Langfield
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40
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www.langfieldentertainment.com
NEWSLETTER
Updated: April 28, 2005
It's Cinco
de Mayo next week**! I know it's not a huge celebration in
Canada but there are many places that it is celebrated with lots of charisma!
What we do celebrate here is Victoria Day Weekend
- only a few weeks away and we're over the hump and headed into summer.
Mark your calendars now for the first kick-off party which will be Irie's
Patio Opening party on Monday,
May 9th!
Check out the scoop on the much-anticipated spring music
series brought to you by Kayte Burgess
at The Richmond Lounge beginning on Wednesday, May 11th.
Chris Smith, one of Canada's
premiere music managers, graciously gave me his very first interview
for which I am eternally grateful - check out the whole story below!
So ladies, if you don't have plans on Saturday, April 30th,
stop by the Laser Rejuvenation Clinic for
the Client Appreciation Day and get a huge savings card - you could win a free
service! You can also learn about all the great services they
offer. Men are welcome too!
Check out the rest of the entertainment news below - MUSIC NEWS, FILM NEWS, TV NEWS, and OTHER NEWS! Have a read and a
scroll! This newsletter is designed to give you some updated
entertainment-related news and provide you with our upcoming event
listings. Welcome to those who are new members. Want your
events listed by date? Check out EVENTS.
::HOT EVENTS::
Kayte Burgess at The Richmond Lounge’s Wednesday Nights
Toronto welcomes back
to the stage Kayte Burgess for a
series of original showcases. Come and join us for this special series at The Richmond Lounge which will feature Kayte’s
newest material. Each week Kayte has
invited special guests to join her in giving us the smooth vibes of
spring. What a great line-up! Kayte's kickin' band
consists of Joel
Joseph, Adrian Eccleston, Roger Williams and Don Pham. Kayte has showcased her R&B and soul
singing talents for the likes of
Quincy Jones, Mariah Carey, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. She has natural and
magnetic presence and a true command of the stage. We hope to see you there!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11
KAYTE BURGESS AND SPECIAL
GUEST JENNIE LAWS
The Richmond Lounge
342 Richmond Street W. (entrance to the right of Fez Batik)
Doors open at 9:00 pm
Cover: $5.00
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18
KAYTE BURGESS AND SPECIAL
GUEST CHRIS ROUSE
The Richmond Lounge
342 Richmond Street W. (entrance to the right of Fez Batik)
Doors open at 9:00 pm
Cover: $5.00
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25
KAYTE BURGESS AND SPECIAL
GUEST DWAYNE MORGAN
The Richmond Lounge
342 Richmond Street W. (entrance to the right of Fez Batik)
Doors open at 9:00 pm
Cover: $5.00
::EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW::
Chris Smith Speaks Out
(Apr. 8, 2005) Chris Smith kept his word to me in granting me an
interview and today was that lucky day. Talk about an exclusive!
The office of the award-winning music manager, Chris
Smith, is unusually serene; including the
bubbling fountain perched on a coffee table as well as a trace of incense burning. How contrary to his
hectic schedule as he delicately juggles the musical careers of such artists as
Tamia, k-os,
Philosopher Kings, Nelly Furtado, jacksoul and Jelleestone, to name a
few. Seven of
his artists have risen to the platinum status in Canada, an unlikely feat in
the industry’s uncertain climate. Practically every wall space, table
space or ledge is covered by awards, plaques or trophies for his artists – a
testament to the success of Chris Smith
Management ("CSM").
Chris speaks about the ongoing structuring
of Chris Smith Management and BlackSmith
Entertainment, ideal candidates to retain formal management, the
role of a manager and finally, some of his latest projects, including Divine Brown, an artist that I ‘managed’
briefly in 2000-2001.
LE:How did your vision for Chris Smith Management get
shaped?
Chris: Hammond (my uncle) asked me to go on the road with him 15 years ago. I fell in love with
the music scene. My family is all in music. I took the business
route. I asked permission to branch off and build my own company. I
was fighting it out in New York and then I thought, why don’t I go back to
Canada and become somebody there?’ I realized once I became an established
player here, then the Major label presidents from Canada would help me develop
relationships with label presidents in the other major territories once I
established my identity as one of their platinum managers. So, that was
really the strategy
LE:What were the obstacles?
Chris:At that time, it was difficult to get the attention of labels for
music from Canadian urban or Jamaican artists. Reggae was a big thing for me then. Still
is. That’s why I started my first reggae label – FiWi Music (FiWi
meaning ‘Our”). Jarvis (Church)’s sister-in-law
convinced me to go out with her to see the Philosopher
Kings. That fateful date was the beginning of a very
successful management relationship with the Kings.
At that time, it was difficult to get the attention of labels for
music from Canadian urban or Jamaican artists. Reggae was a big thing for
me then. Still is. That’s why I started my first reggae label – FiWi Music (FiWi
meaning ‘Our”). Jarvis (Church)’s
sister-in-law convinced me to go out with her to see the Philosopher Kings. That fateful
date was the beginning of a very successful management relationship with the
Kings.
LE:When did Nelly (Furtado) come
along?
Chris:Rose, an intern [at BMG] at the time said ‘hey,
there’s a girl called Nelstar’.
Rose was persistent about Nelly and her persistence finally paid off - she said
she was going to perform at the Honey Jam. As
I was going to see Nelly, I invited
Jarvis along to check out some new talent.
So I didn’t discover her randomly - I was tipped
off by Rose, who’s in the group Lal.
That’s the story.
LE:What do you tell someone who wants to get involved in
the music industry as management?
Chris:First, you should take courses in marketing and sales
in a post-secondary business program . You know, it’s a business, so in
order to deal with record execs on a certain level, you have to have some
business understanding.
None of our artists on the roster is typical.
Each one is unique because that is what attracts me – someone unforgettable. I
don’t have any artists that are quite like any other.
The mandate for being a great manager is to first
understand business and how to find a unique product. Then comes
the Manager’s opportunity to bring a unique plan and team to each artist.
And each record release.
LE:What’s the important thing for artists to remember
before seeking out formal management?
Chris:First, you’ve got
to be a great independent artist. An artist with an independent mindset
makes for a great, extraordinary major label artist.
Of course you look for those things that can go right
into the marketplace versus taking 3-4 years. I am more inclined to step
to the talent that I can move right away. But if it’s really special and
needs development, that’s also something to consider – if you have the
resources and vision. You have to spend your time and money wisely.
LE:What are two pieces of advice that you would give to
Canadian urban artists?
Chris:Stop trying to sound like Americans!
LE:
Entertainment (the record
company) is now a full service label. What made that step necessary for
you?
Chris:[I thought] if [the labels] don’t know how to make a
record for someone like this, I do! Why am I teaching and showing and
persuading you [how to make certain kinds of records]? Why don’t I go out
and put my name on the line? Take the risk, and own more of the risk…and
the success.
When you have a great artist, they pretty much take
you there 99% of the way. When they’re special and motivated, you don’t
have to tell them anything. You just have to get their business sorted
out and keep them focused. I’m not trying to pretend that I make records
for artists. I just knew it was time for me to take greater
responsibility and get more directly connected to the creation of the entire
product.
LE:What’s been one of the highlights of your career since
the inception of CSM?
Chris:There are many. There
are so many moments flashing through – it’s not the Junos, it’s not the
Grammys, it’s not The Source Awards, it’s not the Billboard Awards … I’m not
there yet. I think I’m halfway up that mountain. Critical mass has
not happened. But every day brings a new high point.
LE:Where do you see room for improvement in the Canadian
music industry?
Chris:Get some of the old cats out and get some new kids in
there that know what’s up! And get kids that can make music that will
compete with the American artists that dominate the airwaves and retail..
LE:But not with an American sound?
Chris:Yeah, that’s right. They can sound close to it,
to be competitive, but they don’t have to try to be American, they
should bring their own mix of influences to their ‘sound’. Even though we
know the history of Blacks in Canada, we still look to America for the sound
and the template but I think we should draw more from our own mix of cultures
and influences.
LE:There is some buzz around Divine
Brown – what records has she broken with the release of ‘Old Skool Love’?
Chris:Most increased spins. “Old Skool Love debuts
on the mainstream AC audience tour at #19 and on the All
Format audience chart at #26. They are the best ever chart entries at
these formats for a Canadian debut single.” The buzz is really about ‘Wow, somebody made REAL soul music
that isn’t an American label!’
Divine is the best of contemporary soul. Meaning
that we’ve used a lot of hip hop beats on a lot of her tracks. The album
hits the streets May 24th, I believe.
LE:What’s in your CD player right now?
Chris:Only my artists and Sade.
Sade never leaves Changer #6. Other than that, I’ve got John
Legend, Flipside (from California) and all my own artists….who are ALWAYS in
heavy rotation at home and the office.
LE:What do you want people to remember you for? I’m not
just talking professionally, I’m talking personally as well.
Chris:I am proud of all of our accomplishments. But I
definitely don’t mind being known as the manager of Nelly Furtado or any other
artist on our roster that achieves a dream. I want to be known for the
thing that is most successful. A winning formula, and a roster full of
‘home-run’ hitters. If you talk to some people, I’m the manager of the Philosopher Kings, that’s all they know.
If you talk to my son’s friends, I’m the manager of Prozzak.
That’s what they remember.
LE:What would make your soul feel satisfied?
Chris:My only goal in life is to provide for my family
through helping others with their dreams.
LE:Do you think that marketing training is the difference
between a good manager and a poor one?
Chris:I’m only successful I think because I fail so
much. Like Babe Ruth who hit more homeruns than anyone else. What
very few people know is that he also struck out more times. So, I go up
to bat and I keep swinging. People have Plan B’s – I don’t have a Plan B.
LE:So, the plan is for success and that’s it.
Chris:I never liked the idea of drawing money out of the
bank machine, and worrying about the balance. (laughs) Success
means ever increasing financial and creative independence. For myself,
and hopefully for those around me. This is what drives me.
LE:Is there anything that you feel that people
misunderstand about you?
Chris:Yes. My commitment to elevating the Canadian
music scene and Canadian artists. All the people that are f**king up the business, need to get the f**k
out. Because they don’t understand the business and they’re too selfish
to ever help anyone but themselves. They don’t have the heart – they’re
in this for the wrong reasons.
LE:Are you talking artists or management?
Chris:Both! They both need to get out. There are
artists that need to be management and some management that really want to be artists
so they should both quit – take a time out, I call it.
Then all the racist people should relax and accept how
wrong their decisions are when they don’t understand an Artist’s background,
and their journey. They will overlook artistic brilliance because they
don’t understand the ‘voice’ , the personality. There’s still a lot of
racism. I think that we’re about 10 years from this being a little bit
better in terms of day to day decision-making at labels.
Canada or globally?
Chris:
thinking about Canada right
now. I’m here to prove that a Black artist just in Canada alone, can make
$1 million off touring. Just off touring. That’s my goal. A
Black artist – not a pop artist. I will manage or have on my label, the
first Black artist to make $1 million off touring in Canada in one year.
LE:
hope to get that call from you.
Many thanks to Chris for the opportunity to conduct
this interview and for giving us a glimpse in the world of music
management. For any more detailed information, please check www.chrissmithmanagement.com.
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::THOUGHT::
Motivational Note: Don't Get Even. Get Ahead!
By Willie Jolley, www.williejolley.com
Most people live by the motto,
"Don't Get Mad, Get Even!" I want to encourage you to think even
bigger and grander. Anger can create powerful emotive reactions, if you do not
control it. Either you control you anger or it will always control you!! In my
book, “A Setback Is A Setup For A Comeback,” I have a chapter entitled,
"Harness Your Anger. Use It, Don't Lose It!" In this chapter I share
that Anger is a natural reaction and can be a powerful motivator. Yet, you must
not let the response be undisciplined but rather when you get angry I suggest
that you use it as fuel for greater achievement and accomplishment. You must
realize that Anger is the word Danger, without the D, which stands for
Discipline. You will have times when you get hurt and angry but you must
maintain your composure and make a critical decision in the face of painful
situations. You must decide to develop and exert discipline and think before
acting. You must learn to harness that anger and use it to motivate you to
respond in a positive way rather than a negative way! Change your thinking from
"Getting Mad and Getting Even" to "Don't Get Even. Get
Ahead!" I believe that "Massive success is always the best
revenge!" Willie Jolley is an award winning speaker, singer and author.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Infamous Fiddler MacIsaac May
Have Lost His Instrument But Not His Lip
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Greg
Quill
(Apr. 20, 2005) Ashley MacIsaac has lost his fiddle. "I think I know where it is," he
says during a far-ranging rant against a capricious and predatory media,
corrupt politicians, gay club bouncers, "lazy white scum" street
beggars, the recording industry and a lover with whom he recently parted under
less than happy circumstances. "I
was at a party, with some Russian guys, a couple of nights ago. I think I left
it there ..." The missing
instrument is not the saddest thing in MacIsaac's sad world. It signifies a
more troubling turn of events: the thrill of playing music has abandoned him,
he confides. The magic that has sustained the Cape Breton fiddle prodigy's
astounding career for 20 of his 30 years is gone. "It has been seven years since I enjoyed being a musician. I
don't even listen to music, except in dance clubs and gay bars, where you can't
really avoid it. "It's just a job,
and such a job ... I can't enjoy it
now, except maybe when I can get to play my traditional pieces for really old
Cape Bretoners. The rest is about selling ... and I may as well be selling
cookies." He has just completed a
CD of original rock and dance songs that "don't contain a single note of
fiddle, only songs of a personal kind, mostly about this broken relationship,
but also about my own beliefs (and) my own culture, my politics. "I feel sorry someone will have to
listen to some of these songs and know what's behind them — things got nasty
towards the end ... But even if it's off someone else's pain, I'll make money
any way I can." Produced in
Toronto by John Kanakis, whose credits include Soul Decision, jackSoul, John
Allan Cameron and Chantal Kreviazuk, the recording will be released in coming
weeks on the independent Canadian label Linus Entertainment. MacIsaac will preview some of the material
at tomorrow night's performance at Club 279 above the Hard Rock Cafe at Dundas
Square. He says he will also play some traditional material on the instrument
that has earned him critical raves around the world — if he can remember where
he left it.
He's branching out in other ways. About when he lost contact with his
musical muse, he found another: painting.
His work is primitive stuff, at least as far as technique and style are
concerned, and the content was simplistic and inelegant to this reporter's
eyes. One has a black man riding a unicycle "to demonstrate his
willingness to work, unlike the lazy white scum who come up to you 20 times a
day asking for change and cigarettes when they could easily find jobs."
Another has Parliament Hill's Peace Tower "looking very phallic and threatening."
But like most folk art, it serves as honest commentary. Several of MacIsaac's
paintings will be on display during May at Just Desserts on Yonge St. at
Wellesley. "I have a larger
painting I couldn't bring with me," the fledgling artist explains. "It's
a version of The Last Supper, with
Osama bin Laden sitting in Jesus’ place, and the Queen, Yasser Arafat, Saddam
Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, George Bush Sr. and George W., Kim Jong-Il, the
Pope, Ariel Sharon and Ronald McDonald eating KFC out of buckets and dividing
up the world. Politics is second nature to me, being from Cape
Breton." Getting people to talk —
especially about him — has become MacIsaac's stock-in-trade. Stories about his
crack addiction, bankruptcy and eye-raising sexual peccadilloes involving
teenage boys, most of them aired in public with MacIsaac's willing
participation, have made him something of a social pariah. Creating controversy
has replaced music as his life's pursuit, to the detriment of his financial
prospects, he admits. "I've earned
six figures every year since I was 19, but it's getting harder to keep it up.
Every time the media hook into me, I lose work. The $15,000 gigs are falling
off." He says the media
deliberately distort his onstage antics — his 2000 alleged racist rap rant, and
his 2003 taunting of an Asian woman in an Ottawa audience with a SARS-related
slur — and misinterpreting his better intentions. "I was attempting to show in the most graphic way an artist
can how ugly racism is," he says of these incidents. "The woman in
Ottawa is a friend of mine — and she got the point."
A few weeks after the first event, he boasts, he was shaking then Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien's hand at a Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill. But even when he tries to set the record
straight (well, let's face it, there's nothing straight about MacIsaac) in his
ghost-written 2003 autobiography, Fiddling
With Disaster, and CBC's recent Life
and Times documentary, fate and corporate interests are aligned against
him, he claims. "The publisher
promised me final edit, but I never did get a chance to do that, and it all
came out wrong ... things I didn't say, would never say, got into that book.
And after the director of the documentary accused me on camera of putting on a
racist show, I refused to talk to him, so they never got close to the truth in
that film." He has equal disdain
for music execs. "I expect nothing from record companies except
indignation — and a big advance. I've had six record deals in 10 years, and all
they've ever been good for is the money I was able to get up front. I'm
indignant to them and they're indignant to me." His portrayal by the media, he says, has often been the cause of
death threats and violent confrontations. Early last week he was ejected from a
gay club through no fault of his own, then kicked in the back by a bouncer who
had recognized him. "But I had the
last laugh. The guy got up into my face, so close I was able to piss on his
leg." And so the rant continues,
without anger or bitterness. The Maritimes yarnspinner — cocksure, bemused,
charming — remains convinced he can blather his way into any listener's heart.
Bringing Rock To T.O.'s Airwaves Was A Struggle
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - William
Burrill
(Apr. 26, 2005) Radio history! That's what we're talking about.
And in doing so, let's not forget to sing a slightly belated "Happy
40th Birthday" to CHUM FM, a station that was
bought for a song back in 1964. Although whatever the song might be was hard to
figure out and whoever was listening to that song was even harder to figure,
since 40 years ago FM stations were considered a joke, being sold off for a
buck a piece down in the States.
Furthermore, the 1964-model FM radio receiver was a very rare gizmo
indeed and the 1964-vintage FM radio listener was the one being chased by the
men in white with the butterfly net.
It'll never last six months, the naysayers said. Fast-forward 40 years and not only do we
find CHUM 104.5 FM still alive and kicking, but what it is kicking is the
competition's butt. Stations that have been fighting CHUM FM tooth and nail
this year tried many neat tricks to draw listeners: The closest competitor in
the fall Bureau of Broadcast Measurement rating results (the godlike entity
that keeps score on who's listening to what in radio land) saw CHUM FM was
first in the basic 12-plus with an 8.5 score while EZ Rock (CJEZ 97.3) held
second with a close 7.8 rating, and former chart topper CHFI was still in the
race with a 6.9 BBM score. So, how did
CHUM AM — the No. 1 teeny bopper station in T.O. — come to acquire its historic
FM licence? To find out more, let's go
right to the source, the man who did the deed. We're talking about radio legend
Larry Solway, who among many, many other things, invented Talk Radio Toronto
Style.
While every other DJ in mid-1960s T.O. was busy being as polite as
possible to station listeners, there was Solway, refusing to get in a battle of
wits with unarmed listeners as he slammed down phone after phone. Take that, you moron. And take it they did indeed, for listeners loved
Solway. It was somehow cathartic in those stifled times to listen to
someone — "right there on the radio, Marge, I swear!" — call a
pompous dolt just that. And not just hang up. Slam dunk the receiver so the
caller would never hear out of that ear again.
But we digress. Sit back and listen now as Solway recalls the labour
pains of giving birth to our first FM station in Toronto exactly 40 years ago
(plus or minus a year). "I was in
Ottawa to make our original CHUM FM presentation for Fine Arts Radio,"
Solway recalls. "We were to be all-classical but we did often throw in,
for short bridges between longer pieces, a little jazz riff. The original promo
for the station — the heart of which was: `We will not be a source for the
ultimate tape recording.' Richard Thomas said that. We put together a great
group of talkative individuals: Peter Kay (who later anchored CJRT), Thomas,
Pete Griffin, later to become a hit with Geets on FM — but the last I heard is
off in the middle of nowhere, Smiths Falls I think, plodding along. We also introduced
one of Canada's best-known voice-over guys, Walter Soles. He came to me with a
great voice and horrible diction wanting to escape his father's insurance
business. "One year later I went
before the CRTC (or maybe it was still the BBG) to tell them we were going to
abandon our classical format. It wasn't working. We were going to be the first
station to play what we then called `underground' music. "No one was playing album cuts — the
Fuggs, Jefferson Airplane and all. We were pioneers. Only problem was, very few
people owned FM radios and those who had AM/FM sets hardly knew what to do to
tune in the FM side. We were desperate. Alan Waters wanted me to agree to
switch to elevator music like his friend Jeff Sterling did in Montreal. I
battled him. Persuaded him to give me six months to turn things around. I
called all the record guys in and told them we were their bread and butter and
we needed help. If they were selling albums, it was because of us. "In the first days, with Garry Ferrier
as P.D. we put on a big show. We brought (American rock radio legend and so
called "Fifth Beatle") Murray The K up from New York for the first
week. We got a lot of ink but it was a hard grind. I remember Waters worrying
that any audience CHUM FM got would be taken from CHUM AM. But we went with the
underground sound, the album cuts, and cool laid back DJs "The rest is ..." Radio history.
Elephant Man Drafts US Acts For New Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - The self-styled Energy God, Elephant Man
will release his fifth album Ova Di Wall this summer. The final track listing for the
VP Records set has not yet been finalized but according to Elephant Man, his
most recent chart toppers Bun Bad Mind, Chaka Chaka Dance and Father Elephant
will be among those making the final cut. ‘The album is going to be a surprise to everyone. I did about ten
exclusive tracks for the album. It’s going to be crazy. Each time I release an
album, I feel the vibes getting bigger and better,’ Elephant Man told this
column via telephone from the US earlier this week. Sesame Street, a
recent local chart hit is earmarked as the first international release from Ova
Di Wall. Elephant Man has been featured on a number of remixes with
international acts including Janet Jackson, Lil Jon, Will Smith and Missy
Elliott. He has enlisted the assistance of rhythm and blues singer Syleena
Johnson, Lil Jon, Pitt Bull, Will Smith and R. Kelly for his Ova Di Wall album.
