Langfield Entertainment
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NEWSLETTER
Updated: March 9, 2006
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::TOP STORIES::
Haggis 'Dumbfounded' By Crash Oscar Win
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
- Terry Weber
(Mar.
6, 2006) Canadian-born Paul Haggis said Monday he was more than surprised when the
envelope for best picture revealed his race-relations drama Crash had
won Oscar's top prize. Like many, he had been expecting the best-picture trophy
to go to the cowboy romance, Brokeback Mountain. “I was dumbfounded,”
Mr. Haggis told CBC Newsworld. Heading into Sunday night's climactic moment in
Los Angeles, he said, he was convinced Ang Lee's highly praised – and
Alberta-shot – film would win. “I didn't think [ Brokeback Mountain would
win], I knew, didn't you? Everybody knew.” However, when actor Jack Nicholson
read out the winner, it was Mr. Haggis's ensemble piece that academy members
tapped as the year's best picture. “Getting it [the best-picture Oscar] from
Jack Nicholson, that was pretty darn cool, I'll tell you that,” Mr. Haggis, who
also co-produced Crash, said. “It was an amazing feeling. I mean, I'm
just going to say all of the clichés everyone says. It was sensational.”
Earlier in the evening, Mr. Haggis – who was born in London, Ont. – had picked
up an award for best original screenplay, sharing that price with co-writer
Bobby Moresco. Although he was also nominated for best director, that
prize ultimately went to Mr. Lee for Brokeback Mountain. Of his film's
critical and popular success, Mr. Haggis said the current political climate –
particularly in the United States – played a part in its finding an audience.
“We're in a time of war here, and you either go one or two directions,” he
said.
“You head off and escape, or you start talking about questions, and all
of the terrific films this year asked important questions about who we are, and
I guess that's what we were trying to do, as well.” Still, he said, at the
start of the process, he was doubtful that Crash, given its difficult
subject matter, would get made at all. The same went for last year's boxing
drama Million Dollar Baby, for which he also received a screenwriting
nomination. “Who would want to see that?” he said of Crash, with its
themes of racial strife, fear and intolerance. “I thought that my grandchildren
would read the scripts, and go 'Look, grandpa tried to get in the movies, isn't
that cute,' and that's the end of it.” Mr. Haggis studied cinematography at
Fanshawe College in London, Ont. He moved, at age 22, to Los Angeles with his
first wife in the late 1970s, and wrote for U.S. shows, including The Love
Boat, Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of
Life. His trophy shelf includes Emmys for his work on thirtysomething
and Geminis for the Alliance Atlantis/CBS Mountie drama Due South.
Mr. Haggis has said in previous interviews that he got the idea for the
screenplay after he and his wife were carjacked in the early 1990s.
Three 6 Mafia Wins Academy Award
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 6, 2006) *If you thought rap/hip hop was not mainstream, we bet
your world was rocked last night when Three
6 Mafia WON the best song
Oscar for, you ready? "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" from Hustle
& Flow. Yep, we bet you're not feeling too well right about now. You're
thinking maybe it's not true. Sorry it is. Anyway, now that we've
established that fact, let's recap Hollywood's big night. We'll get back to
Three 6 in just a bit. "Crash" was the big story last night. It
overtook the front-runner "Brokeback Mountain" and won Best
Picture. Lead-acting Oscars went to Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman
Capote in "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon as country singer June
Carter in "Walk the Line," meanwhile, best supporting-actor Oscars
went to George Clooney in "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz in "The
Constant Gardener." Also, Ang Lee took home the best-director prize for
"Brokeback Mountain."
Now, back to Three 6 Mafia. Usually most Oscar nominated songs are
boring and bland. Well, "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" doesn't fall
into that category. The Memphis rap collective "represented" with a
rousing performance of "Pimp," then walked away with the Oscar man.
"I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't stand still," a giddy Jordan
"Juicy J" Houston, said backstage. "I had to run somewhere. I
started to run somewhere. People thought the police was probably chasing me
somewhere." Speaking of funny lines, we loved Jon Stewart's crack after
the group excitedly accepted their prize. "You know what? I think it just
got a little easier out here for a pimp," the Oscar host
joked. "How come they are the most excited people here? They are
thrilled. That's how you accept an Oscar.” For a full list of winners go to www.Oscar.com.
Rogers Wireless Canadian Music Week Announces Winners Of 2006
Canadian Music Industry Awards
Source: Planet3 Communications Ltd.
TORONTO – Rogers Wireless Canadian Music Week would like to
congratulate the winners of the 2006 Canadian Music
Industry Awards which were held last night at the Fairmont
Royal York, as part of a week-long celebration of Canadian music. The awards,
which were hosted by comedian Brent Butt, included a special tribute to Hall of
Fame inductees Bob Ezrin and Duff Roman. Two new awards were added to the
line-up this year, The Brian Chater Industry Builder Award and John Martin
Industry Pioneering Award.
2006 MUSIC INDUSTRY AWARD WINNERS
INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR
Sam the Record Man, Toronto
RACK JOBBER OF THE YEAR
Entertainment One
MASS MERCHANT/SPECIALTY RETAILER OF THE YEAR (tie)
Best Buy
MASS MERCHANT/SPECIALTY RETAILER OF THE YEAR (tie)
Future Shop
RETAIL CHAIN OF THE YEAR
HMV Canada
RECORDING STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Metalworks Recording & Mastering Studios, Mississauga
CANADIAN INDEPENDENT LABEL OF THE YEAR
Maple Music
CANADIAN DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR
Koch Entertainment
MUSIC PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR
EMI Music Publishing Canada
MAJOR LABEL OF THE YEAR
Universal Music Canada
CANADIAN TALENT DEVELOPMENT STORY OF THE YEAR
Arcade Fire
Scott Rogers, Merge Records
David Viecelli, The Billions Corp.
MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR (SECONDARY MARKET)
Paul Morris
HTZ FM, St. Catherines
MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR (MAJOR MARKET)
Chris ‘Dunner’ Duncombe
CFOX 99.3, The Fox, Vacouver
PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR (SECONDARY MARKET)
Bruce Gilbert
HTZ FM, St. Catherines
PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR (MAJOR MARKET)
Alan Cross
102.1 The Edge, Toronto
ON-AIR TALENT OF THE YEAR
Roger, Rick & Marilyn
104.5 CHUM-FM, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (SECONDARY MARKET)
FM 96, London
STATION OF THE YEAR (COUNTRY)
JR-FM 93.7, Vancouver
STATION OF THE YEAR (CHR)
Z103.5, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (HOT AC)
104.5 CHUM-FM, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (MAINSTREAM AC)
97.3-FM EZ Rock, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (ROCK)
102.1 The Edge, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (CLASSICAL/GOLD)
Q107, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (MULTICULTURAL)
CHIN AM/FM, Toronto
STATION OF THE YEAR (NEWS/TALK/SPORTS)
680 News, Toronto
“THE MASSEY HALL” PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE OF THE YEAR
Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver
“THE AIR CANADA CENTRE” MAJOR FACILITY OF THE YEAR
Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto
SPECIALTY VENUE OF THE YEAR
Niagara Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls
MANAGEMENT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Nettwerk Management
BOOKING AGENCY OF THE YEAR
The Agency Group
PROMOTOR OF THE YEAR
House of Blues
Rogers Wireless Canadian Music Week is Canada’s largest annual
entertainment event dedicated to the _expression and growth of the country’s
music, media and entertainment industries. Combining two information-intensive
conferences; a cutting-edge trade exposition; five awards shows and the Rogers
Wireless Canadian Music Week Festival, CMW spans a four-day period from March 1
to March 4, 2006 at the Fairmont Royal York and various downtown Toronto
venues, attracting participants from across the globe.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Hawthorne Heights Makes MySpace Its Own
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Washington Post
(Mar. 4, 2006) For a guy who sings about being
so wretchedly lonely that he's fallen into "a self-inflicted coma,"
J.T. Woodruff sure does have a lot
of friends. Roughly 350,000 of them, in fact, on MySpace, the teen-centric
website where word-of-mouth buzz helped turn Woodruff's scrappy little pop-punk
band, Hawthorne Heights, into a relatively ginormous success. Going about
their business without much initial mainstream support, Hawthorne Heights became underground
stars in 2004 mainly through incessant touring and the drumbeating done by
their vast network of MySpace friends. Then the masses caught on, and sales of
the band's debut, The Silence in Black and White, pushed past the
750,000 mark. In this era of evaporating album sales, that's a terrific figure
for an act on an independent label. (Victory Records signed Hawthorne Heights
on the basis of an unsolicited demo.) Now the Ohio quintet is attempting to
one-up itself with If Only You Were Lonely. Not only is the new album
expected to enter the Billboard chart at or very near the top slot, but it's
also destined to become the soundtrack to our lives ... assuming we're all
angsty high school freshmen who have a nakedly emotional view of romance and
rejection. Listening to a Hawthorne Heights song feels almost like
snooping on some 15-year-old's instant-message conversation, albeit one that's
set to an aggressive triple-guitar attack. Never mind the group's members are
well into their 20s; their dramatic, heart-on-sleeve lyrics about
relationship-related anxieties and confusion are the stuff of adolescence (not
to mention triteness). Typically, Woodruff's sensitive-guy lyrics are
presented in a screamo, post-hard-core frame — all soft-LOUD dynamics in which
the layered guitars shift from gentle strumming to roaring punk and metal
riffage without warning. Including, of course, guitarist Casey Calvert's
bloodcurdling vocal howls; in fact, on "Cross Me Off Your List,"
Calvert manages to shriek so loudly and wildly that he sounds like he's being
sacrificed.
India.Arie: New Album Coming May 9
Source: Amina
Elshahawi, ThinkTank Marketing, amina@thinktankmktg.com, http://www.thinktankmktg.com
(March 3, 2006) Nominated 11
times for Grammys within two short years, India.Arie came onto the
national music scene in 2001 with her Motown
Records debut Acoustic Soul and then followed up in 2002 with her sophomore CD
Voyage To India. Both CDs have sold over 6 million copies worldwide and have
helped Ms. Arie garner numerous awards including 2 Grammys and 3 NAACP Image
Awards, along with awards from BET, Billboard Music, Radio Music, MTV, VH1
Vogue Fashion, Essence Magazine and others. She has received critical
acclaim from USA Today to VIBE Magazine, Entertainment Weekly to People
Magazine. A voice heard by women around the world, Oprah Winfrey acknowledged
her popularity on national television by thanking her for writing the song
“Video” saying- “We (women) needed this song-thank you for writing this song.”
New York Times says "Ms. Arie's music only further enhances her
reputation as an artist of substance; centering on her acoustic guitar and
confident but restrained vocals, it recalls such soul masters as Stevie Wonder
and Roberta Flack." In between touring and writing music, India.Arie
finds the time to help promote things close to her heart- UNICEF and KENWA
(Kenya Network of Women With AIDS) being two of them. Her recent performances
have included MusicCares Salute to James Taylor where she performed alongside
Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby and others, and at the televised
2006 Superbowl Pre-show where she performed with Stevie Wonder and John
Legend. An animated India.Arie appeared last year on Blues Clues’
BluesStock and she will be performing a duet with Aaron Neville at the 2006
NAACP Image Awards (where she is nominated for yet another award-Outstanding
Female Artist). She recently co-wrote a song with Stevie Wonder, the title
track for his new album A Time for Love. The song was nominated for a 2006
Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration -making it Ms. Arie’s 12th
nomination to date. India.Arie plans to release her third album, Testimony:
Vol. 1, Life & Relationship in May 2006.
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Congolese Band Shows Off Its Many Moves
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Emily Wax, Special To The Star and Washington Post
(Mar. 4, 2006) NAIROBI,
Kenya—Under a rotating disco ball and steps from a clay pot sitting on fake
flames, Congolese crooner Prince Fisecoze
slams down a couple of shots of sambuca bar-side at the ritzy Club Afrique, the
latest addition to Nairobi's otherwise edgy nightclub scene. Hoping to
court some loyal fans, he flashes a business card to well-dressed patrons
filing in around 10 p.m. Printed in a hodgepodge of fonts, the card proclaims —
in bold — that Prince Fisecoze Ikalaba M. Wembadio is president of Rumba Japan,
an "international band with 6,600 dancing styles." Minutes
later, next to a babbling brook-and-waterfall installation, Prince sprays on
some Paco Rabanne cologne for confidence. He smooths his wrinkled outfit,
business attire from the waist down, Halloween party from the waist up: orange
soccer shirt under a blue dinner jacket featuring an embroidered pumpkin on the
lapel, a scarecrow on the back. As the crowd starts looking toward the
stage around 10:30, Prince huddles with the 20 members of his band for a pep
talk: They'll try to run through at least a thousand of their 6,600 dance
moves, the band's zany claim to fame as advertised in newspapers and on
posters. "You can take a dance from anything in life," Prince
boasts, displaying his latest invention, "dancing like someone who is
dressed smart and doesn't want to get sweaty." He stiffens his back,
lifts his chin and adjusts his imaginary tie to display the move.
"Never remove your eyes from the stage, ever," he tells some
clubgoers. "You'll see every style we've mastered."
The wiry and dreadlocked lead guitarist, Gabrielle Nfianfia-Lubanzadio,
27, saunters over to the group. The left side of his face is shaved smooth. The
right side has a perfectly groomed, well, half-beard. Why? "I love
funny," he says in French-accented English from behind huge bug-shaped
sunglasses studded with rhinestones. Among his favourite dance moves:
smoothing his hair and pretend-shaving. The band's style is known as
Lingala, a big-band polyrhythmic style of African zydeco with Cuban flair that
originated in Congo. Lingala dance moves range from the mimicry of the mundane
— brushing teeth and eating — to overwrought displays of spirituality such as
praying for spirits to come down from heaven. For the most part, if
Lingala music had an underlying message, it would be, "Stop thinking.
Dance.'' And with good reason. Congolese have suffered through years of
dictatorship and war. For them, finding humour is a way of coping. So by
10:45 p.m., Rumba Japan unfurls a Japanese flag on stage — the band's name
comes from Rumba, slang for Lingala music, and Japan, actually a French acronym
for a phrase that in English pretty much means: "Young artists loved by
all in all categories, young and old.'' "It's a very funny
name," Prince says. His songs are largely about his girlfriend and
his admiration of poultry. "The chicken is an important bird, waking up man
every morning," he says, just before climbing onto the stage.
Club Afrique is one of his favourite venues, because the club, like his
band, is a mélange of madcap styles. It has 1970s disco glitz — mirrored
columns, lipstick-red trim and multicoloured light screens. Many of the rooms
have African themes, including Sahara nomad and Lake Victoria village life. Two
freezing air-conditioned rooms are for VIPs and "semi-VIPs." At
10:50 p.m., Prince and three other singers step up to their microphones. The
drummer starts up on the snare. The dancers burst onto the stage. The bongo
player blows a whistle, like a drill instructor. Dozens of couples shimmy
onto the dance floor. Some start slowly, almost shyly, then submit to the
music. Hips are gyrating. Shoulders are shaking. "This place is
heaven on earth," coos Margaret W. Gitow, 24, as she glides by in a
backless red polka-dot shirt and skintight white pants. The dancers and
band members on stage are hard at work displaying some of their 6,600 moves: Drinking
Shots. Telephone Switchboard. Chicken Walk. Pounding Corn. Shoveling Dirt. One
of the dancers bends over to tie her shoe, but it's unclear whether that's an
actual dance move. The show climaxes at 1 a.m. with Congo Man, a dancer
with bleached-white hair and a fur coat over a net shirt, Madonna-style, circa
1980s. He appears like a zombie set in motion by a supernatural force, twisting
his body into weird shapes, spinning on his heels, punching the air and
sometimes eating lit cigarettes. "It's so funny," says Gitow,
raising her arms above her head and shaking her hands to the beat. "I feel
so free when I dance to Congolese.''
New Brunswick-Born Soprano Measha Brueggergosman
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(Mar. 6, 2006) There's a special joy in seeing a deserving person
arrive. For the last six or seven years, New Brunswick-born soprano Measha
Brueggergosman has been a young singer with
much promise. She was someone with a brilliant but still-maturing voice who, if
she studied with the right people and tackled the right repertoire, would one
day find herself a full-fledged diva. That day has come. It is safe
to say that, after yesterday's recital at Roy Thomson Hall, Measha
Brueggergosman can now officially be classified as one of the great young
sopranos of our time. And our pleasure at seeing and hearing her sing was
matched with her obvious delight at being able to share her art and artistry
with us. In the company of veteran British piano accompanist Roger
Vignoles, Brueggergosman tackled a tried-and-true art-song program that reminds
one of former divas such as Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman. After
breezing smoothly though French mélodies by Reynaldo Hahn, Hector
Berlioz and Ernest Chausson, Brueggergosman visited Germany with Lieder
by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. She then capped the afternoon with three
rousing spirituals that brought the house down. The well-thought-out arc
of the program created a perfect emotional crescendo. It started smooth
and restrained for the French music. The last song, "Chanson
perpétuelle" by Chausson, also included the Toronto Symphony Quartet
(symphony concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch, first violin Paul Meyer,
principal viola Teng Li and principal cello Winona Zelenka).
