WiseGuys has the Black Keys pre-sale password: Anyone with this pre-sale code will have a fantastic opportunity to order tickets before they go on sale. You don’t want to miss The Black Keys’s concert in London do you? Tickets will sell fast when they go on sale: during the pre-sale you can buy your tickets before they sell out!
Here are all the Black Keys show details:

The Black Keys
John Labatt Center
London, ON
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 8:00 pm

Onsale to General Public
The presale begins at: Thu, 02/24/11 10:00 AM EST

Presale Info:
Wed, 02/23/11 10:00 AM EST

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The Black Keys presale code that we’ve had so many requests for is available for our members to use! For a short time you can order tickets before they go on sale. Now is the time to aquire your tickets – before they go onsale and sell out! Order your tickets now to see The Black Keys in Toronto, ON!!
Here is what we know about the Black Keys concert:

The Black Keys
Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
Toronto, ON
Thu, Jul 7, 2011 08:00 PM

Onsale to General Public
Start: Fri, 02/25/11 12:00 PM EST

American Express Presale
Start: Wed, 02/23/11 10:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 02/24/11 05:00 PM EST

Live Nation Presale
Start: Thu, 02/24/11 10:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 02/24/11 10:00 PM EST

Radio Presale
Start: Thu, 02/24/11 10:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 02/24/11 10:00 PM EST

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The Lewis Black presale code that we’ve gotten so many requests for is here! Everybody with this pre-sale password will have the chance to buy tickets before the public! You don’t want to miss Lewis Black’s show in Portland, OR do you? Tickets will sell out when they go on sale: during the presale you can buy your tickets before they sell-out.
Here are all the Lewis Black show details:

Lewis Black
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Portland, OR
Fri, Apr 8, 2011 08:00 PM

Onsale to General Public
This Presale Starts at: Fri, 02/04/11 10:00 AM PST

Citi® Cardmember Presale
This Presale Starts at: Wed, 02/02/11 10:00 AM PST
Ends: Thu, 02/03/11 10:00 PM PST

PROMOTER/VENUE PRESALE
This Presale Starts at: Wed, 02/02/11 10:00 AM PST
Ends: Thu, 02/03/11 10:00 PM PST

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The Black Lips presale code has finally been listed: While this special presale offer exists, you’ll have the chance to order Black Lips concert tickets before the public!!! Now is the time to aquire your tickets – before they go onsale and sell out! Get your tickets right now to see Black Lips in New York.
Here are all the Black Lips concert details:

Black Lips
Webster Hall
New York, NY
Tue, Apr 12, 2011 07:30 PM

Onsale to General Public
Start: Fri, 01/28/11 12:00 PM EST

American Express
Start: Wed, 01/26/11 12:00 PM EST
End: Fri, 01/28/11 11:00 AM EST

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Just in time for the holidays, Jack Black stars in an adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s 18th-century classic, “Gulliver’s Travels,” with a contemporary spin added to the source material. One of his co-stars, Jason Segel (of “Forgetting Sarah Marshal” and CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” fame) recently spoke to CBSNews.com’s Ken Lombardi about this new family-friendly film, and revealed details about his starring-role in the upcoming “Muppets” movie (due out in late-2011) and about his next collaboration with frequent comedic partner, Judd Apatow. Ken Lombardi: While watching the film, I thought to myself, ‘his neck must have hurt so much’ from constantly having to look up at a giant-sized Jack Black. In this iteration, Jack Black’s Gulliver is a stunted mail-room jockey at a newspaper. If only the Lilliputians could have figured out how to keep the one-note comic actor in restraints, and maybe jab him now and again with pointy sticks. But I did do a fair amount of looking up.

JS: We shot most of the scenes separately. Spurred on to make a change, Gulliver accidentally signs up for a writing assignment from the travel editor, his crush Darcy (Amanda Peet). Jack Black’s persona has always been larger than life, so in a way, he’s the perfect choice for an adaptation of ” Gulliver’s Travels .” But while Black ably carries the movie on his super-size shoulders, Rob Letterman’s slacker take on the Jonathan Swift classic is easier to like than respect. Unless you consider transforming Lilliput’s elegant 18th-century grand plaza into a tacky Times Square commercial strip, or having Gulliver battle a towering Transformer-like robot, doing something.

Black says the special effects were a chance to use his imagination — to come up with the entire world of the film. A dual motion-controlled remote control camera…that’s the real name. To find out why I didn’t enjoy Gulliver’s Travels , just read more. He can’t even summon the nerve to ask the travel editor he has a crush on – Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet) – on a date. So we could just hear each other. It’s there he finally becomes the big man — literally — he’s always dreamed of.

The only skeptic is displaced General Edward ( Chris O’Dowd ), who hates the attention this giant interloper is earning. Where did he come from? Screenwriters Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller have done good work before (” Shrek ,” ” Get Him to the Greek “). This is a naive innocent face intimates a quizzical facial gesture. One of the small potatoes in a big man’s world.” Black’s own insecurities helped him relate to Gulliver. Like a lot of clowns, Black says he’s often shy in real life. He gives the exact same performance we’ve seen, and been charmed by, a zillion times before.

