Will.i.am wants Opera House album

Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am says he hopes to record an orchestra album in Sydney. Source: Supplied

• Says he enjoys performing and appearing on TV talent shows
• Will tour #willpower with a new kind of live show
• Wants to record an orchestra album at the Sydney Opera House

AMERICAN hitmaker will.i.am calls it the TV Show Tour, where artists, coaches, judges and mentors get to showcase their wares on the top-rating small screen talent quests.

Back in Australia to spruik his solo album #willpower, the Black Eyed Peas creative controller will perform his chart-topper #thatpower on tomorrow night's first results episode of The Voice.

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"You know what I think is cool? It gives artists a new venue. You play the Sydney Opera House, I played the Big Day Out, now I'm touring The Voice. It's a new tour, just touring all the countries' Voices," he said, laughing.

"Check this out, I mentored on (American) Idol last year, I did the coaches' house visit on X Factor, I've done the Voice and I did Idol again last week. I tour TV. I tour the tube."

Will.i.am is a coach on the British franchise of The Voice which is running concurrently with the Australian series. He was originally approached to join our series.

He laughed at the suggestion it might be awkward performing a song in front of the Australian coaches.

"I am going to be looking at Seal like, you know you are the Australian me, right? And I'm the UK you, right? And Usher is the American us, right?" he said.

"Then (Black Eyed Peas member) Apl, my best friend, he's doin the Filipino Voice.

"I'm tellin' Seal, 'I'm coming for your chair next'."

The producer, singer, rapper and brand man said the orchestral themes running through #willpower will inspire his next solo record.

will.i.am is a regular visitor to Australia since 2001 and credited his nightclubbing experiences here while working on Wolverine for inspiring the dance-heavy sound of the Black Eyed Peas record The End.

Now he wants to return with a grander plan.

"I would like to do an orchestra album and record the whole record here at the Sydney Opera House," he said.

"Let's work it all out somewhere, know your repertoire, what you are going to be recording, know all the parts and pieces, do all the rehearsals and then you record it all in one place. And you invite people to come.

"What else is there to do? Everything is in a computer now and don't mind, I like computer beats but I think there is a thirst for the human."

He promises he will tour #willpower - not just on TV shows - but wants to invent a new way of playing live.

And he still has to executive produce the new record from Britney Spears, who guests on his No.1 hit Scream And Shout.

"I want to tour, I want to tour here in Australia, but I want to put in the same effort I did with making the record and come up with something different," he said.

"I don't want it to look like 'Where are the other guys at?"'

Will.i.am performs on The Voice on Tuesday.

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Legal brawl over The Simpsons' house

All this fuss over The Simpson's. It's The Simpson's. Who can get mad over The Simpson's? Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

WHAT was meant to be a project designed to bring people joy, quickly turned into a legal battle between two designers who created blueprints and floorplans for the fictional homes on TV shows including The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and Mad Men.

Spanish interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde created hand-drawn floorplans for some of the most famous fictional homes including that of Ted Moseby from How I Met Your Mother, Sheldon, Leonard and Penny's apartments from The Big Bang Theory, the pads belonging to Monica, Rachel, Chandler and Joey from Friends and even Jerry Seinfeld's old place.

Mr Lizarralde told news.com.au that his hobby blossomed out of his love of 1990s sitcom, Frasier, and that he drew the floorplan of protagonist Frasier Crane's apartment as a "personal treat".

It can take up to 30 hours or more to complete a single floorplan, and countless hours of TV watching to nail the layout.

He said he usually watched an entire series or film before attempting a floorplan.

"In the sitcoms the principal set (normally the living room placed in front of the audience) appears in all the episodes," he said.

"The problem is usually locating the secondary sets as the bedrooms and bathrooms."

The interior designer sells his plans on website Etsy from anywhere from $50 to $150.

Mr Lizarralde has received copyright complaints – not from the various TV studios but a rival who also designs and sells floorplans of fictional homes from TV shows and films.

News.com.au has not named the person for legal reasons but approached them for comment.

According to Mr Lizarralde's blogs the rival's lawyer sent him a cease and desist letter saying that his floorplans were "unauthorised derivative works and use the copyright protected works owned by my client's intellectual property rights".

The interior designer says it is obvious he is not copying the rival’s blueprints.

He also said he felt harassed by the competitor who wrote comments about him on articles that had been written about his work.

These alleged actions have caused some of his art to be removed from his DeviantArt account as well as from other websites.

Mr Lizarralde said he had also lost money due to the ongoing battle.

His Simpson's floorplan has had the greatest coverage – shared on social networks including Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and My Space – but he was reluctant to send it on to the show's creator Matt Groening.

He said he was nervous about Groening's opinion as he had already copped criticism from pop-culture pedants.

"Behind the stairs there is a door that sometimes appeared as a wardrobe closet, other times as a cupboard full of shelves and sometimes as an entry to the basement stairs," he told news.com.au.

He said he decided to draw it as a storage space as that was the most common way it was presented, but this was met with criticism from fans.

"If I had drawn the stairs to the basement the same (people) would complain that there (should have been) a closet, so I do not want to think what Matt Groening would say," he said.

