Langfield
Entertainment
88
Bloor Street E., Suite 2908, Toronto, ON
M4W 3G9
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
NEWSLETTER
Updated: January 4, 2007
|
Happy New
Year!! I hope that 2006 brought you
a new understanding of life. And I hope that 2007 brings you joy,
prosperity and fulfillment. |
|
|
|
|
::EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW::
Interview with Kenny Leon
Kenny Leon is a highly acclaimed director,
producer and actor whose
experience covers the spectrum of television, stage and film. Prior to
founding True Colors Theatre Company, Kenny served as artistic director of the
Atlanta-based Alliance Theatre Company for over a decade and has directed
nationally at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theater,
NYSF/Public Theatre, Hartford Stage Company and the Huntington Theater Company
among others. His mission is to produce a diverse group of plays from
various times, cultures, and perspectives, while preserving the African
American classics. (Excerpted from True Colors
Theatre Company).
I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview
this veteran of stage and
film, especially because he has an incredibly humble and spiritual
quality. He even invited me on set where Kenny and cast
have been (in Toronto) and recently completed production of Raisin in the Sun starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Sanaa Lathan, to
name a few, for the special television movie adaptation, currently scheduled to
be shown on the ABC Television Network in May 2007.
Raisin in the Sun, for those that don’t know, is about an African-American
family’s struggles with poverty, racism, and inner conflict as they strive for
a better way of life and is based on the play by Lorraine Hansberry.
How did the casting process differ for the film than for the
theatre?
I guess the only difference is that you can probably spread the
net a little
wider in film. You can take longer to find the exact person. The
other ingredient, you’re trying to see what’s going to give the film the most
exposure and what’s going to allow you to do the job. Sometimes for a
Broadway play in New York, I might only need one star or two stars but in film,
you’re trying to get the most you can.
Theatre costs less money. Studios have to make money and they’re going to
spend more money. If you do a Broadway play, it might be a $2 million
project or a musical, that’s $10 million. Sometimes in film, you might
have an ideal person but then you may want to find the ideal person that more
people know.
I would say ultimately that the casting process is really similar. I
think that actors cast themselves. You have a little more involvement
from the producers in film. In this case, Neil and Craig – they’ve made
so many films and they’ve done so much. [Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, Executive Producers of
the Oscar-Winning Best Picture Chicago, and Executive-Producers of Raisin.]
How do you direct a relatively new actor like Sean Combs, in one
of the most recognizable roles ever? I understand also that you played
that role opposite Esther Rolle.
Yes, I played that role once and directed Esther Rolle as
well. I had the opportunity of working with Sean on Broadway. I think he’s
the best actor in the world to play the part. I put a lot on me as a
director in terms of giving the actor everything he needs to succeed but I also
give a lot of props and credit to him for being one of the most committed
people that I’ve ever met. He is willing to go the extra mile and is
ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done. He’s a perfectionist and
that goes with my personality because I’m a perfectionist. He likes the
truth and I always give him the truth and he gives me the truth. We’re
working towards the same thing. He likes being a part of history which is
continuing the legacy of Lorraine Hansberry – it’s a great thing.
How do you make this piece accessible to today's movie-going
audience?
That’s easy. The casting of this project, just like on
Broadway, reaches everybody.
We’ve got Sean who has a musical following, he also designs clothes, and he has
perfumes. He’s one of the most recognizable people on the planet.
He brings in that crowd.
And then you have Phylicia Rashad who was Clair Huxtable on the Cosby Show. And you have Sanaa Lathan who just finished a couple of features. You have Audra McDonald,
the international music star, you have Bill Nunn whose done all of Spike Lee’s movies. We’ve added Sean Patrick Thomas who did Save the
Last Dance and David Oyelowo who just did Last King of Scotland. And then John Stamos who’s playing Lindner.
I think that we have a really good cast
that is delivering. I really respect Sidney Poitier. I know Ruby
Dee well and I knew Lloyd Richards before he passed. All the folks
associated with the original – they did what they did. But this
particular screenplay is very different than the original film, it’s very
different than the original Broadway play, it’s very different than the
Broadway play that we did a couple of years ago. It’s its own
thing. It’s more cinematic, it’s beautiful, it moves well. So, when
you look at it, it doesn’t feel like anything you know. I don’t even
think that people are going to try to compare it. I think there will be
young folk and old folks watching this. I think it’s a very universal
story and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished in producing the
film.
What are the challenges dealing with the transition from stage
to the big screen?
I’m a storyteller. I did Toni Morrison’s opera, I’ve done
musicals, I’ve done dramas. You just have to learn the tools; you have to
learn a little more about the technical aspect of telling the story because
you’re working with the equipment in film. But we have a wonderful camera
operator, a great script supervisor, a good DP, a good crew. A lot of
folks from Canada on the crew. What I’m learning is that, just as theatre
is collaborative, making a film is just as collaborative. Probably even
more so because you have more people involved. There’s so many people
doing every little thing.
I’m really fortunate to have a blessed team so when I do my next film, it will
be my main focus. To make sure that I have a team of people that you’re
going to love to be around. That’s the first thing. Hiring becomes
much more important. You want to be careful about who’s on the team and
make sure that they have your back and they are interested in making the same
film you’re interested in making.
What first made you fall in love with theatre?
I don’t know the first thing. I know the part that excites
me is the fact that you can tell people’s stories on a stage. It’s a
chance for all human beings to sit next to each other, look at a story and find
themselves in it. The power of finding yourself in a story creates better
human beings, a better way of being with each other and living with each
other. It’s almost therapeutic.
And in theatre, it changes every night. Depending on who went to the
theatre that night and what the makeup of those people were – who had to get a
babysitter, who’s on a date, who’s bringing a granddaughter. All those
people being in that one space at that one time – it’s spontaneous every night
so once that experience is over, you never get it back.
On the other hand, making a film is beautiful too because it’s forever.
On the stage side, it’s beautiful in another way because it’s never going to
happen like that again. It’s immediate and it’s three-dimensional.
You have won too many awards to mention here but was there one
that stood out to you for which you are most proud of?
I guess the one that comes to mind is I received an award called the Living
Legacy Award and it was given to me by a group of senior citizens. I
loved that and they were calling me a living legend. It meant a lot
because these are people who have lived life and your contribution to life
meant something to them. I have a lot of respect for elders.
If Lorraine Hansberry saw your production, what do you hope she
would say?
I hope she’s smiling down here now and says, “You got it
right.” She was ahead of her time, an intellect, very political, she was
trying to bring people together, provide understanding. I hope she would
say that “If I was there today, all the things that you have done with the
story – that’s what I would have approved of”.
What connection do you feel with August Wilson plays as you’ve
worked on so many?
August just died last year so not a day goes by that I don’t’
think about him and then we have his Broadway show opening in May in New York,
and that’s the last play that he wrote. I feel a lot of responsibility to
deliver that play in New York the way he would have it. I’m a spiritual
person so I’m always thinking that he’s looking down saying “OK man, don’t f**k
up the play!”
I put August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry in the same category of being fierce
soldiers, incredible artists committed to making a difference in the
world. People like August Wilson, he could have made millions and
millions of dollars. He could have said, “I don’t want to write plays,
I’m just going to do film” but he didn’t. He was committed to writing
those ten plays and he’s had a huge impact on American life and American
theatre.
He has a universal following. I mean I saw Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in
South Africa. I look at him as a teacher by example.
How important do you see theatre in relation to the world of
entertainment?
I think it could be important to some people but I think it could
have a broader reach. I think it would be great if some producers would
do more important work and less fluff. I’m always hoping for theatre that
gives us sustenance to sustain us, fuel us as humans. I don’t think
there’s enough of that. I think it’s more about escaping and I think that
theatre is more than that. It’s a gathering place for us to grow and to
bond and to be better humans.
If you could work with any artist, living or past, who would
they be?
Langston Hughes, James
Baldwin, Amiri Baraka …
because they were committed artists who found a way to make their artistry and
their personal life one. Just like Ozzie
Davis and Ruby
Dee – they were very careful about the projects
they chose. They didn’t do any projects just because they needed a
project. They were living their lives that their art was talking
about.
How would you like to be remembered?
That he was who he said he was.
Right then, the phone rang and Kenny was called back to set but I want to thank
him for this opportunity in a very busy filming schedule to fit in the time
with me to facilitate this interview. I also want to thank Samuel L. Jackson for introducing us and
to Elaine Quan of eQuan Entertainment for
introducing me to Mr. Jackson.
::top stories::
Oprah Opens $40M South African School
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Jan. 2, 2007) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Oprah
Winfrey opened a school Tuesday for disadvantaged
girls, fulfilling a promise she made to former President Nelson Mandela six
years ago and giving more than 150 students a chance for a better future.
"I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that
not even poverty could dim that light," Winfrey said at a news conference.
Mandela was among the guests at the opening of the Oprah
Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls
in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg. "This is a
lady that has, despite her own disadvantaged background, become one of the
benefactors of the disadvantaged throughout the world," Mandela said in a
statement. Singers Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, actors Sidney
Poitier and Chris Tucker and director Spike Lee also were in attendance. Each
guest was asked to bring a personally inscribed book for the library. Winfrey
has said that she decided to build her own school because she wanted to feel
closer to the people she was trying to help. The $40 million academy aims to
give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where
schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid. By educating girls,
Winfrey said she hoped she could help ``change the face of a nation.''
"Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/AIDS, and in this
country which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the
pandemic," she said. Many of the girls come from families affected by the
disease, which has infected 5.4 million of the 48 million population and hit
women disproportionately hard. Winfrey referred repeatedly to her own
impoverished childhood and said she was grateful that she at least had a good
education, declaring this to be "the most vital aspect of my life.''
"I was a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, like so many of these
girls, with no water and electricity," said the talk show host, dressed in
a pink ball gown and jacket. She vowed to make the academy the "best
school in the world'' and promised that she would continue to support the girls
so they could attend any university in the world. The idea for the school was
born in 2000 at a meeting between Winfrey and Mandela. She said she decided to
build the academy in South Africa rather than the United States out of love and
respect for Mandela and because of her own African roots. She said she planned
a second school for boys and girls in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Many state-funded schools, especially in the sprawling townships that sprang up
under white racist rule, are hopelessly overcrowded and lack even basic
necessities such as books. They also are plagued by gang violence, drugs and a
high rate of pregnancy among school girls. Top-class study and sporting
facilities are available, but are largely confined to private schools that are
still dominated by the white minority as they are too expensive for many black
and mixed race South Africans.
Winfrey's academy received 3,500 applications from across the country. A total
of 152 girls ages 11 and 12 were accepted. To qualify, they had to show both
academic and leadership potential and have a household income of no more than
$787 a month. Eventually the academy will accommodate 450 girls. The
28-building campus boasts computer and science laboratories, a library and
theatre along with a wellness center. Winfrey rejected suggestions that her
school was elitist and unnecessarily luxurious. "If you are surrounded by
beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out
the beauty in you," she said. Lesego Tlhabanyane, 13, proudly wore her new
green and white uniform at the ceremony to raise the South African flag.
"I would have had a completely different life is this hadn't happened to
me. Now I get a life where I get to be treated like a movie star," she
said. Winfrey, who does not have children, said she was building a home for
herself on the campus to spend time with the girls and be involved in their
education. "I love these girls with every part of my being. I didn't know
you could feel this way about other people's children," she said.
Thousands Fill Hometown Arena For Brown Tribute
Excerpt from www.billboard.com
(January 01, 2007) At a gathering marked by joy more than sorrow,
thousands of James Brown's fans and friends filled an Augusta, Ga., arena bearing his name
Saturday for their final tribute to the homegrown singer known as the godfather
of soul. The farewell tour for Brown -- loved in Augusta as much for his
generosity and influence as for his music -- wound down with an afternoon
funeral, two days after a boisterous viewing in the famed Apollo Theater in New
York. More than 8,500 fans packed James Brown Arena, where Brown lay in
front of the bandstand in his third outfit in three days -- a black jacket and
gloves, red shirt and sequined shoes. As the service began shortly after 1
p.m., dozens of friends and relatives filed slowly past the casket. The
procession was followed by a video of Brown's last performance in Augusta and
his final concert in London -- where he performed a slow, soulful version of
Ray Charles' "Georgia on My Mind." The Revs. Al Sharpton and
Jesse Jackson and a tearful Michael Jackson were among those who took turns at
the podium overlooking the casket. "We come to thank God for James
Brown, because only God could have made a James Brown possible," said
Sharpton, a longtime Brown confidant who also spoke at a boisterous ceremony
Thursday at the Apollo Theater and a private service Friday. Michael
Jackson, whose arrival sparked a roar from the crowd, bowed before the casket
and shared a hug with Sharpton just as Brown's latest backup band, the Soul
Generals, started to play. "James Brown is my greatest
inspiration," the pop star told mourners, adding that when he was a child,
his mother would wake him, regardless of the hour, whenever Brown was on TV.
"When I saw him move, I was mesmerized," Jackson said. "I knew
that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James
Brown."
Dirge For A Jazz Club
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
The jazz world lost several
players this year, including singer
Anita O'Day, saxist Jackie McLean, pianist Jay McShann and trumpeter Maynard
Ferguson. But for many, the biggest blow was the demise of the Montreal Bistro & Jazz Club,
the city's oldest existing jazz venue. The 120-seat club at Sherbourne and
Adelaide Sts. had offered strictly jazz since 1991. Often compared to New
York's venerable Village Vanguard club, it showcased greats such as Oscar
Peterson and Oliver Jones and hosted more than 100 live recordings.
"It was really a shock," said Toronto vocalist Heather
Bambrick, whose three-night midsummer gig was abruptly cancelled when the email
went out advising of the club's July 5 closing. The singer recalled angling for
a Monday slot when she was starting out; that was the night the Bistro owners,
German native Lothar Lang and his Swiss wife Brigitte Lang, gave over to new
talent. "That was your opportunity to prove that you could get people into
the club and put on a good show," said Bambrick.
Songstress Emilie-Claire Barlow remembered her own Monday debut "packed
with family and friends" and her gradual promotion to doing weekend shows.
The Langs "were very supportive of young musicians and it was an
honour to sing on that stage," she said. Add Diana Krall, saxist Joshua
Redman and bassist Christian McBride to the list of careers nurtured at the
Bistro. Its death was among "the worst things to happen to Canadian jazz
in a decade," said Scott Morin, director of jazz at Universal Music
Canada. "Of course it's a big disappointment for the fans who relish the
excitement of hearing the international acts live. But it's also a huge loss
for the record companies that need that structure to find new jazz
artists," he said. Lothar Lang said singer-pianist Krall's ascent to
global stardom was one of the "biggest surprises" of his tenure, but
he's just as proud of a couple of lesser-known tunesmiths who played the Bistro
in their nascence. "He may not be well known outside jazz circles, but
Geoffrey Keezer is one of the best piano players today. And Laila Biali is
going to be a big star, maybe not commercially, but definitely on a musical
level. The few times she performed for us, I got the same feeling I got with
Keezer."
Musicians, in turn, are unequivocal about the Langs. "They were always
warm and welcoming, they had a regularly tuned piano and they made sure the
customers observed the `quiet' policy," said Bambrick. When the couple
were honoured for lifetime achievement at the National Jazz Awards last April,
they had no idea the coming summer would be the Bistro's last. Though they
cited a diminishing audience as a factor, they still hope to get back into the
business of jazz. "We've been looking for new premises, but haven't come
across anything suitable yet," said Lothar. Over at their old
corner, the Bistro's logo is still on the awning and the place sits vacant,
almost six months after the club's demise. At home, the Langs have dozens of
boxes filled with the signed posters and photographs that once graced the
Bistro's walls. And the piano? It's with the technician who had been tuning it
since the early '90s, with an option to buy. Lothar has fleeting recollection
of the club's final two weeks, when they hosted Toronto Jazz Festival dates by
flautist Lew Tabackin and saxman George Coleman. "I was so busy those last
few days, it wasn't till the final note came from (the landlord) that I
realized it was over. I still thought in a few days he'd call and say `Let's
make a deal.'" The Bistro's last concerts, including an appearance
by pianist Cedar Walton, were recorded and will be aired on JAZZ91 in March.
Broncos’ Darrent Williams Shot Dead
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(January 2, 2007) *A limousine carrying Denver Broncos
cornerback
Darrent Williams was sprayed with
bullets in downtown Denver early Monday, killing the NFL player and wounding
two others in the vehicle, reports AP. Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police
called him about 3 a.m. from the scene and told him three people had been shot,
and the 24-year-old Williams had been killed. The incident took place shortly
after 2 a.m., when a vehicle pulled up alongside a white Hummer limousine
carrying Williams, another unidentified man and woman, police spokesman Sonny
Jackson said. There were at least eight bullet holes discovered in the limo.
Jackson said police were searching for suspects and interviewing witnesses.
"We have no motive yet," Jackson said. "We're hoping to talk
with witnesses to find out where they were coming from, and that might give us
some clues." Williams’ teammate Champ Bailey was among the players and
team staff members who gathered at Denver Health Medical Center, where
Williams' body was taken. Williams teamed with Bailey to give Denver one of the
top cornerback tandems in the NFL. Hours earlier, the Broncos lost to San
Francisco 26-23 in overtime. Williams finished the season with 88 tackles, 78
of them solo, and four interceptions.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Crooning To The Top
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Matthew Hays
(Jan. 1, 07) MONTREAL -- Gregory Charles ponders an old Buddhist
saying as he sits down to discuss his best-selling album, I Think of You: Within
every problem there is a gift. It may seem odd for Charles to be talking about
problems, given that his album -- the first made up entirely of his own
compositions -- made its debut on the Canadian charts at No. 1 in late October,
selling more than 109,000 copies in its first week. That, as eager publicists
were quick to point out, meant the album surpassed first-week sales of new
titles by heavyweights like U2, Coldplay, Eminem and Madonna. Altogether, the
album has sold over 216,000 copies. Charles, who at 39, has the gee-whiz spunk of
a teenager, says the inspiration for this album came from a very dark place.
More than a year ago, Charles fell off the stage and broke his elbow during a
performance of his hugely popular concert show, Black and White, at
Montreal's Bell Centre. "I thought my career was over," he says now.
"I play the piano, the violin, the guitar -- it's kind of important for me
to have a functioning elbow. When we got to the hospital, someone said, 'I hope
you don't play the piano.' It was meant as a joke, but it was hard to find it
very funny." The accident meant things had to change for Charles, a
workaholic who concedes he had not stopped moving in years. His Black and
White show had been touring for four years, with critically acclaimed stops
in Toronto and New York. He had hosted radio and TV shows (including Culture
Shock, which aired in both French and English on CBC), had done backup
vocals and musical accompaniment for Celine Dion's 1998-99 tour, and had acted
in the play 2 Pianos 4 Hands, among numerous other gigs.
Suddenly, Charles was faced with the prospect of not playing for quite some
time, if ever again. "We had planned to take Black and White on
tour in Europe in the spring. I thought it was a sign from heaven -- or hell. I
didn't want to believe that I couldn't play any more. I don't necessarily need
to play, but it's been a major part of my life." Charles decided to sit
down and compose some songs. "Beethoven was deaf, Ray Charles was blind. I
had written choral music and theme songs. I figured if I'm not going to play
any more, I should do some writing." The result is I Think of You,
an album of easy listening that Charles calls his meditation on relationships.
The themes are basic: loves lost, loves gained, learning to move on after
heartbreak. It may seem to border on the melodramatic, but that's not
surprising given the composer's pop-culture diet at the time. "I had a lot
of time on my hands, so I watched a lot of soap operas in the afternoon. The
Young and the Restless, General Hospital, these were shows my mom
used to watch, so I knew the characters. These people all carry secrets. And I
thought about all the things I've never talked about. So I started writing
songs. And they just came and came." Charles says writing the album also
offered some welcome therapy. "I've had a very lucky life, but I have lost
a few friends over the years. And when something like that would happen, the
death of a friend, I'd do what many people do -- bury myself in work. That
meant there were things I'd never really faced emotionally. I did so through
this album." Like Dion and Barbra Streisand, Charles sings of his
own feelings with bravado. Was he concerned people would dismiss the album as
being mired in the maudlin, or as mere schmaltz? "Very worried. I've been
in showbiz here in Quebec for 20 years. I've been very out there
professionally, but I've been very private about the personal stuff. People
seem to live with their heart or with their head but not both at once."
The lone child born to a white francophone mother and a black anglophone
father, Charles says he identifies primarily as a francophone (though his
English is perfect). So why is the album entirely in English? "Some
thoughts I think only in English. My dad would speak French to me as a kid
because he was learning it when he got here. But if I did something really,
really bad, he spoke to me in English. So I guess there's something serious
about the English language to me. "There's something very romantic about
English. I know that people say that about the French language, but for someone
who's never written a poem or song in French, it's actually very hard. It's
very difficult to rhyme in French." He says, however, he has been
composing "a twin to this album, in French." Besides, singing in
English doesn't seem to be hurting: "The Québécois are very open to
hearing music in English, it doesn't bother them." Charles credits Dion as
a major inspiration. It was during her 1998-99 tour that Charles realized he
had the desire to perform before the crowds. "We did Japan, Europe, we did
Madison Square Garden with that tour. And every night she'd introduce the band,
naming me last. Then I'd start playing and singing and she'd head off for a
costume change. For 15 minutes I had the crowd -- that was amazing. The incredible
feeling of having thousands of people who have taken time out of their busy
lives to hear you perform, that is incredible."
