Bryan Adams relishes the unconventional. Not because the veteran pop-rocker has all of a sudden taken up hardcore metal or hip-hop. In fact, his most recent CD, 11, is classic Bryan Adams. He had a hand in writing every song. But the Canadian musician best known for his string of ’80s and ’90s hits such as “Run to You,” “Heaven,” “Summer of ‘69,” “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” and “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” rolls with his own rhythm when it comes to recording, touring and even publicity photos. Take 11, for instance. The CD is quintessential Adams, full of crunchy rock tunes brimming with pop hooks. It was recorded on the road, as was 2004’s Room Service. “Sitting in hotel rooms all day long is a bit dull,” Adams says by phone from a tour stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. “I can’t stand it. I love making music. I love singing. I love being in front of an audience. But that’s two hours. Then there’s the other 22 hours. That’s why I started to record on tour.” Touring for Adams isn’t your usual months-long trek aimed at promoting a new release. Again the 49-year-old breaks from tradition. “I just go out for a week every month,” he says. “I’ve been doing that for 10 years. It works for me.” He’s currently performing solo acoustic shows in U.S. theaters. Adams will be at the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday night. When asked about his concert repertoire, since it’s just him unplugged, Adams is matter-of-fact. He’ll play “a few songs from the new album, more obscure songs from my past, and a mix of other things,” he says. “It’s still a rocking show. I’m doing all kinds of different songs. Some rock, some don’t.” Yet even more so than the material, Adams is excited about the venues. “I have enjoyed this tour so much. I’m getting to see America on a whole different level.” As if recording and touring isn’t enough, Adams is an accomplished photographer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Interview magazines, to name a few. He’s published three photo books, and has shot musical peers such as Mick Jagger, Céline Dion, Pink, Herb Alpert, Lenny Kravitz, Annie Lennox and Amy Winehouse. Oh, he has one other subject – himself. Adams takes his own publicity pictures. “I did Annie Lennox’s new album cover,” he says. “While I was setting up, I was shooting myself to see what the pictures looked like. And I use those photos as publicity shots. If I can make myself look good, I can make anybody look good.”

It’s always interesting on the day after a grueling, never-ending awards season to see so many bloggers jumping right back into the fray with lists of contenders for next year’s Oscar race. Gimme a break, or at least a weekend, before we have to get back into it. Anyway, who knows what’s really gonna happen next year when the most celebrated movie of this year didn’t even have a distributor putting it in the game until an announcement on Aug. 28!!! That was when it was revealed that Fox Searchlight would release “Slumdog Millionaire” in North America. A few days later, it played for the first time in Telluride, and it was off to the races. What turned out to be another best picture nominee, “The Reader” (which was still shooting as late as August), didn’t even announce it was going to compete in this year’s race until Sept. 29 (and then to great controversy)! But back to “Slumdog’s” Telluride debut. I was at that screening. You could feel the excitement and the sense of discovery. Until then, the movie was almost surely going straight to DVD, in the U.S. at least. Warner Bros., which produced it, no longer had an indie division to release it and didn’t want to be bothered. As I have written here, I first heard the name “Slumdog Millionaire” at an L.A. Film Festival party in June in a casual conversation with Bob Berney, the indie-savvy president of the soon-to-be-defunct Picturehouse (another division shut down by Warners). He told me he had seen this remarkable film and wanted to help on the release, although even Bob didn’t really see its awards potential at that point. File it under: You just never know. Instead of handing it to Berney, though, Warners gave it to Searchlight (retaining a 50% financial interest) and Fox execs have been gloating ever since. The combination of a great but different kind of movie and an inventive, smart distributor made the difference between blockbuster movie or Blockbuster rental. As Fox co-chair Jim Gianopulos told me at Sunday night’s “Slumdog” celebration, “You gotta love Hollywood.” That initial “Slumdog” Telluride screening and final Oscar victory party were just two of a number of highlights for me this season. There were many more: — Seeing Woody Allen’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona” at its first press screening last May in Cannes was thrilling, not only because it was a masterful comic comeback for Woody but also because I was able to witness and immediately note an Oscar-winning performance by Penelope Cruz. Being blown away by the first finished print of Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” back on April 17 at Leonard Maltin’s USC class. The session was accompanied by an hourlong Q&A with Howard for 500 students, who seemed to love the movie despite its being about events that happened before they were even born. Another highlight happened in the heat of last season on Dec. 5, 2007, when director Christopher Nolan hosted an Imax press preview of the first six minutes of “The Dark Knight,” and we all got a taste of the extraordinary originality of Heath Ledger’s Joker. Moderating those Q&A and tribute sessions with the likes of Mickey Rourke, David Fincher, Meryl Streep, Leo and Kate, Christopher Nolan, Angelina Jolie and so many others was another great highlight for me. And, as always, watching the awards season progress and the fortunes of movies rise and fall is fascinating stuff. Looking back now, maybe it was a sign that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the movie I thought certainly could — and deserved to — go all the way to best picture, had to shut down 20 minutes into a disastrous first press and industry screening at the DGA due to digital projection problems. The “Button” team recovered nicely with a good-natured reception in the lobby and successful screenings later in the week, but the jinx was on. It did get three well-deserved Oscars (makeup, visual effects, art direction), but being runner-up to a little-known British picture shot partially in the Hindi language was not part of the master plan. You can’t always predict how these things are gonna go. So again, how can we possibly predict with any sense of confidence where next year will take us? I guess Oscar junkies must have their fun. But with the industry and independent film distribution in the doldrums, it’s entirely possible that there’s another “Slumdog” out there just waiting to be discovered and released in time for next year’s awards season. I can remember no other time when there were so many good, independently made films that can’t seem to get arrested. Lasse Halstrom’s remarkably beautiful and touching new film, “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story,” with Richard Gere and Joan Allen, is still looking to lock in domestic distribution in an industry wary of taking on anything that doesn’t have a marketing hook. “Strength and Honour,” from debuting writer-director Mark Mahon, is a kind of Irish “Rocky” with a wonderful lead performance by Michael Madsen and a great track record at the film festivals where it has appeared, but it still can’t find someone willing to take a chance on it. Although hard-nosed critics aren’t likely to go for the film’s sentiment, I had the opportunity to show it to my UCLA Sneak Preview class a few weeks ago, and the response was astounding. This same group had seen “Slumdog Millionaire” in the fall session and they seemed equally pleased by this feel-good crowd-pleaser. Unless someone can see the potential for such films as “Hachiko” and the “Strength and Honour” and so many other mid-range movies with the potential to touch an audience the way “Slumdog” has, these films will just wind up in the same bargain DVD bins where “Slumdog” was headed until the movie gods intervened. With hope, next season will provide its share of Cinderella stories and fun stuff to write about. This awards cycle, which I have been chronicling in “Notes on a Season” since Cannes last May, has certainly not disappointed. It was fitting that it all ended Sunday night with an Oscar ceremony that was one for the ages — a beautifully produced show by Bill Condon and Laurence Mark that captured everything we still love about movies and the Academy Awards. Those bloggers, columnists and critics out there who were panning it before it was even over have had to run back into their holes and take cover from the vociferous reaction, in and out of the industry, to their ill-conceived attack. “I don’t get the criticism,” one longtime academy member told me Monday. “This was an amazing show. You could just feel it in waves as it went along. Those guys [Condon and Mark], they are really good.” I’m told the academy itself was fielding numerous calls complaining about the complainers — but, hey, everyone is entitled to an opinion even if it was formed before the show made it to the air. You can’t please everyone, but with this production the Academy got back on track — and the 13% increase in ratings was the cherry on top. Here’s hoping this team returns next year. Clearly, the public still has a jones on for the Oscars when they are produced with smarts and style. As for “Notes,” this is it for awhile, at least until we have a whole new batch of real, not imagined, contenders to riff on. Until then, as Queen Latifah so poignantly crooned Sunday night, “I’ll be seeing you.”

