Culturite

With a wanton lack of sympathy for the mortgage meltdown and ensuing credit crisis, teenagers in one California community are using abandoned foreclosed homes as venues for unchaperoned—and presumably “raging”—drinking parties.

From NBC 4 in Burbank, Calif.:

“With the increasing number of homes being foreclosed upon, what we’re finding is people vacate these homes, other people are coming in and using these homes, often times for parties and gatherings,” said David Keith of the Oxnard Police Department.

Jay-Z hit back at Noel Gallagher’s criticism of his headlining Glastonbury slot by playing his own version of ‘Wonderwall’ on Saturday.

The Oasis guitarist had criticised the decision to allow Jay-Z to headline the event, saying it should stick to its traditional indie music roots.

The rapper responded by opening with an acoustic version of ‘Wonderwall’ with Gallagher’s “Hip-hop at Glastonbury is just wrong” comments dubbed over the top.

He told the crowd: “So they say you guys didn’t want me to be here tonight. They said you guys weren’t into hip-hop. Thanks for all the love here tonight.

“This is a beautiful moment, I’m glad to share it with each and every one of you.”

Jay-Z then performed a set that included ‘Big Pimpin’’, ’99 Problems’ and ‘Hard Knock Life’, as well as covers of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’.

A man who was allegedly elbowed in the head by Amy Winehouse at Glastonbury Festival has handed his digital camera footage of the incident to the BBC.

James Gostelow, 25, from London, said the singer caught him on the forehead after someone in the crowd behind him threw a hat at her.

Winehouse, 24, was seen apparently lashing out at the audience during her Pyramid Stage performance on Saturday.

But police said they had received no complaints of assault.

Broadcast footage on the night appeared to show Winehouse elbow one fan after being hit on the head by a hat, then throw a series of punches into the crowd.

Mr Gostelow said the incident was a case of mistaken identity.

“I saw a hat being thrown from behind me and it hit Amy’s beehive. She looked down, saw me looking up, and her elbow went for me.

“She caught my forehead, then someone may have shouted something from the back, which is when she went in again.”

Winehouse, who performed in front of an estimated 75,000 people, jumped off the stage and into the security pit for the last two songs of her set.

The Verve have brought Glastonbury 2008 to a close, headlining the Pyramid Stage tonight (June 29).

Topping the bill on the last night of the three day festival, the reunited band served up a mix of anthems and previewed their new album ‘Forth’ due out in August.

Kicking off with ‘This Is Music’, frontman Richard Ashcroft shouted out the refrain of the next song ‘Sonnet’ – “there’s love if you want it!”- urging the swelling crowd on and they duly obliged with a loud sing-a-long.

“Thank you, you’re sounding good tonight declared Ashcroft afterwards. “A shout out for Jay-Z for putting in a good performance but tonight is rock n roll!”

Fans of the huge Toronto duo Crystal Castles love singer Alice Glass’ extreme on-stage antics. But last night, it seems that the security guards at Glastonbury didn’t feel quite the same way.

Wearing red tights and a skirt, as well as a black leather jacket, Glass tore around the stage and repeatedly dove into the photo pit. But when she climbed to the stop of a speaker stack during the first few notes of “Alice Practice,” the lights and music were suddenly shut down, leaving Glass on top of the speakers, not sure what to do next.

Eventually she climbed back down, saying, “They’re shutting us off! Who’s in charge?”

But the shut-down was short-lived. The crowd booed until the music came back on and Crystal Castles were allowed to resume their high-octane show – as long as they stayed low to the ground.

Vampire Weekend played to a packed crowd on Glastonbury’s Other Stage this afternoon (June 27).

The New York band were one of the first acts rumoured to be playing at the 2008 festival after playing the London new talent night Holy Cow, run by some of the festival’s organisers.

“I can’t believe how many people we’re looking at,” declared frontman Erza Koenig. “It’s such a beautiful site, we’re really honoured to be back in your country.”

MGMT played to a rammed to the rafters John Peel Tent at Glastonbury tonight (June 27th).

The crowd was spilling way out of the tent by the time the boys took to the stage to huge cheers. ‘Weekend Wars’ immediately had people dancing in unison and the pace never let up.

‘Electric Feel’ caused a mass singalong, as crowd surfers made for the stage, but it was ‘Time to Pretend’ which really shook the tent. The duo – Andrew VanWyngardan and Ben Goldwasser – having been quiet between songs applauded the crowd’s reaction as they left the stage.

