That’s just music

Bluewater Production is going to release a cartoon about Madonna’s life within the frames of it’s Female Force series, noted the latter publisher in it’s official press release. Her life will be portrayed on the thirty two page standard booklet, which should come out in August this year, and should go for the price of 3.99$. Cartoon itself must be placed for sale in regular book stores and numerous Internet sites, thus the scale of the whole publishing is not small. As the Bluewater Production’s vice-president Jason Schultz had noted, they’re planning to highlight those moments of her life that are not very well known, but had influenced a singer’s artistic career. CW Cooke who was a major person behind the text of this cartoon had said that he wanted to tell people about Madonna’s ability to get out from nowhere into the greatness, and particular details of how it became possible for her. Bluewater Production is not doing something as this for the first time, Female Force series did previously include biographies of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, princess Diana, and Joanne Rowling. Self made women are of particular interest to them, they wish to show others how they made it to the top, often without any real support from their relatives, merely talent and ability to strive forward. The real positive influence of such cartoons is surely obvious.

Lady Gaga had arrived in Tokyo in order to participate in the Video Music Aid Japan event, and noted that most of Japan is absolutely safe, also she encouraged tourists to visit it, said Gigwise. Above mentioned event was organized by MTV and will take place in Tokyo on June 25; besides Lady Gaga many Japanese pop artists shall participate, and eventually all financial gains should be given to the Red Cross. Previously, she used to participate in such charity events, notably, she had developed the number of bracelets, which were available for purchasing at her official website, every bracelet was worthy of five dollars and in that case all the money were also given to support Japanese tsunami victims. Literally, this singer is taking care of many good things, and as the result, all of them will be giving her more power because generosity can go only in the positive direction. This time she is really showing this kind of activity, and moreover disproves some rumors that people as her can’t be warm hearted. On the other hand her other activities didn’t go unnoticed, her dress made of meat, which she had presented during the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010 will be exposed at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame museum, said Associated Press. Basically, this dress will be kept at the room which is dedicated to the role of women in the development of music industry.

Recently it became absolutely well known that Amy Winehouse is not going to continue her European tour planned for the summer of 2011, noted New Musical Express. The whole process began at the Fortress festival in Serbia on June 18, however, it all turned out to be very unsuccessful because she was not sober and simply couldn’t really perform the way she can, so eventually managers had cancelled two upcoming shows. Istanbul and Athens concerts planned for June 20 and June 22 were taken out of the whole plan just to make other venues become possible, and the next show was supposed to take place in Spain’s Bilbao, plus eight more had to follow it. Nevertheless, now it’s known that the whole tour went down, and as her representatives said, all people, who stand near hear will do all they can in order to make Winehouse get back into shape. The whole situation seems to be quite unpleasant because it all means that she is in the worst shape possible, two cancellations couldn’t help and now those who care shall deal with her health. For any musician any kind of cancellation is the tragedy, they truly hate when the show can’t take place for some reason, in this case the reason is extremely shameful, it’s obvious that Winehouse is continuing her totally wild lifestyle. Hopefully, she is going to manage it and later this year fans will see her at the stage.

Ex-Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant is going to receive the Spirit Award in Montreal; this particular prize is given by the authority of the International Jazz festival, which takes place in the mentioned above city. The whole thing will be carried out on June 24 during Plant’s and his band’s performance (Band of Joy). The festival itself will start the next day and shall last until July 4, so numerous people must be able to see everything what this event keeps for them. In previous years a lot more musicians had received the Spirit Award, and those were Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, thus Plant is definitely standing on the same level with these guys. In July 2011 Robert Plant and the Band of Joy will visit continental Europe and the concert program is based on the material written for the “Band of Joy” album released in September last year. However, it’s well known that set-lists of the current tour should also include some repertoire which can be related to Led Zeppelin, and this is not strange because Plant without this legendary past of his simply can’t be imagined whatsoever. This great band is part of his life and the art of music, which now belongs to the world’s heritage of culture, and it’s obvious that any listener, who goes to see him shall feel some sort of longing for Led Zeppelin.

British singer Amy Winehouse had cancelled her upcoming shows in Turkey and Greece after pretty bad performance, which took place in Serbia on June 18, noted Agence France-Presse. During that particular concert she was in bad shape and simply couldn’t sing well. During one hour and a half time she left the stage twice, and twenty million listeners had to wait, plus the whole concert wasn’t good. Eventually managers had decided to wait and get rid of two planned venues due to the fact that she may not be able to do it properly. The other concert within the frames of her European tour is currently planned on July 8 in Bilbao, and as many people hope it will take place without any problems. At the same time, who knows what may happen in the nearest future with Amy’s career, she is surely not in the best shape, even though not so long ago many news agencies were saying that she can do it no matter what and there is no health problem. This is sad because she is definitely capable of producing way more, and her certain potential is getting nowhere because of this terrible lifestyle, surely every new album is capable of adding up to the previous two very successful works. Two albums released in 2003 and 2006 gave her an unprecedented fame, the whole talent of this great singer was shown in full force, however, now it seems that she is not very interested in repeating it.