Eminem returned to the spotlight Sunday, spitting the lyrics of his name-dropping singles “We Made You” and “Crack A Bottle” from his hit album Relapse at the MTV Movie Awards. But not long after his performance, he stormed away from his seat in the auditorium when Sacha Baron Cohen, dressed as his flamboyant character Brüno in angel wings and a barely-visible thong, descended on wires and landed face down in the rapper’s lap. Bodyguards pounced and Eminem’s entourage made its exit in what was the most outrageous moment of a night of filled with irreverence. Other examples: host Andy Samberg spoofing box office hits like Slumdog Millionaire (which was nominated six times but came up empty handed) and Star Trek, Amy Poehler accepting the Golden Popcorn trophy for the best “WTF moment” and Forest Whitaker singing an operatic rendition of Samberg’s Emmy Award winning song “D- in a Box.” But the night belonged to the film sensation Twilight, which picked up five awards, including the top prize for best movie. After Shia LaBeouf handed out the best fight award to its stars Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet for their tussle in the vampire movie, Pattinson also picked up the award for the best breakthrough performance by a male. Later, he and costar Kristen Stewart teased the crowd by nearly reenacting the kiss between their characters Edward Cullen and Bella Swan while accepting the award for best buss. Stewart also won the prize for best female performance. “I was just about as awkward as you thought I was going to be,” the flustered star said at the podium. Other winners included High School Musical 3: Senior Year’s Ashley Tisdale, who won in the female breakthrough performance category while her costar Zac Efron (see photo) won for best male performance. Jim Carey won for best comedic performance for his role in Yes Man and Heath Ledger was posthumously honored for his legendary performance in The Dark Knight. The best song from a movie went to Miley Cyrus for “The Climb,” which was featured in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Efron, Kiefer Sutherland and Triumph the Insult Dog presented former MTV Movie Awards host Ben Stiller with the MTV Generation Award, honoring the actor for a career of “selling out box offices without selling out.”