This sublime piece was a high point, until Brueggergosman came back after
the intermission with the emotional power of selections from Wolf's Spanisches
Liederbuch and three Strauss chestnuts, including
"Cäcilie." Then all heaven broke loose for "Ride on King
Jesus," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and
"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Throughout the
recital, Brueggergosman showed off her now-mature, powerful and flexible voice.
She has particularly rich lower and middle registers. While her topmost notes
are noticeably thinner, they lack nothing in power. And the soprano
demonstrated great artistry, whether it was shaping individual notes, or giving
a pleasing arc to musical phrases. She also has a warm, engaging stage presence
that was enhanced by a very diva-like strapless gown with several metres of
plum tulle spilling out from the bottom of the skirt. In a nutshell,
Brueggergosman had all of Roy Thomson Hall in her hands. She has arrived.
Field Mob Readies New Album
Source: Kim
Trick / Room Service Productions / kim@roomserviceinc.net
(Mar. 7, 2006) Field Mob are back and preparing for
the release of their latest album, Light Poles and Pine Trees on Disturbing Tha
Peace/Geffen Records. Click on the links below to hear their new single “So
What”
featuring Ciara. “So What” comes on the heels of Field Mob’s hit
single “Georgia” with Ludacris and is produced by Jazze Pha. It’s still
real with the Field y’all, two slept-on albums, too many bad record deals and
one still-going rumour about them splitting up, Shawn Jay and Smoke still need
you to know that, feel that, and see that with the release of Field Mob’s third
album Light Poles and Pine Trees on Disturbing Tha Peace/Geffen Records. Shawn
Jay and Smoke have always thought the third time would be the charm. Now
they’re banking on it with the release of their 3rd CD, Light Poles and Pine
Trees on Disturbing Tha Peace/Geffen Records. Featuring sure-fire hits,
all-star collaborations and too-true lyrics, the group’s release illustrates
why Field Mob’s Smoke (Darion Crawford) and Shawn Jay (Shawn Johnson) are
credited for adding fuel to the current Southern Hip-Hop explosion. Look no
further than Ludacris, Bun B, Bone Crusher, Bobby Valentino and Jazze Pha as
just a few of the heavyweights co-signing for these Albany, Georgia natives.
The rappers formerly known as Boondox and Kalage are back – delivering more
ghetto tales and good times! It should come as no surprise that Field
Mob’s highly anticipated third album is stacked with so many celebs. Their
debut, 613: From Ashy to Classy, was hailed by hip-hop critics as one of the
best albums of 2001. The follow-up, From Tha Roota To Tha Toota, includes the
breakout hit “Sick of Being Lonely,” which struck a chord with hip-hop heads
from the east to the west and all in between. Field Mob’s underground
classic, “Georgia” has created a buzz at radio comparable to the din of a
million gnats in your ear. “Georgia,” powered by the hook from another great
Georgia native, Ray Charles, is a historical collaboration with their new
Disturbing Tha Peace family member, Ludacris. "We've been trying to do
'Georgia' since our first CD," Shawn Jay points out. "But we could
never get the beat for it. We never had the means to actually put it together.
Now, years later, after all we've been through, we ended up getting with the
one person that could make it happen, Ludacris."
On the heels of “Georgia,” Field Mob dropped their first official single
"Friday Night," a swirling, funky roller skating jam crafted by one
of their main beat-makers, producer Kenjo. "Oh, we have fun," Shawn
Jay assures. "Me and Smoke have been through what we've been through, and
done our dirt. But everything's got a place. And we still like to have a good
time. Besides, people don't want to see you just trying to be hard all the
time, mean mugging. I really want to ask some of these millionaires why they
are on TV mean mugging and mad. And they're millionaires!" "There's
nothing really deep about ‘Friday Night,’” continues Smoke, a.k.a. Chevy
Pendergrass. “It's just about hanging out and having a good time, and that
leads to our other song, 'D.U.I.'” On this particular rumbling 808 specialty,
Field Mob and guest Bun B guzzle shots as well as Ernest Hemingway. Everybody
in the club is getting tipsy, and as you might expect, when they hit the road,
they sweeerrrve to the left and then sweeerrrve to the right. After all, as
Smoke likes to put it, they don't drink. They drown. "Get this straight though,"
Shawn Jay is quick to clarify. "We're not trying to influence people to
get DUIs, or say that DUIs are cool. But it is something that people do. A
situation people get in. And we put it out there." Shawn Jay and Smoke are
the poster boys for putting it out there. Just like they do on "Blacker
the Berry," Smoke lays his soul bare in this skin tale. "It's
basically a story about when I was young and the things I went through being
dark skinned and picked on. And it came out black and beautiful." On “Deep
Tonight,” the duo reintroduces the Mob side of Field Mob while ATL’s finest,
Bone Crusher, lays a smack down on this track. "Again, true stories,"
Smoke begins. "I was coming to the club all by myself. But it got to the
point when I came by myself, them folks tried to beat me up. I didn't have any
back-up. I was vulnerable. But I had something for them the next time, like
'Yeah I came in here by myself, but this weekend I'm coming deeper than a
skinny girl's coochie. This weekend, don't try me." There are more heaters
to come out the barrel by producer Kenjo such as the roll-out smash “My
Wheels,” adding just the right sound to an already phenomenal CD. “We’re
talking about cars, partying, rims, trucks and just the whole Southern
lifestyle,” Shawn J relays. “Again, where I’m from in Albany, Georgia, we put
truck wheels on old school Chevy’s. We really wanted to show people that
side.”
After producing the 2002 "Sick of Being Lonely,” Jazze Pha returns
to bless the duo with "So What" which includes Ciara, the Princess of
Crunk and R&B. “Pistol Grip,” on the other hand, includes another
Disturbing Tha Peace family member, Bobby Valentino who smoothes things out on
"Sorry Baby." "Every rapper's got this girl that wants to lock
him down. Keep him down. Keep him home," Smoke squirms. "But you
know, we've got places to go, people to see, things to do and you can't lock me
down... Of course, Bobby makes it all go down a little easier.” After listening
to their album and getting to know the Mob and where they’re from, the album
title becomes a no-brainer. "The name of the album is Light Poles and Pine
Trees because there ain’t no skyline where we're from," states Shawn J.
"There's no arch like in St. Louis or palm trees like California," continues
Smoke. "You look up and that's what you see in Albany." That’s
Albany, Geor-giaaa. Looking to redirect the Southern spotlight their way, Field
Mob is certain they’re delivering the hits to do just that. Having paid just as
many dues and shown just as much heart as other Southern rap stars, Smoke and
Shawn J reaffirm their status as pioneers of the Southern sound with Light
Poles and Pine Trees. "I feel like we're the most posturpedic group in the
industry right now," declares Shawn J. "Meaning, we're the most
slept-on artists. Other artists know that if we finally get a little bit of
light, it’s over.”
Mark Whitfield & Panther Create ‘Alternative Soul’ Music
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By
Kenya Yarbrough / MYfeedback@eurweb.com
(Mar. 8, 2006) *Jazz guitarist Mark
Whitfield may be considered a
veteran of traditional jazz guitarist licks, but the six-string strummer has
introduced an innovative sound to the genre. Whitfield is one of the world’s
most respected jazz guitarists, but apparently 15 years of awing jazz fans is
just the beginning. The trained musician, who has built a major
following, has now shed some of his jazz conventionality and amassed a quintet
of up-and-coming jazz stars who have no fear of walking on the edge of music
genres. They are Panther and the self-titled new disc is musically ferocious.
What would cause a well-renowned, well respected jazz idol to tamper with a
successful formula of energized yet traditional jazzy fretwork? Would you
believe, a slight case of tedium after 15 years of stardom? “I made my
first record in 1990 for Warner Bros. called ‘The Marksmen,’” Whitfield reminisced.
“I’ve been recording ever since.” The guitarist had been considered a pretty
accomplished bassist by age 10, and was recruited by Berklee College of Music
before he was even halfway done with high school. “I then started
touring with Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, people like that, right out of
school.” In the beginning, perhaps it was nurture? After all, Whitfield grew up
in a house of jazz. “My parents are huge jazz fans. So when I was six,
seven years old, they were taking me to concerts in the early 70s. I got to see
the Duke Ellington Orchestra with Duke leading the orchestra; I saw Count Basie
lead his ensemble; I saw Ella Fitzgerald. I had the benefit of seeing a lot of
great music. There are no other musicians in my family, but a lot of great
appreciators of music,” he said. Or perhaps it was nature. “I
started playing instruments as a hobby and I found that I had a knack for
picking up instruments quickly,” Whitfield asserted. “One thing led to the next
and I ended up at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and that was the
beginning of everything.”
Whitfield considered George Benson his childhood hero, and met the jazz
guitarist great when he graduated from Berklee and was fortunate to be in his
tutelage. “He opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities,” Whitfield
said, in addition to the fact the Benson led him to a recording contract with
Warner Bros. But, the shooting star didn’t really have his eyes set on anything
greater than becoming a working jazz guitarist. “I just thought I’d work and
keep developing into something I could do for the rest of my life. I may have
to live modestly, but I would enjoy it and it would be spiritually fulfilling.
Then I got married and had a couple of kids and all of a sudden spiritually
fulfilling became something else,” he joked. “I sold some records, and did
pretty well and enjoyed a pretty good run of industry success with
straight-ahead acoustic jazz music. By that time I’d been doing it almost 15
years, and I was ready for a change. I think that’s what happens to every
creative musician after a while. I mean, just because you have a fan base
and people really dig what you’re doing, doesn’t mean you don’t get bored,” His
creativity was sparked by some very avant-garde musicians. He spent time with
Herbie Hancock and hung out with Miles Davis and witnessed the energy these
legends put into their newer music. “I mean, how long do you really expect
Miles Davis to play ‘My Funny Valentine?’ He had been playing it for 25 years.
The man wanted to play something else. I began to understand that. His model
certainly served as an inspiration for me. I started looking for ways to bridge
the gap between what I was playing – what I’d been studying – and what was
happening around me,” Whitfield explained.
Enter Panther. “Panther is the newest thing. It’s CD release number 13, for me.
I made three for Warner, five for Polygram under the Verve label, a couple for Herbie
Hancock’s label, a couple for an independent label in Japan. Most of my records
have been straight ahead, traditional jazz records. Along the way I’ve done a
lot of real interesting side work. I played on ‘Brown Sugar’ with D’Angelo, and
‘No More Drama’ with Mary J. Blige.” But Whitfield contends that he’s always
been one of those musicians that's kept his foot in the door of a lot of other
music worlds, such as R&B, contemporary Rock ‘n Roll and progressive music.
Whitfield explained: “I’ve always tried to draw on the inspirational
qualities of other styles of music. Finally I decided it was time to roll all
of my influences together into one musical vision and put a group together that
would encompass my musical journey. The music is called ‘alternative soul.’ The
roots of the project are undeniably soul and R&B and we color it with
elements of jazz and hip-hop and that gives the project a unique voice.” That
unique voice began to develop about three years ago, and the vision of a
funk-hip jazz sound was finally realized. Whitfield brought together an
exciting group of musicians, singers, and songwriters. The five-piece ensemble
includes songwriter/keyboardist/vocalist Sy Smith (Brandy, Whitney Houston,
Usher, background singer for “American Idol”), vocalist/bassist Byron Moore
(Chaka Khan, Groove Theory), drummer Donald Edwards (Wynton and Ellis Marsalis,
Charlie Hunter, The Jazzy PhatNasties), and Jason Murden as
songwriter/vocalist/rhythm guitarist. The first single, “Always Up,” featuring
Byron Moore, was received at jazz radio with much acclaim, laced with Moore’s
vocals that echo the vibes of Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. “Panther” was
released earlier this year as the debut disc for the label Dirty Soap
Entertainment. To sample Panther's music, go here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/whitfieldpanther
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Rock Promoter Leads Belly Dance Revival
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Susan Walker, Dance Writer
(Mar. 8, 2006) It takes a real showman to make a popular spectacle, let
alone a respected art form, out of belly dancing. But Miles Copeland is nothing if not a
showman. The rock music promoter managed The
Police when it was the hottest band of its day, recorded bands like R.E.M. and The Go-Gos, saw Sting through
seven solo albums and left his mark on the careers of numerous groups in the
1970s and '80s. He knows a good new entertainment prospect when he sees it.
The son of a top-level CIA operative, Copeland, 61, spent some formative
years in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. His exposure to Arabic culture and his
appreciation of its music made him an early proponent of world music. In 2002,
looking to break open the American market to Middle Eastern music, he organized
a belly dance competition in Los Angeles to promote an album called Bellydance Breakbeats.
More than 100 dancers showed up. Copeland's entrepreneurial antennae were
up. "I thought, `My God not only do they have this grace and beauty, this
is something I'd pay to see.'" His Bellydance Superstars made their first
appearances at Lollapalooza in 2003, playing to more than half a million people
in 30 cities. Belly dancing has never had it so good. Over three years,
the 16-member American troupe has performed more than 300 shows in 16
countries, touring the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Latin America. Nearing the
end of their latest, 37-city North American tour, they will perform tonight in
the Jane Mallet Theatre of the St. Lawrence Centre. Hoping to do for
Middle Eastern dance what Riverdance did for the Irish art form,
Copeland has relied on his showbiz instincts.
"I didn't know squat about music; I couldn't tell a C chord from a D
chord. But just as you know a good song when you hear one, it's the same with a
dancer," he says on the phone from his L.A. office. Copeland has
single-handedly changed the image of the belly dancer with a show that
emphasizes artistry and the fusion of Middle Eastern styles with other forms,
from Polynesian to Latin dance, to give belly dancing a contemporary look and
create a show that doesn't look out of place in a concert venue. Artistic
director and choreographer Jillina danced hip-hop and jazz before starting in belly
dance 14 years ago. The Superstars show, says Jillina, speaking on a cellphone
from the tour bus, has a role in educating people about the dance form. "A
lot of people in the West think it's like a hootchy-kootchy dance because
there's a lot of hip and torso movement, but it's a cultural dance."
Cuban-born Bozenka, who began dance lessons as a child in Miami, says an
element of the show's success comes from the blending of different styles that
each dancer brings to it. "My style is Egyptian mixed with Turkish and
Lebanese. One (performer) has fused Egyptian with modern dance. There's one
dancer in the show who mixes her training in gymnastics with belly
dancing." Purists might disagree with their interpretations, but
such criticism doesn't concern Copeland. The fusion of styles is what excites
him, and what led to his success in the music world with artists who meld
different sounds. "Pure anything, that's boring to me."
MUSIC TIDBITS
T.O. Fans To Film Coldplay Concert
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star - Amy Pataki
(Mar. 4, 2006) NEW YORK—Coldplay will film its March
22-23 gigs at
Toronto's Air Canada Centre for potential use in an upcoming DVD. Taking a page
from the Beastie Boys, who drafted fans to shoot footage for their upcoming
movie Awesome: I F-----g Shot That, Coldplay is launching a contest to
find five fans to handle the same duties. Beginning Monday, Canadian fans
can enter the sweepstakes by watching Entertainment Tonight Canada and
then logging onto Global TV's website. Winners will take home a digital video
camera that they will use to film the March 22 show. The footage will then be
eligible for inclusion on the Coldplay DVD, a release date for which has not
been announced. The band is in the midst of a North American tour.
International dates begin June 23 in Brisbane, Australia, and will run through
July 18-19 in Tokyo. Afterward, Coldplay plans to get busy right away working
on new material. Meanwhile, next month will bring the release of
"The Hardest Part", the fourth single from the band's 2005 album X&Y.
Current single "Talk" is No. 13 this week on Billboard's Modern Rock
chart.
Mariah Carey Wins Big At Soul Train Awards
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 6, 2006) *Mariah Carey adds two more awards to her extensive collection of bling for
2005’s “The Emancipation of Mimi” album. On
Saturday, the singer picked up a best album statue and best single honours for
“We Belong Together” at the 20th Annual Soul Train
Music Awards, held at the Pasadena Civic
Auditorium outside of Los Angeles. "This has been the biggest and most
successful year of my life," said Carey, who returned to the music scene
last year following a successful run during most of the 1990s. While R. Kelly
failed to win any of his show-leading three nominations, Kanye West won the
award for best R&B-soul or rap music video for "Gold Digger,"
featuring Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx; and John Legend beat Kelly in the
category of best male single. Sixteen-year-old Chris Brown, who earned best new
rap artist for his single “Run It,” put things in perspective, stating:
"Just last year I was just at home trying to balance my school work and
basketball practice.” The Quincy Jones Award for Outstanding Career Achievement
Male and Female went to Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and Destiny’s Child,
respectively. Foxx said Jones had given him advice to view a musical career as
a marathon, not a sprint. “‘You've got another 50 years to go,’” Foxx
said Jones told him. Destiny's Child also won best group single for "Cater
2 U." Meanwhile, an award was named in honour of the legendary Stevie
Wonder, and a bronze statue of the Motown great was unveiled before the
ceremony. "I saw the sculpture and it looks really great," Wonder
joked at the occasion. The entertainer was on hand to deliver the show’s
first-ever Stevie Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award to R. Kelly. The Chicago
crooner, who said he had grown up listening to Wonder's music, accepted the
award doing an impersonation of Wonder – imitating his voice and rolling his
head from side to side. The move drew laughs from the audience. In
accepting Soul Train’s Sammy Davis Jr. Award for Entertainer of the Year, John
Legend said, "I'm truly humbled that you chose me for this."
