJ
show "My 2 Cents," with Kevin Boykin and Selwyn Sefu Hinds!
"My 2 Cents" airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1PM, 9PM and 11PM on
BETJ (check your local listings).
_______________________________________________
WORLDEATER RECORDINGS
The Black Rock Coalition’s studio and production partner for our fifth band
compilation, "Rock ‘N Roll Reparations: Volume 1," is open to all musicians.
Rehearsals: $10 per hour
Recording: $35 per hour-$200 for 8 hour block
Mixing/Mastering/Live Sound/Rentals/Bookings and Promotions/Consultations
____________________________________________________
COMING IN JUNE 2006!
THE BLACK ROCK COALITION
INTRODUCES ITS NEW AND IMPROVED MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS PACKAGE
ÿ A new jobs/gigs e-mail newsletter
ÿ Low cost health insurance referrals
ÿ Discount studio time package deals at select recording studios (NYC only)
ÿ And many, many other goodies!
KEEP FOLLOWING TWIBR FOR DETAILS!
________________________________________________
KUDU Tuesdays at Nublu, NYC
Sneak preview CD premiere party
WHAT: Sexy dance-rock-electronic sensation wraps up their Tuesday residence.
Copies of Kudu’s brand new CD "Death of the Party," will be available for
sale. WHEN: Two sets, 12:30AM and 1:30AM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: nublu.net
or (212) 979-9925. WHERE: 62 Avenue C between East Fourth and Fifth Streets,
East Village. ARTIST SITE: www.kudu2u.com.
Pillow Theory/Shaka Zulu Overdrive at Pianos, NYC
With Motel Creeps, The Whigs, Rahu Ketu and Psychotic 4
WHAT: Nu-alt-pop-grunge faces off with Afro-prog rock at Pianos. WHEN: 10PM.
HOW MUCH: $10. INFO: pianosnyc.com or (212) 505-3733. WHERE: 158 Ludlow Street
between Stanton Street and Rivington Street, Lower East Side. ARTIST SITE:
www.pillowtheory.net, www.shakazuluoverdrive.com.
Queen Esther at Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: New blues-soul chanteuse returns to Pete’s with an intimate unplugged
set. WHEN: 10PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 302-3770 or
petescandystore.com. WHERE: 709 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg. ARTIST SITE: www.queen-esther.com.
D. Lammie Hanson on "Paved Paradise"
Hosted by Lynda Peterson, "The Art of Music"
WHAT: Mindthirst vocalist showcases her musical and visual art talents. WHEN:
6:30 PM and 11:30PM. INFO: Time Warner Channel 34; Cablevision Channel 67.
Medgar Evers College Film and Culture Series at Medgar Evers College,
Brooklyn, NY
TONIGHT: "Sankofa!" With a performance by Poethica
WHAT: Bi-monthly film screenings and live performances. WHEN: 6:30PM. HOW
MUCH: FREE (PHOTO ID REQUIRED). INFO: (718) 270-6096 or
mec.cuny.edu/filmandcultureseries. WHERE: Founders Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Avenue, between Crown and
Montgomery Streets, Crown Heights.
"Soul Acoustic Tuesdays" at Kili, Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by Tasneem, Ranjit, Shae Fiol and others
WHAT: Weekly downtown open mic. DJ trademark spins funk and soul classics.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 855-5574. WHERE: 81 Hoyt Street
between State Street and Atlantic Avenue, downtown.
"The Seven" at New York Theater Workshop, NYC (through 3/12)
Written by Will Power; directed by Jo Bonney; choreographed by Bill T. Jones
WHAT: Will Power’s hip-hop adaptation of Seven Against Thebes, the tale of
the warring sons of the cursed King Oedipus. WHEN: Wednesday-Saturday 8PM;
Tuesday and Sunday 7PM; matinees Saturday (3PM) and Sunday (2PM). HOW MUCH: CONTACT
VENUE FOR DISCOUNT TICKETS ($37.50, ordinarily $60). INFO: (212) 460-5475 or
nytw.com. WHERE: 74 East Fourth Street, between Second and Third Avenues, East
Village.
"Artificial Afrika" at Gigantic ArtSpace, NYC (through 3/17)
WHAT: Vernon Reid and C. Daniel Dawson curate this visual art tour of
post-modern Black iconography. WHEN: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11AM-7PM. HOW MUCH:
FREE. INFO: (212) 226-6762 or giganticartspace.com. WHERE: 59 Franklin Street
between Broadway and Lafayette Street, Tribeca/Chinatown.
"Bridge and Tunnel" at The Helen Hayes Theater, NYC (through 3/12)
Featuring Sarah Jones
WHAT: Revolutionary poet/actress brings her award-winning one-woman show to
Broadway. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM show. HOW MUCH: $86.25. DISCOUNT TICKETS
AVAILABLE: This special discount makes select tickets available for $46.25. Just type
in code BTDLZ37 at broadwayoffers.com or call Telecharge at (212) 947-8844 and
mention the same code, BTDLZ37. INFO: (212) 944-9450. WHERE: 240 West 44th
Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.sarahjonesonline.com
.
Saul Williams at Erie Civic Center, Erie, PA
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH:
$34.50. INFO: (814) 452-4857. WHERE: 809 French Street at East Eighth Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Michael Franti at Armand Hammer Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
WHAT: Spearhead frontman tours his documentary of his personal journey
through war-torn nations. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (310) 443-7000 or
hammer.ucla.edu. WHERE: 10899 Wilshire Boulevard. ARTIST SITE:
www.spearheadvibrations.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Canal 93 Festival Banlieues, Bobigny
(Paris), FRN
INFO: banlieuesbleues.org; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8
DJ Sugarfree at CoCo 66, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Honeychild's alter ego rocks the freaky beats at CoCo 66. WHEN: 10PM.
HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 389-7392. WHERE: 66 Greenpoint Avenue,
Williamsburg.
Ben Harper at Classic Center, Athens, GA (SOLD OUT!)
THURSDAY, MARCH 9
DJ Sugarfree at UNTP, NYC
Shoe Sale Party
WHAT: Honeychild's alter ego rocks the freaky beats at custom shoe boutique.
WHEN: 6PM-9PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. WHERE: 260 Elizabeth Street between East
Houston and Prince Street, Nolita.
Mike Ladd at The Kitchen, NYC (through 3/10)
"Domestica: The Final Theater in the Infesticons Saga"
WHAT: Freaked-on-phonics punk poet performs long form epic at The Kitchen.
WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO: (212) 255-5793 or thekitchen.org. WHERE: 512
West 19th Street.
"Salute to J-Dilla" at S.O.B.’s, NYC
With Bilal, Renee Neufville, Anu-Sun, Selan
WHAT: Salute to the Slum Village/Ummah hip-hop mastermind. WHEN: 9:30PM
doors/10PM show. HOW MUCH: $20 advance/$25 door. INFO: (212) 243-4940 or sobs.com.
WHERE: 204 Varick Street at West Houston, Soho.
Jason Marshall and Overt Negritude at Sweet Rhythm, NYC
WHAT: Horn and organ driven jazz-funk returns to Sweet Rhythm. WHEN: 8PM. HOW
MUCH: NO COVER ($10 minimum). INFO: (212) 243-4940 or sweetrhythmny.com.
WHERE: 88 Seventh Avenue between Bleecker and Grove Streets, Greenwich Village.
Azouhouni and Afroyorkers at Rose Live Music, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Traditional African stylings with New York flavor. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH:
$5. INFO: (718) 599-0069 or liveatrose.com. WHERE: 345 Grand Street between
Havemeyer and Marcy Avenues, Williamsburg.
Saul Williams at Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH: $36.
INFO: (585) 758-5300 or bluecrossarena.com. WHERE: 100 Exchange Boulevard
between East Broad Street and Court Street. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
George Clinton and The P-Funk All-Stars at Crocodile Rock Café, Allentown, PA
WHAT: P-Funk mastermind returns to Crocodile. HOW MUCH: $23 advance/$25 door.
INFO: crocodilerockcafe.com or (610) 434-4600. WHERE: 520 West Hamilton
Street. ARTIST SITE: www.georgeclinton.com.
Steel Pulse at State Theatre, St. Petersburg, FL
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. HOW MUCH: $22
advance/$25 door. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM show. INFO: (727) 895-3045 or
statetheatreconcerts.com. WHERE: 687 Central Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Ben Harper at Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, FL (SOLD OUT!)
Fishbone at Showcase Theater, Corona, CA
With Knock-Out, Stiff Jimy and The Viagras and Eve of Destruction
WHAT: Masters of Punk Mayhem do a quick West Coast run. HOW MUCH: $15. WHEN:
7:30PM. INFO: (951) 340-0988 or showcasetheatre.com. WHERE: 683 South Main
Street. ARTIST SITE: www.fishbone.net.
Michael Franti at UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
WHAT: Spearhead frontman tours his documentary of his personal journey
through war-torn nations. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (858) 534-5152 or
ucsd.edu. WHERE: 9500 Gilman Drive. ARTIST SITE: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
FRIDAY, MARCH 10
DJ Spooky at The Guggenheim Museum, NYC
WHAT: That Subliminal Kid spins a three-hour set of his own re-mixes and
productions. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $20. INFO: guggenheim.org or (212) 864-4500.
WHERE: 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, Upper East Side. ARTIST SITE:
www.djspooky.com.
Sam Kininger Band at The Cutting Room, NYC
WHAT: Funk-jazz-soul sax man returns to the Cutting Room. WHEN/HOW MUCH:
CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (212) 691-1900 or cuttingroomnyc.com. WHERE: 19 West 24th
Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.samkininger.com.
Jaeme Brennan at Sully's Pub, Hartford, CT
With Cosmic Jibaros
WHAT: Funk-rock-soul progeny returns to Sully’s. WHEN: 10PM. HOW MUCH:
CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (860) 231-8881 or sullyspub.com. WHERE: 2071 Park Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.myspace/jaemebrennan.com.
Saul Williams at Mullins Center, Amherst, MA
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 6:30PM door/7:30PM
show. HOW MUCH: $35. INFO: (413) 545-3001 or mullinscenter.com. WHERE: 200
Commonwealth Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Steel Pulse at Freebird Live, Jacksonville, FL
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. HOW MUCH: $20. WHEN: 8PM
doors/9:30PM show. INFO: (904) 264-BIRD or freebirdlive.com. WHERE: 200 North
First Street. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Fishbone at Club Congress, Tuscon, AZ
With Chango Malo and Mankind
WHAT: Masters of Punk Mayhem do a quick West Coast run. Tuscon BRC punks
Chango Malo open with Mankind. HOW MUCH: $15. WHEN: 8PM. INFO: (520) 622-8848 or
hotelcongress.com. WHERE: 311 East Congress Street. ARTIST SITE:
www.fishbone.net.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Chateau Rouge, Annemasse, FRN
INFO: chateau-rouge.net/site/index.php; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
SATURDAY, MARCH 11
Harriet's Alter Ego Re-Opening at Brooklyn, NY
St. Juste performs live
WHAT: Culture-conscious BK boutique re-opens downtown. WHEN: Noon-8PM. HOW
MUCH: FREE. INFO: (718) 855-5574 or harrietsalterego.com. WHERE: 293 Flatbush
Avenue.
DBR and The Mission at "Ossining Matters" Fundraiser (Ossining High),
Ossining, NY
WHAT: Acclaimed violinist/composer brings his band to this upstate NY
fundraiser. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH: $15, $32 and $125. INFO: Nancy Scorcia, (914)
941-0754 or ossiningmatters.org. WHERE: 29 South Highland Avenue. ARTIST SITE:
www.dbrmusic.com.
George Clinton and The P-Funk All-Stars at Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ
WHAT: P-Funk mastermind returns to Starland. HOW MUCH: $25. WHEN: 8PM. INFO:
starlandballroom.com or (732) 238-5500. WHERE: 570 Jernee Mill Road. ARTIST
SITE: www.georgeclinton.com.
Saul Williams at House Of Blues-Atlantic City, Atlantic City, NJ (SOLD OUT!)
"Langerado Music Festival" (Markham Park), Sunrise, FL (through 3/12)
Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Steel
Pulse, Burning Spear, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, The Meters and others
WHAT: Major Florida jam band fest. CHECK SITE FOR SCHEDULED PERFORMANCES.
WHEN: Noon-10PM both days. HOW MUCH: $15, soundcheck party; $65, one-day pass;
$119.50 (limited number left), $129.50, two-day passes; $299.50 VIP package; $65
camping ticket. INFO: langerado.com or (954) 389-2000. WHERE: 16001 West
State Road 84.
Fishbone at "International Ska Circus" (Clark County Amphitheatre), Las
Vegas, NV
WHAT: Masters of Punk Mayhem do a quick West Coast run. HOW MUCH: $22.50
advance/$25 at gate/$60 VIP. WHEN: Noon-10PM (CHECK EVENT SITE FOR SCHEDULE).
INFO: (702) 214-4000 or internationalskacircus.com. WHERE: 500 South Grand Central
Parkway. ARTIST SITE: www.fishbone.net.
SUNDAY, MARCH 12
Allen Toussaint at Joe’s Pub, NYC
WHAT: New Orleans premiere composer returns to Joe’s Pub for brunch benefit
for the Big Easy. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. WHEN: Noon. INFO: (212) 539-8778 or
joespub.com. WHERE: 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place.
MONDAY, MARCH 13
Steel Pulse at House of Blues-Orlando, Lake Buena Vista, FL
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. HOW MUCH: $15-$35,
depending on seating. WHEN: 7:30PM doors/8:30PM show. INFO: (407) 934-BLUE or
hob.com. WHERE: 1490 Buena Vista Drive. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Saul Williams at Knoxville Auditorium and Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH:
$36.50. INFO: knoxvillecoliseum.com or (865) 544-5388. WHERE: 500 Howard Baker
Avenue (East Church Avenue). ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Maya Azucena at Pizza Express, London, UK (through 3/14)
INFO: www.mayaazucena.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Treibhaus Innsbruck, AUS
INFO: chateau-rouge.net/site/index.php; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
TUESDAY, MARCH 14
"Soul Acoustic Tuesdays" at Kili, Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by Tasneem, Ranjit, Shae Fiol and others
WHAT: Weekly downtown open mic. DJ trademark spins funk and soul classics.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 855-5574. WHERE: 81 Hoyt Street
between State Street and Atlantic Avenue, downtown.
Saul Williams at Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, VA
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: $38.50
advance/$44 door. INFO: (804) 780-4956 or richmondcoliseum.net. WHERE: 601
East Leigh Street. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Canal 93 Festival Banlieues, Bobigny
(Paris), FRN
INFO: banlieuesbleues.org; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15
George Clinton and The P-Funk All-Stars at House Of Blues-Chicago, Chicago, IL
WHAT: P-Funk mastermind returns to HOB-Chi-town. WHEN: 7:30PM doors/9PM show.
HOW MUCH: $33.50. INFO: hob.com or (312) 923-2000. WHERE: 329 North Dearborn.
ARTIST SITE: www.georgeclinton.com.
Steel Pulse at Annie's, Cincinnati, OH
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. HOW MUCH: $15 advance/20
door. WHEN: 8PM doors. INFO: anniesentertainment.com or (513) 321-2572.
WHERE: 4343 Kellogg Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
KUDU at Temple Bar, Santa Monica, CA
With The Circle and St. Juste
WHAT: Sexy dance-rock-electronic sensation play a West Coast tune-up for
SXSW. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $7. INFO: templebarlive.com or (310) 393-6611. WHERE:
1026 Wilshire Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.kudu2u.com.
Maya Azucena at Lydmar Hotel, Stockholm, SWD
INFO: www.mayaazucena.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Wist, Graz, AUS
INFO: chateau-rouge.net/site/index.php; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
DJ Spooky at Victoria University, Wellington, NWZ
INFO: nzfestival.telecom.co.nz/music/dj-spookys-rebirth-of-a-nation.php;
ARTIST SITE: www.djspooky.com.
THURSDAY, MARCH 16
Saul Williams at Bi-Lo Center, Greenville, SC
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
WHAT: Word-beat scientist tours the US with NIN. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $39.
INFO: (864) 250-3800 or bilocenter.com. WHERE: 650 North Academy Street off
North Main. ARTIST SITE: www.saulwilliams.com.
The Dirtbombs at Mad Planet, Milwaukee, WI
With The Black Lips, The Mistreaters and Get Drunk DJs
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk-soul unit tours the Midwest. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH:
$10. INFO: (414) 263-4555 or mad-planet.net. WHERE: 533 East Center Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.net.
Michael Franti at The Bronson Centre, Ottawa, ON
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at L'Olympic, Nantes, FRN
INFO: olympic.asso.fr; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Porgy and Bess, Vienna, AUS
INFO: chateau-rouge.net/site/index.php; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
Maya Azucena at Bitter Zoet, Amsterdam, NL
INFO: www.mayaazucena.com.
DJ Spooky at The National Bank Festival Club, Wellington, NWZ
INFO: nzfestival.telecom.co.nz/music/dj-spookys-rebirth-of-a-nation.php;
ARTIST SITE: www.djspooky.com.
FRIDAY, MARCH 17
Daniel Bernard Roumain at Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall), NYC
Premiering "Call Them All," featuring Bill T. Jones, Janet Wong and DJ
Scientific
WHAT: Acclaimed violinist/composer unveils his latest multimedia composition.
WHEN: CONTACT VENUE. HOW MUCH: $27-$35, depending on seating. INFO: (212)
247-7800 or carnegiehall.org. WHERE: 57th Street at Seventh Avenue. ARTIST SITE:
www.dbrmusic.com.
Steel Pulse at House of Blues-Chicago, Chicago, IL
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. WHEN: 7:30PM doors/9PM
show. HOW MUCH: $23.50. INFO: hob.com or (312) 923-2000. WHERE: 329 North
Dearborn. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
The Dirtbombs at Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk-soul unit tours the Midwest. WHEN: 10PM. HOW MUCH:
$12. INFO: (773) 276-3600 or emptybottle.com. WHERE: 1035 North Western Avenue
at West Cortez Street. ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.net.
KUDU at Nasty’s, Austin, TX
Part of SXSW
WHAT: Sexy dance-rock-electronic sensation plays SXSWest Fest. WHEN/HOW MUCH:
CONTACT VENUE. INFO: nublu.net or (512) 453-4349. WHERE: 606 Maiden Lane.
ARTIST SITE: www.kudu2u.com.
bloodsugar at Trophy’s, Austin, TX
Part of SXSW
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO:
(512) 447-0969. WHERE: 2008 Congress Avenue South. ARTIST SITE:
www.blackballuniverse.com.
bloodsugar at Ruta Maya, Austin, TX
Part of SXSW
WHAT: Xavier’s high energy pop-punk-soul. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO:
(512) 707-9637 or rutamaya.net. WHERE: 3601 South Congress Avenue. ARTIST
SITE: www.blackballuniverse.com.
The Soul of John Black at Temple Bar, Santa Monica, CA
WHAT: L.A. soul-rock band opens for Texas jazz-soul chanteuse N'Dambi. WHEN:
9PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: templebarlive.com or (310) 393-6611.
WHERE: 1026 Wilshire Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.thesoulofjohnblack.com.
