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It’s a hot summer night in 1969, and for those of a certain age — young enough to turn on, tune in, drop out — Steve Paul’s the Scene is your place. As a spectator, a musician, a hanger-on. A place where the music comes first, even if you do end up scoring dope or going home with somebody.

The line to get in stretches all the way down West 46th Street and around the corner to Eighth Avenue. It’s a long walk down rickety steps to a dark, crowded,...

Any photographer who shoots what’s happening in the gleaming, raw, people-packed carnival of New York City — the stores and walls and towers and alleyways, the celebrities, the endless cross-section of humanity — already has an artistic leg up. But the other leg is what he or she does with it. Weegee shot the violent night world of sin and crime. Diane Arbus captured the hidden freak show and showed us its humanity. Alfred Eisenstaedt and William Klein caught the hurly-burly of the everyday. But as you watch “Uncropped,” an addictive look at the life and work of the magazine and newspaper photographer James Hamilton, you may think: He’s the greatest New York photographer of them all.

Hamilton’s black-and-white images — in the documentary, we see hundreds of them — have a burnished tactility, and a psychology so effortless that every one of them tells a story. The photographs are gallery beautiful,...

Nearly everyone has heard about Woodstock and the US Festival, but the same can’t be said for the Memphis Country Blues Festival. Depending on the year, the annual gathering held in Memphis between 1966 and 1970, was the place to see and hear genre icons. Country-blues guitarists Furry Lewis and Mississippi Fred McDowell, along with blues and R&b character Rufus Thomas, all played there, as did folk and rock guitar heroes Johnny Winter and John Fahey. The Rolling Stones were even invited to appear (more on that later), and some...

Allegations of theft and greed over control of the late guitarist Johnny Winter’s music are flying, the Associated Press reports.

The legal wrangle is between Winter’s former personal manager and bandmate, Paul Nelson, and the family of Winter’s late wife, Susan, who died in 2019.

Winter played at Woodstock in 1969, produced albums for Muddy Waters, and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

He released more than two dozen albums and was nominated for several Grammy awards, winning his first one posthumously in 2015 for Best Blues Album for “Step Back.” Nelson produced the album and also took home a Grammy for it.

Winter’s in-laws contend Nelson and his wife improperly took more than $1.5 million from Winter’s music business.

Nelson and his wife claim the relatives tricked severely ill Susan Winter into signing over control of Winter’s music.

The case was scheduled to go...

Patrick Stickles has returned to the bar’s backyard with a Guinness, finished marveling at the absurdity of a Pringles commercial in which a man dies with a chip can stuck on his hand, and is meditating on the interconnectivity of all life on Earth — bound by the will to live — when a dog looks his way.

“He’s looking right at me, so I gotta be telling the truth,” exclaims the frontman for New Jersey/Brooklyn punk stalwarts Titus Andronicus. “Come on, you can’t do better than this!

Edgar Winter has released a cover of his brother Johnny’s “Guess I’ll Go Away” with Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins featured on lead vocals, marking the drummer’s first posthumous release since his death on March 25.

The track appears on Brother Johnny, Edgar’s tribute album to his brother, out Friday. Originally off 1970’s Johnny Winter And, the new rendition features Hawkins kicking things off alongside a blistering guitar riff by Doug Rappoport, as Edgar accompanies on organ.

In a tribute posted on his website following Hawkins’ death, Winter...

A music festival, held in 1969, is filmed — bits of it airing on local TV — but then shelved for decades before it’s resurrected for a new film. No, it’s not Summer of Soul. It’s Memphis ’69, a recently completed doc — which starts airing next week — that amounts to the blues equivalent to the lauded, Questlove-directed chronicle of that gathering of soul, R&b, and jazz acts.

In Memphis in late May of that year, just shortly before the Harlem Cultural Festival kicked off in New York City, a...

The following is a piece in a four-part series highlighting all that Missouri has to offer in the worlds of food, art, music and adventure. Missouri – or “Mo,” as we refer to her – has no shortage of places to explore, so whatever you’re after, there’s a Mo for every M-o.

Savvy travelers know that the Kansas City music scene has a not-so-hidden wealth of destinations worth visiting. The barbecue-loving, middle-of-the-map metropolis has grown into a buzzing live music hotspot that is also known the world over for its storied place in jazz history.

