Langfield
Entertainment
88
Bloor Street E., Suite 2908, Toronto, ON
M4W 3G9
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
NEWSLETTER
Updated: December 14, 2006
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Is it seriously only 11 days
until Christmas? Yikes! Tis the season for many parties - so
please celebrate safely. Little harsh reality being in the Caribbean
one week and Toronto mid-winter the next! |
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::HOT EVENTS::
CBC “Gospel Christmas Celebration” – December 22, 24, 25 and 26
Source: Andrew Craig
Get in the Christmas spirit with CBC’s Gospel Christmas
Celebration featuring
all-new arrangements of your favourite Christmas carols! Andrew Craig is at the helm as producer,
arranger, musical director and host. He has selected some of Canada’s
biggest voices to touch us with the Christmas message, namely, Jackie Richardson, Alana Bridgewater, Kelly-Lee
Evans and Chris
Lowe. Faith Chorale ties
all this talent together with a six-piece band, led by Andrew Craig at the
piano.
Sit down with your family and friends and gather ‘round the radio or television
to catch this special Christmas show!
BROADCAST SCHEDULE:
December 22
|
8:00 pm to 10:00 pm |
CBC Radio Two (94.1 FM
Toronto) |
|
December 24 |
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm |
CBC Television |
|
December 25 |
4:05 pm to 6:00 pm |
CBC Radio One (99.1 FM
Toronto) |
|
|
8:05 pm to 10:00 pm |
CBC Radio Two (94.1 FM
Toronto) |
|
December 26 |
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm |
CBC Television |
If you like what you see and hear, make sure you let the CBC know,
so that they can create more programming like this in the future. Here's a link
to CBC audience relations HERE!!
R&B Stars Unite for "The We Three Kings Soul Solidarity
Concert" – Thursday, December 28
Source: dB Promotions & Publicity Inc.
(Nov. 27, 2006) Three of Canada's hottest R&B/Soul stars - Chris Rouse,
Wade O. Brown and JUNO Award-Winner Carlos Morgan (aka Carll Parkes) - are coming together
for one night of electrifying performances in the “We Three Kings Soul Solidarity Concert”. Taking place Thursday, December 28th
at The Revival Nightclub, 783 College St., this concert promises
an evening of music immersed with soul, passion, and rhythm, featuring music
from the artists' forthcoming releases as well as previously released hit
songs.
Hosted by AKA SUBLIMINAL, and after party music supplied
by DJ
Sean Sax,
the "We Three Kings Soul Solidarity Concert" will be the first in a
series of Soul Solidarity performances being developed to bring Canada's
emerging R&B/Soul artists to the forefront.
"Our goal with these performances is to show the Canadian music industry,
as well as music lovers at large, that Canada has a vast array of talented
R&B/Soul artists - some of whom have yet to be discovered - who have what
it takes to be superstars given the opportunity and right platform,"
remarks Morgan/Parkes.
Christopher Rouse (aka Hominy Manchild) is well known from
domestic to Asian audiences and locally in Toronto for his talents as a
vocalist, musician, arranger, and producer. As a member of the vocal
group Othello, Rouse had the experience of being the first R&B act to be
signed out of Canada to a US label, first with Epic/Sony, and then with Warner
directly. As a solo artist, he has backed everyone from Glenn Lewis,
Ivana Santilli, Divine Brown, Ray Robinson, Melanie Durrant, Amanda Marshall,
Maestro Fresh Wes and Dan Hill from studio to stage.
Currently, Rouse is in the midst of recording his debut CD which will showcase
his particular brand of soul, fusing organic new school with old school
nuances.
Wade O. Brown became a vocalist of choice when soul performers such as Aretha
Franklin, Wesley Snipes and Jamie Foxx came to town. Born and
raised in Detroit, the singer/songwriter/keyboardist was mentored as a teen by
the legendary Clark Sisters and became a regular in the Midwest Gospel
community. As a young adult he moved to Toronto where he quickly became
known for his outstanding stage presence and back to basics Motown sound.
Looking to fill the void left by the deaths of Luther Vandross and Barry
White, Brown was developing into a true modern soul man. With two CDs
under his belt - Complete (2002) and All Night All Love
(2005) - Brown continues to perform alongside many of the country's
premiere artists while he completes his third recording set for a 2007 release.
Carlos Morgan (aka Carll Parkes) broke out onto the scene with
one of Canada 's hottest selling independent albums. Feelin'
Alright earned Morgan multiple awards and recognitions including:
a JUNO Award for "Best R&B/Soul Recording", a
MuchMusic Video Award for "Give It To You" for Best
R&B/Soul Video, a SOCAN Music Award, two
Canadian Urban Music Awards, two Canadian Caribbean Cultural Committee
Awards and a top-charting single with "Baby C'Mon".
Known for his sultry singing style, the singer, songwriter and producer has
also been included in the Canadian Who's Who - Canada 's oldest and
complete who's who publication where individuals are selected not only on
merit, but on the contributions they have made to life in Canada as well.
His forthcoming album, All Of Who I Am.Vol.1, sees Morgan
returning to his roots, reclaiming his birth name Carll Parkes, and
telling of Morgan/Parkes' struggle and acceptance with his own self love, self
respect and dignity as well as towards his fellow "brothers" and
"sisters".
Proceeds from ticket sales for the "We Three Kings Soul Solidarity
Concert" will be donated to the "Shoot
With This" organization. Created by Dameion Royes, founder of
the "Big It Up" clothing franchise, "Shoot With
This" is a film development program designed to empower and motivate
at-risk youth. Led by workshop leaders, the program teaches youth video
and documentary skills as a means of developing artistic, academic and career
skills and expressing themselves constructively.
Tickets for the “We Three Kings Soul Solidarity Concert” can be
purchased by calling 416-509-3710, 416-899-1403 or by emailing getatwadeo@hotmail.com
for $15.00 in advance, or for $20.00 at the door on the day of the show.
A limited number of advance tickets are also available with purchase of The
Soul Solidarity CD for a combined price of $20.00 by contacting the numbers
above.
For further information, please contact:
dB Promotions & Publicity Inc.
Dulce Barbosa
P: 416.928.3550
E: dulce@dbpromotions.ca
For further information on these three R&B/Soul stars, please check out
their MySpace.com Websites...
www.myspace.com/carllparkescarlosmorgan
www.myspace.com/wadeobrown
www.myspace.com/hominymanchild
::SCOOP::
Tamia Can't Get Enough
Source: Universal Music Canada
Grammy Award winner and Canada's own Tamia believes that her new CD is an R&B guide to the beauty and
dynamics of relationships. Mixing the writing styles of Shep Crawford, the
production finesse of Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Tamia's
maturity as an artist and as a woman resonates in all 12 songs, including the
first single, “Can’t Get Enough.”
'Between Friends' is the birth of Tamia's second child. With her growing
wisdom in life, love and the music industry, she believes that "there's a
time and place for music like "Drop It Like It's Hot!" But, there are
also people who want to hear about love and relationships. A lot of songs I do
aren't from personal experience, but the subject matter is universal."
TAMIA'S NEW CD 'BETWEEN FRIENDS' IS IN STORES NOW!
::RECAP::
HARLEM is BORN
Well, they did it ... again! The 'two Carls' (Carl
Cassell and Carl
Allen) brought us the newest, hippest spot in
Toronto
at the corner of Richmond and Church Sts! Walking up to the spot, you
could hear the music bumping with people streaming in and out. Carl Allen
brought some of the funkiest grooves I've heard in a long time!
Harlem reminds me of a New York city spot - long and narrow with people
jammin' as they squeeze through the place. Hands in the air, drinks
being cradled and lots of familiar smiles. Servers were passing around
some of the new Caribbean tapas cuisine that will be featured on the
menu.
Harlem is Carl’s new landmark restaurant-bar and benchmark of Northern
cool. Situated in the hub of city movement, the opening of Harlem will
add polish to an area already carving out new urban development. But no
development is ever complete without the social and cultural contributions of
the colourful class. You’ll find it all passing though Harlem.
Want to check out the latest hot spot in Toronto to hang out? Come and
check out Harlem!
::top stories::
Peter Boyle, Father On TV’s 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' Dead At
71
Source: By Dennis McLellan, LA Times Staff Writer
(Dec. 13, 2006) Peter Boyle, who made an indelible mark in comedy by
donning a top hat and tails and performing "Puttin' on the Ritz" as
the hulking monster in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" and later
gained his most enduring fame as the scrappy father on the popular sitcom
"Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71. Boyle, who was
also a critically acclaimed dramatic actor, died Tuesday at New York
Presbyterian Hospital after a battle with multiple myeloma and heart disease,
said his publicist, Jennifer Plante. From 1996 to 2005, Boyle played the
hilariously obnoxious Frank Barone opposite Doris Roberts' Marie Barone, Ray
Romano's bickering and overbearing parents in "Everybody Loves
Raymond" -- a role for which he received seven Emmy nominations.
Having spent nine years playing opposite Boyle on the CBS series, Roberts
said in a statement Wednesday, "it's like losing a spouse."
"I'm going to miss my dear friend, so unlike the character he played
on television," Roberts said. "He's a brilliant actor, a gentleman,
incredibly intelligent, wonderfully well read and a loving friend."
In a 1999 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Boyle said he found
playing his character on the series "very gratifying."
"(Fans say) `You're just like my father,' " he said. The
Barones "are people you know and the way people really are on the other
side of the TV set -- not behind the TV set, but in front of it."
Equally at home in comedy and drama, Boyle appeared in dozens of
films, including playing Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The
Candidate," Robert De Niro's fellow cab driver "Wizard" in
"Taxi Driver" and Billy Bob Thornton's racist father in
"Monster's Ball." Boyle, who won his only Emmy -- in 1996 for a
guest appearance on "The X Files" -- also played Sen. Joseph McCarthy
in the 1977 TV movie "Tail Gunner Joe" (for which he earned an Emmy
nomination) and Sgt. "Fatso" Judson in the 1979 miniseries "From
Here to Eternity." He also starred as a veteran New York cop in the
short-lived 1986 series "Joe Bash." "When I was in high
school I wanted to be a leading man guy, like Howard Keel," Boyle told The
Associated Press in 2001. "But then God saw fit to take the hair off my
head at age 24." Boyle had his breakthrough movie role-playing the
title character in the unexpected hit "Joe," a 1970 drama in which he
delivered a chilling performance as a murderously bigoted hard-hat from Queens.
In the wake of his critical success in "Joe," Boyle feared
being typecast in similarly violent roles and turned down the starring role of
Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the 1971 film "The French
Connection." "I got bad advice," he told Entertainment
Weekly in 2001. "Look, Gene Hackman was brilliant, so what can you
say?" Boyle's concerns about being typecast were blown away with his
performance as the monster in Brooks' hit 1974 horror-movie spoof "Young
Frankenstein," starring Gene Wilder. As the monster, critic Roger Ebert
wrote, Boyle "somehow manages to be hilarious and pathetic at the same
time."
"I was greatly saddened by the news (of Boyle's death)," Brooks said
in a statement Wednesday. "I will always cherish (his) remarkable
performance as the monster in `Young Frankenstein.' " "I don't
know how you breathe human life into a monster, but he did -- and in a humorous
way," Teri Garr, who played Inga in the film, told the Times Wednesday.
"He had that quality in his face; he could be mean and also warm and
fabulous." While making "Young Frankenstein," Boyle met
Rolling Stone magazine reporter Loraine Alterman, who was doing a story on
Brooks. Through Alterman, a friend of Yoko Ono's, Boyle met John Lennon, who
served as best man when he and Alterman were married in 1977. Boyle was
born Oct. 18, 1935 in Norristown, Pa., and later moved to Philadelphia, where
his father became a popular TV show host in the 1950s known as "Uncle
Pete" and "Chuckwagon Pete." Boyle attended a Catholic
high school and joined the Christian Brothers while attending what is now La
Salle University in Philadelphia.
Nelly Furtado, Nickelback and Three Days Grace Claim Billboard
Awards
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Kathleen
Hennessey, Associated Press
(Dec. 5, 2006) LAS VEGAS—Canada's representatives hit the jackpot in
the desert last night at the 2006 Billboard Music
Awards. Toronto's Nelly Furtado won for Pop
Single of the Year for "Promiscuous" while Nickelback won Rock Album
of the Year for All The Right Reasons and Artist-Duo/Group of the Year.
The B.C. band closed the show jamming to "Looking for Some Tush" with
Kid Rock and ZZ Top. Three Days Grace, which got its start in Norwood,
Ont., won Rock Single of the Year for "Animal I Have Become." A
big winner on the night was a 17-year-old Lothario, Chris Brown, named Artist
of the Year to culminate three awards. Newcomers Rihanna and Idol-turned-country
star Carrie Underwood also walked away with high honours at the two-hour show
aired live from the MGM Grand. But it was R&B diva Mary J. Blige and
her comeback album, The Breakthrough, delivered nine awards to the
35-year-old singer, including R&B/Hip-Hop artist of the year. The
album debuted at the top of the Billboard charts in December 2005 and has sold
2.6 million copies since. Blige, in white go-go boots and a sparkly
mini-dress, rocked the full house by belting out a medley of her "Enough
Crying" and ``Take Me as I Am.'' However Rihanna, an 18-year-old
from Barbados, edged out Blige and Beyoncé for the keystone honour.
"I really can't feel my legs, this is phenomenal," Rihanna said as
she accepted the Best Female Artist of the Year award. "That was a really
tough category.'' Janet Jackson opened the show, performing in a short
bob haircut and a belly-baring white turtleneck sweater that offered no chance
of wardrobe malfunction.
The telecast did not, however, feature Tinseltown's duo du jour — heiress Paris
Hilton and mom-gone-wild Britney Spears. A report had said the new best friends
would co-host, but Hilton apparently was bothered by scripted jokes at her
expense, Spears was never approached and neither appeared. Country
crossover Underwood's Some Hearts album won two awards and she was named
Female Country Artist of the Year. Atlanta rapper T.I. won for top artist
and top album for his fourth solo album, King, which debuted at No. 1 on
the chart in March. Las Vegas natives The Killers backed out of a
performance because band member Brandon Flowers was ill, the group said.
Crooner Tony Bennett was honoured with the Billboard Century Award, a lifetime
achievement award. Bennett timed his release of Duets: An American
Classic — featuring Bono, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand
and other musical big-timers — to his 80th birthday in September. It's become
the best-selling album of his 50-plus-year recording career. Billboard
Awards are given to the year's chart-topping artists. Winners are determined by
the magazine's year-end chart listings, which are based on record sales and
airplay.
It Helps To Have Friends In High Places: George
By Chris Atchison, Metro Toronto
(Dec. 8-06) George knows what it takes to be a
success in
the music business. If he’s ever in doubt all he needs to do is examine the
work ethic of his aunt, actress Kyra Sedgwick, his uncle and her husband, Kevin
Bacon, and his management which includes former 3Deep member C.J. Huyer and
former Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough. But it’s a hard road for any Canadian
musician, particularly one trying to make his name in the ever crowded pop and
R&B market. Still, the 20-year-old Torontonian — who only uses his surname
Nozuka for signing cheques and record deals — feels he has the drive to turn
his childhood dream of superstardom into reality. If the success of the first
single Talk To Me from his debut album, Believe, is any indicator, George might
be on the right path. “I realized at a young age that if I’m going to do this I
have to create a work ethic myself … I think it starts from a person wanting to
do something,” he says.
Listen to George reference his musical influences — Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder
and even Elvis Presley — and it’s clear that his love of music runs deep. So
too does his appreciation for hard work. George decided around the age of 12
that he would break into the music business. He learned to play guitar,
harmonica and piano and began dancing. After bouncing around the local amateur
boy band circuit, George met Huyer and began building his solo career. He’s
recently been touring Canada and since October has watched Talk To Me climb the
charts. The track recently peaked at No. 1 on the Much Music video countdown.
George is quick to point out that having management with friends in high places
has undoubtedly helped his work get noticed. “Howie’s been showing the product
to a lot of people and it’s building in Canada, and people in other territories
are starting to look at the product and believe in the product now, which is
really exciting,” he says of Dorough’s promotional efforts. In fact it was the
former boy band sensation who introduced George to the media and fans at this
year’s Much Music Video Awards.
But it’s exposure to the hectic lives of Bacon, Sedgwick and even Dorough which
has offered George insight into the dedication necessary to succeed in show
business. Then there’s that whole problem of maintaining those achievements.
Connections and name recognition aside, George feels that perhaps the most
important lesson Dorough taught him early on was one in humility and
perspective. “I just want to focus and get bigger and bigger,” he says. “The
only way you can do that is if you stay focused. Once you believe the hype it’s
the beginning of the end.”
Ezrin, U2's Edge launch Phase II
By
Karen Bliss for Lowdown
(December 8, 2006) Bob Ezrin, the Canadian-born producer best known
for his work with Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Kiss, has stepped
up the second phase of the Music Rising initiative he started with U2 guitarist
The Edge to help musicians in the Gulf Coast. The first phase of the
charity campaign raised money to replace musical instruments that were lost or
damaged in the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and while that
program is still active, now Music Rising is helping to restore music programs
in schools and churches. "We started off by trying to help the
professional musicians of the region get back on their feet and get playing
again," says Ezrin. "We felt that that music was so important to the
area for tourism, for its soul, for giving people some way to congregate and
gather around something positive. "We focused on that because, at
the time, churches and schools were so destroyed that they weren't anywhere
near to having their music programs back up. So we started off with
professional musicians and we raised enough money [to be] able to help 2,200
musicians."
Music Rising Phase II will be administered by The Gibson Foundation with
assistance from Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation and All Congregations Together.
As with Phase I, donations can be made via the web site, www.MusicRising.org,
where there are links to pay online or one can mail a cheque or money order to
Gibson Foundation, 309 Plus Park Blvd., Nashville, TN 37217 However, if
you want a memento of your generosity or a gift that makes a difference, there
are t-shirts and guitars available with all proceeds going to Music Rising.
Music Rising T-shirts -- as worn by The Edge on U2's Grammy performance
earlier this year -- can also be purchased for (U.S.) $30 on FanFire.com.
MusiciansFriend.com is also selling a "very" limited edition Music
Rising Epiphone guitar with artwork designed by The Edge for (U.S.) $599.00.
For easy-access to the items, go to the www.MusicRising.org web
site. Ezrin, who returned to Canada in July of 2005 after a long absence,
was in Toronto when the hurricane struck the Gulf region and the levees
subsequently broke in New Orleans. Three weeks later, he was sitting next to
The Edge at a luncheon in Toronto and they started talking about the tragedy
and what they could do to help.
"By that time, I was already in touch with Henry Juszkiewicz from [guitar
manufacturer] Gibson and Marty Albertson from Guitar Centre," recounts
Ezrin. "I told Edge about what we were doing there and he said he'd like
to be involved, so I gave him my home phone number and left, fully expecting
that it was one of those rock star moments where they say, 'Yeah, let me help,'
and then you never hear from them again. "Sure enough, three days
later, he called up and said, 'OK, here's the research I've done; here are the
people I've spoken to; here's what I think we ought to do.' He was using the
'we' word right off the bat." Operating as a virtual organization
with no staff, except for Ezrin, The Edge and a couple of people from Gibson,
they needed to find a way to get word out to the musicians in need.
Ezrin, who sits on the board of the Los Angeles chapter of the National
Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), felt that the best way to
do this would be to work with the MusiCares Foundation, which was established
by the American recording academy to aid musicians in crisis (from drug
counselling to medical care). He was aware of the thousands of professional
musicians who had contacted MusiCares after the hurricane and received
immediate living assistance and spending money.
"It seemed to me that those same people, if they'd lost everything, then
they'd lost their instruments," Ezrin deduced. "And when we went back
to them and asked, they had indeed also lost instruments." Those
musicians were then given a coupon to go shopping on MusiciansFriend.com,
the largest online retailer of musical instruments. But Music Rising was unable
to deal with restoring or replacing heirlooms or other special cases, says
Ezrin. A documentary about Music Rising aired in September in America and
Canada. A charity single of U2 and Green Day covering "The Saints Are
Coming" by The Skids was produced by Rick Rubin and released digitally in
Canada Oct. 30 and in stores Nov. 7 to benefit Music Rising. Ezrin produced the
live version -- available for U.S. download only -- when both bands performed
the song at the Louisiana Superdome on Sept. 25 during the pre-game show of the
New Orleans Saints/Atlanta Falcons game. While Ezrin has moved back to
Canada and has an office at Universal Music Canada -- from which he will soon
be announcing a new venture -- he says his main focus is Music Rising.
"Also, I'm a trustee of NARAS and I'm also on the board of the Mr.
Holland's Opus Foundation. But more importantly to your readers, I'm one of the
founders and on the committee of MusiCan, which is CARAS's music education
initiative. "That's a major passion for me and one of the
stipulations I made when I was asked if I could be inducted into the [2004
Canadian Music] Hall of Fame. I said that I would, but only under the condition
that I'd be allowed to really earn it. So I said that they would have to
support me in the drive for universal music education in Canada."
Tim Hortons Singer Jingles All The Way
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Ashante
Infantry, Entertainment Reporter
(Dec. 11, 2006) Emilie-Claire Barlow's name and face aren't well
known outside jazz circles, but as the reigning jingle singer for Tim Hortons,
her voice is a household staple. "People have probably heard me on
so many things," said the Toronto native, who also lends her pipes to ads
for the LCBO, Sears and The Bay, as well as several TV cartoons.
Moonlighting pays the bills, but Barlow gets the greatest satisfaction from her
main gig as a jazz vocalist. That means she's in fine fettle with a new CD, Winter
Wonderland, and sold-out concert at the Old Mill Inn tonight. Putting
a fresh spin on the 10 Christmas songs that comprise the record was no more
daunting, she said, than revamping the jazz standards she covered on her first
four discs. "With my other albums, I'm doing all these songs from
the Great American Songbook that have been around for 60-plus years that there
all these classic versions of — Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett,
Mel Tormé — so, I'm sort of in the same boat with the Christmas album,"
explained Barlow, who speaks with the crisp articulation that defines her
recordings. "I just wanted to do what I'm always trying to do and
that's to take the songs that I want to record, and to try and put my own stamp
on them somehow." On Winter Wonderland, the results include a
rollickingly chirpy and scat-infused version of "Sleigh Ride," an
informally cute "Little Jack Frost" (whom she dubs L.J. Frost) and
swelling strings on the sophisticated "What Are You Doing New Year's
Eve?" Barlow, who arranged and produced the album, which features
top Toronto players, drew inspiration from varied sources.
"I listened to a lot of music (including) Diana Krall's Nat King Cole
tribute (All For You), because I wanted similar instrumentation, and the
Barry Manilow version of (Irving Berlin's) "I've Got My Love To Keep Me
Warm," which I love because you can just hear the smile in his voice. It's
a very peppy, upbeat arrangement and I wanted to take it some place completely
different." Barlow decided to utilize string instruments when she
noted the prevalence of them on definitive Christmas albums. Lack of experience
didn't deter her from penning charts for violin, cello and viola and then
conducting them. "It was very scary having these nine string players
sitting in front of me in the studio and just crossing my fingers and hoping
... it was a big-time thrill for me." Barlow, 30, grew up in a
family of musicians. She began violin and piano lessons at an early age and
landed her first TV commercial voice-over at 7. After majoring in music theatre
at Etobicoke School of the Arts, she studied arranging and theory at Humber
College. "Taking the arranging class was a freeing experience. It's
really important to me as musician to have not only ownership over my own
stuff, but to know how to impart to the instrumentalists what I hear in my
head, to have the ability to lead any band. "That takes a lot of
practice and you have to build up your confidence when you're dealing with
these musicians that may be older or more accomplished than I am."
With no business training, Barlow was less prepared for the rigours of the
industry when she made her first album, Sings, in 1988. But she
figured it out and now puts out records on her own label, books gigs and hires
musicians without the assistance of a manager or agent. "At some
point, I know I'll have to get someone else involved, but right now I have a
handle on it and I know if it's being done right." Recently married,
with two pre-teen stepchildren, the songstress is celebrating the holiday
season with renewed vigour. "There were a few years there when I
didn't really bother; with my siblings grown up and living on my own ...
Christmas isn't the same as when you were a kid." The tree isn't up
yet and she hasn't started shopping, but Barlow has at least one gift out of
the way: "Everyone's getting my Christmas CD!"
::MUSIC NEWS::
Canadian Musicians A Mix Of Naughty And Nice When It Comes To
Santa Experiences
Source: By Cassandra Szklarski, Canadian Press
(Dec. 6, 2006) TORONTO (CP) - Every Christmas when
Santa Claus checked his list of
naughty or nice children in Antigonish, N.S., Colin and John-Angus MacDonald
would invariably make it onto the naughty list. That's because the
laid-back rockers, now members of the Trews, say they spent a good part of
their childhood assuming the role of schoolyard Scrooge. "We were the kind
of children from new-age hippie parents that dispelled a lot of myths of our
more conservative, Catholic friends," says vocalist Colin MacDonald, one
of five kids in the family. "We were always the ones (told), oh, 'We
heard that you made Billy cry today because you told him there's no Santa
Claus.' “Unlike ardent Santa fans like jazz singer Molly
Johnson, R&B performer Keshia Chante and pop crooner Kim
Stockwood, the MacDonald brothers say they never bought into the magical story
of Santa. Mention Santa to guitarist John-Angus MacDonald and he's quick
to point out that the image of the jolly old man was made famous in part by
soft-drink giant Coca-Cola, which incorporated the red-and-white rendition we
know today in its ads in 1931. Prior to that incarnation, people around
the world were more likely to envision the gift-laden figure as either
leprechaun-like, a Scandinavian dwarf, a northern European goat, a white-robed
girl or as a queer mixture of gnome and bishop, according to various
legends. Jazz singer Dione Taylor says she knew exactly what Santa looked like because as a kid she
enjoyed a special moment with him every Christmas morning. Until she was
10 years old, Taylor would be surprised not only by presents, but by a special
guest waiting at her house in Regina.