‘We didn’t get the clearance from
Usher’s record company to use his track on the album, but we have some other
big names like Syleena Johnson, Will Smith, Pitt Bull, Lil Jon and R Kelly.
When you hear the stuff you are going to be surprised’, Elephant Man said
convincingly. Ova Di Wall is the follow up to Elephant Man’s 2003 set Good to
Go. The album which has sold more than 265,000 copies in the US according to
sales tracker Nielsen Sound Scan, featured the Billboard chart hits Pon di
River, Pon di Bank, Signal the Plane and Jook Gal (Wine Wine). Elephant Man is
currently winding up his Ova Di Wall Tour in the US. The tour began on March 22
and has made treks in areas including North and South Carolina, the East and
West Coast and even to the Midwest. The tour ends on April 24 in Tallahassee,
Florida. ‘The tour has been going very
good. I am really glad I came out on this tour, because the dancehall side of the
music did stay a way. I had to come out and liven up the fans. We have to get
back the dancehall into the mainstream’, said Elephant Man. He added ‘This tour
is different from the other tours that I have done. This particular tour has
shown me that the kind of work that we have put in is paying off. We have seen
old, young, Jamaicans, Yankees and white Americans at the shows each night. I
think the collaborations that I have done with the American artistes, have
opened up doors for the music, and as a result, my fan base has gotten wider.’
Grammy Heavyweights In Aruba For Soul Beach Music Fest
Source: Donna Adkins, 818-728-1687, imagepr818@aol.com;
Eileen Almonte, 212-868-1900 x233, ealmonte@quinnandco.com; Cristina Rivas,
212-868-1900 x224, crivas@quinnandco.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) Oranjestad, Aruba - The island where happiness
lives is proud to announce the fifth annual Soul Beach Music
Festival, which promises to deliver five days filled with pulsating
rhythms and grooves! The Soul Beach
Music Festival transforms the hottest spot in the Caribbean, Aruba, into a
music lovers playground this Memorial Day weekend (May 25-30) featuring
performances by numerous Grammy Award winners and a fun-filled night of comedy.
With the mesmerizing beats of the great Lauryn Hill, to the magical harmonies
of hit-makers Boyz II Men, to the lyrical genius of Wyclef Jean, the island
paradise serves up an unforgettable musical extravaganza! The mix of musical
talents on hand for the fifth annual Soul Beach Music Festival includes
multiple Grammy Awards winners, chart-topping musical history makers and some
of the most critically acclaimed artists in the recording industry. On
Saturday, May 28, R&B and hip-hop legend, Wyclef Jean, performs alongside
United We Funk featuring the Dazz Band, Lakeside and ConFunkShun. Both Lauryn
Hill and Boyz II Men hit the stage on Sunday night, May 29. Groundbreaker,
Lauryn Hill, touted as the mother of hip-hop invention, was the first woman
ever to win five Grammys at the 1999 Grammy Awards, including top prize for
Album of the Year. Not only have musical icons, Boyz II Men, been called the most
successful R&B group of all time, but they also have been involved in three
of the longest running number-one pop singles in history blending their unique
and remarkable harmonies. An evening of
comedy on Friday, May 27 will add to the excitement of the spectacular weekend
with fantastically funny performances by comedians Mike Epps, Alex Thomas,
Brandon T. Jackson and Horace HB Sanders. Aruba-devotees will enjoy a night
full of knee-slapping live comedy as the appetizer followed by two incredible
nights of star-studded musical events hosted by Doug E Fresh and featuring
special guest D.J. Biz Markie. Aruba is
proud to host the fifth annual Soul Beach Music Festival as this years line-up
is truly exceptional, said Minister of Tourism and Transportation Edison
Briesen. It has been a pleasure working with Mark Adkins and his production
team on the four previous festivals and with the overwhelming success of Soul
Beach in the past, the island is gearing up for another stellar event this
Memorial Day weekend. "It's been
truly incredible to watch the Soul Beach Music Festival grow and receive such a
great response from both artists and fans," said Mark Adkins, producer of
Soul Beach Music Festival. What started out as an idea to share the show with a
large audience has evolved into an exclusive Caribbean destination attraction
for music lovers.
Tickets prices are $65 per concert or $180 for a three-night
package (plus applicable service charges), and can be purchased through Alken
Tours at 800-221-6686 or Liberty Travel at 1.888.218.8200, or online at www.soulbeach.net.
Air-inclusive hotel packages, including Soul Beach tickets, are also available
via the above travel retailers. For
more information on the fifth annual Soul Beach Music Festival in Aruba please
call 1.800.TO.ARUBA or visit www.aruba.com or www.soulbeachmusicfestival.com
Aruba, where happiness lives, is truly a vacationer's paradise.
Located only two-and-a-half hours by air from Miami and four hours from New
York City, the island is ideally situated outside the hurricane belt and boasts
year-round cooling trade winds and perfect weather with average annual temperatures
of 82 degrees Fahrenheit and less than 20 inches of rainfall per year. Aruba serves up 27 luxurious hotels/resorts,
championship golf courses, sumptuous spas, vibrant casinos, extraordinary
international cuisine, exclusive shops and boutiques, exciting land and water
activities, unique cultural to-dos, world-famous music festivals and events and
more. Raking up the accolades, Aruba is consistently recognized as one of the
top honeymoon hot spots in the world and was the first destination ever to offer
an Online Bridal Registry which allows couples to register for honeymoon
components online. The island is also the perfect family escape. Arubas Palm
Beach was recently ranked the number five most family-friendly beach in the
world by the Travel Channels Worlds Best Beaches. Additionally, Aruba offers an
extraordinary line-up of One Cool programs that meet the growing demand for
diverse vacations. The One Cool programs offer thousands of dollars in savings
on a bevy of attractions and services throughout the year. Programs include the One Cool Culinary and
Culture, One Cool Adventure and Nightlife, One Cool Golf and Spa, One Cool
Family Vacation and One Cool Honeymoon. The backdrop of a pristine tropical
escape coupled with the unforgettable hospitality of the islands people keep
Arubas first-time guests delighted and its repeat visitor rate at 40%, the
highest of any Caribbean destination.
For more information on planning a trip to Aruba, contact the
Aruba Tourism Authority at 1-800-TO-ARUBA or visit www.aruba.com Host sponsors of the Soul Beach Music
Festival are the Aruba Tourism Authority, the Aruba Hotel and Tourism
Association (AHATA), Microsoft Corporation, Black Enterprise and American
Airlines. Sponsored locally by: SETAR, De Palm Tours and TEXACO. Primary Host Hotels for the Soul Beach Music
Festival are Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino, Radisson Aruba Beach Resort
& Casino, Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Aruba and the Wyndham Aruba Beach
Resort, Spa & Casino, Secondary Host Hotels Sponsors are the Hyatt Regency
Aruba and Divi Resorts.
Sanctuary Urban Sets Sizzling
Spring/Summer Release Schedule
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) New York, NY – Sanctuary Urban
Records Group president Mathew Knowles has unveiled a powerhouse line-up of record releases that
position the imprint as a leader in urban music. With a bevy of upcoming releases scheduled, including a major
film soundtrack and an album of new music from the late Rick James, Sanctuary
Urban Records Group is thriving under the leadership of Mathew Knowles.
The label is steadily accomplishing the goals of Sanctuary Group CEO Merck
Mercuriadis in developing an urban brand that matches the worldwide influence
and success of the company’s long tenure in rock and pop music. “As Sanctuary
forges ahead into the urban arena, there is no other executive that I would
want as a partner. Mathew Knowles was handpicked to develop an urban brand and
has quickly established a world class roster of recording artists, artist
managers and management clients that I don’t believe any other executive could
have done, especially in such a short amount of time,” says Mercuriadis.
“We have enormous respect for Mathew, the team he has put in place and the
talent that he has brought to this company. We are excited about
Sanctuary Urban’s very impressive release schedule. ” Some of Sanctuary Urban’s
2005 releases include albums from RAY J (Raydiation, 6/28); PAPA REU (Life & Music,
6/28); KEITH SWEAT (Grown
& Sexy; 7/26) and the soundtrack for
the Fox Films movie ROLL BOUNCE (8/23). The company will also release new music from
R&B chanteuse SUNSHINE ANDERSON, and
an album of new music from RICK JAMES. The
Rick James album will be released in conjunction with the late singer’s estate,
and features a duet with his daughter Ty James.
This album is planned for an August 2 release. “Sanctuary Urban Records Group is growing
faster than even I imagined, and I think BIG. Though we are growing
quickly, we have not forsaken quality or creativity when it comes to signing
artists to this label. Our artist roster is exceptionally talented, and
our upcoming releases solidify Sanctuary Urban as a label that takes music
seriously and handles the business of music smartly. That philosophy will
fuel our success as I continue to build Sanctuary Urban into a dominant brand,”
says Knowles.
About
Music World/Sanctuary Urban Group, Inc.
Source:
Sanctuary Urban - Kymberlee Norsworthy; Kymberlee.Norsworthy@sanctuarygroup.com
Building
Brands You Know
Music World/Sanctuary Urban Holding Group,
Inc. is the leading music company that markets urban music and entertainment to
consumers worldwide with multiple-platform content including recorded music and
audio-visual products such as DVDs. The company includes Sanctuary Urban
Records Group (SURG); Sanctuary Urban Management; URBANE, a merchandising
division; a booking agency and a publishing company. Between its label and
management arms, Sanctuary Urban is home to world-class artist and management
client rosters that transcend demographic borders. SURG recording artists
include Jon B; Bizarre; Chaka Khan; De La Soul; The O’Jays; Keith Sweat; Glenn Lewis; Sunshine Anderson; Papa Reu; Mason Rd. and Ray
J. The Sanctuary Urban artist management roster includes Beyonce;
D12; Bizarre (of D12); Play; Sleepy Brown; Kelis; Destiny’s Child; Mario; EVE;
Floetry; RJ Helton; Darwin Hobbs; Iceberg; J Young; Mary Mary; Nelly; Kelly
Rowland; Solange; Morgan Smith; Angie Stone; St. Lunatics; Styles P; Carl
Thomas; Ted & Sheri; Trinitee 5:7; Michelle Williams, Youngbloodz and
Xzibit. URBANE handles merchandising for tours and develops promotional items
for corporations. URBANE most recently handled all of the merchandising
for the R. Kelly/Jay-Z Best of Both Worlds Tour. The booking division
handles performance opportunities for the majority of the management roster. MusicWorld/Sanctuary Urban Holding Group,
Inc. is a division of UK listed The Sanctuary Group, the world’s largest
independent music company and the world’s only 360 degree music company.
Bikini-Clad Sisters Deserve A
Break
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Ashante
Infantry, Entertainment Reporter
(Apr. 23, 2005) Hip hop used to get blamed for inciting
violence; then came concerns that it was promoting materialism. Now the bad rap
includes the genre's depiction of women.
T&A has long been a staple of music videos, but these days the
overabundance of scantily clad beauties promoting hip hop is in the
spotlight. With its January issue,
leading African American women's magazine Essence
launched a yearlong "Take Back the Music" initiative to explore how
black women are portrayed in popular music and the media. "In videos we are bikini-clad sisters
gyrating around fully clothed grinning brothers like Vegas strippers on
meth," wrote the editors.
"The damage of this imbalanced portrayal of black women is
impossible to measure. An entire generation of black girls are being raised on
these narrow images. "And as the
messages and images are broadcast globally, they have become the lens through
which the world now sees us. This cannot continue." Breakin'
In: The Making of a Hip Hop Dancer, the directorial debut of Toronto TV
journalist Elizabeth St. Philip, sheds light on some of those "bikini-clad
sisters." The hour-long film,
which premieres at Hot Docs on Monday, follows three 20-something Torontonians
for a year as they compete for roles.
"I watch music videos and I've always really been curious about who
these women are," said the 30-something St. Philip, medical producer for
CTV. "I've heard a lot of other
people talk about what they think of women in music videos, but I'd never heard
their perspectives." She scouted
music-video auditions and talent agencies and spoke to industry insiders to
find her subjects: Linda, a single mom who lives in Regent Park; Michelle, a
kinesiology student; and Tracey, a professionally trained dancer. "I had preconceptions about the
industry," said the director. "I didn't know very much about it. I
found out that there are a lot of different women doing this. A lot of them are
very intelligent. They have a goal of getting into the entertainment industry and
this is their stepping-stone. And that was interesting and refreshing to find
out." Still, the film shows the
sleazy side of auditions run by leering men and unveils the women's personal
hardships.
"Michelle is the good girl and the perfect daughter and is the one
who was the most conflicted about the whole industry and whether she wanted to
be in it; and she has a lot of other options," explained St. Philip. "Tracey is just like an Olympic athlete
whose mind is always focused on the final outcome. She was always careful about
her choices and always chose roles where she would be remembered her for her
talent. "Linda has a big struggle,
because there's not a lot of money and her goals are so big — she wants to be a
superstar. She has the most at stake, because she's investing in this one dream
and it's a one in a million shot. She's very willing and open to using her
sexuality to get attention. She thinks, `What do I have that I can use to get
ahead?' "That's her reality and
anybody watching the documentary can take away what they want from that and
decide for themselves." Breakin'
In: The Making of a Hip Hop Dancer screens
Monday at 9:15 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema and April 30th at 9 p.m. at the ROM. It
also airs May 24 on CBC's Rough Cuts.
EWF Architects Form Devoted Spirits For
‘A Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire’
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 27, 2005) Discouraged by a barren and vast
wasteland of funk-soul? The elements have returned. Three former principles of
the best-selling R&B band in the world have teamed to recreate the sound
that is Earth, Wind & Fire.
Guitarist/vocalist Sheldon Reynolds and keyboardists Larry Dunn and Morris
Pleasure, who have each spent a decade with EWF have united as Devoted Spirits
to record “A Tribute To Earth, Wind, & Fire.” The
21-song masterpiece is currently in stores and has been heralded as the best
EWF offering since the original group. The disc features rearranged EWF hit
tracks, but this ain’t your ordinary tribute disc. Not only do Reynolds, Dunn,
and Morris have their hands in the composition, but according to their press
release, Devoted Spirits was joined in the studio by an impressive cast of
musicians; most noteworthy was EWF founder and leader Maurice White, who gave
his blessings on the project. Other legendary musicians contributing to
the album include Norman Brown, Gerald Albright, Sounds of Blackness, original
EWF guitarist Johnny Graham, Ronnie Laws, Bobby Watson (Rufus), and Teri Lynn
Carrington. “The idea was that we wanted to just capture the feel.” Reynolds
says about the experience of the album. “There was a certain spontaneity and
chemistry. A lot of times you have these great players on a basketball teams
and baseball teams that shine, but there’s no team so they never win a
championship. Whereas when you have that chemistry between the players and
there’s the sharing of the wealth, it leads to a greater success. In the
original Earth, Wind and Fire, that’s what you had. You had the chemistry going
on, they loved what they did and it showed.” Music fans have already commented
that Devoted Spirits has captured the fire of EWF – perhaps even better than
the current line-up of the famed band, which features the familiar front man
Philip Bailey and Verdine White on bass. “With Larry, who I call the original
devoted spirit,” Reynolds continued, “who helped invent that sound, that
unexplainable sound, chord structure and synth lines he was playing – it’s
something you can’t put your finger on exactly what it is, but you know that’s
what makes it works.”
Works it does. The early response from critics has been
positive. As a matter of fact some involved in both this project and the
current touring EWF group have said that Devoted Spirit taps into the soul of
the mega-group better than those carrying on the name. “When we first took the
project to [Thump Records] Jay King, he said that and had actually told that to
one of the current members.” Dunn reveals. The former elemental keyboardist
says that Devoted Spirits is taking the EWF tracks to their original state.
“When I got into it, we had the likes of Charles Stepney who worked very
closely with Maurice [White] and was really like my mentor. Just one of the
greatest keyboard players/arrangers ever. And even Verdine White mentioned that
if Stepney had lived, he would’ve been bigger than Quincy (Jones). Don’t get me
wrong, Quincy is phenomenal, but Charles was a real keyboard player and was
just wonderful.” For his part in raving about Devoted Spirits, King says he was
just being honest that the “Tribute” tracks were the “best Earth, Wind and Fire
stuff” out. “Larry called me and said
‘Sheldon has this project and he wanted to know if you were interested in it,
he want to talk to you about.’ But I though a tribute album might be corny. I
asked Larry what he thought about it and he said it was good and that Sheldon
spent a lot of time with it. When I got it, I couldn’t believe it. I said,
‘This is so good. This is like Maurice and Philip again. They’re back.’ It was
like they rearranged these great hits. It wasn’t like they remade songs, it was
like hearing a new record. When I heard ‘Sunshine,’ I said, ‘This sounds better
than the original.’ There is just not a bad record on here.”
Could this lead to a battle of the bands? Maybe, but while Devoted Spirits modestly
accepts the cheers of critics and fans, the group boasts that they may have one
up on any other musicians doing the funk fusion that EWF ignited in the ‘70s.
“I’m very happy that they’re out there performing because it keeps the legacy
alive,” Dunn kindly says. “But to be frank about it, there are a lot of new
kids and old alike that are buying the CDs, but their buying the vintage stuff.
Live, it’s kind of impossible for them to pull that off because there’s only
like a few members left – Philip [Bailey] singing, Verdine playing bass. When
we were there, there were 14 people on that stage,” Dunn says, calling out
celebrated elementeers Michael Harris, Al McKay, Andrew Woolfolk, Johnny
Graham, The Phenix Horns. “We had been rehearsing and playing that stuff since
’71. So by ’79 it was just on automatic pilot…writing was just second nature,
we just knew the direction." In addition, King says, that while he is
particularly forthcoming, he wasn’t trying to start something between the two
funk factions. “I wasn’t saying it to be facetious or to be mean-spirited. I
was saying it out of all honesty. This was the best I had heard of Earth, Wind
and Fire. I get to hear Earth, Wind and Fire again.” Nonetheless the direction
Dunn spoke of seemingly took a turn as the band headed into the ‘80s. “ I think
there was too much emphasis on us crossing over, whereas in my mind, the thing
that had already crossed us over – or presented us or made us available – to
more ethnic groups was the fact that we were true to the original band idea,
which was the rock, soul, Afro-centered, and jazz, and I think it got away from
us. The touring group now only has a few original members so it’s kind of hard
to replicate that,” he says. Dunn and co. believe that they’ve grasped the
essence of the band from really paying attention when EWF was in the studio and
on the stage.
“We’re not trying to direct it toward a certain
audience. We’re making Earth, Wind and Fire music and we’re making what the
fans love. If you start second guessing and trying to structure it, it won’t
sound like it.” Reynolds says that he, Dunn and Morris Pleasure talk about
EWF’s intricacies. “We talk about what Al played or what Johnny was playing and
how they played off each other, the drums and the rhythms. So when we were
putting it all down, we remembered that. It wasn’t about laying specific parts
that had these robotic placements. It was about the feeling. You can’t always
explain it. It just sort of happens. Devoted Spirit's "A Tribute to Earth,
Wind & Fire" is available on Thump Records Classic R&B and is in
association with Experience Hendrix, LLC. Looking to shop and compare? If
you're in the LA area tomorrow night, April 28 at B.B. King's at the Universal
City Walk, you see Devoted Spirits perform. In the meantime, the Philip Bailey
and Verdine White-led Earth, Wind & Fire heads out on a summer tour with
rock/pop band Chicago beginning in June.
Meet Leela James:
Soulstress. Prodigy. Radical. Phenom
Source:
ICED Media Tynicka Battle tynicka@icedmedia.com
(Apr. 27, 2005) For music lovers, the industry's pledge
of artistic revolution has become a pipe dream. Fortunately, every so often the
universe births an anomaly--a virtuoso whose essence defies categorization and
whose artistry serves as a barometer for musical greatness. She is Leela James. Soulstress. Prodigy. Radical.
Phenom. Indeed,
Lady James represents many things, but what she'll never be mistaken for is an
ingénue. One listen to her nostalgic debut, A Change Is Gonna Come (named after
Sam Cooke's 1964 hit), and it's evident that James is a pupil and conduit of
classic soul. "You
can't fake or buy soul," says James. "It's either inside of you or it
isn't." Invoking the fiery spirits of Tina Turner and Parliment-Funkadelic
with the soulful timbre of mavens such as Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Aretha
Franklin and Mahalia Jackson, James embarks on a melodic pilgrimage offering
her special brand of "back porch" soul. "I call what I do 'back
porch' soul because it reminds me of being home and listening to my daddy's
record collection." A Change Is
Gonna Come ingeniously serves as a personal covenant about relationship do’s
and don'ts. From the exalting tribute "Music," which begs the pardon
for today's generic music to the confrontational "Ghetto," warning an
unrequited love to stop his advances before she loses her cool to the funky
"Rain," to the legendary title track, the songstress delivers a blueprint
survival guide for the strong and broken-hearted. However, it's panes such as
the defiant "My Joy," melancholy "MisTreating Me,"
remorseful "When You Love Somebody" and the gutsy "Didn't
I" that James bellows with haunting conviction. "I can't sing about things I can't relate to because it
wouldn't be sincere. I have to feel the song," she says. Surprisingly, the
Los Angeles songbird's emotive vocals and ardent lyrics belie her youth and
diminutive appearance. "Because I have a high-pitched speaking voice and I
don't have a 'big mama' soul look, people are always surprised when they hear
me sing." Perhaps, James' vocal prowess is a culmination of years of
performing on the indie circuit and opening for R&B dignitaries such as
Stephanie Mills. Allow Lady James to hip the world to her soul and funk
inspirations and they'll discover that her back porch soul diet was served up
in church pews and family functions.
