20 Carlton
Street, Suite 1032, Toronto, ON M5B 2H5
(416) 677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
August 23, 2007
::HOT EVENTS::
The Ice Cream Men Are Comin' - Saturday, August 25, 2007
Source: Ajahmae Live Entertainment
By popular demand, Ice Cream Fest's hosts,
Jay Martin and
Trixx are joining forces for one night only to bring you
the hippest, funniest, and most insane comedy show! If you enjoyed the Ice Cream Summer Fest with jagged edge SWV, KCI and Jojo, New
Edition and more, then you are going to love this show with all the best
hosts Toronto has ever seen. You will laugh you a** off! Trixx
and Jay Martin funnier than ever. Lots of prizes and surprises. Musical acts also featured and DJ Starting from Scratch spins for the afterparty.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 2007
ICE CREAM PRESENTS: JAY MARTIN AND TRIXX'S 2 MAN COMEDY SHOW
Panasonic Theatre
651 Yonge St (between Wellesly and Bloor)
Doors open 8:00 pm
Info line 416-949-2766 or www.jaymartin.tv
Early bird tickets are just $20 plus taxes
Click HERE for Ticketmaster
HARLEM EVENTS**
Week of August 23-29, 2007
For information on the vibe of Harlem Restaurant and live music
venue: Go to www.harlemrestaurant.com.
|
Date |
Name of Event |
|
|
August
23 |
Solari,
Clara Lofaro and Marinda perform a night of Latin Soul, Pop Indie Soul, and
Neo Jazz Fusion Show: 10pm $6 |
|
|
August
24 |
Hosted by Lisa
“Luscious” Tai, a night of spoken word poetry and house music. Open mic for
all types of artists. DJs
Pablo Hernandez, Carl Allen, & Roberto Brito Show: 9pm Afterparty: 11pm $5 |
|
|
August
25 |
Black
Kat |
DJ Black Kat Doors: 10pm $10 |
|
August
29 |
Vertigo |
DJ
David James (deep house deep tech garage) Doors:
10pm |
**HARLEM
67 Richmond St. (at Church)
Tel: 416-368-1920
::SCOOP::
Jacksoul Singer In Coma
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 19, 2007) Haydain Neale, lead singer of the
award-winning band jacksoul is in a coma, two weeks after a vehicle collided
with his scooter. The 36-year-old Hamilton native's family has been
tight-lipped about his condition, characterizing it as "critical but
stable" in a brief statement about the Aug. 3 accident that landed him in
hospital with head injuries. "That's my understanding," said Toronto
Police Detective Paul Higgins of reports that Neale has not regained
consciousness since the mishap. "He's still in very critical
condition." Although police have said charges are likely against the
27-year-old male driver of the Honda Civic that knocked the musician off his
Vespa, the proceedings are at a standstill because of Neale's condition.
"The accident is still under investigation; it is being reconstructed,
(but) out of respect for the family, we have put the investigation on
hold," said Higgins.
"We have witnesses,
we have a clear direction, this isn't a whodunit; there's no rush to judgment.
At this point, hopefully he recovers." Neale was travelling south on
Kennedy Rd. near Eglinton Ave. about 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 3, when a
northbound car turned left into his path. Neither alcohol, speed,
mechanical failure, or intent were factors, police said. And the singer, who
lives in Toronto's east end with wife Michaela and their teenage daughter, was
wearing a helmet. Higgins said his family has been inundated with inquiries.
The five-member band Neale fronts is best known for the hits "Can't
Stop" and "Still Believe in Love." Their latest effort, mySOUL, garnered a Juno earlier this
year for R&B/Soul Recording.
::TOP STORIES::
65%
More New FLOW 93.5 Makes You 91% More Likely To Tune In
Source: FLOW 93.5
(August 21, 2007) FLOW 93.5 is proud to announce enhancements to the station’s
programming and a name change to the NEW
FLOW
93.5. The NEW FLOW 93.5 is a hotter, faster, more vibrant
station. FLOW has always been about playing the latest and best music. Today’s
most popular music is still being produced by Urban music’s best talents like
Timbaland, Jay Z, and Kanye West, but the music itself has a wider appeal.
Always responsive to the demands of its listeners, the station has
broadened its musical play list by playing more hit artists like Fergie, Justin
Timberlake, Timbaland, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado and Beyonce, thereby delivering
more hits in its 45 Minute Non Stop Music Flows. The NEW FLOW is a
closer reflection of radio listeners’ tastes. Nine of the Billboard Hot 100
top ten can currently be heard on the NEW FLOW 93.5.
Changes to the DJ line up further enhance the sound of the NEW FLOW 93.5. A new
morning show, JJ and Melanie In The Morning, is growing in popularity.
Feedback on the show has been incredible with listeners connecting to their
real, fun and energetic style. “The radio landscape in Toronto has
changed so much in the six years since FLOW 93.5 launched, as has the way we
listen to music. We’ve always tried to be ahead of the curve and anticipate
what our listeners want, then deliver it in a style they appreciate. In making
these enhancements, and creating the NEW FLOW we’ve created a package that has
already started to resonate among radio listeners in Toronto,” says Wayne
Williams, FLOW 93.5 Program Director.
About the ad campaign:
The NEW FLOW is being launched with a bold new advertising campaign created by
Toronto’s Lowe Roche. Lowe Roche acquired the business in April of this year.
Says Nicole Jolly, FLOW 93.5 VP, Operations, “people knew that FLOW
played a lot of hot music, but I don’t think they realized how much of our
playlist is focused on hits. We wanted to grab the attention of people who
thought they knew what FLOW was all about, but didn’t. We were impressed by the
talent at Lowe Roche and had admired some of the outstanding work they had done
for their other clients. I really appreciate their strategic approach. I’m
thrilled because the new campaign is an amazing representation of the direction
in which we’ve taken the station.” With eye-catching colourful graphics, the
launch campaign focuses on the artists that are featured on the NEW FLOW.
Brightly coloured graphs and flow charts feature cheeky headlines that use made
up percentages to let listeners know what artists they will hear on the NEW
FLOW 93.5 and the effect it will have on them. One billboard reads “43% more
Nelly Furtado makes you 8% more promiscuous”. “It was really important
for us to ensure that FLOW had a distinct identity and point of view to set
them apart from the competition.” says Christina Yu, Vice-President, Creative
Director. “The vibrant graphics and irreverent headlines achieve this in a
humorous way.” Outdoor and interior transit launch this week. This
campaign will be supported by an interactive online component, radio, print and
T-shirts branded with the NEW FLOW’s graphic look. The enhancements made
seem to be the right move for FLOW. Market share is already up 27% over the
same time last year.
About the NEW FLOW 93.5
FLOW 93.5 is owned and operated by Milestone Radio Inc. FLOW 93.5 has been on
air since February 9th, 2001.
About Lowe Roche
Lowe Roche is a Toronto-based communications company that specializes in
developing innovative 360 degree campaigns that get results. It is part of Lowe
Worldwide, headquartered in London. Founded in 1991 by Geoffrey Roche, the
agency was named one of Canada's top three agencies by Strategy Magazine for
2006. To date, Lowe Roche has won over 850 Canadian and International
Advertising awards including Cannes, The One Show, Clios, Communication Arts,
Marketing, Cassies, Bessies, ADCC and Applied Arts. Clients include: Audi
Canada, Home Outfitters, Johnson & Johnson, Mackenzie Financial, Nestle
Purina, Nestea, Nokia Canada, Stella Artois, Toronto Zoo, and most recently Bel
Cheese.
It
Was All FutureSex, With A Few LoveSounds, At The ACC
Source: By Jason Macneil -- Special to Sun Media
(Aug. 21, 2007) TORONTO - Say what you want about
Justin Timberlake, he certainly can get a
lot out of two solo albums. The former 'NSync heartthrob and now uber pop
star made another trek to Toronto's Air Canada Centre last night before a
sold-out crowd. And while the set itself was identical to damn near every other
show he's done on his current world tour, the two-hour-plus show has plenty of
eye candy to keep even the casual fan interested. Timberlake, who
recently taped two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden for an upcoming
HBO special, opened the show with FutureSex/LoveSound off his 2006 sophomore
effort FutureSex/LoveSounds, backed by seven musicians and nearly a dozen
dancers. Looking quite dapper despite the white sneakers, Timberlake made a
grand entrance as he rose from the centre of a rather impressive, multi-layered
stage to the shrieks and shrills of females dominating the audience.
Played Guitar
"How you doing tonight, Toronto?" Timberlake asked following the
upbeat Like I Love You, which he initially strapped on an acoustic guitar for
before raising a toast to the crowd soon thereafter. "There's something I
realized about Canadians..." he said, prior to subtly but humorously
tipping his elbow. While the songs themselves often lean towards slower,
dim-the-lights romance at times, Timberlake also has an ample supply of funk in
some of his material. Following the Latin-laced Senorita, which the crowd ate
up, the performer quickly went into the groove heavy Sexy Ladies that had
Timberlake donning a "keytar" after showing off more dance steps.
Perhaps the biggest asset Timberlake had going for him was the
state-of-the-art stage design. Although looking from high above like some
dyslexic attempt at the symbol Prince used to go by, the sheer screens which
showed video footage, the various risers around the stage and the bar counters
around the perimeter on the floor gave it a distinct club feel.
Timberlake also worked the stage quite well, although the latter part of
the first half was more of a slower affair with the ballad-ish Until the End Of
Time, which led into What Goes Around...Comes Around, with the performer
content to sit and play an upright piano. Although the show was stifled
somewhat by a roughly 20-minute intermission, the concert's first highlight was
Chop Me Up, as producer Timbaland made an appearance prior to doing a DJ set
during the downtime, which featured clips of Michael Jackson, Nelly Furtado and
The Fray among others.
Scantily Clad Ladies
The second half again had some low points, including the rather stale medley he
began with Gone. But all was soon forgiven when two scantily clad ladies did
some burlesque-like dancing during Damn Girl. Fortunately Timberlake was wise
not to touch any upper body area after what happened a few years ago with Janet
Jackson at that football game. Following Losing My Way, which could have
initially been mistaken for some homage to Pink Floyd's Time, Timberlake began
to churn out the hits with Cry Me a River and the catchy Lovestoned. However,
even they paled next to the big highlight of the evening, Sexyback, which again
had Timbaland coming out. Opening for Timberlake was punk popsters Good
Charlotte. The Maryland group, touring behind their latest album Good Morning
Revival, played primarily new material as well as Girls and Boys and I Just
Want To Live.
ole's
First Songcamp Unites Pop/Urban Music Community
Source: ole
When ole Creative
Manager Jennifer Hyland envisioned a creative haven for pop and urban music songwriters,
she set a rather ambitious agenda for the first Pop Urban ole Songcamp,
a five-day event, held July 30 to August 3 at Toronto's Phase One Audio.
Inviting an impressive crop of hit-makers from around the world to attend
this event presented by ole and supported by, The Ontario Media
Development Corporation's OMDC Music Fund and performing rights organization
SOCAN (The Society Of Canadian Composers, Authors and Music Publishers),
Hyland's six-point plan was to:
1. Bring together greatness in songwriting from around the world
2. Showcase Canadian pop and urban songwriting talent
3. Generate new revenue for the Canadian Pop/Urban songwriting community
4. Build a local and international infrastructure for pop/urban writers
5. Establish Toronto as a creative and cost-effective city for music creators
6. Provide an exciting annual event allowing writers to network and expand
creative ideas.
"The original idea stemmed a couple of years ago when I was in A&R at
Sony BMG (Music Canada) and I organized the 2005 Canadian Idol Song
Camp," ole's Hyland explains. "Staging that event and
seeing how all the writers thrived, networked and enjoyed themselves, I
realized that the Canadian urban music community didn't really have an
infrastructure. They don't really network or talk to each other as much as they
should. "Once I came to ole and I saw the need to grow the
urban music side of our catalogue -- plus the fact that we have some
songwriters who really needed to network with local, U.S. and foreign writers in
their genre -- I thought this was an ideal opportunity to implement the
idea." So Hyland extended an invitation not only to ole writers
for "a really creative, focused week," but outside tunesmiths as
well: writers signed to EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing and
Peermusic also attended. The ole contingent included Derek Brin
(Che'Nelle, Jaheim, In Essence); Ben Dunk (Eva Avila, Melissa O'Neil); David
Kopatz (Corbin Bleu, Westlife, O-Town); ole newcomer Rebecca
Everett; the ole/ib Entertainment triumvirate of Dru (In
Essence), Alonzo (Eva Avila, Melissa O'Neil, Rex Goudie) and recent
signing Haydain Neale (Jacksoul), as well as Mad Love Music's Dr.
Alex Tsisserev (Kevin Lyttle, Xiao Xiao, Tarkan).
Special guests included Shawn Desman (Keshia Chanté); Divine Brown;
Rupert Gayle (Keshia Chanté, Shawn Desman, George), Jeff Dalziel
(Kalan Porter, Melissa O'Neil, Prozzak); Tebey Ottoh (Big & Rich,
Rex Goudie, Cory Lee); Aileen de la Cruz (Coco Lee, Satomi, Kayle); D10;
Max Preece (Fat Cowboy), Boi-1da (Saukrates, Divine Brown, The
Clipse, Trey Songz); Robbie Patterson (Billy Klippert, Snow); Natasha
Waterman (Kalan Porter, Melissa O'Neil); and Levi (George).
The camp also provided a rare chance for such beat generators and
producers as KUYA Productions , (Nelly, Ginuwine, Mase), Tone Mason
Inc. (Fantasia, Busta Rhymes, Taleb Kweli) and Beat Merchant (Belly)
to hook up with melody and lyric providers. "The production guys are
amazing at making beats, but they don't have a lot of opportunities in Canada
to work with established songwriters, and have people write to their beats on a
regular basis," notes Hyland. Writing sessions in the eight studios
began daily at noon, with the proviso that a song-per-day be created and demoed
from scratch. Hyland and fellow coordinator Daniel Mekinda informed
participants who they'd be teamed with each day upon their arrival at Phase One
Audio.
By the end of the week, more than 35 future hits were generated by the
initiative for the ole catalogue. "I think I have some hit
songs on my hands. I've networked my writers. I've helped develop some
up-and-coming writers that aren't even mine. And everybody has their own
separate connections and network, so we may see potential cuts come from this.
"ole got great exposure, the OMDC Music Fund got great
exposure and so did SOCAN. I think it was a great initiative all around."
While some songwriters had previously attended similar camps specifically
dedicated to such ventures as Canadian Idol, others were slightly apprehensive
about the challenge of spontaneous collaboration. David Kopatz
admits he was a little anxious about attending his first songwriting camp.
"It's exciting and it's intimidating," admits Kopatz. "It
makes you bring your game up as far as trying to come up with good stuff
quickly and it's definitely motivating. "All these writers pull you
in different directions. You walk into a room and you might come in with an
idea that you think you're going to go with, and then something else is happening
at the time. Others had no reservations. "I always feel
great about song camps," says Alonzo. "There's a bunch of focused,
dedicated, professional people that are coming to work -- and that's what I
love about it. "Plus it gets very competitive when you have this
many people. We all want to write the best song - so it does add fuel to the
creative fire." Alex Tsisserev says songwriting camps are useful not
only for networking opportunities, but as a personal litmus test for your own
creative process. "Every day you're learning to collaborate in
different ways. Every day you're contributing something different, sometimes as
a writer, sometimes as a producer, sometimes as a lyricist. It makes you more
valuable and shows you your skill set." Co-sponsors the OMDC Music
Fund and SOCAN were both pleased to be involved.
"We helped fund part of it through the OMDC Music Fund, and we were very
pleased to be able to do so," says Keely Kemp, Consultant, Industry
Initiatives (Music) for the OMDC Fund, designed to strengthen independent
Ontario-based record companies and music publishers. "It was a
very exciting initiative." According to SOCAN's Dan Kershaw, “ While
there’s a good amount of urban music on our airwaves, the number of Canadian
copyrights in that mix lags behind other genres." "This
initiative goes some distance toward correcting that.” Mo' Jointz, whose
New York City-based Relentless Management roster provided Canadian production
success stories KUYA Productions, Tone Mason Inc. and Beat Merchant praised
both Hyland and ole for the groundbreaking initiative. "My
hat is off to ole for putting together a camp like this that gives these
talented writers, producers and vocalists a chance to work together,"
Jointz said. "At the end of the day, connecting creative people
together is the most genuine way to make hit records.” Echoing the
sentiment, ole Managing Partner Robert Ott says events like the ole Pop
Urban Songcamp are necessary in establishing a Canadian foothold and an
international presence in a globally popular medium. “ole is very
excited about this first annual ole Songcamp focused on urban and
pop," he stated. "We have amazing songwriting talent in Canada
and that talent requires a network and market access to flourish."
He also applauded the efforts of Hyland and expressed his gratitude for
the involvement of the event's co-sponsors.
"Jennifer Hyland has done a stellar job in founding this forum for
songwriters and we thank Daniel Mekinda, all the staff at Phase One Audio, our
U.S. and foreign guests, the OMDC and SOCAN for their support.” For ole's
Hyland, who is planning "a bigger and better" Year Two for the ole
Pop/Urban Songcamp, the rewards came not only in the songs, but also the
goodwill that was generated over the week. "The ole Pop/Urban
Songcamp proves there are ways to build on the genre in this community within
Canada." For more info, please visit the ole website at www.majorlyindie.com.
::MUSIC NEWS::
By
George, We Think He May Be Getting It
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Entertainment
Reporter
(August 18, 2007)
It was a nervous, shy smile, with almost a hint of a blush – not an
egotistical, pseudo-playboy one.