"I would go downstairs and Santa would be waiting at the table and he'd
have a special gift for me," Taylor recalls. "I'd talk with him and
say, 'How was I this year? Was I naughty or nice?' It was really
cool." Chante says she wrote letters to Santa until age 12. She'd
also make him cookies and left out milk on Christmas Eve as a kid in
Ottawa. "I'd go up in my room, and my mom would tell me that Santa
comes around 11 o'clock every year, because I'd be sleeping by then," says
Chante, now 18. "And usually by midnight I'd wake up and open presents
with my family." The idea that a jolly old man accompanied by flying
reindeer would sneak into her house with gifts every year was thrilling, she
says. "Just the fantasy and excitement. Santa Claus is exciting for
a little kid, especially knowing, 'Oh, I was a good girl all year, I'm going to
get all the gifts!' “Singer/songwriter Stockwood says waiting for Santa in
Mount Pearl, N.L., near St. John's, was an unbearably exhilarating ordeal when
she was young. "I remember just, like, trying (to sleep)," says
Stockwood, now the mother of two sons, ages one and three. "I would
have stapled my eyes shut because they kept coming open and I was thinking, 'If
I don't go to sleep soon, Santa's gonna know and he's not going to leave me
anything!' “Santa Claus should be an integral part of any child's Christmas,
insists Johnson. The Toronto jazz artist says she encourages her two
boys, ages six and nine, to believe wholeheartedly in anything magical that
catches their imagination. "Children need to be children as long as
possible," says Johnson, who says she still believes in Santa.
"My thing with Santa Claus and fairies and fairy tales and Mary Poppins
and things is: they only come if you believe. Once you stop believing in Santa,
he'll know and he won't come. Mommy will be there with the present ... but it's
about believing."
Grammy List Polite To Canada
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Vit Wagner, Pop Music Critic
(Dec. 8, 2006) High hopes for Canadian artists didn't quite
materialize when the 49th Grammy Award nominations were announced yesterday in Los Angeles. Neil
Young led homegrown performers with three nods, while Nelly Furtado, Diana
Krall, Michael Bublé and Sarah McLachlan were other nominees. Canadian
nominees also included Daniel Powter, The Duhks, Northern Cree and Friends, and
perennial polka candidate Walter Ostanek. The Broadway cast recording for the
Toronto-originated The Drowsy Chaperone was nominated for Best Musical
Show Album. Even so, it wasn't the haul anticipated by some. Most
notably, B.C. rock band Nickelback came away empty-handed, despite winning two
Billboard Awards earlier this week and an American Music Award last
month. R&B singer Mary J. Blige topped all contenders with eight
nominations. "Be Without You" is in the running for the year's top
record (for the performer) and song (for the composer), although The
Breakthrough, the multi-million-selling disc that contains that hit, was
overlooked for Best Album. Next to Blige were L.A. rockers Red Hot Chili
Peppers, with six nods, including Album of the Year for Stadium Arcadium.
The disc is up against Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere, John Mayer's Continuum,
the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way and Justin Timberlake's Future
Sex/Love Sounds.
Bunched together with five nominations are singer/songwriters Mayer and James
Blunt, the Dixie Chicks, Prince, Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am, Danger Mouse
of Gnarls Barkley, producer Rick Rubin and classical/movie soundtrack composer
John Williams. In addition to Blige, Record of the Year hopefuls included
Blunt's "You're Beautiful," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," the
Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice" and Corinne Bailey Rae's
"Put Your Records On." The Rae, Blunt and Dixie Chicks tunes
are also up against Blige for Best Song, as is Carrie Underwood's "Jesus,
Take the Wheel," co-written by Nova Scotia's Gordie Sampson. Young's
protest album Living With War is up for Best Rock Album. "Looking
for a Leader," a song from the disc, is up for two other rock-genre
awards, Song and Solo Vocal Performance. Furtado, winner of a 2001 Grammy
for "I'm Like a Bird," was nominated in the Pop Vocal Collaboration
category for partnering with Timbaland on "Promiscuous." But the
singer was shut out of the top awards. Krall's From This Moment On is
in the hunt for Jazz Vocal Album. And McLachlan's Wintersong and Bublé's
Caught in the Act are both up for Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Winners will be revealed at the awards telecast Feb. 11.
Rankins - A Bittersweet Christmas
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Dec. 9, 2006) It has been a long and anguished decade since the
Rankin Family — the Cape Breton
siblings who made fiddle music radio-trendy in the nineties, and became
ubiquitous with their Canadian Celtic sound — last made a record. It's
been eight years since they toured together, and seven since they made a mutual
decision to break from stage and studio and pursue solo projects and family
lives. And it's been six years since their beloved brother and band mate,
John Morris, died in a winter car wreck in Cape Breton. And that may be exactly
where the latest chapter of the Rankin story really begins. Last month in
Halifax, front man Jimmy, 42, and his sisters Heather, 39, Cookie, 41, and
Raylene, 46, gathered over several weeks in the CBC Radio rehearsal hall, a
plain, dumpy space marked by worn brown carpet and dull florescent lights, to
practise 12 new songs they will soon be performing live. For several visitors,
they ran tightly through a pair of tracks — a sweet-sounding cover of John
Hiatt's Gone and a hauntingly mournful original by Jimmy Rankin, called Departing
Song. You could call it a comeback, and many likely will. But the Rankins
prefer to describe this outing, which will be followed by a new record and
22-city tour, as a reunion. And so the new album is appropriately titled Rankin
Family Reunion. The gathering round of the Rankins coincides with the
Christmas season, and although it was not planned that way, the timing is
appropriate, as sweet and sentimental as a Gaelic hymn. A time for family and
song, celebration and reflection: The album and the tour — and the reunion
itself — embody all of that and more. The Rankins have reunited at the urging
of Calgary music promoter Jeff Parry, a long-time associate who last February
was on his way to Calgary when he threw a Rankin collection on the car stereo.
“We were in the car, and I said to my wife, ‘We have to get these guys back
together,' ” recalls Parry. “I felt very inspired hearing their music again.
There's nothing like it in the world, and I felt the time was right. The
harmonization of the girls and Jimmy is something no one else has out there.
Also it's fun music. Aspects are dark, but in general it makes you feel good.”
Parry called Jimmy, who in turn phoned his sisters. The Rankins were keen, but
also not without reservations. “My initial reaction was, ‘Can we do it without
John Morris?' ” admits Heather. “He was such an instrumental part of what we
did. When he died, I thought there was no chance we would ever be together
again. But then, with outside encouragement, it happened. We knew it wouldn't
be the same, but many of the elements are the same.” John Morris Rankin was
just 40 when he died on Jan. 16, 2000. He was driving the old coastal road in
Cape Breton when his truck hit a pile of road salt at Whale Cove and sailed
over a 25-metre embankment into the icy, stormy Gulf of St. Lawrence. His son,
Michael, and two other children survived the crash by crawling out a window and
clamouring onto rocks at the foot of a cliff. They had been on their way to a
hockey game. John Morris's funeral, at St. Mary's, the country church near the
family home in Mabou, N.S., where Cookie would later marry Nashville record
producer George Massenburg on a happier day, saw nearly 100 fiddlers play and
more than 1,000 people gather to mourn. No one was more devastated than his
siblings, his band mates. That day, the band played Molly Rankin's Reel,
which John Morris had written for his daughter, then 12, who has now emerged as
a key and poignant piece of the reunion puzzle.
In 2001, Jimmy was quoted as saying it was unlikely the band would ever work
together again, because his older brother had been the nerve centre, both
musically — on both the fiddle and piano — and spiritually. “But it really is
strange,” Jimmy mused recently, “how things work out.” The Rankins went into
the studio with the Grammy-winning Massenburg this fall with four songs, but
came out with an album's worth, including a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's classic
The Way I Feel and several traditional pieces from John Morris that were
in the vault. They also invited Molly to perform one of her songs on the
album, and tour with them. Now 19, she dances and plays fiddle, and has been
trying her hand at songwriting for the past four years. The Rankins wanted her
to be a part of things, just as her father once was. “She's her own entity,
very different than what John Morris was, but she embodies part of his spirit,”
says Jimmy. “That's a very good thing. She's very quiet, like he was.” Was it
difficult to come together without him? “I really miss him,” the girls chime in
at once. “Technically he was the guy who directed everything and finessed the details,”
says Raylene. “He was the perfectionist. And even though he's not here
physically, I feel he's here emotionally.”
Adds Jimmy: “Initially you think, ‘How could you ever go on?' We've been
playing in the same band in one form or another forever. No one could ever fill
his shoes. But Molly is a wonderful addition.” For her part, John Morris's
daughter, who studies music at Dalhousie University, says she isn't trying to
take her father's place — but she certainly seems to have his musical gifts.
She describes her song, Sunset, as a “girlie folk-pop” tune, and working
with her musical family as “emotional, but I think in a good way. It's a nice
feeling to have everyone around, everyone that loved my father and loves
performing music. It's emotional to hear him play, and hear things without him
here, but you have to take something good out of it. As long as something
positive comes out of it, that's what I care about.” The album, which is being
mixed by master Bob Ludwig, sounds every bit a Rankin record, with one
exception: It's Gaelic-free. “When we sing Gaelic, we want to make sure we have
it correct, and this thing happened so quickly that we didn't seem to have the
time to finesse a Gaelic song that we felt comfortable recording,” says Cookie.
“It was a time constraint, and we chose not to go there. But that's not to say
we won't go there in the future.” Indeed, Parry thinks that what makes the new
record special is the fact that it sounds more modern — a little less Celtic —
but hasn't lost the lush, harmonious Rankin sound. “There is a hole in the
market for this,” suggests Parry. “They waited 10 years to make a record, and
the result is a total departure. The harmonies are still there, but it sounds
fresh.” There were a dozen Rankin children who grew up in small-town Mabou.
Long before they ever borrowed money from an older sister to record their
self-titled debut album in 1989, five of them — Jimmy, Heather, Raylene, Cookie
and John Morris — performed at dances and entertained across Cape Breton. They
grew up on music, with a huge record collection that spanned John Allan
Cameron, Elton John and Led Zeppelin. Not long after that first record, they
released Fare Thee Well Love, which attracted the attention of officials
at EMI Music Canada in Toronto. It was re-released to international acclaim,
helped along by the song's inclusion in the Gabriel Byrne film, Into the
West.
Almost overnight, the Rankin Family tuned people's ears onto Celtic music and
the Cape Breton music scene, which included Rita MacNeil and the Barra
MacNeils. The Rankins went on to sell more than 2 million records. North
Country, the 1993 follow-up to Fare Thee Well Love, went
multiplatinum and racked up both Junos and East Coast Music awards. In 1999,
with seven albums, including the sisters' Christmas record, under their belts,
the Rankins decided it was time to take a break. Cookie now lives near
Nashville with Massenburg; the others reside in Halifax. Jimmy has worked
steadily on his solo career; the girls reconvene each Christmas to perform
live. They get to Mabou often, where the sisters own the Red Shoe Pub, which
Heather spends much of her time managing. And while the record industry has
changed dramatically since the Rankins first hit the charts, in many ways, they
say, they've come back to where they started — with a small record deal, and a
good old-fashioned tour to help spread the music. “The Rankins broke on adult
contemporary radio, but all the formats have changed, the way they program
music,” notes Jimmy. “Back then, it was nothing to sell 100,000 records. Now
it's something to sell [half that many]. “The way to get your music out
has changed also . . . There's so many ways to get it out there. It's
been a huge shift. “It's going to be interesting to see who our audience is,”
he adds. “We thought, ‘Without John Morris, will anyone come see us play?' But
then the tickets went on sale, the buzz started happening, and the feedback
we've heard has been pretty good. It wasn't just a flash in the pan when it
happened. It was quality music and a great show and it had a lot of impact on
our fans. People tell me they still listen to Rankin stuff and play it for
their kids. There's something infectious about the Celtic fiddle.”
The Rankin Family tour runs from coast to coast, starting in Nanaimo, B.C.,
on Jan. 14 and ending in St. John's on Feb. 15. Their new album hits stores
Jan. 9. For more information, visit www.therankinfamily.com.
New Mathew Knowles Act Is 2 Much
Source: Amina Elshahawi, ThinkTank
Marketing, E: amina@thinktankmktg.com, http://www.thinktankmktg.com
(December 1, 2006) Los Angeles, CA-
November, 2006 - Teen R&B
sensations 2 Much are preparing to hit the road on the BET Scream Tour, where they
will join Omarion to perform "Fire." The group is the
newest addition to the Music World Music family, which includes J Xavier,
Solange Knowles, Sunshine Anderson, Mic Little and others.
Currently in the studio recording their debut album We 2 Much with
super-producer Sean Garrett, the group is experiencing the success of their
first single "Fire," written and produced by Chris Stokes
and David Awogboro, which is already burning up MTV Hits, MTV Jams and
BET. We 2 Much is set to drop in the spring of 2007.
"We are thrilled to welcome 2 Much into the Music World Music
family," said Music World Entertainment CEO Mathew Knowles who manages the
group with Max Gousse and Chris and Monyee Stokes. "They have supreme
talent, charm and determination - all the makings of a super star act."
The dynamic foursome - Chris Cheeks, Myles Cleveland, Milo Stokes and
Marcel Wildy - has been working together for years fusing such musical
influences as the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye and Jay Z, plus classic soul.
The group is also slated to embark on the MX2 national teen tour with fellow
Music World Music star J. Xavier and Def Jam Recording artist Mic Little in the
spring of 2007. 2 Much is currently working with the highly
successful singer Omarion, who signed them to his O Records. This will be the
label's first release through a joint venture between T.U.G. (The Ultimate
Group) and Music World Music. Omarion says I know this might be a big cliché,
but they're like B2K, a different version-a better version!"
Famed producer and manager, Chris Stokes, the guiding force behind
multi-platinum music acts B2K and Immature/ IMX is responsible for bringing 2
Much to the forefront of music. Stokes is currently CEO of the successful
music and entertainment group, TUG that is home to such artists as Omarion,
Marques Houston, Mila J, as well as many more upcoming acts. Chris
Stokes declares, "2 Much are all about Hip-hop and vocals. They're like
the new Jackson Five. I see something special that I've never seen in a young
boys' group before." For Scream Tour dates please visit www.screamtour.com
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Smooth Jazz Saxophonist Andre Delano Releases Limited Edition
Christmas Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(November 30, 2006) Los Angeles,
CA - Saxophonist Andre Delano’s debut, Full Circle, took the smooth jazz world by storm in 2005.
His dynamic live performances wowed genre enthusiasts into immediate Delano
fans. Next month, the East Saint Louis native brings his fans tides of great
joy with a holiday offering with First Christmas, on 7th Note Entertainment.
While the CD includes many traditional Christmas favourites, the title track,
“First Christmas,” is an original vocal tune written by Delano and dedicated to
his baby daughter, Makenna. Delano sings:
“Today saw the first fall of snow, how could it know to earth you would
go. Seasons seem brighter to me cause' your love will be the light in my heart
that will guide me. I welcome you to your new world, head full of curls,
my little girl. A precious first one for me to hold so gently, as you smile and
look up at me, feels so heavenly.”
Delano will be performing songs from First Christmas and Full Circle on December
5, 2006 (8:00 pm), at The Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Blvd, Culver City, California
http://www.jazzbakery.com
To reserve a ticket, call (310) 271-9039; sponsored by ASCAP. This holiday
season, the first 100 fans can purchase First Christmas at a discounted rate of
$10.00 per cd exclusively at http://www.andredelano.com Also available, is
the Andre Delano “Jazzy” Holiday Gourmet Gift Basket for $39.99. The gift
basket includes Delano’s limited edition holiday CD, ‘First Christmas’,
Delano’s critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Full Circle’, Brent & Sam’s
homemade chocolate chip cookies, large Ghiradelli decadent dark chocolate bar,
Lesser Evil all natural kettle popcorn, East Shore seasoned pretzels, Kencraft
old fashion eight inch candy cane and a holiday scented candle. Delano, who is
also saxophonist in the house band for “The Megan Mullally Show” television
show, is working on a new smooth jazz CD scheduled for release in 2007.
Bow Wow Back With New CD
Source: Brian Scully, ThinkTank Marketing, brian@thinktankmktg.com, www.thinktankmktg.com
(December 5, 2006) Just as diamonds
are created from carbon through
intense heat and pressure deep beneath the earth's surface, Bow Wow -- listed in the Guinness
Book of World Records as the youngest solo rapper to ever hit #1 -- has matured
from a multi-platinum teen rap star into a full-fledged musical force with his
fifth studio album, The Price of Fame, a journey inside the mind of a man who's
grown up in the public eye, felt the pleasures and pitfalls of acclaim, and
learned valuable lessons from the wealth of his experience. According to
Bow Wow, who will be 20 in March 2007, this last year "was emotional and
stressful. I felt like I was going crazy with things bothering me, and all this
comes with being famous." Coming off of one of the busiest -- the
SRO Scream IV Tour and top-grossing features films including "Roll
Bounce" and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" -- years of
his career, Bow Wow wanted "to go in the studio and work because it's just
natural. Every song is from experience. It's easy for me to do what I do
because it is a reflection of my life." As a youngster growing up in show
business, Bow Wow felt that he couldn't freely express himself on a variety of
issues because of his age. While his first four albums -- Beware of Dog (2000),
Doggy Bag (2001), Unleashed (2003), and Wanted (2005) -- showed an artist
progressively expanding the range of his style and the reach of his topics, The
Price of Fame takes Bow Wow boldly into new areas of musical and lyrical
exploration. "Now that I'm older, there are things that I can talk about.
I feel free," says Bow Wow. "Finally I've gotten the green light to
talk about what I've wanted to talk about for so many years. It's definitely a
real rap album. I've stepped up lyrically. I want to become known as more of a
lyricist, I want to prove I am more than a heart-throb." Bow Wow
re-teamed with long-time mentor, friend, producer and current co-manager
Jermaine Dupri to co-executive produce the new album. Always mindful of his
fans, Bow Wow gives them heart-throb familiarity with his first single,
"Shortie Like Mine," produced by JD and features R&B heartthrob
Chris Brown and long-time songwriter and singing newcomer Johnta Austin.
"Give It To You" is another high energy, Bow Wow-produced track
destined to light up the dance floors of club land.
For The Price of Fame ,Bow Wow delved deep into his writing while trying
his hand once again at production. On the intro to the title track, "Price
of Fame," Bow is heard venting: "I'm letting people feel my pain,
letting them know what I've been through in this year alone." Young Jinsu,
a 13-year-old, Rhode Island rapper by way of New York, is heard throughout the
track pumping Bow Wow up. Bow Wow is both wordsmith and budding
entrepreneur, having signed Jinsu to his own label, The LB Dub Gang. "I'm
passing the Lil Bow Wow torch to Jinsu," Bow Wow offers. "This Bow
Wow movement with teenagers, girls and kids goes back to Jermaine being a
mentor, father figure and learning from him and watching him for the past seven
years." "This is my crew," Bow Wow announces and that
includes Clee-O, an 18 year old actor/ rapper who co-starred with Bow Wow in
"Roll Bounce" and The Rock in "Walking Tall." Bow Wow's
vision for his new label reflects his growth and maturity. "Jermaine has
blessed me with the ability to do what I do and he's given me my shot into the
industry," acknowledges Bow Wow, "so now it's my turn to give
blessings back to other people that also have the opportunity to do bigger and
better things. It's only right to push your people forward." As Bow
Wow welcomes his fans into the truth of his world, it's apparent that The Price
of Fame comes with a price tag. "People ask for this life but they don't
really understand what comes with it," Bow Wow confesses. "People
just see the outside and that looks good - big houses, cars, girls, but you
never see how the person is feeling deep down inside. Me personally, being a
man, I'm going to feel better displaying all of this and pouring my heart out
on each record." As the rapper/actor/entrepreneur charts his course
through the next phase of his career, Bow Wow is very clear. "There's a
lot of pressure," he says. "I'm a real guy, and trying to hold all of
this in one brain can make you go crazy sometimes. So that's really been the
price of fame for me, just dealing with all the drama and the b.s."
With a new energy and spirit Bow Wow is playing the game to win.
"I let life really guide me," he admits. "Just going through
things that I've been through in my life has helped me to become a better
person. Things have helped me grow and become who I am. Once you go through
things, you'll see things differently, and that's basically my motto and what
I've learned so far." For Bow Wow, The Price of Fame is ultimately
worth the cost. "I don't have a choice," says the born artist.
"I'm ready to take on anything and this album is a way for me to release
it all. I can take all the negative energy and turn it into a positive simply
by purging my soul through music. That's how powerful music can be. When people
hear this record, they will definitely know where I'm at as far as my life and
me as an artist. This album is really a tell-all album."
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Ciara Pumps Up Grooves For Follow-up
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Erin
Carlson, Associated Press
(Dec. 5, 2006) NEW YORK — Ciara wants to set something straight. The
hit-making dynamo — known for her hot moves and sexy tomboy style — is
flattered by all those comparisons to Janet Jackson and the late Aaliyah, but
she's not a copycat. She's doing her own thing. "I do feel like
we're all different," she told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
"You know, it's funny, because people will say, `She's trying to be like
her,' but I'm saying to myself, like, 'I'm trying to do me.''' After the
success of her multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated debut, ``Goodies," Ciara
was determined to put even more of herself into her follow-up CD, "Ciara:
The Evolution." She co-wrote each song and also helped produce many of
them. "I've evolved," she said. "I am still the person I
am at core — the tomboy that's still in me hasn't left. You know, but
everything is just going somewhere else, and it's growing. And it's really
fun.'' The 21-year-old singer-songwriter first sprung onto the pop charts
with her "Goodies" two years ago. When she first broke out with the
crunk-infused, Lil' Jon track "Goodies," some dismissed her as a
one-hit wonder — a pretty face with a slight, sweet voice and precision dance
moves, the latest in a long line-up of Janet wannabes. But the hits
didn't stop there, forcing people to begin taking her seriously as a legitimate
artist. The album went on to sell more than two million copies and was
nominated for four Grammys. "It was a fun process for me," she
said. "But it was also cool to see people (who) may have said, you know,
`Well, whatever' — just brush you off — and then you see them later and it's a
totally different story.''
For her sophomore album, she collaborated with some of music's hottest
producers — The Neptunes, will.i.am and Rodney Jerkins, to name a few — and 50
Cent and Chamillionaire make cameos. The result is a beat-driven mix of clubby
dance numbers and sultry grooves: It's the same Ciara sound, she said, just
"intensified.'' It's already spawned two hits: the funky club track
"Get Up'' and the sexy slow jam "Promise.'' "It's more
energetic," she said. "It's to, like, the 10th power. That's what I
really wanted to be and I really went hard to make that happen. Even with us
being in the studio we would dance around, we would do everything. ... I would
have so much fun.'' Though the studio was brimming with male hotshots
providing the beats, Ciara said she was inspired by "girl talks" she
had with friends while making the album. Her songs, she said, became "much
more real and relatable" — like the track "Like A Boy," in which
she wishes she could "switch up the roles" and give a boyfriend a
dose of his own medicine. Could that guy in question be her ex-beau, Bow
Wow? (For those who don't follow these hip-hop hookups: Ciara and the
19-year-old rapper called it quits last spring after dating for nearly a
year.) Does she want to talk about it? No. Would she date a famous guy
again? "Never say never," she said. "If you're a great
person and you're a confident man and you're a really sweet guy — and you have
it together and you just so happen to be a celebrity, it is what it is,"
she said. "If you have all those characteristics and you're a doctor, it
is what it is.'' These days, she's single and not-so-ready to mingle.
"I'm focused on my music," she said. She just wants to have fun, she
said, and that includes ignoring wild rumours that began circulating when she
first made a name for herself. People were saying that she was dating Elliott,
who rapped on Ciara's No. 1 hit "1, 2 Step,'' and that she was a really a
man. "I've heard a lot of crazy things, and I feel like it's
something that comes with the territory ... Being in the entertainment industry
is just high school to me all over again,'' she said. She was popular at
her high school, she said, so she's used to being talked about. "I think
it's amazing to see what people will think of," she said. "For people
to even mention your name, it's all good.'' It could be argued that the self-described
"tomboy" was such a gossip target because, like the enigmatic
Elliott, she's a bit hard to figure out. Her idols are the two Michaels —
Jackson and Jordan. No public diva fits or beefs with other singers. No overtly
sexy get-ups (``I rock my sweatpants," she said). Maybe she IS like
a boy. But, then again, she has girl talks, long, shiny hair and two small dogs
(maltipoos Ali and Tyson). The Texas-born singer (born Ciara Harris) is
also mighty ambitious. She wants to "sell more and more millions of
records,'' make more "great music videos," start up a record label,
do a fashion line. She even founded a dance agency in Atlanta. "I
used to say I wanted to be a combination of P. Diddy and Oprah, and I'll call
that person Poprah," said Ciara, laughing. "But more than
anything my ultimate goal is to really — to be a successful businesswoman and
the ultimate, ultimate goal is to become a billionaire. I believe it's
possible.''
