1. Hard LA, an electronic music festival featuring M.I.A., N*E*R*D, Die Antwoord, Flying Lotus, and Rye Rye, has been canceled due to security concerns following the death of a teen at the Electric Daisy Carnival last month. [via Vulture]
2. Sean Lennon has tweeted a response to Beatles fans angry that he let Lady Gaga play his father’s piano: “Firstly, he gave that piano to my mother for her birthday, it is hers. Secondly, he was not not uptight the way you seem.” [via Spinner]
3. David Lynch needs help funding a new documentary about his career. In exchange for $50 you’ll get an “abstract self-portrait” of the director or a t-shirt. [via The Playlist]
4. Glee‘s Ryan Murphy says that next year’s Britney Spears episode will revolve around the character of Brittany, who in our opinion, doesn’t get nearly enough screen time. [via ONTD]
5. Someone explain this: Daniel Tosh has surpassed both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in the ratings to have the most-watched and top-rated studio-based show on Comedy Central. [via ABC News]
Bonus link: A 21st century response to Ginsberg’s “Howl” — “Tweet.”
Featuring an original score by Sean Lennon, Jordan Galland’s inventive debut feature is equal parts slacker comedy and vampire showdown, with a healthy dose of Shakespeare.
The film stars Jake Hoffman as Julian, a twentysomething unemployed director whose life is a blur of one-night stands, until he’s offered a job directing a nocturnal twist on Hamlet — written by an actual vampire. Literary pun title cards like “Job Interview with a Vampire” and “As I Lay Undying” punctuate the fast-paced scenes with whimsy, while the appearance of familiar faces like Devon Aoki and Ralph Macchio further propel the enjoyable satire toward future cult-classic status.
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Yoko Ono is turning 77 tomorrow. Keep that in mind as you imagine the performance artist shimmying, writhing, caterwauling, and charming the pants off the audience at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night. The show began with a montage of Ono recordings, films, interview clips, and photos from her days with husband John Lennon, and ended with a cavalcade of special guests that frankly kind of blew us away. Rundown of the entire performance by We Are Plastic Ono Band, plus an image gallery featuring Eric Clapton and the Scissor Sisters, after the jump.
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Yoko Ono was a musician long before she became Mrs. John Lennon. But Ono, now 76, never seemed very concerned with defending her own musical reputation, leaving it up to her detractors and cult fans to decide. Then, her 1981 dance-floor classic “Walking on Thin Ice” reached the top of the dance charts when it was re-released and remixed in 2003. Ono’s 2007 compilation, Yes, I’m a Witch
, seemed to settle it, including covers of her songs by Cat Power, Antony, and the Flaming Lips, as well as others who cite Ono as an influence. Her new album, Between My Head and the Sky
, comes full circle: it’s her first under the Plastic Ono Band moniker since 1975, and it features both her son Sean Lennon and other musicians indebted to her career. Read More »
A recent issue of the French style publication Purple features a racy photo of Sean Lennon and his model girlfriend, Kemp Muhl, recreating John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous 1981 Rolling Stone cover. What do you think of the photo shoot? Vote in our poll!
ISSUE Project Room is a place where the avant-garde thrives. More specifically, it is a place where you can attend a classy fundraiser event in a wizard’s outfit and, for better or worse, have everyone convinced that you also wear bed-sheets and skinny jeans to weddings and the local bakery. So when IPR organizes a series of Soundwalks, in particular a “Balloon Bassoon Promenade” led by Kenny Wollesen, a musician who has toured with Tom Waits and Sean Lennon, I am in no place to decline. The attire was listed as a “solid color of your choice.” I pick green. Read More »
