20
Carlton Street, Suite 1032, Toronto, ON
M5B 2H5
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
LE
NEWSLETTER
May 10, 2007
Well, the May long weekend is just around
the corner and hopefully this great weather will hold up!
Don't miss the World Comedy
Clash: Mother’s Day Edition with
proceeds going to the Canadian
Cancer Society this
weekend. Victoria Day weekend offers something special for those that
love old skool, Official Toronto WBLK Reunion Party featuring all of your favourite WBLK hosts from back
in the day! Get those tickets now as these events sell out - don't miss
out!
Mark your calendars for June 6th for the CD release of Kayte Burgess' sophomore album, Checked Baggage!
Details below so check it out!
::HOT EVENTS::
World Comedy Clash: Mother’s Day Edition – May 12 – 13
Source: Ajahmae Live Entertainment and SFS Entertainment
Some of Toronto’s largest communities will expose their cultural
differences on stage in a stand-up comedy clash: Trinidad, Jamaica, England,
America, India, Barbados, Ghana, Uganda, Canada. This hilarious
satire of a friendly rivalry between these 9 countries is performing for two
shows at the Panasonic Theatre May 12 and
May 13, Mother’s Day weekend.
World Comedy Clash: Mother’s Day Edition will allow the audience to laugh as well as learn about the
differences in these contrasting cultures through stand-up comedy. “All
styles are equally funny,” says Jay Martin / comedian / producer / founder,
“Jamaican stand-up is more of a theatrical performance. It’s a more physical
comedy while Trinidadian comics are more spontaneous with their humour.”
Martin, who lost his mother 20 years ago, has dedicated this show to mothers
across the Greater Toronto Area. In honour of the memory of his mother,
World Comedy Clash is donating proceeds to the Canadian
Cancer Society. This show is appropriate for all
ages.
The performers include:
Marc Trinidad, Jean Paul, Trinidad
Drew Thomas, USA
MacFingall, Barbados
Trixx, Ghana
Jay Martin, Trey Anthony, Jamaica
Paul Chouldry, India
Junior Simpson, England
Art Simeon, Uganda
The show will be hosted by Canadian-Jamaican Jay
Martin, who was recently named Toronto’s Best New
Nubian Comedian. “I also chose Mother’s Day for this show because it’s
probably one of the saddest days of the year for mothers who have lost children
and children who have lost their mothers.” says Martin.
Founded in 2005, Mothers day Comedy Clash looks to be bigger, bolder and
funnier than last year’s sold-out show.
SATURDAY, MAY 12 AND SUNDAY, MAY 13
WORLD COMEDY CLASH: MOTHER’S DAY EDITION COMEDY CLASH
Panasonic Theatre
651 Yonge Street (between Bloor and Wellesley)
7:00 pm
Tickets are Orchestra - $50.00, Balcony - $40.00
Tickets: call 416.872.1111 or visit www.ticketmaster.ca
All Nappy’s locations and Play De Record (357A Yonge St.)
For more information, please visit: www.comedyclash.com
The Official Toronto WBLK Reunion Party- Sunday, May 20
Source: Consepshun Entertainment
For all of the true old school guru's …
remember a radio station out of
Buffalo NY that we all used to listen to during the 80's and 90's? Do the
names DJ Huk-her, Terri Davis, Al Wood, Debbie Simms and The Magic Man ring a
bell? What about a little segment from 10 pm 'til 2 am called the QUIET
STORM?
Join us on Victoria Day Long Weekend Sunday featuring all of your favourite
WBLK hosts from back in the day: DJ Huk-her, Terri Davis, The Magic Man &
Al Wood - (R.I.P. Break-a-Dawn) as well as a fashion show by Jane Pascale
showcasing her designer swimwear line Adjua. Music will be
provided by DJ Quincy (Ebony Soundcrew), Carl Allen, DJ Wayne (Old School
Request Party), The "Mailman" George Fynn and Reddy Fox. The
evening will be hosted by comedian Jay Martin.
SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2007
THE OFFICIAL TORONTO WBLK (93.7FM,
BUFFALO) REUNION PARTY
and GQ Henderson of MOVE aphrodisiac
birthday bash
6 Degrees Night Club (formerly Berlin)
2335 Yonge Street (north of Eglinton)
Dress to impress
Doors open at 9:30 pm
Tickets: $20 in advance
Contact : info@consepshun.com, eddie@gotoaparty.com or call
416-781-1695 ext. 3 to purchase tickets or see ticket outlet location on the
flyer
www.consepshun.com
Kayte Burgess CD Release Party – June 6,
2007
After lots of hard work, Kayte Burgess has finished her sophomore
album Checked Baggage. Working with various great producers like
Nu Vintage, Adrian Eccleston, 2 Rude, Buddah Brothers and Ali Shaheed Muhammad,
this album is a variety of sounds and textures to provide a little something
for everybody. Kayte Burgess is one of the hardest working
independent artists here in Toronto, and it shows in the new album, so don’t
miss the unveiling of this new album, a great live show and a chance to catch
Kayte before she heads south. Also be sure to catch the opening act of
Voices Of The Underground featuring Wade O. Brown, Ammoye, Henrii, Thomas Reynolds
and Dane Hartsell performing their original material as only they can, don’t
miss it!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2007
KAYTE BURGESS CD RELEASE PARTY
Revival Bar
783 College St. (College and Shaw)
10:00 pm opening act - The voices of the underground
11:00 pm Kayte Burgess
$5 @ Door
$15 for admission and CD
Tel: 416-535-7888
www.revivalbar.com
::JUST MY OPINION::
Customer Service - Light at the End of
the Tunnel?
No sooner do I complain about poor customer service
spitting all over my world than do I receive some of the most generous and kind
offerings from people in the customer service industry - NOT the same companies
that I had dealt with previously though. Here are some places and people
I've come across with exceptional, and I mean exceptional, customer service
from various aspects of different industries:
Car #1294 - Maple Leaf Taxi -
REQUEST HIM - Kemal - 416.465.5555 - he's unbelievable with
courteous, prompt and professional service - even those early morning runs to
the airport. I use him weekly. I can give you his direct cell #
should you wish.
Neo Set Furniture Store - they
custom make furniture for you in a very cool and modern design. This is
what is special - included in the price of your purchase is a home visit
to assess your space with their suggestions, delivery and installation
of the furniture! http://www.neosetcanada.com/
Furniture Bank - in buying new
furniture, I had older furniture that I wanted to donate to some sort of
shelter. They are one of the ONLY companies now that pick up
furniture - there are plenty of drop off places but no one picks up used
furniture anymore. What happens is that you call them and leave a message
- within 48 hours they will return the call, and set up a date to have the
furniture picked up. They do, however, ask for a donation as well. www.furniturebank.org
You've probably also heard the stories about the excellent customer service at Sleep Country Canada.
Well, I'm a believer. Not only did they give me a discounted price
because I had an awful experience with the Brick sleep warehouse, but they also
are the ones that told me both about Furniture Bank and Neo Set! They are
well versed in the world of customer service and ensuring that their customers
are well taken care of - from the ordering stage, right to delivery and follow
up. My guy was Kirk at Sleep Country at King and Yonge!
So, there you have it. Those companies that do not practice good customer
service will feel the hit with customer loyalty and return business.
Those that do, will feel the benefit of it - especially from me!
And
that's just my opinion.
::OPPORTUNITY::
Tyler Perry In Need Of Great Singers
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Kenya M
Yarbrough
(May 7, 2007) And now…a message from playwright/filmmaker/actor Tyler Perry:
Hey everybody,
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.... Okay, so everywhere I go people are always
asking me, "Tyler, how can I get in one of your plays, your movies or even
on House of Payne?" So here's what I've decided to do. You know that I
love great singers and most of the people that I work with are singers.
If you are a SINGER (SINGERS ONLY--no poetry, no rap--SINGERS ONLY) and you think
that you have what it takes to be in one of my shows here is what you need to
do. Please follow these instructions very carefully because we have set a
system in place. So you have to follow them to the letter.
1. Send a video of you singing one song.
2. The song must be sung a cappella--no music, no tracks, no band--just your
voice.
3. Before you start to sing the song you must say your full name, phone number
and age.
4. You must be 18 years or older by May 18, 2007.
5. The song that you sing has to be either from one of my plays or one of my
movies (no exceptions).
6. You are the only one that can be on the video.
7. The video must be in either VHS tape format or DVD 8. Mail the video via
regular US Mail. No Fedex, No UPS, No registered mail.
The mailing address to send the mail to is:
TYLER PERRY STUDIOS
541 10th St. PMB 122
ATLANTA GA 30318
Sorry your videos WILL NOT BE RETURNED TO YOU.
NO FEDEX OR REGISTERED MAIL ONLY REGULAR MAIL
Also your image and video may be used on a live taping of one of my shows. The
contest deadline is May 18, 2007 and we must have all videos in by then and
they will not be accepted after that date. All of the best videos will be
reviewed by me personally. The top ten will be invited to Atlanta for the
final competition where all ten contestants will get a chance to compete.
Everyone will also get a chance to vote online at TylerPerry.com in the
upcoming weeks.
This is going to be FUN!!! Okay, let me hear from you.
By the way I DO NOT HAVE A MYSPACE PAGE. The only way to get to me is on my
message board at http://TylerPerry.com/messageboard
.jpg){kind=link}
Tyler
::TOP STORIES::
Lula Lounge Is Celebrating Its Fifth Anniversary In Style
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Ashante Infantry
(May 3, 2007) Since it opened in 2002, Lula
Lounge has always done
things in a big way. It launched as a Latin dance club, but one that soon
threw its doors open to jazz and world music. And a recent facelift that
included the requisite paint job and refreshed menu was topped off by a snazzy
exterior sign that has quickly become a west-end beacon. So, of course, the
club's five-year anniversary celebration, which kicks off tonight, is no mere
one-night stand. The party continues for 16 days. "There are so many
partners and communities we work with, it was impossible to just do a
weekend," explained general manager Tracy Jenkins. "The first two
years, we (marked the anniversary) with one big salsa show, but it didn't feel
adequate." The Lula World Festival will represent 25 countries and feature
many of its regular performers in unique combinations. "The same as
always, but on steroids," explained co-owner Jose Ortega. "We are
commissioning shows that people won't see the rest of the year." For
example, the May 12 tribute to late conga master Ray Barretto will feature
local band members from Cache, Proyecto Charanguero and Cimarrón alongside New
York's Ralph Irizarry to showcase the Nuyorican style of Latin jazz and salsa.
Then on May 19, a super-band, dubbed Havana Norte 2007, including Cuban salsa
and timba players from Son Ache, Tipica Toronto, Café Cubana, Clave Kings and
Black Market, takes the stage.
And the festival will also showcase the "cross-pollination" that
partner Jose Nieves believes defines the destination. "We're trying to
open people's minds," he said. "There's nothing I like better than
seeing some of the salsa crowd showing up at a Persian dance party; or watching
a singer like Lady Son who has Nigerian-Italian heritage and is immersed in
Cuban music." On May 18 Canadian indie rock group Apostle of Hustle
promises "groove-based rock with a Latin backbone" while May 9 finds
trumpeter David Buchbinder and pianist Hilario Duran debuting their new
klezmer-Cuban project. Located in Little Portugal on Dundas St. W. near
Dufferin St., Lula Lounge grew out of jam sessions fellow artists Ortega and
Nieves held at their respective studios on nearby Federal St. The club
was named for Ortega's dog, a pound mutt whom he believes is symbolic of the
venue and Toronto's future: "the merging of distinct flavours until they
become mainstream." "Our staff alone speaks about a dozen different
languages," said the Ecuador-born, New York-raised Ortega, noting the many
cross-cultural hook-ups and actual marriages he has seen unfold among patrons
and employees. But Toronto's Latin music headquarters went through some lean times,
including a post-SARS slump in 2003-04 when events were only programmed on the
weekends. "From the beginning we knew it was a successful
concept," said Ortega, adding that the partners have had to either take
out loans or put their own money in every year to keep the business going,
"but we are only now just hitting that critical mass of an audience that
knows us and keeps coming out and supporting us."
The destination has received a major boost this year through its affiliation
with the city's high-profile Luminato festival in June and collaboration with
CBC Radio Two for live broadcasts, but will be facing the challenge of street
closures due to the laying of TTC tracks later this year, he pointed out. The
funky venue has 20 staff and boasts tangerine- and lemon-coloured walls and
eye-catching saris as tablecloths, but next to the stellar line-up of talent,
its greatest asset is chef Derek Crinson and his unique menu of tropical
fusion. "We have a waiting list for dinner on Saturday nights," said
Ortega. "We're selling more food than alcohol, which is weird for a
nightclub." Last year, the Lula partners helped start a business
improvement association to beautify the area and promote safety. With city
funding, the group cleaned up the nearby Dundas St. W.-St. Clarens Parkette and
added plants and a mural designed by Ortega, an illustrator and public artist.
That prompted Lula's makeover and Ortega's marquee sign with the
Coca-Cola-style script. "We felt the onus was on us," said Nieves.
"And we wanted more of a presence on the street. The erstwhile loft
parties that birthed Lula actually grew out of the realtor's own social
inadequacies. "I started out wanting to learn to dance in the comfort of
my own home and (tenant Ortega) organized salsa lessons for us," he
explained. Soon up to 50 people, including neighbour Jenkins, were
participating. Those classes evolved into a non-profit arts collective called
Open City that hosted poetry readings, jazz jams and art exhibitions. When
those massive parties outgrew the loft, they opted against a Kensington Market
locale and purchased the Portuguese banquet hall within walking distance. It's
all worked out, said Nieves, who these days is cutting the rug with his
Colombian girlfriend (they met at Lula, of course). "Hey, I know there are
lots of people out there who experience the same uncertainty that I felt. Maybe
this can be an inspiration."
Just the facts
What: Lula Lounge 5th anniversary
When: Today to May 20
Where: 1585 Dundas St. W.
Tickets: free to $25. Info and tickets at 416-588-0307 and LulaLounge.ca
Still
Dead To Us
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
- Theatre Critic
(May 05, 2007) As the cottage carnage reaches
its climax in the final
scenes of Evil Dead: The Musical, there's only one man left standing – chainsaw at the ready – to
repel the never-ending onslaught of Candarian demons. That man is Ryan Ward. The torrents of stage blood
stream off his newly acquired biceps, and when he brazenly screams, "Time
to start kicking some demon ass!" it's clear his vocal coaches have done
their job really well. The slim, quiet, unassuming 28-year-old actor from Winnipeg
has become every zombie's worst nightmare – and what a journey it's been. On
Tuesday Evil Dead: The Musical will open at the Diesel Playhouse on
Blue Jays Way after a week in previews. The performance is the culmination of
more than four years' work. From a beer-soaked collegiate sketch at the Tranzac
Club, through the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and on to a six-month
run off-Broadway, the dream has always been to have a big, glossy production
take place in Toronto. Apart from the hard-core creative team (George
Reinblatt, Christopher Bond and Frank Cipolla), now that the dream is coming
true there are only two other people who have gone the total distance. One
clutches his chainsaw; the other holds on for dear life to his BlackBerry. Ward
is the onstage constant, the dude who has played the central role of Ash in
every one of the show's incarnations.
But lurking off to the side, just past the non-stop streams of blood, is
producer Jeffrey Latimer: the one who believed. "I got a phone call in the
summer of 2003 from a guy I had gone to camp with," Latimer recalls.
