Kreayshawn: Videographer

Biography: Natassia Gail Zolot, better known by her stage name Kreayshawn, born September 24, 1989 in Oakland, California, United States, is an American hip hop singer-songwriter and up-and-coming music video director who rose to fame in 2011 with the release of her single, "Gucci Gucci". 

According to the Gucci Gucci Songfacts, the video generated nearly three million views in its first three weeks and led to a $1 million recording contract with Columbia Records In June 2011.

Left to Right: Elka "Kitten Kaboodle" Zolot*- guitar Tina "Boom Boom" Lucchesi – drums

Dannielle "Lead Pedal" Pimm - bass

The daughter of Elka Zolot, former member of the San Francisco garage-punk band The Trashwomen, Kreayshawn grew up in East Oakland. She attended several high schools but never graduated. She also attended Berkeley Digital Film Institute on scholarship, but never finished the program.

She has directed videos for rapper Lil B, and had directed a music video for "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie," the first single from the Red Hot Chili Peppers album, "I'm With You". 

However the RHCP nixed the video stating in an interview with Slava Kuperstein at HIPHOP DX, “We had one sort of failed attempt at making a video for this song, which was indoors and just kind of dark and dank and not really fun or anything."

Kreayshawn: Complex

COMPLEX Magazine

Kreayshawn: Sleek Geek

There are normal days, and then there are days when your mom wakes you up in the morning to tell you Lil Wayne busted freestyle over your song. “I was like, ‘What?’ I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it,” says Natassia Zolot, better known by her nom de rhyme, Kreayshawn, of learning that the Young Money Millionaire had rapped over her cult hit “Gucci Gucci.” Then again, not much is what you’d call normal in Kreayshawn’s world these days. When “Gucci Gucci” first appeared on YouTube earlier this year, it almost immediately became an inter-web phenomenon, having racked up, at press time, more than 11 million views, and transformed the 22-year-old from East Oakland into an object of far-flung debate, with subjects ranging from the relative merits of her tatted-up, geek-chic, ’80s style to her sexuality and race. “Everything caught fire at once. Oh, popularity can be so hard sometimes,” Kreayshawn faux-groans. “People want to stir up controversy about me being a white rapper, or saying that I’m an occasional lesbian. I don’t even have the time. ‘White girl rapper’ is just one of the things I do. I want to be seen as someone who can do anything, not just a socialite.”

Indeed, not much about Kreayshawn’s origin proves conventional. A former film student, Kreayshawn first became known not for rapping, but for directing music videos for the likes of Lil B and kicking around with members of Odd Future. She’d get on the mic for fun, and released a mix tape and some videos, but when “Gucci Gucci” exploded, its infectious chorus—“Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada / Basic bitches wear that shit, so I don’t even bother”—made clear that hers wasn’t your standard hip-hop fodder. 

“I wasn’t attacking girls who wear those labels,” Kreayshawn explains. “The message is: Don’t let those labels define who you are. You can wear Gucci, but be confident in your own swag.” Kreayshawn certainly is: She will release her own debut album via Columbia early next year. “My vibe is definitely staying crazy,” she laughs. “Everything I do is unexpected, so the whole thing will be unexpected, right?” [Kreayshawn by Matt Diehl Photography David Mushegain - Interview Magazine]

Florence + Machine: Interview Magazine Oct 2011

Musician Florence Welch covers the October 2011 issue of Interview Magazine photographed by Craig Mcdean. Inside the magazine, the Florence + the Machine  singer talks to film director Baz Luhrmann about her new album, Ceremonials due out November 31st, having recently released the first two singles “What The Water Gave Me” and “Shake it Out” [See Florence + Machine: Ceremonials post in this blog]. Florence is also the cover model for Vogue Japan‘s October issue.

Pixie Lott: Young Foolish Happy

Three years after a successful debut the English songstress/actress, Victoria Louise “Pixie’ Lott, will release her sophomore effort titled Young Foolish Happy this November. 

