Hello!

Tony is featured for his animal activism, and veganism, in an article on the One Green Planet web site! I’ve long been impressed and thrilled with the work Tony has done for animals, and related causes. He’s my hero!

In a recent Access Hollywood interview, Gwen mentions that she would like to perform with No Doubt on The Voice. From the interview:””That would be amazing,” she said. “That would be really cool because I think that it’s a whole other part of who I am and being in that band for since [I’m] a teenager, it would be really great to have them come on the show.””

Gwen posted some gorgeous photos of herself from the Harajuku Lovers cartoon shoot to her social media accounts!:

Hello! No Doubt is going to perform at the  Global Citizen Festival in NY on September 27! This Rolling Stone article has details, and includes quotes from Tony! :

“Jay Z, No Doubt, Tiësto Set to Headline Free Global Citizen Festival
By Matt Diehl
July 9, 2014 12:00 AM ET

It may surprise some to see a hip-hop icon like Jay Z — the rapper who helped personify the idea of ostentatious wealth — go hard to end world poverty, but that’s exactly what you can expect at the upcoming 2014 Global Citizen Festival.

The rapper will headline the annual charity event organized by the Global Poverty Project, taking place this year on September 27th on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park. Of course, Jigga has always claimed that his blinged-out persona was in service of inspiring the less fortunate, and S. Carter is committing to these ideals with his Global Citizen Festival appearance. “Change only takes place when and where there is action,” the rapper said in a statement. “I’m joining the 2014 Global Citizen Festival because I believe through actions, whether it be by raising awareness, getting involved or educating ourselves, the goal to end extreme poverty by 2030 is possible.”

But Jay is just one of the megawatt music names slated to perform at this year’s festival, which includes country superstar Carrie Underwood, alt-pop hitmakers fun., hip-hop’s greatest band the Roots, dance music veteran Tiësto and No Doubt, who will be making their first live appearance as a band following an extended hiatus from performing. “Global Citizen will be the first show No Doubt has played together in two years,” bassist/co-founder Tony Kanal tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a great way to get us back on stage. It was such an honor to be asked to play this particular concert. It’s unacceptable that over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, and it’s got a pretty eclectic lineup, which reflects the event’s true spirit of diversity.”

“Global Poverty Project’s effort to end extreme poverty by 2030 is a cause I strongly support,” Tiësto tells Rolling Stone. “I am incredibly honored to be part of this year’s lineup for the the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park and to add my voice and the voices of my fans to those calling on the world’s leaders to throw their weight behind GPP’s efforts. It’s going to be an amazing show in one of the most unique venues in the world.”

“I love how this year’s lineup brings together the king of hip-hop and the king of EDM,” notes Global Poverty Project co-founder Hugh Evans. “Jay Z and his Shawn Carter Foundation have been with us on the whole journey, and No Doubt were so excited to do it from day one. We also felt like we needed to bring in some country for the first time: Carrie Underwood was the first country artist we reached out to, and she said yes. And personally, I’m such a huge fan of fun. and The Roots, too. The bill truly expresses that Global Citizen is a broad-based, non-partisan movement that crosses cultures and genders. We’ve always had an amazing diversity of artists each year, and 2014 continues that trend.”

As such, the upcoming festival builds on the template established in its previous incarnations of bringing together the most important musicians of the moment with an undeniable cause. The 2013 edition featured John Mayer, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Elvis Costello and Kings of Leon; likewise, the debut Global Citizen Festival in 2012 offered sets on the same stage from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Band of Horses, John Legend and K’naan. This year’s festival, meanwhile, will add media partners NBC and MSNBC, who will promote the event on flagships like The Today Show and broadcast it to an enormous audience worldwide. “By now, I think we’ve proved we’re not a fluke,” Evans says. “We’ve grown every year. It doesn’t get any easier, but the event does get bigger and bigger.”

That scale accentuates the mission of the Global Poverty Project, which was formed in 2008 to promote awareness and encourage action to end the worldwide scourge of extreme poverty. As in previous years, the festival has been timed to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly, using its high profile to bring the issue of poverty to leaders gathered there to discuss and implement social policy on an international scale. Global Poverty’s literature claims that, since it began the festival two years ago, advocacy demanded by its attendees have encouraged $1.3 billion in new funding, along with 35 commitments from world leaders, to combat world poverty. “We’ve found the power of this movement can create bigger, and more impressive, change,” Evans tells Rolling Stone.

