Dee Cercone/Everett Collection

Singer-songwriter Shakira has a new album “She Wolf.”

Tuesday is usually the traditional day for new music releases. This week, however, many singers have shifted to Monday as new albums by Adam Lambert (”For Your Entertainment”), Susan Boyle (”I Dreamed a Dream”), Shakira (”She Wolf”), Rihanna (”Rated R”) and Lady Gaga (”The Fame Monster”) hit stores. It’s one of the most star-studded music release days in recent memory.

Lambert is coming off of a provocative performance at last night’s American Music Awards that still has the internets buzzing. Lambert first entered the spotlight as the second-place finisher on “American Idol”; he’s gone on to garner much more attention than the winner that season, Kris Allen.

Lambert’s new album “For Your Entertainment” is a commercial blend of various influences including David Bowie, Queen and Journey. The songs have a polished, glam surface, and Lambert gives his voice a workout on numbers like the title track and the climax to the last song, “Time for Miracles.” It’s an album that seems to be bursting with potential singles, such as the zippy pop-rock tune ”Music Again.”

Homespun diva Susan Boyle first received global attention–or much attention at all, really–when a video of her performing “I Dreamed a Dream”from “Les Misérables” on “Britain’s Got Talent” surfaced on YouTube. Like Lambert, she finished second on the talent-search program but has become much more famous than the eventual winner, a dance act named Diversity.

Boyle’s album is a set of covers of standards (”Cry Me a River”), religious songs (”Amazing Grace”) and pop tunes that will appeal to lovers of Celine Dion and other pop belters. Boyle, however, keeps any vocal theatrics in check, and delivers mostly straight readings of familiar tunes such as “Wild Horses” (a 1971 Rolling Stones song), “Daydream Believer” (a song made famous by the Monkees) and, of course, her signature ”I Dreamed a Dream.”

With “Rated R,” Barbados-born singer-dancer Rihanna looks to graduate from a being singer whose work was mostly aimed at pop fans, into an artist with a futuristic, harder edge. A couple naughtly words pop up on the song “Hard,” a gunshot ends the song “Russian Roulette,” and on “Rockstar 101″ she declares that she’s “got my middle finger up.” It makes the listener want to peek at the course catalog for Rockstar 201.

Rihanna had been attacked earlier this year by her then-boyfriend, singer-dancer Chris Brown, who pled guilty in June to assaulting her, and was sentenced to five years of probation and 180 days community labor. With the release of “Rated R” the focus may shift back to her music.

Colombia-born singer-songwriter Shakira was once seen as a guitar-toting “Rockera”; in her televised performances at least, she rarely carries around a guitar anymore and has largely left the rock sound behind for fast-paced, groove-oriented, hip-thrusting pop, which she delivers throughout her new album “She Wolf.” “I wish I had longer legs that I could fasten to your body so you’d take me with you everywhere,” Shakira croons on “Long Time.”

“She Wolf” is designed to cross borders. It features light global music touches on songs like “Gypsy.” It also boasts guest appearances from a trio of rappers: Lil Wayne (”Give It Up To Me”), Kid Cudi (”Did It Again”), and Wyclef Jean (”Spy”). And on “Mon Amour,” Shakira turns up the guitars like the rockera of old. The title track’s lupine theme may even draw in fans of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” (”She Wolf” is streaming here.)

Lady Gaga has risen from dark-gray obscurity to white-hot fame in a hurry. Her new album isn’t a traditional release: it’s a short, 8-song disc featuring such tracks as the country-tinged power ballad “Speechless” and the dance track “Bad Romance,” which has already spun-off a popular video. The songs on this album take suprising turns rhythmically and lyrically. “He ate my heart and then he ate my brain,” Lady Gaga sings on “Monster.” “The Fame Monster” will leave fans of Lady Gaga hungry for her next full-length album. (“The Fame Monster” is streaming here.)

