DMW: Digital Music W...

Week of November 21 - 25

Happy Black Friday!

I'd figure to list some items that caught my attention and consider this a wrap-up.

Madonna is "Frozen"...
...From using the song ever in Belgium. According to AP, a local judge ruled in favor of a little-known Belgium songwriter who claimed that parts of his song, "Ma Vie Fout L'camp (My Life's Getting Nowhere)," found their way onto Madonna's hit song off of her 1998 release Ray of Light. The songwriter, Salvatore Acquaviva, claimed to have written the song five years earlier.
Hey, so I guess that little quote from Alison Goldfrapp was partially correct. She gets the last laugh as the European press pulls most of those links down from Google.

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Courtney Love Has Found the Light
BEFORE

Photo: Reuters

AFTER

Photo: AP

The Superior Court Judge ruled recently that Courtney Love can enroll in an outpatient program. She must still submit to random checks twice a week for drugs and alcohol. She also must continue therapy and avoid any business that primarily sells alcohol. Her probation has been extended to March 2007 and her curfew is at 10 p.m.
On another note, her time in rehab has given her the jolt she needed to get going on a new set of songs. Of course, with a little help from R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and songwriter Linda Perry, she has been able to focus on what it is she does best. Here's another tidbit, in her recent interview with The Guardian, she has given her blessing on bands she's really into at the moment. And those lucky bands are (drum roll please): Kings of Leon, Goldfrapp, The Icarus Line, Maximo Park, Ladytron and The Duke Spirit. If there is one part of Love that hasn't been fried, it's her taste in music.
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for music related to Courtney Love.

Miyazaki vs Otomo...Maybe
In the Oscar longlist, I see two of Japan's most respected animation filmmakers vying for the Best Animated Feature. In Miyazaki, his name is almost synonymous to Oscar (having already won Best Animated Feature for Spirited Away) while in Otomo, he has been involved in some incredible anime titles such as Akira, Metropolis, Neo-Tokyo and Memories. I had the greatest pleasure of programming Neo-Tokyo on The Anime Network and I urge people to get a chance to watch his works. Put them on your Netflix queue. I hope that once the final nominees are announced Tuesday, January 31, 2006, Miyazaki-san and Otomo-san are included. Ahhh, only in my perfect world.

Casshern
On another note, I hope Dreamworks will release the live-action version of Casshern, which is based on the anime version of Casshan: Robot Hunter. They paid a pretty penny last year to get that film. I'm a little baffled by Dreamworks and their Go Fish Pictures. They say they are serious about adding anime to their animation slate, but as of late, I have yet to see any real proof of that. The last foray into anime theatrical release was Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. And they didn't even bother to do an English dub for North America because it was cost-prohibitive. Hmmm...

Mamoru Oshii reveals Tachigui: The Amazing Lives Of The Fast Food Grifters
Well he doesn't reveal all but he does hint that it is NOT anime. In fact, it's more live-action with some elements of animation used. But he strongly professes that it is not an anime feature. Anyway, the film is based on a novel by Oshii that chronicles the history of "tachigui" - eating fast food in the street without paying. That's all anyone outside Japan knows about this project. But, here's more on what the hell Oshii-san's novel is about.

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