'Dreamgirls' Soundtrack Released
Source: Priscilla Clarke, 202-723-2200, pclarkepr@aol.com,
Music World Entertainment & Mathew Knowles, Yvette Noel-Schure, Sony Urban
Music
(December 7, 2006) Houston, TX - Music World Music/Sony
Urban Music/Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax has released DREAMGIRLS - Music From the Motion
Picture, the official soundtrack album for the avidly awaited
DreamWorks/Paramount film, "Dreamgirls." The film opens nationwide on
Monday, December 25, 2006. "Music World Music is thrilled to release
the soundtrack for such a popular classic as 'Dreamgirls,'" says an
enthused Mathew Knowles, President and CEO of Music World Entertainment. "The
artist line-up features today's brightest and most coveted award-winning
superstars in the entertainment industry and we are confident this album will
make record-breaking, chart-topping history!" Twenty-five years after
first bringing Broadway audiences to their feet, the Tony Award-winning musical
sensation "Dreamgirls" comes to the big screen starring Academy
Award® winner Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Danny Glover, newcomer Jennifer
Hudson, Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose and Eddie Murphy. Set in the turbulent
early 1960s to mid-70s, "Dreamgirls" follows the rise of a trio of
women -- Effie (Hudson), Deena (Knowles) and Lorrell (Rose) -- who have formed
a promising girl group called The Dreamettes. At a talent competition, they are
discovered by an ambitious manager named Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Foxx), who offers
them the opportunity of a lifetime: to become the back-up singers for headliner
James "Thunder" Early (Murphy). Curtis gradually takes control of the
girls' look and sound, eventually giving them their own shot in the spotlight
as The Dreams. That spotlight, however, begins to narrow in on Deena, finally
pushing the less attractive Effie out altogether. Although The Dreams become a
crossover phenomenon, they soon realize that the cost of fame and fortune may be
higher than they ever imagined.
In addition to numbers first heard in the original Broadway musical, DREAMGIRLS
- Music From the Motion Picture will premiere four new original songs including
the first single "Listen" by Beyoncé (scheduled for release on November
14, 2006) and "Love You I Do" by Jennifer Hudson. The second single
slated for release from the soundtrack is "One Night Only" by
Beyoncé. Among the original classic tracks from the musical included on the
soundtrack are "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" (Jennifer
Hudson); "Dreamgirls" (Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose);
"Steppin' to the Bad Side" (Jamie Foxx); "Fake Your Way to the
Top" (Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose);
"Move (You're Steppin' on My Heart)" (Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé and
Anika Noni Rose); "Family" (Jamie Foxx and Keith Robinson); "I
Am Changing" (Jennifer Hudson); "Cadillac Car" (Eddie Murphy);
"I Meant You No Harm" (Eddie Murphy); "Heavy" (Jennifer
Hudson, Beyoncé and Anika Noni Rose) and "Hard To Say Goodbye My
Love" (Beyoncé, Sharon Leal and Anika Noni Rose). Producers on the
Dreamgirls album include; The Underdogs - Harvey Mason, Jr. and Damon Thomas;
Executive Soundtrack Producers, Bill Condon, Glen Brunman, and Mathew Knowles;
Soundtrack album Producers; Randy Spendlove and Matt Sullivan.
About Music World Entertainment
Music World Entertainment (MWE) is one of the world's leading entertainment and
music conglomerates dedicated to bringing quality entertainment to the
world. MWE worldwide business includes record labels, artist and producer
management, staff producers, artist development, Master catalogue series,
Urbane Merchandise, investment and property holdings, including offices in
Houston, Los Angeles, and New York with a London office opening in January
2007. MWE is the brainchild of President and CEO Mathew Knowles, the
powerhouse management behind the success of Grammy Award-winners Beyoncé and
global phenomenon Destiny's Child, the most successful "girl group"
in the history of pop music.
Music World Music (MWM) is one of the most successful labels in the world with
over 100 million records sold to date including releases by Destiny's Child,
Beyoncé, Solange Knowles, Michelle Williams, the "Roll Bounce"
soundtrack and many more. Highly anticipated upcoming releases include
the official soundtrack album from the "Dreamgirls" film, Kids Rap
Radio, and the Music World Master Series. Urbane Merchandise is the tour
merchandise arm of MWE which has functioned as the tour merchandiser for tours
for Jay Z, Destiny's Child, Nelly, Beyoncé, R Kelly, and Chris Brown, among
many others. Music World Investment and Properties is headed by Mathew and
Beyoncé Knowles. This division of MWE includes real estate
ownership/development of condominiums and office buildings including the House
of Deréon Media Center in Houston, TX.
Sony Urban Music
Established in 2003 as a division of the Sony Music Label Group U.S., Sony
Urban Music is exclusively dedicated to nurturing and developing the world's
foremost Urban talent on behalf of the company's U.S. labels and divisions,
including Columbia Records Group and Epic Records. Sony Urban Music has
been home to established superstars and emerging artists from the worlds of
R&B, Soul, Rap and Hip-Hop including Beyoncé, Bow Wow, Damani, DMX, John
Legend, Nas, Omarion, Three 6 Mafia, and many more.
Columbia Records
One of the oldest and most respected record labels in the world, Columbia
Records traces its origins back to the late 1880s. The Columbia Records roster
has boasted such superstars as Marc Anthony, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett,
Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Cypress Hill, Miles Davis, Destiny's Child, Dixie
Chicks, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, the Fugees, Jagged Edge, Ricky Martin, John
Mayer, Nas, Bruce Springsteen, Train, Pete Yorn, and many more.
www.DreamgirlsMovie.com
www.columbiarecords.com
www.beyonceonline.com
Jay McShann, 90: Jazz Legend
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Associated Press
(Dec. 8, 2006) KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Jay "Hootie"
McShann, a jazz pianist and bandleader who helped
refine the blues-tinged Kansas City sound and introduced the world to
saxophonist Charlie Parker, died Thursday. He was 90. McShann died at St.
Luke's Hospital. The cause of death was not released, but close family friend
Kathe Kaul, co-founder of the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, said McShann
had entered the hospital within the past week with a respiratory ailment.
McShann, whose musical career spanned eight decades and earned him accolades
from both blues and jazz fans, was born James Columbus McShann on Jan. 12, 1916
in Muskogee, Okla. Against the wishes of his parents, he taught himself how to
play piano, in part by listening to late-night radio broadcasts featuring jazz
pianist and bandleader Earl "Fatha" Hines. McShann developed a
distinctive style that drew heavily on his beloved blues, and began his
professional career at age 15. After a raid on a club in Kansas in 1936 —
liquor was still illegal in the state then — the frustrated pianist decided to
head north. "I said, `I've got an uncle in Omaha. I think I'll go up
there and see what the cats are doing in Omaha,"' McShann recalled in a
1999 interview with The Associated Press. "I got a bus ticket. I had
a layover of two hours in Kansas City. I knew (Count) Basie had a band at the
Reno Club. I thought I'd run over to the Reno. I might know some of these
cats." "A guy in the Reno said, `This is it, right here in
Kansas City.' I said, `My money is a little low. I don't think I can stick
around here too long.' He said, `Take my apartment key. Stay as long as you
want. I'll stay over at my girlfriend's."'
A few days later, another musician sought out McShann. He stayed in Kansas
City, making its sounds his own. McShann hooked up with Parker in 1937,
after hearing the saxophone genius' music coming out of a Kansas City club, and
the two worked together off and on until 1941. Parker, who earned his nickname
"Bird" while playing with McShann's orchestra, made his recording
debut on McShann's "Hootie Blues" in 1941, and later went on to
pioneer the new bebop style of jazz. McShann's own nickname stemmed from
an incident in which someone slipped him a loaded drink during a jam session.
McShann, a non-drinker, was unable to play at the "hootenanny," and
the sobriquet, shortened to "Hootie," stuck. McShann entered
the army in 1943 and served until 1944. In the 1950s and 1960s, he recorded
seldom and toured even less. But in 1969, he started touring again and
continued until well into his 80s. His recording career also took off
again, and in 2003, his CD ``Goin' to Kansas City" was nominated for a
traditional blues Grammy. He was the subject of a film, "Hootie
Blues," in 1978 and was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame
in 1987. In 1996, he received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues
Foundation and went on to be featured in "Piano Blues," a documentary
directed by Clint Eastwood for the 2003 Public Broadcasting Service series
"The Blues." In 2000, the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City
named its outdoor performance pavilion for McShann. The museum, in the city's
historic 18th and Vine district, is also home of the Gem Theatre, where McShann
performed last year. Plans are pending for a musical celebration of McShann's
life in Kansas City early next year.
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Yolanda Adams: ‘Clozet’ Designer
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(December 6, 2006) *In the midst of a few special US
concert
performances, gospel star Yolanda Adams made a stop to help celebrate the greatness of legend Quincy Jones
and shared the latest happenings in her busy life. The singer, along with several
celebrities, paid tribute to the artist, producer, and philanthropist recently
at a Los Angeles event for the star. “I’m here because I absolutely love
Quincy,” the thankful singer said. “He’s contributed so much to music and
movies and a lot of people don’t understand the humanitarian behind the music
and behind the movies. He has been so much to so many people. During the riots
and all the things that happened, and not just here in the States, but
overseas, he’s always been in the forefront for justice. I absolutely believe
that Quincy Jones has made this place a better place.” Settling into her own
better place and taking a minute with EUR’s Lee Bailey, the statuesque singer
talked about two new projects she’s working on – outside of the studio. Adams
is launching her very own clothing line, with both casual and couture styles.
In addition, she has created a boutique record label aimed at fostering and
mentoring talent in the music industry. The new clothing line, aptly titled
Yolanda’s Clozet, are designs sparked by the singer from her own experience
sewing clothing and restyling designs. “I have some great things coming
out before the end of the year,” she said. “I have a clothing line called
Yolanda’s Clozet. It’s been a fantastic experience. We have jeans and T-shirts
coming out before Christmas. But in the spring, we’ll have the actual line out.
We’re talking about ready-to-wear [styles] right now, but the couture will be
coming in the fall. I think people are going to be surprised. We’re coming out
with furs – they’re not going to be real furs – we want to be politically
correct, so we’re working with Marc Bower who is a great designer and has some
of the most impeccable imitation furs out there. You really can’t tell the
difference, except for the price tag.”
Adams was inspired to start the line because of two reasons: her own talent for
sewing and designing clothes, and the necessity and desires she has to redesign
and reconfigure her own wardrobe. ‘Being the oldest of six kids of a
single mom, I would sew all the clothes,” she explained. “I would go and get
$15 of material and make all the clothes. I found myself getting back to that
because as tall as I am and as thin as I am, sometimes it’s hard for me to walk
in and get something off the rack. So I said, ‘There are probably another 2
million women who have this problem.’ We have to buy large and alter. So I use
my body as a model to come up with all those things so women who have long
limbs can go in the store and say ‘Wow.’ “ The singer will not only be a
designer for the line, but will also serve as the spokes model. And she said
the clothing line will be in conjunction with Wal-Mart and Macy’s with a
brick-and-mortar Yolanda’s Clozet store opening in her native Houston, TX in
the spring, along with an interactive website where viewers can pair the
clothing and see an outfit before they buy it. “There’s a market out
there for taller women, there’s a market out there for ample beauty-bodied
women,” Adams said of the target demographic of her line. “And when you cater
to them, they come back and give you ideas. We’re just trying to put a twist on
the things that are there already. We didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, we’ll
just improve it. In addition to the clothing line, Adams is launching a
management company-independent record label. “We started a management
company and we’re about to mentor young people that cannot get on major labels
themselves. I have been with some great record companies and I have been with
some record companies that should have done more for me, and so taking that and
knowing that, I do have a responsibility to mentor kids that are coming up and
let them know that this is a beautiful business – the business of music.” The
singer herself is now on Elektra, but believes her new management company will
help a lot of singers and songwriters who can’t seem to draw major records
companies. “We started our own company to get some more talent out there.
I don’t think there should be one gospel label or one jazz label doing everything,”
she said. “I think there is a lot of talent out there and if we give them the
opportunity, they can shine.”
Smooth, Jazzy Sound Of Cuba
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(Dec. 9, 2006) The more you hear any particular kind of music, the easier
it
is to hear variations in style and to tell new-school apart from
old-school. Take the sounds of Cuba. There is a world of difference
between the oldsters whose careers were miraculously resurrected with the movie
The Buena Vista Social Club seven years ago and younger artists, whose
music has been moving with the times. One of that island country's most
influential contemporary bands is Los Van Van, which has been blending jazz, rock and pop elements with
traditional Cuban son since 1969. It might seem odd to call a
37-year-old band pioneering, but it still is, thanks largely to several major
personnel changes over the years. The familiar Cuban dance beats overlaid
with percussion, vocals, violin, flute and trombone blasts are all there. But
Los Van Van's sound is smoother, jazzier — earning them a wide following among
lovers of Cuban music around the world. Given how infrequently the
17-member group tours in North America — and the health problems that
charismatic founding director Juan Formell has had in recent years — tonight's
Kool Haus concert is an invaluable opportunity to experience the current sound
of Cuba.
Toronto's Café Cubano opens the evening, DJ Carlitos will be on hand to fill in
the gaps, and the Sangre Latina Dance Company is set to strut its stuff
alongside the musicians on stage. Traditional son blends Spanish
song styles with beats imported via the African slave trade in the 16th
century. In general references to Latin music, son is usually lumped
into the generic category of salsa. Right from the early days, Formell
began experimenting with synthesizers, Brazilian rhythms and jazz. He referred
to that original Los Van Van style as "songo." The current
blend of sound and rhythm is called timba. Spawning dozens of new bands
in Cuba, it is now the most popular type of music among that country's young
people. If you listen carefully to timba, you'll notice that the
strict-formula rhythm and piano patterns of son are replaced by more
individual combinations of beats and layered musical figures. Each song's
architecture is built on the mood of the lyrics, rather than the demands of a
particular dance beat. But the true pleasure is in forgetting about the
details and getting swept up in the energy of the music and the atmosphere —
and there'll be plenty of that on offer tonight.
Natalie Cole's Unforgettable Valentine
Source: Jason Elzy, Jason.Elzy@wmg.com,
www.rhino.com
December 11, 2006) LOS
ANGELES - Just in time for Valentine's Day,
eight-time Grammy-winning superstar vocalist Natalie
Cole sets the mood with her first-ever
collection of love songs. Rhino Records celebrates romance with this
unforgettable compilation featuring a trio of Grammy-winning hits. LOVE SONGS
will be available Jan. 30 at all retail outlets and at www.rhino.com for a suggested list price of
$18.98. Containing more than an hour of Cole's amorous classics, the
album spotlights 19 songs including a pair of duets with her legendary father,
Nat "King" Cole - the Grammy-winning selections
"Unforgettable" and "When I Fall In Love." LOVE SONGS also
features the Top 10 Billboard smashes "Miss You Like Crazy,"
"I've Got Love On My Mind," and "This Will Be (An Everlasting
Love)"-the album's third Grammy-winner. Drawing songs from
throughout Cole's extraordinary career, LOVE SONGS highlights exquisite
selections including "I Can't Say No" and the title track from her
1975 debut Inseparable; "Our Love" from 1977's Thankful; "I Live
For Your Love" and "More Than The Stars" from 1987's
Everlasting; "Starting Over Again" from 1989's Good To Be Back; and
"Snowfall On The Sahara," the title track from her 1999 album.
LOVE SONGS also includes "The Very Thought Of You" and "Too
Young," two songs from her quintuple-platinum release Unforgettable. Also
featured are Cole's delightful takes on the American songbook classics "As
Time Goes By" and the Gershwins' "Our Love Is Here To
Stay." LOVE SONGS also gathers a pair of songs that originally
appeared on her Greatest Hits Vol. 1 collection-"Livin' For Love" and
"Angel On My Shoulder," a song she co-wrote with Richard Marx-plus
"A Smile Like Yours," a soundtrack-only single from the 1997 film of
the same name. For an unforgettable Valentine's Day, make sure to pick up
a copy of NATALIE COLE: LOVE SONGS for that special someone.
NATALIE COLE: LOVE SONGS
Track Listing
1. "Unforgettable" - duet with Nat "King" Cole
2. "Miss You Like Crazy"
3. "Angel On My Shoulder"
4. "When I Fall In Love" - duet with Nat "King" Cole
5. "A Smile Like Yours"
6. "I Live For Your Love"
7. "Inseparable"
8. "Too Young"
9. "I Can't Say No"
10. "Starting Over Again"
11. "More Than The Stars"
12. "I've Got Love On My Mind"
13. "The Very Thought Of You"
14. "As Time Goes By"
15. "Our Love"
16. "Snowfall On The Sahara"
17. "Our Love Is Here To Stay"
18. "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"
19. "Livin' For Love"
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Fantasia: Singer Goes Old School For New Disc
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
December 11, 2006) *Season
3 of “American Idol” introduced music fans to
soul-stirring songstress Fantasia. The young singer’s music career launched when she was named the
2004 American Idol, but this songbird was in store for more than just a record
deal and a glimpse at fame. Her debut album, “Free Yourself” dropped in
December of that year and her book “Life Is Not a Fairytale” climbed onto the
New York Bestseller’s List and was subsequently made into a Lifetime Network
movie, starring her. It’s now that the singer is really coming into her own,
having shared her past and shed her past, her new self-titled disc hits stores
tomorrow, December 12. While hitting the big apple promoting the new disc, the
22-year-old artist with the old soul sound chatted with EUR’s Lee Bailey and
talked about her new project and her new outlook. “After doing my book and
doing the movie and talking about a lot of situations that I’d gone through, I
let all of that go and I just feel like a brand new person,” she said of her
new attitude working on the new project. “I feel like what’s ahead now is a
brand new start. That was my past and I gave my testimony and a lot of people
know a lot of things that Fantasia went through. I’m just not there anymore.”
Though the singer says she’s moving toward the future, the new disc has her
glancing at the past – at least as far as music is concerned. With a little
more input on this sophomore album than her first release, Fantasia took charge
in working with her producers to make sure the old school sound she and her
fans love was impressed on “Fantasia.” “From going on tours and doing different
shows and seeing the fans, you begin to see what they like and what they want.
When I do my old school melody – I do ‘Rock Steady,’ ‘Tell Me Something Good,’
and ‘Purple Rain’ – their faces light up! Everybody gets to groovin’. So I
said, ‘I wanna bring that back.’ When you listen to music from back in the day
– it was real good music,” she continued. “Nowadays, you can do music on the
computer and make it sound like this or sound like that. Nobody goes in the
studio anymore and does live music. I said I wanted to bring that back. All the
producers that I worked with were able to give me that.”
Fantasia said she sat down with every producer on the album to explain the
sound that she wanted; playing classics and brainstorming. To that end, even
super producer Missy Elliott brought in a whole band to help create Fantasia’s
concept. “I like to call it Aretha Franklin meets Tina Turner. It’s urban
rock,” she described. “It’s one of those albums that when you put it on you
have no other choice but to move, which is totally different than the ‘Free
Yourself’ album. On that one I had a lot of slow ballads talking about
situations that I was going through and like I said, I’m not there anymore. So
these are feel-good records. It’s still soulful; I’m still singing, but these
are up-tempo.” This album has more Fantasia style than story, which is a bit of
a switch for her established fans – though they’ll hardly be disappointed.
Still, the singer is considered the voice for a number of young people and
women. Just as her career launched, her story of struggle of teen pregnancy did
too. “I got [criticism] on ‘American Idol’ for being honest. I don’t understand
why people would try to make it seem like you have to be this perfect person.
They were saying, ‘How can she be an idol when she’s a mother? How can she be
an idol when she didn’t finish school?’ They were taking all the things that I
failed at and my mistakes and trying to hold that against me.” However, it was
that candidness that touched thousands of people. “My reason for doing it was
for the people I did help,” Fantasia said. “[The] movie got over 19 million
viewers and the book was a best seller. So obviously, the good outweighed the
bad. At the end of the day, my mission was accomplished.” Though “Fantasia”
the CD is banging a bit harder than the first disc from the songstress, there
are tender moments, including the song “Beautiful” that Fantasia said she did
for her mother. “Me and mother are so alike and we went through some of
the same things,” Fantasia explained. “She’s getting married and she’s very
happy right now. Me and my mom are at a point right now where we’re the same. I
feel beautiful. I had to learn to love and respect myself.” “Fantasia”
hits stores tomorrow. For more on what she had to say about life, love, and the
new disc, check out EUR’s special edition podcast on Fantasia in tomorrow's
edition. In the meantime, check out her new music at her MySpace page.
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Gwen Stefani: She's Just A Regular Star
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Tralee Pearce
(Dec. 11, 2006) A few days into a Toronto visit to promote her new album, Gwen
Stefani is doing the unthinkable for a major
celebrity: She's running early. Past the bouncer outside her Four Seasons
hotel-room door, the willowy new mom eagerly hands off her six-month-old baby
boy, Kingston, to her gaggle of handlers and hair and makeup pros. They retreat
behind French doors; she gets down to business. “I just saw this for the first
time two days ago!” says the skinny-jeans-clad platinum blonde, pointing to a
copy of The Sweet Escape, out last week. “A month ago, they were
mastering the record in Los Angeles, mixing the rest of it in London. We were
working on the first video and the artwork. This was the fastest record I've
done.” It doesn't hurt that she's been regularly releasing albums for more than
a decade with her California band, No Doubt. Still, she admits to being
astonished at the pace she's kept on this, her second solo album, and
attributes it in part to the paradoxical nature of motherhood. “I think because
I'm nursing, too, it gives me superhero powers. I'm like a cat — I love
sleeping. I'm getting less sleep than I ever have in my life, and I'm doing
more, but somehow it's okay. I don't know how it works. Everything just seems
to work out.” Luckily, she had a few songs left over from her first disc, Love.
Angel. Music. Baby. (L.A.M.B is also the name of her successful clothing
line; and this week she announced she'll be debuting a L.A.M.B. perfume, in
partnership with Coty, in 2007). And she had written a few more in September,
2005, including an addictive dance mash-up called Wind It Up that
features her yodelling The Lonely Goatherd à la Maria von Trapp in The
Sound of Music, which she debuted at a L.A.M.B. show during New York
fashion week that same month. “I had a fantasy of them coming out for
Christmas. But it ended up I had Kingston in my belly and I didn't put the
record out.” After his birth, she went back to recording, with Kingston either
in the next room or on her lap. She describes becoming a mother with a
disarming mix of wide-eyed girlishness and skateboarder-dude lingo. “It's such
a miracle. You don't understand. It's so weird — you can't even believe it's
growing inside of you,” she says, before getting into details. “I had a
caesarean because he was breech. I totally wanted to have him naturally. Now I
look back, I'd be scared to do it again. But even being in the hospital for
four days, those were the favourite days of my life.”
But as much as she's feeling superhuman these days, she's also built her
musical persona on being a female Clark Kent. The regular-girl-as-cool-outsider
shtick started with 1995's hit, I'm Just a Girl, and spawned its own
genre: Think of punky singer Pink's 2001 lyric “Tired of being compared to damn
Britney Spears/She's so pretty, that just ain't me,” or Avril Lavigne's 2002 Sk8er
Boi lyric about the regular girl who gets the guy after the snobby girl
dumps him: “He's just a boy. And I'm just a girl.” “I recognize that age, when
I did that song — I know that feeling,” she says. “I was a little late. I was
26 when that record came out. I was still living at home. But what's so great
about songwriting is you get to document these time periods. Everyone asks me
if I'm embarrassed by certain things I wore or wrote, and I'm, like, no. I
remember where I was at and what was my inspiration.” And despite selling
millions of albums, marrying a rock star (Bush's Gavin Rossdale), and becoming
a fashion icon beloved by Vogue readers, Parisian couturiers and teenage girls
alike, Stefani returns to the theme in Orange County Girl, one of the
songs on The Sweet Escape . She says she wrote the song after flying
first class to Miami to work with superstar producer Pharrell Williams. “You
are always just you,” she says. “All of this weirdness is not real.” She says
she realized some of the lyrics on that song came from her mother, during a
family appearance on Oprah (“which is also a trip, by the way!”). “It
was a this-is-your-life show, and she asked my mom, ‘What do you think of your
daughter?' And she said, ‘My daughter is just an ordinary girl living in an
extraordinary world.'” A marketing wonk would use the currently fashionable
word “relatable” to explain Stefani's gee-whiz appeal. “The whole celebrity
thing is weird, especially when you're on this side of it. I still look at the
gossip magazines and want to know: ‘How did she lose the weight? How did she
get her skin looking so great?' When you're the one, it's like, ‘Really? I'm
the one?'” At 37, though, she doesn't envy her teen and early-20s counterparts
their often embarrassing run-ins with the paparazzi. “I had the benefit of
becoming famous when I was already 26. For years I was famous in my own small
pond. There's something about having to do it slowly and earn it and gradually
climb the ladder. In some ways I feel lucky, and in other ways, yeah, I
wouldn't mind being 20 again.” Really, that's the only way in which Stefani
would like to put on the brakes. Although she says she's looking forward to
getting back to her musical “home” with her No Doubt band mates after her
two-album solo adventure, she'd like to rest on her laurels for a nanosecond.
“I'm so bored of the question, ‘What are you doing next?'” she says. “The
album's not even out yet. People are asking if I want another baby and I just
had him! It sucks because it makes it go too quick. I want to enjoy where I'm
at. Especially at this age, you are just, like: Slow it down.”
Folk Legend Finally Takes Home Award
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Shannon
Montgomery, Canadian Press
(Dec. 11, 2006) EDMONTON — A Montreal singer-songwriter often called Canada's
first lady of folk put a new notch in a career spanning half a century Sunday
evening at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Penny Lang, 64, took home two of the night's top honours — her first awards
despite her lengthy career. "Getting two of these is such a
shocker," said Lang, whose storied music history includes refusing to
teach Leonard Cohen guitar — every time he called she told him she was too busy
— and playing with musicians who would later back Janis Joplin.
"I've been working at music in front of people for 50 years — never got an
award 'til now, so it's mind-boggling." Lang said doesn't see
herself as the grande dame of folk despite her Best Album and Best Solo Artist
wins for her album "Stone & Sand & Sea & Sky."
"I think it's just a hook to hook people into the fact I've been here for
this long," she said with a laugh shortly after receiving her awards.
"People have been singing since forever, so how could I be the
first?" The Edmonton-based family band The McDades — two brothers
and a sister — were the only other winners to take home more than one trophy at
the awards show at the University of Alberta's Myer Horowitz Theatre.
