Shepard Fairey Creates Icon Image of Imprisoned Burmese Leader Aung San Suu Kyi
Over the years, Shepard Fairey's prolific peace-and-justice propaganda have formed an unmistakable design aesthetic, whether used to immortalize hip-hop legends and punk-rock stars, raise awareness on environmental issues, or voice frustration over the long-running war in Iraq. Now, the artist behind the iconic and ubiquitous Obama "HOPE" image, has lent some ink to Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy opposition leader of Myanmar (formerly Burma) who has been under house arrest for 13 years after the country's military government overrode her victory in a 1990 election.... read more
The Pirate Bay to Become Legal After $7.7 Million Purchase
The word "pirate" in the 21st-century is no longer default-associated with just the riding-around-on-boats-and-stealing-things variety (although those guys are still undoubtedly around). Au contraire, the most commonly encountered pirate today is the illegal-downloading-addicted sort that frequent the insanely popular bit-torrent website The Pirate Bay. But one lawsuit and one $7.7 million purchase later, illegal pirating on The Bay will truly be a thing of the past.... read more
What We've Learned From Spencer Tweedy's Blog About Spencer Tweedy's Dad
Spencer Tweedy is 13-and-a-half years old and lives in Chicago. He's a pretty ordinary kid... read more
Wilco (The Gas Station)
If the mom-and-pop gas station is dead, Wilco is its death knell... read more
Iz the Wiz: 1958-2009
Known as a legend among graffiti artists, the notorious New York City subway tagger known as Iz the Wiz died June 17 at the age of 50 after a heart attack. Iz, whose real name was Michael Martin, died in Spring Hill, Fla., where he had moved several years ago, according to The New York Times.... read more
Study Says 50% of Country Fans Lack Internet at Home
A survey conducted by the Country Music Association produced results that exemplify a reality in the industry not often realized: 50 percent of core country music fans do not have the internet at home. And 42 percent of those respondents report they have no desire to change that.... read more
Seinfeld Star Seeks Peace Between Israel and Palestine
Laughter is the best medicine, they say. And according to Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, it may also be the best tool for building peace. Alexander created a project with OneVoice, a non-profit organization which aims to increase the voices of moderates in Israel and Palestine, called "Imagine: 2018." For the project, he asked high school students in the two nations to imagine what the world would like in 10 years if there was an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement signed in 2008.... read more
James Joyce's Ulysses Gets Graphic With Online Comic
The mere mention of James Joyce's pivotal work, Ulysses, can send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting graduate who barely managed to scrape through the Cliff Notes of one of modern literature's crown jewels. At 265,000 words, the tome tends to leave many slack-jawed in its intimidating wake. But the sequential artists at Throwaway Horse, LLC are seeking to change all that.... read more
Three Dallas Cowboys To Release Metal Album
From the Super Bowl Shuffle to Shaq-Fu, professional athletes have a long and torrid history of musical dabbling. The latest involves three lineman for the Dallas Cowboys who have signed a recording contract as heavy metal band Free Reign. Fellas, has Deion Sanders taught you nothing? ... read more
Is Mike Judge's The Goode Family Proof that Liberal America Can't Laugh at Itself?
It's no secret: Mike Judge's latest television project The Goode Family may not survive its first season. After lackluster ratings for the debut and second episode, ABC moved the show to Friday, entombing it deep in the summer lineup and making the odds of renewal slim at best.... read more
Arrested Development Super Fans Plan Documentary
As far as sitcoms go, we like to think it's fairly uncontroversial to say that Arrested Development is the best of the last few decades. And given its cult-classic status, it's unsurprising that demands for a movie version are reaching a fever pitch. So while obsessives are screaming "COME ON!" for the movie to get rolling, some super fans have decided to craft an Arrested Development movie of their own: a cross-country documentary exploring the genius of the Bluth Family and the fan culture that sprung up around it.... read more
More MySpace Layoffs and Office Closings Announced
CEOs usually harbor a talent for softening the blow of really bad news by exaggeratedly emphasizing the good. But when the really bad news is that your company, a social networking site called MySpace, is laying off two-thirds of its international staff and closing at least four internationally located offices (this on top of the 30-percent domestic employee reduction last week), it's hard to articulate a positive spin.... read more
Ed McMahon: 1923-2009
Ed McMahon, longtime sidekick to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, died early this morning in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He was 86 years old.... read more
Minnesota Court Awards RIAA $1.92M for Theft of 24 Songs
Court is adjourned in the high-profile RIAA case against Jammie Thomas-Rasset for the download of two-dozen songs: a Minnesota jury awarded the Recording Industry Association of America $1.92 million in their suit against Rasset for sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa P2P network. Rasset is ordered to pay the fine to four major labels for damage compensation.... read more
TEDGlobal Conference Brings Innovation to Oxford in July
Every year, 1,000 people from across the world gather in Long Beach, Calif. for a marathon of talks from some of today's most innovative thinkers. Started in 1984 to gather leaders and luminaries in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design, the TED Conference hosts presenters year after year whose ambitious resumes and eloquent 18-minute lectures demand admiration. ... read more
Paste Launches Iranicon to Support Fair Elections
There are some disputes that are just bigger than the cut-and-dry facts of who wins and who loses. The current turmoil caused by the recent election in Iran is one of these times. No longer an issue of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vs. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the election has brought the basic elements of democracy into question. ... read more
Where Will Emile Hirsch's Hamlet Fall Within the Canon of Modern-Day Shakespeare Films?
When we heard Emile Hirsch would play Hamlet in a modern-times Shakespeare remake directed by Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke, flashbacks of teen flicks (most of which involved Julia Stiles) adapting 16th-and-17th-century masterpieces flooded our collective memory. It's always been interesting to watch what develops in these modernizations, as directors and writers throw purist interpretation to the wind with the belief that Shakespeare's storylines transcend all time periods. Heartthrobby leads try to give Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Olivier a run for their money, jeans-and-tees replace frilly frocks, and major turns of plot transpire in gas stations, high-school stadiums and Blockbuster video stores. Although some past adaptations have recontexualized... read more
Georgia Theatre Catches Fire in Athens
According to various reports on Twitter, Athens, Ga.'s historic Georgia Theatre caught fire around 7:00 a.m. EST this morning. Although a cause for the fire has yet to be named, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that witnesses said the fire was "a major blaze and that the theater would likely suffer major damages." Atlanta's 11 Alive News also reports out of order traffic lights, visible smoke from miles away and "as many as 4 ladder trucks" currently fighting the flames.... read more
Mos Def's The Ecstatic: The T-Shirt
Rather than accept the decline of the physical album as an inevitability, some people are taking active steps to avert it. Case in point: music/fashion impresarios Invisible DJ, in conjunction with LnA Clothing, have designed the first ever "Music Tee" for Mos Def's latest album, The Ecstatic.... read more
Homer Simpson and GPS: Together at Last
Regardless of whether the idea of hearing Homer Simpson's voice directing you on the road sounds like a fantasy or a nightmare, TomTom has made it a reality. The cartoon father figure's voice skin is now a $12.95 accessory to the manufacturer's GPS units. And make no mistake, according to TomTom's website, this is the original Homer voice. No impersonators here.... read more
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