The sounds of summer 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...

Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) 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...

Bob Dylan at 70 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...

Cannes: Sympathy for the devil 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,...

Roth wins Booker Prize 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 WordPhoto: via theartreference.blogspot....

Seattle: Movie House Central 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...

Fade in: Cannes 2011 begins 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 MoviesLogo: © 2011 Festival de...

Remembering Marley 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 MusicPhoto: From...

Revisiting Robert Johnson 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 MusicPhoto: Granger Collection,...

Gringo de Mayo 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...