"His name was George Reinblatt and he said he'd called me because I was
the only theatre person he knew." The two of them met on a park bench, and
a clearly embarrassed Reinblatt hesitantly suggested, "We've stumbled on
something and I don't know what we have." Latimer promised to come down to
the Tranzac Club that night and check it out. Reinblatt's "something"
was a crazy musical version of Sam Raimi's cult horror movies Evil Dead I
and II. Together, with fellow Queen's University buds Bond, Cipolla
and Melissa Morris, Reinblatt had flung the show together for their own
amusement, utilizing a lot of university friends to fill the cast. The one
exception was the leading part of Ash, a nice guy who turns into demon
destroyer. At the open auditions, in walked Ward, who imagined the whole thing
was probably just one big joke. "To be honest, I thought it would
suck," he now admits. "I thought it was just a bunch of dorks putting
on a show, but I needed something to do before my last year at Ryerson began.
"When I actually read it, I was amazed. I thought, `Man, this is pretty
good.'" A lot of other people thought so, too. Latimer recalls that first
steamy night in August when he arrived at the theatre near curtain time to
discover hundreds of people milling around outside. "I told George this
wasn't how things were done in professional theatre," Latimer says.
"I said, `You let everybody in a half-hour ahead of time.'" Reinblatt
grinned at Latimer and said, "The theatre's full, dude; these people are
all just waiting to see if there are any cancellations." And that's how it
went. "We were blown away by the response," Ward remembers.
"There were line-ups (from Brunswick Ave.) down to Bloor St. for every performance."
Latimer instantly sensed the potential of what was happening. "I'd never
heard an audience having this much fun in the theatre in years. I knew we had
to do something with this." But what? That was the trick question. With
its over-the-top mixture of sexy jokes and gory special effects, it didn't
exactly seem a likely candidate for CanStage or Mirvish Productions. Latimer
moved slowly. First came another run at the Tranzac Club in October 2003, to
which the critics were invited. At the time, I wrote that "with a bit of
work, this show could go places." "I still have that on my
BlackBerry," Latimer confesses. "It kept me going through a lot of
hard times." After much rewriting with the authors and some strategic planning,
they made the wise choice of opening at Just For Laughs in the summer of 2004.
"That was an amazing experience," Latimer says. "Producers came
from all over North America wanting us to tour it, but we felt it needed some
sort of real theatre street cred first." That's when the journey to
off-Broadway began, and Ryan Ward wondered if he would get dumped along the
way. (Most of the original Tranzac Club cast was replaced for Montreal.)
"I was really afraid of that happening, but when I phoned up and asked if
I still had my role, they laughed and said, `Dude, who else could play
it?'" Still, when the decision was made to go off-Broadway, Ward had to
audition for the show's new co-director/choreographer, three-time Tony Award
winner Hinton Battle.
"I flew in at 6 a.m. but I didn't get to audition until 2 p.m.," Ward
remembers. "I was one of the walking dead by then. The most terrifying
part was standing outside, listening to these Broadway guys blowing the roof
off." But he got the role and the show opened to generally favourable
reviews, with The New York Times calling it "The next Rocky
Horror Picture Show" and Variety christening it "a
ridiculous amount of fun." But sales never built rapidly enough.
"Most off-Broadway shows lose money for a year and then click,"
explains Latimer. "We just couldn't afford that." So they lasted six
months and headed back to Toronto, which had been their goal all along. "I
think this is the perfect place and the perfect time to do this show in
Toronto," exults Latimer. Ward admits, "This is the big Toronto
production that we always wanted to do. It's finally getting to the place where
we always thought it should be." When you head down to the Diesel
Playhouse to laugh at the musical-comedy splatter-fest going on every night,
you won't be able to miss Ward: he's the dude standing centre stage, waving the
chainsaw. But look offstage as well for a guy in a grey suit, smiling at the
onstage goings-on, while tapping nervously at his BlackBerry; that would be
Jeffrey Latimer. The two of them have both been through a lot to get Evil
Dead: The Musical to Toronto – and they plan to have a killer time while
it's here.
Just the facts
What: Evil Dead: The Musical
When: Tuesday to June 23
Where: Diesel Playhouse, 56 Blue Jays Way
Tickets: 416-971-5656 or www.evildeadthemusical.com
South
Africa Will Host World Cup: FIFA
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com - Rick Matsumoto
(May 08, 2007) KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) –
Only a natural
catastrophe would cause the 2010 World Cup to be moved from South Africa, FIFA president Sepp Blatter says.
Last week Blatter said the international governing body had to consider
contingency plans, including countries capable of hosting the sport's showpiece
tournament on short notice in case of a disaster. But he dismissed concerns
about South Africa's ability to host the World Cup when he met Tuesday with
delegates at the Asian Football Confederation's congress. "I can tell you
that if there is no catastrophe which is a natural catastrophe, then the World
Cup 2010 will definitely be organized and played in South Africa," he
said. In an earlier BBC interview, Blatter said "we definitely must have a
possibility to go somewhere else." He had listed the United States,
England, Japan, Spain, Mexico and Australia as potential alternatives.
FIFA would "always have contingency plans somewhere . . . but the World
Cup 2010 will not be taken away from South Africa," he explained Tuesday.
"This is my last statement on that." South Africa won a vote in 2004
for the right to host the World Cup, but has faced logistical problems in
overhauling its transport system, updating infrastructure and boosting hotel
capacity to cope with the expected influx of visitors. There are also concerns
that the stadiums will not be ready, with a proposed key venue in Cape Town
proving problematic due to a combination of political infighting and court
challenges. Local organizing chief Danny Jordaan has repeatedly said that South
Africa is on, if not ahead of, schedule. South African officials also say they
will tighten security to fight crime and protect visitors.
Canada’s Top 40 Under 40
The Objective - Canada's Top 40 Under 40TM is a national program
founded and managed by The Caldwell Partners to celebrate our leaders of today
and tomorrow, and to honour Canadians who have reached a significant level of
success but have not yet reached the age of 40. The program is designed to
promote mentorship and professional development by introducing these leaders to
the established business community and by promoting them as role models for
young Canadians. In choosing the recipients, the Board considers the
nominees' achievements in the following areas:
·
Vision and Leadership
·
Innovation and Achievement
·
Impact
·
Community Involvement and Contribution
·
Growth / Development Strategy
The following titles and company names reflect positions held at
the time of receiving the award.
|
Rick Baxter Jean-François Bouchard Eric Boyko Neil Branda Ken Brooks John S. Chambers Tom Chau Frank Cianciulli David Dobbin Mark Fraser Brendan J. Frey James Harbilas Cameron Heaps Patrick B. Keeley Johann O. Koss Patrick Lamarre Paul Langill Kirstine Layfield Katherine MacMillan Joe Makowecki |
Samir A. Manji Isabelle Marcoux Tom Mawhinney Wade Miller Ravinder Minhas Dr. Mark O'Dea Patrick O'Regan Seamus O'Regan Ben Peterson Wayne Purboo Vivek Rao Dr. Aaron D. Schimmer Jeff Sharpe and Matt
Young Dwayne Smithers Alim A. Somani Jon David F. Stanfield Sergei Tchetvertnykh Dr. Susan L. Tighe Dr. Sherah
VanLaerhoven Mark D. Wiseman |
Ne-Yo Scores Second #1 Album Debut, Because of You
Source: Universal Music
( May 9, 2007) Grammy-nominated Def Jam recording artist
and chart topping songwriter Ne-Yo has scored his second #1 career debut on the Billboard 200
albums chart with his second album, Because
Of You, which arrived in stores on May 1st. The album
sold over 200,000 copies in its first week of release and has debuted at
the #3 spot on the digital chart. Because
Of You is the follow-up to Ne-Yo’s RIAA platinum-selling debut album In
My Own Words, which hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and
R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and was nominated for a Grammy as Best
Contemporary R&B Album. Ne-Yo capped 2006 when he was named Male
R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards. Because Of You was propelled to #1 position
by the hit single “Because Of You,” which is Top 10 on both the R&R
(Radio & Records) BDS Urban and M.Base/Urban charts. The
second single pick from the album, “Do You,” will hit radio later this
month.
After making TV appearances on ABC’s Live with Regis & Kelly, NBC’s The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, PBS’s The Tavis Smiley Show, and CBS’s The
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Ne-Yo is now preparing for an 18-city
nationwide tour in support of his #1 album. Dates begin on May 31st
at The Norva in Norfolk , Virginia , extended through July 5th at
Six Flags in San Antonio , Texas . Opening for Ne-Yo will be R&B
crooner, Trey Songz. Most recently, Ne-Yo was credited as co-writer of Beyoncé’s hit
single, “Irreplaceable.” As noted in the January 20th issue of
Billboard, “Irreplaceable” had just made its best audience week, which
was the #2 highest total audience impressions in Nielsen- BDS history (i.e.
since 1992). The song with the #3 all-time highest audience total was
also co-written by Ne-Yo – namely Mario’s “Let Me Love You.”
Ne-Yo has founded The Compound Foundation which is committed to service at risk
and disadvantaged youth. In addition to building two new group homes in the
Atlanta area, The Compound Foundation will sponsor performances, motivational
speakers and mentorship opportunities with leaders and business people within
the community.
Critical raves for Because Of You:
“The first single and title track is a jaunty ode to addictive love, that could
easily be an Off The Wall-era leftover. Then on the breezy tune,
‘Crazy,’ label boss Jay-Z states plainly: ‘Ne-Yo's like young Michael/ I'm
Quincy Hov.’ Ne-Yo's Prince moments - the rousing ‘Addicted’ and the
piano-driven ‘Sex With My Ex’ - both sizzle with loads of bedroom boasting but
without seeming crass.” (Associated Press)
“Ne-Yo’s sunny, fluid tenor and the wistfully romantic, infectious tunes he
co-writes will bring fans of a certain age back to a time in pop music and pop
culture that seems, in retrospect, endearingly guileless.” (USA TODAY)
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Ernie Davis: The Express
I got the heads up this week that Universal Pictures
has
started shooting a movie about football player Ernie Davis entitled “The Express”. For those that
don’t know, Ernie Davis was the first African-American football player ever to win the Heisman Trophy. Davis was
the number one pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, thus becoming the first
African-American to be taken 1st overall. He was selected by the
Washington Redskins, who then traded his rights to the Cleveland Browns.
However, the organization's dream of pairing Davis with Jim Brown in the backfield took a tragic turn when Davis was diagnosed with
leukemia during preparations for the 1962 College All-Star Game. Ernie
died on May 18, 1963, at the age of 23.
Davis would never play a game as a professional, with his only appearance at
Cleveland Stadium coming during a 1962 pre-season game, in which he ran onto
the field as a spotlight followed him. Following his death, the Browns retired
his number 45 jersey in honour of Davis. Davis was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. During his time at Syracuse, Davis wore
the same number 44 as Syracuse University alumnus Jim Brown, helping to
establish a tradition at the school that was acknowledged on November 12, 2005,
when the school retired the number in an on-field ceremony.
Rob Brown (Finding
Forrester) was cast as Davis, and
Dennis Quaid (The Rookie) is to play Davis' Syracuse coach, Ben
Schwartzwalder. Forest Whitaker was originally signed on to the movie,
but backed out after his Oscar win and was replaced by Charles S. Dutton. Gary Fleder will direct. Darrin Dewitt Henson, a choreographer, dancer and actor, was cast as Jim
Brown. He has acted in productions such as the Showtime series "Soul
Food," the ABC-TV movie "Double Platinum" and the
film "Stomp the Yard." The screenplay was written by
Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) and was based on the authoritative biography
by Robert C. Gallagher, Ernie Davis, The Elmira Express: the Story of a
Heisman Trophy Winner. As of April 24, 2007 'The Express' is filming
football scenes at Jorndt Field, Amundsen High School, Chicago IL.
"The Express" is scheduled for release in 2009.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Sax Master Rollins Still Has The Chops
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(May 07, 2007) Never mind what you've heard about the twilight years,
76-year-old sax giant Sonny
Rollins delivered an inspiring performance
Saturday night at an historic venue befitting his legendary status. On his
fourth date since emerging from a four-month winter respite in rural New York,
Rollins cut a majestic figure at Massey Hall. Clad in a navy suit, ruby
shirt and wearing sunglasses, he was accompanied by bassist Bob Cranshaw,
trombone player Clifton Anderson, drummer Kobie Watkins, guitarist Bobby Broom
and Kimati Dinizulu on percussion. With a call to action from Dinizulu's
African rhythms, they launched into the title track of Rollins' current
Grammy-nominated album, Sonny, Please. The master stalked the stage,
albeit limping slightly, and surrendered the first solo to Anderson's lovely
burr before delving into his own grab bag of ideas. With his horn
alternately singing and honking and squealing, Rollins dissected the original
tune's hypnotic statement but stayed true to its melody, circling back to it
surprisingly often for one noted as jazz's greatest living improviser.
That approach was sympathetic to the rapt, respectful audience since he didn't
announce titles, drawn mostly from Sonny, Please and 1996's Sonny
Rollins Plus Three in the 2 1/2-hour set. On later songs, such as Duke
Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," his up to 25-minute tangents
went farther afield, but were no less logical or expressive.
Rollins, who debuted as a headliner in 1951 and collaborated with the likes of
Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, played with a sense of urgency
not echoed by the musicians around him – puzzling when you consider the stellar
line-up of players aching to accompany him. Only Dinizulu matched the verve and
humour of the tenor titan, who shook his fists triumphantly at the end of
several songs and closed two tunes with the "shave and a haircut, two
bits" riff. While ample solo time was afforded the subtle Broom and nephew
Anderson, the rhythm section was highlighted through call-and-response segments
with Rollins. But what this ensemble, including 50-year Rollins collaborator
Cranshaw, lacks in individual firepower is assuaged by the steady, cohesive
backdrop they provide for their leader. With this jazz icon only scheduling
about two dozen annual concerts now, it's a shame the hall was only 75 per cent
full and that several patrons continued to take pictures after he asked them
not to.
Q-Tip Strikes High Note In 'Hip Hop
Project'
Source: The Catalyst Group, Leyla Turkkan, LeylaTurkkan@aol.com
, Ellen Zoe Golden, EllenZoe@aol.com, Marilyn Lopez, mlopez@marilynpr.com
(May 7, 2007) (NEW YORK, New York) - Recently in Manhattan, in the
midst of the controversial hip-hop maelstrom, where the music of the streets
finds itself maligned for its gruff lyrical contest, machismo and misogynist
posturing, hip-hop trailblazer Q-Tip, reminded the world that this particular
art form has also been a force for hope, and a facilitator of dreams for global
youth. As associate producer, Q-Tip hosted the world premier of "THE
HIP HOP PROJECT," along with one of the film's executive producers-Bruce
Willis-in front of a packed City Cinema house in New York. (Queen Latifah, the
movie's other executive producer, was unable to attend). Q-Tip is currently in
the midst of wrapping up work on his new album The Renaissance (scheduled for
release on Motown/Universal Records in late Summer/Early Fall 2007). Featuring
fellow musicians as D'Angelo, Common and Outkast's Andre 3000, this album has
been described as a "return to his A Tribe Called Quest hip hop
roots" which, like the message in the film, will be rooted in positive
messages and personal empowerment. "THE HIP HOP PROJECT" is told through
the eyes of the teenage Kazi, previously homeless, yet he inspires a group of
New York City youths to transform their life stores into powerful works of art,
using hip hop as a vehicle for self-discovery and redemption. Created by Matt
Ruskin, Scott K. Rosenberg, and Chris "Kazi" Rolle, the film
attracted Q-Tip and Willis because of its model for young people to express
themselves using hip hop.