She’s been Connie Conehead, the youngest spawn of Beldar and Prymaat. Or perhaps you remember her as Christie Christina, the cohost of E. Buzz Miller’s public access cable show. Maybe you recall the stints as a TV news reporter on Chevy Chase’s version of SNL’s “Weekend Update” segments.

However you remember Laraine Newman from her Saturday Night Live days of more than four decades ago, you’ll look at her in a different way after reviewing her new audiobook, May You Live in Interesting Times, a nine-hour memoir out via Audible.com March 11.

Narrated by Newman, the audiobook explores the entirety of her life, from growing up in Los Angeles with movie star neighbors, bearing witness to the music scene in the 1960s (and losing her virginity to Johnny Winter) and seeing the rise of comedy in the early 70s, to studying mime in Paris under the tutelage of Marcel Marceau.

Fifty years after the original Woodstock festival took place, mementos of the event are scattered across the country. Jimi Hendrix’s guitar is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Wavy Gravy’s sleeping bag is housed at the Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio (owned by former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen). Jack Casady’s bass, Johnny Winter’s chain necklace and the original plans for the location can be found at a museum on the site of the festival in Bethel, New York.

Then there’s the white cardboard box,...

Scott Rosenbaum’s documentary profiling three legendary blues musicians arrives too late. The film chronicles the lives and careers of Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who all passed away in 2011. That, as well as the onscreen interviews with deceased musicians such as Gregg Allman and Johnny Winter, lends an undeniable elegiac quality to Sidemen: Long Road to Glory. The film should prove catnip to music lovers, especially blues fans.

None of the three subjects are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but as the film makes abundantly clear, they should be. Sumlin was a...

The 57th Annual Grammy Awards winners have been chosen, and we have the full list of those musicians taking home statues this Sunday, Feb. 8.

Did you favorite artists and/or songs win?

Check out the Full list of winners, below.

Record of the Year: Sam Smith, Stay With Me

Song of the Year: "Stay With Me," Sam Smith

Album of the Year: Beck, Morning Phase

Best Country Album: Miranda Lambert, Platinum

Best R&B Performance: "Drunk in Love," Beyonce feat. Jay Z

Best Rock Album: Beck, Morning Phase

Best Pop Vocal Album: Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour

Best Pop Solo Performance: “Happy,” Pharrell Williams

Best New Artist: Sam Smith

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Max Martin for “Bang Bang,” “Break Free,” “Dark Horse,” “Problem,” “Shake It Off,” “Unconditionally”

Best Folk Album: Old Crow Medicine Show, Remedy

Best Americana Album: Rosanne Cash, The River and the Thread

Best American Roots Song: “A Feather’s Not a Bird...

While Sam Smith and Beck dominated the 57th annual Grammy Awards, they were hardly the only winners Sunday night. From Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament (and Eddie Vedder, using his pseudonym "Jerome Turner") scoring Best Recording Package to Beyoncé taking home Best Surround Sound Album, here is the full rundown of all the Grammy winners.

Record of the Year

Sam Smith – "Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)"

Steve Fitzmaurice, Rodney Jerkins & Jimmy Napes, producers; Steve Fitzmaurice, Jimmy Napes & Steve Price, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer Label: Capitol Records; Publishers: Sony...

Complete list of winners and nominees of the 2014 Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Sunday February 8. Winners will be updated as they're announced during the telecast and pre-telecast. Record Of The Year “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli Xcx “Chandelier,” Sia **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith “Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift “All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor Album Of The Year **Winner** “Morning Phase,” Beck “Beyoncé,” Beyoncé “X,” Ed Sheeran “In The Lonely Hour,” Sam Smith “Girl,” Pharrell Williams Song Of The Year “All About That Bass,” Kevin Kadish & Meghan Trainor, songwriters (Meghan Trainor) “Chandelier,” Sia Furler & Jesse Shatkin, songwriters (Sia) “Shake It Off,” Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift) **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith, songwriters (Sam Smith) “Take Me To Church,” Andrew Hozier-Byrne, songwriter (Hozier) Best New Artist Iggy Azalea Bastille Brandy Clark...

Festival to screen UK premiere of Alive Inside [pictured] and 30th anniversary screenings of Threads and Stop Making Sense.

Sheffield-based festival Sensoria has unveiled its 2014 programme.

Running Sept 27-Oct 4, the festival will feature UK premieres of Michael Rossato-Bennett’s Alive Inside and Greg Olliver’s Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty, alongside 30th anniversary outdoor screenings of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense and BBC docu-drama Threads.