But given his history -- Charles began performing piano concerts as a child --
and his have-I-got-a-song-for-you, crooner-esque aura, he seems like the
country's next Paul Anka. Charles has trouble pinning down his style: "I'm
influenced by so many different kinds of music and musicians. I draw on
incredibly different styles and types when I compose and play." And despite
the lost friends he mourns on the album, he reports that life on top of the
charts feels pretty good. (Though he's never been married, he says he's now
happily ensconced in a relationship with "a lovely woman.") On
Valentine's Day, he'll kick off a two-month tour of Quebec, performing the
songs from I Think of You. In the meantime, he intends to continue
celebrating his newfound addiction: "I'm writing songs every day. I love
music--it's one of the most important things to me."
Jill Scott Duets Fill New Album
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 28, 2006) *Hidden Beach
Recordings has gathered 14 duets
featuring its artist Jill Scott and various guests for the new album, “Collaborations.” Due Jan.
30, the set includes tracks with Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Will Smith, Al
Jarreau, George Benson and the Isley Brothers, among others. According to
Billboard.com, the disc is meant to keep fans occupied until the release of her
next studio album in summer 2007. A track from that project, "The Real
Thing (In Stereo)," is featured on a CD sampler that will be bundled with
"Collaborations." In the meantime, Scott is scheduled to perform Feb.
10 in Universal City, Calif. as part of the Roots' annual pre-Grammy bash.
Here is the track list for "Collaborations":
"Love Rain" (Head Nod remix) featuring Mos Def
"Daydreamin'" featuring Lupe Fiasco
"Good Morning Heartache" featuring Chris Botti
"Said Enough" featuring the Isley Brothers
"One Time" featuring Eric Roberson
"Let Me" featuring Sergio Mendes and will.i.am
"8 Minutes to Sunrise" featuring Common
"Funky for You" featuring Common and Bilal
"Sometime I Wonder" featuring Darius Rucker
"Slide" featuring Jeff Bradshaw
"The Rain" featuring Will Smith
"God Bless the Child" featuring Al Jarreau and George Benson
"Kingdom Come" featuring Kirk Franklin
"Love Rain" featuring Mos Def
Jazz Top 10 ... And
Then Some
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
The
list of the year's top CDs must be honed to 10, so I should not also include 10
impressive international CDs with bands led by the likes of Brad Mehldau, Ted
Nash, Robert Glasper, Taylor Eigsti, Chris Potter, Ben Riley, Tomasz Stanko,
Dave Holland, Kenny Garrett and Gerry Mulligan (just one of endless superb
reissues).
My 10 best albums, in no particular order, are Canadian:
1. DAVID BRAID, Zhen (Indie)
2. MELISSA STYLIANOU, Sliding Down (Sleepin' Bee Records)
3. QUINSIN NACHOFF, Magic Numbers (Songlines)
4. TARA DAVIDSON, Codebreaking (Indie)
5. DAN McCARTHY TRIO, Interwords (Indie)
6. RUSS LITTLE, Footwork (Rhythm Tracks)
7. THE ROSEMARY GALLOWAY QUARTET, Live at the Montreal Bistro (Fishhorn
Records)
8. MICHAEL HERRING'S VERTIGO, Coniferous (Indie)
9. CHET DOXAS QUARTET, Sidewalk Etiquette (Justin Time)
10. LINA ALLEMANO FOUR, Pinkeye (Lumo Records)
Allan Harris -- In The Pink At the Blue Note
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(December 28, 2006) *Allan
Harris stood upon the famed Blue Note
stage accompanied by pianist Eric Reed crooning songs that were reminiscent of
the 1950s and 1960s, a period when romantic songs were sung with depth.
When melodies caressed the heart and soul and made women swoon. It was a
time when singers sang and emotions ran high, an era so desperately
missed. Listening to Harris’s soft sentimental lament, I was reminded of
the stylings of singers like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, and
Tony Bennett. Yet, Harris clearly brought something new and exciting to
his renditions. It was evident the audience certainly thought so.
Harris’s manner on stage is gentle and unforced. He is bidding his time,
savouring each note. He’s smooth, articulate and in total control.
A Brooklyn native, Harris grew up around music. The product of a musical
family, his mother was a classical pianist and his aunt sang opera and later
on, blues. It’s no wonder that Harris appeared to have total control of his
vocal accoutrement while he experimented with the songs of 1950’s balladeer
Johnny Hartman. “I am trying out new material this evening. I am
only here for this one night but I am happy to be here because it’s such a
special evening. My music will pay tribute to the Blue Note’s 25th
Anniversary,” declared the singer who has thrilled world wide audiences.
“I want you to check out my CD. I am selling them tonight at the
performance. I’ll give one to you” smirked Harris with a wide grin.
“The CD features the songs of the great Billy Strayhorn. “It’s entitled “Love
Came: The Songs of Strayhorn.” Eric Reed the pianist who is with me
tonight is also featured on the CD. He is a great pianist. I am
lucky to have him. There are songs on the album like “Passion Flower,”
“Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’,” “Love Came,” and “Love Has Passed Me By
Again.” There are 14 songs in all on the CD,” said Harris who talked
about his upcoming engagements in Florida and the Caribbean. Harris plans to
spend Christmas in Istanbul with his wife but music has taken him all around
the world. He has appeared and performed in jazz clubs in Europe, Asia,
Finland, Italy, Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Turkey and Japan, to
name a few. “I am feeling real good tonight. Things are going great this
evening. I am playing with Eric and we are hitting some new highs.
After tonight, Eric and I will head to Philadelphia where we will be doing a
two weeks engagement in a week or so. So far, it’s been a wonderful year,
I played Kennedy Center and then did two weeks at the Algonquin,” reflected
Harris about his ability to continue to book performances with ease over the
past year.
Mr. Harris has appeared in some of Europe’s most famous opera houses. He
appeared with the Metropole Orchestra, the Rias Big Band, and the Thilo Wolfe
Big Band. BET Jazz aired Allan’s live concerts with Lou Rawls and Ramsey
Lewis. Harris sang for the first Jazz Awards Show, held in Washington, DC
which was filmed in BET’s Jazz studios. Chuck Mangione and Mark Carey
were also part of the awards event. Interviews with Harris were also
featured by the Smithsonian via their “Jazz Singers” series. He was
touted by CNN’s Showbiz Tonight as one of the three best male jazz vocalists in
the country. Other CDs recorded by Harris are: “Setting the Standard;” “It’s A
Wonderful World,” “Here Comes Allan Harris and the Metropole Orchestra,” “The
Music of Duke Ellington,” and “Laid Back” His recordings have featured
artists like Ray Brown, Mark Whitfield, Clark Terry, Nestor Torres and Jon
Faddis.
Suddenly, Everyone's Speaking Blues
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Brad Wheeler
(Dec. 28, 2006) It was the year of living bluesy. Which is to say that some of
best blues music of 2006 came by well-established artists not known to strictly
speak blues, and that emergences were made by newcomers who counted blues as
only part of their style. So, we heard from Tom Waits, the eccentric
singer-songwriter who delivered Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards,
a three-CD package that included one rough-rocking disc -- Brawlers --
that if taken on its own, would be one of my favourite blues albums of the
year. We also heard from Bob Dylan, an ungraspable troubadour who has often
used blues forms in his own compositions, but perhaps never as audaciously as
on Modern Times. In age-old tradition, Dylan plundered freely,
appropriating lyrically from Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon and Robert
Johnson, who used to sleep in the kitchen with his feet in the hall, as Dylan
must have known. Newer artists who surfaced included James Hunter (a blue-eyed
Brit who debuted stylishly with the rhythm and blues of People Gonna Talk)
and Toronto-based Roxanne Potvin, who showed the influence of fifties rock and
R&B on her sophomore release The Way it Feels. Other notable partly-blues
efforts from this country included Ndidi Onukwulu's No, I Never and Jim
Byrnes gospel-based House of Refuge.
Oklahoma's Watermelon Slim, as a songwriter and live performer, was better than
even his name would indicate. Slim's self-titled album was issued on the
Toronto label Northern Blues, as was Do I Move You, from California
singer Janiva Magness. Both those records are up for the Blues Music Awards
album of the year. Other high points included the awarding of the Presidential
Medal of Freedom to B.B. King. Low points were the passings of Willie Kent,
Bonnie Lee, Jay McShann, Robert Lockwood Jr., Ruth Brown, Snooky Pryor, Henry
Townsend, Homesick James and Nova Scotia legend Dutch Mason.
iTunes Clogged By
Demand
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
SAN FRANCISCO – Swarms
of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's ITunes music store over
the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for
downloads of a single song. Frazzled users began posting urgent help messages
Monday and Tuesday on Apple's technical forum for ITunes, complaining they were
either not allowed into the store or were told the system couldn't process
their request to download songs and videos. It was not immediately clear how
many people were affected by the slowdowns, and Apple Computer Inc. would not
immediately comment Wednesday on what caused the slowdown and whether it had
been fixed. Analysts said the problems likely were the result of too many
people with holiday IPods and ITunes gift cards trying to access the site at
once. Traffic indeed was heavy over the holiday, with more than four times as
many people visiting the ITunes website on Christmas than at the same time last
year, online market researcher Hitwise said Wednesday. Some financial analysts
said the interruption could be viewed as a sign that sales dramatically
exceeded the Cupertino-based company's own forecasts.
"It's actually created more positive buzz among analysts – traffic was so
great it blew up the site," said Gene Munster, senior research analyst at
Piper Jaffray. "If anything it could be a positive – demand was better
than they were expecting." Apple commands about 75 per cent of the market
for downloaded music, but could lose as much as five per cent of that market
share in 2007 because of increased competition from rival services, according
to Piper Jaffray. Dan Frakes, a senior editor at Macworld magazine and
playlistmag.com, a website focused on digital music, said he and some
colleagues were unable to access the ITunes store or received error messages
when they tried to download songs early this week. However, others breezed
through the process hassle-free, and Frakes successfully downloaded songs again
on Wednesday. He said the problem likely was not as widespread as the
frustrated discussion group chatter might indicate. "The store itself was
working, there was just too much traffic," he said. "It's a good bet
that most people were able to get through." Analysts said they didn't
anticipate a rash of IPod returns because of the delays. "What you're
seeing is the tremendous success of the IPod," said Michael Gartenberg,
vice-president and research director with JupiterResearch. "No doubt it
was a very, very popular gift, and no matter how well you plan on the server
side of the equation, there are always times when you get caught short."
Apple's stock price fell almost five per cent before rebounding to close at
US$81.52, up a penny, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Gotta Love Those
Lyrics
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
As someone who is not primarily
a "lyrics person," I surprised even myself by topping this year's
list with a couple of exceedingly wordy – even literary – discs. For balance,
there is an instrumental disc by Feuermusik and another, by Espers, with a lot
of vocals that you can't quite make out.
1. Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies (Merge): Often an album released at the
start of the year is overlooked or eclipsed by the time the calendar runs out.
That wasn't the case with this ambitious effort from Vancouver "west coast
maximalist" Dan Bejar and bandmates. A pop/rock symphony. At once, loose,
limber and highly polished.
2. JOANNA NEWSOM , Ys (Drag City): The young California harpist's
sophomore effort is an extraordinary feat of musical eccentricity. Her warbled
fairy tales are greatly assisted by co-producer Van Dyke Parks, whose string
and horn arrangements broadened the musical canvas, and engineer Steve Albini,
who ensured that Newsom's singing and playing did not get lost in the mix.
3. Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Mint): The former
Virginian (and honorary Canadian) eases up a bit on the twang this time, but
her singing is as crystalline as ever.
Credit, too, to a supporting cast that includes members of the Sadies, Calexico
and indispensable backing vocalist Kelly Hogan.
4. Espers, II (Drag City): Imagine a time-travelling ensemble
Renaissance returning to 16th century England with a knowledge of Neil Young
and mind-altering substances. This is what the contemporary Philadelphians
might sound like. By turns lilting and fuzzy, but invariably narcotic.
5. Cat Power, The Greatest (Matador): Recorded in Memphis with help from
a handful of local soul legends, singer/songwriter Chan Marshall's latest is a
low-key gem. Dreamy and ethereal, but never wispy.
6. Tom Waits, Orphans (Anti-): Whether your favourite Tom Waits is the
one who recorded Closing Time or Rain Dogs or Mule Variations,
this 3-CD, 56-track treasure trove has your man covered – from the barroom
balladeer to the cabaret crooner to the junkyard crank.
7. Feuermusik, Goodbye, Lucille (Independent): Toronto percussionist Gus
Weinkauf and reedman Jeremy Strachan clatter and blow their way through a
captivating, jazzy set of originals and a innovative take on the Gershwin
standard "Summertime."
8. Max Richter, Songs From Before (Fat Cat): Another choice that doesn't
fall into the pop/rock category. Richter, a classically-trained, U.K.-based
pianist, follows 2004's utterly beguiling The Blue Notebooks with another
impressionistic fusion of keyboards, strings, electronica and text.
9. Blood Meridian, Kick Up the Dust (Outside): As the title suggests,
this Vancouver outfit fronted by Black Mountain sideman Matt Camirand favours a
scuff-toed approach to dissenting, roots-flavoured songs about labour, religion
and romance.
10. Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped (Geffen): The New York rock
avant-gardists have always tempered their experimentation with hooks, but
seldom as unabashedly as here. Proof, yet again, that accessibility is an
overworked pejorative. If anyone has earned the right to play it relatively
straight, it's Sonic Youth.
Fifteen honourable mentions (in no particular order): Psychic Ills, Dins (Social
Registry); Califone, Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey); the Hylozoists,
La Fin du Monde (Boompa); Mission of Burma, The Obliterati (Matador);
Bob Dylan, Modern Times (Columbia); Bruce Springsteen, We Shall
Overcome (Columbia); Amy Millan, Honey From the Tombs (Arts &
Crafts); Tokyo Police Club, A Lesson in Crime (Paper Bag); Calexico, Garden
Ruin (Quarterstick); Kid Koala, Your Mom's Favorite DJ (Ninja Tune);
Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (Tomlab); Rosanne Cash, Black Cadillac (Capitol);
M. Ward, Post-War (Merge); Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit
Fur Coat (Team Love); Howe Gelb, 'Sno Angel Like You (Thrill
Jockey).
Omar Wants To 'Sing'
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
29, 2006) *Ironically,
during a five-year hiatus from recording songs, British
soul/funk singer Omar did some serious work on his singing career. The singer built his
own studio, launched his own independent record label, and did quite a few
shows. So much for down time. Off the break, Omar completed his sixth album,
"Sing (If You Want It)" earlier this year, and it's primed as the
artist's "funkiest album so far." "It's old school funk,"
Omar described of the project. "It's just a different style of soul music.
I grew up playing in bands so I like to implement that live feeling into the
music. It's like a hybrid of jazz, funk, soul, classic, reggae, Latin - all of
these things make my music what it is. You can never be sure exactly what
combination they're going to be in." Omar is certainly an artist that
can't quite be categorized, but is often shoved into the R&B slot by the
labels and powers that be. Now that he's more independent than ever before, the
singer's disc shows a lot more room to roam. "I'm the most independent
than I've been in awhile. I've got my own label and my own studio," he
said. "We've been touring without any help for the past four years now -
quite independently, comparatively, than before. And with satellite TV, digital
radio, and Internet - it's a lot easier to produce stuff and get it out to your
audience."
The new stuff he's gotten out to fans includes a few tracks laden with the
voices of some serious R&B, neo-soul, and hip-hop stars. The single
"Feeling You" features soul legend Stevie Wonder, "Gimme
Sum" features the help of lyricist Common, and Angie Stone lends her chops
on "Stylin'." Interestingly, the featured artists are actually fans
of the UK star. Wonder has been an Omar fan since first hearing him in 1992 and
Stone has been known to drop his name here and there. It's just that kind of
musician admiration that Omar says really fuels the promotion of his music.
"My experience with a major label didn't really help me out to the most
positive effect. I didn't get to as many people as I could have. [I was] not
being promoted in the fashion that I'd expected. So we just got out of the
situation and made it a better situation. So, my music travels with other
musicians and it's kind of a word-of-mouth situation," he explained.
"Musicians here in the States know a lot of my music; they're playing
their own CDs, they're playing it in the tour bus and they're playing my music
to each other. My music is being batted around like that. Then it gets filtered
down to the DJs and then to the public." Filtering his music down to a
specific genre isn't something Omar has any plans to do. His background is
laced with talents on piano, percussion, bass and then some. "I was
playing for brass bands, choirs, percussion ensembles, jazz quartets. Then I
decided to start making secular music, as they call it - something a bit more
funky. There is something for everybody," Omar said of the new disc. "The
hardcore fans seem to go for my music because it just has a different element
than the usual R&B stuff. It's got to make sense to me. It has to stand the
test of time and hopefully I will achieve that." For more info on the
Euro-star, check out his site at www.omarmusic.net. "Sing (If You Want
It)" is in stores now.
.jpg){kind=link}
Lots Of Drama At Sting
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(December 28, 2006) *Sting 2006 came to an
anti-climactic end on
Wednesday morning after dancehall deejay Bounty
Killer was prevented from going onstage to
challenge Beenie Man by security personnel and a prominent member of Beenie Man's
entourage. Although the situation was quickly defused, anxious patrons
began to file for the exits after both deejays, Vybz Kartel and Beenie Man left
the stage after a minor tussle. At least two bottles were thrown at the stage,
and a reporter spotted a patron being subjected to an efficiently executed
beating to the face at the hands of uniformed police officers. Some disgruntled
fans, obviously mistaking the backstage area for some lopsided
Israeli-Palestinian turf war, threw large stones at heavily armed cops
'roughing up' the young man. Luckily, no one was injured by the stones and no
guns were discharged in the brief face-off betweens fans and the cops.
Before Bounty Killer attempted to go onstage, the show had been going admirably
well. Vybz Kartel got major forwards from his hometown audience for hit songs
such as 'Beyonce Wine', 'Tick Tock' and 'I Neva', before calling on Beenie Man.
Beenie performed 'Roll Deep' and even apologized to Spice for the altercation
which resulted in her being 'boxed' at GT Taylor's Magnum Xtravaganza stage
show on Christmas Day. "Spice, if anything happen, mi apologise, it tek a
real man fi say sorry," he told the crowd to a mixture of loud cheers and
boos. He took a swipe at Bounty Killer when he deejayed the line which
suggested that Angel ended her relationship with Bounty when she "find out
that mouth water coulden breed har'. This remark was greeted with laughter and
cheers. However, there were scattered attempts at boos, but the cheers and
jubilant rag-waving soon drowned out the dissent, especially when Beenie Man
instructed 'mek me see the hands of mi fans dem'.
Then Vybz Kartel deejayed 'Bad From', and then prefaced the song 'Dis Bad Man Yu
Get Gunshot' with the comment that he was neutral in the war between the
long-time archrivals. Earlier Bounty Killer was his usual imposing self.
Dressed in full black, he appeared to be the incarnation of a 'lyrical Grim
Reaper' as he delivered old war tunes such as 'Lodge' and 'War', as well as new
hits, 'Bryco'. He earned great applause from the Sting crowd which was rabid
for a clash but Beenie Man failed to show when Killer called him out. Killer
made a case for Beenie Man as the continued antagonist in their now-ancient
feud. "Ruff Kut was my band and him tek it, Angel was my girl, and him tek
har too," he said. Killer performed after a scintillating,
hit-studded performance by Mavado during which the rising Alliance superstar
earned massive forwards from the 35,000 strong crowd at Jamworld
Portmore. Second time Sting performer Idonia gave a good performance
which was better than last year's set. Even though in between his set a few
patrons decided to clap him off, but that didn't last for long because majority
of the audience gave him several encores. He however was booed when he uttered
unsavoury comments about his one time manager and producer Cordell 'Skatta'
Burrell. Idonia was later allegedly arrested and charged for using
indecent language during his performance. Check out www.yardflex.com
for the full Sting.
Timbaland Prepares New Album For March
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
29, 2006) *It’s been a
minute since Timbaland has produced tracks
for his own benefit. After a 2006 that saw his work warmly received via new
albums from Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, the Virginia native will begin
2007 with his own project featuring a top secret lineup of guests. Due sometime
in March, Timbaland’s as-yet-untitled album will follow up 2003’s “Under
Construction II,” which was a joint project with his longtime partner Magoo.
The new set will explore new territory. "He ventures into the
alternative world and the real pop world," Timbaland right-hand-man Nate
"Danja" Hills tells Billboard.com. "He has so many different
sounds from hip-hop, to pop, to rock on this album. And he pulls every single
one of them off perfectly.” A possible first single, "Give It To Me,"
features his good luck charms, Timberlake and Furtado. While other guests
booked for the project remain under wraps, rumour has it that Bjork, Jay-Z,
Missy Elliott and 50 Cent are among the artists involved. Timbaland will
promote his new album next year while touring with Timberlake, where "he
will have his own spot in the show," according to Hills.
All Jazzed Up And
Nowhere To Play
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
It
was the worst of times, and the even worse times. That's
how the Toronto jazz world might well describe 2006, particularly after the seismic shock of
the Montreal Bistro closing in July. Just three days previously, packed Bistro
houses were enjoying tenor saxophonist George Coleman as part of a very
successful Toronto Jazz Festival. The jazz nation was still reeling from the
end of the 15-year reign of the Top o' The Senator in 2005, one more instance
in a series of Hogtown heartbreaks experienced by fans over the years –
George's Spaghetti House, Bermuda Onion, East and 85th, Sax on Yonge, Bourbon
St., Basin Street, Town Tavern, Meyer's Deli, The Colonial and so many more.
The venue crisis is exacerbated by the horde of hugely talented musicians
turned out annually by jazz programs at UofT, York and Humber College, taught
by front-line jazzers who'd probably rather be playing clubs. Where can the new
generation perform? The reliable Rex schedule remains crammed, bookings
nowadays made far ahead. Elsewhere, a handful of spots offer some jazz, though
for most music is not the top priority. Since the Top o' the Senator's demise,
there's nowhere musicians can work six consecutive nights and yet it's
incontrovertible that bands get better each day they're together.
