† NillaMora †

Tampere, Klubi, Thursday 15. Nov. 2007

Wet snowflakes and hard wind outside made this November evening feel even colder than it really was. Antti Anatomy seemed a bit tired from a long day of work, but still eager to answer all the questions I had lined up for him.

After the necessary small talk, we began the interview by going through today's schedule.

- I was in Helsinki with Jonne. We were shooting a TV interview for a programme called "Wintteri". I think it will come out sometime close to the New Year's eve. I've never seen or heard of this kinda TV show, but that's what we were filming over there. We also did an interview for a magazine called "Koululainen". The record company guys did some promoting at a radio station, but we weren't there with Jonne.

I also remembered to ask about Antti's visit to Kokkola last week. He told me that there was an exposition called "Rock Your Life" and it was for teenagers. It was an informative happening about professional schools.

- This exposition was organized by Vallu Valpio (a finnish celebrity) and we have known each other for a very long time. Vallu was searching for musicians that have professional education and when he remembered that I have studied metal industry, he called me up and asked me to come over. I think I'm the only one from our band that has graduated from professional school.

- Also Siiri Nordin from Killer was there, as well as Tea (a finnish singer) who is studying to be a nurse. We were all sitting in a big hall, talking about our professions and Vallu was asking all kinds of interesting questions. The teenagers seemed to be interested when I told them stuff I know. I guess it was cool when a dude from a real rock band comes over and talks about this kinda stuff. There were also some people who have actually been working in the metal industy, you know, cause I only have the education. I've never been to a job like that.

There was a funny incident with the schedule. Vallu hadn't been very clear about things so Antti almost left a day too early.

- I was asking about what time does this thing end on Thursday, so I'd know when I'll be able to head home. That's when he told me I should also be there on Friday! I was all like "wooot??" cause I swear he hadn't said anything about that, Antti told me laughing.

Only a couple of weeks have passed by after Negative's visit to China. Naturally I wanted to hear something about the trip. Obviously it was an exiting experience.

- China.... What could I tell you about China..? We had two gigs; one in Peking and one in Shangai. I got a piece of the Great Wall of China. And food poisoning from chinese food. I think it was rat or some small rodent. Anyway, it was hairy and felt weird. We were at some photoshoot and the people over there asked us if we were hungry. And as it happened that we were, they brought us some local food. It was rice with these things that looked like spring rolls and when you took a bite, you had to pull bunches of hair and stuff outta your mouth. Well, in China, people eat dogs and all kinda small animals that are put through a meat mincer with coats and skins and everything. You know, like they make chicken nuggets in finland, they put almost the whole chicken in there. My food poisoning kicked in once I had already gotten back home, but for example, one of our crew members got sick earlier. So he had to sit at the toilet the whole eight- hour flight back to Finland. 

Snack and Slammer were also there, but they didn't touch these spring rolls.

- There were 2 of them on each plate. I ate one, because I just had to try it. I really tried to talk Snack into having some, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He doesn't have much stommach for these kinds of things... I think it tasted like beef, but the appearance wasn't all that appealing. In the whole, I didn't even eat all that much chinese food over there. But Peking Duck we did have and it was very good.

The gigs went really well. Anatomy told me that there were a lot of people and good vibes.

- The gigs were awesome. We were the first finnish rock band that ever set foot to China and it felt good. Well, Danny (a finnish, middle aged singer) has been there, but chinese people don't consider him "rock". I just had to tell them that Danny is a hundred times more "rock"  than many of those who consider themselves "rock".

- All that rock- stuff seems to be really hot in China. There haven't been all that many rock bands, I got the impression they kinda think it's "bad" in a way. Rolling Stones were finally there a couple of years ago, it was something they had tried to do for years before it actually happened. It was funny though, how you noticed that in China, people are not very familliar with band stuff, un- experienced, so everything didn't always go so smoothly. Things kept changing all the time. We were supposed to play three gigs over there, but just one day before the trip, we heard there's only going to be two. One venue suddenly changed just a day before the gig. And I heard there had been some fans waiting at the wrong place but since no one had told them that the gig has been moved else where, they thought it had been cancelled and went home. So there seemed to be lack of information and advertising.

