Langfield
Entertainment
88
Bloor Street E., Suite 2908, Toronto, ON
M4W 3G9
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
NEWSLETTER
Updated: September 21, 2006
::SCOOP::
Kayte Burgess and Ali Shaheed Muhammad Team Up
Kayte Burgess is back on the
scene! Her first single “Now You Know”
recently hit the radio airwaves. The track was produced by the talented Ali Shaheed Muhammad
of Tribe Called Quest. What a privilege!
Toronto's Kayte Burgess
was the only Canadian artist to perform at NABFEME's All-Female Showcase, Women
Who Jam last year. Her single, "Now You Know" can be found
on their CD
compilation that was distributed at the conference to successful women in
entertainment. NABFEME also invited Kayte to tour with their other
artists around the U.S. this
past summer.
Don’t forget to REQUEST the track “Now
You Know” at FLOW 93.5 at 416-935-1935.
Have a listen at www.kayteburgess.com or www.myspace.com/kayteburgessmusic and post your comment to Kayte
directly!
Background
Kayte Burgess is the product of urban cultural textures that exist in the
fabric of Toronto, Canada. Kayte’s smooth deliverance of soul and dynamic vocal
technique, topped off with a three and a half octave range, engages her
listeners in intricate, sultry and fun performances. Kayte has eagerly pursued
every opportunity she could to immerse herself within the music scene. At age
13, Kayte began studying classical voice, piano and harmony and furthered her education
to obtain a degree in Jazz. While this musical education served to define her
sound, Kayte’s true passion is soul music. She secured opportunities to
showcase her skills for Quincy Jones, Lionel Ritchie, Mariah Carey, Erykah Badu
and Jill Scott, to name a few.
::top stories::
Stopping
the FLOW?
Source: Eye
Weekly, By Jon Sarpong
(Sept. 21, 2006) If you live in Toronto and are a fan of urban music, it goes without
saying that you've tuned into FLOW 93.5FM, Canada's first commercial urban-music station. Launched in 2001
with a mandate to bring urban (read: black) music to Toronto's
vanilla-flavoured mainstream-radio landscape, FLOW has surprised the critics by
steadily increasing its listenership while maintaining the goodwill of its
audience. However, recent developments, including the departure of much-loved
on-air talent and the introduction of questionable programming, has led to
ever-increasing speculation that FLOW will be abandoning its urban-music format
in favour of a more advertiser-friendly top 40 schedule. Much of the
speculation surrounding FLOW began this summer with the rumoured dismissal of
music director Justin Dumont. Adding fuel to the fire, earlier this month,
morning-show hosts Jemeni and Mark Strong abruptly announced that, after five
years at FLOW, they would be leaving the station. Shortly after, FLOW
management announced the introduction of a new morning team that included
Melanie Martin, formerly of Z103.5, Toronto's most popular top 40/dance radio
entity. As a result of these changes, many long-time FLOW listeners, angered
and confused by these actions, filled email inboxes, voicemails and mailbags
wanting to know one thing: "What is happening at FLOW?"
"Definitely they have restructured the show," Jemeni responds
when asked if she believes that FLOW is going top 40. "As far as why they
wanted to restructure the show, you'd have to ask FLOW."
Jemeni -- who is currently starring in Trey Anthony and Rachael-Lea Rickards'
latest stage effort, I Am Not a Dinner Mint -- reveals that the changes at FLOW
have been bubbling beneath the surface for quite a while. "Mark and
I began discussing leaving FLOW about two years ago," Jemeni acknowledges.
"Back then, we could see that there were changes coming. It was about six
months ago that we got a more clear idea of what was happening with the
station. Everyone was hearing the rumours and we agreed that we'd stick it out
and wait for [management] to make their move. In the meantime, we decided that
we'd give the most of Mark and Jem that we could, and hoped that at the end of
the day there would be some package while we moved toward pursuing our
dreams." When asked about what has necessitated the changes at FLOW,
Jemeni claims the pressures exerted by commercial-radio market on the fledgling
station may have been underestimated by FLOW's management. "I
believe that Mr. [Denham] Jolly [FLOW's president & CEO] has said several
times that, because it was a new forum, what he aimed to do and what he found
it possible to do and still be successful were two different things. I respect
him for saying that and I think that explains a lot of what has gone on." Nicole
Jolly, vice-president of operations for FLOW, believes that the rumours
connected to personnel, format and programming changes at the station are the
result of a few misguided voices.
"If people understood our business, they'd criticize less," Jolly
relates. "First, I'd like to squash the rumour that Justin Dumont, our
music director, was fired. He went away for a brief time this summer to enjoy
his honeymoon. He came back with a ring and still works at the station. But
this is an example of how through a misinterpreted incident, rumours can get
started." With over 400,000 listeners in the GTA, Jolly and the rest
of her management staff have been inundated with questions related to the
recent moves at her station. Her stance is that FLOW, like any other commercial
radio station, is attempting to deepen the connection it has with its audience.
"We are responding to the needs of our listeners," she says.
"Listeners tell us what they like every day by voting with their ears.
When we make changes, it's because people have told us, through research, what
they want to hear." Jolly also hopes to quell all gossip surrounding
the departure of the Mark and Jem morning team. "There was nothing
personal about the exit of Mark and Jem," Jolly says. "I still have a
great deal of respect for both of them. I don't think it would be fair to them
to talk about the reasons they left in a public forum. What I will say is that
people leave their workplaces for many reasons and things aren't always what
they seem. We've been criticized by some people because Mark and Jem are no
longer on the air; those criticisms contain assumptions. Mark and Jem were
treated fairly and as far as I know, were not unhappy about leaving the
station. Jolly tackles the larger issue of whether FLOW will move toward
a top 40 format with cautious consideration. Having witnessed the rise and fall
of urban stations across the country, she does not close the door on the
possibility of a format change, but denies that FLOW has any immediate plans to
move toward that course of action. "Urban music is definitely
becoming more difficult to categorize," she reveals. "In terms of
going top 40, everybody is talking about these rumours. In this business you
don't ever want to say 'never,' but I can definitely say that right now, we do
not have any plans to go in that direction." EMAIL
LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM
Flow Charting
· 2000 After a decade of frustration, the efforts of Milestone Radio
are rewarded as the CRTC grants Denham Jolly's company a radio licence for an
urban-music format.
· 2001 FLOW 93.5FM hits the airwaves bringing urban music to GTA.
Jemeni and Mark Strong debut the morning radio show that they will host for the
next five years.
· 2003 Farley Flex leaves FLOW management to pursue production and
television opportunities, including Canadian Idol.
· 2004 FLOW forms the Peace Prophets, a collective of concerned
members of Toronto's urban-music community, aimed at fighting gun violence in
Toronto.
· 2006 Popular morning show hosts Mark and Jemeni leave FLOW under
dubious circumstances. Rumours surrounding a format change at the station
quickly travel across the country. Listeners question whether this signals the
end of urban music in Toronto.
Illustration: Anthony Brennan
Toronto Native Sam Ashaolu Improves After Being Shot; Baldonado
Released
By Alan Robinson, Canadian Press
(Sept. 22, 2006) PITTSBURGH (AP) - Duquesne University forward Sam
Ashaolu, one of five basketball players shot after
a campus dance last weekend, was upgraded from critical to serious condition
Friday and has begun to speak softly. Toronto native Ashaolu, the most
seriously injured of the Dukes players, is the only one who remains
hospitalized. Stuard Baldonado, a junior forward shot in the left arm and back,
was released from Mercy Hospital late Friday afternoon - hours before his
parents arrived from Colombia. "It's unbelievable the progress
they're making," coach Ron Everhart told The Associated Press.
Family members said Ashaolu, sedated for much of the week, asked Thursday night
about two of his brothers - the first words he is known to have spoken since
being shot early Sunday morning. He also recognized himself, and a brother,
while watching TV news accounts of the shooting. Ashaolu initially asked
about 17-year-old brother Olu, a high school junior in Texas who is considered
one of the nation's top basketball players in the class of 2008.
Ashaolu's condition was upgraded less than a week after he was shot twice in
the head - with one bullet splintering into several sections. The bullet
fragments remain because it would be too risky to try to remove them due to the
severe swelling from the wounds. But doctors did remove a ventilator that
was aiding Ashaolu's breathing and a drain that was guiding fluids from his
head. Doctors who spoke to Duquesne officials said both developments were
significant given how badly Ashaolu was hurt.
Earlier in the week, Everhart said Ashaolu was fighting for his life.
"I think I'm witnessing a miracle," Everhart said. "That he
could make such progress so quickly is unbelievable. These are things the
doctors were hoping for in two to three weeks." Because Ashaolu
still has bullet fragments in his head, doctors are not yet ready to make a
prognosis for his recovery. If he should somehow be bumped or if the fragments
would shift, there is a possibility he could regress. "But we've
seen nothing but progress," Everhart said. "This shows you what a
fighter Sam is, and what tough shape he's in. The fact he is stable is a very
big relief. We're not out of the woods yet, but everything in the last 72 hours
has been very uplifting." Ashaolu, Shawn James, Aaron Jackson, Kojo
Mensah and Baldonado were shot as they returned to their dormitories and
apartments following the dance. All but Jackson were new players who had
arrived on campus only in the last few weeks. Baldonado initially was
listed in serious condition but was upgraded to fair Monday. A day later, he
had a bullet removed from a patch of muscle just below the skin in his
back. His mother and father, who live on an island off the coast of
Colombia, were due in town Friday night and will stay with the former Miami
Dade College player as he continues his rehabilitation. Duquesne won't
say Baldonado will miss the season, but back injuries like his normally take
two to three months of rehabilitation. Arrested and charged in the
shootings earlier this week were William Holmes and Brandon Baynes, both 18 and
of the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills. According to a criminal
complaint, Brittany Jones, a 19-year-old Penn Hills resident, helped six men -
several of whom she knew were carrying guns - to gain admission to a Black
Student Union dance on Duquesne's campus.
Jones was a Duquesne student - the two men were not - but was suspended from
school after she was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, carrying
a firearm without a license and criminal conspiracy. She was released after
posting US$2,000 bail. Bail was set at $250,000 for Baynes. It has not
been posted, and he remains in jail. Holmes was denied bail. The
shootings took place early Sunday shortly after the dance ended when, according
to AP interviews with two players, several of the non-students apparently
became upset when Jones began flirting with one of the Dukes players.
Several players have needed counselling after complaining they were unable to
sleep well. On Wednesday, the team resumed off-season conditioning drills, and
Everhart was pleased with how the players responded to being back on the
court. "I think it's been very therapeutic for them," he said.
Food Fit For A Cole Porter Song
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Amy Pataki
Sopra Upper Lounge
Address: 265 Davenport Rd. (at Avenue Rd.), 416-929-9006
Chef: Joey Malandrino
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Reservations: Recommended
Wheelchair access: No
Price: Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip: $100. Entertainment
charge: $15
Question: What do you get when you combine cool jazz and a hot young chef?
Answer: Sopra Upper Lounge.
(Sep. 23, 2006) The lounge — a softly lit upstairs room richly appointed
by
Munge Leung Design in dark wood, marshmallow soft leather chairs and curvaceous
booths — is the stylish younger sister of Mistura downstairs. Besides the
ownership team of Paolo Paolini and Mistura executive chef Massimo Capra, Sopra
and Mistura share a commitment to the finer things in life. Things like
perfectly seared foie gras, a powerfully fruity 2003 Planeta Burdese from
Sicily and a pristine white marble bathroom fit for a Roman empress, complete
with seven different hair products for a mid-meal touch-up. It's a
$1.8-million experiment in aural and gastro pleasure, and a successful one at
that. Where Sopra ("above" in Italian) differs from its
9-year-old sibling is in the music. Combos, cabaret singers, blues and New
Orleans jazz — the music starts every night at 9, drawing diners from
downstairs as well as those pining for the now-closed Montreal Bistro, Top O'
The Senator and George's Spaghetti House.
They nurse a drink at the glowing onyx bar, or share a few small plates at
table and make quiet conversation. "It shouldn't be that you can't
talk," says Paolini. "If you have just a listening room, at the end
of the night you can barely pay for the band." That makes Sopra a
restaurant with music rather than a music venue with food. And the food here is
decidedly a cut above. As executed by 31-year-old chef Joey Malandrino
(ex-Senses), the menu is divided into five sections: land, sea, earth, frittura
(fried things) and sweet things. Categories can overlap but saving the rare
exception, every dish is a winner: sophisticated, playful, bright and
inventive. Like a good jazz band, the kitchen takes a standard and riffs
on it. In that vein, my first meal at Sopra echoes the set played by the Joe
Sealy Trio.
Gershwin's "'S Wonderful" kicks off the evening as the shrimp ceviche
($12) comes to the table, and it is wonderful indeed. Served in an oversized
spoon and garnished with jicama slaw and avocado purée, it is ceviche as it is
intended: the freshest seafood sparked by lime juice and coriander, each pale
pink mouthful a trip to a Latin beach. Equally marvellous are
tomato-stuffed oysters ($12), morsels of quivering plumpness barely contained
by a crisp tempura coating (now a weekend special). Emerging less successfully
from the hot oil is a tumble of curried cauliflower florets bogged down by
spongy breading ($7). But it's not until the song "I've Never Been
In Love Before" starts up that I realize it's true: Sopra's lamb chops
($14) make me forget all others. I fall hard for the quartet of spiced lamb
sputtering fat from the grill, cushioned by thick, cool tzatziki underneath.
Mournful standard "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" plays in the
background as dessert arrives. So true. If I didn't love the profiteroles ($6)
so much — perfect choux pastry sheathed in crunchy caramel and filled with rich
mocha pastry cream — I wouldn't be disappointed by other versions. The
sugar-dusted Latin doughnuts called churros ($6) are excellent on their
own, and practically indecent when paired with a molten chocolate shooter.
Another night, it's John Alcorn singing beside the Steinway grand piano.
"Come Fly With Me," he beckons, and so does the miniature burger
($15). To call such pure carnivorous bliss a burger — USDA Prime striploin
ground on site, the juicy patty served on a custom Ace Bakery egg bun with
caramelized onions, tomato aioli and an oversize slice of foie gras — is like
calling Chet Baker a horn blower.
It's not the only improvement. Hostesses in the '50s used to wrap scallops
in bacon ($16). Here, the divine is in the details: smoked bacon, obscenely
plump scallops, fennel and orange salad, and a tart pomegranate reduction. Tuna
tataki ($14), a common enough dish, is exceptional for its freshness and the
bravura introduction of Moroccan preserved lemons to an otherwise Asian plate.
As Alcorn croons "I've Got You Under My Skin," it's possible
the song describes one of Sopra's bestsellers: crispy chicken wings ($10)
stuffed with crab and rice. It's also possible that the "warning voice
that comes in the night" was to caution me against the soggy fries ($6),
poorly shucked fresh oysters with bits of shell ($13) and a Pink Lady cocktail
($12) with the look and taste of Pepto-Bismol. Desserts, as done by
pastry chef Ben Russell (ex-Eggplant), are less polished the second time
around. The churros have gotten skinnier and thus drier, while the cookie
platter ($5) tastes like it came from a ho-hum European bakery; at least the
profiteroles remain excellent. Service is still settling in (the
restaurant opened less than a month ago), which means eventually Sopra waiters
should be able to identify the offerings on the cheese plate, fill water
glasses without prompting and learn their way around the wines so prominently
on display. The musical line-up is also moving towards some dancing, and the
menu is still being tweaked. Still, for a restaurant tackling the
live-music genre that has defeated countless others, Sopra is quick off the
mark. As Ella Fitzgerald would say, "Our Love Is Here To Stay."
::MUSIC NEWS::
Owen Pallett? You'll Hear About This Guy
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Bruce
Demara
(Sep. 24, 2006( The music critics love him. He's a darling of the
indie
music scene and his string arrangements have contributed to the acclaim of
breakout bands like Arcade Fire. He's even been profiled in The New
York Times. Yet to the average Canadian music lover, the name Owen Pallett — and his one-man band
Final Fantasy — is almost certain to draw a blank stare. Probably not,
however, for much longer. With his violin, a looping pedal (which plays
back parts just performed so Pallett can play live over them, creating a
mesmerizing blend), and his self-described "bad singing," Pallett has
over the past two years found growing success as a solo artist. His most
recent acclaim came just this week, with the Polaris Music Prize for best
Canadian album of the year, for his second release, He Poos Clouds.
Pallett was the underdog winner of the $20,000 award, chosen Monday night at
the Phoenix Concert Theatre by 11 of the country's top music critics.
"So, Owen, how are you feeling?" an interviewer asks a few days
later. "Confused and disgusted," Pallett replies, with a
self-conscious laugh. "My first thought was `did (the judges) even listen
to the record?' Because it's kind of crap," he says, noting he had bet on
The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema to win. (Metric and Broken Social
Scene were also among the nominees.) The critics who award the Polaris
prize beg to differ, citing the album's uniqueness and originality, and
Pallett's craftsmanship as a composer, lyricist and musician.
"It's really distinctive what he's doing. Originality is one thing, but
there's also a question of discipline and craftsmanship and clarity of
purpose," says Rupert Bottenberg of the Montreal Mirror.
Aaron Brophy, of Chart Magazine, describes the album as "unique,
different and exciting.'' "It's essentially a violinist doing pop
songs that have this surface layer of really twisted Dungeons & Dragons metaphors,
with a storyline that you have to really listen to ... over and over to try and
figure out. It's kind of like a musical Rubik's Cube." (Among the
album's eight tracks is "This Lamb Sells Condos," a cheeky swipe at
local condominium kingpin Brad Lamb, which has been nominated for the Echo
Songwriting Prize, sponsored by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music
Publishers of Canada. The $5,000 prize will be awarded next month.) James
Keast, Exclaim! magazine's editor-in-chief, says the album rewards
repeat listeners. "You can put it on and let it go, and it's pleasant and
easy. ... But if you want to spend more time with it, there are layers and
layers underneath it that make it that much more compelling on the 20th listen
than it was the second listen, which is really rare in the realm of popular
music," he says. Adds Jill Wilson of the Winnipeg Free Press:
"Today's music is so single-oriented and this album is so not that. It's
so much a whole." And, contrary to Pallett's self-deprecating opinion,
Wilson says the singer, whom she's seen live, has "a lovely voice. ...
There's kind of a frailty about it that I like a lot." His band
name, Final Fantasy, refers to a hugely successful Japanese video game series.
The album and its title track, "He Poos Clouds," is another witty,
scatological reference to Dungeons & Dragons. Pallett, whose older
brother designs video games, is an avid gamer. Fellow musician and
long-time friend Steve Kado carries the "game" analogy beyond lyrics
to performance. "Owen does work all this stuff in advance on paper, sort
of like a Sudoku problem. (His music) has got very interesting problem-solving
in it. Even just watching the technical virtuosity of a Final Fantasy
performance is quite striking." Pallett has pledged most of his
prize money to the Blocks Recording Club, an artist-owned co-operative he
co-founded with Kado, after he pays a student loan for his partner Patrick
Borjal, who is with him on tour. Kado calls the gift "very typical
of Owen. He does try very hard to do the right thing, and do what's right for
his friends and the community he's part of."
Raised in Milton, Ont., Pallett has been playing the violin since he was 3,
following in the footsteps of an older brother who plays the cello. His
earliest musical influences were classical composers like Soviet-era Dmitri
Shostakovich. "People (in high school) must have thought I was kind
of a freak because they were all into Def Leppard and INXS, and I was listening
to (Hungarian composer) Béla Bartók," he says, on the phone from
Vancouver, where he's three-quarters through an eight-month tour of Canada and
Europe. Pallett, who also plays piano and guitar, was somewhat of a
prodigy: He composed the music for one of his brother's video games when he was
12, wrote an opera in high school while playing in numerous bands, and studied
composition at U of T. He recalls moving to a big city as an awkward
transition, and says "I'm still lacking certain elements of tact. It's
like `ohmigod, I've really got to figure out how to talk to
people.'" "He was playing a lot of Celtic music at the time,
very involved in certain parts of the Toronto folk community, listening to too
much Björk and Tori Amos," Kado says, adding conspiratorially: "He
doesn't want that spread around." Pallett played with a number of
bands, including the Hidden Cameras, and formed a band of his own called Les
Mouches, which later dissolved. At a fundraiser for musician Bobby Birdman in
May 2004 at Sneaky Dee's, Pallett — just a week after starting to use a
borrowed looping pedal — played his first Final Fantasy gig to unanimous
acclaim. His first album, Has a Good Home, stirred up attention both
locally and in places as far-flung as France and Germany. Despite the
recognition his album has received, Pallett is determined not to follow the
conventional path to stardom. For example, he won't be stepping forward
any time soon as a gay icon, saying he finds the "politicizing" of
his sexual orientation "boring." And while his music has a
"definite anti-establishment sort of vibe," he doesn't mix drugs and
music. "I'm totally scared to see some of the cocaine use that goes on in
Toronto these days. ... I try not to preach about it. I will drink all night
with you, but I'm not really into the stupid drugs."
Finally, Pallett insists that he will stay independent of the big record
labels, preferring the "DIY (do-it-yourself)" route. "I really
like the feeling of having a kind of personal accountability for the art being
produced." He's vague about his next project, other than to say it
might be "a fantasy epic romance." He also confesses that the
tour he began in April with Bob Wiseman (formerly of Blue Rodeo) and the
Phonemes is getting a bit wearing. While "playing for people ... is really
wonderful," he says, "I kind of just want to go home."
Undoubtedly his fans will welcome him back. But without a major-label recording
contract, does Pallett risk sacrificing commercial success? The critics
chime in again. "I'd argue his music is too obtuse, too complicated,
too different to ever truly be a mass-consumption type of record," says Chart's
Brophy. "My suspicion is he's the kind of artist who could find a
very broad audience around the world, but it'll be the sort of audience that
will be a very limited, very devoted group of people," adds Mirror's
Bottenberg. The last word goes to James Keast of Exclaim!
"There is an accessibility to what (Pallett) does that really crosses a
lot of genre boundaries in terms of his appeal. "But if (success)
doesn't happen, it's because Owen doesn't want it to happen. I really think
that he's unwilling to put himself in the situation that getting that big would
require," he says. "That said, he's an artist I fully expect to
be hearing in 20 years and I don't say that about many."
Gould Still Playing 'Live'
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(Sep. 26, 2006) Legendary Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould
received an unusual present for his 74th birthday. About 250
friends, family and fans congregated yesterday at the Canadian Broadcasting
Centre to witness him being brought back to life. He died in 1982. Yet
there he was at the concert hall named after him, playing the Goldberg
Variations by J.S. Bach at a gleaming-black Yamaha concert grand.
There was no hocus-pocus involved. This performance was the product of
thousands of hours of work by a team of software experts, piano technicians and
recording engineers. Gould wasn't there in person, of course. But his
finger strokes and foot movements were. It was a happy yet unsettling
experience to see and hear an exact replica of his 1955 recording of the Goldberg
Variations on the warm-sounding Yamaha. This event had all the
immediacy of a live concert, yet also marked a new way in which we can
fetishize dead idols. Was the recreation better than the original? Yes.
Does it bode well for remastering the classics of yesteryear? Absolutely.
For this gift, we can thank Zenph Studios, a North Carolina firm devoted to
improving on old piano recordings with the latest computer wizardry.
Right after yesterday's recital, engineers from Zenph, Sony Classical and the
CBC began work on making a CD of these Goldberg performances, for
release next year. Zenph founders John Q. Walker and Peter J. Schwaller
love music — and Glenn Gould — but their purpose is commercial, by making the
old new again. Their engineering team transferred Gould's analog 1955
master tape into digital format, accompanied by detailed instructions for the
Yamaha Disklavier Pro, commercially available recording and playback hardware
installed in the piano. This particular system can replicate the subtlest
variations in key touch and speed, as well as pedal movement.
"Never in history has anyone tried to match the exact sound of a recording
in live playing," said Walker yesterday. It's been a learning
experience for everyone involved, including Yamaha. "When we got our
first set of hardware, I sent back 15 pages of notes to Yamaha with suggestions
for improvements," said Walker. "They essentially put in everything.
We are their most advanced user." Why did Zenph choose Gould? Mainly
because of the pianist's profile. Walker cited three reasons: "One:
It (the '55 Goldberg Variations) is probably the best-known single piano
recording in existence, so many people have memorized the colour of every
single note. "Second, it is one of the last great mono recordings,
so we don't have to do a before and after (from a scratchy old 78).
"Third ... we can invest the colour of the originals into every single
note." Walker said future subjects for resurrection will include
such old piano masters as Alfred Cortot, Enrique Granados and Sergei
Rachmaninov. According to Walker, Sony Classical has agreed to produce an
initial series of 18 albums with the Zenph team, starting with Gould. The
technology promises more possibilities, including other instruments, multimedia
presentations and creating new kinds of music. Since Zenph first unveiled
its process to the public in 2005, several music critics have questioned the
ethics of tampering with historical recordings. But it's unlikely that Gould
would have minded. The eccentric pianist had a boundless curiosity about
recording technology. He hated live concerts so much that he stopped giving
them in 1964. In his book, Conversations With Glenn Gould,
Jonathan Cott quotes Gould on the subject of finding an "ideal" way
of preserving a performance: "It's an interesting point, and I
suppose that if one fed it into a computer, probably that phrase — `the ideal
means of reproduction' — or some variant of it would turn up very frequently in
what I say and write." Gould underlined his thinking in a 1966
television conversation with violinist Yehudi Menuhin. A clip of it is included
in Glenn Gould Hereafter, a new DVD documentary by French filmmaker
Bruno Monsaingeon that is being released today.
"Perhaps the most important thing that technology does is free the
listener to participate in ways that in all previous periods of listening were
governed by the performer," said Gould. The modern listener can turn
the volume up or down, or rewind, or skip forward. You can't do that in a
concert hall. Zenph has further broken the performer's tyranny by cutting
out the intrusive humming, singing and moaning that Gould added to every
performance. It may have been part of Gould's charm, but when listening on
headphones his voice can be distracting. The pianist was aware of the
problem. As he told Cott in 1974: "If I could find an equalization system
that would get rid of it ... I would cue it out in a second; to me it's not a
valuable asset, it's just an inevitable thing that has always been with
me." Not any more. That's a nice gift for everyone.
Unveiling A Virtual Variations
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Colin Eatock
(Sept. 25, 2006) Glenn Gould, the only Canadian classical
musician ever to achieve cult status, would turn 74 today if he were alive. And
the 24 years that have passed since his death have done nothing to dim his
fame. His recordings continue to sell, documentaries have been made about him,
and he's been the subject of many books and articles. There's a Glenn Gould
Foundation, a Glenn Gould Award, and a concert hall in the CBC's Toronto
headquarters called the Glenn Gould Studio. In fact, Gould has so much presence
in the world today that the CBC still occasionally gets letters from people
asking how to contact him. And today at noon, in that Glenn Gould Studio,
contact will be made with the spirit of Gould -- in a manner of speaking.
Although the eccentric pianist famously retired from the concert stage in 1964,
Gould will be heard to play Bach's Goldberg Variations. It isn't a
recording or a broadcast or a performance in the ordinary sense of these words.
John Q. Walker, the computer whiz and
amateur pianist behind this event, calls it a "reperformance."
"There's a piano on stage, with no bench," he explained recently from
his office in Raleigh, N.C. "The keys are going, and the pedals are moving
up and down -- and some people may find that disconcerting. The audience will
hear the entire Goldberg Variations, which takes about 38 minutes."
The piano being used for this event is a Yamaha Disklavier Pro, an instrument
that can record and play back keystrokes with extreme precision. The people at
Yamaha cringe when it's called a "player-piano," but in a very
sophisticated, high-tech kind of way, that's what it is. In today's event, it
will be used to play Gould's version of Bach. So how does Gould's interpretation
get into the instrument? Since 2002 Walker's research company, Zenph Studios,
has been developing a computer program that can extract from a recording of
piano music the data necessary to reproduce it in minute detail. "There
are about 10 different musical attributes that we analyze," continues
Walker, "including pitch, moment of impact, strike velocity, duration, how
the note ends, and the angle of the key when it's depressed. We can do
everything we want with the instrument through the computer." Gould first
recorded The Goldberg Variations in 1955, and that recording will be
faithfully reproduced by the Disklavier Pro. For two years, Walker has been
using movements of Gould's Goldbergs to show off his technology around
North America: He's been in Toronto twice already, giving demonstrations at the
Japan Foundation and at the ideaCity conference last June. But today's event
will be the first Gould "performance" of the complete Goldberg
Variations in 25 years.
It's fitting that Walker is bringing his invention to Gould's hometown.
"The many people in Toronto who heard him live will get to experience that
again," he says. "At the Japan Foundation, some people who knew him,
and heard him play, started crying." The live event was initiated by James
Hayward, a retired Bell Canada manager. He met Walker last year in New York at
a convention of the Audio Engineering Society, where he heard a demonstration
of Zenph's technology. "I just about fell off my chair," Hayward
recalls. "I couldn't believe the subtleties and the nuances I was hearing.
So I started working, contacting the Canadian head of Yamaha, trying to sponsor
John to come up to Toronto." Hayward also talked to the CBC. "I found
the idea fascinating and perplexing," says Eitan Cornfield, who is producing
the event for CBC Radio Two. Perplexing indeed. The concept of a dead pianist
somehow giving a "live" performance opens up a Pandora's box of
issues. Who owns copyright on a pianist's keystrokes? Is it appropriate, using
this technology, to improve on a recorded performance? How are today's young
pianists to compete in a world that can hear concerts by the greatest
interpreters of the 20th century? And in a classical-music culture that already
suffers from a chronic lack of newness, isn't this just fetishizing the past?