"These negative connotations that are placed on this culture, on this
music, are not the total truth," Q-Tip explained at the "THE HIP HOP
PROJECT" premiere. "Hip hop is a lot of introspection, a lot of self
discovery. I hope after you see this film you are able to see another side to
what we do and how we do things, that when we come from a place of oppression
or depression how we are able to metamorphous like a butterfly and change and
see the beauty in ourselves and spread that beauty. I think this film embodies
that." Bruce Willis chimed in, furthering Q-Tip's comments: "I really
thought it was a great idea to help Kazi create a space for the people that he
knows and have been in his life to come together, create and express themselves
artistically in a safe place and with first class equipment. I think we
accomplished that beyond anybody's dreams. All the proceeds from the film are
going to go to non profit organizations. That was Kazi's idea, he's a really
cool kid. I'm really proud of him" According to the filmmakers at the
Q&A that followed the premiere, the content of "THE HIP HOP
PROJECT" impacted the MPAA appeals board so strongly that it has just
overturned the movie's original R rating in order to broaden the audience
access, allowing teenagers to see this important story. Also in attendance at
"THE HIP HOP PROJECT," premiere were rap luminary (and star of "Law
& Order") Ice-T, rap powerhouse Busta Rhymes, and the outspoken critic
of some of hip hop, Rev. Al Sharpton.
"Q-Tip has been a positive leader in hip hop and one of the most creative
and versatile artists' voices for over a decade. He has always been at the
forefront of everything that is positive in the hip hop community," Rev
Sharpton said. "As associate producer on 'THE HIP HOP PROJECT,' again,
Q-Tip reached out and helped kids like Kazi change their lives with the
meaningful and positive messages that hip hop can touch, teach and serve our
communities. We need more Q-Tips in the world of hip hop today elevating and
reaching out to our communities in a positive way." "THE HIP
HOP PROJECT" will open May 11th in theatres nationwide. To download
hi-res images, visit: www.reybee.com/qtip/HHP_images/
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Even With Timbaland, Bjork Is Bjork
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Robert Everett-Green
Volta
Bjork
Nonesuch
***
(May 8, 2007) Yes, I know, it was a shock to hear that
someone as defiantly wayward as Bjork would hire a producer as fashionable as
Timbaland, whose other clients this year include Justin Timberlake and Nelly
Furtado. But this record is not like theirs - or should I say, like his,
considering how deftly Timbaland sucked those stars into his own creative
orbit. Bjork remains her own odd self, like a comet that streaks by at regular
intervals but may be quite different from one visit to the next. Volta is her
closest approach yet to the pop mainstream, though aside from the two or three
songs that everyone will talk about, she's still a shaman who can intone a bit
of song till it sounds like a hymn that humankind isn't old enough to remember.
Timbaland's thumbprint is all over the opening Earth Intruders, which
stomps around on squidgy beats and a battery of junkyard percussion. The
track's emphatic style masks the ambiguity of its subject: Gaia's revenge, or
the arrival of more despoiling bipeds? On Innocence, Timbaland confronts
the contemplative text with a barrage of syncopated beats and grunts. Bjork's
full-on singing sounds perfectly at home, though it's the kind of track she
could have recorded with no idea of what her producer would do.
The album's most startling number is one of several made with her long-time
collaborator Mark Bell: Declare Independence, an electro-punk rouser
that makes Bjork sound like close kin to Propagandhi. The most beautiful
moments come in the duets with Antony Hegarty, whose tremulous male alto feels
like an external emanation of Bjork's angelic side. But you have to be a
real fan of Bjork's particular kind of stasis to think the stately The Bull
Flame of Desire needs to go on for more than seven minutes. And that's what
she always gravitates toward: a state of worshipful entropy, in this case (and
in Pneumonia as well) emphasized by the hymn-like refrain and a brass
band. The funny thing about Bjork's long association with beat-oriented
producers is that her singing doesn't really concern itself with beats. Her
voice tends to drape itself across whatever's happening in the instrumentals,
as if she were a swimmer floating on waves whose actual form is unimportant.
Her delirious child-woman autonomy is what we savour. The beats are there to
remind us that we are still breathing.
Quebec Pianist On The Cutting Edge
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(May 4, 2007) Only still flirting with turning 30, Montreal-based David
Jalbert is proving to be a comer. In short order,
he should be able to join the elect group of Canadian piano stars such as
Marc-André Hamelin and Angela Hewitt on the international scene. He was at the
Jane Mallett Theatre last night to present an intense and eclectic program of
works that showed off a wide-ranging musical imagination, phenomenal technique
and an unerring lightness of being. Getting slotted in Music Toronto's
"contemporary classics" recital series gave Jalbert wide latitude in
choosing what he was going to play. What we got was at once cutting edge musically
and a throwback to the 19th century, when pianists would program according to
their mood and heartstrings rather than an intellectual argument. The cutting
edge came from the world premiere of Colour Study in Rupak Taal, written
especially for Jalbert by Sri Lankan-born Dinuk Wijeratne, his Juilliard
schoolmate and now resident conductor of Symphony Nova Scotia. Colour Study was
so appropriate to 21st-century urban Canada, where cultures collide, as
classical Indian music met the Western concert stage. The bulk of the piece is,
in Western terms, a seamless series of variations on a seven-note ground bass,
topped by a (hopefully) ironic nod to the cliché virtuoso-firework concert
ending. The pianist paired this piece with piano fireworks by that master of
19th-century Romantic cheese, Franz Liszt. Flitting overtop the bucketfuls of
notes in Spanish Rhapsody, Jalbert, a lanky, limber-wristed player,
tossed the piece off with seeming ease.
Judging from the other main pieces on the bill, the Quebecer has an affinity
for making light of technical challenges, shaping piles of black dots on each
page of a score into easy-to-grasp musical shapes. It all began with veteran
American composer John Corigliano's Étude Fantasy from 1976 – a series
of five technical exercises that leave most interpreters drenched in sweat. For
Jalbert, it appeared to be more of a light warm-up, and rarely has the piece
sounded so lyrical. The same was true for the Sonata No. 5 by Alexander
Scriabin (1872-1915). Like Hamelin, who has been an eloquent champion of early
20th-century works by people such as Nikolai Medtner, Jalbert made sense of the
composer's turgid twitches in and out of tonal reverie. There were also
beautiful interpretations of two Nocturnes by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924),
in a nod to Jalbert's latest CD. But why was a little Mozart Rondo (in F
Major, K. 494) on such a program? It certainly wasn't a moment of respite for
Jalbert because, faced with simple melodic lines and straightforward
articulated chords, he tensed up. His posture became rigid, his fingers stiff.
He clearly should have stuck to the tough stuff.
To Blues With Sex And Gusto
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Greg
Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(May 08, 2007) In the photo on the cover of veteran folk-rock
producer Joe Boyd's much-praised 1960s musical memoir White Bicycles, a
young Maria d'Amato, the only female in a group of very serious young male
folkies, stares off into the distance, uninterested in her immediate
surroundings. Her dark hair is bundled up beneath a head scarf, and her
expression contains not a hint of the sexual playfulness that would become an
enduring trademark for the seductively suggestive blues singer, a signature
feature of the giant 1974 hit "Midnight At the Oasis." You can see
some of that earthiness elsewhere in the book, in a black-and-white photo shot
in 1963 featuring d'Amato holding a fiddle, while Greenwich Village folk
boomers Bob Neuwirth and Tex Isley strum guitars at her side. In a loose
sweater, with one shoulder dropped and her hair falling in ringlets, she could
pass for a vamp in the making, a younger, more innocent version of the seasoned
sex queen Maria Muldaur embodies on the just-released CD Naughty, Bawdy & Blue. It's a collection of down-and-dirty
blues and jazz classics made famous in the 1930s and '40s by the likes of
Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey and Ma Rainey. "It's my tribute to early
female blues artists from the Ragtime and Dixieland era: sexually liberated
women who used wit and humour when they sang about their experiences and the
skills of their lovers," Muldaur said in a recent phone interview from her
tour bus outside Peoria, Ill.
With a four-piece jazz band, Muldaur is performing tonight and tomorrow night
at Hugh's Room. "This is not folk music or country blues," she added,
referring to her 2002 Grammy-nominated Richland Woman Blues. "These
are the gals who mentored me through the records I used to listen to when I
babysat for my neighbours. They got to play with the best bands in America in
vaudeville theatres and uptown dance halls. "They were not furtive women.
They sang with gusto, and they enjoyed playing with sexual imagery, which was a
lot more clever back then than it is now." Naughty, Bawdy & Blue,
she pointed out, is part of a trilogy that began with Richland Woman Blues
and includes the follow-up, Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul (Old Highway 61 Revisited).
But in many ways it's a continuation of a theme that began with the salacious
novelty ditties she used to sing in Boston and New York in the early 1960s with
The Even Dozen Jug Band and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Those outfits included a
stunning array of fledgling talent, including Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian,
Blood Sweat & Tears' Steve Katz, as well as singer/guitarist Geoff Muldaur
(her first husband) and Toronto-born guitar wizard Amos Garrett. Dylan used to
hang around them, picking up ideas. "Every time I bump into Dylan he
starts nagging me about my fiddle," she said. "He used to watch me
playing all that Appalachian and Carter Family stuff, but I put the fiddle
away; I just didn't have time to keep it up." As for "Midnight At The
Oasis," the song that made her a household name and fastened her
reputation as a cross-genre mistress of cunning innuendo, Muldaur has nothing
but affection after all these years. "I do it at every show. I've
done 34 albums in 33 years since I recorded that song and believe me, I know it's
the one I can never leave out of the set. People want to hear it. It stirs up
X-rated memories for them. It gives them pleasure."
Sterling Debut 'Worth' The Wait: New Def
Jam Artist Preps Disc
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Kenya M
Yarbrough
(May 7, 2007) *Def Jam's relative newcomer Sterling Simms is
preparing his debut disc with some heavy-hitting singles reminiscent of '80s
popular music. The CD titled "Worth Your While" is set to be released
soon and has R&B fans already taking notice. The first single from the
Atlanta transplant by way of Philly is called "Nasty Girl." The sexy
track is making its way on the airwaves and video hot spots even in the midst
of the music industry's lyrical content controversy. Simms assures that with
this track there's not much to worry about. "All artists have a
responsibility to our listeners," he said. "We are the voice of the
people. When we speak, we speak not only of things that we're feeling, but of
things going on around us. I can definitely feel where people are coming from.
In some ways, we should watch ourselves and watch how we deliver things and
portray things. 'Nasty Girl', I think, is still innocent. It's sexy, but
done with class." He described that the song is about the girl in the club
that gets a lot of attention on the dance floor. "[When] you're in the
club there's always the one girl on the floor that's doing slightly too much,
but not so much that it comes off offensive. It's just enough to catch your
eye. She's dancing and she's into the music, she's feeling good, and she's
feeling sexy. That's the girl that I'm talking about."
Simms likens most of his music and the "Nasty Girl" track in
particular to the styles of mega '80s artists Michael Jackson and Prince. He
explained to EUR's Lee Bailey that he's a part of the faction of artists
leaning toward that era of loud clothes and fun music. "I'm trying to take
it back to that '80s and early '90s era," he said. "Back when music
felt good and it was full of fun. I think over the years, music has gotten a
little too serious." Simms counts the King of Pop and his Purple Highness
as some of his influences, in addition to Teddy Riley, Guy, New Edition, and
Boyz II Men. "If you listen to those records right now, at any
party, it's gonna feel great. It's just where music was and I think music is
going back to that. If you listen to the Diddy and Keisha Cole record; if you
listen to Ne-Yo, it's that same fun, timeless feel. That's where it's going
back." Even though Simms believes music has gotten too serious, he
realizes the importance of getting serious in his career. He shared that he wasn't
always the responsible and mature man he is to day. He attributes much of his
'growing up' to his mother and grandfather, and to his native Philadelphia and
new home of Atlanta.
"You have to get serious at some point in your life," he said.
"It's good to have fun, but life is short and you have to get serious.
When my career started taking shape, that's when I started getting serious.
Philly made me the man I am, and Atlanta cultivated the artist." The
self-proclaimed Atlantadelphian considers himself a live-and-learn type and
attributes his growing pains to the fact that he always had to test the waters.
"If you tell me not to play with fire, the moment you turn your back, I'm
going to figure out why you told me not to play with fire," he laughed.
One thing he did figure out was music. His grandfather was a musician and had a
studio in his basement, where Simms cultivated his love for the art. "I've
always loved music. I've always wanted to do music. I thought, if I spent my
life on music, I wouldn't be mad. [My grandfather] was always on my back to do
music. It was really a dream of my family. There are so many people in my
family that do music; the list goes on and on. I'm the first one to really get
this far, but now I'm getting a lot of new cousins." New cousins are about
the only new thing in Simms career. The singer has been in the music scene for
quite some time, although his Def Jam debut is the biggest move to date. He
signed with Def Jam last year, but before that, he had a recording contract
with Midnight Marauders (through Sony) though he didn't get much attention on
the boutique label and ended up taking off his artist hat to focus just on
songwriting.
"We were a small label and we weren't generating any money for the
company, so we were one of the companies that got cut back," he said.
"I was kind of forced to start all over again. When that happened, it was
like a turning point. I was tired of the ups and downs and pressures of being
an artist, so I started just writing again. I was discouraged as an
artist." Fortunately for his fans, the story didn't end. Simms began
working with different producers in the Atlanta area as a writer and ran into a
producer named Teddy Bishop who has worked with Toni Braxton and Jagged Edge,
to name a few. "We were writing some joints for Tyrese at the time and I
demo out all my records when I write them. He came into the studio and heard
about four or five records and asked, 'Who wrote 'em? And who's singing
'em?'" Once he learned that Simms was the singer on the records, he
convinced him to return to singing. And the rest ... To learn more check out
his on and poppin' hot track "Nasty Girl," go to http://www.myspace.com/sterlingsimms.
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Monkeys Get On With It
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ben
Rayner, Pop Music Critic
(May 08, 2007) A frantic energy seems to permeate
everything to do with the Arctic
Monkeys – their music, their initial,
Internet-borne rush to notoriety two years ago, the pace of their record sales
– so it would have been rather out of character for the band to approach its
second album mired in the sophomore anguish so typical of "overnight"
rock stars. No, Favourite Worst Nightmare arrived last month slightly
more than a year after the Sheffield youngsters' hit debut, Whatever People
Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and accompanied by none of the usual tales of
scrapped studio sessions, writer's block and torturous experiments in artistic
self-reinvention. Even a switch in bass players, to new kid Nick O'Malley,
whipped past without a second thought. "We like making albums and we like
being in the studio, so we were excited to make another one, really," says
front man Alex Turner. "At least people want another one." That's
putting it mildly. While its first-week U.K. sales didn't quite match the
record-setting 360,000 copies notched by Whatever in February 2006, Favourite
Worst Nightmare blasted onto the top of the U.K. charts upon release two
weeks ago with sales of more than 220,000 units. Every track on the record also
found its way onto the U.K. singles chart thanks to some recent changes in how
digital downloads are stirred into the rankings.
However dense and vivid a slice-of-life wordsmith he might be on the Monkeys'
lyric sheets, though, Turner in conversation could be considered doubly laconic,
given that the requisite Brit-pop-star detachment is exacerbated by his mere 21
years of age. His disinterest in talking about himself, in fact, is on par with
that of The Streets' Mike Skinner, another renowned young lyricist to whom
Turner is occasionally compared. Ambling about San Francisco while enjoying a
strawberry/banana smoothie, he's reluctant to lay claim to the very real place
in pop history the Monkeys now occupy by taking a route to success that no
record-company boardroom would have dared endorse two years ago: by giving away
CDs for free and letting fans upload their music willy-nilly to the Net.
According to conventional indie wisdom, they should have crashed and burned at
the cash registers. "Obviously, I've had a wonderful time," he says
diffidently, "but we're not living what everyone else sees in, like, magazines
or stories or whatever. We don't live our lives through magazines. It's more
like (we see) things immediately in front of us.... The life in front of me, I
just get on with." It was, thus, quite easy for the Monkeys to get on with
the business of making another album after months of relentless touring for Whatever
wrapped up last year.
