Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of “The Simpsons” over a parody of the channel’s right-wing political stance, the creator of the hit US television show has claimed.
In an interview this week with National Public Radio, Matt Groening recalled how the news channel had considered legal action, despite the fact that “The Simpsons” is broadcast on sister network, Fox Entertainment.
According to Groening, Fox took exception took a Simpsons’ version of the Fox News rolling news ticker which parodied the channel’s anti-Democrat stance, with headlines like “Do Democrats Cause Cancer?”
“Fox fought against it and said they would sue the show,” Groening said.
“We called their bluff because we didn’t think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. So, we got away with it.”
Other satirical Fox news bulletins featured in the show included: “Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay… JFK posthumously joins Republican Party… Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple…”
While the lawsuit never materialized, Groening said some action was taken.
“Now Fox has a new rule that we can’t do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it’s real news,” he said.
“The Simpsons,” featuring the dysfunctional family of patriarch Homer Simpson and his rowdy brood, is now in its 14th year and is expected to become the longest-running situation comedy in US history in 2005.
Source yahoo.com.
Veteran singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones has set a month-long U.S. tour for November, in support of her latest album, “The Evening of My Best Day.” The album was released Oct. 7 in the U.S. by V2.
Jones will kick off the outing Nov. 2 in Rochester, N.H., and will hit 18 cities across the country, performing new and old songs with her touring band. The dates will wrap Nov. 25 at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Theater.
Here are Rickie Lee Jones’ tour dates:
Nov. 2: Rochester, N.H. (Rochester Music Hall)Nov. 3: Sommerville, Mass. (Sommerville Theatre)Nov. 5: Pittsburgh (Palace Theatre)Nov. 6: Philadelphia (Keswick Theatre)Nov. 7: New York (Town Hall)Nov. 9: Washington, D.C. (Lisner Auditorium)Nov. 10: Columbus, Ohio (Southern Theatre)Nov. 12: Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theatre)Nov. 13: Chicago (Chicago Theatre)Nov. 14: Madison, Wis. (Barrymore Theatre)Nov. 15: St. Paul, Minn. (Fitzgerald Theatre)Nov. 17: Denver (Gates Concert Hall)Nov. 19: Boise, Idaho (Egyptian Theatre)Nov. 20: Seattle (Moore Theatre)Nov. 21: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theatre)Nov. 22: Vancouver (Vogue Theatre)Nov. 24: Sam Francisco (Palace of Fine Arts)Nov. 25: Los Angeles (Wiltshire Theatre
Source Billboard.com.
Ween has lined up a three-week European tour, kicking off Nov. 27 in Stockholm and wrapping Dec. 16 in Dublin. The group’s North American trek in support of its latest Sanctuary album, “Quebec,” will run through a Nov. 7-9 stand at Chicago’s Vic Theatre. While in the Windy City, Ween will also make an in-store appearance Nov. 8 at Tower Records on Clark Street.
“There is a very good chance that all three nights in Chicago will be professionally filmed and recorded for a DVD to be released on Sanctuary,” guitarist Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo writes on the band’s official Web site. “The Chicago shows are selling unlike any other concerts we’ve ever done, so please follow the crowd and be a part of the first ever official live Ween concert movie.”
With “Quebec” having debuted at a career-best No. 81 on The Billboard 200 in August, Ween is also getting a lift thanks to the usage of an older song, “Ocean Man,” in a commercial for the Honda Civic.
Source Billboard.com.
Always one up for a good public display
With The Black Crowes on hiatus, the band
Metallica regrettably announced today that they are canceling their South American tour, which was set to begin on October 25th. All shows have been cancelled, and no dates have been rescheduled at this time.
The band cited physical injury and mental exhaustion as the reason for the cancellations. Stated Metallica
Napster is back for real this time. The lauded and formerly illegal online music service has been bought by Roxio and is a legit source of downloadable music.
To celebrate, the people of Napster and Roxio are throwing a little party October 29. The House of Blues in Los Angeles is the site. Ahmet Zappa will emcee the evening, with Ludacris leading the pack of artists expected to perform. Others on the bill include Dashboard Confessional, Interpol, Metric, and DJ Melo-D.
Hundreds of tickets will be given away through local radio stations and fan site giveaways. It’s not yet clear if there will be any available for purchase, though.
“Napster has always been synonymous with music. October 29 is a cause for celebration for music fans everywhere as Napster comes back,” Chris Gorog of Roxio said. “This great concert is a way for us to bring the cutting edge artists of the day to the fans that make it all happen.”
The new and improved – and might we also mention legal – Napster will feature songs available for 99 cents per track or $9.95 per album. And with more than 500,000 tracks to choose from, there’s bound to be something out there for everyone’s musical taste.
With the exception of paying for tracks or albums, the “basic” Napster service is free. There is also a premium service that offers unlimited listening and downloading, 40 commercial-free radio stations, and a whole bunch of other goodies, and it’s available for $9.95 per month.
Source Pollstar.com.
A semi-autobiographical story about a would be comic writer, his paranoid mentor, and his sexually stunted girlfriend, Anything Else unfolds like Annie Hall
Next month Johnny Cash not only becomes the focus of an all-star concert, but also a just-announced five-CD box set featuring Cash’s music and memories.
Cash Unearthed is due out November 25 from American Recordings/Lost Highway, and contains 79 tracks recorded over the past 10 years, including 64 never-before-heard recordings from the singer who died last month at age 71 of diabetes complications.
Produced by Rick Rubin, who launched Cash’s comeback effort in 1994, the music was culled from recording sessions for 1994’s American Recordings, 1996’s Unchained, 2000’s American III: Solitary Man and last year’s American IV: The Man Comes Around.
The first three discs, respectively subtitled Who’s Gonna Cry, Trouble in Mind and Redemption Songs, include Cash’s rendition of Steve Earle’s “Devil’s Right Hand,” Roy Orbison’s “Down the Line” and Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” and “Pocahontas.”
Disc four, titled My Mother’s Hymn Book, has a more spiritual bent. The 15 solo acoustic songs performed stem from Cash’s mother Carrie’s book of hymns she taught him as a child.
The fifth CD features a variety of hits from Cash’s Grammy-winning collaborations with Rubin, including “Solitary Man,” and his recent remake of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt,” a winner at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
Other material unearthed includes some of Cash’s unreleased duets, including Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” with Joe Strummer, Cat Steven’s “Father and Son” with Fiona Apple, Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” with Carl Perkins, “Cindy” with Nick Cave, and “Like a Soldier” with Willie Nelson.
Unearthed also contains a hefty clothbound book featuring one of the singer’s final interviews, in which he and Rubin discuss creating such a monumental body of work with a track-by-track discussion of each song. (Rubin and Cash had been working on his next release, tentatively titled American V, just before Cash’s death.) The interview also includes comments from daughter Roseanne Cash, son John Carter Cash, Tom Petty and more.
Source eonline.com.