I’ve warned you: don’t take this trip. And, “The Muppets,” which comes out next year, will also be PG. They could have buried him in the sand. So, I’m riding the family wave for a minute. KL: Do you like that? I also have a hard R-rated comedy called “Bad Teacher,” coming out next year. Are you going to eventually transition to more dramatic performances? With blue tinsel, of course, and a Star of David on top. “That would be taking it too far.”

Save yourself and your children from the abomination that is this new, modern-day retelling of Jonathan Swift’s scathing and enduring 1726 masterpiece. Black is Gulliver, a loser and mailroom worker at a major New York City newspaper. Jonathan Swift probably never dreamed of the consumer excess that would elbow its way into the great satire of “Gulliver’s Travels” all these centuries later.

Horatio’s rival, General Edward (Chris O’Dowd), is a preening blowhard. No doubt he’d have been keen on poking fun at this new world — Swift had a fascination with human failings of the most base sort — but I don’t think a three-story Coke can that’s washed up on the shores of Lilliput with all the other debris in the latest film adaptation is what he’d have in mind. Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a mail room clerk for a big-city newspaper. Like, say, product placement (the video game Guitar Hero plays a part in the alleged plot), a giant robot and a unique twist on firefighting procedures in which our protagonist urinates on a blaze, drenching poor Billy Connolly and Chris O’Dowd in hundreds of gallons of amber liquid. With director Rob Letterman (“Shark Tale” and “Monsters vs. Jack Black’s persona has always been larger than life, so in a way, he’s the perfect choice for an adaptation of ” Gulliver’s Travels .” But while Black ably carries the movie on his super-size shoulders, Rob Letterman’s slacker take on the Jonathan Swift classic is easier to like than respect. The rest of the time, crickets. Since this a modern-day telling, the modern world intrudes from beginning to end, and in 3-D. Letterman seems perfectly happy to stand back and let the lead do his thing, which makes the movie feel like — well, most of Black’s other films. Gulliver’s Travels does speak to Jack Black’s lack of self-consciousness. Black says the special effects were a chance to use his imagination — to come up with the entire world of the film. As any cameraman will tell you, the least flattering angle to shoot a husky guy is from below.

To find out why I didn’t enjoy Gulliver’s Travels , just read more. He’s got a huge crush on travel editor Darcy Silverman ( Amanda Peet ), so an awkward, stammering conversation somehow gets him sent on assignment to Bermuda . The Shy Giant In keeping with Swift’s classic novel, Gulliver finds himself in a land of tiny people, the Lilliputians. Bravo on the lack of body image issues, Jack. So he’s got some emotional growing up to do. It’s there he finally becomes the big man — literally — he’s always dreamed of. With that said, the first act is actually mildly funny, but once the fantasy element begins, all the laughs are dependent on the cheapest of setups, like Gulliver peeing on a castle inferno, showering the cast with bright yellow liquid. Otherwise, Gulliver’s Travels remains one of those misbegotten projects that can’t decide whether it’s aimed at kids or adults, so it misses both.

It wasn’t hard to get into the mindset of a character who’s too timid to ask for a promotion, Black says. Aliens,” “Gulliver’s Travels” boasts a sequence in which Gulliver has the Lilliputians build him a theater in which they re-enact the “Star Wars” films, Gulliver’s “life story.” The 3-D effects are mostly undetectable, although you’ll still pay extra.

I assure you Dean Swift is spinning.

In the new film Gullivers Travels, Jack Black plays the big man in town — which proved to be quite a challenge with so many tiny actors on the set. “There were a lot of safety issues, obviously,” he tells Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz. With Jack Black , Emily Blunt . No tiny actors were harmed in the making of the movie, of course. In this iteration, Jack Black’s Gulliver is a stunted mail-room jockey at a newspaper. Save yourself and your children from the abomination that is this new, modern-day retelling of Jonathan Swift’s scathing and enduring 1726 masterpiece. Actually, the “pee” bit was the only occasion in the screening I attended wherein I heard the delightful laughter of children.

Black is Gulliver, a loser and mailroom worker at a major New York City newspaper. Jack Black’s persona has always been larger than life, so in a way, he’s the perfect choice for an adaptation of ” Gulliver’s Travels .” But while Black ably carries the movie on his super-size shoulders, Rob Letterman’s slacker take on the Jonathan Swift classic is easier to like than respect. It wasn’t hard to get into the mindset of a character who’s too timid to ask for a promotion, Black says.

