20
Carlton Street, Suite 1032, Toronto, ON
M5B 2H5
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
August 7, 2008
Another long weekend past ...
sigghhh. Hopefully August will cooperate and give us some sunny summer
weather.
I'm still recovering from my hip surgery ... slow but
sure. Thanks for all your inquiries, prayers and good wishes!
CALLING
SEASONED MUSICIANS:
below is a great opportunity for veteran and talented musicians who might be
interested in working for Cirque du Soleil.
Please have a look at the credentials to see if you qualify.
Scroll down and find out what interests you - take your time and take a walk into
your weekly entertainment news!
::OPPORTUNITY::
Musicians: Talents Needed For A New Show About Elvis In Las
Vegas In 2009
Source: Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil is looking
for nine musicians to perform in our new show about Elvis and his musical
heritage. It will be presented at the theatre of the City Center in Las Vegas
in 2009. The show will be directed by Vincent Paterson .
Musicians who play one of the following instruments must showcase at least
three different types of music (i.e. rockabilly, rock & roll, Latin, pop,
blues, gospel, jazz).
1.
Keyboardist (possible
bandleader)*
The following instruments are considered an asset:
Vocal beat box
Programming/sequencing**
Slide guitar
Drum line
Banjo
Harmonica
DJ/scratch
Singing
Others (hidden talents)
For the bandleader position: Experience in musical direction in a theatrical
environment; strong leadership; interest in internal band management; ability
to operate audio sequencing software during the show.
** One of the nine selected artists must have an excellent knowledge of
computers and audio sequencing software and an interest in managing audio
sequencing software and show sampling bank.
You must also possess:
Ability to work within a team in a constantly evolving context and
environment;
Working knowledge of English or French;
Strong stage presence and charisma;
Experience with in-ear amplification an asset;
Good physical condition.
Cirque is very particular about fulfilling
ALL of the above qualifications and if you do not fill all of them,
please do not apply. However, if you think that you would like to
apply for one of these positions, please write to me at langfieldent@rogers.com for further details on how to submit your
demo online.
::TOP STORIES::
Morgan
Freeman Recovering After Crash
Source: www.thestar.com - Holbrook Mohr, Associated
Press
(August 05, 2008) JACKSON, MISS.–Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was hospitalized in serious condition
yesterday after the car he was driving left a rural road in the Mississippi
Delta and flipped several times.
Freeman, 71, was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis , Tenn.
The actor "has a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder damage, but
is in good spirits," according to a statement from Donna Lee, Freeman's
publicist. A hospital spokesperson would not discuss his injuries.
"He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help
correct the damage," Lee's statement said. "He says he'll be okay and
is looking forward to a full recovery."
Freeman, who won an Oscar for his role in Million Dollar Baby, is among
the stars in The Dark Knight. His screen credits also include Driving
Miss Daisy.
Freeman and a companion were travelling on a dark, two-lane highway that cuts
through the expansive farmlands of the Mississippi Delta when the car ran off
the side of the road shortly before midnight Sunday, authorities said. The
vehicle flipped several times but landed upright in a ditch alongside
Mississippi Highway 32, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.
Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Ben Williams said rescuers had to
use the jaws of life to remove Freeman from the car.
"He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue
workers at one point," said Clay McFerrin, editor of the Sun Sentinel in
Charleston , who arrived at the scene soon after the accident.
When one bystander tried to snap a photo with a cellphone camera, Freeman
joked, "No freebies, no freebies," McFerrin said.
Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima that belonged to Demaris
Meyer of Memphis . "There's no indication that either alcohol or drugs
were involved," Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing
seat belts. The woman's condition was not immediately available.
Jessie Farrell Leads Country Award Nods
Source: www.thestar.com - The Canadian Press
(July 30, 2008) Newcomer Jessie Farrell leads the nominees for Canadian Country
Music Awards this year.
The Vancouver singer raked in seven nominations, including best single, album,
songwriter and female artist.
Other leading nominees include Winnipeg's Doc Walker with six, Calgary's Paul
Brandt with five, and Gord Bamford of Lacombe, Alta., with four.
Nova Scotia's George Canyon and Deric Ruttan, from Bracebridge, Ont., each
nabbed three nominations.
The awards will be handed out at a gala in Winnipeg on Sept. 8.
Country star Terri Clark will host the bash, which will feature performances by
Farrell, Canyon, Emerson Drive and Johnny Reid.
Here is a list of the major nominations:
FANS' CHOICE AWARD: Paul Brandt, George Canyon, Doc Walker, Emerson Drive,
Jessie Farrell.
SINGLE OF THE YEAR: "Beautiful Life," Doc Walker; "Best of
Me," Jessie Farrell; "Blame It on That Red Dress," Gord Bamford;
``Risk," Paul Brandt; "You Can Let Go," Crystal Shawanda.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "Beautiful Life," Doc Walker; "First Time in
a Long Time," Deric Ruttan; "Kicking Stones," Johnny Reid;
``Nothing Fancy," Jessie Farrell; "Risk," Paul Brandt.
FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Lisa Brokop, Terri Clark, Jessie Farrell, Carolyn
Dawn Johnson, Crystal Shawanda.
MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Paul Brandt, George Canyon, Johnny Reid, Deric Ruttan,
Shane Yellowbird.
SONGWRITER(S) OF THE YEAR: "Beautiful Life" (written by Murray
Pulver, Chris Thorsteinson, Dave Wasyliw; recorded by Doc Walker); ``Best of
Me" (written by Jessie Farrell, Jared Kuemper, Jesse Tucker; recorded by
Jessie Farrell); "Blame It on That Red Dress" (written by Gord
Bamford, Byron Hill, Zack Turner; recorded by Gord Bamford); "First Time
in a Long Time" (written by Jimmy Rankin, Deric Ruttan; recorded by Deric
Ruttan); "Risk" (written by Paul Brandt; recorded by Paul Brandt).
GROUP OR DUO OF THE YEAR: Ambush, Doc Walker, Emerson Drive, the Higgins, the
Wilkinsons.
ROOTS ARTIST OR GROUP OF THE YEAR: Ridley Bent, the Cruzeros, Sean Hogan, Corb
Lund, Prairie Oyster.
TOP NEW TALENT OF THE YEAR - FEMALE: Jessie Farrell, Amber Nicholson, Alex J.
Robinson.
TOP NEW TALENT OF THE YEAR - MALE: Gord Bamford, Ridley Bent, Jason Blaine.
TOP NEW TALENT OF THE YEAR GROUP OR DUO: Desert Heat, Hey Romeo, Jo Hikk.
CMT VIDEO OF THE YEAR: "Beautiful Life," Doc Walker; "Best of
Me," Jessie Farrell; "Blame It on That Red Dress," Gord Bamford;
``In This Room," Ambush; "Ring of Fire," George Canyon.
TOP SELLING ALBUM: "Carnival Ride," Carrie Underwood; "Raising
Sand," Robert Plant/Alison Krauss; "Reba Duets," Reba McEntire;
``Taylor Swift," Taylor Swift; "Ultimate Hits," Garth Brooks.
TOP SELLING CANADIAN ALBUM: "Classics," George Canyon; "Horse
Soldier! Horse Soldier!" Corb Lund; "Kicking Stones," Johnny
Reid; "Nothing Fancy," Jessie Farrell; "Risk," Paul Brandt.
Mario: Mr. Do Right
Source: www.essence.com
By Porsche Slocum
(July 29, 2008) We’ve watched Mario grow from a cornrows-having tween crooner to
a debonair ballroom dancer. But there’s
more to this 21-year-old. In 2007, Mario allowed MTV cameras into his life to capture his mother’s
jarring struggle with a 20-year heroin addiction and his desperate plea for her
to seek help in the documentary “I Won’t Love You to Death: The Story of Mario
and His Mom.” Now, with a huge weight off his shoulders—his mother, Shawnita
Hardaway, has been clean for nearly a year—the Baltimore native is gearing up
for the next phase in his life. Mario gets personal with ESSENCE.com about his Do
Right Foundation (which helps kids in drug-prevalent environments cope),
fears that his mother might relapse, and what he hopes his legacy will be.
Plus, he sets the record straight on rumours about him and his “Dancing With
the Stars” partner, Karina Smirnoff.
ESSENCE.COM: Some people wouldn't be so open about a family member's battle
with drugs, especially a parent. What made you decide to do that documentary?
MARIO: I was launching my foundation, and I felt the documentary gave kids
and young adults with the same issues [as me] inspiration. I feel like it has
helped me to grow a lot, with the things that I have experienced and gone
through with my mother. I also felt like it showed who I really was as a young
man outside of the music, because sometimes you can get lost in that box of
being just a teen star—I’m more than that.
ESSENCE.COM: What made you decide to launch the Mario debonair ballroom
dancer. But there’s m Do Right Foundation?
MARIO: In terms of my faith in God, I’ve seen what He’s brought people
through, what He has brought me through, and how He still allows me to be
focused on my goals and dreams. I want these kids to realize that they have the
future ahead of them and this is just an example of how God can work.
ESSENCE.COM: What were the challenges of making this documentary with your
mom?
MARIO: My mother is a very blunt person, and more than anything she wants
to be a speaker. She wants to help change lives. But there were times when we
both were like, “Turn the cameras off.” Everything that you see in the
documentary was written, approved and signed by me, so there were a lot of
things that weren’t shown, yet everything you see is real and raw. I hope people
are inspired by it and that it will change people in a positive way.
ESSENCE.COM: Yes, the feedback has been great. Clearly, you made the right
decision.
MARIO: I have to thank God for everything he has brought me through. My mom
has almost a year clean now. I’m very proud of her. I can’t wait for her to
finish her book, which should be done soon. I’m excited about that.
ESSENCE.COM: Do you fear she will relapse, since she has tried to quit in
the past?
MARIO: I try not to think about it that way, but it’s a daily struggle for
someone who has been using drugs for over 20 years. And this is something that
she tells me. You still get this feeling inside, but as long as you don’t feed
it and you feed your mind and body and spirit with a substance that fulfills
you, then you should be good. But you have to continue to feed your mind, body
and spirit.
ESSENCE.COM: For you, that fulfillment must come from music.
MARIO: Sometimes you wake up and you feel inspired to write and do music
and sometimes you don’t. You can’t plan creativity but that has to be my
getaway—that has to be my escape.
ESSENCE.COM: How hard has it been balancing the pressure of the music
business with your personal life?
MARIO: You have to learn how to separate the two. It’s tough sometimes but
I think that’s the way it has to be. It wasn’t easy at first, and I’m still
learning how to manage both.
ESSENCE.COM: Is it true that you are doing a reality show?
MARIO: There are a lot of rumours going around. No, I’m not doing a reality
show. I’m focusing on my next record. Anything I put my mind to, I focus on it
110 percent. I know there’s a lot of competition out there, but I have yet to
show my full potential in music and I’m ready to do that.
ESSENCE.COM: When can we expect your next album?
MARIO: I would like for it to be out by the end of the year. I would like
for the first single to be out in August and just keep it going. I have a lot
of great music that shows so much growth. I’ve grown a lot in the past year;
I’ve just been so focused.
ESSENCE.COM: What’s the craziest rumour you’ve heard about yourself?
MARIO: Well, the one that was ongoing was obviously the rumour about
Karina, my partner from “Dancing With the Stars,” and me.
ESSENCE.COM: So, that was just a rumour?
MARIO: Yeah, you know, I was diggin’ her and we had a great time together
but she was in a relationship at the time. I would rather not have dealt with
the pressures of going through that whole thing—I wanted to keep it
professional. As a young man, when you’re focused on something, sometimes a
woman can be a setback a little bit (laughs). But for me to get physical with
her or get in a relationship, even though it was tempting, I wouldn’t have been
as focused. I kept it professional.
ESSENCE.COM: You were great on the show. How did it impact your career?
MARIO: It opened people’s eyes that have probably never bought a Mario
record in their life. It’s a very personal show and you get a chance to show
your personality. It allowed me to look into other things, as far as writing
books and more film projects, but most importantly, I want the people who
watched every week to know that I make good music. A lot of young artists get
stereotyped—I don’t feel like I am one of those artists but I want to show why
I’m not. I want to be an all-around entertainer and that’s my goal.
ESSENCE.COM: What do you want your legacy to be?
MARIO: At the end of the day, I want my legacy to be timeless. I want
people to look at my career and my life and say, “You know what? He was a good
man. He was a hard worker. He helped change lives and he was an inspiration and
a role model.” If they would ask a young man, “Who would you want to model your
life after?” I would love to hear my name.
Leif Pettersen, 57: CFL's Ex-Player And Broadcaster
Source: www.thestar.com
- Dave Feschuk
(August 01, 2008) When news spread yesterday
that Leif Pettersen, the ex-player and broadcaster of CFL games, had died at age 57,
friends and colleagues alike expressed head-shaking woe.
"It just doesn't seem right," said Pat Tabler, the Blue Jays TV
analyst who occasionally played golf with Pettersen. "Leif was 57, but he
looked 35. He was in great shape, not an ounce of fat on him, good-looking, not
even a hint of (ill health). And now he's gone. It's really hard to deal with
that."
Pettersen died of a heart attack in his Toronto home on Wednesday night,
leaving behind his wife, Lee, and their two daughters, Kate and Ali.
"He had what every guy wants: Great looks, great athletic skills, great
intelligence, great family," said Keith Pelley, the TV executive and
former Argos CEO who counted Pettersen among his closest friends.
Pettersen, a star high school athlete at Northern Secondary School who attended
Otterbein College, played eight seasons as a receiver in the CFL with the
Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Ticats. He was fêted with many accolades,
among them league all-star and finalist for top Canadian, and he was something
of a sporting purist. He eschewed, for instance, the wearing of gloves, even in
snowy November playoff games.
"Cold weather doesn't bother me," he once told a reporter. And true
to that statement, he caught seven passes in a Grey Cup game, the 1976 battle
of the Riders, in which his Saskatchewan squad fell to Ottawa on that famous
Tom-Clements-to-Tony-Gabriel touchdown.
He joined TSN's CFL broadcasting team in 1986 and he carved out a reputation as
a colour analyst unafraid to voice strong opinions. Pelley, who produced those
games in the early 1990s, remembered a skilled broadcaster who, though
initially resistant to a technological advance such as the telestrator, soon
became "a telestrator magician."
Rod Black, the play-by-play voice who partnered with Pettersen on so many
summer nights, laughed yesterday when he recounted how Pettersen would chuckle
and flash a smile when his analysis veered "a little over the line"
of fair comment.
"That's what I loved about him, he understood it was only a game,"
said Black. "You'd come off the air, and sometimes you were a little chaffed
at how crappy the game was or how good the game was. And he'd say, `All right,
the game's over. Let's have a beer. On to the next one.' I think that's a good
attitude to have."
TSN dedicated last night's CFL doubleheader to Pettersen's memory, but broadcasting
was far from Pettersen's only occupation. He spent years as an executive with
Service Corp., the funeral-parlour conglomerate. He was a partner in a
marketing venture. He worked in private banking, advising athletes on their
finances. "He always had three or four things on the go," said
Pelley.
Still, his life, in Pelley's estimation, was far from time-pressed and
stress-riddled. Pettersen carved out plenty of hours to play golf to a
single-digit handicap at both his home course, the Lambton Golf and Country
Club on Scarlett Road, and at Blue Mountain Golf and Country Club in
Collingwood, where he and his family often spent time.
"He was a great golfer," said Rich Stubler, the Argos coach.