The festival will also screen Howard S. Berger & Susan Stahman’s A Life in the Death of Joe Meek, six years after it screened at the inaugural Sensoria festival as a work-in-progress.

For more information, visit the festival’s website.

Johnny Winter, the iconic blues guitarist that inspired the likes of John Lennon, died on Wednesday in Switzerland. He was 70.

Johnny Winter Dies

Winter was found dead in his Zurich hotel room Wednesday. He’d been traveling through Europe on a tour. Winter’s family has yet to learn his cause of death, spokesperson Carla Parisi told The New York Times.

"His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of their loved one and one of the world's finest guitarists," spokeswoman Lori Haynes told CNN.

Winter first began playing guitar in clubs at age 15. By 1969, when he was 24, Winter was profiled in Rolling Stone magazine, bringing him into the national spotlight. The article, titled “Johnny Winter, Albino Bluesman,” speculated that he was quickly becoming one of the best in his trade. “If you can imagine a 130-pound, cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest,...

Legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter, known for his fiery, speedy playing and his long-flowing white hair, died yesterday in Zurich, where he was on tour. He was 70. Winter, the older brother of Edgar Winter, was a contemporary of Eric Clapton and was one of the first blues guitarists so embraced by rock audiences that he was able to sell out arenas during his hey-day in the ‘70s. He was widely influenced by the blues guitarists who came before him, such as Muddy Waters, and he went on to inspire such guitarists as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Born in Beaumont, Texas in 1944, Winter got his start playing in clubs as a teenager. He signed with Columbia Records in 1969 and appeared at The Woodstock Festival that year. He performed with Janis Joplin, as well as his brother. He was inducted into The Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988. Artists including Tom Morello, Kiss...

Johnny Winter, a legendary blues guitarist, was found dead in his hotel in Zurich, Switzerland on Wednesday. He was 70. “His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of their loved one and one of the world's finest guitarists,” a brief statement on his Facebook read. “An official statement with more details shall be issued at the appropriate time.” See photos: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2014 According a police spokeswoman Reuters spoke to, a prosecutor has ordered an autopsy because the cause of death is not clear, but there was no indication of third-party involvement. Evidence suggests his death was.

He spent seven decades blessing the world with his wonderful guitar-playing goodness, and sadly Johnny Winter died on Wednesday (July 16).

The Texas blues legend was found in a Zurich, Switzerland hotel room in the midst of an extensive world tour.

His representative Carla Parisi told the Associated Press, “His wife, family and bandmates were all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists.”

Winter has 20 albums to his credit as well as the distinct honor of being named the 63rd best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Texas blues icon Johnny Winter, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and '70s with his energetic performances and recordings that included producing his childhood hero Muddy Waters, died in a hotel room in Zurich on Wednesday, his representative, Carla Parisi, told the Associated Press. He was 70. "His wife, family and bandmates were all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists," Parisi said in a statement. Winter had been traveling on an extensive tour this year that brought him to Europe for his final performance Saturday at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria.

Texas blues icon Johnny Winter, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and '70s with his energetic performances and recordings that included producing his childhood hero Muddy Waters, died in a hotel room in Zurich on Wednesday, his representative, Carla Parisi, told the Associated Press. He was 70. "His wife, family and bandmates were all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists," Parisi said in a statement. Winter had been traveling on an extensive tour this year that brought him to Europe for his final performance Saturday at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria.

Sundance just ended, and we are already preparing for the next big film festival, South By Southwest. Not too long ago, the festival announced a few of the films premiering this year, but now they’ve announced the main slate. The midnight selections and some inevitable late-breaking additions are still to be announced, but this should be more than enough to get you excited. Along with many World Premieres, and Sundance favorites like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the line up also includes an anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and an extended Q&A screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel with Wes Anderson. SXSW 2014 runs March 7 through 15 in Austin, Texas. Check out the line up after the jump.

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Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,324 films submitted to SXSW 2014. Films screening in Narrative...

Today the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced a diverse features lineup for this year’s Festival, the 21st edition and running March 7 – 15, 2014 in Austin, Texas. The 2014 program expands on SXSW tradition of embracing a range of genres and span of budgets, featuring a wealth of vision from experienced and developing filmmakers alike.

For more information visit http://sxsw.com/film.