Michael Franti at Theatre Outremont, Montreal, QC
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
INFO: www.spearheadvibrations.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos at Moods, Zurich, SWZ
INFO: chateau-rouge.net/site/index.php; ARTIST SITE: www.torsos.com.
Maya Azucena at Nighttown, Rotterdam, NTL
INFO: www.mayaazucena.com.
DJ Spooky at The Opera House, Wellington, NWZ (through 3/18)
"Rebirth of a Nation"
INFO: nzfestival.telecom.co.nz/music/dj-spookys-rebirth-of-a-nation.php;
ARTIST SITE: www.djspooky.com.
_________________________________________________________________
UPCOMING DATES
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN/PHILIP GLASS AT NJPAC, NEWARK,
NJ, 3/18
THE DIRTBOMBS AT MOJO'S, COLUMBIA, MO, 3/18
STEEL PULSE AT FINE LINE MUSIC CAFÉ, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 3/18
BLOODSUGAR AT CLUB FUEL, AUSTIN, TX, 3/18
MICHAEL FRANTI AT DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY, HALIFAX, NS, 3/18
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
SCREAMING HEADLESS TORSOS AT KREUZ, NIDAU, SWZ, 3/18
GEORGE CLINTON AND THE P-FUNK ALL-STARS AT BOGART’S, CINICINNATI, OH, 3/19
MICHAEL FRANTI AT ST. FRANCIS XAVIER UNIVERSITY, ANTIGONISH, NS, 3/19
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
SCREAMING HEADLESS TORSOS AT RITMO Y COMPAS, MADRID,
SPN, 3/19
SAUL WILLIAMS AT PENSACOLA CIVIC CENTER, PENSACOLA, FL, 3/20
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
STEEL PULSE AT CERVANTES MASTERPIECE BALLROOM, DENVER,
CO, 3/20
THE DIRTBOMBS AT LARIMER LOUNGE, DENVER, CO, 3/20
SAUL WILLIAMS AT ALLTEL ARENA, NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, 3/21
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
THE DIRTBOMBS AT URBAN LOUNGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UT, 3/21
STEEL PULSE AT FOX THEATRE, BOULDER, CO, 3/21
SCREAMING HEADLESS TORSOS AT CLAP, MATARÓ, SPN, 3/21
STEEL PULSE AT BELLY UP, ASPEN, CO, 3/22
SCREAMING HEADLESS TORSOS AT CENTRE CULTURAL LA MERCÉ,
GIRONA, SPN, 3/22
DBR AND THE MISSION AT KNITTING FACTORY, NYC, 3/23
SAUL WILLIAMS AT CONCRETE STREET AMPHITHEATRE, CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, 3/23
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
THE DIRTBOMBS AT PLUSH, TUCSON, AZ, 3/23
STEEL PULSE AT SUNSHINE THEATRE, ALBUQUERQUE, NM, 3/23
MICHAEL FRANTI AT CRESTED BUTTE CENTER, CRESTED BUTTE, CO, 3/23
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
SCREAMING HEADLESS TORSOS AT SALAMANDRA, HOSPITALET (BARCELONA), SPN, 3/23
DJ SPOOKY AT UBER BAR, BRISBANE, QLD, 3/23
McCOY TYNER WITH SAVION GLOVER/JABANE ENSEMBLE WITH RAVI COLTRANE AT AARON
DAVIS HALL, NYC, 3/24
SAUL WILLIAMS AT FRANK ERWIN CENTER, AUSTIN, TX, 3/24
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
THE DIRTBOMBS AT CELEBRITY, LAS VEGAS, NV, 3/24
MICHAEL FRANTI AT PALM THEATRE, TELLURIDE, CO, 3/24
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
FISHBONE AT GALAXY THEATER, SANTA ANA, CA, 3/24
DJ SPOOKY AT GERSHWIN ROOMS, MELBOURNE, VCT, 3/24
SAUL WILLIAMS AT CENTURYTEL CENTER, BOSSIER CITY, LA, 3/25
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
MICHAEL FRANTI AT WHEELER OPERA HOUSE, ASPEN, CO, 3/25
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
STEEL PULSE AT 4TH AND B, SAN DIEGO, CA, 3/25
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE CASBAH, SAN DIEGO, CA, 3/25
LEON WARE AT TEMPLE BAR, SANTA MONICA, CA, 3/25
BEN HARPER AT GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE, UNIVERSAL CITY, CA, 3/25
Death Cab for Cutie, Gomez, Lewis Taylor, Feist, Goldspot
DJ SPOOKY AT STANGEWAYS, HOME, SYDNEY, NSW, 3/25
FAITH AT OTTO’S SHRUNKEN HEAD, NYC, 3/26
STEEL PULSE AT POZO SALOON, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA, 3/26
THE DIRTBOMBS AT GLASS HOUSE, POMONA, CA, 3/26
SAUL WILLIAMS AT KANSAS COLISEUM, VALLEY CENTER, KS, 3/27
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-ANAHEIM, ANAHEIM, CA, 3/27
SAUL WILLIAMS AT THE FORD CENTER, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, 3/28
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-WEST HOLLYWOOD,
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, 3/28
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE TROUBADOUR, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, 3/28
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE INDEPENDENT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 3/29
STEEL PULSE AT MAJESTIC VENTURA THEATRE,
VENTURA, CA, 3/29
MICHAEL FRANTI AT UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, EDMONTON, AB, 3/29
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
SUGABUSH/FIN-O-TEE/ASIKA AT CRASH MANSION, NYC, 3/30
BLOODSUGAR/PILLOW THEORY/SIGNAL EFFECT/FUNKFACE/DJ
CRUNCHY AT SPUTNIK, BROOKLYN, NY, 3/30
SAUL WILLIAMS AT EL PASO COUNTY COLISEUM, EL PASO, TX, 3/30
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
MICHAEL FRANTI AT UPTOWN THEATRE, CALGARY, AB, 3/30
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
THE DIRTBOMBS AT DANTE'S, PORTLAND, OR, 3/31
STEEL PULSE AT THE CATALYST, SANTA CRUZ, CA, 3/31
BLOODSUGAR AT SNITCH, NYC, 4/1
BLACKALICIOUS AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/1
SAUL WILLIAMS AT ALADDIN HOTEL & CASINO, LAS VEGAS, NV, 4/1
Opening for Nine Inch Nails
MICHAEL FRANTI AT McPHERSON THEATRE, VICTORIA, BC, 4/1
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
MICHAEL FRANTI AT COMMODORE BALLROOM, VANCOUVER, BC, 4/2
"I Know I’m Not Alone" Tour
BLOODSUGAR AT TRASH BAR, NYC, 4/4
STEEL PULSE AT IRVING PLAZA, NYC, 4/6
THE WAILERS AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/7
BLOODSUGAR AT TBA, ABILENE, PA, 4/7
BLOODSUGAR AT URB ALT, NYC, 4/8
VAN HUNT AT CANAL ROOM, NYC, 4/8
BLOODSUGAR AT SAFARI LOUNGE, NYC, 4/14
ALANA DAVIS AT CODA, NYC, 4/15
TALIB KWELI AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 4/15
TV ON THE RADIO AT BOWERY BALLROOM, NYC, 4/18
THOMAS MAPFUMO AND BLACKS UNLIMITED AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/18
BEN HARPER AT KOKUA FESTIVAL (MAUI ARTS AND CULTURAL) CENTER, KAHULUI, HI,
4/19
With Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson & The Planetary Bandits, Henry Kapono, Paula
Fuga & the One Love 'Ohana Band, ALO
TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS/SOULIVE AT NOKIA THEATER, NYC, 4/21
TV ON THE RADIO AT SPANISH MOON, BATON ROUGE, LA, 4/21
BEN HARPER AT KOKUA FESTIVAL (WAIKIKI SHELL), HONOLULU, HI, 4/22
Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson & The Planetary Bandits, Henry Kapono, Paula Fuga
& the One Love 'Ohana Band, ALO
THIRD WORLD AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/23
HUGH MASEKELA AT S.O.B.’S, NYC, 4/25
COREY HARRIS AT THE CUTTING ROOM, NYC, 4/26
TV ON THE RADIO AT MARQUEE THEATRE, TEMPE, AZ, 4/27
"WHEN FRIED EGGS FLY," AT AMC THEATER, NYC, 4/30
TV ON THE RADIO AT "COACHELLA VALLEY MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL" EMPIRE POLO
FIELD, INDIO, CA, 4/29-30
_____________________________________________________
CONTACT:
Here's how you can reach us here at the B.R.C.:
SNAIL MAIL: Black Rock Coalition
P.O. Box 1054
Cooper Station
NYC, NY 10276
WEBSITE: www.blackrockcoalition.org
HOTLINE: (212) 713-5097
TO E-MAIL ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR T.W.I.B.R.: BRCMembersInfo@aol.com
US cigarette sales drop to 55-year low
Thu Mar 9, 2006 9:43 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years largely due to enforcement of marketing restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) said on Wednesday.
According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999, the group said in a statement.
The attorneys general said 378 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2005, the lowest number since 1951.
The drop continues an eight-year decline in cigarette smoking since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between U.S. states and the tobacco industry that settled state lawsuits over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, the NAAG said.
Overall, cigarette sales have plunged more than 21 percent since the agreement, which raised cigarette prices and severely restricted industry marketing practices, the organization said.
"It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell.
The major companies that signed the MSA are Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.; British American Tobacco Plc's Brown & Williamson unit; and Lorillard, which trades as Carolina Group and is part of Loews Corp.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers cigarette smoking to be the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. About 440,000 people die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use.
Gordon Parks poses near his home in New York, in this Nov. 10, 2000 file photo. Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, March 7, 2006 a family member said. He was 93.
AP Photo / GINO DOMENICO
POLLY ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
March 8, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gordon Parks' groundbreaking journey from poor high-school dropout to black pioneer left a legacy of stark and unblinking photographs, genre-forging movies, novels, poetry, music and even a ballet.
"I think most people can do a whole awful lot more if they just try," Parks told The Associated Press in 2000. "They just don't have the confidence that they can write a novel or they can write poetry or they can take pictures or paint or whatever, and so they don't do it, and they leave the planet dissatisfied with themselves."
Parks, the first black American photojournalist for Life magazine and the first leading black filmmaker with movies such as "The Learning Tree" and "Shaft," died Tuesday at his home in New York, according to a former wife, Genevieve Young, and nephew Charles Parks. He was 93.
"Gordon was the ultimate cool," said Richard Roundtree, who starred in 1971's "Shaft," which spawned a series of black-oriented films. "There's no one cooler than Gordon Parks."
Parks covered everything from fashion to sports during his 20 years at Life from 1948 to 1968, but was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"Gordon was one of the magazine's most accomplished shooters and one of the very greatest American photographers of the 20th century," said Life's managing editor, Bill Shapiro. "He moved as easily among the glamorous figures of Hollywood and Paris as he did among the poor in Brazil and the powerful in Washington."
Gordon Parks, director/photographer, with reporters in October 2000 interview: Parks said he was motivated to achieve because of a racist teacher who told him he couldn't and because of mother who would accept nothing less than the best. (note cut contain
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks directed and wrote the score.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
Parks directed "Shaft" and a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979.
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits include a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black"; "A Hungry Heart: A Memoir"; and "Eyes With Winged Thoughts," featuring his poetry and photographs.
Parks' other film credits include "The Super Cops" in 1974 and "Leadbelly" in 1976. He also wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
\LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California sheriff's deputy, whose videotaped shooting of an unarmed Iraq war veteran caused a nationwide furor, will be charged with attempted manslaughter, authorities said on Tuesday.
Ivory John Webb was taped in January shooting Elio Carrion after a car chase in Chino, in San Bernardino County, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles.
The car crashed and Carrion, who was a passenger, is seen apparently obeying the officer's commands to get up from the ground when Webb shoots him three times.
Filmed by a bystander, the grainy amateur tape was passed to local television channels and the story -- with its echoes of the videotaped beating of Rodney King by police officers that led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots -- became national news.
Webb, 45, has been on administrative leave since the incident and could face 18 years in prison if convicted.
Carrion, 21, an Air Force security officer who had recently returned from Iraq, is recovering from wounds to the chest, shoulder and thigh.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said the videotape was crucial in the decision to charge Webb.
The deputy will not be charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors concluded that Webb acted in fear for his safety but that his fear was unreasonable, Ramos said.
The FBI has opened its own inquiry into possible civil rights violations.
The driver of the car, Luis Escobedo, faces charges of evading an officer and drunken driving. He and Webb were to be arraigned on Wednesday.
Leroy Donald Johnson was caught this weekend in a barn with his pants down, literally, according to a sheriff's office report.
"You caught me ... I tried to (expletive) your sheep," Johnson told his neighbor, according to the report.
But the Mesa Fire Department deputy fire chief changed his story when a sheriff's deputy arrived on his doorstep minutes later, denying anything happened.
Johnson, 52, was jailed on suspicion of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing after the neighbor told investigators he found Johnson, unzipped and holding a sheep down on its side.
That's the sanitized version. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office report released Monday night is a little more graphic.
Johnson's neighbor told sheriff's deputies he was called home Saturday afternoon when his 13-year-old daughter saw Johnson drag one of their sheep into a barn.
The teenager said Johnson had first knocked on the front and back door of the home in the 1200 block of East Catclaw Street, in a county island in Gilbert, before grabbing the small gray lamb, records showed.
One of the deputies noted that Johnson had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol, and neighbors who confronted him said he admitted everything.
According to the deputy's report, "(The owner) took me into the back yard and showed me where he and (neighbor) pulled up. He took me through the corral gate and I saw the victim for the first time. She was a small gray lamb about three feet tall and four feet long."
The men then told the deputy they walked over to the small barn, opened the door and "saw Leroy holding the lamb down on its side in the hay with his pants down trying to have sex with it. That's when he made the statement about (expletive) the lamb."
The men said Johnson stood up and zipped up his pants.
"The sheep ran out of the barn at that point," the report says.
Johnson apologized, according to the report, and said he'd had "too much to drink."
The Mesa Fire Department placed Johnson, on paid leave Monday pending an internal investigation. Johnson, deputy chief of technical services, has been with the Mesa Fire Department for nearly 26 years.
Assistant Fire Chief Mary Cameli said Johnson has been an "exemplary" employee with a spotless personnel record.
"We were all very surprised by this," Cameli added.
Johnson did not return a call for comment Monday.
When confronted by a deputy at his home, Johnson initially denied the incident, saying he had been at his neighbor's house to talk about annexation.
Johnson said he went into the barn after hearing noises. The deputy said to him, "I believe something more than that happened," and offered help.
Johnson responded, "I probably do need some help, but I don't know if this is the time or place for it," according to the report.
When asked how the animal got into the barn, Johnson said, "I'm not going there," then asked if he was going to be arrested and demanded to know his legal options.
He continued to deny that anything happened in the barn and was arrested.
"I think it's disgusting," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. "I think of Ghandi who said you judge the morality of a country by the way they treat their animals. . . . I do look at (bestiality) as some type of animal cruelty."
Kid Rock, Stapp sex tape to hit stores?
By Jonathan Cohen
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - A videotape showing Kid Rock and former Creed frontman Scott Stapp engaging in explicit sexual activity with four female fans on a tour bus has been acquired by California company Red Light District, the distributor of the notorious 2004 Paris Hilton sex tape "One Night in Paris."
Red Light District president David Joseph told Billboard.com he purchased the tape, which was shot in 1999 while Rock and Creed were on tour, from "a third-party source who was about to put it out for free on the Internet. I basically stopped him from doing that."
Joseph says his attempts to contact Rock and Stapp, who do not engage in sex acts with each other on the tape, have so far been unsuccessful. "This wasn't just shot by one person -- there were a lot of people holding the camera," he says. "Because of that, it's not necessary that we need (Rock and Stapp) to sign off on this. We left messages for them but they didn't respond, so maybe they didn't take it seriously."
Joseph declined to offer additional details about the tape's original owner or what exactly is depicted on it, other than to say, "It's really good. I wish I was a rock star, I tell you. I'm in the wrong business."
The news comes just five days after Stapp was arrested for public intoxication while trying to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. The singer was married a day earlier, in Miami, to Jaclyn Nesheiwat, who is a former Miss New York and the director of public affairs for the Scott Stapp Foundation, which promotes healthy parent-child relationships.
Representatives for Stapp and Rock did not respond to requests for comment.
Miami woman claims privacy invaded by tawdry tour bus tape
MARCH 3--A Florida woman who stars in the Kid Rock-Scott Stapp sex tape has filed a lawsuit against the California company that has recently tried to market the racy video of her 1999 tour bus encounter with the two rock stars. In a complaint filed yesterday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, the woman, identified only as "Jane Doe," contends she has suffered emotional distress (and had her, um, privacy invaded) as a result of the attempted sale of the video by World Wide Red Light District. While a federal judge last month halted the video's distribution at the request of Rock (real name: Robert Ritchie), segments of the sex tape have appeared online.
According to the complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, "Jane Doe" is "one of four women who participated in the sexual acts, after a romantic interlude" with Stapp. "For all purposes, she is the star of the females," wrote the woman's lawyer, Scott Salomon, who told TSG that his client is a student from Miami. Salomon declined to further identify his client. In addition to naming World Wide and company officer David Joseph in her complaint, the woman is also suing Stapp, former lead singer of Creed. Stapp, pictured above in a still from the sex tape, has recently alleged that the video was stolen from him, a claim that World Wide has denied.
Kid Rock: Stapp 'Idiot' for Losing Tape
By ERIN CARLSON
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — Kid Rock blames Scott Stapp for losing a sex video showing them with several strippers, but appreciates Stapp for one thing. "What perfect timing," Rock told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "I got a record coming up ... Maybe I should thank him."
The hard-partying rap-rocker, whose new live concert album "Live Trucker" hit stores Tuesday, defended his backstage antics, saying, "It's not any big revelation that this goes on in rock 'n' roll, especially with who I am."
Kid Rock says Scott Stapp was careless for losing a sex video showing them with several strippers, but he admits there's no such thing as bad publicity. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Still, Rock (aka Robert Ritchie) has fired back against Stapp's claim that the tape was stolen, saying the former Creed singer filmed the tape, which was made in Rock's motor home in 1999, and is responsible for losing it.
"He's the idiot because it's out," the 35-year-old Rock said. "I'm holding him responsible."
Rock has won a temporary court order preventing World Wide Red Light District from distributing or promoting the video.
Red Light, which sold the Paris Hilton sex tape in 2004, had displayed a 40-second preview clip of the video on its Web site. The company has acknowledged that the tape came from a third party, but denied it was stolen.
"At this point, I don't even care," said Rock, who said he hasn't spoken to Stapp since the tape was filmed.
He's upset, though, that someone might make money from the tape. "If there's money to be made, it's my performance" he said.
In a recent interview with AP Radio, Stapp, 32, said he thinks the sex video was stolen from him and is meant to destroy his career.
Rock scoffed at that notion: "I'm like, what are you talking about? This tape gets out — it's your tape — and you're (saying) someone's trying to sabotage your career?"
Rock said he invited Stapp to join him and four strippers after Stapp entered his motor home with a video camera and asked to "get in" on the action.
"'I only got two beers left,'" Rock said, describing what he deemed to be his gracious behavior toward Stapp, whom he had never met. "`You can have one.' How nice is that?"