- Also, our trip from Peking to Shanghai was exiting even before it took place. The people were unable to decide if we should take the train or fly. Right at first, we were supposed to go by plane but then it changed to taking a train. Then suddenly it was the plane again, and after that the train. When we were finally starting to make are way to the train, we found ourselves from an airplane after all. The crew almost lost their temper cause it was really difficult for them to plan anything when things kept changing. For the band, it's easy anyway. You just have to remember to move yourself and be on the stage on time.

- We have gotten pretty used to Japan, and for some reason, I kinda expected China to be similar. In Japan, everything is always so well planned and everything works somewhat perfectly, but this wasn't quite the case in China. Even the traffic was quite interesting when everyone was honking the horn constantly and the taxi drivers passed other cars through lawns and stuff.

As we "normal" people in Finland don't really know that much about China and chinese habits, I had to wonder if the boys had prepared themselves in any particular way.

- Noo, not really. It wasn't that strict, you know. The lyrics had to be sent over there in advance, because they wanted to check them for political stuff, I guess. The Rolling Stones weren't allowed to play "Satisfaction" back when they were there, but I think all our songs were okay.

And it's always interesting to know, if there were any incidents or difficulties worth mentioning? This was something Antti really had to think about.

- Ummm... There's always something... Oh, yeah, we lost Sir Christus the moment we got to Peking. We all came out of the plane and suddenly noticed there's no Sir in sight. We were looking for him, waiting for him and trying to call him for like two hours at the airport, but he was nowhere to be found. We sent him the address of the hotel by text message and so he had found his way to the hotel by himself then sometime during that night. When we tried asking him where in the hell had he been, the answer was something like: "I have no idea". Well, this is just the basic stuff, you know, we haven't been travelling all that much yet... Soo one can't really learn all that quickly, you know. (lol)

Everyone is very eager to know about the upcoming recordings of the new album.

The Negative DVD is something the fans have been waiting for a quite a long time. Antti says that's one thing he might be even more eager to get out than the new album.

- This DVD has been such a "Never Ending Project", that I seriously cannot wait to get it out. It's been very stressfull with all the stuff that's had to be done. All the pictures, menu music, texts and videomaterial, oh man. It's been a handful, so it would be absolutely awesome to finally publish it so we could start focusing on the new album.

- The amount of work this  kind of DVD requires, it's huge. I mean, cause it wasn't just "this one gig", it was so much more. When there's like a whole bunch of extra material and pics that aren't even in digital format because they're so old. And going through hours and hours of video material, searching for stuff that we want to use. There could be tapes with two hours of mindless goofying and in the middle, there might be like a couple of minutes that we needed. So we would go through all of them (there were like 60 tapes) and then mark out the number of the tape, the exact time when it happens and description about what happens. For example: "Tape 11, 1h 23min, Larry throws up and swings his nuts" or something. Even the cover of the DVD was difficult to put together. And you know, when it's limited how much you can put stuff on one DVD, we had to choose pictures even though we would have wanted to put all of them in there. It's really been a long and exhausting project but luckily it's almost done!

Once we had gone through all the important questions, it was time to let this bass player go. Though hungry and tired, still smiling. Antti Anatomy dressed his thick coat on, pulled the hood over his head and disappeared in to the dark and snowy night.

Till next time!

This is Viewers Choice of 25 Greatest Videos of all Time according to the viewers of Fuse.

25.Coldplay-"The Scientist"
24.Run DMC f/Aerosmith-"Walk This Way"
23.Maroon 5-"Wake Up Call"
22.Outkast-"Hey Ya!"
21.Soundgarden-"Black Hole Sun"
20.Pearl Jam-"Jeremy"
19.Weezer-"Buddy Holly"
18.Foo Fighters-"Big Me"
17.Nine Inch Nails-"Closer"
16.The Beastie Boys-"You Gotta Fight For Your Right (To Party)"
15.Eminem-"The Real Slim Shady"
14.The White Stripes-"Feel In Love With A Girl"
13.Red Hot Chili Peppers-"Give It Away"
12.The Ramones-"I Wanna Be Sedated"
11.KoRn-"Freak On A Leash"
10.OK Go-"Here It Goes Again"
09.Metallica-"Enter Sandman"
08.The Smashing Pumpkins-"Tonight,Tonight"
07.Queen-"Bohemian Rhapsody"
06.Guns N' Roses-"Welcome To The Jungle"
05.Green Day-"Basketcase"
04.Fall Out Boy-"A Little Less 16 Candles,A Little More Touch Me"
03.Nirvana-"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
02.Blink 182-"What's My Age Again?"
01.My Chemical Romance-"I'm Not Okay (I Promise)"

