Will This Fall�s Movies Be As Depressing As Last Fall�s? Vulture Investigates

Photo: iStockphoto

It's nearly fall! That magical time of year when the air gets crisper, the leaves change color, and Hollywood conspires with the pharmaceutical industry to win Oscars and sell craploads of Paxil. Last year gave us awards-quality glumfests like There Will Be Blood, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and In the Valley of Elah. It also gave us a severe case of clinical depression. Will we survive 2008? Or will this year's crop of movies be even more dour than last year's? After the jump, we break it down weekend by weekend.

WEEKEND 1 (Sept. 5)
2008: Bangkok Dangerous, Ping Pong Playa
2007: 3:10 to Yuma, The Brothers Solomon, Shoot 'Em Up

Studios program this first workweek in September as if it's soundless August, and this yr is no exception. It's depressing that most of these movies exist, merely 2008 and 2007 seem mostly the same. Toss-up.




WEEKEND 2 (Sept. 12)
2008: Burn After Reading, Righteous Kill, Towelhead, Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys, The Women
2007: Across the Universe, The Brave One, Eastern Promises, In the Valley of Elah

Tyler Perry's moving-picture show should be uplifting, Burn After Reading should be laugh-filled, and Righteous Kill should be laughable. It's true that Towelhead's taradiddle of a young girl's sexual misuse and The Women's portrayal of Meg Ryan's New Old Face will be somewhat glum, but zippo can equate to 2007's one-two gut-punch of Eastern Promises and In the Valley of Elah. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 3 (Sept. 19)
2008: The Duchess, Ghost Town, Lakeview Terrace
2007: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Jane Austen Book Club, Into the Wild

We're not sure what will be more tragic in 2008: Keira Knightley's brassica napus in The Duchess, Neil LaBute's misanthropy in Lakeview Terrace, or Ricky Gervais's gritting his teeth through mainstream comedy Ghost Town. Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 4 (Sept. 26)
2008: Blindness, Choke, Eagle Eye, Miracle at St. Anna
2007: The Darjeeling Limited, The Game Plan, The Kingdom, Lust, Caution

What does it aver that a movie called Choke power be the most pollyannaish of 2008's entries? Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 5 (Oct. 3)
2008: Beverly Hills Chihuahua, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, What Just Happened
2007: Lake of Fire, The Heartbreak Kid, Michael Clayton

2008's slate looks downright pollyannaish, but we have a hunch that Beverly Hills Chihuahua is going to inspire a number of murder-suicides. Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 6 (Oct. 10)
2008: Body of Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky, RocknRolla
2007: Control, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Lars and the Real Girl, We Own the Night

2007's We Own the Night was about the most downbeat thriller ever, but Body of Lies looks just as serious. And we don't cerebrate anything in 2007's slate can compete with the delight sure to come from Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, described by its possess director as "an anti-miserablist film." Good enough for us! Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 7 (Oct. 17)
2008: Flash of Genius, The Secret Life of Bees, Sex Drive, W.
2007: Gone Baby Gone, Rendition, Reservation Road, Things We Lost in the Fire

2008 had no probability, even ahead the unwilled comedy of W. was scheduled for this date, since the equivalent weekend in 2007 has been certified by the American Psychiatric Association as the most cheerless movie weekend in history. Seriously: The only cheerful movie to come out on this weekend last year was called Wristcutters: A Love Story. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 8 (Oct. 24)
2008: Changeling, High School Musical 3, Saw V, Synecdoche, New York
2007: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Dan in Real Life, Saw IV

Clint Eastwood's babynapping drama Changeling looks gloomier than anything on this weekend's 2007 list, and that includes not only Before the Devil merely also Saw IV. Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 9 (Oct. 31)
2008: The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Zach and Miri Make a Porno
2007: American Gangster, Bee Movie

Nothing specially depressing this weekend, especially in 2008, when it conflicts with Halloween, making the waiver calendar a Hollywood burial ground. Toss-up.




