DudeAsInCool

I thought when I read the above AP wire that Michael Jackson was being bilked for money. That still maybe true. But reading this, one wonders how innocent Michael Jackson is.. http://RIAAhumor.bravehost.com/mj.html

Speaking of the RIAA, here's a humorous website paraody.. http://RIAAhumor.bravehost.com/

By Linda Deutsch Nov. 25, 2003 | LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson's attorney angrily vowed Tuesday to "land like a ton of bricks" on anyone who besmirches his client's reputation and charged that molestation allegations against the entertainer were motivated by money. "If anybody doesn't think based upon what's happened so far that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money and the seeking of money, then they're living in their own Neverland," Mark Geragos said, referring to Jackson's storybook playland near Santa Barbara. Geragos did not take any questions at the news conference, but promised a vigorous defense. "Michael Jackson is not going to be slammed. He is not going to be a pinata for every person who has financial motives," he said. The news conference came as doubts about the credibility of Jackson's accuser and his family began to emerge. The family of the child has already been involved in two previous cases that involved abuse allegations: a lawsuit in which the family said they were battered by mall security guards, and a divorce fight in which the father pleaded no contest to spousal abuse and child cruelty. In November 2001, J.C. Penney Co. paid the boy's family $137,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging security guards beat the boy, his mother and his brother in a parking lot after the boy left the store carrying clothes that hadn't been paid for, court records show. The mother also contended that she was sexually assaulted by one of the guards during the 1998 confrontation. A month before the settlement, the boy's mother had filed for divorce, beginning a bitter fight that would include criminal charges of abuse. The father's attorney, Russell Halpern, said the mother had lied about the abuse and had a "Svengali-like" ability to make her children repeat her lies. Halpern said the father once showed him a script his wife had allegedly written for their children to use when they were questioned in a civil deposition. "She wrote out all their testimony. I actually saw the script," Halpern said. "I remember my client showing me, bringing the paperwork to me." The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse. The child's mother has an unlisted number and could not be located for comment. J.C. Penney lawyers did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The family's past legal cases could be critical in the current molestation case, if Geragos can show the mother or the accuser lacks credibility, said Leonard Levine, a defense attorney who specializes in sexual assault cases. "It sounds like music to a defense attorney's ears -- that there have been other cases where they have sued and there is at least an argument that the allegations are similar to the ones here," Levine said, referring to the claims of physical abuse. "Once you can get evidence in that there's previous evidence that either the child or the parents have fabricated evidence or testimony, you're 90 percent to an acquittal," Levine added. Jackson was released on $3 million bail after his surrender Thursday and immediately returned to Las Vegas, where he had been filming a video. Santa Barbara County authorities said Tuesday they now expect to file formal charges sometime in mid-December rather than soon after Thanksgiving. Jackson's spokesman, Stuart Backerman, declined comment about the past lawsuits involving the accuser's family. Geragos called the news conference following revelations that he and Jackson were secretly videotaped while flying on a private jet to Santa Barbara last week for Jackson's surrender. Geragos claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Santa Monica-based XtraJet that the charter company covertly installed two cameras in the plane's cabin. Jackson's attorneys won a temporary restraining order against XtraJet, barring any release of the tapes. The cameras "were recording attorney-client conversations and then somebody had the unmitigated gall to shop those tapes around to media outlets in order to sell them to the highest bidder," he said. Separately, FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin said agents went to the headquarters of XtraJet. "We're currently assessing if a federal violation has occurred," McLaughlin said. The tapes' existence came to light when representatives of XtraJet showed it to several news organizations, saying they had found two videotapes aboard one of their jets and wanted to know whether it was legal to distribute or sell them. Geragos said he contacted XtraJet and was referred to an attorney who told him Tuesday: "We had a lottery ticket and we thought we were going to do something with it." "This is not the lottery," Geragos said. "This is this man's life. This is his family's life. These are scurrilous accusations." The attorney did not immediately return a call for comment. Fox Network viewed the tape on Monday and reported that Jackson looked "calm, often smiling or laughing" during the flight. The lawsuit claims XtraJet asked Fox to pay a price "in the high six figures." ___ Associated Press writer Tim Molloy also contributed to this report.

