One of the most dangerous things to do as a multi-nationally successful artist is to try and find someone to be happy with, a lesson Shakira is learning right now thanks to the $100 million-dollar lawsuit her ex-boyfriend is bringing against her. Antonio, you’ve changed.

Rolling Stone writes:

The suit was filed on November 2oth in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, about a month after Shakira filed a writ of summons against de la Rúa seeking damages for misappropriation of funds. In the suit, de la Rúa claims that he had a standing arrangement with Shakira to act as her business manager, although there was reportedly no written agreement for the position.

What you have here is a collaborative mixtape between the recently departed Terry Callier and Massive Attack, recorded around 2005. As Massive Attack’s 3D explained to NME (via Consequence of Sound):

“Me and Euan reloaded the Terry Callier tapes from 2005. It felt right to honour the short time we had with him Bristol.

“We created a ‘mix tape’ of the pieces I worked on with Neil and Terry.I also took the liberty of stripping them back to a more personal space and cut in alternative vocals and chuckles, in an attempt to share a little of the spirit of the great man,” he added.

Related:

• R.I.P. Terry Callier, Soul Legend…

• On 25 Years of Acid Jazz Records, Terry Callier, and Jamiroquai…

The Village Voice tracks down Mr. Balls, who provides the tech what underlies Lower Dens’ soporific bong-gaze. [Claps dust off hands]

Dr. Balls is Tony Hall, a NASA engineer and cheap-beer connoisseur whom Adams has known forever; his problem-solving skills and general handy nature are perfectly at home amid the circuit boards, casings, wires, pliers, resistors, old Soviet transistors, various tools, signal generators, and soldering irons that dot the workshop he keeps in his downtown Brooklyn apartment. He has built 35 pedals and two amps for Lower Dens to date.

In case you haven’t heard, the FCC is considering relaxing media ownership rules, changes which would allow a single company to own TV and radio and/or TV and newspapers in the same market. As USA Today reports:

The Federal Communications Commission is looking at changing long-established regulations on media consolidation. Approval of such newspaper-radio and TV-radio cross-ownership is being considered, as are changes in the rules prohibiting the ownership of TV stations and newspapers in the same market, a rule adopted in 1975.

As a sort of salve and counterpoint to the discussion around the rule change, the FCC has announced that it is pursuing low-power, non-commercial FM radio. The FCC‘s thinking is, essentially, that the move would serve to bolster diversity in media and media ownership if the new proposed ownership rules are approved and a lot of old white guys end up owning an even bigger slice of your city’s cultural pie. Adweek explains:

While the two FCC actions may seem unrelated, they are connected by a long-standing debate in Washington about whether there is adequate ownership diversity among the nation’s airwaves. Recent data from the FCC shows it is lacking, with people of color owning just 3.6 percent of full-power TV stations and 8 percent of radio stations.

On the one hand, lower-power radio promises to increase diversity on the airwaves by allowing communities and organizations to operate hundreds of low-power, noncommercial radio stations. But the media ownership order being circulated, critics argue, would have the opposite effect by lifting the cross-ownership ban on owning radio and newspapers in all markets and TV and newspaper in the top 20 markets.

While it’s a nice thought, it’s naïve to think that the media consumption (and so the daily, worldly operational knowledge) of mainstream listeners and watchers would be in any way affected by a few low-power FM radio stations. Good try though!