Last night, Betty White celebrated her 89th birthday with David Letterman and a shot of vodka, which she quickly spit up. Elsewhere, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots performed with Steven Tyler, Regis Philbin celebrated his impending retirement, Larry King parodied himself, and Stephen Colbert promoted a new Slanket competitor, the Coma Cozy.
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Late Night Highlights: Betty White Takes (and Spits Up) a Birthday Shot with David Letterman
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Tagged coma, David Letterman, Hollywood, larry-king, Movies, regis-philbin, roots, working-girl
Image by author A few weeks ago I was walking around the WOMAD festival munching on Riverford Organic brownies and sipping from a Frank Water refillable bottle when I stumbled across the Roots Architecture camp and was immediately struck by the beauty of this sleek angular structure. Designed and built by Norwegian architecture practice TYIN Tegnestue this was one of four stages b… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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TYIN Tengestue – Rustic Yet Sleekly Modern Humanitarian Architecture (Photos)
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Tagged architects, beauty, green news, Hollywood, roots, roots-stage, sleek, stage-at-womad, tegnestue, united kingdom, womad
Oscar-nominated producer David Wolper, the man behind smash miniseries like Roots and The Thorn Birds as well as films including Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and L.A. Confidential , died at his Beverly Hills home last night at age 82 . When your contributions to pop culture can be described both as “pertinent to a generation’s understanding of slavery” and “scrumdiddlyumptious,” you are one of a kind. [ The Wrap ]
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Roots, Willy Wonka Producer David Wolper Dies at 82
Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News
Tagged angus t. jones, bennyhollywood, Beverly Hills, david boreanaz, david-wolper, even-worse, Hollywood, night-at-age, oscar-nominated, roots, snooki, well-as-films
Legend, ?uestlove and company played songs from their upcoming Wake Up! album on ‘GMA’s Summer Concert Series.’ By Christopher MacAllister John Legend performs on “Good Morning America” in New York City on August 6 Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images NEW YORK — After what was described as “one of the greatest sound checks ever,” John Legend and the Roots were set to entertain audiences for “Good Morning America’s Summer Concert Series” at Central Park’s SummerStage. Before the cameras were even rolling, the music group entertained the waiting audience with Legend singing a “Good Morning” melody. When “GMA” hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos arrived onstage to greet Legend and the band, Roberts commented on the intimacy of the performance, saying, “Everyone thought you were singing just for them!” Before the official beginning of the set, the audience enjoyed snapping photos of Legend and the Roots, and vice versa, with Legend taking pictures of the audience on his phone. The next song, “Little Ghetto Boy,” from their forthcoming album Wake Up! got the audience going, with the Roots’ Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) busting some mad rhymes and Legend singing the chorus before delving into the next verse. Legend then announced the release date for Wake Up!: September 21. Good times were had with their performance of another fast-paced, jazzy song, “Hard Times,” also from Wake Up! The SummerStage audience continued to grow as the song played, with more and more people arriving to witness the performance. During the typical wait for the next on-air song performance, ?uestlove and Legend were joking around, laughing while having a look at the cover of their new album. When asked about it, Legend said, “It’s funny seeing yourself as a cartoon!” He added that this album has been two years in the making, and ?uestlove said that “people will get uplifted by it.” The uplifting had already begun with the announcement of the next, more recognizable song, “Ordinary People,” which was definitely a fan favorite. The audience sang along and swayed with the music. After spirited audience applause, Legend performed “Waiting for Superman,” which the singer explained he’d written for the movie of the same name, due out this fall. He played an instrumental riff with the Roots until we were on air again, and then the song “Shine” began. After the epic finale, Legend took a bow with a nice “God bless ya’ll” for the audience. And it wouldn’t be a Roots concert without ?uestlove throwing his drumsticks into the crowd as souvenirs. One enthusiastic audience member summed it up nicely: “There is no better combination for a live show than the Roots and John Legend!” Related Photos John Legend And The Roots Shine On ‘Good Morning America’ Related Artists John Legend The Roots
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John Legend, The Roots Wake Up Audiences On ‘Good Morning America’
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Tagged audience, flying-daggers, greece, Hollywood, morning-america, Music, News, People, performance, roots, singer, sword
