Eddy Woo and Jeff Fusion & other: 2008

Sunday 7 September 2008

Nanoscale Droplets With Cancer-Fighting Implications Produced By Scientists

�UCLA scientists have succeeded in fashioning unique nanoscale droplets that are much smaller than a human cell and can potentially be used to deliver pharmaceuticals.

"What we found that was unexpected was within each oil droplet there was also a water droplet - a double photographic emulsion," said Timothy Deming, professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Bioengineering and a member of both the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA and UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "We have a water droplet inside of an rock oil droplet, in water."

"The big challenge," Deming added, "was to make these double-emulsion droplets in the sub-100-nanometer sizing range with these properties and take them be stable. We have demonstrated we can make these emulsions that are stable in this size scope, which no one has ever been able to do before. These threefold nanoemulsions ar generally heavy to form and identical unstable, only ours ar very stable."

Emulsions are droplets of one liquid in some other liquid; the two liquids do non mix.

"This gives us a novel tool, a new material, for drug delivery and anticancer applications," said Thomas G. Mason, a UCLA associate professor of chemical science and physical science who has been preeminent research on nanoemulsions since he linked UCLA basketball team years ago. Mason, wHO holds UCLA's John McTague Career Development Chair, is also a member of the CNSI.

Deming and Mason have made nanoemulsions containing billions of twofold nanodroplets. Their research, coverage on droplets smaller than 100 nanometers - the world's smallest double emulsions - appears in the Sept. 4 edition of the journal Nature and is currently online.

"If we have water-soluble drugs, we can load them inside," Deming said. "If we have water-insoluble drugs, we buns load them inside as well. We can deliver them simultaneously."

"Here, you effectively combine both types of do drugs molecules in the same delivery package," Mason aforesaid. "This approaching could be used for a combination therapy where you want to deport two drugs simultaneously at a fixed ratio into the same location."

It might be possible to insert a pharmaceutical inside a droplet and come in the droplet inside a cell, the scientists aforementioned. Could these droplets release their shipment inside a cell?

"We're working on it," aforesaid Deming, wHO designs and engineers molecules. "There's a pretty clear path on how to do that. There ar still challenges for dose delivery, only we have demonstrated the key number one step, that we crapper make these double emulsions that are stable in this size range."

The cargo could be a protein toxin that helps to kill the mobile phone. For example, one approach might involve an antitumour drug in the rock oil and a toxin-protein in the water - deuce molecules trying to kill the jail cell simultaneously. While a mobile phone can develop resistance to a single drug, the combination approach can be more effective, the scientists said.

Deming and Mason caution that while this approach holds promise for fighting cancer, there ar still many steps, and likely many years of research, in front patients could be treated in this way. Clinical trials using this enquiry would plausibly be long time off.

"We'll have to do a lot of fine-tuning, simply this approach has a lot of advantages," Deming said. "The size of these is a bad advantage. We have discovered unique molecular features that can stabilise double emulsions. These ar promising, only it's early on, and there are many slipway these can fail. But we should at least learn how to make better drug-delivery vehicles."

In future inquiry, Deming and Mason require to seduce sure the droplets prat harmlessly enter cells and release their cargo.

The nanodroplets could potentially be used in cosmetics, soaps and shampoos as well.

NanoPacific Holdings Inc. has licensed this nanodroplet engineering science from UCLA to educate and commercialize the technology in a variety of applications.

Deming's laboratory is trying to take some of the key features that make proteins exceptional and put them into synthetic materials.

"Tim has these beautiful molecules that he tail design and customize," Mason said.

Deming saw Mason give a UCLA talk about unsubdivided nanoemulsions in which Mason was application nanoscale oil droplets in water victimisation natural proteins; the 2 agreed to try to combine the advantages of their materials, and their collaboration was born. Both scientists said working in concert has been "fantastic."

Emulsions are a way of taking an oil, which doesn't ruffle with water, and putt it in a water-friendly environment, where, dispersed as droplets, it behaves like a fluid. Emulsions have complex properties and are found in many products, including foods, plastics, cosmetics, oil and paints.

"In the emerging field of nanoemulsions, this research is a expectant step," Mason said.