Sitting on a couch overlooking the entertainment district, George (Nozuka is his last
name, but he only goes by his first) starts talking about risks he's recently
taken and ones he's about to assume. The buzz on his MySpace page refers
to an "incident" last week at a show in Vancouver in which he took a
girl onstage, sang for her and then kissed her. George had never done that
before – he'd seen some of his influences, such as Usher, do it, so he thought
he'd try something new to broaden his performing arsenal. "I feel with
radio and TV, there's this image of me," says the down-to-earth
21-year-old Toronto singer, who seems a bit self-conscious talking about his smouldering
appeal to his predominantly female fan base. George hopes to show off his
vulnerability in addition to his heartthrob status when he plays two acoustic
sets of mainly mid-tempo ballads at 4 and 8 p.m. at the Drake Hotel tomorrow.
He also performs at the Palazzo Nightclub on Aug. 24.
"It's hard for
people to see a musician or the artist," he says. It's all part of
George's growth. A year ago, he didn't have a single on the radio or a video on
TV. He was waking up every morning hoping his career would take off. With No. 1
hits in Canada and a Backstreet Boy guiding him, George is now focusing on
making it big outside the land of the maple leaf. "What's the next
risk? Moving away and getting out of my comfort zone is a big risk," says
George about the city he's called home since he was 8. George will be
leaving the GTA for the bright lights (and smog) of L.A. in February. He spent
time there learning about the business under the mentorship of BSB member Howie
Dorough before his debut album, Believe. But the permanent move is
meant to get the one-named artist a bigger voice south of the border.
"I want to go back to ground zero. I want to be hungry. I want to
build up my name in the U.S.," says the New York-born singer, who is half
Japanese. He's had recent interest from Hilary Duff's camp to open on
some of her shows, but had to turn it down to promote his album with Dorough in
Tokyo, which comes out next month.
George is hoping to use
his Backstreet connection to secure some gigs opening for the reunited boy/man
band, sans elder statesmen Kevin Richardson. George's maturity isn't only
happening with his music, as his humanitarian side is evolving after traveling
to Haiti earlier this summer to film a documentary with Plan Canada about child
slavery. "Most people in the countryside are so poor that they're
giving up their children to the people in the city in hopes that they have a
better life," says George. "A lot of the girls and young women are
becoming sex slaves. The awareness isn't there – it's socially
acceptable." The documentary is scheduled to air on TV and in schools
starting in October. "George says he was overwhelmed by the
experience and the raw atmosphere he saw. The devastating poverty upset him,
but the pure joy of music expressed by local children showed signs of hope.
With all of these levels to George, he doesn't just want to be the guy
who makes the ladies swoon. "I'm looking to build a career," he
says. "Major artists like Prince, Michael Jackson or Usher, they have an
image, but over time you connect to the artist. Even with Madonna, she had an
image, but the reason why she had a big career is that she didn't let her image
control her art."
Angie's Stone Cold Comeback!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 16, 2007) *Angie Stone was once called the most prolific
writer in music ten years ago, but that was ten years ago. The Columbia,
SC native has been on the extreme low from a musical perspective, but she has
been out and about recently to get the word in circulation regarding her new
set. Our Lee Bailey happened across Stone recently and she gave us
the heads up on her upcoming Stax Records release titled "The Art of Love
and War," a catchy title if we do say so ourselves. "It's an
old brand," said Stone of the revamped Stax imprint. "They approached
me about doing a deal and I thought it would be an amazing union because they
actually understand my music. I think in order for something to really go
well, there has to be a marriage. You can't have 13 things going on in one
company. I sat down and talked with them and let them know what my vision
was." "The Art of Love and War" is a moniker that's not just
there for flash. Stone says, when it comes to her albums, there's always
a method to the madness.
"Because it's a war out here and you have to have a lot of love (for
music) in order to stay in it for as long as I have," said Stax Records'
newest legend. EURweb asked Stone to elaborate on the significant
of this title. "I never enter into a project without a title first.
The only time that happened was when I was on J Records. The title of my
album was called 'Diary of a Soul Sister,' then Clive Davis came to me and said
I had to change it because Alicia Keys had 'Diary of Alicia Keys,' so I said
'Well, I had my title first' and they said 'Well, we gotta change yours.'
So then I came up with 'Stone Love' and that title was not indicative of that
album which is probably why that was my weakest selling album. I felt the
trust had been broken and I was very upset that I had to change the
theme. The album was supposed to have Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and Roberta
Flack and was supposed to be a diary of my life but we had to abort the concept
of doing that kind of timeless piece of work. Right after that Jill Scott
came out with her duet album. So, I'm a little tight." Sometimes
success in the music industry is all about timing and it appears as though Ms.
Stone missed her timing on that project. Flash forward to 2007 and Miss
Stone is now at Stax Records where, right now, at least, the spotlight is
squarely on her. Stone's move to Stax appears to be paying off. Her single
with Betty Wright, "Baby," is in high rotation at urban radio. Her
album "The Art of Love and War" is scheduled for release on September
18.
Toronto Gets The Beyoncé Experience
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 16, 2007) The Mighty Beyoncé. That's how R&B singer
Robin Thicke referred to the pop songstress recently. And after
catching the Texas native's show at the Air Canada Centre last night, I concur.
As Beyoncé's opening act, Thicke has a nightly view of the tireless wonder.
He's no slouch himself having overcome a tepid 2003 debut to become Soul
Brother No. 1 on the strength of an acclaimed sophomore disc of dreamy love
songs. Though an adequate party starter, he could use a more inspired backdrop
than his album cover and it's time to change up the black-and-white and Adidas
uniform. But I digress. Back to Herself. In the 10 years since Destiny's Child
released its first single, Beyoncé has become a multi-media conglomerate: solo
artist, actor, product hawk, fashion designer. And that ubiquity has engendered
a dismissive "Oh, not her again" attitude that credits the machinations
of her manager-father.
That's a shame, because the two- hour extravaganza billed as "The Beyoncé
Experience" is a testament to this 10-time Grammy winner's talent and
willpower. From a cloud of smoke, the 25-year-old singer rose out of a stage floor
trapdoor in a long silver gown and posed before a curtain of pyrotechnics
before launching into "Crazy In Love." She twisted and stretched the
tune – at one point neatly segueing into Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy"
with a display of vocal gymnastics that yielded the startling realization that
her tinny, overpolished recordings don't do her justice. Live, with novel
arrangements and a sizzling band, Beyoncé is a vocal marvel. Her village
was comprised of two drummers, three horn players, two keyboardists, two
guitarists, three backup singers and 10 dancers (four of whom were the only men
on stage). There were the requisite half-dozen costume changes and a
dazzling set which included stairs, chairs, and a moving walkway. With stellar
sound and lighting, the whole package showcased the healthily proportioned,
big-haired beauty at her finest.
The all-female band and plus-sized vocalists (reminiscent of comedian Mo'
Nique) were a nod to the feminist bent that defines Beyoncé's lyrics, in
conjunction with a materialistic outlook that also finds her name-dropping
luxury brands like a rapper. The singer drew from both solo albums for tunes
like "Baby Boy," "Ring The Alarm" and "Upgrade
U," but it was the nine-song Destiny's Child medley that drew the biggest
cheers from the full, but surprisingly not sold-out arena. As she shook and
shimmied her way through the set in the highest of heels and with the biggest
of smiles, the comparisons that came to mind were Prince (for versatility and
musicianship) and Tina Turner (for sass and sheer power). She utilizes
more props than those artists, and I can't imagine either crying on cue as she
did at end of "Flaws and All" (and has done throughout the tour), but
what she does, she does well.
Kings, Kingston Wear Billboard Crowns
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 17, 2007) *Royalty is running rampant atop the
Billboard charts. UGK scores its best sales week
ever with the No. 1 debut of their new album “Underground Kingz,” while Sean Kingston continues to lead the Hot 100 singles
pack with his debut smash, “Beautiful Girls.” “Underground Kingz,” from
Jive, sold 160,000 copies last week to secure its top spot, according to
Nielsen SoundScan. UGK's previous best was 2001's "Dirty Money,"
which opened at No. 18 with 98,000. After scoring a hit with “Shawty” featuring
T-Pain, new rapper Plies’ ranks second on the Billboard 200 with his debut
album, “Real Testament.” Elsewhere on the album chart, Common’s “Finding
Forever" fell from No. 1 last week to No. 7 on sales of 58,000. Black-Eyed
Peas singer Fergie's "The Dutchess" rose one to No. 8, perhaps
fuelled by a remix of her current single “Big Girls Don’t Cry” featuring Sean
Kingston.
Fergie’s original version of the single follows Kingston on the Hot 100 for a
second week, while Timbaland's "The Way I Are" featuring Keri Hilson
sits at No. 3. Also in the Hot 100 top 10, Rihanna's "Umbrella" featuring
Jay-Z, Kanye West's "Stronger" and T-Pain's "Bartender"
featuring Akon all stay put at the No. 5-7 positions, respectively. Fabolous'
"Make Me Better" featuring Ne-Yo" rebounds 9-8, trading places
with Hurricane Chris' "A Bay Bay." Plies' "Shawty" featuring
T-Pain rounds out the top 10 with a 12-10 jump. Kingston’s second single,
"Me Love," is the Hot 100's greatest digital gainer, prompting a
28-15 jump in its second week on the chart. 50 Cent enjoys the chart's top
debut at No. 22 with "Ayo Technology" featuring Justin Timberlake.
The track from his Sept. 11 release, "Curtis," surpasses his prior
best start with "Straight to the Bank" at No. 32 in May. UGK enters
at No. 74 with "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" featuring
OutKast. Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am's "I Got It From My Mama"
debuts at No. 93, followed by Daughtry's "Over You" at No. 94 and
Maroon 5's "Wake Up Call" at No. 99. Fantasia's "When I See
U" begins an eighth week at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, where
Chaka Khan scores her highest debut since 1996 with "Angel" at No.
58. Her new album, "Funk This," is due Sept. 25 via Burgundy.
Foxy Brown Leaves Def Jam, Signs With
Koch
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 16, 2007) *Foxy Brown’s management has announced that
the trouble-prone rapper has left Def Jam after 13 years and inked a fresh deal
with Koch Records, which has also agreed to house her label, Black Rose
Entertainment. "Def Jam was really an artist situation with Foxy under
Jay-Z," says Chaz Williams, Foxy's manager and CEO of Black Hand
Entertainment. "She's moved onto monetarily greener pastures by signing
her record label, Black Rose Entertainment to Koch.” “She is the first
artist and she wants to connect with her dancehall reggae roots,” Williams
continues. “Foxy's looking to sign up-and-coming Caribbean and U.S. artists.
But she's definitely the first and biggest artist on her label." Under
terms of the deal, Black Rose Entertainment is obligated to drop three albums
per year – the first being her own CD, “Brooklyn’s Don Diva,” on Dec. 4.
Brown’s long-delayed Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam album “Black Roses” will be released
through her label next year. “I have always been a symbol of independence as a
female in music," said the rapper in a statement. "My brand is
already established, millions of my records have already been sold, and I have
a fan base already loyal. After 13 years at Def Jam, I felt it was time as a
matured business women to move on and continue my brand under the roof of
something I own."
Meanwhile, TMZ.com is reporting that the Ill Na Na has “channelled her inner
Naomi” and smacked a neighbour with her Blackberry phone. According to police,
the artist was arguing with her 25-year-old neighbour on July 30 when she
struck the woman in the head with her cell phone. Police said the victim had
some teeth knocked loose and suffered a swollen lip and eye as a result of
Foxy’s alleged assault. The rapper, whose real name is Inga Marchand,
reportedly turned herself in to New York police Tuesday afternoon following a
report filed by the victim. Brown was arraigned, released on $5,000 bail and is
due back in court on Sept. 26.
Nu-Metal
Stalwarts Linkin Park Are Keeping Their Fans Even As They Chase A Gentler Sound
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Pop Music Critic
(August 19, 2007) Linkin Park sings long and loud of
its own displeasure, but it remains a band very eager to please.
Indeed, the peculiar triumph of the suburban-California sextet's latest album, Minutes to Midnight, is that it has
engineered a move even further into the rock mainstream by a group whose
mercurial rap/metal fusion was entirely mainstream to begin with, while
allowing the band the luxury of proudly throwing such concepts as
"experimentation" and "integrity" around during interviews.
This isn't to say the band wasn't taking any risks when it emerged from 15
months in the studio this year with several new beards and a third album that
values power ballads and stadium-seducing sweep and swell over the upfront, angst-ridden
(if always resolutely radio-friendly) roar rendered internationally familiar by
2000's Hybrid Theory and 2003's Meteora. Messing with the sort
of formula that sells 35 million records worldwide can yield unpredictable
results. Still, at this point in music history, the riskier bid would have been
for Linkin Park to shackle itself to the festering carcass of nu-metal – the
oft-pilloried hard-rock genre with which Linkin Park is as synonymous as Limp
Bizkit – rather than cozying up to the U2/Coldplay/Death Cab for Cutie crowd.
Co-frontman Mike Shinoda raps on just two songs on Minutes to Midnight, while only the
reasonably rampaging album opener, "Given Up," could be considered
heavy metal. Singer Chester Bennington, meanwhile, holds his clenched scream
largely in check and lets the more feminine side of his register burble
emotively over strings and percolating drum programming.
"The next record
could be a hip-hop album. Who knows?" offers Bennington from backstage at
one of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution festival-tour stops in Cleveland.
"It wasn't downplayed, in that we consciously didn't put hip hop on it. We
made a decision very early on that we were going to write what we were inspired
to write, and melodies were what Mike and I were coming up with. The last thing
Mike wants to do is rap over a song because that's what people want to hear
from us. I think that would be cheapening and come across clichéd and fake and
forced." Linkin Park certainly didn't rush into Minutes
to Midnight. The
band wrote around 150 songs for consideration for the record, democratically
grading them all based upon member approval and voting out the ones they were
least excited about as time went on. Studio god Rick Rubin was brought in
to act as a seventh set of ears and to co-produce the album with Shinoda, who's
cultivated a stable musical sideline as a beatmaker and remixer with his
hip-hop side project Fort Minor, and work behind the boards for Lupe Fiasco and
Styles of Beyond. "Rick has hands-on experience in many genres we love and
also in taking bands that are kind of known for one thing outside of that
box," says Shinoda. "But I think the thing we realized in doing it
was that kind of change can't come from an outside force.
"If your band is
gonna change its sound, the meat of that change really needs to come from the
band." Rubin, Shinoda says, is "generally pretty hands-off (but)
hands-on at the best possible times. He'd tell us he was going to be away and,
if we needed him, to call him, and our default position would be to work it out
on our own. "But if we ran into a point where we had some trouble or we
needed an extra, outside ear to help us make a decision, those times were the
most important times." There were worries within the Linkin Park camp that
the band – one of a seemingly dwindling breed of acts that actually sell
millions of records in multiple territories – was on the verge of alienating
its fan base. But, says Shinoda, it was the sheer size of that fan base that
let the crew "basically go in the studio and do whatever we wanted"
free from the intervention of its label, Warner Bros. The lads were careful
enough to provide their handlers with another hit. Minutes to
Midnight stormed
out of the gates in May with a No. 1 debut and first-week sales of 623,000
copies, while the single "What I've Done" is, Bennington proclaims,
"our biggest ever." Crowds on the Projekt Revolution tour – a 10-band
road show featuring My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Him and Placebo
that hits the Molson Amphitheatre on Tuesday – have also thus far been
appreciative of the "ride" provided by a set list that ebbs and flows
much more than it once did, he says. "We want to rock out just as much as
our fans want to go to a concert and get kicked in the face. At the same time,
though, we're about writing songs," shrugs Bennington, concurring with the
observation that Linkin Park remains a populist entity at heart. "I
like being in a group that does hip hop and heavy, hard metal songs and
pop songs. If the
song is good and we can make it sincere and make it an honest song, we're gonna
make that song. But we wanna make a song that people will listen to.
"As artists, we want as many people as possible to enjoy what we're
creating. The way that we find we can do that is by giving people a lot of
different things. And we touch a lot of different kinds of people in that
way."
Master Jazz Drummer Max Roach Dead At 83
Excerpt from www.globeandmail
- Larry Mcshane, Associated Press
(August 16, 2007) NEW YORK — Max Roach, a master percussionist
whose rhythmic innovations and improvisations provided the dislocated beats
that defined bebop jazz, has died after a long illness. He was 83. The
self-taught musical prodigy died Wednesday night at an undisclosed hospital in
Manhattan, said Cem Kurosman, spokesman for Blue Note Records, one of Roach's
labels. No additional details were available, he said. Roach received his first
musical break at age 16, filling in for three nights in 1940 when Duke
Ellington's drummer fell ill. Roach's performance led him to the legendary
Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, where he joined luminaries Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie in the burgeoning bebop movement. In 1944, Roach joined
Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins in one of the first bebop recording sessions.
What distinguished Roach from other drummers were his fast hands and his
ability to simultaneously maintain several rhythms. By layering different beats
and varying the meter, Roach pushed jazz beyond the boundaries of standard 4/4
time. Roach's innovative use of cymbals for melodic lines, and tom-toms and
bass drums for accents, helped elevate the percussionist from mere timekeeper
to featured performer — on a par with the trumpeter and saxophonist.
“One of the grand masters of our music,” Gillespie once observed. In a 1988 New
York Times essay, Wynton Marsalis wrote of Roach: “All great instrumentalists
have a superior quality of sound, and his is one of the marvels of contemporary
music. ... The roundness and nobility of sound on the drums and the clarity and
precision of the cymbals distinguishes Max Roach as a peerless master.”
Throughout the jazz upheaval of the 1940s and '50s, Roach played bebop with the
Charlie Parker Quintet and cool bop with the Miles Davis Capitol Orchestra. He
joined trumpeter Clifford Brown in playing hard bop, a jazz form that
maintained bebop's rhythmic drive while incorporating the blues and gospel. He
was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayl
and Dara. Funeral arrangements were incomplete, said Kurosman.