Tracks from Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway will be covered on the upcoming album. By Mawuse Ziegbe The Roots and John Legend Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images The Roots and John Legend will revive a host of soulful songs on their upcoming collection of covers, Wake Up!, which is due in stores in September. The track list — which was revealed by Rap-Up.com on Monday (July 12) — includes 11 songs, and Chicago MC Common and Grammy-nominated songstress Melanie Fiona make appearances on the album. Wake Up! revisits songs such as “Little Ghetto Boy” by Donny Hathaway, “Wholy Holy” by Marvin Gaye and “Hard Times” by Baby Huey and the Babysitters. Although the album is a collection of vintage tracks, Legend said the timeless lyricism has a contemporary appeal. “These songs sound so relevant now,” Legend said in a statement. “On most of them, you wouldn’t change a lyric. ‘Wake Up Everybody’ (the album’s first single, featuring contributions from Melanie Fiona and Common) has four verses — the first one is a general statement, the second is about education, third is about health care, and the fourth is about making a better environment. No editing needed.” Roots drummer ?uestlove and Legend also recently spoke to MTV News about their cover of Ernie Hines’ “Our Generation” and its connection to a classic hip-hop track. ” ‘Straighten It Out’ [by] Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth was an important hip-hop record and it sampled ‘Our Generation,’ ” Legend said. On Wake Up! , Legend said he and the Philly collective strived to spotlight songs that could be incorporated into a hip-hop record. “A lot of what we did was try to bring songs that have been sampled or should be sampled or sample-able to make the album,” he said. Legend also said that another upside of working on the album with the group he has been following since college is having access to ?uest’s extensive musical knowledge. “He just knows a lot of great records,” Legend said. “When you’re thinking about putting an album together of songs that were performed [more than] 40 to 50 years ago, he’s one of the best people to talk about that with.” The Roots and John Legend’s “Wake Up!” track list, according to Rap-Up.com: 1. “Compared to What” 2. “Hard Times” 3. “Little Ghetto Boy” 4. “Wake Up Everybody” (featuring Common and Melanie Fiona) 5. “Our Generation” 6. “Love the Way It Should Be” 7. “Hang On in There” 8. “I Can’t Write Left Handed” 9. “Wholy Holy” 10. “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” 11. “Shine” Are you looking forward to Legend and the Roots’ joint album? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos Saying Good-Bye To ‘The Hills’ Related Artists The Roots John Legend
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The Roots And John Legend’s Wake Up! Track List Revealed
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Tagged artists, chicago, common, legend, little-ghetto, melanie, melanie-fiona, Music, roots, Videos
Miley Cyrus’ Can’t Be Tamed debuts at #3, behind Drake’s Thank Me Later. By Gil Kaufman Eminem Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images Guess who’s back? Eminem is notching his sixth #1 album in a row with Recovery , which sold more than 741,000 copies last week. Those numbers dwarfed the figures for the all of the rest of the top 10 on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, as Slim Shady put up the best first-week numbers since 2008, far surpassing year’s other big debuts (Drake, Lady Antebellum, Sade). Proving once again that despite the album’s early leak, his fans will still come out to support the Detroit MC, Em’s massive haul pushes last week’s #1, Drake ‘s Thank Me Later down to #2. Sales for Drake’s debut cratered by 65 percent to 157,000, but the melodic Young Money MC still passed the gold mark in just two weeks, according to numbers provided by Nielsen SoundScan. Miley Cyrus had a rough landing for her more mature Can’t Be Tamed, which comes in at #3 on sales of 102,000, less than half of what 2008’s Breakout did in its debut week (371,000). And though he still hasn’t reached his goal of snagging a #1 debut on the U.S. charts, metal legend Ozzy Osbourne ‘s latest solo effort, Scream, lands at #4 after moving 81,000 copies. It’s followed at #6 by the chart bow from the Roots ‘ long-in-the-works How I Got Over (51,000). In a relatively slow week on the charts, the rest of the top 10 include: Now 34 (#5, 55,000), Jack Johnson ‘s To the Sea (#7, 44,000), Justin Bieber ‘s My World 2.0 (#8, 43,000), Sarah McLachlan ‘s Laws of Illusion (#9, 38,000) and the soundtrack to “Eclipse” (#10, 38,000). Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ‘ Mojo crashes down nine spots in week two to #11, as sales dipped by 74 percent to 33,000. After 24 weeks in the top 10, Lady Antebellum ‘s Need You Now has dropped to #12 on sales of 32,000. Meanwhile, Christina Aguilera ‘s Bionic continues to struggle, as the singer’s latest slips out of the top 10 after just three weeks, dropping to #22 as sales trailed off by 54 percent to 18,000. One of Aguilera’s collaborators, singer Sia , debuts at #37 with We Are Born (11,000), while soul mama Macy Gray is right behind at #38 with Sellout (11,000). As the world marked the one-year anniversary of his death, Michael Jackson ‘s Number Ones collection rockets up more than 50 spots to #42 on sales of just under 10,000 (one of several Jackson titles to march back up the charts this week). M