As a graduate student at Princeton University in the early nineties, Mason founded a field called thermal microrheology that is now used by scientists planetary. Microrheology is a method for examining the viscousness and snap of soft materials, including liquids and emulsions, on a microscopic scale.

Co-authors on the Nature paper are steer author Jarrod A. Hanson, a UCLA graduate pupil in Deming's laboratory; Connie B. Chang and Sara M. Graves, both graduate students in Mason's testing ground; and Zhibo Li, a postdoctoral scholar in Deming's laboratory. Deming received a grant from the external Human Frontiers of Science program (hypertext transfer protocol://www.hfsp.org/) to support Hanson's research.

For more information about Mason's research, visit http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/Mason. For more entropy about Deming's research, visit http://deming.seas.ucla.edu/.

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated enquiry center in operation jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara whose mission is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology; train the next generation of scientists, educators and technology leadership; and facilitate partnerships with industry, refueling economic maturation and the social well-being of California, the United States and the world. The CNSI was established in 2000 with $100 million from the state of California and an additional $250 million in federal research grants and industry funding. At the institute, scientists in the areas of biology, chemical science, biochemistry, natural philosophy, mathematics, computational science and engineering are measuring, modifying and manipulating the edifice blocks of our domain - atoms and molecules. These scientists benefit from an integrated laboratory civilization enabling them to convey dynamic research at the nanoscale, leading to significant breakthroughs in the areas of health, energy, the environment and information engineering science. For extra information, visit http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu/.

The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, established in 1945, offers 28 academic and professional degree programs, including an interdepartmental graduate level program in biomedical technology. Ranked among the pinnacle 10 technology schools at public universities nationwide, the school is home to seven multimillion-dollar interdisciplinary enquiry centers, in space exploration, wireless sensing element systems, nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing and nanoelectronics, all funded by federal and private agencies. For more information, visit http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/.

UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 37,000 undergrad and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than ccc degree programs and major league. UCLA is a national and ational leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care,

Thursday 28 August 2008

Da Brat Headed for Da Slammer

Da Brat has just been disposed one helluva spanking.

An Atlanta judge today sentenced the Unrestricted rapper to 3 years in prison for bashing a woman with a rummy bottle at a Halloween party final year.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gail Flake too slapped the 34-year-old knocker, whose real name is Shawntae Harris, with seven years' probation and cc hours of community military service for the Oct. 31 incident, which occurred at mentor Jermaine Dupri's Studio 72 night club in Tucker, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta.

The hip-hopster and the victim, a waitress at the nightclub, apparently had an existing beef which boiled o'er. Police were called in after Da Brat was accused of slashing the employee's face with the glass bottle, sending her to the hospital.

Da Brat pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault in the hopes of winning a light sentence or avoiding jail time altogether.

But the judge wasn't in a forgiving climate, noting that the victim suffered permanent facial scars.

The rapper and a half dozen family members all stony-broke down later on hearing the sentence.

"I love y'all," she said to her relatives as a deputy hauled her away, per the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

"We love you too," came the family reply.

Aside from the rum punch, Da Brat's strike sheet includes a pistol-whipping incident that earned her a year's probation and lots of community service, as well as pay a $1,000 fine.

More info

Monday 18 August 2008

Rihanna Gives Katy Perry the Kiss-Off

This calendar week Rihanna's a bad miss gone good.

Her new single "Disturbia" hardly gave the singer a third No. 1 hit from Good Girl Gone Bad and ended Katy Perry's seven-week chart-topping stripe for "I Kissed a Girl."

Perry was the first female artist to hold the top spot for seven straight weeks since, ironically, Rihanna did it last summer with "Umbrella."

Rihanna's latest single made the two-spot jump to No. 1 subsequently selling a week-best 148,000 digital downloads. Impressively, her previous chart-topper "Take a Bow" remains atop the Hot 100 Airplay chart, making this one of the rare times in which an creative person simultaneously dominates the regular Hot hundred and the Hot hundred Airplay chart with different songs.

Good Girl Gone Bad originally scored just unitary chart-topper with "Umbrella," just Rihanna released a Reloaded version lowest June that contained the new hits "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia." As happens with bonus tracks on deluxe editions, fans often buy the individual tracks alternatively of the new version and this helps drive an artist's digital track sales.