Listed in the announcement are 115 of the features that will screen over the course of nine days at SXSW 2014. The lineup below includes 68 films from first-time filmmakers, and consists of 76 World Premieres, 10 North American Premieres and 7 U.S. Premieres. These films were selected from a record 2,215 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,540 U.S. and 675 international feature-length films. With a record number of 6,482 submissions total, the overall increase was 14% over 2013. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 5, with the complete...

Not sure if there is a Short Term 12 equivalent in this year’s Narrative Feature Comp, but on paper SXSW programmers are serving up a mean (and the usual lean group of 8 out of a whopping 1,324 film entries) for the upcoming competitiuon of eight which includes notable entries (that we’ve been tracking for a good time now) such as Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine, John Magary’s The Mend, Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns and Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated docs of the year, on the non-fiction side we find Margaret Brown’s The Great Invisible. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the other sections (notable world preems in We’ll Never Have Paris and Faults (see Mary Elizabeth Winstead above), some Sundance items with Texan connections and other nuggets.

Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight...

A group of children from Newtown, Conn. who recently recorded a version of "Over the Rainbow" are preparing for a live appearance during the E! Network's Grammy Awards preshow on Sunday.

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest will be flying a crew to Connecticut and plans to interview the children via satellite during the E!'s "Live From the Red Carpet" preshow, said Tim Hayes, who co-produced the recording.

The children also will be singing Carly Rae Jepson's hit song, "Call Me Maybe," he said.

The group of 21 kids, some of whom attend Sandy Hook Elementary School, recorded "Over the Rainbow" last month with singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson at the Fairfield, Conn., home of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, two former members of the Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club rock bands.

Sabrina Post, who runs a performing arts school in Newtown and directs the group, said the kids wanted to do...

1963

Johnny Cash: Blood, Sweat and Tears (Columbia)

Some of Cash's '60s concept albums were burdened with much too talking between tracks; here the tribute to the American working man gets to mostly stand alone on its musical merits, and shines. Notably, it incluces the top version of the traditional "John Henry"” about the most legendarily heroic working man ever, and the version of "Casey Jones" here is classic as well. Politically and psychologically, Cash was the perfect man for this job.

1968

Byrds: Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia)

Sometimes transitional albums, confusing listeners expecting a group's earlier style, are underrated. Not so with this classic. It's true that it didn't sell as well as earlier Byrds LPs, nor did the single from the album chart very high, but for decades Notorious Byrd Brothers has been widely revered, and not just by fans; some critics have even anointed it as the band's best album.

Elmore James (January 17, 1918 - May 24, 1963), inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, is one of the most important figures in the development of the blues. By playing electric guitar not as a louder version of an acoustic guitar, but rather as a new instrument that took advantage of the amplifier to create a new sound, he revolutionized the blues and influenced several generations of rockers as well.

Fortunately, there is a single-cd compilation that offers an excellent cross-section of his legacy: The Sky Is Crying: The History of Elmore James (Rhino, 1993). Unfortunately, it's no longer in print and isn't on iTunes, but it was so popular and highly acclaimed that there are plenty of copies still floating around, as a look at Amazon.com quickly reveals -- and they're still cheap, too. The 21-song collection includes items from the Trumpet, Chess, Flair, Atlantic, Chief, Fire, Sphere Sound,...

Judi Dench takes centre stage, and 007 faces a terrifying blond-off with Javier Bardem, in a supremely enjoyable 50th-anniversary outing

This is the seventh time Judi Dench has played the enigmatic spy-chief M. But it is only in this storming new Bond movie that her M has really been all that she could be. Under the stylish direction of Sam Mendes, Dench's M is quite simply the Bond girl to end all Bond girls. Watching this, I thought: of course. How could I have missed it? The real tension isn't with Moneypenny, but with the boss herself. Now M is an imperious, subtly oedipal intelligence-matriarch with the double-o boys under her thumb. She's treating them mean. She's keeping them keen. And she is rewarded with passionate loyalty, varying with smouldering resentment. It's a combination with its own unspoken eroticism, and it has also created the conditions for one of the most...

Bb King, who has just turned 87, has returned home to Mississippi to play to family and friends. In the experience of a lifetime, Ed Vulliamy joins him and hears from the maestro about his rise from the cotton fields to international stardom

The fat red sun settles itself against the horizon, throwing a last, honey-sweet light through humid evening and over a small crowd on the lawn beside a railroad track that cuts through the cotton fields beyond. A quarter-moon rises and a chorus of cicadas serenades imminent twilight, now conjoined by the sound of the band; the drummer catches the backbeat and the compere announces: "How about an Indianola hometown welcome for the one-and-only King of the Blues: Bb King!"

