EJ's Thoughts

Monday, September 26, 2011

Britney Spears - Piece of Me

Artist: Britney Spears
Label: Jive/Zomba Label Group
Director: Wayne Isham
Album: Blackout

Source: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=501686&vid=195543

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Willow Smith Finishing Up Debut Album, Jukebox Says

'A lot of her music has a very big influence of everything from rock to pop to hip-hop,' producer tells Mixtape Daily.
By Rob Markman

Willow Smith
Photo: Getty Images

Behind the Beats: Jukebox
Willow Smith took music fans by surprise in 2010 when she dropped her debut single, "Whip My Hair." Will Smith's swagged-out offspring blended a pop sound with a distinct urban sensibility, and producer Ronald "Jukebox" Jackson was largely responsible for the platinum hit.

So what's next musically for the 10-year-old singer? Jukebox tells Mixtape Daily that Willow is in the process of finishing up her Roc Nation debut.

"I did like eight, nine songs on Willow, so right now, we're in the process of just trying to close out the album," he said. "It's just the whole process. You got to think about it: She's a 10-year old girl. She's gotta have a life, she's gotta be a kid."

According to Jukebox, the album will contain a myriad of sounds. "Willow is kind of a combination of what 'Whip My Hair' was. Willow just isn't a pop star, she isn't just an urban artist; she's very international," he explained. "A lot of her music has a very big influence of everything from rock to pop to hip-hop."

On "Rock Star," fans will hear a different side of Willow, and Jukebox — who also did the music for Swizz Beatz and Chris Brown's "Dance Like a White Girl" — hopes it will be her next hit.

"Next single which I'm praying for is a record I did called 'Rock Star.' ... She's been performing it everywhere. It's getting very great reaction," he said. "We also did a record with Diggy Simmons that's incredible. ... She's just a combination of everything pretty much."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

Ali Larter Alice Dodd

Photos | MTV Buzzworthy Blog: Beyonce Doing Regular Mom Things!

MTV Buzzworthy Blog: Beyonce Doing Regular Mom Things!

Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio

Adele, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber Land New Guinness Records

Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Black Eyed Peas and 'Glee' also get new entries in the 'Guinness Book of World Records.'
By Gil Kaufman

Lady Gaga
Photo: Getty Images

Adele has been on a record-setting tear all year and now the British songbird can claim to be a "Guinness Book of World Records" champ. The upcoming 2012 edition of the book reveals that the "Rolling in the Deep" singer is in good company, as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Willow Smith and Justin Bieber also set some high-water marks over the past 12 months.

Adele can count three records, including first female to land two singles and two albums in the U.K. top five simultaneously — which only the Beatles had achieved before in 1963. Her breakthrough second CD, 21, claimed the record as the first album in U.K. chart history to sell 3 million copies in one calendar year.

She also logged the most consecutive weeks with the #1 album in the U.K. for a solo female with 11 weeks at the top — beating a record previously held by Madonna's The Immaculate Collection — and most cumulative weeks with a U.K. #1 for a solo female (18), beating out both Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain, who shared the previous record at 11 weeks.

Lady Gaga's social media predominance was rewarded, landing her the Most Followers on Twitter crown with 11,259,372 as of June 29 (she's currently at 13,469,754). In addition, "Poker Face" was honored for Most Weeks on U.S. Digital Hot Songs chart at 83 weeks. Gaga made the book last year for having the most consecutive weeks on the U.K. chart and being the most searched-for woman on the Internet.

Some other new records:

Justin Bieber: The singer's "Baby" was dubbed the Most Popular Video of Any Kind Online, thanks to 463,820,304 views as of February 16, 2011.

The Black Eyed Peas: The Biggest Selling Download in the U.K. is "I Gotta Feeling," the first-ever track to go over 1 million downloads in England.

J.K. Rowling: The "Harry Potter" author is lauded for being the First Billionaire Author thanks to sales of more than 400 million copies of the books worldwide.

"Glee": The hit show scored the Most Hit Singles in a Calendar Year with 48 making it into the U.K. top 75 in 2011, breaking their previous record of 45 hits in 2010.

Rihanna: First Female to have U.K. #1 singles in five consecutive years (2007-2011), from "Rude Boy" to her most recent, "Only Girl (In the World)." Only Elvis and the Beatles have had more U.K. #1 singles in consecutive years.

Willow Smith: The Youngest Transatlantic Top 20 Artist, thanks to "Whip My Hair" hitting the top 20 when she was only 10 years old.

Lil Wayne: Most U.S. Hot 100 Hits by a Rap Artist with 64 between 1999 and 2010.

U2: Highest Grossing Music Tour for the 360 outing, which by April 2011 had raked in more than $539 million for 110 shows between July 2009 and July 2011.

Related Videos

Adele's 'Magical' Road To Success

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The Evolution Of: Lady Gaga

Jaime Pressly Jamie Chung

Reader Reviews

The movie tie-in edition of "20 Times a Lady"—now called "What's Your Number?"—is now available wherever fine books are sold!

To celebrate its publication, a few of my favorite readers came up with these great reviews...