For fun., who haven’t performed live in order to work on their new album, the opportunity was too good to decline. “We couldn’t pass up a chance to play Central Park for such a great cause,” band member Andrew Dost tells Rolling Stone. “Our manager has been pretty protective of our time lately because we’ve been working on a new album. But when he brought this to our attention, we were all excited about it.”

According to Evans, Global Citizen 2014 focuses on three key issues: bringing vaccines to the world’s poor (in particular, working with the Bill Gates-driven GAVI Alliance to raise funds to immunize 300 million children over a five-year period); bringing education to the nearly 60 million youth worldwide who are denied learning; and a new initiative highlighting the importance of adequate sanitation in stemming disease and other social problems.

“Sanitation is not a sexy issue, but we want to bring it to the forefront,” Evans tells Rolling Stone. “The world’s water crisis is always a focus, but you can’t address water without sanitation. And it goes beyond what you’d think: in India, two girls were tragically raped after they’d gone out at night to find a proper toilet to go to the bathroom in. In the wake of that incident, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi made a controversial speech where he said ‘India needs toilets, not temples.’ We’d love Prime Minister Modi to come up on stage at the Global Festival and announce a partnership with the World Bank to fund putting toilets in every house across India.”

The Global Citizen Festival doesn’t just aspire to engage world leaders, but also concertgoers. A key tradition of the event is its unique ticketing system: over 80 percent of the tickets are distributed free, earned by performing activist actions on the Global Citizen online platform. This aspect especially appealed to the members of No Doubt. “To get a ticket, you have to get involved in the cause – that’s amazing,” says Kanal. “Eliminating that barrier of entry is in the spirit of equality that’s at the heart of the whole event. What makes this particular concert special is that it’s not just about raising money, but awareness. That’s a different way of doing this kind of show: awareness is a different form of currency, and with this you can see it rise exponentially.”

In fact, the Global Poverty Project has grown its efforts using music as an awareness tool beyond the Global Festival. In association with Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis and Universal Music executive vice-president Michele Anthony, GPP has expanded its Global Citizen Tickets program to the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, where artists like Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and One Direction donate proceeds from two tickets from each of their concerts to poverty-ending concerns.

It’s also started Global Citizen Nights, where big names play local concerts across America to pressure local politicians on poverty-related issues. So far this year, The Fray and Aloe Blacc have performed such events in Austin, Texas and Chicago, Illinois. GPP is also harnessing the youth-reaching power of EDM with events like the recent Thank You Festival at Columbia and Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavillion on June 26th, which featured an Electric Daisy Carnival-worthy lineup of Tiësto, Above & Beyond, Krewella and Cedric Gervais.

“EDM is hugely important,” says Evans. “It reaches real millennials – 15-, 17-, 19-year-olds – like nothing else. At the Thank You Festival, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah, got up onstage with Tiësto to announce a $2.9 billion realignment to save the lives of 500,000 children. That demonstrates the cause and effect we’ve seen the Global movement have on U.S. policy.”

For the artists, meanwhile, working with the Global Poverty Project’s mission renews ties to the socially conscious music that inspired them to become artists. “One of the first 45s my parents bought me when I was a child was ‘’We Are The World,’ which had a huge impact on my understanding of what artists could do to make a difference,” Aloe Blacc told the Chicago Sun-Times.

For No Doubt’s Kanal, meanwhile, the group’s participation with the Global Citizen Festival recalls the anti-racist foundation of the ska movement, with groups like the Specials releasing protest anthems like “Free Nelson Mandela.” “The Specials made people aware of apartheid, and also made an incredible piece of music,” Kanal says. “Bands like that lead by example, and in that spirit we’re playing Global Citizen. Not only do you get to have a good time playing and hearing music, but together we’re raising awareness of the plight of humanity. We’ve never been a political band, but we’re concerned about human-rights issues, and this was a win-win on all fronts. We just couldn’t say no.””

You can find out even more, and enter to get free tickets at http://www.globalcitizen.org.

Hello! Tom posted this photo of one of his Rock Steady guitars with the caption “My orange Hamer from 2001, artwork by my friend and brother in law @shiftycrazytown“. I hadn’t realized that Shifty did that artwork, so that’s cool to know!