And on he comes, to applause from people who know him well and claim him as their own – the last of the blues masters a few weeks short of his 87th birthday.

William Shatner first burst onto the "music" scene in 1968 with his legendary spoken-word album, The Transformed Man, which interspersed pop songs with readings from Shakespeare befitting his mock-dramatic persona. The album would justifiably go on to earn a reputation as a hilarious novelty item. And now, for whatever reason, the eighty-year-old Shatner has released his fourth studio album, a space-themed rock album called Seeking Major Tom, which butchers twenty classic songs via Shatner's Lou Reed-esque talk-singing. The album is redeemed, though, by appearances from musicians like Peter Frampton, Sheryl Crow, Bootsy Collins, Johnny Winter, and Ritchie Blackmore.  Just uploaded today, Shatner's video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (which must have Freddie Mercury's bones rolling) features a young couple contemplating the stars Wayne's World-style, when suddenly a starry CGI Shatner-face appears in the sky, singing along with a trippy ensemble including fish, [...]...

DVD Playhouse—August 2011

By Allen Gardner

High And Low (Criterion) Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom is a multi-layered masterpiece of suspense and one of the best portraits ever of class warfare in post-ww II Japan. Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy businessman who finds himself in a moral quandary when his chauffer’s son is kidnapped by ruthless thugs who think the boy is Mifune’s. Beautifully realized on every level. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince; Documentary on film’s production; Interview with Mifune from 1984; Trailers and teaser. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 4.0 surround.

Leon Morin, Priest (Criterion) One of French maestro Jean-Pierre Melville’s rare non-crime-oriented films, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a devoted cleric who is lusted after by the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. When Fr. Morin finds himself drawn to a...

For the first time in almost 30 years, legendary funk master Sly Stone is releasing new music. "I'm Back: Friends & Family" will drop on Aug. 16 via Cleopatra; it includes three previously unreleased songs, like a reworking of gospel hymn "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." The rest of the full-length includes reworkings of beloved hits like "Dance to the Music" and "Family Affair" and dance remixes of some. These reduxes will also feature a slew of special guests. "Dance" has Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek behind the ivories, Heart's Ann Wilson helps on "Everyday People," Johnny Winter shows up on...

Johnny Winter "Live Rockpalast 1979" DVD, available July 26, 2011, features the rock blues guitarist and his three piece band live on Germany's famous "Rockpalast" TV series in 1979, icnluding 'straight up blues' of killer covers "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Suzie Q" :

"...Johnny Winter had nothing to prove by the time April of 1979 arrived. Thirty-five years old, he was an established international star and already a decade removed from his seminal 1969 debut-a groundbreaking record followed by an unforgettable appearance at Woodstock, scores of sold-out arenas, a well documented stint in drug rehabilitation, and a steady stream of celebrated albums.

"But as this performance makes clear, Winter's musical soul wasn't entirely at peace the night he stepped before a massive audience in Essen, Germany, to record a performance for the popular German television program 'Rockpalast' ('Rock Palace'). The Texan, armed with his Gibson Firebird was on a mission to reaffirm for his audience-including millions...

Captain Kirk is headed back to space.

William Shatner, the Emmy winning TV icon, announced the track listing and details for his new space-inspired cover album, Searching For Major Tom. The album will feature a large number of heavy metal covers, as well as songs by U2, Frank Sinatra, Queen and Pink Floyd.

Shatner has had a storied music career, producing confusing, parodied yet somehow enlightening song covers and original bits over the past 40+ years. His first album, The Transformed Man, raised eyebrows with its bizarre covers, which, in what would become his trademark style, boasted dramatic readings of lyrics over music. HIs best known track was a recording of Sonny & Cher's "Mr. Tambourine Man." Check out Urlesque's ranking of his ten best cover songs here.

Shatner announced the album via Twitter back in February.

Here's the track list:

Space Trucking Originally By Deep Purple - Deep Purple Drummer...

DVD Playhouse September 2010

By

Allen Gardner

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Music Box Films) Follow up to the hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finds Lisabeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) joining forces once again as Blomkvist is about to break a story on Sweden’s sex trade, which leads unexpectedly to a dark secret from Elizabeth’s past. Starts off well, then quickly nose-dives into sensationalism and downright silliness, with a pair of villains who are straight out of a Roger Moore-era James Bond film. A real letdown for those of us who felt Dragon Tattoo had finally breathed life into the cinema’s long-stagnant genre of the thriller. Bonuses: English language track; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.