"I was raised on gospel, blues and funk,"
explains James. "My father had a huge record collection--B.B. King, Al
Green, Marvin Gaye--that I listened to, so I'm simply a product of my
environment." Although the former
Cal State business student developed a cult following during a yearlong tour,
she's certain to harvest a healthier crop of loyalists with the help of some
notable producers. Forming a musical alliance with Commissioner Gordon, the
album's executive producer, who also worked on Lauryn Hill's Miseducation,
James handpicked her dream team. Enlisting the talent of renowned chairmans-of-the-soundboard
such as Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, Wyclef Jean, James Poyser, Chucky Thompson
and Mtume, James served as co-writer for the project. "It's great when others can lend their talents to help guide
you toward your vision," says James. "All of these men have such an
incredible history of music, so it was a pleasure to collaborate with
them."
Judging by Lady James' fervour and indelible talent,
the industry has been blessed with another dignitary--one who not only evokes
soul, but lives and understands it.
"I want my music to be more than just good memories," James
says. "Bringing back lyrics that touch people hearts and melodies that
stick to their ribs, is a change I believe everyone is ready for." www.leelajames.com
'Shakin’,' Not Stirred: Jazz Artist Lisa Deveaux Releases
Debut CD
Source: www.LisaDeveaux.com
(Apr. 25, 2005)*Color her enterprising, disciplined, creative, driven, breathtakingly
beautiful and stunningly unique. All her life, Chicago-native Lisa Deveaux
has been a scrumptious, spice-fortified dish in possession of all these
essential ingredients. They have afforded her an enviable style of living and
the independence that comes with dancing to the beat of one’s own drum. Each of
these marvellous attributes is revealed in the singer/songwriter's luscious
debut CD, "Shakin' That Jazz," a breezy and romantic song cycle of
tropical soul/pop that's as jazzy as it is funky as it is classy. Lisa's sexy,
crystalline soprano/alto voice rides the waves of the melodies and grooves with
all-natural grace and ease. She holds the honour of recording the duet "By
Design" with the peerless Carl Anderson in what was among his final
recordings. She co-composed four songs: the effervescently swingin'
"Shakin' That Jazz" (a sly yet sweet flip of an infamous Prince
lyric), as well as the evocative love songs "Lazy Monday Afternoon,"
"First Time" and "You Are The One." She also lends her vibe
to fresh arrangements of two timeless classics: "I Wanna Be Where You
Are" (composed by Leon Ware), and a very special version of Carole King's
1971 classic "So Far Away" that Lisa dedicates to the memory of her
father. Some of the West Coast's finest musicians (saxophonist Everette Harp,
pianist Bobby Lyle, violinist Karen Briggs, percussionist Munyungo Jackson and
Lakeside's Stephen Shockley) contribute to the earthy magic that is Deveaux.
And each song is filled with sensuality, joy, and the God-given right to claim
a life enriched with one bold goal: "Let's Have It All!" This has
resulted in two of Lisa’s songs being included in the internationally acclaimed
Café de Soul compilation Vol. 5. The inclusion of her song “Second Nature,” has
made it the most buzzed about volume in the series thus far, and afforded Lisa
international touring opportunities.
It was in the wings watching her
father, actor Don X. Williams, soak up the validation of adoring fans that Lisa
first sensed that the bright lights was where she belonged. "People are
waiting in line to talk to my daddy," Lisa beamed with pride. "I want
some of that!" Her mom promptly involved Lisa in a multiplicity of
performance arenas: dance, piano and voice. At 13, Lisa joined a local theatre
repertory group where she performed numbers from musicals such as Purlie, Don't
Bother Me, I Can't Cope and The Wiz. "I was shy growing up," Lisa
confesses. "The stage helped me become more expressive, and singing became
the way for me to say what I wanted to say and feel comfortable." While
Lisa honed her artistic crafts at Florida A&M University and the
prestigious Herbert Burghoff Studios in New York, she was ever mindful of
having something solid to fall back on. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree
in entertainment management and musical theatre from Columbia College in
Chicago, she cashed in on her fashion forward knack for styling by studying at
Chicago's Pivot Point International School of Cosmetology. After numerous
awards, she opened her own salon, Lisa & Co. The flexibility of not being tied down to a 9-to-5 allowed Lisa
to frequent the piano bars and supper clubs of the music-rich Windy City where
she "sat in" with numerous artists. Among the first, at the Cotton
Club, was smooth jazz impresario Norman Connors, who assured Lisa that if she
was serious about music, she should move to Los Angeles. While navigating the
treacherous waters of Hollywood - networking and showcasing her vocal talents -
Lisa wisely took her back-up skills to the next level, specializing in the styling
of celebrities such as Diana Ross, Bernie Mac and Wanda Sykes. As successful
and potentially complacent as she became, she never deviated from her musical
pursuits, landing background singer gigs with now-departed legends Barry White
(who emphasized strict professionalism) and Phyllis Hyman (who became Lisa's
mentor). The only factor keeping Lisa from an overdue spotlight of her own
was...her self. Two important people would help her scale that hurdle. First
was actress/fitness trainer A.J. Johnson, who helped chisel petite Lisa toward
the dazzling full potential of the African American, Native American, Creole
and Czech beauty that was within her all along. "I had to get my self
image and self esteem together," Lisa shares. "A.J. whipped me into
the best shape I have ever been in. Now, on stage, I don't feel like I have to
hold anything back."
Shortly after while doing make
up for Chris Rock on the set of Head of State in Washington D.C., Lisa bumped
into an old friend from Chicago, film director Robert Townsend. He'd achieved
the dreams they both talked about years before, and asked Lisa where she was
with hers. Robert told me my lack of achieving my goal was from excuses I'd
made for myself. So he gave me a step-by-step plan. For every assignment he handed
me during the day, I'd have to call or fax over my progress that night. After
two weeks, he said, 'Now, don't call me until you're inviting me to your CD
release concert.' Nobody had ever done that for me before. The dream was always
in me. Knowing the steps is what I lacked." "The Townsend
Method" resulted in Lisa self-financing her debut album, "Shakin'
That Jazz." One listen and it is clear that she is striving for the
boundless artistry and success of her favourite singers Nancy Wilson, Sarah
Vaughan, Sade, Natalie Cole…and Phyllis Hyman. Spreading love, optimism and
bright aural sunshine, self-proclaimed "Island Girl" Lisa Deveaux is
a radiant poster woman for making one's dream reality. The bonus is, along with
the captivating picture, you get a dreamy CD you won't want to remove from your
sound system.
Cassidy: Problem Child, Trouble
Man
Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com -
By Poet
The music industry now boasts a
rabid dog-eat-rabid dog mentality and with every passing day, new artists
emerge on the road to riches like commuters in rush hour traffic. What's an
artist to do to set himself apart from the rest? If you’re Cassidy, you
could make people take notice by eating an already repped and made MC alive, or
you could just thank Hov himself mid-bar for blessing you with a hot line to
make one hell of a hot song, or you could just sit down with AllHipHop.com and
bless the masses with the truth to surviving in a game where the only rules are
the ones you make yourself. Cassidy picked option D) all of the above. The first MC of significance to take the mic
and run on Swizz Beats’ Full Surface label has gotten much attention for being
among many things, a battle rapper - a mixtape prince who’s still brushing the
dirt off his shoulders from singles gone wild. Now as he attempts to put his
street creditability back on solid foundation, while ducking the blows of his
current opponent "the sophomore jinx." Still as cocky as ever,
creative control in hand with the mind and grind of a true hustler, Cassidy
spits new meaning to by any means necessary.
AllHipHop.com: What is an actual hustler to you?
Cassidy:
Anybody that can come up with a plan and execute it. To get at a dollar, make
some money, or not even money just to generate, some type of profit. Like if
somebody’s hustle is to pickpocket people and you’re walking down the street,
and they pickpocket you, you might not approve of it. But if you hungry and you
starving, and somebody teach you the same trick, you might go and pickpocket
somebody else. So whether you approve of it or not, it just depends on the
situation.
AllHipHop.com: So what about somebody’s whose hustle is bootlegging your CD’s?
Cassidy:
Um, that's an honest hustle. There's nothing wrong wit’ that.
AllHipHop.com: But you’re an artist, and that’s money you’re not seeing, and you’re
a hustler.
Cassidy:
I think the artist got the beef with the wrong people. The people that the
artist should have the beef with, it’s the people that distribute they music -
you know, that put it in the places that it’s suppose to be, those is the
people that is responsible for the music getting lost. The bootleggers is just
you know grinding just trying to get at a dollar, if there’s an opportunity on
making some money off bringing the music to the streets first, that’s what they
going to do. That’s just like common sense. You can’t really knock them for
that. The same way it could hurt you, it could help you too. You know, you
might see a fake Polo shirt or a fake Gucci shirt that may not be authentic.
You can really tell a bootleg. It might sound almost the same in the CD player,
but you can really tell that it’s a bootleg so the quality different. You get
what you pay for. Some people like to buy the bootleg and hear what they hear
at first and then they might go buy the real album. Sometimes a person could
buy the bootleg and play it for a whole lot of people and promote your album
and make people go buy the real thing. Before I had a album out, I was on mixtapes
and on underground CD’s and that's how I got my name known. If it wasn’t for
the mixtapes and the bootleggers, I would have never had a name from the
beginning.
AllHipHop.com: Let’s move into the album. You caught a lot of flack for the last
one, Split Personality.
Cassidy:
I want to say that I’m spitting a more conscious message. ‘Cause like, if you
got to make people understand you, then you got to make people get into the
mood. You want them to be into the first album. I drop “Hotel,” and then "It
Didn’t Get No Better." See, I didn’t want my first album being a
girl-dedicated type of album. That’s what it was ‘cause that’s the way you
presented it to the world - like you drop two songs dedicated to the girls, and
that’s your single so n***as are going to automatically think you that type of
artist. I didn’t want to hit them with to many conscious songs you know ‘cause
they then they might think that you just a conscious rapper, and get it mixed
up. I feel you should bring out a balance out some type of way shouldn’t be
lopsided.
AllHipHop.com: Is that why we’re seeing Nas and Quan on the new one instead of R.
Kelly and Snoop?
Cassidy:
That song came out, it wasn’t a planned out thing. Nas and them came to the
studio and we wasn’t expecting to do a song. I was just playing some music off
my album, and they was feeling it. Nas, I did a song with him before but you
know what I’m saying, like Nas is one of the best ever so, you know if you get
in there and do something with him it’s gonna be crazy. And then Quan being the
new n***a that he trying to bring out, it just basically was just like a good
situation.
AllHipHip.com: What about the rest of Personality Change?
Cassidy:
My album is crack. I mean all the way through - 12 songs, one bonus, I’m saying
all singles all of them could me singles. I got another sexy joint that the
ladies, even the young crowd, is going to feel it. I definitely wanted to put
Raekwon on the album, ‘cause I wanted a classic cats. Like Nas came out with
classics so I put him on my album, and Mary J. Blige she came out with a
classic so I put her on the album. I got a song called “Six Minutes” where its
just spitting no hook, no chorus, just n***as spitting 40 [or] 50 bar verses
with me, Fabolous, Lil’ Wayne. It just depends on which way you want go with
it, got a song called “C Bionics” where I event my own language. It’s like,
even though you don’t know the language, it’s easy to understand. It’s like
flipping the word Snoop might say “for shizzle my nizzle” and you might
know they talking about.
AllHipHop.com: Give us a quick example.
Cassidy:
You say like I hoped out the cribdot / The hard tididop / I got the
chain the ranges and the wididioch / Hurt niggas eye from the size of my
rididiox / By the bar blow jars of the pidot / And I’m with my dog so we all
take shidiots
AllHipHop.com: Why’d you do this?
Cassidy:
I don’t want n***as running with my flow before the album drop that’s there
none of them words is, that’s just like just an example of how you can flip it.
I did three different styles of that, I did three different ways of flipping
the language up on each verse and I called it “C Bionics” instead of Ebonics. I
called it c bionics because my name begins with a C, and I did the thing Nas
and Quan. That’s like a deep thinking joint vibe out you know on the highway
just in the zone joint.
AllHipHop.com: People have away confused you of talking highly of your self with you
being a cocky arrogant.
Cassidy:
Yeah, there's a thin line between being cocky, arrogant, and being confident.
The reason I like [Allen Iverson] is ‘cause he like the underdog, he so little
- he so small didn’t have the start of a lot of these other basketball cats had
but it always seem like he go out there and drop like thirty forty points, and
it’s like he letting you know he's going to do it. He's so cocky and confident.
You definitely got to be the most confident in your s**t, like if you don’t
believe in it then nobody else is going to believe in it. When I was signed to
Ruff Ryders, I used to do little s**t for Eve, like ya know what I saying
everybody that was around, I ain’t one of them brother's that tried to get
credit off that neither. And that’s all apart of growing and stepping so I
don’t really want to think like battling n***as like besides Freeway.
AllHipHop.com: You didn’t want people to know about the Freeway situation?
Cassidy:
Not saying that I want them to, but I ain’t want to stop n***as from making
they money , and stop n***as from eating because of that.
AllHipHop.com: But battling is apart of the game though…
Cassidy:
True but, you need to stick and stand behind whatever you promote yourself to
be. Anybody I battle, I’m not going to feel - like a boxer, once you get in the
ring you going to try and knock a n***a the f**k out. But what if a n***a was
making millions and millions of dollars a fight, and you knock a n***a out so
crazy that he can’t even get no money to fight no more? You might just feel bad
like damn this n***a used to be popping, and now he can’t even get no money
from this s**t just because he wanted to battle me.
AllHipHop.com: Die-hard fans say that you declined a battle with Murda Mook. Is
there any particular reason why?
Cassidy:
I never declined a battle with Murda Mook. I just never got involved with that
kid because he’s a nobody to me. He might have fans on the street and be on the
verge of doing his thing but I already did my thing. I already battle thousands
of cats in the street. He’s taking the same path I took years ago. For me to
battle him wouldn’t benefit me. No one even knows who Murder Mook is. Maybe a
couple of hood people who watch the DVDs and things like that but the majority
of people in the world don’t know who that kid is. For me to stoop down and get
involved and go back and forth with him and lose focus on what I should really
be focused on isn’t even worth it.
AllHipHop.com: He once recorded a song called "F**k Cassidy." Have you
even addressed him at all?
Cassidy:
I did address the kid on the SMACK DVD. I let him and the streets know what it
was so if you were a loyal fan and you saw the SMACK DVD, I answered the
questions to all of that. I don’t feel right doing it on my album or the radio
that’s going to make someone else more popular. I’d rather do it for a DVD that’s
made for the streets anyway. Ever since then, the kid’s been pretty quiet so I
guess that he realized that there’s a better route to become successful than to
try and come through me.
AllHipHop.com: Do you believe that you're capable of ending somebody’s reign?
Cassidy:
Oh, all day. Like, I already ended a career, when n***as find out the battles
that I was in. Them n***a’s careers is already ended. There are n***as
that will ever get signed because I done already made a [mockery] of them.
AllHipHop.com: And we don’t get to know who?
Cassidy:
But see, Certain people know. And when it’s the right time, it’ll come out.
Queen
Latifah: Shop Talk
Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com
- By Octavia Bostick
Forget
the fact that Queen Latifah hasn't
done a Hip-Hop album since 1998’s Order in the Court, the fact remains
that Queen is most assuredly Hip-Hop royalty. From the time she dropped her
debut album fifteen years ago, Dana Owens has been putting “Ladies First” by
repping to the fullest. Constantly
challenging herself to reinvent herself the Queen’s fearless ambition has her
living out loud from music, television, film, fashion and even literature,
Coupled with the passion and commitment that has allowed her to introduce
Hip-Hop to previously unfamiliar territory, like the world of the Oscar
nomination, or even the face of Cover Girl. Nothing is out of reach for the
cultural icon. Just released, Beauty
Shop has the Queen sporting a good look as the producer of hilarious
spin-off. The Queen let her hair down as she spoke to a room full of media at
movie’s pre-screening. Her standout cameo in Barbershop 2, laid the
groundwork for her character Gina to fly solo. AllHipHop.com was among the
roundtable in our discussion of the film, the music, and all things of the
empire, perhaps better called The Queendom.
AllHipHop.com: So, the ladies want to know, did you pick
Djimon to be your love interest?
Queen Latifah: Yes, there aren’t but so many men who can
play my love interest and really deliver. You gotta be tall, you gotta have
presence, you gotta be able to hold on to a woman my size, you can’t be all
timid you gotta get nice grip. [laughs]
AllHipHop.com: LL Cool J is slated to be your next love
interest is that correct?
Queen Latifah: Yep, I'm running out of dudes.
AllHipHop.com: The cast said they wanted to be in the
movie because of you. What do you say to that?
Queen Latifah: You know when they say that, it trips me
out. That’s one of those pinch yourself moments, ya know. I think that's cool.
I don't know how that makes me feel: proud, happy, it sure makes casting
easier. When people want to be in it, I don't have to beg and bribe. I can just
say let’s make a deal and lets go. But I think that's why the energy on the set
was so high. The vibe was just right, everyone clicked everyone got along. I
really loved coming to work everyday.
AllHipHop.com: Talk about staying true to the game as
far as having the same people with you that you've had from day one, such
Shakim Compere, and having made such strides in other arenas.
Queen Latifah: I would not have made it through this far
without my partner, and we're each other’s rock, sword, and shield, so to
speak. Outside of God, it's my parents and us. You need people that can be
honest with you and that are gonna stand by you, regardless as to whether your
hot or not, and now all of this stuff is getting bigger and things are flowing
up here. But it was a climb, and there have a couple of straight drop outs you
know where things got tough. We sacrificed a lot to keep things going and we've
always been loyal to each other. You gotta have people you trust. I feel for
people who switch managers and agents. I have had to work this agency a lot. I
had to work William Morris a lot, because it wasn't always like that. [At one
point], I was like you know what keep that agent, give me that junior agent
that's hungry and don't know that much, but she wants to work. Now we've come
up together. This business is funny. People turn on you. In Hollywood, when it
gets boring, they’re on to the next and that's why I’m not just acting. I got
to produce. I have to create business, get behind the camera that way. I am
controlling my destiny a little better. But I can't do it without my team. It's
no point; it wouldn't even be fun anymore. If I couldn't do it with them, then
I’m just like, “Aight, I'm outta here. I'm gonna go start an adventure tour and
run a riverboat somewhere.” [laughs]
AllHipHop.com: What's going on with Flava Unit right
now?
Queen Latifah: We're finishing up a new deal, so we're
about to put some more music out.
AllHipHop.com: Hip-Hop?
Queen Latifah: Whatever's hot.
AllHipHop.com: Are you as an artist, going to be putting
out another Hip-Hop album soon?
Queen Latifah: I have one done already. It's been done
for a while; I have to do some new records, huh? But I just had to put that
other album out first you know, I just had to slide on over to that side for a
minute, and just let the singing breathe for a minute because that's another
side of who I am. That's why I called it the Dana Owens Album. It's
really just been a countdown to that album for most of my life; it's always
been inside me.
AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like since you got your start
in Hip-Hop, that the Hip-Hop community feels abandoned by you, or do you care?
Queen Latifah: I think some people feel that way, and I
definitely do care. I feel bad, because people are like, “Man, you gotta put a
Hip-Hop album out. We need you.” [I] Gotta pick things, I gotta focus on things
when I do it. I can't just do it, throw it out there and forget about it. I
gotta push it and that requires energy, and I’m not trying to fight with
anybody or beg anybody to play my record, either. You feel it or you don't, and
hopefully you feel it.
AllHipHop.com: There's a part in the movie where your
shop gets destroyed and you say how you can never catch a break and you want to
give up. What situations in your career parallel that and what motivated you to
push on?
Queen Latifah: There's been a couple of times when
[Shakim and I] both felt like that. Usually, maybe it's a finance thing and
we're putting all this money into this one thing and waiting for it to please
pay off. Or you bide your time, and hustle, and meet with people, and it's like
oh great I want to do this deal I'm ready for it to happen and then something
happens, and the deal falls through. Or you see people take your ideas and
reinvent them, and sell them and that can be a bummer but luckily there's a
wealth of ideas in here and that ain't good Karma. Usually, Shakim and I aren't
down at the same time. He's down, then I'm up and I'm gonna pick him up ,and
vice versa. So we're pretty good at balancing each other’s mentality. Sometimes
we just have to vent and let it off, and come back and fight another day. Just
like the people in the shop come through for Gina, that's how we are with each
other.
AllHipHop.com: Have you spoken to Kim since she was
convicted?
Queen Latifah: I tried to call her, but her voicemail
was full. But I’m gonna reach out again just to let her know I support her. You
know, because she's standing up for people who ain't even standing up for her,
and getting convicted. I really hope they don't give her any jail time, but this
kind of stuff sometimes it requires you to give people time, and I just don't
think justice would be served putting that girl in jail. I think lessons are
learned – “Okay, point taken: don't lie and don’t stand up for people who ain’t
standing up for you.” This is a lesson to the whole hood, I mean we all live by
this code, but everybody doesn’t go by it. People are always giving you up.
Sometimes it wasn’t even worth it, but I just want her to know I support her
because I love her to death. She's one of the sweetest people in the world and
she's been the same person from the first time I met her, til’ now, in terms of
how she's always treated me, and talked to me. She’s always been cool people,
so I really feel bad to see something like this happens - as if she hasn't been
through enough in her whole life and career already.
AllHipHop.com: Any chance on you writing another book?
Queen Latifah: I'm supposed to write a children’s book
so that'll be the next venture.
AllHipHop.com: You have an attitude in life that you
tell people how it is, and they respect you because of it. Where does that come
from?
Queen Latifah: I have no idea. I've always kind of
voiced my own opinion on things. My parents never talked to us like children.
They always talked to us like small adults. We were like little people. I was
reading the newspaper at an early age, and discussing current events. Those
were the types of things that went on in my house growing up. I remember when
Anwar Sadat was assassinated, and I was only like eight years old and I cried
like a baby because I watched this whole peace process and that’s when I was
really getting introduced to this world, and really getting a sense of how this
world is. So I've always had an opinion on things, and when I have a strong
opinion or a belief, I've always been raised to stand up for what I believe in.
I'm not always right, no one is, but it's just how I do things.