Gulliver’s Travels does speak to Jack Black’s lack of self-consciousness. Letterman seems perfectly happy to stand back and let the lead do his thing, which makes the movie feel like — well, most of Black’s other films. As any cameraman will tell you, the least flattering angle to shoot a husky guy is from below. Aliens ) sands the edges off of Jonathan Swift’s tale and replaces them with robots, wedgie jokes, and a neatly wrapped all-you-need-is-confidence personal message, which also plays out through Jason Segel’s attempts as a lower-caste Lilliputian to woo his kingdom’s princess (Emily Blunt). That’s the way we see Black through most of the movie, on several occasions with his shirt off. He’s got a huge crush on travel editor Darcy Silverman ( Amanda Peet ), so an awkward, stammering conversation somehow gets him sent on assignment to Bermuda . Horatio’s rival, General Edward (Chris O’Dowd), is a preening blowhard. Soon he’s sucked into the famed Triangle, which hides a tiny country called Lilliput. Otherwise, Gulliver’s Travels remains one of those misbegotten projects that can’t decide whether it’s aimed at kids or adults, so it misses both. One painful memory is meeting Thom Yorke, the lead singer of the band Radiohead. She too ends up in Lilliput (presumably thanks to the same sea spout), but not before Gulliver gets banished and becomes a prisoner on another island, this one populated by giants. “Every sentence, it sounded like I was speaking through a bottle of molasses,” he says.

At the same time, it transforms this “Gulliver” into some species of a Jack Black movie, complete with scat-singing, “Guitar Hero”-playing, wedgies, goofy sounds, etc. “But we don’t have a Hanukkah Santa,” he says.

“That would be taking it too far.”

Starring Jack Black, Amanda Peet and Jason Segel. (PG. 85 minutes. Opens Saturday at Bay Area theaters.) Like a rare and delicate flower, “Gulliver’s Travels”… Jack Black’s latest effort to wring laughter from the cineplex plays to a few of his strengths his physicality, his musicality, his eyebrows. ‘Forever Tango’ review: Key steps missing Allan Ulrich, Chronicle Dance Correspondent Of all commercial dance entertainments, “Forever Tango,” which opened here in 1994 and returned Tuesday evening to the Marines’ Memorial Theatre for a sixth visit, may be the most durable. No doubt he’d have been keen on poking fun at this new world — Swift had a fascination with human failings of the most base sort — but I don’t think a three-story Coke can that’s washed up on the shores of Lilliput with all the other debris in the latest film adaptation is what he’d have in mind. Yet, the package, created and… Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a lonely, “Star Wars”-obsessed loser who’s stuck in the mail room at a publishing house. With director Rob Letterman (“Shark Tale” and “Monsters vs. Yeah, sure, he’s a writer. Drag takes off on N.Y. stages – grab your boa Mark Kennedy, Associated Press Will Swenson went from very hairy to virtually hairless in a matter of weeks. Jack Black’s persona has always been larger than life, so in a way, he’s the perfect choice for an adaptation of ” Gulliver’s Travels .” But while Black ably carries the movie on his super-size shoulders, Rob Letterman’s slacker take on the Jonathan Swift classic is easier to like than respect. Since this a modern-day telling, the modern world intrudes from beginning to end, and in 3-D. Unless you consider transforming Lilliput’s elegant 18th-century grand plaza into a tacky Times Square commercial strip, or having Gulliver battle a towering Transformer-like robot, doing something.

Letterman seems perfectly happy to stand back and let the lead do his thing, which makes the movie feel like — well, most of Black’s other films. Before landing on Lilliput, Gulliver was at the bottom of a Manhattan publishing giant’s ladder, the mailroom guy with a hopeless crush on Amanda Peet ‘s smart, successful beauty with a corner office and travel assignments to dole out. Gulliver himself is no longer an experienced explorer, but a lowly mailroom guy at a major New York newspaper who talks himself into a travel-writing assignment in order to impress the pretty editor (Amanda Peet) he’s been crushing on for years. Aliens ) sands the edges off of Jonathan Swift’s tale and replaces them with robots, wedgie jokes, and a neatly wrapped all-you-need-is-confidence personal message, which also plays out through Jason Segel’s attempts as a lower-caste Lilliputian to woo his kingdom’s princess (Emily Blunt). Alas, poor Horatio (Jason Segel) is but a commoner, lacking the pedigree or act of valor to make him worthy to pursue that princess. Back home, he tells the little Lilliputians, people call him President the Awesome. Deemed a “beast,” Gulliver is thrown in prison, where he befriends Horatio (Jason Segel), a kindly soul Edward locked up for daring to make eyes at his bride-to-be, Princess Mary (Emily Blunt, whose primary character trait is a taste for plunging necklines). Never mind that he plagiarized them (he’s bumbling, he’s jive, and he’s ethically challenged!). He’s even able to throw a Lillipalooza concert featuring Lilliputian versions of his favorite bands.

