Lollapalooza 2010

If it’s August, and you’re in Chicago, you know it’s hot. If you’re in Grant Park between Friday and Sunday, it’s even hotter. And bigger, too. This year’s Lollapalooza, Chi-town’s biggest annual music festival, has clearly evolved into a massive, well-oiled machine, welcoming near 100,000 music fans a day from across the country. Lolla’s creator, ex Janes Addiction lead-man Perry Ferrel, has expanded the grounds to encompass nearly all of Grant Park with two new stages. With a party this size you’d expect the trash-cans to be overflowing, the lines too long, and the masses almost unbearable, but Lollapalooza has managed to keep up with it’s ambitious aim to provide a larger and better experience. Throughout the day volunteers and employees pick cans off the grass, deliver ice to vendors, and keep the restrooms sanitary. When it got too hot, a shady and unoccupied space was never hard to find. Finding a good place to eat was our last worry with two cuisine-filled streets on the North and South sides of the park. The one thing we did have to worry about was how we would see our favorite acts between seven stages, with up to five of them blasting at once.

As always, the festival hosted some of the biggest acts around. Most events have a handful of head-liners, but Lollapalooza’s list can be best described as a collection of who’s been who in the past three decades of music, with Lady Gaga, Green Day, Phoenix, The Strokes, Soundgarden, ¬Arcade Fire, Cypress Hill, Blues Traveller, Jimmy Cliff, Social Distortion, and MGMT to name a few.

Greenday

The rock trio that brought us the stoner-garage-punk-laden Dookie (1994) is still at it in the wake of their well received and heavily promoted 2004 American Idiot release. Their scheduled two hour and fifteen minute set, which singer Billie Joe Armstrong promised to break, stretched fifteen minutes past the festivals nightly 10:00 conclusion. Green Day’s set was filled with the same poignant and youthful energy that made them famous. They played a mix of old and new with songs like Longview and Boulevard of Broken Dreams , appeasing what we estimated was the largest crowd for any performer during Lollapalooza – filled with both tweens and older adults. A set filled with synchronized fireworks, tight riffs, and dexterous fills from drummer Tre Cool kept it rocking. While the theatrics of Armstrong often took precedence over the music they managed to hit all of the bases (even playing a cover of Hey Jude). The band ended their two and a half hour performance with Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) to tuck Saturday’s Lollapalooza into bed. Their stage presence has not diminished with time and Green Day was truly a memorable performance that codified their position among the biggest rock acts on tour.

Soundgarden

After a thirteen year hiatus the ultra-heavy grungers of Soundgarden are back in the studio again and, even better, back on stage together. For frontman Chris Cornell, who has directed Audioslave and recorded three solo records in the meantime, there was no better place for this reunion to occur. “I’ve played more shows in Chicago [than anywhere else],” said Chris, alluding to his affection for The Windy City. In their younger years, Soundgarden treated the city as a base-of-sorts because of Kim Thayil – guitarist and life-long Park Forest, Chicago resident. That Sunday, it was a sweet feeling tinged with sour. The old-guard was definitely there, as forty-somethings pushing ear-muffed toddlers in strollers was a common sight, and a few of the younger fans managed to pull themselves away from The Arcade Fire for this performance. But to put it simply there was a simultaneous vibe of awe and nonacceptance. During their famous Black Hole Sun, the crowd managed to chant out the refrain, but many of the lesser-known tunes left people gently swaying or bobbing their heads trying to keep up with Kim’s arpeggios and bassist Ben Shepherd’s rumbling notes. Cornell’s vocals were powerful but off at times while drummer Matt Cameron (who drums for Pearl Jam, as well) delivered in timely fashion as he always does, banging along with the wildly orchestrated, off-beat, and jazz-influenced slamming rhythms he’s known for. A few folks in the crowd insisted that they sounded like it was still 1997. Others were delighted to hear one of the heaviest bands in rock and roll back together. It was an experience any true Soundgarden fan could easily enjoy, but a show somebody unfamiliar with the group would have had trouble digesting.

Avatar up for Nine Oscars

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making,Avatar marks Cameron’s return to feature directing since helming 1997’s Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. He transforms the environments and characters into photo realistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.This is a movie that will entertain the whole family over and over again –© 20th Century Fox

Garbage Dreams See The Movie

GARBAGE DREAMS

Director and Producer:   Mai Iskander

Winner of the IDA’s Humanitas Award, GARBAGE DREAMS follows three teenage boys – Adham, a bright precocious 17-year-old; Osama, a charming impish 16-year-old; Nabil, a shy artistic 18-year-old – all born into the trash trade, among Egypt’s Christian, Zaballeen minority.  The “garbage people” as they are called, live in a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. It is a world folded onto itself, an impenetrable labyrinth of narrow roadways camouflaged by trash.

The Zaballeen survive by recycling the city’s waste.  Astonishingly, they repurpose 80% of the garbage, creating what is arguably the world’s most efficient waste disposal system.   When Cairo’s city government suddenly decides to replace them with multinational garbage disposal companies, the community finds itself at a crossroads and face to face with the globalization of their trade.

Academy Short List for Best Documentary

http://garbagedreams.com/

COACHELLA 2010

Call to Artists -Recycling bin Artwork
Call to Artists. Get TRASHed This Year At Coachella. Inspire thousands to recycle and win Coachella tixs.

20 artists will be selected to turn a 96 gallon recycling bin into a work of art.
Over the last 7 years, everyone from Hunter S Thompson to Fugazi has taken their turn recreating a recycling bin. Here’s your chance!

There’s two rounds of competition. Winning Northern America and then the world competition.
20 finalist will be selected each receiving tixs and vip passes for Coachella Festival 2010.
We invite you to submit your artwork and be considered to design one of the 20 recycling
bins featured at Coachella. What’s even better is that the non offensive redesigned bins
will be placed in schools throughout Southern California after Coachella to inspire the future
recyclers of the world! Next steps? Send us a link to your artwork, concept and/or website.
On February 20, 2010… 20 artists and 5 alternates will be selected to redesign 96 gallon
recycling bins.  We don’t charge an admission fee, but any bad idea or artwork will be
passed along internally at your expense.

Now email us at :: Coachella@globalinheritance.org

Let the games begin!

Hope for Haiti on You Tube Tonite

Hope for Haiti Telethon hosted by George Clooney

Some of the big name performers scheduled to appear include Beyoncé, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.

The two-hour, star-studded telethon is set to be one of the most widely distributed prime-time televised benefits in history, appearing simultaneously on more than 25 networks including CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT. The show will even air on the Discovery’s eco-lifestyle television network, Planet Green.
MTV is presenting the benefit, which will be helmed by Oscar-winning actor George Clooney in Los Angeles, California, and musician Wyclef Jean from New York. CNN’s Anderson Cooper will report live from Haiti.

Rihanna-Redemption–Song for Haiti 2010

Hope for Haiti Fundraiser

How to Impact The world

HAITI: HOW TO HELP
CNN’s Anderson Cooper participates in Hope for Haiti – a global telethon to benefit victims of the earthquake. The two-hour broadcast airs on CNN and CNN International Friday, January 22 at 8pm ET. Below are some organizations specifically helping Haiti. Full Haiti Coverage | Tips to Giving  | Feeding Haiti

• More details on how you can help: Who’s doing what, how you can contribute

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

Picture of Haiti before the Earthquake

Paula Abdul mentioned on Twitter /Last night’s CNN benefit for Haiti raised $8,944,956! WOW! What a tremendous feeling it was to be a part of something so rewarding

Haiti How to help Look at the site below and see the money options

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

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