By Pat Reavy

Quick quiz: what act has collected the most ARIAs (the Australian equivalent of the Grammys)?

Silverchair's Chris Joannou, Daniel Johns and Ben Gilllies.

If you said INXS, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, Crowded House, Little River Band, Kylie Minogue or even Men at Work, you're wrong.

The correct answer is Silverchair.

Last month, Silverchair dominated the ARIA awards in Sydney with five wins, including album and single of the year. "We didn't expect anything like that," said bassist Chris Joannou. "It was one of those nights we'll never forget."

The five awards gave Silverchair a total of 19 for its career, one more than the all-time record previously held by ... drum roll, please ... John Farnham, best known for working with Little River Band.

Speaking to the Deseret Morning News by phone from Los Angeles on the eve of a short U.S. tour that will bring Silverchair to Salt Lake City for the first time in 10 years, Joannou was suffering a little jet lag after flying in from Australia. But he said he is excited to know that three of the band's first four shows are sold out. "The reaction to the songs so far has been overwhelming. It's such a long time to be out of the public eye, especially in America where everything moves so fast. Actually, we're seeing a lot of faces from fans we saw years ago."

Most Utahns probably remember Silverchair (Joannou, Daniel Johns and Ben Gillies) as long-haired kids who burst onto the music scene in 1995 with the album "Frogstomp" and the post-grunge radio hit "Tomorrow." All three band members were 15 or 16 years old at the time, and were billed by some as the next "big thing."

Critics, however, said the band had nothing original to offer and were simply riding on Seattle's coattails. Some even made comments about lead singer Daniel Johns' Kurt Cobain-like looks. "In the beginning I think we were all pretty naive to a lot of that kind of (pressure). We enjoy playing live and it was all fun. The pressure didn't catch up until a little bit later on." At that age, you think you're invincible. Once 'Frogstomp' was finished, that's when we started to notice more pressure. We were really fortunate to have good families and good management. We've had great people around us all the time."

Following "Frogstomp," the band released "Freak Show" with the hits "Abuse Me" and "Cemetery." That was followed by "Neon Ballroom" in 1999 and "Diorama" in 2002.

Despite the release of albums, Silverchair started to drop out of sight for American concertgoers. Johns announced he was battling anorexia, which he documented in the hit, "Ana's Song." Health problems continued to plague Johns in 2002 when he suffered what was called a severely debilitating case of reactive arthritis, a condition which kept Silverchair off the road.

Today, Johns, who is married to Natalie Imbruglia, is completely healed. "He's totally back to 100 percent healthy," Joannou said. "He just had to do a lot of treatment to get over (the arthritis). He's fitter now than what he was before."

After taking a five-year break, Silverchair returned in 2007 with the album "Young Modern" and the big single "Straight Lines," a pop song that leaves the grunge roots far behind.

Joannou said "Straight Lines" was just a natural progression from what the band had done on its previous records. But for those who only remember Silverchair as the long-haired screaming teen rockers, "Young Modern" may seem like a radical departure. "A lot of people missed a few pieces of the puzzle. It's kind of almost like this time around we're re-educating people to what the band's about and how much we've changed.

"This has always been a constant evolving thing. Listen to (all the albums) consecutively and it all starts to make sense."

After taking some time off, the band got back together to play before 55,000 people at Sydney's Waveaid benefit concert in 2005. The reaction to that show sparked talk of getting back together, something Joannou said they all knew they would do at some point. This time, however, the trio decided to fund for themselves what would eventually become "Young Modern." "The three of us wanted to step outside of Silverchair for awhile and not have the pressures that come with it ... go freshen up a bit. All three of us were just eager to make another Silverchair record after having that time away. No one was actually pushing us into making another record. It was our own decision."