Is it Mac compatible?

LOL

I t hought Steeley Dan was pretty good at the time. Joni Mitchell and Prince were dong some good work in the eighties.

Nice post. Cool, these forums are begining to build.

Robin Trower always reminds me of Hendrix. I love Al Kooper's Super Sessions and Season of the Witch, in particular.

Welcome aboard , Vipp. Feel free to skate around. Love to have your input :)

Tue Nov 25, 5:50 AM Est By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - Country music singer Glen Campbell (news) was arrested on Monday on suspicion of extreme drunken driving and hit and run after he crashed into another vehicle in central Phoenix, city police said. Campbell, whose storied career has included 27 Top 10 hits, also was booked into jail on suspicion of aggravated assault on a police officer for allegedly kneeing a sergeant in the thigh while at the station, said Sgt. Randy Force, a Phoenix police spokesman. At times, the 67-year-old entertainer was combative and aggressive, congenial and was heard to be singing as he was being processed into jail, Force said. Campbell remained at Madison Street Jail until early on Tuesday, authorities said. Following a midnight hearing, he was released on bond at 12:30 a.m., a jail spokesman said. The amount of the bond was unavailable, "That's what alcohol addiction can do to people," son Shannon Campbell, 18, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "People should pray for him and any other people who have the same problem." Shannon Campbell said the incidents do not happen often with his father, whose official web site says that the singer has given up alcohol and smoking cigarettes. He said he was waiting for his father's call from jail. Police said the incident started at about 5 p.m. MST when Campbell's silver BMW car slammed into a white Toyota sedan at a Phoenix intersection and continued on. A witness followed Campbell's car as he called authorities on his cell phone. Arriving officers made the arrest after confronting Campbell at his residence at the Biltmore Estates, considered a posh area of Phoenix populated by affluent residents. "By his appearance and demeanor and the strong alcohol on his breath, he was taken into custody," Force said. Campbell's blood-alcohol level was not immediately released. The legal limit for drivers in Arizona is a blood-alcohol content of .08, with extreme drunken driving at more than .15. The singer has spent more than 40 years in the entertainment industry, racking up such hits as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman" and "Rhinestone Cowboy." He recently released a career-spanning boxed collection of his songs. He also is known for his CBS musical variety series "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour." Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Has it been added to the links yet?

Ole!

By the way, I feel blessed to have you guys as partners--and the 7 votes for us is a lucky omen!

Thanx, BF, and we look forward to your confidence and guidance in the future. Remember this site will always be yours if and when you want it back... Good luck to you in your mission and godspeed!

A wealth of information here...nice post.

Nice work, Beatking. I think the forum section on music categories (with Jazz, etc) is definitely improved. Im just sor t of cruising around the site checking out the new categories. Any thoughts on the new layout, guys? Do we have too many categories, or is it working for you? Also, can old threads such as some of the Polls be moved to the new Polls section, and how do you do that, if that's possible? I always thought that some news items at ZP would be better in some of the forums and wondered if they could be posted there after their news run.

