Hard Candy + 4 Minutes

Scoop or hoax? Here is the rumored cover of the album produced by Pharell Williams, Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills, to be released on Avril 29 2008. Here's also the cover of the 1st single with Justin Timberlake, already on rotation on some radio and soon everywhere.

Here's the supposed track-list :

“Candy Store”
“4 Minutes”
“Give It 2 Me”
“Heartbeat”
“Miles Away”
“She’s Not Me”
“Incredible”
“Beat Goes On”
“Dance Tonight”
“Spanish Lesson”
“Devil”

Like always when Madonna uncovers her artwork in advance, I can't help but feel a little surprised by these visuals... I'm not necessarily disappointed though. Actually, I just can't no longer wait!!


Bonus: The teaser film for the single release.
Click on the picture down there.

A message from Mr. John Soglo

From Mr. John Soglo
C/2645 RUE DE JERRICHO COTONOU
REPUBLIC DU BENIN
Email: soglojohn@yahoo.fr


I know this mail will come to you as a surprise since we have not had previous
Correspondence, please bear with me. I will really like to have a good relationship
With you, and I have a special reason why I decided to contact you, hoping that you
Would cooperate with me.

My names are. John Soglo, a Manager and former personal assistant to a business Guru
And my former Boss, Late Frederick M. Wong. This mail is Written and intended to
Solicit your assistance to be presented as NEXT OF KIN to my Late Boss, Frederick M.
Wong, (California USA). He was a Government Approved contractor with the Government
of the Republic of Benin, an Oil Merchant with the Government of the Gabon a Central
African country, and also a gold dealer in Ghana and very wealthy for that matter.
Mr. Frederick M. Wong made a fixed Deposit of Fund valued at USD25M (Twenty  Five
Million United States Dollars Only) with a Security Firm in COTONOU REPUBLIC OF
BENIN, before he and his lovely wife unfortunately lost their life’s aboard Egypt Air
Flight 990, which crashed in to the Atlantic Ocean on November 2nd, 1999.

(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm) and left no clear beneficiary as Next
of Kin except some vital documents related to the Deposit that he left on my care, as
I was with him at the time of the deposit of this funds, The Governing Body of the
Security Company where the funds had been deposited has contacted me on this matter,
and have demanded that I provide the next of kin to whom this funds would be released
To Immediately, I have tried my best to see if I could locate any of his relation,
Unfortunately till this time I have been unable to locate and provide any one of his
Relations as the Next of Kin to lay claims to the Fund. This is why I then decided
To look for a trust worthy person that I can front as his next of kin and my search
For such person then lead me to you based under a clear and legitimate agreement
With you, I shall seek your consent to present you to the Security Company as his
Next of kin and final beneficiary of the said funds.

For the sake of transparency on this matter, you are free to make immediate contact
With me only through this my E-mail:soglojohn@yahoo.fr   for further information
Relating to this Matter.

Thank you very much for your anticipated acceptance while I expect your prompt
Response.

Bear in mind that if you agree to assist me with this project, you would be entitled
To 30% of the total sum, while 5% is mapped out to cover every unforseen expensess
That might be incurred in the cause of this project, like telephone calls and other
Little expenses, while the remaining would be for me, and one other staff of our
Company that knows about this funds.

Note that it does not matter the country you come from or your color everything
Would be taken care of and be assured that this project is 100% risk free so you need
Not entertain any fears, because my family is a well know family here in my country,
All I ask for is your full cooperation to conclude this project fast, because if I do
Not present the next of kin on time the funds might be declared unclaimed and handed
Over to the Federal Government of Benin, hence your urgent response is needed.

Thanking you once more for your anticipated assistance and cooperation.

I am Yours Sincerely


Mr. John Soglo

Email: soglojohn@yahoo.fr

The "Beggin'" War

You can't have missed it, but just like the "Macarena" with those of the sea and those of the river (super lame paralel), the 2008 summer hit has split in two different items. Radios and TVs air a very catchy tune, originally, it was "Beggin'" by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, an American boy band from the 60s who was hugely successful across the decades. We owe them the hit "Oh What A Night", popularized in France by Claude François with "Cette Année-Là" and years later with Yannick ("Ces Soirées-Là"). This band was also the subject of a musical on Broadway, Jersey Boys, who won a Tony for best musical in 2006.

This time again, two versions of the almost identical song spread the airwaves at the same time.

The first version is a simple remix by a French DJ, Pilooski. Frankie Valli does the vocal and the Four Seasons play the music. A new beat enables the classic song to become a new hit...





