OMG. is our class super empty today? 


10:41 AM

I'll just post these bulletins whenever I can, actually. Today's piece of perfectly un-gossipy news:

On this day in History: Uruguay beat Argentina in the 1930 World Cup for Football and became the first team to win the Cup!

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_FIFA_World_Cup

The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the first FIFA World Cup, the world championship for international football teams. It was played in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July. FIFA chose Uruguay as hosts at the Barcelona conference on 18 May 1929, as the country would be celebrating the centenary of its independence and the Uruguay national football team had successfully retained their football title at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Thirteen teams participated; nine from the Americas and four from Europe. Few European teams chose to participate due to the duration and cost of travel. The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously, and were won by France and the USA, who beat Mexico 4-1 and Belgium 3-0, respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, hosts and pre-tournament favourites Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people, and became the first nation to win a World Cup.

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS, DEARIES... (I promise I'll post about other celebrities soon... bear with me)

Mike Dirnt, bassist of Green Day

from: http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/review/3982/Green_Day_Interview_With_Green_Days_Mike_Dirnt_Interview.html

Interview

Gone are the days when Green Day were mainly known for coordinating their hair die with their band name and their boggy-eyed frontman's far-fetched sprechgesang, as witnessed on their 1994 'Dookie' album.

Since the turn of the century, having reached 30, the punk trio have taken a more engaged stance, with their 2004 acclaimed album, American Idiot, which they have now followed up with their latest outing, 21st Century Breakdown, released in the spring.

Bassist Mike Dirnt talks us through the making of this new opus, their new found maturity and their uncompromising credibility as punk stars of a new day.

Your new album, 21st Century Breakdown, took five years to make. Why so long?

Well, we had two years of touring the previous record [American idiot] and then three years of working on this one after we finished touring in December'05. We went into the studio in February'06. We had to take our time to really figure out what we wanted to do; we wanted to find ways of challenging rather than repeating ourselves. Jumping head first is not really our style.

What are the themes and influences on this new album?

The record is called 21st Century Breakdown and basically we have two characters on the record: Christian and Gloria, that kind of speak on each songs, without it being a story but more to identify an issue for each song in the post-Bush era. Because you know, in America, every week we have a different crisis, even though we have a new President and a sense of optimism, we're moving to the worst times seen since the depression era.

OK, so is this mainly an album for Americans or is it intended at everyone else as well?

Well, I think anybody can relate to it although that's where it comes from. Just because it was made in America, doesn't restrict it to there. It's not just about America, it's about people, who have emotions and feelings, and about how you can kill your dreams if you don't question everything, including yourself.

You cited Queen, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Clash, as influences for this album. How's that? How did these artists influence you?

I think more than musically, all these artists were very inspirational for the work they have achieved overall. It's not everyday that a band or an artist try to write the best record of their career, or try to reach another step beyond as songwriters and musicians. And for us, that challenge was very scary but also stimulating.

Is Hollywood the best place to achieve this?

Well, we only went there for the final recording of the album. But the first writing years we spent in Oakland. Then, we moved in a tiny studio in Southern California, when the producer (Butch Vig) got involved....

With 21st Century Breakdown you continue in the lines of a rock opera, following American Idiot, and the album is quite lengthy (three acts), why so long?

Yeah, this record is about 70 minutes. You know what, I think this record could almost be looked at as three small records put together. We did try to take songs on and take songs off but there just seemed to have a flow -each section of the record is very important in describing a full idea or emotion, and in making it a very good musical ride. I also think that we come from an era of making albums when they were still vinyl, and that in a day when people can just download one single off the internet if they want to, we need to make records a little more special that.

If you were to pick one song from each act/section, what would they be and why?

For the first section (Heroes and Cons), I would choose Know Your Enemy because it's such a personal question and yet it can also regarded as a global one.
In the 2nd section (Charlatans and Saints), I would pick Restless Heart Syndrome, which is a song about how prescription drugs and over the counter drugs are so advertised and pushed in America that sometimes you're taking pills in order to kill off all nightmares instead of killing your dreams.
And then for Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, that would have to be See The Light, because there's got to be hope in a time of crisis even though we don't have the answers to everything.

Who wrote the songs on this album? Did you all contribute ideas?

Billie Joe wrote most of the lyrics, he read them out to us, and then we started brainstorming on arrangements, sequencing, etc... Together, we found a logical and natural correlation for all the songs.

Why did you recruit Butch Vig to produce the album?