What a $200 CD Single Sounds Like
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
David George-Cosh
(August 21, 2007) It's an argument that has plagued the
music industry since the Internet began being blamed for the decline in CD
sales: How much should a company charge for a song? Some would say $5 or the
average cost of a CD single sounds right, while users of iTunes, the Web's
largest music store, would say 99 cents is as much as they're willing to shell
out for a track. And then there's the niche group of tech-savvy online pirates
who say they won't buy anything with a price tag on it. They like their music
absolutely free, thank you very much. But aspiring Vancouver musician Dan O'Connell feels that his music is worth much more
than a pocketful of change. Try a few hundred dollars more. Along with a
small group of music-industry insiders in the United Kingdom, O'Connell will be
releasing 100 copies of his debut single, a 12-inch vinyl record of Somewhere
There's An Angel, for £100, or about $210 - quite possibly the most
expensive debut single ever. It may be high, but O'Connell, who performs
under the moniker the Thurston Revival, argues that charging an extrav-agant
amount for one song is more of a statement on the value of art itself.
"The industry has done a lot to foster the idea that their product is
worthless and this is basically a wake-up call to say that art actually has a
value, whether it's as a commodity or as an artistic piece onto itself,"
he said. Relatively unknown in his native country, O'Connell decided that
he would be better off making a name for himself across the pond, tirelessly
performing alongside a thrift-store drum machine across Britain since he
started the Thurston Revival two years ago. After being invited "out of
the blue" to perform a set at the In the City Festival in Manchester last
October, O'Connell found himself playing in front of a who's who of the British
music industry. After the set, a handful of employees from Record of the Day, a
British-based music-news subscription service, saw something special in
O'Connell and knew that more people had to hear his music. "It
really was one of those times when each of us [at Record of the Day] thought
that this was very special," said the company's managing director and
publisher, Paul Scaife. After unsuccessfully pushing it to a radio DJ and
getting a quick lesson in how the economics of the British music business
aren't conducive to an independent musician, Scaife and O'Connell decided to
work together to release a record that would eschew normal business practices
and put a fair market value on the song.
Record of the Day even decided to launch its own label, Victorious Kiam
Records, to support the release of the track. "They called me up and said,
'Look, we've come up with this idea. We want to put out a record with you and
we want to sell it for £100.' "I was laughing so hard, I almost drove off
the road when they told me," O'Connell said. "That's so
outrageous, it's brilliant." The song, a five-minute long piece of Nick
Cave-inspired blues with a catchy pop hook, will be released in 10 different
limited editions of 10, with the cover of each edition designed by a different
British artist. All the copies be displayed at the record's release show on
Aug. 28 at London's Sartorial Gallery. "Some people have described
it to me as a song good enough to play at your funeral," Scaife said.
"It just goes to show that great music can come from anywhere."
Still, the concept behind Somewhere There's An Angel has piqued the
curiosity of British labels, which have begun to distribute music for free in
an attempt to stay ahead of online pirates, notably giving away three million
copies of Prince's latest album Planet Earth in London's Daily Mail.
"This is the first time in a long time that someone has come along
with something worthwhile that isn't saying 'We have to sell cheaper.' I don't
think it's a valid way to do business to sell things at 100 quid a pop, but it
is being discussed in the industry in England as to what they can do with ideas
like this," O'Connell said.
So far, Somewhere There's An Angel has captured the attention of British
media outlets such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times and the BBC, but
O'Connell insists that charging so much for one song is not the media stunt
people would make it out to be. "This isn't as much about marketing
or charging so much for a single as it is a public statement ... of artistic
intent. I'm not writing the soundtrack for a commercial and I don't want my music
to sell mobile phones. Modern music has become so fixated on business that it's
become a great detriment to the actual music," he said. A third of
all copies of the record have already been sold, and O'Connell stands to make a
tiny profit if the run sells out. Not bad for an indie artist whose major
accomplishment to date had been a supporting act for Canadian indie pop bad
Stars on a cross-Canada tour. But amid all the hoopla across the pond,
O'Connell remains an unknown within Canada. Labels here have kicked the tires,
but so far, none have decided to sign a deal with the Thurston Revival.
"It's really ironic to have to go [to England] and get interest from
Canadian labels," O'Connell said. "But as of now, I don't know if I'd
call it interest. Maybe warm wishes or fascination." For more
information on the record and to hear what $200 sounds like, visit http://www.victoriouskiam.com.
Long Live Prince's Purple Reign
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Jian Ghomeshi
(August 17, 2007) LONDON — ‘How old is he?” The blond girl to my left
is looking straight ahead, eyes trained on the priapic purple enigma. He's in a
trademark salacious mood, prancing around the stage and flirting with his
microphone stand, his dancers, his band and his fans. He is coaxing
extraordinary sounds out of his guitar (also purple). He is in complete
control. It is the second Saturday-night show of his unprecedented 21-date,
sold-out run at The O2 in London. There are 20,000 punters again this night,
and they've all been standing since he hit the stage. It is an historic and
ambitious residency. He claims it is the final time he will play his big songs
(“per4ming his greatest hits 4 the last time” is the billing). And this nearly
two-month-long finale is rolling out in a global city that mirrors his
remarkably diverse audience. A quick glance around the arena reminds us that he
is the ultimate crossover artist, mixing R&B, soul, rock and pop fans.
Hip-hop mogul P Diddy is in the front area just ahead of me, wearing his
obligatory shades. Diddy is unable to contain his enthusiasm and is standing as
well, albeit behind a small rope. The rope is purple.
“He's about to turn 50,” I scream back at her, pleased with myself at this
quick response to a trivial pursuit and simultaneously impressed that the focus
of our attention has conquered near half a century. The blond girl barely looks
at me. She's now loudly singing along to Let's Go Crazy. The song is
certainly older than she is, but she doesn't care. Yes, he's 49, but it
feels as though he ought to be older. He's been a star for as long as I've bought
music – forever, in the ephemeral world of popular culture. Yet right now he
looks ever the youthful, sexy beast, singing like an angel and dancing like the
devil – blending the nobility of a veteran with the nubility of a teenager.
Ageless. Whoever this diminutive mystery really is, he's performing one of the
best concerts I have ever seen. Better than I've seen him in the past. He's
loose and clearly having fun. It is a creative extravaganza of musicianship,
improvisation, entertainment and exhilaration. It is hard to imagine him being
any better. To reference his own characteristically modest lyric: “In the
beginning God made the sea. But on the seventh day he made me.”
So let's introduce what may seem like a strange assertion: This is the year of Prince. Yes, odd. Thirty years into his career and two
decades removed from his most famous material, 2007 is increasingly the
dominion of the artist formerly known as formerly. With stellar live reviews,
major awards, positive reaction to his fine new record and more attention than
he's gotten since Purple Rain, it's like the whole world is waking up to
just how talented he is. Finally. While eighties megawatt counterparts The
Police are on a pricey international tour that is inviting questions from a
few critics about whether they are still worth the ticket price (some of the
questions being posed by their own drummer), Prince is universally accepted to
be at the top of his live game and has more respect than ever. To put it
colloquially, Prince is kicking ass. So how did this happen? It might be argued
that in recent years too many of us have forgotten Prince's musical footprint
and legacy. It's been hard not to focus on his peculiar idiosyncrasies rather
than his creative output. Let's see, there was the long-standing battle with
his former record label that led to various bizarre name changes, culminating
in an impossible-to-pronounce androgynous squiggle. Then there was the somewhat
offensive spectacle of an artist signed to a $100-million (U.S.) contract with
Warner glibly equating the deal with “slavery.” And finally, the hubris and
cynicism of a man willing to release subpar records to burn off the obligations
of a multialbum contract. Somewhere along the way, Prince lost our patience.
And we collectively forgot that he produces, composes, arranges and performs
almost every song on all of his albums. That besides his own
multimillion-selling catalogue of hits like Kiss and When Doves Cry
and Sign O' The Times, he has been responsible for writing myriad
classic songs made popular by other artists: Sinead O'Connor's version of Nothing
Compares 2 U; Chaka Khan's I Feel for You and The Bangles' Manic
Monday.
Even now, the musical imprint of Prince and his sound can be found on numerous
contemporary recordings. Ask fans of Justin Timberlake to sample any of
Prince's first three records and they may discover something strangely
familiar. And P Diddy could stand to throw a few royalty dollars to the man who
has clearly provided inspiration. Not that Prince is unaware of any of this, or
in any apparent need of affirmation. His recent return to the limelight can
partly be attributed to his legendary cockiness. A 21-date stand at one of
London's largest concert venues is an audacious act of self-confidence that would've
scared off the most reckless of gamblers. Each concert begins with a video
testimonial to Prince's career by the likes of Selma Hayek and the
aforementioned Diddy. Once the show begins, he emerges from underneath a
curtain and uses any spare moment to remind us of his legacy. “I got too many
hits! Y'all aren't ready for me!” he repeats with playful sass throughout this
night. The massive congregation is willing to take whatever he will give them –
and he knows it. But the point of all of this is more than just long-deserved
recognition. Prince is on a mission. He appears intent on warning all of us
about the music industry and the ascendance of manufactured pop artists abusing
new technology. “Real music by real musicians!” he screams throughout his O2
show. His declaration is underscored by the presence of a brilliant
backing group including former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker on saxophone.
The band jams and jousts and musically jumps from genre to genre, led by its
guitar-wizard conductor. It is the embodiment of everything unrealized in
prefabricated modern pop. At a later point in the concert, he solemnly tells
the audience, “You all got your computers and all that, you ain't ready for the
real music.” He then launches into another protracted but beautifully
melodic guitar solo, leaving no doubt as to what he considers real music.
He is not wrong. That is what is resonating with fans and critics around the
globe. It is this authenticity that marked the beginning of the year of Prince.
On the heels of winning the best-original-song award at the Golden Globes in
late January for his contribution to the hit film Happy Feet, Prince was
booked to play the halftime show at the Super Bowl, the annual overblown NFL
showcase, in Miami in early February. Then something quite remarkable happened.
In front of an estimated worldwide audience of one billion, Prince transformed
what is usually an excessive and inane, pre-packaged musical intermission
(notwithstanding wardrobe malfunctions) into an outstanding concert event.
Appearing virtually alone onstage and entirely live, he was dazzling. He
performed a moving and note-perfect rendition of his ballad Purple Rain
as rain began to poetically pour down on him. Seemingly energized by adversity,
he then shot through a blazing version of All Along the Watchtower as if
he was channelling the spirit and fingers of Hendrix. He was confident, he was
mature, he was moving, and he was doing it all without taped backing tracks. In
that 15-minute performance he silenced critics and reminded the world about the
power of live music and his unparalleled blend of talents as a vocalist,
guitarist, writer, dancer and ageless wonder. As if to emphasize the lessons he
intends to teach the music business, Prince is bringing a notable generosity to
his current affairs. You might think him self-indulgent, but you cannot accuse
him of being greedy. He cut a controversial deal with a national newspaper in
the U.K. to deliver his new album free with the Sunday edition a few weeks
back. In addition, copies of Planet Earth are handed out to each
customer with a concert ticket at the O2.
The seats themselves are being sold for a face value of approximately $70 for
any section in the house. Contrast this with the astronomic prices charged by
Barbra Streisand or the Rolling Stones and Prince comes off as positively
philanthropic. And he is treating those who attend his arena run to programs at
least two hours in length and sometimes three hours or more. Free albums, cheap
tickets and lengthy improvised shows are not exactly the current conventions of
the music aristocracy. But none of what Prince has been doing this year
would resonate the way it has without his unassailable musicianship and
spectacular live presence. He can play every instrument better than the stars
in his band (as Pharrell Williams once put it), and his voice appears to have
only gotten better with age. On this Saturday night, he opens with a fiery
extended version of Purple Rain that most performers would save for the
end of the program. It is like an inverse trajectory. He is starting his
spectacle with the encore. But the show reveals a series of climaxes, each one
besting the last. Less than half an hour into the concert, the band is engaged
in a furiously satisfying improvisation of Play That Funky Music.
Throughout, Prince shakes like Little Richard and then sings in a sultry
falsetto. He tears into a lightning-speed solo like Eddie Van Halen, and then
gently caresses his guitar notes into musical elegance like George Benson. He
is an energetic blur through Crème and U Got the Look and Little
Red Corvette. And two hours into the show, it is clear that he cannot
possibly play all of his hits without playing into tomorrow. In all, it feels
like a celebration of music itself. During one of his last moments of the
evening, a performance of Sometimes it Snows in April from the 1986 Parade
album, he sings the lyric, “All good things, they say, never last.” He
pauses. There is a moment of pathos and nostalgia. Then he continues. He is on
a mission. He has proven his point. It is the year of Prince. Again. Jian
Ghomeshi is a writer, musician and host of the daily program Q on CBC Radio One
and Sirius 137.
Canadian Opera Company's Richard
Bradshaw dead at 63
Excerpt from www.globeandmail
- Sandra Martin
(August 16, 2007) TORONTO — Richard
Bradshaw, the British
conductor who waged what he often called "the thirty years war" to
build an opera house in Toronto, died Wednesday evening of an apparent heart
attack at Pearson airport after returning from a holiday with his wife in the
Maritimes. He was 63. Born in Rugby, England in 1944, Mr. Bradshaw graduated
from the University of London in 1965. After a career in England as a choral
and opera conductor, he became resident conductor at the San Francisco Opera
from 1977 to 1989 before he was hired by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto
as general director. During his tenure he developed the company's reputation
and repertoire so that it consistently drew sell-out crowds. His greatest
achievement was the building of the opera house, designed by architect Jack
Diamond, which opened its doors to rousing applause in June 2006.
"I had moments of great anxiety," Mr. Bradshaw told the Globe in late
2006 about the challenges he faced building the new opera house. "I'd wake
up in the night with a certain terror. But I don't think I ever believed it
wasn't going to happen. I don't think I ever absolutely despaired because I
don't think the most important thing in life to me is the opera house. The most
important thing in my professional life is whatever the company is doing.
That's where I'm lucky to be a conductor." He is survived by his wife
Diana and his two children Jenny and James. The funeral is Tuesday Aug. 21 at
11 am St. James Cathedral in Toronto.
Rhythm Kings - Sly and Robbie
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Ben Rayner, Pop Music Critic
(August 16, 2007) Were one to scour the planet for the ideal rhythm
section, Sly and Robbie would wind up in the running for first place.
The pair’s versatile playing and forward-thinking production style more or less
cornered the market on modern Jamaican music from the late 1970s on. They
brought a simultaneous toughness and unprecedented studio sheen to contemporary
reggae and are inseparable from crucial ’70s and ’80s work by Black Uhuru,
Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs and Culture. They also introduced dancehall to
the synthesized rumble of electronic dance music, and in recent years they’ve
boldly and memorably (and sometimes rather challengingly) taken their frequent
dub excursions wherever the technology they rabidly accumulate can lead them.
All of these accomplishments — not to mention their joint appearances on what
some archivists peg as 50,000 or even 200,000 (!) records — haven’t led to a
lessening of drummer Lowell “Sly” Dunbar and bass guitarist Robbie
Shakespeare’s dogged collective work ethic in middle age. (They would
appear to have a rather relaxed, if undeniably amiable attitude toward
interviews, however, if the five-day comedy of errors this writer just
experienced was any indication. I did get Sly on the phone once for a few
minutes on Monday night, but the din of voices and booming reggae music behind
him rendered the drummer almost completely inaudible.) Sly, 55, and
Robbie, a month away from 54, turn up at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Tuesday
with their Taxi Gang posse (named for their record label, Taxi), featuring
legendary reggae tenor and frequent Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy and
Cherine Anderson, the “Princess of Dancehall Soul,” on the microphones.
This North American tour comes shortly after a U.K. swing with their latest
young protégé, British reggae singer Bitty McLean, and work on both a new Andy
disc and a Sly and Robbie record of their own to follow up last year’s Rhythm
Double. Such frenetic multitasking is par for the course. If these guys have
taken a break since they first forged their working partnership whilst playing
together in the Revolutionaries during the mid-`70s, it hasn’t been long enough
to make a dent in their output. Dunbar and Shakespeare, critic James
Hunter once wrote, “are so enormously accomplished and prolific ..... that for
a while they seemed to appear on all reggae records; they were like Gérard
Depardieu and French movies.” It was this unflinching work ethic plus Sly
and Robbie’s open-minded ears that first turned them into Jamaica’s
indisputable go-to production team — they were the Neptunes when the Neptunes
were in diapers. Those ears have also been essential to keeping them in the
game this long. Sly and Robbie are no more locked into reggae as Sly Stone —
who provided ardent fan Dunbar with his nickname — was locked into R&B.
They’ll work with mainstream stars Maxi Priest, Sean Paul or Bounty Killer one
day and avant-gardeists Bill Laswell or Howie B. the next. For every
collaboration with the likes of Tricky or Michael Franti that makes sense,
they’ve done one that outwardly makes none. They toured and made a record, Aux
Armes et Caetera, with Serge Gainsbourg in 1975, for instance, and worked on
Bob Dylan’s curious 1983 album Infidels. They’ve worked with the Rolling
Stones. They’ve also made a jazz record with Monty Alexander. More
recently, they ushered Gwen Stefani and No Doubt into the stratosphere by giving
the band their hits “Hey Baby!” and “Underneath it All” and allowed Sinead
O’Connor an intriguing mid-career rebirth as a credible reggae singer on 2006’s
Throw Down Your Arms. The next Sly and Robbie album threatens to bring a
similarly motley cast of characters together. It features a track that guests
Paul McCartney, Lady Saw, Sizzla and Cherine Anderson. At once. “The song’s
very interesting — not their greatest work, but surely the reggae conversation
piece of the month!,” says local dub/reggae selecta Lauren “DJ Chocolate”
Speers, one of the folks bringing Sly and Robbie to town next week and someone
full of praise for the duo’s unapologetic, anything-goes approach to making
music. “Incidentally, they put Keith Richards into Black Uhuru’s `Shine
Eye Gal,’ proving that the crossover can work both ways. The most unusual
audience I’ve ever seen at a reggae show was when they were touring with Sinead
O’Connor and the sold-out concert at the Kool Haus was happily inhabited by an
audience comprised of one-third lesbians, one-third rastas and one third
pop-music fans waiting for her to sing `Nothing Compares 2 U.’ Which she didn’t
bother with.”