Editors have played one of their biggest festival sets to date, taking to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage this evening (June 27).

Returning after a break while frontman Tom Smith became a father, the band used the set to test out new material.

Santogold brought a touch of glamour to the Park Stage at Glastonbury festival this afternoon (June 27).

Belting out hits from her recently-released eponymous debut album, including ‘Creator’ and ‘LES Artistes’, the singer pulled in a big crowd.

Performing choreographed dance moves with her singers, Santogold, who was wearing a T-shirt featuring pictures of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, joked with the crowd about the rain.

Lightspeed Champion performed two new songs during his set on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury today (June 27).

However, Dev Hynes joked that fans should “go and get stocked up at the herbal highs tent” rather than listen to the new songs, titled ‘Marlene’ and ‘Kill Me Baby Won’t You Kill Me’.

Taking to the stage twirling around a cape, Hynes told the crowd to get ready for a “fat rave”, before playing a set consisting mostly of tracks from his debut album ‘Falling Off The Lavender Bridge’ – including ‘Galaxy Of The Lost’ and ‘Devil Tricks For A Bitch’.

Users who haven’t specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks.

That way, Facebook doesn’t have to default to “their” or the made-up word “themself,” as it had been doing.

While not knowing someone’s gender poses grammatical challenges in English, it has created even larger headaches as Facebook expands to other languages, where a gender-neutral option isn’t available in plural form.

“People who haven’t selected what sex they are frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex entirely,” Naomi Gleit, a Facebook product manager, wrote Friday in a company blog.

Transgendered people and other users who find the male-female distinction too limiting will still have the option of removing gender entirely from their profiles.

Citizen journalists, MySpace and NBC News want you to help cover this summer’s political conventions.

MySpace, NBC News and MSNBC.com are running a contest among MySpace users for the job of covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. One winner will cover for MySpace’s IMPACT civic/social engagement channel the DNC in late August; the other will cover the RNC in early September.

The contest is open to anyone over the age 18 who submits a short video piece answering one of these questions: “Why do you vote?” “Why are you the best person for this job?” Or “How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?” Submissions will be whittled down to five finalists by judges Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” as well as Tom Anderson and Lee Brenner of MySpace.

Extravagant plans were unveiled yesterday for the world’s first swirling skyscrapers, with each floor rotating up to once an hour to form an ever-changing profile on the skyline.

The first two towers are to be built in Dubai and Moscow in what the architect describes as a new era of dynamic architecture. David Fisher, who admits never having designed a skyscraper before, said: “My buildings are unique because they are the first ones to rotate — to be dynamic — every second.”

The rotating floors will be made of prefabricated units that spin around a concrete core. Most of the floors will be controlled from the architect’s laptop, so that they are synchronised to make undulating architectural forms. Owners who buy an entire floor will be able to use voice activation controls to command it to rotate at will, so that they can pick their view.

Production of the prefabricated units is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks at a factory outside Bari, in Italy. Mr Fisher said that buyers should be able to move into the completed building in Dubai by the end of 2010. Details of the financing remain unclear because the developers are relying on pre-sales for at least part of the $700 million (£355 million) cost of building the 80-storey skyscraper.

The New York businessman known in the hip-hop world as “Jacob the Jeweler” was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for lying to investigators looking into a multistate drug ring.

JACOB & Co. boasts a celebrity list of owners from Angela Bassett, Jimmy Fallon, Gisele Bundchen, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Enrique Iglesias, Justin Timberlake, Verne Troyer, Fred Durst, David & Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John, Karl Lagerfeld, Carmen Kass, Naomi Campbell, Stefano Gabbana, Mya, Busta Rhymes, Nelly, Wyclef Jean, Nas, Tyrese, 50 Cent, Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Bono, Michael Jordan, Tyson Beckford, Britney Spears, Sharon Stone, Beyonce Knowles, Rudolf Giuliani, Lenny Kravitz, Jessica Simpson, John Mayer, T.K. Hong Kong, and the list goes on.

Timbaland may have teamed up with everyone from Justin Timberlake and Madonna to Ashlee Simpson, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, but it’s his latest partnership that will hopefully be the most successful.

The prolific hip-hop producer tied the knot with longtime publicist and baby mama Monique Idlett in Aruba Sunday.