He had always been on our radar in terms of who we would like to work with some day. And then, we got the chance to meet him, and once we did, we all spontaneously agreed that he was the man for the job.

Did you feel you were stagnating with Rob Cavallo on production?

We just wanted something a little different, that's all. We've always been very involved in the production of our records anyway, so we wanted someone who was going to challenge us in a different way...

Which way was that?

Butch wanted to push the sound of things, so on some songs, there's a lot of piano stuff or certain vocal styles that you would never expect to hear from Green Day. Butch really pushed us into letting these songs out. He let us be emotional, vulnerable and dangerous and prompted not to be afraid of anything.

How would you define your music today- has it evolved from being plain punk rock to something else at all?

We're a punk rock band, that's the scene we came from but I think Green Day is also a great rock'n'roll band.... I am more than biased 'cause it's my band but I think we're very ambitious, and I just want to make music for the world, and I want to write great songs and want to make my family proud.

Can a punk band still rock it out past 40?

Yeah, 'cause the punk scene I grew up in was never ageist. There are no rules to punk rock.

What do you make of all these punk bands reforming: The Only Ones, Wire, to name a few, all these bands suddenly reforming in 2008-09?

Well, I think it's alright if they want to get back together. If people want to go and see them, then that's fine. It's like with us- we can't force anyone to buy our records or like our music, we just got to put it out there and see what happens.

You've been together for 22 years now. Has it always been an easy ride?

We spent 22 years in this band but have all known each other since the age of 5. [laughs]...Well, there have been ups and downs, but I think it's harder to stick together than to call it quits. A lot of bands give up but we've managed to keep it together, both for ourselves and for the band...

So did you ever feel like quitting?

I wouldn't call it quitting but more take off the pressure of what we do, at times. We're fully aware of the opportunities we've been given, to achieve great goals, and do not want to take them granted. And I am very proud of Green Day's longetivity.

Tell us about the musical stage adaptation of American Idiot (produced by the team behind 'Spring Awakening', due to premiere at the Berkley Repertory Theatre in California this September). Is it the beginning of lucrative retirement plan?

Well, I don't think we did anything for money. I think we do it for art. I don't need any money 'cause eventually I'm gonna die and it will all go away anyway, so I don't care about that. And with the musical, I mean, we saw it, and the people who are doing it are absolutely brilliant at their craft, and to see these kids performing you can tell they live for the stage and for their art, and that is very inspirational for us.

21st Century Breakdown is out now. Green Day will tour the UK from October 19th to November 1st.

(credits to Solange Moffi)

The Ace

12:21 PM

I WAS ONCE A PANDA. BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT. 


3:40 PM

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS (ABOUT AVRIL LAVIGNE) AND BREAKING NEWS (ABOUT PANDAS) FOR YOU, DEARIES.

Spotted: Recording songs that take us back to the emo-heavy songs of her previous works: Avril Lavigne is writing and recording songs again.

Taken from http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/07/24/avril-lavigne-in-the-studio-exclusive/

Avril Lavigne in the studio: An EW exclusive!

Avril Lavigne didn’t mean to start recording a new album. “It just happened,” she says of the still-untitled November 17th release. “I made a record without even feeling like I made a record.”

Sitting in a studio in Tarzana, Calif., with her feet — clad in a pair of vinyl hightops — propped up on a mixing board, the now 24 year old pop-punk princess barely looks a day older than she did when “Complicated” took the airwaves by storm in 2002. “I’m sitting on the piano writing in the foyer, and he’s in the studio, and it’s like, ‘Hey. I like that.’”

“He” is Lavigne’s husband (and Sum 41 frontman) Deryck Whibley, who has used the couple’s home studio to produce eight of the nine tracks she’s recorded so far. “I think this is taking the spirit of what she’s done on previous records so much further,” he says. “It’s way more meaningful, has more of an impact, more emotional. It makes me feel something more than the other stuff. And I wanted to match that musically with the track.”

Lavigne seems thrilled to have such a crack in-house production partner. “He knows me. We spend a lot of time together,” she laughs, in her habitual cackle. “And the cool thing is, if he’s recording something and I don’t like it, I can be like, ‘No, no, no, I don’t like that. More like this.’ Or I can walk in and be like, ‘Love it. Keep going.’”