Chrisette Michele Presents ‘I Am’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
-
August 22, 2007) Chrisette's
speaking voice is sultry,
mellow, and low. At first it's kind of startling and a bit intimidating because
it's the polar opposite of her sweet singing voice. And she’s the first to tell
you that it’s always been that way. She said that even as a young child, she
always had a very deep voice. Newcomer Chrisette Michele is introducing a sound that is redefining the genre
of her generation. The 24-year-old singer’s debut disc, “I Am,” hit record
shelves this summer with a refreshing and sultry collection of songs she hopes
will envelope the young and old. “It’s a fun album, it’s a sultry album,
it’s a melancholy album,” Chrisette described. “I try very hard to be
everything that I am, which is why the CD is called ‘I Am’ so I didn’t want to
shy away from being excited about life and how we live life, but I also didn’t
want to shy away from dancing, but when the dancing is over, you say, ‘Life is
not always about a dance. Life is about doing things on earth.’” The earthly
things she refers to include giving attention to world issues and concerns such
as major catastrophes like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
“There’s a song called ‘I Am One’ on the album. It’s a hidden track,” Chrisette
said. “I chose to hide it because a lot of times we hide the things that are
most beautiful inside. ‘I Am One’ challenges you to let those things out. It
talks about the world and just reaching out and helping people in their need.”
Her inspirational attitude and mature melodies may come as a surprise to some
because of her young age, but Chrisette explained to EUR’s Lee Bailey that
she’s never really surrounded herself in things Generation Y. “Culturally,
around me there was definitely a lot of hip-hop and R&B, but we didn’t have
a lot of hip-hop CDs,” she said. “We had a lot of instruments, and we were
always busy in dance class or choir rehearsal or something. I was into
alternative rock, jazz, and gospel. Hip-hop just didn’t play a major role in my
upbringing. I was definitely introduced to a lot of classic music. Not so much
soul and R&B, but gospel and jazz, and those influences are recognizable in
my sound.” Chrisette played and sang in jazz bands and choirs and studied
musical theatre and vocal jazz performance before getting her major label deal
from record industry giant, Island/Def Jam CEO L.A. Reid. “I recorded a demo
and sent it out to every major record label in New York City. [An executive at]
Island Def Jam heard my demo and had me audition for L.A. Reid. He told me that
I gave him goose bumps and he signed me that day. He is a musician so he knows
music and I respect his expertise and obviously he respects mine as well,” she
said.
Chrisette's speaking voice is sultry, mellow, and low. At first it's kind of
startling and a bit intimidating because it's the polar opposite of her
sweet singing voice. And she’s the first to tell you that it’s always been that
way. She said that even as a young child, she always had a very deep voice. “My
voice is one of my plights and I’m a singer!” she grumbled. “So I’m sure that
makes no sense. That’s like a dancer saying she doesn’t like her feet. It’s so
deep and so raspy. It’s been low and raspy my whole life. It’s definitely
unique.” Just as her age may give people an impression about her music,
Chrisette said, so does her voice give people an impression of her. Music fans
may recognize her soulfully mature stylings on Jay-Z’s “Lost Ones” and Nas’
“Can’t Forget About You.” “I laugh a lot, I smile a lot, but once I start
talking, people get scared. I never want to be pigeon-holed into any type of
person just because of the voice. People hear my voice, all of a sudden I write
poetry and I like coffee, but actually I like nail polish and shoes and cars –
but you can’t tell that when you hear my voice.” “I Am” is pretty much as
complex and diverse as Chrisette herself. The first single, “If I Had My Way”
has maintained its place in the Top 10 for Urban Adult Contemporary, while the
singer gets anxious to do college tours. “I Am” features production from
Babyface, and guesting from the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am.
“There are a lot of upbeat songs. There are some moving songs and a lot of
spice on the album. I think that it meets a few different genres,” Chrisette
described. Next up - just off dates with Musiq - Chrisette takes her
multi-genre style to the stage, heading out on tour for the first time solo, to
promote the new disc “I Am,” and also to reveal just who she is. ““It’s what
I’ve always done; now it’s at a larger calibre. It’s a really big deal and I’m
extremely excited.” For more on Chrisette Michele and her debut disc,
visit www.chrisettemichele.com.
Sheryl Lee Ralph Presents: The 17th
Annual Divas Simply Singing!
Source: Tom Estey, Tom Estey Publicity & Promotion, TJE6464@aol.com,
www.myspace.com/tomestey
August 22, 2007) In its
17th installment Divas Simply
Singing!, will establish itself as the longest
consecutive running musical AIDS benefit in Los Angeles. Brain
child of Actress/AIDS Activist Sheryl Lee Ralph, the evening of song and
entertainment will spot light the talents of Divas of every genre.
Making a rare appearance will be Supermodel RuPaul, American Idol
Finalist (06) Paris Bennett and her grandmother, Ann Nesby (Sounds of
Blackness), Jenifer Lewis (Bipolar and Beyond), Grammy Award Winning vocalist
Deniece Williams, (07) American Idol Finalist, Lakeisha Jones, renowned violinist
Karen Briggs, High Maintenance 90210 star, Norwood Young (Pieces of a Dream),
and sharing the stage once again original Dreamgirls, Jennifer Holliday,
Loretta Devine and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Staged once again at the beautiful
Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 7:30pm, Divas
will unite to raise their voices and awareness about HIV/AIDS.
This year's show will benefit Women Alive Coalition and Balm in Gilead.
Tickets can be purchased at the Wilshire Ebell Box Office or any Ticketmaster
Outlet. When asked why she still produces DIVAS Simply Singing! when AIDS
seems not to be the disease it once was, Ralph stated: "In seventeen years
of DIVAS, the rate of HIV infection has never gone down or plateaued it has
silently continued to rise, now targeting young people of all colors and
classes We must continue to break the silence and stigma that
still surrounds this disease."
MUSIC TIDBITS
Russian Court Acquits Music Website
Owner
Excerpt from www.globeandmail
- Gayle Macdonald
(August 16, 2007) A Russian court found the former boss of music download
website http://www.allofmp3.com not guilty yesterday of breaching
copyright in a case considered a crucial test of Russia's commitment to
fighting piracy. The allofmp3.com website, now defunct, angered Western music
companies by undercutting the price of downloads in deals they said breached
copyright law. Denis Kvasov, head of MediaServices which owned the site,
was put on trial after entertainment companies EMI Group PLC, NBC
Universal and Time Warner Inc. pressed for a prosecution. "The
prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his
involvement in infringing copyright law," Judge Yekaterina Sharapova said.
She Just Wants To Be A Shanghai
Girlfriend
Excerpt from www.globeandmail
(August 16, 2007) Avril
Lavigne, who made headlines when she
recorded the chorus of her hit song Girlfriend in Mandarin for Chinese
audiences, made her concert debut in that country yesterday. She performed at
the Shanghai Qizhong Forest Sports City Tennis Centre, a 6,000-seat sports
venue that has never been used for concerts. According to the Shanghai Daily,
Lavigne won praise because more than 80 per cent of the tickets sold for
yesterday's concert ranged in price from 200 yuan (about $28) to 400 yuan,
which is cheaper than most foreign acts in the country. Lavigne told a press
conference in Hong Kong earlier this year that she recorded the chorus in eight
languages - French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin
and English - but Mandarin was the toughest to master. "The hardest one
was actually Mandarin. Japanese was easy, sort of. French was easy, but German
was difficult," Lavigne said. Lavigne will play Hong Kong on
Saturday, and will return to Canada to perform on Canadian Idol on Sept.
11.
Jordin Sparks Signs Deal With Jive
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 20, 2007) *Jordin Sparks, winner of the latest “American
Idol,” has signed a deal with Jive Records in conjunction with 19Recordings,
the label headed by the show’s creator Simon Fuller. The 17-year-old will
release her debut album in November. Its first single, “Tattoo,” is scheduled
to arrive at radio on Aug. 27. "`American Idol' has truly been a
life-altering experience," said Sparks, the daughter of former NFL star
Phillippi Sparks in a statement. "I can't wait to share this next chapter
of my story with all the fans that have supported me so far." The
Glendale, Ariz. native is the youngest winner in the Fox show's six seasons.
Sparks and the rest of her fellow Top Ten finalists on the current “American
Idol” tour will next stop in Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena on Wednesday. The trek
is scheduled to wrap Sept. 22 in Manchester, NH. In between tour dates, she's
scheduled to appear on The Teen Choice Awards which airs live on FOX on Aug.
26.
Eagles To Release First Album In 28
Years
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Reuters
(August 22, 2007) LONDON – U.S. rock group the Eagles
will release Long Road Out of
Eden their first full studio album for 28
years, in October, Universal Music Group said today. The top-selling band,
whose hits include "Hotel California" and "Life in the Fast
Lane", split in 1980 but reunited 14 years later and have toured
intermittently since. Universal will distribute the new album outside North
America, while in the United States the record will be released through Wal-Mart
stores, warehouse retail chain Sam's Club and the band's Web site www.eaglesband.com.
It will hit the shelves internationally on Oct. 29 and in the United States one
day later, Universal added. The first single from the album, How Long, has
already had its video and radio premiere. "It's rare to have the
opportunity to be involved with a band of their stature, as they define popular
music in so many ways," said Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group
International. The Eagles, comprising Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and
Timothy B. Schmit, last released a studio album of new songs – The Long Road
– in 1979. The band's Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is the best-selling
album in recorded music history in the United States, with sales of more than
29 million copies, according to Universal. The Eagles have sold around 120
million albums worldwide.
Jon Lucien, Jazz Singer: 65
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Associated Press
(August 21, 2007) POINCIANA, Fla.– Singer Jon Lucien,
whose deep baritone and soulful love songs made him a respected jazz artist for
more than 35 years, has died, his wife said. He was 65. Lucien died Saturday
from respiratory complications after surgery, his wife, Delesa, said Tuesday.
Lucien, who was born in the British Virgin Islands' main island of Tortola and
raised in St. Thomas, began performing in his teens. His 1970 RCA album,
"I Am Now," launched a recording career that earned him a loyal
following, although his hard-to-categorize style never led to breakout success.
Among his songs were "Rashida," "Lady Love,"
"Dindi," "You Don't Need Me," "Hello Like
Before," and "Sweet Control." His recordings of
"Rashida" and "Lady Love" got Grammy nominations for
arranger Dave Grusin in 1974 in the category of best arrangement accompanying
vocalist(s). Lucien's 17-year-old daughter, Dalila, was among the 230 people
killed in the crash of TWA Flight 800 off New York in July 1996. He sought
solace in the studio and recorded the album "Endless is Love," which
was released in 1997. In recent years, he performed live with a jazz fusion
group at jazz festivals around the United States and managed his own record
label, Sugar Apple Music. He is survived by his wife, two sons, an adopted
daughter and a stepson.
::FILM NEWS::
Jacob Adams, 40: Screenwriter, Friend
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Michele
Henry, Staff Reporter
(August 19, 2007) Jacob Adams was remembered yesterday by more
than 100 friends and relatives who crowded into a Mississauga community centre
to pay tribute to a man who was always there for his family. The memorial
service, organized by Grace Methodist Church, was an homage to the part-time
actor and screenwriter, who appeared in several films including Blues
Brothers 2000 and the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and television
shows such as Babylon and Earth: Final Conflict. Adams, 40,
was found dead at the Los Angeles home of actor Ving Rhames on Aug. 3, covered
in blood and dog bites. He had been hired by the Mission: Impossible
co-star to care for his dogs – three mastiffs and an English bulldog – after
the two became friends on the Toronto set of made-for-TV movie Kojak.
Adams's brother Howard described his brother as someone with a "sixth
sense," who knew to call whenever a friend was down. While this is a
time of great sadness, Howard said, it's even more difficult because of the
circumstances surrounding Adam's death.
"The toughest thing for all of us is not knowing what really
happened," Howard said yesterday. Police initially said Adams was
mauled to death, but an autopsy found neither the "superficial" dog
bites nor a heart attack were to blame. Police have since suggested the dogs
may have sensed Adams was in trouble and tried to pull him toward the house.
Howard said it could be months before blood and tissue samples are analyzed for
clues that might explain what happened. For Adams, whom friends nicknamed
"Billy," it seemed things were just starting to turn around, Howard
says. He moved to L.A. two years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a bigger
star and it looked as if his efforts would bear fruit. He recently finished a
screenplay called Animal 2, which will be released posthumously, his
brother says. "We want people to understand that Jacob is a star to his
family and friends, and we want people to remember him for the type of person
that he was and for the kind things he did for others."
With files from Canadian Press
Lopez, Anthony Partner On Biopic
Excerpt from www.globeandmail
- Gayle Macdonald
(August 16, 2007) Marc
Anthony tells a hilarious story about the first
time he met salsa sensation Hector
Lavoe, whom he portrays in the feature film El Cantante, which opens in Canadian theatres
tomorrow. It was a decade ago, and Anthony's good friend, record producer Louie
Vega, had invited the singer to tag along to visit his famous, though now down
and out, Uncle Hector. Anthony remembers entering a dimly lit Bronx apartment,
where Lavoe - a drug addict who put the proverbial nail in the coffin of his
already flagging career by jumping from a ninth-floor balcony in the late
eighties (but miraculously surviving) - was slumped in a chair watching TV.
"When I first started, I had long, curly hair," Anthony recalls.
"Lou brings me in, and says, 'Uncle Hector, this is Marc, the kid I was
telling you about.' He didn't look my way. And suddenly he turns, and goes, 'Oh
my god, that's the ugliest girl I've ever seen in my life!' " chuckles the
singer/actor. "He was a jokester, a prankster and he kept me off
balance." The anecdote was related last fall, when Anthony, his wife Jennifer Lopez and the film's director Leon Ichaso were
conducting interviews to promote El Cantante at the Toronto
International Film Festival. Lopez, who produced the independent film, plays
Lavoe's strong-willed wife Nilda Rosado, better known as Puchi.
As a couple, Lavoe and Rosado were a lethal combination alternately pulling
each other down - and propping each other up - as they battled addictions to
pretty much anything they could get their hands on - booze, crack, heroin,
painkillers. Lavoe died in 1993, penniless, of AIDS-related diseases. A few
years later, Puchi died after she fell off a balcony trying to climb back into
her locked New York apartment. Nevertheless, Lavoe left behind a musical legacy
that Lopez and Anthony said compelled them to make this biopic. It's about a
hugely talented but deeply troubled man who is revered through Latin America
but often overlooked by music fans and critics in the rest of the world.
"I was tired of people addressing him as - oh yeah, that guy who had AIDS,
right? The drug addict, right? The one who jumped, right?" says Anthony
who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lavoe (both were short, whippet thin, with
delicate cheekbones and piercing dark eyes).
"He's a lot more than that. He's a human being. I was raised in the music
business. I've been doing it 27 years. And I was tired of the
nut-shelling." His wife agrees: "We had an agenda. We knew what we
wanted to say. We knew what a huge responsibility this movie was to our
community. "I did it because this man's story is an important part of our
history," adds Lopez. By his fans, Lavoe was called "El Cantante
de los Cantantes," which means the singers' singer. Born in Ponce,
Puerto Rico he came to New York in his teens. He eventually hooked up with the
Willie Colon band as vocalist and recorded such hit songs as El Malo and
Canto a Borinquen. Frustrated with Lavoe's drug problems (which had him
showing up hours late for performances), Colon eventually parted ways with him.
In the seventies, Lavoe formed his own band, racking up more hit singles
including El Cantante and Bandolera. But his dependencies, innate
insecurities and a string of tragedies (his house burned down, his
mother-in-law was murdered, his son was killed accidentally playing with a gun)
got the better of him. By the late eighties, Lavoe was a shell of a man and of
a performer. In Puerto Rico, he jumped from a hotel balcony in 1988, leaving
him barely able to walk. He died in 1993 at the age of 46.
"I remember walking into his apartment [where he lived with his sister]
and seeing all his albums up on the wall," says Anthony. "But it was
just the 12-inch cut-outs. I don't know what he had done with the gold records.
He kept saying, 'You know I was a millionaire five times.' "He was a
tragic character. A sacrificial lamb." The film's director Ichaso also met
Lavoe at a nightclub many years ago in New York. In fact, he was invited to
party with the couple in a back room but declined "because I wasn't sure
I'd come out alive." But despite all of Lavoe's demons and flaws, Ichaso
says, he was beloved by his fellow musicians. "The person they loathed was
Puchi. They couldn't stand her. She'd humiliate Hector publicly. She was very
bossy, hands on, controlling, and for a Latin guy that was very unusual because
it's not really the way that we would allow it. But somehow - for better or
worse - they became a couple and never separated. "It's like Yoko
[Ono] and John [Lennon]. Who liked Yoko? Nobody, that's the truth. But they
stayed together, and maybe the more they were disliked, the more lonely and
insular their world became. And they couldn't escape one another." Lopez
agrees Puchi was one tough broad, but has more empathy for her. "I think
together they were just not good, but that they still needed and loved each
other. The other musicians didn't like her because she had a big mouth and she
dropped bombs. She was always there, and she was strong enough to impose
herself and not be taken advantage of, in any way. She always carried a gun,
and she was the one would charge into the crack houses and drag her husband
out.”
"But I admire her. Anyone who can hang in there at that level and pace for
so many years ... well, that takes commitment and strength and courage."
Already in theatres in the United States, the film has had mixed reviews. And
there have been countless mentions of Lopez's track record of filming with
former love, Ben Affleck, in the ill-fated Jersey Girl and Gigli.