"Some ex-players have a huge ego, and their exploits grow (with time). I
think Leif's didn't. ... He had his life in perspective."
Said Pelley: "He did what he wanted to do, and that was spend time with
his family, spend time in Collingwood, play golf, and work on the things he
wanted to work on. It's kind of what everybody wants to do, and he had it. He
had it all."
Pelley repeated that phrase more than once yesterday, when the news was raw and
making sense of it seemed futile. After a silence on a sombre phone line, he
sighed a long and sombre sigh: "Fifty seven ... Life is short."
::TRAVEL NEWS::
Roy Marlin, Commissioner Of Tourism, St.
Maarten
Source: By Melanie Reffes
(August 06, 2008) As one of the most visited
islands in the Caribbean, St. Maarten/St. Martin is kicking up its marketing campaign with
new tourism websites, a snappy slogan and a slew of luxury properties. Having
held various positions within the Executive Council of the Governor of St.
Maarten, Roy Marlin is now commissioner of tourism, a post he has held since 2007. We spoke
with Marlin about the St. Maarten tourism product and his vision for sustained
tourism in the region.
You are relatively new to the post of Commissioner of Tourism for St. Maarten.
What are your challenges, as you see them?
St. Maarten is facing many challenges, especially considering the state of
the airline industry in America. The high cost of fuel and operations, and the
cutbacks on flights to our island are serious. These are the issues we need to
address immediately for the sustainability of our tourism product as well as
tourism to the other destinations in the region. I don't have a magic globe in
front of me but I feel the increasing costs of fuel will continue to have a
detrimental effect on travel to the Caribbean. That is why we are strengthening
our relationships and partnerships with several airlines including American
Airlines and JetBlue.
Are you in discussions with the airlines to get additional service for St.
Maarten?
JetBlue launched service from New York in January and we are very happy with
the success of the flight so far. JetBlue's lower cost structure is providing
very competitive air fares, which is a tremendous boost for tourism as well as
for our resident population. This is good for us and good for our travel
partners. We are now in discussions with JetBlue about enhanced service
following the success of the direct flight from JFK. We have a one-year
marketing program with the airline at this time. American Airlines has
scheduled new flights out of Miami and New York for the upcoming tourism
season. The twice-weekly New York flight will start in December and will go to
five times per week in January. The second direct flight from Miami is
scheduled to start in November. We are also in discussions about enhanced
service with Delta, United and US Airways. This is our tough priority now. We
recognize the troubles within the airline industry, so strengthening
partnerships with airlines is our absolute highest priority.
What is the message behind St. Maarten's slogan "Bring Your Appetite
for Life"?
St. Maarten has everything to offer those who love life. We are targeting
upscale travelers who are looking for a vacation of the kind you can only get
here. We offer indulgence and fun, from relaxing on the beach to lively
nightlife. I tell visitors if your fun is to party, come here. If your fun is
sailing, we have that, too. If it's gambling and nightlife, we have that as
well. Our Gold Award Winning Chefs work in more than 400 restaurants. We are
selling fun and luxury in a safe, friendly and cosmopolitan environment.
How does the tourism product incorporate the Dutch and French sides?
The integration of our tourism product is high priority. We have a shared vision
of our overall product and how to market both sides of St. Maarten, but the
French side is being re-organized in terms of its governmental structure. We
are waiting for these new structures to be put in place, and at that time we
will discuss more thoroughly our shared vision and act upon it.
How does the island work with travel agents and wholesalers?
I salute the travel agents and wholesalers who sell the island. It is because
of their support and endorsement that St. Maarten remains one of the most
popular destinations in the Caribbean. Our annual SMART event -- St.
Maarten/St. Martin Annual Regional Tradeshow -- was a big success with 148
delegates attending. Our ranking by TripAdvisor.com as the #1 Caribbean
vacation destination reflects the quality of the island's overall tourism
product, and again I salute the travel agents who are loyal to St. Maarten. We
encourage agents to visit our properties; many extend reduced rates to agents
our tourism product becomes more familiar.
What is your vision for the future of the island?
Our room stock is expanding. Radisson St. Martin Resort & Spa opens
soon and will add more than 200 rooms on the French side and the high-end Coral
Beach Club opened on Dawn beach on the Dutch side. It is this expansion of room
availability that is necessary in order for us to continue our discussions with
the airlines. We cannot ask them to enhance service if we do not have the beds.
Having another high-end product to tell agents and wholesalers about is most
welcome.
On a personal note, where are your favourite spots on the island?
Although my job requires a lot of traveling, I spend as much time with my
family as possible. My teenage daughter even likes to go to the movies with me.
For my own fun, I enjoy Cheri's in Maho where I listen to good music. I've been
seen on my feet dancing up a storm although I don't advertise that too much. I
also enjoy the barbecue at the "lolo" in Colebay called Johnny Under
the Tree. In my opinion, visitors to our island will not get a worthwhile
vacation experience if they only go from hotel to the beach and back. If our
visitors do not leave their beach chairs, they can't really say they've been to
St. Maarten.
For more information on St. Maarten/St. Martin, call 800-786-2278 or visit www.st-martin.org
or www.vacationstmaarten.com.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Ember Swift Feature
Source:
CIRAA
Ember
Swift is an internationally touring artist, musician and songwriter,
and founder of the independent label Few'll Ignite Sound. She and her band have
toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States and have also toured
(on multiple occasions) in Australia, New Caledonia (French island in the
Pacific) and China. Since launching her career in 1996, she has won numerous
awards and is well known for her political activism, business acumen and her
commitment to the ideal: "independent
by identity, not default."
Q: You're nine albums deep into your career as a music artist,
from your self-titled debut release in 1996 up to 2006's The Dirty
Pulse. Over your career, what have been the most rewarding parts of
being an independent artist, and what have been the biggest challenges?
I think the most rewarding part of my journey as an artist has been the people
that I have been gifted to meet. All over the world, my music has acted as a
natural icebreaker yielding invitations into diverse cultural, ethnic, religious,
political communities that I may never have had the opportunity to access. I
have learned so much from each and every one of these people.
I'd have to say that my greatest challenge has been trying to operate in this
linear Western economic model when it constantly contradicts the cyclical,
sustainable model of success (more associated with Eastern traditions) that I
have been trying to live by since the beginning of this musical endeavor. It
comes up all the time. Even the simple community, resource-sharing
characteristics of CIRAA are in contradiction with the rigid linear model that
advocates competition and protecting or hoarding one's information (presumably
against theft by the competitor).
In the end, however, I have found enough solidarity and camaraderie with these
philosophies to make that struggle worthwhile. So, it's all surmountable.
Q: What roles have you typically taken on yourself in terms of
your career management, and in what areas have you brought in others to assist
you?
At one time, my music label did all the management, publicity and booking
in-house. I did some of the tasks myself or in tandem with employees, while
other tasks were delegated entirely. Of course, before the label was developed
enough to afford employees, I did do it all myself in the confines of my
bachelor apartment or alongside volunteers who helped me organize special
projects. It wasn't long before I never referred to the projects as my
projects; there has long been a team.
Nevertheless, in my workshops I strongly advocate gathering the expertise about
any and all the possible tasks that are required of an artist on the business
side so that, in the future, one can hire (and if need be, fire) assistance
from an informed place.
In 2003, I was signed by a U.S. booking agency and I also began to work with
publicists on certain tours, especially in other countries besides Canada. In
2004, I signed a management deal in Canada, which came to a close in January of
2007.
At this point in time, I am back to doing self-management and I'm about to
engage in a six-month writing and production sabbatical in China for my next
album, which means that I won't be working with the agency until I'm back on
the road. There are currently no publicists on the case as a new project is in
the works. My team at the moment consists of two part-time Few'll Ignite Sound
employees and myself who help me keep the label afloat in this quiet time.
Change is certainly an ever-present component to this career!
Q: You've toured extensively, and have found a home in China.
How did you go about determining which geographic markets made the most sense
for you to pursue in terms of releasing your product as well as touring to
promote it?
When I first started touring, I did small loops around Toronto. Those circles
got wider and wider as our reputation and audience grew. Eventually, we were
touring to the East Coast, which was followed by cross-Canada tours that took
us all the way to Vancouver and back. In 1998, we also started touring in the
U.S., which was easier to do at that time in history as working permits were
not as difficult to obtain as they are now. Since much of the American Eastern
seaboard is just a few hours' drive away, it simply made sense economically and
geographically.
These destinations were determined by demand coupled with our financial ability
to get there. In other words, if we could secure an invitation to an event or a
festival or a venue, but it was too far away to afford to drive there, it went
on the back burner for a future tour. Eventually, these opportunities would
pile up and warrant a tour that could afford itself.
Our international touring (at least, outside of Canada and the U.S.) began in
2001 and came about by a random invitation to play in Australia. Much research
and risk-taking later, we strung together shows over the Internet through gig
swapping, research and lots of faith and then hopped on a plane. That first
year that created enough buzz and interest that our costs were covered. We have
now toured Australia eight times. In fact, it was due to these Australian
successes that many more doors began to open for me and my band back here in
Canada. It's amazing how word travels!
We have also toured on two occasions in a small country called New Caledonia.
This is an island country in the Pacific Alliance of islands off the coast of
Australia (near Fiji) that is still governed by France. I speak French and this
language ability enabled me to land this opportunity while touring in
Australia. Of all the tours we have done, going to New Caledonia and hanging
out with the palm trees, beaches, wild mango trees when not on stage has been
one of the greatest highlights. Tough life, I know. They were unbelievable
opportunities!
China was actually originally meant as a break from my touring, as it has been
a long-intended destination in my life. (I have a degree in East Asian Studies
from UofT and speak Mandarin.) But, as it is a country in the midst of great
change and huge growth, going to China has yielded some interesting
opportunities for my performance and my recording career. As a result, I am now
both gigging and living in China in order to develop these possibilities.
When I look back across the touring chronology, it seems pretty clear that I
have been riding one wave to the next. There's some conscious choice, but
there's also simply serendipity. No complaints!
Q: What are some of the most unorthodox organizations that have
booked you for performances and what are some non-traditional ways you've
generated revenue from your music?
Well, I play a middle school in Connecticut every year. I never thought I'd see
my music being loved by a pile of sixth graders, but they love it and request
us to come back every year to the point where we are now part of the curriculum
in the English department. It becomes both a performance and a workshop about
expression, communication, the concept of voice, etc.
Well, that's hardly unorthodox. I have played for events for so many activist
organizations and been part of so many interesting events that it's hard to
list them, but I don't think I could say that any of them were unorthodox. They
all "fit" somehow, into the grand scheme of things.
In terms of non-traditional ways to generate revenue, I am always looking for
those� Let me
know if you can tell me of some that I hadn't thought of! I did recently
auction off a guitar that I hadn't been using and was shocked by the
willingness of my fans to buy it for much more than I would have been able to
sell it to a store for. I think I'm always surprised by what some fans will pay
to contribute to my musical career. They deserve all the credit, really.
Fans are my currency, after all. My whole career has been about earning fans.
They are the real revenue. Money is just a nice by-product when you have fans.
Q: Talk a bit about the challenges and/or opportunities that the
Internet and digital downloading have created for you.
Endless.
I have to see the downloading and filesharing of music as an opportunity to get
my music into more ears. That's not to say that I don't believe my music has
value, but I do hope that by spreading it around via this ready medium of
filesharing that it will generate more interest in what I'm doing and perhaps
will translate into greater attendance at shows, for instance. In general, I
hope it will encourage more support for the artist and for the intangible art
that can be made live, in real time, rather than focusing so much energy on my
spinning pieces of plastic that simply house my art. This philosophy also stops
me from holding the weight of resentment that comes from the belief that my art
has been stolen. No one can steal my art. It is in me. It is me.
Of course, it has meant that I sell less than half the numbers of CDs now than
I used to, which is a reflection of the changing industry and definitely not a
reflection of my talent or skill. My music has gotten better with time, not
worse. It's simply too bad that the sales don't indicate this truth as they
once did. (Paid downloads only offset a small percentage of those sales losses
rather than replacing them.)
What's to be done? I accept that the Internet has enabled me to promote and be
available to ears and eyes globally. Without it, I'm not sure independent
artists could be as prosperous as some of us have been. It has been an amazing
tool for publicity and visibility. This changing technology strikes me as more
exciting than debilitating. If I keep that attitude prominent, then I can
embrace the changes and be open to the other opportunities that inevitably will
come to have my music heard digitally.
I have faith that all will be well for the artist despite these trying times.
Q: How have you utilized social networking sites to promote
yourself?
I have a MySpace account and a Facebook profile, both a music group and a
personal site. It's been an amazing tool in the past couple of years and it has
grown so quickly, it's unbelievable. It gives artists an instant mailing list
without having to trek around to cities carrying a sign-up sheet and collecting
support, signature by signature.
These sites also enable the greatest marketing of all: word of mouth. As people
can type in what they love and spread the word, it's remarkably good for an
artist's profile to be the topic of conversation. The networks are so vast.
Really, it's staggering the reach these sites have had and continue to have.
Blogging, as an aside, is another incredible resource to independent artists.
Another topic unto itself!
Q: In addition to being a singer-songwriter, you are also
well-known for your workshop facilitation and artist education initiatives
through your label website, www.fewllignitesound.com.
What motivates you to engage in artist education?
I am saddened by how many artists are still manipulated by the industry simply
because of their ignorance about the music business. I started my label to
advocate the DIY approach and found that many artists in turn asked me
"what to do" and "how to do it" on dozens of topics. I
started to offer workshops and seminars to artists about five or six years ago
because I believe that if we have the knowledge, we will have the power. I
think it's simple: we are the music makers, and so the industry doesn't tick
without us. It is ludicrous that the very heartbeat of the business is often
the most vulnerable position to occupy. So, my artist education is based on
wanting to empower the artist so that we can all make informed decisions about
our career paths.
But before I teach a single class, I always make clear that all I know is my
own journey and the experience that I have gleaned therein. A beginner artist
always has something to teach me as well, simply because his or her experiences
are different and at a different stage. I want to make it clear that I have
something to share but that I'm not the authority on the issue. Together, we
create a population of authority as independent artists; alone, we are just one
path. That's why CIRAA is such an important organization. It's a unified front.
It's a collective knowledge base.
Q: Why did you join the CIRAA Board of Directors? What is your
main objective as a CIRAA Board Member?
Well, since I've been raving about CIRAA throughout this whole interview, I've
answered some of that already! But, the practical side of it is that I was
originally invited to join back when I was still foggy as to what CIRAA
actually did in this industry. Since then, I have been moved to get more
involved as a result of the personalities of the CIRAA members, the ambition
and intention that fuels the organization and, well, the fact that CIRAA is
filling a similar role to that of my music label, which is to provide
education, resources and support to independent artists. Quite simply, I
respect the organization. I want to help.
Q: Based on your day-to-day experience as an independent artist,
what are the key issues and challenges that independent and unsigned artists
should be paying attention to given the new music industry landscape?
I think the biggest issue and challenge is to keep art central, the focus, the
point. We often get so wrapped up in the business side of what we're doing as
independent artists that we can lose focus on the real driving reason for all
that business activity: music. Without a regular and intentional schedule for
music in my life, I would have been consumed by the entrepreneurial demands of
the industry. When I'm doing my workshops, I stress this constantly. After all,
the music is the reason for everything. Without doing the business, we are
still legitimate songwriters and our identities as music-makers remains
unchanged. Without the music, what is our identity as a business person about?
Nothing, really. Music is key.