Collaborators covered soul song ‘Our Generation,’ after hearing it sampled on classic ’90s Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth track. By Steven Roberts John Legend Photo: MTV News Ernie Hines probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think of soul singers. But the Mississippi singer/guitarist’s “Our Generation” was John Legend and the Roots’ choice when it was their turn to cover a song for the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions project. Legend and the Roots, who were already working on an album of covers, Wake Up!, were quick to come onboard when Levi’s called. Legend acknowledged the song was relatively obscure, but said he thought fans would recognize it from a famous hip-hop sample. ” ‘Straighten It Out’ [by] Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth was an important hip-hop record and it sampled ‘Our Generation,’ ” Legend said. The R&B crooner went on to explain that as he and the Philly band were putting his album together, they wanted a sound that was both hip-hop and soul. “A lot of what we did was try to bring songs that have been sampled or should be sampled or sample-able to make the album,” Legend continued. “It just makes sense to do the song [for Levi’s].” Covering a song previously sampled on a ’90s rap song — in this case, one off the hip-hop duo’s classic 1992 LP, Mecca and the Soul Brother — makes sense for two acts known for playing to more mature audiences, Roots drummer ?uestlove said. “People might not know ‘Our Generation,’ but there’s definitely people in their mid-30s that know Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth ‘Straighten It Out.’ And it will also hit people that knew the original ‘Our Generation,’ that are now 50 years old,” ?uest added. The Levi’s 2010 Revival Recordings series asks musicians to choose songs that were not only influential in their careers but also proved to be part of music history. Legend and the Roots decided to bring MC C.L. Smooth into the booth with them, and they all agree it was worth the effort. The singer said he was excited to collaborate with Smooth, but also the Roots drummer; some interesting, unexpected sounds emerged. “One of the coolest things about working with Ahmir [‘?uestlove’ Thompson] is his encyclopedic knowledge of music,” Legend said. “He just knows a lot of great records. When you’re thinking about putting an album together of songs that were performed [more than] 40 to 50 years ago, he’s one of the best people to talk about that with.” The album Wake Up! is due for a September release, and the Ernie Hines cover is available for free download at the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions website. Does hearing the Roots and John Legend’s Levi’s track make you excited for their upcoming album? Tell us in the comments!
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John Legend, The Roots Talk Levi’s Pioneer Recording Sessions
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Tagged album-together, bennyhollywood, careers, encyclopedic, generation, legend, make-the-album, Music, philly, roots, song, TMZ
Hotel worker discovered Gray’s body and identified his name from a nearby prescription bottle. By Josh Wigler Slipknot’s Paul Gray Photo: Bob King/ Redferns A 911 call placed by an alleged employee of the Iowa hotel where Slipknot bassist Paul Gray was found dead Monday has emerged. TMZ obtained a recording of the call placed by an unnamed hotel maintenance worker who discovered Gray’s body. “We believe that it’s a drug overdose,” the employee said of Gray’s condition. “There’s a hypodermic needle next to his bed here.” Asked if Gray were awake, the employee replied: “Oh God, no,” explaining that it appeared as though Gray had been dead “for a while” based on his physical appearance. He identified Gray’s name from the prescription label of a nearby bottle of pills. The employee also said Gray’s mother had called the hotel earlier that day because she was having trouble reaching her son. Gray’s name and the location from which the 911 call was apparently placed are consistent with reports about his death. An autopsy on Gray’s body conducted Tuesday was unable to determine the Slipknot bassist’s cause of death, which remains under investigation. Reports state that the autopsy didn’t suggest any evidence of foul play and concurred with the 911 caller’s claims that Gray had been dead for several hours prior to his body’s discovery. Polk County medical examiners are still waiting for toxicology results, which could take between four and six weeks to complete. Known by Slipknot fans as #2 or “The Pig,” Gray was a founding member of the heavy-metal band alongside Shawn “Clown” Crahan and Joey Jordison. Fans and fellow musicians have expressed an outpouring of support in the days since Gray’s death, with Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton telling MTV News: “He was an immense talent, and this is such an incredible loss. Paul had a HUGE heart and lived and died for the music he made. I will miss him, and the world will too.” Share your memories of Paul Gray and Slipknot in the comments below. Related Videos Slipknot’s Paul Gray: 1972-2010 Related Photos Slipknot’s Paul Gray: A Life In Photos Related Artists Paul Gray Slipknot