So far with El Cantante, the critical backlash has not been nearly as
severe. And Anthony points out he signed on to do this project long before they
were a couple. "When she called me five years ago, asking me to play the
role, we were in totally separate worlds. She said I was the only one who could
play the role, and I attached myself to it immediately." And how did their
relationship turn to marriage? "Jennifer and I have been friends for many
years," he explains. "I was on Broadway doing [Paul Simon's 1998
musical] The Capeman when we met. She then did a video with me. And I
recorded a song [No Me Ames] with her on her album [On the 6],
which became No. 1. We performed all over the world together and we were very
close friends for many years, which is a good basis for marriage. So finally I
called her and said, 'You know what? Let's do this. Let's get together.' "
Lopez knows she took something of a risk casting the singer/actor in his first
leading role, but insists he was the "perfect person." "He is a
salsa singer and he knows that world like nobody else. It didn't matter that he
hadn't had a leading role before. He was the right person to play the part. I
knew he had the talent. I knew he could do it. And his performance in this
obviously proves I was right," says Lopez, now sounding very much like
Puchi, the tough-talking salsa junkie.
Canadian Movie Distributors Strike Deal
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Canadian
Press
(August 20, 2007) Less than a week after Alliance
Atlantis was divvied up, two smaller Canadian
movie distributors are coming together in a deal that forms an ambitious new
competitor. Toronto-based film distributor Entertainment One Ltd. (LSE:ETO), which trades on the London Stock
Exchange, says its Quebec subsidiary Videoglobe 1 Inc. has agreed to buy
Seville Entertainment Inc., owner of Seville Pictures Inc., for an undisclosed
price. The acquisition will pull the company into the Entertainment One Filmed
Entertainment division, headed by former Alliance Atlantis chief executive
officer Patrice Theroux. Seville's theatrical division distributes about 30 new
films each year within Canada and up to 10 internationally. It owns the rights
to the highly anticipated Shake Hands with the Devil based on retired
general Romeo Dallaire's book, which screens at the Toronto International Film
Festival next month. "We are coming into the Toronto Film Festival with
strong financial backing and an eye to buying films with our U.K., Canadian and
U.S. companies," said Theroux in a release. "There is a tremendous organic
growth opportunity now in Canada. We will expand Seville's operations in
Toronto, add a minimum of 24 films to Seville's release slate, and will seek to
acquire other filmed entertainment assets in Canada."
Seville has a back catalogue of over 500 titles including a variety of
international films like Seven Swords, Run Lola Run, and several
films by famed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. The company was founded in
1999 and has built itself on the acquisition of domestic distribution rights
for smaller budgeted titles, art house and foreign language films.
"Entertainment One's strategy to build a global distribution business is
perfectly in line with our own business plan With the weight of Entertainment
One behind us, Seville is positioned to become an increasing presence in
Canadian distribution, allowing us to exploit rights across Canada more
aggressively," said David Reckziegel, co-president of Seville alongside
John Hamilton. Entertainment One, formerly ROW Entertainment and before that Records
on Wheels Ltd., is Canada's largest distributor of DVDs, CDs and video games to
retailers and last year purchased Koch Entertainment, a large U.S. music and
video distributor. Earlier this year it delisted from the Toronto Stock
Exchange after shareholders approved a takeover Marwyn Investment Management
LLP, valued at $188 million including $68 million in assumed debt. The
London-based private equity firm was once rumoured to be interested in scooping
up Alliance Atlantis.
Ah, Hollywood, Where Men Will Be Boys
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Johanna Schneller
(August 18, 2007) It was the moment Adam
Sandler stuck his hand
down his pants that did me in. Well into the stupefying I Now Pronounce You
Chuck and Larry, Sandler stands in the bedroom of a woman he's in love with
but can't have - Jessica Biel, playing his attorney - and watches in agony as
she strips down to a teensy bra and panties. He can't jump her, because she
thinks he's gay. He's not; he's a strapping fireman. But he's pretending to be
gay to secure benefits for the children of his best friend, a widower, and she,
while handling their case, has become his pal. A pal comfortable enough to
insist he feel her breasts to prove they're real. I've never been a fan of
Sandler's movies - I've always found them an odd blend of infantile humour and
frightening rage. But he's capable of physical comedy, and at first, the agony
in his eyes as Biel proffers her luscious but off-limits body is funny. The
fact that he quickly has to tie his sweatshirt around his waist is funny. Yet
Sandler can't stop there - that wouldn't be literal enough. He has to jam
his hand down his pants and fish around in there, fidgeting and readjusting so
assiduously that he stops looking like a man wrestling with an erection, and
starts looking like a toddler who has to go pee-pee.
The little boys of summer are out in
force. Before Chuck and Larry, of course, there
was Knocked Up, perhaps the seminal movie - in both senses of the word -
of the current generation of romantic comedies that pair aged boy doofuses with
women who are far more mature and responsible. Knocked Up's hero, played
by Seth Rogan, is a bong-sucking, porn-addled, baby-fatted slacker living off
the last few cents of the insurance money he received in a car accident.
The film's heroine, played by Katherine Heigl, is a sleek, golden goddess with
a burgeoning job hosting a television show. During a sozzled one-night stand,
he gets her pregnant, and she spends the whole movie alternately waiting for
and nagging at him to grow up. It's not that he can't -- he just doesn't wanna.
He and his stoner buds are the kind of guys who know 5,000 words for
"penis," but can't bring themselves to utter the word
"abortion." The Knocked Up gang has lots of company in their
perpetual playpen. In The Break-Up, Wedding Crashers, Failure
to Launch, About a Boy and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, man-boys
with after-school-calibre jobs - played by, respectively, Vince Vaughn (the
first two films), Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and Steve Carell -- are
hauled into adulthood by women mature and well-employed: Jennifer Aniston as an
art dealer, Rachel McAdams as the brainy daughter of a U.S. treasury secretary,
Sarah Jessica Parker as a family "interventionist," Rachel Weisz as a
single mom. (The tagline for About a Boy is, literally, "Growing up
has nothing to do with age."). Related films include Hot Rod, Old
School, Fever Pitch, Big Daddy, Shallow Hal and School
of Rock.
In them, the man-boys take smelly poos, vomit, play video games, surf Internet
porn, guzzle beers, watch countless hours of TV, and masturbate. A lot. They
are more childlike - more id-driven - than actual children. Yet they also
manage to get those sublime women to have sex with them, and even to fall in
love with them. Unlike previous generations of romantic comedies - which are
beautifully explicated in David Denby's essay, A Fine Romance, in the July 23
issue of The New Yorker - in this generation, sex comes way before love. Now,
I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh during some of these films, especially Knocked
Up. The interplay between the male friends - which is the true emotional
relationship in these films - is hilarious. The relationships the men have with
women, however, depressed me. Is this really all that a postfeminist woman can
expect from love: to bully a recalcitrant man-child into the house she pays for
with her steady job, and pin him there long enough to have actual children with
him? I feel like I'm watching the de-evolution of our species into
praying mantises, where the next step can only be that the females bite off the
males' tiny heads when they're through with them. In the Aug. 17 issue of
Entertainment Weekly, Rogan and his Knocked Up director, Judd Apatow,
defend their place in the comedic pantheon, comparing themselves to Jack
Klugman, Phil Silvers, Woody Allen, Albert Books, W.C. Fields and the Marx
Brothers. But I grew up with those guys, too, and while I agree that men in
romantic comedies don't need to be conventionally handsome to win a woman's
heart, those comedians weren't petrified of being adults. Nor were the comedic
leading men: Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, even Woody
Allen, neurotic as he was. Can you imagine any of them readjusting their
penises to get a laugh? The greatest romantic comedies, Denby asserts -- from It
Happened One Night to Manhattan - rely on banter between the sexes
that is "aggressive but not coarse, angry but not rancorous, silly but not
shamed, melancholy but not ravaged."
Today's, of course, are the opposite. And in previous generations, the men
don't run away from the women - they cavort, stumble, falter, but eventually
they run toward them. Are today's women so alarming that men prefer to stay
adolescent forever? It's especially poignant that Ingmar Bergman and
Michelangelo Antonioni, two giants of film directing who devoted their careers
to exploring the emotional lives of adults, both died on July 30, at the peak
of man-boy mania. They didn't make light romantic comedies, obviously, but they
made movies for and about the full-grown, and as a young filmgoer I was
fascinated, jealous, eager to grow up and enter their world. Despite its
mysteries and complications, those directors made becoming an adult look like
something to aspire to rather than avoid. These boys today just look terrified
to me. Why have adult moviegoers ceded all the screens to their stories -
especially when it's the same story, told over and over, ever more crassly?
Apatow (as producer) and Rogan (as writer and co-star) are back with a new film
this week, Superbad. It, too, is about wisecracking buddies who make
motions toward chasing girls, but really prefer hanging out with each other.
It, too, is full of bodily humour and foul language. It, too, is funny as hell.
The final scene, in which the friends separate to go off with females, even
moved me. But unlike the films above, it didn't depress me. Because the
heroes aren't man-boys, they're actual boys - 18-year-olds about to separate
for college. Their anxieties about women and adulthood are legitimate. And
age-appropriate.
The EUR Q & A With John Singleton
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 16, 2007) *Filmmaker
John Singleton has been directing
films about urban culture for over almost two decades. Among his successes are
"Boys In The Hood," "Poetic Justice" and "Baby
Boy." Recently he has made his producing debut with the box office
success "Hustle And Flow" which garnered an Oscar win for the Three
Six Mafia song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" as well as an Oscar
nomination for Terrence Howard. Singleton returns the producers chair
once again with the film "Illegal
Tender" which is directed by Franc
Reyes. It stars Rick Gonzalez and Wanda DeJesus. "Illegal Tender" is
the story of a young Latino man and his struggle to make it in an Ivy league
college while confronting the demons of his past which includes drugs and
prostitution. The film will be released on August 24 in theatres
nationwide. We recently sat down and talked with Singleton about the
film.
EUR: John, what about this film made you want to
produce it?
John Singleton: I felt that there hadn't been a
mainstream film that had the vast Diaspora of Latinos (in mind). They have
ignored Latino movies. Black people have had pop movie after pop movie, which I
have done, but they haven't had that. The ironic thing is if you look at this
picture, it is in keeping with everything else that I have done; in the movie
and poster you can see that they are afro-Latino. We never would have said
that, but that's the way that it is; it's in keeping with what am. The director
is Puerto Rican but he's a black Puerto Rican.
EUR: Is the film from your experience?
JS: No, it is from the director's
experience.
EUR: How did the script come to your
attention?
JS: He (the director) had an idea and said
that he wanted to do it, and he presented it to me. I told him, "If you
can produce a screenplay in three weeks, then I will gladly produce the
project.'
EUR: Why three weeks?
JS: Because I was coming off of
"Hustle and Flow" and I just wanted to get started working on another
movie.
EUR: Is it easy for you to step away
from directing and strictly stick to the producing side of another movie?
JS: Yes, especially when I am
green-lighting the movies myself. This is the second movie that I've green lit;
"Hustle and Flow" was the first. That worked out pretty well for me
so I decided to do it again.
EUR: How did your producing films come
about?
JS: With the experience of doing
"Hustle and Flow" we couldn't get any studios to finance it, so I
said I'm going to go ahead and find the money and put it up myself. That turned
out pretty well, so I was looking for a similar picture deal when this film
came up and Universal agreed to back it, which was cool. My company is doing
several other pictures also.
EUR: Do you find that is a challenge
even at this stage of your career?
JS: Very much so. Even though my films
have made like a billion dollars, they have made those billions for
corporations and not me. I've felt that whatever I've done people will come
see, someone will come see it. I'm willing to do that and find the money and go
for it; the studios will trust me with money.
EUR: Was there any concern about this
movie being stereotypical?
JS: No not at all, because the lead
character is a college student, who lives in Connecticut in a middle class
neighbourhood. I think that you have to adjust the position of forces in order
for you to have really good storytelling. It is interesting that you said that;
let's take this movie out of the context, because this is something that I
wanted to talk about. I get this question all of the time from journalists. I
got this on "Baby Boy," on "Shaft,' on no matter what film that
I do. People ask, "why do you have so much violence in the films that you
do?" Nobody who has ever asked me about that has ever complained
about the successful movies that are coming out that feature men with dresses
on. I applaud Tyler Perry for his independence, but when it's Tyler Perry,
Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and nobody is telling them anything bad about
it or telling young boys "you know that this is just a joke" and they
call those movies family movies. Most of the movies that are comedies are coon
shows. But people give me beef when I make a movie dealing with the hood or
whatever. When I make a hood movie, it's Shakespeare. you watch "Baby
Boy," and that film is real ghetto but the way that I'm doing it, unless
you had a background in literature you wouldn't know that there's Greek tragedy
in there. You wouldn't know that there's a hint of Shakespeare in there, but
it's just uniquely us, that's what makes it universal. I want to put you all to
task and say, "hey listen, you have to understand that there is a difference
between films like 'Who's Your Caddy?' and 'Talk To Me.'" "Talk To
Me" was a great comedy, I'm not attacking either film because we are all
in the family, and I wish them success, but I just think that it is a shame
that "Who's Your Caddy?" got a thousand screens and "Talk To
Me" only got 50, that movie was such a good movie. People are hungering
for a great movie. "Illegal Tender" is a universal story.
EUR: What makes "Illegal
Tender" a universal story?
JS: Because it is about a mother and her
son and the struggles that they go through. But yet it is also a gangster
movie. I am proud of that. I'm not trying to make a commercial movie; I'm
trying to make a good movie with flavour and culture and heart. For black
people it is a black movie because they see nothing but black people in it. For
Latinos it is a Latino movie.
EUR: What are your future plans?
JS: I'm directing a film that we will
begin in September titled "Tulia." It's about an attorney played by
Halle Berry who works on behalf of a group of local black men who are wrongly
convicted of their involvement in a drug ring. It should be completed in 2008.
I am also working on a film called "Luke Cage" which is a comic book
adaptation about is about a former gang member who is framed for a crime he
didn't commit. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes
awry, giving him super strength and bullet-proof skin. Using his newfound
powers, Luke Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire.
Filmmaker In Iran Injured In ‘Suspect'
Accident
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Alan Freeman
(August 20, 2007) OTTAWA — Friends of Mehrnoushe
Solouki, the Montreal-based documentary filmmaker
arrested seven months ago in her native Iran, are worried about the safety of
the 38-year-old woman after she was struck and injured by a motorcycle in what
they described as a suspicious accident as she was walking on a Tehran street.
“The incident is suspect. The person didn't stop and run away. It was a hit and
run,” said Denis McCready, a Montreal filmmaker, who has organized an online
campaign to free her. Ms. Solouki, a doctoral student at Université du Québec
in Montreal who has French citizenship, was arrested in February while filming
a documentary on the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. She spent a month in solitary
confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison before being freed in March.
(Zahra Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian-Canadian photographer, was beaten to death
at Evin prison in 2003.) Since being freed, Ms. Solouki has since managed to
obtain the return of her French passport but remains barred from leaving the
country. But she has yet to be charged with any crime.
“There have been no formal allegations,” said Mr. McCready, a friend of Ms.
Solouki. “If she was accused of something concrete that would be tangible and
she could fight her case. But there are no accusations.” Mr. McCready, who
spoke with Ms. Solouki at least twice in recent days, said the accident
occurred on July 29 as she was walking near her parents' home in Tehran. A
motorcycle appeared out of nowhere, knocked her down and sped off. Ms. Solouki
suffered an injury to her head and a deep gash on her cheek, which has had to
be treated for an infection. She also has been required to wear a leg brace.
“She is traumatized,” Mr. McCready said. As a result of the incident, Ms.
Solouki has begun staying at different hotels rather than with her parents. She
also has spent several nights in the safety of the French embassy, but French
authorities are unable to provide her with political refuge because Iranian
officials only recognize her as an Iranian citizen, Mr. McCready said. Without
obtaining clearance to leave the country, Ms. Solouki fears arrest at the
airport if she attempts to leave, and her parents could face confiscation of
their house, which they used as a bond to secure their daughter's release from
prison in March. French government officials are still attempting to secure
permission for her to leave the country, and Reporters sans frontières
(Reporters Without Borders), which defends the rights of journalists, has been
campaigning on her behalf. In a similar case, Parnaz Azima, an Iranian-American
journalist for Radio Free Europe, is awaiting trial on charges of spreading
anti-Iranian propaganda and of working for a “counter-revolutionary” media
outlet. She travelled to Iran in January to visit her ailing mother and had her
passport seized. Ms. Azima is one of at least four Iranian-Americans grabbed by
their native country's security apparatus. The others are Middle East expert
Haleh Esfandiari, sociologist Kian Tajbakhsh and peace activist Ali Shakeri.
Seth Rogen - Success Becomes Him
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Bob Strauss
(August 16, 2007) LOS ANGELES — When we checked in with Seth
Rogen a couple of months ago, he was hoping that
his movie-starring debut, Knocked Up, might sell a few tickets. Nearly
$147-million (U.S.) later, he's trying to keep it all in perspective.
"Career-wise, things have definitely changed," the 25-year-old
comedian reports. "But my actual life has not changed all that much. I
bought a house, that's nice. But I don't all of a sudden have a mink car. I
like complaining about other people being a-holes. And if I'm an a-hole, I
can't do that. I've realized that if I want to keep my high and mighty outlook
on life, I'd better be nice." It's worked so far. No doubt because he's
now a hot commodity, but also because he is such an approachable guy - better
dressed and a little less chunky now than he appeared in the blockbuster
pregnancy comedy, but still prone to nervous chuckling and saying
"awesome" to any compliment - Rogen's new movie, the raunchy comedy Superbad,
rolls into theatres this week on a wave of good will.
