They built their reputation on creative, original music packaged and marketed with innovation, but also a very independent spirit.  They eventually opened up to music outside Denmark, collaborating with other independent labels.

The videos for some of  Fake Diamond’s artists are indicative of the labels willingness to think outside the box. Complicated Universal Cum is a Danish band under the “Fake Diamond” label.  The band describes their type of music as “Psychedelic / Techno / Blues”.

This is a music video to their latest song, called “I can hardly wait”.  It seems to be pretty popular.

Selling the entertainment industry as well as the general public seems like territory not mined this well since the days of Andy Kaufman who could often stun close friends and family with his crazy wrestling and lounge lizard incarnations.

Phoenix grew a Taliban-quality beard and dressed shabbily. His interviews (most notable a barely coherent interview with David Letterman in 2008) sold everyone who saw them that “Hip-Hop” or not, the young actor had probably lost his mind.  It wasn’t unreasonable to believe the actor wasn’t serious, given his disappearance from the screen over time.

The documentary filmed by long time actor friend, Casey Affleck, has many scenes that are uncomfortable to watch. At one point in the film it appears as if Phoenix is having a nervous breakdown.  All staged. All filmed over and over until it was right. So effective has been this hoax that one has to wonder what possible professional fallout may come.

Though some participants were never made aware that a scam was going on…(apparently Letterman was clueless), every single frame of the film was fake. An early clip of what is said to be Joaquin as a child is also a fake.

“I’m Still Here” opened in New York two  weeks ago and will begin expanding into further markets.

One can only hope that now that the cat is out of the bag, that Phoenix is coming back to acting.  Crazy as he has to be to immerse himself into a character for two years,  but the guy is a talent.

A sad day in the Hip-Hop universe as Hollywood reclaims one of it’s own.

“Up in the Air” had the most nominations this year,  followed by the musical “Nine,” with five, including top musical or comedy.  The recently released science-fiction epic “Avatar” and director Quentin Tarantino‘s  “Inglourious Basterds” were nominated for four awards, including best drama.

The Hurt Locker looks like Best Drama

Other film nominees for Golden Globes were the Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker“ and the urban tear-jerker “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.”  Others in the category for best movie musical or comedy was Meryl Streep’s  cooking movie “Julie & Julia, this years comedic breakout hit “The Hangover” and the independent darling, “(500) Days of Summer.”

The Golden Globes are given out in January by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and are seen as a key indicator of which movies will compete for the world’s top film honors, the Oscars, in March. The Golden Globes will be presented mid January, 2010.

The best actor nominees were Clooney, Jeff Bridges who plays a down-and-out country singer in “Crazy Heart,” Colin Firth as a gay man suddenly alone in “A Single Man,” Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in “Invictus” and Tobey Maguire for “Brothers”, another wartime drama.

Nominations for best actress in a drama went to Sandra Bullock for the surprisingly popular football film “The Blind Side,” Helen Mirren for “The Last Station,” Emily Blunt in “The Young Victoria,” Carey Mulligan with “An Education” and  Gabourey Sidibe in the title role,  “Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire.”

A great way to know you’re looking at the Golden Globes and not the Academy Awards is that you can have Sandra Bullock nominated twice in an evening. This time it’s for best actress in a musical or comedy in  “The Proposal.”  She’s joined by Marion Cotillard in “Nine,” Julia Roberts in “Duplicity” ( really intelligent and fun movie!) and Meryl Streep once again, pulling a Sandra Bullock for “It’s Complicated” and a second for “Julie & Julia.”

The Coen Brothers have a serious claim for the Golden Globe

Nominees for best actor in a movie musical or comedy were Daniel Day-Lewis for “Nine,” Matt Damon in the black comedy, “The Informant!,” Robert Downey Jr. for the unbearably hyped “Sherlock Holmes,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “(500) Days of Summer” and Michael Stuhlberg for the Coen Brother’s wonderful fable, “A Serious Man.”

Lastly, the foreign language film nominees are the Italian movie “Baaria,” Spanish director Pedro Almodovar‘s “Broken Embraces“, the fabulous Chilean movie “The Maid,”  “A Prophet” from France and Germany’s “The White Ribbon.”

It’s worth noting that one film in particular seems to be on every critic’s top ten list for the year.  It’s Kathryn Bigelow‘s tense Iraq drama,” The Hurt Locker”.  Though it’s still quite early and there are many films to still see, it’s the Daily Helping’s opinion that Ms Bigelow could have a Best Picture on her hands.  This is all the more interesting since she’s James (Avatar) Cameron’s ex-wife.

There was a vigorous debate as to whether this would be posted.

This is one of a growing number of “lip-dub” videos spreading through video sites like YouTube.  A lip dub is a type of video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing to make a music video. The popular, highly watched  videos provide more than just adequate lip syncing. The song has to be engaging and there’s no substitute for energy and imagination.

This song, “I gotta Feeling”, by the Black Eyed Peas,  may be so overplayed these days that you probably hate hearing it.  The DailyHelping prefers this version performed by 172 communications students at de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). This is a terrific effort that utilizes one single camera shot.  Not so easy, and you’ll appreciate it more once you’ve taken a look.  (We’re sorry if you hum this song all day now).  We gotta feeling you’re going to really enjoy this! (It’s already been downloaded over 2 million times.