It does little good to pore over the entrails of jazz clubs that went under.
There's a host of reasons for the closures, including lease problems,
insufficient income, changing musical tastes, public reluctance to pay even
minimal cover charges. Add to that the heavy attendance of jazz festivals,
no-smoking rules, anxious owners petrified by the sight of one empty seat, the
ease of obtaining music using new technologies, more demands on
"leisure" time, lack of nearby parking, and so on. New ventures have
had mixed results. A valiant attempt was made by vocalist Corry Sobol, who
opened the Red Guitar on Markham St. It changed hands in October to become The
Central, which so far has scheduled minimal jazz. Halleluia Restaurant gave up
after a few jazz nights. Hopes were high for Sopra Upper Lounge, a custom-built
space with a new stage and excellent piano above Mistura on Davenport Rd. It
opened to fanfare in the summer, with jazz booked through to December. But the
music policy quickly changed direction despite a planned procession of
high-profile CD release events. Perhaps some jazz will be heard there. Eyes now
are focussed on Opal Jazz Lounge, on Queen St. W., where Sybil Walker (from Top
o' the Senator) is booking acts for three nights a week. Pianist Bill Mays has
been there. Saxman Fathead Newman is coming. Don't forget venues such as The
Dominion on Queen St. E., The Pilot on Cumberland St., Trane Studio on Bathurst
St., and Gate 403 on Roncesvalles that usually offer jazz more than once a
week.
However, it's just possible that the misty-eyed hand-wringing will stop very
soon. Patrick Taylor, long-time executive producer of the Toronto Jazz
Festival, is actively negotiating for a downtown space less than two blocks
from Yonge that would accommodate 150 people, provide food, and host visiting
and local artists. He says he's "70 per cent there." If all goes well
it would open early in 2007. Leading musician, festival artistic director and
columnist Jim Galloway notes that "never have so many qualified jazz
players been seeking such a small amount of work." This shortage is not
just a Toronto phenomenon, he adds. Nonetheless, Taylor and Lothar Lang, who
with wife Brigitte ran the popular Montreal Bistro and before that Café des
Copains, have been scouting possible sites for a new jazz venture. "We've
looked at a number" is all he'll say right now. Keep your fingers crossed.
In fact, the Toronto jazz scene is still active. Young players are learning how
to market their skills (including discovering how to write grant applications)
in this more competitive musical climate where jazz cruises and booming Asian
cities offer employment. Local classic jazz bands are flourishing (note
Healey's has been renamed Jeff Healey's Roadhouse and moved to 56 Blue Jays
Way), the Association Of Improvised Music assists forward-looking groups, and
many Toronto churches host jazz shows and services. As well, jazz experiments
with classical artists are increasing. In addition, there are more festivals
than ever. The Art of Jazz Festival, inaugurated in May in the Distillery
District, is a brilliant addition that featured appealing headliners including
Hank Jones, Dave Holland and John Handy. A tribute to our multi-instrumentalist
Don Thompson was a dazzling affair. Emerging from the ranks to serious
Hogtown prominence this year were many players – Kelly Jefferson, Adrean
Farrugia, Tara Davidson, David Virelles, Robi Botos, William Carn, Hilario
Duran, Brandi Disterheft, Rich Brown, Carol McCartney, Chris Gale. At age 83,
Phil Nimmons remains a shining beacon to aspiring jazzers – his indie improv
album Beginnings with pianist David Braid is terrific. Also terrific is
the volume of imaginative albums put out by driving drummer Barry Romberg on
his own label, Romhog.
Performers who inspired me this year included Joanne Brackeen at the Bistro,
Russ Little at Glenn Gould Studio, veteran conguero Candido and Hilario Duran's
big band at the National Jazz Awards, Vijay Ayer, Roberto Occhipinti, Pharaoh
Sanders, Kenny Garrett and Dave Brubeck at Toronto Jazz Festival dates, Robi
Botos and Guido Basso at Harbourfront JazzFM shows, Dave McMurdo's Orchestra at
Glenn Gould. Here's a tip – listen out for vocalist Sophie Berkal-Sarbit, just
16. And spare a moment to remember 2006 departures – Jay McShann, Kenny Davern,
Bernard Primeau, Dewey Redman, Jackie McLean, Ian Arnott, Hilton Ruiz, John
Hicks et al.
Prelude And Fugue In Jazz Major
Excerpt from The
Globe and Mail - J.D. Considine
(Jan. 2, 2007) He never heard the blues. He didn't work with drummers. He
died nearly a century before the invention of the saxophone. His masterwork was
in B minor, not in bebop. So why is Johann
Sebastian Bach the jazz world's favourite
classical composer? There's not a lot of classically inspired jazz, but what
exists is overwhelmingly devoted to Bach. Recently, for instance, French
pianist Jacques Loussier released The Brandenburgs, which treats themes
from Bach's Brandenburg Concertos as if they were 300-year-old jazz
standards, while earlier last year, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones included the
fugue from Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in A Minor on their album The
Hidden Land, which makes Bach sound like banjo-spiked jazz fusion. It's
actually quite a jazz tradition, dating at least as far back as 1937, when
guitarist Django Reinhardt recorded his Interprétation swing sur le premier
mouvement du Concerto en re mineur de J.S. Bach. Since then, jazz musicians
have reimagined Bach as everything from chamber jazz (as in the Modern Jazz
Quartet's 1974 album Blues on Bach) to screaming big-band fare (arranger
David Matthews's Bach 2000), to jazzy disco (Lalo Schifrin's happily
cheesy Towering Toccata, which was the theme from the film Towering
Inferno). "Only Bach can be played in the jazz idiom without losing
something," the Modern Jazz Quartet's John Lewis said in 1990, and the
relative lack of jazz takes on other great composers would seem to bear him
out.
Beethoven and Mozart may be standard fare for symphony orchestras, but they're
largely terra incognita for jazz performances. It's far easier to find pop hits
that borrow from Brahms -- for instance, Carlos Santana's hit Love of My
Life, which takes from Symphony No. 3 -- than to find jazz musicians
who improvise on his works. Some of that has to do with the fact that classical
music after Bach tended to take a looser approach to rhythm. That's something
that doesn't adapt well to the driving pulse jazz relies on. Also, as Loussier
points out, the melodic structure of later classical pieces isn't an easy fit
for jazz. "The themes of Bach are in sections of eight bars," he says
on the phone from his home in Paris. "This is the same basis that we use
in the jazz world to play standards. The other composers -- Schumann, Beethoven
-- haven't got the same structure. They work on a completely different basis,
and they are not using tempo like Bach does with the double-bass lines."
Those bass lines, Loussier says, are the key. A typical Bach bass part
"swings by itself," he says. "Even if I play [a Bach
composition] without bass and drums, it swings. This is in the music. It is a
characteristic of the music of Bach." Indeed, it's surprising how little
effort is needed to make Bach pieces sound jazzy, as Fleck learned. He found
the Bach piece his group recorded with the help of his long-time friend,
classical double-bassist Edgar Meyer. "He played me a ton of Bach
three-part pieces," Fleck said via e-mail. "This is one that both he
and I thought would work well because of the virtuosity demanded from each
part. "We really played that piece just as it was written," he added,
saying "the jazz element was the groove that [drummer] Future Man supplied
and possibly some phrasing. We discussed it for a while and decided to just
play it straight."
In that sense, Fleck and the Flecktones were just following in the footsteps of
the most popular purveyor of jazz and Bach, the Swingle Singers. This vocal
group, founded by American expatriate Ward Swingle, actually had a Top-20 pop
album with Bach's Greatest Hits in 1963. By adding double bass and jazz
drums to wordless, "dooba-dooba-do" versions of Bach instrumental
favourites, what the Swingle Singers did sounded like some 17th-century version
of bebop. Although the vocal concept was entirely Swingle's, the jazz content
was largely inspired by Loussier's 1959 album Play Bach. "Ward
Swingle was a good friend. He came to see me, and he asked me, how did I do the
first recording? How did I use the double bass? How did I use the drums? How
did I manage to get it done? Because he told me that he had the idea to make it
with voices. So this is what he did. "The only difference with the Swingle
Singers and me is that the Swingle Singers don't improvise," he adds.
"They just make a sort of translation for voices of works of Bach. We
improvise." Still, it's much easier to improvise on a Cole Porter tune
than it is to create something brilliant and impromptu from a Bach invention,
in large part because of the standard set by the composer's own inventiveness.
"In jazz, one can aspire to improvise lines as perfect as Bach's,"
Fleck said. "It rarely works out that way."
MUSIC TIDBITS
will.i.am Working On Jackson Comeback Album
Excerpt from www.billboard.com -
Gary Graff, Detroit
(Jan. 2, 2007) Black Eyed Peas principal will.i.am was
ubiquitous behind the boards in 2006, producing tracks for Justin Timberlake,
Fergie, Snoop Dogg and Nas and earning a producer of the year Grammy
nomination. But his sights are now set on Michael
Jackson's comeback album, which is
tentatively due before the end of the year. will.i.am tells Billboard.com
he has been doing "a lot of talking on the phone, a lot of
brainstorming" with Jackson so far. Their conversations, he says, involve
more than just music but also figuring out how Jackson can use new technology,
particularly social networking sites and download outlets, to his advantage.
But Jackson's next musical direction remains a primary concern.
"Man, he still sings like a bird," will.i.am says. "He could go
anywhere. I think we have a real opportunity to do something here. It's either
gonna be really big or nobody's gonna care. Ain't no middle ground on this
one." "I like what he is doing and thought it would be
interesting to collaborate or just see how the chemistry worked," Jackson told Access Hollywood of will.i.am in October. "I
think he's doing wonderful, innovative, positive, great music." As previously reported, Akon is also rumoured to be
collaborating on the album but told Billboard.com last month that he was not at
liberty to disclose details. Chris Brown is also in talks to work on the
Jackson album, which will be his first since 2001's "Invincible."
"We got a chance to meet at the World Music Awards and we're talking
to his management about when we can set up a date to be working on his
album," Brown tells Billboard.com. "It would be an honour and a
blessing for me to work with my idol. He's one of the reasons I do my
music."
Tom Petty Not About To
Retire
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Jan. 1, 07) LOS ANGELES (AP) – Looks like Tom
Petty won't back down
after all. The veteran rocker says he's not retiring, despite a Rolling Stone
article in July that suggested otherwise. Petty said 2006 was one of the most
rewarding years in his career, and he expects the ride to continue in 2007.
"You never know how things are going to turn out, and I didn't see this
year coming," Petty told the Los Angeles Times for a story published
Sunday. "But maybe next year will be even better.'' Petty and his band,
the Heartbreakers, recently earned two Grammy nominations for their latest
album, "Highway Companion.'' Their 30th anniversary tour was a sell-out
and included a triumphant homecoming to Gainesville, Fla., where the band
formed in the 1970s. Petty was offered the key to the city. The Heartbreakers
also are the subject of a documentary due out in 2007 from Oscar-nominated
director Peter Bogdanovich. Bogdanovich calls Petty "an American
troubadour in the truest sense of the word.'' Petty is a member of the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. His many hits include "I Won't Back Down, "Even
the Losers,'' ``Breakdown,'' "American Girl,'' "Free Fallin'"
and "The Waiting.''
Nelly And Apple Bottoms Make Donations
Source: Heather Lylis, Ken Sunshine
Consultants, Lylis@kensunshineconsultants.com
(January 2, 2007) Nelly, multi platinum artist and CEO of the women'sclothing
line Apple Bottoms, announced today that he will be donating clothes to the
Allie Mae Williams Multi Service Center, an organization that provides shelter
to women and their children who lost their homes during Hurricane
Katrina. Daphne LaSalle, winner of the Apple Bottoms' model search
2006 and Louisiana native, distributed Apple Bottoms outerwear and apparel to
the women and children at Allie Mae Multi Service Center to provide them with
new clothes during the holiday season. Apple Bottoms is a clothing
line that caters to females of all shapes and sizes, females who want sexy yet
comfortable clothes, who are trendy and fashion forward. This original
brand is the mastermind of multi-platinum recording artists/superstar
Nelly. In August 2003, Nelly launched Apple Bottoms by starting a
nationwide model search for the Apple Bottoms girl, which was televised on VH1.
The jeans were so popular they sold out completely in a two-week period.
Apple Bottoms jeans are beloved by celebrities including Oprah, Vivica A. Fox
and Alicia Keys.
.jpg){kind=link}
::FILM NEWS::
Freedom Writers: Story Reveals Teens' Write Stuff
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
anuary 3, 2007) *Coming to
theatres this weekend is the
story of a teacher who used writing to inspire students who had been written off.
The film is called "Freedom Writers" and is the true story of educator Erin Gruwell and the
incidental way she encouraged students in an unconventional way.
"Freedom Writers" stars Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as
Gruwell, R&B sensation Mario, and TV's Dr. McDreamy Patrick Dempsey, among an ensemble cast of
powerful newcomers. Swank leads the cast in the story of a teacher who urges
her students to journal, and in doing so opens her own eyes as well as the
students'. While the premise appears to be a retelling of an old theme,
Director Richard LaGravenese explained that "Freedom Writers" isn't
just another "white knight" story. "What's different about this
movie is that it wasn't about a white knight who comes in and saves the day.
There's a lot of that out there." And though Gruwell had that intention to
some degree, he said, "she was misguided because she didn't know the truth
about stuff and these kids gave her the reality of what was going. What she did
that was so great was that she listened. She got to hear their stories. That's
what caused the transformations - not that she was such a great teacher, but
that she listened." LaGravenese, who also wore the hat of screenwriter for
the film, said that he was very inspired to piece together the script from the
book about the motivational teacher.
"A friend's wife produced the 'Connie Chung Primetime Live' episode [about
Gruwell's] and he asked me to watch it. I was at a point in my life both
personally and professionally
where I was disillusioned. I had no confidence and I sort of started to lose
that capacity to dream that anything else could happen. But I saw it and it got
me. And I read the book and these words of these kids just got me," he
explained. With that, LaGravenese ran with the idea, put the movie in motion,
and took on the arduous task of turning a book of four years of numbered
diaries into a screenplay. He was inspired himself and unafraid to expose the
emotion the story evoked in him. "I love emotion in movies. I love to feel
things in movies. We've been in a period of very great stylistic films, but I've
been tired about not feeling stuff and feeling so detached and removed, so I
didn't want to be ashamed of the emotion in this story. It was the only way I
knew how to tell it," he said. In regard to the emotion, it's not just the
story that jerks tears from audiences. The cast all delved into their
character's stories and showed it onscreen. As a matter of fact, Swank admitted
that though she has an Oscar and much acclaim under her belt for films such as
"Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," that working with
a cast of young novices was a great experience that taught her more than she
bargained for. "I could talk forever about [the young cast]- only two of
these kids were actually actors and the rest were just kids that they had found
- because their stories were just like the Freedom Writers' stories. Having
grown up so quickly and having seen so many intense things in their lives,
they're, interestingly enough, not bitter.
They just cut through all the B.S. and just look right at you. For me, that's
what life is about - just getting down to business with somebody and being able
to look at someone for who they are," she said. "I was just moved
every day. I have so much respect for them. And I learned so much as an
actor because they didn't have any expectations. They were just there and in
the moment. So it was just a great reminder to me and they were doing such
incredible work, I think I was challenged to stay real as an actor." One
of those young actors is singer Mario who said his own experiences helped him
perform in the role as a trouble teen. "I went to public school in
Baltimore and in New Jersey. I could relate because at the schools in New
Jersey, all of the kids were from different backgrounds. Reading the script I
saw that these kids were from different backgrounds. Back then it was a fight
for space, respect, and money - and it still is, but I feel like [these kids]
needed to be free in their minds in addition," he said of his take on the
story. Furthermore, Mario relayed that he shared personal battles with Andre,
the character he plays in the film. "I actually experienced a lot of
things he experienced,' he said of how he was motivated to portray the
character. "Being as close to his mother, but she was closer to drugs than
to him. I experienced the same thing. I put myself in his shoes and that
helped; grabbing from what I read about him in the book to what I could
remember about my relationship with my mother and my experiences growing
up." Mario, who is working on his third album, said that he was so
inspired by the story, that there is a song on his upcoming disc called
"Do Right" that relates to his role and the movie.
"It talks about my experiences growing up and why I chose to sing and not
be a statistic," he said, and explained that his motivation coincides with
that which Gruwell shared with her students. "One thing that's so special
about the relationship Erin has with her students was that from jump she was
trying to get straight to their hearts and straight to their minds. She gave them
the opportunity to express themselves. I think self-expression is a great
tool." Mario isn't the only one who believes in Gruwell's idea. The
teacher is now a motivator who tours the country with her program the Erin
Gruwell Education Project, a charitable organization that promotes tolerance in
the classroom and empowers teachers and underserved students. The film's
director LaGravenese hopes the film touches audiences and helps Gruwell's
cause. "I'm not arrogant enough to think that because of a movie, things
are going to change - and I didn't make it for that," he explained.
"I made it because I was moved by it and I wanted to tell a great story.
That was my goal. If it can spark something, maybe it can have some
effect." "Freedom Writers" opens nationwide this Friday,
December 5. For more on the film, visit www.freedomwriters.com. To learn more about the
Erin Gruwell Education Project, check out www.gruwellproject.org.
.jpg){kind=link}
Mike Myers - Intentional Man Of Mystery
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Ed
Leibowitz, New York Times
(Jan. 2, 2007) During the
past three years movie audiences
have experienced Will Ferrell as a bumbling anchorman, a clueless NASCAR
driver, a soccer coach with father issues and an IRS agent who hears things.
They've been able to satisfy their Adam Sandler cravings through his star turns
as a henpecked chef, an imprisoned NFL quarterback and an architect with a
magical TV remote. And Jim Carrey fans have been able to enjoy him variously as
an embittered lover who has his memory erased, a laid-off media executive who
embarks on a crime spree or a Lemony Snicket character. But where is Mike Myers? The last time
filmgoers could pay to see the Scarborough-raised comic's multi-million-dollar
grin was three long years ago, in The Cat in the Hat – if they were able
to get beyond a grotesquerie of whiskers, makeup and feline prosthetics. Until
he abruptly checked out, Myers, 43, was arguably Hollywood's dominant comic
force. In terms of ticket sales his three Austin Powers spy spoofs vied
with franchises like X-Men and Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings
trilogy. Yet in the years since The Cat in the Hat – a rare misfire –
Myers has virtually disappeared, though he was mentioned in the gossip pages
when he made public his divorce in December 2005. And Myers, or his voice at
least, did turn up once in theatres, when he played the lead role in the 2004
hit Shrek 2. (Audiences will be hearing it again next May in Shrek
the Third.)
But in his most notable live-action performance, during
NBC's September 2005 telethon for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Myers was
merely a bit player. Paired with rapper Kanye
West, he cringed as West veered off script to
rant about racism and national hypocrisy. Myers' decision to remove
himself from the game for a time – much as he did between the 1993 release of Wayne's
World 2 and the 1997 debut of Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery – smacks of heresy in a film industry that has made a religion of
milking its most bankable comedic stars. Myers declined to be interviewed, but
he authorized his talent agent, his friends and collaborators to provide a
composite sketch of his time away. All of those interviewed characterized this
period, which may run as long as five years, as a bid to recharge his creative
batteries as well as a reflection of his perfectionism and high standards.
"Mike is the author of what he does," said Jay Roach, whom Myers selected
to direct all of the Austin Powers films. "Like a novelist writing
a novel over a few years, he thinks up all the details and all the layers
necessary to make things work.'' David O'Connor of the Creative Artists Agency,
who represents Myers, seconded that notion. "Mike is a bit of a different
animal," O'Connor said. "If you look at the movies he's been in, in
terms of starring vehicles, with very few exceptions they are his creations.
Because they are his creations they take a greater amount of time and nurturing
and gestation."
Myers himself offered a similar explanation when describing his last leave of
absence to James Lipton during a 2001 appearance on Inside the Actors Studio.
"There's process and there's product," he said. "And when you're
too long on product, you forget about your process." O'Connor said Myers
now has three major products in the works: a comedy about a relationship guru;
a drama about the demise of Keith Moon, the legendary drummer for the Who; and
another comedy about an office worker under siege by robots. None of these
projects is likely to reach theatres until 2008. Michael Shoemaker, a producer
at Saturday Night Live, said Myers' penchant for total quality control –
originating the characters, writing the script, often producing his starring
vehicles – stems from his tenure on that show. "Here you create and
produce everything yourself," Shoemaker said. Even in the title role in Shrek,
Myers wasn't satisfied with just lending his voice and insisted on painstaking
improvements. Of the projects he is concentrating on now, the guru seems the
most deeply rooted in his imagination. In 2005 the character made his debut on
some small theatre stages in Greenwich Village, just as his Austin Powers
persona was once honed at Los Angeles nightspots. Unrecognizable in makeup, a
white wig and a yogi's long flowing beard, Myers – who called himself Pitka –
dispensed wild advice to the audience in a thick Indian accent. O'Connor said
there were two completed drafts of the script, advanced discussions with
Paramount Pictures and the possibility of sequels.