WEEKEND 10 (Nov. 7)
2008: Madagascar 2, Quantum of Solace
2007: Fred Claus, Lions for Lambs, No Country for Old Men

We're gonna pitch this coin. Call it. What are you calling it for? Your life. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 11 (Nov. 14)
2008: Australia, The Road
2007: Beowulf, Margot at the Wedding, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Redacted, Southland Tales


2008 scores a clear victory, with the help of the bleakest movie of all time made, a movie so horrifying it could only be guesswork in Pittsburgh: The Road, the version of Cormac McCarthy's novel which posits that after the revelation of Saint John the Divine, things get even worse. Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 12 (Nov. 21)
2008: The Soloist, Twilight
2007: Enchanted, I'm Not There, The Mist, Starting Out in the Evening

Such was the exuberance of Enchanted that it made the entire weekend sunny for all America � especially because no one went to examine any of those other movies. That 2008's big-budget entry on this date is a vampire romance suggests 2008 might be a little darker. Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 13 (Nov. 26/Thanksgiving)
2008: Bolt, Four Christmases, Milk
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Savages

Despite the downer power of 2008's Milk, the biopic of beloved yet assassinated San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the combined quadriplegia/dysfunction of Diving Bell and Savages takes the crown. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 14 (Dec. 5)
2008: Frost/Nixon
2007: Atonement, The Golden Compass, Grace Is Gone, Juno

Frost/Nixon won't be cheerless, although it might be boring. Atonement and The Golden Compass, alas, were both. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 15 (Dec. 12)
2008: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Defiance, Doubt, Seven Pounds
2007: Alvin and the Chipmunks, I Am Legend, The Kite Runner

Wow! Keanu Reeves warning of environmental catastrophe? Daniel Craig as a World War II Jew? Philip Seymour Hoffman as a priest who crataegus laevigata have abused a child? Will Smith as a suicidal IRS agent? What a mixed bag of sullen delights! Edge: 2008.




WEEKEND 16 (Dec. 19)
2008: The Tale of Desperaux, Yes Man
2007: Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, Walk Hard

Christmas approaches on this, often the most debonair movie weekend of Oscar season. So this year's animated mouse tale Desperaux and Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man can't contend with the meat pies and hollow eyes of last year's Sweeney Todd. Edge: 2007.




WEEKEND 17 (Dec. 25/Christmas)
2008: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Marley & Me, Revolutionary Road, The Spirit, Valkyrie
2007: The Bucket List, The Great Debaters, The Orphanage, Persepolis, There Will Be Blood

With the score 7-7 on our Vulture Depression Face-off, it all comes down to this last crowded holiday weekend. One sappy heart-warmer? Check (Marley, Bucket). One overlong, electrifying but drear maybe-masterpiece? Check (Benjamin Button, Blood). But 2007 never had Revolutionary Road, a movie based on a novel that makes Mad Men's vista of the fifties look like Ozzie & Harriet. 2007 ne'er had The Spirit, the movie that looks so bad it might vote down the superhero genre dead. And it never had Nazi Tom Cruise weakness to kill Hitler. Edge: 2008.



Final tally: 2008: 8, 2007: 7. It's been courteous knowin' ya!




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A Ticking Time Bomb For Health Services: Obesity In The Elderly

�Research carried out at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England has discovered that corpulency in later life does not make a substantial difference to risks of death among older people but that it is a major contributor to increased disability in afterward life - creating a ticking time bomb for health services in developed countries.



The research is promulgated in the August 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.



The Peninsula Medical School research squad worked with data on just under 4,000 participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) ripened 65 and older and living in the biotic community. Each participant had their weight and height careful and their BMI (torso mass index number) calculated and they were followed up for basketball team years. The researchers compared people with BMI of 20 to 24.9 (i.e. those of recommended weight), with those who had a BMI of 25 to 29.9 ("stoutness"), 30 to 34.9 ("obese"), or 35 or over ("severely obese").



The results showed that the higher an older person's BMI, the more than likely he or she was to develop mobility problems (deliberate using a standard performance test) or to grow difficulty carrying out daily tasks. The results likewise showed that, in older people, the link between higher BMI and the risk of death is weak - only severely obese older men seemed to course this increased risk.



Dr Iain Lang, wHO led the research from the Peninsula Medical School, commented: "We have known for some time that young and middle-aged adults who are overweight run a higher risk of death and it was presumed that this held true for older mass. In fact, our results show that the risk of anxious is higher only for the to the highest degree severely corpulent but that all older people wHO are stoutness are at significantly increased risk of developing problems with mobility and carrying out everyday tasks."



