Hanson plans to launch MMMHop beer
I promise this is not a joke. Do not check your calendar because this is not April Fool’s Day.
Tulsa music trio Hanson has announced that they are planning to launch a beer based on their 1997 global smash hit “MMMBop.”
Brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson are developing an India Pale Ale they plan to release next year under the name MMMHop, reports NewsOK.com.
The group made the announcement while speaking Monday night at Oxford University Union in Oxford, England.
“We of course make records, they are fundamental to what we do, but we wanted to create a brand so that our fans have a greater experience,” Zac Hanson reportedly said.
“What is vital is that Hanson merchandise is quality and not made solely with the purpose of profit. We have a board game and even a record player to play our last record on, but we will never make dolls, lunch boxes or toothbrushes that play our songs for example.
“It’s vital our fans have trust in everything Hanson do. In fact we are soon going to be selling our own beer, I’m not even joking. MMMHop IPA anyone?”
Although many people remember the group as cute long-haired teenagers, all three brothers are now married with children and well past the legal drinking age: Taylor is 28, Isaac, 31, and Zac, 26.
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Common, Grandmaster Flash, Lupe Fiasco, LL Cool J and more to perform “The Message” tonight on Grammy Nominations Concert
Common (AP file)
Two-time Grammy Award winner Common, hip-hop innovator Grandmaster Flash, Grammy winner Lupe Fiasco, two-time Grammy winner LL COOL J, Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Melle Mel, rap star Rick Ross and rapper Scorpio will join together for a special performance of “The Message,” on “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music’s Biggest Night.” The TV special will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live from 9 to 10 tonight on the CBS Television Network.
“The Message” is the seminal rap recording by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five featuring Melle Mel and Duke Bootee, and it was recently inducted into the 2012 Grammy Hall of Fame. The 2012 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee class also includes Oklahoma-bred singing cowboy Gene Autry’s “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” along with recordings by Bill Cosby, Doris Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Freddy Fender and Flatt & Scruggs.
Previously announced performers for the concert special are Jason Aldean, Lady Gaga, Ludacris, Rihanna, Valerie Simpson, Mike Stoller, Sugarland, The Band Perry and Usher. Academy Award-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson, actor Taylor Lautner and music stars Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry will be presenters, and LL COOL J is once again set to host.
In addition to unveiling nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards, concert will feature a special live announcement from an iconic group regarding their historic band reunion set to take place on the Grammy stage on Feb. 12.
The show will announce nominations in several categories as well as feature performances by past Grammy winners and/or nominees. This marks the fourth consecutive year that nominations for the annual Grammy Awards will be announced live on primetime television, setting the stage for the annual Grammy Awards telecast.
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will air live Sunday, Feb. 12 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS.
Look for my report on the 2012 Grammy nominees with Oklahoma ties on Thursday.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Tickets for Flaming Lips’ New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 now on sale
Tickets are now on sale for The Flaming Lips’ New Year’s Eve Freakout #5, the Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers’ annual hometown NYE spectacular, at www.ticketstorm.com.
Several significant changes have been made to this year’s event:
Now a two-night extravaganza, the fifth Freakout is set for 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31 and Sunday, Jan. 1 at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center, 425 E California.
The Flaming Lips and Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band will play both nights, with Ono performing at midnight “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the famed holiday anthem she wrote and recorded with her late husband, John Lennon.
“In honor of our fantastical guests The Flaming Lips will perform some classic cover songs with Sean Lennon,” the Lips posted recently on Twitter (@theflaminglips).
In addition, Neon Indian will join the lineup for the Jan. 1 show, the Lips wrote on Twitter.
Tickets for this year’s Freakout are pricier than past years: This year, tickets are $100 for one night or $150 for both shows. All ticket buyers get into the afterparty at The Womb, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne’s new art gallery in downtown OKC.
“The after party at the Womb will go till sunrise and will feature naked movies inside the Womb room and New Fumes from Dallas doing paranoid soundscapes and Star Death and White Dwarfs playing an electric sunrise,” the band posted on Twitter.
Even with two shows, this year’s Freakout is bound to be a much more exclusive affair, not only because of the higher ticket prices but also because of the lower ticket availability. The Bricktown Events Center seats approximately 1,500, compared to 8,000 to 10,000 at the Cox Convention Center, where the Freakout took place the past four years.
“The new venue The Coca Cola events Center in Bricktown is a much cooler venue than the old Cox Center which became increasingly less accommodating to the beautiful Flaming Lips Fans,” the band posted on Twitter, citing cheap and easy parking and good but inexpensive food and drink vending at the Bricktown Events Center.
The Cox Convention Center won’t be empty on New Year’s Eve: The OKC Barons hockey team will face off against divisional rivals San Antonio at 7 p.m. Dec. 31.
For those who want to get an idea of the sheer spectacle of The Flaming Lips New Year’s Eve Freakout, check out these fan-shot YouTube videos from previous years:
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: “Basketball Never Stops” with Kevin Durant
I know it’s part of Nike’s “Basketball Never Stop” ad campaign, but I still love this video of Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant shooting hoops around the OKC metro area to the tune of Sam Cooke’s “Good Times.”