With Wayne's World and Austin Powers, and presumably with his
guru, Myers has enjoyed enormous artistic control in part because, as at SNL,
he had created his own characters. In agreeing to star as Keith Moon, though,
he cannot hope to have as intimate a knowledge of his subject as one of that
project's producers, Roger Daltrey, the Who's lead singer. Mike De Luca,
who approved Austin Powers while president of production at New Line
Cinema, is producing the third and perhaps most tentative of the current Myers
projects. How to Survive a Robot Uprising is an adaptation of an obscure
tongue-in-cheek survival guide. However, the project's screenwriters have left
to work on another project. "Mike's always about the timing and the
quality of what he's doing," De Luca said. "I don't think he minds a
long time span, if the timing and the quality of the project aren't there
yet." For another year, then, at least, audiences will have to make do
with Myers' voice as the big green ogre in Shrek the Third, his physical
absence made easier by the notion that they've been spared the blighted
vintages that might well have been the Myers product of 2004, 2005 or 2006 –
and that he's continuing to work, however deliberately, on a splendid '08.
Films That Stood Out
From The Pack
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Looking
over the year's movie releases never fails to
surprise. First of all, because of the sheer amount of movies that now move
through the local theatrical venues like so many fish being processed on a
trawler. Second, because of how many movies I'd forgotten I'd even seen. Karla.
Barnyard. Gridiron Gang. Is it possible I reviewed these movies? It's also
somewhat arresting to realize how much pure sludge manages to make it through
the theatrical sluice gates without gumming up the system for any longer than
it takes to open Friday, disappear the following Thursday and turn up on DVD a
few hours later. Why can't we see this kind of efficiency with all forms of
human-made waste? But the most pleasant jolt is the good stuff, and realizing
every year there are more that are worthy of inclusion than can fit on a Top 10
list. So here you have it: listed alphabetically and selected (as always in
this profession) arbitrarily, with a bunch of very close-calls, worth-a-peeks
and almost-rans listed alphabetically below. Submitted purely for purposes of
amusement and discussion and only to be taken as seriously as the machine
deserves.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan: There's nothing special about the filmmaking, some of the
"spontaneous" bits feel a little too contrived to be believed and
there are moments that make you wince from embarrassment for the duped and
unsuspecting. Nevertheless, no comedy went further, took more
risks or had such a well-aimed pee on Bush-era American values as this
mock-documentary showcase for the fearlessly talented British ambush comic
Sacha Baron Cohen. Plus it was funny – the hands-down, laugh out loud,
rib-bruising funniest movie of the year.
Caché (Hidden): Someone's watching the upper-class Parisian couple
played (with brilliantly understated marital strain) by Daniel Auteuil and
Juliette Binoche, but we don't know who or why. Nor do we ever really
learn. Nevertheless, Austrian director Michael Haneke's tense,
unsettling and devilishly elliptical thriller won't let you go. That's because
part of its subject is implication – the way the past eventually catches up and
collides with the present and the possibility that there's nothing more
frightening than being found out.
Children of Men: England, 2027: A fertility crisis has rendered the
world sterile for 18 years, England has become a grey-skied, post-industrial
hellhole stricken by terrorism, looting and a brutal anti-immigration
policy. Enter Clive Owen's Theo, a glib, alcoholic ex-radical who
becomes the most unlikely and reluctant saviour of humankind imaginable.
Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón's adaptation of P.D. James's only
science-fiction novel is simply a corker of a good movie. Smashingly well-made
and performed, written with wry wit and intelligence and holding a dark mirror
to the present with unwavering assurance.
L'Enfant: Working their hand-held, neo-neorealist urban working-class
groove with dazzling seamlessness, the Belgian filmmaking brothers Luc and
Jean-Pierre Dardenne once again prove the divine is in the details. The story
of an impulsive street hustler (Jérémie Renier) who only develops a sense of
moral consequence when he tries to retrieve the newborn son he's just sold on
the street like a box of hijacked electronics equipment, L'Enfant
races with the breakneck pace of a thriller but concludes with the transcendent
humanity of a redemptive fable. Truly remarkable.
Half Nelson: The sheer effort of trying to inspire dozens of prematurely
hope-deprived inner-city black kids has taken its toll on the once idealistic
teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling). Despite his intelligence, passion and
uncommon connection with the kids – and especially the dour latch-key girl
played by Shareeka Epps – Dan has filled the vacuum left by the flight of good
intentions with booze, sex and crack. (In the movie's most unforgettable
scene, Dan is found wasted in a toilet stall in the girls' washroom.) Both a
powerfully gripping character study and a powerful indictment of a coldly
uncaring society, Half Nelson turns the conventional Hollywood
inspirational teacher movie on its head. In this case, it's the man with the
chalk who needs to learn and the kids who already know too much.
Keane: Although finished in 2004, Lodge Kerrigan's intimately unsettling
study of a schizophrenic (Damien Lewis) obsessed with finding the daughter he
believes was abducted in a New York subway station, took two years to get even
the most meagre of local commercial releases. But who ever called this business
fair? Nevertheless, Keane – the name of the man doomed to constantly
relive that terrible moment – would be a uniformly engrossing experience
whenever it was released. With a fiercely convincing central
performance (by the terrific British actor Lewis), a terrifying, first-person
evocation of madness and a devastating conclusion that merely hints at the possibility
of recovery, this is a terrific movie that deserved much better.
Manufactured Landscapes: Working closely with cinematographer/filmmaker Peter
Mettler, director Jennifer Baichwal has made a movie about the work of the
industrial landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky that reflects both Burtynsky
the artist's compositional rigour and Burtynsky the environmentalist's cold
ambivalence. Concerned much less with explaining either the art or
the artist than conveying its power – Burtynsky goes to the most
environmentally blighted sites on earth to take breathtakingly beautiful
pictures – Manufactured Landscapes is a remarkably innovative if
unquestionably disquieting experience. Some movies are about artists. This one
adapts to the art.
Monkey Warfare: In the rapidly gentrifying back alleys of Parkdale, Dan
(Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright) scavenge for stuff they can sell for
pot on eBay. They're fortyish, burned-out former radicals with a past and they
live in a state of edgy mutual tolerance bound by their clouded past.
All is more or less okay until Dan buys some B.C. bud from a
counter-culturally smitten young dealer named Susan (Nadia Litz) and before
long the revolution comes home. Reg Harkema's sharply observed political comedy
has a vivid sense of place, a generous appreciation of character and a
playfully plundering street-smart technique. And it's really great to see
Toronto show its scruffy side.
Pan's Labyrinth: Just when dopey, high-minded duds like Fur and
Lady in the Water force the conclusion that no one should attempt to
blend fairy tale and realism again, along comes Guillermo del Toro's Pan's
Labyrinth. Set in northern Spain in 1944, the film chronicles
the elaborate imaginative universe created by a young girl (Ivana Baquero) sent
to live at the fascist-controlled rural estate presided over by her sadistic,
Republican-hunting stepfather (a fearsome Sergi Lopez). At once violent and
whimsical, historically grounded and conceptually daring, the movie powerfully
probes the necessary connection – especially necessary in a child – between the
escape offered by imagination and the brute reality of a life of oppression.
It's also extraordinarily entertaining, rich with unforgettable effects and
smartly aware of the world around it.
United 93: Paul Greengrass's almost unbearably tense, minute-by-minute,
you-are-there recreation of the last two hours of the lives of the passengers
aboard the hijacked plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11,
2001 is quite simply one of the most impressively accomplished movies of the
year. Focusing on the disorientation of people on the ground and the gradual
reckoning of the people in the air, the movie manages to provide an account of
catastrophe that never releases its tight focus on the minutiae of human
response or loosens its vice-grip on us. In the end, the passengers may be
admired for their self-sacrificing collective action in thwarting terrorists,
but not because they're heroes. On the contrary, no small part of the movie's
power is based in the fact that they're just people. And sometimes people can
do incredible things.
Florida Critics Honour Hudson, Whitaker, Hounsou
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 28, 2006) *Jennifer Hudson,
Forest Whitaker and Djimon
Hounsou were among the acting award recipients selected by the Florida Film Critics Circle.
Hudson and Hounsou were announced as supporting actor winners for their
respective roles in “Dreamgirls” and “Blood Diamond,” while Whitaker picked up
yet another best actor award for his role as Idi Amin in “The Last King of
Scotland.” “Dreamgirls” and “Blood Diamond” were also among the runners-up for
film of the year, which went to Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed.” The Florida
critics also gave Scorcese its directing award. The Florida Film Critics
Circle winners:
Best Film: "The Departed," directed by Martin Scorsese
Runners-up: "Letters from Iwo Jima"
"Babel"
"United 93"
"Dreamgirls"
"Blood Diamond"
"Thank You for Smoking"
"Perfume"
"The Queen"
"Flags of Our Fathers"
Best Foreign-Language Film: "El Laberinto del fauno" ("Pan's
Labyrinth"), directed by Guillermo del Toro
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou, "Blood Diamond"
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman, "Thank You for Smoking"
Best Documentary: "An Inconvenient Truth" by Davis Guggenheim
Best Animated Film: "Monster House" directed by Gil Kenan
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, "Children of Men"
Best Film Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker, "The Departed"
.jpg){kind=link}
Cate Blanchett - A Woman Of Many Changing Moods
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Simon Houpt
(Dec. 28, 06) NEW YORK — Afternoon dusk filters in through a hotel
window, silhouetting Cate Blanchett's willowy frame as she peers down at the snarl of holiday traffic
on Park Avenue 12 storeys below. A visitor is announced and she takes a moment
to compose herself before turning around. "You look a little
forlorn," she is told. "I think it's probably the natural setting of
my face," she replies, offering a wan smile. "I've just arrived from
Sydney with the children," she continues, referring to her two boys,
Dashiell, 5, and Roman, 2½ . "I think it's the longest, most hellacious
flight you can do with children." She collapses onto the couch, her right
hand raised to her head, palm outward, in what seems like a show of surrender.
The 20-hour trans-Pacific flight from her home aside, Blanchett would have good
reason to be exhausted. In the last few months alone, she's spun around the
world in support of her role as a woman dying on the floor of a Moroccan hut in
Babel and her doomed femme fatale in Steven Soderbergh's noirish The
Good German, and made her professional directorial debut with a production
of Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska at the Sydney Theatre Company, which
opened earlier this month. At the moment, she's trying hard to focus on her
role as a reckless London suburbanite in the thrilling drama Notes on a
Scandal, which opened in Toronto on Christmas Day and rolls out across
Canada next month. Last week, Blanchett was tagged as the best supporting
actress by the Toronto Film Critics Association for her role in Notes.
Oscar talk is heating up, as it is for her co-star and the film's putative
lead, Judi Dench.
But exhaustion is not a constant state for Blanchett; indeed, nothing seems to
be. Watch the 37-year-old actress over the space of an hour and she will
transform like mercury under your gaze, flitting from studious to sexy, playful
to sombre, girlish to womanly, demure to bold and back again: all built atop an
almost invisible backbone of emotional reserve. Blanchett puts a similar range
to use in Notes as Sheba Hart, a weekend artist and mother of two in a
not-unhappy marriage (to a fellow played by Bill Nighy, no less) who falls into
an affair with a 15-year-old student at the school where she's just taken a
teaching job. She complicates the error by confessing her sins to an older
teacher (Judi Dench) who, after initially offering support, takes advantage of
the information and becomes something of an emotional stalker. "It's
utterly beyond my comprehension," says Blanchett, speaking of what could
drive a woman like Sheba to cross those moral and legal lines. "What I
like about the film is it doesn't seek to justify Sheba's actions, it simply
presents them. Personally, I don't know what you'd talk about with a
15-year-old. Once someone opens their mouth -- no matter how gorgeous they are,
they start talking about rugby, it kind of kills it for me." Blanchett's
face is a canvas of sharp angles framed today by a wave of wispy blonde hair
that falls to the right side of her face and ends a couple of inches below her
chin. As she speaks, her eyes at a downward angle, you might almost think she's
half asleep. And then she looks up, eyes aflame, and her entire demeanour
lights up from within. Her voice swoops from a dangerous purr to an amused
singsong. "Once I conceived of Sheba as being somebody who was utterly
lost and adrift, and therefore quite desperate -- the fact that she had sex
with the boy in the summerhouse at the bottom of her garden, in full view of
her husband in the bedroom -- that woman is someone who wants to blow her life
to smithereens. Then there was a window in for me."
But how does someone like Blanchett get in touch with the malaise and
discontent that seem to be at Sheba's core when she is herself fantastically
fulfilled -- at least as seen from the outside? "Well there you go,"
says Blanchett, latching onto the last phrase of the question as she drops her
voice into a lower register rasp like the one she deploys in The Good German.
"We're all flawed. There's a great Auden poem -- or is it John Larkin? --
where he wakes up at 3 a.m., and looks at the wardrobe and contemplates death.
We all have those 3 a.m. moments when we wake up and we're confronted with our
own mortality and the pointlessness of our existence. To pretend otherwise is
just to be disingenuous. I mean, anyone who is devoid of self-doubt isn't
really alive." She giggles softly. "It's not that I need to get in
touch with that," she continues, "because a character is not an
expression of myself. I find that a bit repugnant. I think it's about shedding
yourself and investigating another way of thinking. I don't feel that acting is
a form of self-expression, of telling the world what I think. It's a curious
endeavour to find out the way other people think. "So it's not that I
think the same way as Sheba. But, you know, we're all flawed and fragile, no
matter what we present." Is being an actress a way of keeping those 3 a.m.
moments at bay? "I was talking to my husband about this the other
week," she says, suddenly sitting up on the lip of the couch and twisting
her limbs into a contortionist's triumph: body wrapped in a beige Marni knit
dress, legs in fishnets and supple Louis Vuitton boots.
"Look, it's a wonderful privilege to be a working actor, because you get
to have the catharsis, you have the chance to re-offend and get out there and
move through it. And I wonder, you know, if I wasn't a working actor whether I
would be as emotionally healthy. It's a fantastic outlet to kind of move
through other people's experiences. It's visceral, it's psychological, it uses
every single part of your being. I think it's meant that I could have a very
healthy private life." With three films in theatres right now (and a turn
as one of the Bob Dylans in Todd Haynes' 2007 biopic about the singer, I'm
Not There) this may be the last great flush of Blanchett we see for a
while. Recently she and her husband, the playwright Andrew Upton, accepted a
term beginning in 2008 as co-artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company,
where she got her professional start. In that office, they are charged with
programming four performance spaces as well as overseeing the company's
development arm and its educational activities for local schoolchildren.
Why take on a role like this when she has become one of the most respected and
in-demand actresses of her generation? "I'm very collaborative," she
replies. "I think that's the way I work as an actor, and the thought of
doing this with my husband -- we work very well together, we bounce off one
another really well and complement one another really well -- it just felt
incredibly natural. There are all these latent qualities I think that I have
been, unbeknownst to me, developing: my understanding of text, working with
actors, working internationally, working in both mediums. I think the
acceptance of the job meant there was finally a focus beyond myself to which
these skills could be harnessed." Directing the Pinter was a small step
toward a greater integration in the company. She will direct another play next
season, David Harrower's child abuse drama Blackbird. In A Kind of
Alaska, which Pinter wrote in the early eighties, a woman awakes from a
coma of 30 years to realize with horror that life has proceeded without her.
The difficulties of adapting to the world as it now exists are almost enough to
push her back into her comatose state. "What I love about Pinter is he
explores the difference between what we want and what we need, and in A Kind
of Alaska you're also dealing with the difference between the desired-for
reality and societal reality. Which I think is endlessly fascinating. And
memory: What do you remember and what is real?"
Fourth ‘Indiana Jones' To Begin Shooting
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Dec. 30, 2006) BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — George
Lucas said Friday that
filming of the long-awaited “Indiana Jones” movie will begin next year. Harrison
Ford, who appeared in the three earlier flicks,
the last one coming in 1989, is set to star again. Lucas said he and Steven
Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film. “It's going to be
fantastic. It's going to be the best one yet,” the 62-year-old filmmaker said
during a break from preparing for his duties as grand marshal of Monday's Rose
Parade. Exact film locations have not been decided yet, but Lucas said part of
the movie will be shot in Los Angeles.
The fourth chapter of the “Indiana Jones” saga, which will hit theatres in May
2008, has been in development for over a decade with several screenwriters
taking a crack at the script, but it only recently gained momentum. Lucas kept
mum about the plot, but said that the latest action flick will be a “character
piece” that will include “very interesting mysteries.” “I think it's going to
be really cool,” Lucas said. At the inaugural Rome Film Festival in October,
the 64-year-old Ford said he was excited to team up with Lucas and Spielberg
again for the fourth “Indiana Jones” instalment. Ford said he was “fit to
continue” to play the title role despite his age. Ford played Indiana Jones in
1981's “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1984's “Temple of Doom” and 1989's “The Last
Crusade.” Lucas praised Ford for breathing life into his character. “Mostly
it's the charm of Harrison that makes it work,” he said.
Edward Norton - The Man Behind The Veil
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
As
he politely greets the latest in a long line of interviewers on
what has been an extensive press tour for The
Painted Veil, Edward
Norton wears a tailored pinstriped jacket over
T-shirt and jeans. On his feet are beautifully tooled, soft brown leather
shoes. They leave the merest hint that this character is a class act. He
is putting in the time to promote a film he first attached himself to in 1999
after reading Ron Nyswaner's script and of which, as one of its producers and
leading man, he can be justly proud. (The movie opened Friday.) Norton plays
Walter Fane, a British bacteriologist based in China in 1925, who takes his
wife Kitty, played by Naomi Watts, into a cholera plague after he discovers her
adultery. "Ron and I made a very conscious decision to liberate the
scope of the story from the confines of the (Somerset Maugham) novel, both
physically and historically and in some ways emotionally. Maugham takes a
pretty cynical view of his contemporaries if you get right down to it. There
are rumours that he based Kitty on his wife. "I think he takes a
jaundiced view of people's capacity to change. We made the choice to imagine
these characters transcending themselves a little more than he does and
achieving a kind of romantic transcendence that they don't in the novel,"
said Norton.
As a student at Yale University, Norton pursued a long-time fascination with
Asian culture (he purportedly taught himself Japanese at the age of 16) and
studied Chinese history. Norton's buttoned-down Edwardian scientist and his
relationship with a superficial, upper-middle-class wife presented an acting
challenge: how to make their story resonate in the present. "With
these characters there was a challenge of committing to their flaws, because
otherwise they won't really have anywhere to go. Naomi had to commit to the
shallowness of this girl. I had to commit to Walter as a less than socially
adept guy and a less than thrilling lover." The way they change, finding
love once they are forced into extreme circumstances, "represents
something I think lots of people do," says Norton. As a movie, The
Painted Veil has a feel of movies made in the past, with big, romantic
ambitions. Norton was prompted to look again at Out of Africa.
"It's a beautiful film that does for you what movies can do, which is
transport you in a wonderfully visceral, sensual kind of way to a place beyond
your own experience to a simpler time. I think that is what those David Lean
films do too. They transport you and yet you still see your own longings, your
own failures, you can see yourself reflected in these things. "If you
can't imagine yourself in the story I don't think it can affect you in the same
way." Nominated for a supporting actor Academy Award for his first film
role in Primal Fear and for Best Actor in American History X,
Norton, 37, has worked in 20 films in 20 years and earned a reputation as an
actor's actor, one of the finest of his generation. He runs Class 5 Films in
partnership with his brother Jim Norton and a writer and producer.
Norton chooses his projects carefully and leans toward the literary, perhaps
the legacy of his late mother, who was an English teacher. One of the projects
he has in development is an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's novel Motherless
Brooklyn, for which he's writing the script. "Jonathan's book feels
like it's from another time," says Norton, "so we're actually putting
it in that time. We're setting it in the '50s, mixing it up with historical
events in New York so it will be sort of an amalgam of that book and real-life
events." He recently announced a partnership with Brad Pitt's Plan B to
produce a 10-part series for HBO based on Stephen Ambrose's book Undaunted
Courage, about the Lewis and Clark expedition. He has found a few
standards for projects he'll take on. "I think that most really good art
in any form that sticks around is stuff that takes the measure of its moment.
And I could say the same for a lot of things I've worked on, like Fight
Club, American History X, Down in the Valley or The 25th Hour. The
reason I made those films is that I heard the voices of people I know in
them." Norton's father Edward Norton Sr. is an environmental lawyer and
former prosecutor under the Carter administration. Norton Jr. has exercised his
social conscience in Hollywood, protesting the swag bags given out at the
Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, and calling the traffic in $35,000
handouts "shameful and disgusting." His remarks prompted an
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. There will be no expensive gift
bags at this year's events.
Driving Mr. Freeman
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star -
The check-out line at
the supermarket that says "10 Items or
Less" is where you go for quick service – and the movie of the same title
starring Morgan Freeman fits just that scenario. The film, which premiered at the Toronto
film festival in September, had a limited release on Dec. 1 in New York and Los
Angeles cinemas. Then, on Dec. 15, it became instantly available to people
elsewhere online, at www.cstar.com, through a new digital service called
ClickStar. (ClickStar, Inc. is a new digital entertainment venture between
Intel Corp. and Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment.)
"I want to make it easier for the general public to buy a film than to
pirate it," explained Freeman in an interview held during the Toronto
festival. "Life these days is propelled by technology. We're sitting on
the cusp of a whole new era in entertainment presentation." So far, the
jury is still out on the experiment. There have been numerous complaints online
about both the quality of the streaming available and the fact that the only
browser ClickStar will recognize is Internet Explorer 7.
"I'm not expecting it all to be perfect first time out of the box,"
predicted Freeman. "Things take time, my friend, especially things worth
doing." That almost stands as the motto for Freeman's own career.
The 2005 Oscar winner for Million Dollar Baby was born in Clarksdale,
Miss., on June 1, 1937, the youngest of four children. Freeman began acting in
school at the age of 8 and continued to win drama competitions throughout his
high school years. "I used to sit at the movies," he grins "and
say, `Yeah, I could do that, no problem.'" But it took him a while
to get there. He went to Los Angeles Community College and then spent five
years working as a mechanic in the air force. "I realized I needed to
learn more about life before I could really start acting," he says.