During an interview  Lott revealed that this album is going to be more soulful and feature American artiste’s Stevie Wonder, John Legend and rapper Pusha T. The album is designed to help Lott break into the US market

In September , Lott released the track All About Tonight as the lead single from the upcoming second studio album, Young Foolish Happy. The single, which debuted at number-one in the UK, marks Lott's third number-one single.

Her second single What Do You Take Me For  featuring G.O.O.D. Music’s Pusha T  dropped earlier this month. 

Pixie Lott: UK's Britney

For the past decade Britain has been looking for its own Britney Spears, but every candidate has been flawed: Joss Stone (too long in America), Leona Lewis (too much of The X-Factor), Lily Allen (too many nipples) and Amy Winehouse (too much of everything). 

But now a potential solution has arrived, in the form of smoky-eyed temptress Pixie Lott from Brentwood in Essex. The figures speak for themselves. Debut single Mama Do sold 200,000 copies, having entered the charts at number one. Billie Piper is the only other solo UK female artist to debut there without first having been moulded on reality TV.

Don’t think it was beginner’s luck either, her next single Boys and Girls went to the top spot as well, so she’s obviously got plenty more talent on top of what meets the eye. 

So much in fact, that her debut album Turn It Up has been certified double platinum. DOUBLE. That’s like, twice the amount of platinum. It still hasn’t been released over in America yet either, so it’s only going to get a whole lot more platinum. [It is currently available on Amazon.com; however, most of her singles are imports only]

Pixie seems to have set her sights on being the new Katy Perry even before Katy Perry becomes the old Katy Perry. She’s already starred in her own film Fred: The Movie, been a guest judge on X Factor and got her own clothing collection with Lipsy. All of that came before her twentieth birthday. Yeah, she’s intent on taking over the world too, she’s just a PVC dress or nine short. [FHM - Pixie Lott Whole Lotta Love]

Florence + Machine: Ceremonials

Florence and the Machine have announced plans to stream their forthcoming new album Ceremonials online.

The album, set for release on October 31 in the UK and on November 1 in the US, will be available to fans online four days of its official UK release. Fans will be able to access the online stream on October 27 if they register with Channel4.com beforehand free of charge. 

The follow-up to Florence's debut album Lungs has been produced by Paul Epworth at Abbey Road studios in London. Epworth was behind Cosmic Love, one of the standout tracks from her debut album. It boasts the singles What The Water Gave Me and current track Shake It Out.

The album was a relatively quick turn around for Florence and the project’s sole collaborator Epworth, who famously hemmed Adele‘s monster selling 21.

What The Water Gave Me, which despite all the excitement of being a brand new Flo track, only managed to creep up to 24 in the UK and 91 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

In the interim, check out the official track listing for Flo’s Ceremonials album and the extra goodies that comes with the deluxe edition:

1 – Only If For A Night
2 – Shake It Out
3 – What The Water Gave Me
4 – Never Let Me Go
5 – Breaking Down
6 – Lover to Lover
7 – No Light, No Light
8 – Seven Devils
9 – Heartlines
10 – Spectrum
11 – All This and Heaven Too
12 – Leave My Body

Deluxe edition bonus tracks:

13 – Remain Nameless
14 – Strangeness & Charm
15 – Bedroom Hymns
16 – What The Water Gave Me (Demo)
17 – Landscape (Demo)
18 – Heartlines (Acoustic)
19 – Shake It Out (Acoustic)
20 – Breaking Down (Acoustic)

Björk Explains the Universe

Björk, Biophilia

Official Release Date: October 11 [The following review was written by: Amanda Dobbins re-blogged from Vulture]

By now, you have surely read about — and perhaps become slightly confused by — the multimedia science extravaganza that is Björk's Biophilia. The album, which took three years and the assistance of both Apple and National Geographic to create, will be officially released as a series of iPad apps; each song addresses a different biological or cosmological theme, with a corresponding interactive "experience" (games, animated scores, etc). 

In addition to inventing several instruments for the album, Björk reportedly spent months reading up on astrophysics and string theory to write the songs. This is all by way of saying that Biophilia has a lot of Björk-brand eccentricity going on, before you even get to the music itself. 