The Soul Train Music Awards, hosted by Vivica A. Fox and Tyrese Gibson, will
air in syndication beginning March 11.
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Springsteen Honours Seeger In First Cover Album
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Mar. 5, 2006) Los Angeles -- Pete Seeger will have an
extra gift when he celebrates his birthday this spring: a new album by Bruce
Springsteen that was inspired by the folk-music legend. We Shall
Overcome/The Seeger Sessions is scheduled for release April 25, Columbia
Records announced Thursday. Seeger, the dean of American folk singers, turns 87
on May 3. The album will feature Springsteen's interpretations of 13
traditional folk songs that have been associated for decades with Seeger. Among
them are Jesse James, John Henry, Shenandoah and the civil-rights anthem
We Shall Overcome. The rocker said it shouldn't come as a surprise that
he chose folk music for his first album of cover songs. Much of his own
writing, he said, "comes straight out of the folk tradition." AP
Toni Braxton Shaping Up For Tour
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(March 2, 2006) *Toni Braxton, who launches her first tour in more
than six
years March 10 in Atlantic City, N.J., says it’s an uphill battle trying to
maintain good health with a 4-year-old and 2-year-old running around the
house. The Maryland-born singer was diagnosed with pericarditis two years
ago after collapsing backstage on Broadway, where she was starring in the
musical “Aida.” The condition, which causes the membrane covering the outer
surface of the heart to become inflamed, left her immune system vulnerable to
infections. "My body had to build up immunity again," says
Braxton, who has a regular walking routing and is the spokesperson for the
American Heart Association's Red Dress campaign. "I have to take
anti-inflammatories. If I catch a cold, I have to take antibiotics right
away." Her two sons, she says, will travel with her on
tour. "We never let more than a week and a half or two go by
without being together, and that only in extreme situations," said the
singer, who married Mint Condition keyboardist Keri Lewis in 2001. Braxton says
her six-week tour in support of "Libra" (Blackground/Universal) will
be "like a workshop for me, playing smaller venues, theatres. I'm getting
comfortable, getting my chops wet again. It's a lot of work. It's like starting
all over again. Except, in the beginning, you have nothing to lose. Now, I
could have everything to lose -- or everything to gain. That's OK. I can gamble
on myself."
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Ne-Yo’s ‘Sick’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(March 2, 2006) *Ne-Yo’s hit single “So Sick,” which became the most downloaded song this
week on the online music store iTunes, was written as an ode to his first
girlfriend. The singer, born Shaffer Smith, penned the song after his girl found out that he had cheated. He
tells MTV: "It's about the first girl I ever fell in love with and the way
that I completely screwed that up by letting my friends convince me to cheat on
her. It was a bad, bad thing. I was real messed up about it for a real long,
long time, so actually writing that song was very therapeutic for me."
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Bounty Killer Scores His First Number One Song In Jamaica In Two
Years
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Kevin
Jackson
(March 2, 2006) *Throughout his fifteen year career, deejay Bounty Killer has decorated the local
and overseas music charts with multiple hits.
Among his most treasured chart nuggets are Gal Can’t Tek You Man, Gal, More
Gal, Living Dangerously (with Barrington Levy), Maniac (with Richie Stephens),
Eagle and the Hawk, Another Level (with Baby Cham), Benz and Bimma, Warlord
Walk, and most recently Its Okay. He even scored a handful of hits on the
Billboard charts including the No Doubt collaboration Hey Baby which picked up
a Grammy Award. Bounty’s chart status have been further heightened with his
latest number one hit Gangster Love which is featured prominently on radio jock
Wayne ‘DJ Wayne’ Morris’ Istanbul rhythm. Gangster Love which was written
by one of the brothers from the Twin of Twinz duo is the new number one song on
the MiPhone Mega Jamz Reggae chart. The song is presently top 10 on the BBC 1Xtra
Dancehall chart in London. Gangster Love is the first number one hit on any
chart in Jamaica for Bounty, since Raging Storm from Stephen ‘Lenky’ Marsden’s
Masterpiece rhythm hit number one on the local charts in late 2002 into 2003.
Cohen's Ex-Manager Ordered To Pay $9.5
Million
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
(Mar. 3, 2006) Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen may never see $9.5
million a court ordered his former business manager to pay after she
failed to respond to allegations of stealing from his retirement savings,
Cohen's attorney said yesterday (March 2). A California Superior Court
judge granted Cohen, 71, the default judgment Monday against Kelley Lynch in
response to a lawsuit alleging she siphoned $5 million from the musician's
personal accounts and investments. By late 2004, the suit alleges, his nest egg
was reduced to about $150,000. Cohen, known for such reflective songs as
"Suzanne," may never be able to collect, according to his attorney,
Scott Edelman. "She's hard to get in touch with. I don't know where
she lives now, and I don't have a phone number for her," Edelman said.
"We don't know what she did with the money ... But she knows what's going
on because she leaves me phone messages at all hours." Lynch could not be
located for comment. Edelman said Lynch, who worked for Cohen for 17
years until he fired her, also refused to return photographs, records and
memorabilia, even after a court order. "We went into her home four months
ago with a sheriff and a moving truck to get his stuff," the lawyer said.
Another defendant in the suit, tax professor and lawyer Richard Westin,
reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen on Feb. 13, details of which were
not revealed. Lynch allegedly hired Westin to help defraud Cohen.
Westin's attorney did not immediately return calls for comment.
"Leonard is sad that this whole thing took place, but glad that this
leg of the litigation is completed," Edelman said. "He would prefer
to spend his time on his creative endeavours."
We Remember Ali Farka Toure
Source: Almahady Cissé, Associated
Press
(Mar. 7, 2006) Bamako, Mali — Two-time Grammy Award winner Ali
Farka Touré, one of Africa's most famous performers, died Tuesday in his
native Mali after a long illness. He was in his late 60s. Mali's Culture
Ministry said Mr. Touré died at his home in the capital, Bamako, after a long
struggle with an unidentified illness. He was known to be battling cancer.
Across this deeply impoverished west African nation, people mourned Mr. Touré's
passing, and radio stations suspended regular programming and instead broadcast
his signature lilting sounds. Mr. Touré, one of the original progenitors of a
genre known as Mail Blues, first played a traditional Malian one-stringed
instrument called the gurkel. He was best-known overseas for his 1995
collaboration with U.S. guitarist Ry Cooder on Talking Timbuktu, which
netted him his first of two Grammys. He won another Grammy this year in the
traditional world music album category for his In the Heart of the Moon
album, performed with fellow Malian Toumani Diabate. Mr. Touré was born in 1939
in the northern Sahara trading post of Timbuktu. Like many Africans of his
generation, the exact date of his birth was not recorded. He learned the gurkel
at an early age, later also taking up the guitar. He cited many Western
musicians for inspiration, including Ray Charles, Otis Redding and John Lee
Hooker. He once said in an interview that his songs examined education, work,
love and society, according to the Web site allmusic.com.
He released at least 10 albums and toured often in North America and Europe.
Mr. Touré spent much of his older age in his childhood town of Niafunke, which
has become a pilgrimage spot for many music-loving Africans and tourists.
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We Remember Ali Farka Toure
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 8, 2006) *Grammy award-winning African musician Ali Farka Toure, known as one of the
originators of a genre known as Mali Blues, died Tuesday in his native Mali
after a long unidentified illness. He was in his late 60s. Toure was best-known
outside of Africa for his 1995 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder
on "Talking Timbuktu," which earned him his first of two Grammys. He won
another Grammy this year in the traditional world music album category for his
"In the Heart of the Moon" album, performed with fellow Malian
Toumani Diabate.
::FILM NEWS::
2006 Academy Awards Preview: The Great Canadian Oscar Quiz
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Stuart Foxman, Special To The Globe And Mail
DO YOU KNOW YOUR NORTHERN STARS? Ever
since Louis B. Mayer -- raised in Saint John -- spearheaded the formation of
the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, Canada has had a connection with the
Oscars. This year, Paul Haggis of London, Ont., is nominated for best director
and best original screenplay for Crash. Will he take Oscar gold? Tune in
tomorrow. In the meantime, try your hand at this Canadian-themed Oscar
quiz. (Note: All dates refer to the year of the award presentations, not
the year of the film's release.)
1. Which one of these Canadian directors has never been nominated for best
director?
A. Norman Jewison
B. Atom Egoyan
C. David Cronenberg
D. James Cameron
2. Oscar front-runner Brokeback Mountain, though set mainly in Wyoming,
was filmed in Alberta. Which two of these best-picture winners were also shot
in Canada?
A. Dances with Wolves
B. Unforgiven
C. The English Patient
D. Chicago
E. A Beautiful Mind
3. Which former Saturday Night Live star has received an acting
nomination?
A. Dan Aykroyd
B. Mike Myers
C. Martin Short
4. Which best-supporting-actress winner from the 1990s was born in Canada?
A. Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny, 1993
B. Anna Paquin, The Piano, 1994
C. Dianne Wiest, Bullets over Broadway, 1995
5. Which of these Canadian authors has received a best-screenplay nomination?
A. Margaret Atwood
B. Pierre Berton
C. Michael Ondaatje
D. Mordecai Richler
6. Three of the first four best-actress winners were Canadian. Who was the only
American to win in that span?
A. Norma Shearer
B. Janet Gaynor
C. Mary Pickford
D. Marie Dressler
7. Which of these Genie Award-winning films were not also nominated for an
Oscar?
A. Jesus of Montreal
B. Decline of the American Empire
C. The Barbarian Invasions
D. Dead Ringers
E. The Triplets of Belleville
8. Which Canadian figure was denounced in the lyrics of Blame Canada,
nominated for best song at the 2000 Academy Awards?
A. "With all their hockey hullabaloo/and that bitch Anne Murray too"
B. "Brian Mulroney/you're full of baloney"
C. "Wayne Gretzky, go puck yourself"
D. "Hey, hey Celine Dion/stop singing your crappy songs"
9. Several members of the same families have been nominated for or won Oscars
over the years. Which of these famous Oscar families has a Canadian-born
member?
A. Barrymore (John, Lionel, Ethel)
B. Redgrave (Michael, Lynn, Vanessa)
C. Huston (Walter, John, Anjelica)
D. Fonda (Henry, Jane, Peter)
10. Which of these Oscar-winners doesn't belong on this list?
A. Shirley Temple
B. Charlie Chaplin
C. National Film Board
D. Clark Gable
E. Groucho Marx
11. In 1947, Harold Russell of Nova Scotia became the only actor to receive two
Oscars for the same performance. How?
A. The original Oscar was stolen backstage, so he was given a replacement
B. One Oscar was in a competitive category, the other was honorary.
C. He won for best actor and best supporting actor.
D. He played twins.
12. At the 1994 awards, Bruce Springsteen won best song for Streets of
Philadelphia. Which Canadian music legend was up in the same category for Philadelphia,
from the movie of the same name?
A. Gordon Lightfoot
B. Bryan Adams
C. Neil Young
D. Leonard Cohen
E. Joni Mitchell
13. Which famous Hollywood executive was married to a Canadian best-actress
winner?
A. Daryl Zanuck
B. Irving Thalberg
C. Samuel Goldwyn
D. Jack Warner
14. Which documentary-feature winner was co-produced by Michael Donovan of
Halifax-based Salter Street Films?
A. Bowling for Columbine
B. Hoop Dreams
C. Super Size Me
D. Spellbound
15. Toronto's Raymond Massey, brother of Vincent Massey, the first
Canadian-born Governor-General, was nominated for best actor in 1941 for
playing which American political icon?
A. George Washington
B. Benjamin Franklin
C. Abe Lincoln
D. Thomas Jefferson
16. This Edmonton-born director of TV shows such as Perry Mason, Gunsmoke
and Route 66 was honoured at the 2002 Oscars.
A. Ted Kotcheff
B. Donald Brittain
C. Budge Crawley
D. Arthur Hiller
17. When James Cameron, originally of Kapuskasing, Ont., won best director for Titanic
in 1998, he announced from the podium, "I'm king of the world!" Titanic
was an Oscar king, with 11 wins, tied for the most ever with what movie?
A. Ben-Hur
B. West Side Story
C. Gigi
D. The Last Emperor
18. Through his Participant Productions, Montreal-born Jeff Skoll had a hand in
financing three Oscar-nominated movies this year -- Good Night, and Good
Luck, Syriana and North Country. In what Internet venture did
Skoll make his fortune?
A. Google
B. eBay
C. Yahoo
D. Expedia
19. Chief Dan George, born on B.C.'s Burrard Reserve, and Graham Greene, born
on Ontario's Six Nations Reserve, were nominated for best supporting actor 20
years apart -- George in 1971 for Little Big Man, and Greene in 1991 for
Dances with Wolves. On what Canadian TV production did they each appear?
A. King of Kensington
B. The Friendly Giant
C. The Beachcombers
D. Wayne and Shuster
20. In 1995, Roger Avary, born in Flin Flon, Man., shared the best original
screenplay award for this "indie" classic, featuring characters named
Vincent, Jules and Honey Bunny:
A. Sex, Lies, and Videotape
B. Four Weddings and a Funeral
C. The Usual Suspects
D. Pulp Fiction
ANSWERS
1. C. David Cronenberg. Jewison
was nominated three times (In the Heat of the Night, 1968; Fiddler on
the Roof, 1972; Moonstruck, 1988); Egoyan was nominated once (The
Sweet Hereafter, 1998), and Cameron won in 1998 (Titanic).
2. B. Unforgiven, 1993
(shot in Alberta) and D. Chicago, 2003 (shot in Toronto).
3. A. Dan Aykroyd, for Driving
Miss Daisy, 1990.
4. B. Anna Paquin, for playing
Holly Hunter's daughter. Though she was raised in New Zealand, she was born in
1982 in Winnipeg.
5. D. Mordecai Richler, nominated
in 1975 for adapting The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
6. B. Janet Gaynor. Marie
Dressler was born in Cobourg, Ont., Norma Shearer was born in Montreal, and
Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," was born in Toronto.
7. D. Dead Ringers. Jesus
of Montreal, Decline of the American Empire and The Barbarian Invasions
(which won in 2004) were all up for best foreign-language film, and The
Triplets of Belleville was nominated for best animated feature.
8. A. Anne Murray. The song, from
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, was performed by Robin Williams on
the Oscar telecast.
9. C. Walter Huston, born in
Toronto, was best supporting actor in 1949 for The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre. Son John Huston won best director for the film, and in 1986 directed
his own daughter, Anjelica Huston, to a best supporting actress win for Prizzi's
Honor.
10. D. Clark Gable. All of the
others have won honorary Oscars, the NFB in 1989. The NFB has received more
Academy Award nominations than any entity outside of the Hollywood studios.
11. B. Harold Russell, who lost
both hands in the Second World War, was best supporting actor in The Best
Years of Our Lives, and received another Oscar for being an inspiration to
returning veterans.
12. C. Neil Young.
13. B. Irving Thalberg. The No. 2
man at MGM married Montreal's Norma Shearer in 1927, boosting her acting
career. After Thalberg died in 1936, the academy created the Irving Thalberg
Award.
14. A. Bowling for Columbine,
which won best documentary at the 2003 awards. Director Michael Moore thanked
Donovan in a controversial acceptance speech, in which he called George Bush
"a fictitious president . . . sending us to war for fictitious
reasons."
15. C. Lincoln, in the movie Abe
Lincoln in Illinois.
16. D. Arthur Hiller received the
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He directed, among others, Love Story and
The In-Laws, and was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences.
17. A. Ben-Hur won 11
Oscars at the 1960 Academy Awards. At the 2004 Academy Awards, Lord of the
Rings: Return of the King equalled the record, going 11 for 11.
18. B. eBay. In 1995, Skoll was the
first person hired by the website.
19. C. George appeared on the show
in 1972, and Greene appeared in the TV movie A Beachcombers Christmas in
2005.
20. D. Pulp Fiction. Avary
shared the award with Quentin Tarantino.
Oscar's Canadian Connection
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Mckay, Canadian Press
(Mar. 3, 2006) On Oscar
night this Sunday, it may seem on the surface
that there's not a lot of Canadian content in the films vying for that coveted
golden statue. True, Manitoba stood in for Kansas in Capote, and
those gorgeous Brokeback Mountain settings were actually in Alberta, not
Wyoming. But this year Cancon involves a lot more than just flexible
scenery, and fat government subsidies and tax breaks designed to lure Hollywood
across the border to provide work for Canadian actors and crews. Canadian
companies are getting a piece of the financial action, too. In the case
of Brokeback Mountain, American filmmaker Focus Features had to bring on
a Canadian partner to qualify for a production rebate under the terms of the
Alberta Film Development Program. That's where local company Alberta Film
Entertainment came in. As an executive producer, it was able to bring $750,000
to the production budget. That helped persuade director Ang Lee to forget about
his wish to shoot in Wyoming where the story takes place, but where there is
hardly the same kind of industry infrastructure, says AFE partner Tom
Cox. "It actually became a creative differential that (Lee) could
quantify. He was able to add some weeks to his schedule and go farther
afield," Cox explained in a telephone interview from Calgary.