"I never regretted it." His first professional job was in 1964 as a
dancer at the New York World's Fair and then he was cast as an Inca in the road
company of The Royal Hunt of the Sun. His first original part was in a
1967 off-Broadway play by George Tabori called The Niggerlovers, where
he appeared opposite Stacy Keach, and he went from that on to Broadway in the
all-black cast of Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey.
He played Rudolph, the imperious tyrant who leads the waiters at the Harmonia
Gardens Restaurant through their show-stopping dance number and Freeman laughs
as he recalls it. "You got one step wrong or missed one beat and the whole
thing fell apart. And then you had the wrath of Pearly Mae to deal with because
you were helping to build up to her big entrance. Let me put it this way, you
never made the same mistake twice." And that started what Freeman called
"My 20 years in the wilderness. Twenty years onstage thinking that after
every successful review, Hollywood would be knocking on the door, but it didn't
happen." He kept busy at an eclectic assortment of jobs: understudying the
title role in Purlie!, appearing on the soap opera Another World and
becoming a beloved regular on the popular children's program The Electric
Company. Freeman also did a lot of work for Joseph Papp's Public Theatre,
including the title role in an acclaimed 1979 production of Coriolanus,
but then in 1987 – 20 years exactly after The Niggerlovers – he had a
double breakthrough. He opened off-Broadway in a little play called Driving
Miss Daisy, which was to take off like a rocket – onscreen as well as
onstage – and change his life. And at the same time, a film he had shot
in Canada called Street Smart earned him his first Oscar nomination.
It had taken Freeman a long time, but he had his next moves all prepared.
"I wanted to be a movie actor who morphed into a movie star who morphed
again into being a force in the industry. "Yes, I did it, but it took a
long time and to get there I had to confront people. I realized I had to stop
playing those `black actor' roles if I was to have any real power."
Freeman thinks back to a particular moment in time to prove his point.
"Let me tell you what I mean. I was asked to audition for a science
fiction movie and I read the script. It's about 10 guys. The seven scientists
are all white. The other three – the cook, the mechanic and the radio operator
– are all black. "I pointed that out to them and they asked me `What's the
problem?' I said, `I don't have a problem. I'm not going to be in your
movie.'" He looks out the window of his hotel room. "I didn't work
for a couple of years, partly as a result of confronting people like
that." When they finally brought Driving Miss Daisy to the screen
in 1989, it won Freeman his second Oscar nomination, but he was still playing a
role specifically written for a black actor, "so it didn't mean all that
much." But in 1994, when his performance in The Shawshank Redemption brought
him a third Oscar nomination "this time, it was not a part written for a
black man, so that made a world of difference to me." Freeman feels one of
his major responsibilities now is mentoring young talent, and his advice is
simple and direct. "The first move in success is knowing what you want.
Once you know that and you put it out there, the universe shifts and things
happen for you. State your real desire, because that's what you'll focus on and
that's what you'll accomplish." His face lights up. "I get a big kick
out of getting what I want." Then his voice drops into his trademark basso
growl. "I'm terrible when I don't get what I want." Watching Freeman
in action, that isn't hard to believe.
FILM TIDBITS
Blacktrospective 2006: Annual Look Back at the Best (and Worst)
in Black Cinema
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
-
January 2, 2007) *How do
you go from American Idol also-ran to
prohibitive Oscar favourite? No, don’t ask tone deaf William Hung, but
rather the irrepressible Jennifer Hudson, whose screen debut as Effie in
Dreamgirls has made everybody forget about Jennifer Holliday, the originator of
the role on Broadway back in 1981. And although Hudson is currently enjoying
all the buzz, 2006 was a banner year for breakout performance by black
actresses, a sharp departure from 2005. Who could forget luscious Lauren London
in ATL, precocious Keke Palmer in Akeelah and the Bee and Madea’s Family
Reunion, or Halle Berry look-a-like Paula Patton in Idlewild and Déjà Vu? The
list of the black actors, however, is littered with a lot of familiar names,
from Samuel L. Jackson to Laurence Fishburne to Delroy Lindo to Eddie Murphy to
Chiwetel Ejifor, though Forest Whitaker was another shoo-in for his chilling
channelling of the spirit of the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Of
course, it is also my civic duty as a critic to point out the lousiest outings
and offerings, too, so without further ado, I humbly offer the 2006 edition of
my annual Blacktrospective.
For full list by Kam Williams, go HERE.
Bond, Dreamgirls Winners At The Holiday Box Office
Source: Associated Press
Los Angeles -- The latest James Bond movie, Casino Royale, has become
the highest-earning 007 thriller of all time, it was reported yesterday. The
critically acclaimed film, featuring Daniel Craig playing the British superspy
for the first time, has passed the previous box-office record held by a Bond
movie, the $431-million (U.S.) earned by 2002's Die Another Day. So far,
Casino Royale has raked in $448-million worldwide since its opening last
month, Variety reported. Elsewhere at the holiday box office, it was a
great Christmas for Dreamgirls. The film, starring Eddie Murphy and
Beyoncé Knowles, earned $8.7-million on Christmas Day according to studio
estimates. That was good enough to push it into the top-10 grossing films for
the four-day holiday weekend, knocking the religious-themed The Nativity
Story to 11th place.
Aisha Hinds Behind Lifetime ‘Conspiracy’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 28, 2006) *Actress Aisha Hinds, best known for her
role
opposite Laurence Fishburne in “Assault on Precinct 13,” has joined the cast of
Lifetime’s drama pilot “Conspiracy.” The Fox TV Studios project follows
Samantha Cross (Lisa Sheridan), a young Washington lawyer who, after winning a
highly publicized case for a large pharmaceutical company, realizes that she
was given falsified documents and that her client was guilty. As she seeks the
truth and puts her life in danger, she learns that her prestigious law firm is
the enemy and the conspiracy is much bigger than the initial case. Hinds will
play Cross' roommate and resident rebel. She joins other newly-cast talent
Jonathan Scarfe, Gabriel Olds, Kevin Rahm, Benjamin Burdick and Sam Anderson.
Hinds, a 31-year-old Brooklyn native, will next be seen on the big screen in
the psychological thriller “Mr. Brooks.” Kevin Costner stars in the project as
a man with a murderous alter ego, played by William Hurt. Demi Moore stars as a
tough detective whose devotion to her craft catches the attention and respect
of the serial killer she is hunting, which leads to a symbiotic relationship.
ACTRA Delays Strike Action, Returns To Talks
Excerpt from the Globe and Mail -
Guy Dixon
(Jan. 3, 2007) Toronto -- The Alliance
of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
has decided to delay any strike action, which could potentially cause major
disruptions throughout the film and TV industry, and instead return to the
bargaining table. The actors' union has been in a legal strike position since
Monday in its continuing labour dispute with the Canadian Film and Television
Production Association, which represents producers. The dispute has largely
revolved around the CFTPA's efforts to create a more standardized pay scale,
particularly for low-budget productions. Although the previous labour agreement
expired at the end of the year (except in British Columbia, where a separate
agreement is in place), talks are scheduled to resume today and tomorrow in
Toronto.
::TV NEWS::
60 Minutes Won't
Replace Bradley
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
NEW
YORK – Faced with the need to replace Ed
Bradley in
the middle of the TV season, 60 Minutes won't even bother. His workload will be spread around, and, in a
unique arrangement for the CBS newsmagazine, his top producer will run a
reporting unit for stories available to all on-air correspondents. "It's a
long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities
that are expected of a 60 Minutes correspondent," said Jeff Fager,
the show's executive producer. Even before Bradley's death on Nov. 9, it was a
transition year for TV's longest-running newsmagazine. Mike Wallace has
retired, Morley Safer has cut back his hours and Dan Rather is gone. Katie
Couric and Anderson Cooper are new contributors. Bradley, who died at 65 of
leukemia, had only a year to enjoy a status of first among equals at the
ensemble. His was the first face shown during the weekly introductions, a
subtle indication of status that only Wallace had previously achieved, and he
was gone before many even realized it. "He was the king," said fellow
correspondent Bob Simon. "He had the most authoritative presence and style
on the broadcast and that's not replaceable.'' Bradley also was an off-screen
leader at one of TV's most notorious dens of competition and ego.
During the 1995 crisis that became the subject of the movie The Insider,
when 60 Minutes caved to corporate pressure and delayed a tough report
about tobacco companies, "half the office wasn't talking to the other
half," correspondent Lesley Stahl recalled. Bradley brought everyone to
his apartment and said he wouldn't let them leave until they thrashed it out,
she said. "The reaction to Ed's dying was something I'd never seen,"
Stahl said. "I've been around here a long time and there was a quality of
reaction from the public that was personal in a way I can't explain and
everyone here has had the same thing. We have all been flooded with e-mails.''
Steve Kroft inherits Bradley's slot as the first correspondent whose face is
shown during the show's introduction ("I'm Steve Kroft ..."). This,
after all the years in which he was rided as the "new guy.'' "I think
in some ways he symbolizes 60 Minutes at its best,'' Fager said.
"He is the best reporter in the business and you don't get better in terms
of writing and reporting. His stories are always good. He doesn't do
clunkers." Kroft's stories have led the broadcast three times this season,
more than any other correspondent. Over the past year, he's investigated human
growth hormones, illegal immigration, Iraqi reconstruction and organized crime
in a small town in Italy. Stahl has done a number of political, science and
business stories, including her October interviews with two high-profile women
who lost their corporate jobs. Simon, who made his way to a remote
earthquake-ravaged area in Pakistan for a story on two New Yorkers who were
treating victims, is trying to do more domestic stories. Scott Pelley,
meanwhile, has done more international work. Early in the season, Couric did
stories but has largely concentrated on the evening news since then. Cooper,
who will occasionally contribute stories to 60 Minutes while staying at
CNN, debuted last month with a story on the Abu Ghraib whistleblower.
None of the correspondents interviewed expressed any problem with doing a few
more stories this year; they're often clamouring for airtime, anyway. Fager's
ability to spread time around was a particularly delicate issue last season,
with Wallace active and Rather joining the cast from the CBS Evening News.
At the time he became seriously ill, Bradley had left behind no stories that
his colleagues will have to pick up on. Bradley's sense of whimsy, his cackle
of a laugh, will be remembered by all who heard it. Like all 60 Minutes
correspondents, he was a generalist who would mix investigations with softer
features. "The thing you reach for at 60 Minutes is to develop your
own voice, to be as much an individual in the true sense of yourself on camera,"
Stahl said. "Ed was able to show a lot of parts of himself on camera and
not block it off." At 60 Minutes, correspondents hire a handful of
individual producers who have a great deal of power, coming up with story ideas
and doing much of the reporting. The producer's name is usually on-screen
behind a correspondent during an introduction of a report.
Rather than be assigned to another correspondent, Bradley's top producer,
Michael Radutzky, will lead his own team and produce stories for various correspondents,
Fager said. Bradley's death also robs 60 Minutes of its only on-screen
black correspondent. He always saw race as secondary to his reporting, but
there were interviews with black personalities that CBS might have landed the
story because the celebrities felt comfortable with Bradley, Fager said.
Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods were among Bradley's profile
subjects. While it's important to have diversity, "I think everyone thinks
it would be a mistake to address that issue with someone just for the sake of
addressing that," Kroft said.
Top 10 Canadian Shows
Excerpt from The Toronto Star – Jim
Bawden
1. Slings & Arrows: The brilliant third year wrap up for a quality
series featuring
86-years young Bill Hutt as a Shakespearean ham, Paul Gross as a strung-out
artistic director.
2. Godiva's: Emerging stars Erin Karpluk and Stephen Lobo aced this
smart, sexy look at the staff of a struggling Vancouver restaurant.
3. At The Hotel: Director Ken Finkleman's outre version of life inside a
boutique hotel featured outstanding acting turns from Martha Henry, Linda Kash
and Maury Chaykin.
4. Hockey: A People's History from executive producer Mark Starowicz
almost but not quite recaptured the purity of vision and spellbinding grace of Baseball
by Ken Burns.
5. This Is Wonderland combined George F. Walker's scripts with a gaggle
of great turns from some of Canada's best actors.
6. In Korea With Norm Christie eerily revisited the now silent
battlegrounds of a half century and included interview with participants now
grown old and creaky.
7. Memory For Max, Claire, Ida And Company, from legendary Allan King,
showed the true greatness of the Canadian documentary tradition.
8. Booky Makes Her Mark was an almost perfectly realized adaptation of
the instant children's classic with Megan Follows in top form as a sad-faced
Depression mom.
9. The Man Who Lost Himself dramatized the real life anguish of football
great Terry Evanshen who lost his memory in a brutal car crash. Starring were
Wendy Crewson and David James Elliott.
10. Billable Hours and Naked Josh both proved Canadian producers
can make funny homegrown sitcoms when given half a chance.
Introducing Turner's
Movie Guide
Excerpt from The
Toronto Star -
"About time,"
is the way Robert Osborne describes the move
of Turner Classic Movies into Canadian TV territory last month. An added benefit: the
genial and knowledgeable film expert will be available before each TCM
prime-time presentation to describe the back story of the next movie coming up.
Robert Osborne? If you don't know him you're in for a treat. White-haired and
always impeccably attired, he wrote the coffee-table book 75 Years Of the
Oscar and last year replaced Army Archerd as the celebrity greeter on the
Oscar red carpet outside Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. But most of the time he's
immersed in movies past and present as writer for The Hollywood Reporter and
as host of TCM. "It's a perfect fit," he says of his TV duties.
"I get the list and start writing away and, every fourth week, journey to
Atlanta to tape all the introductions for a month." Osborne does 150
intros and exits every month and tries never to repeat himself. For example,
the other night TCM showed the 1958 Gary Cooper western Man of the West,
a powerful indictment against violence. Osborne told us in his foreword that
the film was the first Cooper movie in 25 years not to open first run at New
York's premiere downtown theatres. It was shipped out as part of a double bill
because critics called it too raw and filled with fighting scenes. "That
was exactly why Coop did it," Osborne chuckles. "He wanted to make a
different kind of western. But it was too much for his fans. Only now are we
seeing its virtues."
These days people watch movies both old and new on cable networks like TCM or
its rival American Movie Classics, which is also coming to Rogers Cable.
Osborne says he misses the days of the great movie palaces and admits TV and
DVD have created a new generation of movie fans who prefer staying home.
TCM and AMC started out 20 years ago, but TCM has emerged as the leader of the
movie pack, Osborne thinks, because, "Ted Turner bought his packages so he
always has had this base. AMC rented their old films and later lost
rights." These days TCM shows MGM, Warners, RKO, Columbia, Paramount and
Universal pictures made before 1949. "I thought when asked for my ninth
introduction to The Philadelphia Story that I might pass. But I did it
as a salute to Ruth Hussey, the neglected fourth wheel, Oscar-nominated for her
performance. And that worked. I'm rarely stumped for words." He once said
that preserving a film like Congo Maisie was as important as preserving Gone
With the Wind. "I believed it, still do. Because it opens a door into
our past, you can check out attitudes prevailing then." Osborne was born
in the agricultural community of Colfax, Wash. He studied journalism at the
University of Washington but dreamed of stardom. "I was going to be the
next Cary Grant," he jokes and when he hit Hollywood was taken under the
wing of Lucille Ball. "She had a group of young actors she was trying to
push along. But acting really wasn't for me," he said. "One day I was
over at Lucy's and she said `You come from a nice family, you may be too normal
for stardom, it's a lonely place.' She told me to be myself and combine my
journalism love and my show business love. It was the best advice ever given to
me. "Lucy was a close friend, so was Bette Davis; these women knew
more about the game than anybody. They couldn't bear to think of retirement.
There was nothing for them to retire to."
With TCM now holding more than 6,000 titles there's little likelihood Osborne
will ever run out of things to say about new and old movies, good and
bad. This month TCM has a Jean Arthur festival with 17 titles sprinkled
through the schedule. Sunday nights are reserved for such restored silents as Metropolis.
Island Combat is another highlight: films made about war in the South Pacific
and including such titles as Too Late the Hero, Hell in the Pacific,
Ambush Bay and Beach Red. Plus this month features "Strike
It Rich Films" (Paint Your Wagon, The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre), a Kirk Douglas mini-salute and Osborne's own favourites of the
month (including The Spiral Staircase, The Mating Season, The
Garden of Allah and Prizzi's Honor). Chances are he's already
hard at work writing up his February movie intros.
::THEATRE NEWS::
Mary Meagher, 47:
Theatre Agent
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - New York Times
NEW YORK–The email messages
and phone calls began
circulating around the theatre world two weeks ago. The news was not unexpected
– just about everyone had seen it coming – but it was still shocking in its
finality: Mary Meagher, once one of the brightest literary agents in theatre and
independent film, and a gorgeous, fiery presence on the scene, had died. She
was 47. Meagher, who grew up in Toronto, died on Dec. 9, her family said, of a
heart attack, in her Manhattan apartment. Most had not heard from her in
years, since her descent into drug and alcohol addiction had accelerated.
But in an industry full of neon personalities, Meagher stood out. Little was
known about her past, because she rarely talked about it; she seemed to have
sprung fully formed from the streets of Manhattan, wearing a miniskirt and
white heels and clutching a shopping bag full of scripts. There was above all
her voice: the accent peculiar, old-fashioned, imprecisely British; and the
tendency to punctuate her sentences with dahhh-ling and to use adverbs
liberally, as in: Oh dahhh-ling, what a mah-velously splendid play.
"I assume she was born in the same country as Kathleen Turner," said
the playwright Nicky Silver, a former client. People who first encountered her
by phone, expecting an aging British grande dame, were surprised to find that
she was a knockout, an "exotic, mysterious dame in a short skirt," as
the director Mark Brokaw described her. Her whole persona, from the paper bag
purses to the pet tarantula, was a work of performance art, a modern-day Holly
Golightly.
But what was indisputably real was her eye for talent. Her clients, mostly
lesser-known playwrights and directors when she first began working with them,
included playwright Douglas Carter Beane (Advice from a Caterpillar and
Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar), writer Seth Zvi
Rosenfeld (SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground), director
Matthew Penn (TV's Law & Order, NYPD Blue and The
Sopranos), director Brad Anderson (TV's The Wire, The
Shield and Homicide: Life on the Street) and Canadian director
Alison Maclean (TV's Sex and the City and Homicide: Life on the
Street.. She promoted them all with religious fervour. "She
was sort of the picker of hothouse orchids," said writer Jon Robin Baitz.
It was not her negotiating that set her apart; it was her conviction that her
writers and directors, these artists on the periphery, deserved a place in the
marketplace. She persuaded them of their as-yet-unrecognized gifts, and then
made sure the recognition came. She was, as Beane put it, "an
enthusiast." (Characters in several of his plays, including the agent in The
Little Dog Laughed, now on Broadway, were partly inspired by Meagher.) But
as tireless as Meagher was in convincing her artists of their worth, her
friends said, she could never do so for herself. She drank with abandon. Her
personal life, her health and her finances she treated with a reckless neglect,
all along maintaining a wit and charisma that enthralled almost anyone who came
in contact with her. Few people knew of Meagher's past, which she never talked
about. She was born in England, where her father was studying literature; after
a few years hopping from college to college in America and Europe, the family
settled in Toronto.
In her youth she was precocious and impatient, said Meagher's brother Sean, who
lives in Toronto. But her sadness was also visible early on, noticeable in
grade school pictures, the effect of experiences in early childhood that
permanently marked her. "There was a legitimate cause to her
sadness," he said, declining to elaborate. She left home and school at 17
to live with a group of literary bohemians in downtown Toronto, her brother
said. Soon after, she met an up-and-coming actor, married and moved to New
York. Her husband was determined to break into the theatre scene but moved back
to Toronto within a year. Meagher stayed, though it would be years before
they actually divorced. She worked alongside aspiring actors and writers in a
restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, learning about the life of the
undiscovered artist and, until the other waiters found out, sleeping in the kitchen
at night. When a few of the actors began working at a downtown theatre,
Meagher signed on to be a house manager. One night in 1982 she met David Guç, a
vice-president at Don Buchwald & Associates, the talent agency. She told
him she wanted to be an agent; he hired her as a receptionist. Two years
later, having worked her way up to the position of literary agent, Meagher
helped Guç establish the Gersh Agency, and she began to build a reputation as a
spirited advocate of budding talent. The William Morris Agency hired her in
1993, and most of her loyal clients followed. From her summers, which she spent
at the New York Stage and Film workshops at Vassar College, she developed an
even longer client list and moved on to independent film projects, taking on more
clients like Anderson, the director of Next Stop Wonderland, and
Maclean, the director of Jesus' Son. Work was her entire life, friends
said, morning to night at the theatre and in the show business hot spots. Every
conversation was about this marvellously gifted playwright whose work one
simply must see or this sadly awful play from last night. Her friends and
lovers were some of the theatre and independent film industry's most prominent
names – actors, writers, producers – though her energies were not focused on
domestic stability. The owner of the Jujamcyn theatres, Rocco Landesman, whom
she dated, remembered taking her to an opening-night party. She left with
someone else, but had the wit to send Landesman flowers the next day. "She
lived her clients' lives," he said. "She was totally dedicated to
them, and she really didn't have a life beyond that."
It was not a secret, those who knew her said, that by the mid-'90s, the rest of
her life was falling into disrepair. The tarantula lay dead in its cage for
weeks in her apartment. Her wardrobe was becoming haphazard, careless.