Before Darcy finds out, she has sent him on assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, which is how he ends up in the land of Lilliput. My suggestion would be to put it away for a day, and then, during one of those… And on Masonic Street, there’s reason for the Newsoms to…

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – In the U.S., 20th Century Fox is selling the feature film “Gulliver’s Travels” as a Jack Black comedy. Overseas, where Jonathan Swift’s classic tome is far more familiar, the film is being sold on the story. Like that other recent adaptation of a classic, proportion-obsessed fantasy novel, Alice in Wonderland , this high-energy, lowbrow comedy take on Gulliver’s Travels strips the source material down to its recognizable parts and then builds something completely new out of them. No doubt he’d have been keen on poking fun at this new world — Swift had a fascination with human failings of the most base sort — but I don’t think a three-story Coke can that’s washed up on the shores of Lilliput with all the other debris in the latest film adaptation is what he’d have in mind. But even at 83 minutes, “Gulliver’s Travels” is a drag, another 3D movie for kids in which the 3D adds nothing while subtracting from their parents’ wallets. Fox will find out as Gulliver’s, rated PG, opens December 25 in 2,546 theaters in the U.S. The 3D family adventure is also making a major push overseas. If only the Lilliputians could have figured out how to keep the one-note comic actor in restraints, and maybe jab him now and again with pointy sticks. With director Rob Letterman (“Shark Tale” and “Monsters vs. One sloppy and not at all credible misunderstanding later, and Gulliver is suddenly traveling alone on assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, where a spurting cyclone sends him to Liliput, a magically miniaturized realm populated by tiny people. Yeah, sure, he’s a writer.

Jack Black’s persona has always been larger than life, so in a way, he’s the perfect choice for an adaptation of ” Gulliver’s Travels .” But while Black ably carries the movie on his super-size shoulders, Rob Letterman’s slacker take on the Jonathan Swift classic is easier to like than respect. Since this a modern-day telling, the modern world intrudes from beginning to end, and in 3-D. There, he becomes a benevolently bodacious god, using the diminutive denizens for his own amusement ? the film’s best bit comes when he has them re-enact films like Star Wars and Titanic on a stage mocked up to look like a television ? while simultaneously teaching them not to be so uptight, dude. Darcy decides he’s the right guy to send on a Bermuda Triangle travel story.

Letterman seems perfectly happy to stand back and let the lead do his thing, which makes the movie feel like — well, most of Black’s other films. Black, alack, is Lemuel Gulliver, a mail-room employee for a New York newspaper. Aliens ) sands the edges off of Jonathan Swift’s tale and replaces them with robots, wedgie jokes, and a neatly wrapped all-you-need-is-confidence personal message, which also plays out through Jason Segal’s attempts as a lower-caste Lilliputian to woo his kingdom’s princess (Emily Blunt). Gulliver copes with Lilliput the way he coped with his real life with exaggeration. “Gulliver’s” has several distinct challenges. Soon he’s sucked into the famed Triangle, which hides a tiny country called Lilliput.

So he’s got some emotional growing up to do. But then, in a panicky moment of characteristic callowness, he presents a couple of sample articles to impress her. He’s even able to throw a Lillipalooza concert featuring Lilliputian versions of his favorite bands. Black has the kind of cheeky comic sensibility that should have perfectly suited Gulliver — a straight man if there ever was one with an eye for the absurd. “Gulliver’s” production budget was $100 million. Fox didn’t carry the cost alone. Dune Entertainment and Ingenious were the studio’s co-financing partners on “Gulliver’s.” Dune and Ingenious were Fox’s partners on “Avatar.” “Gulliver’s” was initially scheduled to open in summer of this year.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Broad sellouts in limited release and early awards-season acclaim suddenly have lifted “Black Swan” into an Oscar best picture contender, just as the Natalie Portman vehicle prepares to spread its theatrical wings wide next weekend. Academy Award nominations won’t be announced until January 25, so the most immediate drama for the ballet-themed suspense thriller begins Friday, when Fox Searchlight adds more than 900 playdates for more than 1,000 total engagements. With Golden Globe nominations on the way Tuesday, the 2010 awards season has officially kicked into high gear.

Natalie Portman is making headlines for her new film, Black Swan. At the very least, Natalie Portman should receive her second Oscar nomination for her portrayal of tormented ballerina Nina Sayers in ‘Black Swan’ but it’s not just her stellar performance that have caused people to take notice of the film. “Swan” last weekend collected $3.3 million from just 90 domestic locations, good enough for No. 6 on the chart. But the Globe nods aren’t the first; the American Film Institute and a handful of critics groups have already released their faves. But fans are more interested in the lesbian love scene than the actual film. Bottom line: Creepy, freaky fun. Sales to date stand at $5.6 million. “But because it’s me, people are shocked. “We knew it was challenging subject matter, but we made a bet on Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman,” Searchlight co-president Steve Gilula said Monday. “What’s been a very pleasant surprise is that is seems to be resonating with a broader audience so early.” “Swan” has been playing to audiences skewing about 55% female. “We keep hearing anecdotally about women who have seen it two or three times already,” Gilula said.