Overall, Rihanna has scored four No. 1 hits, originally with "SOS" in 2006. This ties her with Beyonc� and Mariah Carey for the decade's most chart-toppers by a female artist.

Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" ultimately fell two floater to No. 3, with Chris Brown's "Forever" guardianship at lock at No. 2. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" claimed the No. 5 spot, a career c. H. Best, thanks to an 11-spot jump. The song took flight thanks to digital sales following its use in the Pineapple Express trailer.

Yet once more, the Jonas Brothers had the week's biggest bow. Their title track exclusive "A Little Bit Longer" sold 131,000 downloads last week to enter the Hot 100 at No. 11 and the Digital Tracks chart at No. 2 behind Rihanna.

Equally impressive, the Brothers proceed to rewrite the record books. A few weeks back, they became the first group to land three Hot Digital Songs debuts on more than six-figure gross sales each. "A Little Bit Longer" and last week's "Tonight" (131,000 copies) have since extended that record to five songs.

Helping to make this the summer of Jonas, their new album A Little Bit Longer, released on Tuesday, is a surefire lock for No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200.

Overall, Perry wasn't the only artist to understand a chart-topping streak cut short. Keyshia Cole exhausted the last nine weeks atop the R&B/Hip-Hop chart with "Heaven Sent" ahead Lil Wayne's "A Milli" dethroned it this calendar week. Likewise, Disturbed's "Inside the Fire" was on a historic 14-week run at Mainstream Rock that Shinedown shut dispirited with "Devour."

The Hot Country Songs chart continues to be comparatively fluid, however, with Taylor Swift landing her second No. 1 with "Should've Said No." The young country darling River previous topped the area charts with "Our Song."

More info

Friday 8 August 2008

Cat Stevens accepts damages over sexist libel

Yusuf Islam - the singer formally known as Cat Stevens - today recognised
substantial unrevealed libel indemnification over a claim that he was a male chauvinist
bigot wHO refused to speak to any women not wearing a veil.

The Muslim singer-songwriter's solicitor, Adam Tudor, told Mr Justice Eady at
London's High Court that the allegations, which appeared in March last year,
were entirely delusive .

"Mr Islam has never had whatsoever difficulties working with women, whether for
religious or any other reasons.

"In his normal life, women feature among some of the most influential people
in Mr Islam's squad."

Mr Tudor said that the article was distributed by the agency World
Entertainment News Network (WENN) to subscribers, including the website
Contactmusic.com, which boats 2.2 million page views a month.

It suggested that Mr Islam was so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an
awards ceremony to speak to - or fifty-fifty acknowledge - any women who were not
wearing a humeral veil.

It also suggested that his manager had stated: "Mr Islam doesn't talk with
women except his wife. Least of all if they don't endure a headscarf. Things
like that only happen via an intercessor."

Mr Tudor said this statement was simply never made.

"Unsurprisingly, the article caused Mr Islam considerable embarrassment and
distress, peculiarly given that it had the burden not only of creating an
utterly false effect of his attitude to women, merely because it cast
serious aspersions, quite a wrongly, on his religious faith, which is a matter
of the extreme importance to him."

He said that WENN and Contactmusic.com Ltd had already published apologies and
had agreed to pay solid damages - which were to be donated to the
charity Small Kindness - and Mr Islam's legal costs.

Mr Islam was not in royal court.

More info

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Knightley Unfazed By Mother's Sex Scene

Actress Keira Knightley was happy to film a sex scene for new movie The Edge Of Love - even though the naked romp was written by her mother. The movie's screenplay was penned by Knightley's mum, Sharman Macdonald, who also served as a producer on the project. Knightley insists that knowing her mother is capable of writing about steamy clinches didn't faze her and she was happy to strip off wherever necessary. She says, "She dared to put a sex scene in it. It didn't worry me that my mother knows what sex is. "Come to think of it, I was found under an apple tree. My mother is a virgin. I had no hissy fits when she presented me with the scene."