Ground floor of The Simpson's Springfield home. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

The first floor of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie's home at 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

We'd kill to see Kramer's apartment, complete with hot tub. But Jerry's apartment shall have to suffice. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

For the Dexter fans, try to calculate the square footage of plastic wrap required to sheathe this entire house. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

The floor plan that got the whole thing started. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

Because this story would be incomplete without a reference to The Gilmore Girls. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

 

View the original article here

Legal brawl over The Simpsons' house

All this fuss over The Simpson's. It's The Simpson's. Who can get mad over The Simpson's? Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

WHAT was meant to be a project designed to bring people joy, quickly turned into a legal battle between two designers who created blueprints and floorplans for the fictional homes on TV shows including The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and Mad Men.

Spanish interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde created hand-drawn floorplans for some of the most famous fictional homes including that of Ted Moseby from How I Met Your Mother, Sheldon, Leonard and Penny's apartments from The Big Bang Theory, the pads belonging to Monica, Rachel, Chandler and Joey from Friends and even Jerry Seinfeld's old place.

Mr Lizarralde told news.com.au that his hobby blossomed out of his love of 1990s sitcom, Frasier, and that he drew the floorplan of protagonist Frasier Crane's apartment as a "personal treat".

It can take up to 30 hours or more to complete a single floorplan, and countless hours of TV watching to nail the layout.

He said he usually watched an entire series or film before attempting a floorplan.

"In the sitcoms the principal set (normally the living room placed in front of the audience) appears in all the episodes," he said.

"The problem is usually locating the secondary sets as the bedrooms and bathrooms."

The interior designer sells his plans on website Etsy from anywhere from $50 to $150.

Mr Lizarralde has received copyright complaints – not from the various TV studios but a rival who also designs and sells floorplans of fictional homes from TV shows and films.

News.com.au has not named the person for legal reasons but approached them for comment.

According to Mr Lizarralde's blogs the rival's lawyer sent him a cease and desist letter saying that his floorplans were "unauthorised derivative works and use the copyright protected works owned by my client's intellectual property rights".

The interior designer says it is obvious he is not copying the rival’s blueprints.

He also said he felt harassed by the competitor who wrote comments about him on articles that had been written about his work.

These alleged actions have caused some of his art to be removed from his DeviantArt account as well as from other websites.

Mr Lizarralde said he had also lost money due to the ongoing battle.

His Simpson's floorplan has had the greatest coverage – shared on social networks including Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and My Space – but he was reluctant to send it on to the show's creator Matt Groening.

He said he was nervous about Groening's opinion as he had already copped criticism from pop-culture pedants.

"Behind the stairs there is a door that sometimes appeared as a wardrobe closet, other times as a cupboard full of shelves and sometimes as an entry to the basement stairs," he told news.com.au.

He said he decided to draw it as a storage space as that was the most common way it was presented, but this was met with criticism from fans.

"If I had drawn the stairs to the basement the same (people) would complain that there (should have been) a closet, so I do not want to think what Matt Groening would say," he said.

Ground floor of The Simpson's Springfield home. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

The first floor of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie's home at 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

We'd kill to see Kramer's apartment, complete with hot tub. But Jerry's apartment shall have to suffice. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

For the Dexter fans, try to calculate the square footage of plastic wrap required to sheathe this entire house. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

The floor plan that got the whole thing started. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

Because this story would be incomplete without a reference to The Gilmore Girls. Picture: Iaki Aliste Lizarralde Source: Supplied

 

View the original article here

Cave and the kids captivate Opera House

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds engaged the audience early with a searingly passionate performance of their new album. Picture: Prudence Upton Source: Supplied

AS A proposition, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, with strings and a children's choir, at the Sydney Opera House looks intriguing on a billboard.

In reality, the opening night of the tour was one of the gigs of the year.

You could feel the buzz of anticipation as the concert hall filled with the worshippers of Cave's considerable church, including a sizeable political contigent led by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Expectations were exceeded from the second Cave and his cohorts walked onstage, with the frontman greeting his young choir guests with an amiable "Hello kids.''

In this gig of two halves, Cave and the Bad Seeds ran through their No.1 record Push The Sky Away first, the careful string arrangements and occasional choir swell adding to the band's considered performance.

The children's choir captivated the audience at the Sydney Opera House when they joined the band on-stage. Picture: Dan Boud

The frontman engaged his audience early with a searingly passionate performance of his new work which seemed to force itself out of his body. 

Equally captivating was the chatty Cave who appeared genuinely mortified having dropped a naughty word in front of the "kids'' while encouraging the amorous antics of a front row fan. 

At another point in the concert he enjoyed a hilarious exchange as he prepared to launch into the Higgs Boson Blues. 

"Ready kids?'' he inquired. 

After they chorused a resounding "Yes!" he asked: "Do you sing in this song?''

They answered "No!" in unison.

"Then don't! And no texting,'' he replied.

Maybe their presence explains the colourful confetti which rained down after a few songs. Confetti at a Nick Cave gig? Yep, this was a fun show.

Cave and the Bad Seeds succeeded grandly when it came to making the songs feel like well-worn favourites while also stoking a desire to delve deeper into the nuances of a record which is still so fresh.

The album's centrepiece Jubilee Street was an undisupted highlight, it's slow build swirling to a fast and furious climax.

And then there was the second half. The energy seared from the stage as they catapulted themselves into the "hits'' - From Her To Eternity, Red Right Hand, The Ship Song (and then the kids went off to bed), Deanna, The Mercy Seat and finishing with a visceral Stagger Lee as the encore.

Beg, borrow or steal a ticket to this show.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform at the Sydney Opera House today and tomorrow, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne on Saturday, Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide on Sunday, Red Hill Auditorium, Perth on March 6, The Riverstage, Brisbane on March 8 and Enmore Theatre on March 9.

View the original article here