Q: What are some of the key things that indie artists need to do
to successfully build and manage their careers in the music industry?
Now, getting into the heart of it, if you had to choose only one area of the
business to focus on, I'd say that a web presence is an unquestioned essential
for all independent artists today. Staying on top of web technology and
learning where those opportunities lie is key. It's both a challenge and an
issue as it's constantly changing. That requires regular vigilance.
I'd have to also tack on the need to be alert to funding opportunities for
artists. This is an amazing country that offers support to its artists
(compared to the U.S., for instance) and so learning about these programs can
be the difference between a project's existence and inexistence.
Q: How do you define professional success?
No differently than I define personal success: by how it feels. I scrap the
numbers and the stats and just ask myself if I feel, truly, as though I have
succeeded with a project. If the answer is yes, I am satisfied. If the answer
is no, I analyze where I fell short. Ultimately, I'm the only one who can
identify my successes. Everyone else is just guessing from the outside looking
in! My biggest lesson in life has been to ignore what "they" think
and just do what feels right for me. So far so good.
Thanks, Ember, for sharing so much insightful info. Scroll down
to the bottom of this issue to review Ember's "Indie Music Tips"!
Ember’s Indie Music Tips
* Believe
in your art. You are the most important believer. If you
believe in what you're doing, others will be inspired to believe in it too.
* Touring
is organic distribution. When your show is ready, hit the road.
Start small with a solo or duo or small ensemble, don't go too far away or stay
out for too long but always know that no matter where you go with your music,
you are taking it to new ears and potential fans. If they don't come to you, go
to them!
* Stay in
touch with your fans. You're a person, not a product. Fans are
people who like your music, but lasting support is really solidified when they
come to like YOU. Besides, you're likely to make many friends that way!
* Before
seeking representation, learn how to do the jobs yourself. Then
you'll know what expertise is required to do each job right. That way, once you
do have representation, you'll always know whether they are worth their fee or
you'd be better off going the DIY route.
* Having
a recording you're proud of makes a huge difference. Even if
it's just a demo or an EP, it is your audio business card and if you have to
disclaim it every time you give it someone (i.e. "we've grown a lot since
this recording, but...") then you really shouldn't be giving it out.
* Accept
the hospitality and generosity extended by fans and supporters. People
who love music but don't make music often want to help but don't know how.
Volunteers in the office, open doors on the road, friends who offer web support
(etc.) are all incredibly valuable. Kindness is a form of alternative currency
worth trading in, especially in a business where hard cash is hard to come by.
* You are
never too old to make art. Your art will only get better with
time if you're always working at it, developing it, pushing yourself to be a
better player, etc. Music is like wine. Give it time.
Check out www.fewllignitesound.com
for log sheet templates, sample contracts and lots more helpful resource info!
Sign up for FREE membership in CIRAA at www.ciraa.ca to get access to
more features like this one on Ember.
Reggae Legends Abyssinians Find Their Soul In A Far Away Land
Source: www.thestar.com -
Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(July 31, 2008) The Abyssinians are roots-reggae legends with a healthy
catalogue, but noted mainly for the title track of their 1971 debut album Satta
Massagana.
The subtle repatriation tune is named for the phrase "give thanks and
praises" in Ethiopia's Amharic language and embraced as an anthem by
Rastafarians who consider the African country their spiritual home.
The Jamaican harmony trio, initially comprised of Bernard Collins and brothers
Donald and Lynford Manning, disbanded in the 1980s after the siblings moved to
the U.S. At one point Collins and Donald Manning helmed two different
Abyssinian touring acts. They reunited in 2003 and will perform with new member
David Morrison (Lynford has retired from music) at Harbourfront's free Island
Soul festival on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. with the backing of Toronto musicians.
Lead singer and father of four, Collins, 59, spoke with the Star from
his home in Jamaica.
Q: How did your career in music begin?
A: I used to sing in the Seventh Day Adventist church with my grandmother
where we lived in the country. I always had the urge to sing and when I moved
to Kingston I wanted to meet all of the big artists; so I went to Trench Town,
which was like the university for music, because all of the young talents like
Alton Ellis, Bob Marley and Ken Booth came out of there. I met all those guys
and would hang around trying to get inspiration and learn about the music
business.
Q: What do you recall about how "Satta Massagna" was composed?
A: One night back in 1969 we were sitting outside (the Manning) house.
Donald, as always, was playing his guitar, struggling on a few chords. The
melody just came inside of me and I started singing "There is a land far,
far away/ Where there's no night, there's only day," and he went inside
his house, came out with some paper and started writing down the lyrics. I
would sing one line, he would come in with a few lines, that was it.
Q: Were you a Rastafarian then?
A: I was, but maybe I never recognized it, because I grew up in the Seventh
Day Adventist Church, which is similar to the Rastafarian movement – we don't
eat pork, we don't wear jewellery to church and certain other things we don't
do, same as the Rastas. I was learning about Rastafari, meeting the elders in
Trench Town who would reason with us as youth and tell us about Africa and
Marcus Garvey. It wasn't until we released the second album Arise in
1978 that I (grew dreadlocks) and started to identify myself as a Rasta.
Q: So back in '69 what "far away land" were you referencing?
Ethiopia, heaven, paradise?
A: I don't know how the others see it; deep inside of everyone they have a
different inspiration, even though three of us sing the song. I always read the
Bible and I still do read the Bible, and I'm looking on that land as the land
of paradise. It's different from where we are. It's not this material life.
It's far beyond this life. It's pure. That's where I was looking.
Q: How come you never emigrated?
A: When I got involved in the music business I realized the value of
staying in Jamaica, even though I'm not a superstar as Bob Marley. When I
travel, I'm more appreciated by the people, because I'm coming from the roots.
Jamaica is my home and I don't see why I should run. I don't need no more
material things. Everything is here.
Cool Strummer Jack Johnson
Source: www.thestar.com - Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(August 02, 2008) In the entertainment business there's no such thing as an
accidental star.
Every nameless troubadour in every neighbourhood pub, every unknown participant
in those ritzed-up karaoke contests that pass themselves off as reality shows,
comes to the game with the expectation of becoming some kind of idol.
Fame, however fleeting, drives what passes for artistic enterprise in the new
millennium, so it's with much scepticism that the jaded media have approached
reclusive, less-is-more, postmodern, surfing filmmaker-turned-pop music
phenomenon Jack Johnson.
The Hawaii-born and raised songwriter and guitarist – talents he developed, so
the story goes, in hospital after an accident ended the pro surfing career he'd
been building in the wake of his champion father, Jeff Johnson – may not be as
obsessively reluctant as the minimalist cult sensation Jandek, who performs in
semi-darkness and has rarely been photographed. But he comes close.
Johnson's songs, sparsely arranged around indefinite chord structures and
mumbled lyrics that eschew personality in favour of spiritual utterances about
the wonders of the natural world and eco-awareness, sound more like the
stream-of-consciousness doodles of an unreconstituted flower child.
He has no show to speak of. Onstage, Johnson and his rhythm section, surrounded
by video screens flashing nature imagery, look like nervous novices who'd
rather be somewhere else. Offstage, he looks like one of his own fans: quiet,
mildly curious and a bit overwhelmed.
Despite mighty yawns from critical media, Johnson was a star from the get-go.
Sales of his independently released 2001 debut album, Brushfire Fairytales,
rocketed into the high five digits on industry sales lists without so much as
an advertisement, a video, radio airplay or a mainstream media interview or a
tour to support it. Overnight, this lantern-jawed surfer gave hope to hordes of
anonymous songwriters dreaming in their basement rec rooms of glory and untold
wealth.
But that's never what he was about, Johnson said during a rare interview in
advance of his performance tomorrow at Burl's Creek Park in Oro, near Barrie.
He maintains that having grown up surfing in the daytime and singing familiar
songs – tunes by Jimmy Buffett, Neil Young and Van Morrison were favourites –
with family and friends around beach bonfires at night, his accidental
celebrity is bogus, a cumbersome distraction.
"I used to write songs all the time ... it was fun, and I never
performed," said Johnson, who lives most of the year with his wife, Kim, a
former schoolteacher, and their two young sons in a modest bungalow overlooking
the surf on Oahu's north shore. They don't have cable TV, but the 33-year-old
film school graduate admits to a healthy diet of DVDs and how-to-survive books.
When schedules allow, the family takes up residence in suburban Santa Barbara,
Calif., north of the solar-powered, denim-scrap-insulated, low-flush
toilet-equipped, DIY studio, label and eco-friendly merchandising operation
Johnson runs in L.A. with his long-time friend and business partner Emmett
Malloy, the cousin of pro surfers Chris, Keith and Dan Malloy.
"Now, all the eyes are on the stage, all these cameras are pointed my way,
and it takes a toll," Johnson says. "It becomes hard to write without
thinking about those people out there, and what they want to hear, instead of
the song and what I need to say. That's why I don't do interviews. It's a
matter of balance."
Fifteen million sales and four albums later – including 2005's In Between
Dreams (six million sold), his soundtrack to the 2006 Curious George movie,
and the recently released Sleep Through the Static – Johnson remains an
enigma, a displaced ghost in pop music's gleaming machinery. Well spoken,
self-deprecating and at a loss to explain his unexpected success and unsought
wealth, he says he started composing merely to provide a personal soundtrack
for his films about surfing. It's no surprise that surfers were his first fans,
and remain his most devoted.
"I never even thought of this as surf music," continued Johnson,
whose musical preferences run to Agent Orange, The Black-Eyed Peas, Bad
Religion, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon and Ben Harper, an early fan and mentor.
"I was into the boarding culture, but surfing isn't the only thing I know.
The songs I write are conversations with myself. They're about things other
than the ocean and water, and I think surfers appreciate that the music isn't
about the surfing culture. It's about what we all think about when we're out
there in the water."
One Johnson preoccupation is the poor health of the planet, understandable for
an artist and athlete raised in an environment whose spectacular natural beauty
is now threatened by the excesses of a careless industrialized multitude. Those
concerns underscore every Johnson concert, which includes a Village Green
component – a collection of information and demonstration booths operated by
All At Once, a grassroots network of small, local, non-profit groups
championing ideas that benefit the environment. His concerts evoke a larger,
global community spirit not unlike the peace-focused tribal events that
accompanied rock shows during the anti-Vietnam War years.
(The network is also, perhaps inadvertently, an unpaid publicity machine
informing the faithful of Johnson's various musical and environmental
activities.)
"My wife and my pianist's wife dreamed it up," Johnson said.
"It's a way of bringing lots of small-scale ideas up front, and
encouraging individuals to change the way they think about the environment. It all
seems logical to me.
"I'm learning as I go. My father is a very hands-on person ... if
something was broken, he'd fix it. The only thing fame is good for is shining a
light on something other than myself."
Apparently, Johnson walks the walk. The buses and trucks in his touring convoy
run on biodiesel fuel. Backstage, where the band, crew and their families are
fed by a special catering team that uses locally grown organic meat and produce
purchased daily, a comprehensive recycling regimen is maintained, Johnson said.
"We have water stations without bottles on the concert site to lessen the
use of plastic, and we encourage carpooling to our shows.
"Concert tours leave a huge (carbon) footprint, and the only way to
eliminate it is to stop touring altogether. The best I can do is try to make
the industry more aware of the issues involved and to raise the consciousness
of music fans."
T.I. Ready To Show His 'Paper Trail'
Source: Atlantic Records, Brian
Dackowski, Brian.Dackowski@atlanticrecords.com
(August 01, 2008) Grand Hustle/Atlantic recording
artist T.I. has unveiled further details of his much-anticipated new album,
"PAPER TRAIL." The multiple Grammy Award-winning superstar will
release the follow-up to 2007's RIAA platinum-certified "T.I. vs
T.I.P." on September 9th.
"I just want everyone to know that it's coming out and that I'm going to
answer a lot of questions in the music," the ATL-based rapper says of
"PAPER TRAIL." "It's intense and insightful; it's gonna
shake up the game and it's me at my best."
"PAPER TRAIL" has been heralded by the street track, "No Matter
What," on which T.I. directly addresses his current life situation.
The track - produced by Danjahandz (Timbaland, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Danity
Kane) - has been building momentum organically, scoring major airplay at Urban
and Rhythmic radio outlets nationwide. The song's companion video is now
in "Medium" rotation at BET and in "Heavy" rotation on the
network's Rap City. At MTV, "No Matter What" is in rotation
across the spectrum, including MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV Hits, and MTV Jams (where
it was recently "Jam of the Week").
The album's first official single, "Whatever You Like," has just hit
radio outlets nationwide. The song was produced by Jim Jonsin, whose many
credits include Lil Wayne's current #1 smash, "Lollipop." In
addition, "Swing Your Rag," a brand-new Swizz Beatz-produced track
from "PAPER TRAIL," has just been added to the player on T.I.'s MySpace
page, located at www.trapmuzik.com.
* * * * *
"PAPER TRAIL" is T.I. at his best - melding emotive moments like the
harrowing "My Life, Your Entertainment" with celebratory anthems such
as the cocky "Turn My Beat Down." In addition to the
aforementioned Danja and Swizz Beatz, the production roster includes such
studio stars as DJ Toomp (Kanye West, Missy Elliot, Young Jeezy) and Drumma Boy
(Paul Wall, Rick Ross, Yung Joc). The result is T.I.'s most potent and
important LP to date.
The album follows T.I.'s two previous #1 blockbusters, 2007's "T.I. vs
T.I.P." and 2006's RIAA platinum-certified "KING." With an
unparalleled track record of hit singles - including "Top Back," "Big
Things Poppin' (Do It)," "Why You Wanna," and the Grammy
Award-winning "What You Know" - T.I. is without question one of
hip-hop's greatest stars. In addition to his multiple Grammy Awards, T.I.
has been the recipient of a wide variety of honours, including BET Awards, BET
Hip-Hop Awards, and Billboard Music Awards.
An accomplished actor as well as a gifted rapper and live performer, T.I. has
played acclaimed roles in the major motion pictures ATL and American
Gangster. He will be starring in the upcoming Screen Gems film entitled
Bone Deep. He will also make a cameo appearance on the new season of
HBO's Entourage.
Earlier this year, Tip found success in cyberspace, launching a social
networking website called www.streetcred.com.
Added to these endeavours is his much-anticipated clothing line Akoo, which
will be in stores this fall.
In 2009, T.I. will be tackling television with an inspirational reality show
airing on MTV. The yet-to-be-titled series will center on the rapper's
life on probation in the year leading up to his impending year-long jail
sentence.
For up-to-the-minute news and information, please visit www.trapmuzik.com
and www.myspace.com/trapmuzik.
Iggy
Pop, The Aging Father Of Punk Rock, Is Back With Band And Ready To Rage
Source: www.thestar.com
- Ben Rayner, Pop
Music Critic
(August 03, 2008) This Stooges reunion thing has been going on for five
years now and Toronto still hasn't had a taste, so at the risk of sounding
ineloquent – which, granted, was never much of a concern for the chaps who gave
us "Loose," "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Your Pretty
Face Is Going to Hell"– we feel compelled to ask one Iggy Pop: WTF?
"That's a good question," comes a familiar, baritone drawl down the
line from Miami, Fla., where Pop is enjoying a lazy day off and contemplating a
dip. "I don't know. We came to Detroit a couple of times and, I think,
somebody who makes money booking us said" – here we shift to a nasal,
biz-weasel voice – "`Yeah, man, why don't you go up to Toronto?' And I
said, `Aw, no. I don't wanna go in and out so quickly and, besides, it's next
to Detroit. Let's just wait.' Or something. It's probably my fault. But it's
worked out now, anyway."
