It’s hard to be an aging Hip Hop artist. You can retain your dignity and status only so long before some young whippersnapper MC conjures up the most destructive dis of all: “You’re old.” So kudos to Ad-Rock of The Beastie Boys for somehow managing to not completely embarrass himself or his bandmates during a recent appearance on Quilting Arts TV … er, rather Top Chef: Just Desserts.  

After a flight from Canada to Shanghai, the singer for Behind Sapphire was detained and placed in jail for six days for what he claims to have “accidentally” hidden in his luggage. A glock? Hand grenade? Snacks from Panda Express? Nope — the vocalist was reportedly jailed because his suitcase contained collectible antique bullets from World War I.
  

A surprise was in store for the Canadian World-music-inspired band The Tea Party. Even though the group disbanded six years ago, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, their teaparty.com domain is a hot commodity and still visited often by members of the Tea Party political organization, whose ignorance apparently extends to Google ineptitude.  

Keith Richards has more cool in his elongated, coke-scooping pinky fingernail than 99 % of the actors in Hollywood, so news from Keef (reported by the U.K.’s Telegraph) that there has been talk of turning his bestselling autobiography Life into a feature film has casting directors all over Tinseltown sweating bullets.  

This year marks the second anniversary of Cincinnati’s Crafty Supermarket Holiday Show, a gathering of more than 50 local crafters, artists and designers making it easy to find those special gifts for all your holiday shopping.
  

Jack White’s latest project isn’t another Indie supergroup, nostalgia act career revival or the introduction of a young ingénue. Part early Halloween gift, part late April Fool’s joke, White channeled his inner Dr. Demento and teamed up with the second most famous Detroit duo of this century, Insane Clown Posse, to — what else? — record a Mozart cover with raucous duo JEFF the Brotherhood.  

So far, this October’s planned concert honoring the late Michael Jackson seems like a tribute to the behind-the-scenes turmoil of Jackson’s life rather than the impact of his music. Jackson’s mother said earlier this year that the concert will be held in Wales (for some reason), two weeks after Jackson’s doctor goes on trial for involuntary manslaughter.  

Many Punk fans around the world first learned about “real” London through the music of The Clash. The spirit of “The Only Band That Matters” has been hovering over the city lately, starting last month when the campaign to bring people to next year’s Summer Olympics included a version of The Clash’s “London Calling,” an Apocalyptic vision of the U.K. capital city’s future and class inequities.  

Kanye West and Jay-Z were recently sent a message from independent record stores — please, sirs, may we sell your music and make you even more money? A coalition of stores signed a letter to the super-duo asking them to reconsider their deal with Best Buy to sell their much-anticipated Watch the Throne exclusively for about two weeks before other retailers may have the privilege.  

When a group of young Bay Area Punk musicians in the late ’70s decided to name their band The Dead Kennedys, in their minds the odds of a beer company using their compositions in a marketing campaign was as likely as them being invited to become the house band at the Kennedy family’s Hyannis Port compound.