Of course, I like it even better now that we will get to Thunder up again very soon, with the NBA’s salvaged season due to begin Christmas Day.
According to NewsOK, the Thunder will play a pair of exhibition games against the Dallas Mavericks in December prior to the Dec. 25 regular season start.
Let the good times roll, indeed!
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Kelly Clarkson covers Carrie Underwood on VH1′s “Unplugged”
In this Wednesday Video Spotlight, check out Kelly Clarkson performing fellow “American Idol” winner and Checotah native Carrie Underwood’s heartbroken ballad “I Know You Won’t” on “VH1 Unplugged.”
Clarkson also performed several songs from her new album “Stronger” on the show.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Behind the scenes of “CMA Country Christmas” with Miss Piggy
In this video, Miss Piggy takes viewers behind the scenes of the “CMA Country Christmas,” airing at 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC.
The Muppet diva will perform a special duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Oklahoma-born and bred singer/songwriter/musician Vince Gill during the Country Music Association’s concert special.
Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles will host the two-hour holiday extravaganza with performances from “American Idol” runner up Lauren Alaina, Amy Grant, Faith Hill, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery, Kellie Pickler, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Sugarland and Keith Urban.
I got the chance to talk to Miss Piggy during the recent junket for her new movie “The Muppets” in Los Angeles. To read my feature on her, click here.
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Miss Piggy makes her comeback with “The Muppets”; performs with Vince Gill on Thursday’s “CMA Country Christmas”
Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog appear in a scene from their new movie "The Muppets."
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Miss Piggy makes her comeback with “The Muppets”
The porcine prima donna not only stars in the new movie, she also has been busily promoting the film on “Saturday Night Live,” in InStyle Magazine and on Thursday’s “CMA Country Christmas” concert special, during which she will do a duet with Vince Gill.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — An invitation to spend the holidays with three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams is nothing at which to turn up one’s nose, even if one’s nose happens to be a rather prominent snout.
But Miss Piggy graciously declined her co-star’s invite, citing her inhumanly busy schedule.
“Oh, I would, dear, but I have to work. I have to keep promoting this thing. I’m sure I’m gonna be on a plane eating plane food,” Miss Piggy said during a recent press conference in the famed ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The porcine prima donna, her beau Kermit the Frog and the rest of their comically inclined felt friends are making their comeback with their new movie “The Muppets,” their first cinematic outing since 1999’s “Muppets from Space.” Co-starring Adams and Jason Segel, “The Muppets” earned stellar reviews and $42 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. making it No. 2 on the domestic box-office charts behind only the supernatural juggernaut “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.”
For a diva whom many undoubtedly believed was in the twilight of her long career, Miss Piggy indeed has become a promotional force, during the past few weeks, singing on “Saturday Night Live” with Segel and the rest of the Muppets, gabbing with Checotah native Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley during the 45th Annual Country Music Association Awards and appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” alongside a rather grabby Mickey Rourke.
“Yeah, I think he was a little friendly, I understand,” said Kermit the Frog, who appeared at the press conference alongside Miss Piggy, Segel, Adams and new Muppet Walter.
Miss Piggy and Vince Gill perform "Baby, It's Cold Outside" during taping of the "CMA Country Christmas" concert special Nov. 10 at Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville, Tenn. "CMA Country Christmas" will air at 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC. (Photo by Donn Jones, Country Music Association)
On Thursday, Miss Piggy and Oklahoma-born and bred country music superstar Vince Gill will perform a duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” during the “CMA Country Christmas” concert special, airing at 8 p.m. on ABC.
The superstar swine also did a special photo shoot for November’s InStyle Magazine that featured her wearing custom pieces by six designers, including Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu and Brian Atwood.
“Well, I just want to say I am sorry. “I am sorry about that spread in InStyle. I’m sorry to all the ladies who’ve lost their beaus, their husbands, to moi because people just instantly fall in love with moi when they see me in that spread,” And I just want to apologize,” Miss Piggy said.
The chic spread suits Miss Piggy’s role in “The Muppets.” In the new film, the Muppets reunite — with the help of their devoted fans Gary (Segel), Mary (Adams) and Walter — to raise $10 million to save their old Muppets Studios from the nefarious schemes of evil oil baron Tex Richman (Oscar winner Chris Cooper), who wants to raze the theater and drill for oil under it.
Recruiting Miss Piggy for their fundraising show proves the trickiest task, not only because she and Kermit have such a complicated history but also because she has a tony job as plus-size editor of Vogue Paris, complete with haute couture wardrobe and Emily Blunt (“The Devil Wears Prada”) as her personal secretary.
For the film, Miss Piggy donned a Zac Posen-designed lavender gown, glittery platform stiletto heels from Christian Louboutin and a jacket made of cashmere that cost $300 a yard.
But she didn’t get to strut her stuff in Paris.
“I would’ve loved to have lived in Paris for awhile while shooting this movie, but unfortunately we shot everything on a Hollywood back lot. Except for the car shots; I think they actually took a car to Paris, but they did not take moi,” she said, referring to the film’s hilarious travel-by-map road-trip sequences.