The result was the best recording experience the band ever had, followed by renewed energy on the road. "The three of us are probably enjoying playing live and making music more so now than in a long time," Joannou said.

Most fans attending the show will, of course, still be recovering from big Thanksgiving dinners. Joannou said Australia doesn't have its own Thanksgiving, but since the holiday in America traditionally includes one of the best meals of the year, "I'll still jump on the bandwagon," he said with a laugh

He dispels some myths...

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl says that despite his problems with drugs and depression, Kurt Cobain was one of the funniest people he has ever met.

Grohl was speaking about the recording of Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged session, available on DVD on Monday, and said that Cobain was continuously cracking jokes off camera.

The former Nirvana drummer said: “I remember it seemed like he was having a good time because a lot of talk between songs was hilariously funny

“I don’t know how many people realise it but Kurt was one of the funniest people I have ever met.”

Bassist Krist Novoselic said of the magical night in November 1993: “The show has an aura of its own. Kurt’s death was a huge media event and that unplugged performance turned into this kind of requiem.”

He continued to The Sun: “Kurt was in compelling form. He had that energy for expression. There was something about him. You can hear it and you can see it (on the DVD).”

By BRUCE KIRKLAND

LEAVESDEN, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND -- The Harry Potter series will lighten up on the darkness and turn into a romantic comedy for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

That is the word on set at Leavesden Studios, where the Potter franchise has established its own world, and its permanent sets, for the decade-long production of all seven movies.

Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, and Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, are delighted about the comic touch on Half-Blood.

Daniel Radcliffe, as Harry Potter himself, is not as keen. Instead, he is eager to skip to the dark finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due in 2010.

"We've got a long haul ahead of us!" the charming yet eternally serious Radcliffe says when Sun Media wishes him luck on the current shoot. When I mention that "everyone's delighted" to have a tonal shift from the brooding atmosphere of The Order of the Phoenix, Radcliffe smiles and says:

"Everyone's 'not' delighted to be on this!" He is referring to himself.

"I think the script's great and I think it's going to be a really great film. But I'm just one of those people that, in what I'm doing, I always lean toward the dark side and I really enjoy doing the dark stuff.

"I know Emma and Rupert really, really like the lighter stories and all that. And Rupert particularly is really going to have a field day on this, because he's got fantastic comic timing and he'll be able to use all of that to great effect on this film with his relationship with Lavender Brown.

"(But) I'm actually going to miss doing all the morbid stuff, I think." So he is eager for film seven. "That's the one last hurrah, that film. That's going to be great. I really am very, very excited about the whole thing. It's going to be epic, I hope."

Watson likes Hermione going forward. "I think Hermione has a massive part to play in Harry's success. She teaches him that the only way of defeating Voldemort is through trusting his friends and having his friends (at his side). Cutting himself off from them makes him vulnerable because he has more to lose but less (vulnerable) because he has more to fight for and they can help him through it."

While Half-Blood does have dark passages it will emphasize the romantic entanglements.

"Every film has its own sort of atmosphere," says Grint. "This one, it's really, really cool. I'm looking forward to this one.

"It's got sort of a dark undertone to it because Voldemort is back and that is quite a scary time for them. But there are some really cool bits in it. Ron gets a girlfriend in it, so that's going to be quite cool."

Producer David Hayman says the humour in Half-Blood will be "slightly warmer" than seen in Potter before.

"It's much more comedy and the awkwardness of romance. And the romance goes beyond Harry into Hermione and Ron and other characters. I also think it's about characters growing apart as well as realizing the importance of one another."

As for the Half-Blood script, written before J.K. Rowling released the final book, only one change had to be made once Deathly Hallows went public. There was an awkward reference to Dumbledore's wand, Hayman says. "For obvious reasons (if you've read the seventh book) it had to be changed."

