Entertainment Express: Pink Floyd, Transformers, Essence Fest, Seinfeld, Kara Walker

After a wonderful 4th of July weekend in NYC, it’s back to summer in the city programming, which still means anything can happen!

* Like Pink Floyd telling us they’re releasing a new album – the first in 20 years. Well, the news actually came via singer/guitarist David Gilmour’s wife’s Twitter status. Which is, I guess, the new press release of our modern times. The Endless River is due out in October, and is reported to be based on recording sessions that happened in 1994, when they last released The Division Bell. After all the years of acrimony and record-breaking, the group is still up for releasing more music – minus Roger Waters.

* Transformers 4 hasn’t thrilled critics, but it has audiences in China and the film’s producers, as a result. It’s on track to become the number 1 film there, surpassing Avatar. With China growing in importance as a market, this means more of these kinds of blockbuster sequels, prequels et al will no doubt be coming out. Meanwhile in another galaxy, on a higher plane, Star Wars has added two more actors – newcomers – to Episode 7.

* Prince was among the artists who headlined The Essence Fest, giving audiences there a thrill when he teamed up with Nile Rodgers for a cover of Bowie’s Let’s Dance. 

* The much-talked-about Kara Walker exhibition, A Subtlety, or giant “Sugar Baby,” had its last day this past Sunday in Brooklyn. I managed to see it before the installation is destroyed and the historical old sugar mill razed for a new development, and what a sight it was to behold.

* It seems like every day there is an anniversary to celebrate – 10 years of this or that movie or album. But there is one anniversary in particular that’s a delight to rejoice in. Seinfeld‘s 25 years of laughs and one-liners is being marked now, and every one has their own way of celebrating – here’s The Hollywood Reporters’.

[Pic: The Division Bell, Pink Floyd]