So, how is the music? Even without the apps and the technological hoopla, Biophilia plays a bit like a science experiment. Of course, all Björk albums have a benign-mad-scientist quality to them — imagine Björk, in a furry lab coat and goggles, testing the limits of her vocal cords, and you're probably not too far from the making of Medulla — but this one deals with real biology. 

"Virus" is a patient, plinky love song told from the perspective of an invading cell; "Mutual Core" name-checks tectonic plates and forming continents (before breaking out a major electronic barrage that disappears almost as soon as it starts thumping). 

Some of the tracks are harder to latch onto — "Hollow," for example, lacks a chorus, repeated incantation, or even a consistent rhythm — and you can understand why Björk designed a visual companion for the album. 

Every planetarium in existence should be playing Biophilia with its shows; it's haunting, expertly crafted space music. But there are also extremely accessible moments, like Cosmogony, a sweet ballad that swells with choir and horns (or whatever unusual instrument Bjork dreamed up to make that sound). 

It also offers three explanations for the origin of the universe: (1) a silver fox sang a song that became the world, (2) a god burst out of a dark black egg, and (3) the Big Bang (though her version is more poetic). Even the laws of physics succumb to strange whimsy in Björk's world. Anyone who's seen her explain a television could have told you that.

The Avengers

The Avengers superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures is currently in post-production and is scheduled for release on May 4, 2012. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. 

 

It is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which crosses over several Marvel superhero films including Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). 

The film is written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast, which includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. In The Avengers, Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America to save the world from destruction.

The Rum Diary

The Rum Diary, based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson, directed by Bruce Robinson; starring Johnny Depp, Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard will be in the theaters October 28.

Synopsis: Paul Kemp is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction. 

 

Steve Jobs

Visionary

  

Jobs, the adopted son of a family in California, was born on Feb. 24, 1955. A college dropout, he established his reputation early on as a tech innovator when, at 21 years old, he and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc. in the Jobs family garage in 1976. 

Mr. Jobs chose the name, in part, because he was a Beatles fan and admired the group's Apple records label, according to the book "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders" by Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article

Steve Jobs, of course, had a big impact on the world of technology. But as fans mourn his death, he's also being remembered for how he changed the world of design. 

From candy-colored iMacs to seemingly magical covers for the iPad 2, Apple products are something you want to look at and play with. Even the packaging plays to your senses. How Steve Jobs Changed The World Of Design - NPR

While Steve Jobs' name is practically synonymous with Apple, there's another company that bears his unmistakable mark. It also revolutionized an industry, is known for polished, exceptional products that meld technology and art, and is incredibly successful. That company is Pixar. Steve Jobs Helped Revolutionize Animated Movies - NPR

He was a key figure in changing the way people used the Internet and how they listened to music, watched TV shows and movies, and read books, disrupting industries in the process.

"Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started," Disney CEO Robert

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article

Tainted Love

Tainted Love is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, and has since been covered by numerous other groups and artists.

Marilyn Manson covered "Tainted Love" and released it as a single from the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack. It was released in 2001. It was later included on his following album The Golden Age of Grotesque as a bonus track. Released in the UK in May 2002, it is Manson's biggest hit to date in that country, reaching a position of #5 in the UK Top 75 charts.

The video for Manson's cover shows Manson bringing several goth friends to a high school party. It features several characters from the film Not Another Teen Movie. It also features Joey Jordison, the drummer from Slipknot, and Tim Skold, who was not a member of the band at the time.

The song was featured in a trailer for the 2010 video game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

American Horror Story

"American Horror Story" (FX) is a big ol' brooding, baffling, ridiculous and occasionally compelling mess of a show. Never big fans of narrative convention, creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have rejected the essential rule of horror — the unseen is more terrifying than the revealed — in favor of the same "more is more" theology that fuels their equally defiant "Glee." As a result, early episodes seem less concerned with telling a scary story than pelting the viewer with story lines, vignettes, disturbing imagery, psycho-sexual titillation and the odd moment of high camp. [American Horror Story Review - LA Times: Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic]

Dylan McDermott, left, Taissa Farmiga and Connie Britton star in "American Horror Story." 