The Killer Inside Me (IFC Films) Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s classic, and notorious, novel about the psychotic mind of a small town sheriff (Casey Affleck,...

Johnny Winter "Live Through the '80s will be released in North America, August 24, from Mvd Visual . The new DVD includes a collection of official archival performance footage from around the world compiled from the original masters, featuring 18 performances from various locations includingas MTV Rock Influences '84 "Guitar Greats", Toronto's Massey Hall (Toronto '83), Roskilde Drtv (Roskilde, Denmark '84), New Hampshire ('84), Sonet Studio (Bromma, Sweden '87), Piazza Duomo (Pistoia, Italy '88), and a whole lot more. Intermixed with the live content is interview footage showcasing the 'definitive' document of Winter's career throughout the 1980's. "...The program kicks off in grand style with four performances culled from Johnny's long-sought-after 1983 appearance at Canada's Massey Hall. Leading his high-energy trio -- Jon Paris (bass, harmonica) and Bobby T. Torello (drums) -- with laser-like focus and fire-breathing intensity, the DVD opens with a blistering rendition of the Sonny Boy Williamson blues classic, "Unseen Eye.

"Johnny Winter "Live Through the '80s" will be released in North America, August 24, from Mvd Visual.

The new DVD includes a collection of official archival performance footage from around the world compiled from the original masters, featuring 18 performances from various locations includingas MTV Rock Influences '84 "Guitar Greats", Toronto's Massey Hall (Toronto '83), Roskilde Drtv (Roskilde, Denmark '84), New Hampshire ('84), Sonet Studio (Bromma, Sweden '87), Piazza Duomo (Pistoia, Italy '88), and a whole lot more.

Intermixed with the live content is interview footage showcasing the 'definitive' document of Winter's career throughout the 1980's.

"...The program kicks off in grand style with four performances culled from Johnny's long-sought-after 1983 appearance at Canada's Massey Hall. Leading his high-energy trio -- Jon Paris (bass, harmonica) and Bobby T. Torello (drums) -- with laser-like focus and fire-breathing intensity, the DVD opens with a blistering rendition of the Sonny Boy Williamson blues classic, "Unseen Eye.

In the never-ending battle with the Jerry Siegel estate over the rights and ownership of Superman, DC has fired its old law firm and replaced him with a big, scary guy.

Well, Warner Bros. did the hiring. DC no longer has any distance from their parent company and therefore no longer steers the ship.

The new guy is Daniel Petrocelli. With respect to the current Superman situation, this is the guy who hammered the estate of literary agent Stephen Slesinger on behalf of the Disney empire. Slesinger was the man who initially propelled Winnie the Pooh into the hearts and souls of Americans. Petrocelli got the suit tossed not on its merits but because the Slesingers' lawyers illegally obtained documents by trespassing on Disney property. Hey, a win's a win.

Petrocelli is defending Jeffrey Skilling, the Enron CEO who was convicted of the massive swindle that cost so many Americans their life savings,...

Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, a comprehensive, Oscar-winning documentary of the biggest musical event the world has ever seen, makes its way onto Blu-ray glory with the Director’s Cut (1994) in a truly impressive presentation Warner Brothers has chosen to call The Ultimate Collector’s Edition. Lasting just 15 minutes shy of 4 hours, Woodstock features performances by musicians who left a lasting impression on the world scattered in between clips of the festival, its audience and its organizers.

The significance of Woodstock is hard to overplay; in an age of public turmoil, when rifts existed between countless subsets of American culture, Woodstock set everything aside for three days political expression through music. Some artists delivered mini-sermons before playing their set while others let their instruments do all the talking. There are those who insist Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” used guitar distortion to...

•   Slim pickings this Tuesday (June 9th 2009) as there are only a trio of titles worth recommending. Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut is a fully equipped edition (see details below) of the Michael Wadleigh documentary film, a great father's day present that curiously comes out before Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and not sometime in August when Woodstock took place. Film Movement offers Wang Xiaoshuai's 10th film as a director with In Love We Trust - a contemporary drama set in Beijing, involving two mid-aged couples. Adapted from a true story, the story of Zuo You is about the relationship crisis and emotional unrest of two couples, when the son of the divorced couple is found to have leukemia. In need of a bone marrow transplant, the only way to save the teenage boy is for the divorced couple to give birth to another baby, which will jeopardize current relationships.

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