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Thursday 19 June 2008

David Beckham Strips Down For Armani Shoot

David Beckham has once again stripped down for the latest campaign for Emporio Armani, leaving little to the imagination while working out on Malibu beach. The Celebrity Truth has the pictures!
Shot by renowned fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot, the latest Beckham campaign will feature on billboards and in press ads around the world promoting the latest range of Armani underwear.
The new collection will hit stores in the U.S. in August and Europe in July.

Photos courtesy of Armani. Taken by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

Monday 9 June 2008

Kutcher to play serial womaniser

Ashton Kutcher is to play a serial womaniser in a new sex comedy called 'Spread'.
Variety reports that the film also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as a thwarted lover.
Kutcher's company Katalyst is producing the new film, which will be directed by 'Hallam Foe', 'Asylum' and 'Young Adam' director David MacKenzie.
Shooting on 'Spread' begins in Los Angeles later this month.

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Spiderman's marriage over in plot twist

For the last 21 years Marvel Comics have written about Spiderman and his wife, Mary Jane Watson, but not any more.
In a bid to confront the dilemma of how to allow the superhero to age gracefully, and also gain the attention of younger readers, writers felt it would be easier if he wasn't married.
In a plot twist that has enraged some fans, Spiderman has had his entire memory of his marriage erased.
Peter Parker AKA Spiderman has been spinning webs and saving lives for over 40 years. The comic book character-come-superbrand was first created in the 1960s and was married in the 1980s but is now single again.
The move is not the first time writers have resorted to such a twist, and then received a backlash.
Fans of the 1980s American TV drama 'Dallas' saw Bobby Ewing return after a massacre of characters turned out to be a dream.

Thursday 29 May 2008

Kidman gets Valentine's dedication

Country singer Keith Urban made a Valentine's Day dedication to his pregnant wife Nicole Kidman during a concert at Madison Square Garden last night.
According to People magazine, the singer paid tribute to his film star wife during the concert, which he co-headlined with 'American Idol' star Carrie Underwood.
Urban dedicated the track 'Got It Right This Time' to Kidman, who is currently in her native Australia.
He said: "It's Valentine's Day here tomorrow, but today it's already Valentine's Day in Australia."

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Sopranos star for Marvin Gaye film

'The Sopranos' lead James Gandolfini has been throw away antonym 'Law & Order' champion Jesse L Martin in a freshly photographic film about the finish age of soul fable Marvin Gaye.
Diverseness reports that 'Sexual Healing' will story Gaye's (Martin) self-imposed deportation in Kingdom of Belgium and his repay to the big prison term with the help oneself of plugger Freddy Cousaert (Gandolfini).
The Lauren Goodman-directed photographic film testament be produced by Gandolfini's company, Attaboy Films, and the player testament do work as producer on the project.
Motion-picture photography of 'Sexual Healing' is due to get down on 15 Apr, with locations in Ostend, Massachusetts and Los Angeles.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Britney Spears' Custody Of Kids Modified: 'A Cautious Step Forward,' Says Lawyer