I’d never get to the point where I would starve or injure myself like Nina does. Speaking of the directing category and the aforementioned critics groups, Fincher will likely compete with four of the following Best Director nominees from the BFCA: Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”; Christopher Nolan, “Inception”; Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”; Danny Boyle, “127 Hours”; and Ethan and Joel Coen, “True Grit.” With regard to acting nods, the field has not been whittled down quite as specifically as the film and director categories. I see the value of a good girl persona-it’s so easy to subvert it!” Read more at Amy Grindhouse . Key things to look for: MORE: What’s won (and lost) so far 1. Here are some more of my favorite links, so please check them out! It’s thoroughly bizarre, pitched at high C and, as you might expect from a movie about a crazy person in a tutu, frequently hilarious. Being your fullest self is a lot of work.” Get More Quotes and Photos Inside >>> She did ballet until she was 13, but needed intense training for ‘Black Swan’: “Two hours a day after school, five hours on Saturdays. What do you think of this season’s awards darlings so far? But, where Oscar Best Picture’s race is concerned, it hasn’t been considered an equal of “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network.” Story: ‘Black Swan’ earns 12 Critics’ Choice nominations Best movie moments of 2010 Don’t look for these films at Oscar time, but for one reason or another, they stand out in our cinematic memories. When I started acting, I knew I’d have to downgrade to twice a week and would no longer be in the best class, so I stopped. Johnny Deep rips photographer a new one after he shoves a little girl out of the way for a picture!

The discipline was good for the part-it hurt a lot; your body is in constant pain.” Her diet: “I swear, I eat. Gradually, Nina’s unstable world comes apart. OMFG What the heck happened to Gwyneth Paltrow’s face!? That should bolter its Oscar credentials ahead of the Academy’s 10 best picture nominations, though AFI considers only American productions and thus relegated much-praised British drama “The King’s Speech” to a special award. Also during the weekend, members of the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. swooned for “Swan” with a record 12 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards nominations in categories including best picture.

“Black Swan,” the new psycho-sexual thriller set in the world of ballet, follows the downward emotional spiral of a young dancer whose inability to separate art and life leads to horrific and bloody consequences. Critics have been sharply divided, with some praising the extreme depiction of lunacy while others have been turned off by the same. Ten years of serious training then five more toiling in the ranks.

“Black Swan” takes a wildly subjective approach to the heroine’s descent into madness. That’s how many years of dedicated study are needed on average to become a principal ballerina at a top company. One of the holiday season’s key platform pictures, “Swan” is set for an incremental expansion during the next few weeks and will reach at least 60 locations next weekend. But Hollywood isn’t willing to wait. The Wrestler was a grim story as well but its cinematography echoed the gritty nature of the surroundings. When a single awkward move can change the tone of an entire scene, portraying a dancer is a serious challenge. Neither Murphy nor Hallberg participated in the making of “Black Swan,” although both said they know dancers who worked on the film. Question: As principals in a major New York company, what was your reaction to the movie’s dark depiction of the ballet world?

“At the beginning it was a big question because we didn’t know if any actor could pull it off,” Aronofsky said of the role of Nina, who turns into the Swan Queen onstage. Nina lives with her overbearing mother who was a dancer years before, her repression from a failed dream and career constantly oozes onto her daughter adding more pressure for Nina to succeed. “It was a rude awakening to get there, and to be, like, I don’t know what I’m doing,” Portman said by phone, “If I had known how not close to ready I was, I never would have tried it. Their relationship is weird and unconventional and though mysterious, it is certain that their bond has been an major issue in Nina’s progress of growing up and maturing. David Hallberg: It’s from a well-respected director, so there’s a comfort in that. And I’m a fan of his work. “For me it was kind of like: How do you fake it?” Blunt, 27, who studied for her role with Benoit-Swan Pouffer, artistic director of Cedar Lake, felt immense pressure to learn as much as she could from the company. “These dancers don’t want some actor misrepresenting the brilliance of what they do,” she said. Several genres can fit into this film. I was, interestingly, quite stressed throughout the film, especially near the beginning of the end, because it became such a thriller.

The effort to avoid that consumed Portman. Dario Argento’s late-70s classic Suspiria is one of my favorite films of all time. Having seen said film one cannot help but feel or notice similarities. Come on!” “The physical discipline of it really helped for the emotional side of the character,” Portman adds, “because you get the sense of the sort of monastic lifestyle of only working out that is a ballet dancer’s life. Every detail is ironed out and every step is detailed for hours and hours. Q: Have you ever played a role that has consumed you? You don’t have much food. Absolutely not — Ethan Stiefel, her boyfriend and fellow ABT principal would not have lived with me if that was the case.

Mila Kunis plays Lily, the bad girl, the black swan to Nina’s white swan. But maybe she isn’t so bad after all? But you only have one or two of those performances in a career. Nina is convinced that Lily is out to sabotage her. GM: It’s very competitive, especially to get into a company. But there’s such a diversity of movies out there. “Center Stage” was very bubbly — the pop side of ballet.