The second version is from Norwegian hip-hop duet Madcon. Here, voices and music are re-recorded (above, the CD sleeve).

Just for fun, here's the original 1967 version.

Découvrez The Four Seasons!

Shaun Tan

Born in1974 in Perth, Australia, this young artist will illustrate at first some fantastic or horror short stories for teenage magazines.


Later, Shaun Tan's work is recognized and wins a prize for the illustration of "The Rabbits", a children's book.


In 2008, Shaun Tan is granted a prize at the Angoulême Comics festival for the best book with "The Arrival".


This exceptional work is a mute comic with a very cinematic verve telling the story of a migrant who just arrives in a new country. With emotion, the book introduces us to a fantastic world, between an austere gray tone and a universe populated with magical creatures like Miyazaki's, enable each of us to identify...
Cet ouvrage exceptionnel est une bande-dessinée muette très cinématique relatant l'histoire d'un immigré arrivant dans une nouvelle contrée. Tout en émotion, le livre nous présente un univers fantastique, entre l'austérité d'un trait en teintes de gris et un univers peuplé de créatures fantastiques à la Miyazaki, permettant pourtant à chacun de se retrouver...


His website will introduce you further to his world.

Olivia!

Olivia Newton-John is not a well known icon in France. If the French audiences remembered her name, it's only from "Grease" (1978)...

"Hopelessly Devoted To You" (1978)


However, as far as I'm concerned, I remember very well "Physical"!
An interesting beat, a ridicule video that tries to be funny, a perfect hair and Olivia's smile were the key to its success. Fellow Aussie Kylie Minogue paid a tribute with a cover, 20 years later, during the "On A Night Like This Tour" (2001).

Physical (1981 - Olivia)


Physical (2001 - Kylie)


Olivia was born in Cambridge, England in 1948. She left for Australia with her parents 6 years later. Her carreer started in the 1970s with some minor hits that only charted in Australia and in the UK. She was a contestant to the Eurovision and had a nice success with "I Honestly Love You". With "Grease", she's a huge hit!

Then Came "Xanadu"! This cinematic UFO, with Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richards and the neo-pop band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) will totally flop. The songs and the roller-skating apparently didn't seduce the audience then. The movie will get some recognition later, mostly due to its first degree kitsch dimension and its effecient tunes.

A musical is even created on Broadway in 2007, it will get rave reviews from the press and the public. Here are two songs from the movie.

"Magic" (1980)


"Xanadu" (1980)


In the end of the 1980s, Olivia Newton-John sings "The Rumour", an energy-driven hit written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin also in the back-singers.

"The Rumour" (1988)

Jan Saudek

When browsing the Taschen books of his photographs, this Czech photographer born in 1935 took me in his universe. Very easy to identify, his universes repeat themselves to infinity and Jan Saudek multiplies the shoots on an often common base: nudity worked in not so varied settings with hand painted colored photographs giving it a special texture.


Saudek has an obsession with dressed/undressed models. He uses this principle to illustrate the playing cards he composed with two figures back to back with each other upside down (some examples here).


Sex has a huge importance in this photographer's work, especially with atypical profiles like overweighed ladies or people with a specific physical trait. Saudek took many pictures of contortionists. In this extent, this freak-show theme might shock or disturb with this weird and black beauty...Le sexe prend une importance immense dans le travail de ce photographe, notamment lorsqu'il s'agit de profils atypiques de personnes obèses ou ayant une particularité physique bien prononcée. Saudek a également photographié beaucoup de contortionnistes. Dans ce sens, son travail se rapproche beaucoup d'un esprit de Foire (ou Freak show) pouvant déranger ou choquer par sa beauté noire et étrange.


His website both in English and Czech introduces the entirety of his work, from the 1950s to today.

The new Miss Jackson

Janet Jackson is one of those artists I've been "following" for a little time now. For me, the revelation was probably in 1993 with "Again" and the whole "That's the Way Love Goes" era. I was in heaven with the "Velvet Rope" album (1997) and I even liked "All For You" (2001)... More recently, it seemed the 2000s were not so kind to Miss Janet with more lukewarm albums that went unnoticed like "Damita Jo" (2004), or does someone even remember "20YO" (2006). Yeah I thought so.

In a nutshell, as a loyal fan, I'm going to buy "Discipline" on its release day. The latest single "Feedback" with its tragically kitscho-cheap video didn't totally convince me...

Some tracks are fierce and strike when first heard. My good ol' Janet is back! What I like most: "Rock With U", "2Nite", "Can't B Good", "Never Letchu Go" and "What's Ur Name". Of course, there're still the same corny interludes in which she pretends to confide, but the tracks are still good and well produced. Another thing I'm not too keen on: the artwork... I love Janet but isn't she getting a little old playing this faux-provocative leather-clad style?