He said he's further upset to be associated with sex tape scandal subjects Hilton, Colin Farrell and ex-girlfriend Pamela Anderson.
"I don't want to be in that company with all these idiots (who have) sex tapes, which is why I've never had a video camera," he said. "I agree I knew the tape was going on at the time — I must have. Although, I'll guarantee you, I wasn't sober."
Rapper Lil' Kim Implants Are Leaking, “Needs To Have Them Serviced”...
by TFSnewsRoom/NyDailyNews.com
Rapper Lil' Kim Implants Are Leaking, “Needs To Have Them Serviced”...
Kim's not busting out,
but implants may be
Lil' Kim, who is currently incarcerated, is reportedly having problems with her implants. Not the most common penal-system problem.
Jailed rapper Lil' Kim may be able to take on the bad girls in the slammer - but what will the trash-talking star do now that her breast implants are said to be staging a revolt?
"Apparently, she's worried her boobs are leaking," a source tells us. "She needs to have them serviced."
Last July, Kim (real name, Kimberly Jones) was sentenced to a year and a day at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on perjury and conspiracy charges. She began serving time in September.
Her rep swears the hip-hop diva is "perfectly healthy." But we hear she's confided to family members about a festering problem with her magnificent mammaries.
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley wouldn't discuss Kim's health because "an inmate's medical history is not public." But Billingsley says that the Philly detention center has a doctor on staff. "If [the prison medical unit] can't handle it, they will contract out treatment," says Billingsley.
"What becomes interesting in [Kim's] case is that she's very small and she has very large implants," says cosmetic surgeon Dr. Steve Fallek, who has not treated Kim. "So it's no different from having a patient with very large breasts, where they're going to have back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain - because of the weight of the breasts."
Fallek says that, while implant-related infections are rare, "If you're having physical symptoms like that, the best alternative is to put a smaller implant in. If she's actually leaking, then, yes, the implant should come out."
Kim's parole officer might call it an early- release program.
Let's hope the hip-hop diva grants her bosoms the sort of clemency she would like.
Free the Lil' Kim 2!
Sequel rights for female stars
Rarely has a female studio executive enjoyed more attention than Universal Pictures Chairwoman Stacey Snider got last week when Steven Spielberg wooed her into becoming DreamWorks' chief exec. But Goldie Hawn isn't impressed.
"Women have been absolutely no help, because they're working very hard to please the men that they're working for, and they are afraid to stand up for women," Hawn laments.
Goldie recalls when she, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler delivered Paramount's Sherry Lansing a hit with "The First Wives Club."
"It was a great success, but [Paramount] didn't want to do a sequel," the 60-year-old Hawn recalls in the AARP magazine. "Diane called me and said, 'We've got to do this.' … I got a call from the head of the studio, who said, 'Let's try to make it work. But I think we should all do it for the same amount of money.'
Now, if there were three men that came back to do a sequel, they would have paid them three times their salary at least. ... Then it was reported to me by my agent that the head of the studio said, 'Isn't Goldie getting a little greedy?' And she was a female, so in terms of women helping women, this was really a kick in the butt."
Hawn says studios paid attention to her latest project - a comedy called "Ashes to Ashes," which she wrote and hopes to direct - only after her longtime love Kurt Russell became involved.: "The studio reaction always was, 'Who's the man?' ... You can't win."
Side Dish
Meg Ryan was talking, but her swollen lips were barely moving as she told Oprah that her ex-beau Russell Crowe "wasn't a homewrecker" and didn't play a role in the end of her marriage to Dennis Quaid. "[It] was an unhealthy marriage. I should have left sooner. " ... Sony BMG CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz's renovation of the office he took away from Andy Lack is causing a stir. "They laid off 2,000 people, but Rolf can spend a fortune giving his office a makeover?" gripes one insider. Defenders of the CEO say he's turning what had been a reception area into two new offices. Board chairman Lack was kicked upstairs to the 35th floor (not far from the Sony Club kitchen), but his office is larger than before, same size as the suite of Sony chief Howard Stringer...Bill Clinton hosted a reunion of some of his administration's alumni last night at the Papillon steakhouse. Among those knocking around strategies for retaking the White House were former HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo, counselor Bruce Lindsey, top economic advisers Joseph Stiglitz and Jack Lew, and spokesman Howard Wolfson.
A former drummer for the Jackson 5 was stabbed to death inside a home, authorities said.
Johnny Jackson, 54, was found dead Wednesday, the coroner's office said. It was not immediately clear whether he was related to the Jackson family, who also are from Gary.
Police went to the home after an upstairs resident heard a disturbance between Jackson and a woman on the first floor, police Cmdr. Jack Arnold said. Authorities were still looking for the woman.
Police believe Johnny Jackson, who replaced the Jackson 5's original drummer, Milford Hite, around 1967, was a cousin of the famous family. Other reports said he was not a blood relative.
"It hurts me so bad," said boyhood friend Anthony Acoff. "I called him that night. We were supposed to go to a jam session."
Jackson grew up a few blocks from the Jackson family and had made a name for himself as a drumming prodigy before he started high school, said Gordon Keith, who has sued Jackson family members over the rights to their early recordings with his Steeltown Records.
"He was a show drummer," Keith recalled. "There were times that he would outshine Michael at their shows."
In recent years, Jackson played with Acoff's band, White Dove.
VUNG TAU, Vietnam (AP) -- A court convicted former British rocker Gary Glitter Friday of obscene acts with two Vietnamese girls and sentenced him to three years in prison. A melee erupted when Glitter shouted "I'm innocent."
Reporters and onlookers, allowed into the courthouse in southern Ba Ria-Vung province to hear the verdict following the closed two-day trial, pressed toward Glitter in a scene of pandemonium as police fended them off and escorted him out of the building.
"I haven't done anything. I'm Innocent. It's a conspiracy," Glitter shouted.
Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted Friday of committing obscene acts with the girls at his rented seaside villa in southern Vung Tau last year. They were ages 10 and 11 at the time.
He was then sentenced to three years in prison, followed by deportation from Vietnam. The court was closed to the public to protect the girls' privacy.
The court verdict cited graphic testimony from the girls that Glitter had fondled and molested them, and took showers with them naked, in his rented home and in nearby hotels.
Glitter gets 3 years in Vietnam prison 45 minutes ago
VUNG TAU, Vietnam (Reuters) - A Vietnamese court jailed British "glam rocker" Gary Glitter to three years in prison on Friday for molesting two young girls.
Judge Hoang Thanh Tung described in graphic detail the offences by the 1970s pop icon in the southern resort town of Vung Tau, drawing gasps from Vietnamese in the courtroom.
He said the 61-year-old Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, ejaculated on the belly of one of the underage girls and had another urinate into his mouth.
"The court pronounces the defendant, Paul Francis Gadd, also known as Gary Glitter, guilty of engaging in lewd acts with children," the judge said.
Defense lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Glitter would be eligible for parole one year from when he was first detained, in November 2005, as is customary in Vietnam.
Glitter had 15 days to appeal but had not yet decided whether to do so.
"That comes from him, not from me," Kinh told reporters.
The black-shirted Glitter, who was told by the judge to remove his red bandana, stared ahead impassively as the sentence was read out in a courtroom packed with foreign journalists.
But afterwards he lashed out at an unnamed British newspaper he blamed for his troubles.
"It's a conspiracy. You know who. One of Great Britain's newspapers," he told Reuters as he was escorted into a prison van by 10 green-uniformed policemen.
He has already spent more than three months of pre-trial detention in a two-man cell at a windswept concrete prison, surrounded by AK-47-toting guards, mould-encrusted walls and coils of rusting razor wire.
However, British consular officials given access to Glitter said he remained in good health. They also had no complaints about his handling in communist Vietnam since his arrest in November while trying to leave the country.
"He is treated well under Vietnamese law and that's all we can ask for. We are in Vietnam, not in the U.K.," said Paul Higham, the British vice-consul in Ho Chi Minh City.
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.
"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.
Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".
Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.
"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The Army has charged seven paratroopers from the celebrated 82nd Airborne Division with engaging in sex acts in video shown on a Web site, authorities said Friday.
Three of the soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy, pandering and engaging in sex acts for money, according to a statement released by the military.
Four other soldiers received what the military calls nonjudicial punishments.
The Army has recommended that all be discharged.
The charges do not mention the name of the site, but the division had previously been investigating allegations that soldiers appeared on a gay pornography Web site. A spokesman for the division said Friday's charges were a result of that investigation.
The military-themed Web site did not make any direct reference to the division or Fort Bragg, a sprawling post about 70 miles south of Raleigh.
"As far as we're concerned, it's isolated to the unit, and our investigation determined that these seven individuals were the only ones" involved, said 82nd Airborne spokesman Maj. Thomas Earnhardt.
Steve Ralls, a spokesman for a legal group that helps gays and lesbians in the military, said the charges indicate the soldiers' behavior is "a much more serious matter than just their sexual orientation."
"I'm not going to make excuses for service members who are taking part in sexual conduct for money," said Ralls, who works for the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. "It would be absolutely criminal regardless of whether they were heterosexual or gay."
Earnhardt said the three soldiers charged under military law had been appointed military attorneys, but he said the lawyers would be unavailable for comment on Friday.
The three soldiers who face courts-martial are: Spc. Richard T. Ashley, Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen. The Army did not release their ages or hometowns, but said all seven paratroopers were members of the 2nd Battalion of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
An arraignment was scheduled for March 7.
The other four soldiers who received nonjudicial penalties were not identified. Their punishments included reduction to the rank of private, 45 days of restriction to the unit area, 45 days of extra duty and forfeiture of a month's pay.
The registered owner of the Web site's domain name lists an address in Fayetteville, the city that adjoins Fort Bragg. A phone number listed for the registered owner was not in service Friday, and e-mails to the owner have been regularly returned as undeliverable.
The 15,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne are among the Army's most elite soldiers, having volunteered to serve in a unit that trains to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.
The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service." Service members who violate the policy are removed from the military.
HACKENSACK, N.J. (Feb. 17) - Ray Barretto, a Grammy-winning Latin jazz percussionist known for integrating the conga drum into jazz, died Friday, officials said. He was 76.
Barretto had undergone heart bypass surgery in January and suffered from pneumonia, said George Rivera, a friend and family spokesman. He died at Hackensack University Medical Center with his wife and two sons by his bedside.
"He was suffering too much, so the Lord took him," Fidel Estrada, a family friend, told The Associated Press in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said news of Barretto's death was met with great sadness.
"He left us a great musical legacy of humility, love and fullness that should be emulated to serve as an inspiration for the benefit of future generations," the governor said in a written statement. "We give thanks to God for the opportunity to have celebrated his music, and the happiness that characterized all of his life."
Barretto won a Grammy for best Tropical Latin performance in 1989 for the song "Ritmo en el Corazon" with Celia Cruz.
The following year, Barretto was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, and last month, he was named one of the National Endowment for the Arts' Jazz Masters of 2006, the nation's highest jazz honor.
Barretto's "Time Was - Time Is," released last September, was nominated for a Grammy this year as Best Latin Jazz Album.
His 1979 album "Ricanstruction" is considered one of the classic salsa recordings.
Barretto grew up in New York City listening to the music of Puerto Rico and to the jazz of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.
In the late 1950s, he played in Tito Puente's band, and his popularity grew in the New York jazz scene. Over the years, he recorded with such musicians as Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader and Dizzy Gillespie.
Frat Accused In Alleged Goat Sex Hazing Incident ...
by TFSnewsRoom/AP.com
Frat Accused In Alleged Goat Sex Hazing Incident
Member Says Nobody Would Actually Have Sex With Goat
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Some Bowling Green, Ky., police officers found more than they bargained for after stopping by a Western Kentucky University fraternity party early Thursday.
The officers discovered a live goat stuffed into a storage room of the Alpha Gamma Rho house with no food or water, standing in its own urine and feces, according to WBKO-TV in Bowling Green.
The authorities cited 19-year-old Trenton Dakota Jackson with a second-degree count of cruelty to animals.
Officials aren't sure why the goat was in the storage room and don't know how long the goat had been held captive. Some of the students told police the goat was going to be used in a hazing ritual.
Brian Peyton, the president of Western's Alpha Gamma Rho chapter, said the goat was brought in as a prank, to make some pledges think they would have to have sex with it, WBKO reported. But Peyton told the TV station that the incident wasn’t related to hazing. He said that nobody actually was going to have sex with the goat, the TV station reported.
The goat was sent to the Warren County Humane Society so it could be examined by a veterinarian.
The fraternity has been ordered to stop all activities during an investigation. Alpha Gamma Rho has been cited for hazing three times since 1996.
The executive director of Alpha Gamma Rho's national organization in Kansas City, Mo., said he's also suspended the fraternity chapter. The organization will send someone to the university to investigate the allegations and cooperate with university officials, director Philip Josephson said.
Welcome to all the new people who signed up to join the BRC e-mail list. This
is your prime location to find out what's going on with the BRC and things
related to Black rock in all of its forms.
As always, the good people at the multi-national corporate conglomerate known
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DISCOURAGE SPAM, BUT… we won't get mad if you choose to forward this list, but only
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permission first!
REMINDER: The deadline for getting listings in This Week In Black Rock is
every Tuesday at noon. T.W.I.B.R. gets sent out Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
E-mail listings to: BRCMembersInfo@aol.com.
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TWIBR HAS ADS, CLASSIFIEDS AND ARTIST LINKS! For info about taking out ads in
TWIBR, contact Darrell McNeill at BRCMembersInfo@aol.com.
Darrell M. McNeill
BRC Director of Operations
____________________________________________________
BRC ON MYSPACE.COM
Check us out at www.myspace.com/blackrockcoalition.
____________________________________________________
BRC RADIO ON THE INTERNET
The Black Rock Coalition hosts two (2) Internet radio shows:
For all the latest Black rock music (major, indie, DIY), check out "BRC@WPS1"
on www.wps1.org.
For all-time Black rock standards and hallmark performers, check out "BRC
Classics" on www.soul-patrol.net.
NEW SHOWS UP NOW! CHECK OUT THE SITES!
____________________________________________________
TWIBR is now and forever on Urban Voyeur, the most comprehensive online
archive of the progressive Black music scene. Log on at: www.urbanvoyeur.com.
____________________________________________________
WORLDEATER RECORDINGS
The Black Rock Coalition’s studio and production partner for our fifth band
compilation, "Rock ‘N Roll Reparations: Volume 1," is open to all musicians.
Rehearsals: $10 per hour
Recording: $35 per hour-$200 for 8 hour block
Mixing/Mastering/Live Sound/Rentals/Bookings and Promotions/Consultations
____________________________________________________
BLACK ROCK INSTITUTIONS VS.
WHITE ROCK INSTITUTIONS
(A little Q&A... Mostly Q)…
I know I’m not supposed to use these pages to editorialize, but recent events
these last few weeks raise questions that demand answers…
Regarding the Super Bowl and the Grammys, why is it that Black rock
institutions (Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Motown, Sly Stone) are treated like
after-thoughts or platforms to shill modern-day, half-ass, jack-leg industry
product, while White rock institutions (Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones) remain
sacrosanct and are treated like the Second Coming?
All have equal social relevance. All have equal cultural influence. All have
equal commercial viability. So why are Black musical icons constantly forced
to suffer second-class treatment by mainstream media in ways that would be
sacrilegious for White musical icons?
Even though the Stones have essentially performed the same gaseous set for
over two decades at this point, no one would ever dare suggest they pair up with
Maroon 5 or Lenny Kravitz or John Mayer or Joss Stone or Rob Thomas to
justify their 20 minutes of airtime. So why does Stevie Wonder have to serve as a
kareoke backdrop for a bunch of marginally-talented hacks who weren’t even born
when he was at the height of his powers?
And with all due respect Aaron Neville and the nod to Katrina victims, why
was Aretha Franklin’s national anthem and the Motown music motif shoehorned in
after-the-fact and only because Aretha was forced to make a big stink about the
snub?
And in a sickening bit of commercial huckstering, why is it acceptable to
parade Sly Stone, who was clearly not in complete command of his faculties, to
give legitimacy to the so-called "tribute" compilation done of his music? Can
you imagine the outcry if something like that went down with Bob Dylan or Johnny
Cash?
We (as in Black people and also in the universal sense) do not do enough to
maintain our Black cultural legacy. Granted, it’s hard to curate your legacy
when someone else is footing the bills, but we’ve got to be able to a better job
than this…
By the way, I’m glad Pittsburgh won, but, yo, worst game calling itself a
Super Bowl… EVER…
_______________________________________________________________
THIS FRIDAY!
THE BRC RETURNS TO BAMCAFÉ
[Unable to display image]
Fridays throughout the month of February:
THIS FRIDAY:
2/17: Keziah Jones with Funkface
ON DECK:
2/24: Sophia Ramos with Shaka Zulu Overdrive
WHEN: 9PM.
HOW MUCH: FREE ($10 minimum at the tables).
INFO: (718) 636-1400 or bam.org.
WHERE: 30 Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
ADDITIONAL INFO: www.blackrockcoalition.org,
(212) 713-5097
AND ACT LIKE YOU KNOW!
(Or at least like you’re trying to find out…)
________________________________________________
Songwriters’ Beat at Cornelia Street Café, NYC
Featuring Paula Mlyn, Sheri Miller, The Fancies and Brian Finke;
Hosted by Val Ghent
WHAT: Monthly showcase/chat session with local songwriters. WHEN: 8:30PM. HOW
MUCH: $5. INFO: songwritersbeat.com or (212) 989-9319. WHERE: 29 Cornelia
Street between West Fourth and Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village.
Kyra Gaunt at Crash Mansion, NYC
Featuring Matt White, Midnight and Joey DeGraw
WHAT: Jazz vocalist/songwriter plays Crash Mansion. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT
VENUE. INFO: crashmansion.com or (212) 982-0740. WHERE: 199 Bowery at Spring
Street, Lower East Side.
URB ALT 3.1 at Sin-é, NYC
Featuring Muthawit, Blackbeard and A Billion Stars with Thailan
WHAT: Alternative urban showcase resurfaces at Sin-é. WHEN: 8:30PM. HOW MUCH:
$8. INFO: sin-e.com or (212) 599-1000. WHERE: 150 Attorney between East
Houston and Stanton Streets, Lower East Side.
"Artificial Afrika" at Gigantic ArtSpace, NYC (through 3/17)
WHAT: Vernon Reid and C. Daniel Dawson curate this visual art tour of
post-modern Black iconography. WHEN: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11AM-7PM. HOW MUCH:
FREE. INFO: (212) 226-6762 or giganticartspace.com. WHERE: 59 Franklin Street
between Broadway and Lafayette Street, Tribeca/Chinatown.
"Bridge and Tunnel" at The Helen Hayes Theater, NYC (through 3/12)
Featuring Sarah Jones
WHAT: Revolutionary poet/actress brings her award-winning one-woman show to
Broadway. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM show. HOW MUCH: $86.25. DISCOUNT TICKETS
AVAILABLE: This special discount makes select tickets available for $46.25. Just type
in code BTDLZ37 at broadwayoffers.com or call Telecharge at (212) 947-8844 and
mention the same code, BTDLZ37. INFO: (212) 944-9450. WHERE: 240 West 44th
Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.sarahjonesonline.com
.