Indeed it has. The reactivated Iggy
and the Stooges arrive at Massey Hall on Wednesday, giving another
prod to the ongoing, slightly haphazard revival of the band that arguably set
the standard for the pure, undiluted expression of the mythological rock `n'
roll id.
You'll never find a dirtier, druggier or more deviantly unhinged catalogue than
the original three Stooges albums: 1969's slinky, sleazy, sex-mad The
Stooges, 1970's jazzbo-spastic masterwork Fun House and 1973's
savage proto-punk rave-up Raw Power.
Pop (né James Osterberg) and sibling co-founders Ron and Scott Asheton – with
ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt subbing in for the late Dave Alexander – didn't
really need to append last year's The Weirdness to the list, but the
endeavour on the whole was respectably rockin' and profane for three gentlemen
approaching retirement age. And they are, of course, growing old with an appropriate
lack of grace; "Punk icon Iggy Pop turns 60, dives offstage" went one
memorable Reuters headline from April of last year.
Still, even the Igster himself concedes that he's amazed at the general, oozing
nastiness of the music he and the Stooges summoned during their misspent youth.
"Sometimes I am. I listen to 'em, usually if I've been off for awhile and
we're going out – that's when I listen to 'em. And I have some sort of reaction
to just the general vibe, like `Whaa?'" he laughs. "But when
they sound the best to me is when I hear 'em, like, through a door or through a
wall or driving by somewhere by accident. Then they sound really good.
"I'll be outside a club in the parking lot or something and it comes
through the door and I can't quite make out what it is, but it's like, `F---,
wasn't that ... y'know ... life?' They're not lifeless, and at the time
(the Stooges' records) were made, it was definitely better to have been spayed.
If you were rock 'n' roll and you had your balls cut off, you were gonna do
better."
True, this. Despised by critics and rejected by an aghast public, the Stooges
had barely made a dent in the public consciousness when booze, heroin and
mounting interpersonal tensions finally blew the band apart in 1974.
The records never stopped getting passed reverently around by a small,
fanatical cult left behind, though, and Pop's on-again/off-again flirtations
with commercial success throughout his solo career would inevitably lure a few
more curious souls. Thus, like the Velvet Underground before them, the Stooges
– once far too raw and unruly for anyone but their hometown fans in
riot-ravaged, early-'70s Detroit – grew more popular in absentia than they'd
ever been while together.
"It's been tremendously satisfying to start getting worldly success for
the group, both in terms of the group finally starting to do something for its
members and also to have the group show an ability to shake people up a little
bit in the front and back rows," says Pop, who likens the sincerity in the
Stooges' music to that of "a troubled murderer."
"Where we had left off, people were usually just frozen in fear, horror,
curiosity or amazement. You could've heard a pin drop. And that was fine for
what it was, but I felt, little by little, that the world sorta turned a little
bit. We've sorta met up halfway."
He chuckles at the suggestion that the world-at-large has, perhaps, become a
little more like Detroit in the early 1970s.
"That's a good point, actually," he says. "Lots of fires, lots
of strange, negative preening. Yes."
The Stooges reunion began casually – Iggy, at "a dead end
creatively," rang up the Ashetons to guest on 2003's Skull Ring album
because they were "a lot cooler than everybody else on my list."
Tour dates are selective, topping out at just 42 last year with a new record to
promote. And that's the way Pop, who clearly still only has so much time for
his band mates, would prefer it.
"Have you ever been in holding? Being in our group is like being in
holding. I try to avoid them as much as I can. I try to show up, go `Hi, great
to see ya' but otherwise – especially after the gig, once the sax player has,
like, three drinks – that's it."
Deitrick Haddon Set To Release New Album On Zomba Gospel
Source:
www.eurweb.com
-
(August 05, 2008) With over a decade of creating progressive Gospel music, Deitrick Haddon is gearing up for his
forthcoming Zomba Gospel release, “ Revealed,” which will be in stores on
September 2nd, 2008.
The new CD is produced by Dre & Vidal (Alicia Keys, Usher), Warryn Campbell
(Kanye West, Mary Mary), Tim & Bob (Bobby Valentino) and Percy Bady (Kirk
Franklin, Fred Hammond). “Revealed” is a genius work that continues to solidify
Haddon as one of the most prolific and talented artists in the Urban Gospel
genre.
Relevant to present day life, issues, and emotions, “Revealed,” is a musical
kaleidoscope that will speak to the hearts and minds of both the “churched” and
the “un-churched” alike.
“I believe that Gospel music can be just as big as rock and fill stadiums
around the world. But our music has to reach beyond our religious beliefs to
connect on a greater level. I wanted to speak to everybody,” says
Haddon.
The first two singles being released off the CD are “The Word” and "I’m
Alive.” On both, Haddon’s trademark sound of contemporary Gospel with an
urban edge abounds greatly. “I’m Alive,” a spiritual testimony of
endurance and motivation, speaks words of encouragement to listener’s hearts.
The second single, “The Word,” is a passionate ballad that will move listeners
to display love in their everyday lives.
“Revealed” also includes the super hot “Love Him Like I Do,” featuring Ruben
Studdard and Mary Mary. The single has become one of 2008’s hottest R&B
Gospel anthems, and earned Haddon a BET Award nomination for Best Gospel
Artist. Peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart, this
popular single maintained a chart presence for over 32 weeks.
The
Search For Rawi Hage
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Elizabeth
Renzetti
(August 04, 2008) LONDON — It's best not to perform a Google search on Rawi Hage, or if you do, at least hide the
fact from him. It's not that the Montreal writer has been involved in any
high-profile scandals, or is wanted by the law in six countries; in fact,
should you search for his name you'd think his life, at least recently, was
quite sun-tinged.
It's just that Hage, who recently became €100,000 richer when he won the
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel De Niro's Game,
feels that the Internet has distilled his essence into a few pungent bio-bytes,
some of which are not true: The Lebanese-Canadian writer. Raised during the war
in Beirut . Winner of the world's richest literary prize for the first book he
wrote. Soon to be made into a major motion picture by Atom Egoyan. (That last
part's not true; it's one of the rumours that staggers around the Internet,
refusing to die.) "It's all I ask," Hage says one night at a cocktail
party at the Canadian High Commission in London . "Don't Google me."
He will read the following night during Toronto Stories, also featuring
Priscilla Uppal and Vincent Lam, at the London Literature Festival. Is it at
least true that he was born in 1964? "Let's not talk about it," he
says, running one hand over his smooth scalp. "I shaved it off, it was
coming in white."
The next morning, sitting at a coffee shop in Bloomsbury - a neighbourhood as
rich in literary history as any in London - Hage looks suspiciously at the tape
recorder in front of him. "It's okay," he says, "but I'm more
likely to censor myself if it's there." He's an intriguing blend of
lugubrious and funny, wary and passionate. Even at this early stage of his
literary stardom, he's openly sceptical about the media, which is refreshing.
Almost everyone who gets interviewed regularly is leery of journalists, often
with good reason, but almost everyone is too chicken to say so. Not Hage.
"I won't answer that, it's a trick question," he says in response to
a perfectly bland query about whether he knew boys like George and Bassam, the
two young protagonists of his novel, who spend their lives hustling, smoking
dope and dreaming of escaping the war in Beirut .
A trick question? "I've known a lot of people - one character might
encompass a thousand characters that I've woven together. If I tell you yes
...." His eyes are mischievous. "I don't trust journalists any
more."
What he objects to in particular is the idea that his life story - his
"trajectory," as he puts it - overshadows the fictional world of his
novel. He was raised in a Christian family in East Beirut , with Arabic as a
first language; he studied in French. Like Bassam, his restless, rootless
narrator, he longed to get out, and left for New York at 18 before moving to
Montreal 10 years later. "It's not such an unusual thing," he says.
"South of Sicily, everyone wants to leave."
It's dangerous to draw too many parallels between Hage and the boys in De
Niro's Game. (To explain the title: George takes his nickname from the
American actor, and the "game" will be familiar to anyone who's seen The
Deer Hunter.) The search for real-life underpinnings makes Hage shake his
head: "We're starting to give more priority to what is perceived as real
than the fictitious and the imaginary. We are undermining the act of
creativity."
There's no doubt that De Niro's Game is an act of creativity - "a
page-turning tour de force" in the IMPAC jury's analysis - and all the
more surprising because it was written in only 14 months, in Hage's third
language, English.
It's part film noir, part existential shrug: "In death, everything should
cease," Bassam notes while he's on the run in Paris , reading Camus.
"All else is nothing but human vanity and make-believe." Absolutely
it's an existential novel, says its author, who longs for a secular world and
despairs that reason will ever have its days. Why not? "Because we're just
territorial monkeys."
At times, Hage's wiry prose turns giddy and hallucinatory, the metaphors
spiralling up to the sky. He becomes invigorated talking about Bassam's
imaginary flights, which happen when he's stressed or heartbroken. "When I
was a kid," Hage says, "we were in the shelter one day. We'd been
there for a couple weeks and the bombing never stopped. I saw this kid who just
lost it - he was about my age. I think it marked me, how people escape from
crisis. You create a totally imaginary, fantastical world."
He returns to his sandwich for a moment. He's already generously given up one
half of it - "I really prefer to share food" - and now he pushes the
watercress garnish over to our young photographer. "Have some," he
says seriously. "It's good for the libido." The photographer eyes the
green specks dubiously and Hage bursts out laughing. "If pharmaceutical
companies can lie all the time, why can't I?"
Periodically Hage gets e-mails from one of the Canadian publishers who rejected
De Niro's Game. It's understandable - the poor man probably keeps a file
of the awards the book has been nominated for (the Giller, the
Governor-General's the Writers' Trust) and those it has won (the IMPAC, the
Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize). The novel was submitted to 10 publishers and
was plucked off the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts at House
of Anansi Press - the literary equivalent of a glass shoe being placed
delicately on the foot, followed by a long stint in a castle.
What's surprising is that for most of his life Hage wasn't a writer, he was an
artist working in photography. He only turned to writing after being encouraged
by a curator who'd worked with him during an ill-fated show of Arab-Canadian
artists at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (the show was cancelled in the
wake of Sept. 11, then quickly reinstated after protests from politicians and
the artists). Hage contributed photographs to the exhibit and semi-fictional
travelogues to the catalogue. The curator took him by the hand and said:
"You should write."
So he did. He published short stories in literary magazines, many of them set
in Beirut , "because when you live through a war, that's bound to come out
first." One of the stories refused to leave his head until he expanded it
into a
novel.
That novel allowed him to give up his day job as a taxi driver and concentrate
on writing instead. A discussion of the IMPAC prize money prompts a fervent
outburst. "As an artist I lived for 20 years below the poverty line. If
you take that money and split it on 20 years, it's peanuts! Everybody thinks I
won the lottery."
He throws up his hands. "I worked hard for this, I sacrificed, I never got
married, I never got kids. All for my art. I was a taxi driver, a dishwasher,
so I can go and take photographs and exhibit them or write a few pages. This
money I earned."
The heat of the minute passes and Hage leans back with a smile that says, yeah,
I'm a passionate guy, what can I do? Pretty soon he'll be back in Montreal ,
where he recently finished work on his second novel, Cockroach a series
of contemporary vignettes, he says, about mental illness and the clash of
civilizations. "I can't wait till this book comes out," he says,
"so I can prove to people I'm a writer, not just a witness."
Rawi Hage's Cockroach will be released on Aug. 30 by House of Anansi Press.
Trey Songz In The Spotlight
Source: Brian Dackowski - Brian.Dackowski@atlanticrecords.com
(August 6, 2008) *"Missin You," the latest
video from Trey's 2007 breakthrough sophomore album, "TREY DAY,"
has just premiered at www.myspace.com/treysongz.
The video -- directed by Zipper On Butta-Fly Leather - is shaping up as a huge
hit, having quickly drawn over half-a-million streams.
"Missin You" can also be viewed at Trey's official site, www.treysongz.com,
as well as at www.imeem.com/treysongz, and www.youtube.com/treysongz.
"Missin You" follows three previous hit singles from "TREY
DAY," including "Wonder Woman," "Last Time," and
"Can't Help But Wait," which topped the Urban Mainstream chart
earlier this year.
"TREY DAY" made a stunning chart debut upon its October 2007 release,
entering Billboard's "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" tally at #2, while
also exploding onto the Billboard 200 at #11.
The album sees Songz teaming up with a stunning selection of studio superstars,
including Songbook Entertainment founder Troy Taylor (Pretty Ricky, Tyrese),
Stargate (R. Kelly, Ne-Yo, Rihanna), Danja (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado),
Bryan Michael Cox (Danity Kane, Mary J. Blige), the Runners (Young Jeezy, Trick
Daddy), Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige), Dre &
Vidal (Usher, Chris Brown), Bei Maejor (Bun B, Chris Brown), Eric Hudson
(Omarion, Joe, John Legend), and the one-and-only R. Kelly.
Furthermore, "TREY DAY" includes guest shots by such hip-hop
luminaries as Jim Jones and UGK's Bun B, as well as A&R direction by former
Dru Hill member, Tamir "Nokio" Ruffin. The album's Executive
Producers are Troy Taylor, Delante Murphy, and Kevin Liles. The
Co-Executive Producer is Trey Songz.
The 22-year-old singer - a 2008 BET Award nominee for "Best Male R&B
Artist" - celebrated "TREY DAY" with a long list of TV
appearances, including live performances on BET's 106 & Park and It's
Showtime At The Apollo, not to mention a featured spot on BET's annual Rip The
Runway extravaganza, modeling fashion created by some of today's hottest
designers. Trey - aka "the Prince of Virginia" - was also among
the VA-based artists showcased on MTV2's My Block, alongside such like-minded
musicians as Timbaland, Pharell, and the Clipse.
What's more, Songz has been profiled in a variety of national publications,
highlighted by cover features in Right On!, Floss, and Black Beat. Other
recent magazine appearances include King, Sister 2 Sister, WordUp!, SBH,
Blackmen, XXL Presents Hip-Hop Soul, Giant, Hype Hair, and Rap Fanatic.
Hailed by the late, great Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun as "among
the most promising R&B artists we have had on Atlantic since we started the
company 60 years ago," Trey Songz first burst to the forefront of modern
urban music in 2005 with his critically acclaimed debut, "I GOTTA MAKE
IT." The album featured the breakout single, "Gotta Make
It," featuring the one-and-only Twista, who then invited Songz to join him
on his top 20 smash, "Girl Tonite." Other high-profile
collaborations followed for Trey, including featured appearances on tracks by a
wide range of artists, spanning hip-hop heroes like Trick Daddy, Yung Joc, Paul
Wall, Saigon, and Obie Trice; soca star Kevin Lyttle; and the sadly departed
R&B/soul legend, Gerald Levert.
For additional information, please visit www.treysongz.com.
Gas Prices Could Make Tickets Dearer
Source: www.thestar.com - Michael Oliveira, The
Canadian Press
(August 02, 2008) Add one more
discretionary purchase to the already long list of things that could get more
expensive because of high gasoline prices – concert tickets.
Industry watchers say concert sales were "remarkably robust" in the
first half of the year – considering the rise in fuel prices and tough economic
times in parts of North America – but artists' tour budgets may now have to be
adjusted up.
And that could mean even higher ticket prices.