Unlike Britney Spears' previous custody hearings, the embattled pop star's arrival Tues dawn (Crataegus laevigata 6) at the Los Angeles County courthouse was punctual and without a great deal of the usual plug. There were no adoring fans wielding signs of support, and as her albumen Land Rover sped into the adjoining parking garage, the paparazzi, world Health Organization have built a career on mobbing her, failed to give chase after.
Just a shell of reporters lingered outside the courthouse, awaiting tidings on what — if anything — would come of the audience, which got under style shortly after 9:30 a.m., after media were asked to lead the court, followers the granting of a question to close the court. The design of the earreach was to render the court of justice with a advancement reassessment, during which an assessment of a psychiatrist's rating of Spears was expected, along with a word of the couple's stream custody organisation.
While he wouldn't reveal specifics, Mark Vincent Kaplan — the attorney representing Spears' ex Kevin Federline in his ongoing custody struggle with Spears — did expose that an adjustment to the couple's electric current hands arrangement had been made by Commissioner George C. Scott Gordon.
"The court made orders today — orders that [both] parties were able to agree to — and it represents a footstep going frontwards, a timid step merely a step withal," Kaplan told reporters after the hearing wrapped. "We ar pleased with the progress that seems to be occurring. I ne'er have, and don't want, to address to what the custodial timeshare is, just apparently, it's something to a greater extent than it has been."
Federline has had sole legal and physical hands of the couple's deuce sons, 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden Jesse James, since January 3, the night Spears was hospitalized after refusing to turn the children over to her ex. Later on failing to regain custody twice, Spears was granted restricted, monitored visitation in latterly Feb and visited her sons Feb 23 for about trio hours. Spears has been under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie, since her departure from UCLA Health check Center back on Feb 6. She was involuntarily committed to the installation and was released after only a workweek.
"The order that was in place has remained in place, with the exception that at that place has been approximately graduated enlargement of clock time," Kaplan continued. "Other than that, naught has been changed with deference to the ongoing order. The enlargement of time is reflected in the orders."
Kaplan said the qualifying came in reply to the advance Spears has been qualification in recent months, and "consistency over time, with respect to structure and stability, is something that would be welcomed by [Federline]."
Late, Spears has on the face of it turned her troubled image around, keeping a relatively low profile and even landing just about well-received performing gigs. She is pose to reprize her function as Abby the receptionist on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" on May 12. Several have attributed the switch in Spears' behavior to her parents, who've taken a more active agent role in the singer's life in recent epoch months — and Kaplan seemed to gibe with that judgement.
"I think that we wholly know that all over the last few months, what was ostensibly a day by day situation in extreme state of flux has been stabilized," he explained. "We check that on that point ar non daily events occurring that made it very difficult to let any kind of grounding or believing that an environs that was charles Herbert Best for the children was departure to be consistent over both homes. We bob Hope and see onward to eyesight additional advancement with [Spears]. ... We receive always said Kevin's goal and hope is that his children will ingest the benefit of having 2 parents participating actively in their lives. When that will occur, I can't tell you that."
The next audition in the couple's custody case — another progress review — has been scheduled for July 15.
On Tuesday, Spears arrived wearing away a brown University polka dot dress, with a small perspirer all over the top, according to The Associated Press out. At her side were her parents and i of her lawyers, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair Berk. Meantime, Federline arrived on time, in a cream-colored suit.
Allan Parachini, the managing director of public information for the Los Angeles County tribunal scheme, say a affirmation non from Gordon, only from Spears' parents, Jamie and Lynn. "We ar so pleased with Britney's advancement, and we are really appreciative of the court's identification of this advancement," it read. Parachini said he was barred from speaking in detail about the qualifying in custody, but said that, during a listening that would be held sometime in August, Gordon would "review how the modified custody arranging has evolved."
George Eliot Mintz, Federline's press agent, said that he rundle to his client presently after the listening ended, and "he is passing pleased with the way things went today, and at the end of this saga, everyone involved seems to be hoping and believing that there will be deuce children raised in the party of deuce people wHO passion them."
Before the auditory sense began, Gordon swore altogether the parties involved in, by asking them to bring up their decent men and nation their name calling. Spears simply stated her nominate as "Britney," at which dot Gordon said he'd need "her full nominate." She complied, expression, "Britney Spears." Gordon then granted a movement to shut down the court and asked reporters to depart.
About an time of day into the hearing, Gordon took a quick recess, during which Spears was seen exterior of the court, visibly derangement, her eyes watery. Spell she wasn't tears in the hall, it appears as though she may have been tears inside the court. Several proceedings by and by, Spears emerged once again, holding Berk's hand and appearing as if she had been sobbing. Gordon called for a break roughly 10:40 a.m. so he could discover other cases.