He added: "This enquiry is crucial because a growing dimension of the population is aged 65 or over, and more and more of these older people are corpulence. In fact, in to the highest degree developed countries middle-aged and elderly adults are more likely to be rotund than people in any other age group. These findings let huge implication for the delivery of health upkeep, both directly and in the next. Increasing book of Numbers of senior people and higher levels of stoutness and corpulency will lead to a greater onus of handicap and ill health and place an immense strain on wellness and societal services. The issue is likely to get worse as time goes on and represents a ticking time dud for health services around the world."



The research team recommends that older people should talk to their doctor or other health care professional about their weight, and take their advice regarding slimming down if they are adiposis. The advice may include more physical exercise, a change in diet, or both.



Lindley Owen, Consultant in Public Health at Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust, said: "Staying a healthy weight can be a fun and relatively soft thing to do, even as people get older. People don't have to join a gym or take on complicated new diets. There are many everyday opportunities to appease active through regular walking, gardening or social groups, while feeding fresh, nutrient food is enjoyable at any age.



"Our experience of running supported walking and cycling groups has shown that elder people benefit in many ways from regular physical activity. Not only do they get fitter and physically stronger but the enjoyment of spending clip with friends in the open air travel can give new confidence and a real tang for life.



"People are living longer only this study shows that excess free weight can have a real impact on the character of people's lives which can concentrate the welfare of those extra days. We must do all we behind to encourage older friends or relatives to build enjoyable use into their daily routine and develop good habits ourselves to take into our retirement years. People can gossip http://www.strollbacktheyears.info/ or hypertext transfer protocol://www.healthpromcornwall.org/ for more advice."



Dr Gill Lewendon, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Plymouth Teaching PCT, added: "This report highlights the problem of fleshiness in an increasingly senescence population. The PCT and City Council work close with a wide range of voluntary and statutory agencies to provide increased opportunities for everyone to eat more healthily and to move around a bit more. For those who ar already very overweight or obese, the PCT provides a comprehensive weight direction service for people of all ages. "





More information is available by logging on at http://www.pms.ac.uk/.



The Peninsula Medical School is a joint entity of the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the NHS in the South West of England, and a partner of the Combined Universities in Cornwall. The Peninsula Medical School has created for itself an excellent national and international reputation for groundbreaking research in the areas of diabetes and obesity, neurologic disease, child development and ageing, clinical education and health engineering assessment.



Source: Andrew Gould

The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry




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Patient details in missing diary

A midwife's diary containing names and addresses of hundreds of mothers and pregnant women has gone missing from a health trust in Greater Manchester.

About 345 women have been contacted by the Pennine Acute NHS Trust after the community midwife in Rochdale reported that the handwritten book was lost.

Eileen Stringer, consultant midwife, has apologised and said the loss "does not compromise clinical care".

She said that the use of hand-held diaries by staff would be reviewed.

The diary covered appointments between January and July 2008 for the midwife, who is based at Rochdale Infirmary.

Local GPs have also been informed and the incident has been formally reported to Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust.

Ms Stringer said: "We would like to apologise for any inconvenience or concerns which this has caused.

"We've written to let women know of this issue because they have a right to know that the diary has gone missing.

"We have assured them that this in no way compromises any of their clinical care - this is a diary, not health records.

"To set some context, more than 2,000 women give birth at the infirmary annually. There is no need for anyone who has not been contacted by us to take any action whatsoever."

An information line has been set up for those whose details were in the diary.

"We have carried out a very extensive search for the diary, but it has not been found yet," Ms Stringer said.

"If it is found then obviously we will let people know."

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T-Pain readies new release

T-Pain [ ] is scheduled to release his third studio album, "Thr33 Ringz," in this precipitate. The album's first single, "Can't Believe It," features guest artist Lil Wayne. Other tracks on the release include performances by Ludacris, Kanye West, Chris Brown, DJ Khaled.

Earlier this year, T-Pain won a best blame song Grammy for "Good Life," which was included on his sophomore release, 2007's "Epiphany." His debut album "Rappa Ternt Sanga," was released in 2005.