"People around her recognized that she was doomed if nothing
happened," the writer John Patrick Shanley said. Still, partly through
sheer charisma, she was able to set up her budding New York playwrights with
television and film projects, get Shanley's screenplays published almost on a
whim, negotiate a three-picture deal with Miramax for Anderson, sell Beane's
scripts to Hollywood and bring Hollywood money to the Drama Dept., an Off
Broadway theatre company. The whispering was growing, though, about her
behaviour at parties, the unpaid loans from friends, her tardiness or even
absence from important meetings. William Morris quietly sponsored a stint in
out-patient rehab, but she did not finish it, and she left the agency in
1998. Many of her clients were not ready to give up on her. Beane, newly
well-off from the movie deals she had brokered, said he paid for her to stay at
the Betty Ford Center. When she returned, Beane and Anderson created a
management firm for her, Independent Artists. "As agents," Meagher
said in a 1998 article in Daily Variety about the firm, "we
become so focused on the future, the things artists could attain but don't yet
have, that we often overlook servicing the present."
The firm did not last a year. She fell back into drinking; a boyfriend pulled
her into hard drugs. The writers who'd been as loyal to Meagher as to anyone in
the business had to tell her they were moving on. "My friends were doing
interventions with me, saying, `You have to let go, this is not healthy,'"
said Beane, who worked with her longer than almost anyone. About six
years ago Meagher disappeared from most people's lives for good. Her brother
Sean, who stayed in contact with her, said that when she'd lost hope of
recovery she didn't want to be around the people she knew. "If she
couldn't be that vibrant, vivacious asset that she'd always been to them,"
he said, "she just wanted to step away." She married a building
superintendent, who took care of her as her health deteriorated. "As a
representative," said Raelle Koota, who worked with Meagher at Gersh,
"you devote your life and energy to other people, giving esteem to other
people, boosting other people. I think Mary was sort of someone who gave esteem
to everybody else but didn't want to accept any herself."
Lights Dim For Passe
Muraille
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Theatre Passe Muraille
may have its back against the
wall. The Toronto Star has learned that the venerable Canadian
theatre institution is having trouble struggling through its 39th season and is
apparently carrying a crippling $500,000 deficit on an annual operating budget
of roughly $1.2 million. The theatre originally announced a slim season of
three plays on its Mainstage and a festival of one-act plays in the
Backspace. But the Backspace season has been cancelled and the current
cash-flow situation is causing great concern to the artists connected with the
remaining Mainstage shows. Things have gotten so dire that, shortly before
Christmas, Franca Miraglia, vice-chair of the board, sent out an email to
friends of Passe Muraille, pleading with them to write letters of support to
City Councillor Adam Vaughan whom she perceives as "very much
pro-culture." The campaign would aim to solicit additional funds from the
city's Culture Division because, "We can't afford to have TPM shut its
doors and I am therefore counting on your help in saving TPM." When
reached on the phone yesterday, Miraglia admitted that "the theatre is in
a financially critical situation, but we don't feel it's out of control and we
have five different plans in place.
"It's a situation that the theatre has been in many times during its
history," she added. Theatre Passe Muraille was founded in 1968 by Jim Garrard
and Paul Thompson and played an important part in Canada's theatrical
development, especially through collective works like The Farm Show.
Over the years, it was home to important writers such as Rick Salutin and Linda
Griffiths. And in 1999, thanks to its current artistic director, Layne
Coleman, it offered the premiere of Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy,
which went on to enormous success throughout the world. But in the last few
years, the organization seemed to have lost its way and the programming veered
erratically between dated attempts to capture the past and work that was so
experimental it wasn't yet ready to meet an audience. This October's production
of Descent was an example of the kind of show that had brought the
theatre into trouble: it received almost universally bad reviews and drew
sparse attendance. Coleman announced his resignation this fall but said that he
intended to stay around through the 2007-2008 season, which was originally
conceived of as a glorious 40th anniversary retrospective. "It would be a
shame," admitted Miraglia, "to have to suspend operations on the eve
of such a major celebratory occasion. "We want to make sure that
Theatre Passe Muraille is able to go into the future with the financial
stability it deserves." This may not seem like the most propitious time to
be searching for a new artistic director. But Miraglia claims
"super-high calibre candidates from across the country have been
applying." Sources say that the most likely candidate to take the job so
far is actor/director David Ferry, who has management skills and deep roots in
the theatrical community.
Jonathan Goad - Down-To-Earth Star
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Richard Ouzounian
(Jan. 3, 2007) If you want to know what a man is really like,
then have him tell you about his wedding. Fortunately, it's an easy topic for Jonathan Goad to remember, because he
just tied the knot with fellow Stratford thespian Adrienne Gould on Dec. 20 in
Mexico. And now he's sitting, tanned and smiling, in the offices of Mirvish
Productions, getting ready for his role as Val Xavier in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending,
which starts previews tonight at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Goad is 35 and
when asked why he finally decided to get married his answer is simple.
"First and foremost, she's the one. I knew that from the moment I met her.
I'm very old-fashioned, but I'm not a ritualist and I had never felt the need
to formalize our love for each other." Then he smiles. "But it
was important to her and that meant it became important to me."
But like everything else Goad has touched in his life, it had a certain flair
about it. Both families gathered together on a beach in Mexico and Janine
Pearson, the head of voice at Stratford, officiated at the ceremony, which
combined elements from numerous cultures. "I have a deeply spiritual but
not a religious nature," volunteers Goad, "and what happened to us
that day touched me more deeply than I ever thought it would." It's nice
to put the happy ending at the top of the story, but – to tell you the truth –
there isn't really much of a downside to this whole saga. Goad is not only one
of the most talented actors of his generation, but a profoundly thoughtful
individual who's as far away from "showbiz" as you can possibly
imagine. "Do you want to take from the world," he asks, "or do
you want to give to the world? That's a daily search for me." He was born
in Toronto East General on March 20, 1971, but his family moved to Bowmanville
when he was 6 months old. He has two older brothers, one an OPP detective and
one the head of math in a high school, and his mother was a teacher. But it's
when you look at Goad's father that you start to see where the gene pool was
leading him all along. "My dad died nearly four years ago," says
Goad. "He was my largest supporter, but in a very unobtrusive way. He
spent his life working as an engineer, but he was a serious closet artist.
"He was a jazz musician, a great actor, a gifted visual artist ... but he
was of that era when a man didn't do those things if he wanted to raise a
family. He never told me about the bargain he'd made with life in so many
words, but I knew. "At one point, after my second year at the National
Theatre School, I dropped out because I had a crisis and didn't know if I was
living my dream or my father's dream. "As I eventually learned, I was
living both of them." Goad's first stage appearance was in Grade 4 as
Cupid, a role which had been added to a community production of A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring his father. "And then
in Grade 5," Goad adds, "I did my first Shakespeare, well, sort of.
It was called Juliet and the Sundance Kid and I played a cross between
Billy the Kid and Romeo." In Bowmanville High School, Goad recalls himself
having "an insatiable appetite for everything. I played every sport,
edited the school newspaper, was prime minister of student council and played
the lead in the school musicals." After his stints as Danny in Grease,
Harold Hill in The Music Man and Jesus in Godspell, you might
have thought Goad would shoot for a theatrical career, but, as he says, "I
didn't know you could make a living in the arts, I had no idea that theatre
schools even existed."
Goad's guidance counsellor "pointed me to York. I lasted a month there.
Everybody was smoking and dressed in black. I wasn't part of that crowd."
So he dropped out for a year and then went to the University of Waterloo to
study social work. But there he also found himself doing five shows a year for
Joel Greenberg in the university's theatre department. "Finally, somebody
told me about the National Theatre School. I auditioned and got lucky. Did the
right thing on the right day." Goad was incredibly happy at NTS. Too
happy, in fact. "In the middle of my second year, I was having such a good
time that I started to feel a sense of guilt. Do I deserve this? Should I be
here? What is it all about?" For Goad, the turning point came when "I
forgot my mother's birthday. I had a ... presentation that I got consumed by.
For me it was sign of something bad happening to my priorities. "So I
left, because I said I had to do the bravest thing I could think of. In
retrospect, I think I self-sabotaged to test myself." But as always in
Goad's charmed life, fate was waiting with a safety net. "Joel Greenberg
was directing a professional production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
and asked me to be in it. It ran for nine months and by then, Stratford had
come calling." It wasn't the organization itself that appealed. "It
wasn't the Holy Grail to me. I had seen some shows which utterly blew me away
and others when I thought hey, give me a break." What convinced Goad this
was the place for him was his growing belief that he had to perform the works
of Shakespeare and others of substance.
"It all became clear to me one day when a wonderful singer and vocal coach
named Anne-Marie Donovan said `You will make the greatest effect on the world
when you show them yourself doing the thing you love to do.'" So he headed
to Stratford in 1999 and spent an intense period in their first Conservatory.
Bursting with idealism, he sprang into rehearsals for A Midsummer Night's
Dream as Theseus, with artistic director Richard Monette directing him.
"We had one rehearsal," he remembers, "and Richard said `You're
perfect.' We never really rehearsed again. "When I got out there on
opening night, I had a voice saying `You're perfect' in my head, but I never
felt less like being on a stage in my life and I thought, if this is what being
at Stratford is like, then it's bullshit. "From that moment on, I began to
develop a process for myself so that I'd never feel that empty again. I had to
figure out a way of working and it took me several years to do it. If I get
together with a tremendous director, sparks will fly. If not, I still know what
I have to do." Over the next five years, he played memorable roles from
Pericles to Hotspur, from Val Xavier to Dmitri Karamazov, earning critical and
audience raves almost every time out. But then, last season, Goad didn't
return, opting instead to work for Soulpepper and others. "I didn't like
what I was being offered," he says honestly, "and I felt I was
getting too safe, too comfortable. Yes, they asked me to play Hamlet, but in a
production where I'd be alternating the role with several other actors and I
said no. Funny, but it was one of the easiest things I ever turned down.
"It wasn't the ego issue about sharing it. I just didn't feel the concept
had been thought through properly. You always feel when Hamlet comes along
you're going to take it, but I'd rather do it in a church basement as long as I
felt we were doing it properly." He's back at Stratford this season,
playing super-villain Iago in Othello. He says it will be a thrill to
plunge from the saintliness of Christ-like Xavier in Orpheus Descending
to the satanic depths of Iago. "Good, bad, light, dark, offer me every
possibility," he begs, eyes glowing. "I want to go there. I want to
burn up the stage with every single role."
::DANCE NEWS::
Fernand Nault, 86:
Ballet Director
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Dec. 28, 06) MONTREAL – Fernand Nault, one of the pillars of Les
Grands Ballets Canadiens and a recipient of the
Order of Canada, has died. He was 86. Nault died Tuesday in hospital after a
long illness. "Mr. Nault has left his mark on Les Grands Ballets and on an
entire era," said Alain Dancyger, the Grands Ballets executive director,
in a statement. "By choreographing "The Nutcracker," in
particular, he shared a dream – a nostalgic, innocent vision u with several
generations." Les Grands Ballet paid tribute to Nault during several
performances. "We have just lost not only a great artist but a great
man" said Gradimir Pankov, the ballet's artistic director. "Fernand
Nault will remain in our hearts forever. His generosity and passion for his art
are a constant source of inspiration to us all." A teacher and a director,
Nault was born in Montreal on Dec. 27, 1920, and studied under master dancers
in Montreal, Paris, London and New York.
Arriving in New York in 1940, he stayed with the American Ballet Theatre for 21
years. Nault returned to Montreal in the 1960s at the invitation of Ludmilla
Chiriaeff, founder of the Grands Ballets Canadiens, who wanted him to share the
artistic direction of her troupe. He became known for his remarkable
choreography of the internationally successful "Carmina Burana"
during Expo 67 and for the avant-garde rock ballet of The Who's
"Tommy" in 1970. These innovative works contributed to attracting a
younger audience to the Grands Ballets at a crucial period in its development.
Nault also created the popular Nutcracker ballet for the Grands Ballets, which
is presented each year during the holidays. Nault, who was named a member of
the Order of Canada in 1977, also choreographed works for the Alberta Ballet,
the National Ballet of Korea, and the ballet companies in Atlanta and
Washington. He was named to the Order of Quebec in 1990 and given a Governor
General's performing arts award in 2000.
::OTHER NEWS::
Altman, Winters, and the Godfather of Soul
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
Polly Anderson, Associated Press
(Dec. 30, 2006) In films such as “Nashville,” Robert Altman constructed a
complex world, interweaving a large ensemble of players, famous and unknown, to
portray human beings in all their wisdom and folly. Celebrated for his vivid characters,
his realistic use of overlapping dialogue, his pungent blend of humour and
drama, and his stubborn independence from Hollywood norms, Altman died in
November at age 81. Katherine Dunham, who died in May at 96, was another
artistic independent. As a dancer and choreographer, she brought African and
Caribbean influences to America's European-dominated dance world. She also was
an activist who, in her 80s, staged a hunger strike to protest to protest U.S.
policy toward Haitian refugees. James Brown, dead on Christmas Day at 73, was
celebrated for the energy and flamboyance of his performances and the
incalculable influence he had on fellow musicians in the rock, soul and rap
worlds.
They are just three of the exceptional artists
and entertainers who died in 2006. Others included
Shelley Winters, who went from blond bombshell to Oscar-winning dramatic
actress; smooth soul singer Lou Rawls; playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who
portrayed the contradictions of the modern woman seeking to juggle life, love and
fulfillment; and journalist Ed Bradley of “60 Minutes,” who interviewed
everyone from Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to music legend Lena Horne.
Here is a roll call of some of the notables in the arts and popular culture who
died in 2006. (Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)
JANUARY:
Raul Davila, 74. Played Hector Santos on “All My Children” in the 1990s. Jan.
2.
Irving Layton, 93. Famed poet and officer
of the Order of Canada. Jan. 4.
Lou Rawls, 72. Velvet-voiced singer of such hits as “Love Is a
Hurtin' Thing.” Jan. 6.
Jack Mabley, 90. Longtime Chicago newspaperman; wrote thousands of columns.
Jan. 7.
Don Stewart, 70. Actor (“Guiding Light.”) Jan. 9.
Shelley Winters, 85. The forceful, outspoken star who won two Oscars (“The
Diary of Anne Frank”.”) Jan. 14.
Wilson Pickett, 64. Fiery soul music pioneer (“Mustang Sally.”)
Jan. 19.
Anthony Franciosa, 77. Actor (“A Face in the Crowd.”) Jan. 19.
Janette Carter, 82. Country performer; last surviving child of the Carter Family.
Jan. 22.
William Rubin, 78. Director of painting and sculpture at Museum of Modern Art.
Jan. 22.
Fayard Nicholas, 91. With brother Harold, he wowed the tap
dancing world, inspiring dancers from Fred Astaire to Savion Glover. Jan. 24.
Chris Penn, 40. Actor (“Reservoir Dogs”); brother of Sean. Jan. 24. Enlarged
heart; multiple medications.
Endesha Ida Mae Holland, 61. Her autobiographical play “From the
Mississippi Delta” told how the civil rights movement inspired her. Jan. 25.
Gene McFadden, 56. R&B singer, songwriter (“Ain't No
Stoppin' Us Now.”) Jan. 27. Cancer.
Arthur Bloom, 63. TV news director who helped found “60 Minutes”; his stopwatch
used for its ticking image. Jan. 28.
Nam June Paik, 74. Avant-garde artist credited with inventing video art,
combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music, live performers. Jan. 29.
Wendy Wasserstein, 55. Playwright who celebrated women's lives (“The Heidi
Chronicles.”) Jan. 30. Lymphoma.
Moira Shearer, 80. British ballerina and actress whose debut film, “The Red
Shoes,” created a sensation. Jan. 31.
FEBRUARY:
Al Lewis, 82. Grandpa on “The Munsters.” Feb. 3.
Reuven Frank, 85. Former NBC News president; helped early newscasts adopt more
visual approach. Feb. 5.
Franklin Cover, 77. Actor; played the white neighbour on “The Jeffersons.” Feb.
5.
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, 80. Comic actor in John Wayne films. Feb. 6.
Akira Ifukube, 91. Japanese composer; added menacing music to Godzilla films.
Feb. 8.
Mart Kenney, 95. “Canada’s Big Band King,”
led one of the most popular Canadian swingbands of the 1930s and 1940s. Feb. 8.
Phil Brown, 89. Luke Skywalker's loving, doomed Uncle Owen in “Star Wars.” Feb.
9.
J Dilla, 32. Hip-hop producer for such artists as A Tribe Called
Quest. Feb. 10. Complications of lupus.
Juan Soriano, 85. Mexican painter and sculptor. Feb. 10.
Peter Benchley, 65. His 1974 novel, “Jaws,” made millions think twice about
stepping into the water. Feb. 11.
Jockey Shabalala, 62. Member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Feb.
11.
Rickie Layne, 81. Ventriloquist whose dummy, Velvel, had a Yiddish accent. Feb.
11.
Andreas Katsulas, 59. Character actor; one-armed man in 1993 film “The
Fugitive.” Feb. 13. Lung cancer.
Shoshana Damari, 83. Israel's beloved “queen of Hebrew music.” Feb. 14.
William Cowsill, 58. Lead singer of The Cowsills family singing group. Feb. 17.
Ray Barretto, 76. Grammy-winning Latin jazz percussionist. Feb.
17.
Richard Bright, 68. Enforcer Al Neri in “Godfather” movies. Feb. 18.
Gordon Sheppard, 68. Canadian filmmaker and
author of 2003 documentary novel HA:
A Self-Murder Mystery, about his friend, the
writer Hubert Aquin. Feb. 19.
Curt Gowdy, 86. Sportscaster; called 13 World Series, 16 All-Star games, first
Super Bowl. Feb. 20.
Bruce Hart, 68. Lyricist (“Sesame Street” theme.) Feb 21.
Anthony Burger, 44. Gospel music pianist. Feb. 22. Suspected heart attack.
Dennis Weaver, 81. Chester on “Gunsmoke”; the cop hero in “McCloud.” Feb. 24.
Don Knotts, 81. Won five Emmys for “The Andy Griffith Show.” Feb. 24.
Octavia E. Butler, 58. First black woman to gain prominence as
science fiction writer (“Kindred.”) Feb. 24.
Darren McGavin, 83. Tough-talking actor; grouchy dad in “A Christmas Story.”
Feb. 25.
Margaret Gibson, 57. Toronto novelist and
short-story writer whose work formed the basis for Craig Russell movie Outrageous! Feb.
25.
Bill Cardoso, 68. Writer who coined “gonzo” to describe Hunter Thompson's
journalism. Feb. 26.
Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, 97. Wrote “God Is My Co-Pilot” about his
war exploits. Feb. 27.
MARCH:
Jack Wild, 53. Actor; received Oscar nomination for “Oliver!”; hero of TV
series “H.R. Pufnstuf.” March 1. Cancer.
Al Harris, 84. "Smiling Al,"
named Canada's best guitarist at age 18, entertained in bands during the 1940s
and 1950s, playing with everyone from Tommy Hunter to Marlene Dietrich. March
4.
Dana Reeve, 44. Actress-singer; widow of Christopher Reeve. March 6. Lung
cancer.
Ali Farka Toure, about 66. Famed African musician; two-time
Grammy winner. March 7.
Gordon Parks, 93. Life photographer, then Hollywood's first
major black director (“Shaft,” “The Learning Tree.”) March 7.
Anna Moffo, 73. Opera soprano hailed for her glamorous looks as much as her
singing. March 10.
Peter Tomarken, 63. Host of 1980s game show “Press Your Luck.” March 13.
Maureen Stapleton, 80. Oscar-winning actress who excelled on stage, screen, and
television. March 13.
Ann Calvello, 76. “Roller Derby Queen” known for intimidating rivals,
teammates. March 14.
David Blume, 74. Record producer, songwriter (“Turn Down Day.”) March 15.
Narvin Kimball, 97. Last founding member of New Orleans'
Preservation Hall Jazz Band. March 17.
Oleg Cassini, 92. Fashion designer known for dressing Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis. March 17.
Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., 78. Producer of television documentaries. March 21.
Sarah Caldwell, 82. Hailed as first lady of opera for her adventurous
productions. March 23.
Buck Owens, 76. Flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped country music with hits
like “Act Naturally.” March 25.
Richard Fleischer, 89. Film director (”20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”) March
25.
Nikki Sudden, 49. British musician, a cult favourite. March 26.
Dan Curtis, 78. TV producer, director (“The Winds of War.”) March 27.
Britt Lomond, 80. Played dastardly Capitan Monastario in 1950s TV series
“Zorro.” March 22.
Henry Farrell, 85. Wrote “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”, spurring a horror
genre. March 29.
John McGahern, 71. Irish novelist (“That They May Face the Rising Sun.”) March 30.
Gloria Monty, 84. “General Hospital” producer. March 30.
Jackie McLean, 73. Jazz saxophonist (“Jackie's Bag.”) March 31.
APRIL:
Gene Pitney, 66. Singer with a string of hits (“Town Without Pity.”) April 5.
Allan Kaprow, 78. Artist who pioneered the unrehearsed form of theatre called a
“happening.” April 5.
Vilgot Sjoman, 81. Swedish director of explicit films such as “I Am Curious
(Yellow)”. April 9.
June Pointer, 52. Youngest of hitmaking Pointer Sisters (“I'm So
Excited.”) April 11. Cancer.
Raj Kumar, 77. Beloved Indian movie star. April 12.
Dame Muriel Spark, 88. British novelist (“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”)
April 13.
Morton Freedgood, 93. Bestselling author (“The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”)
under pen name John Godey. April 16.
Scott Brazil, 50. Emmy-winning producer-director (“Hill Street Blues.”) April
17. Lou Gehrig's, Lyme disease complications.
Henderson Forsythe, 88. Won Tony for role as sheriff in “The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas.” April 17.
Ellen Kuzwayo, 91. South African author (“Call Me Woman.”) April
19.
Elaine Young, 71. Real estate agent to Hollywood stars. April 20.
