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iTunes has basically taken the music business out of the hands of the record labels. By embracing technology instead of stubbornly trying to fight the rising tide, Apple's iTunes has reinvented the music industry and looks like the unstoppable leader. That is until Spotify came along. Spotify is a European music service that serves up music on demand for free. What is the catch? You have to listen to a commercial every 30 minutes or so similar to commercial radio or you can pay a $14 monthly charge to listen ad free. Record labels seem to be embracing this new format including heavy weights like Sony, EMI, Warner Music and Naxos. The 6-month old service already boasts 1 million users, and they are serving up an impressive catalog of music, adding songs at the rate of 10,000 tracks a day. Will this new licensing format make downloading MP3s obsolete? Only time will tell if consumers adopt this format whole-heartedly, but with little downside I certainly wouldn't bet against it. If I were Apple, I'd be looking to launch a competing service yesterday before Spotify hits the US market and slaughters their cash cow. To be one of the first in the know concerning when Spotify hits the US, signup on their website.

Source: Newsweek

Tim Edwards may call a cardboard box home, but thanks to some marketing savvy friends, he now has plenty of Benjamins to pimp out his pad. Edwards is the inspiration behind PimpThisBum.com which is a site where you can buy Tim everything from Happy Meals to Rehab. All Edwards had to do was carry around a cardboard sign promoting the site, and all of the profits trickled down into his holey pockets. $50,000 worth. Edwards is currently working through rehab to deal with problems sprouting from drug and alcohol addiction. The site has been such a success that creators Sean and Kevin Dolan are planning to launch sites for two more homeless people in the Houston area.

Source: CNN

Grade: B | Genre: Drama Summary: Oliver Stone nicely captures W's aching journey for his father's approval and his cocky attitude of living by his gut while God steered the way. When I first heard the rumor circulating that Oliver Stone would be doing a biopic on George W. Bush, I got a queezy feeling in my stomach. I had flashes of Michael Moore branching out to direct dramatic pictures, and Stone's slanted objectivity undercutting what could have been a potentially fascinating character study. I've got to say W. proved that my fears were unfounded. Now there is plenty here for the conservative, Christian right to flap about, but the essential focus here is the portrayal of Bush. At the close of the film, its fair, and while none of us can camp out in his brain for a day to see how all the creaky gears come to the decisions he does, I believe this rendition isn't too far off the target. Before watching the film, I also feared that we were still too close to the subject matter. Would we really be able to see Bush objectively, being that he was still in office as this film debuted in theaters? Thankfully, yes. Stone essentially highlights his focuses around the war in Iraq. There no mention of financial meltdown and the lame duck years that history will fuse into his legacy. This snapshot is just enough to give us an intriguing look at the life that is George W. Bush.

Jon Stewart has been known to swing a few solid blows at the media in his day. He single handedly kicked Crossfire off the air and sent Tucker Carlson's bow tie a spinnin'. Now the host of the Daily Show has set his sights on the gross negligence of the financial reporting at CNBC. His primary target last night was none other than avid stock pumper Jim Cramer of Mad Money. Stewart was relentless in his rebuke of CNBC and Cramer's role in not foreshadowing the most epic financial disaster since the Great Depression. Did Cramer swing back and defend the hard hitting news organization? Not so much. The usually verbose Cramer seemed more content to cower at Stewart's continued onslaught of accusations and take the ass whipping that he had coming. Kudos to John Stewart and the Daily Show. Its too bad a comedy news organization is the only one to step up and hold anyone's feet to the fire over this media debacle.