"Slavery In New York" Exhibit at New York Historical Society, NYC (through
3/5)
WHAT: Incredibly detailed and graphic exhibition of indentured Africans and
their harrowing struggles in New York. WHEN: 9PM doors. HOW MUCH: $10; $5,
students and seniors; FREE to members and children under 12. INFO: nyhistory.org
or (212) 873-3400. WHERE: 170 Central Park West at West 77th Street.
Phil Moore Browne at Trash, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Philly phunk phanatics play Trash Bar. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: thetrashbar.com or (718) 599-1000. WHERE: 256 Grand Street at Roebling,
Williamsburg. ARTIST SITE: www.philmoorebrowne.com.
"Shut Up Wednesdays" at The Alligator Lounge, Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by Tasneem, Bess Rogers, Ellie Lawson and Dave Harewood
WHAT: Weekly Billyburg open mic. DJ LP spins rock classics and soul. WHEN:
8PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 599-4440. WHERE: 600 Metropolitan Avenue.
"Electric Purgatory" Screening at Pan African Film Fest (Magic Johnson
Theater), Los Angeles, CA
WHAT: Ray Gayle’s cinematic treatise on the trials and tribulations of the
Black rocker screens. WHEN: 9:50PM. HOW MUCH: $9.25. INFO: paff.org or (718)
599-1000. WHERE: Magic Johnson Theatre at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 3650
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (one block west of Crenshaw and King). ARTIST
SITE: www.electricpurgatory.com.
Austin Willacy and The Housejacks at Kulturhaus Schwanen,
Waiblingen, GRM
INFO: www.austinwillacy.com.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16
Pillow Theory at Ace of Clubs, NYC
With Sick List, ADM, Achyllis
WHAT: Heavy grunge punk pop unit debuts at Ace of Clubs. WHEN: 10PM. HOW
MUCH: $7. INFO: (212) 677-6963 or aceofclubs.com. WHERE: 9 Great Jones Street at
Bowery, East Village. ARTIST SITE: www.pillowtheory.net.
Book Release Party for Kyra Gaunt’s "The Games Black Girls Play:
Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop" at New York
University, NYC
WHAT: Ethnomusicologist signs copies of her analysis of Black woman rhythm
influence on music. WHEN: 6PM. HOW MUCH: FREE. INFO: (212) 998-7772. WHERE: King
Juan Carlos Center, 53 Washington Square South, 1st Floor Screening Room.
Sevendust at Big Easy, Boise, ID
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 5:30PM
doors/6:30PM show. HOW MUCH: $20 advance/$23 door. INFO: (208) 367-1212 or
bigeasyconcerts.com. WHERE: 416 South Ninth Street. ARTIST SITE: www.sevendust.com,
www.wickedwisdom.net.
H.R. and Dubb Agents at The Drink, Ventura, CA
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: wonderballroom.com or (805) 643-9378. WHERE: 281 West Main Street.
David Ryan Harris Thursday Residence at The Hotel Café, Los Angeles,
CA (through 2/23)
WHAT: Ex-Follow for Now frontman does a month-long Thursday residence at
Hotel Café. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: hotelcafe.com or (323)
461-2040. WHERE: 1623 1/2 North Cahuenga Boulevard at Selma Avenue. ARTIST SITE:
www.davidryanharris.com.
Chocolate Genius Thursday Residence at Largo, Los Angeles, CA
(through 2/23)
WHAT: Black rock contrarian does a Thursday February residence in The City of
Angels. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (323) 852-1073 or
largo-la.com. WHERE: 432 North Fairfax Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.chocolate-genius.com.
Austin Willacy and The Housejacks at Glashaus Stadtbibliothek,
Herthen, GRM
INFO: www.austinwillacy.com.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
BRC Fridays at BAMCafé, Brooklyn, NY (through 2/24)
TONIGHT: Keziah Jones; Funkface
WHAT: BRC’s annual cavalcade of Black rock stars. Nigerian funk-soul prince
does a solo voice and guitar set. Punk-soul legends Funkface bat clean-up.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: FREE ($10 minimum at the tables). INFO: (718) 636-1400 or
bam.org. WHERE: 30 Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place. ARTIST
SITE: www.keziahjones.com.
Incognito/Alice Smith at Irving Plaza, NYC
WHAT: Legendary British dance-soul ensemble makes a rare stateside
appearance. Hot soul ingenue Smith opens. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM show. HOW MUCH: CONTACT
VENUE. INFO: (212) 777-1224 or irvingplaza.com. WHERE: 17 Irving Place at East
15th Street, near Union Square.
The Dirtbombs at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk soul travels East. WHEN: 9:30PM. HOW MUCH: $13.
INFO: maxwellsnj.com or (201) 653-1703. WHERE: 1039 Washington Street at 14th
Street. ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.com.
DBR and The Mission at Town Hall, Seattle, WA
"24 Bits Remixed"
WHAT: Violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain performs his live classical/hip-hop
deconstructions in the Pacific Northwest. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO: (800)
838-3006. WHERE: 1119 Eighth Avenue at Seneca Street.
Sevendust at Big Easy, Spokane, WA
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 5:30PM
doors/6:30PM show. HOW MUCH: $20 advance/$23 door. INFO: (509) 244-3279 or
bigeasyconcerts.com. WHERE: 919 West Sprague at North Lincoln Street. ARTIST SITE:
www.sevendust.com, www.wickedwisdom.net.
TasneemAlone at Temple Bar, Santa Monica, CA
Kashmir Earthquake Relief Benefit
WHAT: Punk hip-hop soul sister does a solo set at The Temple. WHEN: CONTACT
VENUE. HOW MUCH: $12. INFO: (310) 393-6611 or templebarlive.com. WHERE: 1026
Wilshire Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.junglimusic.com.
Screaming Headless Torsos/Groove Collective at Salón 21, Mexico City,
MEX
INFO: www.torsos.com, www.groovecollective.com.
Austin Willacy and The Housejacks at Zehntstadel Leipheim, Leipheim,
GRM
INFO: www.austinwillacy.com.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18
Lezlie Harrison Quintet at The Jazz Gallery, NYC
With Booker King, Fred "Catfish" Alias, Saul Rubin and Alex Diaz
WHAT: Soul-jazz ingenue debuts at The Gallery. WHEN: Two sets, 9PM and
10:30PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO: (212) 242-1063 or jazzgallery.org. WHERE: 290 Hudson
Street off Spring, West Soho.
The Dirtbombs at Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY
With Be Your Own Pet
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk soul travels East. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $13. INFO:
spsounds.com or (718) 230-0236. WHERE: 125 Fifth Avenue. ARTIST SITE:
www.thedirtbombs.com.
"Men Of Standard" All-Male Black History Poetry Revue at Judah International,
Brooklyn, NY
Featuring Essence, Relentless, 2 Shades of Black, I Sekou Kamau, Jason
Hendrickson, Q Tha Prophet, Khalil Almustafa (G*A*M*E Rebellion); hosted by RL Tha
Gifted
WHAT: Black male poets and singers step up and represent. WHEN: 8PM. HOW
MUCH: $10. INFO: (718) 771-0383. WHERE: 141 Rogers Avenue at Sterling Place.
"Black Music, The Dippin' Pool" with Bill Banfield and Friends at Berklee
Performance Center, Boston, MA
With Dave Fiuzcynski, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and others
WHAT: Berklee Black music soundclash of virtuoso musicians. WHEN: 8:15PM. HOW
MUCH: $5-$10. INFO: (617) 747-2261. WHERE: 136 Massachusetts Avenue.
Seed Is… at Taphouse in Ghent, Norfolk, VA
WHAT: Virginia-based Black rock collective. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO:
(757) 627-9172. WHERE: 931 West 21st Street. ARTIST SITE: www.seedis.com.
Sevendust at The Premier, Seattle, WA
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 5PM. HOW MUCH:
$20. INFO: concerteventcenters.com or (206) 382-7877. WHERE: 1700 First Avenue
South. ARTIST SITE: www.sevendust.com, www.wickedwisdom.net.
"Electric Purgatory" Screening at Pan African Film Fest (Magic Johnson
Theater), Los Angeles, CA
WHAT: Ray Gayle’s cinematic treatise on the trials and tribulations of the
Black rocker screens. WHEN: 9:50PM. HOW MUCH: $9.25. INFO: paff.org or (718)
599-1000. WHERE: Magic Johnson Theatre at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 3650
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (one block west of Crenshaw and King). ARTIST
SITE: www.electricpurgatory.com.
Austin Willacy and The Housejacks at Elserhalle, München, GRM
INFO: www.austinwillacy.com.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
"Liberation Sessions" at The Delancey, NYC
Featuring: The Exelar, The Smyrk, Black Juju, The Jai Alai Savant with DJ
Sabine, DJ Major Taylor and The Dustbin Brothers
WHAT: Afropunk’s holiday takeover. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO:
thedelancey.com or (212) 254-9920. WHERE: 168 Delancey Street at Clinton Street at the
mouth of the Williamsburg Bridge, Lower East Side.
Danni G at The Bitter End, NYC
With Shyndigg (Digg Deep) and Thom Loubet (The Citizens)
WHAT: Funk-soul diva does an intimate trio set as part of the Bitter End’s
songwriter series. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $5. INFO: (212) 777-1224 or
thebitterend.com. WHERE: 147 Bleecker Street between Thompson Street and LaGuardia Place,
Greenwich Village.
Faith at Pete's Candy Store, Brooklyn, NYC
With Gabriel Tavares
WHAT: Felice Rosser's deep-soul dub rock trio returns. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH:
CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (718) 302-3770 or petescandystore.com. WHERE: 709 Lorimer
Street, Williamsburg. ARTIST SITE: www.faithny.com.
Sevendust at Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
With Wicked Wisdom
INFO: www.sevendust.com, www.wickedwisdom.net.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20
Steel Pulse at Higher Ground, South Burlington, VT
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars launch a national tour. HOW MUCH: $20
advance/$23 door. WHEN: 8PM. INFO: (802) 652-0777 or highergroundmusic.com. WHERE: 1214
Williston Road. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
"Electric Purgatory" Screening at Alamo Drafthouse, Houston, TX
WHAT: Ray Gayle’s cinematic treatise on the trials and tribulations of the
Black rocker screens. WHEN: 10PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT BOX OFFICE. INFO:
drafthouse.com or (281) 920-9211. WHERE: West Oaks Mall at Westheimer and Highway 6.
ARTIST SITE: www.electricpurgatory.com.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Steel Pulse at Irving Plaza, NYC
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars continue a national tour. HOW MUCH: $25. WHEN:
7PM doors/8PM show. INFO: (212) 777-1224 or irvingplaza.com. WHERE: 17 Irving
Place at East 15th Street near Union Square. ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Rachid Becomes Rasulus at Makor, NYC
WHAT: New century glam rocker reinvents himself at Makor. WHEN: 8:30PM. HOW
MUCH: $10. INFO: (212) 601-1000 or makor.org. WHERE: 35 West 67th Street
between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue/Broadway, near Lincoln Center. ARTIST
SITES: www.rachidbecomesrasulus.com.
KUDU Tuesdays at Nublu, NYC
WHAT: Sexy dance-rock-electronic sensation plays their Tuesday residence.
WHEN: Two sets, 12:30AM and 1:30AM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: nublu.net or
(212) 979-9925. WHERE: 62 Avenue C between East Fourth and Fifth Streets, East
Village. ARTIST SITE: www.kudu2u.com.
Sevendust at Roseland Theater, Portland, OR
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 6:30PM. HOW
MUCH: CONNTACT VENUE. INFO: (503) 224-2038 or doubletee.com. WHERE: 8 NW Sixth
Avenue. ARTIST SITE: www.sevendust.com, www.wickedwisdom.net.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Steel Pulse at Recher Theatre, Towson, MD
WHAT: Reggae rock superstars continue a national tour. HOW MUCH/WHEN: CONTACT
VENUE. INFO: (410) 337-7178 or rechertheatre.com. WHERE: 512 York Road.
ARTIST SITE: www.steel-pulse.com.
Austin Willacy at St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN/HOW
MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (920) 337-3181 or snc.edu. WHERE: 212 Third Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.austinwillacy.com.
Year of The Dragon at On The Rox (The Roxy), West Hollywood, CA
With Spacey T and Dirty Walt
WHAT: L.A. hardcore metal legends play with two former Fishbone soldiers.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $5. INFO: (310) 276-2222 or theroxyonsunset.com. WHERE: 9009
West Sunset Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.yotd.com.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23
James "Blood" Ulmer Quartet at U-Mass Amherst Fine Arts Center, Amherst, MA
WHAT: Jazz teacher-funk preacher touches down at UMass with his Odyssey Band.
WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $12. INFO: (212) 777-1224 or umass.edu/fac. WHERE:
Benzanson Recital Hall-Massachusetts Avenue.
Burnt Sugar at Southgate House (The Parlour), Newport, KY
(through 2/24)
WHAT: Greg Tate’s Davisian ensemble plays the Bluegrass State. WHEN: 8:30PM
doors/9PM show. HOW MUCH: $8/$15 with CD. INFO: southgatehouse.com or (859)
431-2201. WHERE: 24 East Third Street. ARTIST SITE: www.burntsugarindex.com.
Austin Willacy at Madison Area Technical College, Madison, WI (Early)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN/HOW
MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (608) 246-6100 or matcmadison.edu. WHERE: 3550
Anderson Street. ARTIST SITE: www.austinwillacy.com.
Austin Willacy at University Of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI
(Late)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN/HOW
MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (608) 785-8000 or uwlax.edu. WHERE: 1725 State Street.
ARTIST SITE: www.austinwillacy.com.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24
BRC Fridays at BAMCafé, Brooklyn, NY
TONIGHT: Sophia Ramos; Shaka Zulu Overdrive
WHAT: BRC’s annual cavalcade of Black rock stars. Rock-soul scream queen
closes out series. Afro-prog-rockers SZO open. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: FREE ($10
minimum at the tables). INFO: (718) 636-1400 or bam.org. WHERE: 30 Lafayette
Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
bad brains featuring John Joseph at CBGB, NYC (through 2/25) - SOLD OUT BOTH
NIGHTS!
Seed Is… at Cary Street Café, Richmond, VA
WHAT: Virginia-based Black rock collective. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $15. INFO:
(804) 353-7445. WHERE: 2631 West Cary Street. ARTIST SITE: www.seedis.com.
The Dirtbombs at Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI
WHAT: Detroit lo-fi punk soul returns to The Blind Pig. WHEN: 9:30PM. HOW
MUCH: $10. INFO: blindpigmusic.com or (734) 996-8555. WHERE: 208 South First
Street. ARTIST SITE: www.thedirtbombs.com.
Austin Willacy at Lion’s Pause (St. Olaf College), Northfield, MN
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN/HOW
MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (800) 242-4153 or ashford.edu. WHERE: 400 North Bluff
Boulevard ARTIST SITE: www.austinwillacy.com.
Sevendust at House of Blues-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 5PM doors/6PM
show. HOW MUCH: $20 advance/$22 door. INFO: (702) 632-7600 or hob.com. WHERE:
3950 Las Vegas Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.sevendust.com, www.wickedwisdom.net.
Blood Sugar/Jungli/Afro-Punk Screening at BINGO, Los Angeles, CA
WHAT: Xavier's punk experience returns to Club Bingo. Tasneem wails and
Spooner screens. WHEN: Midnight. HOW MUCH: $5. INFO: (212) 982-4052 or cbgb.com.
WHERE: 4151 South Main Street-Unit XY.
__________________________________________________________________
UPCOMING DATES
THE SQUARE EGG AT CUTTING ROOM, NYC, 2/25
"START AND RUN YOUR OWN RECORD LABEL" SEMINAR
AT THE NEW YORKER HOTEL, NYC, 2/25
BURNT SUGAR AT MARDI GRAS JAZZ PARADE, LEXINGTON, KY, 2/25
(EARLY)
BURNT SUGAR AT ARTSPLACE, LEXINGTON, KY, 2/25 (LATER)
BURNT SUGAR AT THE DAME, LEXINGTON, KY, 2/25 (LATE)
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-NEW ORLEANS, NEW ORLEANS,
LA, 2/25
SEVENDUST AT HOUSE OF BLUES-SAN DIEGO, SAN DIEGO, CA, 2/25
JOI AND FRIENDS AT TEMPLE BAR, SANTA MONICA, CA, 2/25
OSCAR BROWN JR. TRIBUTE AT NATE HOLDEN CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA, 2/25
With Roger Guenveur Smith, Carl Hancock Rux, Rickie Lee Jones and Dawn
Norfleet
"AFROPUNK" SCREENING AT BLUEFIRE FILMFEST, LOS ANGELES, CA, 2/25
CUTLERY AT FAT BABY’S, NYC, 2/26
STEEL PULSE AT VARIETY PLAYHOUSE, ATLANTA, GA, 2/26
RAKIM AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 2/27
AUSTIN WILLACY AT FOX VALLEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE,
APPLETON, WI, 2/27
"AFROPUNK" SCREENING AT HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY, ARCATA, CA, 2/27
GEORGE CLINTON AND THE P-FUNK ALL-STARS AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 2/28
THE JEROME JORDAN TRIO AT SUGAR BAR, NYC, 2/28
STEEL PULSE AT NORVA, NORFOLK, VA, 2/28
AUSTIN WILLACY AT NORTHEAST WISCONSIN TECHNICAL
COLLEGE, GREEN BAY, WI, 2/28
SEVENDUST AT HOUSE OF BLUES-ANAHEIM, ANAHEIM, CA, 2/28
SOPHIA RAMOS AT ARLENE'S GROCERY, NYC, 3/1
STEEL PULSE AT ZIGGY'S, WINSTON-SALEM, NC, 3/1
SEVENDUST AT THE MARQUEE THEATRE, TEMPE, AZ, 3/2
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-ATLANTIC CITY,
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ, 3/3
SEVENDUST AT HOUSE OF BLUES-LAS VEGAS, LAS VEGAS, NV, 3/3
CAROL THOMAS AT ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL, NYC, 3/4
THE REESE BAND AT THE BITTER END, NYC, 3/4
STEEL PULSE AT CROSSROADS, BLADENSBURG, MD, 3/4
SEED IS… AT JM RANDALL'S, WILLIAMSBURG, VA, 3/4
With Written Prisms
THE FISK JUBILEE SINGERS AT RIVERSIDE CHURCH, NYC, 3/5
STEEL PULSE AT CAT'S CRADLE, CARRBORO, NC, 3/6
STEEL PULSE AT STATE THEATRE, ST. PETERSBURG, FL, 3/9
STEEL PULSE AT FREEBIRD LIVE, JACKSONVILLE, FL, 3/10
STEEL PULSE AT "LANGERADO MUSIC FESTIVAL" (MARKHAM PARK),
SUNRISE, FL, 3/12
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-BUENA VISTA, LAKE BUENA
VISTA, FL, 3/13
STEEL PULSE AT ANNIE'S, CINCINNATI, OH, 3/15
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-BUENA VISTA, LAKE BUENA
VISTA, FL, 3/16
THE DIRTBOMBS AT MAD PLANET, MILWAUKEE, WI, 3/16
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-CHICAGO, CHICAGO, IL, 3/17
THE DIRTBOMBS AT EMPTY BOTTLE, CHICAGO, IL, 3/17
THE SOUL OF JOHN BLACK AT TEMPLE BAR, SANTA MONICA, CA, 3/17
THE DIRTBOMBS AT MOJO'S, COLUMBIA, MO, 3/18
STEEL PULSE AT FINE LINE MUSIC CAFÉ, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 3/18
STEEL PULSE AT CERVANTES MASTERPIECE BALLROOM, DENVER,
CO, 3/20
THE DIRTBOMBS AT LARIMER LOUNGE, DENVER, CO, 3/20
THE DIRTBOMBS AT URBAN LOUNGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UT, 3/21
STEEL PULSE AT FOX THEATRE, BOULDER, CO, 3/21
STEEL PULSE AT BELLY UP, ASPEN, CO, 3/22
THE DIRTBOMBS AT PLUSH, TUCSON, AZ, 3/23
STEEL PULSE AT SUNSHINE THEATRE, ALBUQUERQUE, NM, 3/23
THE DIRTBOMBS AT CELEBRITY, LAS VEGAS, NV, 3/24
STEEL PULSE AT 4TH AND B, SAN DIEGO, CA, 3/25
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE CASBAH, SAN DIEGO, CA, 3/25
FAITH AT OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD, NYC, 3/26
STEEL PULSE AT POZO SALOON, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA, 3/26
THE DIRTBOMBS AT GLASS HOUSE, POMONA, CA, 3/26
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-ANAHEIM, ANAHEIM, CA, 3/27
STEEL PULSE AT HOUSE OF BLUES-WEST HOLLYWOOD, WEST
HOLLYWOOD, CA, 3/28
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE TROUBADOUR, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, 3/28
THE DIRTBOMBS AT THE INDEPENDENT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 3/29
STEEL PULSE AT MAJESTIC VENTURA THEATRE, VENTURA, CA, 3/29
THE DIRTBOMBS AT DANTE'S, PORTLAND, OR, 3/31
STEEL PULSE AT THE CATALYST, SANTA CRUZ, CA, 3/31
_____________________________________________________
CONTACT:
Here's how you can reach us here at the B.R.C.:
SNAIL MAIL: Black Rock Coalition
P.O. Box 1054
Cooper Station
NYC, NY 10276
WEBSITE: www.blackrockcoalition.org
HOTLINE: (212) 713-5097
TO E-MAIL ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR T.W.I.B.R.: BRCMembersInfo@aol.com
January 17, 2006
*Singer Angela Bofill is paralyzed on her left side following a stroke suffered on Jan. 10 in Maplewood, N.J., her manager Rich Engel told us.