Based on a script Rogen and his lifelong friend Evan Goldberg wrote when they
were young teens in Vancouver, Superbad follows the attempts of two
sex-obsessed high-school dweebs Seth (Jonah Hill, who had a small part in Knocked
Up) and Evan (Ontario's own Michael Cera of Arrested Development) to
score beer and girls. Rogen, who's obviously outgrown the role that bears his
name, and Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader play a pair of immature
policemen who keep impeding the boys' efforts. It's taken producer Judd Apatow,
who gave Rogen his Hollywood start on the TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared,
and directed Knocked Up, years to get Superbad financed. That
delay gave the writers ample time to refine their script into something that
wasn't just kids saying the filthiest things. "Yeah, there were many,
many, many revisions," Rogen confirms. "As we got older, we gained
more insight into why we wrote what we wrote. We weren't aware, at first, that
all of the dirty language was really covering up for the insecurity. That was
something that we were able to look back on and say, that's the actual
story." Rogen says that he urged his pal Hill to make the character Seth
his own man. Or, more accurately, boy.
"I told Jonah specifically not to act like me because I was going to be in
the movie, too," Rogen says. "We can't have two guys acting like me.
I'm going to act like me." But not too much like him, or at least the
impression we've gotten of Rogen from Knocked Up. He says the new
movie's professionalism-impaired Officer Michaels shares only a certain
partying instinct with Knocked Up's descriptively named Ben Stone.
"I was aware that this and Knocked Up would be coming out the same
summer, so there was some thought of trying to do something kind of
different," he says. "I didn't want it to seem like Ben Stone becomes
a cop. But other than that, I didn't have to do too much - just try not to act
like the same chubby Jew." The first project Rogen is developing in the
wake of this year's success, if it reaches the screen, will be a much greater
change of pace: a movie version of the old radio and TV show The Green
Hornet. Long-time comic-book fan Rogen insists that he'll be playing the
masked crime fighter seriously, not in some kind of jokey manner, despite his
well-known aversion to most forms of physical exertion. "People are acting
as if I'm the first actor in the world ever to get in shape for a movie,"
he laughs. "Which is flattering. I'll take credit for it. I'm going to do
something unheard of in Hollywood, lose weight for a movie. I know it sounds
crazy and it'll probably get a lot of attention, but someone needs to be the
first," he says, adding in a more serious tone: "I have no intention
of making the same type of movie my whole career, and this is really our
attempt to establish early that we don't want to just make pothead comedies."
Rogen admits that he's astonished that the popularity of Knocked Up has
given him the chance to consider doing anything that he wants. "Really
surprised. Honestly. We thought The 40-Year-Old Virgin [Apatow's first
movie directing effort, which Rogen appeared in and grossed $109-million] was
miraculous. Me and Judd are not used to success. We were saying that if Knocked
Up made $90-million in the end, we would have been really psyched. We
didn't expect to make as much as 40-Year-Old Virgin, but the fact that
it's made way more is flabbergasting." What didn't come as a shock,
though, was how much women seemed to enjoy watching his bungling, up-knocking
efforts. Not that Rogen wants to sound like an a-hole about it or anything, but
... "I thought it would be a good date movie, actually," he explains.
"Going in, we were very aware that it should have really strong female
characters in it. I know that's more than most movies start with. Most movies
do not start with a bunch of guys sitting around a table thinking, okay, we
need to make sure this woman's a good character. Inherently, by doing that, I
assumed women would like it." Ask if he's been propositioned for
baby-daddy services since becoming a star, Rogen suddenly appears stricken by
that old adolescent insecurity. "Someone asked me if I would knock them
up," he says uneasily. "But I have a girlfriend [writer Lauren
Miller]. I've lived with her for over two years, so I really don't go out any
more."
It's Not Easy Being Bean
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Tony Wong, Toronto Star
(August 22, 2007) For the fourth instalment of Die Hard,
Bruce Willis spent punishing hours in the gym to get in shape playing hero cop
John McClane. In Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone shed major pounds to
star as the boxer coming out of retirement. But no comeback sequel this summer
is likely more gruelling on an actor than playing the rubbery, disaster-prone Mr. Bean. After all, it has been 10 years since the first Mr.
Bean movie – one of the most physically demanding movie roles anywhere.
At 52, Briton Rowan
Atkinson must play a child-man whose spine is as
squishy as Jell-O pudding. In Mr. Bean's Holiday, opening Friday, he is
the summer's ultimate action hero, whether frantically racing through the
French countryside on a bike to overtake a truck or playing an invading soldier
in an over-the-top yogurt commercial. "I certainly wish I had done some
training before going in," says Atkinson during a recent interview in
Toronto. "The movie is the most physical thing I've ever done."
Atkinson actually pulled a shoulder muscle early in the shoot, but in a
typically Mr. Bean kind of way. "I was rehearsing a Nazi salute,"
Atkinson says. "It's kind of strange explaining to your osteopath that you
were practising your Nazi mannerisms a little too enthusiastically and hurt
yourself." Atkinson's Mr. Bean character is so much a part of the public
consciousness that you half-expect him to respond with incoherent mumbles when
he first greets you inside his Toronto hotel room. But the Oxford-educated
engineer is articulate and thoughtful in his responses. Impeccably
attired in a fitted pinstriped Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit and tie with a
pink custom-tailored shirt, Atkinson seems nothing like the Mr. Bean character
most people are familiar with. While Mr. Bean lives for the moment,
Atkinson is reflective and thoughtful. "This is a character who has grown
from within me. "It started off as this persona I seemed to acquire
when I was first called on to perform a comedy sketch without words. And as
soon as I was denied a means of verbal expression, I became this naive,
immature, selfish person," Atkinson says.
"Why I naturally default to this child-like figure I can't explain. It's
really a result of my own life experiences and what I must have felt like as a
child at some point." It's surprising the sequel took this long to make,
since the first movie Bean grossed around $260 million (U.S.) in 1997,
making it the third highest-grossing U.K. film worldwide, next to Four
Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill. But after doing the first
film, Atkinson says he needed to give the character a rest after playing him
for eight years. In the meantime, he made the James Bond spoof Johnny
English in 2003. "At some point, we thought of doing a second Johnny
English. And then we thought, why not a sequel to Mr. Bean?" Atkinson
says. A second Mr. Bean, it turned out, would also allow Atkinson to improve on
the first. "We all slightly regretted the first film, where Mr. Bean
speaks more than normal," he says. "Which is one of the reasons we
came back a second time and put him in France, where speech isn't needed."
But telling a story visually with a mute character can be a frustrating
experience, he concedes. "I don't want ever to speak as Mr. Bean. I think
he is funnier and more endearing that way. But when you're at the script stage,
it would be nice to have him say things like, `I'm off to the castle' instead
of going around in a weird trajectory," Atkinson says.
As for a third Bean film, Atkinson says this sequel may be his last. "I
think I've given it my best shot. If I made another movie, Mr. Bean might start
to look old and restrictive. I think I'm a bit old to be doing it, to be
honest," he says. "I'm very keen that he be remembered as an
ageless, timeless figure."
FILM TIDBITS
Aniston
Into New Movie
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
- Hollywood
Reporter
(August 17, 2007) HOLLYWOOD– Jennifer Aniston is in final
negotiations to star in He's Just Not That Into You, New Line Cinema's
ensemble comedy being directed by Ken Kwapis. Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen
are producing via their Flower Films banner. Aniston joins Jennifer Connelly,
Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin and Barrymore.
Aniston will play a woman in a long-term relationship with a boyfriend who will
not commit to marriage. He's Just Not That Into You is based on the
best-seller about modern-day relationships and how men and women often
misconstrue the intentions of the opposite sex. The book was written by Greg
Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, who worked together on Sex and the City.
Jamie Foxx Going 'Solo'
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 17, 2007) *Never let it be said that Jamie Foxx doesn't know
what side his bread is buttered on. The actor/singer/comedian is
returning to the genre that won him an Oscar. The star of "Ray"
has signed on to headline the musical biopic "The Soloist" for
DreamWorks. The story centers on a homeless musician with schizophrenia who
dreams of playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Susannah Grant ("Erin
Brockovich") adapted the screenplay, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
"The Soloist" is based on a 12-part series of articles by Los Angeles
Times columnist Steve Lopez. The project will be directed by Joe Wright, who
recently wrapped "Atonement," starring James McAvoy-Keira Knightley.
Oprah’s ‘Raisin In The Sun’ Gets An
Airdate
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 20, 2007) *“Oprah Winfrey Presents” has
finally set a date for
its production of “A
Raisin in the Sun,” a
made-for-TV adaptation of the Broadway revival that starred Sean Combs,
Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, and Sanaa Lathan. The film will
premiere Feb. 25 on ABC, the night after the network's live broadcast of the
80th Annual Academy Awards. The aforementioned stars of the play are also
featured in the TV film, along with “ER” actor John Stamos. Based on Lorraine
Hansberry’s play, the story centers around a family living and struggling on
Chicago's South Side in the 1950s.
Djimon Hounsou Gets ‘Push’ Into New Film
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 20, 2007) *Djimon Hounsou will star with Chris Evans,
Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle in the supernatural thriller “Push,” according
to the Hollywood Reporter. The story revolves around a group of young American
expatriates with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities who hide from a U.S.
government agency in Hong Kong. They must use their different talents and band
together to try to escape the control of the division. The project is
independently produced and will be directed by Paul McGuigan ("Lucky
Number Slevin"). Hounsou was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting
performance in "Blood Diamond." The 43-year-old actor is
currently in production on “Get Some,” where he plays a mixed martial arts veteran
who mentors a young, rebellious teen (Sean Faris) in an underground fight club.
TIFF Helping Film Execs Network
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Guy Dixon
(August 21, 2007) It's a sad truth: Film producers and executives tend to see
few films at the Toronto
International Film Festival.
They're too busy doing deals and attending the industry functions announced
yesterday. Most of the events exist around one common goal: networking. Take
the cocktail schmooze accompanying the handing out of the Canadian Film and
Television Production Association's award for film producer of the year. The
whole point is to create an industry gathering point, which is vital because
TIFF doesn't have an official marketplace. But to bridge the gap between
top-level executives and up-and-comers, many of the events also have a
mentoring aspect. New this year are informal "Meet With..." sessions
in which agents and producer reps give industry delegates insights into their
specialties. There's also the Match Club, in which delegates can sign up to
speak one on one to industry consultants. Other programs include Telefilm
Canada's News & Views, a series of panel discussions on topics ranging from
new media to marketing; Talent Lab, a series of master classes for emerging
filmmakers with artists such as director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Not
Smoking); and Telefilm's Pitch This! contest for filmmakers looking for
funding. There's also the festival's Marketing Assistance Program, in which
festival staff help guide films through the maze of marketing that goes on at
TIFF. Finally, the Ontario Media Development Corporation's day-long
International Financing Forum on Sept. 10 is entirely set up for agents and
film financiers to network. If ever there was ever an experiment in the true
value of social capital, TIFF is it.
Tupac Murder Examined In New DVD
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
August 22, 2007) *Eleven
years after the murder of rapper Tupac
Shakur, a new DVD documentary attempts to
shed new light on the events leading up to the fatal shooting and the
conspiracy theories that surround the tragedy. “Tupac: Assassination,” in stores Oct. 23, explores how the
shooting happened, what may have led to it and the disconnect between those
facts and what the public has been told. Secondly, Tupac’s bodyguards, who were
never questioned by the police, are also interviewed in the film. The
official Web site for the documentary is www.Tupacassassination.com.
A special limited edition, pre-order “Tupac: Assassination” DVD with a
bonus gift of a Tupac poster can be ordered from the Web site until Sept. 25.
::TV NEWS::
Christopher 'Kid' Reid's Resurgence
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 17, 2007) *When it comes to the entertainment
industry, when
someone says 'Whatever happened to that guy?' more often than not that is an
indicator of the direction that person's career has gone ... to the point at
which no one can ascertain his whereabouts. Those that may not have
been paying attention, may have relegated Chris 'Kid' Reid into that category. There were many people that
tried to clown him because he was the backstage interviewer on 'Showtime at the
Apollo', but apparently that was all apart of his master plan. EURweb's
Lee Bailey ran into Kid, minus Play, at the recent "Jazz Under the
Stars" affair in Valencia, CA and asked him what's been up. He was
more than happy to give us the lowdown, but first he had to shoot a few jabs
toward Lee Bailey. "First I've been, as I do every year,
working diligently on my Lee Bailey impersonation," joked the former clown
prince of hip-hop. He is still clowning these days, but not on records.
"A lot of stand-up comedy, touring around the country. Just did the
Craig Ferguson show the other night, it'll air on (August) 25th," Kid
revealed to us. We see some of you sneering, but the stand up thing
has been leading Kid back to popularity faster than one might think. "Shot
a talk show pilot a couple months ago for Telepictures. You know, the
people that do the Ellen (DeGeneres) show and the Tyra Banks show, to try to
update the Maury/Montel kind of vibe because there's not any young guys on
daytime television. And also new music. Me and my collaborators got a music
video that'll probably be out by the end of this month. We're also talking
about a couple things like a new Kid 'N' Play movie project and even a Kid 'N'
Play reality show that might be coming out on MTV." Well, dang, it appears
as though brotherman is on a slow, yet rapidly increasing, roll. He's even got
some play for a recent surgery he had undertaken. "I just recently
had this eye surgery, you know that Lasik surgery? Well, I had something
even more serious than that. I had this thing where they just implant the
contact lens in your eye. The E channel was there and the whole
thing. Right now, I'm seeing things I haven't seen in years. Like
you, Lee, you look like a young Yaphet Koto." Though the line was
hysterical, Lee Bailey didn't appreciate it all that much. At any rate,
we wish Mr. Reid all due success in his endeavours. Keep an eye out, no
pun intended, for upcoming projects and perhaps even some stand-up comedy from
a dude that's alright.
Hollywood Mourns Merv Griffin
Source: Associated Press
(August 19, 2007) BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Hollywood stars fondly
remembered Merv Griffin at his funeral Friday, including Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who credited the creator of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of
Fortune” with jump-starting his own acting career. Among mourners who filled
the Church of the Good Shepherd were former first lady Nancy Reagan, Pat Sajak,
Vanna White, Alex Trebek, Dick Van Dyke and Griffin's son, Anthony, and his
family. Schwarzenegger, who attended with wife Maria Shriver, gave one of the
eulogies. “I can say today I wouldn't have gone as far in my career if it
wouldn't have been for Merv Griffin,” Schwarzenegger said, recalling his
appearances on “The Merv Griffin Show,” which date back to 1974. “He had me on
many times, and I was on his show to teach him about fitness and he would be
teaching me about acting. Well, neither worked,” the
bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor said to laughter. Griffin's son
followed with a mix of humour and affection: “I never knew anyone who loved
life as much as my father,” he said.
Griffin, who created “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” was 82 when he died
Sunday of prostate cancer. He began his career as a radio vocalist, then began
to appear on TV. In 1965, Westinghouse Broadcasting began “The Merv Griffin
Show” on syndicated television. Griffin was already working on developing game
shows. “Jeopardy” began in 1964 and went on to become a huge hit, followed by
“Wheel of Fortune” in 1975. He sold their rights to the Columbia Pictures
Television Unit for $250 million, retaining a share of the profits, and went
into real estate and other business ventures. He bought and refurbished the
Beverly Hilton and then acquired hotel and casino operator Resorts
International. Griffin was in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, where
Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Natalie Wood and other Hollywood notables are interred.
TV TIDBITS
‘Everybody Hates’ Shar Jackson
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 17, 2007) *Shar Jackson, the mother of two children by Kevin
Federline, is currently filming a guest-starring role on the CW’s “Everybody
Hates Chris,” according to People magazine. "I am having a blast,"
she says. "The cast is absolutely amazing." The actress, who
got her start opposite Brandy on UPN’s “Moesha,” has been cast in the role of a
young mother (Alyson) whose teen daughter uses Chris's sister as a cover to
sneak into an R-rated movie and visit a boy's house. Chris's mother Rochelle,
played by Tichina Arnold, takes Alyson aside to confront her about being a
better role model. Choreographer and current “So You Think You Can Dance”
judge Debbie Allen is directing the episode, which is scheduled to air sometime
after the third season's Oct. 1 premiere. Jackson’s last television
appearance was on the ABC reality show “The Ex-Wives Club” alongside Marla
Maples and Angie Everhart.
Sabra Johnson Now Knows She Can Dance
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 20, 2007) *Sabra Johnson danced her way to victory and a $250,000 check on
Thursday’s third-season finale of the Fox talent
show “So You Think You Can Dance.” The 20-year-old from Roy, Utah was one
of four finalists who were left standing at the beginning of the show. However,
Neil Haskell, Lacey Schwimmer and Danny Tidwell did not get enough of the 16
million votes from viewers to stick around. "I can't take the smile off my
face, and it's hurting so bad," said Johnson after the show. "I'm
just hoping that now it kind of puts me where I want to be with choreographers
knowing me and maybe getting shows that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten,
because now people have seen what I can do," Johnson said. Up next for
Johnson: the 50-city “So You Think You Can Dance” tour with her fellow top 10
finalists.
K-Fed Climbs Into Role On One Tree Hill
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
(August 21, 2007) WILMINGTON, N.C. – K-Fed
is going `Tree' climbing. Kevin
Federline will guest star in a series of shows in
the upcoming season of the CW's One Tree Hill. The aspiring rapper will
portray a cocky rock singer, said a publicist for the show. The ex Mr. Britney
Spears is scheduled to begin filming later this week in Wilmington, where the
series is filmed. He'll appear in a multi-episode story arc. A spokeswoman for
Federline did not immediately return an after-hours message seeking comment.
The Web site TMZ.com first reported that Federline would appear in One Tree
Hill. This season, the show's fifth, the characters will age more than four
years from last season. The show stars Chad Michael Murray as Lucas Scott and
James Lafferty as his half brother, Nathan Scott. Other stars are Hilarie
Burton, Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Galeotti. The new season is scheduled to
begin in midseason, although an exact start date hasn't been set.
