jovanripley

Moving Mountains

• Artist: Usher
• Label: LaFace Records/Zomba Label Group
• Director: The Brothers Strauss
• Album: Here I Stand

Edward Poynter
Raphael
Robert Rauschenberg
Man Ray
Odilon Redon

MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins. Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she?s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she?s still not safe. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what?s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss?s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins?s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year. Suzanne Collins was also recently named to the 2010 TIME 100 list.

One (1) lucky INO reader will receive:

* A *Limited Edition* Engraved iPod Touch (with Mockingjay emblem)
* A copy of Mockingjay

How do I enter? You have a few options:

1. Click here to leave your email address on my contest entry form.
2. Tweet this message: “Hope I win the MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins giveaway from http://imnotobsessed.com @imnotobsessed. RT to Enter #ino”
3. Become a fan of I’m Not Obsessed’s Facebook Page.Then leave a comment on the wall saying why you love MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins.

Teairra Mari
Terry Fox
Theodore Roosevelt
The Wright Brothers
Thomas Jefferson

Back in July we learned the shocking news that soccer stud Cristiano Ronaldo fathered a child with an American woman on accident but had decided to do the right thing and accept responsibility for his child (which, essentially, meant that he paid off the mother for full custodial rights to the child and then handed [...]

Franz Kline
Oskar Kokoschka
Willem De Kooning
Henri Lautrec
Fernnand Leger

Britney Spears went to court yesterday to meet with the judge overseeing her ongoing conservatorship and I understand no changes have been made to the way things have been going (ie. the conservatorship is still in place). After she was finished at court, Britney made her way back home and picked up her youngest son [...]

Jean Dubuffet
Marcel Duchamp
Raoul Dufy
Albrecht Durer
Friedel Dzubas

‘Tik Tok’ singer/nominee racked up massive digital downloads, opened for Rihanna and survived ‘SNL’ on road to Video Music Awards.
By James Montgomery

Ke$ha
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images

Ke$ha is, without question, one of the biggest breakout stars of 2010. A slurring, whirling, hard-partying pop oddity (who may also be a genius) with a #1 album and a boatload of hit singles to her name, not to mention more than a few enemies. She even has under her star-spangled belt, her very own, very public WTF debacle in the form of a rather, uh, divisive “Saturday Night Live” performance.

Ever since Ke$ha came stumbling into our lives last year with “Tik Tok” (we named it one of the Best Songs of 2009, by the way), she’s been nothing if not consistently entertaining, if slightly confounding. She’s always coming back with another massive single or eye-popping video, always saying — or wearing — something outrageous. In the process, she’s made a rather indelible impact on popular culture and, earlier this month, MTV showed its recognition of that fact, rewarding her with multiple Video Music Award nominations, including nods for Best Female Video and Best New Artist.

But how did she go from unknown pop curio to one of the fastest-rising starlets on the planet? Here’s a look back:

In January 2010, “Tik Tok” rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting a record for digital downloads in the process. That same month, she was named one of three female Artists to Watch , as part of MTV News’ Pop Week 2010. Buoyed by the success of “Tik Tok,” Ke$ha’s debut album, Animal, opened at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling more than 152,000 copies and ending “Britain’s Got Talent” phenom Susan Boyle’s six-week run at #1. Ke$h would pay homage to Boyle soon after, declaring to MTV News that the cat-loving singer “knows how to party.”

She followed up “Tik Tok” with “Blah Blah Blah,” another party-ready anthem featuring her pals in 3OH!3. The song cracked the Top 10 and has sold more than 2 million digital downloads to date.

Ke$ha then took to Twitter, where she flirted with John Mayer and then drew the ire of both Britney Spears and Justin Bieber fans, after she (sorta) swiped at Britney in a demo of an old tune (”Styrofoam”) and called Biebus “a tiny little baby.” In both instances, she apologized … though, not before Perez Hilton weighed in, calling her a “trash-talking train wreck.”

In April, she was announced as the opening act on Rihanna’s Last Girl On Earth Tour, and then got to work on another video, this one for “Your Love Is My Drug.” That month, clad in a bizarre bodysuit (and later, nothing but glow-in-the-dark bodypaint), she performed a pair of songs on “SNL,” a debacle which was described by some as “the worst ['SNL' performance] ever.” Never one to back away from a good brawl, Ke$ha responded thusly: “F— the cynics.”