Jermaine
Dupri Preps Young, Fly & Flashy, Taps Todd 1 To Head TV/Film Division
Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com
- By Nolan Strong
(Apr.
24, 2005) So
So Def CEO Jermaine Dupri continues
to build his brand, with the release of a new compilation of southern artists
and the formation of So So Def Entertainment, a new company that will lead the
mogul’s foray into television. Jermaine
Dupri Presents…Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1, is a new
collection of up-and-coming So So Def artists paired with nationally known
southern Hip-Hop artists. “Young, Fly & Flashy is the definition
of myself and the lifestyle of So So Def,” Dupri explained. “So So Def has had
a lot of success with compilations over the years when Lil Jon was my A&R
guy. He created the compilation series, but really focused more on bass music. Young,
Fly & Flashy is more about today's hip-hop sound. It's heavy on the So
So Def branding so people will know and recognize that So So Def is still a
strong presence in the streets - we'll be here another 20 years."
In
addition to the new So So Def artists, the album features appearances by
J-Kwon, Stat Quo, Pastor Troy, KP & Envy and Bun B.
Young
Fly & Flashy…Vol.1 hits stores July 19.
In
related news, Dupri has announced the formation of So So Def Entertainment,
which will serve as the film and television arm for the So So Def brand.
Todd
“Todd-1” Brown, who helped produced such seminal shows as "Yo! MTV
Raps!," "Rap City," "Source All Access," Interscope’s
“The Next Episode” and others, will lead the division.
"I
am excited about Todd-1 joining the So Def family, I have watched the moves
that he has made throughout his career and we welcome his talents here,"
Dupri said. According to Dupri, the new company has
already developed a special that will soon debut on BET titled “Welcome to
Atlanta.” Additionally, So So Def Entertainment is
producing an untitled special for VH1 and will soon release new projects
spanning television, DVD home movies and theatrical films.
"I
look forward to the opportunity of expanding on such a successful brand and
taking it to the world of film and television which is my specialty,"
Todd-1 said.
Multi-Platinum Artists The Black Eyed
Peas Release Monkey Business On Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Source: Universal Music Canada
April 22, 2005 -
Global multi-platinum, A&M/Universal Music recording artists The Black Eyed Peas have completed their
eagerly anticipated fourth album, entitled Monkey Business - the follow
up to their 2003 breakthrough release, Elephunk which sold over 7.5 million
copies worldwide and close to 700,000 copies (and counting) in Canada. Led by
its first single, "Don't Phunk With My Heart" and its
accompanying video directed by The Malloys (Black Eyed Peas' "Shut
Up," Foo Fighters, blink-182, Ben Harper), Monkey Business arrives
in stores on Tuesday, June 7th.
In support of Monkey Business, The Black Eyed Peas
launch their North American tour in Atlanta on June 11. The Peas will be on the
road across the continent through August. Featuring 16 tracks, including
collaborations with Godfather of Soul James Brown ("They Don't Want
Music"), Justin Timberlake ("My Style") and Sting
("Union"), Monkey Business spans a hip-hop spectrum from pop
to surf to soul. Recorded in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, London,
Miami and even the Peas' tour bus and a Japanese bullet train, the album was
produced largely by will.i.am.
After two critically acclaimed albums (1998's Behind The Front
and 2000's Bridging The Gap), The Black Eyed Peas broke through with
Elephunk. Released in summer 2003, Elephunk spent 95 weeks on the Billboard 200
chart. The success of Elephunk was propelled by three #1 hit singles,
"Where Is The Love?" "Hey Mama" and "Let's Get
It Started". "Let's Get It Started" won a 2005 Grammy for Best
Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group and nominations for Record of the Year
and Best Rap Song. "Hey Mama" was also nominated in the
latter category and its video snagged an MTV Video Music Award.
"Where Is The Love?" was honored with 2004 Grammy nominations for Record
of the Year and Best Rap/Song Collaboration. The Black Eyed Peas also took
home awards from Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, Brazil and
Australia, along with statuettes from MTV Europe, MTV Asia and MTV India, and a
pair of nominations for the U.K.'s prestigious Brit Awards. A major national
Canadian Tour is set to be announced in early May.
Nicole C. Mullen Wins 2 Dove Awards For
'Everyday People' CD
Source:
Bill Carpenter / carpenterbill@mac.com / www.capitalentertainment.com
(Apr.
26, 2005) *Christian pop star Nicole C.
Mullen's first CD to crossover to the
urban/black music market, “Everyday People,”
has won two Dove Awards, the Christian music industry's answer to the Grammy,
in the prestigious categories of Female Vocalist of the Year (only the 2nd
black woman to do so) and Urban Album of the Year. A wife and mother of three, Mullen's soulful ballad “Without You”
and the funky “Message for Ya,” a bass-heavy collaboration with funk legend
Bootsy Collins, have been receiving mad love at urban radio stations. Mullen
will perform both songs on the weekly musical TV series, “Soul Train” on
Saturday, May 14, 2005 (check local TV listings for airtimes or log on at www.soultrain.com).
The CD "Everyday People" was nominated for a Grammy award as Best Pop
Contemporary Gospel album in February 2005.
As further sign of her acceptance in the urban market, Mullen is taping
an upcoming TV episode of BET's “Lift Every Voice.” She will also be seen in an
upcoming issue of Hype Hair magazine (featuring a great new photo shoot) and a
beauty layout for Right On! Magazine. But, for Mullen, the most important thing
is the message in her music. "The
songs on this project were inspired by my fans," says Mullen. "The
stories that they have shared with me have left a lasting mark on my life.
These songs are about real-life issues and struggles, and the hope that Jesus
brings to all of our lives." Among the everyday songs are: “Bye Bye
Brianna” - about a 7 year old blind girl who drowned to death, “Valorie” -
about domestic violence, “It's About Us” - a love song and “Gon Be Free” which
highlights the plight of the Troski slaves in Ghana.
Tessa Souter --
Showcasing the Sweet Rhythm of Her Music
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By
Deardra Shuler
(Apr.
26, 2005) My early morning call rallied British singer, Tessa Souter, who had spent a late night performing her varied
repertoire of jazz, British, Latin, folk and middle eastern songs at Sweet
Rhythm, a club located in the West Village. It is this repertoire and the
soulful way she sings her songs that makes Souter unique as a vocal
stylist. Born of English and Trinidadian parents, in many ways, Tessa, is
a musical griot. A melodious provocateur of lyrics and harmony, Ms.
Souter is quite accomplished and adept at shaping a song through her precise
sense of timing and interpretation. “I
lived in London until I was 10 and then I moved to the countryside” remarked
Tessa. “London was busy and noisy but I had a hankering for the country
so when we moved to Devon, I found it rather peaceful. I didn’t know my
birth father as a child so I didn’t realize I was black. I just looked
like I had a tan. I thought I was my stepfather’s child and he was
white. I didn’t find out I was interracial until I was an adult. I
mean, as a child, the other children would ask why I was brown and call me
names so I did start to wonder why I didn’t look like the rest of the
family. I thought I looked rather Indian, actually. At 12-years of
age, I heard that my stepfather was not my real father but it wasn’t until my
late 20s that I found out who my father was and that he was black, Trinidadian and
a singer. I actually found his name in the telephone directory by
accident. I called and then I met him. He was happy to see me but it was
a bit odd because he had a family. I was a secret from his family for
awhile but later I did meet them,” reflected Tessa. Tessa is a late bloomer in
the music business, having only started to perform professionally 6 years ago
when she arrived in New York. “I didn’t know anything about the music
scene in England previously. But now I do perform in London’s Pizza
Express on Dean Street. In London, you don’t trip over musicians like you
do in America. There are a couple of Jazz Clubs in Central London:
“London’s Pizza Express and “Ronnie Scotts.” Yet, the jazz scene is
weirdly more happening in London. Perhaps because its more concentrated
there. There are cabaret clubs there like Pizza on the Park. These
clubs are packed and the streets are full of young people who go to see
jazz. Whereas, in New York, it seems the jazz clubs have more difficulty
attracting crowds.
Perhaps
its because there is such a wide variety of things to do in New York” pondered
the attractive songstress. Tessa has recently released a CD entitled “Listen
Love,” a recording that reveals her flair for jazz, flamenco, Middle Eastern
and Brazilian music. It opens with “The Peacocks” by Jimmy Roles and
Norma Winstone. Also featured is Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” which Souter
does through a Middle Eastern approach. Sounding much like a female
Pharaoh Sanders one is not surprised to see that she has put her own spin on
“The Creator Has A Master Plan” which is also among the cache of songs on her
CD. “I listened a lot to folk music in Devon. The folk music I listened
to sounded very Celtic. The Moorish culture back in the 15th
century had a great deal of influence on Celtic music, thus also had a huge
influence on flamenco. In New York, I live in a Dominican neighbourhood
and the music there is very Latin but in England wherever I would be, I would
hear in music the flavour of a lot of cultures, therefore I was predisposed to
Indian, Brazilian music and jazz. I listened to a lot of Antonio Carlos
Jobim, Wayne Shorter, Sarah Vaughn, etc.” claims the singer. It is also
evident, when listening to Tessa Souter’s music that she is influenced by Jon
Lucien. “A Nigerian friend of mine used to have a record store and he
turned me on to a Jon Lucien record. I played it all the time and in
fact, I used his song, “So This Is Love” on my CD. The song is
rather romantic and I find that I am a romantic type of person. You tend
to like what you are. Jon Lucien is a very romantic person. I
actually met him and I noticed how romantic he is as a person. I saw that
he loves with passion not like an ordinary kind of love. For example, one
day his wife broke her leg and Lucien, was so affected by it, he nearly passed
out. That demonstrated how connected he is to his wife. That is love with
great passion” marvelled the eclectic warbler.
“You Don’t Have to Believe” is one of Tessa’s own compositions and
reflects the romance that is very much part of her nature. “I think music
is such an essential thing. If you strip it down to your real self, than
things will come up about yourself that you may not have even realized. I
imagine that what I am is a huge mix of different cultures and that tends to
come out through my music. My father was Trinidadian, but I suspect he
has Indian in his ethnicity as well. I have an Indian look and so does one of
my sisters, who is my father’s daughter.”
Prior
to establishing a career as a singer, Souter studied English Literature at
London University. After college, she got a job editing reports and
proposals and then began working for Parents Magazine. She became a
freelance copy editor and eventually wrote articles for Elle and Vogue
magazine. “I came to America on holiday after being invited by someone I
had interviewed. I decided to vacation a month in America. I went
to Boston and then visited San Francisco. Once, I got to San Francisco, I
just stayed. I cleaned houses for a while until my writing took over and
just never went back to England. I stayed in San Francisco for 4 years
and then moved to New York where I have been living for 8 years.” Tessa has
written a book “Anything I Can Do.” It is a guide to making your creative
dream come true. “Anything to do with the Arts is in this book,” remarked
the unique performer. “My book, for example might say: “OK, so you want
to be a writer -- so go ahead and write.” My book tells you how to go
about it. I have chapters on how to get started, I have a money chapter, and I
give real practical steps on how to accomplish your goals in life, no matter
what it is, you want to do. For example, I always liked to sing but I got
married very young and had a son so then I was just a mother for a time instead
of being a singer. When my son grew up, I became free to do my own
thing. With some encouragement from a boyfriend, I started going to open
mikes and my singing took off from there. My first performance in New York
was in 1999. I started singing in a few clubs and really, that is how I
truly learned to sing. I didn’t even know 10 songs originally but as I
continued to sing, I realized I had to diversify and learn more songs so I
picked songs that influenced my life and therefore those songs became my
message. And now, music has become my life.” explained the ever evolving
performer. “I can’t bear someone telling me how to sing or what to
sing. I remember once being at a concert where BB King was performing.
There were thousands of people at the concert and BB was chatting with the
audience before each song. People were truly enjoying listening to BB
sing and chat. Then suddenly, out of the thousands that were listening
and enjoying BB, some idiot screamed out to BB: “Just shut up and sing!”
You could see that everyone in the audience was very embarrassed by this.
Then, BB said: “Ok, then!” And, for the rest of the gig, he just sang and
didn’t talk again. I learned a lesson from that. Although, it was
quite natural for BB King to react as he did, I saw how BB had allowed one
person to spoil his performance for everyone else by acquiescing to that one
person. Something like that happened at one of my performances,
too. Everyone was having a great time and then I saw this couple who sat
with bland faces, arms crossed, showing no reaction whatsoever. It threw me
off. I became concerned about and preoccupied with what that couple
thought of my singing because I wanted that couple to like me. Now,
however, I realize you cannot please everyone nor will I ever be able to please
everyone. I have since learned that there is room for imperfection.
I think in the end you have to do the thing that gives you the most joy” stated
Souter of her learned lesson.”
Ms. Souter who performs often at Sweet Rhythm also sings at The 55 Bar
every month. She will appear at The 55 Bar on May 13th. Interested
parties can learn more about Tessa Souter by logging onto her website at: www.tessasouter.com.
Faith
Evans, Lexi, Tweet
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com - By Mr. Jawn Murray
(Apr.
26, 2005) Jawn’s Juice columnist Jawn Murray has three new CDs featured in the Juicy Picks section of
his April 26 column:
Faith Evans:
On her first effort sans P. Diddy’s
Bad Boy Entertainment (a long overdue departure) Faith Evans proves that
freedom certainly enhances creativity. The vocal powerhouse continues to
channel Karen Clark-Sheard (one
of her inspirations) on this disk of ’70s-fused rhythm and blues gems.
“Again” has already proved to be a hit at radio and tracks such as “Jealous,”
“Get Over You” and “I Don’t Need It” could easily follow suit. Many are
raving about the Chucky Thompson-produced
“Mesmerized” (it’s even Evans’ favourite cut on the album), but the Carvin Haggins
and Ivan Barias-helmed
“Stop n Go” showcases the singer at her best. The First Lady is a must-have!
Lexi: After years of recording R&B-laced
contemporary gospel CDs, Lexi has finally found her niche with A Praise in the Valley—a solid live
recording of both praise and worship and Sunday morning suited material.
Lexi brings forth the complete church experience on her latest release, and
songs such as “I’ve Been Redeemed,” “He Got Up” and “Testify” cause the music
listening encounter to become interactive. “My Heart Belongs to You”
featuring Nicole Binion is the
highlight of the CD, and this beautiful worship ballad should impact greatly at
both gospel and contemporary Christian radio formats. The dynamic Kim Burrell (“Not Until”) and William “Praise Is What I Do” Murphy
(“Wherever the Lord Is”) also appear on the CD. Cop this
release!
Tweet: It’s hard to imagine
Tweet topping her debut Southern
Hummingbird; but after one listen to It’s Me Again, you’ll agree she has. The disk showcases
the softer side of Tweet. While she may still be “Smoking Cigarettes” and
having man problems, the singer evokes happiness through songs like “Two of
Us" where she shared vocals with her teenage daughter Tashawna.
Though Missy Elliott’s rambling
is annoying on "Turn Da Lights Off," the song is still a catchy club
banger as soon as the pudgy producer shuts up. “Sports, Sex & Food”
is clever and fun, as is the subtle “Cab Ride,” which incorporates the theme
song of Taxi. Tweet
shines on “My Man,” a power ballad that has the singer abandoning her normally
breathy vocal styling for a more gospel-styled showing. Other highlights
include “Small Change,” “I’m Done” and “Could It Be” featuring Rell. The
second time is just as good if not better than the first for
Tweet. To see the rest of Jawn s Juice, go to: HERE!
Fans Back Jann
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star
(Apr. 24, 2005)
It is a testament to Jann Arden's
enduring fan base that the Calgary singer/songwriter can enter the chart a nose
behind Mariah Carey, without anything like the equivalent fanfare. Despite its
eponymous title, this is Arden's eight album in a dozen years, dating back to
her 1993 debut Time for Mercy. As broken-hearted as her songs often are,
Arden is as beloved for her disarming lack of pretension and self-deprecating
sense of humour as she is for her confessional songwriting. No doubt those
attributes will be in ample display during Arden's upcoming Live at the
Rehearsal Hall session on Bravo!, taped earlier this month and airing May 3.
The disc, recorded with long-time collaborator Russ Broom and featuring such
titles as "Life is Sweet" "How Good Things Are" and "A
Perfect Day," has been hailed as the most optimistic of Arden's career.
Joni Mitchell Heading Home
Source: Canadian Press
(Apr. 21, 2005) Regina — Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell will be returning
to her home town of Saskatoon in May to take part in the Lieutenant Governor's
Centennial Gala, it was announced Wednesday. “This is a rare opportunity to pay
tribute to one of Saskatchewan's and indeed, Canada's great artists,” said
Lt.-Gov. Lynda Haverstock. “She has never been paid homage in the presence of
her mom and dad in her community of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, by any of us, so
this is really going to be very, very special.” Ms. Mitchell joined Wednesday's
news conference via a pre-recorded video message. “As my contribution to the
Centennial, I've created an album called Songs of a Prairie Girl,” said Ms.
Mitchell. “I rounded up from my whole repertoire the songs that made references
to Saskatchewan.” Asked about rumours that Ms. Mitchell is suffering from nodules
on her throat, Haverstock couldn't tell reporters whether the singer would be
performing at the gala. “We're going to utilize an eclectic approach to paying
tribute to her and we're hoping that she'll be engaged in some ways other than
just sitting with her mom and dad.” Brent Butt, creator and star of the
Saskatchewan-made television series, Corner Gas, will be the master of
ceremonies for the event.
Elton
John To Marry Canadian Partner
Source: Associated
Press
(Apr.
25, 2005) London — Pop singer Elton John will marry his long-time partner David Furnish
later this year or early next year, his publicist said Monday. Britain's The
Mirror tabloid newspaper reported Monday that John, 58, would marry his
42-year-old Canadian partner before Christmas. Laws recognizing homosexual
civil partnerships come into effect in Britain in Dec. 5. John's spokesman Gary
Furrow told British Broadcasting Corp. the nuptials may be postponed until
2006. "A date and a venue has not been set, so it may not be until next
year," Furrow told the BBC. John was reported in The Mirror as saying the
wedding could be held in Windsor, west of London, where Prince Charles and the
Duchess of Cornwall were married earlier this month. "We definitely want
to do it about the middle of December, probably in Windsor," John was
quoted as saying. "But there will be no honeymoon. I'm on tour." The
pair may be among the first British gay couples to take advantage of new laws
recognizing gay civil partnerships. The law, which is only applicable to
homosexuals and not as an alternative to heterosexual marriage, grants lesbian
and gay couples the same tax, pension and inheritance status as married
couples. John has publicly credited the Toronto-born Furnish, his partner for
11 years, with helping him to overcome addictions to alcohol and drugs.
Jeff
Healey CD Wins Jazz Award In Toronto
Excerpt
from The Globe and Mail - By Mark Miller
(Apr.
26, 2005) Toronto -- Jeff Healey's Adventures in Jazzland
was honoured as "best recorded performance of traditional/classic
jazz" at the 34th-annual Canadian Collectors' Congress held in Toronto on
the weekend. The CD is Healey's second in a jazz setting; the Toronto singer,
guitarist and trumpeter, 39, enjoyed international success as a blues-rock
musician in the late 1980s. Other finalists for the award, which is devoted
exclusively to Canadian recordings, were Club Django and singer Terra Hazelton
from Toronto, Vancouver's Louisiana Joymakers from Vancouver and Yukon pianist
Grant Simpson. The award was introduced in 1999 by the Canadian Collectors'
Congress, an international forum for record collectors, researchers and fans
devoted to the early styles of jazz.
‘Emancipation’
Day For Mariah
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com
(Apr.
21, 2005) *Mariah Carey had enough muscle behind her first Island Def Jam
album “The Emancipation of Mimi” to free 50 Cent from his six-week reign atop
The Billboard 200. Mariah’s eighth studio CD sold 404,000 in its first week on
shelves in the U.S., putting her well ahead of 50’s “The Massacre,” which drops
to No. 3 this week on sales of 140,000. New albums from
heavy metal group Mudvayne and alt rock outfit Garbage debuted at No. 2 and No.
4 respectively, while Faith Evans’ “The First Lady” (Capitol) drops from 2-5
this week with 63,000 units sold. The 18th instalment of "NOW That's What
I Call Music!" dips 4-6, Beck's "Guero" (Interscope) slides 3-7
and Green Day's "American Idiot" (Reprise) falls 7-8. Gwen
Stefani's "Love, Angel, Music, Baby" (Interscope) jumps back into the
top 10 with a 15-9 move, and The Killers' "Hot Fuss" (Island) also
rebounds, moving 11-10.
Todd-1
To Head So-So Def Entertainment
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com
(Apr.
21, 2005) *Producer Todd Brown, known
in hip hop circles as Todd-1, has teamed up with Jermaine Dupri to form So So
Def Entertainment. which will serve as the film and television division of the
successful brand. "I
am excited about Todd-1 joining the So So Def family, I have watched the moves
that he has made throughout his career and we welcome his talents here,"
says Dupri, whose many hats includes his new position as President of the Urban
Music Division for Virgin Records.
Todd-1's production credits include shows such as "Yo! MTV
Raps," "Rap City," "Source All Access,"
"Interscope Present's - The Next Episode" and "5 Deadly
videos" on the Playboy channel.
In his new role at So So Def Entertainment, Todd-1 will create and
oversee all new projects pertaining to television, movies, and DVD's. The
first project under the new venture is "Welcome to Atlanta," a
documentary for BET that features some of Atlanta's finest from music,
television and sports. "I welcome
the challenge of working with So So Def Entertainment," says Todd-1.
"Jermaine has one of the most successful brands in hip hop, and I look
forward to the opportunity of expanding on such a successful brand and taking
it to the world of film and television which is my specialty."
Ice Cube Working On New Album, Preparing 'XXX'
Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com
- By Tiffany Hamilton
(Apr.
20, 2005) While
Ice Cube is keeping busy in the film
world, the acclaimed writer/director/actor isn’t neglecting his rap career and
recently divulged details of a new album.