Bofill, 51, was released from intensive care on Sunday (Jan. 15) and will require speech and physical therapy, Engel said.
A benefit concert has been organized to pay her hospital bills, as Bofill did not carry health insurance. The show, planned by Engel along with N.Y. radio
stations Kiss FM, and CD 101.9, will be held on March 11th at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J. Similar events are being planned for Detroit and Los Angeles, Engel said.
Well wishes and donations from fans should be sent to Live At Night, P.O. Box 1140, Maplewood, N.J. 07040. For more information, visit the Web site www.soulmusic.com.
Angie is a very old friend from New York and I would love to wirte her directly as would many other mutual friends; Walter Booker, Buddy Williams & more. How can I contact her directly? Would appreciate any information.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day.
"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year's Oscar-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" made gay cowboys a hot topic.
Available exclusively through iTunes, the song features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out."
The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981. Sublette said he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.
Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson's record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas.
Nelson has appeared in several Western movies and sings "He Was a Friend of Mine" on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack.
Man Apparently Kills Himself on Plane
Feb 09 2:44 PM US/Eastern
DENVER
A man apparently hanged himself in an airplane lavatory during a flight that was diverted to Denver after his body was discovered, police said.
Denver medical examiner's spokeswoman Michelle Weiss-Samaras said an autopsy was planned for the body of Gerald Georgettis, 56, of Miami, which was found Wednesday on a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.
"Right now, everything leads us to believe the male involved did commit suicide," police Detective Virginia Lopez said. No other passengers were ever in danger, she added.
A man with the same name and age was charged with arson and felony criminal mischief in Miami after a fire caused nearly $1 million in damage at a Ford dealership on Saturday. Weiss-Samaras and Miami-Dade County police could not confirm it was the same man.
The arson suspect was accused of driving his new Ford through the dealership showroom, pouring gasoline on it and lighting it. Police have said he was upset about the price.
Funk recluse Sly Stone plays at Grammys tribute...
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters.com
Funk recluse Sly Stone plays at Grammys tribute
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reclusive funk music pioneer Sly Stone stole the show in bizarre fashion at the Grammy Awards on Wednesday, surprising everyone by making his first major public appearance in almost 13 years.
The occasion was an all-star tribute to his band, Sly and the Family Stone, which virtually invented 1970s funk with such hits as "Dance to the Music" and "Everyday People."
A hunched Stone, sporting a blond Mohawk and a shiny white jacket, sauntered out on stage during the performance of "I Want to Take You Higher." Standing at his keyboards, the 61-year-old sang along for few minutes but left before the song was over.
Among the participants in the historic tribute were Aerosmith principals Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, English soul singer Joss Stone, pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Will.I.Am of funk band the Black Eyed Peas and pop band Maroon5.
Backstage, Stone's brother and bandmate, Freddie, cryptically said, "there has been talk of us doing other things."
He added, "Sly is very much interested in letting his friends, his loved ones, his fans know that there is some evolution in the works as far what we're doing today, or what he's doing today."
Sly Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, participated briefly in rehearsals on Monday, but his decades of unreliable behavior have taught everyone never to expect too much.
Although Sly and the Family Stone were hugely influential practitioners of a pop-rock-funk hybrid that crossed racial barriers during their brief heyday in the late 1960s to early 1970s, Stone has not been able to bask in the glory.
By the middle of the decade, as disco was catching on, he was plagued by drug problems and arrests. He was jailed at least twice in the 1980s for cocaine possession. Various comebacks never led to much.
He last made a big splash in 1993 when he showed up briefly for the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. Dressed in a blue jumpsuit, he muttered "see ya soon," and quickly disappeared into the night.
Since then, his only reported appearance was at a Los Angeles club in August for a tribute performed by blind musicians.
Stone's performance was not the most unusual appearance at the Grammys. Paul McCartney collaborated with rapper Jay-Z and rap-rock band Linkin Park on a version of the classic "Yesterday" he wrote for the Beatles.
Blues legend BB KING is so desperate to find his lost dog LUCILLE, he's offering a signed guitar in return for information of her whereabouts.
The THRILL IS GONE singer is distraught following the two-year-old Maltese's disappearance 10 days ago (29JAN06), when she was being cared for by his co-manager MATTHEW LIEBERMAN in Los Angeles.
Lieberman said in a statement yesterday:
"We're not sure how she got out of the yard, perhaps a gate was ajar."
The New York Daily News reports the 80-year-old decided to offer the instrument as a reward after posters and visits to animal shelters failed to shed any light on Lucille's disappearance.
The 2-year-old white female Maltese, named for the musician’s famous guitar Lucille ( picture above ), went missing in West Hollywood on Jan. 27 near Waring and La Brea avenues, King’s co-manager Matthew Lieberman said.
The canine’s photo has been plastered on 500 signs throughout the neighborhood, and animal shelters have been contacted to no avail, Lieberman said in a plea for information about the dog.
The animal, which weighs about 10 pounds, disappeared while in Lieberman’s care, he said. Lieberman said he was watching the dog while King was out of town and that the dog escaped through an open gate.
King, who turned 80 in September, was upset by the news, he said.
"This dog is just so cute," he said. "He (King) is distraught over it. But we’re trying to keep faith and hope. So that’s where we’re at. We’re praying."
Anyone with information about the dog’s whereabouts should call Lieberman at (917) 885-1950.
Funk pioneer Sly Stone could steal show at Grammys...
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters.com
Funk pioneer Sly Stone could steal show at Grammys
By Dean Goodman
Wed Feb 8, 2:26 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The biggest mystery at Wednesday night's Grammy Awards has nothing to do with how many of music's top prizes leading nominees Mariah Carey, Kanye West and John Legend will take home.
Rather, everyone is wondering whether reclusive funk music pioneer Sly Stone will make his first major public appearance in almost 13 years at the event.
Grammy organizers have invited the 61-year-old to attend the Staples Center ceremony, which will feature an all-star tribute to his band Sly and the Family Stone, purveyors of such hits as "Dance to the Music" and "Everyday People."
Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, last made a big splash in 1993, when he showed up briefly for the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. Dressed in a blue jumpsuit, he muttered "see ya soon," and quickly disappeared into the night. Since then, his only reported appearance was at a Los Angeles club last August for a tribute performed by blind musicians.
"I would expect him to be there," Recording Academy vice chairman Jimmy Jam told Reuters. "That's just my gut feeling."
And that's about the best organizers can hope for until the three-and-a-half-hour televised show begins at 8 p.m. EST (1 a.m. GMT).
Stone did appear at a Monday Grammys rehearsal, according to the Los Angeles Times. But the paper said he was late, dressed oddly in a hood, plastic camouflage slicker and pants and played only two of three run-throughs of a song. He disappeared for the third and had to be replaced on keyboards by a crew member.
Although Sly and the Family Stone were hugely influential practitioners of a pop-rock-funk hybrid that crossed racial barriers during their brief heyday in the late '60s-early '70s, Stone has not been able to bask in the glory. By the middle of the decade, as disco was catching on, he was plagued by drug problems and arrests. He was jailed at least twice in the '80s for cocaine possession. Various comebacks never led to much.
MADONNA OPENING SHOW
The "awards" part of the Grammys will actually be a very small part of the broadcast. Producers estimate about three-quarters of the running time will feature performances.
In addition to the Sly and the Family Stone tribute, featuring such performers as Aerosmith principals Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and young English soul singer Joss Stone, there will be special musical segments devoted to the devastated city of New Orleans, and late soul singer Wilson Pickett.
The broadcast will begin with a technologically challenging collaboration between Madonna and the British cartoon band Gorillaz, who are nominated for record of the year. Another unusual pairing will see five-time nominees U2 join forces with R&B singer Mary J. Blige. And three-time nominee Paul McCartney will play the Grammys for the first time in his career.
The Grammys bestow prizes in 108 categories, and all but a dozen will be given out in a fast-paced two hour ceremony beginning at 4:30 p.m. EST. By the time the non-televised event ends, it could be fairly clear who the big winners and losers will be overall.
Jimmy Jam, a Grammy-nominated producer of the year, predicted the awards would be spread evenly. Carey, Legend and West each have eight nominations. Rapper 50 Cent, R&B singer Beyonce Knowles, funk musician William Adams of the Black Eyed Peas and Motown icon Stevie Wonder each have five.
Flying the flag for rock 'n' roll are U2 and Bruce Springsteen, who have five each, along with rapper Missy Elliott, R&B singer Alicia Keys and pop singer Gwen Stefani.
Web Sites Hawking Phone Records Shut Down
Feb 08 7:29 PM US/Eastern
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press Writer
Following a wave of negative publicity and pressure from the government, several Web sites that peddled people's private phone records are calling it quits.
"We are no longer accepting new orders" was the announcement posted Wednesday on two such sites, locatecell.com and celltolls.com.
"Thank you for your patronage. It was a pleasure serving you," the sites said.
The Federal Trade Commission this week conducted a sweep of 40 sites known to have been selling private phone records. According to the FTC's Lydia Parnes, more than 20 sites have recently shut down or stopped advertising for new business.
The agency has sent letters to about 20 other sites, warning them that they may be violating the law and should review their business practices, said Parnes, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Parnes, who testified before a Senate subcommittee on consumer affairs, said the commission also has a number of ongoing investigations into the sales. She did not elaborate.
While some sites appear to be closing up shop, others have seen a boom in business with the recent media attention, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Rotenberg urged lawmakers to ban a practice known as "pretexting," in which data brokers or others call a phone company, impersonate a customer and then persuade the company to release the calling records. Those records usually include whom a person called, who called them and the duration of the calls.
In one case that received a lot of attention recently, a blogger was able to buy the phone records of former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark. All the site needed, it said, was Clark's cell phone number and a credit card payment of $89.95.
Pretexting for financial data is illegal, but there's no specific law against pretexting for phone records. Broader fraud laws can be used to prosecute the companies but several witnesses at the hearing suggested a specific law could help halt the shady sales.
Lawmakers in both parties expressed outrage over the practice.
"This is fraudulent and criminal activity that must be prosecuted and must be stopped to protect innocent people," said subcommittee chairman George Allen, R-Va. Allen and Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., are expected to introduce legislation Thursday that would outlaw pretexting for phone records.
The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating online data brokers. It has subpoenaed about 30 companies for information on how they are obtaining the phone records.
The FCC also is expected to consider whether to tighten rules governing the nation's phone carriers and how they handle customers' calling records.
Ailing guitarist Les Paul, aged 90, wins Grammys
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Electric guitar innovator Les Paul won two Grammy Awards on Wednesday for an all-star album marking his 90th birthday, but he was unable to pick them up in person because he is hospitalized with pneumonia.
Paul, whose name has adorned a brand of guitars used by rock stars since the 1950s, won his trophies in the pop instrumental performance category for the track "Caravan," and in the rock instrumental performance category for the track "69 Freedom Special," credited to Les Paul and Friends.
The tracks come from the album "Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played," his first release since 1978's "Chester & Lester" with late Nashille icon Chet Atkins. That album marked the only other time he won a Grammy. The new CD features such guitarists as Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and Keith Richards accompanying Paul on classic rock and R&B songs.
Paul has been hospitalized near his New Jersey home since Friday, a spokeswoman for his Capitol Records label said. In a radio interview on Monday, he sounded chipper and vowed he would get better.
Ill-health forced him to pull out of an all-star tribute concert in Los Angeles on Tuesday, featuring the likes of former Guns 'N Roses guitarist Slash, Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and bluesmen Buddy Guy and Hubert Sumlin. But he appeared via satellite feed.
At 90, Paul is not the oldest winner in the Grammys' 48-year history. That honor goes to Elizabeth Cotten, who was 94 when she won the award for ethnic or traditional folk recording in 1985, according to a Grammys spokeswoman.
Paul has been a dominant force in the music business since World War Two. He and wife Mary Ford enjoyed a string of hits in the 1940s and '50s with such million-sellers as "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High the Moon."
A passionate tinkerer, he created one of the first solid-body electric guitars in 1941, and went on to pioneer multi-track recording. He played a key role in the birth of rock 'n' roll in the early 1950s when he teamed up with Gibson Guitar Corp. to help design a sleek model that bears his name. An instant success, its basic structure has barely changed over the decades.
Despite arthritis and hearing problems, Paul remains an indefatigable musician. He holds court every week at Iridium, a New York jazz club, often trading licks with youngsters who want to prove their mettle.
Report Highlights AIDS Risk to Black Men and Women ...
by TFSnewsRoom/NyTimes.com
Report Highlights AIDS Risk to Black Men and Women
By MARC SANTORA
In the decade since effective drug treatments for AIDS have slashed death rates across the country, black New Yorkers continue to fall ill and die at startling rates, according to new data from the city health department.
Today, one in five black men in New York City between 40 and 49 has H.I.V. or AIDS. Black women, meanwhile, account for 34 percent of new AIDS cases, up from 12 percent 20 years ago.
Further, heterosexual sex has now replaced drug use as the most common means of transmission of the virus to women, creating a more difficult terrain for health care workers.
While there is a disparity in infection rates between whites and others across a spectrum of diseases, health officials are particularly struck by those among AIDS patients in New York. Although blacks make up only 25 percent of the city's population, they account for 50 percent of all AIDS fatalities.
Black men die at a rate six times that of white men, and black women die at a rate nine times that of white women.
Health officials who have been tracking the disproportionate AIDS death rates among minorities over the last several years say those rates stem from factors including a failure to identify the sick and get them into treatment, as well as a failure to keep them in care and the strong stigma that AIDS carries in many minority neighborhoods.
Last week, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city's health commissioner, said that changing this grim portrait of AIDS would require a radical rethinking of how to combat the disease, including changes in state law to allow health workers to test people for H.I.V. more aggressively and permit health department workers to use the information the city already collects to reach out directly to patients and their doctors to help in treatment.
Mr. Frieden would like to have patients tested for H.I.V. as part of their routine medical care. While changes would still require oral consent, he would like to ease the cumbersome process of written consent and hearing from their doctors the downside of being tested, as the law currently requires.
The city has struggled for years to find ways to provide AIDS information to certain groups, like married men who secretly also have sex with other men.
Some health care experts say, however, that the city has been too slow to act.
"The city has buried its head in the sand on this as far as I am concerned," said Dr. Karen Brudney, director of the infectious diseases clinics at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital.
"For 10 years I have seen rising rates and rising caseloads," she said. While strongly supporting Dr. Frieden's efforts, she said the city needed to focus on problems that prevent patients from getting basic care, like frequent changes in residence.
There are few financial barriers to getting care for H.I.V. and AIDS, however. Through an elaborate network of programs financed by the city, the state and the federal government, help is available and drug treatments for even the poorest patients are fully subsidized.
But the latest statistics from the Health Department show that many people who most need care fail to get it.
When AIDS largely affected gay white men, those men tended to take charge of their own care, health officials said.
That has not happened among black and Latino men and women, in large part, health officials say, because many patients would rather die than risk having family or friends find out they are sick.
For instance, Chelsea, with a large population of gay white men, continues to have the highest rate of newly diagnosed cases in the city, 153 per 100,000 people in 2004. Central Harlem is close behind, with 119 newly diagnosed people for every 100,000.
Yet infected people in Chelsea are half as likely to die from the disease.
Black women have been particularly hard hit: Heterosexual sex accounts for an increasing rate of new AIDS cases.
The increase in H.I.V. infection among young women is even more alarming. In New York, girls and women now account for 48 percent of new infections among teenagers 13 to 19, according to a December report by the New York State AIDS Advisory Council.
The rate of AIDS among black women is 27 times the rate among white women.
The report found that a variety of reasons, including cultural and gender issues, come into play in the lives of minority and ethnic women. "Women are expected to accept, or at least not to question, the lifestyles of their male partners," the report stated.
Concerns about stigma and privacy originally led to stringent laws to protect patients. But those laws, however necessary 20 years ago, also meant that many of the traditional public health approaches used in fighting other infectious diseases — like contacting patients about their need for treatment — could not be used. The threat of violence also deters women from trying to negotiate safer sex or resisting unprotected sex, the report said. Secrecy and denial about high-risk activity, prostitution and infidelity pervade many ethnic groups, and as better drugs became available and death rates fell, many health experts said, a sense of complacency settled in.
NEW YORK - A star-studded music video shoot was interrupted by gunfire that killed a bodyguard for rapper Busta Rhymes, police said.
Missy Elliot, Busta Rhymes and G-Unit members including Lloyd Banks were scheduled to be filming on a ninth-floor soundstage when violence erupted outside the Brooklyn building early Sunday, said police Sgt. Kevin Farrell.
