Willie Nelson, who has shared the stage with everyone and the horses they rode in on, trots out a staggering array of musical friends on his 70th birthday celebration record, Live and Kickin’, a fascinating testament to Nelson’s place in American culture, but ultimately too much of an “event” to …

Missy Elliott has become the most important woman in hip-hop – the nomination of her Under Construction for Album of the Year reflects that. Missy Elliott’s Under Construction is something of a surprise nomination, though not an unpleasant one. Though coded in the language of the hood, Elliott’s message is …

Check out your Valentine’s Day message from Outkast here. Outkast will win big at the Grammys tomorrow night – here’s why: Outkast’s double-CD extravaganza, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below their fifth album, the two members of Outkast (winners of three previous rap Grammys) have taken the audacious gamble of recording two completely …

Great story in the Washington Post about a comedy duo who shared the bill with the Fab Four in their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964. I was five at the time – my parents tell me I watched it with them, but I honestly don’t …

Big doings Down Under: The enforcement arm of the Australian record industry has raided the premises of Sharman Networks and its proprietor, Nicola Hemming, in what it says is a bid to stop illegal copying of music through the Kazaa network. Yesterday, Music Industry Privacy Investigations obtained court orders allowing …

Most of us have seen the Pepsi/Apple ad that debuted at the Super Bowl for the giant music download giveaway they are jointly promoting. Brian Flemming doesn’t like it one bit and made a little film about it. James Saldana doesn’t like it either and has made a parody of …

The Smoking Gun has the details on the first known lawsuit filed in connection with the Great Super Bowl Flash of 2004: A Tennessee woman yesterday filed a proposed class action lawsuit “on behalf of all Americans” who watched the Super Bowl halftime show and were somehow injured by Miss …

The 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education comes up in May. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation of public schools “solely on the basis of race” denied black children equal educational opportunity, even though “physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may have …

Janet Jackson’s breast has become the most searched-for image in net history. To this I reply, “No shit.” Search engines reported a big jump in searches for terms such as Janet Jackson and Super Bowl, as people turn to the web for images of the event. The maker of digital …

All week long we have been hearing about how the “sophisticated” world outside our borders is laughing at us for the hubbub over the flash of a breast on national TV. Chuckle on, Swedes: Animal sex is not illegal in Sweden, and every year between 200 and 300 pets are …