"He took a chance on Alberta despite his reservations, and by the end of
the production was saying that it was the most positive production experience
of his career."
Not only did the production investment bring $9 million in spending to
the province, AFE and the province now get a share of Brokeback's
revenues. Cox said that also means further growth for the local film industry,
noting that the same deal was struck for the upcoming filmed-in-Alberta Warner
Bros. movie The Assassination of Jesse James, starring Brad Pitt.
Meanwhile, producer William Vince, a co-partner in Infinity Features, explains
that his Vancouver company provided the key bankrolling for Capote,
which was shot in and around Winnipeg. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as
Truman Capote in the story of how the celebrity writer developed a relationship
with one of the imprisoned killers of a Kansas farm family in the 1950s. But
they sure weren't in Kansas any more when Manitoba surfaced as the best
on-location site. Like other provinces, Manitoba offers a juicy tax
credit plus bonuses to companies that use local labour and locales. But it also
required the hiring of a local company, in this case Eagle Vision, which
brought more investment money to the table. Infinity took responsibility
for the financing for Capote — a $7.5-million (U.S.) production — in its
partnership with MGM/UA/Sony Pictures Classics, and owns a significant part of
the film, again a potentially lucrative situation. Vince says the
provinces are smart to be attaching investment strings to their traditional
labour credits and rebates. "So not only do they get the success of
employing people ... With something like Brokeback and Capote, if
they do well there will be returns." If Capote wins best
picture Sunday night, Vince also gets to hit the stage at the awards to help
accept the Oscar. There are other examples of behind-the-scenes Canadians
investing in the big Oscar pictures. London, Ont., native Paul Haggis is not
only nominated in the best director and best original screenplay categories for
his film Crash, he is also one of its six producers. And George
Clooney's McCarthyism drama Good Night, and Good Luck was produced by
Participant Pictures, an independent company run by former Torontonian Jeff
Skoll, who helped found eBay back in 1996.
Movie Review: Chapelle's Party Plea
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Geoff Pevere, Movie Critic
Dave Chapelle's Block Party
Starring Dave Chapelle, Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, The
Fugees, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, The Roots. Directed by Michel
Gondry. 100 minutes. At major theatres. 14A
(Mar. 3, 2006) Like Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, Dave
Chapelle's Block Party is a plea for urban black community dressed up as meet-the-folks
entertainment. But where Perry's movie outfits its writer-director in
drag and evokes God and traditional values as the means of inclusiveness,
Michel Gondry's smoothly inviting documentary of a free rap event organized by
Comedy Central star Dave Chapelle is all about the beauty of the beats.
For reasons that are only implied, but which the film's generally upbeat tone
suggests might be about "giving back" to his people, the
skinny-necked, expressive-eyed comedian (who has since decamped from his TV
show) decided to throw a big block party on a run-down street in Brooklyn in
September, 2004. (His original choice was Central Park, which would have made
the movie a vastly different and considerably less intimate experience.)
Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and
whimsically weird music videos for the likes of Björk and Beck, follows
Chapelle through the streets of his Dayton, Ohio hometown as he hands out
tickets and invitations to the big event. Already, we're keyed to Chapelle's
consensus-building agenda. With a TV host's easy, on-the-street
affability and a politician's sidewalk savvy, he invites everyone, from a
parole officer and a white middle-aged convenience store clerk to an entire
university marching band, to his "party." When the marching band,
midway through rehearsal on the football field, combust into spontaneous
applause over the news — a response Gondry captures with cagey
"spontaneity" — their expression of collective joy echoes throughout
the entire movie.
Sequences (some cut frustratingly short) depict the show itself — a
genuine rouser featuring hip-hop artists like Mos Def, Common, Kaye West, Dead
Prez, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu playing in front of a Stax Revue-like house
band. In between are moments taken from rehearsals, community-building
testimonials from folk on the street and folk backstage, and (natch)
Chapelle. He does what Chapelle does best: pokes mostly gentle fun at
white people, Mexicans and police, does spontaneous musical impersonations of
James Brown and Thelonius Monk, and generally reinforces the entire film's
fetching climate of unrehearsed, open-door-policy fun. While unlikely to
enter the annals of great concert filmmaking, Dave Chappelle's Block Party
does capture the moment at hand with a breezy, offhanded and utterly
user-friendly charm. It feels like a TV special, but a crackling good one. And
while the movie has moments of activist anger (as when Fred Hampton, Jr. takes
the mic) and fleeting naughtiness (as when Chappelle graphically demonstrates
to an interviewee that it's okay to swear), they seem less like what the
party's about than proof everybody's invited to it. Most telling is when
two young black Daytonites recall being subjected to racial slurs while golfing
one morning. They were going to kick the bigot's ass until they realized it
might cost them their invitation to the party. The promise of fun trumped the
feeling of fury.
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A Best Actress At 10, She Already Wants To Direct
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
- Gayle Macdonald
(Mar. 6, 2006) Two years ago at the Toronto International Film Festival,
a precocious eight-year-old Torontonian named Samantha Weinstein
made her feature film debut as Danielle in David Weaver's black comedy Siblings.
In 2005, the petite redhead snagged the title role of Josephine in Big Girl,
written and directed by Renuka Jeyapalan during her stay at the Canadian Film
Centre in Toronto. Big Girl, a touching 14-minute film, went on to
win best short at TIFF. And it helped Weinstein, now 10, reach another
milestone in her young career as she became the youngest actress to be
nominated -- and win -- the 2006 ACTRA Toronto award for outstanding female performance.
At a swank ceremony Feb. 24 at Toronto's Carlu, Weinstein skipped onto the
stage and beamed as she eloquently thanked the Alliance of Canadian Cinema,
Television and Radio Artists (which represents more than 13,000 of Canada's
21,000 professional performers working in English-language recorded media) for
recognizing her work. "Hearing my name being called was
unbelievable," said Weinstein, who was in the running for best actress
with veterans Wendy Crewson (for CTV's movie The Man Who Lost Himself),
Paula Boudreau (CBC's miniseries The Tournament), another former
child-acting prodigy Megan Follows (CBC's movie Shania: A Life in Eight
Albums), and Victoria Snow (CBC's movie Waking up Wally: The Walter
Gretzky Story). Upon receiving her trophy, Weinstein got a squeeze from
actress Sarah Polley, on hand to receive ACTRA Toronto's 2006 Award of
Excellence . The two had worked together on Siblings.
"Sarah was very happy for me," said the Grade 5 student in a
phone interview. "I was overwhelmed up on the stage, looking at the huge
community I work with, and have so much respect for. It felt like the audience
was giving me a great, big, warm hug. It felt great." Called Canada's
indie princess, Weinstein, who lives in Toronto with her mother, father and seven-year-old
sister, recently wrapped the role of Sara in another short film, Ninth
Street Chronicles. "I'm kind of hoping for a hat trick and that I'll
be back at TIFF next year," Weinstein says, giggling. And she'll appear
tomorrow night on CBC-TV, as Piper in Ken Finkleman's new six-part miniseries, At
the Hotel. "Imagine you're Courtney Love's daughter and you're
10," explains Weinstein. "That pretty much sums up my part in Ken's
series." Big Girl, which co-stars Kris Holden, also screened at
last month's Berlin International Film Festival. The film explores family
politics as nine-year-old Josephine grapples with the fact that her single mom
has a new boyfriend in her life. It's a "story of acceptance and letting
people in. It stirs up a lot of feelings in only 14 minutes," says the
worldly young actress. Like Follows (best known to fans as the feisty Anne
Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables TV movies) and Polley (Sara
Stanley from the popular Road to Avonlea series), Weinstein and other
busy preteen actors and actresses show Canada has a knack for producing quality
young performers who can stickhandle their way through the nutty entertainment
business. But Weinstein is already looking ahead to another career. "When
I'm an adult," she says, "I hope to get into the director's program
at the Canadian Film Centre. I think it's one of the coolest jobs in the world.
I'd still like to act, like Sarah, but she's directing a film right now."
EUR Film Review: 16 Blocks
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 7, 2006) *Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is an aging, depressed
detective with a drinking problem. Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) is a
trash-talking, petty criminal with marbles in his mouth who has spent about
half of his life mumbling to himself behind bars while dreaming about opening
his own bakery. So, with nothing in common, there’s not much reason for the
grizzled NYPD veteran and the career perp to expect to meet, let alone land on
the same side of the law. Yet,
that’s exactly what happens the fateful morning their paths do cross when Jack
is ordered to escort Eddie from jail to the courthouse just 16 blocks away in lower
Manhattan. What should have amounted to an uneventful, brief car ride turns
into a thrill-a-minute chase after the alcoholic decides to make a brief detour
to a liquor store. For he emerges from the establishment only to find a hit man
with a gun cocked at the head of his prisoner. Quick on the draw, Jack shoots
the assassin first, jumps in the driver’s seat and starts careening across
Chinatown pumping Eddie with questions to learn why anybody might want him
dead.
Turns out he’s scheduled to testify in less than two hours in a case
against a half-dozen crooked cops. Next, when Jack calls for backup, his former
partner, Frank (David Morse), makes it clear that the entire Department wants
this key prosecution witness wasted. Confronting an ethical crisis, Jack must
decide whether to look the other way or try to break the proverbial Blue Wall
of Silence. Of course, he opts for the latter, which means he and his charge
must run a gauntlet of the most corrupt, immoral and bloodthirsty officers
imaginable. The splatter which ensues in the ensuing escape is the
essence of 16 Blocks, a high-impact action flick from directed by Richard
Donner (Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3, & 4). Ordinarily, the success or failure of
a claustrophobic, odd-couple caper like this turns on the chemistry between the
leads who have to spent the entire picture on top of each other. However, this
flick’s pressurized plotline is simply too urgent to allow for much in the way
of downtime for the two to develop any intimacy. Nonetheless, both Bruce Willis
and Mos Def, though playing simplistically-drawn, almost cartoonish archetypes,
manage to enhance their slight characters with enough endearing qualities and
offbeat idiosyncrasies to sway the audience to empathize with their plight.
Meanwhile, like your typical computer game, wave after wave of ghoulish
adversaries arrive to be eluded, dealt with, or dispatched, soulless demons
devoid of a conscience. Pound-for-pound, 16 Blocks provides the most
pressure-cooked pyrotechnics, fisticuffs, gunplay, car crashes, back alley
dashes and fire escape leaps ever crammed into a cinematic chase lasting less
than a mile. Hollywood’s concession to anti-establishment video games like
Grand Theft Auto, only sans joystick. And larger than life.
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FILM TIDBITS
We Remember Gordon Parks
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 8, 2006) Gordon Parks, 93, a true renaissance man if there ever was one, died in New
York City on Tuesday. Parks, born into poverty in Fort Scott, Kansas, was
a photojournalist for "Life" magazine for 20
years before turning to film making in 1969. His initial Hollywood
project, "The Learning Tree," was adapted from a novel he wrote about
growing up poor and black in 1920s Kansas. He became the first black to write
and direct a major studio production when Warner Bros. commissioned him to
adapt his book to the big screen. In 1989, the film was among the first
25 to be deemed culturally and historically significant and was preserved in
the US National Film Registry for future generations. But as far as most people
are concerned, it was the 1971 movie "Shaft" that brought him fame as a director. Starring Richard
Roundtree, "Shaft" also spawned a hit song, the Oscar winning
"Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. A remake of the film, in 2000,
starred Samuel L. Jackson and was directed by John Singleton. In a
documentary for HBO called "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon
Parks," he said the two "Shaft" films were hard to compare.
"There was a lot of humanity in the first one that was lacking in the
second one," he said. "People probably want more violence now and so
on." During his time as the first black photographer for "Life,"
he covered everything from fashion to sport but was best known for his photo
essays on poverty and the civil rights movement. Over the years, not only did
he write volumes of poetry and fiction, he also became an accomplished pianist
and wrote a ballet about the life of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr., titled "Martin" which aired on the PBS. Gordon Parks had
been in failing health, according to his nephew, Charles Parks
of Lawrence, Kansas.
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Long in ‘Premonition’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(March 2, 2006) *Nia
Long has been cast in the Sandra Bullock film
"Premonition," a supernatural thriller from Sony Pictures set to
shoot in Shreveport, La. Long will play the best friend of Bullock’s character.
The story follows a housewife (Bullock) whose husband (Julian McMahon of
"Nip/Tuck") dies in a car crash, but then appears alive the next day.
Amber Valletta also joins the cast as the mistress of McMahon's character and
Kate Nelligan will play the mother of Bullock’s character.
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Macaulay Culkin Says He's Home, Alone
Source: Associated Press
(Mar. 6, 2006) New York — Macaulay Culkin wonders where he fits into
Hollywood these days. “I don't know what people want from me,” the
grown-up child star of the Home Alone movies told Time magazine. “I'm
the most out-of-work actor I know,” said Culkin, who has a semiautobiographical,
stream-of-consciousness novel, Junior, due out this month. “In the last
two years I've basically taken meetings for a living.” He said he had
considered a career in sports management, instead of acting, Time reports in
its edition hitting newsstands Monday. “Acting found me. I thought maybe I
should try to find it again. We'll see,” he told Time. Culkin, 25, said he has
talked by phone once with his friend Michael Jackson since the singer left the
United States and described him as “doing okay.”
::TV NEWS::
Ice Cube Explores Issue Of Race In ‘Black. White.’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 3, 2006) *Major racial issues will be
explored in the upcoming six-part FX series “Black.
White.,” the creation of rapper Ice Cube and
veteran documentary producer R.J. Cutler (“The War Room.”) On the
surface, the show takes two families – one black, one white – and transforms
them via Hollywood makeup to experience life as the other race. As evidenced on
a recent episode of the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” their journey on the series left
some unresolved issues between the clans. “There’s definitely tension sometimes
and I wouldn’t say that we were best of friends,” white family matriarch Rose
Wurgel told us in January about their relationship with the Sparkses after the
series wrapped. “I know that it’s a little bit interesting seeing everybody
today because we haven’t kept in contact.” While the white Wurgel-Marcotulli
family and the black Sparks family were enlightened by the experience, the two
families clashed on many fronts – the biggest being a lack of understanding
between the fathers, Brian Sparks and Bruno Marcotulli. On the show, which
premieres Wednesday, March 8 at 10 p.m., Bruno has a hard time grasping the
concept of subtle racism described often by Brian. For example, both are
walking down a Beverly Hills street as black me when a woman coming their way
moves to the side to let them pass. Brian observes the gesture as racist, while
Bruno feels she was simply “moving out of our way.” “Brian and I
had different lives as a child,” Bruno Marcotulli told us. “And Brian explained
this to me several times. I never experienced racism. So I felt that Brian
brings his past scars to his present day, and a lot of the differences we had
where I didn’t see what he saw. And he felt I didn’t see what was there.
And, of course, I felt he saw what wasn’t there. So, you know, who’s right?
Who’s not? How much is what we see dependent on what we want to see or expect
to see?”
Brian quickly adds: “Let me just clear up one portion, just too make a
clear understanding. It’s not past scars. Racism is still prevalent today. I am
discriminated against often, so it’s not past scars. It still happens
currently, so these are current scars.” The tension between Brian and Bruno
would still be present a month after this interview, when both appeared with
their families on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in early February. There, a
clip was shown of Brian buying shoes as a white man in a golf shop, and having
the salesman actually put on the shoe for the first time in his 40 years.
Another clip showed the Sparks facing some blatantly racist language. While in
white makeup, they attend a focus group with other white families to discuss
racism. One man says that while he doesn’t feel racist, he feels he must wash
his hands after shaking the hand of a black man. “You know, after 40
years of being black, I don’t think one transformation or six weeks can
accurately show what I go through on a day to day,” Brian told us. “You can get
a little taste. Bruno said plenty of times that I go out looking for
racism. I don’t have to look for it. It finds me. I just observe it
when it gets to me already. By the time I observe it, it already happened.”
Cube said this kind of dialogue is precisely why he decided to produce the
series. “I think the worst thing
you can do about a situation is nothing,” says the rapper. “You have to get it
out in the open. You have to talk about it. This show will provoke people to
speak about it, to speak about
race. “At the end of the show,
we realize that instead of worrying about everybody’s differences, let’s
celebrate everybody’s differences because nobody should want the world to all
be the same. And that’s really what the show is bringing out. It’s kind
of talking about the ills that face us everyday, the cancer of racism that
faces America every day, and two families dealing with it, trying to teach each
other about it and trying to learn about each other. And it’s not always
pretty, but it’s definitely gets us talking about it.”
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TV Regulator To Axe Those Bundles Of Joy
Excerpt from The Globe and
Mail - Simon Beck
(Mar. 3, 2006) Let's start this week's fiesta with a question: How many
of you out there ever watch Vision
TV? How many hands? One . .