Actor Toby Jones, who provides his voice to the digitally created character of Dobby in the “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” film, is the subject of a new interview online from MTV. In this interview, Mr. Jones discusses his desire to again give his voice to the house elf in the seventh film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and of the massive effort that it takes to create the character seen on the screen. On this subject he says:

“I can only take a certain amount of credit for inhabiting Dobby, because clearly these brilliant people at Industrial Light and Magic have created Dobby and I just voiced the character. [But] am always amazed and flattered at how much that character has endured even though he hasn’t been in any films for a while. Every time a book comes out people phone me, and write to me from around the world saying ‘He’s in! He is in!’”

Mr. Jones goes on to comment on his hopes for a return for “Deathly Hallows” saying, in part, “It would be fun.” He continues on this subject, speaking directly about certain events which involve his character in the seventh Harry Potter novel in the rest of the interview, which you can read right here. A caution for those still wishing to avoid “Deathly Hallows” spoilers, this article does contain them.

Finnish "love metallers" HIM were the featured guests on the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline", hosted by Bob Coburn, on November 12, 2007. The program is now available for streaming at this location.

HIM frontman Ville Valo recently told Straight.com about his songwriting process, "It's very hard to sing about sunshine and ice cream and birds in fast cars . . . I'm a miserable bastard when it comes to writing music. I love melancholy music, and I love the darker aspects when it comes to, like, popular music. I've always been a big fan of [BLACK] SABBATH and all that, so obviously they've been a big influence on me, and I wanted to write music that would have a similar kind of gloomy atmosphere to it."

In 2003, HIM released an album called "Love Metal", which featured a gold "heartagram" — a cross between a heart and a pentagram — on the cover. The group has trademarked that yin-yang symbol, which Valo created the day after his 20th birthday, and has taken the "love metal" concept to heart.

"When we started out, a lot of people had a hard time deciding which category we belonged to, because we had the sort of SABBATH-y thing, but at the end of the day we're singing love songs," Ville said. "It wasn't goth and it wasn't rock and it wasn't metal–it was something in between. One of the first songs we ever played was 'Wicked Game' by CHRIS ISAAK, where we put all the really fuzzy, heavy guitars on it, so I guess love metal just sounded good. And you actually have to be a proper man to be able to say that you like love metal."

HIM's new album, "Venus Doom", has sold 77,000 copies in the United States since its September release, according to Nielsen SoundScan

There’s been ill feelings festering away between Naeem of Spank Rock and emo-king/actor Jared Leto for some time, and it all came to a head at the recent MTV Woodie Awards in Canada when the notoriously capricious Baltimore MC chucked a glass at the 30 Seconds To Mars frontman.

It could be said that Leto – who has been given the title “King of Douche” thanks to his self-absorbed parading and egocentric antics in 30 Seconds To Mars – is a pretty easy target, and since the incident blogs have been going ga-ga. None of them seem to be able to explain exactly why Naeem felt the need to hurl the glass at Leto in the first place. Some have said that it stemmed from El-P talking trash about Spank Rock’s new 2 Live Crew-inspired EP ‘Bangers & Cash’ backstage at the awards… but what exactly does that have with Jared Leto? Who knows!

Video of the incident has, unremarkably, made it onto the web, with the YouTube clip below documenting the whole skirmish.

Source: http://www.inthemix.com.au

The new video for “Bleed Well” from Venus Doom will have a worldwide premiere only in the HIM fanclub this Monday the 26th. If you’re already a member, you’ll be the first to see it!

heartagram.com
him.imeem.com
youtube.com/him
myspace.com/heartagram

by Tim Cashmere

Just a quick note to clear things up, My Chemical Romance will NOT be doing shows in Australia other than those scheduled for their December tour.

The rumour quashing comes after a recent advertisement in Sydney suggested the band would be playing elsewhere.

Don't stress though, the tour begins next week and tickets are still available for all shows. Check 'em out at:

NOVEMBER
28 – Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
30 – Entertainment Centre, Sydney

DECEMBER
1 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
3 – Entertainment Centre, Adelaide

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in the series

Scenes for the latest Harry Potter film are being shot at Surbiton train station this weekend.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, starring Daniel Radcliffe as boy wizard Harry, will be on location overnight from Friday to Sunday.

Café Chaud on platforms one and two at the station is reportedly being used in the movie.

Filming for the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, which has made author JK Rowling a multi-millionaire, has only recently begun.

