"Five singers, one drummer. No guitars, no bass, no keyboards but nevertheless an unbelievable melodic metal experience."
That's how the official website of van Canto describes the band. Hailing from Germany, van Canto are what is called an a capella metal band, the pioneers of this new genre.
The band released their debut, A Storm to Come, in December 2006. Exactly a year later, van Canto anounced a global signing to Gun Records/Sony BMG, and their debut was released worldwide on December 14.
Van Canto are now experiencing considerable success. They recently provided support for Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish, as well as receiving a slot at the internationally famous Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. The prestigious event sees them sharing the bill with acts such as Hatebreed, Sonata Arctica, As I Lay Dying, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Lordi and headline act Iron Maiden.
Van Canto's second album will be recorded accross this month and next, with famed producer Charlie Bauerfeind, although no release date has yet been confirmed.
In light of recent events, van Canto member and founder Stefan Schmidt has given the band's first interview in English, all previous interviews being in German or Italian.
>> Click here to read the interview
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Van Canto's Stefan Schmidt on a capella metal, Wacken, Nightwish, piracy & more
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wikinews exclusive interview: Drupal founder Dries Buytaert
In the year 2000, Dries Buytaert created Drupal, a freely licensed and open source tool to manage websites, as a bulletin board for his college dorm. Since Dries released the software and a community of thousands of volunteer developers have added and improved modules, Drupal has grown immensely popular. Drupal won the overall Open CMS Award in 2007, and some speakers in Drupal's spacious developer's room at FOSDEM 2008 were dreaming aloud of its world domination.
Buytaert (now 29) just finished his doctoral thesis and has founded the start-up Acquia. The new company wants to become Drupal's best friend, with the help of an all-star team and US$7 million collected from venture capitalists. Wikinews reporter Michaël Laurent sat down with Dries in Brussels to discuss these recent exciting developments.
>> Click here to read the interview
>> Open software developers meet at FOSDEM 2008
Open software developers meet at FOSDEM 2008
During the two-day-long conference, presentations touched on programming languages, build systems, gaming (such as Battle for Wesnoth, Crystal Space, Globulation 2), packaging, virtualisation and web applications. The conference also has rooms were developers who usually work together via the internet can meet in real life and share thoughts on their projects; CentOS, Fedora, CrossDesktop, Drupal, GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, OpenSUSE and X.org had the biggest rooms this year. The corridors were filled with stands from organisations such as the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Free Knowledge Foundation, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenOffice.org, etc.
Since FOSDEM brings many European open software developers to Brussels, it also provides an important networking opportunity. FOSDEM kicks off Belgium-style on Friday with a beer event, but during the entire weekend several groups hold parties all over town. Wikinews reporters attended a barbecue hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Friday, were it interviewed EFF and Open Rights Group representatives on the upcoming E.U. proposal to extend copyright for performers to 95 years. Wikinews also interviewed Drupal founder and Acquia CTO Dries Buytaert about Drupal and how Acquia will relate to its developer community.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Wikinews interviews Jeff Jacobsen, creator of LisaMcPherson.org
>>Read the interview here
On Sunday, Wikinews interviewed creator of memorial site LisaMcPherson.org, former Lisa McPherson Trust employee and long time Scientology critic Jeff Jacobsen.
LisaMcPherson.org is a memorial site created in 1997 containing information on her death and the resulting legal case against the Church of Scientology.
Lisa McPherson died in 1995 while in the care of the Church of Scientology. After a car accident, she became mentally unstable. Scientologists removed her from the hospital and placed her in the Introspection Rundown, she died 17 days later while still in care of the Church. She was used as an icon during Project Chanology, the protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. Protesters were pictured with signs that said "Remember Lisa McPherson" and "Ask Scientology Why Lisa McPherson Died", other protesters had posters with her picture on it.
>>Read the interview here
Monday, February 18, 2008
Part of facade crumbles at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Buffalo, New York
>>Full Story.
Part of the facade at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum located at 220 North Street in Buffalo has crumbled causing bricks to fall into Elmwood Avenue.
At approximately 11:20 p.m. (eastern time) on Sunday night February 17, a call was placed into 911 stating that bricks from a wall, a nearly 40 foot section of the upper facade, were laying in the middle of Elmwood after falling off the building. The fire department had to shut down Elmwood from North Street to Allen at 11:30 p.m. until further notice due to the debris and risk to public safety.