"Most of the tours that were budgeted this summer were budgeted much
earlier in the year before the price of fuel went up," said Gary
Bongiovanni, editor of industry magazine Pollstar.
The prices of tickets for the music world's biggest acts have already shot up
in recent years and while fans have been willing to pay, their breaking point
may be near, Bongiovanni said.
The highest grossing North American tour in the first half of 2008 was Bon
Jovi's which brought in $56.3 million, with an average ticket price of $88 and
a total of more than 639,000 tickets sold, according to Pollstar.
Canadian crooner Michael Bublé was No. 5 on the list with $32.5 million in
gross sales and an average ticket price of $71.
Other Canadian acts that cracked the Top 100 included Rush at No. 12 (average
ticket price $66), Three Days Grace touring with Breaking Benjamin at No. 58
(average ticket price $32.50), Anne Murray at No. 73 (average ticket price $55),
Blue Rodeo at No. 84 (average ticket price $44) and Leonard Cohen at No. 93
(average ticket price $112).
"Fans have proven they'll pay a pretty significant premium to see artists
that they're really big fans of, but the continual rising costs of concert
tickets is having an impact on the number of tickets we're selling, even if
we're grossing more money," Bongiovanni said.
Jeff Cohen, who co-owns Toronto's venerable Horseshoe Tavern and a company that
books talent at most of the city's major clubs, said he has been hearing plenty
of gripes from indie bands who are ``definitely feeling the pinch."
Better-known bands playing small clubs might start raising ticket prices by a
dollar or two, which would represent a significant percentage markup on a $10
or $20 ticket, Cohen said.
MUSIC
TIDBITS
Big Boi Previews Next Album
Source:
www.eurweb.com
(August 4, 2008) *Big Boi's forthcoming album "Sir Luscious Leftfoot ...
Son of Chico Dusty," due in October via Laface/Zomba, features 16 tracks
led by the politically-driven first single "Sumthin's Gotta Give,"
featuring Mary J. Blige. The recent release touches on rising gas prices
and the war in Iraq . An accompanying video, with guest appearances from Hill
Harper and John Legend, was serviced this week, reports Billboard. "I
chose this song first because being in the game, I feel a responsibility to
entertain but also lecture about life," Big Boi told a press gathering
Wednesday. "I'd rather get people to vote instead of running to the strip
club." "Sir Lucsious" features production so far from Organized
Noise, Lil Jon, Scott Storch and Mr. DJ, while George Clinton, Too Short,
Raekwon and cohort Andre 3000 make guest appearances. Cee-Lo is slated to
appear on a track as well. Other songs on the album include the
guitar-heavy "Night Night," which addresses "those who have been
sleeping on me"; the chopped-and-screwed "Daddy Fat Sax"; the
cars-inspired "Dubbz"; the title track, on which Big Boi shares his
thoughts on other MCs; the ladies anthem "Turns Me On"; and the
street single "Royal Flush," on which he rhymes, "I am the wrong
n*gga to cross / and the first n*gga to jam / with the AK4-7 over microphone in
hand.
Q-Tip Says Tribe Will Never Record Again
Source: www.eurweb.com -
(August 05, 2008) *Following a reunion performance by
A Tribe Called Quest Sunday night in New York, Q-Tip said the group
will never record another new album again. The rapper took the stage at Jones
Beach Amphitheatre with Tribe members Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed in what became
their third reunion in four years, reports Contact Music. The trio,
however, is not even considering a reunion album that would feature all new
material, Q-Tip affirms. "It will never, ever happen. We don't want
to be one of those groups that comes back 15 years later and puts out an album
that's not that good. It's why the Beatles never got back together," he
said.
::FILM NEWS::
Boris
Kodjoe: The All About Us Interview With Kam Williams
Source: www.eurweb.com
(July
31, 2008) *Boris
Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria on March 8, 1973 to Eric, a
physician from Ghana, and Ursula, a psychologist from Germany which is where he
was raised along with his siblings, Patrick and Nadja.
While
attending Virginia Commonwealth University on a tennis scholarship, the
striking, 6'3" student-athlete was spotted by a talent scout and signed to
a contract with the Ford Modeling Agency.
After appearing in ad campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis, Yves Saint
Laurent and The Gap, Boris blossomed into a rarity, one of the world's few male
supermodels.
So, it's no surprise that he would one day be named one of the 50 Most
Beautiful People in the World by People Magazine.
In 2000, he turned his attention to acting, making his big screen debut in Love
& Basketball, following that up with well-received appearances in
everything from Brown Sugar to The Gospel to Madea's Family Reunion. On
Broadway, he's worked opposite James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad in Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof.
On TV, he was cast in the hit series 'Soul Food' as Damon Carter, a role for
which he would land a trio of NAACP Image Award nominations. While doing the
hit show, he fell head over heels in love with his attractive co-star, Nicole
Ari Parker, and by 2005 the inseparable pair would marry back in his hometown,
Gundelfingen, Germany. They now have two kids, Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe, 3,
and Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, 1. Despite being quite the power couple, they've decided
to make their home away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood in
relatively-sedate Atlanta.
Here, Boris talks about all of the above and his latest movie, All about
Us, a romantic dramedy about a Hollywood couple who decide to
settle down in Mississippi after shooting a movie there, rather than return to
L.A.
Kam
Williams: Hi Boris, thanks for the interview. How are Nicole
and the kids?
Boris
Kodjoe: They're good. They're on their way back from L.A. She
was doing a pilot for ABC, called Never Better.
KW: What interested you in doing All
about Us?
BK: First and foremost was the script, because I rarely, to that point, got a
chance to consider playing a role like that, a regular family guy who is
basically trying to balance his career goals with his obligations to his
family. It's a very heartwarming story with some really interesting,
fleshed-out characters. And when I had a meeting with the director, Christine
Swanson, and her husband, Michael, I admired their passion for what they were
doing. I think it's always a blessing to get to work with people who have that
fire about what they're doing.
KW: What was it like filming All about
Us on location in Mississippi?
BK: It was great. I encountered tremendous heat and lovely people.
KW: The script was
semi-autobiographical. So, it must have been interesting to be acting out the
filmmakers' life story.
BK: Yeah, it was interesting. I talked with Michael about the character, and
about his path and his journey. And it was fun to sort of associate certain
things that he went through with things that I've been through in my life. For
instance, I had a young daughter, too, so there were many parallels that I
could draw on. It was funny, because we were different people, yet all young
fathers obviously go through some of the same stuff, and have some of the same
concerns and anxieties. So, the process was really cool to me.
KW: And you and Nicole left L.A.
yourselves, in your case for Atlanta.
BK: [His cell phone rings] Speak of the devil. [Talks with Nicole on phone for
a minute]
KW: How did you decide to settle in
Atlanta?
BK: We never wanted to raise the kids in Hollywood. We wanted to be in an
environment that spoke to us, culturally. That's how we chose Atlanta and found
our dream home. Also, I have family coming from Europe, and her family is in
Baltimore, so the choice was very practical at the same time.
KW: I know you are quad-lingual: German,
English, French and Spanish. What languages are you going to teach your
children?
BK: Well, they speak three, right now: obviously English, plus German and
Spanish. Our nanny is Guatemalan, and she only speaks Spanish to them. And we
speak German to them.
KW: I heard that your mother's Jewish.
Is that true?
BK: Well, by blood, yeah. My grandmother's part Jewish, which makes my mother
and myself Jewish, by blood. But we weren't raised in the Jewish faith. I
remember my mother teaching me from the age of about 3 or 4 that we had to find
our own way based on many different religions, that there were many different
doctrines but that they all had the same purpose. I always remember that,
because it was so simple, and so poignant and deep at the same time. I try to
apply that now and expose my kids to many different ideas and philosophies, so
they can find their own way.
KW: Did you lose any relatives in the
Holocaust?
BK: Yeah, on my mother's side, my maternal great-grandmother. It was ironic in
a way, because my grandmother wasn't pure-blooded Aryan, and therefore she
wasn't considered a member of the master race. But she got pregnant by my
grandfather who was 200% German. So, it was quite a tumultuous time for her,
because they had to hide her for her to survive the Second World War.
KW: Did she have any close calls?
BK: Yeah, she told me that someone once reported her, but she was lucky that
when the SS came to investigate and found her hiding in a back room, one of the
officers was in a good mood and didn't arrest her. She said those kind of
experiences occurred frequently. It was a time of sheer terror and no one knew
what was going on, and everyone knew somebody who had suddenly gone missing for
no reason. And apparently you didn't talk about it over the dinner table at
night. They were just paralyzed with fear. You didn't utter a word about what
could possibly be going on or about what they had heard. It was a very scary
time.
KW: I hope she's writing her memoirs.
BK: Yeah, I'm going to help her write it. She had some quite interesting
experiences. And then later in her life her daughter brought home an African
from Ghana, which didn't go over so well with my grandfather. He kicked them
out of the house until I was born. They went back with me when I was a couple
months old, and said, "Look, either you accept us, or you'll never see us
again." And at that moment he made a 180 degree turn and accepted me from
that moment on.
KW: Wow, you're going to have to write
an autobiography, too.
BK: We all lived under the same roof. He had lost both of his arms in the war
from a Russian hand grenade. From when I was 4, I would shave him in the
morning and feed him breakfast every day.
KW: Did you have to deal with racism as
a child? You must have been one of very non-white kids in the neighbourhood?
BK: Me and my brother were always the only black kids. Racism is universal, but
it's very different in different cultures. Where I grew up, racism was more
about ignorance and a lack of knowledge than a controlled and focused
prejudice. So, I was subjected to the type of racism where people called me
names, but I had a lot of great friends, too. Overall, it was a great
environment to grow up in. The place I was raised was in the Black Forest and
looks like The Sound of Music. We had a great childhood, full of fun and
outdoor adventure. It was very sane and well-rounded. My mother always told us
we were perfect the way we were, and that we wouldn't have to worry about what
people said because there are just a lot of ignoramuses in the world, and that you
will encounter them until the day you die. That was her approach, and now when
I look back, I can really appreciate it.
KW: Barack Obama also had a white mother
and an African father. What do you think of him?
BK: That's just one of the aspects of him that I find intriguing. I think that
he's an incredible and powerful man, very charismatic and intelligent. He also
has great integrity and pride, and loves the country. I believe he's someone
who will not only improve America internally in terms of the economy,
healthcare, education, the environment and Social Security but also repair the
country's reputation which has suffered around the world over the past eight
years. He's someone who I believe can sit down with potential allies on the
international level and try to make the world a better place for everyone. So,
I'm supporting him wholeheartedly. I hope that people will wake up and take the
country back. It's hard to believe that we have a president who could
officially deny the fact that the world is being affected by global warming.
It's embarrassing.
KW: What's it like being named one of
the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World? Has it changed your life?
BK: [Laughs] That's hilarious. No, it hasn't changed my life at all. It's one
of those things, like the tabloids, that you can't really take seriously.
Obviously, I'm very flattered, but that's as far as it goes. It's a nice thing,
but I can't take any credit for it. I don't wake up and go, "Woo-hoo! I'm
one of the 50 Most Beautiful! Yeah!" There are a lot of things that are
much more important, like being a husband and father. I've been blessed with a
great wife and amazing children who have changed my life. It's not necessarily
a walk in the park every day, but it's absolutely the most rewarding gift ever.
KW: How was it playing Brick on Broadway
in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
BK: It was a dream come true, getting to play one of the significant roles in
one of the most significant classics. I was honoured and humbled by the
experience. Everybody was so supportive, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad,
Debbie Allen, Anika Noni Rose and Giancarlo Esposito. And the crowd response
was great, everything was amazing.
KW: Tasha Smith wants to know if you're
ever afraid.
BK: Oh, absolutely? I'm terrified sometimes, not for myself, but for my
kids. That's one of the things they don't tell you when you become a
father, but along with unconditional love comes unconditional fear.
KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you
happy?
BK: Extremely.
KW: Bookworm Troy Johnson wants to know,
what was the last book you read?
BK: Right now I'm on a spiritual trip. I read a lot of that type of book.
The last one I read was The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh.
KW: Yeah, I've read some of his stuff.
He's great.
BK: He summarizes what we all know, like that the power is within you, and that
as long as you can visualize it you can achieve it. Things along those lines.
KW: Is there any question nobody asks you that you wish somebody would ask?
For the full interview by Kam Williams, please go HERE.
Rising Soprano Takes Notes
From A Star
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Marsha
Lederman
(August 01, 2008) VANCOUVER — Marianne Fiset
was a teenager, headed for an education in political science, when she saw Carmen
with her family at Opéra de Quebec. She was hooked – and her life plan
changed: She would pursue a career as an opera singer.
At Festival Vancouver's Gala Opera Evening on Tuesday, Fiset will share the
stage with a singer who is renowned for her Carmen: U.S. opera superstar
Denyce Graves.
“I'm very excited about working with Miss Graves,” Fiset, 29, said recently
from her home in Montreal. “It's a little nerve-wracking for me. She's so good
and so gifted and talented and experienced … so I think I'm going to learn a
lot from working with her.”
Graves, 44, made her professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York
as Carmen, and has also sung at La Scala, the Royal Opera in Covent Garden and
many other prestigious opera houses. She has performed for the Pope, at 9/11
memorials, at the 2005 inauguration for George W. Bush and at the funeral for
former president Gerald Ford. The title role in Margaret Garner, the
Richard Danielpour opera about slavery, for which Toni Morrison wrote the
libretto, was created for Graves. She hosts a weekly satellite radio show, has
been profiled on 60 Minutes, and has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Yamandu Costa Trio: Brazilian guitarist Yamandu Costa will perform with
his trio at a new Festival Vancouver series set inside the gorgeous VanDusen
Botanical Garden, Friday, Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Costa will also perform solo at
Christ Church Cathedral on Monday, Aug. 11 at 10:30 a.m. Both shows are part of
the festival’s spotlight on Music of the Americas.
Ju Percussion Group: The 13-member ensemble from Taiwan blends eastern
and western percussion instruments, offering a theatrical experience as well as
a musical performance: dancing, shouting, and jousting with their drumsticks as
they play. Saturday Aug. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Chan Centre.
Leipzig String Quartet: The critically acclaimed ensemble has performed
hundreds of concerts around the world and made almost 70 recordings, playing
everything from Mozart to John Cage. For this performance, the quartet will
play Beethoven’s Quartet in C Major Op. 59 No. 3, as well as works by
Stravinsky and Mendelssohn. Saturday Aug. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Chan Centre.
Fiset, meanwhile, is at the beginning of a career that received a huge boost
last year when she won the prestigious Montreal International Music
Competition. Being a hometown winner meant lots of attention for Fiset, a
soprano who was just finishing her studies at the time at Opéra de Montreal's
young artists program.
“It was a very exciting moment of my life,” she says. “I was overwhelmed with
everything like the phone calls and offers and congratulations. … It gave me a
lot of visibility.”
Perhaps the most important lesson that Graves can impart to Fiset is how to
keep all the distractions of being a classical-music celebrity from getting in
the way of the music.
“I've been able to build sort of a wall of ‘no's around me – knowing to say ‘no'
to this, ‘no' to that,” Graves said recently from the Baltimore, Md., area,
where she was enjoying a rare day off. “This is what I need in order to be able
to do the work that is expected of me.”
As rehearsals begin today in Vancouver, Fiset plans to watch how Graves
conducts herself.
“Almost everything from the way she will be dressed to how she will arrive, how
she will be prepared, how she will act with the musicians, the conductors,
which questions she's going to ask. Just her way of working, her way of
approaching music, of interpreting and understanding music, how she works
through the music and with people around her.”