After Michael Crichton died of cancer last year, his publisher and agent found a previously unpublished novel about pirates in 17th-century Jamaica hidden away on his hard drive. Now, the swashbuckling tale — entitled “Pirate Latitudes” — has been published as a hardback by HarperCollins. (Read an excerpt here). Billed as a throwback to Crichton’s early, “The Great Train Robbery” days, the novel centers around a privateer (and, like Crichton, Harvard man) named Charles Hunter who plans an assault on a treasure galleon moored in the Jamaican harbor of Matanceros — a Spanish island fortress controlled by a savage in the employ of King Philip IV. No wonder Steven Spielberg — who famously adapted Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” — has already optioned the film rights. Scroll down for a sampling of reviews.

• Crichton’s great talent was writing books that were virtually impossible to put down, even when they were bad. Pirate Latitudesis no exception. The plot sucks you in like the giant kraken monster that nearly sinks our hero’s galleon as he’s being chased by a Spanish warship… When it comes to sharp, slick techno-thrillers that you can polish off on a flight to Chicago, there’s never been anybody better. But a hackneyed historical novel filled with bosomy maidens and blustery old navy dialogue (”Mizzen top blown!”) is not what Crichton should be remembered for. This is one chestful of doubloons that should have been left hidden in the sand. [Benjamin Svetkey, EW]

• “Crichton’s highly opinionated research and editorializing could give great polarizing energy to his narratives. But this is a straight-up pirate story, and its reach does not extend far beyond the Spanish-dominated Caribbean of 1665. With a bold leading man who sounds like Indiana Jones crossed with Errol Flynn, “Pirate Latitudes” offers more swagger than suspense and more atmosphere than story. To its credit it does include a line destined for pirate fiction immortality. “And my mistress shall dine on your testicles,” this book’s villain tauntingly tells its captive hero.” [Janet Maslin, NYT]

• “Discovered after the Jurassic Park author died in ‘08, this swashbuckler is like an R-rated ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Capt. Charles Hunter, a randy pirate who prefers the term “privateer,” pulls together a gang of marauders to plunder a Spanish galleon and split the booty with Jamaica’s corrupt governor, Sir James Almont. Along the way, Hunter’s men and a wily French female pirate named Lazue encounter deadly snakes, perilous cliffs, poison darts, storms and even a dragon. One pirate turns on the crafty captain, leading to a surprising twist. Not as riveting as Crichton’s best yarns, ‘Latitudes’ nonetheless offers unexpected turns and plenty of yo ho ho’s.” [Richard Eisenberg, People]

Asael Kahana, left, and Jacob Shwirtz have a new service that helps put tweets into book form.

Seems like everyone’s got an idea on how to try to make money off of Twitter. Starting today, a new service allows people to collect their best tweets and have them printed in book format.

TweetBookz.com comes from Jacob Shwirtz and Asael Kahana, founders of Definitely Something, an Israeli-based Web strategy company. So why would someone want to put their tweets in a book? “You’d be surprised how nostalgic you can be for something that happened five minutes ago,” says Kahane.

The books are printed on demand by Book1one, a Rochester, N.Y.-based print-on-demand service, and will retail for $30 hardcover and $20 softcover. Each page can only contain one tweet. “We wanted something closer to a book of inspirational poetry rather than an encyclopedia,” says Shwirtz.

TweetBookz joins a crowded marketplace of businesses that hope to profit by using Twitter. Justin Halpern, who writes the widely-followed Sh– My Dad Says on Twitter, recently inked a deal with CBS to turn his tweets quoting his father into a sitcom according to recent reports. Clothing company Threadless sells shirts with popular tweets on them. TwitterPeek is a BlackBerry-sized device that only receives tweets. On crafting Web site etsy.com, sellers offer everything from women’s stockings with the phrase “Follow Me” on them to pillows with the Twitter logo.

But what does one do with a book of one’s own tweets? Put it on the desk and hope a co-worker notices it? Leave it casually on the coffee table when a date comes over? Shwirtz and Khana think they would make fine stocking stuffers.

“We live in a world where if you don’t capture a moment on video, audio or blog about it, it doesn’t exist,” says Kahana.