Several hundred guests shared in the nuptial bliss, including longtime collaborator Missy Elliott, Omarion, Ginuwine, rapper Magoo and Timbaland-groomed artist Kerri Hilson, per Us Weekly, which first reported the matrimony.

The 37-year-old liner-note staple, whose real name is Timothy Mosley, and the 33-year-old Idlett had been dating for two and a half years prior to the vow swap.

After less than a week, nearly a million YouTubers have watched Soulja Boy’s video response to Ice-T.  Soulja Boy was notably upset when Ice-T suggested he was ruining the industry and that Soulja Boy should, ‘eat a d__k’.

Soulja boy is fresh ass hell and is actually the true meaning of what hip hop is sposed to be.  He came from the hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song.  He had all of America rapping this summer.  If that ain’t Hip Hop then what is?  A bunch of wannabe keep it real rappers that ain’t even relevant, recycling samples trying to act like it’s 96 again and all they do is hate on new shit?  Niggas always talk about the golden age but for a 13 year old kid, this is the golden age!!!  That song was so dope cause everything he said had a hidden meaning… that’s Nas level shit… he just put it over some steel drums which is also some Nas shit if you had the 2nd album cassette with the bonus track “Silent Murder” on it.  In closing… new niggas get ya money$$$  Keep this shit fresh and original…. ain’t no fuckin’ rules to this shit and that’s what real hip hop is to me.

“I’d like to clarify how all this [expletive deleted] jumped off,” Ice-T explained. “I was in the recording booth doing a mixtape, and the cats in there doing the promotion were [expletive deleted] with me. They were saying things about ‘Soulja Boy this, Soulja Boy that’ and basically I went on one. It wasn’t meant to be evil, it was basically that Hip-Hop [expletive deleted] that’ stance.”

“I didn’t expect them to use that clip to promote their mixtape,” Ice-T reasoned. “So I’m in the crib and [expletive deleted] is calling me talking about Soulja Boy is replying to you on the Internet. And I’m like ‘replying to what?’ So I see it and I’m like ‘man here we go.’ It was a statement made behind closed doors, not meant to be an attack on this [expletive deleted].

“I didn’t even know dude was 17 years-old,” Ice continues. “I felt bad. I know I came hard at the [expletive deleted], but at the end of the day that’s just an old school, passionate Hip-Hopper trying to keep this thing 100. I’m not trying to disrespect Collipark or even lil homie [Soulja Boy]. Of course I overreacted…it’s not meant to be harmful. Bottom line is I would like to see rappers of today step their game up.”

Many fans also pointed out that they felt Ice was being hypocritical by criticizing Soulja Boy, especially since he appeared in the video for Joe Ski Love’s “Pee Wee Herman,” a dance oriented 80’s track.

One of America’s most popular and often controversial comedians, George Carlin, died in Santa Monica, California. He was 71.

Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Some People Are Stupid. Stuff. People I Can Do Without. George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero’s jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks � why, he once asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

Esbjörn Svensson, who died on Saturday aged 44 in a scuba-diving accident near Stockholm, was a pianist and leader of the innovative Esbjörn Svensson Trio, popularly known as EST.

The trio, founded in the early 1990s, played an unclassifiable brand of music which incorporated avant-garde jazz, contemporary rock and elements of modern classical music in constantly varying proportions.

Its live performances, in particular, were exciting, unpredictable and hugely popular with young audiences. The trio’s fame was still growing strongly at the time of Svensson’s death.

Esbjörn Svensson was born on April 16 1964 at Västeras, Sweden. His mother was a classical pianist and his father a keen jazz enthusiast, and the boy grew up with an equal love for both genres, as well as for rock.

He took up the piano “because we didn’t have any other instrument in the house”, although he would have preferred the drums. Quite soon he met another schoolboy, Magnus Oström, who did have some drums and they began playing together: “We had no idea how to play, but it was a lot of fun … No one was telling us how to play.” Oström was to become the drummer with EST.

At 16 Svensson gained a place at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, going on later to study Music at Stockholm University. During this time he played in a number of small jazz combos in Sweden and Denmark before finding work in the recording studios.

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society, producers of the TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival, wishes to express its profound sadness at the news of Esbjorn Svensson’s death on the weekend. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

The acclaimed Swedish pianist and leader of the group e.s.t. died Saturday while scuba diving near his home in Stockholm. e.s.t. was scheduled to perform June 24 at The Centre on a double bill with the John Scofield Trio during the TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival.