Music Gifts

Well another year of Oscars was upon us last night, and it went off without a hitch.  Sure things seemed to be pretty pedestrian, but all in all it was a smooth running show.  Listed below is the full list of winners at the 82nd annual Academy Awards:

- Motion Picture: “The Hurt Locker.”

- Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart.”

- Actress: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side.”

- Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds.”

- Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

- Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker.”

- Foreign Film: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina.

- Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

- Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker.”

- Animated Feature Film: “Up.”

- Art Direction: “Avatar.”

- Cinematography: “Avatar.”

- Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker.”

- Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

- Original Score: “Up,” Michael Giacchino.

- Original Song: “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

- Costume: “The Young Victoria.”

- Documentary Feature: “The Cove.”

- Documentary (short subject): “Music by Prudence.”

- Film Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

- Makeup: “Star Trek.”

- Animated Short Film: “Logorama.”

- Live Action Short Film: “The New Tenants.”

- Visual Effects: “Avatar.”

2010 Oscars

The American Idol finalists have been revealed for the 2010 season.  I’m not huge on the show, but obviously 11 million+ people are, so it’s more than worthy to post here for everyone to see.

Did Benami
Crystal Bowersox
Lacey Brown
Michelle Delamor
Lee Dewyze
Katelyn Epperly
Andrew Garcia
Tyler Grady
Todrick Hall
Aaron Kelly
Casey James
Alex Lambert
Michael Lynche
Siobhan Magnus
Paige Miles
Joe Munoz
John Park
Ashley Rodriguez
Lilly Scott
Jermaine Sellers
Katie Stevens
Tim Urban
Haeley Vaughn
Janell Wheeler

I also heard that someone was actually kicked off the show recently, more than likely for having a prior recording contract.  I thought that didn’t matter because that Irish chick last year had a contract prior to Idol also.  Like I said, I’m not big on the show, but its worth mentioning for the sheer popularity of it.

————–

Moving on to another largely successful news story.  Aerosmith is planning it’s summer European tour.  Which I had thought that Aerosmith had recently broke up when Steven Tyler left the band, but now he’s back?  That certainly was a quick argument, because he’s back, and without “Steven,” Aerosmith just simply isn’t Aerosmith.  Here’s a snippet from the Billboard.com article describing what’s happening with Aerosmith and their summer ideas:

“There’s no Aerosmith without Steven Tyler,” notes Download promoter Andy Copping of Live Nation U.K. “There’s no point in entertaining anything other than (with) Steven Tyler.” Copping adds that an Aerosmith without Tyler “was never part of the conversation” with the group’s representatives.

The group has also been offered tour dates in South America, but nothing has been announced yet. No North American shows have been mentioned, and there’s also no word on if and when Aerosmith plans to resume work on the new album it was recording in Brendan O’Brien, which was sidelined by Tyler and Perry’s health issues.

Tyler has been in rehab since late December for an addiction to painkillers. Perry has been touring with his Joe Perry Project to support his latest album, “Have Guitar, Will Travel,” while drummer Joey Kramer has been promoting his autobiography, “Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top.” Guitarist Brad Whitford is gearing up for an Experience Hendrix tour that starts March 4 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

So all is well in good in the land of Rock and Roll is seems.  About the only thing that’s frustrating with Aerosmith is that it feels like they break up once every year or so and get back together for a “strong” return.  It’s just them trying to add to a hype that doesn’t even need to get bigger.  They will still sell-out stadiums regardless.

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith

So this list for the Academy awards has been released.  I must say I’m not really surprised by anything other than the fact that “The Hangover” isn’t up for best comedy.  All in all, you can basically spot immediate winners/losers on the list.  I myself would like to see some of the lesser known movies win, but as we all know.  In Hollywood.  It’s all about popularity.

BEST PICTURE
- “Avatar”
- “Up in the Air”
- “Inglourious Basterds”
- “The Hurt Locker”
- “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”
- “The Blind Side”
- “Up”
- “District 9”
- “An Education”
- “The Hangover”

BEST DIRECTOR
- “Avatar,” James Cameron
- “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow
- “Inglourious Basterds,” Quentin Tarantino
- “Up in the Air,” Jason Reitman
- “Precious,” Lee Daniels

BEST ACTOR
- Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
- George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
- Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
- Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
- Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

BEST ACTRESS
- Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
- Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
- Meryl Streep, “Julie and Julia”
- Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
- Carey Mulligan, “An Education”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Matt Damon, “Invictus”
- Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
- Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
- Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
- Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Mo’nique, “Precious”
- Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
- Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
- Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart”

So news came out today that Michael Jackson will have a never before seen rendition of Earth Song will be broadcast alongside tributes by Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson and Usher.  The version he recorded was set to be used for his “This Is It” tour before he suddenly passed away.

The producer of the Grammies Ken Ehrlich said:

“To try and imitate him, to try and represent him, it just didn’t feel to me like it was something we should do,” explained Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich. “You just don’t ever necessarily want to see anybody but Michael doing [songs like] Beat It or Billie Jean. This felt to us like it was really a way of representing him. It’s like a tip of the hat.”

With the collaboration of artists set to perform while the video is playing, it should be a good event NOT to miss.  I’m sure it’s going to be talked about heavily as it’s been trending on Twitter for quite sometime now.  Here’s a little bit about the song “Earth Song:”

Earth Song originally appeared on Jackson’s 1995 album HIStory. It is an orchestral ballad, bombastic and eco-friendly, and Jackson planned to make it a highlight of his London residency. “The song was so important to him,” Ehrlich said. Jackson shot a new, 3D music video to accompany the song, but didn’t get the chance to screen it before an audience. Although an excerpt of the footage appears in the posthumous Jackson documentary, This Is It, the Grammy broadcast on 31 January will mark the video’s full debut.

Jackson himself does not appear in the clip. “[The video] starts out with some beautiful images of the world and our environment, and Michael’s child-like love for animals, birds and dolphins,” Ehrlich said. “It introduces a little girl, a beautiful little girl who at one point in the film basically goes to sleep, and when she wakes up – she’s in a forest and it’s very pastoral – and when she wakes up, all of a sudden it’s all changed and it’s bad. The environment is being affected and trees are being cut down.”

To fully appreciate the Earth Song footage, viewers will have to wear 3D glasses. These will be distributed to the Staples Center’s audience and through Target shops in the US.

Sounds like it could be entertaining.  It’s also going to be a good tribute to the King of Pop, because even if he was a little crazy, Michael had heaps and heaps of musical talent.

Michael Jackson - This Is It

So the People’s Choice Award winners were named this weekend during their yearly event.  Surely you can’t be too surprised at the outcomes.  About the only thing I was personally surprised at was how The Hangover didn’t win the best comedy selection.  The Proposal did.  Which leads me to believe that the group that voted on this was older, because The Proposal, wasn’t funny at all.

List of winners for the Major awards are:

Favorite MOVIE ACTOR
* Johnny Depp
* Brad Pitt
* Hugh Jackman
* Robert Pattinson
* Ryan Reynolds

Favorite MOVIE ACTRESS
* Sandra Bullock
* Anne Hathaway
* Drew Barrymore
* Jennifer Aniston
* Kristen Stewart

Favorite ACTION STAR
* Hugh Jackman
* Christian Bale
* Gerard Butler
* Shia LaBeouf
* Vin Diesel

Favorite COMEDIC STAR
* Jim Carrey
* Adam Sandler
* Ben Stiller
* Ryan Reynolds
* Vince Vaughn

Favorite BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTRESS
* Miley Cyrus
* Anna Kendrick
* Emily Osment
* Ginnifer Goodwin
* Zoe Saldana

Favorite BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTOR
* Taylor Lautner
* Chris Pine
* Joseph Gordon-Levitt
* Sam Worthington
* Zachary Quinto

Favorite ON-SCREEN TEAM
* The Twilight Saga
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
* The Proposal
* Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
* X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Favorite INDEPENDENT MOVIE
* Inglourious Basterds
* (500) Days of Summer
* District 9
* Paranormal Activity
* Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail

Favorite COMEDY MOVIE
* The Proposal
* 17 Again
* Bride Wars
* The Hangover
* He’s Just Not That Into You

Favorite MOVIE
* Twilight
* The Hangover
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
* The Proposal
* Star Trek Favorite TV DRAMA
* House
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
* Grey’s Anatomy
* Lost
* NCIS

Favorite TV COMEDY
* The Big Bang Theory
* Desperate Housewives
* How I Met Your Mother
* The Office
* Two and a Half Men

Favorite TV DRAMA ACTOR
* Hugh Laurie
* Kiefer Sutherland
* Mark Harmon
* Matthew Fox
* Patrick Dempsey

Favorite TV DRAMA ACTRESS
* Katherine Heigl
* Anna Paquin
* Blake Lively
* Jennifer Love Hewitt
* Mariska Hargitay

Favorite TV COMEDY ACTOR
* Steve Carell
* Alec Baldwin
* Charlie Sheen
* Jim Parsons
* Neil Patrick Harris

Favorite TV COMEDY ACTRESS
* Alyson Hannigan
* America Ferrera
* Amy Poehler
* Eva Longoria Parker
* Tina Fey

Favorite TV OBSESSION
* True Blood
* Dexter
* Gossip Girl
* The Hills
* The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Favorite COMPETITION SHOW
* American Idol
* Dancing with the Stars
* Project Runway
* So You Think You Can Dance
* Survivor: Samoa

Another celebrity death has come in 2009.  It’s literally a terrible year for Hollywood stars as another passes.  While Brittany Murphy wasn’t a huge star, she was in movies such as “clueless,” “8 Mile,” and various other b rated movies.  She was found collapsed in her shower by her mother and pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

A news report via TMZ.com was released yesterday as the news became official of her passing:

According to TMZ, Brittany told her family members that she was feeling very sick. It is also reported that she was hooked on prescription drugs like Vicodin which is a narcotic analgesic product used to relieve moderate to severe pain. Brittany’s friends said that series of plastic surgery operations made her dependent on painkillers. This was consider as one of the causes of her sudden death.

According to one of her neighbors, Brittany seems dead while she was on a stretcher. Firefighters brought her to the fire truck and tried to resuscitate her. Her husband wandered around and didn’t know what to do as the firefighters put tubes down his wife’s throat. Brittany was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 a.m. by Sally Stewart, hospital spokeswoman.

LAPD spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said that they were investigating the cause of her death. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said that there’s no foul play and it appears that she died of natural causes. Monjack refused to allow an autopsy for unknown reason but the L.A. County Coroner’s office will still conduct an autopsy.

It’s certainly another tragedy among young stars, as another one passes away way to soon.

Brittany Murphy

Well, it’s almost that time.  In fact next week starts the rush of Christmas, family, and great food!  We here at Alberts Gifts wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season as we prepare for the new year.  It’s amazing how fast time changes and progresses as we all become a year older.

The music industry changes constantly, we’ve lost a superstar in Michael Jackson, not to mention the world famous guitarist Les Paul.  It’s a strange world we live in, and certainly nothing really shocks us anymore.  It seems to be more influential when a musician passes away because of the feelings they put us through with their music.  Either way, the world continues to turn and we’ve all learned as this year goes by.  It’s coming to a close and here’s to it ended safely and as happily possible.

Alberts Gifts has undergone some transformation blog wise this year, and it’s a good thing I believe.  Were doing what we can to provide you music gift ideas as well as current and relevant stories that are happening or have just happened in the music world.

As of right now, all we can do is wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!  Enjoy it!

I also must inform you that our wonderful holiday sale is ending on AlbertsGifts.com.  You have two days left to receive free shipping on orders over $25, of course ground/domestic.  Take advantage of the sale, even if your gifts may arrive after Christmas.  It’s a deal that you just can’t pass up.

Myspace, the ever growing entertainment mogul that it is, looks to enlarge it’s reach by growing into the United Kingom’s music industry.  This is both good and bad for the once mega social media giant.  It’s been rivaled by facebook and was finally beat by them as king of social media networks, so now Myspace is reeling and looking to re-invent themselves to stay relevant.

A quote from the Yahoo article is as follows, detailing what Myspace aims to do in grabbing a piece of the pie in the music industry:

MySpace Music is already up and running in the United States, and aims to combine music content in the form of songs, videos, artist profiles, playlists and charts with social networking allowing fans to share their discoveries online.

Access to the site is free, but News Corp-owned MySpace aims to make money through advertising and by taking a share of sales of concert tickets and merchandise, reflecting broader diversification in the struggling music business.

Users can also purchase and download songs and albums on Apple’s iTunes digital store.

“This is indicative of the direction we want to go,” said Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music.

“We want to be a social content and media platform and we believe heavily in the socialization of content as core to our future strategy,” he told Reuters in London.

“It’s not about just a passive listening experience. We want you to be active, we want you to go places, we want you to search for music. Music lives in places that require you to work to find it. We know our audience is hungry for discovery.”

The website is a joint venture with the four major record companies — Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music — and features catalogues from independent labels and unsigned bands.

As long as it stays free then wonderful.  I personally haven’t been on Myspace in 2+ years, as Facebook is the only relevant thing I use aside from Twitter.  So here’s to Myspace again finding their niche and being innovators of music and social networking/media.

Myspace Logo

Well we’ve got a great thing going on at Alberts Gifts right now.  Free shipping for orders over $25 until the end of November.  Of course the shipping is ground and domestic only, but if you live in the United States, get a jump start on the holiday season and get your family/friend/loved one an awesome music gift today!

Shown below are a few of our new gifts that anyone could really enjoy for the holiday and winter seasons.  We hope you find a great music gift, and have a safe and wonderful shopping season before the big holidays!

BEANIE MUSIC KEYBOARD

FLANNEL SHEET MUSIC PJ’S

FUZZY MUSIC SCARF G-CLEF

of the music world.  Not to mention she’s drop dead gorgeous.  Carrie Underwood, winner of American Idol, mega country star has added a new album to her list of success.  Her album titled “Play On” is expected to top the charts at Number 1 on the pop section, and take a predicted drop on the country album.  However, it’s being regarded as a huge music success and this can do nothing but add more popularity to the hot ticket in town.

The former “American Idol” champ’s last album, 2007’s “Carnival Ride,” topped the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 527,000 copies; it has gone on to sell 2.98 million copies in the United States, according to Nielson SoundScan.The new album’s lead single, “Cowboy Casanova,” peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Inaugural “American Idol” champ Kelly Clarkson, the only other success story from the TV talent show, topped the Billboard 200 in March with “All I Ever Wanted,” which sold 255,000 copies in its first week.

“Play On” will lead a cavalcade of new albums in the top 20 of the Billboard 200 next week, with the soundtrack to Fox TV’s “Glee” likely as the next-best debut. The album may sell over 100,000 copies in its first week.

Also, as a final note, I must mention  http://www.albertsgifts.com is having a wonderful sale – spend $25 or more and recieve free shipping(ground only).  So head on over and check out all the music gifts!