. no, two? Okay,
both of you, get over there and sit in the corner with the five badly dressed
men who watch the Golf Channel. The federal broadcasting regulator, the
CRTC, this week tackled the thorny issue of how to protect tens of
little-watched and little-liked cable channels from ruin in the brave new era
of digital TV. Its answer: Do the right thing, but put it off several years so
no one gets hurt. The issue is the bundling system that makes cable-TV
subscribers pay en masse for more than 30 analog channels when we only watch
maybe five or six of them. Now, there may be some folk out there who derive
equal enjoyment from W, BET, Speed, MuchMusic, TLC and Vision TV and would
happily support them all. But for the vast majority of us who possess a life,
this bundling concept is akin to having to buy the entire catalogue of Rolling
Stones CDs just so you can get Exile on Main Street. So the question is,
why should Canadians have to support, through cross-subsidy, channels that are
either so niche or so lame that they would have no chance of survival in the
real world? (Okay, lay off the CBC jokes -- it's a national treasure,
remember.) The sensible answer: Let subscribers buy them à la carte; if that
leaves TSN and Rogers Sportsnet swimming in cash, and Vision TV resting in
peace, so be it. In its best tradition, the regulator has decided to fudge the
decision. It's complicated, but basically you'll still have to continue
subsiding the no-hopers for at least another four years. Then you might be able
to pay for what you, and not the diversity police, want.
Now here's another question: How many of you out there have ever watched
Talktv for more than 10 minutes? Do we hear anyone? Anyone? Well, the
good news is, Talktv -- otherwise known as cable television's big recycling box
-- is being put out of its misery. CTV, which runs the "specialty"
channel, is replacing it with MTV Canada later this month. The Canadian arm of
MTV had one unspectacular run in the digital netherworld for a couple of years
until its deal with Craig expired, but now CTV has bought the rights. But
here's the thing: Don't expect (or fear) wall-to-wall hip-hop videos any time
soon. Because of more arcane fine print in CRTC rules, CTV can't budge from the
stipulations under which it first won the Talktv licence. In other words, MTV
Canada will have to be Talktv with lots of loud music until it can convince the
CRTC otherwise. CTV will presumably apply for a change of terms, but you can
already hear the whining of MuchMusic's parent, CHUM Ltd., echoing all the way
from Toronto to Ottawa. CTV went through a similar fight over the right of its
Newsnet channel to air live events, and that wasn't pretty. As Marshall McLuhan
might have said, there's never a dull moment in the Brezhnev-era bureaucracy
that casts its shadow over the 21st-century world of mass communications in
Canada.
They want their MTV. . . by cellphone
Excerpt From The Globe And Mail - Grant Robertson, Media
Reporter
(Mar. 8, 2006) The fight for viewers that's brewing between MTV Canada
and MuchMusic will have very
little to do with the television set. Both networks are pursuing ambitious
digital strategies that are poised to take them well beyond their TV operations
as they expand rapidly into video downloads, on-line communities and broadcasts
to cellphones. And as MTV Canada prepares for its launch on March 21, the new channel
faces a key hurdle -- its TV licence is limited to talk and lifestyle
programming. Rival MuchMusic is watching closely to make sure MTV Canada
doesn't stray from those requirements by playing music videos, a format MTV is
known for. CTV Inc., the owner MTV Canada, is putting the new station on
the channel occupied by Talktv, which limits the type of programming it can
show. Internet downloads and streaming broadcasts, however, could provide the
freedom MTV Canada's television licence doesn't allow. MTV Canada's
flagship program, MTV Live, will focus on in-studio guests, debates and webcam
interviews about fashion, relationships and celebrities. The digital strategy
comes as CHUM Ltd., which owns MuchMusic, is also bolstering its on-line
operations, adding more downloadable content and expanding streaming broadcasts
through its website. Both pop culture networks are chasing tech-savvy
younger audiences whose viewing habits are shifting from the traditional TV set
to Internet downloads and video iPods.
MTV Canada is already planning to piggyback its digital strategy on the
operations of its American counterpart. New York-based MTV Networks Inc.
has launched several broadband TV channels, is building a music downloading
site partnered with Microsoft Corp. called URGE, and in the past year has
expanded into on-line communities, where users post music and video clips.
CTV's plan for MTV Canada will be unveiled soon, but the network is keeping
quiet on the specifics. "The MTV digital strategy will be in some ways the
tip of the spear for CTV the company and how we move forward with the next wave
in the digital world," said Mike Cosentino, a spokesman for the network.
Over at CHUM, the company has spent recent months ramping up MuchMusic's
on-line offerings, including the introduction of its first downloadable show,
the reality series VJ Search. It has also started adding its programming to
cable video-on-demand services and is expanding further into streaming
broadcasts with an eye to future cellphone TV watchers. "Whatever we have
rights for, we're experimenting with," said Maria Hale, vice-president of
business development for CHUM. The rival network isn't saying how it will react
if MTV Canada starts playing music videos on the Talktv format; however, CHUM
suggested last fall it won't stand by if its competitor takes liberties with
its broadcast licence. "We'll be intrigued to see how Talktv can be
morphed into an MTV brand and still remain a talk channel as licensed,"
CHUM said in a statement in September. A significant part of MTV's
digital strategy is focused on building on-line communities. Websites such as
Myspace.com have risen to prominence in recent years with on-line places for
users to chat, post music and share photos. Myspace, a cult hit for independent
bands posting their albums, has more than 60 million users. Now a host of other
companies, particularly broadcasters, want into that business because of the
audiences it draws. U.S.-based MTV has bought several websites, including a
video game website and IFILM Corp., which allows amateur filmmakers to post
movies. Such properties combine to form large communities of users. MuchMusic
and MTV have moved away from video-dominated formats in favour of higher rated
programs, such as celebrity reality shows and in-studio programs that draw
bigger audiences. However, videos remain a significant part of MuchMusic's
line-up.
When MTV was last in Canada, under a deal that ended last year when Craig
Broadcasting was bought by CHUM, the arrangement didn't involve access to the
U.S. company's digital assets. While CTV is quiet about its plans for Canada,
officials have said the Canadian channel's deal allows the use of those
properties in Canada, likely foreshadowing where the digital strategy is
headed. CTV is part of Bell Globemedia, which also owns The Globe and Mail.
Channels such as MuchMusic and YTV have been among the more aggressive
specialty TV services in expanding their digital strategies. CHUM expects
to unveil additions to its digital strategy in the next few weeks, including
new downloads of shows on MuchMusic. The company plans to bolster the digital
offerings of its other networks, hoping to keep viewers loyal to its stations
as they get older. CHUM owns several specialty channels, including Bravo,
MuchMoreMusic and Star. "As those kids grow up we're going to need to make
sure that all of our various properties are multiplatformed," Ms. Hale
said.
Haysbert, Taylor Form Tight ‘Unit’ For CBS
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 6, 2006) *Veteran actors Dennis
Haysbert and Regina Taylor star as husband and
wife under extreme circumstances in tomorrow
night’s premiere of CBS’ “The Unit,” a military drama about an elite Army unit and the wives left to
maintain the home front. Haysbert, whose role of U.S. President on Fox’s
"24" was killed off earlier this season, stars as Jonas Blane, the
respected leader of the unit that includes a recruit played by Scott Foley, and
a colonel portrayed by Robert Patrick. Taylor, as Jonas’ supportive wife Abby,
says her role required a lot of research with the show’s technical advisor Eric
Haney. “I did talk to some military wives. I did talk to
Eric Haney, and I find the character very fascinating,” Taylor told us. “I
think, bottom line, the situation that they live in is scary. It’s that
you have to keep a lot of secrets. There are a lot of secrets that go
through this base and you don’t have a lot of people to talk to about them,
because if you talk about it, then it will jeopardize your husband’s life, the
lives of his co-workers, and it could jeopardize what’s happening to your
country." "The Unit" is based on Haney’s 2002 book “Inside Delta
Force,” which details the retired command sergeant major’s years in
counterterrorism and covert operations. Haney says his pitch of the show to CBS
chief executive Les Moonves almost resulted in a flat-out rejection – until Haney
emphasized the show’s equal focus on the wives. "Had you come in here with
only an action series, I would have passed. But when you said the wives, the
sweethearts, that depth of humanity, that's when you had me," Haney
recalled Moonves saying. “The relationship between Molly and Jonas
is one of complete dedication,” explains Haysbert. “They’re probably the
longest-running couple in the unit. The women are themselves a
unit. And the men, who go out on the missions are a unit. When they
are all together, they are one very large and loving and concerned unit.”
Haysbert points out the distinct parallels present in Jonas’ leadership
within the unit, and Molly’s maternal presence among the wives.
“The ladies look to Molly when there are problems and she helps them out, as do
the men look to Jonas because Jonas has been around longer,” Haysbert explains.
“They lead by example. Jonas never tells these guys really what to do. He
leads them into situations, and they follow his orders. And they are fully
free to question those orders, as you’ll see in certain episodes. But
that never really arises because he is on top of his game.” “The Unit” is
executive produced by Shawn Ryan, the creator of FX’s critically-acclaimed
police drama “The Shield.” Some of the show’s 13 episodes this season will be
written and directed by filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David
Mamet, whose challenging dialogue is famous for its poetic, profanity-filled,
rhythmic patterns. “There is definitely a certain cadence to
David’s work,” says Haysbert. “And as you see more of the episodes, you’ll see
that his fingerprints are all over scripts and it really makes for entertaining
dialogue, and they were awfully fun to say.” Mamet’s words mix stories of
dangerous missions and domestic minefields that include an extramarital affair,
adolescent angst and some wives who have difficulty accepting their husbands’
work. “These men are very much disciplined in what they do,”
explains Haysbert. “They train constantly. They believe not always in the
mission, but they believe in what the unit represents. They know that
whenever they go out into the world – whether it’s Los Angeles, Atlanta,
Afghanistan, Brazil, Indonesia –they are representing the United States Army.
And they are gong to complete their mission or die. And they fully know
what they are getting themselves into whenever they go out. So do their wives.”
(“The Unit” premieres Tuesday, March 7 at 9 p.m. on CBS.)
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Signs Of The New India
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Sarah Elton
(Mar. 7, 2006) Step out into the street of any city in India and you will
be surrounded by huge, colourful billboards advertising a new Bollywood
movie, toothpaste or a local politician's platform. These giant signs —
"hoardings" to locals — are traditionally hand-painted by specialized
artists and have long been a mainstay of the urban streetscape. But
technology is reshaping the streetscape, with computers replacing artists and
shiny vinyl ads being postered over the traditional hand-painted ones.
Yet the art form is catching interest in the West just as it dies in India. Art
shows celebrating hand-painted billboards have been organized in Toronto, Milan
and even at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London,
England. Now, a new documentary, Painted
Nation, pays tribute to the art. It
premieres in Canada on Vision TV tomorrow at 10 p.m. The movie is the
work of Toronto filmmaking couple Cyrus Sundar Singh and Vanessa Laufer, Gemini
Award winners. Their crew travelled to India last year to interview artists and
document the billboards they had admired so much on past trips to the region
and knew would not last for much longer. But even they were shocked by
the speed of changes. The signs vanished even as their cameras rolled.
"We're talking overnight transformation," says Laufer. "Of not
just the visual landscape, but of the work these guys do — empty
studios." Billboard artists have been forced to abandon their
studios because advertising agencies prefer to create their ads from digital
photos printed on enormous sheets of vinyl, just like the billboards that line
the Gardiner Expressway. The often self-taught artists are faced with a tough
decision: learn Adobe Photoshop or change professions.
This India is a far cry from the one Sundar Singh left when his family
immigrated to Toronto in 1971, when he was a boy. "The signs were a
part of the landscape," he remembers. "This is what brought the
message to us." Now the message is carried by up-to-the-nanosecond
technology and the medium is shaping the culture. The country's
technology boom began in the 1990s and has only picked up momentum, with many
pinning the country's future economic prosperity on the industry. Indian
software engineers are wanted around the world and companies like Microsoft
Corp. have headquarters in the country, employing hundreds of thousands.
All this business has created an enormous middle class with an appetite for
anything modern, including high-tech products with advertising to match, the
filmmakers say. "India is now an emerging economy. They want to have
the slick modern images. They've welcomed them," says Laufer. "A lot
of people think the hand-painted ads were garish." But the same
qualities that render them garish to some in India have made them sought after
here. You will find them hanging in Western galleries and on collectors' walls.
Many online auction houses offer vintage posters, and for about $700 you can
even commission an artist in India to custom paint a Bollywood poster featuring
you as the hero or heroine. "We've been inundated with generic
images for ages," explains Laufer of the West's fascination with the art.
"We are very attracted to things that are one of a kind. Where there's the
human touch." Laufer and Sundar Singh remain hopeful that the art
form will not vanish completely from the Indian street. While vinyl ads in
urban India advertise products like cellphones and cars, streets in India's
rural areas look much like the streets Sundar Singh remembers. That's in
part because in the countryside there isn't the same market for the luxury
items featured on the vinyl signs. Hand-painted ads for items like fruit,
shoe polish and dairy products remain. While they might not be the dramatic
canvasses of the past, they are a quiet reminder of the way things used to be.
BET Premieres Controversial New Lil' Kim Series
Source: Tosha Whitten-Griggs, BET, Tosha.whitten-griggs@bet.net
, Zabrina Horton, BET, Zabrina.horton@bet.net ; Tracy Nguyen, 5W Public
Relations, Tnguyen@5wpr.com
(Mar. 8, 2006) Los Angeles, CA - Lil'
Kim is one of the most successful and
celebrated rappers in the business, as well as one of the most
intriguing and glamorous stars in entertainment. Now, she's starring in her own
reality series, and no channel is better suited than BET to bring Lil' Kim's
story to the small screen. Lil' Kim: Countdown To
Lockdown is a new half-hour series that
vividly chronicles the petite rapper's last two weeks of freedom before
surrendering herself to federal authorities. This six-episode docu-drama is
produced in collaboration with Edmonds Entertainment and Queen Bee
Entertainment, premiering on Thursday, March 9 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. BET's
cameras were allowed full access to Lil' Kim, her entourage and family before
she headed off to a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. Sent there on a
conviction for false testimony to a federal grand jury about a shootout
involving members of her posse outside a New York City radio station, Lil' Kim
was sentenced to one year and a day for protecting friends involved in the 2001
incident. Lil' Kim's loyalty proved to be a costly lesson -- one that Kim, her
closest friends and associates will discuss in this series. "We take
an unblinking look at her life and her choices, and the consequences of those
choices," says BET President of Entertainment Reginald Hudlin. "We do
not turn away from the hard truth of what's going on." Is Kimberly
Jones a victim, a soldier or a fool for refusing to break the "no
snitching" code of the streets? Watch, and then decide for yourself,
offers Hudlin. Over the course of fourteen unforgettable days, BET
viewers ride along with the rap diva and fashion icon as she sorts out her
business and legal affairs, makes her last few public appearances to promote
her new CD, shoots a video, attends fashion week, shops, hits the party scene
and says goodbye to friends and family before turning herself over to
authorities. Viewers witness Lil' Kim, the superstar, making the physical
transformation to becoming Kimberly Jones -- peeling off the layers of hair
extensions, acrylic nails, false eyelashes and stage make-up. The cameras also capture
her private moments as Lil' Kim attempts to come to grips with who she is and
where she's headed. This remarkable journey is set to a soundtrack punctuated
by the hypnotic grooves and skilfully-delivered rhymes from Lil' Kim's latest
critically-acclaimed disc, "The Naked Truth," in stores now.
"I've always been fascinated by Lil' Kim," says executive
producer Tracey Edmonds, who pitched the project to BET. "She's such a
dynamic female, on so many different levels. She's a businesswoman. She's a
recording icon. She's a fashion icon. Seeing everything she was trying
accomplish, preparing to go away, and being so strong . . . it was really
fascinating to spend time with her for two weeks on this roller coaster
ride."
Also joining Lil' Kim on the journey is a colourful cast of characters
including her legal team, manager, personal assistants, family and other
members of her close-knit inner circle. They're all trying to deal with what's
ahead for Kim and the impact on their lives of her imminent absence. By the
time this series concludes, each will have helped viewers gain a whole new
perspective on the diminutive, but larger-than-life rapper known as Lil' Kim.
Comprising the cast is:
Hillary - "The Manager"
This former manager of the Notorious B.I.G. is no-nonsense, no-frills,
and doesn't play when it comes to managing the hectic career of Lil' Kim. Often
described by members of Kim's entourage as a "b*tch", she is the glue
that holds Kim's professional and personal life together.
Londell - "The Attorney"
He may have a corner office overlooking Manhattan and be part owner of an
NBA franchise, but the Brooklyn native maintains an enviable balance of book
and street smarts. A prominent entertainment attorney (not criminal attorney)
whose famous clients include Prince, Stevie Wonder and Spike Lee, Londell is
well known for protecting artist's rights. Kim looks up to him not only as her
entertainment attorney and business manager, but as a big brother - and he
protects her like family.
La La - "The Cousin"
La La is that family member everyone has, but tries to keep under wraps.
Kim's cousin La La is a Brooklyn-born spitfire who doesn't mince words and has
no fear. Deeply devoted to helping Kim during her last days of freedom, La La's
role as Kim's personal assistant is getting in the way of her obligations at
home to her husband and kids.
Gene - "The A&R Exec"
Although Gene is the A&R executive for "Queen Bee Records,"
his opinions on upcoming talent and music extend far beyond his title. Whether
it's his thoughts on how to publicize Kim, Nate's acumen or Kirk's attitude,
Gene has an opinion on everything. And he has no trouble vocalizing those
opinions out loud, with plenty of expletives.