The Twang release their new album ‘Jewellery Quarter’ on July 20th. The band will also release their new single ‘Barney Rubble’ on the 13th July. After unveiling the upcoming single ‘Barney Rubble’ last week via their Myspace profile, the band are going to be posting a new remix of the track each week until the single release. Check out the first remix of ‘Barney Rubble’, courtesy of Starsmith, over at myspace.com/thetwang now. One of the UK success stories of the last two years return with a new album in July. The Twang were the subject of intense debate on their emergence in 2007 with the NME declaring them ‘The best new band in Britain’ and went on to deliver two of the anthems of the year in the forms of ‘Either Way’ and ‘Wide Awake’ alongside a Top 3 debut album in the shape of ‘Love It When I Feel Like This’. As they toured the UK leaving stories of varying accuracy wherever they went, the five lads from Birmingham were the epitome of a rock ‘n’ roll band earning the undying loyalty of a huge and vocal fanbase. In the process they revitalized a UK music scene that had become a little too arch for its own good, were the subject of endless pro and anti letters in the weekly music press and, as all classic working class bands should, pissed off those who want ’safe chaos’ from their artists. Two years from that explosion of interest, the band return with an album that draws on those experiences, both good and bad, and marks a more mature and soulful set of songs. Having avoided the classic second album syndromes of writing about tour buses or developing neuroses about their public perception, the lyrics of singers Phil Etheridge and Saunders and bassist Jon Watkin deal instead with the familiar and, at times, brutally personal experiences of the band their friends and their lovers. In a sense, all of human life is here. Naming the album after the area rapidly becoming the cultural powerhouse of the second city, home to both the band’s studio and that of world renowned cover artist TEMPER, is a marker that this is very much an album made by Birmingham. The sleeve for the album features a specially commissioned piece of artwork by Temper. Known throughout the world for his spray can art, Temper is as Birmingham through and through as the band and has, over the course of the last decade, built a staggering reputation in the art world for his unique use of graffiti art materials to create fine art canvasses of quite incredible beauty and intricacy. The band and Temper were mutual admirers before meeting following a Twang show and deciding to work together. The single is preceded by both a free download, the piano led ‘Another Bus’ available now from the bands site at www.thetwang.co.uk, and a single, the hi-life rhythms of ‘Barney Rubble’, on 13th July.

Simian Mobile Disco announce a UK tour for September 2009. The band also announced details of their forthcoming single ‘Audacity of Huge’, featuring Chris Keating from Yeasayer. The single will be released on the 03 August through Wichita Recordings and precedes the bands forthcoming album ‘Temporary Pleasure’ on the 17 August 2009. ‘Audacity of Huge’ will be available on both 7′ and 2 x12′ as well as digitally and has been remixed by Naum Gabo, Dusty Kid, Dekker and Johan, Maxime Dangles, Chicken Lips, Allez Allez and Ferenc.Simian Mobile Disco tour dates are as follows:

September
24 - Cardiff, Solus (02920 781458 / www.c-y-n-t.com £12.50)
25 - Sheffield, Plug (0114 241 3040 / the-plug.com/shop £12.50)
26 - Leeds, Stylus (08444 77 2000 / ticketweb.co.uk £16.50)
30 - Brighton, Concorde 2 (0871 2200 260 / gigsandtours.com £12.50)

October
02 - London, Forum (0871 2200 260 / www.gigsandtours.com £14)
03 - Manchester, The Warehouse Project
(0161 832 111 / www.ticketline.co.uk £17.50)
06 - Oxford, O2 Academy(0844 477 2000 / www.tctmusic.co.uk £12.50
07 - Newcastle, Digital (08444 771 000 / yourfutureisdigital.com £12.50)
08 - Glasgow, ABC (08444999990 / www.gigsinscotland.com£12.50)
09 - Nottingham, Stealth & Rescue Rooms (08713100000 / www.alt-tickets.co.uk £12.50)
10 - Birmingham, The Institute (0844 870 0000 / theticketsellers.co.uk £16.50)

Young London: Into Music - a new urban youth festival aimed at developing the next generation of talent in east London - was announced today. A series of five individual events – produced and delivered in the five Olympic and Paralympic Host Boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest – takes place between 26th June and 2nd August 2009. Young London: Into Music is delivered in partnership with Biggafish, Continental Drifts, Music Matrix, Rising Tide and Urban Development. Over 100 young people between 14 and 25 years old will receive professional mentoring and the chance to work with established artists. Each event will showcase some of the boroughs rising stars, alongside the hottest names in grime, dance, dubstep and indie. So far artists such as Bashy, Ms Dynamite, Roachford, Leon Jean Marie, Double S, Ghetts and MOBO award winning Akala have been confirmed as performing artists. A large part of the group who will be mentored by Young London: Into Music fall under the socially excluded banner and are ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET). By working with industry professionals, the young participants will be inspired; engage in the development of new music content; curate, produce and promote a series of events alongside high profile artists. ‘Young London: Into Music’ will be created by young people, for young people. The project will foster links between participants and record labels, publishers, promoters, broadcasters, producers and artists; in addition to instilling self-confidence and professional work experience to all its youth contributors. Young London: Into Music is a key strand of CREATE09 – the multi-genre, multi-event festival of culture that will be celebrating a wealth of music and art in all its glory in the Olympic and Paralympic Host Boroughs between 22nd June and 2nd August 2009.