Courtesy of the Roycroft Campus Corporation

Elbert Hubbard, subject of a new PBS documentary, “Elbert Hubbard: An American Original”

If you could take one part Henry Ford and two parts Henry David Thoreau, you might end up with an eccentric American character like Elbert Hubbard — a salesman-philosopher who championed the Arts & Crafts decorative movement in the U.S. during the early 20th century. In his lifetime, Hubbard was much more of a celebrity than his slightly younger peer, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tonight, a new documentary on PBS (10 p.m. E.T.; check local listings) called “Elbert Hubbard: An American Original” will delve into his unconventional life and efforts to build Roycroft, a community of artisans outside Buffalo, N.Y., whose spare, hand-hewn furniture designs were wildly popular during the waning days of the Victorian era.

Some collectors still pay big for Roycroft-branded oak chairs and tables, beloved for their trunk-like solidity and clean lines devoid of ornamentation: Two years ago, Sotheby’s sold a 1905 Roycroft wine chest for $181,000.

Hubbard’s own tale has fallen somewhat into obscurity, a fate which Buffalo-based producer Paul Lamont attempts to rectify. Born in Illinois in 1856, Hubbard made his early fortune selling soap before growing disillusioned with big-city factories and other smoggy trappings of the Industrial Revolution. Hubbard began reading Ralph Waldo Emerson and visited the fabled Kelmscott Press in England, an early proponent of the Arts & Crafts look. In 1895, Hubbard established his own utopian campus in East Aurora, N.Y., to encourage local craftsmen to make homemade furniture. The Roycroft’s printing press also became well known for “The Philistine,” Hubbard’s think-tank magazine espousing his populist views on everything from the benefits of nature to the dangers of excessive wealth.

At its height in the early 1900s, Roycroft employed more than 500 people and regularly hosted lectures for suffragists and counter-culture thinkers of the day. But even within his own crowd, Hubbard was something of a contrarian: He held fast to some of his pro-business views, including a dislike of labor unions. His most widely-read essay, “A Message to Garcia,” applauds workers who comply without questioning. After he died in 1915 aboard the torpedoed ocean liner Lusitania, some of his eulogies were submitted by corporate titans like Henry Heinz.

The documentary does a clever job of capturing the contradictions embodied by this homespun capitalist, says Doug Swift, president of the nonprofit Roycroft Campus Corporation, a group that has begun restoring the Roycroft buildings. “He was both a natural businessman as well as an advocate for the laborer,” Mr. Swift says, “but he blended those two philosophies in such volatile ways.”

Blake Sims, a laid-off (but now employed) lithography technician in Austin, Tex.

Sometimes, the journalist becomes the story.

Andy Cook was laid off as a staff photographer for the Baltimore Jewish Times in October 2008. So the Cooper Union graduate packed up his camera and took to the road.

The photographer decided to photograph folks just like him: laid-off workers.

But as the recession pounded on, he ran out of money. Since his last blog post in June, he’s applied for several grants to refuel the project with no luck.

His photos can be viewed on his Faces of the Recession blog. His trip spanned from February to March and profiled 25 people. The route formed a square frame: from Baltimore south to Florida, west to Austin, Texas, north to Minneapolis, then back east.

He advertised his project through friends as well as online on Facebook and Craigslist, building his route around responses he received.

The emails poured in and he charted his course.

One man in Michigan talked about people stealing toilet paper and food from Wal-Mart out of desperation. A woman in D.C. expressed concern about her ability to provide for her retired parents after her law firm laid her off. A recent college graduate who couldn’t find work told Cook “I’m depressed all the time”.

“I really tried to focus on finding out how people were dealing with it,” he says. “I tried to put a hopeful spin on it.”

Some sought opportunity. A Texas entrepreneur started building tiny houses, bucking decades of big-house culture. A young woman moved from South Carolina to Atlanta to pursue a passion for acting. An architecture layoff sparked on woman to seek further industry accreditation.

Being recently laid off himself helped him approach often vulnerable subjects, he says. An understanding of the local economies, as well as the dismal nation picture became clearer.

“For some people,” he says, “there just was no work for them.”

Cook recently relocated to New Orleans “on a whim” and still looks for freelance work.

Since Cook began his project in February, the unemployment rate has increased from 8.1% to 10.2% in October.

“It’s always hard for me to believe the numbers,” he says.