"I am planning to release the single by early summer " Ice
Cube told AllHipHop.com. “Once I put the finishes on it, I plan to drop the
album by late summer." In addition
to the album, Cube continues his foray into Hollywood and as previously
reported, is in negotiations to star in a remake of the 1948 comedy Mr.
Blandings Builds His Dream House. “I don't really want to disclose anything
right now, I am really superstitious and I want to wait until the deal is
final, Cube said of the movie. Cube’s superstitious aside, the rapper’s last
project, Are We There Yet grossed over $81 million dollars as of April
15th, while his other films, such as the Barbershop and Friday
series of movies have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office
and through DVD sales. Cube’s latest
movie, XXX State of the Union, is the sequel to the 2001 film XXX
which starred action hero Vin Diesel. Diesel and original director Rob Cohen
opted out of the sequel, but stayed on as executive producers. Cube was selected as a replacement for
Diesel since both have deals with the studio, which produced the original
version and the sequel. “I am honoured
that they even considered me, to star in a film of this calibre is definitely a
dream come true,” Cube said of the action flick. “If they decide to do a XXX
3 depending on how this does, I am definitely interested in playing the
part again." XXX: State of the Union hits theatres worldwide April
29th.
The Ave Magazine Launches Open
Mic Showcase
Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com -
By Jayson Rodriguez
(Apr. 21, 2005) Brooklyn-based Hip-Hop magazine The Ave is
launching a monthly artist showcase tonight (4/21) titled “Mic Check,” which
will feature performances by up and coming rappers, singers and spoken word
artists, as well as a fashion show. The
event, according to Editor-In-Chief Anslem Samuel, is way for the magazine to
connect to their readers on a more intimate level. “The showcase is a definite extension of The Ave brand and a
direct connection with our readership,” Samuel told AllHipHop.com. “Being that
we area a quarterly publication, it is extremely important that we keep the
name out not just in the industry but with the actual readers themselves. “And
this showcase helps us tremendously in doing that,” he asserted. “Mic Check” will be held at the Cherry
Lounge in Harlem. New York, which isn’t coincidental, according to The Ave’s
Director of Operations, Kaajal Shah.
“The Cherry Lounge in Harlem is the perfect venue for “Mic Check,” Shah
said. “Harlem has always been the home of black artistic expression, and with
“Mic Check” we hope to build on that tradition. The showcase will serve as a
launching pad for both emerging artists and unique forms of expression.” “Our
goal was to bring the Prospect Park section of The Ave to life by creating a
venue for up and coming, and signed artists alike, to try something new and fresh,”
added Ben Leff, co-CEO of The Ave.
Comedian Kenny Williams will host “Mic Check,” which is being held in
conjunction with BrownIzes Ent. and Wordstock Inc. “Mic Check,” begins tonight
at 8PM, with an open bar sponsored by Navan beginning at 7PM. Admission is $10.
Omarion, Bow Wow & Marques
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) *Omarion,
Bow Wow, Ciara and Marques Houston will team for a summer tour,
which kicks off in July and will run through September. "It's gonna be a lot of chaos. It's
gonna be a lot of pandemonium. It's gonna be outrageous," said Bow Wow.
"The way we're doing it is not like your normal concert. When you go to
your normal concert, it's four people on the bill. Everybody has their own set.
We're doing it like how you come to wrestling and the ring is in the middle.
It's gonna be more like a live movie than a show." One of the songs sure to be on the roster is
“Wanted,” an Omarion/Bow Wow duet that will appear on the latter’s upcoming
album “Wanted.” Meanwhile, Houston’s sophomore solo CD "Naked," led
by the single "All Because of You," will drop on May 24 via T.U.G
Entertainment/Universal Other tracks on the set include "Do It"
featuring the Ying Yang Twins, "Everything" and the title cut, which
will be the second single scheduled to hit radio in mid-May. Houston is also developing a film he
co-wrote titled "The House," which will also star – who else –
Omarion. As previously reported, shooting will begin this fall on a sequel to “You
Got Served,” which starred Houston, Omarion and the rest of O’s former B2K
crew.
West
Shows Off 'Diamonds' With Jay-Z
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
- Jonathan
Cohen, N.Y.
(April
22, 2005) Rapper/producer
Kanye West earlier this week offered
the first taste of his sophomore Def Jam album, "Late Registration,"
when he played the single "Diamonds" on New York radio station Hot
97. Def Jam president Jay-Z was on hand for the debut of the track, which West
said references his experiences working with Roc-A-Fella Records in recent
years. Although a track list has yet to
be unveiled for "Late Registration," which will arrive July 12, West
has previously revealed that John Legend and John Mayer both make guest
appearances. Rapper Common told
Billboard.com last month that he expected to appear on the album before all was
said and done. As
previously reported, West produced Common's upcoming album, "Be,"
and will release it May 24 via his G.O.O.D. Music imprint in tandem with
Geffen. "A lot of the tracks I
wasn't using turned into beats for 'Late Registration,'" Common said.
"His album is sounding very, very good. I am planning on being on it. He
has some songs in mind, so we'll complete something." "Late Registration" will be the
follow-up to West's 2004 breakthrough, "The College Dropout," which
peaked at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 2.6 million copies in the
United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
West has also become one of the most in-demand producers in urban music,
having worked with Usher, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys and
the Game in the past several years.
Diddy
Joins New Billboard Latin Presenters
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
- Jonathan
Cohen, N.Y.
(April
22, 2005) P.
Diddy leads the list of newly added presenters for the Billboard Latin Music
Awards. He will be joined by actors Jimmy Smits and Ray Santiago plus artists
Alicia Villarreal, Joan Sebastian, Ana Gabriel, Graciela Beltran, La Mafia,
Pitbull and La Onda at the April 28 event, to be held at Miami Arena. A host of soap opera stars will also present
awards, including Jose Angel Llamas, Flora Martinez, Alejandro Chaban, Mauricio
Islas, Tamara Monserrat, Alejandro Felipe, Danna Garcia, Miguel Varoni and
Gabriela Spanic. Other presenters from
the TV ranks include "Zapata" star Lorena Rojas, "Al Rojo
Vivo" host Maria Celeste Arraras, "Caso Cerrado" host Andres
Garcia and the finalists from the music reality show "Nuevas Voces de
America." Among the previously
announced performers for the show are Marc Anthony, Paulina Rubio, Christian
Castro, Marco Antonio Solis, Juanes, Thalia, Juan Luis Guerra, Olga Tanon,
Conjunto Primavera, Franco de Vita, Aleks Syntek, AB Quintanilla III and Daddy
Yankee. As
previously reported, Solis is the leading finalist with mentions in eight
categories as a solo artist and with Los Bukis. He is also due to receive the
Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the magazine in recognition of
an outstanding career and artistic achievements.
Diddy’s
To Do List: Mogul Eyes Biggie Duets Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 25, 2005) *The first order of business for P. Diddy since unloading half of his Bad Boy
Entertainment on Warner Music for $30 million is the release of a new solo
album, as well as a Notorious B.I.G. duets album, reports the “New York Daily
News.” As previously reported, the new joint
venture between Diddy and Warner Music calls for the release of music from Bad
Boy's current roster along with singles from its deep catalogue of past
recordings. The first album from the newly named Bad Boy Records will come from
the Atlanta-based Boyz N Da Hood (who have been referred to as the NWA of the
South), followed by an album from B5, an Atlanta-based boy band. Diddy also
said he expects to put out eight to 10 CDs a year. Mase, who returned to Bad
Boy after taking a long hiatus to find Jesus, was rumoured to be feuding with
the Bad Boy founder, but Puffy says: "As of right now, he is remaining on
the label. We get along."
Lauryn
Hill To Headline Stockholm Jazz Fest
Excerpt
from The Globe and Mail
(Apr.
26, 2005) Stockholm -- Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill is one of the
biggest attractions during this year's Stockholm Jazz Festival to be held in July,
organizers said yesterday. Some 25,000 people are expected to attend the
concerts, which will also feature Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth, Lee Ritenour,
Johnny Lang, Angélique Kidjo and Toots Thielemans. Hill, a former member of the
rap trio the Fugees, set a record for female artists in 1999 when she won five
Grammy awards for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. In 2002, she released
the CD MTV Unplugged 2.0. The festival is produced by Canadian-born John
Nugent, who has also been the producer of other music festivals. AP
::CD RELEASES::
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Aretha
Franklin, Jazz Moods: 'Round Midnight, Sony
Fine
Young Cannibals, Finest,
Rhino
Little
Richard, Directly from My Heart, Universe
Little
Richard, She's Got It, Pazzazz
Tupac/Biggie, Untold
Story, Deff Trapp
Various
Artists, Smooth Sax Tribute to Barry White, Tribute
Sounds
Various
Artists, Ultimate Tribute to U2, Cleopatra
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Amerie, Touch, Amerie, Sony
Elvis Costello, King of America, Elvis
Costello,
Rhino
Grandmaster
Flash, Message, Grandmaster
Flash, DBK Works
Grandmaster
Flash, They Said It Couldn't Be Done, Grandmaster
Flash, DBK Works
Joni Mitchell, Songs of a Prairie Girl, Joni
Mitchell,
Rhino
Mint Condition, Livin' the Luxury Brown, Mint
Condition,
Image
The
Game, Untold Story [Chopped and Screwed], The
Game, Fastlife
Tru, Truth
[Chopped and Screwed], Tru,
Koch
Various
Artists, Blazing Hip Hop Instrumentals: The
Music of 50 Cen, Various Artists, Fastlife
::FILM
NEWS::
Jewison Blasts Culture Of Celebrity
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Luann Lasalle, Canadian Press
(Apr. 25, 2005) MONTREAL - There are actors and movie stars
to choose from for Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison. But
at least half of the "movie stars" under the age of 30 likely need
not apply. Jewison made it clear at a
literary festival on Sunday that he prefers working with actors, preferably
those with theatre experience who can immerse themselves in any role without
necessarily playing the lead. He
included such names as Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Christopher Plummer
and Michael Caine. Then there are movie
stars, which Jewison said, "There's something about their heads, the
camera likes them." And he listed
the late Steve McQueen, who starred in Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
about an up-and-coming poker player, as a movie star. Another movie star,
according to Jewison, is Arnold Schwarzenegger, now California governor. Young stars don't seem to hold much promise
for the 78-year-old Jewison. "Half
the movie stars today under the age of 30, I don't even know," he said in
an interview, discreet enough not to name names. "It's all a hype. Come on. How do you know whether anybody
can act? You're told that they're a big star, you know, or somebody's got a
cute ass or they've got great boobs.
"I can't buy it. I think we're living in an age of such
manipulation," he said.
"Someone's hot," he said of the unnamed stars, adding
that movies have to be financed.
"Then it becomes `Who have you got?' Then it becomes a compromise
and you have to put a star into your piece." Jewison has directed films such as In the Heat of the Night (1967),
which won five Academy Awards, A Soldier's Story (1984) starring
Washington and Moonstruck (1987), which won Cher an Oscar. He began directing television in Canada and
the United States in the 1950s and made his first movie Hollywood movie in
1962, 40 Pounds of Trouble, with Tony Curtis. Even further down the ladder in Jewison's esteem are celebrities
and the obsession with celebrity culture.
"It's ridiculous," Jewison said after speaking about his
autobiography, This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me at the festival,
Montreal, World Book Capital 2005. He
pointed to singer Madonna as someone with "a small amount of talent"
who marketed it into being a celebrity.
"We're all being suffocated. I can't believe that people are
obsessed like they are now with celebrity. I don't know what's going on,"
he said. Then he paused. "I'm sounding so grouchy. Am I
wrong?" He doesn't sound like he
feels he's wrong.
"Celebrity is celebrity. We live in an age of celebrity, for
God's sake. It's craziness. It's exploitation. It's the media for God sake's
that's responsible for most of the exploitation. "I mean even the pope all of a sudden became a celebrity. It
was the pope (John Paul) dying. It was a man dying who all of a sudden the
world was totally in awe of and in love with and I don't think that existed a
year ago." He also doesn't believe
that actors' political opinions deserve the same attention as their art. "Of course not, but they're going to
get the attention because of People magazine and Entertainment Tonight and
Extra and all those God damned shows."
Jewison, usually behind the camera, said if he were in front of it, he
wouldn't choose to be a movie star.
"Well, I'd be an actor — a character actor," he said, citing
Humphrey Bogart and Meryl Streep as great character actors.
Toronto Resident Has Doc At Cannes
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Susan Walker, Entertainment
Reporter
(Apr. 21,
2005) The night that Stuart Samuels
presents his documentary Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
at the Cannes Film Festival will mark his arrival at a high point on a path of
film appreciation that has taken him from theory to practice. The former film studies professor used to
take his University of Pennsylvania students to Cannes in the 1970s, treating
the festival as a classroom. Film studies was a new discipline then and Samuels
helped shape the first curriculum. Much of what he knew about the way visual
culture develops was distilled in a book he wrote nearly 25 years ago. That was
Midnight Movies, now transferred to screen as a documentary that will
get its world premiere at midnight on Friday the 13th, along with a sneak peak
of a new film from one of his Midnight subjects, George Romero. Samuels, who moved to Toronto eight years
ago and holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, has taken a curious circuit
around the film and video world. From 1967 to 1981, he taught film
studies. "Then I made a jump from
academic life to what I thought was the hottest area of visual
representation," says the filmmaker. He entered the world of music videos,
first as a programmer at "NightFlight," a kind of alternative to MTV
on the USA Network, then as a producer. His credits include a Rolling Stones
tour video, a Dionne Warwick AIDS concert and work with Lou Reed, Sting and an
eclectic list of musicians. Samuels got
involved in bringing high-definition television to North America. That focus on
the visual naturally led him to the subject of his first documentary. Visions
of Light: The Art of Cinematography was released in 1993 and earned a bunch
of "best documentary" prizes from critics in the U.S. before doing
the rounds of the world's film festivals and becoming a DVD for the
film-lover's library.
With
Toronto's Simcha Jacobovici, Samuels co-directed and co-produced Hollywoodism:
Jews, Movies and the American Dream in 1998, based on the book by Neal
Gabler. That year Hot Docs named Samuels best feature documentary
director. Midnight Movies, he
hopes, will bring audiences to the theatre for a different kind of documentary
experience. The film looks at six pivotal films that came out between 1970 and
1977 and has interviews with the directors, audience members, theatre owners
and critics. The films are John Waters' Pink Flamingos, David Lynch's Eraserhead,
George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Alejandro Jodorowsky's El
Topo, Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come and Richard O'Brien's Rocky
Horror Picture Show. These were the
films that broke aesthetic boundaries and gathered a following outside the
mainstream movie houses. They were shown at midnight screenings, over and over
again. Samuels charts the way things changed, not so much the filmmakers as the
capacity for audiences to accept what they were doing. (Rocky Horror Picture
Show, he notes, still runs as a midnight feature in Toronto.) The recent spate of documentaries to enjoy
commercial success, says Samuels, have been based on personal journeys:
"the filmmaker as content."
With Midnight Movies, independently financed to the tune of
$400,000, he hopes to raise the bar for documentaries. "I want to open up
the investigation and understanding of one of the most powerful influences on
our lives," he says.
Filmmaker Saw City Hall's Rough Period But Still Has Faith In
Toronto's Institutions
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Chris
Young, Staff Reporter
(Apr. 23,
2005) Two things about Min Sook Lee:
she loves Toronto, and she has always been interested in local politics,
whether as a girl growing up here, or more recently as a reporter filing for
the likes of CBC and Toronto 1. But
she's also a documentary filmmaker, and late in 2003 decided to perch her
cameras at City Hall and wait for the spit to hit the fan. She ended up with Hogtown:
The Politics of Policing, a blow-by-blow account of the 2004 struggles of
the Toronto Police Services Board as allegations of corruption, a wave of gun
violence on the city streets and a battle of the budget and of public trust
were whipping around City Hall's new wave led by Mayor David Miller. Hogtown premieres today at 2 p.m. at
the Isabel Bader Theatre, part of the Hot Docs Festival. It will be broadcast
later this year on Toronto 1. What
compelled you to make this film? I'm
very interested in politics, and I wanted to look at local politics. What
happens in our own backyard often takes place under the radar. This is kind of
an irony — this is the level of government that affects your life the
most. But this was something of a
special time, too, in local politics. You basically set up your cameras and
waited for something to happen. I was
pretty sure something would happen because, politically, the federal and the
provincial governments had all changed in six months. It seemed to me, too —
and I think it is the same for a lot of people who live in Toronto — that right
now we're sort of in a renaissance of loving the city. Why do you think that's happening? I'm not sure I can answer that. But I know
that I'm part of that rediscovery. I'm emphatically a huge Toronto lover. I
grew up here. I was born in Korea — in Gwangju, a city in the southwest — but I
grew up in Toronto in a time that was very exciting, in the 1970s.
The
Crombie to Sewell years. Yes. During
the Lastman years, I think Toronto fell into a period of neglect, of
disinterest. I think we all collectively went through that period and at a
certain point we said: ``No, we can do better.'' As a filmmaker, I knew that
City Hall would be a very interesting stage where all kinds of unpredictable
dynamics could happen. You've got 44 city councillors who are officially,
theoretically, unaligned with any party, and you have a mayor who on paper has
very little power. Actually getting something done at City Hall is a remarkable
feat of leadership. You don't have the autocratic rule to shut down debate. You
have to have moral suasion. You have to have councillors believe in you and buy
into a vision. I started shooting in
January, immediately after the municipal elections, and one of the issues that
started heating up the headlines was gun shooting and violence. Statistically,
violent crime has gotten lower. We are one of the safest cities in North
America. But like every major urban city, like every society, fear of crime is
almost a primal fear, something that attacks the fish part of our brain. When did you realize that this police board
issue was starting to hit the fan and would be your focus? The cue was definitely in early January,
when a new chair was sworn in at the police services board. A week after that,
two things happened: the former chair Norm Gardner's inquiry started ... and
there was a media smear against Alan Heisey, the new chair. The events
basically led me to the story. Through
this whole (period) the board itself was down a couple of members, there were
people getting up and leaving meetings abruptly, breaking quorum — was this
democracy in action here, or a system that was broken? The best quote I ever heard about democracy
kept occurring to me: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except
for all the others that have been tried." I love it. It's messy, it's
time-consuming, it's like, ``God, do we have to go through this again?'' That's
what it is. Can it work better? Definitely. Can it be healthier and more
transparent? Yes, always. The police board at this time was clearly having a
very difficult time with members. I think consideration could be given to the
whole structure of the police services board. Does it make sense to have these
people on the board for just 18 months? Does that give you enough time to
understand an issue like that?
How
did you come out of this as far as your appreciation or not of institutions
like public assembly? The other day,
someone who finished watching the film said to me, "I'm not thinking
anything but, `What a mess.'" And I'm quite the opposite, actually. It did
seem as if they got mired, and dysfunctional, and messy, but if you step back
and look at what came out of it, something was achieved. Today, we have a
police services board that looks nothing like we've ever had in the history of
Toronto — more people of colour than ever — and I think that's critical. For a
city that prides itself on multiculturalism and diversity, and knows that in 10
years it will be more than 50 per cent non-white, it has to be this way. But
not only that — a police service that has had a chief that would not even
recognize racial profiling as an issue, it's phenomenally useful to get rid of
that kind of mentality.
Feds Shovel $25m Into Toronto Film Fest
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Martin Knelman
(Apr. 27, 2005) "As you know, this has been a
long process," said Tony Ianno, Liberal MP for Trinity Spadina, inside a
tent on a parking lot at the northwest corner of King and John Sts. You can say that again, Tony. Ianno and three other federal cabinet
members were there to announce a $25 million
commitment from Ottawa toward a year-round headquarters for the Toronto
International Film Festival. For
months, that promise had been the most hotly pursued coming attraction in film
festival history. Eight weeks earlier, Queen's Park trumped Ottawa by making
its commitment of $25 million to Festival Centre — a $122 million permanent
home scheduled to open in 2008. And by
the time yesterday's announcement was made, it had the unmistakable flavour of
a trailer for another coming attraction — the next federal election. "Everyone wanted this to happen,"
said Ianno, who represents the riding where Festival Centre will be built and
who is expected to have a tough time holding his seat against NDP challenger
Olivia Chow. "It was just a matter of finding a way." According to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla,
culture is the soul of Toronto, and the government wanted to be part of it. At
a gala dinner on the opening night of last year's film festival, Frulla sat
with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
But the man with the budget to get it done was John Godfrey, the
minister of state, infrastructure and communities — who has happy memories of
his own hanging out with Sigourney Weaver at last year's festival. "I feel like Jerry Maguire,"
quipped Godfrey. That's because mayors all across the country keep saying to
him, "Show me the money." And he replies: "Help me help
you." According to insiders, it
was Joe Volpe, the leader of the GTA Liberal caucus, who pushed the deal
through. At yesterday's event Volpe may have been overstating the case a tad
when he called Toronto "the cultural and economic capital of North
America." But he struck the right note when he added: "Toronto is
more than a balance sheet." For
the benefit of those who drifted in after this movie started: The festival has
entered into a partnership with Hollywood producer Ivan Reitman, whose family
has owned the parking lot for decades, and the Daniels Corporation, a high-end
developer. Reitman and Daniels Corp. plan a 41-storey condo building called
Festival Tower. The festival would
occupy the lower five storeys, with five screening rooms, a gallery and the
film reference library. The festival would become much more of a year-round
presence, reportedly tripling its economic impact from $67 million to over $200
million.
But to achieve all that, it needs $196 million in
start-up capital — including $122 million for its part of the building, plus an
endowment and operating funds. So far, counting Ottawa's pledge, it is just
under halfway towards its goal.
Yesterday was a happy occasion both for the people receiving the news
and those delivering it. How often these days do Liberal cabinet ministers
encounter a crowd of smiling people cheering them on? There's a catch, though. Yesterday's pledge is part of the
government's pending budget — which could become academic if it is not passed
before Parliament is dissolved.