Ryan Seacrest To Host Emmy Awards
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Lynn
Elber, Associated Press
(August 20, 2007) LOS ANGELES – Ryan
Seacrest of American Idol is hosting next
month's Emmy ceremony, but viewers still won't be able to call in and pick the
winners. Seacrest's appeal is expected to be a "magnet" that pulls
viewers, especially younger ones, to the awards show on Fox, Dick Askin,
chairman and chief executive officer of the Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences, said Monday. The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 16. Last
year's Emmys, hosted on NBC by Conan O'Brien, drew about 16.1 million viewers,
the second least-watched Emmy telecast since 1991. It aired unusually early, in
August, to make way for NBC's National Football League telecast. The awards
ceremony rotates among the four major broadcast networks. The Emmys were to
have even more of an Idol touch, with two of the talent show's executive
producers, Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, producing. But they withdrew from the
job earlier this year, citing their demanding schedules, and veteran producer
Ken Ehrlich stepped in. HBO's recently departed The Sopranos is the
most-nominated series with 15 bids, while the made-for-TV movie Bury My
Heart at Wounded Knee has the most nominations, 17, for all programs.
Cutting-edge shows such as 30 Rock dominated the comedy series category,
with Ugly Betty leading the charge with 11 nominations. Fox may also be
hoping that another hot new show, NBC's Heroes, proves an Emmy draw for
advertiser-favoured young adult viewers.
::THEATRE NEWS::
Fantasia Adds Own Magic To The Color Purple
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Nekesa
Mumbi Moody, Associated Press
(August 21, 2007) NEW YORK–After it was announced that Fantasia would take over the lead role
in the Broadway
musical The Color Purple, she recalls her co-stars as being warm,
friendly and supportive. Still, she knew in the back of their minds that they
had doubt about her casting. Perhaps for good reason. The former American
Idol champ was taking over for LaChanze, who won a Tony for her portrayal
of the downtrodden Celie, and the 23-year-old's acting experience had been
limited to a saccharine TV biopic in which she played herself – not exactly the
most challenging of roles. And then there was the whole celebrity factor that's
permeated Broadway in recent years – putting stars such as Usher, Brooke
Shields, Deborah Gibson and other assorted A- to D-listers in stagnant
productions to boost box office. That made Fantasia even more determined.
"I was like, `I have to go in here and do my best for them. It's not only
me, but it's a whole cast who's been doing it for two years, and I have to hold
the show up so that we will have a good show,'" she explains.
Since her arrival in April, she has done more than hold up the show. She's
revitalized it. Fantasia has received rave reviews, boosted a box office that
had started to slump and, some say, improved a successful commercial production
that was lacking critically. Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara
said Fantasia "gives the production new heart, soul and star power."
And The New York Times called her "so terrific that this earnest
but mechanical musical is more effective and affecting than it was when it
yawned open a year and a half ago at the Broadway Theater." "I think
she's clearly given the show a new burst of energy that everyone is enjoying
the benefit of," says Scott Sanders, one of the show's producers. But it
hasn't come without sacrifice for Fantasia. A few hours before show time, the
doe-eyed singer, clad in sweats with her hair closely cropped, lounges in her
midtown apartment, looking weary – far from her usual animated, gregarious
self. As she walks around gingerly, she blurts out: "This show is kicking
my butt!" Part of what makes her so tired is the gruelling schedule. She
performs eight times a week and is onstage almost the entire production,
singing with such a fiery passion that you get exhausted just watching her.
After curtain calls and on her days off, she sleeps and sleeps.
The content of the show has also drained her. "Miss Celie takes a lot of
out of me," Fantasia says. "I'm being told everyday that I'm ugly ...
you can't play the part if you don't kind of put yourself in her shoes and live
her life. So it's like, I carry that stuff with me." The show's producers
have talked her into extending her engagement by four months, until January.
But she hesitated before signing: not only was she drained, but she worried
about taking more time away from her recording career. (She recently had a No.
1 hit on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart with the ballad ``When I See
You.") It wasn't until she had a chat with Oprah Winfrey, the show's most
prominent producer (she calls her "Miss Oprah") that she began to
warm to the idea of playing Celie a bit longer. "She just began to tell me
how much I touched her and all the things that she felt," Fantasia
recalls.
More Funny Business Afoot
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(August 16, 2007) Something funny is going on in Toronto show
business these days. A trio of young producers barely in their 20s have created
a show that knocked the Fringe on its ear and are now getting ready for a commercial run
starting Saturday at the Diesel Cabaret. Meet Daniel Abrahamson, Rachel Brittain and Daniel Falk, the
ambitious trio who wrote and directed Funny
Business, a satirical look at the corporate world
today. The cherubic Abrahamson is the spokesperson for the group. Only 22, just
a few years ago he was playing Harold Hill in The Music Man at Sheridan
College. In many ways, he's still Harold Hill, turning on the charm to make
everybody believe in what could well be an impossible project: a profitable
mid-scale commercial venture in Toronto theatre. "There used to be a huge,
thriving cabaret scene in this town," says Abrahamson, recalling a period
long before he was born. "Why can't we have one again? We've got the big
commercial shows and the little burgeoning ones, but we need something in the
middle."
Ask Abrahamson why he and his colleagues are so quick to dive into the
bloodbath that can be commercial theatre at such a young age, and his answer
makes sense. "Look, we're all only a couple of years out of Sheridan, but
we've been working steadily in the industry. On every show, we've worked with
great people and people who, well, weren't so great. "We thought it would
be ideal if we could assemble all the wonderful people and all get behind the
same project." But couldn't they have waited just a few more years?
"Look, I know we could have waited until we were 30 and paid our dues, but
we wanted to do this before we got too embittered. "Because that's what
happens with theatre in this country. After a few years, a lot of the good
young people get bitter and just give up. We didn't want that to happen to us."
For novices, they've proceeded wisely: raising money from a wide assortment of
family, friends and well-wishers, then trying their show out at the Fringe (to
tremendous critical and popular response). Then they took some time out to
refine it and now they're hoping for a successful run. Actually, they're doing
more than hoping. Realizing that they don't have money for big ads, they've
been hiring out-of-work actors to dress up in business gear and pass out their
flyers all over Bay Street. And as for the future? "What our company wants
to do," declares Abrahamson, "is generate original Canadian shows
that are commercially viable and will eventually get known around the
world." Nice work if you can get it.
Funny Business plays at the Diesel Cabaret Theatre, 56 Blue Jays Way,
through Oct. 7. For tickets, call 416-971-5656.
THEATRE TIDBITS
Dreamgirls Star Rose To Play Cleopatra
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Staff/Canadian Press
(August 22, 2007) Dreamgirls star Anika
Noni Rose will play opposite acting legend Christopher Plummer in
Caesar and Cleopatra at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival next year.
Rose, 34, a classically trained actor who won a Tony award in 2004 for her role
in Broadway's Caroline, or Change, starred opposite Beyoncé Knowles and
Jennifer Hudson in the Dreamgirls movie last year. Toronto-born
Plummer, 77, as revealed earlier in the Star, will play Julius Caesar in
the play written by George Bernard Shaw. Des McAnuff, co-artistic director of
the production, calls Plummer "an international treasure" and says
the veteran actor gets on "like a house on fire" with Rose. Caesar
and Cleopatra will mark only the third time that a Shaw play has been
performed at Stratford. The playwright's works are prominently showcased at
another Ontario theatre institution, the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Plummer – whose film credits include The Insider and A Beautiful Mind,
and who is perhaps best known for playing Capt. Georg von Trapp in the Sound
of Music – has appeared at Stratford before, including turns in Barrymore
in 1996 and King Lear in 2002. Other Stratford productions announced for
next year include The Music Man and Cabaret. Officials say
they want to give audiences a variety of plays but still remain committed to
Shakespeare works. The company is changing its name in November from the
Stratford Festival of Canada to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
::OTHER NEWS::
Local
Marketing Firm Serves Up Its Cocktail – The Redpoint – To Workers Every Friday
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Toronto Star
(August 19, 2007) Your
company may have a mission
statement or a few guiding principles. But does it have a corporate cocktail?
At incentive marketing firm I Love Rewards, they not only have a
cocktail – the RedPoint – they have a place to drink it. So when the rest of
Toronto's 9 to 5ers are bolting for the door on Friday evenings with a Fred
Flintstone-like cry of liberation, these employees head to a room in their
funky Liberty Village office to chill on a huge white leather sectional, listen
to tunes, play a little Pictionary and have a cocktail. Dubbed the
RedPoint Company Lounge, it's home to a weekly ritual called "First Round
Fridays." As in, the first round is on the company. Is this why I Love Rewards
made the list of Canada's Top 100 Employers and the Greater Toronto's Top 50
Employers? Couldn't hurt.
You'd think serving
booze to a bunch of work-weary staff in their place of business would lead to
Christmas office party hijinks. Not so, says CEO Razor Suleman. "I think
we like to do things that are a little different," Suleman says. "We
like to incorporate work and play ... we work really hard all week. First Round
Friday is our little reward at the end of the week." Beside him, marketing
director Jason Fisher is mixing up another pitcher of RedPoint cocktails for
the staff. Laughter fills the room. The gang is clearly having a good time. So
what's with all the red references? So glad you asked, Fisher says, filling my
etched RedPoint glass with the crimson drink. It's all named for the cocktail
born at a company retreat in Collingwood last October. There was a mixology
course and various company committees were challenged to create a winning
corporate cocktail. The PR committee – Zakir Hemraj, Rob Catalano, Matt
Lewis-Strauch and Fisher – came up with the winning recipe. "In
order to win the event, we created a story," explains Fisher. Each
ingredient has a corporate message: Sour Puss Sour Raspberry liqueur to
remember the sour days without vision, Red Bull to instil energy to achieve new
goals and Crown Royal to represent the crowning achievement the company is
realizing. Corny? You bet. And how's the drink? Pretty vile to this civilian.
But then I think Sour Puss is what they make them drink at Gitmo. And what did
Crown Royal do to these folks to be subjected to a glass of Red Bull?
But to the I Love
Rewards crew who are happily sipping their RedPoints on this Friday before
heading out to celebrate a co-worker's birthday, it all tastes sweet indeed.
"It's all part of our culture," explains PR coordinator Amy Cole.
And, besides, there's beer and wine in the fridge for the next round.
The RedPoint
Fresh ice
1/4 to 1/2 oz. Sour Puss
Sour Raspberry
3/4 of one 250 ml can
Red Bull energy drink
1-1/2 oz Crown Royal
Add ice to a rocks
glass. Add other ingredients. Stir. Makes 1 drink.
Distillery Wants To Be Artistic District
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Peter Goddard, Visual Arts Critic
(August 16, 2007) Anyone strolling through the Distillery District any
evening last week might have come upon a barrage of images fluttering across a
screen suspended down much of a seven-storey Victorian brick wall. To the Fido
phone folks this is all about the "Fido Spot," billed as "the
largest permanent exterior projection system" in Ontario. To the
Distillery District the installation is a harbinger of a series of artists'
site-specific projections and light shows planned over the next year. To
me, it's about time. The Distillery, with its endless crooks, crannies
and shadow-making overhangs, is ready-made for light art and projection art.
The same is true with its landmark, stubby, flat-sided smokestack.
"Artists could project on any one of its sides," says Matthew
Rosenblatt, a partner in district owners Cityscape Development, as we walk
briskly across the cobblestones. "The point is we could have a number
of artists working in a number of different areas," he continues. "Or
we could turn the entire place over to one artist."
The district already has a connection to the Sept. 29 Nuit Blanche, with 10 of
its galleries and art-related business involved in the second annual all-nighter.
Rosenblatt wants to create another Nuit Blanche event to include a number of
the site's 40 historic buildings. And before the year's out, the area will
likely be hosting a Luminato-style light installation. Another looming
partnership is with the Toronto International Film Festival, although nothing
appears to be in the works for next month. If Fido's projection works out, the
area would be ideal for TIFF outdoor screenings. There's even a beer garden in
place facing the screening surface. If and when the Fido Spot maximizes
its potential, "we should have about 1,000 short films to work with,"
says Rosenblatt. Screening times will be determined at random by computer
program. Not all of the glitches have been worked out in the Fido Spot,
though. The first screen used was deemed not sufficiently secure to withstand a
strong wind. Using the wall bricks as a screening surface didn't work, either.
The bricks, dark and richly reddish in colour, overwhelmed anything shown on
them except the most vibrantly colour-saturated image. So officials are now
scrambling to get a replacement screen up. In tapping into a number of
film schools across the country – so far students provide content for free –
Fido has a long-term strategy involving future content providers for its
system.
Partnering with the Distillery plays into the company's short-term plans. Fido,
owned by Rogers, wants to fashion its own un-Rogers identity by tapping into
the 20-something, upscale market interested in "art, design fashion and
culture," says marketing director James Powell. "These people know
where they want to go on the weekend." Check out our slideshow on
the arts scene at thestar.com/entertainment
Getting Noticed Is Half The Battle
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Tim Lai, Entertainment Reporter
(August 16, 2007) At first glance, a festival titled Filipinos MakingWaves causes an arched eyebrow of curiosity.
But to Teresa Torralba, the name couldn't be more appropriate as a metaphor for
the cultural groundswell of Filipinos in the city and around the world.
The name of the festival is very applicable, says the president of the
Philippine Arts and Cultural Experience, because her native archipelago country
– made up of more than 7,100 islands, at least during low tide (a common
Filipino joke) – is home to more than just good adobo, braised chicken,
or puto, sweet steamed rice muffins. "As Filipinos, our lives
surround festivals and entertainment," says Torralba. "Filipinos now
are coming out of their shells, so we thought, why not, since Filipinos are
making waves everywhere." For Torralba, there's no better location
for the first Filipinos Making Waves festival than on Lake Ontario at
Harbourfront Centre.
One of the highlights of this weekend will be when a large group will literally
make waves during a "fluvial regatta." Back in the Philippines, it's
a traditional river parade to honour certain saints, normally in September. Not
saints this time, just a demonstration. It will be followed by a parade on the
boardwalk. Filipinos love their parades, says Torralba. Both processions
will be accompanied by melodic gongs that normally resonate along the banks of
rivers bustling with onlookers. The gongs will be provided by the Palabuniyan
Kulintang Ensemble, a Muslim group from the southern Philippines. The
pageantry of the weekend shouldn't be a surprise to any visitors since
Filipinos hold many festivals throughout the year. "We're a
festival-loving people," Torralba puts it plainly. While the culture of
the Philippines is usually off the radar in North America, Torralba thinks it's
time the country shows off more of its vibrant traditions here. Artists from as
far as Manila will perform, including jazz musician Boy Katindig and Banda
Kawayan, an 18-piece bamboo orchestra from the mother country, and 20-year-old
pop sensation Passion. Local musicians will be partaking in the Idol-esque
talent showcase, while Retro Manila: Soundwaves from the Past will kick it old
school. For more information, visit harbourfrontcentre.com.
Jay-Z
Tops Forbes.Com's List Of 'Hip-Hop Cash Kings'
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
(August 17, 2007) NEW YORK –Jay-Z wins all around, says
Forbes.com. He's got Beyoncé on his arm – and more millions
than 50 Cent and Diddy. The rap icon, a.k.a. Shawn Carter, is No. 1 on the
site's list of "Hip-Hop Cash Kings," based solely on 2006 income. He
banked an estimated $34 million (all figures U.S.), Forbes.com said yesterday.
Jay-Z released his 11th studio album in '06, Kingdom Come, which sold
around two million copies. But he earned much of his income as chief executive
of New York-based Def Jam Recordings, owner of a sports bar franchise, and
holder of endorsements deals with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard and General
Motors, Forbes said. In March, Jay-Z, 37, sold his Rocawear fashion
label for $204 million, a sum that will place him high up in music world
earnings for 2007. Other hip-hop kings include:
2. Rapper 50 Cent, a.k.a. Curtis Jackson: He
earned $32 million from his music and businesses such as a record label, video
games and a line of books, the survey said.
3. Diddy, a.k.a. Sean Combs: He owns the Sean John clothing
label and a cologne that he licensed to Estée Lauder. He is also an MTV
television producer.
4. Timbaland, real name Timothy Mosley, earned $21 million.
5. Dr. Dre: $20 million
6. Eminem: $18 million
7. Snoop Dogg: $17 million
8. Kanye West: $17 million
9. Pharrell Williams: $17 million
10. Scott Storch, a Canadian and former Roots keyboardist
turned hip-hop and pop writer/ producer, also earned $17 million.
A View From The Front Lines
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Vit
Wagner, Publishing Reporter
(August 21, 2007) Paul
Watson, the award-winning
newspaper reporter who has covered almost every war-torn hell hole from Somalia
in the early 1990s to post-9/11 Afghanistan, has a few questions for his former
high school chum Stephen Harper. The foreign correspondent and Canadian Prime
Minister haven't been in touch since attending Etobicoke's Richview Collegiate
together in the 1970s. Nor has Harper sought out the opinions or insights of
Watson, who has seen enough death and destruction over the years to have his
own theories on why UN and NATO interventions fail to produce the intended
result, no matter how noble the original intentions. "I would beg him, as
a former friend and someone who has access to intelligence that I don't, to explain
to me why we're putting soldiers' lives on the line and asking them to kill
civilians to defend themselves when all the military people I've spoken to
admit that there is no military solution in Afghanistan," said Watson, in
Toronto yesterday to promote his memoir, Where War Lives. "There's a political solution and the political
trail leads into Pakistan. Why are we fighting a war when our main ally in the
region, Pakistan, is pursuing its own security interests against our interests?
As someone with access to intelligence, I would ask him to explain this to me.
And I would give him a former friend's commitment that I would keep it to
myself and not put it in the newspaper because I lie awake at night trying to
resolve that one fundamental problem."