They won for Best Instrumental Group and Best World Group honours for their
album "Bloom." The modern roots band was without a doubt the
hometown favourite, receiving a rousing cheer and applause when presenters
announced them, along with the other nominees, before handing out the first
award of the evening in the Best Instrumental category.
The McDades received a lot of recognition in one weekend, having won at the
Independent Music Awards in the United States for Best World Traditional Album
two days before. Band member Solon McDade appeared to have trouble-keeping
track as he accepted Sunday's award with the comment it was the first for the
group. Asked later about the earlier award, he said, laughing: "Oh,
actually that's true. I guess I should remember that." He said it's
great "to get this recognition from our peers and kind of hear, `Hey, you
guys, are going in the right direction.'" Lang, a diminutive singer
with short-cropped grey hair, said the folk genre has definitely changed and
reinvented itself since she started singing. Young people are bringing in
different rhythms and different sounds. "You've got 18-year-olds
playing on a stage next to old farts like me, 64. It's really fun. It's a good
way to communicate with each other." The distinction was obvious as
she huddled with best new artist Tamara Nile after the show, exchanging CDs and
giggling as they traded stories about being interviewed by the CBC's Shelagh
Rogers. Several of the evening's winners — especially those in categories
aimed at younger artists — were fluently bilingual and record both in French
and English. McDade said his group, which also includes two musician
``cousins" from Montreal, appears to be appealing to both French and
English parts of the country. "Luckily we're able to perform in both
languages, so we can do shows completely in French or completely in
English," he said, adding it brings people together and makes sure everyone's
included. Nile said she hopes to write several French songs for her next
album. "Canada folk music, in particular, has elements of the
Celtic/Quebecois music in there," she said. "You just can't escape
that." Added Sarah Burnell, 18, who won for young performer of the
year: "I really think that because I do folk music, which is of the
people, including French music in my repertoire ... is very
important." One of the stated purposes of the awards, now in their
second year, is to "celebrate the breadth and depth" of folk in
Canada. Although folk heavy hitter Bruce Cockburn was nominated for four
awards, he took home only one, for Best Instrumentalist — Solo. With a
couple of artists counting in different provinces, the award winners were
spread across the country — seven from Quebec, six from British Columbia, six
from Ontario, and two each from Manitoba and Alberta.
Tyrese/Black-Ty Is Back With 'Alter Ego'
Source: Tammy Brook at FYI Public Relations Tammy@fyipr.com; Marilyn Lopez, FYI Public Relations,m Marilyn@fyipr.com; Theola Borden, J Records, Theola.Borden@SonyBMG.com
(December 13, 2006) New York, NY - Tyrese, the multi-platinum,
Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, actor, writer, producer and now rapper
(aka Black-Ty), has unleashed an airwave assault with the simultaneous release
of 3 tracks from his upcoming Alter Ego double CD. The melodic
ballad "One," produced by The Underdogs, the sensual "Turn Ya
Out" featuring Lil' Jon and the club-banging rap track "Get It
In," all showcase Tyrese's never-ending talents as each song impacts
R&B mainstream, Rhythmic Crossover and Mixshow radio formats,
respectively. With the December 12 release of Alter Ego on J
Records, Tyrese became the first platinum-selling R&B male artist to
release a double CD with one disc of R&B songs and the other hip-hop.
To promote this unprecedented release, Tyrese will make several television
appearances including Spike TV Video Games Awards (12/13) and MTV's Sucker Free
(12/20). On Alter Ego's R&B disc, Tyrese joins forces with producers The
Underdogs ("One," "Better To Know"), Brian Michael Cox
("Gotta Get You"), Lil' Jon ("Turn Ya Out"), R. Kelly
("Hurry Up," "Signs of Love Makin' Part II"), Eric Dawkins
and Tony Dixon ("Morning After," "Better Than Sex,") and
Trick Stewart ("Lights On"), resulting in a bevy of great songs that
cater to Tyrese's R&B fanbase.
Although many of Gibson's colleagues acknowledge his singing prowess, they were
pleasantly surprised by his skills on the mic as rapper Black-Ty. The Game, who
appears on "Ghetto Dayz," says "He's [Tyrese] been successful on
every scale from singing to acting so what would make anybody think that he
couldn't rap?" After collaborating on "Get Low" and
"Roll The Dice," Snoop Dogg comments, "He [Tyrese] really got it
cracking to the point where he didn't seem like he was out of his range. It
seemed like something he was naturally born to do." Manni Fresh, Scott
Storch, All Star and various members from Tyrese's Headquarter Entertainment
in-house production team The Frontline BoyZ, add their production skills on the
hip-hop disc which features additional guest appearances by Kurupt, Too Short,
Method Man and Manni Fresh. Tyrese also gets creative with his
current "How Do You Wear Your Black Ty" campaign: "Don't
Be Shy to Show Nothing but Ty." The online campaign is aimed at
building community interaction between Tyrese and his fans. Following the
theme of Tyrese's upcoming album Alter Ego, users can upload pictures of themselves
wearing a black tie however they choose. Ten winners will receive $50
gift certificates to Victoria's Secret. The contest runs now through
January 2007 via www.myspace.com/tyrese or www.tyrese.com.
Taylor Hicks Hopes Record Sales Will
Follow His Shot To Stardom On American Idol
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Sandy Cohen , Associated Press
(Dec. 13, 06) LOS ANGELES -- Kicking back on a couch with
a hot cup of tea, Taylor Hicks looks as comfortable backstage at The Tonight Show as he
might in his own home. When Jay Leno pops into Hicks's dressing room to say
hello, the grey-haired soul singer is unfazed -- a moment that reflects just
how much American Idol has changed the 30-year-old's life. A year ago,
Hicks was a struggling musician unknown to those outside the small Southern
clubs where he performed. Today, he is a bona-fide TV star and major-label
recording artist whose self-titled solo debut hit stores yesterday. "It's
mind-blowing," Hicks told the Associated Press before taking the Tonight
Show stage recently. "This is what happens when you catch a break. I'm
very thankful and very gracious for what the show has done for me." As a
teenager in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., Hicks knew that music would be
his career. He never even considered another option. The eldest of three boys,
he taught himself to play harmonica, then guitar. Next, he tried his hand at
songwriting and set out to perform "anywhere I could." Along the way,
he released two independent albums, In Your Time and Under the Radar.
After nearly 10 years on the road, his music -- and the opportunities it
brought him -- were improving, and his brother urged him to audition for American
Idol. "My dad told me that I might as well buy a lottery ticket,"
Hicks said.
But the guy most considered a long shot with his mature
look, Michael McDonald pipes and curious dancing style soon became the odds-on
favourite. More than 63 million votes were cast to determine the contest, and
the majority of people chose Hicks over Katherine McPhee in May, shifting his
music career into warp speed. He spent the summer touring the U.S. with his
fellow Idol finalists. When the concert wrapped in September, Hicks
began his tutelage with legendary music mogul Clive Davis to craft an album
that would be a fitting follow to his star-making turn. It was an
"intimidating" experience, Hicks said, describing himself as
"stubborn about my artistry and my creative integrity." But he's
happy with the result. The album's 12 tracks are "a great representation
of me as an artist," he said. Davis said he helped Hicks "define who
he is. . . . "He's a modern soul man," Davis said. "But we have
stretched him a little. He's getting in touch with other aspects of music and
his versatility." The album sounds like "modern whomp music,"
Hicks said. "It's like funk, soul, jazz, blues, a little bit of hip-hop
beats and rhythms. It's Taylor Hicks' modern take on soul music."
Making the album gave him a chance to learn more about the recording side of
the music business -- something relatively new for the singer who considers
himself primarily a live performer. Producer Matt Serletic said Hicks
brought his live-show energy into the studio. "He has a similar approach to
soul singers of the past. They just throw themselves at the song,"
Serletic said. "It informs where the record needs to go." He
encouraged Hicks to embrace "a more disciplined melodic approach" and
showed him how to "sculpt" a song. Now, Hicks wants to try his hand
at producing. First, though, he wants to establish himself as a travelling
musician with a devoted following like the artists he admires: Van Morrison,
Bob Seger, Bob Dylan and B.B. King. "Those people have touring in their
blood," Hicks said. "I've studied [them] and I'm falling into that
vein hopefully." Anything is possible for a former Idol, said Geoff
Mayfield, senior analyst for Billboard magazine. "American Idol has
the luxury of letting you get acquainted with artists from the comfort of your
living room," he said. "By the time they get to the point where
they're putting out an album, you're already in their club."
Hicks's fan club calls itself the Soul Patrol, and the singer hopes to expand
its ranks with his new album. He also plans to reissue his two indie albums.
The past year was packed with accolades for Hicks. Besides earning the Idol
title, he was named People magazine's "hottest bachelor" for 2006, a
distinction he said left him "completely flattered and completely freaked
out." The honour hasn't led to romance, and Hicks said he would hardly
have time if it did. He has been working 12-hour days since auditioning for Idol
in September, 2005. Christmas will bring him a brief respite before his record
promotion kicks back into high gear, with a halftime performance during U.S.
college football's Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 and a planned tour to begin in
February. Hicks said he will spend the holidays in Alabama, "eating some
Southern food and lying on the couch watching football." Then he will hit
the road -- and hopefully stay there. "If I can keep an audience and be a
working musician, I'll be happy," he said. "I'm like a travelling
musical gypsy, which is what I've always wanted to be."
.jpg){kind=link}
MUSIC TIDBITS
Jazz By The Beach
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Melanie Reffes
(Dec. 5, 2006) Jazz, R&B and gospel will take centre stage at the 14th
annual Barbados Jazz Festival from Jan. 8 to 14. Eight-time Grammy winner Anita Baker headlines
the week-long fest, along with a top-shelf roster that includes
"Cubop" maestro Arturo Sandoval, soulful songstress Macy Gray,
Afro-fusion trumpeter Terence Blanchard, bassist Stanley Clarke and Arturo
Tappin, the "saxiest" horn man in the Caribbean. Several picturesque
venues host shows: Violin prodigy Karen (Lady in Red) Briggs is bringing her
jazzy gospel show to the Crane Resort; and Mary Mary will perform its signature
blend of soul, hip-hop and gospel in Farley Hill National Park. For more
information, visit http://www.barbadosjazzfestival.com.
Akon Talks About Upcoming Whitney Collabo
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 6, 2006) *If singer Akon seems to be everywhere at the
moment, just wait until 2007. The Senegalese artist is said to be working on
tracks for upcoming projects from Michael Jackson, Elton John and Whitney
Houston. "I'm working on more up-tempo records for her," Akon tells
Billboard.com of the Houston album. "She's been through a lot and has a
dark history. So we've got to make the album brighter because she's come out of
the cave now. She wants a celebration. She needs to come back to the old
Whitney we remember." As for rumours that he’s about to hit the
studio with the former King of Pop, Akon laughed: "Right now that's in the
air. I can't talk about it." The same response followed Billboard’s
question about a collaboration with glam rocker Elton John, who has said
publicly that he wants to hook up with hip hop producers for his next album. In
the meantime, Akon is planning a global tour in 2007 that will include his
native Africa as well as Europe. The singer is currently No. 1 and No. 3
on the Billboard Hot 100 with "I Wanna Love You" and "Smack
That" respectively, both from his new album “Konvicted.”
P.E., X-Clan Launch Joint Tour
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 6, 2006) *Generation Xers on
the West Coast can start dusting off
the green, black and red leather Africa medallions and “Black by Popular
Demand” t-shirts. Public Enemy and X-Clan have kicked off a December club tour that stretches from San
Diego through Seattle and into the Northern Plains. "Everybody that
I know in the cultural worlds of music dreams about a tour with Public Enemy
and the X-Clan," X-Clan frontman Brother J said in a statement to the
press. "Public Enemy has been holding it down for the longest and they
were the first major conscious group to do it big for the people. Chuck D is my
inspiration for remaining independent with my music and I will salute that
wisdom by spitting the fire on this tour." X-Clan recently appeared
on BET's 106 & Park, Def Poetry Jam, the Legends of Hip Hop Concert and
sold out tours with reggae star Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and Jurassic
5. On Jan. 30, X-Clan will release "Return from Mecca," its
first studio album in more than 10 years, on Suburban Noize Records. Collaborators
on the album include Damian Marley, Jurassic 5's Chali 2NA, KRS-One, Jacoby
Shaddix of Papa Roach, RBX, Abstract Rude, YZ, DJ Quik, DJ Khalil, Jake One and
Bean One. Touring as Public Enemy are original members Chuck D., Flavor Flav,
Professor Griff, as well as DJ Lord and two S1Ws (James Bomb and Pop Diesel).
No Terminator X behind the wheels of steel. A backing band will feature
Brian Hardgroove on bass, Khari Wynn on guitar and NYCity Mike Faulkner on
drums.
Wyclef Wants Brighter Future For Haiti
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 5, 2006) *During a free concert
in his birth country of Haiti,
singer/musician Wyclef Jean called on citizens to denounce violence and work for a more
stable future. "It's time to build a new Haiti," the artist
told more than 20,000 cheering fans during his first concert in Haiti in eight
years. The event was designed to promote development in the impoverished
Caribbean nation, where most of its 8 million people live on less than $2 per
day. The concert wrapped a weeklong film and culture festival organized by
Jean's Yele Haiti charity, which promotes music and the arts as a way to reduce
poverty, create jobs and improve Haiti's image. Jean, a Haitian citizen who
lives in the United States, spoke out against the pervasive street violence
that followed the bloody 2004 revolt ousting former president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. Among the by-products of the revolt are kidnappings for ransom that
occur frequently in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. "If we don't stop
kidnappings, the country can't develop," Jean said, according to AP.
Chico and Lord Kossity team up for Booty Call
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Kevin
Jackson
(November 30, 2006) *Dancehall artiste Chico has again
teamed up with French dancehall rap artiste Lord
Kossity. They collaborate on the track Booty Call,
which has been earmarked as the first official release off Kossity’s sophomore
album Danger Zone for Universal Music (France). The video for the track was
recently shot in France. Chico related the experience in a recent interview.
‘The video sell off. It was a lot of fun. They flew up Craigy Dread and he
brought out the Jamaican dance element into the video’, said Chico. The video
was shot in France and lasted a day and a half. Last year Chico teamed up
with Lord Kossity for the track Hey Sexy Wow. The song registered on various
European charts climbing unto the top 100 in France, Germany and the UK. Chico
says he is coming armed with the ammunition to revive his career. The singer
who rode the charts in the late 1990’s into the early 2000’s with songs
including Grudgeful, Stamina Body, We Nah Promote Dem and We Nuh Care, is
looking chart bound with his latest radio hit My Life, taken from the Full Draw
rhythm for Fresh Ear Records. Another track Garrison on the Clap rhythm
from House of Stars, is also generating serious buzz.
Donald K. Tarlton To Get Juno Achievement Award
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Guy Dixon
(Dec. 8, 2006) Toronto — Rock impresario Donald
K. Tarlton, a central figure in the small
network that built Canada's nascent recording industry in the 1960s, will
receive the 2007 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the Juno Awards in
Saskatoon. Tarlton is perhaps known more as a concert promoter, but his Donald
K Donald group of record labels have also helped to propel the careers of
Canadian acts from April Wine to Sum 41. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences, which runs the Junos, also announced that musician and actor Tom
Jackson will receive the 2007 Humanitarian Award for his work raising money for
food banks and other relief efforts.
Nelly Furtado To Perform On AOL Canada Live Broadcast
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Canadian Press
(Dec. 10, 2006) TORONTO — Nelly Furtado is giving her fans a peek into an invitation-only performance in
Tinseltown. The pop star's exclusive show at the Roxy Theatre on Sunset
Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif., Friday night will be broadcast live on AOL Canada's
new site, AOL Music. The Internet feed will be free, starting at 12 a.m. ET
Saturday (9 a.m. PT Friday), and fans need not register, AOL said in a release.
The concert will also be available on demand after the show ends. The broadcast
is part of AOL Canada's new free online music and entertainment services.
Furtado, a native of Victoria, earned a Grammy Award nomination Thursday for
best pop collaboration with vocal for her song “Promiscuous,” with Timbaland.
The track is off her album, Loose, released in June.
Prince Headlines Super Bowl Show
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Associated Press
(Dec. 11, 2006) NEW YORK — McCartney, Jagger and now Prince. For
the third year in a row, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act will headline the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.
This time it's Prince. The Purple One, winner of six Grammy Awards and
nominated for five more this year, will play at the game in Miami on Feb.
4. The Super Bowl, which will be televised by CBS (Global in Canada), is
annually television's highest rated show in the U.S. An estimated 141 million
Americans watched last year's game between Pittsburgh and Seattle. The
Rolling Stones headlined the halftime show for that Super Bowl, and two years
ago it was Paul McCartney. The NFL has tended to take a more cautious
approach since Janet Jackson's widely criticized "wardrobe
malfunction" at halftime of the 2004 game. That game also was televised by
CBS. Last year, Mick Jagger's microphone was silenced as he sang sexually
suggestive lyrics in a couple of songs the Stones performed. Prince
gained attention early his career with raunchy lyrics and racy performances,
but has toned down his act somewhat in recent years.
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Rumoured Sony BMG Label Consolidation Now A Reality
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
December 11, 2006) *Confirming
weeks of industry speculation, AP
reports Sony Urban Music, a record label that catered to R&B and hip-hop fans with
artist such as Beyonce and Three 6 Mafia, has been integrated with Columbia Records Group
in the latest reorganization this year at label parent Sony Music BMG
Entertainment. Employees were notified last Thursday by Sony Music Label Group
President Rob Stringer and by late Friday a wave of pink slips - upwards of 30
- went out. "With the integration of Sony Urban Music and Columbia
Records it puts the artist roster in a position of strength under one
umbrella," an email from Stringer to employees read. "We remain
firmly committed to signing and breaking artists in the R&B, Hip Hop and
Gospel genres." As part of the reorg, the memo also informed that the now
defunct label's president, Lisa Ellis, was named executive vice president of
Sony Music Label Group. This summer, the top two executives at Sony Music
Label Group U.S. resigned. That followed a shake-up in senior management at
Sony BMG. Sony BMG is a joint venture between Sony Corp.'s Sony Music and BMG,
the music unit of German media giant Bertelsmann AG.
Top Stars Sign On For Princess Diana Tribute
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Lars Brandle, London
(December 12, 2006) Duran Duran, Bryan Ferry, Elton John,
Joss Stone and Pharrell Williams head the line-up of performers confirmed for a
concert at the new London Wembley Stadium next summer to celebrate the life of
the late Princess Diana. Others named to the July 1 bill include the
English National Ballet and composer and impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, who
will oversee a medley of songs from some of his leading theatrical shows. A
number of other major acts are yet to be unveiled. Diana's sons, Princes
William and Harry, are organizing the "Concert for Diana" and
chairing an advisory board. Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music
Group International, will sit on the board, which pools together leading
executives from the entertainment industries. The performers today paid
tribute to Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. "The concert next
summer seems an entirely fitting way to celebrate her life and her work,"
commented Duran Duran frontman Simon LeBon. "We are honoured that she
always referred to Duran Duran as her favourite band as she was certainly our
favourite princess. We are delighted to have been asked to participate in what
promises to be a very special event." Elton John added, "I
applaud Princes William and Harry for choosing to honour their mother with this
concert. I am absolutely thrilled to be performing at this great event. Diana
was a personal friend and someone I greatly admired for her tireless and
enthusiastic work for charity." Proceeds from the program will
benefit various charities that were supported by Diana, and the Princes' charities
Centrepoint and Sentebale. Tickets will be made available from 9 a.m. GMT
on Wednesday (Dec. 13) via the Web site Concertfordiana.com and
from Ticketmaster. The fund-raiser is the third concert announced for the
iconic London stadium, which has been plagued by huge construction delays since
it was closed in 2000 and later demolished. British alternative rock trio Muse
yesterday (Dec. 11) confirmed the second in a pair of concerts to be held there
on June 16-17, 2007.
Form Over Feeling For Pianists' Milestone
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(Dec. 13, 2006) In all art forms, there are works you can appreciate with
your head. Others appeal directly to your heart. The best kind manages to do
both. Duo pianists James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton strode onto the stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre as Music
Toronto celebrated the 30th anniversary of their starred professional
relationship last night with a challenging recital, and the launch of their ninth
CD, a compilation album. They brought with them provocative compositions
from the last 112 years that should have nourished both mind and soul. But the
result was far more interesting in the analysis than in feeling it in one's
gut. On the program were works from the early 1940s by Benjamin Britten (Introduction
and Rondo alla burlesca) and Witold Lutoslawski (madly jazzed-up Variations
on a Theme by Paganini), two works by Igor Stravinsky (the 1938 Dumbarton
Oaks concerto and the 1913 ballet score The Rite of Spring) and
Claude Debussy's 1894 orchestral poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
Many of these pieces have been part of the duo's concert repertoire since the
early years, so it must be music that has lasting value for these two talented
performers and Royal Conservatory teachers. The Stravinsky and Debussy
pieces were the composers' own piano transcriptions yet, as Anagnoson pointed
out during the verbal notes animated by Music Toronto's resident composer
Jeffrey Ryan, these transcriptions turn each composition into a different piece
of music altogether. In losing the orchestra, the sound necessarily loses
some of its colour. Anagnoson and Kinton made up for this with meticulously
shaped phrasing and commanding rhythmic shading and precision. They leave
the impression that not a single note or rest is unaccounted for in shaping the
performance. The startling clarity of Anagnoson and Kinton's playing
provided deep insight into each composer's methods, but it also drained some of
the soul from the music. Especially in what should be the wispy, dewy Debussy,
last night's performance felt more like a particularly skilful dissection than
a blossoming of musical creation.
Oscar Klein, 76: Jazz Trumpeter
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - William
J. Kole, Associated Press
(Dec. 13, 2006) VIENNA — Austrian-born jazz legend Oscar
Klein, who fled when the Nazis took power and
recorded with Lionel Hampton and other greats during a career that spanned four
decades, has died, local media reported Wednesday. He was 76. Klein was
not ill and his death Tuesday in Germany came as a surprise, the Austria Press
Agency reported, saying a sister of the musician had confirmed his passing. He
had lived with his wife in the southwestern German state of
Baden-Wuerttemberg. Born Jan. 5, 1930, to a Jewish family in the southern
Austrian city of Graz, Klein and his family fled the country after the Nazi
regime annexed Austria just before the Second World War and settled in
Switzerland. He had planned to celebrate his 77th birthday next month with a
concert in the alpine city of Innsbruck, APA said. Best known for his
aggressive and expressive Chicago-style trumpeting, which made him a fixture on
the European club and festival scene, Klein also played clarinet, guitar and
harmonica and began his career when the jazz boom was just taking hold in
Vienna in the 1950s. He teamed up with Joe Zawinul in the band Fatty
George, later moved to the Tremble Kids and the Dutch Swing College Orchestra,
and went on to play with Hampton, Wild Bill Davison, Bill Coleman, Dexter
Gordon and other jazz greats. Completely self-taught, Klein never learned
to read music, but he made nearly 200 recordings during his 40-year career,
during which he specialized in "old" jazz, Dixieland, swing and
blues. Trained as a graphic artist, he spoke seven languages and worked
as an art teacher in Florence, Italy, when he was just 18. In 1996, the
late Austrian President Thomas Klestil presented Klein with the nation's silver
medal of honour, one of Austria's highest decorations. Details on
survivors and funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
Nova Scotia Musicians Get Nod For East Coast Awards
Source: Canadian Press
(Dec. 13, 06) Halifax — Nova Scotia artists lead the way in nominations for the
2007 East Coast Music Awards.
Country singer George Canyon of Pictou County and roots artist J. P. Cormier of
Cape Breton each received five nominations for the awards show to be held Feb.
18 in Halifax. Canyon got nods for recording of the year, entertainer of the
year and male solo recording. Cormier is nominated for bluegrass recording of
the year, instrumental recording and folk recording. Halifax-based band
In-Flight Safety received four nominations, as did Halifax singer Jill Barber
and Newfoundland's Ron Hynes. Nova Scotians Charlie A'Court, Joel Plaskett,
Sloan and the Trews each picked up three nominations, as did Prince Edward
Island's the Chucky Danger Band.
::FILM NEWS::
Big Dreams for Jennifer Hudson
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell
(Dec. 6, 2006) NEW YORK—One celebrity cynic won't be at Jennifer
Hudson's side next Monday when she strolls the red carpet for the
Hollywood premiere of Dreamgirls, her new movie musical which opens in Toronto Dec. 25. That
would be American Idol judge Simon Cowell, who famously dismissed Hudson
as being "out of her league" when he presided over her scandalous
departure from the TV talent show's third season in 2004. "No, Simon
is not on my guest list!" Hudson says, smiling mischievously at the
inevitable question about her Idol non-worshipper. On second thought,
she would like to see Cowell meekly tread the red. "I should send
him a ticket," Hudson says, reconsidering her stance. "Maybe I'll
invite him to L.A. with me!" She can afford to be generous. The
25-year-old Chicago church singer is living proof of the truism that living well
is the best revenge. Hudson commands the screen in Dreamgirls, the
long-awaited screen adaptation of the hit stage musical that opened on Broadway
in December 1981, when she was just 3 months old. She has the key role of
Effie White, the troubled diva played by Tony-winning Jennifer Holliday in the
stage version. Effie's headstrong ways as leader of the Dreams, a pop trio
loosely based on Diana Ross and The Supremes, fuels the film's drama.
Hudson makes such an impact with her four-octave singing and surprisingly
strong acting (she has no prior film experience), she's being tipped by critics
as a cinch for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. There
have even been suggestions, led by a snarky New York Post article last
week, that she upstages co-star Beyoncé Knowles, who has top billing over
Hudson. Hudson rolls her eyes at mention of the Post article. But
she's already used to being the centre of a storm — she calls herself
"Controversy Girl" because of the allegations of racism that followed
her unexpected vote-off from American Idol.
Gossips spread a lot of nonsense and Hudson tries not to listen to them.