However, Conservative Heritage critic Bev Oda claims in a letter that I
was off base recently when I suggested Stephen Harper might be unenthusiastic
about funding Toronto culture projects.
"We recognize the need for cultural infrastructure," she
wrote. And in a telephone interview
yesterday, she said the Festival Centre project would not be jeopardized. "We would honour every agreement the
government has signed," she promised. "We are not out to take anything
away from the arts community of Toronto. And I would hope to see more clarity
on that point in your column." I'm
delighted to put that on the record.
Speaking of trailers, the first week of May features at
least two notable celebrations of arts pioneers. First up is Nightwood Theatre, which has been dedicated for the
past 25 years to making the theatre friendlier for women, with such events as
its annual Five-Minute Feminist Cabaret.
On Monday, Nightwood will throw a FemCab birthday party at the Isabel
Bader Theatre. Hosts Diane Flacks and Karen Robinson will introduce guests,
including Cathy Jones, d'bi young,
Nancy White, Anne-Marie MacDonald, Kim Renders and Djanet
Sears. A pre-performance reception features New York feminist icon Gloria Steinem. For tickets call 416-978-8849
or go to http://www.uofttix.ca. The Isabel Bader Theatre will also be the
venue a week from tomorrow night, when Sharon, Lois and Bram are reunited for
one night only in a benefit concert for Mariposa in the Schools. That organization has been providing
performing arts programs to schools and communities across Ontario for 36
years. In recent years, that has become more difficult, especially in less
affluent areas. And for once, Sharon, Lois and Bram are not looking for an
audience of children. Indeed, the show is called Adults Only.
Anthony
Anderson Takes The Lead
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
“If it’s worth your while do something
good to me.”
Yes, that’s correct. One of Hollywood’s most beloved comical actors is one of the
few who can boast a repertoire of films with a cumulative tally grossed at $1
billion. And he’s just finally getting his just desserts with a leading
role in a major studio film. Mr. Anderson, who has appeared in flicks
diverse as “Kangaroo Jack” and “Barbershop,” will officially kick
off his leading man status with this weekend’s comedy offering, “King’s
Ransom,” directed by Jeff Byrd. “Because it’s funny,” the hefty Los Angeles
native replied when asked why should film-goers see the comedy romp about a
wealthy and arrogant businessman whose ex-wife-to-be has plans to take him for
everything he is worth in their divorce settlement. Determined to one-up
her, he established and elaborate scheme to kidnap himself. But he’s not
the only one who has designs on an abduction plot. “I think we’ve assembled a
great cast, we tell a great story,” he continued, “and hopefully I haven’t
disappointed many people with the work that I’ve done in the past. So why not
come and see a project that I’m actually a lead in?” And while the vivacious
Kellita Smith heat things up in the movie, playing the scorned and savvy
spouse, “King’s Ransom” also includes notable turns by Nicole Ari
Parker, Regina Hall, Charlie Murphy, Loretta Devine, Jay Mohr and Donald
Faison. “The script was a nice script to begin with,” Mr. Anderson added. “We
just fed off each other’s energies. So whatever they brought, I just
wanted to make sure that I hit the ball back over the net when they hit it to
you and that’s what we did.”
Mr. Byrd, who directed the 2003 Showtime movie “Jasper,
Texas,” told “The RU Report” that working on “Ransom” was a
welcome departure from the heavy material that was dealt with in his previous
work. “Doing that film was emotionally draining,” he revealed. And although he
developed a friendship with Mr. Anderson through a mutual acquaintance over the
years, the job wasn’t a guarantee to be his. “The caveat was Anthony had to
approve of me,” he explained. “That was the stamp of final approval.” And
thankfully he landed the gig, executed the vision and is now singing Mr.
Anderson’s praises. “Anthony, to me, is
like a stealth bomber,” Mr. Byrd continued. “He’s a comedic genius.
Anthony has a great grasp on comedic timing and where to find the drama in the
character. And that’s what I love about him. He taught me a lot, and taught the
other actors a lot about that comedic timing and how to deal with it.” Mr.
Faison, who became a household name 10 years ago starring in the “Clueless”
franchise, also found great inspiration working with Mr. Anderson. And he also learned a lot in the process.
“He did a lot of movies and just to talk to him about his journey and how he
got to where he is now was a great experience,” the “Scrubs” star
offered. “We’re about to see a new Anthony Anderson. He’s growing
as an actor and we kind of started at the same time, so to talk to somebody who
is on the same mission that I’m on is always insightful.” Mr. Anderson isn’t
letting this newfound fame go to his head either. Happily married with children
(and exonerated from bogus rape charges), the fast-talking actor
emanated a humbled energy in person. He’s so grounded that when he saw
the promotional rollout campaign for “Ransom”, he, admittedly, was
awe-struck. “You know what was wild,” he explained: “I saw that [billboard for
the movie] on a bus and I didn’t know that my name was going to be above-title.
Honestly, I didn’t know. But when I saw the posters, that’s when it
dawned on me that ‘wow, this is really happening.’”
But don’t get it twisted. The new era of work for
Anthony Anderson doesn’t stop at “King’s Ransom,” which is distributed
by New Line Cinema and set to play in over 1500 theatres this
weekend. He’s currently shaking
thing up with a recurring role on the gritty TV drama “The Shield,”
playing opposite the Emmy Award winning Michael Chiklis and the three
time Tony Award-winning actress Glenn Close. “I’m not going to lie,
everyday I go to work and I have a scene with Glenn Close and Michael Chiklis,
I literally try to make them sweat in every scene,” Mr. Anderson shared. “I
want them to sweat. Just with the work, not even with the intent of the character
and all of that. I want them to work. Just like I want them to want me to work
in the scene. That’s where I’m coming from with it. When you watch it, I don’t
ever want it to become lopsided. I got to bring it!” Alright! Okay! And
then there’s the John Singleton-produced Sundance Film Festival hit “Hustle
& Flow,” which will arrive on the big screen this summer. Mr.
Anderson and his co-star Terrence Dashon Howard have been receiving high
marks for the independent film about two Memphis-based pimps going through a
mid-life crisis. Mr. Singleton, critically acclaimed director of “Boyz N The
Hood” and “2 Fast Furious,” reportedly mortgaged his home to help
raise the $3.5 million it took to produce the film, which was subsequently
picked up by Paramount Pictures for $9 million. “[It’s a] great film,” he proudly affirmed, adding, “and I’m not
saying that just because I’m in it. If I wasn’t in it and I saw it, I would
tell you the same thing. It’s much more deeper than [pimps
and hoes]. It’s really about two men really trying to find themselves. It’s
just a powerful piece. Hands down, there isn’t a weak link in that film,
with regards to writing, with regards to directing, with regards to acting,
with everything.”
Up next for Mr. Anderson is Martin Scorsese’s
remake of the Hong Kong cop flick “Infernal Affairs,” titled “The
Departed” and set for release late next year. The eagerly anticipated film
also stars Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mark
Wahlberg. It will surely set him up nicely as a serious acting force
to be reckoned with. “I am an actor, this is what I do,” he boasted. “This is
what I trained at since I was nine years old. Trained by Ossie Davis,
Ruby Dee, Al Freeman, Jr., Bill Duke….and people like that.” “I’ve been
recently given the opportunity to show the other side,” he continued. “This is
something that me and my team have always designed, this is our plan, it’s just
now coming together.” Watch out world, a new Black man is ready to capture the
brass at the box-office. And if Samuel L. Jackson (“Coach Carter”), Ice
Cube (“Are We There Yet”), Will Smith (“Hitch”), Tyler Perry
(“Diary Of A Mad Black Woman”) and Bernie Mac (“Guess Who”)
hitting #1 at the box office during the first three months of 2005 is any
indication, then Mr. Anderson may be on the right track for equal success. For
times and a theatre locations showing “King’s Ransom, please log onto www.enjoytheshow.com.
Regina
Hall
By
Jawn Murray, AOL BlackVoices columnist
(Apr.
21, 2005) There was a time when actress Regina
Hall dreamed of becoming the queen of broadcast journalism. The
Washington, D.C., native even earned her master's degree in journalism from NYU
to solidify that dream. But things quickly changed after Hall was cast as an
exotic dancer in 'The Best Man.' Since her breakout turn in 'The Best Man,'
Hall has gone from performing seductive splits in films to causing
side-splitting laughter in comedies like the 'Scary Movie' franchise and
'Malibu's Most Wanted.'
The
Best Man' was your first film role and you've worked pretty consistently since
then. What have been some of the highlights of your career so far?
You
meet some really interesting people. Not just celebrities, but you get to meet
the people who you do interviews with and the people who say, "I love your
work." It's an odd thing because comedies don't really have award shows
and you don't really get accolades for your talent in the same way that dramas
do. It was a highlight when I met this guy and he said, "I love your
work," and he used to watch 'Scary Movie' all of the time. He said it got
him through medical school. That was really nice! You never think about it
actually making someone laugh or taking their mind off of something stressful.
It's so nice to encounter so many great people.
Working
with comics like Cedric The Entertainer and Mike Epps on the upcoming remake of
'The Honeymooners,' I know there was constant laughter on the set. What are
some of the funny things that happened while shooting that film?
We
used to do some crazy stuff all day. It was one those sets where Mike would
stand around and - tell jokes and we would make up old school dances steps from
songs we would remember. Somebody would be like, "Remember
Monkenstef?" (She begins singing their hit 'He's Mine.') "He's mine/
You have had him once but I had him all the time!" I remember us trying to
figure out who could name the most obscure groups and figure out their songs
and trying to do a dance to them. I also remember one day we were shooting and
we had this dog and Mike was supposed to throw the ball and the dog was to
supposed to run after the ball. I swear it was like seven takes, this dog
looked at the ball like "Y'all going to go get it?" and he didn't move
the whole afternoon. Go to AOL Black
Voices for the rest of this interview by Jawn Murray – CLICK
HERE.
7
Questions: Stephen Chow
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Simon
Houpt
(Apr. 22, 2005) NEW YORK — Stephen Chow, a
manifest mix of Jim Carrey, Bruce Lee, Charlie Chaplin, and Looney Tunes
cartoons, has a comic penchant for babbling in an invented slang, which Asian
audiences adore but North Americans don't. He paid his dues with six years as
the host of a children's TV show before breaking into features in 1988. He has
made more than 50 films since then. Interviewed in New York with an interpreter
by his side, Chow answered all the questions in his own broken English. I
understand you were never formally trained in English, but you watched American
movies as a boy. I learned English from the Hollywood films, from Sesame Street,
Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino.
And you learned movement from Charlie Chaplin? I think he's the
greatest comedian. Just imagine if I could become mute, unable to talk, if I
just rely on body language and expression and everything -- it is more difficult
to present your feelings. When you watch the Chaplin movies -- for me it's
something very important to define a good comedy -- after you watch it, you
feel happy, you feel the world's more beautiful. Funny you should say that,
because Kung Fu Hustle takes place in a dirty backwater Chinese slum, and it's
full of gross-out humour. Do you want someone to see it and think the world is
a more beautiful place? That's what I'm trying to do, but I don't know the
result. Can it fulfill my expectations? I have no idea. I'm trying to bring
happiness to people. I call myself an actor, not a martial arts star or a
comedy star. I just try to act in a movie. Some people treat the movie as a
comedy, but if you tell me it's not a comedy, that actually it's a drama, I won't
be so surprised. There are so many different elements inside: something funny
and something dramatic and something exciting. You've been a huge star in Asia
for years, but basically invisible to North American movie audiences. Shaolin
Soccer, which came out in Hong Kong in 2001 and was released here last spring,
was supposed to be your big break but it flopped, with less than half a million
dollars at the box office here. But it was made for an Asian audience and
adapted for an American release. Kung Fu Hustle, on the other hand, was
written, conceived, and created for an American audience. How did your approach
change?
First of all, start with subject matter, kung fu. I'm a big fan of
martial arts and all of kung fu, but also the subject matter is already well
known by the whole world. Kung fu is a good start, but then how to present the
story? I wanted to eliminate all the slang. If it is possible to present the
idea with action or without lines, instead of talking, I go for it. Kung fu is
the packaging: "Okay, here is at least something you understand, kung
fu." Chinese kung fu involves a lot of fancy action and exciting movement.
But it's only packaging. Ultimately it goes to innovation and the story, the
characters, everything. That's the most important thing. So whether it can be
successful or not, it all depends on these important things. But you need the
packaging. A lot of the kung fu in this movie is really extreme, absurd, and
cartoonish. Are you making fun of martial arts because it has gotten so big and
dumb in Western movies like Charlie's Angels and The Matrix? If I'm making fun
of kung fu, it's in a good way, with love, with respect, because I do love kung
fu and I think I learned a lot from the Chinese martial art. But you know, I
have to admit that there are some kung fu films in the past that are quite
ridiculous and silly. But I think it's quite normal if you have some good
qualities and some bad taste as well. When you first broke into the business,
you used to make about 10 Hong Kong comedies a year. Now we're lucky to get one
movie from you every two years. Why are you slowing down? I'm not intending to
slow down, but with Kung Fu Hustle, I do everything [acting, writing,
directing, producing], so it takes time, and also it takes time to think out
how to make a different kung fu film than before. There's already a lot of kung
fu films in different styles, so it has to be different from any of them.
A number of years ago you applied for residency in Canada but were
rejected because of alleged connections to the triad, Hong Kong mobsters. You
defended yourself by saying that the triad owned some film production studios,
but that didn't mean you belonged to the mob. Do you resent Canada for that
decision? No, because it's such a long time ago. It was a misunderstanding.
They didn't quite realize the situation of the Hong Kong movie industry at that
time. Now it's quite different because I'm an independent film producer and I
have my own company. But at that time, I was hired by some company and
[Canadian bureaucrats] thought there was a problem, but I was just an employee.
"Why would you be an employee of this company?" they asked. That's
something I couldn't answer. Why? Because I'm an actor! I need to work!
Ossie Does Us ‘Proud’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) *“Proud,”
the last film by the late Ossie
Davis, will screen Saturday at the Tribeca Film Festival and is
scheduled to premiere Memorial Day weekend in New York, Washington and Los
Angeles. The film’s true story follows the men of the USS Mason, who were the
only African-American sailors to take a Navy warship into combat in WWII. Like
Ossie Davis, himself a WWII vet, the men served in a segregated military, but
found strength in the midst of struggles against racism from their camaraderie
and pride in their own excellence. Ossie Davis’ character, Lorenzo DuFau,
passes the story of his time on the Mason on to his grandson (Albert Jones) and
two friends, who then become the 1940s sailors in a dramatic movie that depicts
the events of the men’s service on the USS Mason. As a destroyer escort, the
men shepherded convoys across an Atlantic infested with Nazi U-boats. They
faced the storm of the century and were instrumental in saving a convoy. In
spite of enduring racist incidents in a segregated Navy, they found an
unexpected welcome in Northern Ireland. In "Proud,"
Stephen Rea plays the Derry man who welcomes them and Darnell Williams is the
war correspondent, Thomas Young, who traveled with the Mason. The film was
financed by designer Tommy Hilfiger, who was introduced to the story by the
book and documentary done by Mary Pat Kelly. The events of 9/11 convinced him
to finance the film himself. Hilfiger’s daughter, Ally – the recent producer
and co-star of MTV’s reality show “Rich Girls,” became the producer on
“Proud,” while Kelly signed on to write and direct the film. Davis was the
first actor to sign on. "He blessed the movie with his
presence," said Kelly and Hilfiger. Davis, who died of natural causes on
Feb. 4, attended an early test screening of "Proud" in Washington,
D.C., with his grandson, Jamal Day, who plays trumpet on the movie score. Davis
wore his USS Mason ball cap and told the audience he wore it all the time so interviewers
would ask about it and he could tell them about the film. Meanwhile, Davis’
final four-episode appearance on Showtime’s “The L Word” begins this
Sunday. Davis played Melvin, the father of half-sisters Bette (Jennifer
Beals) and Kit (Pam Grier) who continues his struggle to connect with his
daughters during a visit. Melvin has issues with Bette being a lesbian,
while Kit’s alcoholic and unstable history stands in the way of their
reconciliation.
Errol Morris Thinks Outside The Docs
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Geoff
Pevere, Movie Critic
(Apr. 22,
2005) Next Friday evening, the 12th annual Hot
Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will present its
Outstanding Achievement Award to the American documentary filmmaker Errol
Morris. This will be supplemented by screenings
of five of his films (Vernon; Florida; The Thin Blue Line;
A Brief History of Time; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control and Mr.
Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.) during the event and, on
Saturday, April 30, "An Evening With Errol Morris" hosted by the
Boston film critic Gerald Peary. No
argument here. At age 57, with seven
features and one Oscar (for The Fog of War) to his credit, Morris is
arguably the most influential non-fiction filmmaker of his generation. His strikingly idiosyncratic approach to
style and structure, which places equal emphasis on visual and narrative
content, has left its mark on dozens of documentaries, and there are few
filmmakers who trouble the relationship between film and reality quite so
profoundly (or provocatively) as Morris.
Reached in Los Angeles, some distance from his hometown of Cambridge,
Mass. — also turf to one of Morris's primary inspirations, the veteran cinema
verité practitioner Frederick Wiseman (Hospital, High School) —
Morris offered his views on a number of things pertinent to contemporary
documentary practice, including the pursuit of truth, the frustration of making
political advertising, and why drama is looking better than ever.
On last year's U.S. presidential campaign
and making political commercials supporting the Kerry camp: As we all know, that did not have what I
would call a favourable conclusion.
Much of the work that I wanted to do never got shot and much of the work
that I actually shot never got on the air.
The whole process of actually trying to do political advertising I found
to be one of the more discouraging things that I've ever tried to do as a
filmmaker. Having said that, I still
would love to be involved in politics. Part of what I think about is what kinds
of programs I can do, what kinds of movies can I make, that will have
underlying political content.
On saying goodbye to documentary: I
have been reluctant to make another documentary feature. I don't know whether you want to call what I
do straight documentaries or not, but I've wanted to do something different
than what I've done in the past. Maybe
it's reinventing filmmaking for myself. I'm still very wedded to true stories,
but I would like to explore movies that make more use of fictional storytelling
in the context of telling a true story.
I've found that it's really, really difficult to do what I do on a
documentary budget. It was never easy, and in fact much of what I did do was on
budgets that were considered to be really much larger than what people would
normally spend. I love shooting visuals.
I love shooting the kind of material that is much more closely associated with
feature filmmaking.
On just what documentary is, exactly: I
always believed that documentary wasn't one thing, it was a myriad of things.
That it made no sense to talk of documentary as just cinema verité. After all
there are diary films, there's straight verité, there's narrated historical
documentaries, there are documentary art films of one kind or another. I would
include some of the greatest documentaries in this category, like Dziga
Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera. There are all kinds of documentary. In
fact what I do is, I think, its own odd category. One of the things that's interesting about it is that it doesn't
have to be one thing, that it is a kind of experimental filmmaking. You can
reconceive the nature of documentary each time you make one.
On Frederick Wiseman: Wiseman has been
an inspiration to me over the years. He once said to me `How can you like my
films? They are the antithesis of what you do. After all, they're shot
handheld, they are strict verité, they seem to obey conventions at odds with
what you do.' I have pointed out to him that it's not the style which to me
determines the underlying content of the film. His films are very much
expressionistic films regardless of the style in which they're shot. I have
always seen him as a kindred spirit.
On documentary "truth": I read occasionally that people see my
films as being post-modern in the sense that I'm a person who doesn't believe
in truth, doesn't believe that there's some world out there that we can seize
upon, we can learn about, that we can come to know. I have to say that I'm
rather appalled by the view because I think that everything I have done has
been motivated by a search for truth. The
Thin Blue Line perhaps most explicitly so, because I immersed myself in a
three-year-long investigation trying to determine who shot police officer
Robert Wood, with the belief that it's not a question that has no answer, it's
a question that has a definite answer.
On the documentary common
denominator: One of the things
that's really interesting about documentary, and you could ask the question,
I'll ask it of myself: If documentary is so different, if there are so many
different styles of documentary, so many means of expression, is there
something that holds it together? Are there elements in common that are shared?
And there is one central element in that, in fiction filmmaking, often we may
be talking about true stories or about the real world, but people know that
there is a disconnection between a movie story and what might really have
happened. In a documentary we are talking about the world. Whether it's real people or it's real
situations, or a combination of both, there is that relationship to what really
happened to what is out there. If you
like, it's the relationship to that world out yonder. And that's what makes it
so endlessly fascinating. Because we are constantly asked to consider the relationship
between images and reality. In a
certain sense it captures what's so deeply fascinating about photography
itself. Here we have something that obviously is causally connected to the real
world, related to the real world, comes from the real world, but what is it
exactly? Can we capture reality on film? Can we explore reality on film?
And if
I look back at the various movies I've made, they've all been attempts to kind
of grab hold of reality in some way. Or, and this is I guess the ironic, perverse
element in many of them, people's avoidance of reality.
Hot Docs Show Many Faces Of Jewish Life
Excerpt
from The
Toronto Star - Judy
Stoffman, Entertainment Reporter
(Apr. 25,
2005) When refusenik Jews of the former U.S.S.R. were finally allowed to leave
for Israel in the early 1980s, they were big news. The country's communist
masters had marginalized them, yet refused their requests to emigrate, until
international pressure mounted. An
example of what happened to these people shows up in Odessa, Odessa, a feature by Israeli
filmmaker Michale Boganim about Jewish refugees from the Russian port city.
Some of them ended up in Brighton Beach, N.Y., some in Israel. Their lives are
ruled by intense nostalgia for the place they left, which grows ever more
luminous as it recedes into the past. A
documentary that has the rhythm, the poetry and the sharply etched characters
of a story film, Odessa, Odessa (playing May 1 at the Isabel Bader
Theatre at 4 p.m.) is perhaps the most remarkable of the 12 Israeli films
screening here starting tomorrow at Hot Docs, the documentary film
festival. Israel — following Germany,
Australia, South Africa, Taiwan and the Netherlands last year — is this year's
featured country. "It's the
smallest country we've ever featured," says Chris McDonald, Hot Docs'
executive director. Though it has a population of only 6.7 million, Israel has
seven film schools and a number of filmmakers, some living abroad. Michale
Bogadim lives in Paris.