In defence of his work, Walker rhetorically asks, "Is your argument that
old things should have poorer sound quality?" As for today's performers,
he feels that his efforts should encourage, rather than discourage, them. "If
you're a young performer, you should go make novel interpretations," he
says. "The more interesting your performance can be, the more value it
has." And he says it's appropriate to use Gould, a technophile who was
always interested in innovative developments, as his guinea pig.
Despite the unanswered legal, critical, commercial and even ethical questions,
Walker's ideas have already struck a chord in the music business. Immediately
after today's concert, Sony BMG Masterworks will record the new rendering of
Gould's Goldberg Variations for a CD to be released next year. Following
the Variations, Walker intends to recreate recordings by the
composer-virtuoso Sergei Rachmaninoff and also the jazz legend Art Tatum. And
while, at present, his computer program only works with piano music, he
foresees the day when it might be more broadly applied. "Instruments that
are plucked or struck are easier than things that are bowed or blown
into," Walker explains. "The violin is going to be very hard." John
Q. Walker's "reperformance" of Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's
Goldberg Variations will be broadcast across Canada on CBC Radio Two tonight at
8 (8:30 in Newfoundland).
Vikter Duplaix Launches 'Bold And Beautiful'
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
September 27, 2006) *Internationally
acclaimed
DJ/Producer/Vocalist Vikter Duplaix is a man on a mission. With his sophomore release as a solo
artist, Duplaix is introducing the world to a lifestyle he calls "Duplaix
Mode." With the quality production on "bold & beautiful"
(bbe/!K7) as it’s soundtrack – Duplaix Mode is a sensual mix of music, art
& design, food, drink, and a sexy attitude. "bold &
beautiful" is in-stores now. Vikter Duplaix, a Philadelphia native will
launch his campaign for "bold & beautiful" in his recently
adopted city of Los Angeles at the world famous Roxy [The Roxy Theatre. 9009
Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood CA. Concert Hotline: 310-276-2222 ] with a special
concert along with local favourites The Rebirth and the grooves of KCRW DJ,
Garth Trinidad. Doors open for the mid-week concert at 9PM. Duplaix, known in
R&B music circles as a founding member of Philadelphia based Axis Music
Group – know for their work with Erykah Badu, Musiq, Vivian Green and Jill
Scott to name a few – is also a noted DJ in international circles. Duplaix
became regarded for mixing Classic and Contemporary Soul music with world and
house beats to create an eclectic vibe. "bold & beautiful" his
follow-up to the critically acclaimed "International Affairs,"
represents the evolution and refinement of that vibe – and has garnered early
support for his Sade-like brand of Quiet Storm music. Having been compared to
modern-day Barry White, Vikter Duplaix makes music for the grown & sexy.
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Legendary Singer Freddie Jackson Has New Album
Source: Kristian Y. Buchanan,
Publicist/Orpheus Records, Kristian.Buchanan@gmail.com
September 27, 2006) New
York, NY -- Orpheus Music
recording artist Freddie Jackson is back and returning with him is the essence of authentic,
soulful R&B music. In stores now, Freddie Jackson's new CD entitled
'TRANSITIONS,' is Jackson's best work ever and is poised to be this year's
biggest comeback album. The first single, 'Until the End of Time,' already crowned
the romantic ballad of the year, held the #1 positioned on Billboard R & B
Single Sales Chart for two weeks and was the #1 most added at Radio &
Records during its first week of play, setting the stage for 'TRANSITIONS' to
repeat the success of his double platinum debut album 'ROCK ME TONIGHT.'
Featuring soulful lyrics, in addition to stunning musical arrangements
'TRANSITIONS' also will include a bonus Collector's Edition DVD featuring 17 of
Freddie Jackson's greatest music videos. Executive produced by
famed producer Beau Huggins and Charli Huggins, 'TRANSITIONS' has reunited
Jackson with the core team responsible for his discovery, development, and
triumph. The production team includes Paul Laurence, composer of Jackson's
biggest hit 'Rock Me Tonight,' Marc Nelson, formerly with the group AZ Yet,
super producer Yasha, and rising star Jamaica-born producer Jason Farmer.
The 12-song album and bonus Collector's Edition DVD offers a sensual escape
that will transition any true R&B fan back to the era when music and lyrics
stirred the soul. 'TRANSITIONS' spotlights the vocal range and stylistic
nuances that differentiate Jackson from other artists in the present highly
competitive R & B marketplace. Fans of Jackson will appreciate his
special tribute to the late Luther Vandross, an artist he greatly admired, with
a heart-felt medley of 'Superstar' and 'Wind Beneath My Wings.'
Grammy-nominated, American Music Award winning vocalist Freddie Jackson has
dominated R&B with eleven #1 singles on the Billboard charts. His
contributions include such era-defining classics as 'Rock Me Tonight (For Old
Times' Sake),' 'You Are My Lady,' 'Tasty Love,' 'Nice 'n' Slow' and 'Love Me
Down,' For additional information on Freddie Jackson visit www.myspace.com/freddiejacksonsworld.
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Walker Entertainment Group: Husband-Wife Music Execs Combine
Talents
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
September 27, 2006) *With
designs on providing alternative
choices for positive, quality entertainment for the 24-40 African American
demographic, Bruce Walker and his business partner-wife Brenda
Jones Walker have stepped away from their
roles as music executives with the likes of DreamWorks, Motown, MCA, Capitol,
and Interscope/Death Row Records to form the Los Angeles based Walker
Entertainment Group (WEG), a holding company for “B&B Entertainment” (a
music and television production company) and “B# (Sharp) Records” (a record
label housing R&B, Pop and Contemporary Gospel artists). This new
establishment aims to utilize the fan base of touring artists and create new
opportunities for them to expand their reach. Add to this WEG’s exclusive
3-year licensing partnership with UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc.), the largest
African American owned Christian media firm; who will support the new venture
by sharing a database of 70,000 Black churches, organizations and consumers and
provide assistance with sales, marketing, promotion and distribution.
“We are trying to employ a new model of marketing records to the consumer; more
of an entrepreneurial approach as opposed to an executive or traditional record
approach,” says WEG-CEO Bruce Walker, who has executive produced more than 100
gold and platinum-selling albums. “These days the model has changed. The
distribution model has changed; the approach has changed—the executive
approach…the producing approach…Impressions is the key. So we’re going to joint
venture with other people in other areas of entertainment to craft shows, craft
productions, craft videos, films, plays, all the ways that we can…We’re going
to provide impressions…from a theatrical, film, live concert, a coming to you
in any form that we can possibly create and joint venture…and call this a true
entertainment approach,” he adds. A consultant and executive producer of music
variety and talk show programming, Walker currently produces the syndicated
variety show, “Tru Game,” which he created for Western International
Syndication and recently signed a deal with the Friars Club of Beverly Hills
for the development and production of their upcoming shows. He will also secure
sponsorships for the new directions the Friars Club will be taking on. In fact,
via Walker, the Friars Club will honour EUR's Lee Bailey this Friday night. As
a consultant, he has worked with BET on a variety of one-hour specials
including the BET Awards Show Red Carpet, the Prince of Egypt Gospel Special;
the BET launch of its nationwide television tour featuring behind-the-scenes
coverage, the BET on Jazz specials and the NBA All-Star Game Special Brenda
Jones Walker, the other half of B & B Entertainment, is a Marketing
Executive in music and television who currently serves as the Chief Marketing
Officer at Hidden Beach Records. The USC graduate began her career working with
cutting edge shows such as Arsenio Hall. As a Marketing VP, she has implemented
strategies for BeBe and CeCe Winans, Lou Rawls, Quincy Jones, Tupac, Dave Koz,
Patti LaBelle and Snoop Dogg, just to name a few. She also served as a
consultant for BET; implementing the nationwide media campaign that resulted in
the networks’ first-ever television tour.
For Jones-Walker, WEG provides a means to take a stand against the negativity
that permeates what is seen and heard on television and in music today.
“We’ve done a lot of things in our career as executives, but the positive music
we grew up listening to is just not there anymore; positive R&B, positive
pop, positive music period. It’s all degrading to our kids and our
community…This was a challenge for us to say ‘we have to …initiate this new
march in the industry…we want positive music back in the community,” she
offers. “We’re taking R&B artists that…always had roots in gospel music
through their love for the Lord and growing up in the church…[They] may not
have had a chance to do an inspirational record up until this point,” confirms
Bruce Walker, whose entertainment roster currently includes singers Desiree
Coleman (“Mama I Want To Sing”), Jesse Campbell (“Where Is The Love” from the
film Prince of Egypt), BLACKStreet’s Mark Middleton and producer/keyboardist
Marvin “Chanz” Parkman. “We’re taking them and we’re doing pretty much R&B
music, tracks, and positive lyrics, inspirational lyrics, over it… Instead of
doing just straight concert tours, we’re going to do plays that are musicals.
And we’re going to go into the secondary markets; which is the southeast and
southwest primarily…the old Chitlin’ Circuit. And in these markets we’re going
to look at 300-500 seat venues...get with a playwright and actually craft and
write a play …Hip Hop is the primary music, but there’s not a lot of promoters
who can afford to do Hip Hop concerts because of the liability
insurance…We’re actively pursuing a deal with producers in films. We’re
going to feature our artists in the film; feature our music in the film and do
straight to DVD releases. So that’s another way that we’re going to
penetrate the marketplace.” UMI, a 35-year-old Chicago-based firm that holds an
impressive $15 million in assets; are publishers and distributors of Sunday
school and Bible Study curricula including books, DVDs, videos and music programs
developed by Christian educators. Under the guidance of UMI president Carl
Jeffrey Wright, WEG will even get the opportunity to delve into animation.
“Churches sell their Sunday School books and curriculum online. Now they are
expanding into music and DVDs and we’re going to be providing that for
them…Working with one of the top animators in the business, we’re combining
music with comic books and music with…audio versions of the bible that will be
part of the curriculum. Bill Duke is actually doing the narration for that. We
will be providing the sale of mainstream contemporary gospel music and positive
R&B music through the system as well as DVD products for them to license
and actually sell to their distribution base… We look at each project as a brand.
We look at each artist as a brand. So what we’re doing is building a brand over
multiple platforms,” says Walker.
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Sloan Happy To Keep On Ticking
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Brad Wheeler
(Sept. 23, 2006) Staying power, yes. Power pop, no. When critics discuss
the long-running Canadian band Sloan, the term "power pop" is invariably employed.
Singer-bassist Chris Murphy adjusts his spectacles and casts a glance to fellow
frontman Patrick Pentland. "Do we take that as an insult?" Pentland,
seated across a table, isn't sure. "For years I didn't really know what it
meant," he replies. "I thought it was Michael Bolton -- powerful
vocals and pop grooves. It really doesn't make any sense to me." Murphy,
an amiable, funny guy, has more of an idea. "Power pop to me means a band
that never made it," he figures. "It's a disguised way of saying
Beatles-derived music that's doomed to fail." It's a funny quip, but
somewhere the members of Badfinger and Matthew Sweet don't get the joke.
To answer Murphy's question, no, "power pop" is not a slur. That
being said, the term, which typically applies to music that is catchy and lean,
with strong melodies and snappish vocal harmonies, doesn't quite get to the
whole of Sloan, a Halifax-bred quartet which adds healthy doses of psychedelic
and grunge music to its package. And no, Sloan is not a failure. Today
the band plays to its largest crowd ever when about 60,000 fans flock to the
Halifax Commons, an urban park setting that receives the headlining Rolling
Stones. The members of Sloan, all in their mid-to-late thirties, have
resided in Toronto for quite some time now. We sit in a second-floor room of
the Lula Lounge, a Toronto club where the band is later to play a semi-private
show to celebrate the release of their seventh studio album, Never Hear the
End of It. (At 30 songs, it's quite possible that listeners never will hear
the end of it). While the sound crew noisily gets things together downstairs,
and the band's other components (drummer Andrew Scott and singer-guitarist Jay
Ferguson) wait for the sound check to happen, Murphy and Pentland discuss the
state of the group whose membership is the same as it was in 1991, the year
Sloan formed. They were young, hustling and unknown at the start, but
everything changed when grunge-rock pioneers Nirvana broke huge in the early
nineties. The band's Nevermind album was a ground-breaking record that
had fans and record labels looking for similar sounds -- a search so exhaustive
that even the Halifax scene wasn't overlooked. "Nirvana changed
everything," Murphy explains. "It changed our lives because we were
that age and we had a record that was ready to go when people came looking for
stuff like that."
Stuff like that was 1993's Smeared, an album of hooky, fuzzy rock that
included the hit single Underwhelmed -- a catchy swirl of guitars and
feedback recently deemed by the music writers of The Globe and Mail as one of
the top 25 Canadian pop songs of all time. After a successful debut,
Sloan signed with the U.S.-based Geffen Records. The band released Twice
Removed in 1994, but the label didn't get behind it so much -- the band
struggled for success in America. They left Geffen and released perhaps their
finest records (One Chord to Another and Navy Blues), but failed
to break big outside of Canada. Fifteen years into their careers now,
Sloan's members have enough of a fan base in the United States to make touring
there profitable, but they are not a household name there by any means. "I
don't know if we care a whole lot," Pentland says. "We're always
growing a little bit, but I think the idea of having a smash hit record, or
becoming the next big thing isn't something we make records worrying
about." Murphy agrees. "It would be great, but you can't live to do
that, or else you're a failure if you don't." Not that they're not trying,
mind you. Today's guest slot with the Stones isn't the first time they've
played on the same bill as the London rubber-skinned legends. For reasons which
even the band is unsure of, Sloan opened for the Stones twice in January at
Boston's hockey and basketball arena. (One Beantown reviewer noted that the
band "doesn't even have a U.S. record deal," while another deemed
them a "serviceable" opening act). As for their impressions of the
Stones then, Pentland noticed they seemed younger than he would have thought.
"Keith Richards didn't seem like a decrepit old man, necessarily."
Murphy, who was first in line for the Stones' secret gig at Toronto's Horseshoe
Tavern in 1997, saw the various Stones as diminutive. "They're
small," he says. "They play ukuleles so they don't look like they're
dwarves." Murphy jokes -- the performances by the Stones were
"fantastic," and he's a keen fan of the group that has maintained a
career so productively lengthy. "They were 15 years in when they made Some
Girls, which is still a pretty good record," he says. "And that
means Tattoo You is coming up, which was huge." What Murphy alludes
to is the idea that Sloan is at the same stage now as the Stones were when they
created some of their best work. So, check out the guys of Sloan at tonight's
concert -- they're the ones singing along to the Stones' mid-career hit, Start
Me Up.
Jamaican Born Actress Cherine Anderson To Release Debut Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
September 21, 2006) *Actress-turned
singer Cherine Anderson is quite
busy these days. She has been glowing in the success of her recent single
Good Love which was produced by the duo of Sly and Robbie. The song peaked at
number two on the South Florida Reggae chart. According to Cherine, the song
has been opening up a lot of doors for her. ‘The song has been taking me
places. I did international night at Sumfest, I also did Reggae on the River in
California, and now I am gearing up for Sting in Miami’, Anderson related in a
telephone interview from Florida on the weekend. She added ‘I see
the success of Good Love as a building process for me. I am not surprised
about the public’s reception of the song because before we released it, we had
invited some industry personnel to listen to it, and the feedback was good. The
song is doing well in some parts of Europe right now’. Following up on Good
Love, Anderson has teamed up with Chuck Fenda for the radio hit Coming over
Tonight. Produced by Christopher Birch and included on the Ghetto Blues rhythm
juggling, Coming over Tonight is already making moves on the charts. ‘When I
heard the song Coming over Tonight, I liked it right away. Chuck Fenda is
really a cool person and he is down to earth. I liked working with him’, said
Anderson. A video for the song is to be shot this week in Kingston with
music video director Kimala ‘La La’ Bennett behind the controls. Anderson, a
former member of the Ashe ensemble, gained attention when she starred in the
1997 movie Dancehall Queen opposite Audrey Reid and Paul Campbell. Anderson was
14 years old at the time when she beat out more than 100 other young girls for
the role. She later starred opposite Kymani Marley in One Love. She was
also featured on the film’s soundtrack album.
With an album almost complete, Anderson hasn’t put her acting days behind her.
‘I have been getting scripts but some don’t appeal to me. None have the appeal
to stretch me as an actress’, said Anderson. Her debut album is expected
in the first quarter of 2007. The album according to Anderson will contain some
interesting collaborations. ‘We are hoping to have about 12-16 songs on the
album. It’s going to be very hybrid and it will showcase all the things that I
wanted to do. It will be mixed with patois and English, and the topics will
vary from politics to love, growing up in Nannyville and life today in
Jamaica’, Anderson explained. After graduating from Wolmers Girls High,
Anderson enrolled in the sixth form at Queens High. She then went to Middlebury
College in Vermont, USA and then Keio University in Tokyo, Japan where she
studied Japanese language and Literature. She also did a stint as an
intern at Music Television (MTV) in the US. Anderson lists R&B singer
Lauryn Hill, and Chevelle Franklin among her musical influences. She
pointed out that fame isn’t something that she is concerned about. She is more
focused at making a positive impact on the lives of others. ‘Its not about
Cherine Anderson the actress or the singer. I am comfortable about making
a positive impact on others. I recently went back to my alma mata at Excelsior
Primary and spoke to some of the students there and the response was
overwhelming. It feels good knowing that I can make a positive impact on the
lives of others’, she said.
Lionel Richie’s Coming Home Album Debuts At #6
Source: Tynicka Battle, ThinkTank
Marketing, tynicka@thinktankmktg.com, www.thinktankmktg.com
(September 22, 2006) New York , NY -- Lionel Richie, legendary singer,
songwriter, producer and five-time Grammy award-winning Island recording artist
charts another historic achievement today, as his brand new album COMING HOME
sells over 75,000 copies in its first week out, to debut at #6 - the first top
10 album debut of his 24-year solo career. The news comes
just three weeks before the opening of his 4-week, 17-city headlining North
American tour sponsored by United Way - which kicks off October 27th at the
Music Hall in Detroit, and wrap up at the Paramount in Oakland, CA on November
25th. (Please see tour dates below.) COMING HOME features the
#1 Billboard Adult R&B hit "I Call It Love" (written and produced
by Stargate) - his first #1 hit at the Adult R&B format. The song is
entering its third month at six different radio formats - Adult R&B, Adult
Contemporary, Pop, Rhythmic Top 40, Urban Mainstream, and Smooth
Jazz. The video for "I Call It Love," shot in Los
Angeles by director Jessey Terrero and starring Nicole Richie, premiered on
aolmusic.com in August, where it was played nearly 100,000 times in 24 hours.
The video is playing on VH1 and BET. "Lionel Richie Gets
His Groove Back," raved the New York Times Arts Section cover story last
week, characterizing COMING HOME as "vintage Richie." The new
album, his long-awaited third album on Island Records, featuring nine songs
written/co-written by Richie, is an all-star collaboration with today's most
prolific contemporary hitmakers, including Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq,
Dallas Austin, Sean Garrett, Chuckii Booker, and others. GET A
"LIONEL IS MY FRIEND" T-SHIRT
Get a FREE "Lionel Is My Friend" T-Shirt. Just add "I Call
It Love" to your homepage & add him to your top 8 friends. 25 Grand
Prize winners get the autographed album booklet. See more details and enter HERE.
Check out Lionel's Space at: www.myspace.com/lionelrichie
LIONEL RICHIE "COMING HOME" TOUR DATES
Pre-Order your tickets now to benefit United Way: http://www.tickets-for-charity.com/landing-richie.html
Fri 10/27: Music Hall - Detroit, MI
Sun 10/29: Sears Centre - Hoffman Estates, IL
Mon 10/30: Roy Thomson Hall - Toronto
Fri 11/3: Constitution Hall - Washington, DC
Sat 11/4: Borgata Events Center - Atlantic City, NJ
Sun 11/5: Symphony Hall - Baltimore, MD
Tue 11/7: NJ Performing Arts Center - Newark, NJ
Wed 11/8: Beacon Theater - New York, NY
Fri 11/10: Mohegan Sun Casino - Uncasville, CT
Sat 11/11: Opera House - Boston, MA
Sun 11/12: Tower - Philadelphia, PA
Wed 11/15: Fox Theater - Atlanta, GA
Fri 11/17: Cypress Bayou Casino - Charenton, LA
Sat 11/18: Cypress Bayou Casino - Charenton, LA
Sun 11/19: The Sinatra Theatre at Bank Atlantic Center - Sunrise, FL
Fri 11/24: Kodak Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
Sat 11/25: Paramount Theater - Oakland, CA
ENTER HERE
for a chance to Meet & Greet Lionel Richie at an upcoming PRIVATE
event:
VIDEO: I Call It Love (stars Nicole Richie) http://www6.islandrecords.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=342
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Beyonce, Janet, Justin And Fergie Battle For Sexy
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Ashante Infantry
(Sep. 24, 2006) With the release of Janet Jackson's new album on Tuesday,
the battle between four of the pop industry's sexiest artists officially kicks
off. Facing off are one solo debut, two sophomore outings and a 20-year vet.
Artist: Beyoncé
Record: B'Day
Angle: Empowerment. Think Janet Jackson circa 1986's Control. Released
near her 25th birthday, Beyoncé, who recorded the disc without the knowledge of
manager-father Mathew Knowles, is sporting a leaner physique and touring with
an all-girl band.
Music: Though daddy apparently tried to delay its release, the album debuted at
No. 1. Fans were taken aback by second single "Ring the Alarm" which,
reminiscent of Kelis's "Caught Out There" ("I hate you so much
right now!"), finds the typically genteel Southerner wailing like a
banshee. The record's strength is bumping club beats and the requisite verses
from rapper boyfriend Jay-Z. Lyrically, she tends to contradict her liberated
stance ("When you in them big meetings for the mills/Take me just to
compliment the deal").
Verdict: With eye-catching videos and a good turn in the December-scheduled Dream
Girls film, B's high profile will give this average record a long shelf
life.
Artist: Justin Timberlake
Record: FutureSex/LoveSounds
Angle: Bringing the sexy back. Timberlake's current posture is skinny
tie-wearing fashionista/wet T-shirt, boy-next-door. Recent interviews depict
the 25-year-old cruising around in a Porsche and smoking weed while staying
faithful to older actor girlfriend Cameron Diaz.
Music: Rappers T.I. and Three Six mafia lend a hand on a compelling record
fuelled by dance pop beats and soulful ballads. Timberlake's falsetto conjures
Michel Jackson, whom he name checks on "Chop Me Up."
Verdict: Minimum five Grammy nods to follow his anointing on the current cover
of Rolling Stone.
Artist: Fergie
Record: The Dutchess
Angle: Cleaned-up child star. Formerly of the Disney show Kids Incorporated,
teen girl group Wild Orchid, crystal meth addiction and a fling with Justin
Timberlake, 31-year-old Stacy Ferguson is aiming for the mod pop mantle vacated
by Gwen Stefani's maternity leave. Her pouty lipped gyrations with the Black
Eyed Peas on songs like "My Humps" is blamed for watering down the
quartet's social consciousness cred while giving them mainstream sex appeal.
Music: Surprisingly fun and eclectic. Yes, there's plenty of cheese here —
"I'm Fergalicious/ Tasty, tasty/It's so delicious," but also engaging
old school R&B and reggae inflected tunes, with guests like Ludacris, Rita
Marley and John Legend.
Verdict: If word-of-mouth gets sceptics past her lowest common denominator
singles pushed by the record company, Fergie can give established artists a
run.
Artist: Janet Jackson
Record: 20 Y.O.
Angle: 40 is the new 20. Non-believer? See Jackson in various stages of
undress on the covers of Ebony, Vibe and FHM adorned with
a navel ring comprised of hip-hop producer boyfriend Jermaine Dupri's initials.
Read her cooing about mind-blowing sex with same.
Music: Dupri joined Jackson's long-time producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to
turn her whisper-thin vocals into bouncing remix-worthy dance tracks and
pleasant ballads. If only they'd left out the annoying interludes.
Verdict: Jackson can't maintain a hold over Timberlake and Beyoncé on the
charts, but her tour will be a hot seller.
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Smokie Norful's New Album Reflects His Revitalized Outlook On
Life
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(September 20, 2006) Grammy Award-Winning Artist
Smokie Norful will
release his third full-length CD, Life Changing, on October 3, 2006. Considered
the "Voice of Inspiration," Smokie Norful once again lives up to his
name by delivering work that is expressive, heartfelt, and passionate.
The new project is a regeneration of the EMI Gospel artist, and was inspired by
a series of life-changing events that have taken place in Norful's life over
the past few years: fatherhood, pastoring a rapidly growing church, and
experiencing musical success. "Since reconnecting with ministry and
the true nature of my call (preaching), I have literally seen life change in a
wonderful way!" states Norful, while discussing the genesis of the project.
"For me, this project is truly a rejuvenation of Smokie Norful. It is part
of a series of events that have been life changing for me. I hope that
listeners will be inspired to be better to do better to worship better as a
result of these songs." Life Changing will not only delight current Norful
fans, but will create a legion of new ones, as it is infused with Norful's
renewed passion for songwriting-containing musical selections ranging from
praise and worship to traditional to urban pop. Norful has teamed up with new
business partner and co-writer, Jason Tyson to form the new company, "One
Wordd Productions," which will focus on songwriting and production. Tyson
also co-wrote more than half of the Life Changing project. Once again, Norful
collaborates with producers Tommy Simms, Percy Bady, and Cedric and Victor
Caldwell, all of whom worked on his 2004 Grammy Award-winning sophomore CD,
Nothing Without You. Bady wrote Um Good (pronounced Mmm.Good), the
quirky-titled but compelling first single from the forthcoming 10-track
release. Additional songs featured on the project include the piano-driven
ballad Run Til I Finish written by Norful; the traditional I've Decided to Make
Jesus My Choice; and the Caribbean-influenced Great and Mighty (produced by
Bady). Life Changing also includes the Tommy Simms-produced Where Would I Be, a
contemporary, mid-tempo ballad; and the upbeat, praise and party song,
Celebrate, another song penned by Norful. The diverse singer/songwriter also
includes a rendition of the Whitney Houston hit, Run To You (from The Bodyguard
film soundtrack)-changing the lyrics to focus the attention on his ability to
run to God for restoration and strength to face whatever challenges life sends.
Norful, who is now a pastor, said in an interview recently that artists should
never allow entertaining to overshadow ministry. He and his wife have been
committed to serving in their church (she heads the youth department), a major
part of his life-changing experience. The pastor emphasized the importance of
being a servant.
To promote the new CD, as well as share his ministry with a broad audience,
Norful will launch the "Worship & A Word" promotional tour this
fall. The idea for "Worship & A Word" was created by Norful to
integrate his music and preaching ministries, and will be held at various
churches across the country. The promotional appearances will consist of a
message from Pastor Norful, as well as a musical performance featuring
selections from Life Changing. Target markets include New York, Atlanta, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Dallas, Nashville and Washington, DC, and
several others. The acclaimed, multi-talented artist has been successful since
entering the gospel music scene four years ago. Since the release of his
Gold-certified debut CD (and smash single of the same name), I Need You
Now(June 2002), Norful has never left the Gospel charts. His follow-up
sophomore CD, Nothing Without You, debuted at #1 when released, and has
remained on the sales charts since its release in 2004. It is now approaching
Gold status. Norful has earned numerous awards, including a 2004 Grammy Award
for "Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album;" three of gospel music's
Stellar Awards; two of Christian music's Dove Awards; three Gospel Music
Excellence Awards; and many others. He was named "Gospel Artist Of The
Year" for 2003 and 2004 by the industry's top trade publication, Billboard
magazine. Norful ended last year as the fifth best-selling artist of 2005
(following only behind the likes of Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, Yolanda Adams and
Donnie McClurkin-all of whom released CDs the same year). In addition to
touring in music venues and churches throughout the country, Norful has made
numerous personal performances. Most notable was his performance for President
and First Lady Laura Bush at the White House last year. He has also journeyed
internationally, traveling on a five-stop South African tour, in support of the
"Save Africa's Children" campaign. The well-spoken music artist has
also made several national television performances, including the BET Awards,
Soul Train, the CBS Morning Show and others. He has also been featured in a
host of print publications. Norful-a husband, father and music artist-is
now pastor of Victory Cathedral Worship Center-one of the fastest growing
churches in the western suburban community of Bolingbrook/Romeoville, Illinois
(outside Chicago). The ordained minister started the church in Fall 2005 and
has seen a continuous increase in worshipers every week-now amassing a
membership of close to 1,200.and still growing. No man ever became great by
imitation. Life Changing proves Smokie Norful is forging his own path in
today's ever-changing gospel music world and living up to his God-given call to
inspire others to achieve greatness.
7 Questions - Tony Bennett: 'No Tricks,
No Gimmicks'
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Brad Wheeler
(Sept. 22. 2006) Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, Aug. 3, 1926, in Queens,
N.Y. Father was a grocer; mother a seamstress. After beginning his career as a
singing waiter (for $15 a weekend), was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944
during the Second World War, where he served as an infantryman in France and
Germany. Of the experience, he would later write, 'Anybody who thinks that war
is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one.' Since signing with Columbia
Records in 1950, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide and earned 12
Grammy Awards. Famous for versions of I Left My Heart in San Francisco and Fly
Me to the Moon.
