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John Lodge, bass player for The Moody Blues, has died at age 82.
He joined legendary rock band in 1966, contributing to all of key their successes.
Lodge wrote several hits including “Evening (Time to Get Away)” from “Days of Future Passed,” “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band),” “Isn’t Life Strange,” and “Ride My Seesaw”).
In addition to the Moodys hits, Lodge was part of a duo with co-founder Justin Hayward and had hits like “I Dreamed Last Night.”
"I’m very sad and shocked to hear of John’s passing. I have such happy memories of making music together. My sincere condolences to his dear wife and family.” – JH pic.twitter.com/1ifcywfmcE
The Moody Blues remain one of the legacy bands in pop and rock music despite never being flashy or outrageous. They were just great musicians. Condolences to his family.
That would seem to shut the door on Trump getting their Person of the Year prize at the end of the year.
Senior Correspondent Philip Elliott writes: “Donald Trump was thirsty for diplomacy’s biggest medal. He woke up Friday, still parched…facts don’t matter to Trump. In his mind, he’s the bringer of peace, ender of wars, champion of tranquility, and more deserving than any of the 337 others to receive nominations this year…
“In his telling, Trump has ended as many as eight wars on his watch, although those claims are at best iffy. And the backlash would have been seismic…
“And for someone who awards himself club championships at golf courses he owns and prints fake covers of TIME, the self-promotion is to be expected.”
Based on those insights, Trump has better chance of getting a Razzie than a TIME Award come December. There’s no doubt his campaign was set to begin any minute. This really feels like a warning from TIME to forget it.
Indeed, the Persons of the Year should be the brave immigrants who have had to fight deportation, illegal arrests, and violence from ICE. They’re the bravest people in this country.
Donald Trump’s pleas for the Nobel Peace Prize may have finally found substance.
The rappe Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group and fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar has been dismissed.
Drake claimed that lyrics to Lamar’s hit record, “Not Like Us,” libeled him as a pedophile.
Trump had nothing to do with it, but may claim the end of this war as one of the many he’s resolved.
From the court’s motion:
“Over the course of 16 days, the two artists released eight so-called “diss tracks,” with increasingly heated rhetoric, loaded accusations, and violent imagery. The penultimate song of this feud, “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, dealt the metaphorical killing blow. The song contains lyrics explicitly accusing Drake of being a pedophile, set to a catchy beat and propulsive bass line. “Not Like Us” went on to become a cultural sensation, achieving immense commercial success and critical acclaim.”
But Drake’s complaints were faint. The court concludes:
“Because the Court concludes that the allegedly defamatory statements in “Not Like Us” are nonactionable opinion, the motion to dismiss is GRANTED.”
So much for that.
Drake — real name Aubrey Graham — made a real mistake here. He turned “Not Like Us” into a massive hit that eventually won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, and Music Video.
The so-called feud that resulted from this mess became a cause célèbre that mystified most people. Now the feud may be over, and the people in Oslo — wholly unaware of it — will have to decide if Trump’s overall message of peace was an influence on the judge.
“Melania, Here I Am,” or whatever it’s called, is coming to theaters on January 26th.
This from Amazon/MGM, directed by Brett Ratner.
It’s an infomercial about the 20 days leading up to 2025 Inauguration last winter.
Ratner had “unprecedented access” to Melania, which will be interesting since she’s never with her husband, they don’t live together, and her 19 year old son is missing most of the time.
What we won’t see are her battles with step children or pajama parties with Kristi Noem. Will we see her with Paolo Zampoli, witness her speaking six languages, or going back to Slovenia to trace her past.
What we will see: Melania, in her Dracula accent, giving prepared speeches about her various meaningless causes.
Amazon paid Trump $40 million to stay out of their way.
Now look, I like Brett Ratner despite his many travails over the years. I don’t know if this is the way he can get back into Hollywood. It doesn’t seem like it. That will depend on how much fawning there is in this film, if there’s any objectivity, or any sign that Melania — famous “I really don’t care, do you?” — has any empathy for her husband’s legions of victims.
This should be good.
PS Whoever hires Paul Rudnick to review this movie will have the essay of the year.
EXCLUSIVE Well, the Yankees lost last night to the Toronto Blue Jays. I’m disappointed, but that’s a whole other story.
Since the Blue Jays have exploded in the last couple of weeks rapper SRE Isaac Asare created a song to celebrate the occasion. It’s called “I Want it All,” which is also the name of a Queen hit the team uses from time to time.
The difference with this “I Want it All” is that Guess Who/Bachman Turner Overdrive legend, Randy Bachman, loved it when he heard it. Randy is Canadian, and over the top popular up north. He added a bunch of guitar licks and solos to Isaac’s song and now we have this very catchy tune.
As you know, Randy’s takin’ care of business!