And yet, that hasn’t been the case, as much of the publicity blitz has zeroed in on the movie’s sex scenes and the actresses awkwardly rehashing filming details. Regardless, one “sexy” aspect director Aronofsky was more than willing to address is his potential nomination and win for Best Kiss at next year’s MTV Movie Awards. “Art isn’t easy,” Stephen Sondheim wrote in one of his most famous songs – a lyric that could serve as an alternate title for “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky’s alternately transfixing and ludicrous melodrama about a ballerina who pushes herself to the precipice of madness, and then straight over the cliff, in pursuit of the biggest role of her career. As Nina Sayers, Natalie Portman delivers a bravura performance as a child-woman whose fragility gradually gives way to grave, even grotesque self-destruction. “Is that what you’re going for?” we countered. “When I look at you, all I see is the White Swan,” a domineering, predatory ballet director (Vincent Cassell) tells the prima ballerina (Natalie Portman) he has cast as the lead in Swan Lake . “Only to see Mila and Natalie kiss again. If you’re willing to travel down this alternately seductive and sadistic road, Aronofsky proves an assured, if occasionally perverse, guide.

Is free-spirited, flirty rival dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) trying to steal her part? Is the nasty anxiety rash that keeps spreading on her back only going to get worse from scratching? It’s a hard fucking job to dance both.” The scene, which takes place early in Darren Aronofsky’s psychosexual thriller Black Swan , is a kind of meta-scene: a challenge issued not only to the ballerina but to Portman herself, a pointed appraisal of the actress’s work to date. “We had a staple gun and a fork. But you have never seen her dominate a movie so authoritatively as this. Over the years, Portman’s onscreen persona has been that of Good Girl incarnate: sweet but brittle, blessed with beauty but not its accompanying self-assurance. Whether Lily is a friend or a rival is just one of the questions that drive “Black Swan,” in which narcissism, ambition, lust and competition play out against a beguiling backdrop of mirrors and Nina’s own pink-and-white bedroom, into which her overprotective and undermining mother (Barbara Hershey) regularly barges. The nightmarish visions, florid sexual fantasies, and bloody hallucinations begin multiplying. A lesbian sex scene featuring the two dancers already has the blogosphere abuzz. “Black Swan” has been met with adulation on the film festival circuit, and it certainly is kinky fun. But with Nina’s pink child’s bedroom set and chorus of stuffed animals and overuse of mirror imagery, I found it hard to take her or the film all that seriously.

Portman’s role as Nina the ballerina in Black Swan is her most mature to date, though not precisely her most grownup. (That would likely be her impressively modulated performance as a quasi-widow in last year’s Brothers .) Like Portman herself, Nina is a portrait in extended adolescence, teetering between girl-dom and womanhood, full of promise not yet quite fulfilled. “Well, there is a lot of sexuality,” Aronofsky said. Aronofsky last directed “The Wrestler” (2008), another story of a performer finding transcendence through very literal blood, sweat and tears. But “Black Swan” more closely resembles his 2000 breakthrough “Requiem for a Dream,” an unrelenting, mostly joyless vision of four drug addicts in pursuit of the next fix. “A woman-child trying to burst out, and, of course, what a girl to a woman is her sexuality, so it was about Natalie’s sexuality bursting out.” What do you think of all the “sexy” talk surrounding “Black Swan”? Check out everything we’ve got on “Black Swan.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

When MTV News caught up with Kunis, we asked her to give us the “CliffsNotes” version of her laborious undertaking for the flick, which opens Friday. “The preparation was, get as skinny as you possibly can as fast as you can and then learn to get en pointe while doing it,” she said. “I got the part, let’s say on a Wednesday. And that’s exactly what happened with her latest film, “Black Swan,” which opens Friday. In an off-the-shoulder black gown and bold red lipstick, the actress felt the love on the red carpet, telling ET, “The most exciting thing is just to have people respond to the movie so enthusiastically and the audiences leave so entertained and thrilled.” In the film, Natalie plays a ballerina who slowly goes mad, and director Darren Aronofsky told ET of her preparation, “Natalie Portman trained for 365 days a year, eight hours a day to do this performance and I think it shows. She was about to go to London to film a TV version of Agatha Christie ‘s “Murder on the Orient Express” when she learned she’d landed the role of Erica, the suffocating mother of Nina ( Natalie Portman ), a mentally fragile prima ballerina in a Darren Aronofsky film that blends elements of dance, horror and psychological thriller. I think she really kicked ass.” Another actress who trained hard in ballet for the film was Natalie’s co-star Mila Kunis . Portman, who plays a prima ballerina, looked a picture of elegance in a black, off-the-shoulder floor-length gown while Kunis was equally stunning in a long cream dress with a slashed skirt.

