Kanye West Gets All Cute and Cuddly

Kanye West is plain determined to tap into the Barney market, with yet some other music video that seems to be aimed at the sestet and under crowd.

The rapper follows up his puppet-driven "Champion" vid with this new animated one for the song "Good Morning," debuting today on iTunes. In it, Kanye is depicted as a little teddy bear who wakes up late on graduation exercise day but, despite a few obstacles, still manages to do it in time to accept his diploma.

Yes, the creativity in both these cases is admirable, especially this a la mode effort, which was directed by Takashi Murakami, the Japanese creative person who brings to life the cover art he did for Kanye's Graduation album. It all scarcely makes us a small nervous, though.

After all, it's OK for hip-hop stars to show their softer side, just it commode also be taken a bit overly far. Just ask Ice (Are We Done Yet?) Cube.

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Mp3 music: Tunng

Artist: Tunng: mp3 download    Genre(s):  Pop Indie Rock     Tunng's discography:      Good Arrows    Year: 2007    Tracks: 11      The Pioneers    Year: 2006    Tracks: 3      Comments of the Inner Chorus    Year: 2006    Tracks: 11      This Is...Tunng: Mother's Daughter and Other Songs    Year: 2005    Tracks: 10 Though the core members of Tunng, Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay, began their musical partnership composition wads for soft-core porn, they presently decided to form a band that would bring together Genders' aristocratic vocals with Lindsay's guitar playing and songwriting. To occupy forbidden their sound, the duette added more guitars as well as distaff vocals, turntables, programming, and early percussion. Often labelled as either "future cultural music" or "folktronica" by critics wHO had a hard time placing the band's good, Tunng released a smattering of singles in their native Britain ahead their full-length debut, This Is...Tunng: Mother's Daughter and Other Songs came out in 2005 (the record record album was later re-released in the U.S. the undermentioned year on Ace Fu). In 2006 their reexamination, Comments of the Inner Chorus, achieve shelves. By this time more than of a collective than anything else, especially because ab initio Genders had opted knocked out of acting live, the six-piece (Genders and Lindsay summation vocalists Becky Jacobs and Ashley Bates and multi-instrumentalists Martin Smith and Phil Winter) released Good Arrows only the following year.

Sparro teams up with Lohan

AUSSIE newcomer Sam Sparro is set to work with Lindsay Lohan after being recommended by producer Mark Ronson, brother of Lohan's alleged girlfriend music DJ Samantha.

"Working with Lindsay is an interesting proposition. I've always been a big fan and I think she's cool," said Sparro, currently riding high on the music charts with his single Black and Gold.

"I've never met Samantha Ronson but I have met her dad and her sister Charlotte when I was working with Mark at Coachella. They are a great family.

"I'll be heading over to Los Angeles and New York in a couple of weeks to start writing for Lindsay and a few other artists. I'm really excited."

Sparro has been championed by Amy Winehouse producer Ronson since his early days when he was performing in Los Angeles.

He has mutual admiration for the producer, saying: "Support from people like Mark kept me going. He's a sweet, humble guy and a great person to be around.

"If I hear someone speak badly about him, I'll always leap to his defence."

Lohan's third album, to be titled Spirit in the Dark, is rumoured to be a star-studded affair with a host of guest appearances including Ne-Yo, Akon, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Kanye West and Timbaland.



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Winehouse Wax Figure -- Crack Pipe Not Included

Just like the real Amy Winehouse, her wax version should avoid open flames.

Madame Tussaud's wax museum is putting together a wax figure of the 24-year-old English atom bomb, complete with sailor tattoos and that big 'ol beehive.






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Ark. academic conference examines TV hit 'Buffy'

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —

Aristotle. Nietzsche. Buffy? The blonde heroine of the campy television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," as well as other works by director and writer Josh Whedon, will be the focus of a three-day academic conference held at Henderson State University beginning Friday.

The television series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar won cult fame and critical praise during its seven seasons on The WB and UPN networks.

Since it ended, the series has spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a bookshelf stretching 15 feet long at the college in Arkadelphia, said Kevin Durand, an associate professor of philosophy at the school.

"It has staying power," Durand said. "It's like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We're not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. 'Buffy,' I think, does that. 'Buffy' never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started."

Durand said more than 90 academic papers will be discussed at the conference. He expects about 150 people to attend and discuss the vampire slayer and Whedon's other works, like the television series "Firefly" and "Angel." Another point of discussion will be a lesser-known part of Whedon's work - his screenplay for the hit animated film "Toy Story."

Among the papers: "Buffy and Feminism," "Buffy and Identity," "Gender Stereotypes and the Image of Domesticity in 'Firefly,'" "'Firefly:' The Illusive Safety of Big Damn Heroes" and a Durand favorite by a British scholar, "Hero's Journey, Heroine's Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth."

"That one just sounds cool," he said.

Durand, who contributed an academic paper at each of the two previous Buffy conferences, often focuses on how power plays into the "Buffy" series. He said much of the fictional heroine's strength came from others and her willingness to work with friends in her fight against creatures of the night.

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On the Net:

Academic conference: http://www.slayageonline.com/SC3/index.htm

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Trio rush to make 'Deadline'

Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch, Tammy Blanchard in thriller

NEW YORK -- Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch and Tammy Blanchard are starring in the psychological thriller "Deadline."


In the "Shining"-style feature, Murphy plays a scribe who travels to an abandoned house to write a screenplay. A bout of writer's block and other unforeseen events lead her to a psychological breakdown.


Sean McConville is making his directorial debut with the independently financed feature, which began principal photography Wednesday in Louisiana. Roger Betterton is producing. Marc Blucas also stars.


Murphy, repped by Paradigm, next appears in the thriller "Across the Hall."


Birch is repped by Special Artists Agency and Keep the Peace Management.


ICM reps Blanchard.

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Nicholas Stoller's FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is a romantic disaster comedy produced by the same team that made such hits as THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP, headed by writer, director, and producer Judd Apatow. When he gets suddenly and unceremoniously dumped by his longtime girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (VERONICA MARS lead Kristen Bell), composer Peter Bretter (FREAKS AND GEEKS alum Jason Segel) is devastated. Miserably depressed, he seeks solace in tawdry one-night stands, but he is desperate to win Sarah back. On the advice of his stepbrother, Brian (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's Bill Hader), Peter heads off to Hawaii for a much-needed vacation, but he gets even more freaked out when he discovers that Sarah and her new beau, wild and wacky British singing sensation Aldous Snow (comedian Russell Brand), are staying there as well. Mired in sadness, Peter is befriended by hotel employee Rachel Jansen (THAT '70S SHOW's Mila Kunis), who encourages him to get back his life and pursue his own dreams, which include staging a Dracula musical with puppets. But Peter is blinded by his desire for Sarah even as he grows closer to Rachel and starts hanging out with some of the hotel's odder personalities, including Chuck (Paul Rudd), a drug-addled surf instructor, and Matthew (SUPERBAD's Jonah Hill), a drug-dealing restaurant worker obsessed with Snow. Segel, who gets fully naked several times in the film, wrote the screenplay, a sharp blend of comedy and drama, and is solid in his first major starring role. Stoller, making his feature-film directorial debut, gets the most out of his diverse cast and beautiful setting, especially Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer as a newlywed couple having some bizarre sexual problems, and Billy Baldwin as Sarah's costar in the television show CRIME SCENE: SCENE OF THE CRIME. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is an outrageously funny yet touchingly sweet movie.

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