No one was injured in the incident, but at least one parked car was damaged by falling bricks.
According to police, this is not the first time bricks have fallen off the building. Several people over the past year were reported to have been nearly hit by single bricks that have fallen off the building. No one has yet been injured.
Though no weather warnings have been issued for the City, winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour have been reported through the night. It is not known if the wind played a factor in the damage to the building.
City engineers were on scene discussing how to handle the situation and clean up what has already fallen.
The museum is the world's largest collection of documents which are owned privately. The Buffalo building was original a Church of Christ built in 1911.>>Full Story.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'
>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.
Television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker chatted online with Wikinews for nearly three hours. More than 120 people followed the interview live (many from Project Chanology), which makes this exclusive Wikinews interview is our most attended IRC interview to date.
Bunker started XenuTV in 1999 and began to make videos that he provided for the Lisa McPherson Trust. Bunker has been a critic of the Church of Scientology since 1997.
In 2006, he won a regional Emmy Award after he and KUSI-TV news reporter Lena Lewis produced a documentary news video on the issues with the United States - Mexico border with San Diego, California.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
'Top Model' winner Jaslene Gonzalez on her career and being a Latina role model
In her inaugural interview, Wikinews' Sandra Ordonez talks with America's Next Top Model's first Puerto Rican winner, Jaslene Gonzalez, about her childhood, what makes her a strong individual, and what television show her abuela would want her to go on. This is also the first time one of our interviews can also be read in Spanish at Wikinoticias.
» Full story
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
David Shankbone interviews Billy West
Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Pop Eye. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern's voice guru in the 1990's, you have heard him. West's talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons.
What is the fulcrum in Mr. West's life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father ("I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up."), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use ("There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.").
| I’m telling you stuff that I never said to anybody... | ||
If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West's own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband's abuse of young West. "I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it."
GO HERE TO READ DAVID SHANKBONE'S INTERVIEW WITH BILLY WEST.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wikinews interviews Jeff Jacobson, creator of LisaMcPherson.org
>>Click This Link To Post Your Questions
Wikinews is interviewing Jeff Jacobson, the creator of memorial and anti-Scientology website LisaMcPherson.org.
Problem is, we want you to add the questions so we can get the answers.
>>Click This Link To Post Your Questions
Final call for questions: Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'
>>Click here to add questions
Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.
The deadline to ask questions is Friday February 15, 2008. The plan will be to conduct the interview on IRC in the channel #wikinews-interviews, on the freenode network (irc.freenode.net) with prepared questions. If there are not a lot of questions prepared, then the floor will be open to questioning by anyone attending the interview.
Please read the questions to make sure you don't ask the same one as someone else.The date of the interview is scheduled to take place on Saturday February 16, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time) or 1:00 p.m. (pacific time), or 21:00 UTC on the irc.freenode.net server in the channel #wikinews-interviews.
Directions on how to enter IRC channel: Click here. Type in your desired user-name. Select General Wikinews Discussion. Once in the channel, type: /j #wikinews-interviews (or /join #wikinews-interviews). Or you can download your own IRC client such as mIRC or ICEchat. If you have FireFox, then Chatzilla is easy. Join #wikinews for assistance on connecting by clicking on the above link selecting General Wikinews Discussion.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wikinews international report: "Anonymous" holds anti-Scientology protests worldwide
Here is what is most likely to be the most extensive international report on the 2008 Anonymous protests against Scientology. Wikinews was in nearly 15 different countries and over 50 cities throughout the globe to bring you the most extensive, in-depth and opinion free reporting anywhere on the net. We hope you enjoy this article, the reports, video and photos, as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you. Thanks everyone for your hard work and contributions. They are greatly appreciated.
The Internet group Anonymous today held protests critical of the Church of Scientology. The protests marked what would have been the 49th birthday of Lisa McPherson, who is claimed to be a victim of the Church of Scientology's practices. Lisa died in 1995 during a running of what Scientologists refer to as an Introspection Rundown, a procedure intended to help Church members deal with a psychotic or deeply traumatic event.
Protests were planned throughout the day in 14 countries and over 50 different cities. The estimation of total protesters world wide for Feb. 10, 2008 is 9,250 people.
Wikinews had correspondents at a number of protest locations to report on the events. This article was updated throughout the day with reports from around the globe.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Date and time of Wikinews interview with Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'
Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.
