Cher, age 67, sat down with USA Today to discuss her new album, touring again, making music with Lady Gaga, what she thought about a young upstart named Madonna once upon a time, and what it’s like being in an industry overrun with twenty year olds. You can just guess how pleased she is about that. Much of her thoughts are priceless. Here are the best ones. Continue reading
Everyday on Crasstalk we reach out to each other, strangers from vastly different walks of life, people who live a couple miles or thousands of miles away, for a chat, for guidance, or a laugh. Sometimes those moments turn into a professional contacts, sometimes they turn into fun, shallow friendships, and, sometimes, on very rare occasions, those moments can turn into the most important relationship of your life.
That’s the wonderful side of the internet.
The not so wonderful side is comprised of the misunderstandings, the battles, and the nastiness that can spin totally out of control when people have the protection of anonymity. The places populated by people who would rather shout into a hole in a wall and proclaim their rightness or their horribleness just to make someone else feel small.
That’s the other side of the internet. Continue reading
My mother is cleaning out the attic, and dredging up memories that best lie undisturbed until that hoarder’s delight is at long last razed.
“Guess what I found,” she called and crowed to me.
“What.”
“Your accordion!”
Yes. My goddamn accordion,
I’d long dreamed, as a girl, of playing the piano. I’d seen the old black-and-white movies, where a glamorous blonde in an evening gown shimmies to a grand piano, sweeps the audience with a bold, saucy blue set of eyes, and preforms something beautiful by Mozart with her gorgeous long fingers. Instead, when it came to time to torture her children with musical instruments, I was assigned the accordion. Continue reading
I remember asking for “a Beatles album” for Christmas. My parents obliged with Abbey Road. That could have been worse.
The first records I remember buying for myself were Never Mind the Bollocks, Blow Your Face Out and The Flying Lizards, the last of which I had to special order from the “punk/new wave” record store in town. I still have the vinyl, with “PROMOTIONAL COPY: NOT FOR RESALE” embossed on the jacket. Continue reading
You know what will get you publicity? A really terrible music video. The question is what is Jonah Falcon trying to publicize, a book, a movie, a website about video games? Below is the full three minutes and seven seconds of wonderment that is “It’s Too Big”. Continue reading
I recently found myself with a great deal of free time and very little to fill it with, so I figured I’d take a crack at playing the entire Mass Effect trilogy back-to-back-to-back. I had played all three games when they released, and done multiple playthroughs, but never a complete playthrough from start to finish.
As I was working my way through the games, I began to pay more attention to the little things I missed working my way through playing them separately. Bits of conversation, foreshadowing, etc. that added to the experience in unexpected ways. After I was finished, I realized that, more than anything, what moved me the most was the music. Continue reading
If there’s anything more baffling than the lives and daily motivations of celebrities and pop stars, it’s the public response that comes when they do new things. And Beyoncé is no exception. However, we’re going to go out on a limb and say that we kind of understand the media’s inability to make up its mind about this one. Continue reading
James Hetfield, of the frequently light-rock band Metallica, says “yeah” a lot. So much that when putting them all together it is a thing of intrigue. Continue reading
Some of your favorite songs of yesteryear famously boast of spending lavishly but much like Dr. Evil the dollar amounts don’t impress with our inflated currency in the present time. But what would these songs prices be if we adjusted for inflation? Continue reading
Every year at this time, a collection of artists from across the world get together to celebrate one another’s inspiring performances and crowning achievements in the industry. Unfortunately for us, the Oscars aren’t until the end of the month. So let’s bust out some cheap booze and watch the Grammys!
Seacrest is already doing the red carpet of E!. The show stars at 8 ET on CBS. Hey… did you know CBS airs Two Broke Girls, Mike & Molly and a variety of CSI programming? You will tonight! Continue reading
