Any headline involving Prince is worthy of our attention. Nothing generates hits like a bawdy photo of this lad.
Any headline involving the music industry further fucking themselves is worthy, too. This one especially.
Throw in some wit, and you have hit the Trifecta!

Prince has angered the music industry and stirred up trouble among British retailers by giving away his new album with a tabloid newspaper this weekend. “Planet Earth” will be packaged with the Mail on Sunday at a price of $2.80. The giveaway has been roundly criticized as a major blow for an industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales. It has led Sony BMG UK, Prince’s local label, to pull the plug on its own sales release of the CD in Britain.

International sales launch for “Planet Earth” is July 16; the U.S. launch is July 24.

“The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” said Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, referring to a period in the 1990s when the singer famously stopped using his name to protest a binding record deal.

Prince CD giveaway angers industry – CNN.com

Pawn was mildly entertained by the Live Earth concert broadcast the other day, but feels special kinship to this reviewer, writing in The Independent Online:

And as proceedings kicked off with a heart-pumping drumming display featuring Queen’s Roger Taylor, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters alongside a chorus of taiko drummers and beeping SOS signals as images of endangered species and crashing glaciers flashed up on the screens, it really felt as though this could be an important call to arms.

Unfortunately, though, that side of things never really worked. There was something fatally incongruous about watching Metallica rock out as tips about loft insulation scrolled above their heads. While many of the acts chose not to acknowledge the cause, it was the succession of mainly low-rent announcers who really let Al Gore down. Actor after actor eschewed learning their lines in favour of casting their eyes down to the autocue and muttering their message, with the result that there was a lack of fervour and unity of purpose all round.
Live Earth, Wembley Stadium, London – Independent Online Edition > Reviews

I just watched The Concert for Diana on my Myth box last night. Well, to be perfectly honest I watched parts of it. I endured most of the opening number by Elton John, but could not stomach Duran Duran. I understand that they were there because they were Diana’s favorites; the princes told us as much. But, we are not asked to endure Geo. Washington’s favorite band on President’s day, are we??

And Fergie, what’s with Fergie? She wasn’t one of Diana’s faves, so why was she there. It surely isn’t because of talent. Given that I haver seen Greek columns with better fashion sense, it couldn’t be a fashion connection. So why was she there? I think it was to serve as an example to the young people of what can go wrong if you ignore your studies or something like that.

Lastly, the one part I did watch all the way through was the duet with Joss Stone and Tom Jones. The man is old enought to be her grandfather for heaven’s sake. And why was he dressed like John Travolta from 1976? Want proof?

I finally figured out how to get YouTube videos to display full screen on my computer, and just in time. World Cafe tonight had The Puppini Sisters as their guests. What great music — Close Harmony, inspired by The Triplets of Bellville — and I had to go to YouTube to find any good online examples of their work:

Anyway, they explained on the radio, when asked about their audience, that “Well, there’s a massive gay component.” Leaving aside, for the moment, the double entendre there, they went on to tell the story of their first big public appearance at a popular gay night club in London where the local anthem was “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush. They do a cover of it, which is a very strange thing in its own right:

I fell hard for Kate Bush after seeing her on Saturday Night Live in the 70’s:
She never comes to the US, as she won’t fly, so she doesn’t have a big following here. Anyway, I looked on YouTube for this cover, and of course it listed Bush’s original music video as well. You must check it out for its naive over-the-top emotive dance. The first 60 seconds, at least, are an unfortunate indictment of artistic masturbation:

Lastly, this somehow lead to Pink Martini, and their song Hey Eugene, which is fall down funny in its story, and a catchy little number to boot:

That concludes our tour this evening,