'Just a couple more shots . . . there we go . . . can you move a little to
your
right? . . . a little more?" As a photographer persists, Tony Bennett tightens his jaw, but
keeps posed and composed. His manner is gentle and unassuming, yet, at the age
of 80, there's a vitality to him -- not a hint of Rat Pack swagger, but, yeah,
he knows he looks pretty good in that brown suit. So, ladies and gentleman --
be-bop-a-doobie-ooh-wah -- the King of Cool, in the house. (Hotel room,
whatever). This is the year of Bennett, who, just before his arrival in
Toronto, had attended a swank birthday party in his honour, with Robert De
Niro, Katie Couric and John Travolta doing the toasting. Also on hand were
Elvis Costello and Diana Krall, two of the all-stars involved in the new Tony
Bennett: Duets/An American Classic, a celebratory collection of romantic
tunes long associated with the crooner. Occupying his time as well was a
mentor's role in an episode of Canadian Idol, a nationally televised
talent contest in which Bennett coached contestants. Idol, then? Cool?
American classic? Yep -- we're talkin' Tony Bennett's language.
Not that you haven't accomplished enough, but it's curious that you've never
done much in the way of acting. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra did movies -- why
not you?
They were 10 years older than I was and they were my masters, but I didn't have
a passion for that. I have a passion to sing and paint, and I'm very content to
study those two things. I'm gonna name-drop now, but the handsomest man in the
world, Cary Grant, once told me not to do movies, that they're boring -- you're
walking over cables, you don't know how the picture is going to turn out. He
said, 'Just work live . . . the audiences are alive, they're cheering you on,
you're famous.' I took his advice and it worked out for the better.
What about performing live versus studio recording?
They're two different mediums, two different concepts. The studio is very
intimate, with the microphone. It's the art of intimate singing, which was
invented by Bing Crosby. He taught all singers how to make a living.
On most duet projects these days, singers don't actually record together.
But on your new album, you stipulated that the singing was done face to face.
I work live. I'm always searching for spontaneity, so that it's fresh and it's
honest. There's no tricks, no gimmicks. Everybody had fun with it. I was amazed
how respectful all of these young artists were with me. It bowled me over.
Is there a danger with that level of respect? On The Good Life, it sounds
like Billy Joel is trying to sing like you, instead of with you.
Yeah -- he's clever. It ended up being very humorous because he said to me, 'I
don't know how to do this,' and I said, 'Make sure you sound like yourself.'
Then he said, 'Well, I don't know myself.' I told him, 'I'm not a psychiatrist.
You'll have to figure that out yourself.' [Laughs]. But he's wonderful, and he
knows a lot about music.
Do younger singers know less about music than those of your generation?
You can't categorize. It would be nice to do that, but it's not that simple. I
love jazz artists -- in your country, there's Oscar Peterson; in our country,
there were people like Stan Getz and Art Tatum. They were always my favourites.
So you learned how to sing from non-singers?
Exactly. Stan Getz had this honey sound, a nice wide sound, and warm. So I
imitated the sound that I heard from his saxophone. And Art Tatum -- everybody,
for dancing purposes, would play a long line so you could dance to it. And he
was the first pianist to break the tempos, and to make a production out of the
songs -- to dramatize them. I met with a lot of criticism from the musicians at
the time. But it ended up telling a story, rather than just singing a song.
Last year, Paul Anka had some success with his album of rock songs. Did you
hear it?
No. I don't sing rock. I like Fred Astaire's quote. 'If it doesn't swing, I'm
outta here.'
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Kurtis Blow Signs With EMI To Record Gospel Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(September 25, 2006) Holy Hip Hop Music and Pastor Kurtis
Blow announced today that they have entered
into a multi-year, multi-album Strategic Alliance. The terms of the
Agreement provide generally that: Holy Hip Hop Music and Pastor Kurtis Blow
will collaborate, as a part of its exclusive Agreement distribution with
EMI Gospel, to produce, distribute and market Music Ministry Recordings with
the first retail CD Release slated for Spring 2007. "Pastor Kurtis Blow is
a man of Faith, Valor and Vision: Faith in that Pastor Kurtis Blow trusts in
God with all his heart; Valor in that Pastor Kurtis Blow fears no man or
circumstance; and Vision in that Pastor Kurtis Blow is always on the forefront
as a pioneer and person who not only can see clearly what is to come, but has
no trepidation in acting on vision to fulfill destiny and to accelerate
movement. These qualities are why Holy Hip Hop Music and EMI Gospel are
proud to be in close covenant and partnership with Pastor Kurtis Blow
fulfilling the mission to advance Hip Hop Ministry, advancing the Gospel,
worldwide without delay," said Panchetta Harris, Holy Hip Hop Music -
General Manager.
About Kurtis Blow:
Kurtis Blow, one of the founders and creators of recorded rap, stands as an
emerging leader in a new generation of rappers with street sense, social
criticism, and commercial savvy, a timeless artist and hip hop legend, Kurtis
Blow has been instrumental in raising up a generation of MCs, and he will soon
carry the torch for hip hop music into new arenas. In 1979, at the age of
twenty, Kurtis Blow became the first Rapper to be signed by a major label.
Mercury released Christmas Rappin, and it sold over 400,000 copies and it
became an annual classic. Its gold follow-up The Breaks helped ignite a still spreading
international Rap Attack. He released 10 Albums over 11 years -- The first
entitled Kurtis Blow, his full length debut and his second, a Top 50 Pop Album
Deuce, a big hit across Europe; Party Time which featured a pioneering fusion
of Rap and GoGo; Ego Trip, which includes the hits 8 Million Stories, AJ, and
Basketball and in 1985, America. Kurtis Blow is now working for
Sirius Satellite Radio on the Classic Old School Hip Hop station Backspin
43. As a pioneer in rap he is credited with numerous firsts including
First rapper to sign to a Major label; First certified gold record for rap (The
Breaks); First rapper to tour US & Europe (w/ The Commodores, 1980); First
rapper to record a national commercial (Sprite) First rapper to use the drum machine,
sample & sample loop First rap music video (Basketball); First rap producer
(Rap's producer of the year in 1983-85) First rapper featured in a soap opera
(One Life to Live) First rap millionaire Kurtis Blow helped legitimize Hip Hop,
and now, he intends to help redeem it.
Having made a deep commitment to the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ, Kurtis
has begun attending ministry classes at NYACK College Class of 2009. As
Co-founder of the Hip Hop Church, Kurtis serves as rapper, DJ and worship
leader. "Don't get it twisted, God has always existed," says Kurtis,
and in terms of these young people out here who love God but do not like to go
to church, only Hip Hop can bring them back to the church. For More information
on Kurtis Blow Ministries go to www.HipHopChurch.org.
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Love Is Ready For A Crunkchata Revolution
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Katy Kroll
(September 22, 2006) Move over Lil Jon, there's a new king in town --
Toby Love, the king of
crunkchata. Never heard of crunkchata before? That's because Love is
looking to start a new Latin music revolution by combining traditional bachata
and hip-hop. And it looks like it's already catching on. Last week,
Love's self-titled debut entered the Top Latin Albums chart at No. 35 and the
Top Heatseekers chart at No. 46. Lead single, "Tengo Un Amor," which features
Rakim & Ken-Y, is currently No. 3 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Love
got his start as a backup singer and dancer for Latin tropical group Aventura
and decided to embark on a solo career because "every soldier wants to be
a general." "I always had this idea to urbanize bachata, to
make it more street, more hip-hop," Love tells Billboard.com. "I've
been a soldier for six years -- I was with Aventura for six years -- and I'm
grateful for everything they've done for me and I love 'em to death.
But I just wanted to come up with my own thing, define myself as a solo artist,
and bring out a new style for bachata." That new style is a unique
mix of traditional bachata, R&B, hip-hop and reggaeton. "When
people hear the CD, 50 percent is traditional bachata and 50 percent is hip-hop
[and] reggaeton bachata, the whole fusion I'm trying to do," he says.
"I definitely want to do [mainly] R&B in the future, but first I had
to do this whole thing because I feel that I can bring something new to bachata
and make it more popular." For inspiration on how to step into the
spotlight, Love looks up to R&B artist Frankie J. In fact, Frankie J was
supposed to appear on Love's album, but there were scheduling conflicts.
"He's a big inspiration to me," says Love. "He's Latin doin'
R&B -- something that I want to do in the future -- and he's definitely
different. We can relate. We were both in groups and then we both decided to do
our solo thing. We're supposed to do something for his [next] album and I think
that we'll definitely collaborate on something crazy together."
Although Frankie J isn't on the album, Love did get the chance to work with
several other artists, including reggaeton duo Rakim & Ken-Y, rapper Voltio
and Aventura member Max Agende P.I.C.
Artist: myspace.com/tobyloveofficialsite
Godfather Of British Soul, Omar,
Announces U.S. Dates
Source: Juanita Stephens, JS Media Relations, Inc., jsmediarel@aol.com
September 25, 2006) After
a five year recording hiatus and
performing around the world, The Godfather of British Soul, OMAR, is back with a new album,
SING [IF YOU WANT IT] which will be released in the U.S. on October
10th. Ether Records and Omar's management have announced that Omar
will launch a promotional tour to key markets in North America, kicking off
with two shows at The Temple Bar in Los Angeles (October 13) before traveling
to Sugar Hill in Atlanta GA (October 20), Bohemian Caverns in Washington DC
(October 21) and New York City (October 24), then heading to The Mod Club
Theatre in Toronto, Canada (October 26) and continuing on with an international
tour which kicks off back home in the England at The Jazz Café.
With a world-wide fan base that spans across the globe the British
born-Jamaican soul singer/songwriter/classically trained musician and producer
has earned his place among the upper echelon of artists who shaped the British
soul scene and influenced the neo-soul movement here in the states. Omar
has released a catalogue of critically acclaimed albums: Best By Far (2000),
This Is Not A Love Song (1997), For Pleasure (1994), Music (1992) and his
debut, There's Nothing Like This (1990) and has amassed a loyal fan base across
the globe. This is the first time in America that loyal fans who can
often be found scouring the imports shelves for his soul essentials will be discover
the release on domestic shelves on October 10th.
No stranger to the U.S. music scene, Omar has collaborated with the late O.D.B.
and was featured on Common's Electric Circus album. Both Erykah Badu and
Angie Stone have recorded versions of his underground classic, "Little
Boy." But it's the rare collaboration of Sing's "Feeling You"
featuring Stevie Wonder that has U.S. media asking the same question, 'So how
do you get a legend like Stevie Wonder on your album?' Turns out that Stevie
Wonder has been a huge fan of Omar's since his international hit album, There's
Nothing Like This (1990). "Stevie promised me over a decade ago that he
was gonna write me a tune and it's been a waiting game. One day I get this
phone call and the voice is says, 'Yo man, it's your boy in town' and I'm like
'Who's this?' He says, 'Stevie' and I'm like Stevie who? He says Stevie Wonder.
I said 'Oh yeah. Thinking it was a joke, I said sing something for me and
he did." Omar ended up hanging with Stevie in London for a week.
Stevie wrote Omar a commercial hit and Omar liked it, but his musician's ear
was searching for old-school/classic Stevie complete with the live
instruments. He invited him to a jam session at a friend's studio and the
next day Stevie called with another tune, "Feeling You," which he
co-wrote with Omar and then produced and featured on. "To work with
someone like Stevie is a rare experience and a dream come true for any
musician," says Omar. "I'm honoured that he, Angie Stone,
Common, Estelle, JC, Rodney P, Canitbe, and Ashman were all a part of bringing
this whole experience to life, now we're bringing music alive
onstage. "I've toured America four times in the last four
years and every time I come to America, my shows are always sold out! It's a good
feeling to know that my music is appreciated here in the states. There's just
nothing like this!" For more info: Jackie O. Asare, Jackieo@4sightmedia.com/212.730.1177
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Janet Celebrates 20!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
“That’s right I’m Janet Jackson and nothing goes until I say go!” --
The first words we heard when Janet stepped on the scene in 1976. And in
all of her years in the biz, she’s now taking action and aggressively moving
forward like that 10-year old from decades ago.
ptember 26, 2006) ) After
waiting for two years, fans of Ms.
Jackson can finally check out the pop diva’s ninth
release “20 Y.O.” We all know that Janet isn’t “20 Years Old,” but her
stunning career in the music industry is. Though, if we get technical,
her music career began with her Papa Joe at the helm with two albums in 1983
and 1985 that met with little to no acclaim. But once she took Control in 1986
and fired her father as she admitted during her Oprah Winfrey interview with a
“shift in management,” things really started to look up and her superstar
status on the music billboards began. The world was introduced to a chubby face
girl with a golden smile on the Jackson’s 1976 variety show where Janet would
transform with a rather convincing rendition of the sultry 1930s movie icon Mae
West. One could say that she was practicing to be a sex kitten as far
back as those days, but certainly as a child she was just pouring on the charm
to a nation of viewers who, once introduced, couldn’t get enough of her.
Prior to her meeting and collaborating with super producers Jimmy Jam and Terry
Lewis, she joined forces with the super producer of the 70s network shows,
Norman Lear. Lear asked Janet if she would join the cast of Good Times in
1977. The rest is history. Janet’s unforgettable portrayal of
‘Penny’ Gordon, a little girl who endured extreme physical abuse by her mother,
would become Willona’s adopted daughter and the nation’s
sweetheart. After Good Times, she would continue to play roles of
innocent, soft spoken, downright cherub-like young women. And maybe, just
maybe, some disgruntled fans out there that are having trouble with Janet’s
“sexy” are recalling her past fictional characters. But she has been
trying to snap her TV fans, who have become her music fans, out of their trance
and focus them on what is real. She tells us that people have been
overlooking it.
“It’s who I’ve always been, but they never paid attention to it I guess until
now. Maybe it’s because of what’s happened in recent years. It
started with ‘Funny How Time Flies,” explained Janet. “If they ever
listened to that song, they’ll realize that was the first time I’ve been
looking into the world of who I really am with that entire album. Even
there. And then from there on, I think on the Rhythm Nation album there
was ‘Some Day Is Tonight’ but people never paid attention. Then there was
the Janet album when I really opened up and it went on and on and on and
on. It’s always who I’ve been, but I was trying not to let them more and
more into my life when it comes to that aspect of my life.” But when our Lee
Bailey asked if she or anyone in her camp thought her constant references to
sex might be over the top, an aggravated Janet responded.
“No! I mean, why should I not? I did it with ‘Janet.’ That’s what
the album was about. Being liberated. Enjoying this freedom. So, why should I
not? Lee, does it bother you at all?” Backed in a corner, Lee responded
with “That’s a good question. Well sometimes it does, sometimes I say to
myself, ‘I wish she wouldn’t talk about that so much; wouldn’t flaunt her
sexuality so much.’ And I think I’m a pretty liberated guy, I’ve had some
pretty interesting fantasies, but sometimes I think it’s a bit much.”
Janet countered with, “Well, that’s your opinion and I respect that, but there
are other people who feel as I do and this is who I am.” When Janet refers to
“what’s happened in recent years,” she’s making reference to all of the tabloid
controversy that has sprung up and of course the Super Bowl fiasco of 2004.
Now as she promotes the new album, although she is quite beautiful and has
accomplished phenomenal weight loss success, revealing so much of herself is
the latest controversy. According to published reports, her King magazine
cover has had remarks ranging from "She looks like a total slut on the
cover of KING magazine ...” to “The Janet, I grew up loving would never do
KING." “You can’t please everyone and in doing so…where does that get
you?” said Janet. “It’s about my happiness and I think if people are
uncomfortable with it then I think it says more about them than it does about
myself. I think they need to look in the mirror and check out a few
things ... No pun intended actually,” she laughs. As far as the new project
Janet told us that the album is purely back to basics with her favourites Jimmy
Jam and Terry Lewis, but now also including her love Jermaine Dupri.
“Basically, I missed dancing and I wanted to get back to dance. So that
meant a lot more up tempo stuff that I hadn’t done in a while and going back to
the R&B roots which Jermaine had a great deal to do with. That, and I knew
I wanted to celebrate Control,” she explained. “I mean, these are all the
things that I had already thought about going into our very first meeting with
this project and we just threw ideas and stuff out on the table and we knew
what we wanted to do going into it.”
She’s enjoying being back in the studio with her longtime friends and
production gurus Jam and Lewis and explained why the chemistry is still there after
all these years. “I’m just a very loyal person. That’s the long and short
of it really and they’re very talented ... it’s not contractual at all,” she
explains. “We have a great relationship and I love what we create
together ... and I’m very comfortable with them. How long it will be for?
I don’t know. Maybe this will be the last one, maybe we’ll go on to do 20
more years. I have no clue. But I love what we do together. I
wish my brother Mike would’ve had that with Quincy.” As we all know, the
lady on stage right now is Beyonce. But Janet doesn’t see the
bootylicious “It” girl as competition. It seems she’s enjoying the
artists of today just like everyone else. “I think [Beyonce’s] talented.
I think Alicia Keys is very talented. Alicia reminds me of someone back
in the day. She’s my favourite of all the R&B female artists that are out,”
admits Janet. “She seems like something from back in the 70s. She has
that rawness and energy about her and that genuine soul.” She is a
fan of the young R&B stars, but it’s no secret that they are on very
different levels in their careers. “I don’t feel like I’m competing with any of
them to a certain degree and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I mean, I’ve
been doing this for 20 years,” said Janet. “I’ve been where they already
are and they’re just starting their careers. I just do my thing.
This is their second and third album, my sophomore album was Rhythm
Nation. I feel like I really don’t have anything to prove to anyone,” she
admits. “I do this out of love because I enjoy it. I enjoy what I
do and that’s the only reason why I am able to do this as long as I have done
it and I’m very thankful. There’s something to be said to have a career
for 20 years and still have people anticipate the work that you create.
That’s not often. Artists come and go. You can count on one hand
artists that have stuck around and for people to still be interested in them.
I’m being completely honest with you at the risk of sounding arrogant. I
cannot stand arrogance.”
Janet has finally arrived at a point in her career where she is able to enjoy
the fruits of her labour. She’s an artist who made platinum the mark to
sell during the gold era, she has garnered possibly every award an artist can
possibly be given including Grammys, American music awards, Soul Train awards,
Billboard, MTV awards, and NAACP awards to name a few. She’s the first
artist ever to produce seven Top Five hits off of one album (something even big
brother Mike hasn’t done). She’s even received a spot on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. “After 20 years, I’m not stressing. I’m not biting my
nails. They’re not down to the quick. I’m actually for the first
time really in my life sitting back and being in the moment, being in the now
and enjoying every single benefit like being with Oprah ... and enjoying having
a conversation sitting across from her.” It seems that there’s also good news
on the horizon for the fellas. Jermaine hasn’t, according to Janet,
expressed any interest in nuptials one way or the other, so there’s a good
chance someone could tempt her away from superman. When Lee Bailey asked
what’s keeping her from getting married, she wasn’t too clear on the topic.
“You have to ask Jermaine that question. Nothing’s keeping me from
it. It’s on him. If that’s something he wants to do I’m fine.
If he wants to keep it as is, I’m fine. I’m so good where I am right
now.”
But then Lee jumps in again to get her to come clean. “Wait a minute!
You’re kidding me! I believe he’s gone on record saying he would love to
get married", Bailey said. Janet responded with, “Well if he does I
guess maybe then it will happen some day.” Lee added, once again, “Are
you saying he hasn’t asked you to marry him?” Janet comes back with, “If he
does, then I guess maybe it will happen someday.” Lee said, “No, you
didn’t answer that now.” So she repeated herself saying, “If he wants to
get married, then I guess maybe it will happen someday,” she chuckles. When
some people are regretting getting older and see someone younger coming along
to maybe fill there space, Janet is experiencing the opposite. She is 40, but
not feeling it. She can do everything the young-guns can do and then some
because of where she is in her career. “I don’t know what 40 is supposed to feel
like to be quite honest with you,” explains Ms. Jackson. “Maybe this is
what it’s supposed to feel like. Maybe I am feeling 40. If I am, I
honestly do not feel any older than being in high school. Other than
experiencing more in life and being wiser, but I feel no different. My
body feels no different than it did then." Janet tells everyone now
that she’s in a great place in her life and career. She’s grown up ...
officially. “And not that I didn’t enjoy [my career] before, but, you’re so
busy working, working, working that you don’t sit back to enjoy the smell of
the roses and everything that’s going on. And thank God that I’m able to
do that because I still have the career that I have. Most people by this time
they’re over and gone” 20 Y.O. is available beginning today on Virgin Records.
For more information visit her official website: www.Janet-Jackson.com.
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Eric Clapton Rotten Disc Rockin' Live
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Brad Wheeler
THE HISTORY
(Sept. 26, 2006) ) Neither Robbie Robertson nor Neil Young
was a performer at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Sunday, but the greatest
Canadian guitarist ever might have been. The headliner was Eric Clapton, strongly speculated to
be the living consequence of a fleeting Second World War encounter between
16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapp and a Montreal serviceman stationed in
England. Though news of the musician's ancestry surfaced eight years ago,
lately the king guitarist seems less sure. "I began to doubt whether the
guy we had located really was my father," Clapton recently told a London
magazine. "I saw some photos and he didn't look a bit like me."
Still, his latest album is entitled Back Home. And for a pair of shows
that include a performance in Ottawa this evening, back home -- in a very small
way -- might just be where Clapton's at.
THE NEW ALBUM
Know that the Back Home is one dog of a disc. A banal, gritless
celebration of Clapton's new passion for domesticity, the record is best
forgotten. Sensibly, the man himself looks to put the pooch behind him. Of the
album's songs, only the woodsy, adult-contemporary title tack was performed, as
part of mid-concert, sit-down set. The rest of the night was bolder, with
drummer Steve Jordan instigating urgency to I Shot the Sheriff, Motherless
Children -- even After Midnight, which, for once, didn't inspire
thoughts of malted-beverage commercials. Clapton, a flat-faced millionaire with
patched jeans, rimless glasses and tightly cropped salt-and-pepper hair played
with a mature ferocity -- inspired by the presence of slide-guitarist Derek
Trucks or perhaps by Robert Cray, the soul-blues star who opened the show and
sat in with the main-setters for slow-burner Old Love and encore Crossroads.
Cray, no slouch, was eclipsed by another -- but it wasn't by whom you think.
THE CONCERT
Young, blond and wearing a long ponytail, Trucks was the attention-getter
to Clapton's right, rubbing a glass bottleneck over his red electric Gibson to
create varying tones -- sweet and singing, quicksilver or sitar-whiny. As a
current member of the Allman Brothers, Trucks often attracts comparisons to
Duane Allman, the late guitarist who participated on Clapton's Layla
sessions in 1970. On that anthem -- Layla -- there was Clapton and
Trucks doubling riffs and weaving solos, exquisitely. Guitar swords were
crossed on Everybody Oughta Make a Change, a mid-tempo blues where
Clapton asked, "Come back baby, you'll find a change in me."
Revitalized by fellow players and a bluesy program, his adjustment was welcome.
A Different Kind Of Night At The Opera
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Desmond Butler, Associated Press
(Sept. 26, 2006) NEW YORK — Enthusiasts filed into their seats
wearing jeans and T-shirts for the Metropolitan Opera's opening night performance. They sipped from soda cans and chatted
on cell phones while taxis zipped by honking occasionally. At dusk, Puccini's Madama
Butterfly appeared on a large screen above Times Square amid the flickering
lights. The performance was broadcast live Monday from Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts to Times Square, more than 20 blocks south, as part of an
effort by the Met to reach a new audience. It was enjoyed under a clear sky
from seats lined up on Broadway open to all. Many passers-by took advantage.
“This is a wonderful thing,” said Anderson Carton, 45, who had just emerged
from a medical conference in Times Square and had not planned to watch an
opera. “I've heard about Madama Butterfly all the time; now I can see
what it's all about.” The performance also was broadcast in Lincoln Center's
Josie Robertson Plaza and on Sirius Satellite Radio. The broadcasts were part
of the Met's attempt under new general manager Peter Gelb to bring opera to a broader
audience. Earlier this month, the opera house announced it would transmit six
live performances to movie theatres in North America and Europe this season and
broadcast more than 100 live over the Internet or on digital radio.
The broadcast of the season's opening night performance of Anthony Minghella's
production of Madama Butterfly at Times Square was a kind of inaugural —
and an unprecedented event for the Met. About 600 seats were set up in the
square. Gelb has expressed concerns that opera is an aging art form. He has
said that the broadcasts and other initiatives, including PBS telecasts and
possible CD and DVD releases, are an attempt to reach a new and younger
audience and nurture a larger base of enthusiasts. In Times Square, the early
reviews were good. “This is fabulous,” said Thomas Thoma, an attendee who works
in Germany's mission to the United Nations. “Paris and Berlin should do this.”
Other members of the audience said they felt that the Met was becoming more
accessible. “The Met used to be this horrendously elite dinosaur,” said Greg
Emetaz, 28, a filmmaker. “This is a major effort at outreach.” Even the
distractions of Times Square were acceptable. “The noise, the colour, that's
part of the attraction tonight,” Emetaz said. In the minutes before the
performance, the audience members watched images of their counterparts taking
their seats in Lincoln Center, many in tuxedos and long dresses. Celebrities at
the performance included Jude Law, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Liev
Schreiber and Naomi Watts. An announcer in Times Square asked his more casually
dressed audience members to turn their cellphones to silent.
“I don't think that will help here,” said Carton, laughing. Then Met music
director James Levine, making his return after an absence last spring due to
injury, rose on the big screen to launch into the U.S. national anthem ahead of
the opera. The audience members in Times Square stood and put their hands on
their hearts. Afterward, they burst into cheers as a woman appeared on the
screen in Japanese costume with long flowing ribbons and the music began. And
they laughed when a large cement mixer drove loudly across the square and under
the screen. After the curtain calls on stage, the opera's cast came out onto
the balcony in front of the Met and received a wild ovation from the crowd that
had enjoyed the live telecast in the plaza.
Those Guitar Licks Keep Peppers Cooking
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Ben Rayner, Pop Music Critic
(Sep. 26, 2006) Let the Red Hot Chili Peppers luxuriate in
their world domination, for they've earned it. Yeah, the new double
album's a total chore and a spotty discography doesn't quite justify the
Stones-esque reverence bestowed on the California foursome in its collective
middle age, but the similarly unexpected longevity of, say, Bon Jovi is way
harder to take. And unlike a lot of other rock acts on the cusp of their 25th
anniversary, the Peppers — occasionally fractious intra-band politics and bad
habits aside — still appear to enjoy playing music together. They're so
much kinetic fun to watch, in fact, that one almost felt guilty for ignoring
the massive, overhanging stage rig that bathed the entire Air Canada Centre in
hot neon shades of pink and green. It's probably a good thing the guys are
doing a second sold-out show tonight, actually, since the labour-to-use ratio
involved in putting that monstrous thing together must be way out of
whack. But there you go. While the Peppers have alienated punk-funk fans
by inviting their parents to the party with 1999's mannered-but-massive Californication,
2002's By the Way and this year's saggy double-disc opus Stadium
Arcadium, last night they attacked a set list rooted in those very albums
with an elevated musicality that rescued even the blandest new material from
the doldrums. Virtuoso bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith are one of
rock's tightest units, winding successive songs into gear with their
giggity-giggity jams, but the secret, truth be told, is to simply let guitarist
John Frusciante light up another liquid solo to end every tune.
Sure, the ACC might have roared loudest for recent Top 40 mainstays such as
"Dani California," "Can't Stop" or
"Californication" and infrequent old-schoolers like 1991's "BloodSugarSexMagik"
— a Zeppelin-worthy metallo-funk destroyer that dominated the set's first half
— and 1989's frantic "Nobody Weird Like Me." But any energy
depleted during "Snow (Hey Oh)" or "Readymade" was restored
the moment Frusciante and his Hendrix jones were let loose on the fretboard. He
even went proactive on "Right on Time," seamlessly blending the
Clash's "London Calling" riff into his own off the top and quietly
proved himself a better singer than Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis with a solo
cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "For Emily, Wherever I May Find
Her." No wonder the band didn't bother much with songs predating
Frusciante's 1999 return to the fold after a half-decade in heroin exile. His
push to expand the band's horizons has yielded mixed results, but he's able to
make even mundane numbers sound fleetingly transcendent.
MUSIC TIDBITS
Andrae Crouch To Give First Major Concert In Ten Years
Source: JL Media PR
(September 22, 2006) Gospel legend Andrae Crouch is scheduled to
perform at The Forum, October 14 in Los Angeles. This will be his first major
"live" concert in over 10 years at a major venue in Los Angeles.
Crouch is celebrating 40 years in the music industry and the release of his
latest CD "Mighty Wind" after an 8 year hiatus. He is the only living
contemporary gospel star to have his star enshrined on the Hollywood Walk Of
Fame. In 2004, he was received a Gospel Life Time Achievement Award by
NARAS and inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall Of Fame. Andrae
has written and arranged songs for Michael Jackson; performed with Madonna,
Elton John and Quincy Jones to name a few. Andrae Crouch is one of the most talented
and historical figures in the Christian and secular music world. He
changed the style and the essence of traditional Christian music by creating a
contemporary sound and writing masterpiece songs. Crouch is the
"Godfather" of contemporary gospel music. A true
survivor, Andrae has combated cancer and obesity. Currently he pastor's his
father's church in Los Angeles with his twin sister Sandra.
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Etta Baker Dies
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
September 26, 2006) *Groundbreaking
blues guitarist Etta
Baker, whose music has influenced the likes of
Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal, has died at age 93, her family said. No cause of death
was given, but Baker had been in poor health for years, reported The News &
Observer of Raleigh. Rooted in a musical family from North Carolina, Baker
first appeared on a compilation album in 1956 called "Instrumental Music
of the Southern Appalachians," which influenced the growing folk revival –
especially her versions of "Railroad Bill" and "One-Dime
Blues." Baker toured well into her 80s, but finally quit because of heart
problems. This year she no longer had the strength to play guitar so she
focused on the banjo. Baker died Saturday in Fairfax, Va., while visiting a
daughter who had suffered a stroke.