They'd been stockpiling songs the whole time, says Turner, and the simple fact
that the quartet had played hundreds of shows in a very short period of time
determined the direction the album would take. "Naturally, I think, we
just got a bit heavier," he says. "Like, when we'd be playing during
sound checks, we got where we wanted to make a bit more racket, more noise and
the riffs were a lot more fun to play. We gravitated towards being a bit more
`full-on' in the songs. There was no game plan. We just sort of went in with
what we had and tried to figure it out along the way." Favourite Worst
Nightmare adheres closely to the rambunctious, pubby roil of its
predecessor, albeit with more ambitious, drawn-out arrangements that suggest
the band is just learning to make the best of its daunting playing abilities.
As Alexis Petridis commented recently in The Guardian: "If you
removed everything from the album except Matt Helders' drumming, it would still
be a pretty gripping listen." If the songs don't yet rise to the
extraordinary level of Turner's prose, there's plenty of time left to catch up.
Indeed, Turner has only just begun to tour the new record – the Monkeys play a
sold-out show at Kool Haus on Friday night – and he's thinking about the next.
"That's all I ever think about a lot of the time, new songs and new
stuff," he says. "It's never been too much of a struggle. Sometimes
you can't come up with stuff, obviously, but I really do like doing it. It's
only been out a couple of weeks now, the record, but already I've written,
like, six or seven songs."
Ray Parker Jr. And All That Jazz
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(May 9, 2007) *The summer jazz festival season
is fast
approaching with the famed Hollywood-hosted Playboy Jazz Festival coming June
16-17 at the Hollywood Bowl. The fest will feature some of the hottest
stars including Etta James, Dianne Reeves, Arturo Sandoval, Terence Blanchard,
Buddy Guy, Chris Botti, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Miles Long just to name a
few. Another artist, not directly on the line-up is singer/songwriter Ray Parker Jr. Ray Parker Jr. is best known to most for
his hits with Raydio such as "You Can't Change That" and "A
Woman Needs Love [Just Like You Do]" and for his solo mega hit
"Ghostbusters," which lead some to categorize him as an '80s R&B
trivia answer. With the majority of music fans familiar with these hits when
they think of Ray Parker Jr., they might wonder what he's doing on the Playboy
Jazz Festival stage. However, true fans of Parker know that he's much more than
his R&B resume. In addition to his pop song influences, he is an acclaimed
guitarist, an accomplished studio musician, and a highly regarded jazz
musician. "Actually, I was in that idiom first," Parker clarified.
"I did all the Herbie Hancock records, the Blackbirds. you name it, I did
it. So I've done a lot of that stuff. Back when they first started smooth jazz,
I had a hit in '87 with a tune called 'After Midnight' and last year I had the
longest running song ["Mismaloya Beach"] on the Top 10 on jazz radio.
It stayed in the Top 10 for about 20 weeks. And every album that I've ever done
has an instrumental on it somewhere."
It's true. Parker's name and licks are on the record notes of several famed
jazz artists and he's performed and jammed with major artists such as George
Benson and The Crusaders. He's also played behind the Temptations, Stevie
Wonder, the Spinners, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and other Motown acts and
wrote songs for Bobby Brown ("Mr. Telephone Man"), New Edition and
Chaka Khan. "Surprise, surprise; I do a lot of things. Actually everybody
was shocked when I got some Top 40 hits, to be honest. That was the biggest
surprise. That was my other stuff; I'd always been a player and studio
musician," the Detroit native said about his industry-ite's reaction to
his big hits. In addition to the musicians he's played with over the years,
Parker has been a long-time friend to jazz aficionado Bill Cosby, the Playboy
Fest Master of Ceremonies. Parker played in Cosby's band in the '70s and even
had a bit part in the 1974 classic Cosby/Sidney Poitier comedy "Uptown
Saturday Night." "We go way back. He gave my band some money when I
was 15 years old. I met him at Twenty Grand [theater] in Detroit then he took
us to the Fisher Theater to Play with him. If you look at the records he made
in the '70s, I'm on all of them," he said.
For this year's Playboy Jazz Fest, Parker joins his old friend Cosby on stage
on opening day, Saturday, June 16. "[I'm] playing guitar with Bill Cosby.
I'm not singing anything. It's Bill's show. He gets on stage with a band."
You can catch Ray Parker Jr. singing, too. He's also touring and will be
performing at the Capital Jazz Festival in Washington, DC on Sat., June 2.
Click for more inf http://www.capitaljazz.com/. For more on
the 2007 Playboy Jazz Fest, go HERE.
To track down his latest projects, check out his website at www.rayparkerjr.com.
MUSIC TIDBITS
Indira Khan Back For Summer Trek
Source: Rob Sauthoff, 516.204.5499, rsauthoff@gmail.com,
www.rsauthoff.blogspot.com
(May 7, 2007) The Daughters
of Soul Tour, a musical journey
boasting an all star cast showcasing the offspring of music's greats, will
regroup for the summer of 2007 with scheduled performances in London,
Amsterdam, Indonesia and other key markets overseas. Well into it's
second year, Singer-Songwriter Indira
Khan will rejoin her fellow soul sisters
(Lalah Hathaway, Simone, Nona Hendryx, Sandra St. Victor, Joyve Kennedy and
Denise Williams) on the road as they once again, electrify audiences and
command the stage. Indira, the daughter of legend Chaka Khan and a
successful solo artist, performed with the ensemble from day one and is
thrilled to get back on stage. "We had such a great time last year.
We did a couple dates this year but the summertime is when we will pick back up
and really hit the road and give the people what they are waiting for,"
Indira joyfully announced. When she is not on the road or in the midst of
rehearsals, Indira is still working steadily in the studio finishing up her
highly anticipated brand new album and is also recording with her mom for her
up coming release. For more information on Indira Khan log on to www.myspace.com/indirakhan.
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::FILM NEWS::
Atom Egoyan's Close-Up
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Mitch
Potter, European Bureau
(May 07, 2007) PARIS–Toronto filmmaker Atom Egoyan has had his
share of recognition, but nothing quite like the life-before-your-eyes
reception given in his honour over the weekend in the French capital. For a man
who first laid hands on a film camera simply to spite a University of Toronto
dramatic society that turned down his first play, Egoyan now finds himself a
quarter-century later having his entire body of work incorporated into the archives
of the influential Centre Pompidou of Paris. For the next month, Egoyan's
filmography is to be screened at the Pompidou in the most comprehensive
retrospective of his work ever undertaken. The curatorial staff of the centre
will then draw together the materials into its archives, giving Egoyan a
perpetual place at one of Europe's most respected art institutions. During
Thursday's opening reception, Egoyan was taken aback at the rare artistic air
into which his work has been drawn. Running concurrently at the Pompidou is a
major retrospective of Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett, and in
another Pompidou gallery is an exhibition of Armenian-American artist Arshile
Gorky, whose work Egoyan admires deeply. And when the Pompidou staff asked Egoyan
to add his name to the museum guest book, the last signature entered was that
of Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, a voice that lands on Egoyan's short list of
key inspirations.
"The Beckett show, the Gorky exhibition and then seeing Harold Pinter's
signature. It's just sheer coincidence, but all these different influences
converging really brought home how meaningful it is to be shown at the
Pompidou," Egoyan told the Star. Egoyan's work has found a
considerable foreign audience. But nowhere is the enthusiasm quite as
pronounced as in France, where Egoyan was twice awarded the Cannes festival's
Caméra d'Or prize for Speaking Parts (1989) and The Adjuster (1991).
Egoyan explains that passion says more about France than it does the merits of
his own work. He cites as an example the current issue of a leading French film
magazine in which the current crop of French presidential candidates speak
expansively of their film influences. "That's extraordinary," said
Egoyan. "And I don't think it happens anywhere else in the world. Film is
so vital to France that pretty much everyone understands it to be an essential
part of their cultural makeup." Though Egoyan admires that passion from
afar, he counts among his many blessings the fact that it was Canada that
attracted his parents as the best destination of opportunity. "I think
about it all the time, the fact that as survivors of the Armenian genocide we
could have ended up just about anywhere. Certainly my grandparents, who were
orphaned by the genocide, never received Ottoman citizenship. "And my
parents, though like me they were born in Egypt, never received citizenship. It
wasn't until we came to Canada when I was a young boy that finally this was a
place that would make us citizens." Issues of identity and displacement
have resonated hauntingly throughout Egoyan's work since his first full-length
film, 1984's Next of Kin. However fascinating Egoyan finds such themes,
his sense of personal identity is clear.
"Not to sound maudlin, but Canada has given me a sense of who I am and
where I am. I absolutely love France, yes, but it would be very difficult to be
a young filmmaker here because you are constantly oppressed by everything that
has gone on before you. There is an awful weight on the shoulders of European filmmakers
my age. "Canada doesn't have the same crushing weight of tradition. Of
course, I was very aware of tradition during my filmmaking journey in Canada. I
was raised on NFB documentaries, the work of Norm McLaren, the whole notion of
cinéma vérité, the Don Owen movies. And, of course, I was hugely influenced by
David Cronenberg's work. "But I always felt it was possible to create a
place within that cultural map. There is this sense of being able to be a part
of the making of something that is still fresh." For a filmmaker known for
his obsessive approach to thematic study, the Pompidou's curatorial staff has
been equally obsessive in their quest to assemble everything he has done. A bit
too obsessive, in fact, for comfort. "It's a little strange how complete
this is and how absolutely determined they are to show everything. For example,
I was quite clear with them I didn't see the point of showing the pilot I did
for the Friday the 13th television series. The fact is that to support
my independent filmmaking in the 1980s I was doing Twilight Zone and Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, and they were really just jobs. "But it's part of
the oeuvre, as they say in Paris. They've uncovered things I haven't
seen since I made them and they are screening all of it." French film
buffs are believed to have first encountered Egoyan's work as an accidental
digression from the elevated interest here in Quebec cinema. Now, having
discovered Egoyan, a window appears to be opening for a closer look at English
Canadian cinema. A few days ago, for example, the French daily Libération
dedicated a full page of breathless critical praise to Winnipeg filmmaker Guy
Maddin. This weekend also saw positive notices for the Paris launch of Away
From Her, the first feature directed by Canadian actor Sarah Polley.
"It is long overdue, but the French are finally catching up with the
original and crazy vision of Guy Maddin," said Egoyan. "Between the
praise for Guy and the launch of Sarah's film, this has been a big weekend for
English Canada in Paris."
Hussain Amarshi's Mongrel Media Began As
A One-Man Operation
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Gayle Macdonald
(May 8, 2007) Toronto art-house film
distributor Hussain
Amarshi loves to tell the story about the Booker
Prize winner he had a friendly tussle with in order to secure the rights to his
company's name, Mongrel Media. In 1997, when Amarshi was basically a
one-man operation marketing obscure short films and documentaries from his
house, he tried to incorporate the name only to be told that someone else had
already laid claim to it. A dexterous sort who never takes no for an answer,
Amarshi started to hunt down his mysterious rival - only to find out the other
company, Mongrel Films, was owned by Michael Ondaatje. In order
to be able to incorporate Mongrel Media, he had to get a letter of "no
objection" from the celebrated author, whose book The English Patient
was turned into a best-picture Oscar winner. "Michael very graciously gave
it to me," chuckles Amarshi, 44, who is holding court in his bright, airy
offices on a funky strip along Toronto's Queen Street West. In the ensuing 13
years, Amarshi has slowly created Canada's premier independent theatrical
distribution company, which this year had Canadian distribution rights to two
Oscar-nominated films, Germany's The Lives of Others and Canada's Water.
Amarshi isn't into "the schmooze thing," as he puts it, so he didn't
travel to Los Angeles for the star-studded ceremony. But he is justifiably
proud of his tiny company. Mongrel also recently cemented a co-distribution
deal with Gabriella Martinelli's Capri Releasing to distribute Sarah Polley's
feature directorial debut, Away from Her. Amarshi credits his company's
success to a modus operandi that has not wavered since Mongrel began in 1994:
If we live in a multicultural community, why shouldn't our screens reflect that
fact?
"My understanding of the Canadian audience is that we are different"
he explains. "We are part of North America, but at the niche level, we are
distinct. Conventional thinking suggests we should open films in Canada after
the U.S., and I often disagree with that. We have different sensibilities in
this country. We can do our own thing, our own way." As an example, he
points to the award-winning documentary The Corporation, which opened
here eight months before the U.S. "We did almost the same business in
Canada, and they have 10 times the market." Others in the industry say
Mongrel has been able to flourish while scores of independent distributors have
floundered because Amarshi is a true cineaste with a love of great stories and
an astute businessman who takes risks - but calculated ones. Ted East,
president of the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters, says
Amarshi has established an international reputation for being "astute
about his selection of films, and very aggressive in marketing them."
"He reacts very quickly," East says. "There was no guarantee
that Water or The Corporation were going to do the box office,
but he was on top of the marketing, adjusting it to where there was public
acceptance. He's very good at tapping into demographics. A green light from Hussain
Amarshi represents the Good Housekeeping seal of approval." Amarshi
launched Mongrel Media when mid-sized distributors (which typically handled the
independent films) were getting wiped out by big studios such as Disney (which
had set up art-house divisions such as Miramax). The Queen's University
graduate (his family moved to Canada from Pakistan in 1984) snagged his first
theatrical release, Tunisia's The Silences of the Palace, in 1995.
The deal was risky. Amarshi was on the hook for all promotion costs, and the
theatre reserved the right to pull the film on Monday if the weekend receipts
were weak. It ended up playing to Christmas, due largely to Amarshi's
grassroots marketing to women's groups, world music fans and the Arabic
community. For the next few years, Amarshi taught himself the art of swimming
with sharks in the high-stakes distribution business. He considers 2002
something of a breakout year for Mongrel - at that time a four-person operation
- which had 15 films at the Toronto International Film Festival, including 10
from American business partner Sony Classics (Talk to Her, Out of
Focus) and six of its own Canadian titles (Bollywood/Hollywood, The
Wild Dogs, Past Perfect and Nowhere in Africa). "We were
working crazy hours," remembers Amarshi, who is married to actress Kristen
Thomson and has twin boys and a girl, born last week. He had offers from other
distributors to join forces, but turned them down. "We had very organic,
slow growth. What I always treasured was my independence. That fact that I
could do what I wanted to do continues to be one of the cornerstones of the
company." These days, Mongrel releases close to 50 films on DVD and 30 to
40 films in theatres each year. It also has a deal with Blockbuster Canada,
which stocks its 450 stores with Mongrel's Festival Collection - a library of
small, art-house titles from Canada and around the world. Veteran distributor
Victor Loewy (of Alliance Atlantis's distribution arm) credits Amarshi's
success to his ability to establish solid relations with television
broadcasters, government agencies, cinema chains and the festivals.
"He really understands not only the movies, but the whole scene
properly," Loewy says. "A lot of other distributors, even some who
have been around for 20 years, have never really mastered all aspects.
"And he fights for his stuff, particularly Canadian titles. I've seen him
go toe to toe with the festivals, the cinemas. When you're small, having the
balls to fight is a good thing." Amarshi - who is good friends and now a
script-level collaborator with Deepa Mehta and her producing partner, David
Hamilton - met the director at TIFF seven years ago, when she was still reeling
from a string of violent protests in India where she was shooting Water.
(Production was halted for several years.) The distributor persuaded Mehta to
turn her hand to lighter fare for a change. Together they came up with the
concept for the raucous musical Bollywood/Hollywood, which went on to
gross $1.5-million in Canadian box office -a fluke many would not have
predicted. There were an equal number of skeptics for Water, which
Amarshi readily concedes was "not easy to market. "A film about
widows in India in 1938 is not something that will get people all cranked up to
go see on a Friday night," he says, with a smile. So he chose to market it
in Canada as a sweeping romance set in India. It opened in November, 2005. Fox
Searchlight distributed it six months later in the U.S. and opted to play up
the controversy. The film grossed $2.2-million in Canada, and roughly
$3.2-million in the States, proving Amarshi's theory again that "we don't
have to be reliant on whether it's successful in the U.S. or not."