"Anytime something good is going on, they'll find a way to throw something
in the air," she says, shrugging her shoulders beneath the striking green
taffeta dress she wears to the interview. Beyoncé backs that up in a
separate interview and lavishly praises Hudson for having the moxie to step
into Holliday's ruby slippers, a task that would be daunting for experienced
actors, let alone a complete rookie. Hudson also felt the pressure of
having to do a credible version of Holliday's tune "And I Am Telling You
I'm Not Going," the Dreamgirls show-stopper that has become a pop
standard. "She had to live up to that," Beyoncé marvels.
"I could not imagine that. It gives me chills. I'm proud of
her." Hudson had to beat out dozens of challengers for the coveted
role of Effie, including Fantasia Barrino, the American Idol competitor
who triumphed over her. Already a plus-sized woman — and proud of it —
Hudson also had to gain an additional 20 pounds to make Effie seem like the odd
girl out in The Dreams. So she worked for it, and if Oscar glory is to
follow for Hudson, Beyoncé is all for it. "She deserves it,"
Beyoncé says. "She was very sweet and she is blessed. I can only pray that
she will maintain that same sweet innocent girl — young woman — that she is.
She felt like a little sister to me." Is Hudson really that
innocent? She certainly seems so. She describes herself as "a person of faith"
and she begins many of her sentences with the expletive "Goodness!"
She talks with genuine affection about her early days singing in her hometown
church choir. She takes very seriously a not-so-serious question about
her upcoming New Year's Eve club gig here, which happens to fall on a Sunday, a
day of rest and prayer for many religious people.
"If I have to work on Sunday, I say, `Lord, I've got to go to work now!'
Church is my favourite place to sing and be, but I don't have perfect
attendance." Hudson may indeed be the picture of innocence
off-screen — although in Dreamgirls she's as brassy as a trumpet — but
another of her co-stars, Jamie Foxx, insists she's had her eyes on the prize
all along. He could tell by how she sized him up in his role of Curtis Taylor
Jr., the Dreams' manager and Effie's worst nightmare. "You know
what's crazy?" Foxx says in an interview following Hudson's. "It's
that she knew. She knew the whole time ... I knew she was ready for this
... I said to myself, `Uh-oh, she is getting ready to rip this place
apart.'" She did just that, so much so that Foxx says he was in
tears when Hudson tore into "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," a
song that has been winning spontaneous applause at preview screenings.
Foxx might have reason to do much more sobbing in the future. Hudson recently
signed a recording contract with Clive Davis, the recording impresario behind
two of Hudson's idols, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. She'll soon be
recording her first album, and although she's not sure about her material yet,
you can sure there will be little, if any, hip hop or rap on it. She's into
old-school pop, soul and R&B. "Me, I love just real music and
more of the style of what Effie does ... but at the same time I want to do
music that sells. But I don't want to sell out. So I'm still trying to figure
out how to approach this. It's definitely something that's fresh in my
brain." She's hoping the success of Dreamgirls will revive
the commercial prospects of the melody-based music she favours. Hudson is
thrilled for any success she can get, because it was tough being exiled from American
Idol in such a public manner. On that score, she can identify with
the travails of Effie White and also of Florence Ballard, the founding member
of the Supremes whom Effie is based on and who died in alcoholic poverty in
1972 at age 32 after being fired from The Supremes in 1967. "Before Dreamgirls
came along, I didn't know of Diana Ross and The Supremes," Hudson
says. "But once I started my research I learned of Florence Ballard
and read into her story. That's one of the things that made me angry for Effie.
I felt as if Effie was (Ballard's) voice. And that's one of the things that
motivated me to help me trigger the emotion. As I read through and discovered
her story I got very upset for her." She also feels that she brings
her own experiences to the hard-luck tale. "If I can get through Idol,
I can get through anything. Idol, I learned so much from. I learned that
it's about a lot of hard work. It helped prep me for this. I feel like American
Idol was celebrity-prepping boot camp." Hudson no longer cares
about losing American Idol. "No, I wouldn't change a thing.
I'd rather be a Dreamgirl any day."
Hudson Floors Crowd At ‘Dreamgirls’ Screening
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 6, 2006) *On “The View”
Tuesday, Rosie O’Donnell said she
and many others were brought to tears at a screening of “Dreamgirls” Monday night when Jennifer Hudson, as the character
Effie, belted her signature song, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
O’Donnell was among the celebrity crowd at the Ziegfeld Theater in New
York who gave Hudson’s on-screen performance a standing ovation – right there
in the middle of the film. For months, critics have hailed the young
“American Idol” 2004 finalist as the real star of the cast that includes such
heavy-hitters as Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Beyonce, Danny Glover and Anika Noni
Rose. “When the film was over, there was another standing O, and the
entire audience stood still and watched the main end credits,” wrote Fox 411
columnist Roger Friedman. “Co-star Beyonce was long gone by then. She worked
the red carpet, did her publicity and then split with boyfriend Jay-Z. She told
me she'd rented a private plane and was ferrying him off for a birthday
surprise.” Back at the Ziegfeld, guest Queen Latifah and Foxx teamed up
and took some folks to celebrate the film’s
warm reception at Gin Lane on 14th Street, Freidman reports. Meanwhile,
Broadway must be overjoyed at the endless praise given to the film. The
Broadway productions of “Chicago,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Rent” all
received a huge boost in attendance after their respective films were released.
Could a revival of “Dreamgirls” be on the horizon? "There's interest in (a
Broadway version of) 'Dreamgirls' not only here, but in the U.K. and
abroad," says John Breglio – the entertainment lawyer and executor of the
estate of the late Michael Bennett, the original director of
"Dreamgirls" – according to Variety. Breglio is adopting a
wait-and-see attitude about "Dreamgirls." But if the film's a hit,
"I have little doubt that we'll have some kind of new production," he
says.
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Beyoncé Dials It Down
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell, Movie Critic
(Dec. 12, 2006) NEW YORK—They don't give out Oscars for
Best Team Player. If they did, Beyoncé Knowles would have to be the leading candidate for honours this year.
The former Destiny's Child lead singer is in the unusual position of
having to defend herself for not acting like a selfish diva — or at least not
enough to satisfy the gossip hounds of the New York Post. The
Manhattan tabloid greeted the cast and crew of Dreamgirls, the screen adaptation (due out Dec. 25) of the hit Broadway
musical, with a story claiming rookie Jennifer Hudson makes the top-billed
Beyoncé "look like a pretty extra" in their shared struggles for
Motown glory and girl-group supremacy. Hudson's striving Effie gets more screen
time than Beyoncé's late-blooming Deena in the early part of the film.
The story is absurd, but mention of it brings groans from the tightly
knit members of the Dreamgirls posse, who are frustrated that Beyoncé is
not being given her due. She willingly accepted a role that required her
to dial down her glamour and her multi-octave vocal range in the movie's first
two acts, so as not to upstage Hudson's character. "Please! I think
it's so crazy," writer-director Bill Condon says of the Post slam,
taking his turn doing round-table interviews on a press day at the Regency
Hotel. "And you know what? To me it's a testament to what Beyoncé
pulls off in this movie. She had to go in the opposite direction. She had to
convince you that she was someone who was not special. That she was not
beautiful. That she was the wallflower. That's hard." Others second
that emotion, including Hudson, an American Idol runner-up who is
enjoying her personal acclaim, but who winces at the perceived slight towards
her friend Beyoncé. Would it really have been better, everyone asks, if Beyoncé
had demanded a rewrite of the Dreamgirls story, as many other starlets
would have, just to puff herself up?
If Beyoncé is feeling hard done by, she's not showing it. Arriving for her
interview in a ruffled cream blouse atop designer jeans (from her own Deréon
label collection), the Texas-born beauty, 25, is the picture of grace and
casual elegance. "I knew the risks before I took it," Beyoncé
says of the role, mincing no words. "I read the (stage) script. I knew
that Deena was not the underdog. I knew she didn't sing (the show-stopper) `And
I'm Telling You I'm Not Going.' I knew that all of our parts are very
important, because it's an ensemble cast. I knew she wasn't the lead. It's not
about her life." She looks completely credible when she adds,
"And I didn't care about that, because I don't have to prove that I can
sing. I have nine Grammys. I don't have to prove that I'm a star, because I
already am. I wanted to prove that I can act." Dreamgirls is
actually Beyoncé's fourth feature movie. But her two biggest previous roles, as
singer Xania in The Pink Panther remake earlier this year and as Foxxy
Cleopatra in Austin Powers in Goldmember four years ago, had her playing
exaggerated comic interpretations of her public image. Dreamgirls
is something else entirely. The role of Deena is loosely based on a real
person: Diana Ross, the leader of superstar trio The Supremes. The job required
her to dim her usual glam and to sing without her typical confidence, since
Deena is part of a group, the Dreams, that for the early part of the movie is
still struggling to win ears and audiences. "I thought this part was
incredible, because out of every character, it has the biggest range and it's the
least like me," Beyoncé says. "I mean, I'm way more powerful
and big than the character, way stronger and in control. So it was a challenge
for me and exciting for me to show myself in a different light." If
she wasn't perturbed about Deena being upstaged by Effie, Beyoncé did have
qualms about people mistaking the Dreams (and the Supremes by extension), with
Destiny's Child, the recently disbanded pop trio that sold 60 million albums
and singles during its 15-year reign atop the pop charts. "My biggest
concern was people getting Deena confused with me. Because from the outside
looking in, you see that I started out in a group and became a solo artist, and
my drive and Deena's drive (are) very similar, but it really stops there ...
"Which was why I wanted lose 20 pounds (to erase her famous curves for a
more '60s-inspired, Twiggy look as she ages from 16 to 36), because I wanted to
lose every trace of what I'm known for, and why I sat and worked so hard with
the acting coach, and why when I did the songs I didn't treat them like
performances. Singing was a piece of cake. Learning the choreography, a piece
of cake. The hard thing was, because I didn't have my voice to depend on in the
singing, I had to do something else. So I had to go through and make sure Deena
had pain behind her eyes." Audiences will be able to judge for
themselves how successful she was. But early reaction at Dreamgirls
advance screening has shared the applause with Beyoncé, Hudson and their
co-stars Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. Despite the ensemble emphasis, there has
been serious talk of Beyoncé gaining a Best Actress Oscar nomination, with
Hudson a safe bet for a Best Supporting Actress nod. Beyoncé has one
other tough customer to please: Diana Ross. The Supremes being has let it be
known since Dreamgirls premiered on Broadway in 1981 that she's not
pleased with the story. Yet word is she's a fan of Beyoncé's, who is quick to
return the love. Asked to name her favourite Supremes tune, Beyoncé
instead rattles off a Ross solo tune, "Love Hangover." She gives it
up for the Supremes song "Love Child" after a bit of prodding.
"Well, I met her and she was very, very nice, which made me feel
great, because I want her to like me because I like her so much," Beyoncé
says, smiling at the memory. "But I don't feel like this movie is
about her. I think the things that happen with Effie and Deena, I don't think
that ever happened to her. I think she's stronger than Deena."
The Many Roles Of Cate Blanchett
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell
(Dec. 8, 2006) NEW YORK—Cate
Blanchett has recently
been in the arms of both Brad Pitt and George Clooney. "It was
hell!" she jokes. It was all in the line of work, making Babel
with Pitt and The Good German with Clooney. She also gets into a clinch
with Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal, another reason why writers at a
Waldorf Astoria hotel press conference refer to her as "the
hardest-working woman in show business." Blanchett, 37, the Best
Supporting Actress winner (for The Aviator) at the 2005 Academy Awards,
is the go-to gal for roles of any kind, whether it's playing a Dietrich-esque
Berlin hooker (The Good German, in theatres next Friday), a recklessly
libidinous teacher (Notes on a Scandal, Dec. 25) or a threatened tourist
(Babel, now playing). She's even doing a young interpretation of
Bob Dylan for I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' highly unusual biopic of the
rock bard due out next year. If that's not enough, the highly literate
Blanchett also plans to reprise her Oscar-nominated role of Elizabeth I for
director Shekhar Kapur, in his sequel to Elizabeth called The Golden
Age. That's just for the movies. The Australian native Blanchett and
her writer/director husband Andrew Upton are busy expanding their stage range,
having signed on as co-artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, where
Blanchett is currently directing her first play, A Kind of Alaska.
And did we mention she's a mother of two young children? It's wonder she
has time to answer questions, but she's game to talk about anything. Especially
Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, a movie filmed in black-and-white
in the old-fashioned manner of its postwar 1940s setting:
Q. So how does your husband feel
when you say, "Hey, I'm making a movie with Brad, and then I'm going to
make a movie with George?"
A. My husband
is a very secure man.
Q. Is there a link in the way you
decide on projects?
A. No, I'm
erratic and random ... I'd like to say I have a five-year plan, but I'm not
that Stalin-esqe. I didn't know Babel was around till I met (director)
Alejandro (González Iñárritu). And he was very persuasive and flattered me. So
that went. Flattery got him everywhere with that one.
Q. How about Notes on a Scandal?
A. Well, I
really wanted to work with Judi. And (screenwriter) Patrick Marber is a friend,
and I thought the book was titillating and shocking and fantastic.
Patrick doesn't shy away from the impenetrable sides of humanity. And also he
can be very blackly humorous. The screenplay had all that.
Q. What got you inside Lena's
character for The Good German?
A. Well,
there are a few keys, really. There was a performance key which was, more than
any other film I've made, paramount. Because it wasn't just connecting to a
character in a way that one usually connects. You had to connect to the style
... normally in a modern film, there's a sense that, yes, you have to hit your
mark, but the camera finds your performance. Whereas this, you had to find the
camera ... History is rarely told by the vanquished, so that was a key. And the
other key was, I watched a lot of films, Steven gave us this sort of library of
films he was drawing from visually, but I watched a lot of Hildegard Knef's
work ... and of course Ingrid Bergman.
Q. And also Marlene Dietrich in A
Foreign Affair?
A. I did
watch Dietrich but I've always watched a lot of Dietrich.
Q. In Notes on a Scandal,
was the idea to make us understand why this woman would have an affair with a
15-year-old?
A. It wasn't
really the function of the film. When you do something as destructive as that,
I think you don't even know why you're doing it. And she didn't even know why
she was doing it. And I think often in films you somehow have to make people
understand the inexplicable. I think it was more just to explain or to allow
the audience to see the state she was in. And that the two women were bonded by
very different but in a strange way similar states of loneliness and isolation.
Q. Can you explain what I'm Not
There is about?
A. It's
inexplicable! Look, all I can say is, it's invented by Todd, and he's such a
shape shifting, genre-defying director.
Q. What did you do to get into
Dylan?
A. I slept
with a suit! It's not a regular biopic. The hardest thing will be to open
people's minds ... we were all given our sides (of Dylan) because they're like
independent films that have been put together and interwoven, so they were shot
separately. Mine was a rock star who wreaks havoc on his electric tour, shot in
the style of Fellini.
Q. So why would you do Elizabeth
again?
A. I've been
saying no for a long time. Shake is a good friend of mine... and he started
talking about making a film about immortality, and about that Holy War, and
about the aging process. I thought, oh, this is really interesting. And then he
said, "Oh, Geoffrey Rush is doing it, Clive Owen is doing it." I just
thought, I'm insane if I say no to this.
Glover Defends Niagara Actions
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
James Adams
(Dec. 9, 2006) Lawyers for Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover will plead not
guilty on the actor's behalf in a St. Catharines, Ont., court on Tuesday to a
trespassing charge. The court appearance is the result of actions related to a
protest in which Glover, 60, participated in September in Niagara Falls, Ont.,
in support of workers at three hotels there. Security officers at one of the
hotels, the Sheraton on the Falls, charged Glover with trespassing along with
Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, and Alex Dagg,
Canadian co-director of the UNITE HERE union, whose local 2347 represents an estimated 500 workers at
the Sheraton, Skyline Inn and Brock Plaza hotels. All three hotels are owned by
Canadian Niagara Hotels. A veteran activist, Glover has visited cities
including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Toronto in the last
12 to 18 months, sometimes accompanied by former Democratic vice-presidential
candidate John Edwards. Both are active in the Hotel Workers Rising Campaign,
designed to improve the salaries and working conditions of hotel workers.
Workers at the three Niagara Falls hotels signed a contract in July with
Canadian Niagara Hotels, and claim they continue to have outstanding issues
involving a signing bonus and split shifts.
Glover and his co-defendants were among 100 to 150 union members and supporters
participating in a “rally for workplace justice” in Niagara Falls. According to
a “special occurrence report” filed by security guards at the Sheraton, Glover
and Dagg “walked into the hotel lobby [of the Sheraton] through the Starbucks
entrance and used the public washrooms” just before noon on Sept. 16. “Glover
attempted to receive service at the Starbucks” when one of the guards “informed
Glover that he would not receive service and to leave the building.” Glover and
Dagg complied, but returned about a half-hour later with another UNITE HERE
representative “with television and print media in tow.” Again, according to
the security officer, they were asked to leave the lobby, but this time they
refused. The group was then charged with trespassing and Niagara Regional
Police were called. Speaking from Washington on Thursday, Glover claimed to be
unperturbed by the fuss. “I have a history of being arrested,” he said. “It's
nothing new.” In fact, no actual arrests were made at the rally. A sergeant
with Niagara Regional Police's Casino Patrol Unit told The Niagara Falls Review
that “everyone was co-operative and Mr. Glover was a gentleman throughout the
event.” Glover said he participated in the action because “I was using the
presence and visibility I have to bring attention to the cause and to get the
owners adhering to the contract they signed.” Glover was named an ambassador in
1998 to the UN Development Program and has been chair of the TransAfrica Forum
and a supporter of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. “Once you descend into
the bowels of where hotel employees work and talk to them, spend time with
them, something connects with you,” he said. Lawyers for Glover and his fellow
protesters plan to hold a media conference Tuesday morning outside Provincial
Offences Court in St. Catharines. A statement from Glover, who left the U.S.
yesterday to scout locations for a film he is producing in India, will be read
at the event.
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André Benjamin Talks Crow In 'Charlotte’s Web'
Source Roz StevensonPR, Rozstevenson@aol.com
(December 12, 2006) André
Benjamin, from the multi-platinum and
Grammy winning hip-hop duo OutKast,
continues to spread his creative wings as the voice of the hilarious dimwitted
crow Elwyn in Charlotte's Web, a live-action adaptation of the classic children's book.
Charlotte's Web is a timeless story of loyalty, trust and sacrifice,
scheduled for release from Paramount Pictures on December 20th.
In addition to Benjamin, Thomas Haden Church is the voice Brooks, his
crow pal. Dakota Fanning stars on-screen as Fern, the first one to see
something in Wilbur the pig that others miss. Julia Roberts is the
voice of Charlotte the spider, who becomes Wilbur's best friend and
saviour. Also joining as cast voices for Charlotte's Web is Oprah Winfrey
as Gussy, the barn's maternal-yet-irreverent goose, Cedric the Entertainer as
Golly the gander; Steve Buscemi as the barn's sardonic rat, Templeton; John
Cleese as Samuel, the sheep; Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire as the barn's
sarcastic cows, Betsy and Bitsy; and Robert Redford as Ike, the horse.
Charlotte's Web is the story of a very small pig that finds the most powerful
force in the world is the bond of friendship. Wilbur, a pig and the runt
of the litter, has a youthful manner that makes him seem naïve to the other
animals in his new barn, but to Charlotte - the spider who lives in the rafters
- he is a welcome friend. Their friendship is shown to be a lasting one when
the other animals reveal that the pig's days are numbered. It seems that
only a miracle will save Wilbur's life, but a determined Charlotte spins words
into her web in an effort to convince the farmer that Wilbur is "some
pig" and worth saving. The magical story of loyalty and sacrifice
comes to life in this live-action adaptation.
The critically acclaimed book Charlotte's Web, written by award-winning author
E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams, is the best selling children's
paperback of all time. To date, the book has sold 45 million copies worldwide
and has been translated into 23 languages. Charlotte's Web is published
by HarperCollins. Most recently Benjamin and OutKast partner Antwon "Big
Boi" Patton starred in the highly acclaimed feature Idlewild.
Benjamin has also become the producer, co-creator, and star of a new series on
Cartoon Network: "Class of 3000," a play on his stage name. It is an
animated series about an Atlanta performing arts school grad who ditches a
successful music career to become a music teacher. André 3000 fans find it no
wonder the artist hasn't toured. But Benjamin said that it's not the projects
that have taken him from the music stage - it's love lost. "I stopped
touring two and a half years ago before any of these projects happened. After a
while you don't feel the same kind of passion that you did when you first
started, but I still love to make music and I think it's in me. I'll make music
forever, but I just wanted to take my time to do other things that I really
love instead of being on stage and kind of going through the motions," he
explained. Benjamin's other acting credits include the films Four
Brothers, Be Cool and the hit TV series The Shield. He also plans to
launch his own clothing line this year. Paramount Pictures and Walden
Media Present a Kerner Entertainment Company/Nickelodeon Movies production,
"Charlotte's Web." Directed by Gary Winick, the film's screenplay is
by Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick, based on the book by E.B. White.
Produced by Jordan Kerner, the executive producers are Edgar Bronfman, Sr.,
Julia Pistor, Bernie Williams, and Paul Neesan.
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Canucks Should Show Our Stars Love
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell, Movie Critic, Canadian Press
(Dec. 12, 2006) Colm Feore is the star of one of the top-grossing
movies in Canadian history, this year's bilingual cop adventure flick Bon Cop, Bad Cop.
Yet the kind of superstardom that would greet his American and Quebecois
counterparts in the aftermath of such a huge hit simply doesn't exist in
English Canada, where domestic films nabbed just 1.9 per cent of box office
earnings this year. "What we need is some kind of Canadian star
system; we need people to say, `I know that guy, he's funny, he's in that
movie? Then I want to see that movie!' so that suddenly you reach a tipping
point where there's enough critical mass of interest," the energetic Feore
said in an interview to promote the DVD release of Bon Cop. Feore
isn't alone in lamenting the difficulties getting Canadians to take in Canadian
movies. Wayne Clarkson, head of Telefilm Canada, says 2006 was disappointing
despite the huge successes of Bon Cop and Trailer Park Boys: The
Movie. "We had the best of films this year and huge successes,
but the overall results were mixed," Clarkson said from Montreal.
Bon Cop, which grossed almost $13 million, was a big factor in bringing
up the domestic share of the English-Canadian box office in 2006 to 1.9 per
cent from 1.1 per cent last year. Trailer Park Boys also helped boost
the domestic take, Clarkson said. Ricky, Bubbles and Julian broke a record for
the biggest three-day opening weekend of any Canadian movie. Steve
Gravestock of the Toronto International Film Festival says there's no need to
be alarmed: the situation in Canada isn't so different from the scene
elsewhere. "There are very few territories or areas where domestic
box office is dominant," he said, adding the year ahead in Canadian film
promises to be a good one, with movies coming out that already have serious
buzz. Sarah Polley's Away From Her is chief among them. Polley's
feature-film directorial debut is getting its American premiere at the Sundance
Film Festival in January before its mainstream release in May. Fido,
a funny zombie film starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Scottish comic Billy
Connolly, comes out in March. And Denys Arcand's eagerly anticipated L'Age
des Tenebres is also slated for release in 2007.
2006 NYFCO Movie Awards: A Queen Sweep!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Kam
Williams
(December 12, 2006 ) Eagerly-anticipated as an early
indicator of Oscar
buzz, The New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO) recently
announced its annual awards for 2006 at O'Neals' Restaurant in Manhattan. The
Queen ended up the evening’s big winner, landing a quintet of accolades in the
categories for Best Picture, Best Director (Stephen Frears), Best Actress
(Helen Mirren), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Sheen), and Best Screenplay
(Peter Morgan). Best Actor even went to royalty, namely, Forest Whitaker
for his command performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Newcomer
Jennifer Hudson enjoyed a couple of kudos, both Breakthrough Performer and Best
Supporting Actress, for her stellar work in Dreamgirls. NYFCO, a group
comprised of about two dozen of the city’s top movie reviewers, boasts a
diverse membership which ranges from Rex Reed of the upscale New York Observer to
Kurt Loder of MTV. There’s also the politically-progressive Prairie Miller of
WBAI, and Louis Proyect of Marx Mail, as well as the spiritually-oriented
Frederic and Marry Ann Brussat. The group’s minority representation includes
Armond White, Julian Roman, Ed Gonzalez and yours truly.
Complete List of Winners:
Picture - The Queen
Actor - Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
Actress - Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Director - Stephen Frears (The Queen)
Supporting Actor - Michael Sheen (The Queen)
Supporting Actress - (tie) Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) &
Catherine O'Hara (For Your Consideration)
Ensemble Cast - Little Miss Sunshine
Breakthrough Performer - Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
Debut Director - Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss
Sunshine)
Screenplay - Peter Morgan (The Queen)
Documentary Feature - An Inconvenient Truth
Foreign Language Picture - Pan's Labyrinth
Animated Feature - Happy Feet
Cinematography - Dick Pope (The Illusionist)
Film Music/Score - Philip Glass (The Illusionist)
Humanitarian Award - Deepa
Mehta (Water) for taking risks to
create films about the difficulties of social change in India especially as it
affects women.
The Film Strip: Action Packed 'Blood Diamond' Delivers Powerful
Message
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
December 7, 2006) *"Blood Diamond" not only has
diamond dealers quaking in their shoes, but it even prompted a cover story on a
hip hop magazine. It will be interesting to see if bling is a popular as it was
before this film is released. Just as important as the information
relayed in this film is the relationship between Djimon
Hounsou and his son. With so much talk about
absent Black fathers and onscreen negative images, this film is a welcomed
addition to positive cinema. Interviews with both Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio shed light on the dark
side of diamonds, the plight of many Africans and the relationship that
developed between Hounsou and DiCaprio.