Three 6 Mafia Gets Reality Show
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(September 22, 2006) *MTV cameras will shadow members
of Memphis
rap group Three 6 Mafia as they attempt to expand their Hollywood presence in the wake of
an Academy Award. “Adventures in Hollyhood,” to be co-executive produced by
actor Ashton Kutcher, will be set in Los Angeles and follow the group as they
attempt to “establish themselves as Hollywood players.” The
act’s crossover profile has skyrocketed since picking up a best original song
Oscar for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," their track from the
soundtrack to “Hustle & Flow.” On Monday, Three 6 Mafia performed on the
pilot episode of NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”
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Neil Young, James McMurtry Win Americana Music Awards
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Associated Press
(Sept. 23, 2006) NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Veteran rocker Neil
Young was
named artist of the year Friday at the fifth annual Americana
Honors and Awards. The awards, which honour
music based on the country, folk and bluegrass tradition, also recognized the
Drive-By Truckers as duo/group of the year and guitarist Kenny Vaughan as
instrumentalist of the year. Singer and songwriter James McMurtry took home
album of the year and song of the year honours. McMurtry, 44, won album of the
year for “Childish Things” and song of the year for “We Can't Make It Here
Anymore,” a pointed commentary on the economy, war and other issues. The
Austin, Texas-based singer is the son of “Lonesome Dove” author Larry McMurtry
and credits his father with exposing him to country music as a boy. Young, 60,
born in Toronto and raised in Winnipeg, is one of rock's most influential
figures — and one of its most erratic, shifting from tender folk ballads to
feedback-drenched grunge, electronica, rockabilly, blues and full-blown
country. Last year, he released “Prairie Wind,” a country-flavoured album recorded
in Nashville, and this year put out “Living with War,” a collection of protest
songs that included the blunt “Let's Impeach the President.” Held at the
historic Ryman Auditorium, the awards show was hosted by Jim Lauderdale and
featured appearances by Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Charlie
Daniels, Vince Gill and many others. Crowell received a lifetime achievement
award for song writing and Alejandro Escovedo received one for performing.
Besides instrumentalist of the year, Vaughan also was honoured with the new
lifetime achievement award for instrumentalist. Daniels became the fifth
recipient of the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award, while the family of
songwriter Mickey Newbury accepted the President's Award, traditionally given
in posthumous recognition to an artist for outstanding career achievement. The
awards were presented by the Americana Music Association. It is in part a
reaction to slicker mainstream country music that grew in popularity in the
1990s, the organization said.
Sony To Compensate Those Who Bought Affected Discs
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Sept. 23, 2006) Toronto -- Music fans who bought CDs loaded with anti-piracy
software that opened their computers to hackers and viruses have won
compensation from Sony BMG. An Ontario court approved a settlement deal Thursday that has
the music giant offering $8.40, a replacement CD and free downloads of selected
CDs to hundreds of thousands of customers who bought the affected discs.
Details on eligibility and benefits can be found at http://www.sonybmg.ca.
Those seeking compensation must fill out a form at the site or download the
form and mail it to a Sony BMG administrator. The settlement applies to all
affected customers in Canada except those in Quebec and British Columbia. A
statement issued by Sony BMG said simply that the company was
"delighted" the Ontario Superior Court settlement had been approved. CP
Benzino, Mays, Valdes Regroup With New Magazine
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(September 22, 2006) *Source magazine founders David Mays and Ray
“Benzino” Scott – fired from the monthly in
January – have teamed with Vibe magazine’s fired editor-in-chief Mimi Valdes to
create Hip Hop Weekly, a new entertainment news and celebrity lifestyle publication set
to launch on Oct. 16. The magazine will also feature a weekly column
from New York radio personality Star, the former Power 105 personality fired by
parent company Clear Channel after launching a scathing verbal assault on a
rival DJ. Star will author the column along with his old radio partner
Buc Wild; and gossip maven Wendy Williams will also contribute to the
publication each week. "This is a great day for our team up at Hip Hop
Weekly and for hip-hop as a whole," said Benzino, Chief Brand Executive of
Hip Hop Global Media, the holding company that is backing the launch of Hip Hop
Weekly. "I want the readers to know that they can expect something
incredible. It only makes sense, considering that between myself, Dave, Mimi,
Wendy and Star, the years of experience we have -- stretching from the street
side to the corporate side to magazines to radio to TV -- is incomparable. We
will continue to give the people what they desire, and that's the realness,
which they will now be able to get every week in our new magazine."
Valdés will serve as Hip Hop Weekly's Executive Vice President and
Editor-In-Chief, as well as its co-owner. "With HHW's revolutionary
format, we're better equipped to document this culture as it happens,” she said
in a statement. “Readers can depend on us for insight, criticism, and
perspective on how hip-hop influences the world. Our entire team, both business
and editorial, is filled with passionate fans that understand the hip-hop
lifestyle. Believe me, that's going to make all the difference."
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Tyrese Aka 'Black-Ty' Releases 2nd Hip Hop Mix Tape
Source: Tammy Brook, FYI Public
Relations, 212.586.2240
(September 25, 2006) Multi-platinum, Grammy nominated
singer, songwriter, actor, writer, producer and CEO of Headquarter
Entertainment-Tyrese Gibson has released his highly anticipated second hip hop mix tape,
"Ghetto Royalty" under his rap guise Black-Ty. The full mix
tape can be downloaded in it's entirety at Tyrese Gibson's official website
for free for a limited time only with cover art for his fans! According
to Duncan Rutherford of DUBCNN.COM, "Black-Ty just reached the DUBCNN.COM
record for the most downloaded mixtape ever in a day! In day one, 3,456
downloads and he's just hit 7,000 and it's only been 3 days since it went up on
the website." After already captivating audiences from music and
movies with his amazing singing, songwriting and acting ability, Black-Ty AKA
Tyrese has established himself as a hip-hop artist. It was last year when
Gibson decided to announce his alter ego- a new name - Black-Ty - to reveal his
Hip-Hop side and has been steadily working with the biggest producers in the
hip hop game including Erik Sermon, Scott Storch, Mannie Fresh, Jazze Pha,
Jermaine Dupri and more. At the BET Awards earlier this year, Black-Ty
debuted with the release of his first Mixtape "Best of Both Hoods Volume 1
hosted by DJ Warrior." Due to the rave reviews throughout the
hip-hop industry, fans nationwide and from hip hop super stars including Snoop
Dogg, Kurupt, David Banner, Method Man, Lil Scrappy, Lil Jon, The Game, and Ice
Cube, Black-Ty quickly enlisted the "king of the tape," DJ S&S to
host Ghetto Royalty. "All this love for Black-Ty got everyone curious, so
here's a dose of what's to come on the Alter Ego album, I put my heart on the
mic," said Black-Ty. Black-Ty AKA Tyrese is scheduled to release his
highly anticipated double album titled Alter Ego on J Records - December 5th,
2006. He can also be seen on the cover of the current issue of Dub
Magazine. To download the Ghetto Royalty mix tape go to www.headquarterentertainment.com.
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Snoop And Dre Together Again On New Album
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Clover Hope, N.Y.
(September 22, 2006) Dr. Dre has produced several tracks for Snoop
Dogg's upcoming album, "The Blue Carpet Treatment," due Nov.
21 via Doggystyle/Geffen. The new songs, which include "Imagine,"
will be the duo's first collaborative effort in roughly five years.
"Imagine" finds the two longtime friends and collaborators ruminating
about hypothetical situations such as life without hip-hop ("Imagine
Russell [Simmons] still struggling/no Def Jam," Dre raps) and if Tupac
Shakur never died. "Blue Carpet" also boasts production from
the Neptunes, Timbaland and Rick Rock, among others. Nate Dogg and Ne-Yo have
joined the list of previously announced guest artists, which includes R.
Kelly, Stevie Wonder, the Game and Ice Cube. The disc will be the
follow-up to 2004's "R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The
Masterpiece," which bowed at No. 6 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.7
million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
'Tequila!' Sax Man Danny Flores Dies
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
(September 22, 2006) Danny Flores, who played the
saxophone and shouted the word "tequila!" in the 1950s hit song
"Tequila!," has died. He was 77. Flores, who lived in Westminster,
died Tuesday at Huntington Beach Hospital, said a hospital spokesperson. He
died of complications from pneumonia, the Long Beach Press-Telegram
reported. In 1957, Flores was in a group that recorded some work with
rockabilly singer Dave Burgess. One of the songs was based on a nameless riff
Flores had written. He played the "dirty" saxophone part and
repeatedly growled the single-word lyric: "tequila!" The next
year it appeared as the B-side of a single, credited to the Champs. Flores used
the name Chuck Rio because he was under contract to a different record
label. "Tequila!" went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart and
won a Grammy in 1959. Flores continued to play it for the next 40 years.
"I can honestly tell you he never got tired of playing that song,"
said his wife, Sharee. The song has been used in numerous commercials and
TV shows. It became popular with a new generation after it was used in the 1985
movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." "After that, we got shows
all over the U.S.," said Sharee, who sang with her husband. "All
these younger people who hadn't heard it were suddenly in love with the song.
Danny was just so proud of it." In addition to his wife, Flores is
survived by seven children from previous marriages and 15 grandchildren.
Cee-Lo's Inner 'Freak' Revealed On Best-Of
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
(September 21, 2006) With the mega-selling Gnarls Barkley having
brought Cee-Lo
to new levels of mainstream visibility, Arista/Legacy has rounded up favourites
from his work solo and with Goodie Mob for a new compilation.
"Closet Freak: The Best of Cee-Lo Green the Soul Machine" will arrive
Oct. 31. The 19-track set includes collaborations with Timbaland ("I'll Be
Around"), Pharrell ("The Art of Noise"), Ludacris ("Childz
Play") and Jazze Pha and T.I. ("The One"). Three Goodie
Mob tracks are featured, including the hit "Soul Food," plus the
OutKast/Goodie Mob collaboration "Git Up, Git Out," from the former's
1994 album "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik." Meanwhile, Gnarls
Barkley is winding down touring in support of its Downtown/Atlantic debut,
"St. Elsewhere," which has sold 920,000 copies in the United States,
according to Nielsen SoundScan. The group plays in Las Vegas tonight (Sept. 21)
and Saturday in Baltimore at the V Festival.
Shakira Leads The Pack With 5 Latin Grammy Nominations
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Associated Press
(Sept. 27, 2006) New York — Shakira led the Latin Grammy
pack Tuesday with five nominations, while Ricardo Arjona, Gustavo Cerati and
Julieta Venegas received four each. Shakira, the hip-shaking international
superstar from Colombia, was nominated for record of the year, song of the year
and best short form music video for La Tortura, as well as album of the
year and best female pop vocal album for Fijacion Oral Vol. 1.
Guatemalan singer Arjona is up for record of the year and song of the year for Acompaname
a Estar Solo, best pop vocal album for Adentro and best short for
music video for the song Mojado. Argentina's rocker Cerati took
nominations for best rock song for Crimen, album of the year and best
rock solo vocal album for Ahi Vamos and album of the year as producer of
Shakira's Fijacion Oral Vol. 1. Mexico-born Venegas was nominated for
record of the year and best short form music video for Me Voy, and album
of the year and best alternative album for Limon y Sal. The seventh
annual Latin Grammys, featuring 47 categories for Spanish- and
Portuguese-speaking artists, will take place Nov. 2 at Madison Square Garden
and will be broadcast on the Univision Network.
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The Game Ready To 'Ride' On Sophomore Album
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
September 26, 2006) California
rapper the Game will follow up
his hit 2005 debut, "The Documentary" with "Doctor's
Advocate," due Nov. 14 via Geffen. Album track "It's Okay (One
Blood)" featuring Junior Reid is No. 16 this week on Billboard's Hot Rap
Songs chart; the first official single, "Let's Ride (Strip Club),"
was produced by Scott Storch and will hit radio next month. Although additional
details have yet to be announced, Game is known to have worked with producers
Cool & Dre as well as the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am. Guest appearances are
also tipped from Mary J. Blige and Nas. "He rolls with a different
type of people," will.i.am told Billboard.com last week. "I was
nervous; I didn't know what to expect. But I got to know him in the studio, and
he had fun just like everyone else. He loves music just like I love music. That
was the bond and respect that we took from that studio session." It
is unknown if Dr. Dre has contributed production to "Doctor's
Advocate," as he did on "The Documentary." The Game was formerly
signed to Dre's Aftermath label but split with the company in the wake of his
long-running feud with 50 Cent and G-Unit. Meanwhile, the Game guests on
rapper Xzibit's new album, "Full Circle," due
Oct. 17 via his own Open Bar Entertainment/Koch.
::CD RELEASES::
September 25, 2006
Alicia Keys, Songs
in A Minor/The Diary of Alicia Keys, Sony
Anthony David, The
Red Clay Chronicles, Brash Music
Beyond, The
Redaration Record, Xi Sounds
Birdman, Like
Father, Like Son, Cash Money
Black Eyed Peas, Monkey
Business [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Black Moon, Alter
the Chemistry, Bucktown
Bob Marley, 48
Titres Originaux, Intense
Bob Marley, Babylon
by Bus, Universal
Bob Marley, Burnin'
[Japan Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Catch
a Fire [Japan Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Confrontation
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Exodus
[Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Kaya
[Japan Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Live
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Natty
Dread [Japan Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Rastaman
Vibration [Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Survival
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Uprising
[Bonus Track], Universal
Brassmunk, Fewturistc,
EMI
Brooke Valentine, Physical
Education, Toshiba EMI
Cadillac Don & J-Money, Peanut
Butter & Jelly, Asylum/Rap-A-Lot
Cassie, Long
Way 2 Go, WEA/Bad Boy
Cee-Lo, Art
of Noise: The Best of Cee-Lo, Sony
BMG
Christina Milian, So
Amazin' [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Darondo, Legs
[EP], Luv N' Haight
Deena Jones, One
Night Only [Single], Urban
Dennis Brown, Remember
Me Always,
Desmond Dekker, Black
& Dekker [Bonus Track], JVC
Victor
Desmond Dekker, Compass
Point [Bonus Track], JVC Victor
Diana Ross, Blue
[Bonus Tracks], Universal/Motown
Diana Ross, I
Love You, EMI
Diddy, Come
to Me, Pt. 1, WEA/Atlantic
DJ Yoda, Amazing
Adventures of DJ Yoda, Antidote
Eminem, Curtain
Call: The Hits [Bonus Track], Universal
Fatlip, Loneliest
Punk [Bonus Track], Toys Factory
Fergie, London
Bridge, Universal International
Freddie Jackson, Transitions,
Orpheus Music
Frost, Till
the Wheels Fall Off, Aries Music
India.Arie, There's
Hope, Universal/Island
Jah Mason, Wheat
and Tear, Greensleeves
Janet Jackson, 20
Y.O., Virgin
Janet Jackson, All
for You [Japan Bonus Track], EMI
Janet Jackson, Call
on Me, Virgin
Janet Jackson, Call
on Me, Pt. 2, EMI
Janet Jackson, Damita
Jo [Bonus Tracks #2], EMI
Janet Jackson, Special
Limited Edition, EMI
Janet Jackson, The
Velvet Rope [Japan Bonus Track], EMI
Janita, Seasons
of Life [Bonus Track], JVC Victor
Jay-Z, Greatest
Hits, Sony BMG
Jimmy Castor, Hey
Leroy, Universal
Jimmy Levine, Share
My Love, Thump
John Legend, Save
Room [US 12" ], Sony
J-Shin, All
I Got Is Love, South Beat
K.M.D., Mr.
Hood, Traffic Ent.
Karaoke, 70's
Soul, Chartbuster Karaoke
La Sinfonia, City
of Candles, Sony International
Laurel Aitken, Superstar,
Liquidator
Lil Chris, Checking
It Out, BMG/RCA
Lil' Flip, Envy
Me, Pt. 2, BCD Music Group
Lil Jon, Gangsta
Grillz, Vol. 9, BCD Music Group
Lionel Richie, Coming
Home [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Lionel Richie, I
Call It Love, Pt. 1, Universal
Lionel Richie, I
Call It Love, Pt. 2, Universal
Lloyd Banks, Money
in the Bank, Vol. 4 [Bonus Tracks], BCD
Music Group
Ludacris, Release
Therapy, Def Jam
Luther Vandross, The
Ultimate Luther Vandross [Bonus Track], BMG
Mac Minister, The
Minister of Defense, SMC
Recordings
Mad Linx, On
the Grind, Sugar Water
Main Flow, Flow
Season, Brick
Main Flow, Forever,
Brick
Mariah Carey, The
Emancipation of Mimi [Japan Bonus Tracks], Universal
Mario Vazquez, Mario
Vazquez, Arista
Marvin Gaye, Marvin
Gaye & His Girls, Universal
Masta Ace, SlaughtaHouse,
Delicious Vinyl
Mayday, Mayday!,
Southbeat
MC 13, Illadelph
Eternal, Mia Mind Music
Michael Franti, Yell
Fire [Bonus Track], Sony
Mitchy Slick, Urban
Survival Syndrome, Angeles
Morgan Heritage, Live:
Another Rockaz Moment, VP /
Universal
Mos Def, Undeniable/There
Is a Way [Single], Geffen
MTO, Controversia,
EMI
Natalie Cole, Leavin',
Verve
Nate James, Set
the Tone [Bonus Tracks/Bonus DVD], Toshiba
EMI
Negativ, Anorectic,
JVC Victor
Ne-Yo, In
My Own Words [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Ne-Yo, Stay,
Universal
Omar, Sing
(If You Want It), Ether
Omarion, Entourage,
Sony BMG
Oscar Toney, Jr., Guilty,
Shout
Pharoahe Monch, Push
[Single], Universal
Pokoloko, Bilingual
Lingo, BCD Music Group
Promoe, White
Man's Burden, David vs Goliath
Rare Essence, Live
Pa, #8: Live at the Tradewinds 8.29.06, Rare One
Raydar Ellis, Sambo
Song, Brick
Rihanna, Girl
Like Me [Bonus Tracks #2], Universal
Rihanna, Music
of the Sun [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Robert Parker, An
Introduction To Robert Parker, Varese
Sarabande
Roc Monee, Diamond
in the Rough, Bungalo
Sandpeople, City
Sleeps, 3D
Sean Paul, (When
You Gonna) Give It Up to Me, WEA/Atlantic
Skant Bone, 3
Seasonz, Titan / Pyramid
Skyzoo/9th Wonder, Way
to Go/I'm on It [12" Single], Traffic
Ent.
Sleepy Brown, Margarita,
Pt. 1, EMI/Virgin
Sleepy Brown, Margarita,
Pt. 2, EMI/Virgin
Sleepy Brown, Mr.
Brown, Virgin
Smitty, Heart
of the South,
Smoove, Catch
22,
Sol.illaquists of Sound, As
If We Existed, Anti
Solomon Burke, Nashville,
Shout! Factory
Squeak E. Clean, Yeah
Right/Hot Chocolate, Toys Factory
Stephanie McKay, Stephanie
McKay, Astralwerks
Stevie Wonder,
Hotter
Than July, Universal
Sylk-E. Fyne, Raw
Sylk, Balzout Inc.
Tami Chynn, Hyperventilating,
Universal International
Tasmin Archer, On,
Quiverdisc
Tego Calderón, Underdog/El
Subestimado [Bonus Track], WEA/Atlantic
Tek, I
Got This, Bucktown
The Alchemist, No
Days Off, Alc
The Brand New Heavies, Get
Used to It [Bonus Tracks], Pony
Canyon
The Drifters, Very
Best of the Drifters [WEA], WEA
The Impressions, This
Is My Country/The Young Mods' Forgotten Story, Snapper/Charly
The New Rotary Connection, Hey
Love, Universal
The Peppers, Peppers
Box, Repeat
The Staple Singers, Come
Up in Glory, Snapper/Charly
Total Devastation, Wreck,
Firebox
Vanessa Williams, Christmas
Collection: 20th Century Masters, Vol. 2, Hip-O
Various Artists, Eccentric
Soul, Vol. 11: Mighty Mike Lenaburg, Numero
Various Artists, Get
Low: The Lowriding DVD Magazine, Vol. 1,
Various Artists, Heavy
Rotation Allstar Compilation, Vol. 6, Mastertapes
Various Artists, Heavy
Rotation Allstar Compilation, Vol. 7, Mastertapes
Various Artists, Soldiers
of the 213, Pt. 2, Thump
Various Artists, Black
Magic Reggae, Castle
Various Artists, Dangerous
[Machete Music], Machete Music
Various Artists, Dem
Time Deh, VP / Universal
Various Artists, Lyric
Reggae DVD Magazine, Vol. 2, Lyric
DVD Magazine
Various Artists, One
Team Music: The Hitmakers, Machete
Music
Various Artists, Pure
Reggaeton Music, Machete Music
Webstar, Webstar
Presents: Caught In The Web, Republic
Westbound Train, Transitions,
Hellcat
Wibal & Alex, Los
Duenos del Bandidaje, Universal
Latino
X:144, M.E.,
Nonsense
Young Cash, Believe
It [Single], Universal
Yummy Bingham, Come
Get It, Universal/Motown
October 2, 2006
4 Tre, Southern
Kaos, Dollyhood
9th Wonder, Brooklyn
in My Mind (Crooklyn Dodgers II), 6
Hole
Acafool, Acafool,
First String Entertainment
Akwid, E.S.L.,
Univision
Alicia Keys, Songs
in A Minor/The Diary of Alicia Keys, Sony
Aretha Franklin, Collections,
Sony / BMG Import
Beyoncé, Ring
the Alarm [Single], Sony
Big Rich, Block
Tested: Hood Approved, Koch
Black Eyed Peas, Monkey
Business [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Babylon
by Bus, Universal
Bob Marley, Burnin'
[Japan Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Catch
a Fire [DVD], Eagle Vision USA
Bob Marley, Confrontation
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Exodus
[Bonus Tracks], Universal
Bob Marley, Kaya
[Japan Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Live
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Natty
Dread [Japan Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Rastaman
Vibration [Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Survival
[Bonus Track], Universal
Bob Marley, Uprising
[Bonus Track], Universal
Brawdcast, The
Suburban Spokesman, R.N.L.G. LLC
Brockington, Darien, Somebody
to Love, ABB
Cassie, Long
Way 2 Go, WEA/Bad Boy
Christina Milian, So
Amazin' [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Chuck Black, Life
of a Hustler, Warlock
Crunkaholics, Tha
Kings of Denco, Mid-South
Dabrye, Two/Three
[Instrumentals], Ghostly
International
Dan the Automator, Don't
Hate the Player, Decon
Dead Prez, Soldier
2 Soldier, Real Talk Ent
Desmond Dekker, This
Is Desmond Dekker, Trojan
Diana Ross, I
Love You, EMI
Diddy, Come
to Me, WEA/Atlantic
Diddy, Press
Play, Bad Boy
DJ Yoda, Amazing
Adventures of DJ Yoda, Antidote
Don Carlos, Live
in San Francisco [DVD], 2B1
Don Cisko, Still
Hustlin', Paid in Full
E-40, U
and Dat [Single], WEA/Warner
Eminem, Curtain
Call: The Hits [Bonus Track], Universal
Ese Villen/Lysto, Lakeside
Stories, Thump
Esther Phillips, Atlantic
Years, WEA International
Fatlip, Loneliest
Punk [Bonus Track], Toys Factory
Footsoldiers, Footsoldiers,
Antagonist
Gary Taylor, Retro
Blackness, Morning Crew
Gladys Knight, A
Christmas Celebration [Mormon Tabernacle], Mormon Tabernacle
Heavyweights, The
Beginning, Activated
Hellsent, Rainwater,
Galapagos
Hollow Tip, Ghetto
Famous, Real Talk Enter
Hustler E, Wacocaine,
Vol. 2: God, Money and Gunz [Screwed], On My Hustle
India.Arie, There's
Hope, Universal/Island
J. Rawls, Essence
of Soul, HBD Label Group
James Brown, And
I Do Just What I Want, Universal/Spectrum
James Brown, Fine
Old Foxy Self, Universal
Janet Jackson, 20
Y.O. [Japan Bonus Track/DVD], EMI
Jay Dee, The
Shining, Bbe
Jay Tee, How
the Game Go, R.N.L.G. LLC
Jay-Z, Reasonable
Doubt, BMG Germany
Jimmy Castor, Hey
Leroy, Universal
John Legend, Live
at the House of Blues, Sony
Jurassic 5, Work
It Out/In the House [Single], Universal
Kelis, Blindfold
Me [US 12"], La Face
Kool & the Gang, Platinum
Collection, Platinum
K-Os, Atlantis:
Hymns for Disco, EMI/Virgin
Layzie Bone, Cleveland,
Siccness.net
Lionel Richie, Coming
Home [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Loer Velocity, Ready
for a Renaissance, Embedded Music
Loon, Wizard
of Harlem, Siccness.net
Luni Coleone, Anger
Management, Paid in Full
Mariah Carey, The
Emancipation of Mimi [Japan Bonus Tracks], Universal
Mitchy Slick, Killafornia
Handgunner, Siccness.net
Moka Only, Desired
Effect, Green Streets Ent
Monica, The
Makings of Me, J-Records
Morgan Heritage, Live
in San Francisco, 2B1
Mr. Shadow, Thug
Connection, Paid in Full
N. Phect & Dizplay, Beautiful
Bytes, Groove Attack
Nathan Haines, Chillifunk
Years, Debut
Negativ, Anorectic,
JVC Victor
Ne-Yo, In
My Own Words [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Ne-Yo, Stay,
Universal
Oddisee, Foot
in the Door, Raptivism
Of Mexican Descent, Exitos
y Mas Exitos [Deluxe Edition] [Bonus Tracks], Temporary Whatever
Patti Austin, End
of a Rainbow, King
Patti Austin, Havana
Candy, King
Percy Sledge, Platinum
Collection [Platinum], Platinum
Pitbull, El
Mariel, TVT
Poo Poo Man, Snot
Logical, Activated
Project Pat, Crook
by Da Book: The Fed Story, Sony
Promoe, White
Man's Burden, David vs Goliath
Ray Charles, Ray
Charles with the Voices of Jubilation, Medialink Enter
Ray Charles, Ray
Sings, Basie Swings, Concord
Remo Conscious, Infiltration,
Wax Orchard
Rep Yo Set, Rep
Yo Set,
Reyes Brothers, Ghetto
Therapy, Latin Thug
Rihanna, Girl
Like Me [Bonus Tracks #2], Universal
Rihanna, Music
of the Sun [Bonus Tracks], Universal
Ruben Studdard, The
Return, J
Sadat X, Black
October, HBD Label Group
Sean Paul, (When
You Gonna) Give It Up to Me, WEA/Atlantic
Sleepy Brown, Margarita,
Pt. 1, EMI/Virgin
Sleepy Brown, Margarita,
Pt. 2, EMI/Virgin
Sly & the Family Stone,
A
Whole New Thing [Bonus Tracks], Sony
Sly & the Family Stone,
Dance
to the Music [Bonus Tracks], Sony
Sly & the Family Stone,
Greatest
Hits [Bonus Tracks], Sony
Sly & the Family Stone,
Life
[Bonus Tracks], Sony
South Park Mexican, When
Devils Strike,
Squeak E. Clean, Yeah
Right/Hot Chocolate, Toys Factory
Stevie Wonder, Hotter
Than July, Universal
Sticman, Soldier
to Soldier, Real Talk Enter
Subtle, For
Hero for Fool, Astralwerks
Suga Free, Suga
Free's Congregation, Paid in Full
Talib Kweli, Listen!!!,
WEA
Tego Calderón, Underdog/El
Subestimado [Bonus Track], WEA/Atlantic
The New Rotary Connection,
Hey
Love, Universal
The Real Thing, Platinum
Collection, Platinum
The Viceroys, Ghetto
Vibes, Kingston Sounds
Thicke, The
Evolution of Robin Thicke, Interscope
To Kool Chris, Absolute
Dance [2006], Universal Republic
To Kool Chris, The
Absolute Dance [2004], Republic
Tom Burbank, Famous
First Words, Planet Mu
Tre-8, Frightnight,
Warlock
Unk, Beat'n
Down Yo Block, KR Urban
Various Artists, Eat
to the Beat: The Dirtiest of the Dirty Blues, Bear Family
Various Artists, Big
Up Berlin: Best of German Hip Hop and Reggae,
Various Artists, Long
Beach City Limits, R.N.L.G. LLC
Various Artists, MTV
My Block: Chicago, Asylum
Various Artists, Music
2 Kill by, Vol. 2, F.U.P.
Various Artists, Napoleon
Presents Loyalty Over Money, Paid
in Full
Various Artists, Power
Structure, PR
Various Artists, Sickmix
DVD Magazine,
Various Artists, Smack:
The Album, Vol. 1, Koch
Various Artists, The
Hyphy Movement, R.N.L.G. LLC
Various Artists, Tres
Presents Shipping and Handling, Wax
Orchard
Various Artists, Reggae
for Romance Vol. 3, Rhythm Club
Visionaries, We
Are the Ones (We've Been Waiting For), Up Above
VSOP, Lacs
and Caprices,
Wade Waters, Darkwater,
Raptivism
Willie Clayton, Gifted,
Malaco
Willie Headen, Blame
It on the Blues, Ace
Yummy Bingham, Come
Get It, Universal/Motown
Z-Ro, 1
Deep, Presidential
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::FILM NEWS::
Powerful And Positive Performances Hit The Screens With Forest
Whitaker
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
September 21, 2006) Director
Kevin McDonald let it be known in no
uncertain terms that "The King of Scotland" could not haven been made without the right actor in the
starring role. Because of his many low key roles, Forest Whitaker had to do a lot of
convincing to land the part of Idi Amin in "The
Last King" Laughing at the
preconception of being meek in most of his movies, Whitaker pointed out he was
a hit man in "Ghost Dog." With Whitaker's track record, there
should have never been a doubt in anyone's mind that he could pull off any kind
of role. Oscar is written all over his performance in "The King of
Scotland." Explaining why he took on the role of one of the most reviled
men in history. "All of a sudden he [Amin] was there, a soldier who
was never groomed to be a politician and now here he is running a country. He
became the head of the African Union and is speaking for the whole
continent," says the actor. "So I think that wanting to understand
him and wanting to understand that kind of psychology is exciting. I always
take it with a grain of salt when someone tells me that a person is a beast. I
always think, 'Oh, what does that mean?' If I see something on the news and
they're saying that this guy is like this or that, I have to think about
that." Becoming very immersed in the country while living there during the
filming helped Whitaker immensely to delve into his character.