Kathryn Rose

Saturday 3 May 2008

Bond 22 underway as new Bond girl announced

The new James Bond picture has begun production at London's Pinewood Studios with Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko named as Bond's leadership lady.
Principal picture taking on the thirstily anticipated 22nd King James I Trammel adventure began yesterday with Daniel Craig reprising his character as 007.
The as-yet-untitled motion picture testament be directed by Marc Forster and follows the succeeder of 'Casino Royale', the latest and highest grossing film in the series.
Craig will be joined by a cast which includes critically acclaimed French actor Mathieu Amalric as the sinister scoundrel, and Kurylenko.
Gemma Arterton likewise joins the cast and will act the role of MI6 Agent Fields. However, despite recent epoch reports, it is believed her role in the freshly motion-picture show volition be significantly smaller than that of Kurylenko.
The former model, wHO was death seen on screen in 'Hitman', will be the film's main 'Bond girl'.
Returning to the new motion picture from 'Casino Royale' ar Judi Dench in her use as M, Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter and Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis.
Commenting on the commencement exercise of production, producers Michael G. Charles Thomson Rees Wilson and Barbara Brassica oleracea italica said: "We ar fortunate to persist in in the Bond tradition of attracting the finest international actors for our starring roles.
"Mathieu in the part of Saint Dominic Greene, a leadership penis of the villainous organisation introduced in Casino Royale', volition be a powerful similitude to Daniel's portraiture of James Bond.
"Olga Kurylenko testament play the dangerously alluring Camille, wHO challenges James Bond and helps him amount to terms with the emotional consequences of Vesper's betrayal."
The freshly Bond paper picture show is scheduled for release on 07 November 2008.

Friday 2 May 2008

Amy Winehouse chops off her beehive

Troubled star Amy Winehouse has shocked fans by chopping off her trademark hive coif.
The 'Back To Black' vocaliser has had her hairsbreadth cut into a short crop, and has swapped her at one time iniquity locks for a peroxide blond hairstyle.
The new vogue is reported to have been the work of her hairstylist Alex Foden, wHO lives in the saami east London apartment block as Winehouse.
A source tells British paper The Sun, "She just said she felt like it. She'd idea around having a blonde hive just decided on the shorter wait."
A representative for the star adds, "She wanted a newly appear for the Freshly Year."

Sutherland flooded with fan mail in jail

Actor Kiefer Sutherland is receiving hundreds of letters from fans as he completes his 48-day pokey sentence.
The 40-year-old actor was given the sentence after he pleaded no contest to a 1 count of drive with a blood intoxicant level higher up the legal limit. He had been on probation at the time for a previous umbrage.
According to People magazine, a representative for Glendale Urban center Jailhouse, Officeholder St. John the Apostle Balian, said: "The guy's been getting a long ton of fan post. Easy more than century letters a sidereal day."
Dame Joan Sutherland is due to pass both Christmas Day and Freshly Year's Day in gaol.

Glastonbury loses way amid mud and money

In one case upon a time, fine-tune on a little scatter in the Benjamin West Country, a sodbuster and his married woman decided to stage a music festival. On 19 September 1970, the day later James Marshall Hendrix died, Marc Bolan rolled up at Worthy Farm in a velvet-covered car to play to a modest push of 1,D long-hairs. The �1 ($2.40) entry fee included as a great deal free milk River as you could drunkenness. The farmer, Michael Eavis, hoped to pay off the end of his mortgage with the proceeds. Rather, he doomed �1,D. Only the sunday shone, no one disturbed the oxen and they whole lived blithely ever subsequently. Or, at least, until now.Thirty-seven age on, the 2007 Glastonbury Fete was the biggest yet. More than 177,000 people paid �145 apiece for the privilege of organism rained on, risking their tents being washed aside with the birthday suit sewerage and strain their necks to catch a fleeting coup d'oeil of The Fratellis.When the �155 tickets for this year's three-day extravaganza went on sale on Sun, its organisers power justifiably have expected a stampede to match last year's, when the event sold out in to a lesser extent than deuce hours.

Or else, a clarence Shepard Day Jr. later, about 35,000 tickets remained unsold, and the coordination compound pre-registration organization designed to deter touts had to be re-opened to hold fans wHO were slow down off the grade. Of line, Glastonbury testament sell out as it perpetually does. The fete now makes millions every year - near of which goes to charity - only has it doomed its mojo?The brightest star at this year's festival is i reason for punters' waning enthusiasm. Many were surprised when it was announced that the American hip-hop mogul Jay-Z would headline the Pyramid Leg on the Sat night, traditionally the biggest gig of the weekend. Radiohead became the most acclaimed dwell act in the populace afterward their Pyramid Stage public presentation in 1997, and near festival-goers gestate a relatively traditional guitar band to fill the slot.So concerned was Jay-Z around his coming into court that Eavis has offered to introduce him on microscope stage personally, breakage a lifelong habit of remaining in the wings.The medicine cartridge holder NME's online message boards confirmed that the rapper was a controversial choice, with commentators suggesting he'd been chosen to appeal to a younger, more urban crowd than that to which Glastonbury has become accustomed. Others suggested the rap superstar was simply what the festival needed to impart variety.
Just Jay-Z, aka Ted Shawn President Carter, does typify the signified that Glastonbury has become too corporate. Last week, years in front marrying the vocalist Beyonce Knowles, Carter signed an unprecedented US$150 billion ($188 million), "360-degree" deal with concert promoters Live Nation, giving the company a stake in every panorama of his career, and making him arguably the richest rapper in history. It's a far cry from the flower child spirit that gave parentage to the first base Glastonbury.