He still keeps in touch with several of his interview subjects. “It hasn’t really changed much for them.”

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Oprah Winfrey plans to produce show for HBO.

Oprah to Produce HBO Drama: Oprah Winfrey, who recently announced her departure from her long-running daytime talk show in 2011, has a project in the works for HBO. A Winfrey production company, Harpo Films, plans to create a pilot for the cable network about a woman who leaves behind her seemingly perfect family –a husband and children– to explore her sexual fantasies. The company has tapped Erin Cressida Wilson, the writer behind the film “Secretary” to write the pilot for the show. Wilson will produce the drama along with Winfrey and Kate Forte (”The Great Debaters,” “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”) [Variety]

Fallout From Justin Bieber Appearance: James A. Roppo, a record company executive whom police allege failed to control a crowd at a planned appearance by teen singer Justin Bieber at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, pleaded not guilty to felony assault charges yesterday. Bieber, a 15-year-old Canadian singer, drew a crowd on Nov. 20 that swelled to around 3,000 before the police  forced the singer’s camp to cancel the appearance. Five teens were reportedly injured and Roppo was arrested for his alleged refusal to cooperate with the police and send out a tweet to disperse the crowd. Bieber took to his Twitter page to talk about the incident. “Wow, this upsets me. The mall should have had proper security. They wouldn’t let me in. Gotta make this right 4 the fans,” read one tweet on Nov. 21. About four hours ago, another tweet on his page read: ”I love my fans and I will always make time 4 them. U guys make my dreams real.” [Newsday]

Gaga and the Grammys: Performance artist/pop singer/fashion provocateur Lady Gaga may be in luck come Grammy time. Grammy president Neil Portnow reportedly told Entertainment Weekly that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences may make changes to the rules to give Lady Gaga a chance to compete in the Best New Artist category in 2010. Early reports ruled Gaga out as a potential candidate due to her nomination last year for Best Dance Recording. “The awards and nominations committee meets to review the rules every year. We change the rules frequently. We recognize that situation is not perfect, and we are looking at ways to figure it out,” Portnow said. [UPDATE: The Recording Academy says that any changes in its rules would take effect the following year, so Lady Gaga would still be ineligible for the Best New Artist Grammy. [EW]

A Doctor’s Return:Dr. Conrad Murray, the doctor who was with singer Michael Jackson when he died on June 25, has reportedly returned to work in Houston, Tex. Jackson’s former personal physician, who had suspended his practice, began seeing patients again recently. “His legal fees are enormous and his debts have mounted to the point where it is unclear whether he will be able to keep his house or support his family,” said his attorney Edward Chernoff. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled Jackson’s passing a homicide resulting from a combination of drugs, primarily lorazepam and propofol. Los Angeles police haven’t decided whether Murray will be prosecuted for Jackson’s death. [AP]

A Dancer Takes the Stage: Uliana Lopatkina, well known for her interpretation of Mikhail Fokine’s “The Dying Swan,” will perform on Feb. 10 at the Cultural Olympiad. Lopatkina, the principal dancer at the Kirov Ballet, will be accompanied by viola master Yuri Bashmet and others. [CBC]

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Jack Bruce

Jack Bruce is best known for his work as singer, songwriter and bassist with the ‘60s power trio Cream, which featured Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. Today, Bruce, who’s now 66 years old and who underwent a liver transplant in 2003, is involved in other projects including a blues band that plays at Ronnie Scott’s club in London and an occasional trio with guitarist Robin Trower, with whom he first recorded in ‘81. Bruce and Trower’s new live album “Seven Moons Live” (Ruf) with drummer Gary Husband, revisits songs from their “Seven Moons,” released last year, as well as Bruce compositions “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room” and “Politician.”

The Wall Street Journal: How did you enjoy being back on stage with Robin?

It was very enjoyable, more than I thought it would be. We didn’t play live when we made the first record together, which was a shame. But this time we wrote the material together.

His background is different than yours, isn’t it? He doesn’t come out the blues traditional, but he does interesting things with your classic tunes.

He took it very seriously. I’ve played those songs with about 15 billion different guitar players. Either they don’t take it seriously or they try to emulate Eric. Robin didn’t want to do anything like Eric. I respect that he tried to find his own way of approaching them.