Hamilton says he trusted Amarshi's vision for Water because he doesn't
follow a formula. "He takes each film, analyzes its character and then
determines where the interests lie. He focuses his marketing on those elements
he thinks the audience will respond to. "Most other distributors tend to
restrict themselves to standard forms of marketing, taking out newspaper ads
and relying on movie reviews. He takes a much more personal interest in the
films he handles," Hamilton says. "He'll call me at 10 at night to
tell me he's just had an incredible idea. And he asks me what I think. I've
never had a distributor do that. He's also very responsive to ideas that Deepa
and I have, which, again, is a little unusual." The three are now working
together on a new film script, called Exclusion, based on a 1914
incident when a shipload of immigrants from India were sent back by the
Canadian navy. In the meantime, Amarshi is adamant about helping emerging
English-Canadian filmmakers make better films. His goal is to help make three
to five a year. "I find we're sitting here waiting for good scripts to
come to us, and most of the time we're saying, no, we're not interested because
the stories aren't that great." To flush out better scripts, Amarshi is
working on setting up a writers unit. "I firmly believe what we're doing
right now is not good enough," he says. He wants to invite five or six
promising writers "to come together with us and start finding a way to
nurture - and push ourselves - to make better films."
"It's a losing proposition this whole box-office measurement [in
English-Canadian cinema]. ... We have to recognize that we're in the business
of cultural entertainment and be committed to telling our stories the best way
we can. "Let's be bold. Let's be honest, and say that's our
strength," Amarshi urges. "I can't wait for the day when [English-Canadian
cinema] becomes sure about its identity."
Mighty Mongrel
Top-five grossing Mongrel Media releases (by worldwide box office):
Kung Fu Hustle - $101-million
House of Flying Daggers - $93-million
Volver - $84-million
Curse of the Golden Flower - $74-million
The Lives of Others - $57-million
Top Five grossing Canadian Films released by Mongrel Media (by domestic box
office):
Water - $2.2-million
The Corporation - $2-million
Bollywood/Hollywood - $1.5-million
Manufactured Landscapes - $440,000
Marion Bridge - $183,000
Mongrel releases that have won Academy Awards:
The Lives of Others - best foreign-language film
Capote - best actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Fog of War - best feature documentary
Nowhere in Africa - best foreign-language film
Talk to Her - best original screenplay
Why Warner Brothers Is Cracking Down On Canada
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Gayle Macdonald And Alex Dobrota
(May 9, 2007) TORONTO AND OTTAWA — Federal
politicians insisted Tuesday that changes are imminent to crack down on illegal
camcording in Canadian movie theatres, after a major film studio decided to cancel
all its preview screenings in Canada, starting with Ocean's Thirteen and
the next Harry Potter film in July. Warner
Bros. Pictures Canada said it was forced to make the move after watching film
piracy of its top movie titles escalate in the past few years. Dan Fellman,
president of domestic distribution, said Tuesday illegal camcording across
Canada increased 24 per cent in 2006 over the previous year. “There is no
indication that this isn't going to continue to grow in 2007,” he said. “This
country has become a video-piracy hub.” Heritage Canada Minister Bev Oda said
in a statement Tuesday that she and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson are working
on ways to deal with the problem. “Our government is aware of the problem
of piracy and the role of camcording in contributing to that problem,” the
statement said. “We are committed to protect the work of creators and take this
issue seriously.”
Ms. Oda did not give details and would not answer questions on the subject. Two
parliamentary committees have recently studied the piracy issue and are set to
issue reports over the coming weeks that will urge the government to crack down
on pirates operating brazenly in theatres across the country. The content of
the reports is confidential so far, but MPs on both committees have spoken in
favour of enshrining the offence in the Criminal Code. “We have a serious
problem with [camcording in theatres] not being in the Criminal Code; that's a
no-brainer to fix,” said New Democrat MP Brian Masse who sits on the House
industry committee. “There's the notion that it's a victimless crime,” said
Liberal MP Roy Cullen, who sits on the House public safety committee, which has
also studied the issue and is set to issue a report. Mr. Cullen said he is also
in favour of amending the Criminal Code to include movie piracy. Canada –
particularly Montreal – is known as one of the world's worst offenders for
piracy, rivalling places such as China, Lebanon and the Philippines. A Motion
Picture Association analysis of counterfeit discs in 2005 revealed close to 75
per cent of all films illegally camcorded in Canada were recorded in theatres
in and around Montreal, recently identified as the No. 1 city in the world for
surreptitious camcording. The reason? Pirates can easily create both English-
and French-language masters. Cineplex Entertainment – in conjunction with the
Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, the RCMP and other movie
chains such as Empire and AMC – have spent the past few years lobbying the
federal government to make it a criminal offence to pirate films.
The U.S. Motion Picture Association claims that in 2005, piracy cost U.S.
studios $6.1-billion (U.S.). Its Canadian counterpart estimates its members
lost $118-million (U.S.) the same year. Tuesday, one industry veteran described
the Warner Brothers' preview blackout as a shot-over-the-bow designed to shake
up federal officials. He pointed out it will have minimal impact on exhibitors
or consumers because Warners' advance screenings total anywhere from 50 to 150
a year. So far, no other major studios, including Twentieth-Century Fox, Disney
or Columbia TriStar, have indicated they plan to follow suit. Warner Brothers'
crackdown means previews of its top-line features will not be entered into film
festivals this summer, but it's unclear whether Warner will maintain the policy
by the time the influential Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in
September. The piracy issue heated up in January after The Globe and Mail
published an article detailing how Fox's Hollywood-based president of domestic
distribution had sent a blistering letter to Ellis Jacob, the Toronto-based
chief executive of Cineplex Entertainment, Canada's biggest cinema chain.
Spitting mad after pinpointing Canadian theatres as the source of a steady
stream of illegal camcording, Fox threatened to do something unprecedented:
stop sending copies of all its films to Cineplex's 130 movie houses, or push
back the Canadian release of popular films until weeks after the U.S. release
date. In the United States, 38 of the 50 states have specific laws that impose
criminal sanctions against camcorder pirates, both fines and jail sentences.
But in Canada, says Doug Frith, the president of the Canadian Motion Picture
Distributors Association, the theft of intellectual property is treated as a
“soft crime,” with exhibitors helpless to confiscate cameras or detain
suspects.
After his annual general meeting Tuesday, Cineplex's Mr. Jacob said the lack of
enforcement means his staff often has to do bag checks at theatre entrances.
Last Friday – the opening night of the blockbuster Spider Man 3 – his
staff checked the belongings of everyone who attended the midnight show. “We
have to keep a step ahead of the criminals because – this is to me – is a
organized criminal activity,” he said. “It's not being done by young kids who
are going in there for fun. “It's embarrassing for Canada to be in position
where we are one of the leading countries” for movie piracy, he said. “What has
happened is that technology has changed, but the copyright laws haven't kept
pace with it.”
Actor Reflects On Love, Moral Conflict,
And Whether We Can Ever Really Forget And Forgive
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Richard
Ouzounian, Entertainment Reporter
(May 07, 2007) "How very deeply can you forgive someone in your
heart?" asks Gabriel
Byrne, as those clear blue eyes of his stare
right
through you. "Saying you forgive someone is one thing, but do you ever
really forget what they did? And if you can't forget, is it ever possible to
move on to some sort of healing?" Those questions were on his mind when he
came to Toronto last fall during the Toronto International Film Festival to
talk about his latest film, Jindabyne, which opens Friday. Based on a story by
Raymond Carver (So Much Water So Close to Home) the Ray Lawrence movie
tells the story of four men on a fishing trip in the Australian outback who
discover the murdered body of an Aboriginal woman. Rationalizing that she is
already dead and they are too far from civilization to do anything, they finish
their fishing trip and then report their find when they return home.
Their wives react violently when they discover their husbands' decision, accusing
them of moral cowardice, or worse, and a whole series of ideological arguments
splits the marriages apart – some temporarily, some forever. "There are
many moments in our lives," sighs Byrne, "when we don't realize the
moral consequences of what we've done until it's too late." What
complicates the stakes for Byrne's character in the film is that his wife,
Claire (Laura Linney), also has something in her past to feel guilty
about. After their son was born, she suffered a severe bout of postnatal
depression and fled from home for 18 months, leaving Byrne alone with their
child. "Ask him if he really ever forgave me for doing that and then we'll
discuss whether I really forgave him for what he did," suggested Linney at
an interview earlier that same day, knowing that a session with Byrne was
booked soon after. "Ah, that's a typical Laura thing to say," Byrne
replies fondly. "After three marriages, she knows me so well." (The
two paired together before as husband and wife in A Simple Twist of Fate and
P.S.)
"Men and women react very differently in moments of crisis,"
theorizes Byrne. "Men shut down their emotions and think practically;
women respond emotionally and morally. The men think about right now. The women
think about forever. "It's been an interesting part of the film's
history," continues Byrne, commenting on the reaction to the movie's
initial run in Australia back in 2006. "Men who saw the movie would say,
`They did what they had to do,' while the women would ask, `How could they do
that?'" Numerous Australian newspaper articles documented the
often-intense arguments that would spring up between couples after having seen
the movie and Byrne understands exactly why that would happen. "Working on
the film brought up a lot of issues for me as a man that I tend not to look at:
thoughts about love, loss, death. There's not an instant of this film that
isn't filled with moral conflict." Although if you examine Byrne's career,
the same comment could easily apply to much of what he's undertaken. The Dublin-born
actor turns 57 Saturday. He didn't enter the acting profession until he was 29,
but he quickly made up for lost time, plunging into an assortment of projects
that ranged from mythic epics (John Boorman's Excalibur) to off-beat
projects (The Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing) to pieces of
biographical excess (Ken Russell's Gothic). But it was his performance
as Dean Keaton in the surprise 1995 hit, The Usual Suspects, that
cemented his identity in the public mind and branded him as "the brooding
Irishman," an identity which he emphatically says, "I'd now bloody
love to get rid of." Byrne has acknowledges having been sexually molested
at the age of 11 by a priest, which leads to what he now refers to as "my
own conflicted history with the Catholic Church, which is symptomatic of the
relationship that many people have."
Byrne lashes out bitterly against "a Pope who spends too much of his time
railing against same-sex relationships. I don't hear enough from him about the
truly great injustices in the world today. "The man should be attacking
the moral decisions that have led to the deaths of thousands of people in
political wars, not questioning the sanctity of the relationship between two
people. "How can a church which is founded on the notion of love deny love
to a group of people simply because they happen to be of the same sex?"
Byrne pauses. "The Catholic Church is stronger than me," he says with
a bitter grin. "It's survived for 2,000 years and it will go on
surviving. "But it's simply an earthly institution and we cannot
expect any such institution to be perfect, just like we can't expect any
individual to be perfect. "You see," he concludes, "I suppose
that's one of the things that a film like Jindabyne is trying to teach
us."
Hong Kong Director Plans Bruce Lee
Biopic
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Min Lee,
Associated Press
(May 07, 2007) HONG KONG – A respected Hong Kong director said
Monday he is negotiating with the family of Bruce Lee
for approval to shoot a movie about the late action star. Stanley Kwan said his movie will explore how Lee was influenced by
the absence of his father, and how he brought up his own son, Brandon Lee. It
will also look at how Bruce Lee turned into a master of martial arts, he said.
Both Bruce and Brandon Lee died when they were relatively young. Bruce Lee died
in 1973 at age 32 from swelling of the brain. Brandon, who also became an actor,
was killed on the set of the film ``The Crow" in 1993 when a prop gun that
supposedly held blank bullets discharged a live one. In April, Chinese state
media reported that the country's national broadcaster has started filming a
40-part TV series on Bruce Lee in an apparent bid to promote Chinese culture
ahead of next year's Beijing Summer Olympics. Kwan said in a phone interview
that no casting decisions have been made and that his movie's budget hasn't
been set. He said the project, which won't start shooting until next year at
the earliest, is backed by mainland Chinese funding but that he will also try
to raise funds from foreign investors.
Kwan said the dialogue will be in both Chinese and English depending on the
setting. Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco but his family returned to Hong
Kong, where he grew up. He went back to the United States to study philosophy
at the University of Washington and married in 1964 in Seattle, where he opened
his first martial arts school. He later opened a school in Los Angeles where a
producer saw him in a kung fu demonstration and cast him as Kato in the
"Green Hornet" TV show. Lee is known for films in which he portrayed
characters that defended the Chinese and the working classes from oppressors.
The best-known biographical film on Lee is "Dragon: The Bruce Lee
Story," starring Jason Scott Lee, which was released in 1993. Jason Scott
Lee is not related to Bruce Lee. Kwan's credits include "Rouge" and
"Center Stage," which won a best actress Silver Bear prize for Hong
Kong's Maggie Cheung at the 1992 Berlin Film Festival.
Morgan Freeman: Film And Web Become An
'Item'
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
-
May 4, 2007) *Actor Morgan Freeman continues to do it by the
numbers. The acclaimed star won an Academy Award for his role in “Million
Dollar Baby” and now he’s a part of an intimate film with a bit lower
count. The project is called “10 Items or Less,” in which Freeman stars
as “Him” – a once popular actor on the downslope of his career, who goes to a
supermarket to do research for an upcoming role and meets a quirky clerk. The
film did a tour of the Toronto film festival just before its online and
theatrical release in late 2006, and is now available on DVD (from First Look
Home Entertainment). With those stats, it may seem that the small film is a
biography of sorts. After all, Freeman is considered by many an A-list actor
and has the trophy to prove it. However, Freeman told EUR’s Lee Bailey that
that’s not the case. In addition to the film being produced by Freeman’s
company, Revelations Entertainment, he said that small projects can be just as
important as the big budget blockbusters. “I’m not really a big A-list star, in
my mind. In my mind, I’m a working actor; and a working actor does work that he
finds satisfying and interesting,” he explained. “And one of the most
interesting things about this project was that it had no gravitas at all. It
was a little light comedy. It was just going to be an adventure in filmmaking.
We went into this movie knowing we had no money and we had little time, but
let’s see how good we are.”
Those who’ve seen the film confirmed that Freeman is pretty darn good, as
usual. His performance seems so effortless, that it does appear he’s playing
himself. “You don’t have much choice,” he said. “The writer writes a sort of a
box and you step into the box and fill up the space. Any actor he asks to do
it, would come off the same way. Any actor would look like he was playing
himself because that’s what you have to do. But I was having a great deal of
fun and I didn’t have to try to be anything other than myself.”
Freeman’s character suffers a rut as an actor, but the actor says that that’s
not quite the career hold he has experienced. “I’ve suffered like that, but not
like that,” he said, referring to his characters actor’s block. “In other
words, I don’t get actors block, I get job block. When you can’t get a job, you
can’t act. So the worse blocks I’ve had have been extended periods of
unemployment.” Freeman shared that he was out of work for periods of time early
in his career; a career he said that took a long time to get started. “When it
did get started, it was a kind of low trajectory, climbing steady, but not
zooming skyward. I worked for a good 13 years steady climbing, becoming what
they call stalwart. Then I did a TV movie in 1980 and I didn’t get anymore work
until 1982. So I thought my 15 minutes were up. I’d gotten down to
contemplating other forms of exercise. My landlord was asking, ‘When?’ and I
was saying, ‘As soon as.’” Freeman said that in his trials as an actor he
only did a brief stint in Los Angeles as a resident, calling it the one town
where he became really close to being homeless. And ever since that time in
1960, he’s never returned to reside in Tinsel Town.