Rock and pop preview: : April 19-25

Edwyn William Wilkie Collins On tourIt's i thing to come in back from the dead professionally oral presentation. For Edwyn Collins, even so, it's lately been a doubt of doing so in every sense. Diagnosed, afterward a fall in in 2005, with having suffered a serious cerebral bleeding, the former Orangeness Juice frontman has battled to recover his health and his life history. His physical convalescence may be ongoing, merely his endowment for great urbanity and an much funky take on pop remains as strong as ever. A newly album, Home Over again, was released last twelvemonth, and it finds Edwyn displaying a muse in doubtless rude health.

· Mirthfulness Club, Pittsburgh of the South, Sun 20; Queens Mansion house, Edinburgh, Mon 21; Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 22; Northumbria University, Thu 24; Manchester Academy 2, Fri 25Boris/Growing On tourHeavy rock, opposite to what you may have suspected, is a somewhat interesting place to hang come out. Always an surface area of extremes, be they of volume, bacchanalian surplusage or bad clothing, latterly metallic element has been indulging its more abstract and conceptual side, giving uprise to bands like Boris, from Japan. Though doubtlessly metal - the propensity for guitar valiancy; a record label called, famously, Fangs Anal Beelzebub - the overall effect is bracingly bizarre, with just about psychedelic moments. At the other end of the heavy rock and roll spectrum ar Newly Yorkers Growing. A to a lesser extent hectic affair, their ambient metal prompts a preferably unlikely word: soothing. · Cooler, Bristol, Sun 20; Crimson Waiting room, Manchester, Mon 21; Custard Mill Pittsburgh of the South, Tue 22; ULU, WC1, Tie 23Triptych ScotlandAn impressive three-centre event, Triptych is the major Scottish fete that makes its plate not in a big field, but in the left field. Now in its eighth year, what the event's miscellanea of gigs and cinema presentations lacks in geographical i, it makes up for in a singularity of purpose: merely by picking the best choice acts of the Apostles. Particular heights points would have to include the brilliant guitarist Henry James Blackshaw, the freshly "gone techno" mathematics john Rock of Quartet Tet and the great Thurston Moore-favoured duo Magik Markers, merely a big event will be a much-anticipated gig by the reformed Sebadoh. A isthmus noted particularly for Lou Barlow's yield of quality troubled human relationship songs, "troubled human relationship" would besides nicely account for the conditions in the group. A volatile integrate of Barlow's self-contemplation, Eric Gaffney's bizarre sound explosions, and Jason Loewenstein's spiky melodiousness, if only for a short time, it's great to view that they've been reconciled. · Various venues, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Fri 25 to Apr 27Eric Burdon & War LondonIn the ignite of successful outings by the likes of the Sonics and the Zombies, the reformation of 1960s and 70s acts of the Apostles now seems less like an do of desperation and more like an act of duty. You'd like to hope that's the shell hither. A slightly bizarre union of the former Animals singer and a long-established group of LA musicians, the joint-forces effort ran to a couple of respectably received blues-tinged albums, only the peaks afterward reached by State of war with albums made under their have steam make redundant any notion that they were in any way just Burdon's patronage band. A funk supporting players, capable of far-reaching stylistic excursions, the fact that it's just Burdon and founder fellow member Lonny Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan involved should hopefully not shock excessively heavily on the authenticity of what's on proffer at this one-off show. · Royal Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Hall, SW7, Mon 21