Seargeant Christopher MacKellaich, of the British Transport Police, said: "We will have officers down at the station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night to assist with any public order issues associated with the filming.

"They are going to be filming overnight from late evening to the early morning and we will have six or seven officers down there each night."

Kingston Council said there would be no road closures in place during filming.

In a recent interview, 18-year-old Radcliffe said filming was going "really well".

"I've just been doing a bit of work with Jim Broadbent who plays Horace Slughorn, who's just fantastic," he told the BBC.

"And we've been doing a bit of stuff with me and Rupert (Grint, who plays Ron Weasley).

"We haven't done any scenes with all the kids yet in the Great Hall - that's all to look forward to just after Christmas."

A spokeswoman for South West Trains said services would be running as normal and that filming would take place when trains stopped for the night.

"Our priority is to operate a train service, not a Hollywood film set," she said.

Despite the formal press release earlier this week from Warner Bros stating that casting is now complete for the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” film, UK tabloid The Sun has a new article online tonight involving the sixth Harry Potter movie, and the daughter of pop superstar Madonna. With a headline blaring “She’s Lourdes Voldemort,” the paper reports that:

MADONNA’s daughter LOURDES – nicknamed Lola – has been asked to join Harry Potter and his pals battling Lord Voldemort in the next film in the blockbuster series. Warner Brothers approached the 11-year-old – whose dad is fitness trainer Carlos Leon – through Madge…An executive at Warners wanted to cast Lola in the last Potter film and has renewed his interest for the next movie. Lola would love to do it – she is a huge fan. Lourdes was only offered a small part, but it could be her big break.

FUSE BEST OF 2007
http://fuse.tv/web/bestof2007/votes.php

MTV SPAIN LIST OF THE BEST IN 2007
http://www.mtv.es/especiales/top07/index.html

Introduction

Instructions

Introduction

Instructions

Steps

1

Step One

Monitor your account closely. If you see a comment on a friend's page or a bulletin that was made from your account but you didn't post, then there's definitely something phishy going on...(sorry, just had to do it).

2

Step Two

Delete all comments and/or bulletins you didn't post to save your friends some headache. Then immediately change the password for your account. If you have the same password for your MySpace account as for the email you use to login, then change it for your email account as well because the hackers can access your email as well if that is the case.

3

Step Three

 Click to enlarge

Make sure the URL in the browser says myspace.com, compare the two in the picture

To avoid getting hacked you have to know how they do it. The most common way it's done is when you click on a link in a bulletin or comment and it takes you to a screen that looks exactly like the MySpace login page. The only thing is that it isn't the MySpace login page, and if you look closely you can tell.

4

Step Four

What happens is when you re-type your login info and click submit it gets sent to the hackers, who then store that info and use it to login to your account and spam your friends' pages.

 

Overall Tips & Warnings

• To be sure you never submit your login info to a hacker, always type in www.myspace.com in the browser whenever you get redirected to the login page, or what supposedly is the login page.

Source: Ehow.com

Introduction

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• MySpace account
• Computer

Introduction

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Time
• Communication

Steps

1

Step One

Maintain communication with your kids. Kids younger than seven shouldn't be on the internet unless you have filtered the internet and you are there with them.

2

Step Two

Children will want to have online accounts, but it is always safer to not let them have any at least until they are in high schoool. If they have online accounts try to have access to it so that you can know who's talking to them. It makes it a little harder for predators to contact them if they know they are not alone online.

3

Step Three

Know their friends. If you can't get access to their online accounts, set parental controls on your browser to their age. Also check your browser's history for sites that they visited and ask questions on sites you don't know about or even sites you do know about and want to know what they were doing.

4

Step Four

Set limits as to how much time and what sites they can visit and always remind them to never give personal information over the internet no matter what age they are.

5

Step Five

 Click to enlarge

Trust your children. You can monitor there activities, while allowing them to have some freedom a tenth grader might be more reluctant to tell you what they are doing, but if you show that you trust them, they will open up to you.

 

 

The parents of a 13-year-old Missouri girl who hanged herself after a failed MySpace romance — later uncovered as a hoax — say they have yet to receive an apology from the family they blame for their daughter’s death.

“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”

Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.