QUESTION: AS AN AFRICAN PLAYING THIS CHARACTER WHAT DID YOU
BRING TO IT OR LEARN ABOUT IT THAT PERHAPS WASN'T THERE BEFORE?
DJIMON HOUNSOU: [Laughs] Well, first of all, I must say
that when I came across this story this was the most powerful human story that
has come out of Africa and that I'd ever heard anyone be involved with and
certainly not with a studio, a major Hollywood studio taking this on. It was a
blessing for me personally. Secondly, it was probably the most challenging
story ever and in so many areas. Reading 'Blood Diamond' I realized that it
wasn't so much about the Blood Diamond. It was about so many other issues in
Africa - issues of child soldiers, issues of refugees, the displacement of
millions of people throughout the continent, the effects on the neighbouring
countries and so on and so forth. So it was a very powerful story for me. So,
again, for being an African and being in Hollywood and making movies, these are
the kinds of stories that I love to be a part of and be able to bring more
awareness to the world. And the Oscar race, I'll have to leave that to the
studio to decide what we're
Q: BEING FROM AFRICA DID YOU FEEL A RESPONSIBILITY TO BRING ATTENTION TO
THESE ISSUES?
DH: I mean, yes, of course being African. But I think that we have a
responsibility as citizens of this world to really do what is necessary to
change the outcome of this trading issue. I think that to do nothing is
intolerable and certainly to do something is just not enough. So as citizens of
this world we must do everything that we can to bring awareness to the world so
that everyone knows what the issues are about trading diamonds. Also,
being African, absolutely. Of course I feel a need and a strong desire to be
involved in films that deal with important African issues because. Our
lifestyle is so challenging that we're always running, running, running and
chasing, chasing. So we really have very little time to get an education the
way that we used to be educated through books and so on and so forth. A lot of
the education we're getting today, I feel, personally, is through movies.
It's unfortunate, but it's also fortunate. The movie industry now also has a
responsibility to tell compelling stories and stories that mean something,
stories that change our lives and stories that make us reflect on our conduct
and the way we treat one another and the way we treat neighbouring countries
and how we view other people from different continents. So, yes, we do.
Q: HOW WAS IT SHOOTING ON LOCATION?
DH: The physicality and the emotional content of the story were just
overwhelming. So, day in and day out you were just in it. You couldn't
necessarily get away from it because once you finished shooting the environment
in which you were shooting and the people of that country and those places were
just, you know they're so quite deprived. Obviously we shot in places that
didn't have issues with conflict diamonds or elicit diamonds, but you could see
that throughout the whole continent of Africa it's very difficult. People are
living very challenging lives and you couldn't get away from that. I guess that
we were in it day in and day out.
Q: WITH THE DISTURBING ISSUE OF CHILDREN SOLDIERS, IS IT POSSIBLE TO GO BACK
TO A NORMAL LIFE WITH CHILD KILLERS?
DH: That's the problem. That's one of the reasons we're telling this story,
to bring the awareness that these kids cannot go back to their villages. The
villages that they went to and completely ravaged killing mothers and fathers
and sisters, raping - they cannot go back to those villages with any sort of
assistance and reintegration into the system and give them a bit of education
so that they hopefully won't fall into those situations. Those kids are
susceptible of being the rebels of tomorrow.
Q: LEO SAID THAT YOU WOULD BE A LIFELONG FRIEND TO HIM SINCE WORKING ON THIS
FILM. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GOING FROM CO-WORKER TO LIFELONG FRIEND?
DH: I have to say that Leo will hopefully be a longtime, hopefully forever
friend. Being African I can only embrace the guy who comes to try and bring
awareness to my continent - I can only embrace him. Lets start from
there. Also, he has done things for me that only I on the receiving end
know what he has done. I mean, I can say that he's given me his house to host
my friends that came to visit. He's given me his chef to cook for me. He's fed
me many times. He stood up for me. I didn't know about it, but a week later I
found out that he stood up for me because someone threatened to shoot me at a
place in South Africa. He said, 'You're going to have to go through me because
I know this guy and I'm sure he didn't do anything wrong to you.'
The guy showed him his gun and that's where they got that line. The guy said to
him, 'We don't do things here like you do in Hollywood. Bling, bling.
Here it's bling, bling pow!' That's where he got that line from because the guy
told him blatantly that he was going to shoot me.
Q: WHY DID HE WANT TO SHOOT YOU?
DH: To this day we can't find out why. We don't know. So, those are the
reasons why I like him.
Q: SO, LEO, HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH DJIMON?
LEONARDO DICAPRIO: Well, you know, his character is really
the heart and soul of the movie. It's the story of a man trying to find his
son, and he embodied this character. Actually the word is electrifying that
applies to the intensity that he gives in his performance. What can I say? He
and I were kind of alone on set. It was me and him. There is no other actor
that could've played this role and given this performance. I mean, he is
astounding in this movie and the intensity and energy that you get from him as
an actor is amazing, and we got to play off of each other everyday. He's quite
a brilliant actor.
Q: DID YOU ANTICIPATE THE CONTROVERSY THAT WOULD SURROUND THIS FILM?
LD: I didn't anticipate it. No. But when you approach situations like this,
these are things that are based on real events. We're depicting a specific time
in recent history where these diamonds resulted in a lot of civil unrest in these
countries. I had never anticipated that it would be this intense by any means.
Q: DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE DIAMOND TRADE AND THE PROBLEMS IT'S CAUSED IN
AFRICA BEFORE YOU DID THE FILM?
LD: I think that I was like anyone else. I had heard whispers of it, but
until I got there and until I read the script and started to do the research I
didn't really quite understand the immense impact that these diamonds had had
on certainly Sierra Leone and other places in Africa. I certainly had heard the
Kanye West song, for example. I had heard bits of all of this in conversations,
but it really wasn't until I got to Africa and heard the first hand accounts
and started to read the books and learned about it all that I really realized
what was going on, what had happened.
Q: SO WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO DO THIS MOVIE?
LD: Well, first off, it was the script. It was such a powerful character.
It was such a powerful storyline and that's what you look for first. I mean, I
wasn't personally going out seeking films with social or political messages to
them, or just doing it for the sake of doing it. It has to have some
entertainment value. It has to be a good movie and it has to convey a message
without the audience feeling like they're being preached to, and I really felt
strongly that this script accomplished that. To me it was very representative
of a huge issue in the world today of corporate responsibility and what these
corporations do. Certainly Africa has been a prime target for it all the way
from gold and rubber and all kinds of other natural resources. So, here was
this character that really represented someone who was exploiting people less
fortunate than him and dealing in the black market and not really being
conscious of the world that he lived in.
Q: SPENDING SO MUCH TIME IN AFRICA DID YOU WALK AWAY WITH A SENSE OF THE
COUNTRY'S CULTURE?
LD: Well, certainly from me playing a character like this, who was taking
advantage of the poverty around him and taking advantage of the continent
created a lot of - what's the word - uncomfortable situations as an actor and
having to portray this man on set amongst an African crew. In locations like
Mozambique where there was a tremendous amount of poverty, I mean, that's a
country right now that's sort of having an economic resurgence, but still there
is a serious situation with HIV or AIDS. There are astounding conditions there,
but what I was left with after spending time in Africa, and this is not at all
to sound trivial, but it really was the power of the human spirit there and the
fact that these people have been through so much.
They've been through a civil war for thirty years. The poverty rate is
astounding. Literally people were still dancing in the streets. I mean, the joy
and the energy and the happiness that they exude to everyone that comes into
contact with them was unbelievable and it made me come back home and not want
to listen to anyone's problems. I don't want to hear about what we as Americans
have to do that. When you're immersed in a place like that for six months and
you see the extreme levels of what people have to deal with there and what
their lives are like, it's amazing and yet they're able to keep a positive
attitude. I just don't want to hear people's problems here anymore.
Q: DO YOU THINK THAT IT'S TOO MUCH TO HOPE FOR CHANGING PEOPLE'S MINDS WITH
CINEMA?
LD: I don't think that it's too much to hope for at all. I think that there
is tremendous capability there and certainly in the world of documentary.
Absolutely. I mean, look at films like 'Fahrenheit 9/11' or numerous other
documentaries that have changed the political climate, but I think that there
is a tremendous role to be played in that respect, but that's the key thing,
and not to comment on this film or talk about how great this movie is, but I
think that this movie is that rare combination wherein you're able to get
people into the audience and able to get people to be involved with the
compelling story and meanwhile they're getting this political message.
It's also not hitting them over the head. They're going to absorb this social
message, I believe anyway. Traditionally it's kind of been one thing or the
other. I think that this is one of those rare opportunities or combinations
that is going to affect people like that, simultaneously, while entertaining
them.
Q: THERE HAS BEEN A BIG SHIFT IN CONGRESS WITH THE RECENT ELECTIONS. DO YOU
THINK THAT THERE IS CHANGE IN THE AIR?
LD: Let me just say, I'm happy. I think that it's taken a turn for
the better and I think that a lot of things that have been sort of subdued
politically and a lot of things that people have wanted to happen are hopefully
going to happen now. It's really up to the democrats now to not say things
anymore, but to take action now. I think that they will.
Jury's Top 10 List Is Just As Notable For The Movies That Didn't
Make The Cut
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Liam Lacey
(Dec. 13, 06) Though funding agencies are pushing for a more commercial agenda,
leading Canadian filmmakers appear to be sticking to their non-commercial guns.
That's the superficial impression from this year's Canadian
Top 10 film list, picked by a jury selected by
the Toronto International Film Festival. Neither the top-grossing film in
the country last year, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, nor the most expensive Canadian
film, the $11-million zombie comedy Fido (which has yet to open
theatrically), made the cut. The Top 10 films include three documentaries about
the environment, one feature film mostly in the Inuktitut language (Zacharias
Kunuk and Norman Cohn's The Journals of Knud Rasmussen) and dramas about
Alzheimer's disease (Sarah Polley's feature directing debut, Away from Her)
and political radicalism (Reginald Harkema's Monkey Warfare). Also on
the list are three comedies, including Mike Clattenburg's Trailer Park Boys:
The Movie and, from Quebec, Philippe Falardeau's picaresque father-son
story, Congorama, and the deadpan Sur la trace D'Igor Rizzi, the
first film from Toronto-born, French-raised Noël Mitrani, also about a
displaced European (French actor Laurent Lucas) in contemporary Quebec. The
third Quebec film, Une dimanche à Kingali, based on Gil Courtemanche's
novel, revisits the 1994 Rwandan genocide from the perspective of a Quebec
documentary filmmaker. The three documentaries about the environment include:
Gary Burns and Jim Brown's meditation on suburbia, Radiant City (the
only entry from Western Canada), Jennifer Baichwal's Manufactured Landscapes,
which follows environmental photographer Ed Burtynsky in China, and Sharkwater,
Rob Stewart's film about sharks.
Both Polley's yet-to-open Away from Her, based on an Alice Munro short
story, and Manufactured Landscapes will make their U.S. debuts at next
month's Sundance Film Festival. In a statement issued before Tuesday night's
announcement of the Top 10 list, TIFF director Piers Handling said: “This year
has been phenomenal for Canadian cinema both critically and commercially. “The
diversity of genres and subjects featured in Canada's Top 10 highlight the
extraordinary filmmaking talent in this country.” This year's 10-member jury
included no film critics and only one film journalist, Manon Dumais from Voir
Montréal. Other jurors included freelance producer Lorraine Clark, programmers
Helen du Toit and Marguerite Pigott, filmmakers Thom Fitzgerald, Aubrey Nealon
and Jean-Marc Vallée, and producers David Hamilton, Liz Jarvis and Raymond
Massey.
Dakota's Pig Tales
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell, Movie Critic
(Dec. 13, 2006) NEW YORK—She's only as old as Forrest
Gump, a good bottle of Scotch and the Netscape Navigator Web browser.
But 12-year-old actor Dakota Fanning has packed more into those dozen years than many people manage in
a lifetime. The Georgia-born moppet has appeared in movies with Tom
Cruise (War of the Worlds), Denzel Washington (Man on Fire),
Robert De Niro (Hide and Seek), Sean Penn (I Am Sam) and Reese
Witherspoon (Sweet Home Alabama), to name just a few of her 32 film and
TV roles. She learned to read at age 2, began her acting career at age 5
(a Tide commercial) and starred in her first $100-million-grossing movie (Sweet
Home Alabama) at age 8. She knows how to knit and play the violin,
she's learning to speak French and Spanish and she has presented a movie award
with a grown-up Shirley Temple, the ultimate child star. If you ask Dakota for
her career ambitions, she'll cite Jodie Foster and Meryl Streep as role models
or — as she told Time magazine editors recently — reveals the shocking
news that one day she hopes to direct. It's probably best not to dwell on
these things, especially if your résumé is somewhat short on superlatives. But
it's hard not wonder who hit the gas pedal on the life of the poised young lady
who sits before a roomful of journalists on this bright Saturday morning,
happily discussing her latest movie, Charlotte's Web, which opens
Friday. At least it's a children's film, based on the E.B. White bedtime
fable about a helpful spider named Charlotte who befriends a befuddled pig
named Wilbur. There's no fear of having to discuss Oscar buzz, although that is
sure to come one day.
"Of course I love the book and have always loved the story," Dakota
chats merrily, as if her childhood is just a fond memory. "I talked about
it with the director Gary Winick. I just loved him so much, I wanted to work
with him." Ditto for Winick, an indie helmer hired for Charlotte's
Web on the strength of his handiwork on 13 Going on 30, a Jennifer
Garner comedy that did surprisingly big business. He's such a fan of
Dakota, he swears he wouldn't have made Charlotte's Web without her,
even though her role as farm girl Fern Arable isn't the lead. Winick actually
held up production of the movie to wait for her, even though he already had the
voice talents of such stars as Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey and Robert
Redford. "She was doing War of the Worlds, so we had to
reschedule everything for her. But it was totally worth it," Winick says
in a separate interview. "I wouldn't do it (without Dakota), I don't
think. Because the movie is about the animals' relationships, so Fern's
storyline, there's not really that much there. Only someone like Dakota could
elevate it in way where all of sudden there's a coming-of-age story for her as
well." Dakota was happy to oblige, even though it meant moving to
Australia for the 3 1/2-month shoot and wrestling with the dozens of real
piglets who played Wilbur (he had mucho stand-ins) and other oinkers.
"I really had a lot of fun with the pigs," she says, smiling through
braces and tucking one sneakered shoe up beneath her as she rocks excitedly in
her chair. "They were all so cute. We had like 50 or 60 of them that
we worked with and they were little babies and they would grow up, and they
were all like the crew's little kids that we'd be watching grow up and they
were all adorable." Speaking of growing up, how is it going for her?
Doesn't she feel as though her childhood is slipping away? Not a bit,
apparently. "You know, I'm just getting older and not wishing to be any
older, just kinda having fun ... in this movie, my character at the beginning
she's a little girl and at the end she's kind of growing up and I think that's
kind of where I am a little bit in my life, so it was fun to portray
that."
Doesn't she feel the pressure of carrying a big picture? She has the most
famous human face in Charlotte's Web, a live-action adaptation quite
unlike the 1973 animated version of the book. "You know, I really
don't think about that. Of course, it's a responsibility to so many people and
I don't want to let anyone down. But also some of that is out of my control and
I realize that as well, so I don't beat myself up about it. I just enjoy doing
the acting. So that's really what's important." She's equally
sanguine about her planned trip next month to the Sundance Film Festival, where
she will star in a movie — still known as Untitled Dakota Fanning Project —
in which she plays a sexually abused girl in the '50s who finds solace in the
music of Elvis Presley. Early reports have suggested her character is raped.
Dakota denies it. "No! That was all like blown out of proportion. It
was a total rumour." There isn't much that isn't going very right
for Dakota right now — except for maybe the confusion she has with fans who
don't believe their own eyes. When they meet her, they don't believe it's
really her. "Oh, fans. A lot of people sometimes don't believe that
it's me, and they'll be like, `Oh, you look like Dakota Fanning,' and I'll be
like, `Oh, I am.' And they'll be like, `Oh, no you're not!' and then I'll be
like, `Oh, yes I am!'" Give them time. They'll have many more
chances to catch up with the rest of us.
FILM TIDBITS
Cheadle To Direct And Star In Miles Davis Biopic
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 6, 2006) *TMZ.com is reporting
that Don Cheadle
will direct
and star in “Miles Davis,” a biopic about the jazz great that has been the actor’s pet
project for several years. According to the Web site, the Oscar-nominated
film star has hired screenwriting and producing team Chris Wilkinson and Steve
Rivele, who adapted the life story of Muhammad Ali for his biopic that starred
Will Smith. Cheadle has reportedly been trying to produce a movie about Davis
since the dawn of the new Millennium, but rights to the late jazz trumpeter’s
music have always stood in the way. According to TMZ, the hurdle was finally cleared
after the project’s producer Cary Brokaw recently recruited former Sony
Pictures Entertainment Chairman John Calley to help secure the rights to much
of Davis' Columbia Records catalogue, which is owned by Sony BMG. Brokaw will
produce "Miles Davis" along with Cheadle, Wilkinson, Rivele, and
others, TMZ reports. Insiders say the plan calls for the movie to be
independently financed, with the possibility of taking it to a studio for
distribution.
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Hollywood Taking A Global View
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Los
Angeles Times
(Dec. 8, 2006) HOLLYWOOD—The world is opening up, and it's
taking Hollywood
with it. Almost a year after the racially tinged Crash scored a
Best Picture upset at the Academy Awards, deep explorations of non-white
cultures have dominated the silver screen. It's an expanding vision of
storytelling that not only has taken audiences to Uganda, Morocco, South
Africa, Spain and Japan, but into new areas of North American culture.
Many of those stories have been among the industry's best told, earning heavy
buzz as potential Oscar contenders for the films and the minority actors in
them. All of which could turn the upcoming Oscars into more than just a tribute
to film artistry, transforming it into a festival of multiculturalism.
"The time has finally come," said Jarvee Hutcherson, head of the
Multicultural Motion Picture Association, a 1,400-member group of filmmakers,
educators and others that promote diversity in film. Much of the
excitement has surrounded seasoned actors (Forest Whitaker in The Last King
of Scotland, Penélope Cruz in Volver), as well as first-timers or
novices (Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi of Babel, Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls
and Rudy Youngblood of Apocalypto). Dreamgirls is already
considered a front-runner for several nominations, with buzz surrounding most
of its cast, including Hudson, Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles and Eddie Murphy.
Spike Lee To Direct ‘L.A. Riots’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 8, 2006) *Spike Lee will turn his lens toward the
violent race-based eruption in Los Angles following the 1992 “not guilty”
verdicts of four white officers who were videotaped beating motorist Rodney
King. “L.A. Riots”
is set up at Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment under Universal Pictures.
John Ridley (“Barbershop: The Series,” “Three Kings”) will write the screenplay,
tapped to take on a straight-forward approach in dramatizing the events.
"This isn't about some cavalcade of stars, but rather a truthful and
realistic examination of what happened, what the ramifications were and where
we are now, in hopes that something like this doesn't happen again," Lee
told Variety. Grazer said the subject matter was "the best way
to use Spike's power as a filmmaker, to tell an even-handed story that gets
beyond the iconic pictures that we all remember. I was most interested in
looking at the idea of universal group dynamics that manifest
themselves under the highest amount of stress and to get all these
points of view as they converge into each other and ignite in
flames." According to Variety, the goal is for Ridley to have a
script before president Donna Langley before the business closes for the
holidays. Lee, meanwhile, remembers exactly where he was when the
verdicts were announced on April 28, 1992. "The day the riot
happened was the very first time that Terry Semel and Bob Daly saw 'Malcolm X,'
when they were running Warner Bros.," Lee told Variety. "All the
things Malcolm X was talking about were happening. Assistants were running into
the room, passing them notes. 'Do you want us to order a helicopter to come into
the studio to get you home?' You could see it in their faces, watching this
movie, wondering if L.A. was burning down, and if the world was coming to an
end. "I have to give credit to Bob and Terry, because I know they
wanted to leave but they stayed and saw my first cut, which was about three
hours and 45 minutes," Lee said. "I don't know how they got home,
whether it was by helicopter or by car, but they ran out of the screening room.
It was very scary." Lee was also shaken by the events going on in
the city. "I went straight to LAX, and my ass was on the red eye," he
said. “L.A. Riots” follows Lee’s HBO documentary "When the
Levees Broke," about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The filmmaker is
also developing a sequel for “Inside Man” with Grazer’s Imagine and
Universal.
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Andre 3000 Suits Up For Hoops Comedy
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
- Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter
(December 08, 2006) Hip-hop star "Andre
3000" Benjamin, one half of
the Grammy-winning duo OutKast, will join Will Ferrell in the basketball comedy
"Semi-Pro." The New Line project is set in the '70s world of
the now-defunct American Basketball Association and follows Jackie Moon
(Ferrell), the owner-coach-player of the fictional Flint Michigan Tropics. Moon
must lead his team on a desperate attempt to make it to the big leagues.
Benjamin plays a self-styled ladies' man who is the best player on the
team. Woody Harrelson already has been cast. Former New Line executive Kent
Alterman is making his directorial debut on the picture. Benjamin is the
co-creator of Cartoon Network's "Class of 3000" and is one of the
voices in the upcoming family movie "Charlotte's Web." OutKast
received two Grammy nominations yesterday (Dec. 7) for songs on the soundtrack
album to its "Idlewild" movie.
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Clooney Wants To Go Bollywood
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Associated Press
(Dec. 9, 2006) NEW DELHI — George Clooney says he'd like to appear
in one of India's spectacular song-and-dance movies. “I'd love to. There are
some filmmakers whose films when you see (them) you say, ‘That could be an
interesting story to tell,”' the 45-year-old actor said in an interview
Thursday on the private CNN-IBN channel. Clooney said he's a fan of Bollywood,
India's prolific Hindi film industry, and is impressed by the way it has
expanded. “I was watching a film the other day and the music was just amazing.
It's become such a huge industry,” he said. “There is a small market in the
(United) States as of now, but it will be fun if it catches on because it is
such a positive way of looking at filmmaking and I really love that. I truly
think it's fun,” he said. Clooney, a favourite among India's English-speaking
middle and upper classes, won a best supporting actor Oscar for 2005's Syriana.
“It seems like the Indian filmmakers are pushing boundaries in terms of pushing
the censors. I think it's (Bollywood) an interesting place for filmmakers to
go,” he said. Clooney's upcoming movie, The Good German, will be
released by Warner Bros. in the United States later this month. It will be
released in India next year.
Cage Helps Develop Bahamas Indie Cinema
Source: Associated Press
(Dec. 9, 2006) NASSAU, Bahamas -- After more than 55 films, Nicolas
Cage plans to cut back on acting to pursue
other interests, such as helping develop independent cinema in his new home of
the Bahamas. "I'm thinking about taking more time in between movies,"
the Oscar winner told The Associated Press backstage at the third annual Bahamas International Film Festival.
"I feel I've made a lot of movies already and I want to start exploring
other opportunities that I can apply myself to, whether it's writing or other
interests that I may develop," he said. Cage was in Nassau late Friday to
receive the Chopard Award for career achievement. Fellow actor Sean Connery,
Cage's co-star in the 1996 thriller "The Rock," presented the award
at the Atlantis Theater in Paradise Island. "Nic is a professional and
brings to the table all the stuff that makes it a real joy," Connery said.
Cage, who won a best-actor Oscar for 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas," owns
a house in Paradise Island and bought an undeveloped private island in the
Exuma Cays this year. He said he hopes the film festival continues to grow.
Some 50 narrative, documentary and short films from around the world are being
showcased during the four-day festival, which began Thursday. Bahamas
International Film Festival: http://www.bahamasinternationalfilmfestival.com
::TV NEWS::
'04 Tsunami's Cruel Wake
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Vinay Menon
(Dec. 6, 2006) There are bodies floating in the tranquil ocean. Others are
entangled in the debris strewn outside the beachfront resort. Yet, most
eerily, there is silence. And an unsettling calm. The opening scenes of Tsunami, The Aftermath
(TMN, Sunday, 8 p.m.; Part 2, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m.) set an
appropriately bleak mood for a miniseries based on the earthquake that
triggered a series of killer waves across the Indian Ocean two years ago.
A co-production between the BBC and HBO Films, the movie has generated
controversy in London, where some politicians, aid workers and survivors have
accused creators of sensationalizing the disaster that killed more than 226,000
people. These discussions have centred on two questions: 1. Should
television fictionalize a real-life tragedy of this scale? 2. Isn't it too
soon? But here's the thing: Tsunami, The Aftermath is neither
sensational nor gratuitous. In terms of story structure, it would have been
easy (and possibly more dramatic) to build suspense and conflict by putting the
tsunami somewhere in the middle. However, as the title implies, the
narrative starts at the end, concerning itself with the metaphorical
darkness that flowed after the water ebbed. This is a human story, not a cold
re-enactment of what happened on Boxing Day, 2004, when tectonic plates
shifted, raising the sea floor, unleashing energy equivalent to 23,000
Hiroshima bombs and devastating coastal communities in 13 countries, including
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
In other words: instead of attempting to package an objective reality,
producers have opened the lid on emotional truth. Tsunami, The
Aftermath explores the lives of several characters who become linked by
this unfathomable calamity: Tony (Hugh Bonneville) is a British Embassy
official in the midst of a crisis of conscience; Than (Samrit Machielsen) is a
Thai survivor dismayed by the onslaught of greedy hotel developers eager to
raze what's left of his battered fishing village; Nick (Tim Roth) is an
enterprising but callous journalist determined to get the story; and most
memorably, Ian (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Susie (Sophie Okonedo) are a married
couple who lose their young daughter in the deluge. Near the end of Part
1, Ian is seen at a town hall meeting, surrounded by other stranded British
nationals. He reacts with anger after Tony innocently uses the term
"natural disaster." "I last saw my daughter 36 hours
ago," Ian says, choking back tears. "She was screaming for help. She
was alone. And she was afraid. There is nothing natural about any of
this. "I want my daughter back. I want her here and I want her now.
