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Long Strange Trip (Amazon Video)

I was stoked have scored a ticket for the limited-run (one week) theatrical screening of the new Grateful Dead documentary at IFC Cinema in the West Village. A four-hour love fest for Deadheads young and old, and more importantly for those music fans and the curious who just never got "it" and what it means to be a Deadhead. Expertly handled by director Amir Bar-Lev, there is so much to mine here that I can't imagine how much was left on the cutting room floor. (Props to executive producer Martin Scorsese, too.) Jerry's Frankenstein story frames the movie in a way that initially seems odd but by the end of the film makes perfect sense. After all, like the Monster, the band was "assembled" by the various parts (members, friends, fans, staff) that comprised it. Messy, joyous entropy in action; seemingly random, but actually spiritually...

Music is at the core of two new Specialty features making their theatrical bows this weekend, albeit from rather different ends of the spectrum. XLrator Media will open Jimi: All Is By My Side focusing on the artist’s life in London in nearly three dozen theaters, while Samuel Goldwyn Films will bow faith-centered The Song in over 300 theaters, the biggest number of runs for a limited release newcomer this week. Magnolia Pictures will take thriller The Two Faces Of January starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac to an initial half-dozen locations in the wake of its VOD release late last month and CBS Films is targeting the same number of runs for its Cannes ’14 feature Pride. Factory 25 is opening its art meets goth-rap thriller Hellaware and Cinema Libre will debut a former Swiss foreign-language Oscar contender The Little Bedroom in exclusive New York runs. The weekend is...

This coming week brings the 200th birthday of The Star-Spangled Banner. It is, in addition to being notoriously hard to sing, the National Anthem of the United States of America. While the song is used for many different occasions—baseball games and elections and fireworks and War of 1812-themed frat parties—most of the time what happens during its performances is pretty consistent. Those who are sitting stand, those who wear hats remove them, and everyone sort of uncomfortably half sings along while looking for the nearest American flag. It’s that universal ritual that makes unusual uses of...

Most Academy Awards hand out five nominations apiece. Some awards only hand out three; a few years ago, the Academy opened up the Best Picture race to like a million nominees. But the specific number doesn’t really matter. Most races inevitably come down to some kind of face-off between two nominees: Frontrunner vs. Dark Horse, Beloved Veteran vs. Dynamic Newcomer, Megahit vs. Beloved Smaller Film, Dark Tale Of The Modern World vs. Sentimental Nostalgia Bait.

Each year, though there are races that defy any easy binary rendering. These are the categories that stacked almost too high with talent. Sometimes that’s clear right away,...

I've gotta say that I'm extremely impressed with Microsoft's Xbox One. I want one. It's an all in one entertainment extravaganza, and it's loaded with a ton of amazing hardware and features. 

For those of you that missed the reveal announcement, here's a collection of videos featuring the trailers and demos that were screened by Microsoft, Infinity Ward, and EA for Forza 5, Quantum Break, and Call of Duty: Ghosts, which looks incredible! There's some videos that also go into detail on the new Sports Ignite Engine.

The next generation of home entertainment and video games is going to be epic! The game has completely changed, and I'm excited to be a part of it!

Call of Duty: Ghosts takes the critically-acclaimed franchise into the next generation. New world. New story. New, next-gen engine. 

Infinity Ward Executive Producer Mark Rubin and the Call of Duty: Ghosts development team discuss the all-new world,...

Son of Rogue's Gallery, a compilation of songs from the seafaring tradition, will feature a grizzled crew including Keith Richards, Michael Stipe, Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan

Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Tom Waits and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan are among the contributors to a new compilation of pirate ballads. The grizzled, A-list crew was assembled by Johnny Depp, who performs on the album, and the people behind the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

First, some more names. Among the hearties who are shivering timbers on Son of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys: Tom Waits with Keith Richards, Michael Stipe with Courtney Love, Nick Cave, Broken Social Scene, Marianne Faithful with the McGarrigle sisters, Sissy Bounce with Akron/Family, Beth Orton, Macy Gray and Sean Lennon.