“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”

The Meiers’ daughter, Megan, hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006.

The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.

After the two girls had a falling out, the mother invented a 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” created a MySpace account for him, and made Megan believe he was new in town and thought she was cool.

‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand’
Megan, a girl who had battled attention deficit disorder, depression and a weight problem for much of her young life, believed him, despite her mother’s warnings to be cautious.

“That was always the talk,” Tina Meier told Lauer, repeating the conversations she had with her daughter: “‘Megan, c’mon, we don’t even know this person. Let’s not get too excited.’ She’d say, ‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand.’ So I did talk to her daily about that. But children at this age, they don’t think that.”

And then the boy turned on Megan, leading a campaign of vilification and online name-calling that ended when Megan took her own life.

For a year, the Meiers kept quiet at the request of both the FBI and local law enforcement officials while they investigated the incident.

Ultimately, investigators told the Meiers that while the hoax was cruel, it was not criminal.

‘Continue to monitor your children’
The case remains open, though, and the Meiers continue to hope that criminal charges can be filed under a federal law passed in January 2006 that prohibits online harassment.

“We are still continuing on with the fight on the criminal and the civil side,” said Ron Meier.

The family’s story is, Tina Meier told Lauer, a cautionary tale about the trouble that lies in wait for kids on the Internet, a tale made more painful because they had monitored their daughter’s Internet use closely and had talked to her about “Josh” and the events that ended so tragically.

“It was monitored highly,” Tina Meier said of her daughter’s MySpace account. “We had the password. She couldn’t sign on without us. We had to be in the room” when she was online.

They have not filed a civil suit against the people who invented Josh, but are not ruling that out. 

And they also want to warn other parents and children to beware of people online who claim to be their friends.

“Continue to monitor your children,” Tina Meier told Lauer. “Take an extra step. Ask the question. Look at their computers, know what they’re doing. To kids, don’t trust anybody online that you do not know is your true friend.”

Tina Meier has said that she doesn’t think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.

‘Absolutely vile’
”But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile,” she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.

Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff’s officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.

Megan Meier was described as a “bubbly, goofy” girl who loved spending time with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.

Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.

Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O’Fallon. He said he was home-schooled, and didn’t yet have a phone number in the area to give her.

Megan’s parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn’t want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn’t nice to her friends.

Megan seemed upset
The next day, as Megan’s mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

Someone using Josh’s account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”

Megan’s mother, who monitored her daughter’s online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.

Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.

Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.

Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter, who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan’s parents about the hoax in a counselor’s office about six weeks after Megan died. That’s when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.

Creator of fake account not charged
The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department she created Josh’s profile because she wanted to gain Megan’s confidence to learn what Megan was saying about her own child online.

The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.

A person who answered the door at the family’s house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.

Megan’s parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan’s death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors’ driveway and encouraging them to move away.

Megan’s parents are now separated and plan to divorce.

Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.

“Is this enough?” Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. “No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s something, and you have to start somewhere.”

MySpace hoax leads to teen’s suicide Nov. 19: Teenage Megan Meier killed herself after being the victim of a cruel Internet hoax. NBC’s George Lewis reports.   Parents of MySpace hoax victim speak out Matt Lauer talks to Ron and Tina Meier, parents of a teen who took her own life last year after being harassed online.

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1. Heart-Shaped Box

Artist: Nirvana

Director: Anton Corbijn

Click on image for more info.

Silverchair's fifth studio album is "Young Modern."