You have to tell me how to do this. Because I'm not leaving until you
do." Ian and Susie's portrayal of parental loss — a jarring,
downward spiral of shock, disbelief, anguish, anger, guilt, reproach and
recrimination — is about as complex, honest and heart-rending as you will find
on television. Part 2 includes more about hoteliers' unseemly and rapid
land development along Thailand's fragile coastline. Nick pursues a story about
a Thai scientist who warned the government about an impending tsunami but was
ignored. And the difficulties in administering international aid are explored,
albeit subtly. In one scene, an Australian aid worker (Toni Collette) is
frustrated after supplies wait on a cargo plane. She quips: "The NGOs are
still in a meeting to arrange a meeting about a meeting." Written by
Abi Morgan and shot on location in Thailand, Tsunami, The Aftermath does
not rely upon special effects or any other gimmicks. So those looking for the
kind of visual jolts you can find within our canon of one-word disaster movies
— Volcano, Asteroid, Virus, Twister, Armageddon
— are advised to look elsewhere. In related programming, The Fifth
Estate repeats Tsunami: Untold Stories (CBC, 9 tonight).
Stop Prattling, People, And Look Outward
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
John Doyle
(Dec. 6, 2006) David Suzuki and Stephen Lewis, together at last. It's
enough to make the hard-core CBC audience squeal with delight. One has a PhD in
zoology and is famous for his persuasive programs about saving the planet and
critters. The other is a politician and broadcaster, famous and much admired
for his persuasive arguments about saving people, in his role as United Nations
special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. All joking aside, we're talking great
Canadians here, no argument allowed. Stephen Lewis: the Man Who Couldn't
Sleep (CBC, 8 p.m., on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki) is
the third Nature of Things special about Lewis's work in Africa. And it
is a fine, incisive reminder, not so much of Lewis's role, but of the desperate
situation in Africa. Lewis talks about the people of many African countries
“suffering the worst assaults of poverty and AIDS imaginable, and yet somehow
withstanding these assaults and working collectively to overcome them.” He also
uses the term “the abattoir of horror.” As eloquent as Lewis is on the urgency
of his mission, Suzuki is equally eloquent on the changes fostered by Lewis.
The program is relevant and airing now because Lewis steps down from his role
on Dec. 31 of this year. It's timely to remind Canadians of his work and, more
important, the daunting situation in Africa. We see Lewis giving important
speeches and meeting important people, making his impassioned plea — for
government support, for cheaper drugs, for a better understanding of the
enormity of the AIDS crisis. But most of the program chronicles Lewis on his
long, exhausting journeys across Africa, meeting local doctors and officials,
assessing grassroots projects. He makes it clear that something has been
achieved, but, as he says, he remains haunted because “the spectre of death is
still everywhere.” Lewis has also suggested that it is, perhaps, beyond the
capacity of the Western mind to absorb what is happening in Africa, to fully
understand the links between poverty and disease.
In that, he's correct. One major reason for this program's being vitally
important is the visceral picture it gives of the situation of others. We tend
to be self-absorbed here, awash in nutty ideas about ourselves. While Africa
cries out for the benefits of modern science and medication, in this neck of
the woods we're arguing about pasteurized milk. Honestly, the way some people
are jawing on, with their wobbly logic, you'd think that Louis Pasteur was part
of some conspiracy by big corporations. Anyone who has any experience in
countries where people die, daily, from diseases and afflictions that have been
eliminated here — often thanks to the work of Pasteur — can only be bewildered.
The great strength of this program about Lewis is that it compels us to look
outward, to grasp how lucky we are and how necessary it is to acknowledge the
horror that exists for other people. Lewis will officially end his work at the
end of this year, but he'll keep at it in other capacities, and so should we.
We can stop prattling about being entitled to the nuances of taste in cheese
made from unpasteurized milk. Look out at the world, and you'll know that's a
pathetic preoccupation. In the matter of prattling — and the CBC, please note —
I really don't care who is sleeping with whom. Really, I don't. Neither do you,
as far as I know. So CBC employees can stop sending me e-mails on the topic.
I'm oblivious to that stuff. Why, on Monday when I got my Christmas card from
my MP, Olivia Chow, I was astonished to find a photo of her playing the piano
with Jack Layton. I had no idea they were an item. Now, I'm told they're
shacked up or something. Who knew? I'm that oblivious. In the matter of doings
at CBC, I'd be far more concerned about the standards of what's being
broadcast. Last week, it was revealed here that Newsworld had blithely cut 49
Up, excising the contribution of one of the subjects. CBC dutifully
admitted that this was a mistake and, as this paper reported on Saturday, that
it plans to re-air 49 Up intact on Dec. 30 and 31. This news doesn't
seem to have reached the documentary department at CBC, where the problem
originated. Last Friday, a reader e-mailed the documentary department and asked
politely when an intact 49 Up might be aired. The response the reader
received on Monday was this: “I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. 49 Up
aired in two parts in late November as far as I know. This was the first
broadcast, so I'm sure it'll repeat at some point in the future.” Hello? Maybe
the employees at Fort Dork could stop nattering about who is sleeping with whom
and pay attention to what is going on the air, especially the mistakes. Medium
( CTV, 8 p.m., NBC, 10 p.m.) finds Allison (Patricia Arquette) buying a
camcorder for Joe's (Jake Weber) birthday, but she sees images through it that
may be linked to a murder that may or may not have happened. Right. I know many
fans of Medium are preoccupied with Arquette's new hairdo, but the plot
lines are getting a tad absurd, are they not? Dates and times may vary
across the country. Check local listings.
Diversity On TV Group Sees 'Marginal Progress'
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Associated Press
(Dec. 8, 2006) LOS ANGELES — Civil-rights groups seeking
greater ethnic
diversity in the TV industry said Thursday the major broadcast networks are
making improvements but it's time for greater progress — and pressure.
"I don't want to wait 10 years until we're close on television to the 15
percent of the population we are in the U.S.," said Alex Nogales, an
official with the National Latino Media Council. The council has been
working together with groups including the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition
and American Indians in Film & TV since 1999 to increase minority hiring
and representation in the broadcast TV industry. Karen K. Narasaki, chair
of the Asian Pacific American coalition, said there has been "marginal
progress" as all four networks increased the number of starring roles for
Asian-American actors in series. In one case, however, that meant going from
one role to two. "We're still far from where we need to be,"
she said, with far too many all-white shows or shows that by dint of their
setting should have Asian-American characters but don't. There's been a
worrying drop in Asian-American writers and producers, Narasaki, also president
of the Asian American Justice Center, said in a phone interview following a
news conference. Increasing their ranks is crucial to creating more
minority characters, she said. She noted the cast diversity on ABC's ``Grey's
Anatomy," created and produced by a black woman, Shonda Rhimes.
Nogales lauded ABC, a network he said "finally got it" and has Hispanic
characters in its most popular shows, including ``Desperate Housewives"
and freshman hit "Ugly Betty." As a result, he said, the network is
winning over more Hispanic viewers.
In annual "report cards," ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are graded in areas
including their hiring of minority actors, writers and directors, development
of programs with ethnic diversity and overall commitment to diversity
issues. This year, for shows airing from fall 2005 to fall 2006, the
National Latino Media Coalition gave ABC the highest overall grade, A-minus,
followed by a B-plus for CBS and a B each for NBC and Fox. The Asian
Pacific American Media Coalition gave NBC, ABC and Fox a C-plus each, while CBS
earned a C. In the coalition's first report card, in 2000, the networks
received mostly Ds. There was yet again a sharp slap from Americans
Indians in film & TV: The virtual absence of any American Indians on screen
or in the industry earned a flurry of Fs and Ds, with just a handful of higher
grades. In separate statements Thursday, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox reiterated
their commitments to diversity and pledged continued efforts. ABC is
"pleased to be recognized as a leader in diversity,'' said Robert Mendez,
senior vice president for diversity at the Disney-ABC Television Group.
"Our mission is to make our programming and environment reflective of the
rich diversity of the world in which we live.'' Nogales, also president
of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said he planned to study a recent
University of California, Los Angeles, study that said lawsuits may be
warranted when the casting process for films takes into account race and
sex. "I think it's completely applicable (to television), and if it
is we'll use it," he said in a phone interview. Nogales said he
considers the networks "partners" in the diversification effort but
has no qualms about pushing hard for results. "Sometimes you have to
kick your partners" in the behind, he said.
TV TIDBITS
Telefilm To Push Canada At International Festivals
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Michael Posner
(Dec. 5, 2006) Toronto — Telefilm Canada will pour an additional $700,000 annually into beefing up
Canada's international film presence. In a pilot program, the federal
agency said yesterday that it would allocate up to $200,000 a year to support
the profile of French- and English-language films officially selected for
screening at five key festivals -- Cannes, Berlin, Pusan, Sundance and Venice.
A second initiative would spend $350,000 to $500,00 to boost the
marketing and promotion campaigns of French-language films in international
markets. Each project would receive a maximum of $50,000. Although the
lion's share of new funding is being directed toward French-language films,
Telefilm officials noted that English-language films receive more money in
training, script development and marketing strategies.
Vivica A. Fox Kicked To The ‘Curb’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 5, 2006) *Vivica A. Fox will star in the
upcoming season of
HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as part of a black family who moves into the expensive home of
Larry David and his wife Cheryl following a natural disaster of Hurricane
Katrina proportions. The storylines for the comedy’s sixth season are
likely to explore interracial relations, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The show has tackled such issues in the past via such episodes as
"Krazee-Eyez Killa" and "The Carpool Lane."
Actress Wanda Sykes, who had a recurring role as herself on the series as
a next door neighbour, has also been in memorable episodes that dealt with race
relations. As the Hollywood Reporter points out, the topic of race
relations has emerged with a vengeance following the racist rant of Michael
Richards, co-star of the hit comedy "Seinfeld," which Larry David
created with Jerry Seinfeld. Meanwhile, Fox recently starred in the Lifetime
drama series "1-800-Missing" and did a multi-episode arc on the UPN
comedy "All of Us," which has since migrated to the CW.
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Netherlands First Country To Switch To Fully Digital TV
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Dec. 12, 2006) The Netherlands ended transmission of "free to air"
analog television yesterday, becoming the first nation to switch completely to
digital signals. Few Dutch consumers noticed, because the overwhelming majority
get TV by cable. Only around 74,000 households relied primarily on the
old-fashioned TV antennas in the country of 16 million, although 220,000 people
had an "occasional use" set somewhere such as in a vacation house,
camper or boat, according to government figures. The bandwidth formerly used by
analog has been licensed through 2017 by former Dutch telecommunications
monopoly Royal KPN NV, which will use it to broadcast digital television. Under
its agreement with the government, KPN bore the cost of building digital
broadcasting masts and must continue to broadcast three state-supported
channels and several regional public broadcasters free of charge. In return, it
can use the rest of the open bandwidth to charge around $18.50 (U.S.) a month
for a package of other channels comparable to cable. Whether customers opt for
just the free channels or a full cable-like package, they must first buy a
tuner to decode the new "digital terrestrial" signals, available for
around $66.50. KPN spokesman Jan Davids said the switch occurred between
midnight and 2 a.m. without any reported problems. "Then we broke out the
champagne," he said.
Degrassi Teen Drama Sold Into U.S. Syndication
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Gayle Macdonald
(Dec. 13, 06) Toronto — CTV's teen drama Degrassi:
The Next Generation has been sold into
syndication to the United States, including in five of the top U.S. markets and
18 of the top 25. Vancouver-based Thunderbird Films and its American
distribution partner, Program Partners, said yesterday the Degrassi
syndication strip has been sold to Tribune Broadcasting group, as well as a
consortium of others that includes stations under the Clear Channel
banner. The 25-year-old franchise of shows is produced in Toronto by
Epitome Pictures and is the brainchild of veteran producer Linda Schuyler.
::THEATRE NEWS::
Jamie McKnight - Actor Off To Flying Start
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian
(Dec. 5, 2006) Jamie McKnight may be playing the title role in Aladdin, which
opens Thursday night at the Elgin Theatre, but he's one guy who doesn't seem to
need a magic lamp. Ever since graduating from theatre school in 2001, the
27-year-old Scarborough native has been making his mark in roles so good, it
almost seems as though a genie handed them to him on a silver platter.
McKnight has been Claude in CanStage's Hair, Paul in A Chorus Line at
Stage West, Ren in Footloose at the Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg — the list
goes on and on. Even when he only has one song, as in The Producers
with "Springtime for Hitler," he manages to stop the show. And
on those rare occasions when he plays a chorus role, as in 2005's Annie Get
Your Gun at Massey Hall, he's working with stars like Louise Pitre and
directors like Donna Feore. "I have been very, very, very
lucky," admits McKnight, taking a break at the Elgin during Aladdin rehearsals.
But unlike actors who say things like that while crossing their fingers behind
their back, you believe that McKnight is telling the truth. He seems like
that rare commodity: a genuinely nice individual whose good looks, considerable
talent and early success haven't given him a swelled head. As McKnight
sketches his short career, he somehow manages to make himself the fall guy in
almost every anecdote. He was born on March 24, 1979 in Scarborough to a
pharmacist mother and a father who was a minister in the United Church.
His choir work got him into the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus at the age of
10, and he vividly recalls playing one of the children in Alben Berg's Wozzeck,
not the cheeriest of works to launch your career in. "I had to say,
`Your mother's dead,'" he recalls, "while I was playing jacks on a
raked stage and they kept rolling off the edge." It was a few years
later, while performing in Der Rosenkavalier, that he had the
"eureka" moment when he said to himself, "Wow, I would love to
do this for a living." Shortly after that, his voice changed, ending
his years with the children's chorus, but luckily there was a thriving musical
theatre program at Wexford Collegiate to fill the void. "I was never
the lead or the romantic hero back then," he says. "In fact, I played
the geeks, like Osric in Rockabye Hamlet and Hugo in Bye, Bye Birdie."
But he knew that theatre was what he wanted to do and soon headed to Sheridan
College. "I loved it there," McKnight remembers, "but I
also kept thinking it was so hard and I wondered if I would ever make
it." Sheridan molded his talent and inadvertently also shaped his
nose, giving it the distinctive bump it has today. "I was working
out in the gym," he blushes, "feebly trying to get buff, and the
equipment I was using smashed my nose, breaking it. That's the first of my two
broken bones." The other came in 2001 when, right out of Sheridan,
he landed the plum role of Gilbert in the Charlottetown Festival's Anne of
Green Gables and promptly broke his foot during rehearsals. "I
was freaking out," he admits. "I thought I was going to get fired
right at the start of my career. But they kept with me, I got better and it all
worked out okay in the end." Since then, McKnight has avoided any
other physical injuries and even when the productions he's been in have crashed
and burned, he's personally come through with flying colours. Ask him
about the shows that haven't worked, like The Producers or Hair,
and he shrugs endearingly. "Look, we always try our best, but sometimes, I
guess it's just not good enough." Does McKnight have superstar
ambitions? Well, if he does, he's not wearing them on his sleeve. "I
am just so happy to be doing the work I'm doing and I don't care if it's in
summer stock or on Broadway."
Aladdin opens at the Elgin Theatre on Thursday and runs through Christmas
Eve. For tickets phone 416-872-5555 or go to http://www.ticketmaster.ca
Stratford, Shaw In The Black, But U.S. Sales Down
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Dec. 9, 2006) Both of Ontario's major theatre festivals — Stratford and Shaw — have finished their seasons with small surpluses after playing
to virtually the same size audiences that they did the year before. The
Stratford Festival revealed yesterday that it would be concluding the season
$19,736 in the black (down from $73,000 last year), with attendance dropping
marginally from 540,000 in 2005 to 528,373 in 2006, a decline of approximately
.02 per cent. For the second year in a row, General Director Antoni
Cimolino cited the decline in American audiences as the major revenue problem
facing Stratford, although — once again — he also noted that the amount of
money contributed by donors from south of the border had increased as
well. This erosion of American audiences has been an ongoing problem for
Stratford since 9/11 and it will be interesting to see how the new management
team headed by Cimolino, Des McAnuff, Marti Maraden and Don Shipley tackle it
when they assume full control after next season. Over at the Shaw
Festival, attendance held largely steady this year after an impressive 6 per
cent increase in 2005. While the festival is claiming another percentage
advance (up from 68.6 per cent to 70 per cent), the actual number of paying
patrons seems to have declined slightly from 295,642 in 2005 to 295,016 this
year.
The Shaw Festival customarily doesn't reveal its bottom line until early in the
new year, but publicist Odette Yazbeck verified earlier reports that they would
be finishing with a surplus "not unlike" the $52,000 they posted for
2005. Shaw's box office has benefited enormously from the introduction of
a musical on its main stage over the past two years and this summer's offering,
High Society, despite largely negative reviews, has been one of the best
attended shows in the festival's history, obviously driving up the revenue
figure. While this year's figures seem close to identical for both
organizations, it's worth recalling that their long-term histories are somewhat
different. This year marks the 13th consecutive surplus for Stratford,
which is sitting comfortably in the black, whereas the 2003 and 2004 seasons at
Shaw resulted in a $6.57 million deficit that the board later reduced to $4.4
million through the use of a "rainy day" fund. As a result,
while both organizations must view each new season with caution, obviously the
theatre makers from Niagara-on-the-Lake will continue to be even more careful
in the future than their cousins up in Perth County.
THEATRE TIDBITS
Line-up Unveiled For New Harbourfront Stage Series
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Michael Posner
(Dec. 6, 2006) Toronto -- Troupes from 10 countries will be part of an
ambitious new series next year at Toronto's Harbourfront
Centre. Beginning Jan. 24 and running until June
10, the inaugural New World Stage International Performance features 17
productions, encompassing theatre, dance, music and cabaret companies from
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Norway, Poland and
the United States. The series begins with a production by Mabou Mines of
Ibsen's Doll House and ends with Luminato, a 10-day multigenre festival
of about 90 events that includes Risk Everything (TR Warszawa), Back
Home (Urban Theatre Projects) and Shen Wei Dance Arts. Other highlights:
three new Harbourfront commissions; the return of world renowned Peter Brook,
who will direct Sizwe Banzi est mort from France's Bouffes du Nord; Griots
t' Garage: A Musical History of the African Diaspora with Dennis Rollins;
and a double dance bill featuring Brazil's Cristina Moura and B.C.'s Sarah
Chase.
Pinkett Smith Funds 'Tupac Shakur' School Theatre
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
(Dec. 12, 2006) BALTIMORE (AP) — Jada
Pinkett Smith
has donated $1 million to the Baltimore School for
the Arts, asking that its new theatre
be dedicated to classmate Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996. The 35-year-old actress
graduated from the high school in 1989. "It means a lot when you're
a teacher and your most famous alumnus comes back to give a donation,"
said Donald Hicken, head of the school's theatre department since its founding
in 1980 and Pinkett Smith's former theatre teacher. "It really says a lot
to the community that the school matters in people's lives.'' The
donation from the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, which is based in
Baltimore, will be used for renovation and expansion. The school, which
announced the donation Monday, said it will name its new theatre for Pinkett
Smith. Pinkett Smith is married to Will Smith, who stars in the new movie
"The Pursuit of Happyness" with their 8-year-old son, Jaden.
The couple had previously given $112,500 to the school. When a $30
million expansion program is finished in the fall of 2007, the school will
increase its enrolment from 316 to 375 students. Karen Banfield Evans,
executive director of the Smith Family Foundation, and Pinkett Smith's aunt,
said the actress was moved by the school's advances since she graduated.
Pinkett Smith wanted the theatre named for Shakur because of the
friendship they developed at the school. The rapper died after a drive-by
shooting in Las Vegas. The actress has appeared in movies such as
"Ali," which starred her husband, and "Collateral," and she
was the voice of the hippo Gloria in the 2005 animated film "Madagascar.''
"The Pursuit of Happyness," a Sony Pictures release, opens in
theatres Friday.
::DANCE NEWS::
Dancing Dream Comes True
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Drea
Edmead, As Told To Matthew Chung
You don't know Andrea (Drea) Edmead's name — but she might be all over
your TV. The 29-year-old from North York is a hip-hop dancer who has shaken her
bon-bon next to Ricky Martin and shared an MTV Video Music Awards floor with
Diddy and Jay-Z. She lives in Brooklyn now but got her start in Ryerson's
theatre dance program. Last week she was dancing beside Ludacris at the
Billboard Music Awards and has been showcased in videos and award shows with
Alicia Keys, Pharrell, Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani. She's also performed on Saturday Night Live and The Late Show with David Letterman.
She was a longshot to build a career like this out of Toronto — not quite the
epicentre of the global hip-hop industry — but Edmead is more likely to credit
destiny than luck. Here is her story:
(Dec. 10, 2006) I guess I can say it's my dad's fault. It all started
with him. My family's from St. Kitts, and my dad is an avid music listener. I
learned dancing from him. My earliest memory was when I was about 2 years
old and this song called Sugar Boom Boom, a calypso song, was my first
favourite song. Whenever they put it on, I would go nuts. We were in our old
apartment at Lawrence and Don Mills and when the song came on, I would dance
around a glass coffee table, twirl and jump. I could barely talk but my
body was telling me to get up and dance. My first job in the
entertainment industry was singing back-up for Bobby Curtola on his album Christmas
Flashback. I was 14 years old and got paid around $200, which was like
hitting the jackpot! In school, every show, every function that happened
I was involved in choreographing. It was my purpose for going to school. I
planned to study fashion design. It never occurred to me that dancing could be
a career until later on. All those years that I was dancing, I was kind
of watching and learning. But I wasn't technically trained. I went to York for
the year, learning modern dance and ballet techniques, then I auditioned for
Ryerson because that was a program I really, really wanted to get into. And because
I didn't think I'd get in, I did a really good audition. I was doing things I
didn't think I could do, like pirouettes — I was easily knocking off triples.
They took me. I kind of feel like that was the universe saying,
"You're going the right way. We're going to help you along."
X marks the moment
My big break came on a sweltering afternoon in August 1999 when I got a call
from my quasi-agent about a job at a casting house on Queen St. E. No details,
just "Can you make it downtown for a casting this afternoon?" I
half-heartedly got up and began to get dressed. Another ghetto Toronto casting,
I thought. Should I even bother going? I put on my dad's old powder-blue pyjama
bottoms (they've got a drawstring, super comfortable) and a fuzzy white belly
top. Throw on some sneaks and lip gloss, and jump in my ride. I arrived late to
a room filled with girls. Not casual girls, decked-out-to-the-nines girls.
Heels, mini skirts, halter tops, jewellery, full makeup, hair and nails. They
were pageant ready! I felt unprepared and a bit nervous. "Wow,"
I thought. "Should I have brought heels?" But on the surface I'm easy
as Sunday morning with a side of eggs. My mantra, "Never let them see you
sweat," echoes in my head.
I find the sign-in sheet and fill out my name and information.
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120 lbs
Age range: 18-25
Special skills: A positive outlook (count for anything?)
As I scanned the sheet, I noticed the video is for the Canadian hip-hop artist
Choclair. I liked Choclair. Cool. Maybe things would be better than I'd been
expecting. I spotted a friend and took a seat next to her at this long
wooden table in the centre of the room. It was like Donald Trump's boardroom
table, and each of us was hoping to hear: "You're hired!" We sat
facing one another, doing a bit of nervous shuffling and chitchat. Some pulled
pocket mirrors out of their purses and applied last-minute touches of blush or
mascara. I pulled out my book Personal Power Through Awareness and tuned
everything out. One by one, each girl got her turn to audition — we have
to freestyle dance for a panel. A few more names called, a few less girls
sitting at the table. Finally, there was just my friend and I.
"Drea?"
"Yes?"
"You'll be next."
I mentally prepared myself. ("Never let 'em see you sweat.") The Rocky
soundtrack ran on "repeat" through my mind. A few moments,
then I was led into the audition room. It was small and carpeted (a nightmare
for dancing), with a video camera set up, and a few people sitting down. I took
my place in front of the camera and got ready to "slate" (slating is
stating your name and agency to the camera, then showing both
side-profiles). "Drea?" I turned to look directly at the panel
for the first time. It was Raj. I know him. He's a local entertainment manager
I worked with at a venue the previous year. He's warm and friendly, makes the
environment a little less intimidating. In the room with him were two other men
I don't recognize. The music starts. The song is laid back, chill and I
was feeling it. It's called "Let's Ride." Hesitantly I began to move,
then my body began to warm up and everything fell into place. I dip, I kick, I
jump, I turn, I shimmy, I shake and flow to the beat, enjoying every
second! The entire process lasted a minute or so. I thank the panel and
exit the room. At the boardroom table, my friend was still waiting to audition.
As she went in, one of the panel members walked out and headed my way.
"Hey!" he said. "Don't you remember me? I'm Little X, (1, see Decoded,
above) I'm the director on this job. I met you last year on Glenn Lewis's video
shoot."
"Oh! I didn't recognize you."
"We want to use you for this video. Are you available?"
I paused. ("Yes! A MILLION TIMES yes!")
"... I think so, let me just double-check my agenda."
On the day of the shoot, I arrived with butterflies beginning to flutter in my
belly, as I imagined video chicks, oiled up and hosed down in gold thong
bikinis, droppin' it like it's hot for the camera. Oddly enough, the video
turned out to not feature any dancing at all. Instead another girl and I
"rode" a motorcycle (fastened to the back of a truck) through the
financial district. Several blocks were shut down for us by the police; it's
just us, and I feel like we own the streets. Round and round we went, picking
up speed with the breeze blowing our hair and "Let's Ride" blasting
out of the speakers. After about an hour, X said, "That's it, we got
it. You're wrapped!" I smiled to myself, thanked him and the crew, headed
back to my trailer. I felt incredible. An amazing day. I felt relaxed and easy.