The two-disc set, due next year, is the sequel to a compilation from 2006. There too, Pirates producer Hal Willner manned the tiller.

The 2012 Country Music Association Awards crowned its new king and queen: Blake Shelton and his wife, Miranda Lambert, who together scored a total of five trophies.

Shelton nabbed the biggest prize, Entertainer of the Year, the couple were named Male and Female Vocalists of the Year, and they shared the Song award for "Over You."

But the Cmas shared the love this year: Aside from Little Big Town upset wins for Vocal Group and Single for "Pontoon," but all the other multiple nominees notched just a single win -- including Eric Church, who had five noms going in.

The winners appear in boldface in the list below::

Entertainer of the Year

Jason Aldean

Kenny Chesney

Brad Paisley

Blake Shelton

Taylor Swift

Single of the Year (award goes to Artist and Producer(s))

"Dirt Road Anthem," Jason Aldean, Produced by Michael Knox, Broken Bow Records

"God Gave Me You," Blake Shelton,...

Those 180-gram vinyl fetishists who are willing to brave post-Thanksgiving sleepiness will be heartily rewarded by this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day. For the second year, independent retailers across the country will be offering exclusive Rsd items, including but not limited to records by Bob Dylan, Band Of Horses, and Wanda Jackson. The entire list of releases is available on the Record Store Day site, but highlights include a limited-edition, high-quality version of Nirvana’s Incesticide cut at 45 Rpm, a red Gaslight Anthem 10-inch featuring a cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love,” recordings of The Velvet ...

Los Angeles, California (X17online) - The nominees for the 46th Country Music Association Awards have been announced, and it was newcomer Eric Church who received the most nominations this year, with a total of five. Blake Shelton and his wife, singer Miranda Lambert, tallied four nominations apiece, while Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney got three each. Swift, Chesney, Shelton, Aldean and Brad Paisley are nominated for entertainer of the year. Chesney has taken the trophy four times before, tying with Garth Brooks for the most wins in the category since the awards began in 1967. Swift has collected it twice and Paisley once; and she was the youngest performer ever to win the award when she first nabbed it in 2009 at the age of 19. Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Swift and Carrie Underwood are up for Female Vocalist of the Year, while Aldean, Luke Bryan, Church, Shelton...

Nashville, Tenn. — Presidential elections are usually serious business, but President Barack Obama and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney are taking a little time for laughs during the Cmt Music Awards on Wednesday.

Obama and Romney have taped video segments that will appear as part of the country music award show's opening segment. Cmt President Brian Philips said in a statement that each is "in on the joke."

"They're each great sports," he said.

The fun kicks off at 8 p.m. Edt from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Cmt with hosts Toby Keith and Kristen Bell. A host of celebrities from across the entertainment dial are scheduled to appear as well, but they'll be battling for attention with the focus on Obama and Romney.

Chances are Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift will take over the spotlight by the end of the evening, though. It doesn't take a statistician to sort out the...

There have been plenty of creepy songs over the last thousand or so years. (Mozart‘s Requiem anybody? Well everybody, eventually.) We’ve decided to compile The 88 Creepiest Song Titles Of All Time. To be fair, we left out pretty much every death metal title because, frankly, they’re all pretty creepy. Click on the names of each artist to hear the selection. And feel free to weigh in on any song titles we may have left out in the comments. 88. “My Ding-a-Ling” Chuck Berry A no-brainer. It’s a song about a little boy discovering his penis, and it’s sung by a man well into his 40s. Perverted Justice’s favorite tune. 87. “Two Lovely Black Eyes” Charles Coborn What’s lovelier than a woman who was beaten in the face twice? According to Charles Coborn, nothing! 86. “With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm” Stanley Holloway A song about Anne Boleyn,...

Demi Lovato's Unbroken debuts at #4.

By Gil Kaufman

Tony Bennett

Photo: Getty Images

It only took him 60 years, but ageless crooner Tony Bennett will finally snag his first #1 debut on the Billboard album charts next week when his star-studded Duets II album wins the crown.