"Because I was continually driving throughout the country, all the way
through the shooting, I would pick up or learn something. Whether it was going
up to the Mosque on top of Kampala or it could be going out to a country road
and hanging out with the villagers there. I rode my bike through the streets, I
drove cars. I did so many things. Just sitting and eating in people's homes
would change some of my lines in the script." Any preconceived notions
about Africa?
"Yeah, I guess I did," Whitaker confessed. "I always thought
that I would go to West Africa first because that's where my ancestors are
from. So when I went to East Africa, it was different. Kampala is like a very –
although set in the '70's – modern kind of town. It's really unique. I don't
think that my imagination had played on me enough to be able to imagine sitting
overlooking the Nile with my friends. My guys would bring me to the source of
the Nile and pull out a shirt and say, 'Here. This is for you.' It's my badge.
So there was no way that I could've imagined it the way it was."
Whitaker's co-star James McAvoy, who also put in a powerful performance,
explained his attraction to the project. "The fact that I had the
opportunity to make, to show that a really normal, unexceptional person can be
just as destructive and just as bad and just as evil and just as
corrupting. Really. That was it. Because you know, you look at my
character as completely different. But actually, they're both charismatic
and bold, but one of them is exceptional, and one of them is clearly not.
Nicholas is not exceptional in any way. And yet, he's just as destructive.
And he's just as self serving."
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Beyond Blockbusters
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Bruce
Demara, Entertainment Reporter
(Sep. 23, 2006) In the world of cinemas, the Darwinian principle applies: adapt
or face extinction. Faced with competition from the growing array of
entertainment choices for the discerning consumer dollar, theatre chains are
finding that change is not only necessary but vital to their economic
survival. "Movie theatre owners are very resourceful folk and they
reinvent themselves every 10 to 15 years. This has been going on since the
movie palaces of the 1930s," says Adina Lebo, executive director of the
Motion Picture Theatres Association of Canada. The future of movie
theatres, in fact, seems to have less and less to do with movies as new
technology allows cinemas to telecast everything from hockey, wrestling, opera
and HBO comedy specials to hosting children's birthday parties, church services
and interactive video games. Last year's slump in movie box office
dollars may have been the latest wake-up call, even though attendance has
rebounded in 2006 thanks to a higher volume of films and bigger blockbusters.
"Everyone was predicting the demise of our industry last year," says
Pat Marshall, vice-president of marketing for Cineplex Galaxy, Canada's largest
film exhibitor. "The reality is ... Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest (with a North American box office now at $418.4 million
U.S. and counting) set all kinds of new records, best opening day, best opening
weekend, etc." Lebo says a look at the bigger picture actually shows
the industry is weathering the vagaries of the new entertainment age quite
well. Statistics Canada reported the number of theatres in 1986 was 897,
with about 1,600 screens. Figures from 2004/2005 show there were 641 movie
theatres but with almost 3,000 screens. More importantly, overall revenue
in 1986 was about $286 million but has since trebled to almost $900 million in
2004/2005. Howard Lichtman, head of the Lightning Group, a consulting
firm that does regular analyses of the industry, noted the industry has its
cyclical ups and downs but remains stable and profitable. "(A slump)
isn't the end of the world. On a macro basis, if you look at 10- and 20-year
trending, there are more and more people going to movies than ever
before," Lichtman says. But movie theatres are no longer limited to
relying on movies. Suddenly the competition for theatres is not just home
entertainment systems, but live theatres, concert halls and specialty event
spaces.
Industry executives point to several innovations, especially the arrival of new
digital projectors, which allow movie theatres to offer a new range of
entertainment/corporate products. Marshall says that stadium seating,
first introduced by IMAX and standardized by U.S.-based AMC, has forced other
movie houses to offer the same: screening rooms with comfortable seats in a
more steeply rising configuration that almost entirely prevents any risk of
obstruction of the giant screen. And the chains are working on improving
options beyond popcorn and nachos at their lucrative snack bar operations.
Cineplex is adding Tim Horton's in many theatres and working with nearby
restaurants on dinner-and-a-movie deals. But digital projectors — which
will eventually find their way into every theatre — provide the greatest
opportunity to offer a range of "alternative programming." It's
a new sideline that could guarantee the future prosperity and dominance of
movie theatres as entertainment centres. Dean Leland, vice-president of
marketing for Empire Theatres — Canada's second largest chain — says owners are
no longer prepared to leave facilities idle for long periods when business
opportunities beckon. "The nature of our business is that nobody
likes down-time. Theatres are sitting empty during those dark hours but we're
paying rent and still paying property taxes and all that. So we all like to
maximize the revenue opportunities at any opportunity," Leland says.
Other examples abound: Ryerson University leased theatre space at the Carlton
Cineplex in 2003-2004 to deal with the higher number of "double
cohort" students resulting from the elimination of Grade 13. It also
plans to lease space in September 2008 in the new AMC Theatre complex slated to
open on the northeast corner of Dundas and Yonge Sts. Combining the power
of satellite broadcasting with digital technology — which offers clearer,
sharper pictures and sound — has already proven its worth for some chains,
which have begun to offer live hockey games and World Wrestling Entertainment
programming. Even church congregations are leasing theatre space that would
otherwise be empty Sunday mornings. Marshall says her company has more
than 25 church congregations renting space for services, the latest a group in
Milton that began meeting Sept. 17.
"For smaller communities that may not necessarily have the resources
available for the building of a new church, this is a really wonderful and neat
opportunity for them to be able to put a congregation together ... in a
cost-effective manner," Marshall says. "Most of the
congregations use our giant screen in the sense of putting on a Power Point
presentation or some other visual presentation. Most do not show movies but
they certainly have that option open to them for special events," she
added. But it is technology that is driving new ideas.
"Anything you can put on a DVD or a hard drive, you can present on our
screens," Marshall says, noting her company is beginning to tap the
potential of corporate meetings, motivational speaking seminars, company
Christmas parties, fundraisers, volunteer or employee appreciation
parties. Cineplex has already played host to live broadcasts of hockey
games with the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks.
The Ottawa Senators have just joined and discussions are underway with the
Toronto Maple Leafs. "It's a great idea. The teams love it and the
audiences are there. It's the next best thing to being (at the game). When the
players are 30 or 40 feet high on the ice coming across the screen at you, it's
pretty impressive. People actually get up and sing `O Canada,'" Marshall
says. And at under $10 a ticket, a whole family can afford to see games that
otherwise are sold out or too expensive.
Cineplex will start showing live performances of the Metropolitan Opera from
New York on its big screens in December. Even television, which put movie
theatres into a downward spiral in the 1950s, is providing content in the
current rejuvenation. Cineplex is showing hot young comic Dane Cook's Tourgasm
specials that were broadcast on HBO in the United States but not seen on
Canadian TV. The next one is scheduled for Sept. 28 in selected theatres.
Cook's comedy routine not only taps into the lucrative teen-young adult
demographic, but, in a neat piece of synergy, he is in the cast of the new
movie Employee of the Month that will playing on the same theatre
screens starting Oct.6. Meeting the needs of corporate Canada is also
bringing in new business, so much so that one downtown Cineplex theatre in
Toronto has already hired a full-time event planner and several others are
training personnel to respond to requests for corporate meetings, annual
general meetings and the like, Marshall says. A presentation from head
office can be broadcast to theatres across the country where branch-office
employees fill the theatre seats. Toronto Dominion bank employees had a meeting
at the Varsity on Thursday this week. Lichtman says other uses are on the
horizon. In Britain, for example, theatres will soon be offering celebrity
callers and big jackpots for bingo aficionados, he says. Companies are already
developing interactive video games that can be played on the big screen,
Lichtman added. "What I'm talking about is a new world order. It's
not just taking an in-home (video) game and projecting it on a screen, but
rather creating interactive games inside the theatre which give you the ability
to have a unique experience," he says. "You've seen the movie,
you've gone to the theme park to ride the movie, now you can play the movie on
the big screen,'" Lichtman says.
"I see movie theatres morphing because they already have the real estate,
they already have the seats, they already have ... the locations. They have the
ability to change their concept beyond just movies. It won't happen quickly and
there are things that I haven't dreamed of ... that very smart entrepreneurs
will come up to promote," he added. Marshall says such things as
sports events and live simulcast concerts are a natural fit for movie theatres,
where the audience can avoid the inconvenience and tumult of a crowded
stadium. "You don't have to deal with thousands of individuals (and)
trying to move yourself through that crowd. You have none of that at our
theatres and you have a great experience and it's a fraction of the
price," Marshall says. The high cost of digital projector technology
is the main reason the revolution is taking its time in coming, says Lichtman,
who estimated the price tag at between $85,000 and $100,000 (U.S.) per
auditorium. But Lichtman believes it is in the interest of film studios
to work out a cost-sharing agreement with their theatre chain partners.
"It's the studios that are for the most part going to be benefiting
because they'll no longer have to ship those enormous reels to theatres,"
he says. But in the end, there is one fundamental issue that will not
change despite the greatest technological advances in sound and picture
quality: the movie product itself. Unless the studios produce films
people want to see, slumps will continue to happen. "During the
period of the slump (in 2005), people would ask me whether I thought the
product was one of the driving forces behind the slump and I would say, `Well,
just open a newspaper and tell me what movie you wanted to see last week or the
week before.' They (studios) were simply not turning out good films, films
people wanted to see," he says. "The reality is when the film
product is there, so are our customers. When the film product is not there,
customers don't buy tickets. That's absolutely the nature of this
business," Marshall says. "As exhibitors, we set the table; we
don't serve the steak."
Jet Li Exits Fighting
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Geoff
Pevere, Movie Critic
Jet Li's Fearless
(out
of 4)
Starring Jet Li, Shidou Nakamura, Li Sun, Dong Yong. Written by Chris Chow and
Christine To. Directed by Ronny Yu. 104 minutes. At major theatres. 14A
(Sep. 22, 2006) The self-proclaimed "final martial arts
masterpiece" to be
expected from Chinese Wushu martial arts master turned movie star Jet Li — whose globally
familiar brand-name possessively precedes the title — Fearless represents
a multiple act of recovery. Based on the life and legend of Huo Yuanjia —
a pacifist Wushu pioneer who died after publicly taking on four carefully
selected representatives of imperialist aggressors in succession in 1910 —
Ronny Yu's lavish chopsocky spectacular is all about getting your dignity back.
And that goes simultaneously for China, traditional martial arts, Huo Yuanjia
and perhaps even Jet Li himself. Certainly it can't be coincidence that
Li, who was first noticed stateside when he performed in the White House as
part of a Chinese command performance for Richard Nixon, filmed the movie at
age 42 — the same as Hua when he collapsed and died after successfully kicking
British, Spanish, German and finally Japanese ass. While based on a real
historical figure, Fearless, in keeping with big-budget popcorn culture
everywhere, feels much more like inspirational myth than educational
history. After flashing backward from the 1910 match in Shanghai, the
movie proceeds to tell the tale of an asthmatic boy who rises to become a great
but arrogant Wushu master, attracting disciples like so many autograph-seeking
geeks. The rock star-popular Huo gladly accepts their fealty between hearty
gulps of wine. After inadvertently killing the only remaining impediment
to his reputation as number one and losing his family to the shame, Huo
retreats in disgrace to the country.
Going hermit, he is eventually pulled from a black lagoon and cured of his
unseemly narcissism by a blind woman named Moon. Not only does she teach him
the proper way to plant rice — a lesson, like so many others, with a
philosophical as well as practical application — she washes the feral tangles
out of his hair, shows him how to cook and puts him firmly on the path to
righteousness. The timing couldn't be better. By the time Hua returns to
Shanghai, it's become a cesspool of foreign influence, public drunkenness and
general imperialist humiliation. Upon coming across a reference to China as
"the Weak Man of the East," Hua decides it's time to take action and
forms a martial arts school called the Jingwu Sports Federation. The former
egoist then throws down his challenge to the world. That's where we came in —
in 1910. After making a few movies, like the venerable Bride of Chucky,
in the States, director Ronny Yu returns to China for the first time in years
with Fearless, and the resulting movie feels both proudly specific and
blandly internationalist at the same time. While there are a number of
pumpin' action scenes — especially the pivotal one leading to the hero's
disgrace — and the lightning-bolt Li is always amazing to watch, Fearless is
finally cautious: a movie that condemns the tendency of global culture to
intrude everywhere while embracing the very things that kick multiplex doors
down around the world.
Everett Laments, And Dishes On, Celebrity
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Jill
Lawless, Associated Press
(Sept. 23, 2006) LONDON -- Rupert Everett hates Hollywood. The British
actor, whose screen hits include Another Country, Shrek and My
Best Friend's Wedding, says he's sick of the movie industry's hypocrisy and
homophobia. He's even tired of celebrity -- the whole glittering illusion
deliciously evoked and eviscerated in his candid new autobiography Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. "Hollywood is a mirage," said Everett, 47, reclining
in jeans and plaid shirt in a London hotel suite. Movie stars are "blobs
who don't say anything, aren't allowed to say anything. They are paid to shut
up." The book, for which he reportedly received a seven-figure
advance, is a string of glittering anecdotes with edge, bonbons with a bitter
centre. Everett is a waspish observer of the celebrity A-list, from Madonna
("she oozed sex appeal") to Julia Roberts ("beautiful and tinged
with madness") to Sharon Stone ("utterly unhinged"). The book is
a sort of Rough Guide to late-20th-century highlife -- and lowlife --
that moves from London to Paris, New York, St. Tropez, L.A.'s Laurel Canyon and
Miami's South Beach. There are walk-on parts for Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor,
Orson Welles, Bob Dylan, Donatella Versace and a host of other luminaries.
Everett seems to remember all and recount everything. Almost everything.
Everett skates quickly over his brief stint as a London rent boy. But the
openly gay actor also discloses his handful of heterosexual affairs -- with
Paula Yates, wife of Bob Geldof, French actress Béatrice Dalle and Hollywood
star Susan Sarandon.
The book is also the story of Everett's lifelong flight from the conformity of
an upper-class English upbringing that saw him sent away to a Catholic boarding
school at the age of 7. He recounts his early career as a youthful rebel and
party animal, friend of prostitutes, addicts, divas and thieves. He says being
gay "certainly wasn't acceptable in any of the arenas that were on offer
to me. So I think I had an instinct to escape into a world that I thought would
be more friendly." But Everett was disappointed to find showbiz "as
middle-class and provincial" as the private school world he'd left behind.
Everett has often complained of Hollywood's homophobia, arguing his sexuality
has stopped him getting the leading-man roles offered to his countryman Hugh
Grant. But he's also highly self-critical, emerging from the book as ruthless
and driven, a bit of a monster who confesses he "lied about everything. My
age. My name. My background." For all his drive to be a star, Everett is
ambivalent about success. The book recounts highs -- his breakthrough as an
English schoolboy turned Soviet spy in Another Country and his Hollywood
triumph as Julia Roberts's gay pal in My Best Friend's Wedding -- and
lows -- the disastrous Hearts of Fire and The Next Best Thing, a
limp comedy-drama with Madonna. These days, he travels the world on behalf of
the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and declares showbiz
"not very relevant," although he's got a play, a movie and "a
couple of TV things" in the works. "Life behind a velvet rope -- I
never enjoyed it," he said. "I like going to bars, going to clubs, hanging
out on the street." "It was a conscious decision for me to exist like
the people I really admired on-screen, the Marlon Brandos, the Montgomery
Clifts, the James Deans. You felt they had experienced everything. Their eyes
were shocked and dead and alive and glowing like coals at the same time. And I
think that was through experience, using your life as a tool. That's the way I
wanted to conduct myself."
VIFF Bucks Film Biz Trend
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Tony Montague
(Sept. 22, 2006) The posters are up, the programs are out and, with just a
few days to go before the first screenings, the buzz is mounting around town
for the 25th edition of the Vancouver
International Film Festival, which starts on
Thursday. The event draws about 150,000 movie buffs -- a figure second only in
North America to the estimated 250,000 who attend the Toronto International
Film Festival. And despite its relative lack of Hollywood glitz, the Vancouver
event has clearly won over local cinephiles. VIFF has come a long way since its
creation in 1982, when it had just one venue, the Ridge Theatre, and no
financial support from the public sector. "We asked for a grant of $5,000
from Telefilm -- the only agency at the time funding such events -- and were
refused," recalls Festival Cinemas president Leonard Schein, who helmed
VIFF through its first four years. "We were told that if people in Vancouver
wanted to attend a film festival in Canada, they should go to Montreal or
Toronto. It was three years before we got any funding from a government
agency." Despite the economic challenges, VIFF grew rapidly, and in 1986,
its special Expo edition featured 380 films spread over five weeks. The
festival was already one of the city's premier cultural attractions. Alan
Franey, who took over as director in 1988, refers to "three pillars"
of programming that have given VIFF its distinct character. Canadian productions
were a strong presence from the beginning; East Asian movies emerged as a major
focus from the mid-eighties onwards; and in the past decade, the number of
non-fiction films screened has grown dramatically.
"Twenty years ago, you couldn't draw flies to even the best
documentaries," Franey notes. "There was a real prejudice against
them. Then a shift started, where many people -- not just me -- discovered that
many of their festival favourites were non-fiction. "The batting average
for non-fiction is often very high. What's happened is that filmmakers have
transcended its formal limitations. You get a lot of highly educated and very
intelligent artists working in the medium -- people who have a trust in the
cinematic language to present a full, rich picture of a subject that needs
attention." While the festival has always included commercially oriented
movies from the major studios, Franey has never tried to make VIFF a celebrity
and business destination in Toronto's mould. "We don't need to do that. .
. . It's important for people to realize this isn't just us being
bloody-minded. . . . Why should taxpayers' money be spent on anything but
providing access to good films that wouldn't otherwise be seen? We aim to
emphasize new talent and provide a complementary opposite to what's on
commercial screens the rest of the year." VIFF doesn't go looking for new
ways to be unique, Franey says -- its identity has evolved organically, in
response to outside developments. At the same time, it's clear that he is prepared
to buck trends and resist pressures. "In the past 15 years, there's been a
fundamental shift in the way films are shared internationally. It's less in the
spirit of international exchange and more in the spirit of business. There's a
general sense that government shouldn't be supporting culture. A lot of film
agencies around the world have been eviscerated and replaced by private
interests. "I lament a lot of those changes. I think we're impoverished by
the increasing dominance of the bottom line for everything. Filmmakers who
aspire to art often have a very hard time finding an audience, and I think
festivals are there to provide that service." Franey sees another related
role for VIFF, one that has increased over time. The 16-day event nurtures its
own community of passionate cineastes. "I always used to stress the
fundamental relationship of filmmaker and audience at a festival. But what's
equally important now, I think, is the primary connection between the people
attending each year -- how they strike up conversations about the films, make
friendships and have a strong sense of sharing. In a world where everything can
be brought into our living rooms, that social and festive aspect is very
important." The Vancouver International Film Festival runs Sept. 28 to
Oct. 13. For venue, schedule and ticket information, call 604-683-3456 or visit
http://www.viff.org.
Martin Lawrence, The 'Open Season' Interview
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
September 26, 2006) *Funnyman
Martin Lawrence stars in
"Open Season," the new cartoon from Columbia Pictures where he
provides the voice of Boog, a domesticated grizzly bear who suddenly finds
himself stranded in the woods just before the start of the hunting
season. In this heart-warming family picture, his character teams up with
Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a trash-talking deer, to rally the rest of the animals
in the forest to turn the tables on the humans. Here, Martin reflects on his
opportunity to perform in his first, full-length animated feature.
Kam Williams: Tell me a little about your character.
Martin Lawrence: Boog is a 900-pound grizzly, but with no bear
skills. He's never been in the woods. He's domesticated, and been living in the
lap of luxury in Park Ranger Beth's (Debra Messing) garage. He's the star of
the wildlife show in town, and he's just loving it. He's a cuddly, lovable bear
who one day has to realize that he does have real grizzly bear skills.
KW: How would you describe Boog's relationship with Elliot?
ML: First, Boog doesn't really like Elliot. He wants nothing to do with
Elliot. But he finds that he's got to get to know him, especially when he
thinks Elliot can show him the way back to Timberline National Forest. I like
the fact that Elliot's so persistent. His energy is always help moving the
scene. So, I like the fun of what these two characters bring in getting to know
each other.
KW: What do you think about the quality of the animation?
ML: The look of this film is beautiful. I remember them showing me
storyboards, but what the animators have done is better than I even imagined.
This film makes the woods more interesting. It makes you think, "Wow! You
know what? If I walked out in the woods today, I'd actually take a better look
at it and at all the animals that run through there."
KW: When you're making a cartoon, how do you know if you're generating any
chemistry or if the comedy's working when your co-stars aren't even present as
you read your lines?
Please see full interview and article by Kam Williams on www.eurweb.com
- HERE.
Martin Lawrence Behind New Stand-Up
Series
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(September 25, 2006) *Martin
Lawrence will executive produce a new
stand-up comedy series for Starz Entertainment channel called “1st Amendment Stand-Up,”
billed as “a showcase for some of the freshest young comedians.” Set to
premiere in the first quarter of 2007, the show will be co-produced and hosted
by stand-up Doug Williams. "It is a dream come true for
me to collaborate with Martin Lawrence, a legendary comedian whose talent I've
greatly admired," Williams says. "I'm honoured to be able to join
forces with Starz and Martin as we prepare to make history with the new
generation of comedians." “1st Amendment” is part of the first
slate of original TV series introduced by the company for the first quarter of
2007, joining the provocative interview show “The Bronx Bunny,” and the
original comedy series “Head Case.”
FILM TIDBITS
Screen Legends - Genevieve Bujold
Excerpt from The Toronto Star — Bruce
Yaccato
FAME: Actress
BORN: July 1, 1942, Montreal
(Sep. 22, 2006) EXCERPT: While traveling abroad with a theatre group,
Genevieve Bujold became the darling of
the Parisian film scene. She was cast opposite superstar Yves Montand in La
Guerre est finie. Soon after Louis Malle paired her with Jean-Paul Belmondo
in Le Voleur. The pinnacle of her acclaim came in 1969 as Anne
Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days. As her Anne bravely defied
the murderous Henry VIII, so did the young Bujold brilliantly match the living
legend Richard Burton scene for scene. It won her an Oscar nomination.
She made Hollywood blockbusters like Universal's Earthquake and her
biggest commercial success, Coma in 1978. But she used her status
to choose roles she found challenging, like Act of the heart with Donald
Sutherland, helmed by her director husband Paul Almond, and the dark romantic
comedy Choose Me. Genevieve Bujold of Montreal.
Actors Guild To Honour Julie Andrews For Career
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Associated Press
(Sept. 27, 2006) Los Angeles — Julie
Andrews, whose film career has ranged from magical
nanny in Mary Poppins to regal queen in The Princess Diaries,
will receive a life-achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild. The honour
will be presented at the guild's annual film honours on Jan. 28, the union has
announced. "Julie Andrews is a woman of great generosity, creativity,
courage, elegance and wit. She embodies and transcends the memorable roles she
has created," said Alan Rosenberg, the guild's president. Andrews, 70, won
a best-actress Oscar with her feature debut, 1964's Mary Poppins. She
also earned nominations for the lead role in The Sound of Music and Victor/Victoria.
AP
Big, Fat Greek Welcome
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Associated Press
(Sep. 22, 2006) ATHENS, Greece—Greece has granted rare
permission
for a U.S. film to be shot on the ancient Acropolis and other historic
landmarks, a culture ministry official said Wednesday. Filming for My
Life in Ruins, a comedy featuring My Big Fat Greek Wedding star Nia Vardalos, a native of Winnipeg,
is expected to start in October. "This film has a quality team, and
has secured a broad distribution network," ministry secretary-general
Christos Zachopoulos told state-run NET television. "It will go to the
ends of the earth, and will be an advertisement for Greek culture."
Zachopoulos said it will be the second feature film to be partially shot on the
Acropolis — after Francis Ford Coppola's Life Without Zoe, a segment of
the 1989 movie New York Stories. The comedy will also feature the
ancient sites of Epidauros and Delphi, as well as the medieval rocktop
monasteries at Meteora, central Greece. "Greece is making a great
effort to bring foreign films here," Zachopoulos said. "This will
mean investment, jobs and international promotion." In My Life in
Ruins, the Greek-Canadian Vardalos — whose surprise 2002 hit My Big Fat
Greek Wedding grossed more than $350 million U.S. worldwide — will play the
part of a guide escorting tourists to the historic sites, media reports
said. The Acropolis hill is Greece's most popular ancient site.
Haggis In Talks To Direct Theron, Jones Drama
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Gayle Macdonald
(Sept. 23, 2006) Toronto -- Canadian Paul
Haggis is in talks to direct a
new film, The Garden of Elah, a drama he wrote that will star Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron. According to Variety,
the London, Ont.-born director-writer was expected to follow his Oscar-winning
movie, Crash, with an adaptation of Richard Clarke's 9/11 exposé Against
All Enemies. But he is now scouting locations in Texas and Albuquerque,
N.M., and expects to start filming late this year. The script is based on a
Playboy magazine article by Mark Boal called Death and Dishonor. The film is a
fictionalized version of a true story, in which a retired U.S. Army vet named
Lanny Davis (Jones) discovers his son has been murdered during a night on the
town, and was attacked by members of his own platoon who had been on tour in
Baghdad. Theron will play a local police detective, says Variety.
Mehta's Water Is Canada's Official Oscar Entry
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
James Adams
(Sept. 23, 2006) Toronto -- Deepa Mehta's Water, a worldwide critical
and commercial smash, is Canada's great hope for the gold statuette for best
foreign-language film at next year's Oscars. Telefilm Canada this week forwarded
Water, shot by Toronto-based Mehta in Sri Lanka and India, for
consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as Canada's
official entry at the Oscars. There is, of course, no guarantee that the movie
will make the shortlist of five, which is to be announced in January. A country
may submit one film for foreign-film consideration. Canada last took an Oscar
for best foreign-language film in 2004, with Denys Arcand's The Barbarian
Invasions.
Atlantic Film Fest Wraps With Awards Presentations
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Canadian Press
(Sept. 26, 2006) Halifax — A documentary about OxyContin addiction and a short
film about a wedding speech gone wrong were the big winners at the 26th Atlantic Film Festival
in Halifax. Each picked up three awards at a ceremony on the weekend that
capped 10 days of films from across Atlantic Canada and around the world. Nance
Ackerman shared the Rex Tasker Documentary Award with her co-director, Eddie
Buchanan, for Cottonland, and they tied in best-director honours. The
film also won the Ed Higginson Cinematography Award for Alain Dupras's
cinematography. The Cottonland directing duo tied for best director with
Newfoundlander Justin Simms, who won for Punch-Up at a Wedding, a
16-minute film chronicling reactions to a horrible wedding speech. Punch-Up
at a Wedding was also named best Atlantic short and won the new Michael
Weir Award for best original screenplay. Toronto native Camelia Frieberg, who
lives in Mahone Bay, N.S., claimed the award for best Atlantic feature for A
Stone's Throw, shot on the province's South Shore. The film has been picked
up for distribution in Canada by ThinkFilm and international sales rights are now
being negotiated, said the debut director, best known as a producer of films by
Atom Egoyan and Jeremy Podeswa. Winning best Canadian feature honours was
Philippe Falardeau's Congorama, while Jennifer Baichwal's Manufactured
Landscapes won for best Canadian documentary. CP
::TV NEWS::
Znaimer May Get His Own Way
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Unnati Gandhi
(Sept. 22, 2006) Moses Znaimer. Everywhere. Everywhere, that is, along
the stretch of Queen Street West that the broadcasting maverick called his stomping
grounds for more than a decade. Next week, city council will consider naming
the strip of Queen West that runs past CITY-TV, between John and Duncan
Streets, Moses Znaimer Way. If the street sign proposal -- unanimously adopted
at yesterday's community council meeting -- gets a nod from city council, it
would be an appropriate sign of honour for a man who many say changed the
course of local news in Toronto and around the world. "He was ahead of his
time," said Marsha Barber, director of broadcast journalism at Ryerson
University. "Moses was hiring diverse reporters at a time when nobody else
was, for example. So there is a sense that he understood the city and what it
was all about." Mr. Znaimer's contributions also include demystifying the
world of television with his trademark backdrops of busy newsrooms, giving
average citizens a voice with his Speaker's Corner broadcasts, and launching
North America's first 24-hour local news station, CablePulse 24. Although
designating sections of streets in honour of people doesn't come up against
strict guidelines, it is still very rare in Toronto, said Andy Koropeski,
director of transportation services for the city. "I can't think of more
than three off the top of my head," he said.
