A Million Little Lies
Author misled Oprah - And just about everybody else
Anthony Augustine
Not what he seemed — tinyurl.com/dtrom
— Since its inception, Oprah’s Book Club has wielded
an immense amount of influence. No book was a better example of
the purchasing power of Oprah’s viewers than James Frey’s
A Million Little Pieces. Selling more than 3.5 million copies
and sitting on top of the New York Times’ bestseller list
for over 15 weeks, Frey’s graphic account of his drug abuse,
alcoholism and subsequent run-ins saw its stock skyrocket after
Oprah’s ringing endorsement. Originally looking to locate
the author’s mug shot for their online collection, information
hounds at the Smoking Gun began to turn up a number of discrepancies
in Frey’s account of many of the central events in his book.
This exhaustive investigation reveals that the author not only
embellished key incidents that frame his heart-wrenching story,
but that he also tried to cover-up evidence that contradicts his
descriptions of events in A Million Little Pieces.
Pandora — pandora.com
— While the CRTC may be worried about the arrival of
satellite radio eroding Canadian music culture, the obviously
out-of-touch regulators should be more concerned with recent developments
around customizable streaming audio. With more and more homes
integrating their computers with their entertainment systems,
it is only a matter of time before applications such as Pandora
become a primary source for music, news and sports broadcasting
and begin to replace more traditional content delivery models.
Utilizing information from The Music Genome Project, Pandora allows
users to establish and share custom music feeds based on a song
or an artist. Once an initial starting point is given, the site
generates a unique, commercial-free streaming audio feed. Although
the database of artists continues to grow, if labels drag their
feet and refuse to support projects such as this, the effectiveness
of the service is clearly diminished.
DJ Exotec — www.djxotec.com,
www.divorcekevin.com,
— Buffalo’s DJ Exotec may not have the brand-name
recognition of drum ’n’ bass superstar Shy Fx, but
his sample-heavy big-system tech-house sound will be an integral
part of Horizon 3. Riding a fine line between house and techno,
Exotec should be a perfect fit with the progressive party sound
of Toronto’s Deko-ze and the Latin flavoured deep house
of Seattle’s Jon Lemmon. Also part of the massive line-up
for Horizon are Vancouver trance DJ Kevin Shui, Regina’s
Dr. J and way too many locals to list. Visit groove204.com for
full details about the event.
Henry Rollins’ blog — www.21361.com/
— It might be surprising to some that the former Black Flag
frontman is only now launching his blog, considering the talented
writer has kept detailed journals since the early ’80s.
Far more mundane than I had expected, let’s hope the blog
is more like his book Get in the Van and less like his spoken
word performances.
Best of Bootie — www.bootiesf.com/bestofbootie_2005
— Ground zero for the mashup movement in North America is
San Francisco’s Bootie Nightclub. More than just a club
night, Bootie has also become a test ground for new music. You
can download their 20 track Best of Bootie compilation featuring
cuts from mashup master Party Ben, Earworm and Loo & Placido.
Anthony Augustine is a freelance music and pop culture writer
who spends way too much time in front of the computer. He also
hosts a weekly two-hour electronic music program on CKUW 95.9
FM Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com. |
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