The nice thing about this is when we’re playing live there was a lot of room for improvisation with the bass. For the voice too. As we developed, I started to get into this new way of singing. I found it really inspirational.

You made a couple of self-effacing comments to the audience during the show like, “Thanks for putting up with us, us old guys. We get it right eventually, you know.”

If you want to know the truth, there were a lot of technical problems. After we finished the concert, I wasn’t happy with the way it begun. I decided the way to carry on was to have a little break and then start all over again. If not, we’d have a mediocre beginning, very mediocre by our standards, and a strong middle and end. Of course, by the time we got around to the second time, we’d been playing for quite for a long time. You get tired, you know.

What are you doing next?

I’m writing quite a large-scale work. I can’t say too much about because I don’t know what it is yet. I‘m doing the occasional gig working with the blues band at Ronnie Scott’s. If I don’t play, I become a beast -– or I am a beast who becomes even beastlier. It’s not possible for me to not to play and/or sing. It’s something I’ve always had to do. It’s like it someone who exercises and doesn’t have a workout. I get more than grumpy. I could destroy entire nations. Playing keeps me relatively harmless.

Any chance you’ll revisit your classic solo albums like “Songs for a Tailor” and “Harmony Row”?

I did think about doing a tour and actually doing “Harmony Row” or recreate maybe a combination of the two. The late Bruce Gary, the drummer, always wanted to do, and I didn’t manage to do it while he was alive. He would’ve been the perfect person. But would’ve been difficult commercially – they weren’t a commercial success. They were very special – I’m saying that though I made them. They take a life of their own. They’re like your children you’re quite proud of. It would be lovely to try to get them across.

AP

Janet Jackson gets her groove on at the AMAs.

Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson were the big winners at tonight’s American Music Awards ceremony, with the former picking up five awards, including Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist in the pop/rock and country categories, and Favorite Adult-Contemporary Artist (the teen accepted her awards live via satellite from London). Jackson was recognized in four categories, including Favorite Male Artist in the pop/rock and soul/R&B categories.

But the AMAs, though technically an awards show, have traditionally been more about performances than statuettes, and last night’s offerings didn’t disappoint.

Performances by Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert were among the musical highlights. Lady Gaga, dressed in a flesh-colored bodysuit wrapped with white piping — embedded with flashing lights meant to imitate ribs? —  performed a (literally) smashing rendition of “Speechless.” Starting off by singing hit “Bad Romance,” she segued into “Speechless” by using her microphone stand to bust open a glass box with a piano inside. Straddling the bench, she then proceeded to smash glass bottles as she performed the song. In a bizarre touch, she had violinists perform wearing gas masks in smoke-filled chambers beside her.

Lambert, not to be outdone, wore a silvery suit, with spikes on his left shoulder, to belt out the titular first single from his album “For Your Entertainment.” As can be expected, the controversial performance — the last of the evening — was filled with plenty of writhing, groping, hip swiveling and S&M costumes. The singer even planted an intense smooch on one of his keyboardists. (Vote on what you thought of Lambert’s performance here.)

Otherwise, the evening was pretty straight-forward, as singers and bands performed their latest chart-toppers (Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Keith Urban, Whitney Houston, Eminem), host network ABC trotted out its primetime TV stars (Christian Slater, the “Modern Family” gals) as presenters and even New York Yankee A-Rod — chewing gum still firmly in cheek — made an appearance to introduce Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and presumably support girlfriend Kate Hudson, who introduced “Nine” co-star Fergie and the rest of the Black Eyed Peas.

Performance-wise, Janet Jackson, dressed like one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men, kicked off the evening with a medley of old songs, including “Miss You Much.” Non-Adam Lambert “American Idol” alumni (Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry) also contributed, and Rihanna, decked out in white striped bondage gear, sang a mash-up of two songs (”Wait Your Turn” and “Hard”) from upcoming album “Rated R.”

