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Ok this is just weird. The Barbie doll is getting a new look. For the 50th Anniversary of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, Barbie is making a Ziggy Stardust doll. It’s $50 and will be marketed more towards adults. This doll looks nothing like Bowie except for the clothes. Mattel, the Barbie maker, was expecting parents to wonder if the doll is a boy or a girl. Not sure about you but she is VERY much a woman. These people that live under a rock just amazes me.

Whitney Houstons sister-in-law, who handles Whitneys estate, is finally allowing a great deal that could put out an album of unreleased music, a Broadway Musical and a Hologram. The upcoming show is titled ‘An Evening With Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour.

Rolling Stone spoke with BASE Hologram CEO Brian Becker who is creating the hologram said:

The concert will feature “a complete band onstage, backup singers, dancers etcetera. We will substantially increase our use of the creative elements that are available to us with this technology because it is cinematic, which means we can do animation and special effects to really enhance the show.”

Damn this is such a sick video. Back in 1983 Egyptian Lover gave a tutorial on The Roland 808 that was in the extended TV version of a documentary called ‘Breakin’ n Enterin’. While he was in London recently FactTV asked if he could recreate the scene. Here ya go!

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses will open in Seattle and run from April 16-22 at the Experience Music Project. Some of the stuff shown will be handwritten lyrics and some clothes Kurt Cobain wore plus a couple hundred other stuff from Nirvana.

I didn’t know Nirvana was punk but….OK!

It’s the only museum on The Beatles that belongs to a private collector. Rodolfo Vazquez opened his personal collection museum at The Plaza in downtown Buenos Aires that has over 8,500 Beatles memorabilia. Everything from photos to clothing and even a box of condoms that have Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s image. Um that’s kinda weird!

It’s called “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” and it will be the most extensive exhibit of Nirvana memorabilia in Seattle. The Experience Music Project will be putting it on from April 16, 2011 to April 22, 2013 and it will include many rare items such as demos, hand written notes and photos. You can check their site HERE<

Ronnie James Dio is getting his own statue in the Bulgarian Black sea town of Kavarna. I found this a bit odd but Dio was one of the first heavy rock band to play in Kavarna and has played there about 5 times. Kavarna’s mayor, Tzonko Tzonev, is the person behind this and has brought some of the best rock musicians to this town over the years. The statue is about 4 feet 11 inches and can be seen here:

Wendy O. Williams will be the first female Throbblehead and limited to only 2,000 numbered units. The Throbblehead is made by Aggronautix and is the 6th of the Throbblehead series. If you like this one you should really go check out the rest of them. Here’s a pic of it and the video that the design came from.

Sotheby’s is auctioning off the handwritten lyrics to “A Day in the Life” written by John Lennon on June 18th. It’s not the final draft but it has Lennon’s sketch of what became the actual song. Sotheby’s doesn’t think it will surpass the $1 million mark the handwritten lyrics to “All You Need is Love” did back in 2005 but think it should be somewhere between $500,000 to $700,000.

The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival has finally announced when their 2010 event will take place. From July 5th – 11th the event will feature panels, films, theater and independent performances all throughout the week. Executive Director West Jackson says:

“We have been fortunate enough to host the Festival along the beautiful Brooklyn coast line since our second year [2006]. When the word came down that our home, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park was being closed for renovation we began to work closely with Regina Meyer and the good people at The Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation. I am excited that not only are we returning to the Tobacco Warehouse for our Main Day, July 10th but have also added Brooklyn Bridge Plaza and New Dock Street. This increased space will allow us to produce two separate stages as well as build a large marketplace for our vendors.”

More info to come.

Slash is working with Nickelodeon to design a Dora the Explorer backpack for charity. Nickelodeon is launching a series of limited edition celebrity-designed bag which be auctioned off for the Children’s Defense Fund. There is also word that Shakira and Salma Hayek will also help with the project.

It’s great to see another form of art coming out that I haven’t seen much of.  Mark Evans takes large pieces of leather hide and carves/shaves images into them creating beautiful pieces of art using only knives. Pretty sick shit. Here’s a couple of his pieces. Got to his site to check out more.

RZA from Wu-Tang is coming out with a new art project on January 1, 2010.  The only information I could find is that it will be based on his last 20 years and will consist of 360 highly fine art drafts.  This is with the help of WAIL, When Art Imitates Life which helps create innovative  fine art with musical icons.  Check it out here: WAIL

Ya it’s a little strange and creepy but that’s just the thing artist Tom Sanford wants… I guess.  He’s painted ‘The assassination Of Dimebag Darrell’ and it’s ready to be auctioned off by Phillips de Pury & Co on November 21, 2009.  Check it out for yourself and you tell me what you think.