“I never wanted to come back,” he said. After which he spent just 5 months in
New York and then moved to San Francisco and got encouraged in an amateur
theatre company, but then headed back to his home of Charleston, Mississippi;
population 2600. “It’s a comfort place for me. It’s really home,” he said. The
actor, who said he’s not one of those actors who ever thought he was something
other than an actor, is also a producer and avant-garde digital kingpin. With
this film, he launched ClickStar, a new digital entertainment venture between
his production company and Intel Corp. The company delivers premium movies and
artist-created channels through broadband for the PC and the TV. “It’s
the best idea out there,” he said modestly. “We’re offering first-run, in
addition to a library. We have star-brand channels, like we have a whole
channel dedicated to documentaries. You’ll go there and find Danny DeVito and
he’ll tell you what he’s found interesting this week or this month.” To
check out ClickStar and find out more about "10 Items or Less," visit
http://www.cstar.com/.
One-Word Movie Titles Match Attention
Spans
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Peter Howell
(May 4, 2007) Every time I write the movie title Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, I have
to look it up to make sure I get it right. And that's okay by me. I'm sick of
movies with one-word titles. Week after week, it seems as if
Hollywood's imagination deficit begins with the names it gives its film
products. Dull single-digit handles are a blight on theatre marquees. Whatever
happened to movies with evocative titles like The Trouble With Harry, The
Man Who Knew Too Much or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Six of the
movies currently in the Top 10 at the North American box office have single-word
names, if you ignore the disposable "The" in two of them: Next,
Vacancy, Fracture, Disturbia, The Invisible and The
Condemned. None of these titles, with the possible exception of Disturbia,
makes you want to leap off your sofa and head to the multiplex. And Disturbia
is a rip off of Rear Window, which told a lot in two words. Most boring
of the lot is Next. Is there in all of movie history a title of less
fascination? It conjures a "Who's on first?" exchange between a
husband and wife:
Wife: "Where are you going?"
Husband: "I'm going to the movie Next."
Wife: "You're going to the movie next? What are you doing
first?"
Husband: "I'm doing Next first."
Wife: "There has to be a first before there's a next."
Husband: "I told you, I'm doing Next first!"
Wife: "But you said you'd clean the garage first!"
There are those who would argue that the generic Next is the perfect
title for this generic waste of time. I might even be among them. But what a
wasted opportunity! Next is based on a Philip K. Dick short story called
The Golden Man, a sci-fi tale about psychic mutants with gold skin. Next
strips out most of the cool stuff and leaves us with simply the
"next" Nicolas Cage movie. Dick had a flair for giving his works
evocative names. Titles like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, We
Can Remember it for You Wholesale and A Scanner Darkly are infused
with mystery and dark humour. Yes, I know that the movie version of Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? went by the cutting title Blade Runner.
And We Can Remember it for You Wholesale became the unforgettable Total
Recall. But Blade Runner and Total Recall are more
interesting titles than almost anything you'd get today. Under the current
monotone mindset of movie marquees, Blade Runner would be reduced to Runner
(there already is a big Blade, not that it matters) and Total Recall would
shrink to just plain Recall. You doubt me? Look closely at the The
Invisible, which opened last Friday under the cover of no advance
screenings. The only thing unique about that title is the "The" in
it. The Internet Movie Database lists no fewer than eight features and
shorts in the past 18 months with the title Invisible, if you include
one called Cover that is a.k.a. Invisible. Most of these films
have been as hard to see as the title implies. That's not all. There was
also an Invisible! (note the clever exclamation mark) released in 2004
and Home from Home (a.k.a. Invisible) released in 2003. There
were also films titled Invisible in 2001 and 2005.
Had enough yet? Another Invisible is planned for 2009. Maybe that one
will add a question mark to make it distinctive. It's plain from this
that Hollywood long ago ran out of imaginative one-word titles like Vertigo
or Psycho, and it is now resorting to recycling. What's the reason for
this? Does it make it easier to list on a marquee or on a DVD rack? Do
single-titled movies sell better? Do they line up more agreeably in computer
queues? I sought the insights of industry watcher and film blogger Jeffrey
Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com. He agreed with me, saying the dumbing-down of
movie titles has been happening for a good 20 years. "One-word bullet
titles are easier to remember for people who haven't made much of an education
and of course shorter is almost always better in our attention-deprived world,
but titles with poetic or allusive qualities are even less in favour now than
ever before," Wells said via email. "The reason is because the
under-35 cyber generation is a shorthand generation in more ways than one. The
relentless clutter of information and images that pour into our computers and
PDAs demands a savage pruning on the part of the reader, video-watcher and
moviegoer ... (I) personally prefer Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
to Blade Runner, but that's just me." I know that this isn't the
kind of issue that most people get worked up over. Al Gore isn't going to make
a movie about it and David Miller isn't going to promise to eventually look
into it. But it bugs me, and it would be so easy to fix. I also know that Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is
now well-enough known that it's just Borat to most people, movie critics
included. But at least someone tried to make it interesting, and that's
all I'm asking for.
FILM TIDBITS
Morris Chestnut Is A ‘Broken’ Man
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Kenya M
Yarbrough
(May 7, 2007) *Morris Chestnut will executive produce and star in the
upcoming Screen Gems film “Not Easily Broken,” a faith-based drama based on a
book by Bishop T.D. Jakes. Bill Duke will direct the picture, which revolves
around a couple whose strength and faith are tested after the wife is injured
in a car crash and the husband becomes attracted to another woman.
Shooting is scheduled to begin June 11 in Los Angeles, after Chestnut wraps his
lead role of Marcelles Wynters in the David E. Talbert stage play "Love in
The Nick of Tyme" The actor, who made his feature film debut in the
1991 John Singleton debut “Boyz N the Hood,” will next appear on the big screen
opposite Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard in “A Perfect Christmas.” Chestnut
plays a department store Santa who tries to help a little girl find a new
husband for her divorced mother, played by Gabrielle Union. Meanwhile, Duke
recently finished directing the Vivica Fox/Louis Gossett Jr. film
"Cover." The AIDS-related drama will be released in the fall by 20th
Century Fox.
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Kadeem Hardison Is A ‘Made’ Man
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(May 8, 2007) *Kadeem Hardison has been cast in the
new romantic comedy “Made of Honor,” alongside actors Sydney Pollack, Beau
Garrett, Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, reports Reuters. The Columbia
Pictures film follows Tom (Dempsey) and Claire (Monaghan), who have been platonic
friends for 10 years. He's a ladies man, while she wants marriage but hasn't
found The One. Just as Tom is starting to think that he is relationship
material after all, Claire gets engaged. When she asks Tom to be her
"maid" of honour, he reluctantly agrees just so he can attempt to
stop the wedding and woo her. Pollack will play the father of Dempsey's
character, while Hardison and Garrett are cast in supporting roles. Shooting on
“Made of Honor” began last week under director Paul Weiland.
Common Is Anything But In Hollywood
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(May 9, 2007) *Casting directors must’ve really liked
what
they saw of Common in his recent film “Smokin’ Aces,” because the Chicago rapper has scored two new movie
roles that feature such Academy Award-winning actors as Forest Whitaker, Morgan
Freeman and Angelina Jolie. Common will play a supervillain who secretly
controls the planet with Jolie and Freeman in Universal’s “Wanted,” and he’ll
portray a heroin dealer from Belize posing as an undercover police officer in
Fox Searchlight's upcoming cop drama, "Night Watchman."
"Wanted" follows a white-collar worker (James McAvoy) who discovers
he is the son of the most evil villain on Earth. When his father is
assassinated, he inherits the dead man's powers and begins life among the other
supervillains (Freeman, Jolie and Common) who secretly run the entire world.
Common will play the Gunsmith, an assassin with an unparalleled knowledge of
firearms who is enlisted to help train and transform McAvoy's character into
the world's most feared and powerful hit man. "Night Watchman,"
based on an original idea by James Ellroy, centers on a disgraced LAPD cop
(Keanu Reeves) who discovers corruption inside the police department and sets
out on a mission to redeem himself. Whitaker will play the captain of
Reeves’ elite police unit, called Ad/Vice. Born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., Common
made his big-screen debut in the ensemble action flick "Smokin'
Aces." He next appears in the Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe saga
"American Gangster." His new album, "Finding Forever," is
due for release in July.
::TV NEWS::
Little Mosque on the Champs Élysées
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Gayle Macdonald
(May 9, 2007) The French will soon be
watching some
homespun Canadiana – the quirky CBC-TV comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie. Mary Darling, the show's executive
producer, announced Tuesday that the powerful French broadcaster Canal Plus has
jumped on board to distribute the show starting in July in France and in
French-speaking parts of Switzerland and Africa. In Canada, the inaugural
season of Little Mosque on the Prairie regularly attracted an average of
1.3 million viewers on the public broadcast network. CBC recently ordered a
second season of 20 episodes, which will begin airing in October at its regular
time slot of 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. CBC plans to run Little Mosque reruns
this summer, leading into the fall launch. Darling, of WestWind Pictures, said
the international distribution deal – the first for Little Mosque – has
been in the works for months.
She said other broadcasters in the United States and Europe are still taking a
“hard look” at Little Mosque. She would not confirm rumours that
WestWind is close to finalizing a sale of the show's format in the United
States. Little Mosque, which explores the inherent challenges of Muslims
and Christians co-existing in Canada's rural heartland, is one of the few
bright lights on CBC's prime-time television schedule. Since its debut, Little
Mosque – with the title that riffs off Michael Landon's American TV classic
– has attracted media attention from around the world, with write-ups in The
New York Times, London's Daily Telegraph and The Jerusalem Post. Reached by
telephone Tuesday while she was on holiday with her family, Darling surmised
that the show has struck a chord because it addresses cultural issues
percolating below the surface in almost every community around the world. “To
me, it really feels like a home run for Canadian television.”
BET J Heats Up Spring 2007 With A Fresh
Line-Up Of New Shows And Music Specials
Source: BET J
(May 7, 2007) WASHINGTON, DC – BET J, the adult complement to
BET, announced today a new slate of music and original shows to be added to its
existing line-up of diverse multicultural programming. The fresh menu of
programs will offer viewers a unique mix of riveting talk, breathtaking music
specials, and ground-breaking documentaries. BET J promises to raise the
heat as it sets the pace this May with its sizzling line-up of new
shows! On Monday, May 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT,
the hit round-table talk show MY TWO CENTS returns with a fresh
slate of provocative topics and engaging guests to bring yet another season of
electrifying conversation and a rotating panel of prominent African-American
celebrities, activists and social critics including Dr. Ian Smith of BET’s MEET
THE FAITH and VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club; actor Malik Yoba;
commentator and NY Daily News writer Stanley Crouch; and Law & Order’s
Tamara Tunie among others. In its first episode premiere, MY TWO CENTS
tackles the important impact of HIV/AIDS in the black community and social
stigmas associated with the disease, including stereotypes and ignorance.
In the intimate one-on-one original series, CONVERSATIONS, R&B soul
icon Musiq Soulchild sits down with BET J head Paxton Baker to talk about his
unique creative process, impressive music career and all things “musiq” on Thursday,
May 10 and May 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Caribbean music lovers will savour the island vibes in the BET J music
special, ANTIGUA 2006 FESTIVAL on May 19 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00
p.m. Hosted by comedian and former BET RAP CITY host Joe Clair
and actor/comedian A.J. Jamal, this exotic show promises a spirited and
fun-filled island tour of unique Caribbean culture and music, and gives viewers
a hearty dose of exciting performances and breathtaking scenes of the beautiful
island itself. This May, BET J viewers can also look forward to enriching
music retrospectives and profiles spotlighting legendary musicians and their
vast influences and contributions in music. Upcoming vocalist Liv
Warfield is spotlighted in the BET J music special, MASTER CLASS WITH
JEFFREY OSBORNE FEATURING LIV WARFIELD, which also features R&B great
Jeffrey Osborne, who shares experiences about his successful expansive music
career on Tuesday, May 15 and May 29 at 7:30 p.m.
The music special also features performances by Liv Warfield from her new CD
“Embrace Me”. During the month of May, BET J will be
the premiere destination for innovative and original programs – all embracing
the richness of black culture, music and lifestyle. Connecting viewers
across all cultures with its diverse menu of programs, BET J showcases a unique
mix of music, culture and style all day, every day. BET J’s original and
innovative lifestyle programming encourages viewers to Live The Journey
– a journey that is educational, entertaining, thought-provoking,
emotionally-charged and uplifting to the soul.
ABOUT BET J
BET J, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), is a
sophisticated digital network infused with innovative and original programming
featuring a unique mix of music, culture and style embracing the Black experience.
It is the premiere destination for a multicultural audience delivering music
from all genres along with movies, riveting talk, concerts and in-depth
interview shows. BET J keeps viewers talking with exciting original programs
such as: MY TWO CENTS, REAL LIFE DIVAS, THE BEST SHORTS and SOUL
SESSIONS, and is currently viewed in over 26 million households and
growing. www.bet.com/BETJ
Unaware Of The Power Of Heroes
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Victoria Ahearn, Canadian Press
(May 04, 2007) Eric Roberts says his role on the hit drama series
Heroes has helped him build a whole new audience under the
age of 15. "I thought I was really famous up until I got Heroes,"
says Roberts, who plays the slightly sinister character Thompson on the NBC
show, during a conference call with media this week. "I had no idea how
much more famous I could get overnight. It's been fun and it's been
silly." The 51-year-old actor says he can't stop at a traffic light
without being recognized and hearing a Heroes comment these days, and on
the set it's "kind of a paid vacation" because the cast is so talented
and fun, and the series is a huge success. Yet Roberts said he didn't want to
audition for the role when he first heard of the open casting call earlier this
year. He totally was out of the loop about the buzz the show was generating
after its debut last fall, and thus he didn't have any interest in the new
mid-season role, he said. "I was very ignorant. I had just gotten back
from overseas making a movie and I'd been over there for many months ... and I
was tired and they said to me, `Would you come and do an audition for the show?
It's a big hit show, Eric, come audition for it,'" said Roberts, who was
nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Runaway Train and is the
brother of Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts.
"And I said, `No, I'm too tired.' Then I got a bunch of phone calls from
my lawyer, my daughter and my stepdaughter all saying, `You idiot – this is a
great show, you've got to go audition for this show,' so I went in and I
auditioned and I was lucky enough to get it." Roberts plays Thompson, the
ambiguous enforcer for a mysterious organization that kidnaps and tracks people
with special abilities. One of those gifted individuals is Claire Bennet, the
indestructible cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere, who was also in on the
conference call. The 17-year-old actress, who's involved in several charities,
said she hopes her soaring fame from the show will inspire others to take part
in social causes. She also talked about life outside the show, saying she's
just graduated from high school and is recording an album that she hopes to
release in August. "I'm on my way to go write a song right now with
(producer) Matthew Wilder," Panettiere said from her car in L.A. Balancing
a singing career, a personal life, school and a role on a hit TV show has been
a challenge, she said, adding her managers have made it much easier.
"Being in the spotlight is difficult," said Panettiere, who is dating
former Laguna Beach star Stephen Colletti, 21, and admitted to being not
quite used to her fame yet. "We try not to (invite paparazzi) pictures, we
try not to talk about it (their relationship) much because I feel like when you
put something like that out there, then you give people the right to formulate
their own opinions about it, you give people the right to judge it."
Panettiere and Roberts wouldn't give away any clues about future episodes
leading to the much anticipated Heroes season finale May 21, only saying
that the show is "completely unpredictable." Roberts, who is still
billed as a "guest star" and just landed a role in the next Batman
movie, couldn't even say whether he'll be part of the next season. "All I
can tell you is maybe. "
No Cheap Laughs In The Riches
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Vinay
Menon
(May 09, 2007) “The American Dream, we’re going to steal
it.” With steely calm, these are the words that tumble from the bearded
mouth of Wayne Malloy (Eddie Izzard) — loving father, so-so husband, slick
charlatan. And as TV scams go, this one ranks as the most audacious. The
Riches (Showcase, 10 tonight), which makes its Canadian premiere after
generating considerable buzz stateside, is one of those shows that ropes you in,
ties you up and leaves you in the rarest of couch potato positions: in deep
thought. In the drama, which was renewed by FX yesterday, the Malloy family are
“travellers,” gypsyesque vagabonds of Irish descent who roam America’s southern
interstates and swamplands in search of the next big con. In the opening scene,
Wayne, daughter Dehliah (Shannon Woodward) and young son Sam (Aidan Mitchell)
are marching through a garishly decorated high school hall, about to infiltrate
a reunion for the “Class of 1981.” As the house band powers through a set of
Soft Cell, Devo and Rick Springfield, Wayne peels and sticks an absentee’s name
badge to his lapel. He then wanders inside the gymnasium and charms the
unsuspecting “buffers” (the traveller term for outsiders) with astounding guile
as the kids pickpocket. A few retro hits later, the three abscond with a stash
of wallets and purses. They join son Cael (Noel Fisher), who’s waiting in their
ramshackle RV, and motor off to get mom.