Alida Valli, 84. Italian actress; co-starred in 1949 classic “The Third Man.”
April 22.
William P. Gottlieb, 89. Photographer of jazz greats. April 23.
Phil Walden, 66. Capricorn Records co-founder; launched careers of Otis
Redding, Allman Brothers. April 23.
“Pem” Farnsworth, 98. Helped husband Philo invent television. April 27.
Jay Bernstein, 69. Hollywood publicist, manager; helped turn Farrah Fawcett
into household name. April 30.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 81. Indonesian author, democracy advocate. April 30.
MAY:
Jay Presson Allen, 84. Adapted “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” for stage,
screen. May 1.
Johnny Paris, 65. Had hits (“Red River Rock”) with Johnny & the Hurricanes.
May 1.
Louis Rukeyser 73. Public TV host known for commonsense commentary on business.
May 2.
Karel Appel, 85. A founder of influential COBRA art group. May 3.
Lorne Saxberg, 48. CBC broadcaster. May 6.
Soraya, 37. Grammy-winning Colombian-American singer (“Solo Por Ti.”) May 10.
Breast cancer.
Val Guest, 94. British director, screenwriter (“The Quatermass Xperiment.”) May
10.
Frankie Thomas, 85. Hero of 1950s TV show “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.” May 11.
Ted Berkman, 92. Author, screenwriter (“Bedtime for Bonzo.”) May 12.
Johnnie Wilder Jr., 56. Soulful lead singer of R&B band
Heatwave (“Always and Forever.”) May 13.
Lew Anderson, 84. Gave “Howdy Doody Show” viewers a tearful goodbye as final
Clarabell the Clown. May 14.
Stanley Kunitz, 100. Former U.S. poet laureate, Pulitzer winner. May 14.
Mary Ritts, 95. With husband, created the Ritts Puppets act seen on children's
TV shows. May 14.
Cheikha Rimitti, 83. Algerian singer who works dealt boldly with sexuality and
oppression. May 15.
Dan Q. Kennis, 86. Producer of oddball films. (“I Spit on Your Corpse!”) May
17.
Cy Feuer, 95. Co-producer of Broadway smashes (“Guys and Dolls.”) May 17.
Freddie Garrity, 69. Lead singer of 1960s British band Freddie and the Dreamers
(“I'm Telling You Now.”) May 19.
Katherine Dunham, 96. Choreographer who brought African
influences to U.S. dance. May 21.
Billy Walker, 77. Grand Ole Opry star (“Charlie's Shoes.”) May 21.
Marshall Fishwick, 82. Pioneer in the study of popular culture. May 22.
Ian Copeland, 57. Rock entrepreneur who represented The Police, Go-Go's. May
23. Melanoma.
Robert Giaimo, 86. Connecticut congressman who helped create national endowment
for the arts. May 24.
Henry Bumstead, 91. Oscar-winning production designer (“To Kill a
Mockingbird.”) May 24.
Desmond Dekker, 64. Brought Jamaican ska music to wide audience
(“Israelites.”) May 25.
Paul Gleason, 67. Actor; the bad guy in “Trading Places.” May 27.
Alex Toth, 77. Comic and cartoon artist (“Space Ghost.”) May 27.
Arthur Widmer, 92. Won Academy Award for developing technology for special
effects. May 28.
Robert Sterling, 88. Actor; appeared in the ghostly 1950s comedy series
“Topper.” May 30.
Shohei Imamura, 79. Japanese director twice honoured with the top prize at
Cannes (“The Ballad of Narayama.”) May 30.
Ralph Epperson, 85. North Carolina radio station owner who championed mountain
music. May 31.
JUNE:
Rocio Jurado, 61. Singer-actress; beloved figure in Spain and Latin America.
June 1.
Vince Welnick, 55. Grateful Dead keyboard player in the 1990s; also with the
Tubes (“White Punks on Dope.”) June 2. Suicide.
Leon Pownall, 63. Wales-born actor well
known for his stage appearances across Canada (notably Stratford) as well as
his work on television and film (Dead
Poets Society). June 2.
Johnny Grande, 76. An original member of Bill Haley and His Comets (“Rock
Around the Clock.”) June 3.
Billy Preston, 59. Exuberant keyboardist and singer (“Nothing
From Nothing”); played with the Beatles and Rolling Stones. June 6. Heart
infection; kidney failure.
Arnold Newman, 88. Photographer of artists and politicians. June 6.
Hilton Ruiz, 54. Jazz pianist, composer. June 6. Injured in a
fall.
Ingo Preminger, 95. Producer of “M-A-S-H”; Otto's brother. June 7.
Kenneth Thomson, 82. Billionaire Canadian
media mogul and art collector. June 12.
Barbara Epstein, 76. She edited the original U.S. version of “The Diary of Anne
Frank.” June 16.
Vincent Sherman, 99. Hollywood filmmaker (“The Adventures of Don Juan.”) June
18.
Claydes Charles Smith, 57. Lead guitarist for Kool & the
Gang (“Joanna,” “Celebration.”) June 20.
Aaron Spelling, 83. TV impresario (“Beverly Hills 90210”). June 23.
Lyle Stuart, 83. Publisher of such oddities as “The Anarchist Cookbook.” June
24.
Arif Mardin, 72. Grammy Award-winning producer; worked with
Aretha Franklin. June 25.
Lennie Weinrib, 71. Actor, writer (“H.R. Pufnstuf.”) June 28.
George Page, 71. Creator, host of PBS series “Nature.” June 28.
Lloyd Richards, 87. Theatre director (“A Raisin in the Sun”).
June 29.
JULY:
Irving Green, 90. Co-founder of Mercury Records; promoted Sarah
Vaughan, Dinah Washington. July 1.
Jan Murray, 89. Comic who tickled fans of 1950s game show “Treasure Hunt.” July
2.
Benjamin Hendrickson, 55. Daytime Emmy winner for “As the World Turns.” July 3.
Suicide.
Hugh Stubbins Jr., 94. Architect (Citigroup Center in New York). July 5.
Kasey Rogers, 80. Actress (“Strangers on a Train.”) July 6.
Syd Barrett, 60. Co-founder of Pink Floyd (“The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.”)
July 7.
June Allyson, 88. Actress, Hollywood's “perfect wife.” July 8.
Milan B. Williams, 58. One of the original members of the
Commodores (“Three Times a Lady.”) July 9. Cancer.
Bill Miller, 91. Frank Sinatra's longtime pianist. July 11.
Barnard Hughes, 90. Actor who won Tony for “Da.” July 11.
Red Buttons, 87. Actor-comedian; won Oscar with a dramatic turn in “Sayonara.”
July 13.
Carrie Nye, 69. Stage actress (“Half a Sixpence.”) July 14.
Harold R. Scott Jr., 70. Stage actor and director (“Paul Robeson.”) July 16.
Mickey Spillane, 88. Mystery writer. July 17.
Jack Warden, 85. Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated actor (“Heaven Can Wait.”). July
19.
Mako, 72. Japan-born actor nominated for Oscar (“The Sand Pebbles”) and Tony
(“Pacific Overtures.”) July 21.
Jessie Mae Hemphill, 71. Blues musician; won several W.C. Handy Awards. July
22.
AUGUST:
Bob Thaves, 81. Creator of comic strip “Frank & Ernest.” Aug. 1.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 90. Soprano. Aug. 3.
Arthur Lee, 61. Singer, songwriter for the 1960s band Love (“Forever Changes.”)
Aug. 3. Leukemia.
Aaron Brock, 31. Toronto concert guitarist
and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music was hailed as one of the most
promising guitarists of his generation. Aug. 3.
Melissa Hayden, 83. Canadian-born
ballerina, principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Aug. 9.
Mike Douglas, 81. TV talk show host and singer (“The Men in My Little Girl's
Life.”) Aug. 11.
Mazisi Kunene, 76. First poet laureate of a democratic South
Africa. Aug. 11.
Bruno Kirby, 57. Character actor (“When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers.”)
Aug. 14.
Johnny Duncan, 67. Country singer (“She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed
Anytime.”) Aug. 14.
Walter Sullivan, 82. Novelist (“A Time to Dance”), authority on Southern
literature. Aug. 15.
Walter E. Jagiello, 76. Singer known as “Lil' Wally the Polka King.” Aug. 17.
Joseph Hill, 57. Vocalist, songwriter for reggae group Culture (“Natty Never
Get Weary.”) Aug. 19.
Joe Rosenthal, 94. Associated Press photojournalist who took picture of
flag-raising on Iwo Jima. Aug. 20.
Bruce Gary, 55. Drummer with The Knack (“My Sharona”), session man. Aug. 22.
Lymphoma.
Frank Lennon, 79. Legendary Toronto Star
photographer who recorded Paul Henderson celebrating his winning goal in the
Summit Series. Aug. 22.
Maynard Ferguson, 78. Canadian jazz
trumpeter known for his soaring high notes. Aug. 23.
Leonard Levy, 83. Toronto-born U.S.
constitutional historian and author, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer for History
for his Origins of the Fifth Amendment. Aug. 24.
Léopold Simoneau, 90. Québècois lyric
tenor, educator and Officer of the Order of Canada. Aug. 24.
Joseph Stefano, 84. Writer of “Psycho” screenplay. Aug. 25.
Ed Benedict, 94. Animator who put life into Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear. Aug.
28.
Naguib Mahfouz, 94. First Arab writer to win Nobel Prize in literature. Aug.
30.
Glenn Ford, 90. Actor (“The Blackboard Jungle,” “Gilda.”) Aug. 30.
Naguib Mahfouz, 94. First Arab writer to win Nobel Prize in
literature. Aug. 30.
Glenn Ford, 90. Canadian-American film
actor who played strong, thoughtful protagonists (The Blackboard Jungle).
Aug. 30.
SEPTEMBER:
Gyorgy Faludy, 95. Poet, translator considered one of Hungary's
greatest literary figures. Sept. 1.
Willi Ninja, 45. Dancer immortalized in “Paris Is Burning.” Sept. 2. AIDS
complications.
John Conte, 90. Actor (“The Man With the Golden Arm.”) Sept. 4.
Steve Irwin, 44. Television's irrepressible “Crocodile Hunter.”
Sept 4. Sting ray attack.
Robert Earl Jones, 96. Actor; father of James Earl Jones. Sept. 7.
Daniel Smith, 20. Anna Nicole Smith's son. Sept 10. Lethal combination of
drugs.
Bennie Smith, 72. St. Louis guitarist, played with stars like
Chuck Berry. Sept. 10.
Pat Corley, 76. Actor; Phil the barkeep on “Murphy Brown.” Sept. 11.
Joseph Hayes, 88. Author of the novel “The Desperate Hours,” also wrote
Tony-winning play, Hollywood screenplay based on it. Sept. 11.
Edna Staebler, 100. Canadian author of
cookbook series, Food That Really
Schmecks, based on Mennonite
home cooking from the Waterloo area. Sept. 12.
Mickey Hargitay, 80. Actor, bodybuilder; husband of Jayne Mansfield, father of
actress Mariska Hargitay. Sept 14.
Oriana Fallaci, 76. Italian journalist noted for probing interviews with
powerful people. Sept. 15.
Patricia Kennedy Lawford, 84. Her marriage to Peter Lawford lent Hollywood
glamour to the Kennedy dynasty. Sept. 17.
Danny Flores, 77. Played saxophone and shouted “tequila!” on
1950s hit “Tequila!” Sept. 19.
Joe Glazer, 88. Singer-songwriter who rallied union loyalists (“The Mills
Weren't Made of Marble.”) Sept. 19.
Elizabeth Allen, 77. Actress; nominated for Tony for “Do I Hear a Waltz?” Sept.
19.
Sven Nykvist, 83. Oscar-winning Swedish cinematographer; worked with Ingmar
Bergman, Woody Allen. Sept. 20.
Edward Albert, 55. Actor (“Butterflies Are Free.”) Sept. 22. Lung cancer.
Sir Malcolm Arnold, 84. British composer; won Oscar for “Bridge on the River
Kwai.” Sept. 23.
Etta Baker, 93. Influential blues guitarist; recorded with Taj
Mahal. Sept. 23.
Maureen Daly, 85. Noted for 1942 coming-of-age novel “Seventeenth Summer.”
Sept. 25.
Ralph Story, 86. Host of 1950s quiz show “The $64,000 Challenge.” Sept. 26.
“Uncle Josh” Graves, 79. His bluesy playing adorned hundreds of bluegrass,
country records. Sept. 30.
Prentiss Barnes, 81. Singer with the Moonglows (“Ten Commandments of Love.”)
Sept. 30.
Isabel Bigley, 80. Won Tony for role in “Guys and Dolls.” Sept. 30.
OCTOBER:
Tamara Dobson, 59. Actress; played Cleopatra Jones in two
blaxploitation films. Oct. 2. Multiple sclerosis, pneumonia.
Jackie Rae, 84, Canadian singer, songwriter
and host of CBC-TV's Jackie Rae Show in 1950s. Oct. 5.
Heinz Sielmann, 89. Zoologist, documentary filmmaker (“Vanishing
Wilderness.”) Oct. 6.
Jerry Belson, 68. Emmy-winning comedy writer (“The Tracey Ullman Show.”) Oct.
10.
Gillo Pontecorvo, 86. Directed “The Battle of Algiers,” 1966 epic on Algerian
uprising against the French. Oct. 12.
Freddy Fender, 69. Texas' “Bebop Kid”; sang the smash country ballad “Before
the Next Teardrop Falls.” Oct. 14.
Herbert B. Leonard, 84. TV producer (“Naked City.”) Oct. 14.
Gino Empry, 83, Canadian publicist and
promoter. Oct. 14.
Sid Adilman, 68. Longtime Toronto Star
entertainment journalist and arts advocate. Oct. 15.
Lister Sinclair, 85. Broadcaster and
playwright, considered a Canadian renaissance man. Oct. 16.
Anna Russell, 94, British/Canadian comedian
and classical music satirist. Oct. 18.
Lindalee Tracey, 49. The principal subject
of Not a Love Story: a Film about
Pornography became a TV host and
award-winning Canadian author and filmmaker. Oct. 19.
Sid Davis, 90. Produced quirky educational films warning
youngsters of the dangers of drugs, running with scissors. Oct. 16.
Lister Sinclair, 85. Broadcaster and playwright, considered one of Canada's
renaissance men. Oct. 16.
Christopher Glenn, 68. CBS correspondent, announcer; voice of children's program
“In the News.” Oct. 17.
Miriam Engelberg, 48. Graphic author; found improbable humour in her fight with
cancer (“Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person.”) Oct. 17.
Spoony Singh, 83. His Hollywood Wax Museum gave tourists the next best thing to
a real celebrity. Oct. 18.
Phyllis Kirk, 79. Actress who was stalked by Vincent Price in the horror film
“House of Wax.” Oct. 19.
Jane Wyatt, 96. Actress who for six years on “Father Knows Best” was one of
TV's favourite moms. Oct. 20.
Sandy West, 47. Drummer with the influential '70s rock band the Runaways
(“Cherry Bomb.”) Oct. 21. Lung cancer.
Arthur Hill, 84. Character actor; had title role in the early 1970s series
“Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.” Oct. 22.
Lawrence W. Levine, 73. Cultural historian (“Black Culture and Black
Consciousness.”) Oct. 23.
Marijohn Wilkin, 86. Country songwriter (“The Long Black Veil.”) Oct. 28.
NOVEMBER:
Buddy Killen, 73. Nashville songwriter (“I May Never Get to Heaven”) and
producer; helped launch Dolly Parton's career. Nov. 1.
William Styron, 81. Pulitzer-winning novelist (“The Confessions of Nat
Turner.”) Nov. 1.
Florence Klotz, 86. Tony-winning costume designer (“Follies.”) Nov. 1.
Paul Mauriat, 81. Conductor whose “Love Is Blue” topped U.S. charts in 1968.
Nov. 3.
Robert Allen, 60. Montreal poet who
authored 13 books of poetry, the last of which was Ricky Ricardo Suites (2000).
Nov. 3.
Marian Grudeff, 79. Canadian concert
pianist and Broadway composer whose work was recorded by both Louis Armstrong
and Richard Burton. Nov. 4.
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, 98. Her memoir on life with 11 siblings,
“Cheaper by the Dozen,” inspired several films. Nov. 4.
Ed Bradley, 65. TV journalist with “60 Minutes.” Nov. 9.
Ellen Willis, 64. Feminist author; New Yorker's first rock critic. Nov. 9. Lung
cancer.
Marian Marsh, 93. Doll-faced actress; the milkmaid mesmerized by John Barrymore
in “Svengali.” Nov. 9.
Jack Palance, 87. Hollywood heavy (“Shane”) who turned successfully to comedy,
winning Oscar for “City Slickers.” Nov. 10.
Gerald Levert, 40. Fiery R&B singer (“Casanova”); son of
O'Jays singer Eddie Levert. Nov. 10.
George Blackburn (1917-2006) playwright, author (Guns of
Normandy), lyricist, composer and winner of a Military Cross for defending a
bridgehead in Holland WWII. Nov. 15.
Ruth Brown, 78. Grammy and Tony-award-winning singer (“Teardrops in My Eyes.”)
Nov. 17.
Jeremy Slate, 80. Actor (“Hell's Angels '69.” Nov. 19.
Robert Altman, 81. Caustic Hollywood director (“Nashville.”) Nov. 20.
Chris Hayward, 81. Emmy-winning TV writer (“The Munsters,” “He & She.”)
Nov. 20.
Robert Lockwood Jr., 91. Mississippi Delta blues guitarist (“I
Got to Find Me a Woman.”) Nov. 21.
John Allan Cameron, 67. Pioneer of Celtic
music in Canada. Nov. 22
Philippe Noiret, 76. French actor “Il Postino” (“The Postman”). Nov. 23.
Betty Comden, 89. Her collaboration with Adolph Green produced “On the Town,”
“Singin' in the Rain.” Nov. 23.
Anita O'Day, 87. One of the most respected jazz vocalists of the
1940s. Nov. 23.
William Diehl, 81. Best-selling novelist (“Primal Fear.”) Nov. 24.
Robert McFerrin Sr., 85. First black man to sing solo at the
Metropolitan Opera; father of Bobby McFerrin. Nov. 24.
Dave Cockrum, 63. Comic book illustrator who in the 1970s overhauled the X-Men.
Nov. 26.
Robert (H-Bomb) Ferguson, 77. A bluesman and pianist who urged listeners to
“rock baby rock.” Nov. 26.
Larry Henderson, 89. Canadian TV's first
national news host on the CBC
National News in 1954, later editor of
the Catholic Register. Nov. 26.
Bebe Moore Campbell, 56. Best-selling author (“Brothers and
Sisters.”) Nov. 27. Brain cancer.
Don Butterfield, 83. Tuba player who performed with such stars as Dizzy
Gillespie and Frank Sinatra. Nov. 27.
Leon Niemczyk, 82. Polish actor (Roman Polanski's “Knife in the Water.”) Nov.
29.
Perry Henzell, 70. Filmmaker whose “The Harder They Come” introduced Jamaican
pop culture to global audience. Nov. 30.
DECEMBER:
Claude Jade, 58. French actress. (“Topaz,” “Stolen Kisses.”) Dec. 1. Cancer.
Jay (Hootie— McShann, 90. Jazz pianist and bandleader who helped refine the
blues-tinged Kansas City sound. Dec. 7.
Martha Tilton, 91. Big band singer (“And the Angels Sing,” “I'll Walk Alone.”)
Dec. 8.
Georgia Gibbs, 87. Hitmaking 1950s singer (“Kiss of Fire,” “Dance With Me,
Henry.”) Dec. 9.
Martin Nodell, 91. Created the comic book superhero Green Lantern. Dec. 9.
Mary Meagher, 47. Theatre agent. Dec. 9.
Peter Boyle, 71. The curmudgeonly father on “Everybody Loves
Raymond.” Dec. 12.
Ahmet Ertegun, 83. Founder of Atlantic Records; popularized Ray Charles, Aretha
Franklin. Dec. 14.
Mike Evans, 57. Actor; played Lionel Jefferson in “All in the
Family,” “The Jeffersons.” Dec. 14. Throat cancer.
Larry Zox, 69. Painter; part of 1960s color-field movement. Dec. 16.
Joe Barbera, 95. With Bill Hanna, created Yogi Bear, Tom and Jerry, other
beloved cartoon characters. Dec. 18.
Ruth Bernhard, 101. Photographer; famed for stylized images of female nudes.
Dec. 18.
Mavor Moore, 87. Canadian writer, actor,
radio & TV producer and founder of theatrical institutions. Dec. 18.
Dennis Linde, 63. Songwriter (“Burning Love.”) Dec. 22.
Wilma Dykeman, 86. She chronicled the people and land of Appalachia in novels
and nonfiction. Dec. 22.
Norman (Dutch) Mason, 68. Legendary Nova
Scotia musician heralded as the Prime Minister of the Blues. Dec. 23.
Frank Stanton, 98. Longtime CBS president; helped turn its TV
operation into the “Tiffany network.” Dec. 24.
James Brown, 73. The pompadoured dynamo of music for a
half-century whose classic singles included “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag” and “I
Got You (I Feel Good).” Dec. 25.
Pierre Delanoe, 88. French lyricist who wrote the original words for “What Now
My Love.” (His title was “Et maintenant.”) Dec. 27.