Her
film begins and ends in the Black Sea port, its empty streets bathed in a
surreal blue light, where only a handful of Jews are left, ancient widowed
women living in decrepit apartments, twittering in a mix of Yiddish and
Russian. They
speak of the outbreak of World War II and the destruction of their synagogue as
though they happened yesterday. In
Brighton Beach, we meet a gallery of grotesque exiles worthy of Fellini — an
old, tattooed Jewish boxer, a blowsy nightclub singer with big hair and runny
eye makeup — trying to recreate the carnival atmosphere of their birthplace. In Ashdod, Israel, the same haunting song is
played or sung repeatedly as the Odessan community gets together to celebrate
the anniversary of the victory of Russia over Germany five decades previously,
and to mark New Year's Eve. Without
voiceovers or any other directorial intrusions, Bogadim draws a complex picture
of the Wandering Jew, unable to feel at home anywhere, not even in Israel.
"In Odessa, we were Jews," says one elderly woman. "In Israel we
are Russians. Our children will be Israelis." Another notable achievement is Wall directed by
half-Jewish, half-Arab director Simone Bitton (April 28 at 4 p.m. and April 29
at 9:45 p.m. at the ROM), which follows the construction of the infamous
barrier Israel is building to try to keep out suicide bombers and shows how
oppressive it is to people on both sides.
Incredibly, some of the workers putting the concrete slabs in place are
Palestinians, who are happy to have employment. In Applefeld's Table by Adi Japhet Fuchs (tomorrow at 3:30
at ROM), Aharon Applefeld, now 72, speaks eloquently about his life while
sitting in his favourite café. When he arrived in Palestine at age 14, after
having been interned by the British along with other children for trying to run
a blockade, he was virtually mute, so scarred was he by his experiences. Applefeld has written 30 books of fiction
and memoirs from the material in the cellar — vivid memories of his terrible
experiences as a young child caught in the Holocaust in Romania and hiding in
the forest after the murder of his parents.
Say Amen by David Dery gets its world premiere at Hot Docs
(tomorrow at the Bloor Cinema, 9:15 p.m.; April 28 Innis Town Hall at 9:30
p.m.). It's about the pressures to find a wife placed on a gay man (the
director) by his rigidly Orthodox family.
Both Odessa, Odessa and Say Amen will play here again next
month as part of the Jewish Film Festival.
Film Fest To Help Canadian
Filmmakers
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter
Howell, Movie Critic
(Apr. 26, 2005) The Toronto International Film Festival is
throwing its global programming and marketing savvy behind the efforts of
Canadian filmmakers to sell their wares to the world. The festival yesterday announced the creation of the Industry
Initiatives Office. The idea is to put the skills, experience and international
profile the film fest has honed over its 30-year existence towards the
patriotic pursuit of making Canadian movies better. Noah Cowan, the festival's co-director, described the initiative
as "sort of like the NBA draft" in the way the festival will seek to
find and develop new talent from the ground up. At a time Hollywood films dominate the landscape more than ever,
it is up to festivals to nurture "intelligent, artistically minded
cinema," Cowan said. "If we
want to get more of that into our festivals, we have to make sure that people
are making it. To that end, the Industry
Initiatives Office will offer the following new services for Canadian
filmmakers:
Marketing Assistance
Program (MAP): It will help Canadian filmmakers get their work out to rest
of the world. Beginning this year, it will provide marketing and publicity help
and subsidized services to four Canadian filmmakers, climbing to 12 in three
years, who don't have an agent or distributor.
Shadowing Program: Producers
are an important part of the filmmaking process, since they must first get the
money and then the talent to make a movie. This program will assist rookie
producers by having them work with two international and two Canadian
producers. The size of the program is expected to double by 2007.
Facilitation/Introduction
Services: Festival staffers used to informally refer to their liaison work
between filmmakers and other industry players as "the dating office."
This will formalize the process, Cowan said.
Talent Database: A
Web-based database offering information about and for Canadian films and
filmmakers, using the festival's vast library and other materials. Think of it
as a Canuck version of the Internet Movie Instant Database.
These initiatives are in addition to existing programs assisting
Canadian filmmakers, including the Talent Lab mentoring process and the
Telefilm Canada Pitch This! program for honing presentation skills. Kelley
Alexander, the festival's director of industry, will assume the new title of director
of the Industry Initiatives Office.
A
Human Face On Tiger Tragedy
Excerpt
from The Globe and Mail - By Guy Dixon
(Apr.
26, 2005) In 1989, a young professor, Rajani Thiranagama, head of the anatomy
department at the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, was killed while riding
her bike home after grading exams. Once a supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(the LTTE or more popularly known as the Tamil Tigers), she left the movement
and, under extreme risk, began collecting evidence of human-rights tragedies
suffered by Tamils at the hands of both Tamil insurgents and government-aligned
forces. Her murder has made her the face of the underground human-rights
movement in the region. Now, nearly 16 years later, in the National Film Board
of Canada documentary No More Tears Sister, her older sister
alleges that LTTE insiders told her privately that Thiranagama was killed
because she was undermining their independence struggle. Local protests condemning
her death were crushed and their organizers threatened and killed, according to
the film. Human-rights reporting in the region, as in so many conflicts
worldwide, became an increasingly clandestine act. "I think this film and
the story of Rajani [touches on] many generic issues about human rights, about
justice, about armed violence. They are not exclusive to Sri Lanka," said
the older sister, Nirmala Rajasingam, in a telephone interview.
Both
she and the documentary's director emphasized that blame for human-rights
abuses should be placed on all sides of the conflict, including the Sri Lankan
army and the years of repression by the Sinhalese-dominated government which
helped to spark the Tamil fighting (to say nothing of the initial tensions between
Sinhalese and Tamils caused by British colonial policies which were perceived
as favouring certain Tamil groups). Rajasingam, who was also once a pivotal
figure in the LTTE movement, has so far accused the Tigers of killing her
sister only at small gatherings. This is the first time she has come out so
publicly. The Tigers have never claimed responsibility for the murder and no
one has been charged, she noted. Because of her accusations, the NFB has taken
a number of precautions, such as keeping the project quiet during its two years
in production and not giving out information about where Thiranagama's family
currently lives. In fact, the Film Board is becoming somewhat expert in
maintaining security surrounding controversial documentaries, particularly after
last year's premiere of What Remains of Us, a documentary that directly
puts some Tibetans at risk of imprisonment. Security concerns are nothing new
to Thiranagama's family. Rajasingam, for instance, can no longer return to
Jaffna because of worries about her safety. "I'm not underground, but I'm
being very cautious about where I go, what I say, who I meet, that sort of
thing. Once the film is shown, I'll have to take greater precautions," she
said. She won't be attending today's premiere at the Hot Docs festival in
Toronto, which has a thriving Tamil community with varying views on the
nationalist struggle. "We as a family and myself personally, we made a
very conscious decision to go public about the killing of Rajani. We thought
long and hard about it. It was our decision. We were ready to tell the story,
because really the whole discussion about Rajani's murder wasn't a closed
chapter," Rajasingam said. There has been at least one other film about
Thiranagama made in Sri Lanka, but without the family's involvement. The family
hated it, said Helene Klodawsky, the director of No More Tears Sister.
The NFB film was shot with the full co-operation of the family, although family
members did not have the final say in its content, Klodawsky emphasized. The documentary
has been endorsed by a host of notables including former Ontario premier Bob
Rae and former United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women,
Radhika Coomaraswamy. It is narrated by Michael Ondaatje.
Rajasingam,
who talks at one point in the film about how she feels responsible in some ways
for what happened to Thiranagama, is careful to add that she is the one
making the film's main accusations, not the other family members. But what
unfolds in the documentary is not just a story of how a family got caught up in
armed rebellion. It's a far more complicated story of how Rajasingam, the older
sister, was buoyed by 1970s leftist radicalism and early insurrections in the
country. She wound up becoming involved with the Tigers and was imprisoned by
the state. Thiranagama had also become a strong supporter of leftist causes
while in medical school. Her husband was a Sinhalese radical who could not
bring himself to support the Tigers. This ultimately tore their marriage apart.
While studying in Britain, Thiranagama made her sister's imprisonment into an
international cause, which in turn provided an important boost for the LTTE
movement. But the more the sisters were drawn into the Tigers, the more they
began to question the armed struggle, particularly as fighting between
nationalists and Indian peacekeeping forces escalated in the late 1980s. By
then, the sisters had quit the LTTE. After another stint in Britain,
Thiranagama returned to Jaffna to reopen the anatomy department at the university,
while also working to document human-rights abuses perpetrated by all sides of
the fighting. She was then murdered. As the film shows, those who are left
behind to brave the fighting, most often women and children, change armed
struggles into multifaceted, humanitarian crises. What often lingers is a
fearful silence, which perhaps only a foreign documentary can help pierce: At
least that's what some from the Sri Lankan community have said after attending
early screenings of the documentary, according to Klodawsky, the film's
director. "One man described it in a very moving way, 'We're surrounded by
barbed wire. Our houses are not surrounded. The barbed wire is around our
minds,' " Klodawsky said. "So, on the one hand, there was a very strong
desire to see this film made. On the other hand, people could not talk [on
camera]." Filming the documentary was very intense for the family, and one
of Thiranagama's daughters even plays her mother in a number of re-enactments.
This is a family which describes itself as very ordinary and middle class. The
father had been a schoolteacher and administrator. Education was stressed. The
daughters read Jane Austen and George Bernard Shaw and sang Christian
spirituals (which the remaining sisters sing again in harmony in an opening
scene in the film when they are reunited in Colombo). But after Thiranagama and
Rajasingam's radical student days and subsequent activism, the family has had
to get used to being in the political crossfire.
Sri
Lanka is in "a really bad and very dark period," Rajasingam said.
Atrocities continue and dissidents are increasingly being targeted, while
Tamils receive little protection from the state, the film notes. It's as if
they aren't considered citizens, Rajasingam added. "The state has kind of
washed its hands and doesn't appear to be serious about ultimately achieving a
soon-enough political solution," she insisted. "It is in this climate
that this film is coming out." The hope among those involved with No
More Tears Sister is that it will encourage others to speak. "Now,
even though killings are continuing at a very high rate, other voices are
cropping up, inspired by the [human-rights movement's] long and arduous, very
insistent, courageous work," Rajasingam said. "Rajani remains an
inspiration. They keep her memory alive."
Rambo Director Cosmatos Dead
Source: Canadian
Press
(Apr. 25, 2005) VICTORIA—Rambo and Tombstone
director George P. Cosmatos has died aged 64 in Victoria,
B.C., which he often called "my resting place." He had been diagnosed
with lung cancer shortly before his death last week. "He was full of restless curiosity, always trying to figure
things out," recalled Victoria-raised filmmaker Atom Egoyan. "I think
he made some great films, like Tombstone. He was such a great craftsman." Born in Florence, Italy and raised in Egypt
and Cyprus, Cosmatos broke into film as assistant director on Otto Preminger's Exodus
(1960). Known for his ability to
"fix" troubled projects, he delivered what many consider his finest
achievement in 1993 — Tombstone, starring Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell —
after he was brought in to replace fired director Kevin Jarre. Cosmatos dismissed with characteristic
bluntness criticism over the violence in Rambo, the tale of a combat
veteran's one-man mission to rescue captive soldiers. "It's a
psychological release for people to have a hero who can do the fighting and
dirty work while we eat our popcorn," he once said. Cosmatos was predeceased by his wife Birgitta
Ljungberg Cosmatos in 1997. He is survived by his son Panos.
Detroit To Launch ‘Motown To Movietown’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr.
26, 2005) *Clifton
Powell, the most slept-on actor in Hollywood, has been cast in
“Blackjack,” an independent film to be shot in Detroit as part of the city’s
“Motown to Movietown” initiative.
"We want to bring positive notoriety back to the city of Detroit.
We are committed to the 'Motown to Movietown' initiative and want to revitalize
and expand the image of Motown with an innovative twist," says Elliot
Tabron of Winlane Sports and Entertainment Agency, LLC, backers of the
initiative. "We want to create opportunities for aspiring artists and
entertainers and provide job opportunities in the Detroit community and throughout
Michigan. Winlane Sports and
Entertainment Agency will host a press conference about the film’s role in the
venture on May 10 at Detroit’s Renaissance Club. To date, over 100 movies have been filmed in
the state of Michigan, including: “Beverly Hills Cop 1” and “2” “Die Hard 2,”
“Grosse Pointe Blank,” “8-Mile” and “Roger & Me.”
U.K.
Theatre Audiences Are Smarter, Says Val Kilmer
Excerpt
from The Globe and Mail
(Apr.
26, 2005) London -- U.S. film star Val Kilmer risked
the ire of his fellow countrymen yesterday by confessing he thought British
theatre audiences were "smarter" than American ones. Kilmer, 45,
whose film roles include Heat, Batman Forever and Top Gun, is to
make his London stage debut in June in The Postman Always Rings Twice, a
theatrical version of the hit film first made in 1946 and then in 1981. Asked
how British audiences compared to Americans, Kilmer was blunt. "They're
smarter. They read books," he told reporters. "It does seem that the
standard simply keeps deteriorating on Broadway. The shows have become more
Vegas-like. Theatre here just has higher standards." Kilmer said he had
always wanted to act on stage in Britain, having come to the country first aged
14 to watch productions in Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of William
Shakespeare. AFP
Hayek,
Bardem, Woo On 2005 Cannes Jury
Excerpt
from The Globe and Mail
(Apr.
26, 2005) Paris -- Salma Hayek and Javier Bardem are among the
members of the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica
heads the jury, which also includes writer Toni Morrison, Indian actress Nandita Das,
and directors John
Woo, Agnès Varda, Benoît Jacquot and Fatih Akin. This year's festival
will run May 11-22. Twenty movies from 13 countries have been selected to
compete. The awards will be announced on May 21. AP
Berry
Is ‘Perfect’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 25, 2005) *Halle
Berry has signed on to star in the psychological thriller “Perfect
Stranger” for Revolution Studios. James Foley ("Confidence,"
"Glengarry Glen Ross," "At Close Range") will direct the
Oscar winner in the story of a woman (Berry) who gets caught up in the world of
obsessive love and death online when she goes undercover to investigate a
friend's murder. The film is set to begin filming this winter.
::TV NEWS::
CBC Announces Job Cuts
Source: Canadian
Press
(Apr. 26, 2005) Toronto — Formal notice was given to
publicity and Newsworld International
employees at the CBC on Tuesday,
letting them know their positions have been declared “redundant.” “Seventy-four
people have had their positions declared redundant, or have had their contracts
terminated or . . . not renewed,” said CBC spokeswoman Ruth-Ellen Soles, adding
that a bumping process would begin and some employees would end up in other
jobs at the public corporation. The paperwork made official what was announced
earlier this month — that marketing for the corporation would be contracted
out, and that Newsworld International is closing. Thirty-four of the job losses
are due to efforts to save money by farming out the publicity for English TV,
radio and the Internet. The positions will be eliminated by the end of June,
Ms. Soles said. “This is a sad day for the CBC,” Newspaper Guild national
president Lise Lareau said in a statement. “It will lose these special people
and their unique knowledge and talent. Once you let it go, you can't get it
back.” The guild said it has never seen evidence of a detailed business plan to
justify the cuts. It says it believes the change will result in higher costs,
not savings, and will likely mean less service to many CBC programs.
Forty Newsworld International jobs will disappear in
July because an investment group led by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has
decided to close the Toronto-based channel, which was created by the CBC in
1994. The 24-hour news channel airs the CBC's evening newscast, as well as
Britain's ITV Evening News, over satellite television in the U.S. Mr. Gore's
group is expected to use Newsworld International's existing slot on American
satellite TV provider DirecTV for a new channel aimed at young viewers. “I
think that it was always understood that if the contract was not renewed by the
Gore group and that if we couldn't find somebody else that wanted to use our
material the same way the Gore group did, that that would happen,” Ms. Soles
said.
TV Movie Based On SARS Crisis To Air May 29
Source: Canadian Press
(Apr. 21,
2005) Plague City, CTV's movie
of the week that was filmed this past winter in the Toronto and Hamilton areas,
will air Sunday, May 29, the network announced Thursday. Starring Kari Matchett as a nurse who finds
herself at ground zero during Toronto's 2003 SARS crisis, the film is described
as both a medical and political thriller as it follows the deadly SARS virus
from China to its arrival in Toronto. CTV says the announcement was made to
coincide with the second anniversary of the April 2003 travel ban imposed on
Toronto by the World Health Organization.
CTV says the movie, part of their Signature Presentation series, is
based on true events, bolstered by research with medical experts. "This movie is a tribute to the scores
of health care workers who stood fast and weathered one of the most compelling
events in recent Canadian medical history," says Susanne Boyce, CTV
programming president. Boyce says most
of the characters are actually composites of real individuals. The cast also
includes Lannette New, Ron White and Rick Roberts.
Alfre’s ‘Housewives’ Son Is Cast
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) *The
son of Alfre Woodard’s “Desperate Housewives” character has finally been cast
and according to rumours, he and his mama are about to stir some stuff up come
next season. Mehcad Brooks, 24,
will debut on this season’s final two episodes as a recurring character with an
option to become a regular in season two. The Austin, Texas native just wrapped
production on Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Glory Road” for Disney; his credits include
a four-episode arc on Fox’s “Boston Public.” Although ABC has kept quiet about specific details surrounding
the characters of Woodard and Brooks, here’s what we heard: Brooks will likely
play Josh Applewhite, described in ABC casting notices as a "very
attractive 22-year-old strait-laced African-American man." His mother,
Betty (Woodard), is a religious fanatic whose behaviour has made Josh shy,
reserved and dealing with a repressed sex drive. We also heard that the
Applewhites move onto Wisteria Lane after fleeing a situation involving Josh
and a girl in their previous town. Whatever happened back in the old ‘hood has
made Betty extremely over-protective of her son – so much so that she hardly
lets him out of the house.
"Goodbye for Now," the episode introducing Brooks, is
currently expected to air on May 15.
‘Eve’
Part Of UPN’S Aids Awareness Campaign
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 25, 2005) UPN’s “Eve”
will delve into the AIDS issue with Tuesday’s episode “Testing, Testing, HIV,”
airing at 8:30 p.m. Shelly, played by rapper Eve, is trying to “go there”
with her new boyfriend, but he won’t give it up until she takes an HIV
test. Afraid to brave it alone, she rounds up her girlfriends, as well as
her man, and heads to the clinic – where realities about the disease are
brought to life through humour. "Eve"
is among many Viacom-owned network shows to address the serious issue via its
three-year-old "Know HIV/AIDS" initiative, part of a partnership with
the non-profit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. In scripted programming, "CSI: New York," and
"Judging Amy," both on Viacom’s CBS," have featured
HIV/AIDS-themed shows this season. Viacom’s Showtime network in June will
feature a three-episode arc on "Queer As Folk" in which Hunter, a
heterosexual teen played by Harris Allan, is ostracized at school for being
HIV-positive. Kelli Lawson,
executive vice president of corporate marketing for Viacom’s BET, says the
company’s outreach efforts are effecting change. In a survey of blacks
conducted by Kaiser last August, among 18-to-24-year-olds exposed to Viacom's
campaign, half said they had discussed safe sex practices with their partner
because of the Viacom campaign. And nearly 77 percent of that group who were
sexually active said they were more likely to use a condom because of the
campaign. "It really is a
tremendous initiative, and the results have been phenomenal," says Lawson
"It's been just such a huge, huge effort. It has made a difference."
Kevin
Hill’s All-Star Finale
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 25, 2005) *UPN’s “Kevin Hill” will feature a
gang of guest-stars for its May 11 season finale. The series stars Taye Diggs as a hotshot lawyer whose
bachelor/player status took a turn when he was left to raise the six-month-old
daughter of his deceased cousin. Meagan Good
will star in the season finale as the child's mother Melanie, who pops up with
her new fiancé (Wayne Brady) and lawyer Francine (Diggs’ wife Idina Menzel) to file for sole custody of her
baby. Toni Braxton will also
guest star as “Terry the Salon Owner.” Eric
Laneuville directed the episode.
Will & Grace Win Salary
Battle With NBC
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Apr. 26, 2005) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will & Grace should
be back on television for an eighth season. The Hollywood Reporter, citing unidentified sources, said Monday
that NBC and the show's producers have reached a deal for the 2005-06
season. The network declined to comment. Canadian Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean
Hayes and Megan Mullally won salary increases in the one-year deal, despite
speculation they might have to settle for pay cuts, the trade paper said. The actors each will receive between $13
million to $15 million (U.S.) for the season, or roughly $600,000 per episode,
the paper said — compared to the estimated $400,000 per episode they got this
season. Mullally and Hayes will earn as
much as Messing and McCormack for the first time since the series debuted in
1998, the Reporter said. NBC, which had
been riding high on the strength of comedies including Friends, has had
difficulty cultivating replacements for its long-running or departed shows.
Burnett Has ‘Hope’ For Reese
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr.
26, 2005) *TV producer Mark Burnett is eyeing “Touched by an Angel”
vets Della
Reese and Roma Downey to host his new reality project
inspired by the long-running CBS drama. "It's an unscripted show that will
focus on bringing hope to people," said Burnett of the show, tentatively
titled “Giving Hope.” "It will be about people in Kansas who have lost
their farm and helping get them back on their feet. …We might profile people
under a mountain of medical bills and finding ways to get them out from under
it. That's what we'll be looking at -- providing hope and changing lives.”
Burnett said he's planning to shop the idea to prospective network buyers
"in the next few weeks."