"What's Your Number? is like Harry Potter minus the wizards, wands, and Lord Voldemort." —Michelle Bell

"‎What's Your Number? is like Gone With the Wind except with less hoop skirts and poverty and more beaus..." —Karen Meyer

‎"What's Your Number? is like To Kill a Mockingbird without all the racism and children." —Julie Stone

Thanks ladies!

Please add your review in the comments!

Source: http://www.prettyinthecity.com/blog/2011/9/7/reader-reviews.html

Heidi Klum Heidi Montag

'Moneyball': The Reviews Are In!

Critics herald the baseball flick as 'the prime Brad Pitt movie.'
By Kara Warner

Brad Pitt in "Moneyball"
Photo: Columbia TriStar

On paper, "Moneyball" is a movie that sells itself. It's based on a best-selling book about our national pastime, the screenplay for which was adapted by Oscar winners Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, and it stars Brad Pitt, in all his handsome, charming splendor, as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. Throw in a killer supporting cast that includes Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman and several real-life ball players, and you've got the makings of a hit.

With a 94 percent certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "Moneyball" seems to be a solid winner with critics. So take an early seventh-inning stretch and settle in for some sports clichés as we sort through the "Moneyball" reviews!

The Story
"A sports-centric come-from-behind drama that harbors profound truths under its self-effacing grin of an exterior, 'Moneyball' is a movie of such loping, unforced ease and solid entertainment value that it's easy to take its gifts for granted. [Director Bennett] Miller barely puts a foot wrong in bringing to life the tale of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who in 2002 — competing against teams with three times his payroll — sought to rebuild the slumping A's and revolutionize baseball recruiting using 'Sabermetrics,' a system by which players are chosen based on who gets on base most often. That approach sounds so simple as to be self-evident. But in 'Moneyball,' such logic runs afoul of Beane's old-school scouts, who are played in the movie by a colorfully grizzled collection of character actors and some real-life baseball veterans. Their banter, in which they refer to players' jaw lines and girlfriends while they decide whom to hire, lends 'Moneyball' a thoroughly enjoyable through-line of tough, vernacular wit. What's more, that plain-spoken charm couches a far deeper conceptual point: that objective truth not only exists but matters, even at a time when it's continually being trumped by superstition, 'feelings' and irrational belief." — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

The Brad Pitt Factor
"If Pitt's role in 'Moneyball' is more of a conventional star turn than his career-shifting performance as the stern 1950s father in 'The Tree of Life' (for which he emphatically deserves awards but won't win any), it's still terrific. He's on-screen in almost every scene, often filling it up in extreme close-up, and captures the bluff, buff and shrewd Beane, a washed-up jock who embraced an unorthodox statistical philosophy through sheer necessity, with great wit and physicality. (Let me throw in that 'Moneyball' is a delirious study of bad early-2000s guy fashions and haircuts, which may elude some of the audience but is definitely conscious.) Let me hasten to assure you that 'Moneyball' isn't all that much of a baseball movie, although fans of the national pastime will of course rush to see it. It's a prime Brad Pitt movie — arguably the prime Brad Pitt movie — and an American fable about a battered but lovable divorced dad who defies conventional wisdom and beats the odds." — Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

The Book-to-Film Comparison
"The big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis' engaging 2003 book is also filled with compromises. Someone crammed 'Major League'-style sports clichés into a more nuanced story about baseball and progress — and then tried to fit a Brad Pitt star vehicle inside of that. The result is an interesting but frustrating near-miss. Chronology and context are mucked with liberally. This happens in almost every sports movie based on real events, although A's fans will be blown away that Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder and their combined 57 wins in 2002 are scrubbed from existence here. Of the three, only Hudson gets a cameo, and he blows his start." — Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

The Final Word, Pro-Con Style
"Bennett Miller's' Moneyball' — adapted by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian from the nonfiction book by Michael Lewis — is a sports movie for people who don't like sports movies. I know this is true because I enjoyed it. ... Cinematographer Wally Pfister's deliberately unglamorous presentation of the A's dilapidated clubhouse is a long way from the gold-and-sepia tones of Barry Levinson's 'The Natural.' 'You can't help but be romantic about baseball,' Billy observes to Peter, even as he's being reviled by his own organization for his supposedly bloodless reliance on the stats. It's to the director's credit, and Pitt's, that 'Moneyball' is anything but bloodless — in its own quiet, unspectacular way, this movie courses with life." — Dana Stevens, Slate.com

"The downside of Pitt's triumph is that it unbalances the movie, throwing more of the focus on Billy than the team. To put 'Moneyball' over the fence, Miller and his writers needed to make something else hit home: the meaning of the on-base percentage. What does it say about a player who can't throw far, can't steal a base, rarely hits a ball over the fence, and yet can be as great an asset as a future Hall of Famer? Instead of answering that question — and dramatizing how wins can be built from unflashy players working in sync under a manager who understands 'small ball' — Miller shifts into montage mode (They won! They won again! They're on a streak!), as if Beane and Brand had written a computer program that was running to its inevitable conclusion. That, of course, leaves the team's manager, Art Howe (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, maybe to pay Miller back for helping him win an Oscar in 'Capote'), a cipher, a nonpresence on and off the field. 'Moneyball' has everything but team spirit." — David Edelstein, New York

Check out everything we've got on "Moneyball."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Cat Power Catherine Bell