Billboard dropped this bomb about the new Terminator movie: "Rapper Common has been tapped to star in the upcoming fourth installment of the 'Terminator' series, 'Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.' The Chicago MC will play a freedom fighter named Barnes who is defending the human race against a machine that aims to destroy it." Batman is going to be his sidekick. We're not kidding!

AP has a couple shocking stories: A musical by John Mellencamp and Stephen King, scheduled to be produced next season in Atlanta, has been postponed .The Alliance announced in February that "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," with music by Mellencamp and a book by horror master Stephen King, would open in April 2009, with the object of preparing it for a Broadway run. The Alliance notified subscribers on Monday that the project has been delayed. Members of the creative team "realized the script would not be ready by spring 2009," the statement said.more

Detroit City Council member and ex-Motown star Martha Reeves says thieves broke into her childhood home and stole about $1 million worth of uninsured recording equipment.
Reeves says speakers, microphones and karaoke machines were among the items taken Sunday night. She says the backdoor of the house on Detroit's east side was kicked in.more

On the corporate front: Apparently Buzznet has gobbled up another site. That major label money is coming in real handy. So the latest site acquired is Absolutepunk.net. The founder of the site says that the new owners won't have any influence over them editorially. Guess we'll see. more

If you haven't heard, New Kids On The Block have decided to reunite. They've just released a sample of their first new single, "Summertime," which is set for a digital release on May 13th 2008. But here is a sample of the track so you can judge if they have the right stuff or should have stayed off the block.

Scott Crawford, founder of HARP, along with Managing Editor Fred Mills and Senior Editor Randy Harward, will unveil BLURT digital magazine and the accompanying BLURT-online website in June. "While the print world continues to struggle, launching a magazine in this format allows us to explore the music community just as comprehensively but without many of the handicaps that burdened HARP," says Editor-in-Chief Scott Crawford. "It's a new world out there, but creatively, I've never been more excited about the possibilities." The digi-mag will be hosted at Blurt-online.com Welcome to the 21st century.

According to Angola Press, Bruno Carvalho was handed over to police after his parents identified him on a video of the incident.

Weinman said that the Chicago rockers were "practicing where they were going to walk and when they were going to put their leg up on the monitor and pose. That was weird for us. There are times where I don't even know where I am."

The three songs - 'Nothing On Me', 'I Wanna Live A Dream (In My Record Machine)' and 'Stop The Clocks' have been circulating online throughout the day [On Tuesday].

Billboard has the details in a story they posted Tuesday afternoon: "The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed, under suspension of House rules, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act. An official quorum vote is expected on the House floor this evening. Introduced by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers Jr.* last December, the Act (H.R. 4279) would create the office of a U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative in the White House to represent and advise the president on IP issues. The representative would produce a national joint strategic plan to protect and enforce IP rights, and would be responsible for seeing its implementation by various government agencies."

'Momofuku' was originally inspired by an invitation received by Mr. Costello to sing on Jenny Lewis's upcoming record, featuring his long-time bassist, and what followed was just one week of recording and mixing, producing a record that recalls early Costello in the best ways possible.