By Adam Egan
LONDON (AP) --Keith Richards has had a lot of rock ‘n’ roll moments. He didn’t expect another one at the premiere of The Rolling Stones’ new documentary “Crossfire Hurricane.”
The film directed by Brett Morgen (whose spotmaking roost is Anonymous Content) and produced by Mick Jagger debuted last Thursday at the London Film Fesitval and hundreds of fans turned out to catch a glimpse. Guitarist Keith Richards called the reception “overwhelming.”
“I did not expect Leicester Square to be going bananas, do you know what I mean?” Richards said. “It was quite, it was heartwarming to say the least, especially walking out you felt you were still in the movie. Take 2.”
The Stones will celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s cornerstone acts later this year with Nov. 25 and 29 shows in London and Dec. 13 and 15 shows in Newark, N.J. Guitarist Ronnie Wood hinted at Thursday’s premiere that things are going so well in rehearsals the band could simply just keep going after finishing those gigs.
The group has not played together live in five years, so the gigs will likely add another chapter to the already historic run chronicled in “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Morgen mixes archival early Stones footage with fresh interviews with current members Jagger, Richards, Woods and Charlie Watts and former members Billy Wyman and Mick Taylor.
Members of the band had different reactions. Woods said he had to keep reminding himself he’s actually in the band he was watching a movie about. And Richards acknowledged “those were the days, my friend.” Jagger, as producer, helped assemble the material.
“It is like looking through your old scrapbook,” Jagger said. “But you see a film like this, it is documentary film but it has, you know, a thrust and a narrative so it is not just a random assembly of old bits of material,” Jagger said. “So when you start off you have a goal, you have got to have a story and you have got to have a dramatic sort of through line.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More