He follows the most controlled member of a ballet troop and then lets us watch what happens when she attempts to let go in the service of what could be her greatest role. “I trained seven days a week, five hours a day for five months and was on a 1,200 calorie diet, so I lost 20 pounds in about four months,” Mila said of the grueling regimen. “We’re talking all day, every day,” she said of her training schedule.

Shes been a member of the same ballet company for years, and though no one works harder, shes never really gotten her big break. Ryder recently opened up about her role in the film, and how she apologised to Portman after filming wrapped for the ‘horrible’ lines she had to deliver as her on-screen rival. And she felt terrible for the cruel jibes she made towards Portman’s character. ‘I wrote (to) Natalie and I got her something when I had finished filming, saying, “I’m so sorry I had to say all those horrible things”,’said Ryder. “We both had these little earrings and necklaces,” she explains. ‘Doing the character was really cool in a way because I’m a bit older and the whole idea (is) there’s these young new actresses coming up. Portman will stun audiences with her ability to convincingly pull off some of the most beautiful and haunting dance sequences ever seen on screen, but what really makes Black Swan work is the fragility she conveys as Nina. “I made my eyebrows similar to hers as much as possible. The whole movie is about reflection, perceptions and mirrors.” The Hollywood native began acting at 17 in the 1965-66 ABC comedy “Gidget,” which starred Sally Field , and got her own series, the western “The Monroes,” on the network the following year.

Her career, though, stagnated for the most part in the 1970s. “She never gave me a break. She was 20 and she kicked my ass.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Black Swan.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

Will.i.am didn’t want to get inside the box. The 35-year-old mastermind of the Black Eyed Peas was at a late-night rehearsal last week for the American Music Awards , where the group was to perform its new single, “The Time (Dirty Bit).” During the song’s chorus, Will.i.am and his band mate Fergie were supposed to enter a pair of glass-walled elevators, but an important call had reached his cellphone, and you know what reception is like in an elevator. The “Boom Boom Pow” group releases a new album, The Beginning , on Tuesday, and fans who buy the CD will have a change to see the band perform live at the game.  Black Eyed Peas performed “The Time (Dirty Bit)”, the first single off The Beginning , at the American Music Awards Sunday. After a run-through, Fergie sought help from, well, from anyone capable of providing it. “Who am I talking to on this?” she asked into her microphone. (She had a right to be nervous, it turns out. The addition of BEP to the Super Bowl bucks the recent trend of featuring safer and older performers following the fallout of Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during 2004′s Super Bowl. Last year’s featured performer was The Who. Looking to go the safer route, the Super Bowl has mostly settled for tamer artists of late. The last three performances, in reverse chronological order, have been: The Who , Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty . “Will and Apl have their recording studios set up in their hotel rooms,” Fergie said, “so you can just walk in, and if you hear something you’re inspired by, you can just say, ‘Hey, put me on mike.’” Nearly every night, Will.i.am and Apl.de.ap would head to a nightclub after the group’s concert in a given city to spin records, including fresh Black Eyed Peas material. “It’s almost like testing out the music,” said DJ Ammo, who toured with the group and co-produced several tracks on “The Beginning.” “You’re seeing what people react to so you can choose which songs should go on the album.” Ammo remembers the evening Will.i.am decided to sample “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life,” the “Dirty Dancing” hit that provides the foundation for the Peas’ “The Time (Dirty Bit).” “Will had a DJ gig at Pacha,” he said, referring to the venue in the Spanish club capital of Ibiza, “and he played that as the second song in his set. The crowd just erupted and started singing along.” Ever since “My Humps” — in which Fergie memorably celebrated her “lovely lady lumps” — the Black Eyed Peas have been widely reviled for their lyrical content, which Rolling Stone called “a dizzying barrage of doggerel” in an assessment of “Boom Boom Pow,” the lead single from “The E.N.D.” That opinion isn’t apt to change with “The Beginning.” “I like to go out every night!” Will.i.am announces in “Fashion Beats,” and that’s about as deep as he digs here.

And pretty much the only prediction NewsFeed is willing to make right now is that the Cowboys won’t be playing. “We’re not gonna be in the same place forever,” Fergie said. “People ask us, ‘Is this gonna be your style now?’ And the answer is, ‘We have no idea.’ We might go back to underground hip-hop on the next record or go completely rock.

Thanks to the reader who emailed me this backstage pass image.
I think you will enjoy Jenny WeldingCaps’s photo of backstage pass as much as I did!

I have 16 man quilt blocks done. Only 5 more to sash. All made entirely from welding cap scraps (that I’ve been hoarding for the last 4 years or so) and a small amount from my stash.

Want the source only since everyone always ends up wanting it.
Do you think this picture of backstage pass was worth looking at?