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Phish

   
Artist: Phish

   Genre(s): 
Rock: Pop-Rock
   Rock
   Pop: Pop-Rock
   Alternative
   

---

Discography:


   
 Undermind

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 14


   
 Round Room

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 12


   
 Live Phish 11 - 11.17.97 - CD3

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 4


   
 Live Phish 11 - 11.17.97 - CD2

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 6


   
 Live Phish 11 - 11.17.97 - CD1

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 5


   
 Farmhouse

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 12


   
 The Story Of The Ghost

   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 14


   
 Rift

   Year: 1993   
Tracks: 15


   
 A Picture Of Nectar

   Year: 1992   
Tracks: 16


   
 Lawn Boy

   Year: 1991   
Tracks: 9


   
 Live In Tweeter Center (cd3)

   Year:    
Tracks: 2


   
 Live In Tweeter Center (cd2)

   Year:    
Tracks: 12


   
 Live In Tweeter Center (cd1)

   Year:    
Tracks: 8

---

During the early '90s, Phish emerged as successor to the Grateful Dead's throne. Although their music is somewhat like to the Dead's -- it's an eclectic, free morpheme rock-and-roll & hustle panoptic folk, malarky, country, bluegrass, and pop -- the grouping adheres more to jazz-derived improvisation than tribe tradition, and they bear a looser, goofier mental attitude. After all, their drummer regularly plays a vacuum cleaner during their concerts. Phish's primary call as the inheritors to the Dead's bequest is their approach to their musical life history. The band didn't concentrate on albums; they dedicated themselves to live improvisation. Within a few days of their 1988 debut, Phish had become an instauration in certain sections of America, particularly college campuses. And their in concert popularity didn't necessarily translate to vast record sales; their biggest-selling albums normally halted at gold status. Still, Phish were the de facto leadership of the neo-hippie block stria movement, until decision making to go on reprieve in 2000.


Guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth formed the band in late 1983 patch attention the University of Vermont. After meeting and jam in their dormitory, the trio posted flyers crossways campus, recruiting a bassist. Mike Gordon answered the ad and he was soon added to the original lineup. The group began practicing regularly and presently assembled a demo tape measure. In the fall of 1984, Phish began acting off-campus concerts. At this degree in their career, the stria was augmented by percussionist Marc Daubert and, occasionally, a singer called the Dude of Life. Soon, the group was acting concerts on nearby campuses, including Goddard College's Springfest in 1985. Page McConnell organized the Springfest at Goddard and he became a fan of the band. Later in the year, McConnell convinced the group to add him as a keyboardist. Shortly after McConnell coupled Phish, Holdsworth left the group. In the fall of 1986, Anastasio and Fishman transferred to Goddard College.


Early in 1988, Phish recorded Military junta, which they sold at their shows as a cassette-only handout. In 1989, the group played their first circuit outside of New England, travel through the Southeast. Phish also recorded their second album, Lawn Boy, in 1989, although the album wasn't released until the fall of 1990; the record was released on the independent label Absolute A-Go-Go, a subsidiary company of Rough Trade. Throughout early 1991, Phish toured America; during the summer, they recorded their tierce album, as well as a set of roger Huntington Sessions with their old booster, the Dude of Life.


Late in August, Rough Trade collapsed, pickings Absolute A-Go-Go with it. Phish was left without a record contract, but they were presently sign-language by Elektra, which released A Picture of Nectar in February of 1992. After the album's spill, the group embarked on an extensive national term of enlistment. In the summer of 1992, Phish played a handful of shows on the first H.O.R.D.E. tour. Also that summer, Elektra reissued Lawn Boy and Military junta. Break, the band's fourth album and the showtime they recorded with a manufacturer, appeared in February of 1993. During Phish's 1993 spell, the grouping sold tickets that were specifically designed for fans tape the concert, a major gesture of goodwill. Wind, the band's fifth album, was released in 1994; one of its songs, "Low with Disease," became the band's first-class honours degree video and standard some airplay on MTV. Hoist sold better than the group's previous albums, which was an indication of how big the group's fan basis had gotten. In the fall of 1994, Crimes of the Mind, the record album Phish recorded with the Dude of Life in 1991, was released on Elektra Records.


In the summertime of 1995, the band released the bivalent live album A Live One, which attempted to definitively capture the Phish concert experience. In early 1996, Trey Anastasio released a free form idle words incline project called Surrender to the Air. In the fall of 1996, Phish released their sixth album, Billystick Breathes, which was produced by Steve Lillywhite and garnered the group's topper reviews thus far. Slip, Stitch & Pass, their second live LP, followed in 1997, and the undermentioned year, the radical resurfaced with the studio effort Account of the Ghost. The six-disc Lionel Hampton Comes Alive, capturing 4 good live sets all over the course of two nights, appeared in late 1999 and went amber, a testament to their rabid following.