American Horror Story revolves around the Harmons, a family of three who moved from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish. The all-star cast features Dylan McDermott as “Ben Harmon,” a psychiatrist; Connie Britton as “Vivien Harmon,” Ben’s wife; Taissa Farmiga as “Violet,” the Harmon’s teenage daughter; Jessica Lange in her first-ever regular series TV role as “Constance,” the Harmon’s neighbor; Evan Peters plays “Tate Langdon,” one of Ben’s patients; and Denis O’Hare as “Larry Harvey.” Guest stars for the series include Frances Conroy as the Harmon’s housekeeper; Alexandra Breckenridge as the Harmon’s housekeeper; and Jamie Brewer as Constance’s daughter.

American Horror Story Premiers tonight, Wednesday, October 5, on FX.  American Horror Story Official Site

Tainted Love sung by Hannah Peal as heard on FX's American Horror Story.

George Harrison - Andy Warhol

George Harrison by Andy Warhol

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

George Harrison from the Martin Scorsese documentary "George Harrison: Living In The Material World."

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD  premieres on HBO over two nights Wednesday and Thursday October 5th and 6th.

Synopsis: Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese traces Harrison's life from his musical beginnings in Liverpool through his life as a musician, a seeker, a philanthropist, and filmmaker. Scorsese weaves together interviews with Harrison and his closest friends, performances, home movies, and photographs.

Interviews include Eric Clapton, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty, Phil Spector, Ringo Starr and Jackie Stewart. They speak honestly and frankly about Harrison’s many talents and contradictions.

Much of the material in the film has never been seen or heard before. The result is a rare glimpse into the mind and soul of one of the most talented artists of his generation and a profoundly intimate and affecting work of cinema.

The film was produced by Scorsese (through his Sikelia Productions banner), Olivia Harrison (through her Grove Street Pictures banner) and Nigel Sinclair (through Exclusive’s documentary label, Spitfire Pictures). Margaret Bodde served as the film’s executive producer and the film was edited by David Tedeschi, who previously worked with Scorsese, Bodde and Sinclair on the Grammy Award-winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and with Scorsese and Bodde on the Rolling Stone concert film Shine A Light and Public Speaking. Scott Pascucci also served as an executive producer for Grove Street.




Additionally, Abrams Books has published Olivia Harrison’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, a personal archive of photographs, letters, diaries, and memorabilia from George’s life that reveals the arc of his life, from his guitar-obsessed boyhood in Liverpool, to the astonishment of the Beatles years, to his days as an independent musician and bohemian squire. The book release is to coincide with the release of Scorsese’s film.

Articles:  

Documentary examines George Harrison [L.A. Times]

Within Him, Without Him [New York Times]

The Private Life of George Harrison [Rolling Stone]

Kat Von D: Inked Magazine

Inked Magazine Profiles Kat Von D. Photos by James Dimmock.   Read the article, I Am Not Kat Von D, written by Rebecca Swanner for Inked Magazine.

Kat Von D is known for her turn on the TLC reality show Miami Ink and the resulting spin-off, her own LA Ink. She was initially brought on board to fill in for fellow artist Darren Brass while he was on the mend, but Kat Von D caught on with many viewers and became a regular cast member. Kat Von D turned her new-found fame into her own tattoo parlor and her own show, which gave viewers more of what they really wanted. Meow! [AskMen.com]




Sex Appeal: Think: Joan Jett, Elvira and a little bit of the girl next door. It's an eclectic mix admittedly, but this unusual amalgamation sums up Kat Von D’s sex appeal. She has a bit of the Joan Jett aggressiveness that’s bound to drive the closet submissive wild. Her looks are dark, her skin is white and her lips are crimson red; what guy didn’t lust after Elvira during Creature Features? And somehow, Kat Von D also manages to come across as sweet and caring. She’s the yin and the yang. Her sex appeal is unique and may not fly for all, but she definitely has a following.[AskMen.com]

Kat Von D's measurements are B: 34 - W: 30 - H:36