There's Mirvish Walkway on King Street West in the heart of the city's
entertainment district, Johnny Lombardi Way on College Street in Little Italy
in honour of the man who launched Toronto's first multicultural radio station,
CHIN, and Marshall McLuhan Way on St. Joseph Street, where the legendary media
theorist was based at the University of Toronto. Adding Mr. Znaimer to the list
is a natural, said Councillor Martin Silva, who made the initial proposal.
"The work he has done initiating CITY-TV and local broadcasting was a very
innovative way of covering the city and bringing the images of the citizens of
Toronto to themselves," Mr. Silva said. "He's a pioneer in local
broadcasting so making part of Queen Street the Moses Znaimer Way, we think, is
an appropriate tribute." The initiative stemmed from the thinking of a
group of Mr. Znaimer's friends that it would be the best way to honour him as
his 65th birthday approaches next year. Mr. Znaimer was unavailable for comment
yesterday. Although he resigned from his executive post at CHUM (which was
bought recently by Bell Globemedia) in 2003 over differences, Ms. Barber, the
broadcast expert from Ryerson, sees the possible street designation as positive
for all those involved. "He was doing things nobody else was doing and, love
him or hate him, everyone sat up and paid attention."
‘Saturday Night Live' Cast Trimmed Down
Source: David Bauder, Associated Press
(Sept. 22, 2006) NEW YORK — Seth Meyers gets the plum job of
“Weekend Update” anchor next to Amy Poehler in a newly streamlined “Saturday Night Live” this season, the
show's creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said on Thursday.
Meyers, entering his fifth season on the late-night institution, must replace
the popular Tina Fey on the fake-news anchor desk. Like Fey, Meyers will also
be one of the show's head writers. Four cast members auditioned for the gig,
but Michaels said Meyers' writing ability and his chemistry with Poehler made
the difference. Meyers has acted with Poehler in a recurrent sketch about “The
Needlers,” a bickering couple who should be divorced. Also like Fey, Meyers
will primarily appear only on “Weekend Update” each week. The repertory comedy
will have 11 cast members this season, down from 16. Fey has gone on to make
the new NBC prime-time comedy “30 Rock,” bringing fellow cast member Rachel
Dratch with her. Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz, who both joined “SNL” in 1997,
and three-year cast member Finesse Mitchell, will not be returning.
The stripped-down cast was driven, in part, by the need to cut costs, Michaels
told The Associated Press. Given a choice by NBC executives of making fewer
shows or having fewer people, he said he chose the latter. “The show, like a
garden that gets overgrown, at a certain point needed to be pruned,” he said.
“We've done it at six or seven points in the past. You get a bulge in the
budget.” The cast of essentially 10 players is “a great size because everyone
gets enough playing time,” he said. By adding six cast members in the past two
years, “SNL” went through one of its periodic transformations. But it has been
able to do it smoothly, without jolting changes that confuse viewers, Michaels
said. Returning cast member Darrell Hammond, for instance, has been there for a
decade. “The show has succeeded and prospered to some degree on its ability to
reinvent itself,” Michaels said, “and this was a time for everything to be
re-examined.” One of “SNL's” biggest moments last season was the rap parody
“Lazy Sunday,” with cast members Andy Samberg and Parnell talking about
cupcakes and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” The video short became a big hit when
distributed online in the days after its appearance. Other returning cast
members include Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Jason
Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson and Kristin Wiig. “SNL” opens its season on Sept. 30,
with comic Dane Cook as guest host and the Killers as musical act.
Jaleel White Talks About His Internet Death
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(September 25, 2006) *Last June, someone generated a
story
about actor Jaleel White having committed suicide, attached the Associated Press’ name to
it and sent it around cyberspace. The story said White was pronounced dead on
arrival at a Los Angeles hospital after paramedics were dispatched to his
apartment and found him dead of “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
White, known to millions as Steve Urkel on the sitcom “Family Matters,” tells
EUR’s Lee Bailey that he was in New York City en route to a Sox/Yankees game
when he first heard that he had died. “It was incredibly annoying. What
can I say, the Internet is the land of the great sucker punch,” laughs White.
“It’s just unfortunate that people can do that to you and kind of hide behind
anonymous names.” To this day, the 29-year-old has no idea who was behind the
Internet prank – “probably some Internet geeks” White believes – but he says
there was one positive aspect to come out of the experience.
“I really discovered just how many people’s lives I’ve been able to touch,
because my cell phone just blew up for the entire month of June,” he says.
“Even though it was for a negative reason, it was very beautiful to see that.”
The UCLA grad says he’s still very much alive and doing quite well these
days. “My life is terrific, I have two loving parents, I have great
friends, I live in the Santa Monica area of Calif., I’m a college graduate, I
continue to work, make money and earn a living,” he says. White says his
absence from the public eye probably gave the rumour more legs than the usual
celebrity death rumours, like the latest one surrounding R&B artist Teairra
Marie – who is not dead, by the way. “When they do it to people who, let’s say,
don’t have a series on the air at that particular time, or a movie coming out,
it just lends more credibility to whatever it is they were attempting to do,”
White says of the rumour starters. “If you did it to Brad Pitt or someone like
that, of course the engines of the studios releasing his next movie are gonna
rev up tomorrow.” White says he’s been busy making his paper as a
screenwriter and just finished working on a pilot, not to mention two movies
this year. “So it’s not true!” White screams of his suicide.
Whoopi To Appear On Rock's Sitcom
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Bridget Byrne, Associated Press
(Sept. 26, 2006) LOS ANGELES — As the title of his show
implies, Chris, of Everybody Hates Chris, is accustomed to every upside
having a downside. But in the season premiere of the CW comedy, the downside
comes with an added wallop: Whoopi! Whoopi
Goldberg guest stars as Louise, the
overly protective grandmother of a cute girl who has just moved into Chris's
Brooklyn neighbourhood. "Stay way from my granddaughter, you cock-eyed
hooligan," her Louise yells at Chris (Tyler James Williams) the minute he
works up the courage to talk to the girl. Repeating the scene a number of times
on Paramount Studios' New York street set here, Goldberg threw in a few
variations, dubbing poor Chris "a scrawny runt" and worse.
"She doesn't have to improvise, but she can ad lib," laughs Ali
LeRoi, co-creator with comedian Chris Rock of the half-hour comedy inspired by
Rock's childhood. Sitting beside LeRoi as she waits for camera adjustments,
Goldberg responds, "Happily I don't have to write this and the actor in me
is presented with something I don't have to fix. I just have to know which
direction you want me to go in, 'cause in my mind I see a thousand different
things, but they may not be the right things." Louise, Goldberg says, is
"a snob." Having moved from Queens to the grittier Bedford-Stuyvesant
section of Brooklyn, she thinks she's better than her new neighbours. She's
also trying to compensate for any mistakes she may have made raising her
daughter by being ultra-strict with her granddaughter. "We had heard last
season that Whoopi was a fan of the show and interested in doing it,"
LeRoi says. So he deliberately created a role where "it wouldn't be a
necessity for her to be here every week, just in case she's busy."
"That's what you all think," Goldberg laughs. "There I am
praying for roles, and you all think, 'Oh, yes, she's got a lot of work!'
" Goldberg, 50, first became famous for her one-woman comedy shows.
In 1991, she won an Oscar for her supporting role as the psychic in Ghost.
She has also hosted the Oscar show three times, and has won at the Tonys,
Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes. Her TV appearances include a stint on Star
Trek: The Next Generation; guest appearances on Strong Medicine, a
Lifetime series she helped to develop, and her own short-lived NBC sitcom,
Whoopi. Everybody Hates Chris is anything but short-lived, becoming
an immediate hit its first year on the now-defunct UPN. Its second season
begins Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, kicking off the Sunday-night line-up on the CW, the
new joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. targeted at the
young-adult demographic. LeRoi says the move won't affect the show's creative
freedom. Besides Williams in the title role, the series, set in the 1980s,
stars Tichina Arnold and Terry Crews as Chris's mom and dad, Rochelle and
Julius. Tequan Richmond and Imani Hakim play his siblings, Drew and Tanya. And
Vincent Martella is his best friend, Greg. Goldberg liked the show's take on
the African-American family. "This is a rich viable family, with two
parents who love their kids. Everybody has their job in the house, everyone has
chores. It's a normal American family trying to keep it together. For us to be
able to see a family like this, knowing the outcome is Chris Rock, who doesn't
want that? So, you know, you say, 'My life is a struggle, but you know what? If
I persevere, I can get my kids to where they need to be.' " LeRoi says
Goldberg's personal and career history is "partly responsible, whether she
thinks so or not, for us being able to do this type of material, for broadening
the horizons of what we can do creatively."
Steve Paikin Promises His New Current-Affairs Show Won't Leave
Viewers Hungry For More
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Michael Posner
(Sept. 27, 2006) Over at TVOntario, they seem to have fallen in
love with the word "agenda." Last June, the Ontario broadcaster and
Crown corporation unveiled a strategic agenda involving a new content mix, a
move to digital technology and the refashioning of TFO, its French-language
affiliate, as a more independent station with its own board of directors. In
keeping with its educational raison d'être, the new content strategy is
ostensibly aimed at making Ontarians better informed. (And the rest of Canada:
TVO is available on satellite in every province and on cable TV in Quebec and
New Brunswick.) As they put it in the press release, TVO aims to create content
that "fosters citizenship by engaging people as active participants in the
public issues defining our society." It's a mission statement broad
enough to drive almost any current-affairs show. Including The Agenda, TVO's new, five-times-a-week
flagship public-affairs show. It succeeds Studio 2, which ran for 12
successful years but was deemed tired and formally dismantled at the end of the
last season. The Agenda's host, the estimable TVO veteran Steve Paikin, says
"agenda" was just one of dozens of names the show's producers threw
into the hopper during the summer. Its own agenda, he says, is to mirror TVO's
new mandate, offering substantive material that will, he says, "debate the
most significant social, political, cultural and economic ideas of our
time."
To add the meat, the show will feature longer-format segments. A frequent
criticism of Studio 2, he says, was that audiences were left hungry for
more. As he said in a statement last June, viewers wanted "more
intelligent, civilized discourse . . . more time devoted to discussing ideas
and issues." So whereas Studio 2 typically ran three or more items
in a single show, The Agenda will usually deal with just one or two.
Once a month, Paikin will host the show at the Munk Centre for International
Studies at the University of Toronto with a studio audience. "We will take
the time we need to take," he said in a recent interview. "We will go
deep." Viewers will be invited to submit topics for discussion and join
the exchange on several blogs being mounted by the show's producers. For the
show's debut, Paikin managed something of a coup. He cajoled former media baron
Conrad Black into a 17-minute, opening segment one-on-one. Painting himself the
innocent victim of an outrageous miscarriage of justice, Lord Black of
Crossharbour steered carefully away from addressing the substance of the
criminal charges laid against him the United States -- that he and other former
executives of Hollinger International Inc. absconded with more than $80-million
(U.S.) from the Chicago-based company. His trial is scheduled to begin in
March. Paikin says he pursued Black, whom he had met and talked with off the
record on several occasions, by phone and through friendly intermediaries,
every other day for a month, before he won his consent. But with the legal case
ruled out of bounds, Paikin was left to throw a series of largely softball
questions soliciting Black's views on Canada's mission in Afghanistan, the
current Liberal leadership race and the George W. Bush presidency.
But he did manage to dig up a news nugget in Black's statement that he is now
working through "normal channels" to reclaim his Canadian
citizenship; he renounced it in 2001, after then prime minister Jean Chrétien
refused to sanction Black's appointment to the British House of Lords. During
the segment, a split screen ran archival of footage of Black scrumming with
reporters. This might have been useful except that the audio feed interfered
with Paikin's interview. They did it again, with the same annoying and
unsatisfactory results, during the show's second feature -- a discussion about
Canada's role in Afghanistan. The panel itself was imbalanced ideologically,
since four of its five members -- University of British Columbia's Michael Byers,
University of Toronto's Janice Stein, columnist Eric Margolis and TV host Tarek
Fatah -- view the NATO mission as a failure. Only University of Alberta
historian David Bercuson was left to defend it. There were some lively
exchanges. When Byers argued that Canada faced no existential or security
threat from the resurgent Taliban and suggested that Canadian forces would be
better deployed in Lebanon, Stein quickly noted the logical inconsistency --
what security threat does Canada face from Hezbollah? And as Fatah observed, it
was the Taliban that effectively rented Afghan space to the al-Qaeda militants
that plotted and carried out the attack on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. Paikin, 46, was his usual affable and unflappable self, keeping the
panellists more or less on point and from each other's throats. The author of
three books on politics, he co-hosted Studio 2 (with Paula Todd) for 12
seasons. Smart, articulate and fast on his feet, Paikin sometimes leaves me
wishing he were a little less nice and a little more aggressive in his
questioning. As an Ontario civil servant, Paikin is among those earning more
than $100,000 a year whose salary is annually published by the Ministry of
Finance. This year, he got a raise -- to slightly more than $214,000 a year, a
stipend, he says, that puts him in the low-to-medium range for hosts of
comparable shows. The raise is justified, he says, because his workload has
gone up 250 per cent. At Studio 2, he was simply the co-host. Now, he's
the solo host, attends planning meetings and is closely involved in framing the
topics for discussion. As TVO shifts into the digital format, Agenda
will be downloadable to computers and iPods. That, for Paikin, is a critically
important part of the equation -- it's a way of reaching out to more viewers
and completing the agenda. The Agenda with Steve Paikin airs weeknightson
TVO.
TV TIDBITS
‘Runaway’ on the CW
Written by Chad Hodge, Directed by Mikael
Salomon
[One of our Canadian actors has a role in the new Runaway TV pilot airing tonight. Benz
Antoine (Blue Murder, Four Brothers) joins
the cast as Donnie Wahlberg’s best friend, Vic. ]he show’s premise
revolves around the Rader family. They seem like the typical suburban
family. Paul (Wahlberg) and his lovely wife, Lily, have a teenaged son and
daughter, Henry and Hannah, and an eight-year old named Tommy. They're normal
in every sense except for the dark secret they hold: Paul is a fugitive, and
the entire family is running from the law. Using pseudonyms, the
family has recently settled in a small town and are doing their best to remain
as inconspicuous as possible. Unfortunately, the stress of the
situation and constant moving has begun to take its toll on the family, especially
for Henry, who misses his girlfriend and former life. Hannah, however, is
finally fitting in with the rest of her peers, and has no desire to
move. Paul and Lily must continue to safeguard their family, in
addition to monitoring the authorities that are hot on their heels. As the plot
unfolds, we learn more about the events leading to Paul's flight.
West Point Honours Tom Brokaw
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Associated Press
(Sep. 22, 2006) WEST POINT, N.Y. — Former NBC news anchor Tom
Brokaw has become only the second journalist to
be honoured with a West Point military academy award. The Sylvanus Thayer
Award, named for West Point's fifth superintendent, is given to a U.S. citizen
who exemplifies the ideals of the academy's motto, "Duty, Honor,
Country." Former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite is the only other
journalist to have received the award. Past recipients include Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, former president Ronald Reagan and Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor. "To be — in just a small way — in that company
means a great deal," Brokaw said Thursday. Brokaw, 66, was an NBC
news anchor for more than two decades until his retirement in 2004. He
was honoured partly for his contribution to the U.S. public's understanding of
the Second World War through his books "The Greatest Generation" and
"The Greatest Generation Speaks" and his work reporting from war
zones.
Kym Whitley: Stand-Up's 'Stand-Off'
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(September 25, 2006) *Kym
Whitley has made a name for
herself as the comedic supporting actress. After all – she is a comedian. The
Ohio native stole the show in a number of TV shows and films including
“Martin,” “The Parkers,” and who could forget her role as Suga in “Next
Friday?” But now, the comic/actress is trading in her stand-up mic for juicier
parts and transitioning into dramatic roles. “I always want the challenge
and I’m always looking for something new to do,” Whitley said of why she
decided to make the change. “Being a stand-up comic and doing comedy all your
life, it’s fun, but sometimes it gets simple – and a little boring. So going
into another realm can be refreshing. It’s a new love, it’s exciting.” Whitley
advised that people should definitely speak to the things they want and tell
people what they’re interested in. She said that that’s how she got her first
dramatic role – by letting industry-ites know that she was looking to add to
her repertoire. And after finally breaking into drama, Whitley knew she had a
few things to learn. “My first dramatic role was with Vanessa Bell
Calloway for a movie on BET. I played her best girlfriend. They met with me and
said, ‘You know, it’s drama.’ So I had to cry. I knew I wasn’t going to be able
to cry because I’m always laughing and joking. When it came down to it, I had
to concentrate, I had to be sad all day – and I cried, but then I couldn’t stop
crying.” Another way to score the roles you want? Have connections. Whitley had
a good friend who’d written an episode for the new fall show “Standoff.” “A friend of
mine who’s a director, named Craig Ross (“Cold Case”), called me and said he
had this script for a show called ‘Standoff’ and asked me to come in for the
major part. I had to put it in God’s hands ‘cause they gave me 15 pages and I
had to do it in 30 minutes. Later, they called me and asked if I wanted the
part.” “Standoff” is a hostage negotiation show starring Ron Livingston.
“It’s pretty intense,” she said of the show. “It was fun doing it, though it
was a lot of work. I definitely want to do more drama.” “Standoff” airs
Tuesday nights at 9/8c on Fox. Whitley’s episode “The Accidental Negotiator,”
written by Ross, airs tomorrow night.
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Bob Hoskins cast in CBC's Vanderhaeghe Adaptation
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Guy Dixon
(Sept. 27, 2006) Toronto — Bob
Hoskins has joined the cast of CBC-TV's adaptation
of The Englishman's Boy. Based on Guy Vanderhaeghe's
Governor-General's Award-winning novel, the two-part, four-hour miniseries is
still being shot in Saskatchewan until Oct. 12. The British actor plays a
Hollywood movie mogul who hires a Canadian writer, played by Michael Therriault
(who starred in the CBC's Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story). The
miniseries is being produced by Kevin DeWalt, who also produced Prairie
Giant.
Ludacris Lands A BET Blueprint Special
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
September 27, 2006) *BET’s
“Blueprint” special tonight at 8
p.m. will offer a candid interview with rapper/actor Ludacris to promote his new
album, “Release Therapy.” Airing at 8 p.m., the hour-long show will
feature the artist discussing such topics as fatherhood, future movie deals,
his new haircut, his issue with Oprah Winfrey and, of course, his new
album. In the wake of critical acclaim for his acting roles
in such films as “Crash” and “Hustle & Flow,” Luda tells USA Today that
he’s trying to balance his rapping and acting endeavours so that one doesn’t
overpower the other. “A lot of times when people start
acting, something is lacking in their music when they go back to it,” said the
rapper, who acts under his real name, Chris Bridges. “I'm trying to keep
growing and taking my music to another level.”
::THEATRE NEWS::
Voyage Of The Glammed
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Simon Houpt
(Sept. 23, 2006) NEW YORK -- Joan Collins shoots a withering gaze and
begins to turn away. "I just find it really, really boring to have these
questions asked about me being a bitch all the time," she snaps. She's
sitting in a dingy room lit by a bare fluorescent strip, shoehorning in a brief
lunchtime interview during rehearsals for a play she's bringing to Toronto. She
was already on edge when she walked in here because of a sleepless night on the
red-eye back from the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, where she helped pay tribute
to her late former boss, Aaron Spelling; she hasn't even had a moment to remove
her eye makeup. And now she's apparently been assaulted by the B-word. "I
have to say, I find the term incredibly offensive, actually." This is a
surprise: first, because the word came up in reference to her notoriety for
playing a certain kind of character, not in reference to her real self; and
second, because the term was plucked from a website greeting penned by Collins
herself, about a role she recently played in a British series. For that matter,
she did happen to play the title role in the dreadful 1979 feature film The
Bitch, adapted from one of her sister Jackie's novels. "Oh I suppose,
as far as the public is concerned, they can only see [the bitch] because they
haven't seen me play my nuns and my mission workers and my nurses and my poor
middle-aged lady who's in love with a dog, which is what I just did in Hotel
Babylon," shrugs Collins. "I'm afraid that's the public perception,
and I've accepted that."
And the B-word is bound to come up again, in kaleidoscopic waves, as Collins
vamps and tramps around the stage of the Royal Alexandra Theatre over the next
several weeks in Legends!, a play about a pair of
duelling divas in the waning days of their careers. Audiences may have trouble
separating the show's catty comedy from both reality and the decades-old gossip
surrounding the two leading ladies. For not only does Collins play a (insert
offensive noun here) in the play, she does so opposite Linda Evans. For those who slept
through the 1980s, Evans is most famous for playing Krystle Carrington, the
good-girl rival of Collins's (insert adjectival form of offensive noun here)
character Alexis Carrington Colby in the nighttime soap Dynasty. The
characters' verbal and physical brawls are the stuff of campy TV legend. The
show's success meant the two stars spent much of the decade denying rumours of
backbiting and trying to prove they were different from their characters. But
during back-to-back interviews in New York, similarities to each of their most
famous characters keep rising to the surface. Collins is curt and aloof, her
laughter patronizing, her eyes narrow and penetrating; she presents herself as
a jet-setter so in demand that she was only able to squeeze in seven weeks at
her home in the south of France during the summer instead of the usual three
months. Meanwhile, Evans enters smiling, puppy-dog eager, sharing details about
her battles with insecurity and her advocacy work on behalf of numerous
unglamorous causes (heart failure, osteoporosis, menopause, overactive
bladder). "If you're a human being and you have a problem, I just want to
help you out," she says compassionately. "I just go, 'Oh! What can we
do for you?' It's just my nature. The empathy goes both ways: Her lips are
puffy, perhaps from recent collagen treatment, an effect that conjures pity
rather than allure. And Collins and Evans carry the contrasts into their onstage
reunion in Legends! Some may see Collins's character Sylvia Glenn as a
juicy swirl of the actress herself and some of her more -- um, yes: bitchy --
creations. Eight-times-married (Collins has wed five times, most recently to
the 38-year-old Percy Gibson, one of the Legends! producers), Sylvia is
a faded movie star who revels in her coarse on-screen reputation (having won a
best- supporting-actor Oscar for playing a hooker) and cackles at the fate of a
former rival whose corpse was found partially eaten by house cats. Her oldest
rival is Leatrice Monsee (Evans), an actress who may actually be steelier than
her nun-like reputation.
The ladies face off after a conniving producer prods them to see if they might
be able to work together on a Broadway play. Act One concludes with a
knock-down, drag-out fight of the sort that made Dynasty the top-rated
drama in 1984-85. More juicy stuff: Theatre folk refer to Legends! as
ill-fated partly because its original leading ladies, Carol Channing and Mary
Martin, feuded backstage through a 12-month run that failed to end up on
Broadway. The current revival began with Collins after her husband let another
producer know she was interested in doing a play. She championed Evans for the
other role because of "chemistry," she says. "You can't explain
it, you can't say what it is, it's just there, and Linda and I had it from the
first time we did Dynasty, and we knew it, and the public knew it, and
that's one of the reasons I think that everyone loved Dynasty." At
73, Collins is a busy woman who continues to work where her whims take her,
writing the occasional novel (her website describes her most recent paperback, Misfortune's
Daughter, as "a thrilling family saga rich with sibling rivalry,
insatiable ambition, eroticism and addiction"), television (including
guest spots on the British series Footballers' Wives) and stage. She's
done Broadway and the West End. Evans, on the other hand, hasn't worked much in
10 years. She all but retired from show business in the late 1990s, retreating
to a 70-acre homestead in Washington State where she spent her energies
building her dream home, designing the landscaping and a greenhouse. In between
public-service announcements for various health issues affecting women, she
urged women to not peg their self-esteem too closely to the accomplishments of
their families. Which is ironic, given that Evans was always giving up work
whenever a new man came along in her life. She and her first husband, John
Derek, split in 1974, after six years of marriage, when he went off to become
Svengali to Bo Derek. Two years later, Evans married a businessman named Stan
Herman. The two divorced in 1981. Her most famous union since then was with the
singer Yanni, a nine-year relationship that ended in 1998.
Since then, Evans has had a lot of time to think about what she wants to do
with her remaining time. Which is partly what led her to take, at age 63, one
of the biggest risks of her life: Legends! is her stage debut.
"I've never done a play in my life, so everything in me said: 'Don't do
it,' " she says. "Then I thought: 'Well, Linda, you tell everybody
else: Go do something, go reinvent yourself. Why don't you do it?' And I
thought: 'Oh my God, it's like jumping off a cliff.' But [director] John Bowab
said he's going to catch me on the bottom." A nervous laugh slips out,
unbridled. She's had no experience in projecting her voice, in acting with her
full body (TV and film being focused on the eyes), in ignoring the
unpredictable reactions of a live audience, or even in learning more than a
couple of pages of dialogue at a time. "I have never done something
complete," she gulps. "I would do scenes. Three minutes of this,
three minutes of that, then: 'Can we do it over again?' I have never done anything
from beginning to end. Everything about this -- being onstage, the fourth wall,
everything, is like -- " she stops herself, then repeats merely:
"Everything." "Ben Sprecher, the producer, called me, about a
week before I came to New York," she says. "He said, 'There's this
ride at Disneyland I take my kids to. And you wait for three hours to get into
it, and you get in and the lady closes the door and says: It's too late to get
out.' He says, 'I'm calling you: It's too late to get out.' " She shrugs
at the possibility of bad reviews. "So they give me a rough ride? What's
gonna happen? I'll still go on, have a wonderful life. We all recover from
everything."
Soulpepper Spreads Its Wings
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard
Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Sep. 25, 2006) How do you top a season where you moved
into a new theatre, earned rave reviews both for the space and the work
performed in it, and wound up winning a Dora for Best Production of a
Play? Well, if you're Albert Schultz, the indefatigable artistic director
of Soulpepper Theatre Company, you just pull a few more dramatic rabbits out of your hat. The Star
has an exclusive advance preview of what they're going to be:
Award-winning·
author/actor Ann-Marie MacDonald will return to the stage as part of the
Soulpepper acting ensemble.
Internationally acclaimed director Tim· Albery, fresh from his Canadian Opera Company triumph staging Götterdämmerung,
will mount the first musical in the company's history.
David French's classic Canadian drama,· Leaving Home, will have its first professional production
in Toronto since its 1972 premiere.
Veteran·
actor Kenneth Welsh will return to the Canadian stage after decades in film,
television and on Broadway.
All of this is part of the ambitious playbill that Schultz will officially
announce today, to herald Soulpepper's first full 12-month season in the Young
Centre for the Performing Arts. It begins on Jan. 24, 2007 with The
Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, to be directed by
Albery. "I want to try and capture its celebration of the worst in
human nature," Albery explained, "the exhilarating pleasure it takes
in people behaving really badly. It should have the feel of Berlin in the late
'20s, of high inflation and low decadence, of a fight for survival in a time of
moral chaos." Schultz will appear as Mac- heath (a.k.a Mack the
Knife) and renowned song-stylist Patricia O'Callaghan will play Polly. Members
of the inaugural class of the Soulpepper Academy will make their first
appearance of several during the season in this production. Next is a
co-production with Theatre Columbus of Ibsen's monumental late work, John
Gabriel Borkman. Leah Cherniak will direct a cast featuring Nancy
Palk, Martha Ross and Michael Simpson, opening on March 28. The first
Toronto viewing in 35 years of French's groundbreaking Leaving Home will
enter the repertory on April 30. Ted Dysktra will direct a cast headed by
Welsh, Diane D'Aquila and Jeff Lillico. "People have always asked us
why we didn't do a Canadian classic before," says Schultz. "Well, we
wanted to establish ourselves first and we can think of no better Canadian play
to begin with than this one."
On May 19, Soulpepper's Dora Award-winning production of Thornton Wilder's Our
Town, directed by Joseph Ziegler, will be revived as one of the major
events of the city's upcoming Luminato Festival. Caryl Churchill's 1982 Top
Girls opens on June 16, directed by Alisa Palmer, and it's this script
that's lured MacDonald into the Soulpepper company. "My own
connection to the play goes back to the mid-'80s when I saw the Tarragon
production," MacDonald recalled. "The script was unlike
anything I'd ever experienced with its combination of comedy, classical
extravagance and a hard, spare naturalism, but it was seeing a stage full of
heavy-hitting women that impressed me most of all. You just didn't see that
many leading ladies all in one place, duking it out with mouthfuls of
text. "And of course I am excited and a little intimidated at the
prospect of being in the show and sharing the stage with some of the strongest
actors in Canada." Running in repertory with Our Town over
the summer is another piece of 1930s American drama, William Saroyan's The
Time of Your Life. Schultz will direct this sprawling story of hope
and redemption, set in a sleazy San Francisco saloon. Schultz concedes it
might seem an odd time to do a piece of upbeat Americana. But "even
though right now, the zeitgeist is all about `f--k America,' Saroyan is saying
that yes, there's things wrong with the country, but there's also some
beautiful stuff there."
On Aug. 30, a new version of Chekhov's Three Sisters opens, created in
collaboration between academy member Nicolas Billon and director László Marton,
featuring veteran company members like Schultz and Diego Matamoros, along with
members of the academy. That will be followed by Joseph Ziegler directing
Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart, featuring Susan Coyne, Stuart Hughes
and Nancy Palk. It will open on Sept. 27, 2007. And closing the
season, on Nov. 27, 2007, will be Noel Coward's classic comedy Blithe Spirit,
with Morris Panych staging a company headed by Fiona Reid, and also including
Brenda Robins and Ziegler. "We think it's a challenging, as well as
an entertaining season," concluded Schultz, "and we hope our
audiences will feel the same."
