THE LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP
SET TO MUSIC
PERHAPS IT WAS HIS ALTER EGO, SLIM ICE?
Rapper Vanilla Ice may be facing domestic violence charges after allegedly ripping out some of his wife's hair during a fight. Police in Broward County, FL, arrested Ice Wednesday (1/3) after the couple's argument. The rapper, whose real name is Robbie Van Winkle, admitted he did pull out her hair, but claims it was to stop her from jumping out the window of his pickup truck. "We had a heated argument, it's not that big of a deal," Ice said. "I would never hit my wife or any girl or anything like that. I love my wife, I love my kids, my life's fine, everything's good, no hitting, no drugs." Ice did report he was happy to find out that, yes, he could get arrested in this town.
WHAT TO DO WITHOUT "JACKASS"?
MTV plans to go dark in protest of hate crimes. On Jan. 10 at 10 p.m., the music video network will replace its programming with a continuous on-screen scroll listing the names of hate crime victims. The roll will continue without commercial interruption for 17 hours. The act is part of MTV's "Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Discrimination" campaign. The campaign commences with the airing of "Anatomy Of A Hate Crime," which unfolds the brutal 1998 slaying of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. The programming replaces MTV's proposed series, "Real World: Wyoming."
LOVE THEM DO
Those zany Beatles are at it again. Not only is the Fab Four ruling the music charts, but the pop band (quite big during the middle part of last century) also has the respect of music-industry types. In a recent VH1 poll of 500 musicians, critics and executives, the Beatles' 1966 album "Revolver" was voted tops in the 100 Best Rock Albums. John, Paul, George and Ringo also scored at #6 with "Rubber Soul," #8 with "Abbey Road" and #10 and #11 with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "The Beatles (White Album)" respectively. Nirvana's "Nevermind" came in second, followed by the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Are You Experienced?" rounding out the top five. How Rick Dees' seminal release "Put It Where The Moon Don't Shine" was left off the list is a surprise to us all.
WHAT'S THE STORY, MORNING GORY?
Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher may indeed live forever—in infamy. The musical bad boy was voted the third most-hated person in London waxworks Madame Tussauds' annual poll. Gallagher trailed Adolph Hitler and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in unpopularity, and ranked one notch higher in hate than Saddam Hussein. Said Gallagher of his ranking; "That's bullshit, mate, I get way more birds than any of those blokes."
BYE BYE, MISS GLASTONBURY MUD PIE
Safety concerns have caused the cancellation of Britain's annual Glastonbury festival. Concert organizers officially pulled the plug on this year's event Thursday (1/4), due to nearly 100,000 unticketed fans crashing the concert site during last year's festivities. Organizer Michael Eavis, who hosts the event on his 800 acre farm, said he was "very sorry" to give the kibosh to this year's event, but vowed to resume the festival in 2002. Glastonbury began in 1970, and its first lineup included T-Rex and David Bowie, who headlined last year's 30th anniversary festival. Organizers cited last summer's Roskilde tragedy, where eight fans were crushed to death during Pearl Jam's set, as reason to beef up safety measures.