In May came the premiere of the “Drug” video — a bonanza of beards, boulders, Beatles and bodypaint — and the pop singer quickly followed that up with a cameo on 3OH!3’s “My First Kiss” and yet another Animal video, this one for “Take It Off.”

Later that summer, she hit the road with Rihanna, and described the dynamic duo’s backstage relationship thusly: “We braid each other’s hair … naked.” She then began discussing plans for a follow-up to Animal, saying she could foresee getting into country music but would definitely stay away from jazz. She also began laying the groundwork for her very own headlining tour. Oh, and of course, she revealed she’s planning a fashion line, too, featuring capes and haberdashery made out of “roadkill … and recycled feathers.”

Seems strangely fitting, if you ask us.

The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 12 at 9 p.m. ET. Go to VMA.MTV.com (or text VMA to 97979 if they are Verizon subscribers) to vote for the Best New Artist video through September 12.

Related Videos

• VMA 2010: First Look
• Gearing Up For The 2010 VMAs!
• MTV News Extended Play: Ke$ha

Related Photos

• Lady Gaga Leads The 2010 VMA Nominees
• 2010 Video Music Awards Performers And Presenters

Related Artists

• Ke$ha

Ray Charles
Richard Cheney
Richard Nixon
Rosa Parks
Ronald Regan

Do Somethin’

• Artist: Britney Spears
• Label: BMG International
• Director: Bille Woodruff/Mona Lisa
• Album: My Prerogative

Willem De Kooning
Henri Lautrec
Fernnand Leger
Frederic Leighton
Roy Lichtenstein

Watch Brittany and Santana’s version side-by-side with Britney and Madonna’s.
By Jocelyn Vena

Heather Morris and Britney Spears on the set of “Glee”
Photo: Facebook

Heather Morris, who plays hilariously ditzy cheerleader Brittany on “Glee,” got to channel her sort-of namesake on Tuesday night’s “Britney/Brittany” episode. And the professional-dancer-turned-actress didn’t disappoint as she re-enacted Spears’ videos for “Toxic,” “Slave 4 U” and “Me Against the Music.” She tackled all of them with her spectacular dance skills and a pretty killer singing voice.

The anesthesia-induced dream sequences followed one of Brittany’s stellar reveals: “My name is also Britney Spears. Brittany S. Pierce. I’ve lived my entire life in Britney Spears’ shadow.” Well, on Tuesday night she stepped out of her shadow.

Of all the video reinterpretations in the episode, the Madonna/Britney team-up, which saw Santana playing Madge and Brittany playing you guessed it, paid homage to the original 2003 video, directed by Paul Hunter. Aside from a few artistic tweaks in the “Glee” version’s choreography, Morris and company do the original justice.

“The ‘Me Against the Music’ montage, it’s literally copied exactly from the video, the shots and looks, but the choreography is made so much more for a dancer — none of it is from the video,” Morris told New York magazine about the “Glee” version. “You just have to wait to see it. It’s insane.”

Hunter spoke to MTV News last year about his original concept for Britney’s “Music” video. “I try to play opposites, when you have Britney in dark and Madonna in white,” he said. “And then we see them kind of dance around the bed .. and you think they’re gonna get on top of each other and do something crazy.”

Related Videos

• ‘Glee’ Takes On Britney Spears

Related Photos

• How Close Is ‘Britney/Brittany’ Glee Episode To Reality?

Related Artists

• Britney Spears

Raphael
Robert Rauschenberg
Man Ray
Odilon Redon
Pierre-auguste Renoir

Them Crooked Vultures make their debut with a post-Lollapalooza set.
By James Montgomery

Dave Grohl (file)
Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Officially, Lollapalooza ended Sunday night in Chicago’s Grant Park, with dueling sets from the Killers and Jane’s Addiction. Unofficially, it ended very early Monday morning, across town at venerable rock club the Metro, with a surprise show by Them Crooked Vultures.

To the unfamiliar, the Vultures might seem like an odd choice to close out Lolla weekend … until you realize that they’re made up of Foo Fighters frontman/ former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age mastermind Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones. And their gig at the Metro was their world premiere.