The women, who hadn't met before arriving in Vancouver this week, will perform
together on Tuesday night (along with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, Mario
Bernardi conducting). Although reluctant to reveal details of the concert's
program beyond promising it'll be full of “crowd-pleasers,” Graves did
acknowledge the audience will hear her perform arias from both Carmen and
Samson et Dalila – another signature role. “You know they will or else
they'll run me out of town,” she said.
The opera gala is one of the highlights of Festival Vancouver, which begins
tomorrow. The two-week event features more than 50 jazz, classical and world-music
concerts.
For Fiset, Vancouver is special. She was brought here last year by Vancouver
Opera for a program that pairs young professional singers with coaches. Fiset
was matched with renowned vocal coach Carol Isaac, and they're still working
together.
Ironically, Fiset, who was born in Quebec City and whose first language is
French, has a hard time, she says, performing operas in her native tongue
Graves, on the other hand, has an affinity for French opera. She says French
composers have been particularly generous to her voice type. The
mezzo-soprano's voice has been described as “lustrous” in this newspaper and as
having “dusky colorings and a wide range” by The New York Times.
Fiset is intimately familiar with that voice. She has been listening to Graves's
recordings for years – particularly Carmen, the opera that started it
all for the young Quebecker.
“When I learned that it was going to be her [on the bill], I was really
thrilled,” Fiset says.
“It's a nice wink from destiny.”
Festival Vancouver runs from tomorrow through Aug. 17. The Gala Opera
Evening is Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre (www.festivalvancouver.ca).
On
Dangerously Thin Ice
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Guy Dixon
(July 31,
2008) The polar
winds pounded in at 100 kilometres an hour. As the rest of the crew frantically
tried to secure the mooring lines, the cameraman and sound man on board the Antarctic
expedition ship kept filming. The mission's leader, environmental biologist and
film director Jean
Lemire, had made it clear that the cameras would keep shooting at
times like these, even when the camera operator and sound recorder were
desperately needed as extra sets of hands.
The 650-tonne vessel was threatening to smash against the shoreline rocks. The
tiny bay in the Antarctic Peninsula where the crew had hoped to find shelter
for the winter had become a potential death trap.
Night had fallen. The camera's bright light only emphasized the tension on the
crew's faces, capturing what would later become a pivotal scene in The Last
Continent, a documentary that has been a minor media phenomenon in Quebec,
grossing more than $1-million there since late last year, and is getting its
English-language release, initially in Toronto and Vancouver, tomorrow, with
Donald Sutherland narrating.
The ship's crew of scientists, filmmakers and others (including a cook, doctor
and mental-health worker) had signed up to spend a winter on the world's
southernmost continent, using the vessel as their base and documenting climate
change during the winter months - something scientists rarely do; most are in
the Antarctic only in the summer.
"You can go there during the summer with all the tourists and everything.
But the real changes are happening in the winter, and nobody is there to
document it," Lemire, now safely back in Canada, said in an interview.
Sure enough, the unexpected occurred. "We were supposed to be there to
document climate change. But we became, in a way, victims of climate change,
and that changed our original story a lot," Lemire continued. "At the
end, we had a very different film from what we expected at the beginning."
The original plan was for the ship to anchor in a bay in the Melchior
Archipelago near an old Argentine research station. Pack ice would form,
securing the ship and protecting it for the winter. But as if to hit home the
havoc that global warming is causing, the temperature decided to hover more
that five degrees above normal: not nearly cold enough for the water to form a
protective ice sheet around the ship. As a result, winds were able to
continually batter the ship, ripping its moorings from the shoreline rocks and
snapping the lines like overwound guitar strings.
In a way, the crew had set themselves up for this kind of danger. The whole
point was to place themselves in this environment and document how different
the Antarctic environment has become from what has historically been expected.
Without revealing too much, let's just say that the crew found a way to
continue the winter mission.
"We knew that during a year and a half, something would happen," Lemire
said. But there was no telling how different the mission and the final
documentary would turn out. "I was always writing by e-mail to my editor,
and we were working on our script during our trip in Antarctica. So I knew that
when we had to change our base [from where the ship was originally moored for
the winter], that was something I had to include in my film."
From there, the crew's isolation and problems with the unpredictable climate
became the main subject. Rather than a documentary as planned, showing the
effects of global warming on the ice sheets and animals, The Last Continent wound
up putting the crew squarely in the picture.
For instance, early on, they have a problem keeping their food fresh. It's
thawing out far too much in the ice and snow. It should be much more frozen, a
major concern since the crew needed this store of food for months to come.
And true, the crew was in e-mail and telephone contact with the rest of the
world throughout the long winter in the Antarctic Peninsula, even updating Web
pages from onboard the ship. They weren't exactly the same conditions faced by
explorers such as Ernest Shackleton a century ago. But any rescue, if needed,
would have been very difficult when the ice and winter storms eventually did
come. Basically, the crew intentionally allowed themselves to be stranded.
Comparing the filmmaker to Shackleton, as well as such early explorers as Roald
Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, Sutherland said in an interview: "Jean
Lemire has that kind of presence. When you work with him in the studio, he has
that kind of very balanced, pure commitment to try to produce something that
will have human responsibility."
In the end, the climate created a very different film from what Lemire
expected. "For example, the ship was just supposed to be our base camp. We
were supposed to be on skis for a 10-day expedition, trying to find [certain]
colonies of penguins. ... All of that expedition part was not possible, because
we had no ice. And I realized that the real story was the human story."
Still, he noted that the mission and the influence it may have on the public
are more important than his original plans for the documentary. In fact,
Lemire's 600 hours of footage have already been expanded into a 13-part
French-language series due out this September on Radio-Canada. There are also
the websites, and a French-language book, Mission Antarctique.
"We had 900,000 people following [the mission's website] on a day-to-day
basis," Lemire said. "And it started a completely new way of thinking
about the effect of climate change on humans, because we were on the ground.
Ordinary people, just showing what was happening."
Judd Apatow Top Of The Food
Chain
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Michael Posner
(August 05, 2008) MONTREAL — It may seem hard to believe, but if Judd Apatow weren't otherwise engaged as
Hollywood's hottest director of comedy, he might be washing dishes.
The only real job he's ever had - apart from those related to the
interconnected universe of stand-up, TV and film - was as a dishwasher and a
busboy. He started as a teenager, working in a Long Island restaurant then
owned by his parents.
"I loved dishwashing," Apatow recalled recently, in Montreal , to
promote Pineapple Express, the latest in a string of mega-grossing
comedies he has either written, produced or directed. "I'd crank on the
Genesis Abacab album. At one in the morning, I'd be mopping floors to Foreigner
4. I look back on it fondly."
Looking back is the operative phrase. The prospect of Apatow returning to mop
and pail any time soon is remote. In the past three years, comedies with the
Apatow touch (The 40-Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad
and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) have grossed $590-million ( U.S. ) at
the box office.
That's called clout.
Now, Apatow and his expanding entourage of actors and writers - Seth Rogen,
Evan Goldberg, Jay Baruchel (all three Canadians), his wife Leslie Mann, Jonah
Hills and others have virtual carte blanche to make the films they want
to make.
With the possible exception of The 40-year-old Virgin, these films tend
to be targeted at the very heart of the movie-going demographic, people under
the age of 25. Pineapple Express - an otherwise tedious stoner
chase-film directed by David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls) and
starring Rogen, James Franco, and Danny McBride - can be expected to gross tens
of millions. It opens tomorrow.
At a press conference, Apatow said Pineapple was aimed at the same audience
that liked Superbad. "I guarantee you - if you liked that, you'll
like this. It's Superbad, plus we kill an enormous number of
people."
His recent windstorm of projects, he added, was the result of "long
periods of unemployment during which he and others wrote films no one
particularly wanted to make."
That's only a slight exaggeration because, until The 40-Year-Old Virgin,
Apatow had struck out three painful times in a row on TV, with the successive
cancellations of The Ben Stiller Show, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.
After the plug was pulled on Undeclared, he had Rogen and Goldberg write
Superbad and, when no studio wanted to make it, decided that a more
commercially minded action-stoner movie might fly. "Then we realized it
was way less commercial than Superbad." Only when the script for Pineapple
Express was written did the floodgates - and the studio chequebooks - begin
to open.
Apatow, now 40, says he's proud of his work. The new film, he says, "kicks
ass" and, even if his signature weren't attached, would regard this bunch
of films as "my favourite movies of all time. Hopefully [they are] this
generation's classic comedies."
Appearing with Apatow, Goldberg, McBride and Craig Robinson at a Montreal press
conference, Rogen was asked about his research for stoner roles he has played.
"Well, ya know, I'm from Vancouver . That's research in and of itself.
Yeah, I smoked a lot of weed growing up. This film deals with our kind of
everyday weed experience and is based on our lives, irresponsibly building them
around our ability to smoke as much weed as humanly possible."
Apatow spent his childhood on Long Island and found comedy early on, rushing
home from school to watch sitcoms, going to clubs (chaperoned by his father)
and later interviewing visiting comics for a school radio show. He can rattle
off a string of comedic influences, from SCTV to Saturday Night Live
to Richard Pryor, Monty Python and the films of Ivan Reitman.
"I remember seeing the opening night of Ghostbusters on 1984 at the
Plainview Theatre at 8 o'clock. For me, it was like going to see Led Zeppelin.
The place exploded. It was one of greatest comedy experiences I've ever had. It
was an event."
Apatow started performing stand-up in high school and continued professionally
for several years, but eventually gave it up - in part to work in TV and
"because I realized the people I was working with were so much better than
me. I'd open for Jim Carrey and watch him from the wings and think, 'I should
stop doing this.'... It was like playing basketball with Michael Jordan."
He studied film at the University of Southern California for a couple years,
"running out of money and interest at about the same time," and
started writing material for other comics, among them Roseanne, Tom Arnold and
Gary Shandling, who become something of a mentor. One day, over lunch with Ben
Stiller, he agreed to pitch a sketch series to HBO. They sold it two weeks
later.
At 25, "I went from a guy who had never even worked on a TV series to a
guy who was running a TV series. I didn't really know how to do anything. I was
just trying to fake it until I figured it out. I learned everything I know
about that type of work from Ben."
It was at Fox, which bought the Stiller series from HBO, that Apatow began the
first of his contentious encounters with TV executives. "Television is a
moving target," he observed. "The studio has a gun to your head -
cancellation - and it's a powerful weapon they use to force you to make changes
to your show that you don't want to make. And then your vision gets watered
down and the show doesn't work as well."
Apatow's instinct was to resist change, a noble option that could only fail. Stiller,
Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared were all cancelled in less than a
season. He compares his main man, Rogen, to W.C. Fields - gruff and cynical on
the outside, but a kind, big-hearted guy. "He's a modern, sweet
curmudgeon. For me, he does what Bill Murray does. After Undeclared was
cancelled, I thought, I haven't begun to scratch the surface of what he can
do." The world, he noted, seems to be "hungering for more Rogen. The
Rogen hunger is happening right now," and Apatow, for one, didn't intend
to stand in its way.
His own career, Apatow concedes, has changed dramatically in a short time, but
only because "I found a way to make people money. Five years ago, I
hadn't, so they couldn't figure out what was wrong with my work and they'd try
to tinker. But after I produced Anchorman (with Will Ferrell) and made 40-Year-Old
Virgin, they said 'well maybe the guy can make movies,' and then they give
you more creative freedom, and the work becomes better, because it's not as
watered down. You won't hit a home run every time out, but if your ratio's pretty
good, you can take some creative chances and even make some strange weed action
movies with James Franco doing comedy. That wouldn't have happened five years
ago."
What changed? Apatow doesn't know, for sure. But he says marriage and family
(he and Mann have two young daughters) have had an effect. "Leslie pushes
me to do better work." And his own personal evolution has probably given
his comedy more depth. "It's fun to try to do something thoughtful and
really, really funny. These are dramas that should make you piss your pants. I
start with the idea and hang the jokes on it."
Does success breed impossible expectations? "I have my way of dealing with
it, which is to be deep into the next film before the previous one comes out. I
have the same neuroses, but the only way to fight it is to be so immersed in
something else that takes over more of my brain."
::TV NEWS::
Manboys Set New Gender Roles
Source: www.thestar.com
- Joel Rubinoff, Torstar News Service
(August 01, 2008) Gee whiz, the sexual
revolution of the '60s and '70s sure wreaked havoc on cultural stereotypes.
Gone are the days of Fred Flintstone hollering for his dinner
("Wilmaaaa!") and The Honeymooners' Ralph Kramden threatening
to hit wife Alice: "Pow! Right in the kisser!"
What we get now – popularized on TV shows like Seinfeld and Friends
and valiantly scaling new heights on the generically aspirational sitcom My Boys (8 p.m. Monday on E!) – is the squawky,
gender-neutral manboy, a prim, self-conscious milksop who, even when he's able
to attract women, comes off like the metaphorical 90-pound weakling.
"Oh, you guys!” shrieks Bobby (Kyle Howard), the androgynous eunuch about
to be married to a Swedish sexpot on this humorously inconsequential series
about a single female sportswriter (Jordana Spiro) kvetching in bars with her
adenoidal, all-male posse.
"I was supposed to have the seating chart finished days ago. I seriously
need you to send in your RSVPs, okay?"
A few minutes later he comes rushing back, panic-stricken, clutching the
invitation list. "The Hendershots are coming!" he proclaims wildly.
"The Hendershots are coming!"
The Hendershots?
While his male companions ponder the ramifications of this awkward new wedding
addition, the clique's lone female – considered a "tomboy" because
she refuses to applaud the unveiling of copper-bottomed saucepans at a bridal
shower – looks this quivering basket case in the eye and calmly takes control.
"All right, dude," she insists firmly. "Relax, okay? Let's take
a time out, go to the bar and get you a drink, and we will figure this all
out!"
What I like about this show – which also showcases heterosexual man crushes and
pokes fun at any semblance of macho bluster – is that it doesn't feel compelled
to milk what some might view as a cultural anomaly for laughs or overplay its
absurdity.
It's just assumed that in this setting – an urban bar in Chicago – with these
20-something goofballs, and comic predecessors like It's Always Sunny in
Philadelphia and Sex and the City paving the way, any semblance of
overt masculinity will not only seem wildly out of place, but ripe for
satirical ribbing.
"Y'know, that Mike guy seems to be pushing the `Dude!' angle a little
hard," complains one metrosexual swinger when a testosterone-jacked cohort
starts punching pals in the shoulder and attempts to ban women from the group.
"Like, we're not gonna high-five or `bring it up' or `explode it.' The
thing is, he makes me a little sad, y'know?"
It's an odd moment in history, two decades after the Iron John men's movement
failed to stem the so-called Age of Sissification, when traditional gender
roles have not only been reversed, but actually ceased to exist.
No wonder the show's lone female sportswriter is so comfortable hanging out
with these neuroses-laden she-men – it's easy to feel good about yourself when
you're the only one with half a brain.
Joel Rubinoff is the TV columnist at The Record in Waterloo Region. Email jrubinoff@therecord.com.
Cracking
Them Up In Kandahar
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Graeme Smith
(August 06, 2008) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The most famous comedian in
Kandahar, Ahmadullah
Mujajo, stares at a flickering light bulb. Then he grabs a man
by the neck and shakes him furiously, brandishing a shotgun.
"The power turns off, then on, then off," he screams, pointing his
gun at the man's head. "Where is the man responsible for this? Where is
the director of electricity? I'll track him down!"
