andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

With the touch of a button, Nicolas Dresti delivers a shot of adrenaline to the sea of 30 thousand fans. Their screams are met with his quick rhythmic jumping and head bobbing to the beat on-stage. He’s not the main event, heck he’s not even a co-headliner, but he’s still the man orchestrating one of the hottest concerts on the planet – all from a laptop. This may be Lady Gaga’s party, but DJ Space Cowboy is the event’s power source – the battery that keeps the beat alive.

He’s now on top of the world.

On that night Dresti was the European energizer bunny, but now he’s recharging his own batteries at his hotel. It’s hard to believe that he is the key to Lady Gaga’s live performance successes. The man in the neatly-cut dark-suit and sparkling rhinestone skinny-tie seems sophisticated and quiet – the complete opposite of what a Gaga concert is notorious for.

But it’s true. Look at Dresti and his alter ego DJ Space Cowboy like you would Clark Kent and Superman – they’re both the same person, yet totally different at the same time. Put Clark Kent into a phone booth and he’ll become Superman. Well, put Dresti in front of an audio mixer and laptop, and he’ll suddenly transform into the backbone – or backbeat, if you will – as DJ Space Cowboy, Gaga’s DJ and head maestro responsible for explosive energy in any crowd.

His new album Digital Rockstar dropped earlier this week, and it’s one of the rare chances to really hear Superman-like energy harnessed into one CD.

“Raising the energy bar is one my main jobs as a DJ,” Dresti tells andPOP in the martini bar of Toronto’s Pantages Hotel.

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On the verge of kicking off a U.S. nationwide tour to promote the upcoming release of Say Anything’s new album, frontman Max Bemis has so far successfully avoided the evils of success.

But there’s plenty more time to come.

The L.A. band’s new self titled album will be their third official release, and it aspires to surpass the startling success of the first two.

“The whole transformation of everything in my life was the inspiration for the album, which centered mostly around the marriage to my wife,” Bemis tells andPOP. “Our music is basically the story of my life in chronological order.”

The biggest shift of ideals on the new album is that its focus is self-empowerment rather than self-loathing. His previous albums had a major focus on frustration with the opposite sex, but his April 4th, 2009, marriage altered his perspective on life and music.

Bemis is critical of the tendency indie bands have of conveying self loathing to their fans.

“Too often you see bands lean too far to one side. They’re either some cookie-cutter bullshit or they’re sulking with anger and resentment toward the cookie-cutter bullshit. There is a space in between, and that’s where we need to be,” he says.

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For the second time in three months, Lindsay Lohan’s Hollywood home was robbed, according to E! Online. Perhaps she could consider locking all her doors.

Early Sunday morning, three burglars gained access to Lohan’s property and entered her home through an unlocked door. Once inside, they apparently ransacked the house but didn’t nick her more expensive goods. Instead, Lohan posted on Twitter they stole only items of personal value – “just things that a certain old friend knew meant a lot to me,” Lohan Tweeted.

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After weeks and weeks of speculation and waiting, the official word from the Los Angeles corner is MJ’s death was a homicide. The report reveals that a dangerous amount of propofol was found in Michael’s blood. Propofol is a extremely powerful anesthetic that is generally used in operating rooms to induce unconsciousness. According to the Los Angeles Times, Michael’s doctor Conrad Murray admitted to giving Mr. Jackson 25 milligrams of propofol prior to his death. Additionally upon the arrival of the Los Angeles Police to Michael’s house, police found a variety of drugs for inducing sleep within the home. There has been no official statement from the Jackson family regarding these recent developments.

Fugitive Ryan Jenkins was found hanged in a hotel in Hope, B.C. early this morning, according to CBC News. Jenkins, a former reality-TV contestant on Megan Wants a Millionaire, was on the run from murder charges for killing his ex-wife swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore in the United States earlier this month.

Fiore’s mutilated body was found stuffed in a garbage bin in a park outside Los Angeles on Aug. 15 and was only identifiable by serial numbers on her breast implants.

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Alex DeSilva might not be applauded at the So You Think You Can Dance performaces anymore. According to E! online, the 41-year-old choreographer and performer for the show was arrested on Saturday for four counts of sexual assault that took place between May 2003 and March 2009.  

According to the LAPD, all of the victims were his students at the time. Los Angeles’ premiere salsa personality allegedly lured them to his homes in North Hollywood and Van Nuys, and raped them.  

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Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins are two of thirteen patients who were given an overdose of the blood thinner Heparin at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The babies, born by a surrogate, were given one thousand times the dosage they should have received.

After being given two doses on Sunday, the babies began to bleed out. They were then given Protamine, which reverses the effects of Heparin, and are currently in stable condition.

According to TMZ, the incident occurred because “a technician stored the Heparin in the wrong place, and when a nurse grabbed the medicine for the babies without looking — it was the wrong dosage.”