It was a song snippet called “Black Star” — intended for her fragrance commercial — that launched the recording process back in November; Lavigne played that intro and two complete tracks for EW called “Everybody Hurts” and “Darlin’.” The first has a trademark Lavigne acoustic beginning, then explodes into a loud chorus of “Everybody hurts some days.”

The second is a love song Lavigne wrote when she was 15: “I always really liked this song,” she says, “and I never recorded it.” There are other songs from her past on the record, too, including one she wrote at 17, and one she wrote at 20. “I always had material, but some people that I worked with didn’t really care, because they wanted to write the stuff,” she says, when asked why the tunes haven’t surfaced before. “Some people were just like, ‘Ah, whatever. You’re a little girl. What do you know?’ I know how this works. It’s my fourth record. It’s not rocket science. I think people doubted me before, and I’m finally just like, ‘I’m doing this.’”

Both new tracks also demonstrate quite clearly that the rapping/Toni Basil affliction that plagued 2007’s The Best Damn Thing has left her system, and she’s back to the emo-heavy strengths of her first two albums. “[Best Damn Thing] was intended to be fun, to be rockin’,” she explains. “All I had in my mind was my live show, running around on stage, getting the crowd involved. This record, I just really, really wanted to sing. We started recording each song, some of them, just with acoustic guitar and the vocal and building it from there. It’s stripped down. I love performing that way, so I really felt like it was time to make a record like that. To just make it all about the vocal and the performance, and the vibe, and the emotion.”

She’s thinking about doing a theater tour in support of the new album, so she can bring that emotion directly to the audience. “I just wanna have silence around me, and have these acoustic songs and really deliver,” she says.

There’s more work to be done before the album release, but Lavigne doesn’t seem to be sweating it. “My new word right now is ‘balance,’” she says. “Work hard, play hard. Maybe that should be the album cover: Work Hard, Play Hard…Bitch.” With this, she cracks herself up again. “I swear to God I have not drank anything but green juice today,” she grins. “Why am I acting like this?” Part of it may be that the little sk8er girl is finally growing up, and feels comfortable — and demonstrably happy — making an album that reflects where she is in life right now. “I was always really honest in my lyrics,” she says, “I think more so when I was younger, and now it’s kind of come back to that. Just like, you know what? I’m not trying to write a perfect pop song. I’m just trying to write a song that’s honest right now, even if something sounds weird or a lyric might not make sense to someone.

“I’m turning 25 this year. 25, but not 35! Half of me is really older-acting and the other half is a young spirit. When I’m really old, I think I’ll be crazy, and have a young spirit and be fun. But yeah. I am an adult. But sometimes I still feel like I’m 19.” She guffaws again. “Sometimes I still dress like I’m 19. I don’t think I’ll ever be super mad sophisticated. I think I’ll always be like this.”

Spotted: The beautiful sight of a baby. A special one.

From http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/24/panda-born-frozen-sperm.html

First Panda Born From Frozen Sperm

July 24, 2009 -- China announced the first successful birth of a panda cub from artificial insemination using frozen sperm, giving a new option for the notoriously poor breeders, officials said Friday.

Panda females have only three days a year in which they can conceive -- one reason their species is endangered.

Female panda You You (pronounced Yo Yo) gave birth to the new cub Thursday morning at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in southwestern Sichuan. It is You You's third baby, and the 10th panda cub born at Wolong this year.

Just after dawn, the pinkish, hairless cub emerged, and its mother licked the baby to clean it, according to footage shown by state broadcaster CCTV.

Panda researchers said Friday that they believe it's the first successful live birth worldwide using frozen panda sperm.

"We did try before but it failed," said Huang Yan, a deputy research technician with the China Panda Preservation Research Center.
The technique has been tried in other countries but this was the first known instance of a live birth, he said.

The sperm from male panda Lolo had been frozen for "a number of years," said Huang, though he did not give details.

Artificial insemination is commonly used for breeding pandas, which have a very low sex drive. In 2006, 34 pandas were born through artificial insemination in China and 30 survived -- both record numbers for the endangered species. The technique has also been used at zoos in the United States.

However, using panda sperm that has been frozen earlier -- instead of from an immediate donor -- had not been successful before.

Scientists carried out the artificial insemination in March, and You You was found to be pregnant in June during an ultrasound exam, according to a notice on the Wolong Center's Web site.

xoxo (not quite),

The Ace


12:41 PM

What the heck, people! Why does no one post? SO irritating. Leave your email addresses in the tagboard and I'll invite you all.

xoxo (not quite),

The Ace


12:38 PM