I’m so excited I can barely write this post.  I had the amazing opportunity to interview Page Hamilton of Helmet regarding his “Close to Home” art project.  All the information came back to me today and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Corey Danziger of SceneFour.

“Close To Home” is the art project Page Hamilton began to mark the 20th year of Helmet with “200 epic canvases for Helmet Believers worldwide.” You can see more information at Legacy Of Helmet. I now present to you the interview and some pictures directly from Page Hamilton.

MNTB: Where did this idea come from? I know you did some work with David Bowie. Did he give you any ideas?

PAGE: Bowie influenced everyone that came after him. Playing with him in ’99, there were a lot of tidbits of info that I picked up. He is extremely intelligent. It’s not like he said, “you do an art piece.” I was actually approached by creativity house SceneFour with the art collection idea, and then I developed a concept for the art that I love.

MNTB: How long have you been working on these pieces?

PAGE: Six months ago, that’s when we decided to start this project.

MNTB: Do you have a favorite piece or one that sticks out more than the others for you?

PAGE: Well, the basic piece is going to be the Close to Home canvas. It’s the one constant in each piece in the series. Then the collector will be able to request specific songs, and I’ll be augmenting the canvas individually per song from the Helmet catalog. Initially, it was going to be completely at my discretion, but then I thought it would be cool to let the collector have the selection. I’m actually excited after getting my chops down on the first few pieces I’ve done. I was a little nervous to begin with, but once I dug into it, it was great.

MNTB: Did all the items in the pieces come from you diligently collecting it all and putting it in a safe place or were there contributions from the various band mates?

PAGE: Helmet was my brainchild, as I’m the songwriter, producer and guitar player, but when I began spending time with SceneFour and started discussing what we wanted to accomplish, it became clear to me that I want to explore growing up in America, American music, incorporating my family and my upbringing. I thought it would be interesting to delve into that. One of my favorite eras of rock and art is the 60s and 70s and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here had an influence on the artistic direction that this went. Almost all of the photos in the Close to Home collage are from the 60s and 70s. I think that the Hypnosis cover had that 60s normalcy to it, and yet there are bits of imagery that are ominous. I found that the photos we used had an inherent mystery to them particularly the one of my mom and I at less than a year old in front of the gas tank or nuclear orb thing. I’m looking up into the clouds. It gives out a kind of perspective, the innocence of being a child, starting life with open eyes and also a looming danger ahead…sort of the trials and tribulations of life on the planet. I was really happy that in the end we decided to make an art piece for the project as opposed to a piece that is all about Page Hamilton rock star.

MNTB: Singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer………and now an artist. Is this something you may continue on the side joining Bowie, Lennon, Iggy Pop and other musicians who have expanded into art?

PAGE: I am thoroughly enjoying this project and process. My eyes are open. And I’ve always been open to the creative thought process. I’m so blessed to do what I love. It’s incredible. And for me, it’s never been about the financial reward. I’ve been on a path, and this project is expanding my pallet. Pardon the pun. I’m open to this.

MNTB: After all 200 pieces are out, will this be an ongoing thing with something new coming out every year or so? And have you thought of having any fan collaborations where they give you pieces of your history from shows they’ve been to?

PAGE: I’ve actually thought about that in the past, but my brain works in an organized way. I’ve got good work habits, and I typically don’t think of things, or projects, in terms of how to collaborate or produce. I’m always open to things. But I’m constantly running around, and I’ve always got things to produce, the educational thing and clinics which I love doing. I’m not sitting around thinking about things to do. So, in terms of the art, this piece and project is a yearlong process, and we are now in the middle of it. I’m taking things a day at a time and giving my full attention. It’s not my style to think two steps ahead. We are in the formative stages of an interesting project, a project that is going on for the next year or so.

MNTB: You’ve said you loved playing live as opposed to being in the studio. Any chance you’ll be doing any live art pieces?

PAGE: No, actually I think that’s a misprint because I love both environments. I love touring and playing live and the studio is an incredible creative environment. But really my favorite part of the process is the writing. Sitting down with a cup of coffee and a guitar, working on lyrics and music is my favorite. In terms of doing any live art pieces, I’m actually going to New York to be taped for an artist’s installation. It’s going to be videotaped and will be part of the installation. So definitely this project did open my mind and eyes to possibilities, and I always had an interest in art and painting. I’m not a painter, but I love painting and I love time with paintings.