Tracy - "The Publicist"
Tracy is all over the place as Kim's publicist - negotiating photo shoot
schedules, clearing all questions for Kim to answer behind the scenes at music
shows and radio stations, down to approving Kim's wardrobe. She always ensures
that Kim looks and sounds good in person and in the media.
Nate - "The Personal Assistant"
Young and committed to making Kim happy, Nate is the over-zealous, former
"Queen Bee" intern who hung around long enough to get on the payroll.
Nate's side projects sometimes get in the way of doing his job well, but He has
Kim's best interest at heart.
Kirk - "The Music Video Director"
They call him "Kirk Lee" (a reference to Spike Lee). Upon
realizing that she hates the video to her first single, "Lighter's
Up," Kim quickly taps Kirk to direct not one, but three music videos for
her in two weeks. This is a huge break and challenge for someone who has never
directed a music video before. Kirk is a classic case of being in the right
place at the right time, but some folks wonder if he can pull it off.
Lil' Kim: Countdown To Lockdown is an up-close-and-personal look inside
the life of a controversial public icon and rap star. But, underneath the
high-glam exterior is Kimberly Jones, a girl from the streets of Brooklyn. This
groundbreaking reality series reveals the person behind the façade.
"You'll have a chance to really get a more intimate perspective on
Kim, who she is and what her values are," Edmonds added. "She's not
one to be underestimated. She has a lot of integrity. There were a lot of
reasons why she made the decision that she did, and she was strong about facing
the consequences and paying the price for it." Editor's Note: Lil'
Kim's latest critically-acclaimed release, "The Naked Truth," is in
stores now. For more info, visit her website at www.lilkim.com. Artwork and
press information is available at www.bet.com/pr. For B-roll, requests for
interviews and other media-related inquiries, please contact BET Corporate
Communications at 818-655-6737.
ABOUT BET
BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), is the
nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public
affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary
BET channel reaches more than 80 million households according to Nielsen media
research, and can be seen in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. BET
is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of
businesses extensions: BET.com, the Number 1 Internet portal for African
Americans; BET Digital Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive
alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, a
full-scale event management and production company; BET Home Entertainment, a
collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and
video-on-demand; and BET Mobile, a service venture into the lucrative world of ring
tones, games and video content for wireless devices.
ABOUT EDMONDS ENTERTAINMENT
Established by Tracey Edmonds and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds,
Edmonds Entertainment Group has soared like a floating star to the ranks of
Hollywood's elite entertainment companies, producing award-winning film and
television projects such as the critically acclaimed drama Soul Food for
Showtime, winner of seven NAACP awards as well as the award winning Soul Food
feature film. Other credits include the hit reality series College Hill for
BET.
ABOUT QUEEN BEE ENTERTAINMENT
Launched in 1997 by multi-Platinum, Grammy Award-winning recording artist
Kimberly " Lil' Kim" Jones, Queen Bee Entertainment is a
multi-faceted company that consists of a record company, a film division and a
non-profit organization just to name a few. For more information on Lil' Kim or
Queen Bee Entertainment, please log on to www.lilkim.com
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Therriault Is His Own Man
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Mar. 8, 2006) "When I first got the call to audition for Tommy
Douglas," admits a blushing Michael Therriault, "I didn't know who he was.
Then I asked some friends and they thought I was talking about Tommy
Hunter." Fortunately, Therriault "did some research, discovered
he was a remarkable guy" and wound up as the star of Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story, which airs on CBC-TV in two parts Sunday and Monday. At
first glance, this shy, 32-year-old actor of Acadian heritage may not have
seemed like obvious casting for the messianic Scottish force of nature who
started out as a Baptist minister and became one of the most progressive
politicians in Canadian history. But then, nothing in Michael
Therriault's life or career has followed a path that anyone would call obvious.
No one else in his theatrical generation has risen as quickly, or
mastered so many different styles as this slight, blue-eyed young man with the
curly hair and the diffident smile. "I'll tell you what I found most
inspiring about playing Tommy Douglas," confides Therriault, "he
makes you realize that a little guy can do big things." And even
though Therriault hasn't run for politics or helped create a system for
universal public health care, he's done pretty well for himself. He began
with leading roles at Stratford when he was only 24, surviving the place's
Machiavellian politics to build up an impressive resumé that included major
Shakespearean characters like Ariel, Henry VI and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. In
2003, he landed the plum assignment of Leo Bloom in the ill-fated Toronto
production of The Producers but still came up smelling like a rose, with
rave reviews and a Dora Award. Just last year, he went straight from his
portrayal of Tommy Douglas into the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof,
playing Motel the Tailor opposite Harvey Fierstein's Tevye.
Like everyone who's ever worked with Therriault, Fierstein couldn't wait
to sing his praises, saying "He's got energy and commitment and talent to
spare. If he could only come up with a name Americans could spell, he'd be a
big star down here." And that may happen sooner than anyone
realizes, because right now, Therriault is in final previews for The Lord of
the Rings at the Princess of Wales Theatre. He snagged the highly
coveted role of Gollum over hundreds of other actors, because director Matthew
Warchus found that he possessed "an intriguing originality, an unusual
intensity and a powerful focus." His eyes shine brightly as he says
that the epic show "is going really well," but today he wants to talk
about Tommy Douglas. Therriault clutches a battered black notebook.
"This is where I kept all my notes about Tommy. Everything I read
about him I wrote down in here. I was so impressed by his use of language."
What was the first quote he wrote down? Therriault grins as he flips back the
book's well-worn cover and reads: "I don't know whether it increases
the adrenaline in my system, but a fight always makes me feel better."
Like Douglas, Therriault started fighting early for what he believed in.
"I always knew I wanted to be an actor," recalls the
Etobicoke-born, Oakville-raised Therriault, "but when you're in grade
school, you're a loser if you want to go into the arts. So I just accepted I
was a big nerd and that was it." And he was short as well. "I
was really small," he says, squirming at the memory. What saved him was
the Etobicoke School for the Arts. He auditioned in Grade 6 and got in, but his
family didn't have the money for tuition fees or the daily train transportation
to and from Oakville. "The principal of my grade school got
involved," remembers Therriault, "and he got the school board to foot
the bill. For five years, they paid for me. "If I hadn't gone there,
I might not have continued in the business. Sure, I was still a nerd, but
everyone who went there was a nerd just like me and so I felt right at
home."
In 1997, two years after graduating Sheridan College's "really
useful" theatre program, he landed an audition for Stratford and artistic
director Richard Monette recalls him as "fabulous, very impressive and
extremely versatile." By the next summer, he was bowing on the
Festival Stage as Mordred in Camelot, opposite Cynthia Dale and Tom
McCamus. "When we were doing The Tempest," recalls
Monette, "I wanted Michael to do something dangerous and I asked him `Are
you afraid of this?' He looked me in the eye and said, `Richard, I'm not afraid
of anything.'" It's that quality of quiet fearlessness that helps
make Therriault feel so at home in the persona of Tommy Douglas. That and his
basic generosity of spirit. "Let me tell you a story about
Michael," volunteers Monette. "On the night before he left Stratford
to go to do The Producers, he came to do my door with tears in his eyes
because he said he felt like he was leaving home. "He gave me a
cheque for $500 as a donation for our conservatory, so that other young actors
could have the same chance that he did." When asked if the story is
true, Therriault lowers his head, bites his lip and nods affirmatively.
"If you can't pass something on," he says, "then what's
the point of having it in the first place?" And somewhere, Tommy
Douglas is smiling.
TV TIDBITS
Injured Newsman Woodruff Starting To Walk
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Mar. 7, 2006) NEW YORK (AP) — Five weeks after ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff was seriously injured
in an explosion in Iraq, he
remains hospitalized but is able to say a few words and is starting to walk,
his brother said Tuesday. "In the last couple of days, he's taken a
lot of great leaps forward," David Woodruff said. "He's definitely
doing so much better." Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, a Canadian-born
ABC cameraman, were standing in the hatch of an Iraqi mechanized vehicle,
reporting on the war from the Iraqi troops' perspective, when the roadside bomb
exploded Jan. 29. Both were wearing body armour, which doctors say likely saved
their lives. The men underwent surgery in Iraq and were treated in
Germany before being flown to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda,
Md. Woodruff, 44, is still on heavy pain medication as his body recovers
from the serious head injuries and other wounds. But he recognizes people, he
can tell his daughter he loves her, and the multilingual journalist has even
said a few words in Chinese and German, his brother David Woodruff told ABC's Good
Morning America. The first response David Woodruff recalls getting
from his brother in the hospital was a smile when he told him: "I hate to
tell you this, but you still have a face for TV." "My brother's
been an overachiever his entire life. I think none of us expected him to do
anything less in this whole process," David Woodruff said. "We know
that top on his mind is getting back to his family, to his kids and getting
back to doing what he loves to do."
ABC News President David Westin, in an e-mail to his staff on Tuesday,
said Woodruff is "exceeding expectations and giving us real reason for
optimism." Vogt left Bethesda Medical Center in late February and
returned to France, where he now resides and where he is undergoing rehabilitation,
the network said. Vogt, 46, is a three-time Emmy award-winning cameraman.
Born in Medicine Hat, Alta., and raised in nearby Lethbridge, he spent the last
20 years covering global events for CBC, BBC and now exclusively for ABC News.
Good Morning America anchors Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer have
been substituting for Woodruff, who started as co-anchor of ABC's World News
Tonight with Elizabeth Vargas earlier this year. ABC is expected to
announce a longer-range plan for World News Tonight in the coming weeks.
Black Journalist To Fill In On France's Main Newscast
Excerpt From The Globe And
Mail - Grant Robertson, Media Reporter
(Mar. 8, 2006) Paris -- In what was described as a major step forward for
French minorities, a black journalist has been chosen to present the country's
most popular television news program this summer, the private broadcaster TF1
said. Harry Roselmack, 32, who is from the French Caribbean island of
Martinique, will take over from star presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor while he
is on summer break. "This is like a bombshell for us -- a black presenting
the 8 p.m. news on the biggest television station in France. It is a huge
advance," said Amirouche Laidi, president of Club Averroes, which
campaigns for minority representation in the media. AFP
Could A Canadian Be Donald Trump's Next Apprentice?
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Richard Bloom
(Mar. 4, 2006) While he sure doesn't appear to
be a favourite after last
week's season premiere, Toronto-born-and-raised Brent
Buckman is one of 17 remaining contestants on the
popular American reality program The Apprentice, starring the
billionaire Mr. Trump. Mr. Buckman, 30, is a political-science graduate from
York University who moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to attend law school.
According to a biography posted on NBC.com, he works there now as a lawyer for
an insurance-defence firm. Mr. Buckman is in for a tough fight, as his
competitors -- who include a Harvard MBA, a Mensa brainiac, various successful
entrepreneurs and a psychotherapist -- are arguably the strongest contingent of
applicants the show has seen in its five-season history. There's a reason
why Mr. Buckman doesn't appear intimidated by the reality-TV cameras. His bio
also notes that he went through "an enriched theatre program" during
high school in Toronto, studying improvisation, mime, mask and clown -- all of
which undoubtedly will be required if he wins the contest and has to start
working for The Donald.
‘Class’ In Session For Andre 3000’s Animated Series
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 4, 2006) *OutKast rapper Andre 3000 appeared at a Cartoon
Network press event to unveil his new animated series “Class of 3000,” which is
scheduled to debut on the channel in November. As previously reported, the
story revolves around a group of gifted music students at Atlanta’s Westley
School of Performing Arts who look up to former graduate-turned-superstar Sunny
Bridges, voiced by Dre. One of the kids, Lil D, is loosely based on Dre's
childhood. "I come from the projects and [used to] go all the way across
town to school, which is in Buckhead, a prominent part of Atlanta," Dre
said at the breakfast event. "I went to school with mayor's kids and commissioner's
kids, so it was a mash up then. One of my best friends, he was French. Another
best friend was Indian. "So when we created the show, we didn't want
it to be just all black characters or all white characters," he continued.
"We just created a world and it kind of mirrors what's going on right now.
Everybody hang out with everybody. It's not like you just stay in your own
little clique. There's a huge Crayola box going on." Dre says he’s looking
to drop a soundtrack for the series and is seeking talent to make guest
appearances on the show during a second season. "We're reaching out to a
lot of people," Dre said. "A lot of people are interested. Every time
you drop an album, you kinda go through this whole run. You do ‘TRL’-you do all
those shows. I think 'Class of 3000' will be one of those places that record
companies will say, 'We want our artist to be on this show.' It'll be a cool
place."
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Canadians Crazy For C.R.A.Z.Y.
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Scott Deveau
(Mar. 7, 2006) Canadian audiences went crazy for Jean-Marc Vallée's
C.R.A.Z.Y., earning it a special nod at this year's Genie Awards.
The quirky coming-of-age film about a gay teen growing up in 1970's Quebec,
which has already been nominated for 12 Genie Awards, grossed more than
$6.2-million in theatres across the country last year, earning it the Golden
Reel Award at this year's Genie Awards. The Golden Reel is awarded to the
top grossing Canadian film at domestic box offices. Past recipients
include Atom Egoyan's Crash, the Bob and Doug Mackenzie epic, Strange
Brew, and the futuristic tale Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu
Reeves. The Golden Reel will be awarded at the 26th Annual Genie Awards
on March 13.
::THEATRE NEWS::
Alon Nashman Turned His Back On The Law
Excerpt
from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Mar. 4, 2006) Franz Kafka once wrote about a
man who turned into a giant cockroach. Alon
Nashman is currently playing the famed
author in a
play called Kafka and Son, which opens Monday night at the Al Green Theatre, and
although he's never transformed himself into an insect, he's played some
amazing roles on the Toronto stage over the years. From a cocaine-addled
Freud in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot to a Marx Brothers-esque
Einstein in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, audiences and critics alike have
cheered this chameleon of a performer, capable of the broadest comedy as well
as the subtlest drama. Now he's plunging into a project that combines all
these elements, as he portrays not only Franz Kafka, the Prague-born author of
such classics as The Trial and Metamorphosis, but Kafka's father,
a difficult and demanding man whose presence haunted his son's life.
"I've learned over the years how delicate, nuanced and brain-bending a
task acting can be," sighs Nashman as he settles in for a cup of tea along
the Danforth, "but this work certainly brings all of that together in one
project." Getting here has been a long and fascinating road for the
46-year-old actor, one he's been heading down (with a few detours) since
childhood. Born in Toronto, raised in Forest Hill, Nashman's father was
the director of Camp Wahanowin, on the shores of Lake Couchiching. "Every
kid was in a play there," recalls Nashman, "and by the time I was 4,
I was handing out tickets. My first role was the King in Cinderella and
I walked around in this huge robe and people applauded. It totally freaked me
out, but I was hooked." Through his school years he played in the
obligatory musicals such as Bye, Bye Birdie and The Music Man (in
which, to all accounts, he was an offbeat but charismatic Harold Hill), but
"I couldn't bring myself to decide it was going to be my life. It took me
a long to realize that what I could do as an actor was a skill, an art, not
just a great way of grabbing attention."
Nashman's internal debate continued during his years at the University of
Toronto, where he studied English and history, but "I was spending a lot
more energy on the three plays I did every year rather than the five subjects I
was supposed to be studying." Still, when he graduated, he was torn
between "heading down the paved road of law school or the dirt road of
theatre." He opted for the pavement, but lasted a mere two months.
"I had a notion of how to get a law degree with no work," he says
wryly, "but the dean talked me out of it." Nashman retraces the
moment when he knew the legal profession and he would never be lasting
friends. "I was in Torts (class) and we were studying this case
about how a weight at a railway station fell on an old woman. I found myself
thinking it would make a great play and that's when I knew I was in the wrong
place." Although older than most of his fellow students, he entered
the National Theatre School the following year, which he found "an
incredibly stimulating experience, especially working with the French artists
who were so aware of theatrical and political possibilities existing at the
same time." Since graduating, he's rarely looked back, although he
almost never, by choice, works away from Toronto, because he prefers to be
close to his family. He also will always choose a meaningful role at a smaller
theatre over an empty one at a high-profile house. "I haven't done
many projects for the résumé," he confides, "and when I have, they've
always bit me on the butt." He also enjoys creating opportunities
for himself. Together with director Mark Cassidy, he brought Alan Ginsberg's Howl
to life in 1999 and the pair wanted to work together again. "He
creates a space in which I can soar," says Nashman, admiringly, of
Cassidy's work. And so they took a 50-page letter that Kafka wrote, but
never sent, to his father, cataloguing a lifetime of living under the older
man's repressive hold. "I responded to it powerfully," admits
Nashman, "even though my father was not at all oppressive. But I did know
what it was like to feel inauthentic, small and unrealized. It opened up a
window that explained so much." The show has been tried out at
various workshops and festivals and the result has intrigued Nashman.
"It creates a debate in the audience which I find very exciting. I want to
be doing work where people are on the verge of tears and yet laughing at the
same time." And he's never sorry he didn't become a lawyer.
"I fell in love with theatre,'' he says firmly, "and it remains my
first love."