What I want to hear here is a very surprising track. So what's the sample? Yes, it's Daft Punk! That's what I call intelligent recycling because it's not stealing a good tune (even though, unless I'm mistaken, the Versailles duet is not credited...) but simply the reuse of a super-effective gimmick.

Cheers from Penda

Almost as cheezy as chain emails: the "me give money you from Africa country" email!

Dear good morning ,Please help me ,My name is Miss Penda Oscar From Liberia country .21 years old. my Uncle called Alex , threaten my life since my father was killed by hired thugs , upon he claim most of my father properties , Thinking that i am too young to ask him about it ,

He also said that so far i am a girl that i have no right to my father properties but near neighbours advise me not to talk to him yet , that i should seek advises to stop his actions.

But now the most important reason that makes me to contact you is this , i need your help now, there was money my father secured outside my country ,and he deposited this money with my name as beneficiary and this money was in current united state dollars , worths four million seven hundred thousand dollars $4.700.000.00 , Dear Please know that any thing concern this money ,my Uncle Alex don,t know about it and i would not like him to know it, because my father told me every thing about this money and warn me to keep every thing about this money secret ,This is why i don,t want any one here in africa to know any of my movements untill am there with you .

Dear Please i don,t know if it will be possible for you to come and see the documents by your self and to know me more , then we travel with the documents to the country my father save this money and meet the bank face to face direct for the transfer of this money to your country,

If you don,t have chance to come ,i can send the documents to you by email or by Fax so that you will see it and study it well , then you stand as my father relationship or friend outside Africa and mail the bank and advise them to transfer this money to your country , and you will send me an invitation Letter to come and meet you in your country ,then we discuss on what investment we should put the money into .

I don,t want to discuss much about this money on mail now because of security untill this money is transfered to your position and i left this country to meet you ,

Please am waiting for your reply and send me your direct contacts informations i want to call you on phone and speak with you to hear your voice and we discuss the amount of money i will give you from this money for your help as soon as all the money is transfered into your care.

Cheers from Penda

Several questions come to my mind...
- Who sends this?
- What for... are some people naive enough to buy it?
- Don't they have a syntax book next to them... or is it deliberate?

Eliane Elias

I already had the chance to listen to some notes of "Dreamer" (2004), an Eliane Elias album that recieved raving reviews when it was release. Unfortunately it was almost released at the same time as Bebel Gilberto's eponymous album and I chosed that one back then. Since then, amusing circumstances helped me get back to Eliane Elias, I simply met her delightful daughter last summer, Amanda Elias Becker. When the different pieces of the puzzle assembled in my head, I listened again to this wonderful artist (singer, composer and pianist - Vinicius de Moraes discovered her) of today's Brazilian scene.


The most striking thing about Elias, is her radiant beauty, probably highly emphasized of her albums' covers. Visually already stunning! After that, I can only savor the roundness of the chords, the softness of the voice, the sensuality or the rhythm. It's the most sensible mix of bossa and jazz. The subtlety of this modern sound that finds its roots deep buried in local folk is almost magic!


"Around The City" (2006), one of her latest albums to date, is a wonderful musical journey. With unexpected covers such as "Jammin'" by Bob Marley or classics like "Oye Como Va" by Tito Puente, Eliane Elias puts up real treasured gems and ear candies like "Running", "Around The City" or "Segredos."

Her website: www.elianeelias.com

The other very anticipated movie!

Let's write this down: May 2008 will be a blockbuster packed month! On the 22nd, the 4th installment of the most famous archeology professor opens: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"



I have to the say the teaser is pretty damn good!

Did you know that:
- Tom Selleck was first selected to feature the legendary Indiana Jones role
- Indiana Jones's first name is Henry
- Not less that 7 actors have impersonate Indiana Jones on different media: Harisson Ford (of course) and River Phoenix (in a flash back) on the big screen, 3 different actors in the TV show "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", and 2 voice actors for the video games
- The second movie of the series ("The Temple of Doom") actually takes place before the first one ("The Raiders of the Lost Ark")
- This new movie is set in 1957, i.e. almost 20 years after the first installements !
- The new movie project took almost as much time to be defined... directors, producers and actors didn't agree on the central theme of the movie before finally settling on a script in 2006 only
- The new movie also features: Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent.

An official poster (from Poland?) is really scary and so not in the tone of the movie... Found on the official movie site: www.indianajones.com