Phish's popularity only grew during the last half of the '90s, and their never-ending touring had helped make water them indisputably one of the top concert draws in the nation. In the spring of 2000, Phish delivered the pastoral studio effort Farmhouse, which was hailed as one of their finest and tightest to date; they likewise landed some mainstream photo thanks to the individual "Heavy Things." However, spent by touring and separation from their families, Phish decided to take up an extended break, announcing a irregular separation in October 2000. A month afterward, Elektra reissued The Siket Disc, which was antecedently available only through mail order; it featured improvisational tracks from the band's 1997 Tarradiddle of the Ghost roger Sessions.


Each member branched extinct into different direction with by and large successful results during this period of time. Anastasio released a serial of demos ahead draw up with Primus bassist Les Claypool and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland for their eccentric Oysterhead project. Despite all the touring he assign into these projects, he also released an eponymous solo album during the outpouring of 2002. Jonathan Fishman worked with his side throw Pork Tornado and the touring jazz jazz band Jazz Mandolin Project. Page McConnell released the first-class honours degree few recordings from his former band, Vida Blue, as well as contributed keyboards to Tenacious D's low gear record. Mike Gordon did some work with friend and other employer Col. Bruce Hampton and splashed in photographic film exploit both in presence of and behind the camera. And both Gordon and McConnell worked on Gov't Mule's The Deep End, Vol. 1.


As for the isthmus, Phish was more a piece of American acculturation than ever so when they made an appearance on The Simpsons before releasing a massive set of live albums and a DVD in the spring of 2002. By the end of the year, the group bowing to pressing and came back with the annunciation that they would begin to play live again starting at the end of December. They played shows through the following year and a half, then distinct to officially call it quits in the summer of 2004 after the button of Undermind and the following support duty tour. This didn't bastardly, however, that more albums couldn't be released, and the next year their 1995 New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Gardens came out, followed in 2006 by Live in Brooklyn, which was recorded on June 17, 2004 on Coney Island.

Asmus Tietchens

   
Artist: Asmus Tietchens

   Genre(s): 
Electronic
   Dance
   

---

Discography:


   
 Beta-Menge

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 7


   
 A-Menge

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 3


   
 Dammerattacke

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 5


   
 Eisgang

   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 3


   
 Sinkende Schwimmer

   Year: 1991   
Tracks: 13


   
 Nachtstucke

   Year: 1980   
Tracks: 13

---

Synthesizer experimentalist and musique concrète producer Asmus Tietchens began recording in the mid-'60s and continued to book 3 decades after that. Born in 1947 and based in Hamburg, Tietchens listened to German radio as a child and heard pioneering electrical transmissions by the likes of Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig. He began recording his own home experiments in 1965 with rough reverb devices and picked up a MiniMoog several years later. Also influenced by unkeyed Kraut-rockers like Cluster and Faust, Tietchens met Okko Bekker and began a partnership that lasted for decades (Bekker has produced well-nigh of Tietchens' go). After Tangerine Dream's Peter Baumann heard a tape of his act, he produced Tietchens' debut album Nachtstücke, released in 1980 on Sky Records. His tetrad albums for Sky during the early '80s focused on surprisingly accessible electronic pop, though 1984's Formen Letzter Hausmusik (recorded for Nurse with Wound's United Dairies label) began a time period of more than abstract, concrète recordings that often use taping experiments as well as synthesizers. During the '90s, Tietchens recorded for experimental labels Barooni, Staalplaat and Syrenia, the latter a 1996 collaboration with Vidna Obmana. Since 1990, he has likewise taught legal at a Hamburg university.

Miroslav Vitous

   
Artist: Miroslav Vitous

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   Jazz
   

---

Discography:


   
 Universal Syncopations

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 9


   
 Bireli Lagrene and Special Guests

   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 8


   
 Journey's End

   Year: 1983   
Tracks: 6

---

Best known as unrivaled of the foremost young bassists in the jazz-rock movement of the late '60s and early '70s, Miroslav Vitous is one of Europe's most versatile imports, equally at home in mainstream idioms and level down music. A sometime leader, his bass dances and skitters around an supporting players as a coequal phallus of the front strain, and he makes very creative use of the bow. He is influenced non simply by bassists like Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter and Gary Peacock, merely too by Czech folk music.