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Slipknot’s Paul Gray 911 Call Released
‘He was always a man of the people, and he never forgot his roots,’ Des Moines radio director tells MTV News. By James Montgomery Paul Gray Three days after Slipknot bassist Paul Gray was found dead in an Iowa hotel room, those who knew him are still struggling to make sense of everything that’s happened. It’s not an easy thing to do. Though he wasn’t born in Iowa, Gray was still very much a local boy made good, having moved to Des Moines as a child. And as Slipknot’s fame grew, he made it a point to remain loyal to the scene — and the city — that gave him his start in music. “It’s just been a feeling of complete and utter disbelief, and I think lot of people are still shell-shocked,” Andy Hall, music director at Des Moines’ Lazer 103.3, told MTV News on Wednesday (May 26). “Paul was not just a guy on a poster on somebody’s wall; he was a son, a brother, a bandmate and a friend. And he was a great human being. … Des Moines has a very tight-knit music community, and anyone in it will tell you that Paul was one of the most kind and warm-hearted people they’ve ever known. He was always a man of the people, and he never forgot his roots.” Hall moved to Des Moines 10 years ago, and Gray was one of the first people he became friendly with. He said that even though Slipknot were well on their way to becoming a massively successful metal act, the bassist still remained humble, approachable and downright friendly — to everyone. “He was always quick with a smile and a hug and a ‘How you doing, brother?’ But it didn’t matter if you were his friend of many years or someone he’d just met; he would be very gracious to everyone,” Hall said. “He was kind of an imposing guy, but if you came up to him, took the time to converse with him, you’d have realized what a nice, kind guy he was.” Long before Slipknot hit it big, Gray was an integral part of the Des Moines scene. As a founding member of the group — and the only bassist it every employed — he provided the backbeat at their earliest gigs, at local bars like the Safari Club. And though those shows paled in comparison to the big-budget rippers they’d go on to play, they were just as energetic and impactful. Even in their earliest incarnation, Slipknot possessed a will that was unmatched. “They were always part of the fabric of the local scene. … Initially, they were playing clubs and band battles. And from the very start, they believed so intensely in themselves, even when the show was simple and the masks were homemade,” said Des Moines Register columnist Kyle Munson, who spent a decade as the paper’s music critic. “Here was a band willing to put on a show. They believed in themselves from the beginning, and that was the difference. They would have a power-saw onstage, shooting sparks across the stage. The early songs would have little disco jazz riffs thrown in there with the growls. They were a hybrid from the start. … No one could foresee how far they’d go, but that belief always made them stand out.” And from those formative gigs, the rock monster the world would come to know as Slipknot was born. To folks like Munson, their success brought an immense amount of civic pride — a pride that’s definitely taken a hit in the days since Gray’s death. Seems everyone who ever met him, spoke to him or even sat in the back of a rock club, eyes agog, and watched him rip, will miss him. “He always seemed to be a gentle soul and a peacemaker within the band. That’s what I’ve been hearing from people,” Munson said. “He wasn’t gregarious like [frontman] Corey [Taylor] or outwardly philosophical like [percussionist] Shawn [Crahan]. He was more introverted. But anyone will tell you about the happiness in his voice, his smile. There was a quiet joviality to him.” Share your memories of Paul Gray and Slipknot in the comments below. Related Videos Slipknot’s Paul Gray: 1972-2010 Related Photos Slipknot’s Paul Gray: A Life In Photos Related Artists Paul Gray Slipknot
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Slipknot’s Paul Gray Remembered Fondly In His Iowa Hometown
Climate scientist Michael Mann has received hundreds of them — threatening e-mails and phone calls calling him a criminal, a communist or worse. “6 feet under, with the roots, is were you should be,” one e-mail reads. “How know 1 one has been the livin p*ss out of you yet, i was hopin i would see the news that you commited suicide, Do it.” “I've been called just about everything in the book,” Mann, who runs of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, told ABC News. “It's an attempt to chill the discourse, and I think that's what's most disconcerting.” Mann is not the only one. The FBI says it's seeing an uptick in threatening communications to climate scientists. Recently, a white supremacist website posted Mann's picture alongside several of his colleagues with the word “Jew” next to each image. One climate scientist, who did not wish to be identified, told ABC News he's had a dead animal left on his doorstep, and now sometimes travels with bodyguards. added by: JanforGore
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