Clown, one of the visionaries of the nine-headed metal beast known as Slipknot, has formed The Black Dots of Death. The band has just launched its brand new website, here, which features their first single “Let’s Get Fucked Up.” The song is a quirky rock tune and I cannot expunge it from my brain; Find out more by visiting the link

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If there’s one act who knows just how to get everyone on their feet, it’s the Black Eyed Peas. On Sunday (November 21), the group showed up at the American Music Awards to perform their brand-new single, “This Time (The Dirty Bit),” delivering a flashy, glow-in-the-dark spectacle. Throughout the song, the quartet crooned to the tune and worked the stage as they displayed some freestyle dancing moves alongside a series of dancers wearing box-shaped headpieces.

After the performance ended, will.i.am made sure to plug the release of the Peas’ new album, saying, “November 30, The Beginning . The 12-song collection is an ’80s-influenced effort that promises to once again bring listeners to the dance floor. Did the Black Eyed Peas’ glow-in-the-dark performance get you moving?

Call of Duty points also enable two cool new mechanics, the first of which is contracts. These are like the many multiplayer challenges that reward you with experience points for completing combat goals, only you have to pay to complete them. The majority of reviews from the most respected gaming sites are now available to view, and while overall scores are very good, there has been quite a stir caused about the game’s graphics , connection problems and even lag for some users. Eurogamer has scored the game an 8, saying that the campaign mode is ‘relentlessly aggressive and spectacular’ and the multiplayer mode adds smart tweaks on already ‘working’ formulas. According to some players, this is largely because Black Ops hogs too much of the processor’s power, sometimes reaching nearly 100 percent load, resulting in the aforementioned lag or glitches. Check out a roundup of reviews below and let us know your thoughts on them. Black Ops’ multiplayer design director, David Vonderhaar, confirmed to Twitter users that the Treyarch team knows about the issues, but expect an official confirmation to arrive from Activision today. If contracts are gambling against the house, then wager matches are gambling against other players. Our own experience with Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PC suffered from the same lag, which is extremely bad in multiplayer. Unlike the Sainburys deal , you actually need to part away from at least one game and unlike the Currys deal , you have to go instore to try and swap your games for the maximum price. Activision reps say it was an error on the part of an automated filter but it has now been restored and won’t be coming down again. At the end of the match, the pot is split proportionally among the top three finishers, and everyone else comes away empty handed.

Winda Benedetti writes the Citizen Gamer column  for msnbc.com. Nevertheless, at its core, this is the same frenzied action as found in its predecessor, and each play-through quickly begins to feel much like the last. Combat training allows anyone to enjoy the thrills of arena combat and the satisfaction of leveling up, and the opportunities for cooperative play, local competition, and community video creation provide even more outlets for entertainment. Call of Duty: Black Ops lives up to the top-notch pedigree that the series has earned, giving players an awesome new shooter to enjoy just in time for the holidays.

Free MP3 and Tour Dates from Fuzztastic Black Angels!

If you like all things sixties, particularly the bands that employed fuzz pedals and heavy use of hallucinogens, then you’ll like the dead-eyed dronerock of the Black Angels. No really. This isn’t being written in a sarcastic tone. The good news is that they’re giving away a track from their new LP!

The Black Angels third album is called ‘Phosphene Dream’ and will be coming out in September.

The Austin-based fuzz-cadets still pushing their take on ’60s psychedelia (in a much better and more authentic way than other supposed psych-revivalists around at the moment) and will be hitting the road later in the year.

The first single from Phosphene Dream is the garage groover, ‘Telephone’. You can hear it and download it HERE. If you need to suck it and see, here’s the sort of thing you can expect… (fans of 13th Floor Elevators, Spaceman 3 apply here).

If you’re in North America, you lucky devils can catch the band…

10-28 Chicago, IL – Metro
10-30 Buffalo, NY – Tralf Music Hall
10-31 Toronto, Ontario – Phoenix Concert Theatre
11-01 Montreal, Quebec – La Tulipe
11-02 Boston, MA – Paradise
11-03 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
11-06 Philadelphia, NY – Theatre of Living Arts
11-07 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
11-09 Louisville, KY – Headliners
11-10 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle
11-11 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
11-12 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
11-13 Orlando, FL – The Social
11-15 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
11-16 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
11-17 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11-19 Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
11-20 Dallas, TX – Kessler Theater
11-24 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
11-26 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
11-28 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
11-29 Seattle, WA – The Showbox
11-30 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Commodore Ballroom

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And the next week. Management — not so much. “I was called into human resources and sort of given the option of not singing any longer to the guests and keeping my job,” he recalled. Tickets $45, $55. At the time, I thought he went to my church and I just hadn’t met him yet.” A few years later he got his hands on the soundtrack to “The Jazz Singer,” which starred Diamond and his songs. I’m on a mission to get Oprah’s attention before she exits the city.” He laughs. But that short distance speaks volumes about the distance Denson has come in his curious musical journey. We’re now, I’m proud to say, celebrating the 10th year of The Black Diamond Show,” Denson said. June 24.