The News Review:
- **SPILERS** Christmas RAW Tribute To The Troops In Iraq
- Smith seeks cure for writers’ block
- A son’s dream a father’s support
- Give her some credit
- Tim Jonze on the retro games renaissance | Technology | The Guardian
- IT’S A MAN’S WRLD AT THE CITY’S NEW GUYS-NLY SPAS
**SPILERS** Christmas RAW Tribute To The Troops In Iraq
Impact Wrestling News – Dec 9, 2006
Punk’s music hit as he made a fiery entrance to the ring. Both men square off in the ring. High kicks and good work by both men.
Smith seeks cure for writers’ block
NEWS.com.au – Dec 9, 2006
"It’s so pitiful when ‘goth’ is still tagged onto the name The Cure" he said. "We’re not categorizable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out but in total it’s impossible. How can you describe a band that put out an album like Pornography and also Greatest Hits where every single song was top 10 around the world? I just play Cure music whatever that is. "The makeup is part of his performance ritual. "Performing doesn’t come that naturally to me even though I’ve done it for years" he said. "Perhaps not as badly applied and not as obvious but for thousands of years people have worn makeup on stage… "We’re not categorizable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out but in total it’s impossible. How can you describe a band that put out an album like Pornography and also Greatest Hits where every single song was top 10 around the world? I just play Cure music whatever that is. "The makeup is part of his performance ritual. "Performing doesn’t come that naturally to me even though I’ve done it for years" he said. "Perhaps not as badly applied and not as obvious but for thousands of years people have worn makeup on stage. "Fans can get an early glimpse of the band’s new look and sound on a DVD released this week.
A son’s dream a father’s support
MetroWest Daily News – Dec 9, 2006
Now comes his son’s decision time. Schools here will prepare him well. Velez said he likes to play jazz rock punk pop and psycho music. I must confess I never heard of psycho music. His favorite group he said is Queen. Morales says he knows his son is a good musician but is he good enough to grow and conquer the audiences? Good enough to make a living at it?Sitting across from a 17-year-old seemed like a privilege all of a sudden. I took the opportunity to ask Velez if he had any ideas about what he would like to accomplish in his life.
Give her some credit
The Age – Dec 9, 2006
The early stuff up to 1992 gets by brilliantly on pureenergy. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Better theDevil You Know is this generation’s She Loves You. Inthe mid-’90s Minogue experimented and not just with hericonography as Conrad argues: rather she collaboratedsuccessfully with Nick Cave and co-wrote some excellent pop singleswith those Welsh Marxist punks the Manic Street Preachers. Thatsaid she also flailed without effect in the cool dance sound ofthe time. Then in the early years of this decade after her splitwith record company deConstruction came her “White Album” perioda return to basics which in Minogue’s case yielded gem aftergem. Why has Minogue so rarely received the credit she would seem todeserve? Partially it’s a question of timing. Most of today’smusic critics are wedded to prizing “authenticity” a qualityembodied in that fine wizened singer-songwriter Bob Dylan… Then in the early years of this decade after her splitwith record company deConstruction came her “White Album” perioda return to basics which in Minogue’s case yielded gem aftergem. Why has Minogue so rarely received the credit she would seem todeserve? Partially it’s a question of timing. Most of today’smusic critics are wedded to prizing “authenticity” a qualityembodied in that fine wizened singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Gender is also an issue. Is it toomuch to suggest that Minogue herself may have had some hand in herown success? The fans already know the answer to that one: ofcourse not.
Tim Jonze on the retro games renaissance | Technology | The Guardian
Guardian Unlimited – Dec 9, 2006
This week Nintendo launch their Wii console a state of the art piece of kit guaranteed to make the retro games of yore look like relics thanks to titles such as ummm Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic & The Secret Rings. They’re also launching Virtual Console a video game download service that allows you to get your thumbs on a whole host of retro classics from Altered Beast to Zelda. So just what’s going on? Have Nintendo fried their brains from so much gaming that they’ve finally ran out of ideas? Have the stoners who used to slob out on your student sofa keeping Sega (and Cheesy Wotsits) in business all gone and got staff jobs at Kyoto HQ? r are the boffins behind this scheme actually a bunch of smart little bastards who’ve spotted the booming scene of musicians artists and movie-makers currently hard at work twisting the 8-bit bleeps’n'blobs of retro games into thrilling new shapes and sounds?Take Hadouken! a punk grime outfit from Leeds who after just a handful of gigs are causing dancefloor riots on the indie party circuit. Named after a special fireball move on Capcom’s Street Fighter II their music takes in everything from east London grime to skinny-boy indie and is partly-constructed from spliced samples nicked from GameBoy circuitry. “Movie samples were pillagedby the dance music communitythroughout the last decade”says band mastermind James. “Ithink you would be more likelyto hear a reference to videogamesnowadays. Games are funthey’re what resonate with ourgeneration… So just what’s going on? Have Nintendo fried their brains from so much gaming that they’ve finally ran out of ideas? Have the stoners who used to slob out on your student sofa keeping Sega (and Cheesy Wotsits) in business all gone and got staff jobs at Kyoto HQ? r are the boffins behind this scheme actually a bunch of smart little bastards who’ve spotted the booming scene of musicians artists and movie-makers currently hard at work twisting the 8-bit bleeps’n'blobs of retro games into thrilling new shapes and sounds?Take Hadouken! a punk grime outfit from Leeds who after just a handful of gigs are causing dancefloor riots on the indie party circuit. Named after a special fireball move on Capcom’s Street Fighter II their music takes in everything from east London grime to skinny-boy indie and is partly-constructed from spliced samples nicked from GameBoy circuitry. “Movie samples were pillagedby the dance music communitythroughout the last decade”says band mastermind James. “Ithink you would be more likelyto hear a reference to videogamesnowadays. Games are funthey’re what resonate with ourgeneration. “Their manifesto of “youngsmart and full of art” translateson the surface to Day-Glo clothesand disco hedonism somethingthat ties them in with the currentwave of new rave bands like TrashFashion and Klaxons. AlthoughJames reckons it’s less a raverevival thing and more aboutrejecting the “drab ideals which arebecoming more and more tediousas the next Feeling or Kooks clonedominates the mainstream” it’sobvious that retro gaming and ravemusic share an aesthetic bond.
IT’S A MAN’S WRLD AT THE CITY’S NEW GUYS-NLY SPAS
New York Post – Dec 9, 2006
It isn't downtown uptown hip-hop or punk. " Frank's has a checkerboard floor mahogany paneling a stamped tin ceiling and old-school barbershop chairs from the 1930s. And there's no typical lame salon music – just classic boy-friendly tunes from Sinatra Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. But Frank's isn't just a barbershop it's also a quarterly magazine that's distributed in some of the hottest boutiques in New York Japan London and Paris. In the city you can find the lifestyle guide at Nom de Guerre or Dave's Quality Meats- just some of the destination boutiques Nagy says caters to the type of men he hopes will come in to the shop. "We're looking to move pop culture forward. It's verge culture – basically what has happened in the information age is the ability to tap into any niche cultural movement instantly" Nagy says… "We're looking to move pop culture forward. It's verge culture – basically what has happened in the information age is the ability to tap into any niche cultural movement instantly" Nagy says. "In the early '80s there was a punk movement in London and New York but it was basically relegated to that. If you lived in Hong Kong and you weren't traveling you didn't know about it. We were looking to create a hub. " It seems to be working – last week while hanging out at Kanye West's after-party in Hong Kong Nagy said he spotted someone wearing a Frank's Chop Shop hat. "I like that you get a haircut by someone that's like you.