The chapter in Where War Lives that touches on the somewhat unlikely
teenage acquaintanceship between the pot-smoking, academically indifferent
Watson and the studious, sober-minded Harper lends a humorous, leavening
dimension to an otherwise dark, grim and at times even harrowing tale. Watson,
a former reporter for the Toronto Star who now writes out of Jakarta,
Indonesia, for the Los Angeles Times, is best known for his Pulitzer
Prize-winning 1993 photo of a dead U.S. soldier, Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland,
who was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by a jeering crowd after his
Black Hawk helicopter was downed. As much as his coverage of the incident made
Watson's career, it left him emotionally scarred to the point where he needed
psychiatric help. He also sought absolution at one point by attempting,
unsuccessfully, to get in touch with Cleveland's mother. "As a journalist
I can do things that I couldn't as an ordinary human being," he said.
"I can scream in a cop's face to let me through a roadblock, but as an
ordinary human being I wouldn't have the courage. As an ordinary human being I
wouldn't have gone anywhere near (the mother), but as a journalist trying to
figure out my own story I was compelled to do it. And I regret doing it." A
witness to some of the world's most gruesome atrocities, including the ethnic
cleansing carried out in Rwanda and Kosovo, Watson casts a jaundiced eye at
both the hypocritical policies of Western governments and the failings of his
own profession to get out the word. The harshest criticisms, however, are often
reserved for the author's unvarnished portrait of himself.
"It was the lies, as much as the killing, that drove me over the
edge," said Watson. "So when it came time for me to write this, I
wanted to probe as deeply as possible into my own truths. You can't understand
the larger wars without understanding the conflicts within yourself. "The
book includes as much of the truth as I could get on myself, good or bad. If
readers say, `I don't really like that guy' – at least in the middle part of
the book – then I've succeeded. "I hope they like me a little more toward
the end. But I don't think I was a very good person. I don't think anyone
involved in these kinds of conflicts can be good people. There are no heroes in
war."
::DANCE NEWS::
Dance, Music, Theatre, Spoken Word And More All Part Of Free
Evening At Historic Toronto Site
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Susan
Walker, Entertainment Reporter
(August 20, 2007) Dancer and storyteller Lisa Pijuan-Nomura will
tiptoe through the wildflowers. Inpulse Dance artists will trip the light
fantastic over the railway tracks. And playwright Sean Dixon will play banjo
under a bridge, when art meets nature Saturday night in Toronto's newest
entertainment district at the historic Todmorden Mills site. Meanwhile, on the
stage of the newly renovated Papermill Theatre, opera singers, playwrights,
players, comics, musicians and a poet will perform. Marjorie Chan,
associate artistic director of Cahoots Theatre Projects, has programmed some 50
artists to light up the night at the Pottery Rd. site for Dark, a free
performance festival sponsored by the City of Toronto's Live with Culture
operation. "This is the first year of operation for the Papermill Theatre.
In a way, Dark is a way to celebrate that opening (last October) and enjoy the
space," says Chan. She emphasizes the site's accessibility – close to
Broadview subway station with TTC bus service – where the Todmorden Mills
Museum, the Brewery Gallery and the Don train station are located. Close by are
the Brickworks, where a farmer's market is held every weekend, and revitalized
natural areas for walkers and cyclists.
Todmodern Mills, with its familiar tall brick tower, dates back to 1796 when
John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, ordered the erection
of a grist mill for the York colony. Later, a sawmill, brewery, distillery and,
by 1827, a paper mill, were built in what became the town of York's industrial
heart. Now, after decades of neglect, the site has been restored by the city as
a recreational attraction. For Toronto theatre producers, the 160-seat Papermill
is a place for popular shows that have ended their run in the city's small
theatres. "It's a beautiful mix of modern and historic," says Chan of
the space. The mill was converted into stables in the 1930s and was refurbished
in the 1960s. The theatre boasts a spacious lobby, a baby grand piano and a
good complement of lights, says Chan. And there's parking. "A lot of this
festival for me is creating a context," Chan adds. The playwright (China
Doll), director and actor commissioned Pijuan- Nomura to create a
site-specific piece. "She'll be lighting up the wildflower preserve."
Pijuan-Nomura's one-woman shows, under the banner of Girl Can Create, draw on
her background as a physical theatre performer, storyteller and puppeteer.
Inpulse Dance – contact dancers Diana Groenendijk and Suzanne Liska – will
perform Off-Track, on and off the railway tracks. Near the train station,
writer and musician Dixon (Billy Nothin', Sam's Last Dance) on
claw hammer banjo will join bass player James Thomson to sing songs and ballads
while sitting on an old couch like a couple of hobos. These events in the
outdoors will contrast with stage performances in the Papermill Theatre.
Onkwehonwe dancer and choreographer Santee Smith will perform a new work, and
spoken-word artist BellaDonna (a.k.a. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard) will stir the
audiences with her outrage. Comedy comes in the form of "bawdy
immigrant" Melissa D'Agostino playing Lupe Under the Latin Moon and comedy
improv troupe The Wrecking Crew with Jane Luk and Gord Oxley. The Fu-Gen Asian
Canadian Theatre Company is presenting The Hunting Story by David Yee.
And Hyun Liya Choi will do a performance piece entitled Miss Asiana.
Claire Calnan and Weyni Mengesha of The Amy Project direct I am Her, a
short multidisciplinary piece performed by young women in a mentoring project.
From the Actors Repertory Company comes Luigi Pirandello's I'm Dreaming, But
Am I?, a wonderful play that weaves memory and dream to recount the story
of a turbulent love affair by the master of the one-act play. Wayne
Strongman of Tapestry New Opera Works will present excerpts from new opera and
the five-member Korean drum ensemble Samul Nori Canada will do two traditional
drum works. And playwrights Lisa Codrington, Marcia Johnson, Elyne Quan,
Mark Brownell, Mike McPhaden, Edwige Jean-Pierre and Joseph Jomo Pierre will
each give a 15-minute reading from a new work. Dark runs from 7 until 11 p.m.
and encompasses a wide range of Toronto talent, with emphasis on the innovative
and work-in-progress. Admission is free.
::SPORTS NEWS::
Clemons Starts Own Foundation
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Rick
Matsumoto, Sports Reporter
(August 22, 2007) Anna Maria Bryant was a
single mother
in the poverty-plagued section of Dunedin, Fla., beyond the view of the
snowbirds who frequented the spring training camp of baseball's Toronto Blue
Jays. However, she would not allow the situation to detract from her
responsibilities to her community or her immediate family – which included her
son, Michael, and her blind great-grandmother. That dedication and duty
has been passed down from mother to her son, known to many in Toronto as Michael (Pinball) Clemons. The Argonaut head coach and former
all-star running back has been front and centre in a number of charitable
causes in the Greater Toronto Area, including the team's well-known
anti-violence program. But now he is establishing the Michael Pinball Clemons
Foundation aimed at helping youngsters. The foundation will be launched with an
evening gala on Sept. 19 at the Liberty Grand Entertainment Pavilion,
Exhibition Place. Clemons said he was at first reluctant about the endeavour.
"I don't like my name on things," he said. "When you are
involved in charity it's not about you. Sometimes when people start foundations
it's about, `I've got my own foundation.'" Clemons' initial thought was to
simply link up with an existing program and lend his name, time and boundless
energy. But he changed his mind when he saw more and more young people
without hope for the future.
"If you look in the eyes of some young people they just sparkle. They
really feel they can conquer the world. Then you see other young people who
feel they just have no hope. "Nothing hurts my spirit more than that ...
it's something I want to impact. The vision (of the foundation) is to see hope
in the eyes of every child." Clemons said he feels a responsibility to his
community and the country, which has now become home for his wife, Diane, and
their three young daughters Raven, 10, Rylie, 4, and Rachel, 13. "As
part of being a citizen of Canada this country has afforded me certain
privileges – not rights, but privileges – and with those privileges come
responsibility," he said. The need to care was instilled in him by
simply observing his own mother, who lost her mother at age 5 and was raised by
her great-grandmother. "She not only raised me, but looked after her great-grandmother,"
said Clemons. "But as a single parent she didn't have someone else's
father drive me to my football practice or baseball, soccer, basketball and
whatever else I was doing. Or for that matter pick me up at school. "But
she didn't have that sense for only her own. While she took care of me and my
great-great grandmother ... she didn't lose any steam in the community.
"She was absolutely tireless." As, it seems, is her son.
Crosby Launches Clothing Line
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Rosie
Dimanno, Columnist
(August 22, 2007) Some day, Sidney Crosby might very
well have his own eponymous fragrance, the celebrity cachet/sachet of a
self-titled cologne. We're thinking, Sidney's Sin or Kid Obsession.
So everybody can smell like a hockey player, funk in a bottle. Marketing
possibilities are endless for the just-turned-20 phenom, brightest étoile in
the NHL firmament, and endorsement agent's dream stud. For now, though, the
modest young fellow – who blushed furiously with a nubile model on each arm
yesterday – will settle for a pair of pants. And some Ts, some hoodies, some
hats. The obligatory sports shoe, of course, because what's an athletic star
without his own line of overpriced sneakers? Crosby, his contract with the
Penguins recently renegotiated via a five-year extension rounding out at a tidy
$43.5 million (U.S.), hardly needs the money from extracurricular merchandise
branding. But it's the done thing and Crosby is game.
Enter the hockey dude as fashionista. "A lot of companies, maybe they
wouldn't respect the opinion of a hockey player for a clothing line. But
they've been really interested and it was a lot of fun.'' Looked hugely
self-conscious, though, as the collaboration with Reebok and Sport Chek was
unveiled at a Mississauga store with a truncated runway display and TV
commercials on the loop, while salesgirls fussed about in their snug "I
(heart) Crosby" tops. Inside a dressing room, facing a phalanx of sports
scribes, Crosby was all poise, groomed to the role since childhood. But this
was an alien environment, puzzlement and bemusement on both sides of the Q and
A, Crosby fielding inquiries about fabric and tailoring, a little stumped when
asked what he was hoping to convey in the retail package, fall line, codenamed
"Rbk SC87.'' Casual and simple, he suggested, a seamless transition from
trainer's room to street. It's not entirely virgin territory because Crosby has
been shilling Reebok product for a couple of years. This, however, is his first
venture beyond strictly sports equipment. "Obviously, I'm not going to
change profession,'' Crosby chuckled of his quasi-designer turn and
diversifying endorsement portfolio. "But it's a change of pace from the
hockey talk.''
Planning the line began during the season and continued into summer as Crosby
otherwise concentrated on mending that broken foot, an injury disclosed only
after the Penguins were lickety-split eliminated in the playoffs. "We'd go
over designs. It was funny because I was getting these prints and designs sent
to me at home. I'd be with my parents and we'd be discussing what's in style,
what's out of style.'' Sitting around the dinner table looking at sketches,
considering fads. "It was the last thing I'd imagine myself doing. But we
had fun with it, talking about colors.'' Crosby cracked up, just recalling
those sessions. But he's no naïf, hip to the vagaries and blessings of fame,
aware of his own branding prowess, head-to-toe Reebok configured for this
appearance. It's been an eventful summer in other ways, what with the Hart
Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy and voted most outstanding player by his NHL
brethren, well on his way to demolishing league records just two seasons out of
the chute, putatively the Wayne Gretzky of his generation. And being named the
Pittsburgh captain, that's way special, best part, he said. "You always
dream of one day playing in the NHL and hoisting that Cup. Everyone knows the
captain is the one who gets the first opportunity to do that. To be given this
responsibility is a huge honour.'' He talks like that, half the kid and half
The Kid. A fine boy and clothes don't make the man.
SPORTS TIDBITS
Lacroix Earns Bronze Against World's
Best
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Canadian
Press
(August 22, 2007) CHIBA, Japan – Audrey Lacroix of
Pont-Rouge, Que., won a bronze medal in the women's 200-metre butterfly at the
International Swim Meet 2007 on Wednesday. The race featured five of the top
six racers in the world. World No. 1 Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland won the gold
medal in two minutes 06.15 seconds. World champion Jessica Schipper of
Australia was second in 2:06.68 and Lacroix third in 2:06.93. The time was just
off the Canadian record Lacroix set in a gold medal performance earlier this
month at the World University Games in Bangkok. "I really wanted to
capitalize on this opportunity to measure myself against those big names,"
she said. "I was really happy with what I accomplished. I had enough of a
break between the Games and this event to be fully prepared for this
race." Competition continues through to Friday.
Shooting Coach Leaves Raptors For
Washington
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Doug
Smith, Sports Reporter
(August 22, 2007) The Raptors are minus a staff
member. Dave Hopla, who joined the team as a basketball development consultant
last season, is leaving to become an assistant coach with the Washington
Wizards, NBA sources told The Star. Widely known as one of the better
shooting coaches in the NBA, Hopla joined the Raptors staff last November after
earning a reputation by working with such star players as Kobe Bryant, Ray
Allen and Sue Bird of the WNBA Seattle Storm. While he was a key member of the
Raptors staff, he was never elevated to a full-fledged assistant coaching
position like the one he'll have with Eddie Jordan in Washington. Assistants to
head coach Sam Mitchell on Toronto are Alex English, Jay Triano and Mike Evans,
who replaces Jim Todd, now with Milwaukee. It's unclear whether the Raptors
will fill Hopla's job with someone to work specifically on shooting or whether
they'll fold the job into training and strength and conditioning.
::FITNESS::
Better Abs Without Crunches!
By Raphael Calzadilla, B.A., CPT, ACE, eDiets Chief Fitness Pro
"Endless abdominal machines, crunch boards, sit-up devices and tortuous
torso routines promise flat bellies and chiselled abs. Hardly a one of them
works worth a damn, mainly because their makers show little understanding of
human anatomy."
-- Dr. Michael Colgan, Renowned Fitness Expert and author of The New Power
Program
Having studied human anatomy, nothing
disgusts me
more than watching one of those dumb ab machine infomercials make promises that
their product will give a person a flat stomach. A lying abdominal machine will
not give you a flat stomach, a seated abdominal machine will not give you a
flat stomach and 1,000 crunches per day will not give you a flat stomach.
It's not my opinion. It's based on human anatomy. I'm not suggesting that
crunches or intense abdominal work isn't important! It's absolutely vital for
athletic performance and core strength, but make no mistake about it,
traditional ab exercises will not give you a flat stomach. I want to
provide effective exercises to give you a flat stomach.
First, we need a brief anatomy lesson. I won’t make this long or boring, but
stay with me on this. If you understand this information, you’ll be light years
ahead of the pack and will laugh out loud when you see the next "latest
and greatest" ab machine that promises to flatten your stomach. The
abdominals are composed of four major muscles: the rectus abdominis, the
transversus abdominis and the internal and external oblique. Let’s take a brief
look at each.
RECTUS ABDOMINIS -- This is the infamous but improperly named
"six-pack." It’s actually an "eight-pack." It’s a long,
thin muscle that runs vertically down the body from the breastbone and fifth,
sixth and seventh ribs to the top of the pubic bone. Worked efficiently and with supportive nutrition, it can help create
the much desired "ripples" that poke out detailing the
"eight-pack." However, it can't create a flat stomach. The muscle
fibres simply run the wrong way for that to happen.
TRANSVERUS ABDOMINIS -- The transversus muscle holds your gut tight and
flat. It’s a thin sheet of muscle running along the sides of the abs, which
joins connective tissue behind it. Its fibres run across the stomach, join into
the rear area of the abs and wrap around the sides of the body. It attaches
along the rib cage and into the back muscles. It's your body’s natural corset!
When you suck your gut in, you have just used your transversus. This is the
only muscle that can help create a flat midsection!
INTERNAL and EXTERNAL OBLIQUES -- The internal obliques are diagonal
fibres that fan out from the pelvis and ribs to the rear of the
"eight-pack." They provide a layer of support over the transversus.
The external obliques, also referred to as the "love handles," are
composed of fibres that run from the front of the pelvis and
"eight-pack" back to the ribs.
TWO GREAT EXERCISES FOR FLATTENING THE STOMACH
By this point, you know I’m going to focus only on the transversus. Don’t
forget, you have to work all four areas of the abdominals for maximum
effectiveness and core stability. But my focus is only about how to get a flat
midsection. The following exercises are the most efficient for
flattening. They may seem unorthodox to the novice, but highly effective.
Practice these exercises three to four days per week and perform two to three
sets of each.
1. ABDOMINAL VACUUM ON ALL FOURS -- Position the heel of your hands
under your shoulders and the knees directly under your hips. Keep your spine in
a neutral position and maintain this position throughout the contraction.
Start by exhaling all the air from your lungs. Then, relax your abdomen
and let it hang like a loose sling, but don't increase the arch in your lower
back. Next, pull the belly button up and in toward the spine, without motion at
the rib cage or pelvis. If your pelvis or rib cage moves, you aren't
isolating the transversus. It helps to watch yourself in a mirror and have
someone put a hand under the belly button. Let your belly relax onto the
person's hand and then contract and pull your belly off the hand. Try to hold
the contraction for at least 20 seconds. If you can't do this contraction
correctly, you are either weak in your transversus abdominis or your other
abdominals may be dominant.
2. ABDOMINAL VACUUM -- This is a lot like the exercise above, but you're
just sitting up straight. In a seated position, exhale all the air from your
lungs. After completely exhaling, pull the abdomen inward and hold for 20-30
seconds. Continue to breathe lightly through your nostrils, but make sure you
are pulling your abs in as if you are attempting to make your abs and back
touch. You may find this one a little easier than #1 due to the positioning.
If performed with consistency, these exercises, added to your regular abs
workout, will yield outstanding results. Within three to four weeks, you'll
find your abs pulling in and feeling tighter. Just remember to supplement it
with a healthy nutrition, weight training and cardio program. Why not
take the guess work out of it and let the experts at eFitness.com design that
program for you? We will construct a realistic and enjoyable meal plan that
fits into your lifestyle and that's pleasurable to the taste buds! We do all
the homework for you, all you have to do is eat!
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com — Virginia
Woolf
(August 17, 2007) "Without self-confidence we are
as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality,
which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are
inferior to oneself."
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