That would be Dahlia (Minnie Driver), who’s been paroled after serving two
years in jail. As first impressions go, Dahlia is a portrait of
desolation: waiting outside the prison fence, chugging cough syrup, squatting
in sandals, track pants and greasy braids under spiralled barbed wire. And so
begins a series of situations, both grim and darkly comic, that will take the
Malloys from the so-called Traveller Camp — a commune of fellow grifters,
nomads and simpletons that recalls Big Love — to Edenfalls, a posh enclave in
Baton Rouge. From The Beverly Hillbillies to this season’s hyped dud, The
Knights of Prosperity, when it comes to social stratification (at least, as
defined by conflict theorists), it’s always easier for television to chase down
cheap laughs. But The Riches manages to refurbish the shopworn,
fish-out-of-water conceit by giving it serious consideration against the
backdrop of today’s world, where the chasm between haves and have-nots seems to
widen with each passing fiscal quarter. Which is not to say the show can’t
simply be enjoyed as a sugary confection; it can. But it just never feels like
you’re consuming empty calories. What you have is a tangled meditation on
class, caste and identity. Tellingly, Wayne is by turns metaphysical (“I was
having an existential crisis”), fatalistic (“Life’s a river, kid, you gotta go
where it takes you”) and anarchistic (“I wasn’t born to follow rules”).
When historian James Truslow Adams referred to the “American Dream” more than
60 years ago, there was a subtext of hard work and meritocracy that’s since
gone missing. In today’s culture, upward mobility is largely expected. This
idea, along with the transient nature of status, crystalizes by about the third
episode. As does another: on some level, we are all frauds. Not in the criminal
sense, mind. It’s just that most people, whether they realize it or not, are
layered with multiple identities: to spouses, to parents, to children, to
siblings, to co-workers, to old friends, to new associates. The characters on The
Riches are interesting because they expose this duality: a neighbour
conceals her prosthetic arm; Cael is a loner who’s actually a hopeless
romantic; young Sam prefers to dress as a girl; Wayne is a swindler and
Socratic gadfly who screams about an “unconsidered life”; Dahlia is blood royalty
to the extended “family” but a drug-addicted miscreant to the outside world.
“This life we’re living, we can’t do it any more,” says Wayne, stoically. He’s
rejecting a life of flimflam and the travellers’ “culture of nothing.” In doing
so, he’s also spinning 360 in one hour and setting up a central premise: the
tyranny of conformity is something that should be embraced, but only if it
leads to individual gain. Like everybody else on The Riches, Wayne
doesn’t quite know who he is. Actually, it’s more than that. He desperately
wants to be somebody else.
TV TIDBITS
Ananda Lewis Finds Another Hosting Job
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(May 9, 2007) *Ananda Lewis, first known to television
viewers as the host of BET’s “Teen Summit” during the early 90s, has been
tapped by the TV Guide Network to host its upcoming reality series that seeks
to find the next big TV mogul. Titled
"America's Next Producer," the 10-episode run features contestants
competing for a cash prize, a production office in Hollywood and first-look
deal with TV Guide Network. Judges will include David Hill, chairman and CEO of
the Fox Sports Television Group, and TV Guide magazine's Matt Roush. They will
be joined each week by a celebrity guest judge. Lewis, a San Diego native, will
next appear in Donald Welch's stage play "The Divorce" from May 17
through June 10 at the Cast Theater in Los Angeles. The Howard University
grad has been the host of her own talk show, "The Ananda Lewis Show,"
and served as an on-air personality on MTV.
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::THEATRE NEWS::
The Floating Theatre Company
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Bruce Demara. Entertainment Reporter
(May 04, 2007) Theatre ahoy? April Productions' latest theatrical
voyage, Have I None, takes place aboard Captain John's Harbour Boat and director Lary Zappia is already
anticipating the slew of nautical jokes that it's likely to spawn.
"Hopefully the audience won't get seasick," Zappia commented wryly in
a recent interview. But Zappia is quick to warn theatregoers that the play by
British playwright Edward Bond about a dystopic future is no picnic, nor will
it be staged in the boat's comfortable dining room. "When you read that
the play takes place on Captain John's Harbour Boat, you might think, `Oh, it's
dinner theatre.' But it's definitely not. We're performing in the belly of the
boat," Zappia said. That means assembling the audience in advance in the
Captain's Quarters on the upper deck and leading them on a labyrinthine journey
down a narrow passageway, into a dank and somewhat cluttered interior that
Zappia generously describes as "rusty and rustic." Dress warm, Zappia
warned, because the temperature below decks isn't much warmer than the chilly
harbour water on the other side of the hull. Zappia called the location a
"happy accident ... that will serve the play well." "There is a
credibility of the surroundings that no theatre can match. You can never build
a stage that can have this kind of impact," he added.
Bond's story, about a future in which behaviour is strictly controlled and
family ties abolished in the interest of maintaining public order, is a
cautionary tale about the need to protect individuality and identity, Zappia
said. "When you live in a state that abolishes the past ... then you
actually start doubting your own human existence, your human identity," he
said. Artistic director Dragana Varagic, who also stars, said smaller companies
like hers regularly seek out unusual locations around the city in which to
stage their productions. The ship was one of the first things she saw upon
arriving from the former Yugoslavia 14 years ago, Varagic recalled. Named the
M.S. Jadran – the Serbian name for the Adriatic Sea – it was brought to Toronto
in 1975 by another emigré from the region, "Captain" John Letnik, who
quickly embraced the idea of converting the ship's interior as a theatre.
"Captain John said, `Why not?' He's very nice, he's been a nice
host," Varagic said. Anchors aweigh.
Have I None previews on Tuesday with regular shows from May 8 to 20. Tickets
$16-$20 at artsboxoffice.ca
Simply The Best Of Cirque
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Richard Ouzounian
(May 4, 2007) After all these years, Cirque du Soleil knows that if they
want to hold our interest, they must astonish us. And it's to their credit that
their latest show, Koozå, which opened last night at their Grand
Chapiteau at the Old Port of Montreal, does that magical feat time and time
again. I've been a veteran of many Cirque opening nights, but I cannot recall
another occasion when the audience rose to their feet on three separate
occasions during the evening to show their enthusiasm. What makes this even
more amazing is the fact that Koozå is, in many ways, one of the
simplest shows that Cirque has offered us for a long, long time. That's not to
imply it is dull, or chintzy, or lacking in the hyper-theatricality that has
made this troupe's reputation. No, the astonishing thing about Koozå is
how magnificently focused it is. Cirque veteran David Shiner wrote and
directed Koozå and it's obvious from start to finish that he had a
strong sense of what he wanted the show to be. The title comes from the
Sanskrit work which means both "box" and "treasure," and
Shiner has played on both meanings of the word. Unlike many Cirque shows in
recent memory, Koozå isn't a whimsical journey into an imaginary world
of elegiac clowns moving wistfully to melancholy music.
No, this is a simple case of a "circus in a box," where everything is
upfront, brightly hued and clearly there for our enjoyment. If you were so
inclined, you could find themes of empowerment and growth lurking underneath
the surface of this fantastical entertainment, but it's probably in everyone's
best interest to take things more or less at face value. You will be delighted
by the rapid pace that Shiner has imposed on the proceedings (even though, at
its current three-hour length, it could do with a bit of trimming) and exult in
the brightly hued spectacle that unfolds with never-ending bursts of colour.
It's hard to single out individual acts from the array of talented artists on
stage, but there are two sequences that are simply magnificent. In one, two men
hurl around on the dual Wheel of Death, challenging mortality with every leap
as the giant 700 kg metal spheres spin relentlessly, tempting fate with every
move. And then there's the seemingly simple act in which eight chairs are
positioned to form a 23-foot high tower in the air, on which one individual
tests the limits of his strength in a precarious balancing act that constantly
keeps changing. But all of Koozå isn't made up of moments of
heart-stopping anxiety. There's a freewheeling vitality to the show that reminds
us of the lighter side of Cirque.
One delectable sequence summons up the essence of voodoo rituals as the entire
cast cavort in skeletal garb that makes each one look like the offspring of
Baron Samedi. And, as one might expect with someone like Shiner in charge,
there are also inspired bits of clownish hilarity, including a pair of
sequences that actually make audience participation an occasion for merriment,
rather than a cause for embarrassment. Koozå has been billed as "a
return to the origins or Cirque du Soleil," but this is no mere exercise
in revisionist history. The canny folk in charge of this worldwide
franchise are smart enough to revisit the impulses that drove them over 20
years ago, but sophisticated enough to layer on all they have learned in the
decades in between. The end result is totally winning. Koozå will be in
Toronto in August, Buy your tickets now.
Shaw Has Faith In Joan
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Richard
Ouzounian
(May 06, 2007) Jackie Maxwell knows what Saint Joan is all about. No wonder she scheduled it as the
opening show for her fifth season as
artistic director of the Shaw
Festival. Just like the Maid of Orleans, she
listened to the voices that inspired her, rode bravely into battle, ran into
some heavy interference and nearly wound up being burned at the stake.
Fortunately, she's come through to the other side – and some people feel the time
might finally be right for her canonization. Yes, her devotion to Canadian
plays and edgy programming helped land the festival into a $6.5-million deficit
by the end of the 2004 season, but her decision to add a musical on the
mainstage while easing up on the Can-con has lowered the red ink by half to
$3.3 million over the past two years. And through the highs as well as the
lows, her devotion to a solid artistic vision and a spirit of creative
discovery has never wavered. In Maxwell's own words, "I finally think I'm
at the point where I know what makes this place tick." She certainly seems
confident and relaxed as she sits in a Toronto Starbucks, outlining her plans
for the future. And the No. 1 item on her agenda is this season's flagship
Shavian production on the Festival Stage, which is, of course, Saint Joan.
Although one of George Bernard Shaw's most famous titles, Saint Joan has
only been produced twice before at the festival that bears his name: in 1981,
starring Nora McClellan, and in 1993, with Mary Haney.
"In some ways, it's like Hamlet, isn't it?" ponders Maxwell.
"It's the play you've simply got to do, the mountain you have to climb.
And then, of course, there are all the family ghosts ..." You see, Maxwell
has a connection to the play that no one else can boast. Her husband Ben
Campbell's grandmother, Sybil Thorndike, was the first person ever to play the
role. Maxwell admits the family bookshelves features a first edition of the
play, which Shaw himself inscribed: "To Sybil, my marvellous Joan."
But personal and artistic burdens aren't the only things hanging over Maxwell's
head. "It's such a big play to tackle financially," she explains,
"and you've got to have the right actress ... Then, of course, there's the
problem of the epilogue." Maxwell is referring to the extended sequence
Shaw wrote at the end of the play where all of the characters return as ghosts
and discuss how history has judged Joan. After the thrilling dramatic scenes of
Joan's trial and execution, the epilogue has always seemed a talky,
anti-climatic snooze-fest and directors have torn their hair out wondering how
to stage it. Back in 1981, then-artistic director Christopher Newton simply cut
it, only to have the Shaw Estate tell him that wasn't acceptable. And so Newton
added an intermission and left it to the audience as to whether or not they
wanted to return to hear the chat. Now Shaw's work is in the public domain
(which means it can be changed at will), and that knowledge brought a light
gleaming into Maxwell's eyes. "Why couldn't I find a way to take all of
Shaw's provocative thoughts?" she asks, "and use them as a way INTO
the play, instead of something we listened to when it was all over?"
She kept returning to the sequence where a clergyman from 1920 appears to
announce Joan has just been made a saint. "And suddenly I thought, `This
is it! This is where I want to start this play.' " So Maxwell chopped up
Shaw's epilogue, turned it into a prologue and created a sequence where
"these World War I soldiers come out of a trench and one of them is
Joan." Maxwell makes it clear she hasn't moved Shaw's play into World War
I, but she uses it "as a way of accessing the script." Sue LePage's
costumes combine the past and present in a way that creates "multiple
political resonances," in Maxwell's words. All of this makes perfect sense
to Blair Williams, who plays Warwick, the Englishman who helps bring Joan
down. "This approach puts it into a line of soldiering," he
explains, "one in which we've all been struggling for a long time – both
as military men who fight wars and as individuals who are working on our own
personal connection to the divine." The mixture of politics and religion
in the play is something Williams feels makes it totally relevant today.
"We like to say the religious is not political," he concedes.
"But how can you maintain that when you look at Iraq or deal with an
American president who truly believes in the apocalypse?" In Williams'
mind, "Warwick is like Donald Rumsfeld, one of those people who make
decisions that cause thousands of people to die, but then go home to a world
where their housekeeper makes sure everything is nice and tidy for them.
"Warwick wants to have Joan destroyed, but he doesn't actually want to see
her burn. That would make him go mad." But what of the Maid herself? It
takes a special actress to handle all of the complex and contradictory elements
in the character. Maxwell enumerates the requirements of the role. "I
needed someone you could believe as a peasant, yet someone who could hear voices
from God, rally an army, stand up to a frightening Inquisition and yet defend
her honour to the death, thrillingly." She pauses for effect. "I have
that woman in Tara Rosling." "It's a role I've always wanted to
play," Rosling admits with her beguiling candour, "but when you start
to process all the things that it involves ... oh my God!" Her normally
throaty voice throbs like an organ with all the stops out as she contemplates
the challenge she's let herself in for. "The play lives in two different worlds:
there's the innocence of what Joan believes in and then there's the political
duplicity that surrounds her. When the two finally meet at the scene in the
cathedral where everyone turns against her, it's welcome to the real world,
girl – and by the way, it's a jungle." The saintliness of Joan is another
tricky thing for Rosling to approach because, as she admits, "I don't come
from any kind of Christian background. For me, it's all a journey of
understanding. Faith feels like a huge heart to me. You look at a tree or a
stone and realize we are all one thing. We are all part of a universal
energy." Rosling admits, "I don't sit at home and mourn the state of
the Earth or of humanity." But she concedes, "If Joan were alive
today, they'd probably try to destroy her again. As soon as someone comes along
who threatens our conventional belief systems, it's too much for many people to
comprehend and so they must be crushed." But for now, Rosling seems
infused with the very spirit of the Maid of Orleans. "It's so inspiring to
play a woman who clings to her convictions right to the end, who says, `I
believe in this so much that I would die for it.' " Or as Maxwell puts it,
"This is the story I believe we were born to tell, right here, right
now."