It's OK if you've forgotten Silverchair. A lot of people have, since 1995.
    The Australian rock band will perform at In the Venue Friday on its second tour of the United States this year, after not visiting stateside since 1999.
    Daniel Johns, the 28-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist of Silverchair, called from Australia just before flying across the Pacific. The first time the band played the U.S. earlier this year, it was so that people "could re-evaluate their perceptions of what Silverchair is."
    This time, he admitted with a laugh, the band comes "exploiting the popularity of 'Straight Lines.' "
    "Straight Lines," the first single from Silverchair's fifth studio album, "Young Modern," has resonated with radio listeners and reached No. 12 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks. It recently broke into VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown, climbing into the top five.
    If you've seen the video of a shorn Johns, he doesn't look anything like you remember . . . if you do remember.
    The last time Silverchair was popular was 1995, when band members looked every bit like the teenagers they were.
    "[Audiences] have a recollection of three teenage grunge kids," Johns said. "They still remember us as 14-year-old kids."
    Back in 1995, when the death of Kurt Cobain was still recent and Pearl Jam andAlice in Chains were ruling  The  world, the three teens recorded a demo of a song called "Tomorrow" and submitted it to an Australian radio and television-station contest.
    Next thing they knew, they were winners and "Tomorrow" became a No. 1 hit in their native land. The song jumped to America and became the most-played rock song of 1995 in the U.S.
    Their stab at grunge contained the memorable but now slightly embarrassing lyrics "There's no bathroom, and there is no sink. The water out of the tap is very hard to drink! Very hard to drink! You, wait 'til tomorrow."
    Once the song faded from the charts, the band continued making albums that turned it into one of the biggest acts in Australian history. The American public wasn't as enamored, and most thought Silverchair was a soon-to-be-forgotten relic from the grunge age. The biggest news that came out of Australia about the band was that Johns had married pop starlet Natalie Imbruglia.
    Meanwhile, the band kept putting out albums that showed an artistic progression from the three-chords grunge approach and that it was no longer just rocking, especially on albums "Diorama" and now "Young Modern." Keyboards and piano entered the picture, as well as orchestration that recalled "Pet Sounds" and even "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
    "We're really proud of what we've done the last two albums," Johns said. With the benefit of hindsight, he said the five albums have followed an arc: naiveté, anger, depression, escapism and finally acceptance.
    For a 28-year-old who has already battled anorexia, clinical depression and arthritis since "Tomorrow," Johns said he's come to a happy place in life. He said he's already written 80 songs for the next album, and promised a "reinvention that will shock people." 
 
    
   Pull up a chair
    * SILVERCHAIR PLAYS In the Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, on Friday at 6 p.m.
    * TICKETS ARE $20 at all SmithsTix outlets.

A few weeks ago we first reported the denials from J.K. Rowling's camp that she was writing an eight Harry Potter book called Elder's Crossing featuring a young James Potter. Now comes news that the author of this book, which will be available via the internet starting in December, may face legal action from Rowling.

Author, George Lippert, wrote the book for his wife and sons, who love the series, and believes that fans of his book may be angry when they find out the book's not written by Rowling.

Mr. Lippert said:

2 bands, 34 shows, 26 towns, 24,467 kilometres, 20 arenas, 13 big top shows, 1 amphitheatre, 65 crew, 1,155 security, 5 stadium trucks, 9 outdoor trucks, 1,050 portaloos and most importantly over 220,000 screaming fans … this was the Across The Great Divide tour!

After embarking on the biggest concert tour this country has seen in a decade - across, around and ALL over Australia from Darwin to Ballarat to Toowoomba to Tasmania - the tour’s final show is coming to your loungeroom this Christmas with the release of a deluxe triple DVD.

This special three disc release is strictly a limited edition and will not be manufactured again after the 2007 holiday season. Fans can pre-order the DVD from www.acrossthegreatdivide.com.au/shop to receive a FREE Silverchair or Powderfinger T Shirt (stocks are strictly limited).

The first two discs of the Across the Great Divide Tour DVD feature full length live sets from both bands, including the duet ‘Substitute’, recorded at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on 18 and 19 September, 2007. Both discs have been mixed in the U.S. in 5.1 surround sound by the people who have each mixed studio albums for these bands.

The team behind the filming, PVC LIVE, have created concert specials for the likes of U2, Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their coverage of the Melbourne show featured an extraordinary 24 cameras so these concert DVD’s are on a whole new scale for Australian bands … just like the tour itself!

The third disc of this limited edition set is a candid 90 minute documentary film featuring all the hilarious action behind the scenes as this special tour makes its way Across the Great Divide.

Your Access All Areas pass is a 3 disc limited edition package which also includes a colour booklet featuring candid backstage shots. This is a must for every music fan and anyone that wants to relive this extraordinary tour.

Please visit and share!

http://www.myspace.com/letophrenicsanonymous 

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