Furthermore, a comeback-seeking Jennifer Lopez showed up to perform her new single “Louboutins,” an ode to the pricey, red-soled shoes. (Her album “Love?” drops early next year.) Dressed as a boxer, however, Lopez’s imagery didn’t exactly mesh with the subject she was singing about, and partway through through the number, she took a little tumble, as numerous YouTubers have taken care to document.

More coverage can be found at ABC’s web site.

Alan Katowitz

Joni Mitchell performing at the Amchitka benefit concert in 1970.

In an era of re-mastered albums and box sets so loaded with from-the-vaults material they should come with their own archivist, there isn’t much from rock’s golden era that hasn’t been released. But earlier this month, recordings from a little-known benefit concert headlined by Joni Mitchell and James Taylor have surfaced for the first time -– 39 years after the fact.

Known as the Amchitka Concert, the performance took place on October 16^th 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its story typifies the earnestness and hey-let’s-put-on-a-show looseness of the period. The organizer, Irving Stowe, a lawyer and founding member of the environmental organization Greenpeace, wanted to raise money to send a protest boat to Amchitka Island in the Aleutians, where the U.S. government was conducting nuclear tests. Stowe knew nothing about concert promotion, but his previous fundraising strategy, selling buttons on the streets of Vancouver, had earned predictably meager returns. “It seemed an insane, outlandish idea,” Stowe’s daughter, Barbara Stowe, said of her late father’s plan. “We had no money. No ties with big-name musicians. But he was a stubborn man.”

Stowe contacted the era’s go-to musical conscience, Joan Baez; the singer’s schedule didn’t permit an appearance but Baez sent Stowe a letter enclosed with a $1,000 donation and the phone number of Joni Mitchell, who agreed to perform. Phil Ochs and Chilliwack came on board, as did, at Mitchell’s request, her then-boyfriend, James Taylor, whose album “Sweet Baby James” was starting to break big. 

A recording of the show, held at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum, was made, and the Stowe family kept the tapes. (Click here to listen to a sample.) “We would haul them out and play them for friends from time to time,” Barbara Stowe said, citing as a favorite track a duet between Taylor and Mitchell on “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Stowe hoped the concert would one day find release but had no idea how to secure the rights. That changed when John Timmins, whose siblings form the band Cowboy Junkies, joined Greenpeace three years ago as a foundation officer. Told about the tapes, Timmins visited Barbara Stowe in Vancouver to hear them and was “totally overtaken emotionally by the music,” he said.

Timmins reached out to representatives for Mitchell and Taylor, and after much back-and-forth secured the rights to release the concert. A two-disc CD, along with a booklet containing photos from the show, has been released by Greenpeace through the organization’s Web site. Timmins said he is still struck by what he calls the “pristine simplicity” of the concert. “It’s one player, sitting in front of 10,000 people, with two microphones,” he said. “They played in a more intimate way then in an arena than people play today in cafes.”

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Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

The vampire and werewolf movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” finished first at the weekend box office, taking in $140.7 million. The Summit Entertainment film’s box office take was the third-largest on record for a movie in its opening weekend. Only Warner Bros.’ “The Dark Knight” ($158.4) and Sony’s “Spider-Man 3″ ($151.1 million), have made more in a single weekend.

“‘New Moon’ proves not only that the importance of teen girls at the box-office cannot be overstated, but also that going out to see a movie like this in a theater creates a communal event that can become a cultural phenomenon,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office division of Hollywood.com, via email.

“The Blind Side” (Warner Bros.) starring Sandra Bullock, had a strong opening weekend in second place, with $34.5 million and “2012″ (Sony/Columbia) dropped 59 percent to $26.5 million, good for third place. “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate) contined to perform well as it expands into more theaters, with $11 million at sixth place.

“New Moon” stars actress Kristen Stewart as a high-school girl caught in a love triangle between a vampire, played by Robert Pattinson, and a werewolf, played by actor Taylor Lautner. The movie is based on the best-selling “Twilight” book series by author Stephenie Meyer.

“New Moon,” which opened on Friday at 12:01 a.m., had posted the largest opening-day box office gross on record, taking in $72.7 million on its first day. That beat out “The Dark Knight,” which took in $67.2 million on its opening day in 2008.

What did you think of the box office haul of “New Moon”? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.