Israel Ramirez, 29, was killed with a single shot to the chest, Farrell said.
Some 500 people were gathered for the Busta Rhymes video, and it was unclear how many had been outside when shots were fired.
Investigators took possession of a nearby parked car that was hit by the gunfire. They were still trying to determine early Monday what led to the violence, Farrell said.
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Gene McFadden, one-half of McFadden & Whitehead, the legendary R&B duo famed for the 1979 pop anthem "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," has died.
The 56-year-old succumbed to complications from liver and lung cancer at his Philadelphia home on January 27.
Songwriter/producer partner John Whitehead predeceased McFadden in May 2004 after being fatally shot outside his Philadelphia home. Whitehead's murder remains unsolved.
McFadden & Whitehead were teens when they first broke into the industry as founding members of soul band the Epsilons. The group toured with Otis Redding, who was also the act's manager, until his death in 1967.
The pair then joined Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International label, bent on pursuing a recording career. However, McFadden & Whitehead's songwriting prowess took center stage when they penned "Back Stabbers" for the O'Jays. The R&B chart-topper became a No. 3 pop crossover hit and opened the door to a host of McFadden & Whitehead-written classics, including Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "Wake Up Everybody (Part 1)" and the Intruders' "I'll Always Love My Mama." They hit No. 1 hit on the R&B chart with "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now."
"McFadden & Whitehead were instrumental in creating the sound of Philadelphia," Gamble & Huff said in a statement following McFadden's death. "Their talent was indispensable, and their music capabilities were uniquely flexible."
McFadden is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters; and two sons.
Coretta Scott King dies at 78
Widow of civil rights leader devoted life to his legacy
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; Posted: 9:18 a.m. EST (14:18 GMT)
Coretta Scott King speaks at the King Center in 2004.
She suffered a heart attack and stroke last year. She was 78.
Andrew Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, broke the news during a phone call he made to NBC's "Today" show.
Asked how he found out about her death, Young said: "I understand she was asleep last night, and her daughter tried to wake her up."
King, who suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005, did not appear at the birthday observance for her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for the first time in the 20-year observance of the holiday.
The couple married in 1953, and Coretta King was a supportive lieutenant to her husband during the most tumultuous days of the fight for civil rights. (Watch how she balanced motherhood and working in the movement -- 3:42)
After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, she kept his dream alive while also raising their four children.
She worked to keep his ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pulled for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.
King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.
"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues she said breed violence -- hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.
"The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.
After her stroke, King missed the annual King holiday celebration in Atlanta in January 2006, but she did appear with her children at an awards dinner a couple of days earlier, smiling from her wheelchair but not speaking. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.
At the same time, the King Center's board of directors was considering selling the site to the National Park Service to let the family focus less on grounds maintenance and more on King's message. But two of the four children were strongly against such a move.
Coretta Scott was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and planning on a singing career when a friend introduced her to Martin Luther King, a young Baptist minister working toward a doctorate at Boston University.
"She said she wanted me to meet a very promising young minister from Atlanta," King once said, adding with a laugh, "I wasn't interested in meeting a young minister at that time."
[SuperBowl] DETROIT - The Queen of Soul was not pleased.
by TFSnewsRoom/APmusic.com
DETROIT - The Queen of Soul was not pleased.
With the Super Bowl coming to her hometown, Aretha Franklin said she was initially disappointed by the NFL's choice of musical entertainment.
Like some other Detroiters, Franklin — who will sing the national anthem — felt that her city's Motown legacy was being snubbed with the choice of the Rolling Stones as the halftime entertainment.
"I didn't think there was enough, by any means. And it was my feeling: `How dare you come to Detroit, a city of legends — musical legends plural — and not ask one or two of them to participate,'" Franklin said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
"That's not the way it should be. Of course, they made that correction with no sweat," she said.
The league later announced that Stevie Wonder would play before the game, and Franklin would team on the anthem with singer Aaron Neville, keyboardist Dr. John and a 150-member choir.
"People are happier with everything. I think probably they just, kind of, were not thinking Detroit being the musical city that it is," Franklin said. "I think the focus was probably more on the game at that time than the artists that the city could offer."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league from the beginning wanted to pay tribute to Detroit's musical legacy in some fashion. He also pointed out that the length of the pregame and halftime shows is the same — 12 minutes.
"It was always our intention to celebrate the contributions of Motown at the Super Bowl," he said.
McCarthy also said singer India.Arie has been added to the list of pregame performers and will join with John Legend and Joss Stone in performing Wonder's hits, as well as other Motown hits. In addition, the Four Tops will also perform prior to kickoff, but they will not be carried live on the ABC broadcast.
Franklin said she has been approached by the NFL in the past to sing at the Super Bowl, "but unfortunately at the times they were calling, I was not flying and not driving as far as the areas where they were."
Now that the big game is in Detroit — and she only has to drive a short distance from her suburban home — Franklin is excited to take part, calling it "an ultra-special honor."
She said she has never before sung with Neville, but "I very much am looking forward to it."
"He has a very, very unique style," she said. "I can't think of anyone else who quite sounds like Aaron Neville."
And Franklin said that, as far as she knows, she and Neville are singing live. She's seen reports about other arrangements, but is going into this performance under impression she's singing live, she said.
Franklin was criticized following her prerecorded and lip-synched rendition of the national anthem before the decisive Game 5 of the 2004 NBA Finals.
Neville said last week that he and Franklin would perform live.
"I'll start it, then she'll take the bridge and we'll do some harmony stuff," he said. "We'll be singing to a track, but we'll be singing live."
US woman accused of sex with Kenyan street boys...
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters.com
US woman accused of sex with Kenyan street boys
Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:55 AM ET
NAIROBI (Reuters) - An American woman working with street children in Kenya appeared in court on Tuesday accused of having sex with under-age boys during the last two years.
Police arrested Sherry Hsiao Hwa Chow, 24, on Sunday on suspicion of indecently assaulting four boys who were staying at a Nairobi rehabilitation center for street children.
She denied the allegations when she appeared at Nairobi's high court. Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule ordered her remanded in custody until April 17 when her case will be heard.
"I plead not guilty," Hwa Chow told the court.
The police charge sheet said she "on diverse dates between the years 2004 and 2005 at Bahati children rehabilitation center in Nairobi ... indecently assaulted" the boys, who were under the age of 18.
Hwa Chow has been staying in East Africa for the last three years working with street children, police documents said, without making clear whether she worked at the Bahati center.
She was also charged with being unlawfully present in the country and failing to register herself as a foreign resident.
As in many African cities, street children are a common sight in Nairobi, often seen sniffing glue, begging and frequently involved in clashes with street vendors and police.
A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted singer-songwriter Ronald Isley of five counts of tax evasion and one count of willful failure to file a tax return for concealing millions of dollars of income from the Internal Revenue Service. Isley, who has residences in Los Angeles and St. Louis, was convicted by a jury that deliberated for only three hours. Isley was a key member of the popular rock band The Isley Brothers, and had a career that spanned decades.
During a three-week trial with almost 20 witnesses, federal prosecutors apparently proved to the jury that Isley received millions of dollars in cash and spent his money on a luxurious lifestyle. From 1997 through 2002, the evidence showed, Isley evaded the payment of more than $3 million in federal income taxes.
The Isley Brothers began singing gospel in their hometown of Cincinnati. During the early 50's, the trio were accompanied by their brother Vernon, who died in a car crash during 1957. Ronald, who was born in 1941, beside his songwriting and singing duties also acted as the groups de facto manager.
The group relocated to New York in 1958 and issued a few singles before being signed by the RCA Records production team, Hugo And Luigi. One of their compositions "Shout" was a big hit with audiences during live performances.The song sold well and has since become an R & B standard and covered by several rock artists including the Beatles and Lulu. In the mid-1960s, they discovered a young guitarist in New York City named Jimi Hendrix, who backed them until he moved to Britain.
Their hits included "Shout," "Twist and Shout," "Who's That Lady?" "This Old Heart of Mine," and many others.
In 2004, they were honored with the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, a program sponsored yearly by Black Entertainment Television. Ironically, less than a year later, Ronald Isley found himself the target of a major federal tax evasion investigation.
Prosecutors claim Isley evaded the payment of income taxes in a variety of ways, including depositing and using for his own benefit royalty checks that were issued to other Isley Brothers-related entities and persons, including Okelly Isley, Isley's deceased brother. Isley also required that one-half of the guaranteed fee for each tour date be delivered to him in cash on the date of the performance
While on tour, Isley paid his musicians and performers in cash, making it difficult to determine how much cash Isley retained from the up-front fee. The balance of the tour performance fees were generally deposited into a bank account in the name of Isley Brothers Music Corporation. The prosecutors argued to the jury that Isley created a vast web of bank accounts and shell companies that he used to conceal his income.
Isley is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson on January 9. At sentencing, Isley faces a maximum possible sentence of 26 years in federal prison. Many Isley Brothers fans believe this case is the tragic end of a noteworthy career spent entertaining millions of music lovers here and abroad. They also question a justice system that let's off a rock star who's pedophile and an actor who's murderer, yet locks up someone for not paying their taxes.
My question is we all know that Ronnie faces 26 years in prison for tax evasion. My question is is he currently in prison serving this 26 year sentence?
"CLAYMANIACS" are out for blood now that a former Green Beret has gone public with his claim that he had a gay sex romp with "American Idol" superstar Clay Aiken.
Alleged Aiken love toy John Paulus has been deluged with death threats from the singer's fervent fans ever since his name was leaked onto the Internet as the man who was blabbing to the National Enquirer that he had sex with their beloved "Idol," who's repeatedly denied being gay. The story is in the Enquirer issue out today nationwide.
"He is getting death threats from Clay's fans," a friend of Paulus tells PAGE SIX. "After his name was leaked on a couple of gossip Web sites, he's been getting threats. But he's also gotten calls from gay porn directors who want to cast him in a movie, kind of what happened after John Wayne Bobbitt got famous."
Paulus, 38, passed a polygraph test administered by the Enquirer in an attempt to corroborate his bombshell claim that he had sex with Aiken at a Quality Inn in Garner, N.C., on Jan. 2. In the new Enquirer, Paulus claims he and Aiken had 90 minutes of man-on-man passion at the hotel, which is near Aiken's hometown of Raleigh, N.C.
The muscle-bound ex-soldier says Aiken contacted him after seeing his picture on the Internet : "I have several personal ads on gay men Web sites," he told the Enquirer. "Clay later told me he saw my pictures on a couple and decided to e-mail me. On Dec. 16, using the screen name of 'valleyprettyboy,' Clay sent me his first message.
"He wrote, 'Hey man, [I] see you're online. I'm 26 years old from Raleigh and would love to talk. I have pics but I have a very recognizable face and I can't post the pics. I would be happy to send them to you if you can promise absolute discretion."
Paulus added that in later e-mails, Aiken "told me that he had just come out of the closet to his mother and a few close friends last year. He told me that he was single again, having broken up with his boyfriend about five months ago."
Aiken has always maintained that he is straight, but in 2003 he told Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Primetime Live," "I have some very effeminate qualities." His spokesman, Roger Widynowkski, declined to comment on the Enquirer story yesterday.
Fox has dashed Terrell and Derrell Brittenum's dreams of becoming the next American Idols.
The 28-year-old identical twin brothers were "uninvited" from the competition after their criminal records became public fodder, their lawyer said.
"It was an amicable breakup," attorney Maurice Bennett said on an Atlanta radio station. "The guys understood why. It's amazing how these things work."
The Brittenums made their mark on American Idol during the first episode of the fifth season, when they wowed the judges at the Chicago auditions and earned passes to Hollywood.
But the Tennessee natives' brush with glory turned out to be short-lived, as the brothers soon landed behind bars on charges that they used another man's identity and financial information last June to purchase a 2005 Dodge Magnum in Atlanta. Both Brittenums refused extradition to Georgia, which led to additional charges against them.
Fox has remained mum on whether the brothers would be seen in future episodes of the talent search. However, the New York Post reports that the network put the kibosh on a planned live performance by the Brittenums Wednesday night on MSNBC's Scarborough County, indicating that they are probably still under contract.
According to Bennett, both brothers were released from jail on bond Sunday morning and were preparing to travel to Los Angeles for the next round of eliminations when they received word that their presence was no longer welcome.
Though the twins may have blown their shot at Idol worship, they reportedly have other opportunities to consider. Bennett claims to have been contacted by "several" record labels interested in signing the brothers.
Meanwhile, as the audition segments continued this week, tensions between the judges ran high, culminating in a temper tantrum thrown by none other than Simon Cowell.
After arguing back and forth with his fellow judges, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, the snarky critic stormed out of the San Francisco auditions, leaving the other two to hear the final few contestants on their own.
"He was being obnoxious to the girl who was singing," Abdul told Entertainment Tonight. "He had just had it. Not only did he leave, but he left and took the plane home!"
Cowell admitted that he lost his patience with Abdul and Jackson.
"We had a major row. I got to the point where I said 'I can't sit next to you anymore,' and left," he told Entertainment Tonight. "But to be fair, Randy Jackson was being obnoxious that day as well. Occasionally, they turn into American music critics. I got to the point I couldn't sit with them anymore. There's a point in the day where you just think, 'There's no point in me sitting next to you anymore. Do it yourself.' So that's what I did."
More than 32 million viewers watched Cowell blow his stack on Wednesday, just slightly fewer than the 34.8 million viewers who tuned in for Tuesday's episode. Last week's fifth season premiere set a new record for the talent search, drawing an audience of 35.5 million.
Teen Beats Up Grandma Because She Won't Buy Him Beer...
by TFSnewsRoom/Wgrz.com
Teen Beats Up Grandma Because She Won't Buy Him Beer
Bradenton, Florida -- Deputies say a 16-year-old has been arrested for beating his grandmother with a two-by-four for refusing to give him $100 for beer.
Charged is Kurt Cass of Hammock Drive, Bradenton.
Investigators say Cass went into his 60-year-old grandmother's bedroom Thursday and asked her for $100 for beer. When she refused, he allegedly placed a razor blade on her throat and demanded she take him to the bank to get the money, deputies said.
"When the victim arrived back home she locked all of the doors," deputies reported. "The defendant arrived back home and kicked the front door in.
"Once inside the defendant grabbed a two foot 2x4 piece of wood and hit the victim numerous times on the back. The defendant then grabbed a three foot piece of 3 inch PVC pipe and hit the victim on her head, back, and legs numerous times. The defendant's case worker arrived on scene and was able to hold him until law enforcement arrived."
Deputies said Cass has made comments in the past to his grandmother that she should kill his entire family.
Cass was charged with domestic aggravated assault, two counts of domestic aggravated battery, attempted robbery, and kidnapping.
The grandmother has had legal guardianship of Cass and his little brother since 1994.
Authorities tell Tampa Bay's 10 News Wednesday that Cass came from a troubled family. His mother is in prison on cocaine possession and sale charges, and his father is serving a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter after choking a prostitute to death in 2002.
Oprah Winfrey Calls Defense of Author 'a Mistake' ...
by TFSnewsRoom/HuffingtonPost.com
Oprah Winfrey Calls Defense of Author 'a Mistake'
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: January 26, 2006
In an extraordinary reversal of her strident and angry defense of the author whose book she catapulted to the top of the best-seller list, Oprah Winfrey said today she believed that the author James Frey "betrayed millions of people" by making up elements of his life in his best-selling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces."
She added that she believed "I made a mistake" when she said that the truth of the book mattered less then its story of redemption.
In a live broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" from her studios in Chicago in which she interviewed Mr. Frey, Ms. Winfrey apologized to her audience for her call to "Larry King Live" earlier this month defending the author. Today she berated Mr. Frey for duping her and her audience.
"I gave the impression that the truth does not matter," Ms. Winfrey said. "I made a mistake." To all of the viewers who called and wrote to her telling her she was wrong to allow Mr. Frey to maintain that his book reflected the "essential truth" of his life even though substantial details were falsified, Ms. Winfrey said, "You are right."
"I feel duped," she said. "I don't know what is true and I don't know what isn't," she said, before addressing Mr. Frey with the question, "Why did you lie?"
Ms. Winfrey chose "A Million Little Pieces" in September for her popular television book club, and it sold more than two million copies within the next three months, making it the fastest-selling pick ever for her book club.
But questions about the truth of Mr. Frey's memoir began to arise almost immediately, as they had since its publication in 2003. The memoir tells the harrowing story of Mr. Frey's arrival at a Minnesota rehabilitation center, which has since been identified as Hazelden, after years of alcohol and drug addiction.
In early January, The Smoking Gun, an investigative Web site, reported that Mr. Frey's claim to have spent nearly three months in jail was false. Actually, he spent only a few hours in jail.
On Thursday, Mr. Frey said of the Smoking Gun report, "Most of what they wrote is pretty accurate."
Mr. Frey said he had made up many of the details of his life and had created a bad-guy portrayal of himself as a "coping mechanism."
"I thought of myself as tougher than I was and badder than I was," Mr. Frey said.
Ms. Winfrey asked if he made up the material because it helped him cope or because he thought it would help sell books. Mr. Frey responded, "Probably both."
Ms. Winfrey was about 20 minutes into her show when ABC News interrupted the broadcast to televise President Bush's news conference. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is televised in Chicago in the morning but in the afternoon in most major television markets
Rapper Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA - Baby-faced rapper Cassidy was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault Tuesday in what prosecutors called the planned ambush of a man who had argued with the musician's friends.
The 23-year-old Cassidy (real name: Barry Reese) was grossly negligent for supplying the guns that killed Desmond Hawkins and wounded two of his companions, Common Pleas Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan said at the end of a two-day non-jury trial.
Greenspan sentenced Cassidy to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison. He has been in custody since his arrest in June, meaning he could be out of jail within a few months.
"You could be a leader in the community," Greenspan said. "All those guns — that's why Desmond is gone now, because of all those guns."
Police said that four different guns, including an assault rifle, were involved in the April 15 ambush in an alley behind Cassidy's house. Cassidy and his associates had stashed the guns around the alley in expectation of a shootout, prosecutors said.
Investigators also found ammunition for an AK-47 and other weapons inside the singer's rowhouse, which he shared with his girlfriend and 2-year-old son.
Witnesses testified that Hawkins, 22, had gone to Cassidy's home to act as a peacemaker after Hawkins and his friends got in an argument with Cassidy and his friends.
"It's a tragic situation for me too," Cassidy told the judge. "I didn't set up for this to happen. Desmond Hawkins was my friend ... one of my closest friends."
Cassidy's debut CD, "Split Personality," peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and featured the top 10 single "Hotel" featuring R. Kelly. Full Surface/J Records released the follow-up album "I'm a Hustla" on June 28.
His managers, who attended the trial, want him back to work soon on a third album.
"He's a natural performer. Very charismatic. We think he could be multiplatinum," Emio Zizza of J Records said.
Cassidy was convicted of one count of involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor; two counts of aggravated assault, both felonies; and possession of an instrument of crime.
Hawkins' companions, Bobby Hoyle and Daniel Irvin, were wounded in the shootout.
Police have arrest warrants for two others in Cassidy's camp, but have not found them, defense lawyer Fortunato Perri Jr. said.