The disc, which features songs recorded with Lady Gaga and late British R&B diva Amy Winehouse, sold 179,000 copies in its first week, which was good enough to push last week's top seller — Lady Antebellum's Own the Night — down to #2, as sales trailed off by 64 percent to 125,000.

Leading the list of other debuts in the top 10 was Demi Lovato, who hit #4 with Unbroken (96,000), followed by Needtobreathe's Reckoning (#6, 49,000), Mindless Behavior's #1 Girl (#7, 36,000) Gavin DeGraw's Sweeter (#8, 34,000) and the soundtrack to Pearl Jam Twenty (#10, 27,000).

The rest of the top 10: Adele, 21 (#3, 117,000); Lil Wayne, Tha Carter IV (#5, 84,000); and Jay-z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne (#9, 31,000).

Just outside...

Welcome back to another edition of Case of the Mondays, the weekly post that takes a look at which celebrity is having, well, just another case of the Mondays. This week that celeb is Christina Aguilera, who was chosen to sing the National Anthem at this year's Super Bowl ... and then proceeded to completely botch the song. For those National Anthem enthusiasts among you, Aguilera messed up when she sang "what so proudly we watched" instead of singing the correct line, "o'er the ramparts we watched." For this, she received multiple internet lashings, and while we did not see him, something tells us Nelson from The Simpsons was standing off to one corner shouting, "Ha, Ha." Don't worry Christina, trust us when we say a great majority of this country doesn't even know what the...

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This week: Does country music have any gay anthems? Why the brouhaha over Elton John’s child? Plus, Mark Indelicato, Kyle Bornheimer, and more!

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!

Q: I've always wondered what's with the gay guy obsession with straight guys doing gay adult films? Is it like a forbidden fruit kind of obsession, or are straight guys just that much hotter, because I really don't get it? A hot guy is a hot guy and gay adult films are gay adult films, but looking at the internet, sites with straight guys getting it on with other guys are all the rage now. I personally find the whole "gay for pay" thing a bit weird. It might be me thinking a bit too much, but there's a slight turn off in knowing...

You can't spit on the host and then show up with your B game. Kanye West knows this, which is why his pair of performances on this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" were among the most arresting in the show's 30-plus year history. You might recall that West took a hard shot at the long-running late night staple on his single "Power," unfavorably name-checking the sketch comedy show with the line "F--- 'SNL' and the whole cast. Tell 'em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass."

But when he showed up to perform the song on Saturday (October 2), Kanye paid the biggest compliment he could to the show: He delivered one of his typically eye-popping visual spectacles, one which will undoubtedly go down in the books. And keep in mind, everybody has played on SNL, from U2 and Abba, to Frank Zappa, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Queen, R.E.M., Public Enemy,...

A wonderful guy who I had the honor of knowing and working with died suddenly yesterday at age 49. We never know how long we have on this planet. Here's an Earth Day playlist of songs about taking better care of Planet Earth, better care of one another and better care of ourselves. R.I.P. Ron Scalera, a great man who really loved his family, his work at CBS and his music. Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye The Last Resort - The Eagles Hands All Over - Soundgarden Earth Song - Michael Jackson Monkey Gone To Heaven - The Pixies Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell Down To Earth - Peter Gabriel Nature's Way - Spirit (Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads Earth Anthem - The Turtles Don't Go Near The Water - The Beach Boys Don't Drink The Water - Dave Matthews Band Cuyahoga - R.E.M....

Here I was all set to go Elitist on the country singer Lee Greenwood, and I pulled the rug out from under myself. I shared Rachel Maddow's incredulity that the limping duck George W. Bush had appointed Greenwood to the National Council of the Arts. I even had my first two sentences written in my head: "Remember how the Bush takeover squad at the White House complained the Clintonites had unplugged all the PCs on their way out the door? As he steadfastly marches toward his own sunset, it is Bush himself who seems unplugged."

Zing! Totally unfair, but snappy, Bush had two vacancies to fill on the Nca, one for three years, one for six. Greenwood got the six-year term. He'll be the gift that keeps on giving every day during Obama's first term. The Council's job is to advise the National Endowment for the Arts on how to spend its money.