Generous Has Stingy Payoff
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
Generous
By Michael
Healey. Directed by Daryl Cloran. Until Oct. 29 at Tarragon Theatre, 30
Bridgman Ave. 416-531-1827
(Sep. 27, 2006) It might seem a bit early in the season for this
particular metaphor, but watching Michael Healey's new play Generous, which opened last
night at the Tarragon Theatre, is like emptying out a stocking full of gifts on
Christmas morning. Some of them are funny, others are sad; some sparkle
brightly, others fail to catch the light. You're impressed by the variety
that's been put before you, but when all is said and done, you'd rather have
one substantial gift, thoughtfully picked and carefully wrapped. Healey
has an interesting theme on his mind (how difficult it can be to do something
good) and an intriguing way of structuring it (four plays that exist as
separate entities in the first act and come together in the second). But
although it might seem churlish to do so, it must be pointed out that very
little in the evening's execution matches the originality of its concept.
We start with an outburst of pure Marx Brothers farce, as a minority government
is scrambling to hold itself together in those hellish moments before a vote of
non-confidence is taken. All the politicians are zany dolts and there's bloody
violence as well, but it's all treated as part of the comedy. It's a
brilliant beginning, but it sets up a style that the evening never returns to.
You keep aching for that stage filled with people, that mad comic energy to
repeat itself, but no such luck. What we get instead for most of the play
are two-character scenes, well-acted but a bit attenuated, and each as eager as
a nervous doctoral student to present its thesis. Yanna McIntosh is hard
and bright as any diamond, playing a female exec being interviewed by a
wonderfully dweeby journalist (Tom Barnett). There's a dark twist to the scene,
but once Healey lets it out of the bag, he doesn't know how to close the
deal. Next, Fiona Reid offers us a masterfully morose judge who has just
stumbled out of bed with her perky law clerk, a charmingly upbeat Jordan
Pettle. Once again, we uncover a morbid secret, and once again, the scene goes
on long after we've gotten the point. The act ends with a violent pas de
deux between Michelle Monteith and Ari Cohen, which has neither good
choreography, nor inspired fight direction.
You spend intermission wondering how Healey will put these pieces together in
Act II, and you soon get the answer: far too neatly. We learn additional
long-hidden secrets as characters slide from one scene to another, but we never
return to that inspired farcical beginning. We wait for the circle to be
closed, but it never is. The script features both standard-issue Healey
gags ("Canadian Tire — where retail goes to puke its guts out") and
slightly more inspired observations ("Politics is short-term need couched
in long-term language"), but it doesn't coalesce beyond a series of ideas
and characters in search of a coherent whole. Daryl Cloran's direction is
fine at keeping things moving briskly, but when they slow down, he loses all
sense of how to shape a scene properly. And Yannik Larivée's scenery isn't deft
or clever enough for the play's numerous changes of locale. McIntosh,
Reid, Pettle and Barnett are especially good, but in the end, despite its good
intentions, Healey's over-Generous script serves as a perfect definition
of the phrase "too clever by half."
::OTHER NEWS::
Toronto's Growing Sky High
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Christian Cotroneo, Staff Reporter
(Sep. 24, 2006) The only thing missing from this space-age city is ...
space.
From Scarborough in the east to Etobicoke in the west, between the upper
fringes of North York and Lake Ontario to the south, the city is officially tapped
out. "All land has something on it," says Eric Pedersen, a
program manager at Toronto's urban planning department. "We don't have any
`green field' left." The new mission? To boldly grow where we've
already gone before. "What we're talking about now is
intensification." In cities around the world, the terms may change —
smart cities, New Urbanism, compact cities — but the idea is the same: turn
strip malls, parking lots and one- or two-storey buildings into places where
ever more people can live, work and play. Build upward, instead of
outward. Cue the condominium. "Basically all that we're doing is
building condos right now," Pedersen says. "That's what the market is
saturated with." And, at least on paper, that's a good thing. Up
with the subway; down with cars and the city-choking pollution they bring.
People can live and work and play in the same civic sphere. Better to live in
Manhattan, one might say, than Markham. We're certainly buying that, as
highrise condos, even those with expressway vistas, are being bought up in
record numbers. According to the Greater Toronto Home Builders'
Association, 2,397 highrise condos were sold this past June alone — about 44
per cent better than in that month the previous year, and an all-time sales high.
It works out to one new highrise unit sold every four minutes in Toronto.
Blame it on the young. The baby-boom echo generation is flooding the city
looking for cheap accommodation. "When you're young you can only
afford small spaces," says David Foot, author of the bible on
demographics, Boom, Bust & Echo. "And you enjoy noise and
action. That's what urban intensification gives you." As you age,
you might like the city a little less, well, intense. Thirty- and
40-year-olds, Foot notes, tend to gravitate toward semi-dense environments in
the suburbs that they feel are best for raising kids. "People in
their 50s and 60s want more peace and quiet," he continues. "And they
want less density in general." But many of them will still buy into the
highrise scene, he adds, because they want to enjoy the entertainment the city
offers.
Expect to find them living, however, in larger spaces and on higher floors
where the noisy grind of street life is a little more subdued. Also, expect
them to be complaining about the noise the most. But in the end, Foot
observes, we all head to the same close quarters. "You get to your 70s and
80s and you're more likely to need care — and care then involves coming back to
more dense environments and ultimately the nursing home." Think of
it as the circle of urban life. But a compact city reveals itself in more than
age. It also tends to be more diverse, if not economically, at least
ethnically. "Immigrants both tend to be young and they tend to be
starting in their careers," Foot says. "So immigrants tend to go into
those environments too. For certain immigrant communities, the community is
very, very important to maintaining their identity. Some ethnicities are more
willing to trade privacy and space for community." Somewhere in the
crunch, some people may be trading even more — their ties to the city at
large. "A lot of the condos today are really vertical gated
communities," says urban planner and York University professor Gerda
Wekerle. They come complete with a gatekeeper (a.k.a. concierge),
swimming pool, gym, movie theatre and whatever your monthly condo fees can
buy. "We don't really know if these folks are getting widely
involved," Wekerle adds. "We're assuming that they really want to be
in the city and use everything there is in the city, but there's not much data
because all of this has been happening so quickly." In the
background there's a steady, persistent refrain from developers and urban
planners: density is good.
"It's over and over and over again," Wekerle says. "It's a
concerted attempt to reshape the way we think about what's happening in the
city." Wekerle has spent much of her career studying high-density
issues, namely the mile-high monument to intensification known as the
residential highrise, whether it's condos or apartments. And it's led her
to challenge the idea that if you plunk a condo down somewhere in the city, you
can call it a neighbourhood. "These folks who move into a 30-storey
building, do they get involved in the neighbourhood? Do they care what the
parks are like and the street? "If a lot more people end up in
places where the services are privatized and they pay for them ... are they
really going to care about public services? Are they going to make an effort?
Are they going to become part of the wider community?" Leslie Kern,
a York PhD student writing a dissertation on first-time condo buyers, shares
those concerns. "There are certain neighbourhoods that are just condos,
like the Harbourfront," she says. "There's no reason to go there
unless you live there. It's just kind of taking up space, but not necessarily
integrating itself into the community ... "They're increasingly
privatized spaces," she adds. "People are, in many ways, encapsulated
in their own buildings. "In a way, it's kind of allowing the city to
back off a little bit from its responsibilities for providing public
spaces." The jury is still out on whether all these freshly minted
developments will transform into bona fide neighbourhoods. But some developers,
at least, are beginning to look beyond their own walls. When completed,
CityPlace will parachute some 18,000 new residents into its 20 highrises,
half-dozen low-rises and 100 townhouses along Lake Shore Blvd., from Bathurst
to the Rogers Centre. So far, it's unoccupied, with only the eastern side
almost complete. But the development would seem the ultimate model, for better
or worse, of intensity.
"They have done a number of things to try and reach out to the outside
community as well as those that are living within," says Vickie Griffiths
of Vicbar Marketing, who has been or is currently a consultant for a wide range
of developments, from CityPlace to Malibu to Liberty Village. CityPlace
will include an eight-acre park, accessible to the public, as well as a daycare
facility that's open to residents and non-residents. But not everyone is
enthusiastic about the incoming residential juggernaut. In July, digging
at CityPlace ground to a temporary halt after someone poured dirt into gas
tanks and air filters of the earthmoving equipment. About $2 million in damages
later, an anonymous emailer from the "Earth Liberation Front" claimed
responsibility for the act of urban sabotage. It may have been an
isolated and extreme act, but protests prompted by other highrise developments
throughout the city indicate that some citizens emphatically are not on the
compact-city bandwagon. The
question lingers: can this brand of intensification actually fill not only
physical space, but also social space on the urban landscape? Ultimately,
Toronto isn't going to get all worked up overnight. Intensification has
historically been a series of fits and jerks. A boom in the 1960s and
early '70s, for instance, saw the rise of St. Jamestown, Flemingdon Park and Yonge
and Davisville. Highrises don't exactly evolve into their current state. St.
Jamestown practically fell from the sky in 1968, blasting away scores of
single-family dwellings and getting intense all at once. Indeed, the
mini-metropolis towering south of Bloor, between Sherbourne and Parliament,
remains Canada's densest area. Some 35,000 souls share the same square
kilometre. All the rush to grow upward startled more than a few people.
In 1972, mayor David Crombie enacted a 45-foot height limit. "The worry
was that downtown was going to be completely torn down for tall
buildings," says Pedersen of the city's urban planning department.
"We're past that now. The neighbourhoods that are low-scale are protected.
We're not tearing down neighbourhoods. Our intensification tends to be
happening on vacant parking lots or very under-utilized sites, which have very
low-scale buildings in areas that could be much higher."
Indeed, Pedersen says about three-quarters of the city doesn't qualify for
intensification, being either stable residential low-rises (houses), parks or
cemeteries. He notes that the main candidates for intensification are the
downtown core, the centres of North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke, and along
major arteries, especially northern stretches of Yonge and Bathurst, as well as
parts of Bayview, McCowan and Wilson, collectively called the avenues.
Katie Williams, a professor and author at the Oxford Centre for Sustainable
Development in England, says intensification packs in a lot of benefits with
all those people. There's land conservation, "because you're getting a lot
of people on a small plot of land." And there are financial benefits
through increasing the local economic capacity of the area. "What happens
when you intensify an area is you keep the money circulating in the local
economy for longer," Williams says. There's some question about the
social benefits. "You could argue that it's meeting some sort of
housing need, although if private condos are that expensive, they're probably
not meeting a social housing need or an affordable housing need.
"But I doubt if they're contributing to improving social inclusion or
anything like that." So an intense city is youthful, diverse and
maybe a little cramped, with perhaps some pockets disconnected from the rest of
the metropolis. One social benefit may be safety. "In denser areas,
where there is a greater street life, we generally think of those as having
greater safety," says Connie Guberman, a professor at the University of
Toronto specializing in urban planning and design for personal safety,
"because there's more people doing things." Safety begins at
the planning phase, not just for highrises but for any neighbourhood.
Lighting, Guberman says, is vital. Then there's signage — do you know where you
are and how to get to where you want to go? Because you don't want to be
feeling, or even appearing, disoriented. In the past, Guberman has worked
with New York City transit, helping create safe environments in the system. She
considered not only the movement of people, but also the message the city
wanted to convey to the public — "Is this is a caring community? Do we
know where to report something if we witness something that makes us feel
uncomfortable or if something happened to us?" What about managers
at subway stations, "so there's "someone with an official presence to
show that the institution or the subway or the train station cares, and if
something is happening, there's someone to go to. "The most
important measure is to show that we are a community — that in every pocket or
neighbourhood or park or streetscape, there are people who connect with each
other. There's someone somewhere you can go to if you have a problem. And that
gives a message to folks who want to do bad things, that they're going to be
seen doing it." One thing that's certain here in Toronto: everything
we know about the shape of our city is likely to change. Cities are
always in flux, ever evolving toward new models as they grow. Williams calls
the next urban phase polycentrism.
A city of 10 million, for instance, would have more than one big centre, with
city planners increasing density around each urban capital. "That's
more efficient and realistic for travel purposes and for making for small
neighbourhoods," Williams says. The city's official plan, a 110-page
publication released in 2002, is already preaching the gospel of polycentrism,
dividing Toronto into urban centres — Downtown, Etobicoke, North York,
Scarborough and Yonge-Eglinton. North York Centre, the plan notes, is
focused on three subway stations on its Yonge St. spine. Thanks to ready
connections with downtown, the centre boasts a major concentration of office
space. Those offices, the plan notes, are expected to grow alongside a
"vibrant residential and cultural centre." But, as University
of Toronto professor and transportation engineering expert Eric Miller hastens
to warn, sometimes the problem isn't so much what changes when a city compacts,
but what doesn't change. "I think it's easy to get lost in the
rhetoric," he says. "The concept is fine, but are you doing the full
package of transit, walkability and mixed use to go with the density that makes
it all work? "If they are just mega-apartment buildings, from a transportation
perspective, they're just going to generate flows out in the morning and flows
in the evening and may not contribute much to balanced transportation.
Indeed, Miller says that without bulking up on transit, the effects of all that
density could be exactly what we are supposed to be guarding against — actually
increasing car traffic in particularly developed areas. "Much of
what's been going on in Toronto for a long time, it's kind of living off the
existing capacity that was put in place quite a while ago." Fortunately,
compared to other major cities, Toronto is still in the earliest phases of
intensity, with plenty of room to chart its trajectory. At present, there are
just 2,650 people per square kilometre. By contrast, witness Kabul,
Afghanistan, with about 14,350 people per square kilometre. In Dhaka, the
capital of Bangladesh, it gets a little more extreme, with 32,550 people
staking out each square kilometre. Hong Kong takes top prize with 44,511
people occupying a single square kilometre.
But ultimately, as the pot thickens in Toronto, will it be a city we can
recognize, or even make a connection with? The most important measure is
to show that we are a community, says Guberman, that in every pocket or
neighbourhood or park or streetscape, there are people who connect with each
other. For highrise dwellers, be it condos or apartment complexes, the
message may be simple: come down from the tower. Guberman recalls a
striking example of how a handful of downtown highrise dwellers created
community out of nearly nothing at all. Their building lobby was a daily
scene of drug deals and people sleeping on the floor. Originally, residents,
mostly senior citizens, clamoured for cameras. "It will get the
perpetrators, but it won't prevent the crime," Guberman says. So
what did these seniors come up with? "They play bridge twice a week,
on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They brought their bridge table down to the lobby of
the building. "Not only did folks that didn't want to be around the
bridge players leave, but a whole new community developed because everyone who
came home said, `What are you doing? Why are you playing bridge down here?' And
they started talking to their neighbours in a new way. "Often we
look at the high-tech solutions or the increased police presence when sometimes
it's really about putting in the effort to create a caring community,"
Guberman concludes. "I know that sounds hokey or old-fashioned, but it
really is what makes a difference."
Farley Mowat - The Unrepentant
Misanthrope
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Sarah Hampson
(Sept. 23, 2006) CAPE BRETON, N.S. — Farley
Mowat parks himself in a
wooden Adirondack chair on a grassy knoll near his house in River Bourgeois,
Cape Breton. His safari shirt, his khaki multipocketed shorts, his heavy
lace-up hiking boots, and the hat, a crinkled soft-straw Stetson, together give
him the appearance of an age-defiant trekker who will bravely set out across
any landscape, however harsh. The landscape of choice for this sunny September
afternoon is time, his career, his Canadian icon-hood, and the bumpy terrain of
his literary reputation. At 85, Mowat moves across it nimbly. His only
equipment is a glass of vodka and cranberry juice. “You're interested in how I
see myself in the panoply of Canadian writers, eh?” he says, rephrasing my
question. “I couldn't give a shit!” he spits with a laugh. “I couldn't care
less. I don't! I used to care. But I don't any more.” The feisty response is
vintage Mowat. He may be Canadian, but polite and passive he is not. Still,
this is a new Mowat in some ways. He appears to take no offence at the
questioning of his literary record. He looks at me squarely through his large
glasses without a cloud of concern passing over his elfin face. Difficult
questions are flies upon his back that he simply swishes away, unfazed.
Even his latest book, Bay of Spirits: A Love Story, which hits
bookstores today, suggests a change of mood. In an account of the period that
he and his second wife, Claire, spent in Newfoundland at the start of their
romance in the early sixties, it is a nostalgic, sweeter Mowat we encounter,
not the one we have come to expect: the writer who narrates from a pulpit about
the ways we have failed nature. He and Claire were aboard a boat named Happy
Adventure, and that is exactly what this memoir is — a journey back into a
joyous time in his life. “Up until a few years ago,” he says, describing the
book's back story, “I still thought that there might be some hope for the human
race, the human species. “And I was willing to go on being a preacher and
flailing away at the injustices of life, but somewhere, quite recently, it
dawned on me that I was wasting my time, and I didn't have a lot of time left
to waste. And what do I want to do?” He pauses for a swig of his drink. “I had
to go on writing, because I wouldn't be able to go on without writing. It is
the only function that works for me, and without a function, we die. “But
what the hell was I going to write? The things I wrote about [in the past] were
always close to my heart, but there was always a message, and there was hidden
and not-so-hidden preaching. This time I didn't want to do that at all. I just
wanted to re-experience a time and a way of life that was pleasantly
memorable.” The memoir was to have begun in 1945, when Mowat returned to Canada
after serving in the Second World War. But when he'd written it as far as the
Newfoundland adventure, “1957 or thereabouts, I found myself far more interested
in what was to come than in what I had written. And I lost interest in the
whole earlier period.” He had written 50,000 words, but he set aside the
earlier chapters and concentrated on what he says was a love affair with many
things: with Newfoundland, its people and animals, his boat (“a strange
love-hate affair,” he chortles), his beloved dog, Albert, and “not least of
all” he adds, with Claire. “I hit warm water,” he says of the momentum he
felt when he was writing about this period in his life. “Immediately, I felt
better and I was full of energy and I could swim like bloody mad. I could cross
an ocean.”
Mowat is known for charting his way across far choppier seas. He has been
writing since 1949, and with sales of his books at over 40 million copies in 25
countries (his work has been translated into 52 languages), he is one of
Canada's most successful writers. But his best-known books, the ones that
catapulted him to fame at the start of his career, notably People of the
Deer and Never Cry Wolf, are both beloved and ridiculed. In 1996,
now-defunct Saturday Night magazine published a damaging, well-researched
profile of Mowat by John Goddard that outlined how he had fudged the facts in
his accounts of having lived and worked in the Canadian Arctic. Farley Mowat,
to many people, is known as Hardly Knows It. They think of him in the way he
was depicted on the magazine's infamous cover shot: with a digitally enhanced
Pinocchio nose. “That hurt,” he says calmly of the attack. “It sure did. It was
a bad year. But the recovery didn't take too long. I felt badly about it for
probably six months,” he avers, looking out placidly from beneath the rim of
his hat. “Then I began to realize that I was just lacerating myself. This
guy hadn't hurt me!” he says of Goddard. “I was making myself miserable, and in
that case, he was winning! So screw him!” Still, most mentions of Mowat include
an acknowledgment of the criticism. It is a burden his legacy will always
carry. (Mowat wrote a rebuttal to the article, but it was weak, and although
many defended him and his brand of “subjective journalism,” the scar has never
faded.) Does he feel it affected his reputation? “If it did, it's not
apparent to me,” he declares. “It doesn't affect me directly.” He remains silent
for a moment, swilling the bits of ice in his glass. “It may have affected my
reputation,” he continues after the pause. “But I don't give a damn about my
reputation any more. The only thing that could really touch me from the human
audience right now would be an individual rejection. If somebody came to me and
said, ‘Farley, you are dead wrong about who we are and what we are,' I would be
upset. I would feel I'd missed the target. Rejection by an individual [reader]
can hurt as much as it ever did, but rejection or criticism by that great
amorphous mass called public opinion is now less than meaningful to me.”
Mowat has always had contempt for the human animal — “Basically, we are turning
ourselves into total aliens in the womb that gave us life,” he says of our
environmental behaviour — but his misanthropy seems now to have extended to all
spheres of human endeavour, including the literary establishment. “I never won
a Governor-General's Award, you know,” he blurts out at one point. “Oh, I did
for a juvenile [ Lost in the Barrens, Mowat's first novel, written in
1956, won in the category of children's literature]. But I never won for a
major work of non-fiction.” Does that bother him? “No,” he booms. “But it
used to. I used to think, ‘What's the matter with me?' But now it doesn't. The
whole academic structure of rating writers strikes me as the height of
inanity!” He acknowledges that writers' egos make them care about awards. “No
doubt,” he offers in an offhand manner. “That attitude has served me as well. But
I don't need it any more. I have dispensed with it. It's like taking off a suit
of armour.” Mowat sits atop that lovely pinnacle of age, a wrinkled sage with
his long, scraggly beard, surveying a view that is far-reaching and wide. He
sees himself as a younger man in that vista as well, and is unafraid to
criticize him for his own human shortcomings. “It was an act of cowardice, and
I admit it without any problem,” he says, while on the subject of People of
the Deer and the way he manipulated the facts. In the book, his first, he
told of travelling to the North, west of Hudson Bay, to locate a remote
community of Inuit who supposedly lived exclusively on caribou. He wrote that
he lived among them for two years and that they were starving to death. He blamed
trappers, missionaries, and managers of the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as
the Canadian government, for their shameful demise. But documents in his own
archival material at McMaster University in Hamilton, made available in 1996,
showed that he hadn't spent as much time as he said he did in the Arctic, and
that he was accompanied on his travels by other field-biology workers. “I'd
just come through a heavy war,” Mowat explains now. “I had learned about
cowardice. I'd become a coward. That's how I survived. “If I had been your
average brave guy, I'd have been dead 10 times. So I learned about cowardice.
It's one of the essentials in survival. It isn't there for fun. So I applied it
with People of the Deer. I wouldn't do it now. I haven't got anything to
lose now. But then, I did.
“The route I took was evasive because I was afraid of legal action. I was
nervous about the Hudson's Bay Company. I was nervous about the RCMP. I was
certainly nervous about the government and both the Roman Catholic Church and the
Protestant Church, who were also the great powers of the Arctic. I had taken
all of them on. So I was trying to hedge my bets. Wherever I thought I could do
it, I was evasive about dates, times, places, names. I didn't adhere to the
journalistic principle that you get every fact exactly as it was. The facts
became less important to me than what I was doing and the greater truth I was
trying to illuminate. “They could have made mincemeat out of me. Some things
that I exposed, if I had specified who did it and why and how they did it, I
would have been cut into little tiny bits and hung out to dry.” Mowat tells me
this without fanfare, not to defend himself so much as to practise his
principle of greater truth. He is approaching the end of his human life, and he
forgives himself for the indulgences, good or bad, that he made along the way.
He is happy in his wrinkled, pale skin and in his habitat. For almost six
months of the year, he and Claire — who says her own writing (memoirs and
children's fiction) is greatly influenced by her husband, and the direct result
of his encouragement — live on this rocky shore. For the winter, they return to
their house in Port Hope, Ont. So today, think of this Canadian icon swaying in
his hammock, legs splayed, under a tree, in the late afternoon, after his
post-lunch nap. Or think of him in the morning at his desk in the studio loft
in the guest cottage. The fabric of his chair is repaired with silver duct
tape. There's a feeder at his window so he can watch birds come and go. There
are notes for an autobiography thumb-tacked to a bulletin board. His
typewriter, an ancient Underwood, sits under a linen dishtowel that has a
calendar on it of 1976. Think of Mowat however you want. He is as content as
his dog, Chester, who dances for his supper and sleeps blissfully in the sun.
When Mowat takes him for a walk around the property, he tells me, he even joins
him in marking his territory with a nice, leisurely pee. “That's what trees are
for,” he says.
Heritage Cuts Rock Regional Museums
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Val Ross And James Adams
(Sept. 27, 2006) After Monday's announcement that Minister
of
Canadian Heritage Bev Oda would be making cuts to her
department — $4.6-million of which would be coming from the Museums Assistance
Program (MAP) over the next two years — panicked e-mails crisscrossed the
country. Michael Robinson, director of Calgary's Glenbow Museum, called the
announcement “an ill-advised cut [to] one of the best-run federal programs.”
Earlier this month, his institution finally received word it would receive
close to $100,000 from MAP to develop an exhibition for 2009 called Power,
Politics and Patronage: Sir Cornelius William Van Horne and the Railway
Artists. The money is being used to hire a senior curator and researchers for a
book. “It's difficult to find private-sector support for those kinds of
research costs. That's why MAP is so valuable.” While national and flagship
provincial museums pursue ambitious expansion plans, Canada's regional
institutions have lobbied for three decades for increased funding for MAP to
pay for everything from upgrading exhibitions and hiring curators to conserving
artefacts. Launched in 1972, the program was originally worth $7.5-million;
it's now around $10-million. Whatever the fund's size, the Standing Committee
on Canadian Heritage last week passed a motion urging Ottawa to adopt a report
calling for an increase in MAP funding to properly service the needs of
Canada's 2,500 small and regional museums, which welcome more than 55 million
visitors each year. Reached yesterday at his Ottawa office, committee chair
Gary Schellenberger, Conservative MP from Perth-Wellington, admitted that he
was “somewhat surprised” and “a little disappointed” by the cuts.
The cuts mean soul-searching at the Canadian Museums Association (CMA), the
sector's deeply frustrated lobbying agency, which has been pressing for years
for hikes to MAP funding. For Dean Bauche, director of the Allen Sapp and
Chapel Galleries in North Battleford, Sask., “the shake-up has to come at the
level of the politicians and the Canadian public ... As far as I am able to
see, the fault doesn't lie with the constituents of the CMA or its
administration.” Celine Périllat, director of the Duck Lake Regional
Interpretation Centre in Batoche, Sask., was in the midst of dealing with
sprinkler problems that had left water all over her museum's maintenance room
floor when she was asked to comment on the MAP cuts. Last year, a MAP grant
enabled Duck Lake to, among other things, repair its collection of 100-year-old
aboriginal beadwork. “Our building needs $80-million worth of repairs,”
Périllat said. “We relied on MAP for our research and conservation.” Ottawa cut
MAP as part of a $1.1-billion government-wide reduction in spending, and said
it was targeting programs that were “inefficient” and “underspent.” “That's
malarkey,” said the museum association's director John McAvity yesterday. Some
CMA members have waited since last November to learn if their applications for
MAP funds would be approved, he said. Yesterday's cut has put a big question
mark beside a plan by the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon to mount an
exhibition marking the 50th anniversary next year of John Diefenbaker's
election as a Progressive Conservative prime minister. Acting director Teresa
Carlson said the cut “is definitely going to curtail our abilities.” As
Périllat finished mopping the maintenance room floor at Duck Lake, she
observed, “If small-town museums can't preserve their collections, they will
have to sell them ... We've been to a couple of small museum auctions already.”
United They Dance From Isles
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
- Susan Walker, Dance Writer
L'Acadco
Choreographed by L'Antoinette Stines. Until tomorrow at the Betty Oliphant
Theatre, 404 Jarvis St. 416-504-7529
(Sep. 22, 2006_ Fresh — really fresh — out of Kingston, Jamaica,
L'Acadco is a "United Caribbean
Dance Force" to be reckoned with. Founded in 1978 by L'Antoinette
Stines, L'Acadco (an abbreviation of her first name and Caribbean Dance
Company) draws its performers from all over the Caribbean, but speaks pure
Jamaican. These very dynamic individuals are skilled in ballet, West African,
Latin American and modern dance. Stines fuses these disparate styles in unique
ways. The opening number, A Tribute to Bogle, is named for a dance
hall innovator and has the women in short sassy ruffled skirts over dainty
heeled mules. Three super-charged men swap partners and sweep the women off
their feet. The music is a mamba or a samba, or some infectious rhythm,
while the dancing is jive mixed with salsa, blended with Lindy Hop and
acrobatics. That's followed with a more sombre piece, in which the
performers wear purple and mustard cotton in traditional African dress. The men
get down in one-armed, sideways lifts off the floor. The projections of high
windows with bars over them suggests an allusion to the age of slavery and a
long history of suffering in the New World.
The costumes and set for Hounfor of the Drums evoke a jungle in Africa,
as does the corps of djembe drummers and the yelping and upbeat dancing. This
dance is a tribute to the spirits of all living things that inhabit the earth,
and plays host to Yoruba gods. Toronto has its Afro-Caribbean drum groups, but
this is really superior drumming. As is Kum in Adis, an all-male
drumming sequence led by Aaron Abaofune Vereen. Last week at the Toronto
International Film Festival, Perry Henzell's film out of Jamaica, No Place
Like Home, ran with subtitles over the actors' patois. There was laughter
from the Jamaicans in last night's audience reacting to recorded narrative and
stage dialogue in Body Ridims to Bob. But the words might as well have
been a foreign language to the rest of the audience. An a capella version of
Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" proved these performers sing as well
as they dance and drum. Satta, danced in front of a backcloth
depicting a pastoral scene, displayed elements of belly dance out of Egypt, as
a group of women dancers honoured their female ancestors. The movement was very
slow and quite angular. It went on well past the point where the point was
taken. L'Acadco is making its first visit to Canada. It shouldn't be its
last.
A Canadian Witness To New Orleans' Demise
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Goddard
(Sep. 23, 2006) NEW YORK—With tonnes of art representing the world's
great cities already in its halls and vaults, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is now dealing with work from an ex-Montrealer.