Fast, Slow Comedic
Speeds At The Mic
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Jeff McEnery is hitching a ride into Toronto from the family
home in Elora with fellow comic Graham Chittenden as he fills in a phone
caller, in his languorous small-town drawl, on recent successes. A year ago, he
won the Cream of Comedy event and a $3,500 cash prize from the Tim Sims
Encouragement Fund. Two months later, he won the $25,000 top prize in the Yuk
Yuk's first annual Great Canadian Comedy Laugh-Off. "I haven't done f---k
all since," said the 22-year-old self-described "tried and true
hick." Actually, that's not quite true – he did spend four days on the set
of Camille, a film made in Toronto earlier this year starring James
Franco and Sienna Miller, in a role he estimates will last "four to five
seconds" on screen. And he's among the comic talent who will ring in the
new at 224 Richmond St. W. for Yuk Yuk's New Year's Eve Laugh Bash on Sunday,
featuring headliner Mike Wilmot, Johnny Gardhouse and Gilson Lubin. A graduate
of Humber College comedy writing and performance program, McEnery relies on his
experiences growing up in small town Acton and a sense of humour that is
countrified droll. About his travel companion and mic rival Chittenden, McEnery
quipped: "I wouldn't get a ride in (to Toronto) with a hack." As for
Acton: "You know you're from a small town when your town has a Chinese
restaurant but doesn't have any Chinese people."
Winning the two contests has eased McEnery's entry into the Toronto comedy
scene. He's a guy who says he's quiet by nature and says he actually prefers
writing to performing. "Before, I was sort of begging for spots at open
mics. Now because of the contests, if I go into an open mic room, I can pretty much
get a spot," he said. One good reason for taking in the New Year's Eve
event, he says, is that "you can close out 2006 by watching people on
stage who are incredibly more depressed than you. Comics usually are
(depressed); you definitely get a sense of that on the open mic scene."
Plus if you spring for the optional dinner, you get a three-course meal and
party favours to ring in the New Year. While McEnery is slow and deliberate,
the other Humber College grad on the New Year's Eve bill is the opposite. Lubin
is fast and spontaneous and with a southern charm wrought from his St. Lucia
birthplace. Eschewing the standard process of constant rewrites of his
material, Lubin, who is also a host on MTV Live, says he prefers a more
open style that involves "writing it on stage." "You don't know
what mood a room is going to be in. You might have to tweak the material. So
you've got to be a little loose, see what you feel like."
Uncharacteristically, though, Lubin plans to play it safe at the New Year's
show, going for "the tried and true material ... that works well." As
for the Toronto comedy scene – especially stand-up – competition among new acts
has never been greater, Lubin said. "It's as hot as I've ever seen it.
There are so many different scenes, so many underground rooms, so many
environments. "People want to get into (stand up) so badly that they've
got to find places just to get the extra stage time. There's a lot happening
and a lot of good comics."
OTHER TIDBITS
Former President Gerald R. Ford Dies
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 27, 2006) *Former President Gerald Ford has died at the
age of 93. Former first lady Betty Ford issued a statement last
night from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage, California, saying,
"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our
beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at
93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."
At EUR press time, details had not been released as to where Ford
died or the cause of death. Ford took office as the nation's 38th president --
a first without actually being elected -- after Richard Nixon's
scandal-shattered White House term. He took office minutes after Nixon flew off
into exile in 1974 and famously declared "our long national nightmare is
over." But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon
for all crimes he committed as president. Ford also earned a place in the
history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace
Spiro Agnew, also forced from office by scandal.
.jpg){kind=link}
::SPORTS NEWS::
10 To Watch in 2007: Ohenewa Akuffo
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
- Randy Starkman
(Jan. 3, 2007) There are many remarkable people in the
GTA who help make this city great. One of our most pleasant tasks each year at
the Star is to choose 10 with big plans for the next 12 months.
Our selection of individuals poised to make a splash in 2007 come from a
wide diversity of worlds -- from policing to social activism to the arts to
sport to science to academia. The list to the right links to profiles of each
of the 10. For good measure, we've also added an 11th person, from the literary
world, as someone to keep an eye on over the next 12 months. You probably
haven’t heard of some of them. But we predict that as the new year unfolds,
you’ll become familiar with all of their names and their passionate commitment
to what they do. Let’s raise a toast to these people, who'll make the world go
’round.
With a sweet, dimpled smile that could melt an iceberg and biceps that could
crack walnuts, Ohenewa Akuffo is all about
crushing stereotypes. Take the poster this leading Canadian wrestler – a medal
prospect for the 2008 Beijing Olympics – just had made up to promote herself
and her sport. It features the 27-year-old from Brampton in several wrestling
shots, but also includes pictures of her in a bikini and an elegant dress.
"You work so hard for this body," says Akuffo. "If you're going
to have the muscles, you might as well dress them up beautifully ... That's the
fun part. I like to challenge people, especially with my sport. They go,
`Female wrestling. Is she a butch?' I'm like, `Surprise, surprise. No, I'm
not.'" This shapes up as a critical year for Akuffo. She wants to improve
her current No. 5 ranking at the 2007 World Championships in Azerbaijan in
September. She will also be aiming for gold in July at the Pan Am Games in Rio
de Janeiro, a step-up from the silver she won at the 2003 event. "She's
got the world to conquer in front of her – and she has the potential to do
it," says Daniel Igali,
who won Canada's only Olympic gold in wrestling at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Akuffo stumbled into the sport as a high schooler in Brampton. "Wrestling
to me is like a chess game in your mind," she says. "It's an
action/reaction sport. The better you know your body and ... yourself, the
better a wrestler you are."
Akuffo was born in North York but her parents, Daniel and Grace, took the
family back to their native Ghana for several years when she was 3.
Education is pivotal in her life – she's currently juggling a bachelor's
in business, an honours in marketing and a certificate of sports administration
at York University. She trains under Olympic champion hurdler Mark McKoy, and
works part-time at a Home Depot. "She's never mad at anything or
anybody," says McKoy. "You wonder, how the hell does she go on the
mat and kill somebody?" In fact, Igali worries that niceness might be her
fatal flaw. "If I have a quarrel with her, it's that she needs to get more
of a killer instinct," he says. But, says Akuffo, "to what limit do I
have to change for me to be what I need? That's still yet to be known."
Canada Ices U.S. In Shootout
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Canadian
Press
(Jan. 3, 2007) Canada
advanced to the final of the world
junior hockey championship with a 2-1 shootout win
over the U.S. in Wednesday’s semi-final. Canada, winner of the last two
titles, will meet the winner of Wednesday’s later semi-final between Russia and
host Sweden in Friday’s championship game. Jonathan Toews of the University of
North Dakota scored three times in the shootout, including the winning goal.
Canadian goaltender Carey Price stopped U.S. forward Peter Mueller after
Toews’s final goal to end the shootout 5-4 in favour of the defending
champions. Bryan Little of the Barrie Colts and Michigan’s Andrew Cogliano also
scored in the shootout. Price, of the Tri-City Americans, was outstanding in
overtime as he stopped all 12 shots he faced. He turned away 34 of 35 shots in
regulation and overtime, while U.S. counterpart Jeff Frazee made 26 saves on 27
shots before the shootout. Moncton Wildcats defenceman Luc Bourdon scored a
power-play goal at 12:19 of the third period to deadlock the game 1-1.
U.S. captain Taylor Chorney scored a power-play goal at 5:04 of the second
period, putting Canada behind for the first time in the tournament. The U.S.
had less than 24 hours to recover from their quarter-final win over Finland the
previous night, while the Canadians hadn’t played since their round-robin win
over Slovakia on Sunday.
TV Sports Highlights
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
The
sports media world produced winners and losers in
2006, though sometimes it was hard to tell them apart. There's no doubt that
TSN was a big winner, cornering the market on the CFL and the major curling
events while continuing to crush the opposition. But the network is still
stinging from the loss of the World Cup and its PGA deal. The Score didn't
score much in the way of big-ticket items, but was definitely a winner in
securing the rights to March Madness and English Premier League soccer.
The CBC had its victories – the World Cup being the big one – but continued to
see its sports larder shrink with the loss of curling and the CFL. Rogers
Sportsnet took the biggest hits, losing the Raptors, NCAA, the World Cup and
English soccer. But while its lineup was decimated, the talk is that
Sportsnet's bottom line is looking better than ever. If there was a clear-cut
winner, it was Canadian sports fans. Thanks to competition and technology,
they're able to watch and listen to more sports in more ways than ever before.
During the Turin Olympics, those who couldn't get near a TV set could watch on
their cellphones. Those forced to work during the world junior hockey
championship can watch Canada's games live on TSN's website.
Digital channels continued to add more and more content, from ultimate fighting
to soccer to NHL games. And the growth of satellite radio gave sports nuts even
more opportunities to catch games. The only downside to that is cost. You will
have to pay for those luxuries. If you do, or even if you choose to watch and
listen to more traditional media, you got more of the same old, same old in
2006. Following are the best and worst from the sports media world this year.
As always, all decisions are unimpeachable.
2006 THE GOOD: The Canada Russia '72 miniseries on CBC was one of the
sports broadcasting highlights of the year. It captured the emotions and
political intrigue of a series that will live forever. ... The NHL hasn't
established itself as one of the most forward-thinking leagues in existence,
but this year the league showed a strong creative element in its TV broadcasts.
Working with TSN, especially, Versus and NBC, the league approved the miking of
players, placing broadcasters at ice level and a variety of innovations to make
the game more television-friendly. ... CBC took a big gamble when it picked
Cassie Campbell to fill in for a snow-bound Harry Neale on Hockey Night In
Canada, making her the first woman analyst to work an NHL game. CBC could
have gone the safe route and flown in one of its regular analysts, but took a
chance and won. ... Another great HNIC innovation was allowing Don
Cherry to interview Olympic drug czar Dick Pound. Cherry did a commendable job
and Pound gave as good as he got. ... Two guys who continued to tell it like it
is, with some humour and insight: NBC's Johnny Miller and TSN's Glenn Healy.
... Great comment I: CBC's Harry Neale after Joe Bowen said a shot had
"handcuffed" Florida goaltender Ed Belfour, who has had a few brushes
with the law: "That wasn't the first time he's been handcuffed." ...
Great comment II: NBC's Bob Costas on skier Bode Miller at the Winter Olympics:
"Miller will now find out, no matter how he looks at it, if you don't care
enough to consistently give your best and at least sometimes do your best, then
pretty soon nobody else will care either."
2006 THE BAD: What was ESPN thinking when it decided that newspaper guy Tony
Kornheiser, verbose Joe Theismann and neophyte Mike Tirico would make a great
team for Monday Night Football? Probably the same thing it was
thinking when it turned the broadcast booth into a promotional studio for
celebrities. ... You also have to wonder what the NFL Network was thinking when
it tabbed Bryant Gumbel to call its games. ... Aiming low: Sportsnet tries to
lure younger viewers to its news show with juvenile features such as fight
highlights. ... Rethink time: It might be time for Paul Jones to return to
being the analyst on the FAN 590's Raptors games. ... Most pointless hiring:
TSN taking on Tie Domi for its hockey show. ... Fox baseball announcer Joe Buck
referred to the St. Louis Cardinals as "world champions." That title
belongs to Japan. ... Sportsnet's Craig Forrest, when asked how Mexico's goaltender
would respond during the World Cup, replied: "Well, his father passed away
on Thursday. He'll be disappointed with that." ... Maple Leaf Sports and
Entertainment, concerned enough people outside Ontario aren't watching Raptors
games on television, puts 24 games on its digital Raptors NBA TV. The channel
isn't available to most people west of Ontario. ... TV's fascination with
Terrell Owens was, well, less than fascinating. ... Overheated comment I:
British F1 announcer James Allen at the start of the Turkish Grand Prix:
"There's tremendous excitement at a tremendous place in which this
excitement should play out. The anticipation is almost unbearable." ...
Overheated comment II: ABC analyst Rusty Wallace, before the Indy 500 even
started: "I am so excited. This is the most excitement I've experienced in
my life."
2006 THE UGLY: By far, the worst development of the year was Global Ontario's
decision to axe its nightly sports highlights show and follow that by replacing
its sports reports with ones generated by Rogers Sportsnet. While the latter is
a great deal for promoting Sportsnet across the province, it sets a very
dangerous precedent.
Another Win For Mr.
MVP
Excerpt from The Toronto Star -
Soccer
is a passion for both these men, but a living for only
one. They're both good with their heads, but one lost his. One's revered for
his acts of selflessness; the other reviled for an act of selfishness. In
the end, Canada's Steve Nash winning his second straight NBA most valuable player award got
the nod – rather than a head-butt – over French soccer star Zinedine Zidane in
a poll on thestar.com, where readers were asked to choose their top three sports stories of the year.
It was a close battle, with Nash's double MVP honour earning support on 46.2
per cent of the ballots cast, to Zidane's 43.5 per cent for his head-butting
incident in the World Cup final against Italy. Cindy
Klassen and her record five Olympic medals for
Canada came in third with 38.8 per cent. The Raptors' hiring of Bryan Colangelo
as GM – he of the high collars and designer suits – was fourth with 29.7 per
cent. (Perhaps he got style points.) Rounding out the top 10 was the ejection
of Juventus from Italy's Serie A because of a match-fixing scandal (12.8 per
cent); American cyclist Floyd Landis failing a drug test after winning the Tour
de France (11.3 per cent); the Blue Jays signing Vernon Wells to a long-term
deal (10.2 per cent); Tiger Woods' great year and emotional win at the British
Open (9.9 per cent); Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro's horrific injury in the
Preakness (9.7 per cent), and Kobe Bryant lighting up the Raptors for 81 points
(9.2 per cent).
Nash and Zidane have their parallels, with both playing the role of
hard-charging field generals on their teams. Nash knows how to use his head and
keep it, too. A soccer star in his youth, Nash has a parlour trick he uses on
occasion where he scores a basket off a header. A huge soccer fan, he was in
the crowd at the World Cup final in Germany when Zidane lost his cool. Where
Zidane's actions in getting sent off for head-butting Italy's Marco Materazzi
with 10 minutes to go embodied everything wrong in sport, Nash is a shining
example of its virtues. A virtuoso on the court who has honed his craft since
entering the league 11 years ago as a lightly regarded prospect, Nash kept his
Phoenix Suns in the thick of it, even with the loss of Amare Stoudemire to
injury. He led the league in assists and free-throw percentage, while setting
career highs in points and field goal percentage. But where this guy really
soars is off the court. He set up the Steve Nash Foundation (stevenash.org) to
help a variety of charitable causes, including equipping a neonatal intensive
care ward in Paraguay; the Adoptive Families Association of B.C.; and GuluWalk
2006, which supports abandoned children in northern Uganda.
Nash wins over even the most jaded observer. "What has he taught us? It
pays to be selfless. You can be content just to make the players around you
better," wrote Charles Barkley, the king of trash talk, in Time magazine
last May. Selfless wasn't an adjective being used to describe Zidane after his
head-butt heard 'round the world, a moment of temporary insanity that cost
France dearly and tarnished his brilliant career. The fallout was incredible.
It spawned a clothing line and video games. Books and songs were written about
it, too. It also worked wonders for the lip reading business. There was a
presidential pardon for Zidane from Jacques Chirac in France. There was the mad
scramble in the media to find lip readers to determine what utterance from
Materazzi triggered Zidane's moment of madness. Zidane later claimed that
Materazzi insulted his mother and sister. Many of the top stories this year
have new chapters to be written in 2007. Klassen – who earlier this month won
the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's athlete of the year – is embarking on the
journey towards the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, carrying a load of expectations
after her wonderful showing at the Turin Games. Colangelo has overhauled
the Raptor roster, but much work remains to be done as they pursue a playoff
spot. Juventus will undoubtedly make its first stay in Italy's Serie B a short
one, while Landis will try to make sure he has a few cents left in his pocket
as the legal battle to salvage his career continues. As for Zidane, he's
retired now. His greatness as a player will not be forgotten – nor will his
ill-timed outburst.
::FITNESS::
Keep Your Resolutions!
By Kathleen McGowan, Special to eDiets
For many of us, the New Year means it’s list-making
time. Whether you’re resolving to learn to ride a
motorcycle, solve world hunger or break your addiction to guacamole-flavoured Doritos,
the best way to clarify your priorities and organize your goals is often to
write them down. Listing resolutions can
help you figure out what you really want to do with your time -- and get a
handle on whether your goals are realistic. Besides, once you’ve taped them up,
there’s no avoiding them. When they’re staring at you every morning on the
refrigerator door or the bathroom mirror, it’s harder to forget that you made
those promises to yourself. The best lists are short, simple and pragmatic.
For your first draft, you can think big, but in your final version, include no
more than three or four goals or you’ll wind up overburdened and overwhelmed.
Keep the items specific and manageable: “I will invite friends over for dinner
once a month,” not “Expand my social life.” If you’re looking for
inspiration and moral support -- and maybe the chance to borrow a few ideas
from other people -- check out the Web site 43things.com, backed by Internet
retailer Amazon.com. The site serves as a public clearinghouse for resolutions
and a meeting place for people with like-minded ambitions to share hints and
track their successes. The membership for the website comes from around
the world, but many of the goals people have chosen for their own lists have a
familiar ring. Most people want to improve themselves, expand their own
boundaries and try new experiences.
Here are the top-five resolutions named by the members of 43things.com -- and a
few suggestions for how to tackle them:
5. Be happy. The surest way to be happy is not to focus on riches or
success; the science of positive psychology has shown that focusing on
relationships, rather than material goods, provides lasting pleasure.
Volunteering breeds happiness, as do good social skills and solid networks of
friends. If you’re going to spend money, experiences (travel, entertainment and
so forth) usually bring more pleasure than objects.
4. Fall in love. This is a perfect example of a goal that absolutely
must be broken down into smaller pieces. Before you can fall in love, you need
to meet someone -- and if you’re looking to meet someone, flirting is a big
step in the right direction. Research in the science of flirting shows that
two-thirds of the time, it’s women who take the lead. She lets the man know
she’s interested through glances, laughter, smiling and welcoming body
language. After that, it’s a give-and-take. A successful flirtation is like a
pas de deux: each mirrors the other’s body language, creating a synergy. For
more details on the dance, try "Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to
the Body Language of Courtship," by David Givens, Ph.D.
3. Write a book. As any author will tell you, writing a book generally
takes a lot longer than a year. But you can get started on your authorial
ambitions by experimenting with memoir. Writing about difficult life
experiences can be freeing, as it can help you stop brooding over an experience
that disturbed you. It can also give you a deeper understanding of your own
life story, which in turns helps you figure out what your values are -- and
where to put your priorities this year.
2. Lose weight. What advice haven’t you heard on this one already?
Rather than rehash the obvious -- small portions, no crash diets, no “forbidden
foods” -- this is a good chance to break one big goal into more manageable
smaller ones. If you’re looking to lose weight, think about making just one
essential change this year: getting in the habit of regular exercise. But make
that goal smaller too: Resolve to start walking to work, or to take up yoga, or
sign up for a dance class.
1. Stop procrastinating. There’s a reason this is the No. 1 resolution
-- procrastinating is often what prevents us from making all the other changes
we’re trying to take on. Procrastinators often distract themselves from what
they really need to do with make-work and other minor responsibilities, rather
than tackling the big tasks that really need attention. It’s a very hard habit
to break, but for a start, put that annoying but necessary task that you’ve
been avoiding all last year at the top of your list of resolutions. If you can
get through that problem, that more than anything may bring you a very happy
new year.
Kathleen McGowan is Senior Editor at Psychology Today.
:MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note - How to rest your mind (continued)
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Jewel
Diamond Taylor
In a recent e-mail I encouraged readers to not only get rest for the body ---
but also
learn to rest your mind. I often say in my speeches, "Most of us don't go
to bed --- we just pass out. We allow ourselves to become overwhelmed,
exhausted and burdened with worry." I received an e-mail from someone
asking me "How do I give my mind rest?' Below is my response and I pray it
is helpful to you also. Turn on a soothing jazz CD or some relaxing sounds of
nature to relax your mind. Don't watch TV or even so much as look at a computer
screen at least 30 minutes before you lie down and don't keep the TV on while
you are sleeping. The light from both a television as well as a computer
monitor mimic the same intensity of light as sunlight. This fools your body and
brain into thinking it's nowhere near time for sleep. If your TV remains on
while you're sleeping, the body is resting but your mind never sleeps, it is
receiving messages from the TV. It's not surprising that you would wake up
groggy, sluggish, aching, tense and having no energy --- the TV has been
activating your mind all night. TURN IT OFF!
Eating sweets, spicy foods or alcohol before bed will stimulate your mind.
Drink milk. Milk has an amino acid in it called Tryptophan which increases the
levels of serotonin and/or melatonin in the brain which slow down brain
activity. Go to bed when you are tired. Just because your husband goes to bed
at 9 PM doesn't mean you are ready. You might only require seven and half hours
of sleep while he might require ten. If you aren't tired, do something low-key
until you are, like read a book, play solitaire (NOT on your computer), pray,
read your Bible or other inspiration books. Reserve your bedroom for sleep,
intimacy and relaxation only. Don't use your bedroom to pay bills, argue or
deal with business matters. Create your sanctuary of peace and order. Hang up
your clothes. Get rid of junk and clutter. Your external world is a reflection
of your internal world. Your mind will rest when your bedroom smells good,
feels good, looks good and you can rest well on a quality mattress. Do you have
soothing colors on the walls? Does your bedroom reflect your personality or is
it just someplace to fall out staring at piles of junk, clothes and bills?
Avoid talking about your fears, drama and worries with someone on the phone
before you go to bed. Get off the phone and take it to the Throne. Before you
sleep, write in your gratitude journal or at least make a list of the things
you're grateful for, write down the things you accomplished today, write down
your intentions for the next day. Give God thanks in advance for spiritual
guidance to resolve all issues. Welcome God and the angels to visit you in your
dreams to quiet your soul and lead you. Practice spiritual surrender - turn
over your problems to God.
.jpg){kind=link}