Bruce Springsteen | Jacko Book | Young Buck | David Browne | Line of the Month
Springsteen, Et Al in Talks for Super, Mega Concert
Here comes a super concert on a mega level.
My sources say that Bruce Springsteen and the 15 or so acts who will tour the first week of October for MoveOnPac.org are now in talks for something even bigger. As this column reported earlier, Springsteen, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt and others will be involved in a six-pronged concert tour from Oct. 1 through Oct. 8, beating the drum against George Bush and Dick Cheney's re-election.
The six tours are set to finish now in six different Florida cities on Oct. 8.
But now the word is that negotiations are proceeding for a giant five-hour show in Miami on Sunday, Oct. 10, with all the acts under one roof, presumably the Miami Arena. That would include all of the above plus John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, the Dave Matthews Band, John Mellencamp, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, Jackson Browne, Keb' Mo', Crosby, Stills & Nash, and many others who might join in for the special occasion.
A MoveOn insider cautioned: "Nothing is finalized yet."
All the concerts are gathered under the name "Vote for Change," and are sponsored by MoveOnPac and ACT (America Coming Together). MoveOnPac, through June 30, has raised millions of dollars with donations from non-celebrities as well as folks like "Lethal Weapon" director Richard Donner, radio host/author Garrison Keillor, environmentalist and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" spouse Laurie David, Tabitha King (wife of writer Stephen King), the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, Leonard "Mr. Spock" Nimoy, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, TV director Jay Sandrich, soap star Julia Barr, actor Matt Damon, and, naturally, Springsteen manager Jon Landau.
Jonathan Soros, son of philanthropist George Soros, is one of MoveOn's big donors so far, with a $5,000 contribution.
All of this money makes it possible for MoveOn to launch a $3 million television campaign in nine swing states starting this week with ads made by Oscar winner Errol Morris ("The Fog of War"). The ads show interviews with former Bush voters including a sergeant and a retired colonel in the Marine Corps.
Jacko's Dad to Publish Tell-All Book
It's called "Die Jacksons," but don't get worried. That's only because "die" is "the" in German. Otherwise, Joseph Jackson 's tell-all book about his famous family should be pretty much of a gloss-over in which he's responsible for his kids' success. The subtitle: "The Golden Truth About the Jackson Family."
The book will be published by Random House Entertainment in Germany next week, with Jackson senior set to go on a big book-signing promotional tour that will eventually take him to the Frankfurt Book Festival in late September.
And it's not like Jackson is trading on son Michael's fame or anything. Heaven forbid! The book jacket for "Die Jacksons" has only one image on it: that of Michael's famous dancing feet in white socks and black patent leather shoes. On his Web site, the Jackson dad also features a link called "Discography" in which he lists all of the albums ever made by any of his kids including Michael's "Thriller" and Janet's "Velvet Rope." It's unclear if he thinks he produced, wrote, or sang the songs on them.
Of course, in all fairness, Joseph Jackson did whip his kids into a professional frenzy back in Gary, Ind., making it possible for them to launch their various careers. Some have turned out better than others, but Jackson describes his brood as the pop world version of the Kennedys, a family that produced a U.S. president, two senators, and many members of Congress.
I think he means "Kennedys" in a looser sense.
Anyway, it's unclear whether "Die Jacksons" will make its way to these shores, or if Michael knows anything about it. What is clear is that Jackson, in all likelihood, does not address the issue of whether he issued more Jacksons than we know of, or why he lives apart from his wife, Katherine, in Las Vegas.
The new number one album is by rapper David "Young Buck" Brown. You'll be relieved to know that unlike his mentor, 50 Cent, Buck has only been shot twice. (50 boasts of being shot nine times.)
Buck's album is called "Straight Outta Ca$hville," which seems pretty tame since his first album was titled "Thuggin' Til the End." Buck is a member of a rap ensemble called G-Unit along with 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks. The group's most recent album is called "Beg for Mercy."
Meantime, another David Browne, this one with an "e" on the end of his name, has just published a wonderful book called "Amped: How Big Air, Big Dollars and a New Generation Took Sports to the Extreme" about the world of extreme sports.
Some of you may have seen Tony — crazy like a fox — Hawk on the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night. You may have thought, "Why is this man skateboarding up and down walls at his age?" The answer is explained beautifully in "Amped," which details the whole lucrative world of extreme sports from the neighborhood kids with a dream to the corporations fighting to make money from promotions and merchandising. Browne, the music critic for Entertainment Weekly, is still perfecting his own skateboarding. You can find "Amped" in bookstores or on Amazon.com.
From the New York Times' Anthony Ramirez, August 17: "Lil' Kim, the saucy rap diva who is facing up to 20 years in federal prison for perjury and other charges, yesterday assailed federal prosecutors, announced that she was rededicating herself to charity work and introduced a line of Lil' Kim diamond jewelry."
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