Problem is, we don't have enough questions and we want you to ask them.
Ask questions by clicking hereThe deadline to ask questions is Friday February 15, 2008. The plan will be to conduct the interview on IRC in the channel #wikinews-interviews, on the freenode network (irc.freenode.net) with prepared questions. If there are not a lot of questions prepared, then the floor will be open to questioning by anyone attending the interview.
The date of the interview is scheduled to take place on Saturday February 16, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time) or 1:00 p.m. (pacific time), or 21:00 UTC on the irc.freenode.net server in the channel #wikinews-interviews.
Directions on how to enter IRC channel: Click here. Type in your desired user-name. Type in the channel name: #wikinews-interviews. Or you can download your own IRC client such as mIRC or ICEchat. If you have FireFox, then Chatzilla is easy. Join #wikinews for assistance on connecting by clicking on the above link, typing in the channel #wikinews
Thursday, February 7, 2008
'Top Model' winner CariDee English on her modeling career and her battle with psoriasis
Since winning the reality television series America's Next Top Model in December 2006, CariDee English, a small-town girl from Fargo, North Dakota, was plucked from relative obscurity to be the new look for CoverGirl Cosmetics, the newest fresh face on the cover of Seventeen, and affiliation with the largest modeling agency in the world, Elite Model Management.
However, she feels her greatest accomplishment is being the spokeswoman for the National Psoriasis Foundation, in which she is a motivational speaker and gives encouragement to psoriasis sufferers. CariDee has even lobbied in Congress for the passage of a bill which would ask the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Institute of Medicine to increase spending on finding a cure for psoriasis. You can read more about her role with the National Psoriasis Foundation here.
Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman sat down and talked with CariDee earlier in the week to discuss her own issues with psoriasis, how she has helped other sufferers in her role as spokeswoman for the Foundation, as well as what it's like to be a new model in New York City and her thoughts on how the fashion industry runs today.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
David S. Touretzky discusses Scientology, Anonymous and Tom Cruise
>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.
In an interview with Wikinews reporter Nicholas Turnbull, prominent free speech activist and critic of Scientology David S. Touretzky gave his opinion on the recent backlash against the Church of Scientology that has erupted on the Internet, recently spurred on in declarations by a nebulous Internet entity using the name Anonymous that the organization will be destroyed. Anonymous has directed recent protests at Scientology centres across the world, which have attracted significant numbers of individuals supporting the cause.
Touretzky, a research professor in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University, has been a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology since mid-1995, and has been protesting against Scientology vociferously since then; he has also run websites that publish material that Scientology wishes to keep suppressed from the public eye, such as extracts from Scientology's formerly-confidential Operating Thetan (OT) materials. Touretzky views the actions of the Church of Scientology as being "a threat to free speech", and has endured harassment by the Church of Scientology for his activities.
>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
You ask the questions: Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'
Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.
Problem is, we don't have any questions and we want you to ask them.
At the moment there is no deadline to ask questions. The hopeful plan is to conduct the interview on IRC. Hopefully this can be Wikinews' first Interview Of The Month, in well a very long time. More details on how and when the interview will take place will be released as details are known.
Click here to add your questions.Sunday, February 3, 2008
Church of Scientology: '"Anonymous' will be stopped"
>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.
Claiming that "actions are being taken", a Church of Scientology representative has responded exclusively to Wikinews regarding the recent attacks on their web sites from the nebulous "Anonymous" group. In an effort to get the Church's side of the story, Wikinews freelance journalist Brian McNeil located a contact address, knowledge@lrh.org. A "Laetitia" responded, ignoring a detailed list of questions that would have given information on the damage inflicted on the Church and action taken. Instead non-specific comments about how the Church is handling the issue were given. She first started by asking if Wikinews was "part of Anonymous or are you pro-Scientology?"
"Activities of Anonymous have been reported to the Authorities and actions are being taken. Their activities are illegal and we do not approve of them. At the same time, our main work is to improve the environment, make people more able and spiritually aware. ... yes, we are taking action," said Laetitia.
Wikinews sent the e-mails from the Church to several experts on Scientology for an expert opinion on what they might have been trying to say. Although there was minimal response, Wikinews heard from the creator of Operation Clambake, which is a project formed in 1996 as a direct result of seeing the Church succeeding in removing criticism from the Internet. Wikinews also heard from another expert on Scientology and former Church member, who wishes to remain anonymous.
>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.
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