According to some reports, the Vultures actually turned down Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell’s request to replace the Beastie Boys as headliners at the festival, opting to debut in front of some 1,100 super-psyched fans at the Metro, rather than 75,000 in Grant Park (tickets for the gig were announced via Foo Fighter/ QOTSA fan clubs). Meaning that, in a lot of ways, this was the most sought-after ticket in town.

Taking the stage just after midnight, the Vultures — Grohl on drums (of course), Homme on guitar and vocals, Jones on bass and keys and frequent QOTSA contributor Alain Johannes on guitar — ripped through 12 songs in 80 minutes, all taken from their upcoming debut, which may or may not be called Never Deserved the Future, and may or may not be hitting stores on October 23 (early “promo” videos touting both those facts were revealed over the weekend to be hoaxes perpetrated by QOTSA fans).

The songs, with appropriately Homme-ian titles like “Scumbag Blues,” “Mind Eraser (No Chaser),” “Caligulove” and “Interlude w/Ludes,” sounded pretty much how you’d expect, given the band’s pedigree. They rocked, hard — Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot described them as “fresh, invigorating and just plain nasty” — delving off into psychedelic, reverb-filled excursions and exploring proggy territory, “both of the old-school Yes variety, and the more modern Tool flavor,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jim DeRogatis.

It’s not known if Monday’s Metro performance was a one-off event for the Vultures — there have been whispers of a full-blown tour, but a spokesperson for Homme had not responded to MTV News’ request for comment at press time. Nor was it clear whether or not they’ll have an album out in October.

Early Monday, a Crooked Vultures Twitter account, which had previously posted links to the band’s official-looking Web site and the Metro’s online ticketing site — posted a link to what appears to be the group’s first bit of official merchandise: a Deserve the Future T-shirt. Cost: $30.

Related Videos

• The Lollapalooza 2009 Experience

Related Photos

• Vampire Weekend, Jane’s Addiction, More At Lollapalooza 2009

Related Artists

• Foo Fighters
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Led Zeppelin

Elvis Aron Presley
Emily Dickinson
Eminem
Fifty Cent
Florence Nightingale

Break the Ice

• Artist: Britney Spears
• Label: Jive/Zomba Label Group
• Director: Robert Hales
• Album: Blackout

Pieter Bruegel
Edward Burne-jones
Alexander Calder
Adolphe Cassandre
Mary Cassatt

‘I’d be listening to Lady Gaga’s music a lot, and especially because she’s such an inspiring person for young gay people,’ he tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena

Perez Hilton
Photo: Noel Vasquez/ Getty Images

It’s not easy being a teenager. This is especially true for young people struggling with their sexuality and the bullying that sometimes that comes along with it. And, given the string of tragic bullying-related suicides in the past few weeks, it’s not surprising that so many public figures are speaking out.

“My advice to anyone that’s going through a really painful time right now because of gay bullying is to find a healthy escape,” Perez Hilton told MTV News. “For me, when I was young, that was music. If I were a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old and school was just really unpleasant for me, I can guarantee you I’d be listening to Lady Gaga’s music a lot, and especially because she’s such an inspiring person for young gay people.”

Another key piece of advice from the blogger would be to speak to someone and find a support system. “I would encourage kids in school that are being bullied to definitely talk to someone — a guidance counselor, their parents, their relatives — talk to anyone they can, someone older who can help them work through their issues. And if young gay kids or anyone who’s being bullied or is questioning things doesn’t feel comfortable talking to someone they know, I would strongly encourage them to speak to experts anonymously,” he continued, citing programs such as the Trevor Project. “I can’t encourage that enough. Talking to someone is so much better than keeping things bottled in.”

At the end of the day, Perez wants to make one thing clear: Suicide is not a way to deal with bullying. “What’s interesting is … everybody can relate to these young boys that committed suicide, because we are all freaks,” he explained. “We are all different, even those of us that may seem more normal and conformed.

“When I was young, I was probably bullied and made fun of just as much for being fat as I was for being gay,” he continued. “It, unfortunately, is something that just happens a lot, but I think the important thing to be mindful of when you’re young and going through these things is that it really is just temporary. The future is brighter. It will get better.”

MTV’s ongoing “A Thin Line” project also provides stories and resources for anyone who believes they are being cyberbullied or who is looking for ways to stop harassment by digital means.

Related Videos

• Reactions To Tyler Clementi’s Death

Richard Estes
Lyonel Feininger
Laurie Fields
Sam Francis
Helen Frankenthaler