Both Perri and the prosecutor said they were satisfied with the verdict. Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction, but were hampered by witnesses who recanted or recast their initial police statements.
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The Black Rock Coalition’s studio and production partner for our fifth band
compilation, "Rock ‘N Roll Reparations: Volume 1," is open to all musicians.
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LOU RAWLS
The master’s master… The human’s human…
(1933-2006)
______________________________
"WICKED" WILSON PICKETT
(1941-2006)
This soul legend was an informal father figure in our BRC family. Several BRC
members played in his band, including our own Dana Jared and Ivan Bodley.
Dana introduced me to him and I was awestruck by his realness, his warmth, his
vitality and his staying power as a soul-rock icon. Anyone who’s suffered
through a bad kareoke reading of "Mustang Sally" knows this—I considered myself
blessed to have heard the real deal in my life. Mighty Wilson was arguably the
greatest soul vocalist/performer of all time, with hits spanning over three
decades. He leaves a proud legacy and a tremendous void that will probably never be
filled.
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NYC-AREA AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS PAID
TO PARTICIPATE IN A RESEARCH FILM
We are looking for African American men and women (in the New York City area)
to participate in a PAID research film.
Must have Internet service other than dialup in your home. We are looking for
people who are striving for creative or artistic careers (such as filmmakers,
painters, photographers, graphic designers, dancers, musicians, fashion
designers, stylists, etc.)
Please call Fresh Perspectives Research ASAP for more details: (212) 966-3211.
Hey everyone this could be a potentially nice gig, so if you have a moment
can you forward this to your African American friends?
________________________________________________________________
CIPHER SEEKING ANOTHER GUITARIST
New York's CIPHER has announced that we're officially looking for an
additional guitarist that will help solidify our line-up in 2006 as we prepare
ourselves for more touring and writing new material.
For those of you that don’t know us, we’re a five-piece metal-influenced
hardcore band based out of Long Island, NY. Our recent release, "Children of
God’s Fire" is in stores everywhere. We merge radical politics with a DIY hardcore
ethic, and an experimental musical spirit.
Some of you may remember us from James Spooner's "Afropunk" documentary.
We're extending this invitation far and wide regardless of geography.
We're interested in a committed and creative guitarist that’s serious about
playing in a professional, touring band and has the chops to match. If that
sounds like you or you’d like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact
us at cipher@cipheronline.com or http://www.myspace.com/cipher, or call us at
(516) 670-6741.
We’d like to fill this position ASAP. So get in contact with us immediately.
_______________________________________________________________
COMING IN FEBRUARY
THE BRC RETURNS TO BAMCAFÉ
Fridays throughout the month of February:
2/3: Dr. Israel and Dreadtone International with Martha Redbone Trio
2/10: 24-7 Spyz with Phil Moore Browne
2/17: Keziah Jones with Funkface
2/24: Apollo Heights with Shaka Zulu Overdrive
WHEN: 9PM.
HOW MUCH: FREE ($10 minimum at the tables).
INFO: (718) 636-1400 or bam.org.
WHERE: 30 Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
ADDITIONAL INFO: http://www.blackrockcoalition.org, (212) 713-5097
AND ACT LIKE YOU KNOW!
(Or at least like you’re trying to find out…)
_______________________________________________
NYC Winter Jazzfest at The Knitting Factory, NYC
Featuring Terence Blanchard’s Flow, Me’shell Ndegeocello’s Spirit Music
Jamia, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Pyeng Threadgill and others
WHAT: Best and brightest modern-day jazz pioneers take center stage at
Knitting Factory. WHEN: 6PM. HOW MUCH: $25. INFO: (212) 219-3132 or
knittingfactory.com. WHERE: 74 Leonard Street between Broadway and Church Street.
Fro at Groove, NYC
WHAT: Noted jazz-rock fusionist opens a biweekly residence at Groove. WHEN:
Two sets at 7PM and 9PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (212) 254-9393. WHERE: 125
MacDougal Street at West Third Street, Greenwich Village. ARTIST SITE:
www.in-fro-mation.com.
"Bridge and Tunnel" at The Helen Hayes Theater, NYC (through 3/12)
Featuring Sarah Jones
WHAT: Revolutionary poet/actress brings her award-winning one-woman show to
Broadway. WHEN: 8PM doors/9PM show. HOW MUCH: $86.25. DISCOUNT TICKETS
AVAILABLE: This special discount makes select tickets available for $46.25. Just type
in code BTDLZ37 at broadwayoffers.com or call Telecharge at (212) 947-8844 and
mention the same code, BTDLZ37. INFO: (212) 944-9450. WHERE: 240 West 44th
Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. ARTIST SITE: http://www.sarahjonesonline.com
.
"Slavery In New York" Exhibit at New York Historical Society, NYC (through
3/5)
WHAT: Incredibly detailed and graphic exhibition of indentured Africans and
their harrowing struggles in New York. WHEN: 9PM doors. HOW MUCH: $10; $5,
students and seniors; FREE to members and children under 12. INFO: nyhistory.org
or (212) 873-3400. WHERE: 170 Central Park West at West 77th Street.
"Quiet Rage" Exhibit at The Rotunda, Philadelphia, PA
Featuring Bernard Collins, Rhapsody, Jones, Tracey Lynn and the Excelano
Poets and Rahnda Rize
WHAT: Philly all-star slam tour. WHEN: 7PM doors/8PM show. HOW MUCH: $15-$25,
depending on seating. INFO: http://nyhistory.org or (215) 873-3400. WHERE: 4014
Walnut Street.
Austin Willacy at Lawrence University, Appleton, WI
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (920) 832-7000 or lawrence.edu. WHERE: 115 South
Drew Street. ARTIST SITE: www.austinwillacy.com.
H.R. and Dubb Agents at Club 8150, Vail, CO
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: club8150.com or (970) 479-0607. WHERE: 143 East Meadow Drive off South
Frontage Drive East.
Three5Human at Humboldt State University, Eureka, CA
Opening for Indigo Girls
WHAT: Atlanta Black rockers tour the West Coast. WHEN: 7:30PM. HOW MUCH:
$25-$40, depending on seating. INFO: (707) 826-4411 or humboldt.edu. WHERE: 1
Harpst Street.
Dawn Norfleet Jazz Project at Temple Bar, Santa Monica, CA
WHAT: Temple Bar celebrates the end of NAMM by featuring flutist and vocalist
Dawn Norfleet. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $7. INFO: templebarlive.com or (310).
WHERE: 1026 Wilshire Boulevard. ARTIST SITE: www.dawnnorfleet.com.
MONDAY, JANUARY 23
DBR and The Mission at The Cutting Room, NYC
WHAT: Award-winning violinist/composer returns to The Cutting Room. WHEN:
7PM. HOW MUCH: $12 cover with a $10 minimum at tables. INFO: (212) 691-1900 or http://thecuttingroomnyc.com. WHERE: 19 West 24th Street, between Fifth and Sixth
Avenue, Flatiron District/Chelsea.
Agent M Residence at The Delancey, NYC
Brian Finke and The Lone Tree; Laura Minor; Shrine for the Black Madonna
WHAT: Agent M (Maya) continues her alt-rock residence at The Delancey. WHEN:
8PM. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO: thedelancey.com or (212) 254-9920. WHERE: 168
Delancey Street at Clinton Street at the mouth of the Williamsburg Bridge, Lower
East Side.
Danielia Cotton at The Canal Room, NYC
With Christian Scott, Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu
WHAT: Journeywoman singer/songwriter returns to The Canal Room. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: $8. INFO: (212) 480-8341 or canalroom.com. WHERE: West Broadway and
Canal Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.danielia.com.
Austin Willacy at Edgewood College, Madison, WI (Early)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: Noon.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (608) 663-4861 or edgewood.edu. WHERE: 1000
Edgewood College Drive. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
Austin Willacy at Carroll College, Waukesha, WI (Late)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (262) 547-1211 or cc.edu. WHERE: 100 North East
Avenue. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
H.R. and Dubb Agents at Sherpa and Yeti's, Breckenridge, CO
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN: 9PM doors/10PM show.
HOW MUCH: $8. INFO: http://sherpaandyetis.com or (970) 547-9299. WHERE: 318 South Main
Street.
Sevendust at Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ONT
With Wicked Wisdom
Janabe Ensemble at The Blue Note, NYC (through 1/25)
With Robert Glasper, Lionel Louke, Derrick Hodge, Chris "Daddy" Dave,
Gregoire Maret, Roy Hargrove and Bilal
WHAT: Trans-African jazz project returns to The Blue Note. HOW MUCH: $25
table/$15 bar, plus $10 minimum. INFO: (212) 475-8592 or http://bluenotejazz.com. WHERE:
131 West Third Street between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal, Greenwich Village.
The Headhunters at The Knitting Factory, NYC
WHAT: Legendary jazz-funk ensemble plays Knitting Factory. WHEN: Two sets,
starting at 7:30PM. HOW MUCH: $15 advance/$20 door. INFO: http://knittingfactory.com or
(212) 219-3132. WHERE: 74 Leonard Street between Broadway and Church Street.
"Soul Acoustic Tuesdays" at Kili, Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by Tasneem, Ranjit, Shae Fiol and others
WHAT: Weekly downtown open mic. DJ trademark spins funk and soul classics.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 855-5574. WHERE: 81 Hoyt Street
between State Street and Atlantic Avenue, downtown.
Austin Willacy at Moraine Park Technical College, West Bend, WI
(through 1/25)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 9PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (920) 887-1011 or moraine.tec.wi.us.edu. WHERE:
700 Gould Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
Austin Willacy at Marian College, Fond Du Lac, WI (Late)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 9PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (920) 923-7600 or mariancollege.edu. WHERE: 45
South National Avenue. ARTIST SITE:http:// www.austinwillacy.com.
H.R. And The Expendables/Dubb Agents at Levelz Nightclub, Steamboat Springs,
CO
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: http://levelzonline.com or (970) 870-9090. WHERE: 1860 Ski Times Square.
Sevendust at Spectrum De Montreal, Montreal, QC
With Wicked Wisdom
everyanything/DJ Ian Friday at Bowery Poetry Club, NYC
WHAT: Prog-soul combo celebrates new CD release. Tea Party magician Ian
Friday’s on the wheels. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: $10 (FREE CD WITH ADMISSION). INFO:
bowerypoetry.com or (212) 614-0505. WHERE: 308 Bowery at East First Street
between Bleecker Street and East Houston Street, East Village.
Skip James Tribute at Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
Featuring Gary Lucas and Gods and Monsters with Felice Rosser (Faith),
Chocolate Genius, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Sonny Landreth
WHAT: Downtown all-stars roll uptown to pay homage to noted blues
singer-guitarist. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: ekcc.org/merkin or (212)
501-3303. WHERE: 129 West 67th between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, Upper West
Side.
The Screening at Sputnik, Brooklyn, NY
WHAT: Monthly showcase of cutting edge shorts at Sputnik. WHEN: 7PM. HOW
MUCH: FREE. INFO: barsputnik.com or (718) 398-6666. WHERE: 262 Taaffe Place
between Dekalb and Willoughby Avenues, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. ARTIST SITE: http://www.flatfootfete.com.
"Shut Up Wednesdays" at The Alligator Lounge, Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by Tasneem, Bess Rogers, Ellie Lawson and Dave Harewood
WHAT: Weekly Billyburg open mic. DJ LP spins rock classics and soul. WHEN:
8PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 599-4440. WHERE: 600 Metropolitan Avenue.
Austin Willacy at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
(Late)
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (715) 232-1122 or uwstout.edu. WHERE: 712 South
Broadway. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
Three5Human at Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, Medford, OR
Opening for Indigo Girls
WHAT: Atlanta Black rockers tour the West Coast. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH:
$24-$40, depending on seating. INFO: (541) 779-3000 or craterian.org. WHERE: 23 South
Central Avenue.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26
Will Calhoun at Blue Note, NYC (through 1/26)
WHAT: Rhythmatician returns to The Blue Note. HOW MUCH: $25 table/$15 bar,
plus $10 minimum. WHEN: Two sets, 8PM and 10PM. INFO: (212) 475-8592 or
bluenotejazz.com. WHERE: 131 West Third Street between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal,
Greenwich Village. ARTIST SITE: http://www.willcalhoun.com.
Alvin Youngblood Hart at Coda, NYC
WHAT: Generation Next Blues man debuts at Coda. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT
VENUE. INFO: (212) 685-3434 or coda34.com. WHERE: 34 East 34th Street between
Madison and Fifth Avenues.
Sevendust at Toad's Place, New Haven, CT
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 5PM doors/6PM
show. HOW MUCH: $25. INFO: (203) 624-8623 or toadsplace.com. WHERE: 300 York
Street #1. ARTIST SITE: http://www.sevendust.com.
Austin Willacy at University Of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (715) 232-1122 or uwstout.edu. WHERE: 712 South
Broadway. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
The Wailers at Levelz Nightclub, Steamboat Springs, CO (through 1/27)
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT
VENUE. INFO: levelzonline.com or (970) 870-9090. WHERE: 128 NE Russell Street.
ARTIST SITE: http://www.thewailers.com.
H.R. and The Expendables/Dubb Agents at Bluebird Theatre, Denver, CO
WHAT: Ex-brains front man tours the West Coast. WHEN/HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE.
INFO: nipp.com or (303) 322-2308. WHERE: 3317 East Colfax.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27
Toshi Reagon at Joe's Pub, NYC (through 1/29)
WHAT: Noted folk-soul doyenne returns to Joe’s Pub for three nights. WHEN:
9:30PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (212) 539-8778 or joespub.com. WHERE: 425
Lafayette Street near Astor Place. ARTIST SITE: http://www.toshireagon.com.
Arrested Development at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
With Urban Word and M1 (dead prez)
WHAT: Atlanta bohemian hip-hoppers play BAM. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $20, $25
depending on seating. INFO: (718) 636-1400 or bam.org. WHERE: 30 Lafayette
Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
Sevendust at The Palladium, Worcester, MA
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 6:30PM
doors/7:30PM show. HOW MUCH: $20.50. INFO: (508) 797-9696 or thepalladium.com. WHERE:
261 Main Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.sevendust.com.
Seed Is... at The Norva, Norfolk, VA
Benefit for the Andy Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund with Duburbia, Lifted
Vision and Rio
WHAT: DC/VA Black rock vets rock a benefit at The Norva. WHEN: 6:30PM
doors/7:30PM show. HOW MUCH: $10. INFO: (757) 622-5915 or thenorva.com. WHERE: 317
Monticello Avenue between Market Street and East Freemason Street.
Austin Willacy at Simpson College, Indianola, IA
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 10PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (515) 961-1614 or simpson.edu. WHERE: 701 North
C Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
Nadir's Distorted Soul at The Village Idiot, Maumee, OH
WHAT: Detroit’s favorite rock ‘n soul son and band join a January funk
revue. WHEN: 10PM. HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (419) 893-7281 or
the-villageidiot.com. WHERE: 309 Conant Street at Wayne Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.distortedsoul.com.
Three5Human at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA (through 1/28)
WHAT: Atlanta Black rockers tour the West Coast. WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: $40.
INFO: (415) 848-5100 or thefillmore.com. WHERE: 1805 Geary Boulevard at Fillmore
Street.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28
The Square Egg at The Blue Note, NYC
With Big Brooklyn Red, Antonia Jenae and Tyme Johnson
WHAT: Progressive hip-hop live band debuts at The Blue Note. HOW MUCH: $8.
WHEN: 12:30AM. INFO: (212) 475-8592 or bluenotejazz.com. WHERE: 131 West Third
Street between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal, Greenwich Village. ARTIST SITE:
whttp://ww.thesquareegg.org.
Felice Rosser with Gary Lucas’ Gods and Monsters at
Bowery Poetry Club, NYC
WHAT: Faith frontwoman lends her sultry vocals to noted guitarist’s band.
WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $. INFO: bowerypoetry.com or (212) 614-0505. WHERE: 308
Bowery at East First Street between Bleecker Street and East Houston Street, East
Village. ARTIST SITE: http://www.felicerosser.com.
Shemeika Copeland at B.B. King’s, NYC
With Popa Chubby
WHAT: Blues scion returns to B.B. King's. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $20.50
advance/$24 door. INFO: http://bbkingblues.com or (212) 997-4144. WHERE: 237 West 42nd
Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, Times Square.
Tenderhead Weekends at Café Shane, Brooklyn, NY (through 1/29)
WHAT: New York veteran rockers launch a weekly residence every weekend at
Café Shane. WHEN: 7PM. HOW MUCH: NO COVER. INFO: (718) 399-3001 or cafeshane.com.
WHERE: 794 Washington Avenue between Sterling Place and St. John's Place.
Morris Day and The Time at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
With Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings and a screening of "Purple Rain"
WHAT: Minneapolis clown prince of funk and band play BAM. WHEN: 8PM. HOW
MUCH: $20, $25 depending on seating. INFO: (718) 636-1400 or bam.org. WHERE: 30
Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
Fred Ho and The Brooklyn Sax Quartet at BAMCafé, NYC
WHAT: Noted radical musician and composer returns with his group to BAMCafé.
WHEN: 9PM. HOW MUCH: FREE ($10 minimum at the tables). INFO: (718) 636-1400 or
bam.org. WHERE: 30 Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix and Ashland Place.
Sevendust at Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
With Wicked Wisdom
WHAT: Atlanta mod-metal unit continues a national tour. WHEN: 6PM doors/7PM
show. HOW MUCH: $20 advance/$22 door. INFO: electricfactory.com or (215)
627-1332. WHERE: 421 North Seventh Street at Willow Street. ARTIST SITE: http://www.sevendust.com.
Austin Willacy at Clemson College, Clemson, SC
WHAT: Bay Area pop-soul brother does a solo tour of the Midwest. WHEN: 8PM.
HOW MUCH: CONTACT VENUE. INFO: (864) 656-3311 or clemson.edu. ARTIST SITE: http://www.austinwillacy.com.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29
Bobby "Blue" Bland at B.B. King’s, NYC
WHAT: Legendary soul-blues singer celebrates his 76th birthday at B.B.
King’s. WHEN: 8PM. HOW MUCH: $25. INFO: http://bbkingblues.com or (212) 997-4144. WHERE:
237 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, Times Square.