From Queen Street West to the Great White Way
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
- Simon Houpt
(Mar. 3, 2006) New York — Let's say you're a
Broadway producer. You've got a show, an entirely new show that you love. You're
positive that
everyone else will love it too: Why else would you have committed the last year
and a half of your life to getting it onstage? You've assembled a consortium of
backers who have put up $10-million (U.S.) just to get it this far. You've
snagged a theatre in a crowded season. You've wrapped a successful tryout in
Los Angeles. As we speak, your cast of 17 and creative team are flying into New
York for rehearsals, which will begin this Wednesday. The first preview is only
26 days later, and opening night follows exactly four weeks later. All systems
are in place. So here's the heart of the matter: How do you sell $1-million
(U.S.) worth of tickets a week to a show that practically nobody's heard of?
You cast your eyes across the Broadway musical-theatre landscape, and this is
what you see stacked up against your baby: big stars and big brands.
There's Tarzan, music by Phil Collins, money by Disney. There's Lestat,
adapted from an Anne Rice novel, music by Elton John, money by Warner Bros.
There's a show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. A show about Johnny
Cash. A show produced by Oprah Winfrey. How do you position a smart, funny
musical from first-time Broadway writers, with an ensemble cast and a lead from
Canada? The producers of The Drowsy
Chaperone figure they need to take an
unconventional and slightly ironic approach, maybe sneak up on people with
stealth advertising. So when the first ad hits in tomorrow's New York Times
Arts & Leisure section, a splashy full-page trumpeting the show's May 4
opening at the Marquis Theater on Broadway, this is what it will say:
“Sometimes you can tell just by looking at a title that a show is going to be
amazing. This is not one of those times.” Not everyone is unaware of The
Drowsy Chaperone. Some Canadians — or at least those in the Greater Toronto
Area, where the show was mounted in four successively larger productions
between 1998 and 2001 — know all about it.
This may just be one of those examples of our country producing something
extraordinary that has failed to jump the border just because of insufficient
PR — like butter tarts and the concept of a purely symbolic head of state. For The
Drowsy Chaperone, which will be the first musical created by Canadians to
make it to Broadway in more than 25 years, is a charmer. It opens on an unnamed
Man in Chair sitting alone in his dowdy apartment, surrounded by 78-rpm records
of classic Broadway musicals and glamour shots of stars from long ago. As
he drops the phonograph needle on the album of a long-lost 1920s musical known
as The Drowsy Chaperone, the show comes to life in his apartment,
complete with ditsy chorines, a pair of gangsters and a host of other lovably
stock characters. The Man in Chair, whose bottomless knowledge of musicals can
verge on comically obnoxious, interrupts to comment on the show and, sometimes,
to deliver delicious gossip about the stars we're seeing (the fictional ones,
not the real ones). The show's ironic smarts may provide a joyful evening in
the theatre, but they don't make for easy marketing: If you're a producer, you
can't just promise “Singing Cats!” or “Dancing Hobbits!” “I always thought we
would probably do a better job of confusing people by trying to explain, in the
very limited space of an ad, what's really going on,” agrees Roy Miller, one of
the show's producers. “We want people to know it's a musical and it's very
funny, but we don't want people to think this is just a fluffy 1920s musical
like any other 1920s musical.” Kevin McCollum, another producer whose credits
include the Tony Award-winners Rent and Avenue Q, says , “This
show comes from a wit and sensibility that celebrates not only the form but
also actually anyone who has ever gone to the theatre, and anybody who might be
suspicious of the theatre — and that's basically everybody.” McCollum came on
to the show after seeing a workshop in New York in the fall of 2004. Miller was
one of the men behind that; he'd first seen a production at the Winter Garden
Theatre in Toronto in the summer of 2001. But its roots go back much further.
Indeed, the origin myth of Drowsy Chaperone has been repeated so often
it has acquired an almost Biblical sheen.
In July, 1998, friends of the actors Bob Martin and Janet Van De Graaff,
who were engaged to be married the following month, presented an evening of
standup comedy and song in the backroom of Toronto's Rivoli bar on Queen Street
West to toast the couple. Everyone had such a good time, they decided to
remount the musical portion of the evening the following year at the Toronto
Fringe Festival, adding a framing device of a man who would comment on the
action. There were 13 actors and a pit band of four, and in a highly unusual
move, the company created a royalty pool for everyone who had contributed
material, promising a small share of whatever future revenues the show might
generate. For more revenues were on their way. The fringe show was such a hit
that it moved to Theatre Passe Muraille in November, 1999, where it sold out a
three-week run. By then, the show was officially credited to the same four
people who are on their way to Broadway for rehearsals: Lisa Lambert and Greg
Morrison, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Bob Martin and Don McKellar, who
collaborated on the book. (Martin, who also plays Man in Chair, is the only
cast member remaining from any of the Canadian productions.) Mirvish
Productions placed an expanded version of Chaperone in its subscription
season in June, 2001, which ran for seven weeks at the Winter Garden, earning
back its $2-million investment. It still wasn't quite the show envisioned by
its writers, but no one in Canada had either the money or drive to develop it
further. For three years, the property was shopped around to prospective
directors and backers in the U.S., with no bites. Then, in October, 2004, the
New York workshop attracted the attention of some deep-pocketed producers, and Chaperone
was suddenly on a fast track to a major production. (It would thus become the
first musical on Broadway created by Canadian talent since the two-man Billy
Bishop Goes to War played 12 regular performances in the spring of 1980 at
the Morosco Theatre, which was demolished in 1982 to make way for the Marquis: Chaperone's
new home. The previous Canadian entrant was the rock ‘n' roll musical Rockabye
Hamlet, which started at the Charlottetown Festival before moving to
Broadway in 1976 and closing after only seven regular performances.) Casey
Nicholaw, who won acclaim for choreographing Spamalot, agreed to make Chaperone
his Broadway directorial debut. (He also choreographs.) Some major performing
talent signed on, including the Tony-winning actress Sutton Foster (
Thoroughly Modern Millie), Georgia Engel (TV's The Mary Tyler Moore Show),
and Edward Hibbert (TV's Frasier). They opened at the Ahmanson Theatre
in Los Angeles in early November to strong reviews, including a rave for Martin
in the showbiz bible Variety.
“That's when we could actually do the musical we were always sort of just
evoking,” says McKellar. A long-time denizen of Toronto's alternative theatre
scene, McKellar overcame his natural aversion to musicals over the years of
writing and re-writing Chaperone, and ended up falling in love with the
notion of creating a big, splashy, heartfelt song-and-dance show. “We've never
really had dancing before,” he adds. “There's a certain primal pleasure of
musicals that we're now able to exploit. When people are tap dancing their
hearts out onstage, there's a pleasure that's undeniable.” Martin agrees. “The
production in L.A. was the best we've had. It was the most complete, the most
fully realized, and the most successful in terms of audience reaction.” And as
the show became more polished, it achieved its greatest level of irony, too.
“Doing a musical comedy is so American,” says McKellar. “And the whole Canadian
thing is brought up constantly. I do feel this device we have, with the man
observing, is a Canadian device: making wry commentaries, enjoying the excesses
of the American musical, but also standing outside of it.” And, occasionally,
being swept up in the surreal American swirl. Every night in L.A., celebrities
popped by backstage after the show to offer praise. “We were all excited to
meet Henry Winkler on opening night,” says McKellar. Eric Idle, Tracey Ullman,
Elliott Gould, Jo Anne Worley came by. Mel Brooks shocked everyone when he
burst in during a post-show Q&A Bob Martin was doing, to say how much he
enjoyed the show. For the moment, the lives of the Chaperone foursome
are a lot more mundane than that. They're finishing up their taxes, finding
house-sitters, trying to locate people who will take care of their cats for —
well, who knows how long they'll be gone? On Wednesday night, about 100 of
their friends and relatives gathered at Rancho Relaxo in Toronto to wish
Lambert, McKellar, Martin and Morrison farewell. It was a reunion of sorts,
with some members of the original Fringe company seeing each other for the
first time in years. All night long, until the bar closed down and people
trickled out onto College Street and went their separate ways, they laughed and
reminisced and talked excitedly of New York, as if still trying to convince
each other that Broadway was not just a dream in their heads. This is what the
evening's invitation promised: Music. Appetizers. Shared Disbelief. THEATRE TIDBITS
Neve Campbell Appears In Arthur Miller Play
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Mar. 6, 2006) London -- A Robert Altman production of Arthur
Miller's last play, starring Canadian Neve Campbell, opened to mixed
reviews in
London this weekend. Resurrection Blues, Miller's satire on the
collision of violence, religion and commerce, features Campbell as a troubled
silver-spoon revolutionary. Matthew Modine plays an American ad executive, and
Austrian actor Maximilian Schell as an impetuous Latin American dictator. Most
British critics savaged the show. The Times' Benedict Nightingale called Resurrection
Blues an "interesting, uneven play." The Guardian's Michael
Billington dismissed the "clumsily inept, poorly acted"
production. Miller's script was first staged in 2002, when the playwright
was 86, and revised shortly before his death last year. Resurrection
Blues runs at the Old Vic in London until April 22. AP
Rings Ready For Reviews
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Mar. 8, 2006) Just like a baseball player who gets whipped into shape during
spring training, The Lord of the Rings looks like it's finally ready to face the major leagues. All
of this has happened just in time, because even though the official opening
night isn't until March 23, media begin attending performances March 17.
And for the first time in recent memory, a truly impressive collection of
press will be piling into Toronto to weigh in on The Lord of the Rings.
Even in the heyday of Garth Drabinsky's Livent empire, there was never
such a turnout as the Mirvish organization is expecting this weekend.
Critics from England, Germany, Finland, France and Australia,
international news magazines like Time and Newsweek and American
reviewers from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be coming here to decide
if it's thumbs up or down for Frodo and his Middle-earth friends. Producer
Kevin Wallace is thrilled at the response. "You can't hide with a
project like this and we never wanted to," Wallace says. He's
feeling optimistic because the $28 million dollar epic has slashed its running
time to the relatively sleek 3 1/2 hours it always aspired to, a far cry from
the nearly five hours it clocked in at its initial preview on Feb. 4.
There were also numerous technical problems and delays that cast a cloud
over the proceedings initially, but the complex show is said to be running smoothly.
The 40-tonne triple-interlocking turntable stage with its 17 elevators,
which caused the initial preview to stop dead in its tracks, has been spinning
lately without a hitch. Along with the reduced length and scenic ease has
apparently come an increased confidence in performance. Early comments
from theatre-goers expressed severe reservations about the show, but Internet
comments in the past few days have used words like "spectacular,"
"amazing" and "extraordinary."
::OTHER NEWS::
We Remember: Dana Reeve
Source: Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press
(Mar. 8, 2006) White Plains, N.Y. — Dana
Reeve, who won worldwide admiration for her devotion to her
"Superman" husband, Christopher
Reeve, through his decade of near-total paralysis, has died of lung cancer at
the age of 44. Reeve, a singer-actress who
gave up some of her own career to be one of the nation's best-known caregivers,
died late Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center, said Kathy Lewis,
president of the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Reeve had succeeded her husband
as chair of the foundation, which funded research into spinal-cord paralysis
cures. She announced in August that, while she wasn't a smoker, she had been
diagnosed with lung cancer. Lewis visited Reeve in the hospital Friday and said
Reeve was "tired but with her typical sense of humour and smile, always
trying to make other people feel good, her characteristic personality."
"She was a woman with an incredible heart who really put herself out there
to help people with disabilities and especially those who are caregivers —
something she knew a lot about," Lewis said. Four months ago, at a
fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve looked healthy in a long, formal
gown and said she was responding well to treatment and her tumour was
shrinking. "I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors
can throw at me," Reeve said then. "My prognosis looks better all the
time." Asked how she kept her spirits up, Reeve said she "had a great
model."
"I was married to a man who never gave up," she said. She was
still looking well on Jan. 13, when she sang Carole King's Now and Forever at
Madison Square Garden during the retirement ceremony for Mark Messier's New
York Rangers jersey. "Despite the adversity that she faced, Dana bravely
met these challenges and was always an extremely devoted wife, mother and
advocate," former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
said in a statement Tuesday. They described Reeve as "a model of tenacity
and grace" and an "inspiration to us." Sen. Diane Feinstein,
D-Calif., said of Reeve: "I thought that after everything that she had
gone through with Chris that she would have time to smell the flowers and be in
the sun. But apparently that was not meant to be." Christopher Reeve, star
of Hollywood's Superman movies, died Oct. 10, 2004. After a horse-riding
accident paralyzed him in 1995, he became an activist for spinal cord research.
Dana Reeve was a constant companion and supporter of her husband during his
long ordeal and his work for a cure for spinal cord injuries. The couple had a
13-year-old son, Will, and Dana Reeve had two grown stepchildren, Matthew and
Alexandra. Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, had appeared on Broadway,
off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows Law & Order, Oz, and
All My Children. She was performing in the Broadway-bound play Brooklyn Boy in
California when she had to rush home to reach her husband's bedside before he
died. She gave up the role for the New York run.
A month after she was widowed, before her own diagnosis, she told The
Associated Press, "I definitely will be getting back to acting. ... I am
an actress and I do have to make a living." Reeve also was on the board of
the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, where she met Christopher
Reeve doing summer theatre, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. A year
ago, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society. A
society vice-president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Reeve "has shown strength
and courage in the face of tremendous adversity." Doctors say one in five
women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette. In addition to her son
and stepchildren, she is survived by her father, Dr. Charles Morosini, and
sisters Deborah Morosini and Adrienne Morosini Heilman. No funeral plans were
announced. The family said donations could be made in Dana Reeve's memory to
the Christopher Reeve Foundation in Short Hills, N.J.
OTHER TIDBITS
Make Tracks To Summerhill Restaurant
Excerpt
from The Toronto Star - Amy Pataki
(Mar. 4, 2006) In the category of "This I Gotta
See," a developer is proposing to build
a restaurant on an unused portion of railway track outside the Summerhill
LCBO. Woodcliffe Corp. plans to construct a gourmet restaurant on the
southern edge of the CP Rail bridge above Yonge St., right beside a working
track. How will the rumbling influence the dinner experience? When I
lived in the area, I heard the noise clearly though the tracks were three
blocks away. The new restaurant might as well be in the centre of a Highway 401
cloverleaf ramp. Who the heck would pay big money to eat foie gras with the
walls rattling? In other neighbourhood news, Patachou, the oh-so-French
patisserie amongst the Five Robbers gourmet stores, has decamped across Yonge
St. to the former Demarco-Perpich flower store at MacPherson Ave. The stylishly
renovated room still buzzes on a weekday morning with well-heeled locals taking
their croissants and café au lait. Moving into the old Patachou will be MBCo.,
the Montreal-based bakery that first touched down around here in Yorkville. A
third MBCo. — those in the know pronounce it "embiko," Japanese-style
— is planned for the Toronto-Dominion Centre. Further down Yonge St., the
landlord has closed Banjara Indian Cuisine for non-payment of rent. Too bad, we
liked the gingery butter chicken. Chef/owner Rajesh Veerella plans to reopen
downtown.
::SPORTS NEWS::
Jays Have Inside Track Over Raptors
Excerpt
from The Toronto Star - Garth Woolsey
(Mar. 6, 2006) Not that there is an easy answer, but it is a question
worth kicking around anyway: Which of the Toronto teams — the Blue Jays,
Raptors or Maple Leafs — is the most likely to be first to win a
championship? What's involved here is speculation, voodoo and an earnest
effort at assessing not only the current state of the franchises in question,
but also their longer-term prospects. And, yes, off the top, it is entirely
possible that there will be no championship in the works for T.O. for a long,
long time. The Leafs have been in the wilderness since 1967, the Jays
since 1993, the Raptors have never had so much as a sniff. The wait could be
interminable. (As for the Argonauts or Rock or any other team in any
other league — congratulations, but you're excused from this forensic
examination and reading of the entrails, CSI: Toronto, Pro Sports
Division.) The three operations are at radically different stages of
development. The Jays, despite the fact they've had only one winning season in
their last five, are laden with positive possibilities, thanks in large part to
a free agent spending spree that followed several seasons of deep-down fiscal
and competitive cleansing. The patient approach as preached by J.P. Ricciardi
and Paul Godfrey has finally reached the stage at which there may be tangible
payoffs in the won-lost column. For what it is worth, the oddsmakers in
Nevada have the Blue Jays in the range of 8-to-1 (bet $1 to win $8) to win the
American League pennant this season. As they have to come out of the AL East,
ahead of either or both of the Red Sox and Yankees, that's a tough job and a
realistic number. As for the baseball gurus, most view the Jays as
legitimate, if still outside, contenders. The new players will have to live up
to advance billing, Roy Halladay will have to stay healthy, there will have to
be better production from the outfield and infield corners and, crucially, the
infield defence must withstand the loss of Corey Koskie and especially, Orlando
Hudson.
The Jays time may be close, if not now. Their farm system is good, if not
great. They may well be in the process of returning to perennial viability in a
sport that places value on player development but also allows for wild
spending, if Ted Rogers so chooses. Those same oddsmakers look at the
Raptors and come up with a number, any number, so long as it is at least, say,
350-to-1 to win the NBA championship this season. Which is entirely realistic.