Prodigal Sons Return
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
Leaving Home
(out
of 4)
By David French. Directed by Ted Dykstra. Until June 16 at the Young Centre for
the Performing Arts, 55 Mill St. 416-866-8666
(May 04, 2007) If there was only one reason to make Soulpepper
Theatre Company's
production of Leaving Home the must-see play of this spring, it would be the
triumphant return to our stage of Kenneth Welsh. This extraordinarily powerful
actor has been devoting his energy to film and television for far too long, but
the minute he bursts into the middle-class confines of Patrick Clark's picture-perfect
set, you capture the frightening, but somehow reassuring, sensation of a wild
animal who has returned to his native habitat. As Jacob Mercer, the
hard-drinking, free-swinging patriarch of the family that David French has
lovingly – but mercilessly – depicted in this play, Welsh brings a lifetime of
frustrated feeling to every single personal interaction. Whether he's mocking
his younger son, sniping at his long-suffering wife or flirting with a tarty
neighbour, you sense the bottled-up pain behind every line. America has Brian
Dennehy, England has Michael Gambon and we have Kenneth Welsh: a giant to be
proud of. But the rediscovery of the explosive Welsh talent is only one of the
many things to celebrate in the production that opened last night and that I
saw at its final preview. French's play is far more than a footnote from
CanLit: the first great "kitchen sink" play in our culture, but one
which has inexplicably not been professionally produced in Toronto since its
1972 premiere.
The story is a simple one: a shotgun wedding is about to split apart the Mercer
family, but events that transpire the night before the ceremony change each
person's life forever. Yet what plays out on the stage is far more surprising
than that simple description may make it sound. There's a savage humour
that keeps spilling over the edges in Ted Dykstra's freewheeling staging,
forcing us to laugh at moments that are almost too awful to witness. It's a
much funnier play than most of us remember and a much tougher one as well.
Parents and children hurl epithets at each other that fill the air with hatred.
Physical violence erupts as well: sudden, brutal and uncompromising. There's
precious little sentimentality here, but there's a great deal of profound human
feeling. The whole question of what holds a family together and what tears it
apart is the very essence of French's still-amazing play. Every last member of
Dyk- stra's cast is first-rate. Diane D'Aquila's Mary Mercer is the perfect
match for Welsh's Jacob. She's a tough but loving woman, coiled tighter than
any spring, with an inner strength that we watch in awe.
Martha MacIsaac and Anthony Johnston are effective as the feckless
bride-and-groom-to-be, but you can't help feel just a bit that French has
written these roles the least fully. There's also an astonishing scene-stealing
turn from Jane Spidell as the foul-mouthed, loose-limbed mother of the bride,
full of rich sensuality, ribald humour and deeply suppressed anger. It signals
a new career direction for the talented Spidell and she makes it a personal
triumph. Mention must also be made of Oliver Dennis, as a morose mortician who
says not a word but earns more than his share of laughter: fine work, indeed.
But the performance that has to stand up to the white heat of Welsh's inferno
is that of Jeff Lillico, who plays the sensitive other son, Ben, the object of
his father's misguided love and fearful wrath. Lillico chokes down his hurt for
most of the evening, letting us see a decent young man in agony. But when he
finally erupts and turns on Jacob with the pent-up rage of a lifetime, it makes
for one of the most heart-stopping moments on a Toronto stage in recent years.
Welcome back, David French. Welcome back, Kenneth Welsh. Thank you,
Soulpepper Theatre, for bringing these two prodigal sons back to our stage,
where they belong.
THEATRE TIDBITS
Malcolm-Jamal Warner Tackles ‘Social
Issues’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(May 9, 2007) *Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner has written
and will star in a new play titled “Love & Other Social Issues,” which
“gives a bird's-eye view on inner-city life, self-esteem, matters of the heart,
drug culture and the ever-constant changes in life," according to show
notes. Kianga Entertainment and Pamela Warner present the West Coast premiere
of the production on June 2 at the Assistance League Playhouse (1367 N. St.
Andrews Place in Los Angeles) for a run through July 8. Warner – a
veteran of TV’s “The Cosby Show” who has previously appeared onstage in Three
Ways Home, Cryin' Shame, Freefall and A Midsummer Night's Dream – will be
accompanied on the “Social Issues” stage by a jazz-funk ensemble. The play is
under the direction of Denise Dowse, an actress best known for her role as Vice
Principal Tensley on "Beverly Hills 90210." “Social
Issues” debuted in 2003 at The National Black Theater Festival in
Winston-Salem. For tickets, call (323) 960-7784.
::DANCE NEWS::
Financial Planner Writes, Stages And Pays For Her Own Dance
Production
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Susan
Walker, Dance Writer
(May 09, 2007) Sometimes you just have to do it all yourself.
In fact, in the increasingly underfunded and under-subscribed arena of
contemporary dance, choreographers are becoming show presenters. But not all of
them have the advantages of Armineh Keshishian,
artistic director of Awareness Unlimited. By day, Keshishian is a certified
financial planner for Investors Group. Born in Iran of Armenian descent, she
began taking belly dance lessons in 1991. Then she began writing little stories,
imagining them as staged scenarios. "They all dealt with questions
such as `Who are you? Where are you coming from?'" says the Toronto
entrepreneur. Strung together, they made a three-hour screenplay. Then she
envisioned a stage show. She and a group of dancers began working together in
September 2005. Keshishian knew she had a lot to learn, so she consulted with
directors and others in the performing arts. "I saw this show taking place
in the Winter Garden," she says. Her dream becomes a reality on Friday
at 8:30 p.m., when Evolution ... of the Human Kind opens
at that theatre for two nights.
"Things are always evolving. It really means to become better," says
Keshishian, in explanation of her title. Her personal philosophy of seeking
harmony among the spirit, mind and body guided her artistically. Twenty
dancers, including Keshishian, enact the numerous scenes of Evolution.
The mere fact of the show makes a point, says the dancer. "In Iran, women
are not allowed to dance in public. They are socially restricted." In Evolution,
there's an unveiling, both literal and figurative. "Half the cast is
Middle Eastern. The other half comes from everywhere: they're Caribbean, or
Chinese, European, English, Ukrainian. The whole theme is that we are one human
race and human emotions are all the same." Keshishian applied both
artistic and business instincts to mount the show, described in her press
release as "storytelling with modern, jazz and belly dance styles; lifting
the veil off ancestral Middle Eastern traditions as it journeys from the
ancient times of the Pharaohs to the present." Last October and November,
she rented the Studio Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts and held two
three-night workshop productions of Evolution. After each performance, she
hosted a reception and polled the audience members for their reactions.
"Some rated the show as a 9 out of 10. The lowest we got was
6 1/2." A garrulous self-promoter, Keshishian is nothing if not
resourceful. She had costumes and scenery built, paid for a website, programs,
posters and a publicist. In the marketing department, she hasn't missed a
trick. People who register as "Friends of Armineh" get $5 off the
ticket price. Investors Group employees are also entitled to a cut rate. And
the choice of Mother's Day weekend was not an accident. The money it takes to
put on a show like this – about $100,000 – was all from Keshishian's own
pocket. Government grants are not available to first-timers. Who knows
how Evolution will fit with a Toronto audience. But if the show falls
short of a complete success it won't be for ignorance of show business.
::OTHER NEWS::
Isabella Blow, 48: Fashion Stylist And
Icon
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Raphael G.
Satter, Associated Press
(May 08, 2007) LONDON – Stylist and fashion guru Isabella
Blow, a vibrant and often outrageous presence
on the British fashion scene, has died, her husband said. She was 48. Detmar
Blow said she died in the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in western England.
News reports said she had recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Renowned
for her larger-than-life hats and blood-red lipstick, Blow was credited with
discovering designer Alexander McQueen and milliner Philip Treacey. She helped
launch the careers of models including Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl. Most
recently, Blow was an editor-at-large for Tatler magazine. "She was in the
office just last week, bursting with ideas. They sounded impossible, but you
always knew with Isabella it would work and be marvellous," Tatler editor
Geordie Greig told The Daily Telegraph. "She was bored by clichés. She
didn't do ordinary or dull." Born Isabella Delves Broughton in London in
1958, Blow moved to New York in 1979 to study ancient Chinese art at Columbia
University. She soon dropped out and moved to west Texas to work for Guy
Laroche. In 1981, she met Anna Wintour, then fashion director of U.S. Vogue,
and was hired as her assistant. "I don't think she ever did my expenses,
but she made life much more interesting," Wintour told The Times newspaper
on Monday.
Blow later returned to London, where she worked for Tatler, the Sunday Times
and British Vogue. She met Detmar, an art dealer, at a wedding in 1987. They
became engaged just 16 days later and married the following year. Blow asked
Treacey to design her bridal headdress, and a fashion collaboration was born.
She would serve as muse for a host of Treacey headgear, including "The
Ship" – a replica 18th century clipper in full rigging. Another creation,
the "Gilbert & George" – a mass of pink and green lacquered
ostrich feathers stuck into a mortar board – was so wide that Blow was unable to
navigate the door of the charity event for which she had ordered it. A 2002
exhibition and accompanying book, "When Philip Met Isabella,"
featured Blow in some of Treacey's most memorable creations. "I don't use
a hat as a prop. I use it as a part of me," she told The Guardian newspaper
before the exhibition's launch. "If I am feeling really low, I go and see
Philip, cover my face and feel fantastic."
::SPORTS NEWS::
Boxer
Corrales Dies In Motorcycle Accident
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
(May 08, 2007) LAS VEGAS (AP) – Diego Corrales, who won titles in
two weight classes and was involved in one of the most exciting fights in
recent years, died in a motorcycle accident a few kilometres from the Las Vegas
Strip. He was 29. His promoter, Gary Shaw, said Corrales was driving his
motorcycle at a high rate of speed when he ran into the back of a car Monday
night. Shaw said Corrales, whose career had faltered the past two years,
recently bought a racing motorcycle and apparently was riding it the time he
was killed. "He fought recklessly and he lived recklessly," Shaw
said. "That was his style." Las Vegas police spokesman Jose Montoya
said the victim in the accident was wearing a helmet, and police were
investigating if drugs or alcohol was involved. Corrales, who fought most of
his career at 130 pounds, was a big puncher best known for getting up after two
10th-round knockdowns to stop Jose Luis Castillo on May 7, 2005, in what the
Boxing Writers Association of America and numerous boxing publications called
the fight of the year.
Corrales, though, was knocked out by Castillo in the rematch and then had three
straight fights undermined at the weigh-in. Castillo couldn't make weight twice
against Corrales, and the second time Corrales refused to fight him at the
higher weight, costing himself a $1.3 million (U.S.) payday. And then Corrales
weighed in a whopping five pounds over the weight limit for his WBC 135-pound
title defense against Joel Casamayor, and went on to lose the fight. He lost
his last three fights, including his last one April 7 against Joshua Clottey in
Springfield, Mo. He had moved up two weight divisions to welterweight for that
fight. Corrales was born in Sacramento, Calif., and lived in Las Vegas in
recent years. He won his first 33 fights and held a piece of the 130-pound
title before he was stopped by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a unification fight in
January 2001. Corrales was sent to jail on a domestic abuse charge after that
fight, and didn't fight again for two years. He came back to fight a trilogy
against Casamayor, losing two of the three fights, and split a pair of fights
with Castillo. "He always cared about the fans and gave them their money's
worth," Shaw said. "He was a true warrior. He was what boxing stood
for, and what boxing is all about."
Argos
Prospect Could Fly With Jets
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
- Rick Matsumoto
(May 08, 2007) The Argonauts seem likely to lose another draft pick to the NFL.
Linebacker Aaron Wagner, who had an outstanding season with Brigham Young
University, will be in Hempstead, N.Y., Thursday and, barring a hitch following
a final workout, should sign with the New York Jets by the end of the day. The
25-year-old Lethbridge, Alta., native was selected by the Argos in the second
round of the 2006 Canadian college draft, but elected to return to BYU for his
senior year after suffering a knee injury that cost him most of the 2005
season. It proved to be a smart move. Wagner recorded 75 tackles, 43 solo, and
caught the eye of the Jets. "They worked him out on pro day back in March
(in Provo, Utah)," Wagner's agent, Steve Gerritsen, said, "and they
were impressed."
While the Jets didn't take him in last week's NFL draft, Wagner was contacted
shortly thereafter and arrangements were made for him to fly to New York.
Gerritsen said Wagner hasn't formally signed a contract, but fully expects to
do so after the final workout. The Argos were prepared for Wagner getting an
opportunity with an NFL team, but have left the door open for him. "He's
prepared to join the Argos if he doesn't make it in the NFL," Gerritsen
said. "Being a Canadian, he'd love to play in the CFL. But his goal for
now is to play in the NFL." From last year's draft, the Argos lost
offensive tackle Dan Federkeil to the Indianapolis Colts as well as running
back Clifton Dawson, who also signed with the Colts this spring after finishing
his senior year at Harvard.
SPORTS TIDBITS
Bargnani,
Garbajosa Top Rookie Class
Excerpt
from www.thestar.com
- Doug
Smith
(May 08, 2007) Andrea Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa became the
first Raptor teammates ever named to the NBA's all-rookie team Tuesday.
Bargnani finished second in voting to Portland's Brandon Roy while Garbajosa finished tied for
fifth with Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge in balloting by the league's
30 head coaches. Roy was a unanimous first-team selection while Bargnani
appeared on 29 first-team ballots and one for the second team. Garbajosa got 13
votes for the first team, 11 for the second and was left off six ballots.
Bargnani, who also finished second to Roy in the rookie of the year balloting,
was third in rookie scoring, averaging 11.6 points per game while Garbajosa was
fifth in rookie rebounding at 4.9 per game. Rounding out the first team were Randy Foye of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies. The second
team comprised Utah's Paul Millsap, Adam Morrison of the Charlotte Bobcats, Tyrus Thomas of the Chicago Bulls and
Minnesota's Craig Smith. Boston's Rajon Rondo, Charlotte's Walter Herrmann and New Jersey's Marcus Williams finished tied for the final
spot.
::FITNESS NEWS::
Fab Abs: Extreme
Belly-Busting Formula!
By Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE, eDiets Chief Fitness Pro
The perfect no-stress environment is the grave.
When we change
our perception we gain control. The stress becomes a challenge, not a threat.
When we commit to action, to actually doing something rather than feeling trapped
by events, the stress in our life becomes manageable.
-- Greg Anderson, author of The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws
of Wellness
At some point you just have to make a
commitment. Everyone wants a flat and tight abdominal area, but much like
earning a Ph.D, few make the ultimate commitment to work and sacrifice for it.
Unlike a Ph.D, attaining a tight and flat abdominal area is a reality for
many, but it does take work and sacrifice. Ugh, awful huh? You want to hear
about the easy three-minutes-a-day workout that will get you there, don’t you?
It doesn’t exist.
If you read my articles often, you know that I place a great deal of
emphasis on reducing body fat through a calorie-reduced nutrition
program and by incorporating weight training and cardiovascular
exercise to stimulate the metabolism. Abdominal exercises
serve to strengthen and tighten the abs, so when your body fat reduces -- you
then see the fruits of your labour.
Abdominal work is vital, but it’s only part of the formula. The formula
consists of being consistent on your eDiets nutrition plan. Please note, I
didn’t say perfect, just consistent most days of the week. You then need
to add three to six days of cardiovascular exercise. For those who’ve been
sedentary for a long time, I recommend 15 minutes of cardio on three alternate
days per week to start, but you’ll need to build from there slowly. As you
progress, you’ll eventually be doing 30 to 50 minutes three to six days per
week. This will accelerate fat loss, but you need to get into this range
gradually. The third key area of the formula is resistance exercise,
otherwise known as weight training. For every pound of muscle you gain,
you will burn 30-50 additional calories per day to support the needs of that
extra muscle. Muscle is a fat-burning tool.
Afraid you’ll get bulky? You will if you don’t lose body fat. However, you’ll
look lean and tight if you lose fat using the entire formula. You
expected a great abdominal workout I bet. I’ve written many of them, but every
once in awhile I have to set the record straight and help you to remember the
foundation -- the formula. If you don’t, you’ll be one of those people
performing ab crunch after ab crunch wondering why your belly just won’t
flatten. I don’t want you to be one of those people. The clients I’ve
trained will all tell you that I take my craft very seriously and one of my
greatest joys is helping and watching people transform themselves. Transformation.
That’s the real glory -- that’s the essence of it. As always, please
check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - John F.
Kennedy: 35th President of the United States
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each
other."