::THEATRE NEWS::
On Broadway, Thinking Of Stratford But Feore's Having A Ball With Denzel
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Richard
Ouzounian
(Apr. 23,
2005) Call him The Man Who Wouldn't Be King.
Ask Colm Feore if he's
interested in being the next artistic director of the Stratford Festival and
his reply is immediate: "It looks to me like simply the worst job in the
country." Don't get him wrong. The
46-year-old actor spent 14 seasons there and loves the place passionately, but
he has little appetite for what he calls "the enormous amount of
administrative frippery" that goes along with the job. It's no wonder Feore has no desire to rush
into the breach once Richard Monette retires in 2007. The actor has a lot on
his plate at the moment — besides the omelette and salad he tears into with
gusto at a French bistro just off Broadway.
He's enjoying some of the best notices of his career as Cassius opposite
the Brutus of Denzel Washington in the production of Julius Caesar
currently playing to sold-out audiences in Manhattan. And then there are two other projects in post-production: The
Exorcism of Emily Rose, a film thriller where he appears opposite Laura
Linney, and the TV miniseries Empire, where he plays, oddly enough,
Julius Caesar. "I've been stabbed
and I've done the stabbing," laughs Feore. "Doing the stabbing is better." He also admits that it's nice to be involved
in a hit with a big box-office name.
"I often used to make a wish list about what could bring me to
Broadway: a Shakespeare, a good part, a limited run, a great director and a big
stinking movie star so people would actually buy tickets." He grins. "Every wish was
answered." Feore has been in the
play twice at Stratford, in 1982 when he played Cinna and in 1990 when he had
his first go at Cassius. For Feore,
this isn't a matter of mere repetition, but a chance to go "deeper into what
the man is really about. I've never felt more confident or comfortable. I'm up
there doing the same things I've been doing pretty much all my life and that
seems right to me." Dan Sullivan's
production of the play sets in firmly in what Feore calls "CNN
country," a world of terrorists and political upheaval that could be
Beirut, or even New York City.
"Some
nights we walk out of the theatre," says a perturbed Feore, "and
there's crowds of Homeland Security guys with new weapons, 30 clips of ammo.
Why? Just because." He repeats the phrase with sarcastic venom. "Just
because." "Try taking your
kids to the Statue of Liberty these days. You walk through all these armed guys
and you think, `Hey, no one is dying here. What the hell is going on?'" Feore shakes his head. "Every night, I
listen to Denzel deliver that great line, `Who is here so vile that will not
love his country?' and I get chills down my back. That's the kind of attitude
we're living with every day." Ask
Feore what he thinks of his two-time Oscar-winning co-star and his answer is
immediate. "He's damned good. I
have a great time acting opposite him every night. He looks right through you
and it's like he's saying, `Bring it on, man. Whatever you've got, bring it to
the party with you.'" He also
appreciates Washington's no-nonsense attitude. "He came in the first day
and said, `I'm just here to be a player in this group.' There's no entourage,
no bulls--t. He's there to act and I think he does a hell of a job." Julius Caesar is a strictly limited
run until June 12 and after that, Feore is juggling numerous options, including
a possible return to Stratford in 2006. He also denies the frequently heard
rumours that he's been approached to play Gandalf in the stage version of The
Lord Of The Rings opening in Toronto next year. But what about putting his name in play for the No.1 job at
Stratford? As he considers the question, Feore seems to be playing Brutus
rather than Cassius — weighing the pros and cons of a momentous decision. "Why would anyone want to do it?"
he begins. "There's no pleasing everyone and you have such an enormous
responsibility to the audience, to the profession, to Shakespeare." But it's just that responsibility that winds
up intriguing Feore. "There has to
be some thinking done about how to reinvigorate interest in the place," he
insists. "We have to convince young people that you can spend an evening
in the theatre and be better for it. Not medicinally. Your soul needs something
we're offering here." Feore's use
of the first-person pronoun is pointed out to him and he concedes that "I
always speak corporately of Stratford, even though I know I
shouldn't." He continues to warm
to his theme. "Yes, I know times are tough, but that's when you have to
address what the needs of our audience's souls actually are and figure out how
to feed those needs. "When in
doubt, raise your standards. When in doubt, ask more of people, not less. When
in doubt, be more demanding and more rigorous." Good advice. It's certainly worked for Feore. Maybe it could work
for Stratford as well.
::SPORTS NEWS::
Vijay
in Golf Hall
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Apr. 22, 2005) *Fijian golfer Vijay
Singh, 42, has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
"There were only 500 guys that played golf in Fiji," Singh said
Wednesday. "To be where I am is really incredible. It's hard to even think
about it. When you look at where I grew up, how I practiced, where I went from
there ... you can't explain it in a few words." Singh was the only player
elected from the PGA Tour ballot, receiving 56 percent of the vote.
::OTHER NEWS::
Challenges In Store For
Ballet Star
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Susan Walker, Dance
Writer
(Apr. 23,
2005) Rebekah Rimsay has been acting
up. Last year the National Ballet of
Canada's first soloist won the William Marrié Award for Dramatic Achievement,
for her standout comedic performance as the myopic Stepsister in James
Kudelka's Cinderella. This year she is taking on two new roles: she's
the sexy maid Virginia in Kudelka's An Italian Straw Hat, and she's the
co-owner of the new Ground Café on Queen St. W. She and her husband, architect Stan Zalewski, opened Ground Café
at the end of March after purchasing a building near Roncesvalles that they
renovated to serve as a showcase for Zalewski's design work, a welcoming
environment for his clients and a hub of community arts activity. Upstairs are
the offices of the architect's Square Peg Studio; downstairs, she's ordering up
pastries, organizing menus and running to city hall for building permits
between ballet rehearsals. Walking into
the café business with no previous experience, Rimsay has allowed her personal
taste to be her guide. She was lucky enough to run into a former National
Ballet School fellow student, Kyla Eaglesham, who was just opening her own
bakery and became a chief supplier. She has covered the walls of the café with
the work of local artists, and she envisions the place becoming a venue for
readings and musical events and a glimpse of the ballet world through costume
displays. Rimsay, as naturally outgoing
offstage as she is an engaging performer on it, joined the National Ballet in
1990, directly after graduating from the National Ballet School. Born in Fort Collins,
Colo., she moved with her family to St. John's, Nfld., when she was 5, after
her father, a biochemist, got a research position at the university. "It
was supposed to be a temporary move," she says, "but we just
stayed."
Rimsay's
mother, a modern dancer, opened a dance school in St. John's with a partner who
taught ballet. "Somehow I always gravitated to ballet, even though my main
influence was modern," Rimsay recalls. When she saw a notice for National
Ballet School auditions on a bulletin board, she tore it off and brought it
home. She was 10; her mother encouraged her to apply and she was accepted into
the summer school the first year. At 11, she joined the full-time program. That
first year so far away from home, she admits, "was really tough." Her class, which included National Ballet of
Canada principal Greta Hodgkinson and company member Sophie Letendre, was the
first to graduate under the auspices of school director Mavis Staines. Rimsay
earned scholarships and received the Ondaatje Ballet Award and awards from the
City of Toronto and with her strong facial features and auburn hair, Rimsay
stood out in the corps de ballet. It wasn't long before she was getting cast in
principal roles. She danced the part of
Lise in La Fille mal gardée and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
She could do the regal roles, such as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Queen of the
Wilis in Giselle, but if there was a courtesan or a blowzy broad to be
cast, Rimsay was a shoo-in. She was a spirited gypsy in Romeo and Juliet,
the street dancer Mercedes in Don Quixote and the wench in Swan Lake. And while she also excelled in non-character
roles in the Balanchine ballets and Kudelka's abstract works, such as Cruel
World ("a thrill for me to dance"), Rimsay was developing into a
dancer who could bring a character to life.
Kudelka, whose Italian Straw Hat opens May 1 at the Hummingbird
Centre, previously cast Rimsay and coached her in the part of Catherine Sloper
in his own Washington Square; then he created the role of Dot for her in
The Contract. For his Cinderella, which premiered last May and
returns to the Hummingbird tonight, the choreographer gave her a character that
is certain to become one of her signature roles. Cast with Jennifer Fournier as
one of the two social-climbing stepsisters, Rimsay wears a huge pair of
spectacles and trips across the stage in pointe shoes like a Lucille Ball of
ballet.
Comedy
does not come easily to a ballerina, says Rimsay — "we spend our whole
training period and much of our career trying to be beautiful and trying to be
the pretty girl." When humour is
called for, the dancer may have to work against everything she's learned about
how to look graceful and ethereal on stage.
Rimsay is not the classic malicious stepsister of Cinderella, but she's
no beauty either. The dancer says she has learned a lot from watching principal
character dancer Victoria Bertram. As
the comically drunken stepmother in Cinderella, the evil Carabosse in The
Sleeping Beauty, or whatever role she's performing, Bertram makes a role
model for any dancer with a desire to act. "She's not afraid to change her
face and look really mean and yet she can be the smooth, beautiful and elegant
Lady Capulet," says Rimsay. "To watch that range to me is so exciting.
It's what I love and what I aspire to be." As Virginia, the randy maid in An Italian Straw Hat,
Rimsay will go beyond comedy into pure farce and into risky territory where
Kudelka has choreographed moves that could bring a blush to the cheek of any
dancer attempting them. "How do I
put this delicately?" she hesitates. "There's a lot of humping."
A pretty accomplished choreographer herself, having contributed two works to
the last two National Ballet choreographic workshops, Rimsay will continue to
make opportunities for herself in dance.
But clearly Rimsay is putting down roots in the real world too. From the
stage to the Ground, as it were.
You Have Book
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Rebecca Caldwell
(Apr.
25, 2005) E-books have yet to crack
the publishing industry, but that hasn't stopped literature from tackling
computer technology as a storytelling device. From Rocki St. Claire's Hit
Reply to Meg Cabot's Every Boy's Got One, and the upcoming And God
Created the Au Pair by Benedicte Newland and Pascale Smets, a recent spate
of old-fashioned low-tech printed books have all abandoned traditional
narrative for Internet terminology, using e-mails, chat-room dialogues and
instant messaging instead of regular prose, chapters and verses. Authors say
the use of e-mails is not simply a gimmick, but a way of reflecting the world
they see. St. Claire, for instance, says she was inspired to write Hit Reply
in e-mail format when she kept hearing about her friends' on-line adventures,
particularly one friend who renewed a relationship with a high-school boyfriend
after tracking him down on Google. "E-mail really sparked the story, and I
couldn't imagine any other way to tell it, because it was so much about the
impact and effect of e-mail on our lives. There was never any doubt to me that
that was how I wanted to tell the story and the biggest challenge would be how
to get across what I normally get across in narrative and dialogue through
e-mail." St. Claire, who has published five other books, in the romance
and thriller genres, said that one of the biggest difficulties in writing a
book in e-mail format was that everything is described in the past, not the
present, and without "real-time" emotions the recollected scene had
to be driven by a character's personality. In particular, she felt that
conveying the dramatic meeting of two romantically linked characters who live
in different parts of the United States as an e-mail after the fact posed a
problem.
Then
there was the issue of the language of e-mail: Most regular users will testify
that e-mails ignore the conventions of regular letter writing, such as
attention to correct spelling or punctuation and the reliance on emoticons
(such as smiley faces) and other abbreviations (such as using BTW for "by
the way"). In Hit Reply, one character named Gray -- a cool,
laid-back musician -- never capitalizes anything, a source of amusement for his
would-be girlfriend and her friend who joke that he is "shift-key
challenged," although the author says his style was more a reflection of
his character rather than a signal of the actual sloppiness of e-mail. For the
most part St. Claire, a 47-year-old mother of two who writes from home, says
that she opted for standard English usage, limiting abbreviations since she
felt her audience of predominantly women in their 20s and 30s wouldn't be as
familiar with the latest short forms as would a teenager glued to her
BlackBerry. "I decided to go for
slightly more acceptable, more like book-format writing and not use that many
acronyms and abbreviations because I didn't want to disenfranchise people who
are not really Internet-savvy," she said. Even those who are
Internet-savvy may not be on top of the latest technological developments, another
issue St. Claire worried about. "I
reference a computer on a desk enough times that I thought -- in two years, so
many people will have moved to laptops that this isn't going to make sense any
more," she said. "The biggest challenge is that you don't get so
hooked on technology that in five years it will seem completely outdated."
Of
course, e-mail books can be seen as a modern version of the epistolary novel, a
popular 18th-century form whose pioneering experimentation with different
viewpoints and heightened psychological insights into the characters changed
the course of the English novel. Both
e-pistolary and epistolary novels reflect a shift in the culture -- new
technology for e-mail books, an increase in literacy, and by extension letter
writing, during the 18th century. And interestingly, two of the greatest
epistolary novels, Pamela (1740), the very first example, and Clarissa
(1748) both written by Samuel Richardson, concern the romantic and sexual lives
of a young heroine -- much like modern e-pistolary books. Is there something about the letter, and now
e-mail, that lends itself to revealing the affections of the heart? Certainly
the creation of on-line dating services such as Lavalife has reinvigorated the
method by which people are starting relationships. Why shouldn't new technology
reinvigorate the romance novel? "E-mail has become a romantic technology
in the same way as letters were," says Nicholas Hudson, a professor of
English literature at the University of British Columbia. "To send someone
a letter in the 18th century was very often a romantic gesture. In Clarissa,
one of the problems there is that she shouldn't be receiving letters from this
rake -- she should be sending them back, but because of the circumstances of
the novel she is reading them and replying to them, which puts her in a very
compromising position." Hudson notes that both e-mails and letters let the
writer control the level of intimacy, which makes them useful tools for
courtship, and for judging the writer's character and their relationship to the
recipient.
"Letters
and e-mail have a parallel because they have scope for lessening distance or
opening up distance," Hudson said. "And any kind of written
correspondence will speak differently to different kinds of people, so you're
always adjusting the tone depending on whom you're addressing. So they create
an opportunity for interesting adjustments of style and presentation of
characters in relationship to different people and how they present themselves.
In all sorts of ways, e-mail and letters offer fruitful ways of examining
relationships and presenting characters in their relationships."
Regardless if they are aware of the e-mail novel's literary antecedents,
readers are responding well, St. Claire says. "The most consistent
response I get is that 'I didn't expect to like it so much,' " she said.
"It's really struck a chord -- there's something really universal about
wanting to connect with someone you've lost touch with, and the ease of it
nowadays."
Will Ferguson Wins Leacock Humour Medal
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Canadian Press
(Apr. 21,
2005) ORILLIA—Calgary author Will Ferguson
is this year's winner of the Leacock Memorial
Medal for Humour. About 60
people gathered yesterday at the Stephen Leacock Museum's banquet hall for the
58th annual award luncheon. "The
white smoke is about to rise," joked Richard Johnston, president of the
Stephen Leacock Association, in front of a backdrop of a fireplace and picture
of the humorist. Mark Leiren-Young
bounded up front to collect Ferguson's $10,000 prize for the book Beauty
Tips from Moosejaw. Speaking from
his home in Calgary, Ferguson said winning the award was wonderful news. He said his book, a series of travel
articles chronicling Canada's most remote pockets, helped him rediscover his
country. "It's a wonderfully
varied country," said Ferguson, who won his first Leacock medal in 2002
for the book Generica (renamed Happiness TM).
::FITNESS NEWS::
Thinner Thighs: 3 Animated Leg
Exercises!
By Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE,
eDiets Chief Fitness Pro
(Apr. 25, 2005) What part of your body seems to carry
excessive flab and makes you totally uncomfortable in jeans or pants? It may be
your butt, belly or hips, but I think a few hands may rise in the air with the
answer -- inner thighs! The focus of
this article is to provide truth about how to reduce and tighten the inner
thigh area and also to dispel one big myth.
Many of you have been raving about the animated exercises, so I’m
providing an inner thigh workout with eDiets' easy-to-follow exercise
animations to help get you to your goal.
The workout is designed as a specialty workout. It’s
not designed to be the "be all and end all" for tightening and
reducing flab on the inner thighs.
Let’s dispel one big myth. Always remember that spot reduction is not
possible, so losing flab only on your inner thighs is not going to happen. The
human body just doesn’t work that way.
For inner thighs to become leaner and tighter, overall body fat must be
reduced through a combination of proper nutrition, exercise and consistency.
Your nutrition plan must have you eating frequent, healthy meals and snacks to
control blood sugar levels, but it must also place you in a slight calorie
deficit (less than maintenance). This is the only way to shed the flab. I won’t
kid you, this process does take time, but with some persistence and
perspiration you can make your inner thighs leaner and tighter. The formula never changes; it’s the lack of
consistency that holds many people back. If you haven’t joined eDiets, it’s time to get this issue
out of the way. Your legs won’t get slimmer without a purposeful and
easy-to-use meal plan. I also recommend our fitness plan that provides great
workouts, animations and descriptions.
This inner thigh specialty workout only needs to be done once or twice
per week on alternate days. The specialty routine also assumes that you workout
with weights and perform cardiovascular exercise approximately three days per
week. If you don’t follow the above
program, try to make it part of your lifestyle slowly and with care. Then, add
my specialty inner thigh routine when your fitness level increases. This
routine will add some tightness to your inner thighs without the need of
joining a gym. Let’s have some fun!
The Inner Thigh Specialty Workout
Fitness Band Standing Leg Adduction
Starting Position:
· Attach a
fitness band to a door at ankle height (the band should come with a door
attachment).
· Attach the
fitness band to your left ankle.
·
Stand with your left side facing the door with your weight on the right
leg, and your right hand on a chair or table balancing your body.
· Place your
left hand on your hip.
· Maintain a
slight bend in the knees throughout the exercise.
Movement:
· Contracting the inner thigh muscles, move
the left leg passed the right leg stopping when you feel a contraction on the
inner thigh.
· Slowly
return to the starting position.
· After the
set, perform the movement with the other leg. Key Points:
· Exhale while
moving the leg across the body.
· Inhale while
returning to the starting position.
Perform 15 slow and controlled repetitions for each
leg and then immediately go to the next exercise.
Lying Leg Adduction
Starting Position:
· Lie on your
right side with your right arm supporting your upper body.
· Your right
leg should be straight and your left leg should be bent.
· Support your
weight on your right arm and left leg.
Movement:
· Contracting
the inner thigh muscles, lift your right leg up until you feel a contraction of
the inner thigh muscles.
· After
completing the set on the right side, perform the exercise on the left side.
Key Points:
· Exhale while
lifting your leg up.
· Inhale while
returning to the starting position.
· You may use
ankle weights to increase the level of difficulty.
· If you are
an intermediate exerciser, you can add resistance to the inner thigh as you are
lifting. You can resist your inner thigh with your hand or use a weighted
object.
Perform 20 slow and controlled repetitions on each
side and immediately go to the next exercise.
Ankle Weight Standing Leg Adduction
Although we did a similar movement with the fitness
band in the first exercise, I want to change the band to an ankle weight and go
for a real burn on the inner thighs.
Starting Position:
· Place an
ankle weight on your left ankle.
·
Stand erect with your weight on the right leg with a soft bend in the
knee and your right hand on a chair or table for balance.
· Place your
left hand on your hip.
Movement:
· Contracting
the inner thigh (adductor) muscles, move your left leg past your right leg.
· Slowly
return to the starting position, stopping when the left leg is in front of the
right leg.
Key Points:
· Exhale while
lifting the weight.
· Inhale while
returning to the starting position.
· If
you have one leg that is more dominant than the other, start out with the less
dominant leg first.
Perform 15-20 slow and controlled repetitions.
After completing the routine, take a
60-second break and repeat the above sequence two additional times (this is the
ultimate goal). Beginners should
perform one set, intermediates two sets, and advanced exercisers three sets.
Just remember to focus all your attention on the inner thighs and perform the movements
with perfect form. If you decide to get
serious about your nutrition and overall exercise program, then adding my inner
thigh specialty workout will help in your quest for a pair of slimmer legs --
just in time to buy those new loose-fitting jeans. As always, check with your doctor prior to beginning any exercise
program.
EVENTS –APRIL
28 – MAY 8, 2005
SATURDAY, APRIL 30 AND SUNDAY, MAY 1
THE
A-TEAM
The
Orbit Room
College
Street
10:30
pm
$8.00
EVENT
PROFILE:
Featuring Wade O. Brown, Shamakah Ali, Rich Brown, Adrian Eccleston, David
Williams.
SUNDAY, MAY 1
SOULAR
College
Street Bar
574
College Street (at Manning)
10:30
pm
$5.00
EVENT
PROFILE:
Featuring Dione Taylor, Sandy Mamane, Davide Direnzo, Justin Abedin, Dafydd
Hughes and David French.
MONDAY, MAY 2
IRIE MONDAY
NIGIHT SESSIONS
Irie Food Joint
745 Queen Street W.
10:00 pm
EVENT PROFILE:
Newcomers and regulars alike were
enjoying the vibe and promised to come back for more next week. So, if
you know what's good for you, make your way down there next Monday to enjoy the
crazy and genius combination of Kayte Burgess and Adrian Eccleston - arrangements that will tantalize your ears
and soul.
MONDAY, MAY 2
VIP JAM WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
Revival Bar
783 College Street (at Shaw)
10:00 pm
NO COVER
EVENT PROFILE:
Featuring Rich Brown, Joel Joseph and Shamakah Ali with various local
artists.
SATURDAY, MAY 7 AND SUNDAY, MAY 8
THE
A-TEAM
The
Orbit Room
College
Street
10:30
pm
$8.00
EVENT
PROFILE:
Featuring Wade O. Brown, Shamakah Ali, Rich Brown, Adrian Eccleston, David
Williams.
SUNDAY, MAY 8
SOULAR
College Street Bar
574 College Street (at
Manning)
10:30 pm
$5.00
EVENT PROFILE:
Featuring Dione Taylor, Sandy Mamane, Davide Direnzo, Justin Abedin, Dafydd
Hughes and David French
Have a great week!
Dawn
Langfield
Langfield
Entertainment
www.langfieldentertainment.com
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