Segel, who also co-wrote and executive produced the film, said Miss Piggy didn’t put away her diva ways on the new project.
“As for Piggy’s part, she wanted it bigger, I’m not gonna lie to you. She wanted a very strange credit sequence where we all would be introduced, and then it would say, ‘And Miss
Hosts Carrie Underwood, who hails from Checotah, and Brad Paisley appear onstage with Miss Piggy during the 45th annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 9. (AP file photo)
Piggy,’ but then that would just stay on throughout the entire movie,” Segel said.
“I saw nothing wrong with that. I did not demand any rewrites. I want to go on the record for that. But that’s probably just because I didn’t really read the script,” she said, as Kermit did a froggy face palm.
“She just said what she wanted,” Segel confirmed.
“What I do, I just show up to set and, you know, people say their lines and I say whatever comes into my head,” Piggy added.
“The rewrites were basically around Piggy’s improvisation,” Kermit added.
“I thought it turned out good, though,” she said.
All’s well that ends well in the case of Piggy and her Kermie, too, who confirmed they are together.
“We are together,” Kermit said.
“We are together. You can’t get back together if you’re already together,” Miss Piggy added.
“Well, you can but we’d have to separate and then come back again. And it’s too hard to get out of the room,” the frog replied.
Although she won’t be spending them with Adams, Miss Piggy made it clear to Kermie that she would like to spend the holidays in much the same fashion as her co-star, who has an 18-month-old daughter, Aviana.
“Children — a wonderful idea,” Piggy said.
“That sounds wonderful,” Kermit said after she kept dropping hints. “We’ll work on that.”
“I hope so,” she replied.
Along with having children together, Piggy had some savvy advice on how to keep a good guy.
“Implanting one of those GPS chips under the skin, that’s a really good way of keeping track of them,” she said.
“In a place that the guy can’t find — or reach!” Kermit added.
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What to do in Oklahoma on Nov. 30, 2011: Hear Brandon Jackson at the Wormy Dog
Today’s featured event:
Hear Stillwater-based red dirt singer/guitarist Brandon Jackson play an acoustic show at 10 tonight at the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan.
For more information, go to www.wormydog.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Bio Channel’s “Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy” sets ratings records, reairing tonight
The premiere of the Bio Channel original special “Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy” set ratings records for the network last Tuesday, Nov. 22. The two-hour special became the network’s most-watched telecast of all time among key adults 18-49 and 25-54 demographics and total viewers, according to a news release.
For the night, “Jeff Dunham” was watched by 1.2 million total viewers. The 8 p.m. premiere garnered 425,000 adults 25-54, 321,000 adults 18-49 and 714,000 total viewers, all ratings records for the network, becoming the single most-watched telecast in network history.
Bio’s “Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy,” is billed as giving exclusive, unprecedented access to the life of the entertainer who single-handedly made ventriloquism hip again. The special will encore on Bio at 8 p.m. today, 7 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14 on the cable network.
Dunham is bringing his “Controlled Chaos” tour to Tulsa’s BOK Center for a Feb. 26 performance. For more information, go to www.bokcenter.com.
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Kenny Rogers to perform with 2 Oklahoma youth choirs Friday at Hard Rock Tulsa show
TULSA – When legendary country entertainer Kenny Rogers brings his “Christmas & Hits Tour” to The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa on Friday night, he will be joined by two Oklahoma youth choirs during his holiday set list.
Members of the Cherokee National Youth Choir and the First Baptist Church Tulsa Children’s Choir will perform multiple songs during the holiday portion of the concert, according to a news release.
The Cherokee National Youth Choir has previously shared The Joint stage with Oklahoma native Vince Gill and The Oak Ridge Boys.
“This is a really neat way to start out the Christmas season,” said Mary Kay Henderson, director of the Cherokee National Youth Choir, in the release. “The kids are thrilled even though they didn’t really know who Kenny Rogers is, but their parents and grandparents are really excited.”
Henderson said the youth choir, which is comprised of seventh-graders to 12th-graders, has been preparing to sing along in English to “Chosen One,” “Joy to the World,” “O Holy Night” and “We Three Kings.”
The First Baptist Church Tulsa Children’s Choir consists of children ages 9 and 10 who come from schools within the Bixby, Jenks and Tulsa school districts. Friday’s concert marks the first time this group has performed at an event of this magnitude.
“The children will be singing ‘Closing of the Year,’ which is a piece being premiered in Kenny’s Christmas show this year,” said Janet Frazer, children’s choir coordinator for First Baptist Church Tulsa, in the release. “Additionally, they will be singing ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Chosen One’ and ‘Joy to the World.’”
Both groups were selected by Rogers’ management. The country singer performs with a youth choir at each stop on the tour.
Limited tickets remain for Rogers’ 8 p.m. Friday performance.
Rogers also will perform selected hits from a career that has included the release of more than 65 albums, which have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. His work has resulted in three Grammys, eight Academy of Country Music awards and five Country Music Association awards.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa is off of Interstate 44 at exit 240. Ticket prices and information on upcoming shows are available online in The Joint section of www.hardrockcasinotulsa.com. The Joint box office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. All guests must be 21 years of age or older.
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