Official Duran Duran website had posted the announcement regarding the fact that on June 22 they will open up their private music sector at the Second Life virtual area; particularly, it shall be called Duran Duran Universe. As the band’s representative noted, all the ‘virtual stuff’, which is going to fulfill this Universe was selectively chosen by the band members themselves. Blogger named Tateru Nino wrote that it’s not the first attempt on their side to get introduced to the Second Life. In 2006 using similar manner Duran Duran tried to create their own virtual “island” and even organize the live concert over there. Back then this news began to attract media and those who virtually exist within the magic world of Second Life, however, nothing took place. Eventually just in two days everyone should witness what they’ve prepared, so it is most likely something pretty and well designed. In 2011 this legendary British pop-rock band started the world tour in support of the latest album “All You Need Is Now”, also it may be mentioned that some concerts had to be cancelled due to vocalist’s health problems. On the other hand, Second Life is the unique project created in 2003 by the Linden Lab company; it looks as something in between the multi-user game and the social network. People can create fictional characters, communicate and even make purchases, thus currently it’s incorporating twenty million users worldwide.

Actor Penn Badgley is going to act in the biographical movie dedicated to an infamous musician Jeff Buckley, noted Undercover. Previously, Badgley used to perform in such movies as “Gossip Girl”, “The Stepfather” and “Easy A”. On the other hand a few more actors were in rivalry with him for this role, some of them are James Franco and Robert Pattinson, particularly the latter guy was trying to overtake, but turned to be unlucky. Moreover, Buckley’s mother and one of the producers was in good terms with Robert’s participation. Ridley Scott’s son Jake will be directing it, and above all his knowledge of music is well known, he used to make videos for Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M, U2 and Tori Amos. Most likely this work will be alright in all directions, first of all Jake was doing great videos, and second he is surely inheriting a lot of talent from his prominent father, who didn’t produce not a single bad movie. If talking about Jeff Buckley it should be said that the guy was able to release only one studio album called “Grace” in 1994, he died in 1997 by drowning in the Mississippi river, he was only thirty years old. The following year his post mortem album “Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk” came out, so fans always worth both productions, it’s just obvious that if he lived longer, he could create way more absolutely talented works, but life dictated it’s own terms on him.

Madonna is planning to enter the studio sometime in July or August in order to start working with the new album, noted her manager Guy Oseary at his personal Twitter blog. According to his words, which were published on June 14, Madonna should start recording in a month, plus it’s already known with whom within the producer’s community she wants to co-work this time. At the same time Madonna is not possessing any touring plans because all her attention is concentrated on the recording process, surely she needs to make something first and later figure out what happens next. The latest album developed by Madonna is a “Hard Candy” released in April 2008, in may countries it was able to reach the first places among charts, thus the whole situation for her is not bad at all. In September 2009 she had released a collection of hits called “Celebration” in which a few new songs were included, and eventually she made it obvious that new stuff is on approach. Nothing but good music is coming from this legendary pop singer, practically everything turns to be another hit or a popular iconic anthem that sticks to the world of her fans. Surely, Madonna today is not making the same sort of songs as she did before, simply artists can’t produce on the same level of fame all the time. Clearly Madonna is not doing worse music, and most likely her new album will be very good, not worse than the others.

Metallica and Lou Reed had finished working on their joint album, this information came up at the Metallica’s official website. Musicians noted that they’ve announced the new work a few months ago, but back then they simply forgot to say that Reed is going to participate in the whole process. All they decided to mention was a short note that the upcoming release will not be totally their own, however, it will be something as the side project. The whole idea was invented in October 2009 when they’ve performed at the concert dedicated to a twenty fifth anniversary of the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Nevertheless, they didn’t get to work right away, and merely a few months ago things began to move around, so far Metallica and Lou Reed were able to record ten songs. Currently, there is no information on how this release will be named or when it should come out, hopefully it takes place as soon as possible, at least not later than the end of this year. The most recent Metallica’s album “Death Magnetic” came out in September 2008, and on the other hand, Lou Reed did not record anything since 2007. It seems that both musical agendas may produce something extremely successful and there will be no failure whatsoever, all the stuff will be truly great. These musicians aren’t the same, they came from two different music worlds, but it just makes everything even more interesting and exciting, let’s wait and see what they came up with during the last few months.

Ex-leader of the legendary Roxy Music Bryan Ferry had received a title of the Commander of the British Empire, and as BBC News just noted, a fifty six year old musician was included into the list, which was set up in dedication to the Elizabeth II’s birthday celebration. As soon as Ferry had discovered about this honorable award, he thanked all musicians with whom he used to co-work all along his musical career. The most recent album produced by Ferry (”Olympia”) came out in October 2004 turning into a singer’s thirteenth studio release. Notably, this album was recorded right after the joint tour with the reunited Roxy Music, so it simply means that during that time he felt truly inspired by the reunion process. Often many musicians just have to get back with their buddies in order to keep on going forward on their own, Bryan was not an exception. This spring he was planning to start the major tour in support of “Olympia”, but due to sickness couldn’t do it, thus the whole series of events was postponed onto this year’s autumn. The fact that he is now the CBE member, a lot of people will truly respect him for this achievement, the guy is definitely deserving this order for his dedication to Britain and it’s music. Hopefully he resumes his touring activities soon and keeps on recording new music, which is worthy of being heard all over the world.