______________________________________________________________________________
____
UPCOMING DATES
RAKIM AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 1/30
SEVENDUST AT HOUSE OF BLUES-CLEVELAND, CLEVELAND, OH, 1/31
THE WAILERS AT THE MANGY MOOSE, TETON VILLAGE, WY, 1/31
SAVION GLOVER AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 2/1
SAUL WILLIAMS AT HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY, EUREKA, CA, 2/1
APOLLO HEIGHTS, DJ SUGARFREE (HONEYCHILD) AT LE PULP,
PARIS, 2/1
MICHAEL HILL AT TERRA BLUES, NYC, 2/2
BEANS AND HOLY **** AT WEBSTER HALL, NYC, 2/2
With The National; Cage and The Def Jux All-Stars; Celebration; Chad Van
Gaalen
JONESBONES AT ARLENE GROCERY, NYC, 2/2
BLAKBÜSHE AT THE HOOK, BROOKLYN, NY, 2/2
DAVID RYAN HARRIS THURSDAY RESIDENCE AT THE HOTEL CAFÉ,
LOS ANGELES, CA, 2/2-23
BRC FRIDAYS AT BAMCAFÉ, BROOKLYN, NY, 2/3
(THROUGH 2/24)
TONIGHT: Dr. Israel and Dreadtone International; Martha Redbone Trio
SHARRIF SIMMONS AT THE BLUE NOTE, NYC, 2/3
BERNIE WORRELL AND WOO WARRIORS AT TONIC, NYC, 2/3-4
CHILTON AND TEXBUKSEX AT VINYL, ATLANTA, GA, 2/3
H.R. AND DUBB AGENTS AT VIPER ROOM, HOLLYWOOD, CA, 2/3
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT KASCH, ACHIM, GRM,
2/3
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT WERRETALHALLE,
LÖHNE, GRM, 2/4
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT MARKTHALLE,
HAMBURG, GRM, 2/5
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT JUBEZ, KARLSRUHE,
GRM, 2/7
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT SCHALOTTE, BERLIN,
GRM, 2/8
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT KULTURZENTRUM
GROSSENHAIN, GROSSENHAIN, GRM, 2/9
APOLLO HEIGHTS, DOPE SAGGITARIUS (LUQMAN BROWN OF
FUNKFACE), DELJIGT, HONEYCHILD COLEMAN AT WHITE TRASH
FAST FOODS, BERLIN, GRM, 2/9
BRC FRIDAYS AT BAMCAFÉ, BROOKLYN, NY, 2/10
(THROUGH 2/24)
TONIGHT: 24-7 Spyz; Phil Moore Browne
"SOUL EROTICA" AT AARON DAVIS HALL, 2/10
Featuring Wunmi, Caridad De La Luz (a.k.a. La Bruja), Ainsley Burrows, Shawn
Redwood, Kenji Jasper, SékouWrites, Carole Alexis and Osmosis, Traci Bartlow
and more
APOLLO HEIGHTS, MIKE LADD AT POINT EPHEMERE, PARIS, 2/10
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT THEATER-
WAHLSTEDT, WAHLSTEDT, GRM, 2/10
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT STADTTHEATER
ELMSHORN, ELMSHORN, GRM, 2/11
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS, BEBRA, GRM, 2/12
LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY/DUB AS A WEAPON AT B.B. KING’S, NYC, 2/13
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT STADTTHEATER
CUXHAVEN, CUXHAVEN, GRM, 2/13
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT KULTURZENTRUM
KREUZ, FULDA, GRM, 2/14
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT KULTURHAUS
SCHWANEN, WAIBLINGEN, GRM, 2/15
H.R. AND DUBB AGENTS AT THE DRINK, VENTURA, CA, 2/16
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT GLASHAUS
STADTBIBLIOTHEK, HERTHEN, GRM, 2/16
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT ZEHNTSTADEL
LEIPHEIM, LEIPHEIM, GRM, 2/17
THE DIRTBOMBS AT SOUTHPAW, BROOKLYN, NY, 2/18
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT ELSERHALLE,
MÜNCHEN, GRM, 2/18
AUSTIN WILLACY AND THE HOUSEJACKS AT N.A.C.A.
NATIONALS, BOSTON, MA, 2/20-21
AUSTIN WILLACY AT ST. NORBERT COLLEGE AT DE PERE, WI, 2/22
YEAR OF THE DRAGON WITH SPACEY-T AND DIRTY WALT AT ON THE ROX (ROXY),
HOLLYWOOD, CA, 2/22
AUSTIN WILLACY AT MADISON AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE,
MADISON, WI, 2/23 (EARLY)
AUSTIN WILLACY AT UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-LA CROSSE,
LA CROSSE, WI, 2/23 (LATE)
BRC FRIDAYS AT BAMCAFÉ, BROOKLYN, NY, 2/24
(THROUGH 2/24)
TONIGHT: Apollo Heights; Shaka Zulu Overdrive
BAD BRAINS AT CBGB, NYC, 2/24-25
THE DIRTBOMBS AT BLIND PIG, ANN ARBOR, MI, 2/24
FISHBONE/H.R. AND DUBB AGENTS/WEAPON OF CHOICE/THE AGGROLITES/MELTING POT AT
TBA, SAN PEDRO, CA, 2/24
AUSTIN WILLACY AT ST. OLAF COLLEGE, NORTHFIELD, MN, 2/24
AUSTIN WILLACY AT FOX VALLEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE,
APPLETON, WI, 2/27
STEEL PULSE AT NORVA, NORFOLK, VA, 2/28
AUSTIN WILLACY AT NORTHEAST WISCONSIN TECHNICAL
COLLEGE, GREEN BAY, WI, 2/28
___________________________________________________
CONTACT:
Here's how you can reach us here at the B.R.C.:
SNAIL MAIL: Black Rock Coalition
P.O. Box 1054
Cooper Station
NYC, NY 10276
WEBSITE: http://www.blackrockcoalition.org
HOTLINE: (212) 713-5097
TO E-MAIL ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR T.W.I.B.R.: BRCMembersInfo@aol.com
By VERENA DOBNIK
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 21, 2006; 6:47 PM
NEW YORK -- Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush administration's harshest critics, compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo on Saturday and attacked the president as a liar.
"We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended," Belafonte said in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference.
"You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel," said Belafonte.
Belafonte's remarks on Saturday _ part of a 45-minute speech on the role of the arts in a politically changing world _ were greeted with a roaring standing ovation from an audience which included singer Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and members of the arts community from several dozen countries.
Messages seeking comments from Homeland Security and White House officials were not immediately returned.
He had called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" during a trip to Venezuela two weeks ago. Belafonte, 78, made that comment after a meeting with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
The Harlem-born Belafonte, who was raised in Jamaica, said his activism was inspired by an impoverished mother "who imbued in me that we should never capitulate to oppression."
He acknowledged that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks demanded a reaction by the United States, but said the policies of the Bush administration were not the right response.
"Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression," said Belafonte, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Bush, he said, rose to power "somewhat dubiously and ... then lies to the people of this nation, misleads them, misinstructs, and then sends off hundreds of thousands of our own boys and girls to a foreign land that has not aggressed against us."
LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ordered the city to pay $1.1 million in legal costs to the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. as sanctions for intentionally withholding evidence during the family's civil lawsuit trial.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper's ruling Friday didn't give the family the $2 million originally sought, but she left open the possibility of an additional $300,000.
"It's pretty clear from the ruling that the judge understands this is a significant and difficult case," said Perry Sanders, an attorney for the rapper's family.
Christopher Wallace, or Notorious B.I.G., was shot and killed March 9, 1997, after a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The killing has not been solved.
Cooper declared a mistrial last summer in the family's civil lawsuit after finding that a police detective hid statements linking the killing to former LAPD Officers David Mack and Rafael Perez. She also ordered the city to pay the slain rapper's family's legal costs.
The plaintiffs had been trying to show that Mack, a convicted bank robber, orchestrated Wallace's killing with the help of college friend on behalf of Death Row Records chief Marion "Suge" Knight. All three have denied involvement.
Attorneys for the family received an anonymous tip from a former officer that a department informant had tied Perez and Mack to the killing. Detective Steven Katz claimed he had overlooked a transcript of the remarks in his desk.
But Cooper ruled that Katz and perhaps others concealed the information, which could have bolstered the family's contention that Mack was involved in the killing. A retrial is set to begin later this year.
"We were disappointed with the order," said Jonathan Diamond, spokesman for City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, whose office defended the city. "We believe the officer's conduct was inadvertent, and we will prevail at trial on the merits of the case."
Being Bobby Brown means sticking it out when the going gets tough.
The "My Prerogative" purveyor is flatly denying a report this week in the New York Daily News that he and superstar wife Whitney Houston are on the verge of divorce.
"The rumors are wrong," he told People magazine. "They're false."
According to the Daily News, the 36-year-old Brown told friends that he and his 42-year-old missus were preparing to split permanently. The newspaper also reported that Brown had also been spotted with several women backstage at Connecticut's Foxwoods Casino.
The mercurial songster turned reality star said he was mystified by the insinuations that his 13-year union was on the rocks and that the household was doing just fine. (The couple have a 12-year-old daughter together, Bobbi Kristina.)
Asked by People what may have prompted the item, Brown replied: "I really couldn't tell you. They say I said something about it, but I joke a lot...I don't think I said it, but if I did it was a joke. Trust me...it's someone that got the words mixed up."
Brown added that the break-up rumors "definitely upset" Houston.
"Oh, she called me!" he told People. "She's calling me on a regular basis like, 'Bobby! Did you say this? Did you say that?' "
As for himself, Brown is keeping cool.
"There's no way I can be upset, because I didn't say it and I'm not trying to divorce her, and that's the most important thing. She's my friend," he said. "She's the better half of me.
"They say opposites attract, but we're not opposites. We're one person. We're loving life, and we're just trying to be as good to each other as possible. And we're moving on."
Certainly Brown and Houston have had their share of problems, including battles with drug and alcohol addiction that led both to enter rehab on separate occasions. The couple has also been dogged by allegations that Brown walloped Houston during a domestic spat at their Atlanta home in December 2003. Although Houston declined to cooperate with police, the case is pending.
But as his missus likes to sing, both have faith love will save the day.
"What's important is that we love each other," Brown told People. "It doesn't matter what people say. They want to try to break us down anyway. That's not for us. We're here, and we're gonna be together for a long time, so people can expect us to stay together...I'm with my wife for the duration--and that's life."
That doesn't always mean they stick like glue.
Houston was a no-show at Brown's concert Thursday in New Haven, Connecticut, because she had a dental appointment to go to, but Brown promised to dedicate the show to her.
The divorce story eclipsed the other major Brown-related news this week. He and the other five members of New Edition--Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell, Ralph Tresvant, Ronnie DeVoe and Johhny Gill--are reuniting for a new tour.
According to MTV, the announcement came after Brown took the stage last Sunday to perform a couple of tunes with Bell Biv DeVoe at a gig at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The only catch: Fans will have to wait until 2008 for the tour to hit the road.
New Edition last got together for the 1996 album Home Again
How many of you actually still have a record store where you can shop, hang out, and actually talk about music?
Death of a record store
Famed Rhino Records shop in L.A. has last gasp
By Chris Morris
The Hollywood Reporter
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- They're throwing a wake of sorts for the Rhino Records store Saturday and Sunday.
Founded in 1973, the venerable record shop officially closed its doors after the turn of the year, hard on the heels of the folding of crosstown competitor Aron's Records.
But, in a final gasp of Rhino tradition, old customers will gather at the Westwood Boulevard location to paw through boxes of CDs, LPs, DVDs and videocassettes at the store's final parking lot sale.
Rhino, a Westside institution for three decades, never recovered its footing after moving into a large new space about five years ago. The old shop, left open as an outlet for used and budget product, closed within a year. A partnership with the Golden Apple comics store failed, and an attempt to rebrand the shop as Duck Soup with the addition of high-priced collectibles never caught fire.
These stabs at instilling new life into Rhino coincided with a precipitous decline in the music business. Owner Richard Foos says: "As bad as it is for everybody, it's much worse for independents. I don't know all the reasons. It's so complicated. There's literally hundreds of reasons."
Foos adds dispiritedly: "There's too many other things to do and too many ways to get your music without paying $18 for a CD. ... I don't see a great future for physical product."
The demise of Rhino hits home on a very personal level for this writer. For years, it was my neighborhood record store, conveniently located between my Westwood Village apartment and the Santa Monica Boulevard office of the film exhibitor I worked for.
It was the hip shop on the Westside -- one of the few places you could buy that hot import album or that cool local punk 45. There, music obsessives gathered to buy their records, socialize and, frequently, argue with the store's highly opinionated clerks. In a gambit worthy of "High Fidelity," Rhino for many years maintained a "Worst Customers List," posted prominently behind the counter; the more obstreperous patrons -- including, on more than one occasion, myself -- were duly namechecked there.
As combative as things could get, the store also spawned its own tightly knit community. When Rhino's fledgling record label wanted to promote one of its early novelty acts, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the store drafted some of its regulars to march through Westwood Village, where they serenaded passers-by with kazoo renditions of "Whole Lotta Love" and other classic-rock chestnuts.
The era when music lovers on both sides of the retail counter bonded is long gone. Foos notes with some astonishment that there are now no free-standing independent stores selling music between West Hollywood and Santa Monica. The options are Best Buy, Borders and Barnes & Noble.
"The days of going into a place like Rhino and saying, 'What's the cool new import?' -- forget it," Foos says.
Things aren't any better for the big mall music operators: Witness the bankruptcy filing last week of the 869-store Musicland chain.
Does this reflect a paradigm shift? Of course, but, if a new study from England's University of Leicester is to be believed, it also reflects a basic difference in the way consumers are looking at music. The school's psychologists noted last week that music had "lost its aura," and was now viewed as simply a commodity.
Says Foos with a sigh: "It's really sad and dangerous. Everybody's like a silo."
Ave atque vale, Rhino Records. For some, you were a way of life.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
**BreakingNews** Soul singer Wilson Pickett Dead ...
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters.com
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett, known for such hits as "Mustang Sally" and "In the Midnight Hour," died on Thursday of a heart attack in Virginia, his manager said. He was 64.
Pickett, a native of Alabama, had continued to perform in public on a regular basis until about a year ago, when he began suffering from health problems, said his manager, Margo Lewis.
(Update) Soul singer 'Wicked' Wilson Pickett dead at 64 ...
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters.com
Soul singer 'Wicked' Wilson Pickett dead at 64
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett, known for such hits as "Mustang Sally" and "In the Midnight Hour," died on Thursday of a heart attack in Virginia, his manager said. He was 64.
Pickett, an Alabama native famed for his trademark screams, flaming delivery and flamboyant costumes, performed on a regular basis until about a year ago, when he began suffering from health problems, said his manager, Margo Lewis.
Dubbed "Wicked" Wilson Pickett by Jerry Wexler, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, where he enjoyed his greatest success, Pickett was one of the leading exponents of the hard-edged Memphis sound, a grittier alternative to the pop singles being churned out by Motown Records in Detroit.
Often recording with the house band of Memphis-based Stax Records, Booker T and the MGs, he enjoyed a long string of hits during the 1960s, including the R&B chart-toppers "634-5789," "Land of 1,000 Dances" and "Funky Broadway."
"In the Midnight Hour" was his breakthrough hit, transforming the relative unknown into a soul sensation virtually overnight in 1965. Pickett co-wrote the tune with MGs guitarist Steve Cropper in about an hour, and it spent a week atop the R&B singles chart in August of that year.
His luck ran out by the early 1970s, when he switched labels and suffered what he once described as a "career breakdown." An ambitious plan hatched in 1981 to tour as the "Soul Clan" with fellow R&B veterans Solomon Burke, Joe Tex, Don Covay and Ben E. King quickly fizzled.
Somewhat bitter about his diminishing fortunes, he endured various domestic disputes, and got into trouble with the law during the 1990s for cocaine possession and drunk-driving.
"Don't you see the resentment that he's carrying, the pain that he's carrying? He gets into these problems and situations," Burke told Reuters in 1997. "It hurts me so bad when he has these problems, because I know there's an inner hurt there."
Born March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama, Pickett grew up in a poor household with 10 brothers and sisters, an abusive mother, and a preacher grandfather who beat him whenever he sang secular songs. He moved up to Detroit in his mid-teens to live with his father, and quickly gravitated to the sounds being purveyed by the likes of local singers Jackie Wilson and Little Willie John.
Although he considered himself a gospel singer, Pickett was invited to join an R&B group called the Falcons. He wrote and sang lead on their 1962 hit "I Found A Love." He became a prolific songwriter and enjoyed a handful of modest solo hits including "If You Need Me," a tune that was also covered by both Burke and the Rolling Stones.
Pickett signed with Atlantic in 1964, and was sent down to record in Memphis after his first few singles disappeared without a trace. "Midnight Hour," one of three recorded in one night, became the subject of an authorship dispute in later years. Pickett told music writer Gerri Hirshey in her 1984 book "Nowhere to Run" that he deserved sole credit. Cropper told Reuters a decade later that Pickett was "completely crazy" and "had nothing to do with writing that music."
Although Pickett was best known for his urgent, propulsive tunes, he also earned acclaim with non-R&B fare, most notably his 1969 cover of the Beatles' "Hey Jude," which featured Duane Allman on guitar. He also recorded bold interpretations of such tunes as Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" and even make-believe group the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar."
Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and experienced a career renaissance that same year with the release of the movie "The Commitments," which revolved around a Dublin band that idolized him. He released his last album, the Grammy-nominated "It's Harder Now," in 1999.
He is survived by a fiancee, two sons and two daughters. A viewing will take place in Virginia next week, and then he will be interred with his mother in Louisville, Kentucky, his manager said.
Crawford Grill closes its doors…Blames poor foot traffic
by Christian Morrow
Courier Staff Writer
No Too Sweet Lounge, no James Street Tavern and now, with the closing of the Crawford Grill on the Square, there is one less place to see live jazz in Pittsburgh.
The Grill's last day was Jan. 7 according to a brief e-mail sent by owner Tom Burley two days later.
“It's sad, but we just couldn't generate the traffic we needed to run the business,” he said. “It was a beautiful place and it's Pittsburgh's loss. It's sad for me to send that e-mail, but I felt obligated to let our loyal supporters know what was happening.”
Burley and partners Les and Newt Montgomery opened the Crawford Grill on the Square in Station Square in July 2003 after more than a year of preparation.
Located in the old Funny Bone space in Freight House Shops, the 180-seat Grill featured a circular glass-topped bar, an enlarged balcony, semi-circular booths, a custom chandelier from Montreal, Canada and a unique menu offering the “best soul food in the state.”
The City Paper agreed, awarding it their “Best Soul Food Restaurant Award” three years in a row. Burley said, though people made the Grill a destination, coming for the music and the food, there wasn't enough walk-in traffic.
“There are probably a few different reasons, but the bottom line is we didn't get the sustained traffic,” he said. “It's the same problem they had at James Street.”
Burley, who also owned the Crawford Grill on Wylie Avenue in The Hill District until it closed in a 2002 bankruptcy, said it is way too early to think about what he'll do next.
“It's only been a day,” he said. “First we have to get past this, then well see about what's next.”
Jazz aficionado Dr. Frank Sessoms said he is sorry to see the Grill go.
“I liked the club, and the owners were friends of mine, and they genuinely tried to give us a good product,” he said. “I'm sad they didn't make it.”
Sessoms said he tried to help out by having his Christmas party there, but other factors worked against the club's success.
“The nightclub business is tough anyway, but they had high rent, weren't open for lunch business and you had to pay $7 to park there,” he said. “When CJ.'s opened, that hurt because it wasn't as expensive, and then when Chauncey's in Station Square closed, it took that crowd with it.”
Veteran jazz musician Nelson Harrison said the city doesn't know what it is losing when jazz clubs close.
“I think it's lamentable that Pittsburgh doesn't recognize its place in world music spectrum. We're the jazz capital of the world, but no one supports it,” he said. “The city would be a lot more attractive to people and businesses if we showcased our heritage. In my book the owners of the Grill should be celebrated for being entrepreneurs, for taking the risk and for trying to make the cultural landscape better.”
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