Rumors have been circulating that Gwen is working on another solo album. In a recent interview, Diplo said that he’d “Done some stuff for Gwen Stefani for her new record possibly”.

In a brand new Elle article, the interviewer asks Gwen “What can we expect from your new music?” She responds:

“As for me, I don’t know what is happening next musically, but I know the way I am going to do it is different. I have already started on it. I feel inspired that I went on The Voice and did “Hollaback Girl,” which is such an old song, and it went back on the charts the next day. It made me feel so happy and made me want to do new music. It made me think that maybe people might want to hear it.”

Here is the whole article:

“Gwen Stefani Talks Lingerie, ‘The Voice,’ Returning to Fashion Week, and More
Kristin Tice Studeman

There’s a reason Gwen Stefani has graced the covers of ELLE many times—she manages to do it all and still keep her cool, despite being one of the most famous women in the world. She just had another baby, but the No Doubt frontwoman isn’t slowing down, even for a minute. In fact, life these days for Stefani is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. The mother of three has just signed on as a judge for The Voice, along with Pharrell Williams, Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine. Plus, she’s got a new collaboration with Hanky Panky out this month, featuring some of the label’s best-selling styles in Stefani’s signature camo and rasta prints. And, of course, she’s got a music career of her own and her clothing labels to manage as well. We sat down to talk to her about lace and lingerie, all things Pharrell, and her return to New York Fashion Week.

You have a lot of projects going on, between the lingerie collaboration, a new baby, and now your role on The Voice. Is it true that you and co-host Adam Levine might be working on some new music together?
I just met Adam and we are talking about collaborating and getting into the next phase. I didn’t know I was going to be doing The Voice. I literally had the baby and then got a call and then suddenly, I was doing it. I didn’t really know what was next. Now, all of a sudden, I am doing The Voice, my son is going into kindergarten, and I am going to be working on some new music. It’s all very exciting.

Pharrell is also a co-host on the show. What’s it like working with him again?
I was freaked out. I know Pharrell as a producer and in a different role. I am a huge fan and when I am around him, I like don’t know how to describe it, my heart sort of flutters a little bit. I have known him for a long time and we have a lot of history together. He is so inspiring, talented, and humble and the list goes on. He is unbelievable really. Over the years, he has gotten even more deep and special because he has matured. As for Blake, I think I might be his number one fan. I don’t even know him though, I have only been on the set with them for like a week. The version you get of Blake and Adam on TV—I get the R-rated version. They are so funny and have such an amazing chemistry. It’s brand new and I am just getting my toes wet.

Where’s music going these days, do you think?
I think it’s an exciting time in music. It’s inspiring to be in the position of coach, which is something I have never done before. I am hearing a 15-year-old boy who had all these hits on YouTube saying that’s how he became famous—that’s not what we did. We asked our dad for $5, rented a mic and went to the garage. You can be nobody but become someone thanks to the Internet. I think that’s exciting.

What can we expect from your new music?
As for me, I don’t know what is happening next musically, but I know the way I am going to do it is different. I have already started on it. I feel inspired that I went on The Voice and did “Hollaback Girl,” which is such an old song, and it went back on the charts the next day. It made me feel so happy and made me want to do new music. It made me think that maybe people might want to hear it.

Getting back to fashion, I hear you reached out to Hanky Panky about working with them. What drew you to the brand?
Yes, after doing L.A.M.B for so long, there’s so many different categories I could do. Working with someone that already has that expertise is kind of a no-brainer. I am a big fan of the brand and that’s what I’ve worn before. I added my signature prints and things that represent me. They know what works and what doesn’t work.

What do you look for in lingerie?
I go through different phases. Right now, I am nursing so it’s about how can I get to these boobs the fastest. I am really just happy to be back into my Hanky Pankys again and to have my body back (it’s still a work in progress though). I had phases where I was really into neon and I was like, ‘If I’m going to wear this, it might as well be neon.’ But at the end of the day, it’s about comfort. If you feel uncomfortable it’s almost not worth it.

Will we ever see L.A.M.B return to New York Fashion Week?
Interesting you should ask, I am going to do some sort of presentation or show this September. The only reason I haven’t lately is because it falls when my kids go back to school and I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I will go to NYFW and miss my kid’s first day of kindergarten.’ No. This year it falls on a different week so I can be in both places.

L.A.M.B. x Hanky Panky, $23 to $86, will be available for purchase at hanky-panky.com later this month.”