In other places, it might be a frightening threat. In Kandahar, it's popular
evening television. Mr. Mujajo, 32, is the nearest thing to a celebrity
entertainer in a city better known for war than comedy. From his early years
struggling to sell his jokes on audio cassettes in refugee camps, to his
current status as a local television star, the goofy little trickster with an
elastic face has built a career by discovering laughter amid the harshness of
southern Afghanistan.
At times, he behaves like a court jester in a city where dissent is dangerous.
Ordinary people lower their voices and whisper conspiratorially when discussing
the latest rumour, and journalists are regularly threatened by both sides of
the conflict. The Committee to Protect Journalists issued its latest of many
statements about Afghanistan on July 29, expressing alarm at the arrest of an
Afghan television reporter who was detained by intelligence officers one day
after airing a documentary that criticized cabinet ministers.
Mr. Mujajo says he tries to avoid similar problems during his daily recording
sessions at Hewad TV, a small private station hidden behind high walls in a
relatively quiet downtown neighbourhood.
"We don't take sides," he said. "We don't push too hard against
the Taliban or the government." But with a mischievous grin, he admits
that his job occasionally allows him to get away with bold commentary.
Alongside his harmless word play, funny misunderstandings between husbands and
wives and off-key musical routines by performers wearing silly costumes, Mr.
Mujajo talks about difficult issues.
"We say general things, to avoid trouble: 'Security is not good,
electricity is not good, people are moving away from Kandahar, the municipality
does nothing about the garbage in the streets.' But we don't say anything about
specific leaders."
Still, the barbs are pointed. In a recent sketch-comedy routine, Mr. Mujajo
played a reporter throwing questions at a man dressed like a warlord. The
warlord character, portrayed with sneering arrogance by a 19-year-old actor
wearing a fake moustache and surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, was revealed
to be a government minister. It was a reference to the discomfort many Afghans
feel about former militia leaders taking senior government jobs.
"Why aren't you building factories to employ our young people?" asked
Mr. Mujajo, playing the journalist.
"If we make factories for young people, who will fight? How will I get my
money from foreign governments?" responded the minister, waving a pistol
for emphasis.
In another sketch, a news broadcaster delivered mock bulletins.
"A tree fell on a taxi, injuring the driver," the newsreader said.
"Authorities have blamed Pakistan." A ripple of laughter went through
the editing room at Hewad TV, where a dozen of Mr. Mujajo's friends had
gathered to show off their work.
Afghan officials reflexively blame Pakistan for so many problems that adding a
fallen tree to the list seemed like a witty flourish.
"In economic news," continued the broadcaster, "Everything is
more expensive now. Even spoiled Pakistani fruit is selling for high prices.
The NGOs try to help by giving us wheat, but people steal it and smuggle it out
of the country." Again, snickers of amusement filled the room.
Afghans have a history of laughing at their own misfortune. Prisoners smile as
they describe suffering torture, and policemen crack jokes as they tell stories
about escaping insurgent attacks. A profile of the Pashtun ethnic group,
published in 1947 by the poet Ghani Khan, describes the way a quintessential
Pashtun handled a lifetime of hardship: "He always covered his sorrow with
a smile, and his pain with a joke."
Mr. Mujajo has also found redemption in comedy in a more personal way. Eight
years ago, during the Taliban regime, he was living as a refugee in Pakistan
and earning a modest living as a cold-drinks vendor. His son fell sick and he
took the boy to a government-funded hospital. A doctor prescribed medicine but
Mr. Mujajo couldn't afford to buy it. His son died of the illness.
"I went home and looked at my poor house," he said. "I decided
to make myself famous and get some money."
He started recording jokes on cassette tapes, decorating the covers with photos
of himself making funny faces. They sold well among the Pashtuns in the border
region. He even smuggled the tapes into Kandahar at a time when such amusements
were strictly banned by the Taliban.
He grew a big beard so he could pass by Taliban guards, and slipped into
wealthy homes to entertain private parties. He would improvise a drum with a
steel tub, he says, or memorize long sections of dialogue from Pakistani films
and deliver them to small audiences who hadn't seen a TV or movie screen in
years.
Even powerful figures in the Taliban movement attended the illicit parties, he
said, but that did not guarantee his safety. He could have been hanged for
activities the Taliban considered un-Islamic.
"Security was better in the Taliban times, but everybody was afraid,"
he said.
He still fears for his life under the new government, he says, but it's easier
to work as a comedian. Picnic grounds in a lush river valley north of Kandahar
city, where he once entertained revellers, have become off-limits as the
insurgency grows. But he can still visit four or five hotels inside the city,
where he's paid to appear at weddings.
His audio cassettes are now sold openly in the market. He drives a dilapidated
old taxi in the mornings to earn a little money, but in the afternoons he
visits the television studio and takes home $150 for four hours work, twice the
monthly salary of a police officer.
His family now includes two sons and two daughters, he says, all of them
healthy.
But he dreams of much bigger success. He has written a film script about two
childhood friends who take different paths in life, one a doctor and the other
a thief, and he's trying to find enough money and actors to support a
full-fledged movie production. His inspirations are Charlie Chaplain and Mr.
Bean, he says, because their wordless comedy makes people laugh in many
countries.
"This is my challenge," he said. For the first time, his eyes contained
no hint of humour. "I will become the best comedian in the world."
::THEATRE NEWS::
For Their Latest Show, The Second City Crew Break Down Their
Creative Process For Us
Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(July 31, 2008) The gang at Second City are getting
physical.
No, they're not seeing how much they can bench-press, but they are moving a lot
more in Barack to the Future – the revue now in previews – than they
have in a long time.
"I have one sequence called `Ping Pong,'" grimaces Darryl Hinds,
"where I never say a word and I never stop running. Man, I hurt in places
I didn't even know I had."
Karen Parker talks about a scene where she and Leslie Seiler "play a pair
of raccoons who just make noises while they indulge in a non-stop assault on a
recycling bin."
There's also a lot of what actor Marty Adams describes as "interactive
scenes with the audience, which require a lot of energy and imagination on our
part, but are really rewarding."
The director, Second City veteran Bruce Pirrie, explains this kinetic activity
as the strategy behind "a show in which we have lots of satirical points
we need to make, but we want to have a lot of fun doing them."
But how does it all happen? We asked Pirrie and his six players to take us on
the journey of how one particular sketch, called "Berserker Boss,"
came to life, from initial conception to final execution.
ACT I: THE IMPETUS
It all begins with Pirrie's experience of what does and does not make an
audience laugh.
"My default position," he begins, "is that the hallmark of good
comedy is that it's rooted in the truth.
"And the next thing that helps is that the audience recognizes some of
their own experiences in it."
So Pirrie asked the cast to come up with ideas from their own lives where they
had undergone upsetting or annoying experiences that average people could
relate to.
"If it made you mad or sad in the past," observes Pirrie, "then
it can make you laugh in the present. The bigger the emotional investment, the
higher the comic stakes."
Having made his call for pitches, he waited for the emotional outpouring from
his cast.
ACT II: THE IDEA
Inspiration wasn't long in coming. Newcomer Reid Janisse had recently been in
an employment situation that left him drained.
"There was a guy I used to work for," volunteers Janisse. "He
was actually a really, really nice guy underneath it all, but he had one big
problem.
"He'd often try to seek creative input from us employees and when he was
doing that he was the sweetest, most caring person you could ever ask for.
"But when anyone would question his creative choices, he would freak out
and start screaming at the person. Then, in a little while, he would come back
to the fun jovial boss, until someone would ask him a question and he'd fly off
the handle again."
Pirrie leapt on the idea. "Not only could I see the comic possibilities,
but the idea of a boss that people didn't like or trust is universal. I thought
we'd hit paydirt."
ACT III: THE CREATION
Pirrie and the crew kicked around an assortment of workplace environments.
"We finally decided to set it in the advertising agency that's working on
the Bell Telephone account and they have to come up with a new animated
character to join those two annoying beavers."
The cast began improvising and while it was obvious that Janisse would get to
exorcize his demons by playing the boss who had tormented him, the rest proved
that sometimes sheer chance governed the way a scene will go.
"I was standing next to Reid when we began," remembers Adams,
"so I instantly became the easy target, the meek guy who got hurt, first
emotionally and then physically."
"I had dealt with an acting teacher like that in university,"
remembers Seller, "and my tactic there was to walk on eggshells, so that's
what I did here. I became a kind of corporate ass-kisser who finally gets
called out at one point."
Hinds tapped into "a guy I worked with at a nameless bookstore who laughed
at everything the boss said whether it was funny or not. I kept that for my
character."
For Parker, "my reaction in a situation like that is to deflect, deflect,
deflect, so I play someone who hardly says anything, just keeps pointing
fingers at other people."
And a different twist came from Kerry Griffin who reasoned that "the
audience would wonder why nobody stood up to this guy, so I decided to play the
assistant who keeps calling the boss out on what he's doing."
ACT IV: THE EXECUTION
Over the next months, the cast will play the scene hundreds of different ways,
first trusting their own impulses.
"I start out grounded in reality," explains Hinds, describing a
process that echoes most of his colleagues. "Next I push it as far as I
can to see what the audience will accept, then tone it down a bit."
And Griffin voices another mantra his colleagues would agree with when he
declares, "You need to put yourself in the moment of the scene and play it
like it's happening for the first time."
The final voice is Pirrie's who keeps an eagle eye on audience reaction and
cuts accordingly.
"You have to separate the emeralds from the diamonds," he quips.
"`All your jokes are jewels,' I tell the cast. `It's just that some are
more gem-like than others.'"
And if it all works, the audience laughs. That, in the end, is what it's all
about.
The Four Playwrights Behind The Taxi Project Have Personal
Stories Like Their Characters'
Source: www.thestar.com - Nicholas Keung, Immigration/Diversity
Reporter
(July 31, 2008) "This is a city of strangers, and judging by
your accent we belong to the same tribe," says a lead character in The Taxi Project, which opens in Toronto tomorrow. The tribe the
Bosnian-photojournalist-turned-Toronto-cabdriver refers to are the exiled
writers from around the world who dedicate their lives to defend freedom of expression,
seek protection in Canada and yet struggle to have their voices heard on a main
stage.
And the personal stories of the play's exiled writers – Mexico's Emma Beltran,
China's Sheng Xue, Bosnia's Goran Simic and Ethiopia's Martha Kumsa – are just
as fascinating as the characters they created for the project presented by PEN
Canada and the Art for Real Change Collective.
Their lives shadow the four lead characters: activist Alejandra, who arrived on
Flight 1999 from the National University student strike in Mexico; dissident
Xiao Hong on Flight 1989 from the Tiananmen Square massacre in China;
intellectual Seeyyee on Flight 1978 from the Red terror in Ethiopia; and Exyou
on Flight 1994 from the Bosnian war in Yugoslavia.
There is only so much the hour-long multidisciplinary play can encompass; yet
the writers, with help from the art collective's Erica Kopyto and Weyni
Mengesha, have done a fine job in letting their creative juice, wits and
emotional realities seep through.
The subtlety, for instance, on the odds facing an exiled person's or any
newcomer's settlement and integration is beyond the
"doctor-driving-cab" conundrum that plays out in the show's aptly
chosen title. (The name was also picked because cabs universally symbolize the
movement of people.)
"I collect nos – shiny, loud and flat nos," says
Alejandra in a monologue. "Every time I get a no for an answer I
wrap it up in cellophane paper and put it carefully in my pocket. Once at home,
I put all my nos in jars underneath my bed.
"I have nos of all kinds, the bureaucratic ones with a seal on the
envelope. The answering-machine ones with their eternal `I'm not
available at the moment.' The Canadian ones with all the politeness you can
imagine: `Unfortunately, we can not offer you the position. You have a
great résumé but we do not think you are the right fit for this
job.'"
It is a reality that Sheng, 46, has lived through since she fled China's
crackdown on the students' democratic movement that culminated in the June 4,
1989, massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Sheng, who was a magazine writer in Beijing, has done all sorts of odd jobs
here in restaurants, hairdressing salons, gas stations, dry-cleaners and
doughnut shops, but never gave up her commitment to write – and help organize
China's democratic movement.
After joining Radio Free Asia in 1997, she worked with Maclean's
magazine for a report on the Chinese boat refugees' lives that won her a
Canadian Association of Journalists award in 2000.
For Sheng, the play is another opportunity to bring a marginalized voice to the
public. "In Canada, the freedom of expression is not just a slogan,"
she said. "It is a lifestyle, something tangible that you could almost
touch and feel."
As a survivor of torture, Beltran, who didn't speak a word of English when she
came here from Mexico six years ago, said it's challenging yet refreshing to
reinvent creative works in a new language.
"We just have superpower," the 30-year-old community outreach worker
laughed during an interview. "I'm not sure how we manage, but we have to
manage because we're committed to our writing and telling our stories."
Mengesha, who directs the play, dismisses critics' label of "political
theatres."
"I feel all arts are political," she says. "A good production is
a good production when you tell a human story with honesty and you recognize
yourself on stage, connect with the characters and feel emotional. It is to
further that humanity."
Stratford
Soldiers On With Caesar
Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star
(August 05, 2008) The sun was shining on the Stratford
festival Sunday, in every sense of the word.
Besides the glorious weather, the city was filled with happy people there to
see the plays and most of the venues I stuck my head into were playing to near
capacity.
No wonder artistic director Des McAnuff was beaming as he sat down to enjoy a
cappuccino before running off to an eight-hour rehearsal for Caesar and
Cleopatra.
"It's all started turning around in the last two weeks," sighed an
almost paternally proud McAnuff. "I can't tell you how relieved we all
are."
Just around mid-July, there was a flurry of unwelcome media attention after an
internal memo was leaked which urged the staff to tighten their belts in the
face of a 10 per cent downturn in sales. Some people (but not this reporter)
were even talking about a $5 million deficit.
But almost magically, the staff woke up the following Monday morning to find
the box office busier than it had been all season and it's stayed that way ever
since.
"You don't knock away a slump like we had overnight," admits the
experienced McAnuff, "but if things keep going like they've been recently,
we may wind up out of the woods after all."
Why the sudden change? Economists might point to people who've finally
reconciled themselves to a "staycation" deciding that Stratford would
make a fine destination, or Toronto residents who suddenly realized a round
trip to Stratford wouldn't require enough gas to bankrupt them.
McAnuff has another theory, also worth giving credence to. "I think it's
word of mouth," he says. "We've got a wide variety of really good
shows here this season and I think people realized that, came to see them and
are now telling their friends about them."
And in some ways, the best is yet to come on the Aug. 16-17 weekend, when three
high-profile productions open, all with the potential for greatness.
Joanna McClelland Glass opens her politically explosive drama about the
aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riots, Palmer Park.
I ran into a joyous Nigel Shawn Williams, who's playing one of the leads and he
couldn't be more excited about the show's prospects.
Then there's Morris Panych's revolutionary new movement piece inspired by Moby
Dick, which is getting extraordinarily positive buzz during previews.
Finally, there's McAnuff directing Christopher Plummer in Caesar and
Cleopatra, the kind of playgoing treat that should start any theatre-lover
salivating in advance.
THE QUALITY OF MERCY As George observes in Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?, "By God, you gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles
are."
Last week's sad police case involving How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
judge Simon Lee brought one interesting fact to light. While Lee was in jail
that Sunday, it is alleged that his long-time associate Andrew Lloyd Webber
didn't bail him out, nor did his immediate employers, the CBC.
