2003

Florida’s 26-year-old Cory Lopez won the prestigious Honda Element U.S. Open of Surfing on Sunday, taking home the first place trophy and $15,000 in prize money. Chelsea Georgeson, a surfer in her second year on the World Championship Tour, won the women’s division. Lopez posted a score of 16.60 in the final round thanks to a fiery start, notching an 8.83 first wave. Australia’s Taj Burrow placed second with a score of 15.17, followed by top-ranked pro surfer and 2002 World Champ Andy Irons of Hawaii.
The nine-day annual event brings out nearly 600 surfers and over 300,000 spectators to the famed Huntington Beach pier. Sponsored by Honda Element and O’Neill, the contest doles out $125,000 in prize money to the men, $30,000 for the women. The victory marks a return to full health for Lopez. Long known for navigating some of the most treacherous breaks in the world, a nagging ankle injury resulted in sub-par performances for Lopez on the 2002 Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour (WCT). The U.S. Open is the first event Lopez has won since his 2001 victory at the WCT Billabong Pro Tahiti and his second tour victory overall.
Source outsideonline.com.

Living Colour will release their first album in ten years, CollideOscope, on October 8th. The band consists of Corey Glover on vocals, guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Doug Whimbash and drummer Will Clahoun.
Following a 1995-2000 hiatus, ColllideOscope ads world beats and electronica to the band

Legacy/Epic Records has set a Oct. 21 release date for a new double-disc live album by the Allman Brothers Band, called “Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival — July 3 & 5, 1970” collects two performances by the then-new group, opening and closing the second annual Atlanta International Pop Festival.
The Allman Brothers Band, hailing from nearby Macon, Ga., had only released its self-titled Capitol debut at the time, and its seminal live album “Live at Fillmore East” was not to be recorded for eight more months. The lineup at the time featured the late Duane Allman on slide guitar, keyboardist Gregg Allman, guitarist Dickey Betts, bassist Berry Oakley, drummers Butch Trucks and J. Johnny Johnson and harmonica player Thom Doucette.
The release features two discs of previously unreleased performances, including takes on “Statesboro Blues,” “One Way Out,” “Dreams,” “Whipping Post” and “Mountain Jam.” Johnny Winter joins in as a special guest on the July 5, 1970, version of the latter.
At the Atlanta shows, the band played a host of material that at the time had not been released, including a number of songs from “Idlewild South,” which would be issued later that year.
Track listing for “Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival — July 3 & 5, 1970”:
Disc one:
“Introduction””Statesboro Blues””Trouble No More””Don’t Keep Me Wonderin'””Dreams””Every Hungry Woman””Hoochie Coochie Man””In Memory of Elizabeth Reed””Whipping Post””Mountain Jam Pt. I””Rain Delay””Mountain Jam Pt. II”
Disc two:
“Introduction””Don’t Keep Me Wonderin'””Statesboro Blues””In Memory of Elizabeth Reed””Stormy Monday””Whipping Post””Mountain Jam”
Source Billboard.com.

Buena Vista Games is bringing back the sci-fi cult classic “TRON” August 26 as an interactive adventure for Windows-based computers. “TRON 2.0” is an immersive first-person action game that includes elements of racing and role-playing game genres.
The game’s story takes place roughly 20 years after the events from the film, where the talented young programmer Jet Bradley is zapped into a computer mainframe to search for his missing father, Alan, creator of the TRON program. In this high-tech world, Jet finds an evil entity determined to infect Earth’s computer systems by using his father’s technology.
At various points in the story, or as stand-alone multiplayer or solo game modes, players can climb into the sleek light cycles introduced in the “TRON” and race in the Game Grid. As in the film, players must force opposing light cyclists to crash into walls or their light cycle’s ever-increasing snake like tail. Syd Mead, renowned conceptual artist who worked on the original “TRON” films, designed the updated light cycles in the game.
Multiplayer options include challenging up to 16 players across the Internet in disc combat or light cycle races. For a free taste, you can download a 160-megabyte demonstration of the game at www.tron20.net.
Source cnn.com.

Extreme skydiver Felix Baumgartner became the first person to glide unassisted across the English Channel on Thursday, plummeting 30,000 feet while traveling the 21 ground miles between Dover, England, and Calais, France.
The 34-year-old Austrian was armed with just a six-foot carbon-fiber wing, a parachute, and oxygen when he floated into a crowd of reporters, cameramen, about ten minutes after jumping out of an airplane.
Source Outsideonline.com.