Tim O’Brien has spent most of his life on the road. Thankfully, when he sets his hand to writing about travel, the result is a wonderful montage that captures both giddy fun and personal costs the road extracts.
Every Thursday night in April, the Sit n’ Bull Pub in Maynard, MA (978-897-4663) (www.sitnbull.com) will feature a show to benefit the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund, which promotes innovative approaches to music education for children in Massachusetts. The fund was created to honor musician Mark Sandman of the band Morphine, who passed away on stage in July 1999. For the shows, 100% of the net profits go to the music programs of the Cambridge education system.
The schedule includes:
April 1st: Treat Her Right, The Coots & The Heygoods
April 8th: Club d’Elf, Bourbon Princess & Blasto
April 15th: Asa Brebner & Family Jewels
April 22nd: Dennis Brennen, One Thin Dime
April 29th: Jimmy Ryan, Twinemen & Orchestra Morphine
for more info see hi-n-dry.com.
The actors who provide the voices for the cartoon characters on the long-running TV show “The Simpsons” have stopped work in a bid to force a settlement of lengthy contract renewal talks, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.
The Hollywood trade paper said the six actors have not shown up for two script readings in the past few weeks, holding up production on the hit satire’s upcoming 16th season.
It quoted insiders as saying each cast member is asking for about $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season. Each member currently earns $125,000 an episode. The highest-paid star in TV is Ray Romano, who reportedly earns between $1.7 million and $2 million per episode of his Emmy-winning series “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
The three-year contracts for Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Comic Book Guy), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and others), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Julie Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) expired several months ago, and their representatives have been negotiating new ones to no avail, Daily Variety said.
The last “Simpsons” work dispute was in 1998, at a time when the actors were making $30,000 per episode. The show’s producer, Twentieth Century Fox TV, hired casting directors in five cities to replace most of them before both sides worked out a new deal and resumed production.
Source CNN.com.
Indie country-pop outfit My Morning Jacket has a new round of dates coming up. Beginning May 7 in San Diego, the band will traverse North America through late June. They plan to hit some European festivals this summer before returning to work on their next album.
California singer/songwriter M. Ward will be along for most North American shows, with Andrew Bird and Dr. Dog helping out on assorted dates.
Earlier this year, My Morning Jacket lost guitarist Johnny Quaid and keyboardist Danny Cash when the two decided that touring life didn’t suit them too well. The band has soldiered on, with new recruits Bo Koster (keyboards) and Carl Broemel (guitar) helping out on the road.
The increasingly high-profile group released their third full-length album, It Still Moves, on Dave Matthews’ ATO Records last September. During recording sessions in Shelbyville, Ky., they enlisted the help of the legendary Memphis Horns, who have lent their inimitable talents to recordings by Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, and virtually every Stax Records artist of the ’60s and ’70s.
Source pollstar.com.
