Miley, Kanye, Taylor and Beyonce Head For MTV VMAs
Even as the stock market was crashing Monday, Van Toffler’s spirits were heading in the other direction. “This is my favorite week,” he told me by phone from New York, referring to the days leading into MTV Video Music Awards this coming Sunday. Toffler is an executive producer of the show who has worked on the VMAs since 1987, just three years after its inception, when Madonna set the standard for opening performances with her...
Riveting Documentary Chronicles the Life of Amy Winehouse
It will soon be four years to the day the tragic news came down that singer Amy Winehouse had died at age 27, a death in her London flat that was later ruled as accidental alcohol poisoning. Her brief and tumultuous life is harrowingly chronicled in a new feature-length documentary, “Amy,” which utilizes home movies of her childhood and young adulthood, studio rehearsal footage and interviews with friends, family and people in the...
The Foo Fighters’ Road to Musical Discovery, Sonic Highways
What would a multiple-Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum record-selling band do to mark its 20th year in the music business? Well, put out a new album of course. But if that band is the Foo Fighters, the concept was to create it in an entirely different way. Yes, it involved taking a road trip–not to tour in front of sellout crowds, but to discover the heart and soul of America’s musical identity by exploring eight cities...
Upfronts, Center and Sideways, All Over the Map for TV Hopefuls
Attending upfronts is a bit like partaking in an all-you-can-eat buffet: something you do once a year–in which some of the offerings are pretty tasty, some inedible, several of which that are incredibly delicious and leave you hungering for more, others that can best be classified as comfort food, plus some new offerings sprinkled here and there throughout the line. It all amounts to the net effect of leaving you sated, if...
ELLE Celebrates Women Musicians with Private Concert Headlined by Sarah McLachlan
Kicking off with beats from DJ Rumer Willis, music filled the house at Avalon Hollywood for the 5th annual ELLE Women in Music concert Tuesday night to celebrate the mag’s new issue – with Miley Cyrus on the cover–lauding femme musicians. Headliner Sarah McLachlan had a packed house singing along on some of her greatest hits including “Adia” and “Angel” as she began her set behind a grand piano before...