Vitous began his musical studies on the fiddle at eld six-spot, switch to piano from ages nine to fourteen earlier in conclusion settling upon the bass. While studying at the Prague Conservatory, he played with a trio that included his blood brother Alan on drums and Jan Hammer -- some other future jazz-rock mover and shaker -- on piano. After winning a scholarship to Berklee in 1966, he touched to New York the next year and wound up on the job with Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, and very briefly, Miles Davis.


Today i of the most highly touted prodigies in jazz, Vitous started playing in a recurring triad with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes on Corea's 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. He then joined one of Herbie Mann's most democratic groups from 1968 until 1970, with time out for a turn with Stan Getz; Mann produced his number 1 album, a pioneering series of prolonged jazz-rock workouts called Infinite Search on the flutist's Embryo label. As a creation member of Weather Report, Vitous helped delineate the band's freewheeling initial level, leaving the group in late 1973 as its music began to evolve into more than structured forms. A incite to Los Angeles in 1974 lED to a yearlong session of woodshedding in private with a new custom-made instrument, a double-necked guitar and bass. However, that experimentation did not pan out, and he returned to the bass, ahead sessions for Warner Bros., Arista, and from 1979, a sporadic series of dates for ECM as a leader and in reunions of Corea's bop-to-free Trio Music chemical group.


In the meanwhile, Vitous became immersed in academe, joining the module of the New England Conservatory in 1979 and becoming head of the jazz department in 1983. Although his profile isn't most as highschool as it was at the peak of the jazz-rock geological era, he continued to play at jazz festivals and record into the 1990s.

Yves Saint Laurent Dies Aged 71

Designer to the stars Yves Saint Laurent has died ages 71.

The French fashion maestro passed away yesterday following a long illness, according to the Pierre-Berg-Saint Laurent Foundation.

He had retired from haute couture in 2002, after four decades at the top of his trade.

Saint Laurent launched his fashion career after taking over the Christian Dior fashion house following the death of its founder in 1957. But he was soon conscripted to serve in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence where he suffered a mental breakdown .He was institutionalised in a French mental hospital at the age of 22.

Upon his release from hospital, he founded his own company.

Saint Laurent went on to dominate the 1960s fashion market and was the first designer to use black models the catwalk.

In 1983, he became the first living fashion designer to be honoured by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in 2001 he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Legion d'Honneur by former French president Jacques Chirac.

In his latter years, Saint Laurent - who came out as gay in 1991 - became a recluse and spent much of his time at his house in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Kooks' Luke Pritchard: 'I had to kick Alex Turner in the face'

The Kooks' frontman Luke Pritchard has revealed a secret feud between his band and Arctic Monkeys' singer Alex Turner.

told The Daily Mirror that the two bands do not see eye-to-eye, and that their dispute has got physical in the past.

"We have had a weird relationship with the Arctics since we first met," he explained. "I had to kick Alex in the face after he tried to pull the leads out of my guitar pedals while we were on stage."

He added: "I tried to patch things up with Alex recently but he just turned his back and walked away. I suppose they are quite arrogant."

Mannie Fresh

   
Artist: Mannie Fresh

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

---

Discography:


   
 Real Big

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 15


   
 Mind Of Mannie Fresh

   Year:    
Tracks: 30

---

He's half of the brains behind the Cash Money label, his productions experience moved over 23 one thousand thousand units, and it all started because of a DJ padre. Surrounded by music patch growing up, producer/rapper/hip-hop big businessman Mannie Fresh distinct other on that if he had to catch a job, it had to be doing what he loved to do, and that was play music. The New Orleans native got his start in 1984 as a penis of New York Incorporated, arguably New Orleans' low gear hip-hop crowd. The parties Mannie started to DJ round this time were to become fabled and brought him to the attention of knocker Gregory D. The deuce partnered and worked on record album that was to become 1992's The Real Deal released on RCA. Rap fans in the Big Easy fell in dearest with the album only it failed to gain much attention outside of the South. Although they remained friends, Mannie and Gregory D split professionally, due in part to Mannie's displeasure with the way major labels handled street music. The stage was now do for the producer's confluence with Brian "Baby" Williams. When Williams offered Mannie a hazard to join his neophyte Cash Money tag it couldn't own been better timing. Soon artists like Baby, Juvenile, B.G., and Lil Wayne were taking Cash Money to the cover, thanks in no low part to Mannie's kinky and bright production. By the late '90s, Cash Money was the preeminent Southern rap label and Mannie and Williams were at present running on their possess group. The deuce formed Big Tymers in 1998 and released a series of successful singles and albums. The producer behind everything from Juvenile's four hundred Degreez to Teena Marie's La Doña eventually broken proscribed on his have in 2004 with the wild solo album The Mind of Mannie Fresh.





Spears is reunited with her mother

Lily Allen takes home doggie bag from swanky meal - Daily Gossip

Welcome to the Daily Gossip: your daily stop-off to find out who in the world of music has been up to what.

Today's top gossip:

Lily Allen took home a doggie bag from her meal at posh west London eaterie Nobu last night (May 28). The singer left the restaurant in a large baby-style jumpsuit clutching her bag, presumably for her beloved pooch Maggie May (Daily Star).

From the papers:

Victoria Beckham is set to feature in 'Ugly Betty' again following her guest turn a few months ago (The Sun).

So Solid Crew's MC Harvey dining out at McDonald's in south-east London (Daily Mirror).

Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger was treated to a �50,000 Caribbean holiday by boyfriend Lewis Hamilton (Daily Record).

East 17's Brian Harvey was thrown out of posh London club Amika, 'shouting and screaming' (Daily Mirror).

Chris Martin was spotted around Chalk Farm in north London in his new French revolutionary gear - as recently featured on the cover of NME - filming a video for their next single (The Sun).

Pink Floyd's David Gilmour was spotted buying a posh pen at Waterloo Station (Daily Star).

Girls Aloud's Nicola Roberts consulted a mystic clairvoyant for guidance before splitting up with boyfriend Carl Davies (Daily Mirror).

Rachel Stevens was spotted buying extra-soft toilet paper from Finchley Road's Waitrose in north London (Daily Star).

Hear'say's Suzanne Shaw has had a Barbie modelled after her and is now acting as an ambassador for the range of dolls - she's also recorded the theme song to an upcoming Barbie movie (Daily Mirror).

Robert Plant adjusting his hair with an afro comb in the Green Man pub in central London (Daily Star).

Chesney Hawkes was seen pulling a hair out of his pork scratching at London's Audley pub (Daily Star).

Check back tomorrow for the next Daily Gossip. E-mail your spots to news@nme.com.

Toro Bravo

   
Artist: Toro Bravo

   Genre(s): 
Rock: Punk-Rock
   

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Discography:


   
 Kelias

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 13


   
 Greatest Hits

   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 13

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Spears sparks pregnancy rumours

Pop singer Britney Spears has sparked reports that she is expecting her third child after being photographed shopping for a pregnancy test.
The photographs, which appear on People magazine's website, show Spears and her new boyfriend, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib looking through pregnancy tests at a shop.
The pictures were reportedly released by Ghalib's photo agency, FinalPixx.
The rumours come in the same week that Spears fled a courthouse without attending the most recent hearing over custody of her two young sons.
The boys are currently in the sole custody of their father Kevin Federline after a judge stripped Spears of her visitation rights following a custody dispute at her home.
The singer later had to be hospitalised for evaluation after she was deemed to be under the influence on an unknown substance.

Holmes Signs On For 'All My Sons'

The worst kept secret on Broadway is no longer a secret - Katie Holmes will star in the upcoming revival of playwright Arthur Miller's All My Sons. The Batman Begins star will join a cast that also will include John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson. The drama, about a family patriarch's darkest secret, was Miller's first big hit and is beloved by thespians and theatre critics throughout the world. It will mark the first time a Miller play has been staged on Broadway since the writer's death in 2005. The play will also be Holmes' Broadway debut. Venue and dates were not available as WENN went to press, but the play is expected to debut this autumn.


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R. Kelly pornography trial to begin in Chicago

CHICAGO --
It seemed for a while as if R. Kelly's day in court might never come.

But after six years of repeated delays, jury selection is set to begin Friday in the Grammy-winning R&B singer's trial on child pornography charges, prompted by a videotape allegedly showing Kelly having sex with a girl as young as 13.

Prosecutors, though, will have a unique challenge: The alleged victim, now 23, says it wasn't her. And Kelly's attorneys -- including Ed Genson, who often represents the rich and famous -- haven't admitted it's Kelly in the video.





"How is there not reasonable doubt when the two people say it's not them?" said Michael Helfand, a Chicago attorney not involved in the case.

But Helfand conceded that it's unclear what supporting evidence the prosecution might present.

The 41-year-old Kelly, whose first name is Robert, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. But Kelly -- one of urban music's biggest stars, and a consistent hitmaker despite his legal woes -- is glad the wait is over, his spokesman said.

"Every waking moment, he's always had this hanging over his head," spokesman Allan Mayer said. "He's confident that when all the evidence comes out he'll be shown not to be guilty of any crime."

The centerpiece of the trial is likely to be the video footage, which Judge Vincent Gaughan ruled may be shown in open court.

Prosecutors claim the videotape was made sometime between Jan. 1, 1998 and Nov. 1 2000, and that the girl was born in September 1984.

Kelly was indicted on pornography charges June 5, 2002, after the tape surfaced and was sold illegally on street corners and the Internet. Chicago police began investigating after receiving the tape from the Chicago Sun-Times, which said it was sent to the paper anonymously.

Police and prosecutors said their investigation, including interviews with about 50 witnesses, determined Kelly and an underage girl were on the tape, and that FBI forensics experts had determined the tape was authentic.

Prosecutors may need more than a videotape to prove their case, said Helfand, the Chicago attorney.

"I'd be beyond surprised if he got convicted based on what's out there," said Helfand.

It is unclear whether prosecutors have asked -- or would be allowed -- to tell jurors about accusations that Kelly allegedly had sexual relations with other minors, because some of the trial proceedings have been kept secret by the judge. Media outlets, including The Associated Press, have filed a legal challenge seeking to get court records and hearing transcripts unsealed.

The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Kelly has settled three lawsuits accusing him of having sex with underage girls, filed in 1997, 2001 and 2002. In the third suit, the woman claimed that she began having sex with Kelly when she was 16, and that he forced her to have an abortion.

In 2003, Kelly was arrested in Florida on child pornography charges after investigators said they found photos of him having sex with a girl. Charges were dropped after a judge ruled detectives illegally seized the photographs from a digital camera in his home.

Documents show Kelly secretly married the singer Aaliyah in 1994, when she was 15. The marriage later was annulled by her parents; Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.

The trial's six-year gap from indictment to trial is uncommon in child porn cases. But while suspects have a right to demand a swift trial, they're not obligated to ask for one, especially if they calculate that speed isn't in their best interests.

In Kelly's case, more than 30 pretrial motions contributed to delays. At one point, hearings were delayed when Judge Gaughan fell off a ladder at home and suffered multiple fractures. By the time he recovered, Kelly needed emergency surgery for a burst appendix.

Despite his legal troubles, Kelly -- who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side to become a superstar singer, songwriter and producer -- still retains a huge following, and his popularity has arguably grown since being charged in 2002. The singer has released more than half a dozen albums, most of them million-sellers. He's also had a multitude of hits and gone on tours. His campy video series "Trapped in the Closet" have a cult following so strong that the Independent Film Channel premiered the latest chapters of the farcical musical, out on DVD, on its web site last year before showing them on the network. Kelly has a new song, "Hair Braider," out now, and is due to release a new album in July.

Although he won a Grammy in 1997 for the gospel-like song "I Believe I Can Fly," his biggest hits are sexually charged songs like "Bump N' Grind," "Ignition" and his current single.

The trial is expected to draw crowds of reporters and fans to the courthouse. But Gaughan is expected to keep a tight rein on the proceedings, from which cameras, cell phones and recorders are banned.

When a fan snapped a picture of Kelly with her cell-phone camera during a pretrial hearing last year, Gaughan sentenced her to five days in jail and ordered her phone destroyed.

"He's not one of those guys who's going to let this trial turn into a circus," said Helfand.

French Court Tosses Out Libel Judgment Against TV Critic

A French appeals court has overturned a libel judgment against critic Philippe Karsenty, who claimed that state-run France 2 Television staged news footage allegedly showing a Palestinian boy being shot by Israeli soldiers in 2000 as he was cowering with his father. Karsenty presented photos and other evidence suggesting that the boy was not shot at all. France 2 Television had also sued three websites that posted Karsenty's analysis of the footage. Karsenty hailed the court's decision as a "victory of truth over lies. It's the victory of honesty over intellectual dishonesty. It's the victory of French justice over corporatism and the media mafia. It is time for France to recover its decency and admit that they produced, protected and covered up the biggest anti-Semitic lie of the century." The television channel said that it would appeal.

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