Over the last five years, Taylor Swift has made her mark on country music. Having pursued a musical career since she was a child, the 22 year old is at the top of her genre, and rightfully so. According to Forbes magazine, Swift earned $18 million in 2009,$45 million in 2010, $45 million in 2011, and $57 million in 2012, and 2012 isn't even over yet! That's a lot of millions of $.
In bringing her sound to the masses over the last five years, Swift has taught a generation of kids to appreciate country music. Now, she’s donating $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to make sure that the education continues. I'm not sure if she's thought this through.
Hip hop superstar Jay-Z has come out in support of gay marriage. This follows President Obama's announcement last week that he supports same-sex unions. That was the first time in history that an American president has put his support behind the idea.
Jay-Z told CNN on Monday that backing gay marriage is "the right thing to do."
"I’ve always thought of it as something that was still holding the country back," he said. "What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple.”
George Lucas has been based in Marin County, California, since 1978, when he famously built his Skywalker Ranch. The facility sits on 19 km² of land, and contains a barn with animals, vineyards, a garden with fruits and vegetables used in the on-site restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool and fitness center, the man-made "Lake Ewok," a hilltop observatory, a 300-seat theatre called "The Stag," as well as multiple theater screening rooms, and parking that is mostly concealed underground to preserve the natural landscape.
Skywalker Sound was moved onto the ranch in 1987, now occupying the Technical Building.The Main House has a company research library under a stained-glass dome. Lucas does not live on the Ranch.
The ranch also has its own fire station, which is part of the Marin County Mutual Aid system, and is often called on to assist firefighters in nearby Marinwood.
Sounds pretty sweet, except that Lucas' rebellious neighbours are targetting his empire. But as some salty space pirate once said, "It's not wise to upset a Wookiee film legend."
This week I went to see Marvel's The Avengers, and thought it was great. It's the first one, and although we've seen the main characters in the Iron Man movies, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk, there was a certain amount of time setting up the premise, which made the movie run a little long. It was action packed, though, and funny at times.
Not everyone appreciated the jokes, however. During one scene, Thor is defending the movie's bad guy, his brother Loki. When told that Loki had just killed 80 people in two days, he replies "he's adopted."
This got a chuckle from the audience, but for some in the adoption community, apparently the joke went too far.
Well, like all good things, this one had to come to an end. Several months ago the internet was abuzz because Rihanna and Chris Brown were not only hanging out together, but collaborating on each other's singles. This was news, of course, because Chris Brown had (in)famously physically beaten Rihanna in 2009, when they were dating.
It seemed that the two were determined to be friends, if nothing else, and move forward. Brown is said to be in a relationship with Karrueche Tran, although rumours have suggested that the arrangement is "open." Rihanna has been linked in the press, whether accurately or not, to Ashton Kutcher, NFL star Darren McFadden, and rapper Meek Mill.
Now it seems that things have taken a turn for the worse (which I actually thought happened in 2009, but...). Last night Chris Brown released a remix of the Kanye West song "Theraflu", now just called "Cold," in which he seems to be majorly dissing Rihanna.
The Huffington Post is reporting that actor John Travolta is being sued for assault, sexual battery, and sexual harassment. Initially an unnamed male masseur was reported to be seeking $2 million, plus punitive damages, for an incident where Travolta supposedly "began rubbing the masseur's leg, touched his scrotum and the shaft of his penis" after having stripped naked during an appointment.
But wait... not only did Travolta allegedly try to have sex with the masseur, he is also said to have told him that he got where he is today "due to sexual favors he had performed when he was in his Welcome Back, Kotter days," and that "Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity." So move over Mel Gibson, Travolta's in the house.
Hip hop pioneer Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, has died at 48. Having fought cancer since 2009, his death doesn't come as a shock, but it does come with sadness.
Yauch did not attend the Beastie Boys' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, and his illness delayed the release of the band's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. The Beastie Boys have not performed live since 2009.
Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz in 1979. Starting off as a hardcore punk band, they soon began experimenting with hip-hop.
The band broke big with their first proper album, Licensed to Ill, and it's single "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)" in 1986. Subsequent albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, and Ill Communication brought the band critical accolades, making them a group whose influence has reached throughout the hip-hop world and into modern music in general. The band won three Grammy Awards.
In addition to his career with the Beastie Boys, Yauch was heavily involved in the movement to free Tibet and co-organized the Tibetan Freedom Concerts of the late 1990s. In 2002, he launched the film production company Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Yesterday I posted about an ad campaign for Popchips featuring Ashton Kutcher portraying various characters on a dating website, worldwidelovers.com. In the ad, Ashton pretends to be several people of different ethnic/cultural backgrounds trying to find love.
One is an English guy with dreadlocks who apparently uses drugs. The idea there is that a. Ashton is using a British accent (how cheeky), and b. anyone with dreadlocks (read: Jamaican in spirit) smokes weed.
One is an effeminate European with a little pet dog and lots of attitude. At one point he claims to have stopped breathing to appear thinner (read: eating disorder, fashionistas must be thin).
One is a tattooed, bearded redneck, but wait... he seems to be sensitive? But that makes no sense! People with tattoos and beards must be lunkheaded neanderthals. This ad campaign is pushing some buttons, I tell ya!
Then there's Raj, a "Bollywood" producer looking for "the most delicious thing on the planet." Here's where the world seems to have stopped in it's tracks, jaws hitting the floor.
Canadian pop star Justin Bieber not only put his foot in his mouth late last week, but nearly swallowed it. When asked about a song on his new album, Believe, Bieber described it as being recorded in some "random country."
"I recorded it in a studio. Some little place," Bieber said. "They didn't know what they were doing."
The problem is that the "random country" is Indonesia, with a population of 240 million people. It has the third largest Facebook community in the world, and the fifth-biggest number of Twitter accounts.