But the recent signing of a new GM in Bryan Colangelo and the promise of an emergent
franchise player in Chris Bosh (with Charlie Villanueva in support) bodes well
for the future, longer term. With this franchise "stab-ility" has
stood for back-stabbing and the ability to avoid it (or not). Who knows what
clear, informed thinking from the top down might accomplish. It is certainly
true that given the small NBA rosters and the importance of the draft and
salary cap that teams can be turned around relatively quickly. Which
brings us to the Maple Leafs. The oddsmakers, not surprisingly, view them as a
fading contender. They've gone from 20-to-1 to win the Stanley Cup to 50-to-1
in a matter of days but most everyone understands their real chances are as
remote as, say, Eddie Belfour winning the Vezina. Realistically, most
pre-season forecasts had the Leafs fighting for a playoff position, which is
exactly where they stand. But GM John Ferguson Jr.'s off-season signings have
been worse than most imagined. Jeff O'Neill is minus-19, Eric Lindros is done
for the season, with 11 goals (the same as Mats Sundin); Jason Allison is
erratic at best; ditto Alexander Khavanov. Two of team's top three scorers are
defencemen, Belfour's save percentage is .891. And, so on. Whatever
long-term hope there is for the Leafs centres around the younger players, but
that group hardly inspires wild optimism. When's the last time the Leafs
drafted a genuine "franchise" player? At least they have depth at the
all-important goaltending position, with Mikael Tellqvist, Justin Pogge and
Tuukka Rask. So ... of the three, odds to be the first to win a title:
Jays 5-to-1, Raptors 8-to-1, Leafs 12-to-1. Chance that none will do it in the
next 10 years? Say, even money.
Baseball Great Puckett Dead
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Dave
Campbell, Associated Press
(Mar. 7, 2006) MINNEAPOLIS - Kirby Puckett,
the bubbly, barrel-shaped Hall of Famer who carried the Minnesota Twins to two
World Series titles before
his career was cut short by glaucoma, died Monday after a stroke. He was
45. Puckett, whose weight gain in recent years concerned those close to
him, was stricken early Sunday at his Arizona home. He died at St. Joseph’s
Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. “He was a Hall of Famer in every
sense of the term,” commissioner Bud Selig said. “He played his entire career
with the Twins and was an icon in Minnesota. But he was revered throughout the
country and will be remembered wherever the game is played. Kirby was taken
from us much too soon — and too quickly.” Puckett was the second-youngest
person to die already a member of the Hall of Fame, Hall spokesman Jeff Idelson
said. Only Lou Gehrig, at 37, was younger. Puckett led the Twins to
championships in 1987 and 1991. He broke into the majors in 1984 and had a
career batting average of .318. Glaucoma left the six-time Gold Glove centre
fielder and 10-time all-star with no choice but to retire after the 1995 season
when he went blind in his right eye. “I wore one uniform in my career and
I’m proud to say that,” Puckett once said. “As a kid growing up in Chicago,
people thought I’d never do anything. I’ve always tried to play the game the
right way. I thought I did pretty good with the talent that I have.”
He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2001, and his plaque
praised his “ever-present smile and infectious exuberance.” Yet, out of the
game, the five-foot-eight Puckett let himself fall out of shape. “It’s a
tough thing to see a guy go through something like that and come to this
extent,” former teammate Kent Hrbek said. “That’s what really hurt him
bad, when he was forced out of the game,” he said. “I don’t know if he ever
recovered from it.” Asked what he would remember the most from their
playing days, Hrbek quickly answered, “Just his smile, his laughter and his
love for the game.” Puckett had been in intensive care since having
surgery at another hospital. His family, friends and former teammates gathered
Monday at St. Joseph’s. He was given last rites and died in the afternoon,
hospital spokeswoman Kimberly Lodge said. Puckett wanted his organs to be
donated. In a statement, his family and friends thanked his fans for their
thoughts and prayers. “It’s tough to take,” Twins general manager Terry
Ryan said from the team’s spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. “He had some
faults, we knew that, but when all was said and done he would treat you as well
as he would anyone else. No matter who you were. “When you’re around him,
he makes you feel pretty good about yourself. He can make you laugh. He can do
a lot of things that can light up a room. He’s a beauty,” he said. A
makeshift memorial began to form Monday night outside the Metrodome, with a
handful of bouquets laid on the sidewalk. “This is a sad day for the
Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere,” Twins owner
Carl Pohlad said. Puckett’s signature performance came in Game 6 of the
1991 World Series against Atlanta. After telling anyone who would listen before
the game that he would lead the Twins to victory that night at the Metrodome,
he made a leaping catch against the fence and then hit a game-ending homer in
the 11th inning to force a seventh game. The next night, Minnesota’s Jack
Morris went all 10 innings to outlast John Smoltz and pitch the Twins to a 1-0
win for their second championship in five years. “If we had to lose and
if one person basically was the reason — you never want to lose — but you
didn’t mind it being Kirby Puckett. When he made the catch and when he hit the
home run you could tell the whole thing had turned,” Smoltz said. “His name
just seemed to be synonymous with being a superstar,” the Braves’ pitcher said.
“It’s not supposed to happen like this.”
Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk echoed Smoltz’s sentiment. “There was
no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the
game. He elevated the play of everyone around him,” Fisk said in a statement to
the Hall. Puckett’s birthdate was frequently listed as March 14, 1961,
but recent research by the Hall of Fame indicated he was born a year earlier.
Perhaps the most popular athlete ever to play in Minnesota, Puckett was a guest
coach at Twins spring training camp in 1996, but hadn’t worked for the team
since 2002. He kept a low profile since being cleared of assault charges in
2003, when he was accused of groping a woman at a suburban Twin Cities
restaurant. The youngest of nine children born into poverty in a Chicago
housing project, Puckett was drafted by the Twins in 1982 and became a regular
just two years later. He got four hits in his first major league start and
finished with 2,304 in only 12 seasons. Though his power numbers, 207
home runs and 1,085 RBIs, weren’t exceptional, Puckett won an AL batting title
in 1989 and was considered one of the best all-around players of his era. His
esteem and enthusiasm for the game factored into his Hall of Fame election as
much as his statistics and championship rings. He made his mark on
baseball’s biggest stage, leading heavy underdog Minnesota to a seven-game
victory over St. Louis in 1987 and then doing the same against Atlanta in one
of the most thrilling Series in history. The Twins returned to the
Metrodome that year after losing 14-5 in Game 5, needing to win two straight to
get the trophy. Puckett famously walked into the clubhouse hours before Game 6,
cajoling his teammates to jump on his back and let him carry them to
victory. Sure enough, after robbing Ron Gant of an extra-base hit with a
leaping catch against the wall in the third inning, Puckett homered off Charlie
Leibrandt to send the Series to Game 7. “There are a lot of great players
in this game, but only one Kirby,” pitcher Rick Aguilera said when Puckett
announced his retirement. “It was his character that meant more to his
teammates. He brought a great feeling to the clubhouse, the plane,
everywhere.” Puckett’s best year was 1988, when he batted .356 with 24
home runs, 42 doubles and 121 RBIs. A contact hitter and stolen base threat in
the minors who hit a total of four homers in his first two major league
seasons, Puckett developed a power stroke in 1986 and went deep a career-best
31 times. He became a fixture in the third spot in Minnesota’s line-up, a
free-swinging outfielder with a strong arm and a flair for nifty catches
despite his 220-pound frame that made him look more like a fullback. The man
known simply as “Puck” was immensely popular. Fans loved his style, especially
the high leg kick he used as he prepared to swing. Public address announcer Bob
Casey, who became a close friend, introduced him with vigour before every at-bat,
``KIR-beeeeeeeeee PUCK-it.” As free agency and expansion turned over
rosters more frequently in the 1990s, Puckett was one of the rare stars who
never switched teams.
Hit by a pitch that broke his jaw on his last at-bat of the 1995 season,
Puckett woke up one morning the following spring and couldn’t see out of his
right eye. It was eventually diagnosed as glaucoma, forcing him to call it
quits that July. He received baseball’s Roberto Clemente Man of the Year
Award for community service that year, and the Twins — trying to boost sagging
attendance during some lean seasons in the late 1990s — frequently turned to
Puckett-related promotions. He had a spot in the front office and sometimes
made stops at the state Capitol to help stump for a new stadium. Though
he steadfastly refused to speak pessimistically about the premature end to his
career, Puckett’s personal life began to deteriorate after that. Shortly after
his induction to Cooperstown, his then-wife, Tonya, accused him of threatening
to kill her during an argument — he denied it — and described to police a
history of violence and infidelity. In 2003, he was cleared of all charges from
an alleged sexual assault of a woman at a suburban Twin Cities
restaurant. He kept a low profile after the trial and eventually moved to
Arizona. The Twins kept trying to re-establish a connection and get him to come
to spring training again as a guest instructor. Puckett, who was
divorced, is survived by his children, Catherine and Kirby Jr.
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We Remember: Baseball Hall Of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Mar. 7, 2006) *Former Minnesota Twins player Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after
suffering a stroke at his home in Arizona. He was 44. Puckett died at St.
Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. He had been in intensive care
since having surgery at another hospital following his stroke Sunday morning.
The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died in the afternoon.
"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden
passing of Kirby Puckett," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He
was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term. Puckett broke into the majors
in 1984 and had a career batting average of .318. Glaucoma forced the six-time
Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in
his right eye. "This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League
Baseball and baseball fans everywhere," Twins owner Carl Pohlad said. At
EUR deadline time, funeral plans had not been released.
Raps' MoPete A Changed Man
Excerpt
from The Toronto Star - Doug Smith, Sports Reporter
(Mar. 7, 2006) Vince Carter knows Morris
Peterson's game almost as well as the Raptor swingman knows it himself,
having practised against him
thousands of times and watched him in hundreds of games. So when the two
met on the weekend in New Jersey and Peterson started doing a few things that
were out of the ordinary, Carter was a bit surprised. And
impressed. No longer is Peterson simply a spot-up shooter who waits
impatiently for passes that may or may not come so he can launch a
three-pointer in the corner. No longer is he passive on offence, and people are
really starting to pay attention to him. "MoPete's game has changed,
man," said Carter. "He always was a confident player but he's really
growing and making the best of his opportunities." Peterson, who had
a team-high 27 points as Toronto snapped a six-game losing streak by beating
Boston on Sunday, now gets as many of his points on mid-range jumpers as he
does on three-pointers from the corner. He's still pretty deadly from
long range but teams have to be careful now or he'll blow by a defender for an
easier shot. "He' starting to pump-fake and step inside that
three-point line a lot more and that's something we've been encouraging Mo to
do since we got here," said coach Sam Mitchell. "People respect his
three-point shooting so they're going to run out hard on him. That light is
coming on that, `You know, I don't have to shoot a three every time.'"
Peterson is enjoying his best season as a Raptor, averaging 15.2 points
per game and shooting 40 per cent from three-point range. He has become integral
to Toronto's offence, a testament to the faith Mitchell has in him to be more
aggressive taking the ball to the basket. "I want to be an
all-around scorer," Peterson said. "I like to go right at guys when I
can." In a subtle move, Peterson usually gets the first shot of
every game for the Raptors, curling off a screen to catch the ball near the
foul line, from where he'll either get an open 15-foot jumper or a path to the
basket. It's an early notice to opponents that Peterson's changed. "He's
more of a one-dribble shooter now ... and he'll go right a little more,"
said Carter. "I didn't want to tell him that, but I was thinking, `He has
some new stuff.'" That's thanks in no small part to Mitchell and the
Raptor staff, who have been working with Peterson in practice to turn him into
more of a catch-and-shoot specialist and driver than someone whose offence was
static. "He's been aggressive coming off picks, he's been working
hard on his mid-range game," said the coach. Peterson's heavy
workload is no secret — he played 49 of 53 minutes against the Nets on Saturday
and all 48 in Sunday's win over Boston — and neither is his defensive
assignment each night. He always gets the other team's best scorer and
he'll get one of the best in the game tonight and tomorrow when Toronto plays a
back-to-back, home-and-home set with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Having
primarily covered Atlanta's Joe Johnson, New Jersey's Carter and Boston's Paul
Pierce in his last three games, Peterson is about to get a double dose of
LeBron James. "He never complains, just does his job," Mitchell
said. Mitchell might give Peterson some defensive help tonight. The coach
said the Raptors are going to start Eric Williams for a third straight game
because the veteran forward's "basketball IQ" will come in handy with
some game-plan changes Mitchell will put in place. "We're going to
have to do some different things against Cleveland and we're going to need
people who can adjust on the fly," said the coach. "We're going to
try some things a little different. They may work, they may not, but we're
going to try."
Canadians Didn't Invent Skating, But Museum Of Civilization
Shows That The Sport Is In Our Blood
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
- Val Ross
(Mar. 8, 2006) GATINEAU, QUE. — Of the two
exhibitions currently on offer in the nation's capital, the one that best
achieves the desired effect of patriotic propaganda is not Weapons of Mass
Dissemination, the
Canadian War Museum's thought-provoking survey of wartime exhortation, but
rather Lace Up: Canada's Passion for
Skating, the celebration of skating's
development and place in Canadian society, at the Museum of Civilization until
next March. From your first exposure to the "taster" video -- it's a
charming split-screen production showing a child taking tumbles on a pond, and
moving on to point-of-view footage of speed skaters coursing down the frozen
Rideau Canal, all set to plangent musical accompaniment -- Lace Up is a
deft appeal to warm sentiment about Canadianness. The appeal works. "The
numbers for Lace Up have been very good," says Museum of
Civilization chief executive officer Victor Rabinovitch, "about 4,000
people a week." They'll likely keep coming, buoyed by the Canadian Olympic
team's record haul of 24 medals, eight of them for prowess at long-track speed
skating, four for short-track, and a gold for women's hockey. (The museum is
investing another $5,000 in order to incorporate an extra minute of the latest
Olympic triumphs into the video montage at the show's finale.) If there is a
unifying force in this fractured land, it is our passion for moving fast on
frozen surfaces, a passion even felt by some who don't skate (see sidebar). A
highlight of the show is a pair of Dutch skates, circa 1730, their blades
hand-painted with a scene of people gliding on a frozen canal. These are not
the show's oldest skates. That claim belongs to a pair of bones, on loan from
Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum -- objects drilled by a 10th-century skate-maker so
that they could be attached to a boot by means of thongs. Medieval images show
that users of these proto-skates propelled themselves along not by powerful
foot movements, but with poles. And even this was perilous: A wall graphic
replicates a 1498 engraving of St. Ludwina, skating's patron saint, whose fall
on ice crippled her for life (but whose suffering led to many miracles).
Canadians didn't invent skating, but they've slid right into it -- perhaps too
eagerly.
One of the show's rare acknowledgments of skating's unruly side is an
ordnance issued in Quebec City in December, 1748, by François Bigot, Intendant
de Nouvelle France: "It has been reported that children and even grownups
slide on sleds, on skates . . . on the various hills of this city, exposing
passers-by to accidents. . . ." The decree declared this "expressly
prohibited and forbidden . . .," and threatened: "The said children shall
remain in prison until their said fathers and mothers have paid the said
fine." This raises an intriguing idea that our history includes repeated
failed attempts to control the dark forces unleashed by people speeding around
with knives on their feet. Alas, Lace Up skates past any controversy.
You won't see exhibits of hockey violence; absent, too, is the Richard Riot of
March, 1955, -- a pivotal event in Quebec history, when a hockey-drunk mob
10,000-strong rampaged through Montreal in support of their hero Maurice Richard,
challenging Quebec's anglo authorities (in fairness, the museum deals with this
in its Maurice Richard exhibition, now on tour). If almost the only allusion to
hockey's iconic role in Quebec nationalism is a wall text from The Hockey
Sweater by Roch Carrier, much is made of skating's role in Canadian
nation-building. Canadians, we are told, constructed the world's first indoor
rinks (one 1860s Montreal dome could hold 3,000 people). We invented the tube
skate, a hollow cylinder of metal above the actual blade, which contributed
strength without adding to a skate's weight. And we codified the rules of
hockey (the exhibition attributes this to Montreal in 1875, over competing
claims from Kingston and Halifax).
Much is also made of skating's heroes. A clip of Barbara Ann Scott,
Canada's sweetheart and 1948 Olympic figure-skating gold medalist, shows her
talking about the great pride skaters feel in representing Canada (her skates
are displayed alongside the baby skates of Wayne Gretzky). And there are homemade
gold medals made of jewellery donated by fans of Jamie Salé and David
Pelletier, after they were initially denied Olympic gold in 2002. Throughout
the entire exhibition area, you are always in earshot of strains of the
national anthem. That and cheering. This is the soundtrack for the final
display, a video of Olympic highlights from Chamonix, 1924, (we won the hockey
gold) to the latest haul (the updated footage should be in place by April).
Museum project manager Julie Leclair says people sit and watch this video from
beginning to end. Some even cheer. So clearly, Lace Up tugs at the right
strings, even if it puts skating's more slippery aspects on ice. Lace Up:
Canada's Passion for Skating continues at the Museum of Civilization in
Gatineau, Que., to March 4, 2007 (800-555-5621).
Nice Ice, Baby
Of the 200 objects organized by
curator Bianca Gendreau, more than 60 came from the private hoard of Jean-Marie
Leduc, a retired Ottawa-area printing-press operator whose painful fallen
arches prevented him from personally lacing up for most of his life. No matter,
he became the world's foremost collector of skate artifacts. One of his loans
to Lace Up is a pair of Bobby Hull's tube skates (pictured above),
well-worn by the ace player in his National Hockey League career.
