It’s a well established “scientific” fact that pandas are the cutest thing on the planet. Seriously. A team of very important and smart people sat in a room and figured this out.
So, with that, here’s a minute of a panda yawning. Do your part to keep scientists working on this stuff.
https://youtu.be/XIoMobGonJc
…like, a lot.
Jimmy Fallon, host of The Tonight Show, once again took to Twitter to ask folks to share their funny stories, and this week was all about the dumbest thing they’ve ever done. #ImDub was even a trending topic, too. He read a few on-air, and these are more of the best admissions to having a bit of a brain delay.
The Polaris Music Prize, presented by CBC Music and produced by Blue Ant Media, is heading north. Celebrating its 11th year, the 2016 Polaris Music Prize Long List will be announced Wednesday, June 15th at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse, Yukon. The announcement of the 40 titles that comprise the Long List, produced in conjunction with Yukon’s Film & Sound Commission, will begin at 12 p.m. PT with a special live stream broadcast on the Polaris Facebook page.
CBC Radio 2 will feature a special hour-long broadcast celebrating the Polaris Music Prize Long List on Drive with Rich Terfry at 6 p.m. (6:30 p.m. NT). Local CBC Radio 2 frequencies can be found at cbc.ca/frequency or the broadcast can be streamed online at cbcmusic.ca.
As with years past in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax, special local guests will be on hand in Whitehorse to help announce the list. The announcement will also feature a special live performance by a 2016 Long Listed artist.
Polaris will also produce a Yukon-focused artists’ event with support from Government of Yukon’s Department of Economic Development. This event will include a panel discussion, demo listening and one-on-one meetings with local Yukon artists.
“On behalf of the Government of Yukon, I look forward to welcoming the Polaris Music Prize to Whitehorse,” Yukon Minister of Economic Development Stacey Hassard said. “We’re pleased to provide support to Music Yukon and Polaris to host an event that will provide developmental feedback and support to our local artists. Congratulations to all of this year’s long-listed artists.” These events are also supported in part by Music Yukon, NVD hotels and Yukon Brewing.
The Polaris Music Prize will announce the Short List at the Carlu in Toronto on Thursday, July 14th and the winner at the Polaris Gala on Monday, September 19th. CBC Music and AUX.tv will stream the gala live.
The eligibility period for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize runs from June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016. An independent jury of 194 music journalists, broadcasters and music bloggers from across Canada determine the Long List and Short List. Eleven people are selected from the larger jury pool to serve on the Grand Jury. They will convene the night of the gala to select the Polaris Music Prize winner.
The Polaris Music Prize will award $50,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year. The nine other Short Listed artists will receive $3,000 Courtesy of Slaight Music. Polaris is judged solely on artistic merit without consideration of genre or record sales. Past winners have included Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007), and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).
After many years of turning down interview requests, legendary Warner chief Mo Ostin recently conversation with HITS Magazine’s Bud Scoppa. That exchange appears in its entirety in their most recent print edition; below are a couple of key excerpts.
[Prince] said something quite interesting to Lenny Waronker. He said, “One of the things I want to make sure is that you don’t make me black.” He just wanted to be treated like all artists. He wanted to be Fleetwood Mac; he wanted to be The Beatles, The Rolling Stones; he didn’t want to be restricted to being an R&B artist. He was right—when he went into pop, when he went into rock, whatever he did, he did it extraordinarily well. I remember when we signed Duke Ellington at the very beginning of the history of Reprise, Duke said to me, “I don’t want to be categorized as a jazz artist.” He said, “I’m a musician and do every kind of music.” And Prince had pretty much the same idea.
He always had autonomy. I mean, the power of the creativity, his inventiveness, daring, he was always pushing boundaries, all of those things made us say to ourselves, “Hey, this guy is the real deal.” Norman Granz once said to me, “I never tell Oscar Peterson how to play piano. Don’t get in the way — get out of the way.” We knew how good he was, and he was what he was.
In the next episode of Pitchfork’s new series, Liner Notes, they take an annotated look at the Beach Boys classic album, Pet Sounds, 50 years after its release. Released on May 16, 1966 The Beach Boys eleventh studio album that sounds is considered one of the most influential albums in pop music history with classics like “God Only Knows” “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice“. These sounds brought complex orchestrations ambitious lyrical arrangement and the concept album to pop music leaving an imprint that is still heard today.
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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