(AP, 11/24/2003 9:07:00PM) By Alex Veiga A consortium of investors led by former Universal Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. said Monday it struck a $2.6 billion deal to buy Warner Music Group from Time Warner Inc., edging out Britain's EMI Group PLC , which withdrew its bid at the last minute. The deal, which also includes Time Warner's Warner/Chappell Music publishing business, would create one of the world's largest independent music companies and include some of the industry's biggest artists, such as Madonna , R.E.M . and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Bronfman, who oversaw a great expansion at Universal as its chief between 1995 and 2000, will lead the company. Bronfman sold Universal before the impact of digital technology and the Internet helped spur a three-year slump in CD sales industrywide. Bronfman sold the company, a unit of his family's longtime liquor business, Seagram Co., to Vivendi in 2000. He tried to buy back Vivendi this year, but lost out to General Electric Co.'s NBC. "Warner Music Group is one of the world's greatest recorded music and music publishing companies, and we have great faith in its potential for growth as an independent company and in the long-term opportunities of this industry," Bronfman said. "We have brought together a highly sophisticated and well-financed group of investors to support the business." Current Warner Music chairman Roger Ames was slated to take the No. 2 spot at the new company. More details on senior management and the composition of the board were to be announced later. The deal was expected to close in January, according to the Bronfman investor group, which includes Boston-based private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners Inc. Hollywood billionaire Haim Saban, who initially was part of the investor group, pulled out of the consortium over the weekend after it became clear he would not be allowed to have a direct, controlling role with the company, according to an entertainment industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Under terms of the deal, Time Warner would retain an option to buy back up to a 15 percent stake in the new company during the first three years after the sale closes, or up to a 19.9 percent stake at a favorable price if Warner Music were to merge with another music company, according to a source familiar with the deal. The deal would also extend Time Warner's current music publishing agreements for four years and retain Time Warner's affiliation with Warner Music through its America Online digital music business. The deal gives the giant media conglomerate a way to exit the embattled music business while raising billions in cash toward slashing its net debt. "The cash is really the thing that makes the deal," said Michael Goodman , media and entertainment analyst at the Yankee Group. "One of the biggest things Time Warner needs to do is pay down their debt. They're getting out of a business that is in decline for them." The Bronfman-Time Warner deal was expected to slash Time Warner's net debt by about $2.6 billion, the company said. "I'm very pleased that we are putting our music company in such capable hands," said Time Warner Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons. "Despite my personal fondness for the music business as well as for all of our wonderful managers and music group employees, I believe that this transaction is clearly in the best interests of our company's shareholders." Time Warner put its music business up for sale in late summer, conducting exclusive talks with BMG, a unit of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. BMG ended up inking a tentative merger deal with Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) . earlier this month. EMI, the world's third-largest music company, approached Time Warner, eventually offering an estimated $1.5 billion cash and stock deal for Time Warner's recorded music division, but excluding the music publishing business. EMI appeared to be the front-runner as late as Wednesday, when EMI officials publicly described the negotiations as having reached "an advanced stage." But a day later, Time Warner's board focused in decidedly on Bronfman's consortium, giving them until the end of the weekend to finalize the deal, the source said. Time Warner's board ultimately concluded the Bronfman deal would have a better chance of winning approval quicker from antitrust regulators than a merger with EMI, particularly in light of the merger agreement between Sony and BMG, the source said. EMI, whose artists include Robbie Williams , Kylie Minogue and Radiohead, failed previous attempts to merge with BMG and Warner Music the past three years. "They're low man on the totem pole," Goodman said. "In a declining business you don't want to be on the bottom, because you're the one who is gong to get impacted most significantly." So far this year, Warner Music Group has 17.91 percent of overall market share, second only to Universal Music's 27.99 percent, according to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. Sony Music Entertainment ranks third with 14.86 percent and BMG is fourth with 14.63 percent. EMI Group ranks fifth with 10.8 percent.

A nasty rumor was swirling the internet and radio last night regarding Creed's front man's demise. What have you heard? Could it be true? Latest words on the street: http://www.viewaskew.com/newboard/messages403/2855.html http://www.geocities.com/scottstappsuxcomics/

I wonder what he was smoking? I thought it was hilarious he lost his pants and his dignity.. lol Nothing like coming up short in the head and the pants...

Kind of hilariouis isnt it?

I'd say all our tastes are varied... lol

To raise some moolah for the poor. Probably someone will give them some tickets to the concert, too

Welcome to BeatKing, drinkbud :)

Maybe he thought he was playing Santa Clause... :)

Nov. 24, 2003 | COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A teenager who locked himself out of the house tried to shimmy down the chimney. It didn't work. Battalion Chief Craig Mosley said firefighters got a call Sunday evening reporting a child stuck in a chimney. When they arrived, they found the youth stuck a few feet from the bottom. Fire department spokeswoman Kelly McGuire identified the boy as 15-year-old Henry Golatt. He was small enough to get most of the way down the chimney, which was about a foot wide. But the flue that opens into the house was only 8 inches across. Mosley says firefighters considered cutting holes in the chimney or dismantling it, but decided on a less destructive approach. They lowered a rope from an aerial ladder and pulled Henry up very slowly. He lost his pants on the trip up but only his dignity was hurt.