Checkout the full extended interview at Comedy Central

Grade: A | Genre: Drama Summary: This is a great film, but its also a tough film. This family character study hits you on all levels. Dysfunctional family life has rarely been approached as well as we see it in Rachel Getting Married. This film makes you recall 1980s Ordinary People that featured a family who looked rather bland on the surface but was stirring incessantly underneath. Rachel Getting Married features some fantastic acting at the hands of Rosemarie DeWitt and Debra Winger, but the tour-de-force performance here is Anne Hathaway. She has had the misfortune of landing her career in a pile of fluff films (Princess Diaries, Get Smart) and forgettable turns in quality flicks (Brokeback Mountain). Rachael Getting Married is the role that cements her as one of the premiere actresses of her generation. Her character Kym is cooping with a lifetime of disappointment fueled by the spark of addiction. On loan from rehab for the weekend so that she can attend her sister Rachel's wedding, Kym personifies someone who is uncomfortable in their own skin.

As Ticketmaster navigates the tricky, shark infested waters that plague its pending merger with LiveNation, more trouble lies on the horizon. Ticketmaster just settled a lawsuit from New Jersey's attorney general for $350,000 and agreeing not to link to their subsidiary TicketsNow off their main website. It all stemmed from the shady practice of forwarding fans to TicketsNow (a ticket seller on the secondary market) selling tickets for a steep markup once tickets for Bruce Springsteen's tour flashed sold out. Canada has also filed a $500 million lawsuit against the company for the deception they've leveled on Canadian fans. Now Leonard Cohen fans are feeling the heat. Recent tour dates in NY sold out in seconds. Ticketmaster affiliate Ticketexchange had inventory for over $1000 a ticket available while prices on TicketsNow ran upward of $1900. This just highlights Ticketmaster's questionable business practices and why they cannot be allowed even more power through the proposed consolidation with LiveNation. Congress should have heeded Pearl Jam's advice back in the 1990s and splintered up this monopoly.

Source: NY Daily News

Grade: B- | Genre: Drama Summary: Even though the ending came through like a badly telegraphed pass, this episode wrapped up a very satisfying season of Secret Diary of a Call Girl. We see all the complexities, problems and excitement that Belle brings to Hannah's life. While Belle's closing exploits in season two of Secret Diary of a Call Girl already seem to be common knowledge for those in the UK, we're just catching up to her unraveling stockings stateside as Showtime wraps this chapter of our delicious high class hooker. Last week, we got a taste of life with Hannah enslaved to the path of the straight and narrow as an office gopher. It seems making copies was too challenging for our blow job queen so she was relegated to hand shredding a never ending stream of documents. Its sad to see such a talented individual sink to such a level in the name of love. Her beau Alex, disgusted at her wanton disregard for morality and the legion of men that have sampled the merchandise, pushes Hannah into this droll existence, raping the very life from her. While I feel for her plight, you've got to make a choice in these delicate situations. If you are going to turn on the red light, you've got to put those fantasy notions of a husband, the white picket fence and 2.5 children to bed. Last week, they dangled the prospect of one last high paying job before Belle's pursed lips. Will she succumb to temptation of her true self or make her peace with a life dressed in mediocrity for love?

So you've been waiting ever so patiently since the utter silliness of the series finale of Seinfeld swept these lovable schlubs out of our lives. Well they're long awaited reunion aren't donning the peacock feathers of NBC this go around, but rather Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm on cable network HBO. This fall, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will put aside their new lives to afford us an extra day in the sun. No details have been revealed thus far concerning the appearance or potential story lines. Larry David was one of the original creators of the hit NBC series that lives on in infamy through massive syndication.

Source: MSNBC

Canadian jazz chanteuse Diana Krall will soon be heading out on tour to support her latest Brazilian bossa-nova styled record release Quiet Nights. Currently, her tour is slated to snake its way through Canada with a sprinkle of US dates in New England and along the west coast. With large gaps between her summer dates, it's fairly easy to surmise she will be filling in those vacancies with stops along the major US markets, sure to be announced in the months ahead. Diana Krall's tour will start March 19 in Honolulu. Quiet Nights marks Krall's first release since 2006s From This Moment On, and highlights three covers from bossa nova godfather Antonio Carlos Jobim. Diana co-produced the album with Tommy LiPuma.