Sasquatch! Bonnaroo! Lollapalooza! For music lovers, summer has a vocabulary all its own. In advance of the season's official arrival on June 21, bands are firming up their tour itineraries and hitting the road. In the season of SPF, MSN.com offers a slideshow survey of some of the hottest summer festivals showcasing music, the seasonal party factor you can’t do without.
The poet, singer and songwriter whose incisive, acerbic poetry and social commentary galvanized the black arts movement of the 1970s, and helped lay the philosophical foundation for rap and hip-hop, died Friday at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York. He was 62. Ben Sisario of The New York Times writes on a life both significant and significantly troubled. See Music
For most of his life he’s been lightning rod, barometer and seismograph of a culture, in spite of himself, and he’s left a musical legacy that will resonate forever. And he’s still on the road. Rock’s great fabulist, rock’s Picasso, the self-described “song and dance man” who tapped the collective unconscious and changed the terms of our engagement with modern life was born Robert Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minn., 70 years ago. And he’s younger than that now.
Danish director Lars Von Trier, whose new film Melancholia, premiered on Wednesday, raised eyebrows earlier at a press conference, where he expressed sympathy for Adolf Hitler.
“OK, I’m a Nazi,” he says at one point. Kirsten Dunst, sitting next to him, looks ready to crawl under the table. A post-screening dinner for 40 people and an after-party were canceled, The New York Times reported. Evidence of more fallout remains to be seen.
American novelist Philip Roth, one of the most prolific authors in the world and a writer whose books have altered the perception of Jewish identity, wins for a body of work of more than 50 years. More in Word
On the basis of sheer size, the Seattle International Film Festival is the true gathering event for cineastes. And the 2011 edition — with 441 films from 74 countries spread over 25 days — kicks off on Thursday. There’ll be a lot to digest; below, three trailers indicate the breadth of subjects and styles about to be unleashed at what is, pound for pound, film for film, the biggest movie festival in the world. Beginners, directed by Mike Mills (Thumbsucker), stars Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor as a father and son coming to grips with changes: Dad’s announcement that he’s gay goes up against his son’s shaky foray into a new relationship. What promises to be a moving, hilarious study of the cockeyed plans of life and love opens at SIFF on May 24.
Highly stylized and awash in color, Saigon Electric presents the story of an outsider fighting for recognition in a closed youth subculture in Vietnam. Like Slumdog Millionaire, Saigon blends dance, romance and conflict in a highly personal story. Screens on May 28.
Hailed as “vital,” “riveting” and a “gotta-see” documentary, Page One: Inside the New York Times explores the process of producing the world’s pre-eminent newspaper in an era when the newspaper industry is under siege like never before. SIFF screens it on May 25, May 28 and 30.
Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night. For David Germain of The AP, the Woodman’s latest offered the festival just what it needs: romance, laughter and stars of a greater magnitude. See Movies
Nesta Robert (Bob) Marley, reggae music legend, and leader of a movement that broke down barriers of race and class, died 30 years ago Wednesday. Winston (Stone) Ford, writing in The Root, explores the persistence of Marley’s power as musician and messenger. See Music
He was the definitive musician of the central American music, as much phantom as icon. Now, one hundred years after his birth, in musical and scholarly tributes around the country, the king of Delta blues is coming back to light. More in Music
Taco specials? Plastic sombreros? Tequila shots? Please. For Gustavo Arellano at OC Weekly, it’s all so pointless: “[C]elebrating Cinco de Mayo is like remembering Tennyson's ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ for the charge while conveniently forgetting the massacre at the end.” Read more here The L.A. Times’ Daniel Hernandez checks in from Mexico City
Photo: Lazaro Arvizu, May 5, 2011: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times
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Sasquatch! Bonnaroo! Lollapalooza! For music lovers, summer has a vocabulary all its own. In advance of the season's official arrival on June 21, bands are firming up their tour itineraries and hitting the road. In the season of SPF, MSN.com offers a slideshow survey of some of the hottest summer festivals showcasing music, the seasonal party factor you can’t do without.
