Oh Madonna...

...will you ever tire of being an attention whore?

I mean, first you call your latest album Hard Candy, then you call the accompanying tour "Sticky & Sweet"... And you just turned 50? A extremely fit 50, and after all it is the new 40 and everything, but really... you have kids. They have friends. And you're still prancing around like a pole dancer and making shock-value-only videos?

I mean, it's almost as cringe-worthy as a bunch of sixty-somethings prancing around under a giant lips-and-tongue-logo...

Oh, wait.

Never mind.

Live Nation signs Nickelback (and Madonna and Jay-Z and Shakira...)

Those familiar with the cartoon classic Pinky & The Brain will also recall its trademark catch-phrase, wherein dumb-as-toast Pinky asks Brain what they're going to do tonight and he responds, in full megalomaniacal flower, "The same thing we do every night, Pinky -- try and take over the world! Bwa-ha-ha!"

This naturally comes to mind when reading about the latest move by Live Nation, the already-pseudo-monopoly national concert promoters who have now signed so-called "360" deals -- albums, concert tours, merchandising, the works -- with four majors acts, as well as a less comprehensive deal with U2.

Joining Madonna, Jay-Z and Shakira in the Live Nation ranks is Nickelback, the band that updated 80s corporate rock for the 00s -- like anyone was begging for that to happen. In any case, you couldn't find a more emblematic band for a company that seems to be bent on world domination.