April 2011 News

by Kate Godfrey, PCWorld

Here's a tale of two cities. She's a Philadelphia-born rocker known for driving beats and in-your-face lyrics. He's a Parisian design student with a guitar hero alter-ego and a handful of pixel bricks. What bad grrrl guitarist JOAN JETT and apprentice typographer Izzy-sparks have in common is a heart made for rock and a homage font as black and distressed as the lead singer's wardrobe. Jett (free) is a display font with attitude to spare.

Jett font screenshotJett's B and V rotate and combine to create a black heart, but that's not the only trick this font can do.Jett was created as part of a class assignment to capture the essence of a favorite artist using Rob Meek's online application FontStruct. The work began as a clone of another FontStruction. Designers in the FontStruct community encourage cloning (copying a font set) by choosing a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. This was the case with Formal Roman, a FontStruction inspired by, (but not a direct copy of) Minion Pro, an Adobe font designed by Robert Slimbach in 1990.

Izzy-sparks cloned Formal Roman using a simple one-click process to copy individual characters onto a FontStructor grid. Bezier curves are not available in the application. Instead designers build and manipulate "bricks" made from clusters of pixels. The effect is anything but square. The blurred quality of Jett is made from several overlapping combinations of bricks, but it is a tenuous quality. Above 200 points, this smudged illusion opens up to a high-contrast, disintegrating form that is visually engaging in its own right, but visually different.

by Staff/Photo by Rob Cavuoto

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will open a ground-breaking and provocative new exhibit that will illustrate the important roles women have played in rock and roll, from its inception through today. Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power will highlight the flashpoints, the firsts, the best, the celebrated and sometimes lesser-known women who moved rock and roll music and American culture forward. The exhibit is sponsored by PNC and Time Warner Cable. Women Who Rock will open to the public on Friday, May 13, 2011.

To kick off the exhibit's opening weekend on Saturday, May 14, the Museum's annual It's Only Rock and Roll Spring Benefit Concert will feature an all-star lineup including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Wanda Jackson and Cyndi Lauper, both featured in the Women Who Rock exhibit. Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets go on sale to Rock Hall members on Monday, March 28 and to the general public on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. Visit rockhall.com for more information.

The exhibition will spotlight more than 60 artists and fill two entire floors of the museum. The exhibit will feature artifacts, video and listening stations, as well as a recording booth where visitors can film a short story or moment of inspiration related to women in rock. The exhibit will move through the rock and roll eras, weaving a powerful and engaging narrative that demonstrates how women have been the engines of creation and change in popular music, from the early years of the 20th Century to the present.

"This exhibit is going to illustrate the vital role women played in shaping the evolution of rock and roll," said Jim Henke, vice president of exhibitions and curatorial affairs for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "Visitors are going to walk away from this exhibit with a deeper appreciation of how these artists contributed to the rock and roll art form and changed our society. Women Who Rock will compare and contrast artist experiences, highlighting the female spirit as the engine of creation and change in the music."

Throughout the year, the museum will offer educational programming that will explore the role that women have played in rock and roll, including interviews, performances, panel discussions, a symposium, and classes for K-12 and university students.

by Sherri Thornhill

The 'Last Song' songstress and the ex-RUNAWAYS delight the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' audience with 'Bad Reputation', 'Cherry Bomb' and 'I Hate Myself'.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show" episode which featured Miley Cyrus has finally aired Wednesday night, April 13. Instead of sitting for an in-depth interview with Oprah Winfrey, the teen songstress channeled her inner rock star and performed with JOAN JETT.

The "LOL: Laughing Out Loud" movie beauty rocked out with the former member of all-girl band The RUNAWAYS, singing a medley of "Bad Reputation", "Cherry Bomb" and "I Hate Myself (For Loving You)". Miley served as the lead singer, while Joan strummed her guitar.

"It's something that's always meant something to me, just seeing Joan stand up for chicks who want to play the guitar," Miley told Oprah. The former Disney star auditioned for the Mouse House's "Hannah Montana" with Joan's classic "I Love Rock 'n' Roll".

Oprah dedicated the recent episode of her talk show to the Rock Goddesses of the 70's and 80's. It featured appearances from the likes of Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Pat Benatar and Avril Lavigne.

by Carina Adly MacKenzie



This is a pairing we never expected to see -- and really never expected to love. But we totally love it. Oprah Winfrey invited several classic rockers to her show for her "Rock Goddesss of the 70s and 80s" show airing April 13, and they performed with some younger artists from today's generation.

JOAN JETT and Miley Cyrus rocked out together to "Bad Reputation," "Cherry Bomb," and "I Hate Myself (For Loving You)." Jett, who will be 53 in September, sounded as awesome as ever, and her voice blended surprisingly well with Cyrus'.

You've got to love seeing Oprah headbanging in the audience as well.

Miley auditioned for "Hannah Montana" with Jett's classic "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," so it meant a lot to her to be able to perform it. "It's something that's always meant something to me, just seeing Joan stand up for chicks who want to play the guitar," she says.

Jett tells Oprah that rock 'n' roll is her religion. "I take it very seriously and it's important to do what you love. Rock 'n' roll when I grew up really had a context and a meaning, so I felt like it was a religion to me," she says.

She also discussed the role of women in rock. "There are many glass ceilings. I had a really hard time in The RUNAWAYS just being taken seriously. A lot of the times you get pushback. I think it's really important for women to try to follow their dreams and push back the pushback."