Make that two ex-Montrealers. One is Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the
eighth son of a French Canadian pioneer who founded New Orleans in 1718. The
other is Robert Polidori, the New Yorker staff photographer born in
Montreal in 1951, who rushed to the city a year ago this month after Hurricane
Katrina forced half a million people to flee their homes. Le Moyne made plans
for a great city. Polidori gives witness to its demise. A third Canadian
makes a rather indirect appearance in the Met's "New Orleans after the
Flood: Photographs by Robert Polidori": Neil Young. Interior views
of ravished rooms illuminate much of the Met show, which is the nucleus of a
larger collection found in the large-format photography book, Robert
Polidori: After the Flood (Steidl Verlag, around $120). One image in
particular, 1923 Lamanche Street New Orleans, Louisiana, March 2006,
shows a tattered American flag propped up against a great pile of debris in a
mound in a wrecked living room. Polidori calls the image his "Neil Young
cover." Polidori doesn't do album cover work although a Berlin band
— he can't remember its name — plans to use one of his images. So it's
extremely unlikely that this meticulously photographed melee on Lamanche Street,
with its hint of stars-and-stripes Yankee pride, will end up wrapped around a
collection of Young tunes. Yet Polidori is right about this stagy image. It is
Neil Young-like, gloriously pumped up, cranky and jaggedly engaging with just
enough Surrealism in the mix — the rifle just laying there, the hanging lights
— to pump up the volume. "What we're dealing with here," says
Polidori who sounds like an old-time baseball manager when he speaks, "is
the image of extreme unction or last rights for the stuff itself, for the emblems
of things, for mementos left by people, for the chosen moments of individual
lives. It's about the people who say, `I lost all my stuff. And I ain't buyin'
new stuff.'"
"New Orleans after the Flood"
is emotional, not analytical, proactive, not reflective. Responding to New
Orleans' show-business sensibility, Polidori frames each chosen image of the
Katrina disaster as if all the wrecked stuff is having one last turn in the
spotlight. Polidori doesn't "show" anything, though. The photographer
illuminates what is already there. For instance, he noticed how the storm posed
the battered white car in 2732 Orleans Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana, Sept.
2005 exactly in front of the battered wood frame "Creole" home,
so named for its double identity due to the two different families living next
to one another. "I picked the houses (to photograph) that were
somehow more telling than the others, houses that are just a little bit more
damaged than the others although you don't see the damage. I framed the (large-scale
images) in an emotionally evocative way. Remember, I lived in New Orleans for
two years. I moved there after (the Beatles') Rubber Soul came out (in
1965). I left just before Sgt. Peppers came out (in 1967). It was a
formative time for me." For its part, the Met — hardly the centre of
dissidence — is remarkably direct about "what went wrong in New
Orleans," according to an introductory essay for "After the
Flood," written by museum curator Jeff Rosenheim, who notes the "cronyism,
gross fraud and corruption" that distinguishes both the federal and local
responses to the Katrina disaster. "The Met is dedicated to
following artists wherever they may take us," Rosenheim tells me as we
tour the Polidori show. "We don't define a subject for an artist, or a
series for an artist. We respond." Polidori's earlier suite of
Chernobyl photographs, taken over the three-day period in 2001 he spent on the
site of the April 26, 1986 Ukraine nuclear disaster, is overtly politicized.
"In Chernobyl, the places I sought out were public spaces," he says,
"the kindergarten, the high school and the hospital, places where the
superego was involved, places where the government was involved.
"But not in New Orleans. I didn't go to hospitals. I didn't concentrate on
those kinds of places because New Orleans was not a company town, like Pripyat
(the Chernobyl site). New Orleans was not just about Dixieland music. It's so
much more. "Is this being political? I hate Bush. But is this his
fault? I don't think so. Most of the people are not dead in New Orleans. But
for 60 per cent of the residents of the city, the course of their chosen life
has been altered and they've been de-rooted, not just from their habit, but
also from the rest of their lives."
Isolation Shapes Novelist's Work
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Freeman, Special To The Star
(Sep. 25, 2006) Kiran Desai does not seem like an angry
woman. Dressed in a beautiful brown wrap dress, her voice as high and quiet as
a young girl's, the first impression the 35-year-old novelist presents is of
shyness — or humility. And perhaps those are qualities she possesses. But
listen closely to what she is saying and a very different impression arises.
Desai is not just troubled about the state of the world. She is enraged.
"Is it really such a brave new world?" asks the novelist on a recent
afternoon in Manhattan, her brow crinkling. "I don't know if anybody would
say so right now, but when I look at globalization right now it seems like a
very old story. And it seems pretty rotten." These sentiments are
shared by the cast of her powerful second novel, The
Inheritance of Loss, which is being touted as a
favourite for the Man Booker Prize, to be announced Oct. 10. Set in the
1980s in a remote Himalayan village, the book revolves around a society of
people for whom leave-taking has been a way of life, for whom arrival has
almost always meant the shattering of a dream. Take Jemubhai, the book's
cantankerous, aging central figure. Raised in a small Bengali village, he was
sent off to Cambridge, all his family's hopes and dreams travelling with
him. In flashbacks, Desai shows how he was ridiculed for his accent, and
became so shy he could barely walk to the grocery store for tea and milk. He
returned to India embittered and confused about his place in society.
As the book opens, Jemubhai takes in his wayward niece Sai, while his last
remaining servant has managed to send his son Biju to the U.S. Desai ably
splices stories from Biju's life into the narrative. In New York City, Biju
bounces from one restaurant job to the other, landing at an Indian café where
he sleeps on the dining tables at night, wrapped in a tablecloth.
"The immigrant community here constantly tell you they are the most
successful immigrants, economically," Desai says, sitting at a table at
SoHo House in Manhattan, "but we are also the poorest of immigrants, which
of course is not talked about." Through the story of Biju, The
Inheritance of Loss vividly recreates this invisible world: the successful
often taking advantage of weaker, new immigrants, the fight to stay
alive. In one grimly funny scene, Biju scrambles to be first to the visa
counter at the U.S. embassy: "Biggest pusher, first place," Desai writes,
"how self-contented and smiling he was; he dusted himself off, presenting
himself with the exquisite manners of a cat. I'm civilized, sir, ready for the
U.S., I'm civilized, mam." In another scene, one of Biju's roommates
ducks the calls of newly arrived emigrants from Zanzibar, who have spoken to
his parents back home and been assured their son will provide shelter and jobs.
"Immigration is not this sunny thing where each day gets sunnier,"
Desai says. "A lot of times it's about throwing people overboard so you can
stay." Desai has never had to struggle like this, but she has seen
it. "Part of the book started when I was living at 123rd St. in
Harlem," she says. "I remember there was a bakery nearby very much
like the one I write about and a lot of the characters are from knowing the
people up there — and talking to them."
Desai can relate to feeling trapped, however. She grew up in Delhi when that
town felt cut off from the world. "There was the feeling that books
were the only thing that led you to the world," she says. "You read
really hard; that was the only thing you could do." In this regard
she was taking after her mother, Anita Desai, the three-time Booker
finalist. Desai remembers how things were for Indian writers before The
God of Small Things hit bestseller lists, before Salman Rushdie was
scooping up million-dollar advances. Back then Indian writing was decidedly
unglamorous. "When my mother was writing it was a very different
world. There was no literary scene. There were no moneyed book tours. She just
sent out the manuscripts to the addresses she got from the backs of books, even
until the '80s." Like Sai, Desai was packed off to a remote
Himalayan village for a year — in her case, to live with an aunt — and the
place left an impression. "It's awful, it's isolating, in the middle
of the monsoon you get reduced to nothing all over again, especially if you are
poor." In the book, the anger and resentment of being trapped this
way spills over to a homegrown resistance movement for Kashmir, which draws
Sai's well-educated, middle-class tutor away from her and into a much more
dangerous endeavour. Today it would be called terrorism. "Why is
there so much violence?" she wonders rhetorically. "Why is there so
much anger? It's not surprising at all. The gap between the rich and the poor
is greater than it's ever been, and sometimes the angriest people are the
people who have seen both sides." Again, Desai would fit this
description. It took her eight years to write this novel, and along the way she
says she learned the habit of solitude, moving around, living cheaply by
herself and often around people who were poor. Emerging from this cocoon
once again, Desai may look the part of the glamorous young novelist, but she is
doubly distrustful of the hullabaloo, because she knows it has nothing to do
with the writing. "Who is going to write an honest book? To look at
something straight takes a lot of work. So who is going to do it? It's much
more fun to go to a literary festival and drink champagne or whatever, attend a
conference and have a fantastic time. There's no better time to be a writer in
that sense. You get so many goodies thrown at your head. You are writing for Travel
& Leisure and eating sushi for breakfast." Meanwhile, the
real stories for this writer are those of the people serving the food.
Angelo Ellerbee -- Imagemaker and
Educator
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
September 26, 2006) *Energy,
excitement, and enthusiasm
radiate from Angelo Ellerbee, the Founder, President, and CEO of the company Double Xxposure, when he talks about
his Artist Development Program and his business philosophy. Ellerbee is a
man who knows his way around the entertainment industry whether via the
electronic media, dance, fashion, music, promotion, publicity, management,
image development, and marketing. His is a full service business; one he
learned via many a trial by fire. His trials proved a hidden blessing that
allowed him to hone his craft and aptly guide the careers of his diverse
clientele. Mr. Ellerbee is not shy about letting you know that God is the
captain of his ship and the director of his life. He believes in the
Golden Rule and has fashioned an entire company around the principle of
bettering his fellow man, whether it be a celebrity or the average Joe.
Raised by a single parent, his mother encouraged him to help support the
household early on. “I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, the greatest city in the
world as far as I am concerned. My mother challenged me to make sensible
decisions, be the best I could be, and elevate my life,” explained the
entrepreneur and image maker.
“I have done a lot of things in my life. I wanted to act and I appeared
in Bubbling Brown Sugar. I wanted to dance and did so and even modeled in
France. My clothing was carried in Henri Bendel. I actually started
off working in a beauty salon wherein the tips I made allowed me to start my
business in the basement of my home” recalled the marketing expert. Mr.
Ellerbee is not fond of the word “StarMaker” but prefers to see himself as an “Image-maker,”
an educator who instructs his clientele how to build their careers step-by-step
and rise to their full potential. He has guided and managed the careers of
people like Mary J. Blige, DMX, Fabolous, Gladys Knight, James Mtume, Dionne
Warwick, Melba Moore, Nina Simone and over 5000 others in the course of his
nearly 30 year old business. In the true tradition of Berry Gordy,
Ellerbee emulates Gordy’s formulae of instructing artists how to survive
masterfully in the world of business. He teaches them business from the
ground up. “You have to be able to articulate, dress properly, and even
have table manners so you can manoeuvre through any situation and be able to
sit among Kings as well as paupers, while treating each with respect” states
Angelo. “I always tell my clients I find the word ‘star’ to be a
strange word. What I try to do at Double XXposure is to promote and create
achievers. I want clients to know they can win and achieve
excellence. I give them the needed tools to do so. I give them a
clear understanding of what a star is and what a star is not. When people
become comfortable with the word star they tend to become lazy. In the world of
entertainment one cannot get comfortable, you must continue to prove and
improve. You must have a clear goal in mind in order to assure continued
success and longevity. This is what I teach. I do this for lay people to”
said Ellerbee enthusiastically. Ellerbee also goes into prisons to teach
incarcerated youth the importance of striving for something, even giving them
internships in his firm. I mentor them and let them know that people do care,
and I help them care about themselves” said the former music executive. The
music business is filled with pimps, pimping off the careers of naïve talent.
Many hip hoppers come from a background that doesn’t afford an education.
They fall victim to the exploitation of an industry that has no interest in
showing young artists how to manage their careers. Double Xxposure gives
these kids a road map, a direction, a goal. I tell them to be responsible
for the content of their music and not to exploit their own people. I say build
your people up, not pull them down” remarked Ellerbee who also promotes his
philosophy via his reality shows on the Bravo Channel and UK Discovery Channel.
“My business is people relations. I practice tough love because at the
end of the day, I sell talent. I want that talent to represent themselves via
fine elocution, social etiquette, and knowledge of the business they are in. I
spend time with the artist before engaging in any contractual agreement.
I talk to their friends and family to get to know my client. I notice that
young folks today are more ‘Ambitches’ than ‘ambitious.’ I want them to
be ambitious, acquire an education so they can read, write, and understand
business. I show them how to package and market themselves. I show them
how to negotiate contracts and determine what is best for them. I teach
clients the full scope of the entertainment business.” A master craftsman Ellerbee
believes African Americans have to aid one another. He believes parents
must encourage, nurture, and give their children a winning formulae and
mentality. “Stop with the crabs in a barrel behaviour, give back, and
help others,” purports Angelo. “My mother had a plan and structure for me
to follow. She understood the highest accomplishment in life is to give
back. I try to show my clients how to invest in themselves and in turn, mentor
another. I want folks to get what they deserve and believe they are deserving
of the best in life. I have a clear understanding of all the elements
needed to forge a comprehensive direction. My goal is to teach others how
to strive toward and reach for the next level.” Interested parties see: http://www.double-xxposure.com/mission.php
or email:
EllerbeeGroup@aol.com
Chong Reflects On Time In The Joint
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Lee-Anne
Goodman, Canadian Press
(Sep. 26, 2006) Tommy Chong, one half of the legendary
comedy duo Cheech and Chong, exudes as much
serenity sipping on a cup of coffee in a downtown hotel as one might expect
from a lifelong pothead. But three years ago, the Canadian-born Chong had
good reason to freak out: agents for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
burst into his California home and busted him for selling bongs online, the
first time an obscure law dealing with such offences had ever been
enforced. In his new book The I Chong:
Meditations From the Joint, Chong insists the feds came after him, at the behest of the Bush
administration, because he'd often spoken out against the war on terror and the
erosion of civil liberties after 9/11. "I was the first one they'd
ever charged under that law," said the 68-year-old Chong, in Toronto
yesterday promoting his book. "Symbolically, I represented the antiwar
movement. I represented the hippies. And they're scared to death of the
hippies, because the hippies are the ones who stopped the Vietnam
War." That's not just nostalgic bluster from Chong, who was
introduced to a new generation of fans when he played aging stoner Leo on That
'70s Show. Of the 55 people charged under the "Operation Pipe
Dreams" sweep in early 2003, Chong was one of the very few who was
sentenced to hard time. Most were sentenced to fines and home detentions.
In last year's documentary A/k/a Tommy Chong, which premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival, comedian and social commentator Bill
Maher, among many others, accused the U.S. government of making an example out
of Chong for petty political reasons. But thanks in part to his
spirituality and, undoubtedly, his unabashed appreciation of the calming
effects of marijuana, Chong approached his sentence with good humour. He said
he didn't mind his nine months in prison because it allowed him to focus
primarily on writing the book. In some ways, the bust actually helped
rejuvenate his career as marijuana advocates started a "Free Tommy
Chong" movement and he became the subject of the documentary. But there
are no plans to get back together with Cheech Marin. Chong once famously
described his old comedy partner as being "closer than a wife. The only
thing we didn't do was have sex." The pair, one of the most successful
comedy acts of all time, split up in 1985 due to creative differences in a
break-up that Chong likened to "a death in the family." It
seems those differences are still serving to keep them apart. "He's
been trying to get me to do a play, but he doesn't want to do the doper
characters, so I'm not interested. I only want to play a doper. If it works, don't
fix it," Chong said. He can't resist poking fun at Marin for his
recent stint on the Fox show Duets, in which professional singers like
Winona Judd and Belinda Carlisle are paired up with wannabe celebrity crooners.
Marin got voted off after week 4. "After seeing him on Duets
... you know, I don't want to hang with losers. He lost pretty bad. If he'd
stayed on another a week, I would have voted him off," Chong says.
"There's a reason we went into comedy. We were going to start a band, but
I heard him sing and I said: `We better stick with comedy.'"
Susanna Hood Creates Sound To Match
Movement
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -Susan
Walker, Dance Writer
(Sep. 27, 2006) Susanna Hood's reputation as an artist on the edge was sealed earlier this year
when she won the Dora
Mavor Moore Award for a dance performance. In she's gone away, Hood seemed to move
not just through several stages of a life, but up and down the evolutionary
ladder. She danced, groaned, growled. She was a voyeur, witnessing intimate
acts and she indulged in those acts — loudly, on her back, pelvis thrust
forward. It was as risky a solo as anyone had seen that season. Tomorrow
night, at Dancemakers Studio, Hood's latest venture into new territory will
open, a work set on eight of the company's dancers past and present: loveloathing.
"I seem to have been the kind of person who is always being asked to do
something that I don't quite know how to do," says Hood. "Then I
learn by being thrust into it." This time, the interdisciplinary
artist is creating a dance on an ensemble for the first time. The process began
last year, when she came to Dancemakers for a three-week intensive with Peter
Boneham from Ottawa's Groupe Dance Lab. She worked with Susie Burpee, Shannon
Cooney, Sebastian Mena, Steeve Paquet, Simi Rowen, Linnea Swan and Danny
Wild. She told costume designer Heather MacCrimmon to come up with
something that might suggest "humans gone feral." There is no musical
score for loveloathing. The sounds are all generated by the dancers. In
a rehearsal, they were first heard breathing deeply off stage, their panting
rising to a crescendo. The first to be seen is Burpee, wearing a see-through
covering, a kind of full-body apron made out of some hairy fabric, over
underwear, a signifier of socialization. She is a horse, trotting around
a meadow by herself. Others join her. Anyone who has ever observed horses will
know that Hood has paid close attention to their movements.
There are other animals in the piece — at one juncture two dancers go at each
other like cocks fighting — but Hood had little time, relatively speaking, to
develop the imagery of other creatures she'd been studying. The gift of
Dancemakers, presenters of the show, is the maturity of the artists and their
range. From the "rooting spot" of the horse, Hood worked on
individual performances, solos, duets and trios, to build a show with a
dramatic arc. The explosive energy of the piece is what makes it
recognizably Hood's. A dancer who left home in Ottawa at the age of 15 to train
at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Hood later moved to Toronto. From 1991 to
1995, she was a member of Toronto Dance Theatre, when it was still a company
branded by the Martha Graham technique practised by its three founders.
She began producing her own shows, such as Four ways of approaching a door
(1997), in which she used her voice and began building what she calls "a
language of physical sound." She's gone away was the third
work in a trilogy that began with still (2000). That piece initiated a
working method in which she collaborated with musician Nilan Perera, took
coaching from vocalist Katherine Duncanson, employed electronic artist Jim
Ruxton and, finally, theatre director Jennifer Tarver in her one-woman
shows. "It's risky," she admits, speaking of the gruelling work
involved when you dance and produce sound at the same time. While loveloathing
will be released with this week's performances, she continues to work on
another collective project, called Somatica, with some of her usual
collaborators and poet Louise Bak. That one will be finished sometime
next year, at which point Hood will no doubt have taken another leap into the
unknown.
OTHER TIDBITS
Oprah And Friends Channel Debuts On Satellite Radio
Source: Associated Press
(Sept. 25, 2006) NEW YORK — Talk show queen Oprah
Winfrey is launching her own radio channel, Oprah
and Friends, on XM Satellite Radio Monday morning. The station will features show hosted by
her and a collection of popular personalities from her television show,
including her best friend, Gayle King, fitness expert Bob Greene and poet Maya
Angelou. The station will broadcast 24 hours day, with highlights of the shows
replayed every weekend. Guests set for the first few weeks of programming
include actresses Annette Bening and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, rocker Jon Bon Jovi,
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and real estate mogul Donald Trump. Winfrey
will co-host a show with King, dubbed The Oprah and Gayle Show, on which
they discuss the latest news and gossip. The two have known each other for 30
years. Other shows will focus on finance, style, relationships and spiritual
wisdom. Winfrey and boyfriend Stedman Graham were to be the station's first
guests, appearing on the initial Gayle King Show, a solo program. Graham
mentions a special pastrami and cheese sandwich that Winfrey makes him: “That's
the other side of Oprah that people don't know about. She can cook.” In
February, Winfrey signed a three-year, $55-million (U.S.) deal with XM
Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. to launch her new radio channel, which joins her
syndicated television show and O, The Oprah Magazine. XM Satellite Radio boasts
more than seven million subscribers.
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Cheadle Joins Calif. Gov In Sudan Announcement
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
September 27, 2006) *Actors
Don Cheadle and George
Clooney joined California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger Monday as he signed two bills barring the state's massive
pension funds from investing in companies in Sudan and to indemnify the
University of California system from liability from divesting its investments
in the country, reports Reuters. Although the bills are largely symbolic
– as any investments that California's funds directly or indirectly hold in
Sudan would be small – the governor’s actions follow a mass movement against
the ethnic violence in Sudan’s Darfur region. "Today I am signing
two bills that will send a clear message across the globe: California will not
stand for murder and genocide," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Democratic State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is running against
Schwarzenegger in the upcoming election and promoted the legislation, said the
bills marked an important bipartisan effort. "Californians have a moral
responsibility to help end the genocide in Sudan," said Angelides. "I
am pleased Democrats and Republicans have come together to enact this
legislation, which will help ensure our state pension funds and the University
of California do not unwittingly support the Sudanese government."
::SPORTS NEWS::
Colangelo Gives Raptors Ticket Sales A Big Boost
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Michael Grange
(Sept. 27, 2006) He's just over six feet tall, and has never
scored a point in the National Basketball Association. But Bryan Colangelo has done what only the
flashiest NBA stars are supposed to be able to do: sell tickets. While training
camp for the Toronto Raptors doesn't open until next week and the team doesn't open its
regular season at home until Nov. 3, the Raptors have experienced a significant
bump in its sales to existing season-ticket holders and new subscribers. The
club has renewed 92 per cent of its season-ticket base from last season,
despite coming off a 27-55 record and missing the playoffs for the fourth
consecutive season. More promising is that sales of new subscriptions are up by
20 per cent compared to this time last year. The increases coincide with the
arrival and performance of the club's new president and general manager, not
that Colangelo is comfortable being singled out.
“I would hope that the moves we've made and the general shift in the direction
of the franchise is something I have participated in or contributed to,” he
said. “But good organizations work together.” While the changes Colangelo
has made since taking over the club have yet to be proven on the court, they've
been received well in the court of public opinion, if season ticket sales are
any measure. “This is the first year in three years we've been able to increase
our season-ticket base. We're really pleased with that,” said Richard Peddie,
president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment,
which own the Raptors. Peddie said the renewal rate is the second-best in the
club's history, trailing only the 97-per-cent renewal rate the club achieved
heading into the 2001-02 season. That was a golden era for the Raptors — or at
least one flush with green. With a rising superstar in Vince Carter and a team
coming off it's first playoff series win, the club boasted that it had 15,353 season-ticket
holders in December of 2001, second-best in the NBA. By last year, that number
had slipped to 9,500. Club insiders say the team now ranks well within the top
five of the 30 NBA teams in renewal rate. In the past two seasons,
season-ticket renewals have hovered just over 80 per cent. Sales to new
subscribers have lagged as well. This year is first off-season in the past
three that the club has been able to arrest that slide and move it in the other
direction. “That's significant,” Peddie said. “We have to fill the pipeline. If
you're renewing at 90 per cent, you're still losing 10 per cent a year.” Credit
for the surge in interest goes to Colangelo, who was hired as the club's
president and general manager after a successful career with the Phoenix Suns.
He has worked diligently to remake the team according to his vision.
“Bringing Colangelo in brought lots of hope,” Peddie said. “He's also solved
the problem of keeping the team in the news during the off-season.” Adding
Maurizio Gherardini as assistant general manager — the first European to hold
an executive job in the NBA — making trades, signing free agents and
negotiating a contract extension for all-star Chris Bosh, made the Raptors
arguably more visible during the off-season than they were during the regular
season last year. The team has made no bones about using Colangelo to sell
tickets. He's featured prominently in advertising, and has been the featured
speaker — along with Gherardini — at a series of breakfasts the club has put on
at the Air Canada Centre for prospective season-ticket holders. Colangelo says
meeting with season-ticket holders, or helping drum up new ones is something he
sees as part of his job description. “The goal is to make the business better,”
he said. “Selling tickets provides the revenue to improve the on-court product.
Doing whatever is needed to help the company is the attitude I've always had
instilled in me.”
SPORTS TIDBITS
Former President Of Colombia's Envigado Team Murdered
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Associated Press
(Sept. 27, 2006) Bogota, Colombia — The former president of
Envigado soccer club was shot and killed by drive-by assassins this week, the
second executive connected with the Medellin first-division team to be murdered
in recent months. Octavio Alberto Velsquez
Mejia, who presided over the club from 2001 to
2004, was playing billiards with friends at a bar when he was shot 11 times
Monday night by assassins using a silencer, police said. The assailants then
escaped on a motorbike, according to witnesses. Envigado has long been beset by
violence and allegations of links to major drug traffickers. In July, club
owner Gustavo Upegui Lopez was tortured and killed in his home in what
authorities believe was a revenge killing by a criminal gang. The case remains
unsolved. Police said they were investigating whether the two murders were
linked. But the club's current president, Julio Cesar Ceballos, insisted the
team's management was "transparent." He said Velasquez Mejia had
renounced all ties with the club, where he also served as medical trainer,
seven months ago to manage a casino and gambling business. During the heyday of
the Medellin cartel in the 1980s and 1990s, narcotics traffickers led by Pablo
Escobar were known to lavish huge amounts of their drug proceeds on their favourite
soccer teams, allowing the teams to acquire top talent and renovate stadiums.
Envigado acquired several players during the period and won the second-division
championship in 1991, earning it promotion to the first division, where it has
remained since.
::FITNESS::
Getting
The Most Out Of The Treadmill
Lorra Kristene Garrick, Special
for eFitness
(September 25, 2006) Do you hold onto the treadmill while "walking?" The
top excuses:
·
"I’ll fall off if I let go!" SLOW DOWN.
·
"My trainer says it’s OK." I once asked a trainer why he
allowed his able-bodied client to hold on, despite three weeks of training. His
response: "She’s scared." Beware of trainers who fail to empower you.
·
"I’ll lose my balance." Slow down and stop using your
arms as anchors. Balancing is part of exercise.
·
"I’ve always done it this way." It’s never too late to
break a sabotaging habit.
·
"My doctor told me to do it." Shame on him or her for
not telling you that holding on increases blood pressure and causes poor
posture.
·
"The machine keeps telling me to hold on for heart
rate." Select another program. Hold on for heart rate, but then let go
after the number appears!
·
"But I’m sweating!" Many variables affect sweat: room
ventilation, weight, body chemistry, even mental state.
·
"I’m old!" If ever there were a reason NOT to hold on,
this is it!
"If
the rails on the treadmill are positioned too low, holding on will encourage
forward posture (especially for tall people), which exacerbates the slumping
position most of us develop with aging," says Kelli Calabrese MS, CSCS,
exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer. "Grasping the rails
does not promote natural walking biomechanics." This also applies to
shorter people. Some people grip the front bar,
yanking forward with each "step." Others grasp the side rails,
shoulders bobbing up and down, body weight subtracted from the tread. And
clinging on with one hand creates unequal stresses to the body.
"Holding on and walking at top speeds is dangerous because of the
ballistic hip rotation, over-striding and forward posture. It can lead to
serious neck, back and knee injuries," says Calabrese. Standing straight
while gripping won’t correct the situation. Some people don leather
gloves for increased gripping traction, then proceed with their fake walking,
legs wistfully moving through mere motions. But they’re tricked into believing
they’re working hard because the settings are high: 4 mph, 12 percent
incline! In the actual world, legs, knees, hips and back work in unison
to support your full weight as you ambulate. Holding on, even lightly, takes
valuable work away from your musculoskeletal and nervous systems. The
calorie readout is triggered by the program setting, not the person on the
machine! Walking hands-off burns about 20 percent more calories for the same
length of time.
"I’ve seen people increase the treadmill's elevation to augment the
workload, then hold the handrails and lean back, defeating the entire purpose
of the elevation," says Calabrese. The leaning back is at the same
angle as the incline, literally cancelling out its effect! Leaning forward
won’t correct this; you’d be pulling forward. People set the speed at an
unrealistic pace for the elevation. Would you really walk 3.5 or 4 mph outdoors
up a 15 percent hiking trail? Begin at a slower speed and let go. If you
prefer a high incline, start slowly; this pace should be similar to an outdoor
uphill hiking pace. Any discomfort in your lower back means those muscles are
working for the first time! Try this: set the pace or incline at a
challenging level, and walk hands off for only a few minutes. Then slow down or
lower the incline and continue hands off for a few minutes to catch your
breath. Alternate between these more demanding intervals and easier
"recovery" intervals. Regardless of your fitness level, weight
or age, you must release your hands and walk the natural way. After all,
haven’t you been doing this since age 1?
Lorra Kristene Garrick is a freelance writer and personal trainer.
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note - Stop Whining - Start Winning!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Willie
Jolley, Host of the “Willie Jolley Motivational Minute” syndicated radio show
I am not talking about the television game show but I’m
talking about a state of mind. Did you know that there is a millionaire made in
America every 58 minutes, and those are not millionaires who win a lottery but
rather those who have developed a winner’s state of mind. If you want to be a
millionaire, then you must start thinking like a millionaire. You must decide
to stop whining and start winning! Most people complain about what’s not
happening rather than making things happen! I have a sign on my desk that
reads, “Winners MAKE things happen. Losers LET things happen! Folk’s if you
want to be a millionaire you must change your thinking and then you can change
your life!