Bad Bunny fans take note: SRE raps in Spanish beginning at 1:48 of the track and this is to pay tribute to many of the Jays players who are Spanish speaking and to also appeal to the large Spanish speaking audience of MLB.
Isaac says: “Once we had the rough mix completed, people in the studio felt that it was very powerful and that we had a potential hit. We heard and envisioned a massive guitar riff on it that we felt would take the song over the top, so with great aspiration we reached out to legendary guitarist and front man for Bachman Turner Overdrive and The Guess Who, Randy Bachman. He listened to the song and now we have one of the greatest guitar legends and songwriters of all time, Randy Bachman playing his signature guitar on I Want It All. Randy wrote his guitar riff, which of course is monumental.”
The song was mixed and mastered by Jim Reitzel, mix and master engineer to Narada Michael Walden and Carlos Santana SRE Records.
The tracks on featured during the worldwide celebration will include three live performances from the iconic 1972 One To One concert, John’s only full-length performance after The Beatles, and six studio and live performances spanning the breadth of the expansive “Power to the People” box set which will be out tomorrow.
There’s also a Peace Tower lighting from Iceland that you can watch ImaginePeaceTower.com
And of course, there will be a lot of people singing in Central Park today at Strawberry Fields.
It was only a few months ago that theater fans were outraged by ticket prices to see Denzel Washington in “Othello” and George Clooney in “Good Night and Good Luck.”
Producers were charging $900 a pop for the plays, and in some cases even more.
Right now, “Hamilton,” has a premium ticket priced at $1,500 to see their original Tony Award winner Leslie Odom, Jr in a short return to the role of Aaron Burr.
Now Tom Hanks is facing real resistance to his off Broadway debut at The Shed, way off Broadway in Hudson Yards.
Hanks starts performances on October 31st in “This World of Tomorrow,” which he co-wrote and stars in with Broadway favorite Kelli O’Hara.
So far, tickets are not selling. They’re available for every performance in large quantities.
The only tickets that are sold for each night “at the very front of the theater.” They’ve been put aside for people under 30 years old, and cost just $45.
But the rest of the theater sells for $379 to $399 a seat. If you’re over 30, and bring a guest, “This World of Tomorrow” will cost $800, not to mention food and transportation to the real world of tomorrow, Hudson Yards.
Commenters on Instagram, where ads are running frequently, are outraged. “No one can afford this” is the gist of it with one commenter saying they couldn’t come even though they knew someone in the production.
The $399 ticket is heavy lifting for a totally new play, not a known legacy hit like, say, “The Gin Game” or “On Golden Pond.” It’s also a lot for a show that isn’t a musical, which would have show stopping sets and maybe a little dancing.
While Hanks is a movie superstar, he’s also not a big draw for the under-30 crowd. Maybe if Selena Gomez or Ayo Edibiri were his co-star there would be more interest from young people.
It’s unclear if Tom, the ultimate good guy, has any idea that right now he’ll be playing to half-empty houses. I tried to make contact through his publicist, but was rebuffed. So much for that.
What to do? Use some kind of AI technique for de-aging, then make a fake ID. If anyone mentions anything that happened in the world before 1995, just say “Oh, yeah. My parents told me about that.”
Last year, Jennifer Lopez — aka JLo– had a lovely turn in the Amazon MGM movie, “Unstoppable.”
When the movie played in Toronto, there was some Oscar buzz. If “Unstoppable” had had a real release, Lopez might have been in the conversation. But it was buried.
Now comes “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The new take on the 1985 musical comes from Roadhouse Attractions. I jokingly call them Roadkill Attractions. Everything they touch turns to dross.
That seems to be the case for “Spider Woman.” Despite decent reviews, “Spider Woman” is set to have a dismal weekend.
I can’t be alone as a member of the Critics Choice Association and reviewer for Rotten Tomatoes when I say that I’ve never received even an email about the movie. Nothing, Nada. I was surprised to learn that they had a New York premiere this week (the same night as the Timothee Chalamet surprise screening at the New York Film Festival).
On Metacritic “Spider Woman” has a 60 rating. The number is higher on Rotten Tomatoes — 80 — but it’s inflated by bloggers and influencers. Top critics also have it around 60%.
“Spider Woman” is directed by Bill Condon, who’s had major hits with “Dreamgirls,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” He won an Oscar for writing “Gods and Monsters,” and also wrote “The Greatest Showman.” So he knows what he’s doing.
The cast actually stars Diego Luna — so popular from “Andor” — and a one-named actor called Tonatiuh, who’s getting high praise but I know nothing whatsoever about him. No one else does either. If he’s that good in the movie, that’s a shame.
“Spider Woman” opens tomorrow night in previews, with very few tickets sold despite JLo doing her damnedest to promote the film single-handedly. You can tell this whole enterprise is going to end in tears. Lopez’s one solution is to hire her own Oscar specialist, and not depend on Roadkill, er, Roadhouse. Otherwise, this will be a lot of work out the window.