And I barely broke a sweat! Within a month of shooting "Let's
Ride," I received a call from a New York casting director who's seen it.
Then I heard from Hype Williams (2). and soon I'm working with him, too! I was
getting regular calls to shoot in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Mexico, and the
Caribbean, blessed with the opportunity to work with top urban choreographers
like Fatima Robinson (3), Showtime and Laurie Ann Gibson from Making the
Band III, all while still living in Canada. That audition day was the
beginning of a whole new chapter of my life, and I had no idea. If I can
make it there That was exciting, when I paycheque for a shoot. I thought,
"Wow, I can actually support myself." Up until that point, I'd get
paid in Toronto sometimes — if I was lucky. Sometimes you'd have to wait
forever, keep bugging people to get that $50. I remember my mother making calls
for me.
Moving to New York is what busted me open. It's the kind of city where you do
or you die. I found out about an audition and went the next day and booked a
Mary J. Blige job while living in my great-aunt's basement in Queens. It
was a featured role as a waitress in the video for "Family Affair" —
it's difficult to recognize me (in) ... a burnt orange Ronald McDonald wig ...
that was day two in New York. I heard about another open audition, went
and booked Jay-Z for the MTV Video Music Awards, which was huge. But still, I
had to hustle. People didn't know who I was and things were rough. To make ends
meet, I worked as a promotional model, a nightclub dancer, and a coat-check
girl. I did not sleep, I did not rest. I would work late at night as a go-go
dancer at a club called Rhumba in the Bronx. Oh my gosh, that was a
ghetto club. When I told people I was working there, they'd look scared. It was
the club that if you can stay away, you don't go. All patrons had their mouths
checked for concealed weapons before they could enter the club — wowzers!
Dancing with the stars
I've had some bizarre experiences. I worked with R. Kelly (4) a few times. One
time we were rehearsing for the BET awards and he showed up unexpectedly with
his entourage and made us stop so we could pray. Dancers do pray before shows,
it's just something we do. But this prayer went on and on. This was around the
time he was in trouble on child pornography charges and I remember him saying,
"Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive us for our sins, known and
unknown." I remember rehearsing for the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards
with Puffy (5), and the dancers being dogged a lot by him and the
choreographer. At the time he was filming a TV show, so cameras would follow
him wherever he went — including our rehearsals. One time, he gave us a
tough talking to about our attitudes, focus, and attaining perfection. While he
was speaking, he seemed to be looking at me. I remember thinking, "Am I
being paranoid?" Then he went to sit in the corner of the rehearsal space.
He looked very serious. Someone from his camp came over and told me, "Puff
wants to speak to you." I was nervous. I thought, "Oh no, that's it!
He thinks I have a bad attitude or I'm not working hard enough. He's kicking me
out!" I walked over to him. My heart was pounding but I sat down
calmly facing him. He took a breath, then said, "It's about your hair ...
do you mind if we straighten it?" I started laughing. Phew! He had
looked so solemn.
The VMAs ended up being a great success. We got a standing ovation and Puffy
was thrilled. He had all the dancers come back to his dressing room to thank
us. He was jumping off the walls just in his boxers and socks, high with
energy. He grabbed and kissed each dancer, couldn't stop saying thank
you. Last summer, I was shooting a video with Ricky Martin and he had
jeans on but no underwear. He would do this move with his bum to me and his jeans
kept falling down, revealing a quarter inch to an inch down the crack. I
was starting laughing inside at the thought of what my parents would think at
that moment, if they could see me gyrating next to him.
Issues for dancers
I haven't had a whole lot of problems in this business. Another kind of
dancing, I would have problems physically. But I have a booty. I have thicker
thighs. I have a muscular body. For hip hop, that works well. But a lot
of people do have problems. There are girls who are amazing dancers but don't
get jobs because someone might say, "Your belly's too soft." Or an
artist might tell you to lose weight. L.A. is far worse than New York for
that. It's a tough industry. Dancers do unhealthy things just to maintain
weight. Diet pills — which I don't use — are really common. It's imperative to
have a firm understanding of your objectives and who you are. Sex, drugs and
alcohol are common. Plastic surgery and eating disorders are common. So is
sexual harassment. I've been on jobs where men in an entourage get this
mindset that the women there are at their beck and call. Once I was in a
trailer at a Puffy video. There was a back room with some guys in it, and one
was like, "Come here." I told him I was getting my makeup done.
He said, "Come sit on my lap." When I said no, he cursed at me
and shut the door in my face. I remember feeling so small and
embarrassed. That happens, but not all the time. As I gained strength in
myself, things that used to happen when I was afraid to speak up don't any
more. But some of the girls are 17 years old and they think, "I don't have
a voice, I don't know how to speak up." Or sometimes they're very
calculating — "This guy has money. Maybe I'll do something else if I need
to." I've encountered that. I can't tell you how many people have
said to me, "I can make you a star."
::OTHER NEWS::
Mayor Miller asks Torontonians “How Do You Get Your Move On?”
Source: City of Toronto
(Nov. 30, 2006) The “How Do You Get Your Move On?” media
campaign is being launched this week with print advertising and a series of
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to air on Rogers OMNI Television in four
languages, Farsi, Mandarin, Spanish and Tamil, in addition to English.
The PSA features a cycling Mayor David Miller, Honorary Chair of Toronto’s Get
Your Move On (GYMO) initiative, encouraging everyone to join him in being physically
active. “I’m pleased to be able to join leaders from health, recreation, and
corporate sectors as well as others to take action on an important issue for
the health and vitality of our city,” the Mayor said. The media campaign
promotes the GYMO website and phone line where people can get information about
thousands of physical activity opportunities in Toronto, as well as
multilingual physical activity resources. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Ltd., owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors and a lead member of
Get Your Move On, is showing the PSA on Air Canada Centre’s Jumbotron and
airing it on Leafs TV and Raptors NBA TV.
The PSA will also be streamed on the YMCA of Greater Toronto website, another
key GYMO partner. “Get Your Move On is connecting Toronto to opportunities for
healthy, active living,” said Scott Haldane, President and CEO of the YMCA of
Greater Toronto and co-chair of the initiative. “Children, youth, and adults of
all ages and backgrounds need to move more.” In 2004, leaders in the
public, voluntary and private sectors started Get Your Move On to address
epidemic levels of physical inactivity by making it easy for people to be
active, any time, any place. “Get Your Move On is about reducing barriers so
everyone can become healthier,” said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s Medical
Officer of Health. “Reaching people in many languages is fundamental to the
campaign.” “We applaud GYMO for creating an inclusive campaign that
recognizes the importance of extending its message to local ethnocultural
communities in their language of comfort,” said Madeline Ziniak, vice president
and station manager of Rogers OMNI Television.
Funding for the GYMO PSAs was provided by OMNI Television’s Public Service
Announcement Production Fund, which supports local community groups and helps
ensure the accessibility of important public information to third language
communities. Alison Duke of Goldelox Productions and Susan Nation of Tween Entertainment
were responsible for creation and production of the PSAs, working in
association with the GYMO Public Awareness Action Group.
For more information and to view the PSAs, visit the Get Your Move On website http://www.toronto.ca/getyourmoveon
or call Toronto Health Connection at 416-338-7600.
Rihanna Becomes A CoverGirl
Source: CoverGirl via PRNewswire
(December 6, 2006) HUNT VALLEY, Md. -- Rihanna, the
internationally-acclaimed songstress who has won millions of fans with her
smash hit
"S.O.S." and charming persona, is joining the CoverGirl family.
The 18-year-old star joins the ranks of CoverGirls including Queen
Latifah, Molly Sims, Christie Brinkley and Keri Russell. Rihanna will shoot her
first CoverGirl ads this December for a nationwide launch in summer 2007.
Rihanna's debut album "Music of the Sun," which she co-wrote with
renowned music producer Evan Rogers and his partner Carl Sturken, was released
in August 2005. Her world renowned second album, "A Girl Like Me,"
featuring "S.O.S." and her follow-up single "Unfaithful"
has established her among today's top artists. Through it all, Rihanna has
managed to stay grounded and strives for her music to be a personal
conversation with girls her age -- reflecting their triumphs, complexities and
struggles. Rihanna is now working on her third album which is set for release
in 2007. "Rihanna's natural beauty and musical talents make her a perfect
fit for CoverGirl. She is the latest in a long line of CoverGirls such as Queen
Latifah, Faith Hill and Brandy to reinforce the brand's heritage in
music," said Gina Drosos, Vice President and General Manager of Global
Cosmetics, Procter & Gamble Beauty. "Rihanna is a talented, confident
young woman who exemplifies the CoverGirl ideals with her inner confidence and
fresh beauty. We're proud to welcome her to the CoverGirl family."
"I've loved makeup and dreamed of being a CoverGirl since I was a little
girl," said Rihanna. "Growing up, my mother was a makeup artist and I
was fascinated watching her apply lip color, blush and mascara. Now I get to be
surrounded by all of my favourites from CoverGirl!"
Since its introduction in 1961, CoverGirl has helped launch numerous modeling
careers and was one of the first brands to link models' names and faces with a
product. The long list of famous CoverGirl models includes Christie Brinkley,
Cheryl Tiegs, Rachel Hunter, Tyra Banks, Niki Taylor and Molly Sims, and the
brand is known for consistently signing models who embody both inner and outer
beauty, such as current spokes model Queen Latifah. Visit http://www.covergirl.com
for more information on CoverGirl's family of models and makeup or to chat LIVE
with a beauty consultant that can answer questions on an array of beauty topics
and provide make-up suggestions. P&G Beauty products help make beauty
dreams real and grooming enjoyable everyday for millions of women and men
worldwide. With more than 100 brands available in nearly 130 countries, P&G
Beauty delivered sales of more than $21 billion in fiscal year 2005/06, making
it a leading global beauty company. P&G offers trusted brands with leading
technology to meet the full complement of beauty and grooming needs: Pantene(R),
Olay(R), Head and Shoulders(R), Max Factor(R), Cover Girl(R), Always(R),
Sassoon Professional(R), Wellaflex(R), Rejoice(R), Sebastian Professional(R),
Herbal Essences(R), Koleston(R), Clairol Professional(R), Nice 'n Easy(R),
Venus(R), Gillette(R), SK-II(R), Wella Professional(R), and the luxury and or
prestige fragrance licenses for Dolce & Gabbana(R), Valentino(R), mHugo(R),
and Gucci(R). Please visit http://www.pgbeauty.com for the latest news and
in-depth information about P&G Beauty and its brands.
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Crosby Lives To Write About It, Again
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Greg
Quill
(Dec. 10, 2006) Most survivors of catastrophe get to tell their tale and
move on. For catastrophe-prone American folk-rock singer, composer David Crosby, the tale apparently
never ends. His first memoir, Long Time Gone (1988), chronicled
his hedonistic and truly eccentric existence at the epicentre of the California
music boom in the 1960s up to his conviction on guns and drugs possession
charges and his 12-month term in a Texas jail, where he recovered from
substance abuse and found the spiritual wherewithal to pick up the shattered
fragments of his career. After reading that harrowing tale — a graphic
and brutally candid account of the rise and fall of one of that generation's
most charismatic icons, the book became the model for countless tell-all rock
`n' roll biographies that followed — you'd think there'd be little the man who
coined the phrase "If you can remember the '60s, you weren't there"
would have, or want, to share. Wrong. Life goes on. Stuff happens. And,
as Crosby has learned, an inordinate amount of it happens to him. In an earlier
time it would surely have been fodder for the kind of intensely personal songs
for which he became known during his years with The Byrds, Crosby, Stills &
Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But record contracts aren't
easy to come by when you're 65 and suffering from hepatitis C, a poor heart and
diabetes, even though Crosby still tours and writes "all the time, mostly
love songs about my wife." Besides, the independent music market is
overpopulated with younger songwriters spilling more palatable guts. It's
easier and more efficacious to surprise us all with a second autobiography, How
I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About It.
"So much crazy stuff has happened since the last book," Crosby
said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home earlier this week.
"Just in 1993 and '94 a series of events almost blew me away. I found out
I owed a massive amount in back taxes to the IRS, money that had been stolen by
my accountant. I lost half my house in the big earthquake that year. After
being told for years that she could never conceive, (future wife and long-time
companion) Jan found out she was pregnant. And my doctors told me my liver was
failing rapidly and I was dying." In the new book he also recounts
meeting his grown son James Raymond — also a gifted musician and partner in a
new band fronted by Crosby, CPR — for the first time, and the personal
circumstances under which he became in the late 1990s the father of Julie
Cypher and singer Melissa Etheridge's two children. The lesbian couple have
since split. "I'm disappointed they weren't able to keep it
together, but they're wonderful mothers, and the kids know who I am and where
to find us," Crosby said. "The best thing that came out of that
whole experience was a feeling of immense love for my wife. Julie and Melissa
were over for dinner, not long after Django (the Crosbys' son, and the most
recent of the singer's six offspring) was born, and they saw how happy we were.
They couldn't see any easy way to have a child of their own. "And
that's when Jan volunteered me." Asked whether he could be as
generous with his wife's genetic material, Crosby was quick to respond:
"No. I couldn't do that." Never doubting the world was dying to
hear more of his adventures — the liver transplant operation, and the nasty
controversy surrounding the sudden emergence of a donor organ at the last
minute, account for a 20-page rant — Crosby's only concern was how the second
instalment of his autobiography should be written.
It fell to veteran TV and movie screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (Jaws, The Jerk,
The Bob Newhart Show), who co-authored Long Time Gone, to devise a
template that reads like a script for a documentary, with Crosby's narrative
offset by fade-ins to second and third opinions, and alternative recollections
of friends, family and witnesses to key events in the book.
"Shifting between different points of view gives the reader a real sense
of the truth," he said, as if the minutiae of his existence are of
elemental significance, rather than late-night eyebrow-raisers. There are
some surprises. For a child of the 1960s and a member of two of the most
outspoken bands of the era, Crosby turns out to be politically quite
conservative. One section of the new book focuses on his grievances with
government policies relating to Native Americans. "It's not about
Native American rights," Crosby said. "It's about casinos, which make
bad neighbours, and reservation residents not being subject to income tax and
the same building and zoning codes as the rest of us. In America we're all
supposed to be equal." Crosby would also like to see welfare — or
the American version of it — dismantled. "I don't think paying able-bodied
people not to work is the way to go. I'd like to see the (U.S. military)
Construction Corps revived." Though he believes the Bush
administration has caused America "great harm," he has no faith in
Democrats and votes "for individuals, not for parties."
Published just in time for Christmas — as is Voyage, the handsome and
expensive three-CD box-set retrospective of Crosby's musical oeuvre, as well as
the two-disc, DVD-enhanced re-release of his 1971 solo classic If Only I
Could Remember My Name — the new book certainly puts Crosby back in the
front trenches of gossip mongers. Or not. "It'll pass soon
enough," Crosby chuckled. "Next week they'll go back to Britney
Spears and her underwear."
::SPORTS NEWS::
Iverson Likely Down To His Final Hours In Philly
Source: Associated Press
(Dec. 12, 2006) Philadelphia — The Allen Iverson era in Philadelphia is
over. Now, all that's left to determine is when and where the former MVP
resumes his career. Nearly all traces of the inactive Iverson were gone from
the Wachovia Center on Monday night. His nameplate was removed, his locker was
cleaned out, and the pregame line-up video featured none of his dazzling
highlights. All that's left to officially sever his relationship with the
Sixers is a trade, and that might come Tuesday. Sixers chairman Ed Snider
watched the game from a suite instead of his normal courtside seat, chatting
possible deals with team president Billy King. With the Sixers on an eight-game
losing streak after Monday night's 81-79 loss to Portland, and tied with
Charlotte for the worst record in the Eastern Conference, whatever they get in
return likely won't be enough to jolt them back into the playoff race this
season.
"I just know you're not going to get equal value for a little monster that
good," Chris Webber said. Iverson, still officially with the Sixers, was
inactive for the third straight game and probably won't be around when
Philadelphia hosts Boston on Wednesday — unless he's playing for the Celtics.
King said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Monday that he would not
comment until a deal was done. Webber, traded to Philly from Sacramento in a
blockbuster deal in 2005, said he can understand what Iverson must be going
through. "I've been in that position where I felt I helped make a
franchise," Webber said. "He cares about people, he cares about
Philly. I know he's hurting about having to leave." Iverson's not hurting
enough to prevent him from requesting a trade last week. Snider said on Friday
the All-Star guard had "probably" played his last game with
Philadelphia. "We are so used to playing with Allen, I think that we have
to adjust and make plays," Kyle Korver said. Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks
was peppered all day with questions about Iverson, but said his only focus was
on the players in the locker room and snapping the team's losing streak.
"I'm not here to say how this happened, how that happened," Cheeks
said. "We're just going forward with the people we have and we're trying
to win games. I think our team has been pretty good through all of this."
Iverson's relationship with Cheeks had deteriorated this season, with Iverson
leaving a recent practice reportedly after a blow-up with his coach. He skipped
a team bowling function later that night, apologized and was fined by the
organization. When the Sixers hired Cheeks in May 2005, Iverson joked he was so
elated Cheeks got the job he wanted to kiss him on the mouth. The two formed a
close relationship when Cheeks was an assistant coach with the Sixers. "If
you got a problem with Mo Cheeks, there must be something wrong with you,"
Iverson said at the time. Cheeks said he would only look back fondly on
Iverson's 10-plus seasons with the Sixers. "I have no hard feelings about
Allen, none whatsoever," Cheeks said. "He's been a phenomenal player
for 11 years. There have been not many people who can stay as consistent as he
has his years in the NBA." While Cheeks said he had not talked to Iverson,
third-year swingman Andre Iguodala — Philly's other A.I. — said he had a brief
conversation with his soon-to-be former teammate to see how he was holding up.
Iguodala joked he asked to borrow one of Iverson's chains, but didn't talk
about all the swirling trade rumours. "Any time a player who's had a great
and successful career in this city, whenever it ends, it's kind of
bitter," Iguodala said. Korver said the Sixers are prepared for a season
without Iverson. "We want it to be over. We just want to move on," he
said. "Obviously now Allen is probably going to be traded, or is going to
be traded, so we just want to move on and not have to have long interviews
after shoot around." Also, the Sixers said Chris Webber would be fined for
missing shoot around. Webber's return flight from an unannounced destination
was delayed.
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Hale Big On Court Relations
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Morgan Campbell, Sports Reporter
(Dec. 12, 2006) As the new director of the Rogers Cup, Karl Hale says
running a successful pro tennis tournament depends on three things: Player
relations, media relations and tour relations. The next nine months will
test Hale's skills in all three areas. Tennis Canada named him Rogers Cup
tournament director yesterday, replacing Grant Connell, who resigned to
concentrate on his real estate business and to help his wife raise the twins
she's expecting. Hale's toughest task will be to restore prestige to the
Women's Rogers Cup, which returns to the Rexall Centre in August. Each of the
last two years, several of the top players in women's tennis have backed out of
commitments to play there. Hale is confidant he can persuade top players
to honour their promises to play in Toronto. "That's where tour
relations comes in," he said. "It's meeting with player agents and
letting them know our event is a top tier one event."
Last summer's tournament in Montreal took place without Amelie Mauresmo,
Justine Henin-Hardenne, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams, who all pulled out
after first promising to play. Hale says new WTA rules will help the
Rogers Cup retain top talent in his first year as director. First, the WTA has
doubled the fines for players who withdraw without notice. Also, the tour can
force at least two of the top 10 players to appear at any tournament.
Hale says those rules, coupled with his deep roots in the local tennis
community, will combine to make next year's Rogers Cup successful.
"My strength is (the ability) to rally the Toronto area together to
support (the Rogers Cup) in a stronger, more vibrant way," said Hale, who
organizes a celebrity tournament at the Donalda Club, the North York country
club where he works. Hale, 39, was born in Fallmouth, Jamaica, but moved
to North York as a 6-year-old. He forged many of the relationships with
players and agents on the women's tour when he moved to Japan in 1991. He
stayed there six years, serving as Monica Seles' hitting partner and working
with several Japanese pros.
Colaiacovo A Leaf Again
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Paul Hunter, Sports Reporter
(Dec. 12, 2006) At one point during the Maple Leafs' game day skate this morning,
coach Paul Maurice skated over to defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo
with a simple but uplifting message. "You're a hockey player
again," said Maurice. It’s been a long time coming. Colaiacovo
has not played an NHL game since January when he suffered a serious concussion
in a collision with Vaclav Varada, then a hard-rock forward with the Ottawa
Senators. In a career already stalled by numerous injuries, the
23-year-old's comeback attempts were further delayed by chronic headaches when
he exercised too strenuously - though the team said he was not suffering
post-concussion syndrome. Then he broke a finger after blocking a shot during a
conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs' farm team. But
Colaiacovo will be back in the line-up as the Leafs try to end an eight-game
losing streak against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. Maurice will sit fellow
rookie Brendan Bell to make room. "It's a great feeling right now.
I'm just full of excitement," the Toronto native said this morning.
"I'm more anxious than nervous. It's been too long. I'm just going to go
out there and keep it simple. I can't wait."
It was not immediately clear who Colaiacovo would be paired with though Bell
had been skating with veteran Pavel Kubina. Maurice said instead of trying
to suppress his excitement, he wanted Colaiacovo to run with it, comparing his
situation to other players playing their first NHL game. "He should
feel nervous going into his first game," he said. "That sick feeling
you get before you go out, you've worked really hard to get that feeling.
You've worked 20 years to get this chance. You should take in national anthem,
the cheering, everything," he said. "I don’t think trying to
fight that or keep it under control works. He should enjoy it. He's worked hard
to get back." A first round pick, 17th overall in 2001, Colaiacovo
has only played 25 games with the Leafs but in those contests he showed why he
was drafted that high. A gifted skater and puck mover, Colaiacovo is also a
forceful physical presence in his own end. Toronto fans have been repeatedly
teased by that unfulfilled potential. "Tonight, I'm just going to
try and pick up where I left off and hopefully we come out with a win
tonight," he said. "This is a team game. Obviously, I'll bring
as much as I can to help the team to win but, in the end, it's a team effort.
As a team I think we're going to bounce back tonight."
SPORTS TIDBITS
Jays Finalize Deal With Stairs, Sign Smith
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Canadian Press
(Dec. 12, 2006) The Toronto Blue Jays finalized a minor-league contract with
veteran Canadian outfielder Matt Stairs and signed infielder Jason Smith to a major-league deal
Tuesday. They also named Bill Masse manager of their double-A affiliate,
the New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League. Stairs will earn
$850,000 (U.S.) if added to the major league roster, of which $400,000 would be
a signing bonus and $450,000 salary. A deal in principle was reached last week
at the winter meetings. The Fredericton native batted .247 with 13 home
runs and 51 RBIs with Texas, Kansas City and Detroit last season. The
38-year-old has played for nine major league organizations and ranks third
among Canadian-born players in games (1,416) and second in home runs
(220). Smith, selected in the Rule 5 draft from the Chicago Cubs roster,
agreed to a $500,000, one-year contract. Smith hit .263 with five home runs and
13 RBIs in 49 games for Colorado last season. He has played in 166 games in the
majors for the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay, Detroit and Colorado. He’s
expected to compete for the 25th spot on the Blue Jays roster. Masse
joins the Blue Jays after seven years in the Yankees system, spending 2006 as
manager of the double-A Trenton Thunder. He began his minor league coaching
career with Montreal, spending four seasons in the Expos system.
::FITNESS::
Slim Your Butt & Hips
By Joyce Vedral, eDiets Guest Columnist
You've heard it before: "wide load,"
"child-bearing hips," "big Butt!"
Well, you can hone down that out-of-control rump if you're willing to work out
just a little bit every other day. But it gets better! While you're at it, you
can tone your flag-waving triceps and hamstrings (back of your legs). How
can you do this? You do special exercises that attack two body parts at a time.
It saves time and prevents boredom. I find that working the hip-butt area can
be boring. One of my favourite ways to work fat off the hips and butt is
to do two-for-one hip-butt exercises. For example, why not get your
hamstrings toned while zapping your hips and butt? And why not tighten those
flag-waving arms (the triceps) while melting down your hips and butt? This
makes me more motivated to work out, especially on days when I really don't
feel like disturbing my lazy tranquility. And yes, like everybody else, I have
those days. The following two "double whammy" exercises will go
a long way toward getting rid of your reindeer rump -- and at least it gives
you a good start by Christmas. As I said, you will also make headway on your
hamstrings and arms. So let's get started!
Butt & Hamstring Toning Hack Squat.
Position: Stand with your feet a natural-width apart, holding a
broomstick or barbell behind your back (see start photo).
Movement: Bend at the knees to a comfortable position, not more than
your knees can go and not more than thighs parallel to the floor. Flexing your
butt, hips and back thighs, rise to start position and repeat the movement
until you have done 12 repetitions. Without resting move to the next exercise.
Butt/Hip & Triceps Toning Floor Lift
Position: Sit on the floor with your
legs extended straight out in front of you, and your arms at your sides, elbows
bent. (See start photo.)
Movement: Flexing your triceps and hip muscles as you go, lift yourself
off the floor by straightening your arms not quite fully. Flex your triceps and
hip/butt area an extra time, and return to start position. Repeat until you
have done 12 repetitions.
Repeat the sequence two more times. This little routine will take no more than
five minutes and goes a long way toward getting your reindeer rump, along with
your hamstrings and arms in shape! To get there faster, it's a good idea to add
more exercises for this area and for the rest of your body!
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note - 12 Days of Christmas!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Willie
Jolley, www.williejolley.com
The First Day of Christmas – “Share The Gift of Self Confidence!” The old
parable states, “You have to find happiness in yourself before you can give it
to someone else!” Before you can effectively give to others you should take
time and give to yourself, give the gift of self-confidence. This Christmas
forgive yourself of past mistakes and past failures, learn from them. Learn to
speak good to yourself and then spread the confidence to others!!