Who helped the man in his time of need? We've heard that it was done on the
quiet (and very generously) by the Mirvish organization.
SUNDAY COMES APACE Shouts and murmurs from the Shaw Festival (just so
they don't feel left out.) Latest reports indicate that Maury Yeston's Grand
Hotel (based on the classic 1932 film) will be in the Festival Theatre,
while Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park With George
will be in one of the smaller theatres.
THEATRE TIDBITS
McAnuff to direct Guys and
Dolls on Broadway
Source: www.globeandmail.com - J.
Kelly Nestruck
(July
31, 2008) Toronto — Guys
and Dolls is returning to Broadway for a fifth time - with
Stratford Shakespeare Festival artistic director Des McAnuff at the helm.
McAnuff will reunite with his Jersey Boys choreographer and Stratford
regular Sergio Trujillo to bring Frank Loesser's classical musical about Sky
Masterson and Nathan Detroit back to New York next spring, producer Howard
Panter announced this week. Both artists have previously worked on successful
productions of musicals by Loesser. McAnuff directed his How to Succeed in
Business Without Really Trying in 1995, a production for which lead actor
Matthew Broderick won a Tony, while Trujillo danced in the ensemble of the last
Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls in 1992.
Toronto Boy Brings Jersey Home
Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian
(August 06, 2008) A Toronto guy is going to
be one of the Jersey Boys when the hit musical opens at the Toronto
Centre for the Arts on Aug. 24, Dancap Productions announced this week. Jeremy Kushnier, last seen here in 2003 in Aida, will play bad guy Tommy DeVito,
which he's already done to critical acclaim in Chicago and Las Vegas. Director Des
McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo also hail from Toronto, making
this a show the city has every reason to take to its heart. The story of
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, this musical biography won the Tony Award
for Best Musical. The other leading roles in Toronto will be played by Joseph
Leo Bwarie (Valli), another Vegas company vet; Steve Gouveia (Nick
Massi), who has been with the show since its 2004 La Jolla Playhouse premiere;
and Andrew Rannels (Bob Gaudio).
::TECHNOLOGY NEWS::
Nintendo Soars On Wii Sales
Source: www.thestar.com - Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press
(July 31, 2008) TOKYO–Nintendo Co.'s profit for the fiscal first
quarter surged 34 per cent as sales of its hit Wii console shot up,
underlining the success of the video game unit in attracting novice players.
The Japanese manufacturer of Super Mario and Pokemon video games reported yesterday a profit of 107.27 billion yen, or
$1.01 billion (Canadian), from April through June, up from 80.25 billion yen in
the same period last year.
The big factor behind the stellar performance was the Wii and its game
software, including the Wii Fit, which has drawn the health-conscious to doing
simple exercises such as yoga and aerobics with a video game.
Nintendo sold 5.2 million Wii machines worldwide during the quarter – 1.7
million more than for the same period last year. It also sold 3.4 million Wii
Fit games and 6.4 million Mario Kart Wii games.
Quarterly sales surged 24 per cent to 423.38 billion yen, the equivalent of $4
billion (Canadian), according to Kyoto-based Nintendo.
The company has sold a cumulative 29.6 million Wii machines worldwide since its
arrival in late 2006. Wii has proved appealing to relative newcomers to gaming,
including the elderly and women.
The Wii, with its trademark wand-like remote controller, has scored success
against the PlayStation 3 from Japanese rival Sony Corp., which went on sale
about the same time, as well as against the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
At the latest count, worldwide PS3 sales lagged at fewer than half of the Wii
at 14.4 million. More than 19 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold so far
worldwide, according to Microsoft.
On Tuesday, Sony said its April-June profit plunged to 34.98 billion yen, or
$331 million (Canadian) – about half that recorded a year ago – as a strong yen,
the absence of Spider-Man 3 revenue and faltering cellphone operations
battered earnings.
Nintendo shrugged off an estimated 26.3 billion yen erosion in its quarterly
sales from a strengthening yen, which gained about 15 per cent against the U.S.
dollar from last year. Solid Wii sales were enough to offset the losses from an
unfavourable exchange rate, Nintendo said.
Nintendo is planning to sell 25 million Wii consoles and 28 million of its
handheld DS machines for the fiscal year through March 2009.
It says it wants to make its products a "must-have" for every
individual, not just every home.
::OTHER NEWS::
Love
For A Lion Lives On With New Web Audience
Source: www.thestar.com - Greg Quill, Entertainment
Columnist
(August 04, 2008) A short amateur film shot more than 30 years ago, supposedly
recording the moving 1971 reunion between a lion in the wild and its former
owners, has become a Web phenomenon.
In the past week, the video has had millions of Internet hits and countless
replays on TV news and programs all over the world.
The scene is the conclusion to a long-form video shot in the early 1970s by
actors and filmmakers Bill Travers and Virginia
McKenna – stars of the hit 1966 movie Born Free, about
British-born , Kenya -based African wildlife conservationists George and Joy
Adamson. The video was sold to raise funds for their Born Free Foundation,
which advocates international wildlife charity, conservation and animal
welfare.
The film captures, in a few grainy seconds, what McKenna refers to in her
narration as the reunion between Christian the lion and his two keepers,
Australians John Rendall and Ace Bourke. Christian was born in a British zoo in
1969 and purchased by the young men for about $530 at Harrod's department store
in London . He was returned to the Kenya bush a year later after growing too
big to be a house pet.
In 1971 the fully grown lion, which had been integrated into the wild by
Adamson – after Travers and McKenna stumbled upon Christian during a shopping
trip, finessed the Kenya government and facilitated the animal's flight from
London – is seen walking down the side of a dusty ridge towards the two young
men.
Rendall and Bourke are dressed in fashionable 1970s flares and sport long, windblown
coifs. They call to Christian. And the young lion responds, bounding into their
arms, hugging them affectionately and licking them as it had when filmed at
play as an energetic, 12-kilogram cub in its London exercise area: a walled
graveyard.
While stories of reunions between animals and their former owners, often
separated by years and great distances, are commonplace, this one has suddenly
won the hearts of millions.
Despite the fact that the full video has been in circulation since 1971 (with the
titles The Lion At World's End and The Lion That Thought He Was
People), and that Rendall and Bourke in 1971 published a book, A Lion
Called Christian, the Internet has given new life to Christian's tale.
The final scene has been uploaded to dozens of websites and Web news services,
aired on countless TV shows, including Oprah and The View, and
even re-edited by some fans to further underscore its emotional power in
personal ways.
"We have a picture in our minds of the power a wild animal possesses and
the damage it can do, and when we see displays of affection like this, another
side of the animal, it connects with our emotions," said Robert Smerage,
an animal care supervisor at Toronto Zoo.
Smerage once hand-raised a black leopard to Toronto's former Riverdale Zoo, and
was charmed by its affectionate play until one day the animal's claws
penetrated his overalls and scratched his back.
"That was the last time I was allowed to get so close.
"That leopard was on exhibit for many years and she always watched me from
the moment I came into view 'til I disappeared over the horizon. We had a
lasting connection and it was such a thrill," says Smerage.
"It's the reason so-called wild animals in circuses were so popular in
days gone by. We like to be reminded we're part of the natural world."
See the video HERE.
L.A. Officials Form Task
Force To Deal With Aggressive Paparazzi
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Anthony
Mccartney, The Associated Press
(July
30, 2008) LOS ANGELES — The paparazzi
keep taking their shots, but not always the kind they're after. Lately it's a
jab from a star's bodyguard – or his surfer pals – or the metallic pinch of
handcuffs slapped on for lingering too long.
And more push-back may be coming.
Weary of the scrums of photographers chasing celebs at the airport, on the
beach and through the streets, some Los Angeles-area leaders are contemplating
tougher regulations against the people who make their living by catching
celebrities off-guard.
Officials from celeb enclaves in and around Los Angeles such as Beverly Hills,
West Hollywood, Malibu and Calabasas are convening Thursday for the first time
to discuss ways to combat shutterbugs, whose tactics have grown more aggressive
and confrontational in the past few years.
Their goal is for each city to adopt its own ordinances to punish aggressive
paparazzi, while keeping the rules uniform in the places where celebrities
live, work and play.
“This is a response to their lack of responsible behaviour,” said Los Angeles
City Councilman Dennis Zine, an outspoken paparazzi critic and organizer of the
task force.
Zine proposed a “personal safety zone” around celebs earlier this year that
police officials said would be virtually unenforceable. He's also floated the
idea of legitimizing the paparazzi – who are freelancers by definition – by
giving them credentials, and in turn, clear rules.
The paparazzi have provided plenty of fodder for scrutiny of late.
Last week, Halle Berry said she's seeking criminal charges against
photographers who she says trespassed in her backyard to get shots of the
Oscar-winning actress and her four-month-old daughter. The same day, guards for
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got into a bloody tussle with a pair of
camouflage-wearing paparazzi near the couple's home in France.
And in June, a group of Malibu surfers fought with photographers who were
trying to get shots of Matthew McConaughey on the waves last month.
Photographers still routinely swarm Britney Spears, including at Los Angeles
International Airport, where police in June had to break up the group to allow
her to pass. And earlier this month, Los Angeles police said they warned a pair
of shooters to leave a fire access road near Spears' house, then arrested them
when they returned 45 minutes later to find them still lingering.
Zine and other civic leaders say they're concerned that left unchecked, the
aggressive photographers will either drive away entertainers, or worse – harm
them or an innocent bystander. A recent inquest partially blamed pursuing
paparazzi for the 1997 deaths of British Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi
Fayed in France, a scenario Zine and others say they hope to avoid in Los
Angeles.
Malibu residents often complain about aggressive photographers, from high-speed
car chases to photographers lurking outside schools or blocking store exits,
said Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich, who is also a task force member. Some
photographers have even mistaken a non-famous resident for a celebrity,
creating confusion and fear.
Malibu already has strict guidelines for film shoots, and similar regulations
may be necessary for photographers, she said. In other words, the paparazzi
frequently are not gathering news, she said, but rather “creating
entertainment.”
For the paparazzi's part, Zine's idea of registration is one the shooters
themselves have considered.
“Certify photographers to work as paparazzi,” suggested Arnold Cousart, a
co-founder of photo agency JFX Direct. That way, he said if they get into
trouble, police will know who is legit and who isn't.
Cousart said he has considered compiling a handbook so fellow paparazzi know
their rights and don't exceed them. But he predicted that any broad rules
enacted by the task force would miss the mark.
“There is a better way,” he said. “They just need to sit down with the proper
folks.”
As erratic and dangerous as the scrums appear to outsiders, some paparazzi
lament the lost days of shooting celebs surreptitiously with telephoto lenses.
They're now within arms-length of other shooters, and stars or their
bodyguards.
During the June scramble at LAX, a photographer accused one of Spears'
bodyguards of pushing his camera too hard into his face. Other photographers
have accused actors Woody Harrelson and Pierce Brosnan of rough treatment in
civil suits; both cases remain unresolved.
Zine said he wants to solicit input from the paparazzi, but the task force's
likely roster is comprised mostly of law enforcement officials, prosecutors and
politicians.
Romantic Revenge, Served In Multimedia
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Sarah Milroy
(August 01, 2008) MONTREAL — Who is G? The
French artist Sophie Calle won't say.
Interviewed by phone about her current show Take Care of Yourself, at DHC Art
Foundation in Montreal until the fall, she has taken the high road once again,
refusing to disclose the name of the man whose breakup e-mail served as the
point of departure for her latest multimedia installation.
Faced with rejection, Calle, an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist,
decided to take him up on his perky signoff. She took care of herself by
circulating his e-mail to 107 female experts working in a spectacularly wide
variety of fields, inviting their professional opinions.
Their responses, which range from the dryly dispassionate to the bodice-ripping
romantic, are compiled in the form of text panels and DVDs. Calle first
exhibited the work at the Venice Biennale last summer, where it was the toast
of the town, occupying the sumptuous neo-Classical French Pavilion in the
Giardini. Now, she is taking the feted work on a world tour.
Gentlemen, should this description give you the willies, rest assured: G's
identity is safe. “I showed him the work before Venice,” she says, her delicate
Parisian accent tinkling on the end of the line. “I admit, he wasn't very
happy, but he had respect for the project. In the end, he didn't resist.”
Pausing, she adds, “I think it was very noble.”
The e-mail is, in fact, a disgraceful document, reeking of narcissistic
self-aggrandizement and peppered with passive-aggressive taunts. By the letter's
end, G. has positioned himself as Calle's liberator, as a tortured soul seeking
redemption (“I no longer recognize myself in my own existence”) and as the
pious defender of their collective integrity. In other words, we're knee-deep
in manure.
How to cope? Calle says she began her work by contacting a family arbitrator,
who advised her how to manage her emotional recovery and deal with their shared
friends and other entanglements in the wake of their breakup. This calm,
professional exchange proved strangely soothing, and it inspired her to go
further.
Digging into the document itself, she sought to ferret out its every nuance,
contacting a raft of language and communications experts of all denominations:
editors (who flushed out inconsistencies in logic and humiliating grammatical faux
pas), a linguist, a poet, a diplomat, a journalist. Curiosity led her
further and further afield. A clairvoyant was contacted, as well as an
anthropologist, a medievalist of the semiological persuasion, a United Nations
expert in women's rights.
It was at about this point in the artistic process that Calle received an
invitation to show in Venice as France's official artist. Accordingly, she
shifted gears, widening her circle to include respondents whose line of work
was non-verbal – a dancer, a singer, a mime artist, a woman who could sign for
the deaf, a female practitioner of Japanese classical opera.
“Venice is so international,” she says. “You can't rely on the audience there
to able to read French.” In Montreal, unlike in Venice, the text portion of the
installation is exhibited in one building while, up the street, the
audio-visual component holds sway.
Does this exhibition represent an act of self-care or is this simply good
old-fashioned revenge, served ice cold? However you see it, Take Care of
Yourself is of a piece with Calle's earlier explorations, which have included
works made by following strangers in the street and documenting their actions
with words and photographs (she once followed an unsuspecting man from a Paris
party all the way to Venice, dogging his footsteps for two weeks), or working
as a chambermaid and crafting fantasies about the hotel guests, based on her
surreptitious findings in their guest rooms (scribbled phone numbers, bar and
restaurant bills, bedside reading and so on).
One of her most notorious works arose from her chance finding of a gentleman's
address book. Calling all of the people whose phone numbers she found in its
pages, she compiled a composite verbal account of the mystery man, pooling
their observations and publishing the results in a prominent Paris newspaper.
(He threatened to sue.) Making public what is customarily private is the common
theme in her art, but, in probing the surfaces of her random subjects, she
leads us to the deep mystery of all human souls.
Even, perhaps, her own. Asked to discuss her feelings about infringing upon G's
privacy, Calle is quick to turn the tables. “But it is myself that I am
revealing, of course,” she says, a trifle sharply. “It is my activity that I am
documenting, my obsessive process.” Every jilted lover knows the frenzy of
interpretation that clings to each shred of communication. By making a monument
to her own compulsion to understand, she implies the folly of such
hand-wringing exegetical fervour.
Some things, however, simply cannot be explained. Calle's mother, when
presented with the offending document, offered perhaps the crispest response of
all. Cautioning her daughter to avoid self-dramatization, and confessing her
own regret at the energy she had earlier squandered on failed romances, she
concludes:
“You leave, you get left, that's the name of the game, and for you this breakup
could be the wellspring of a new piece of art – am I wrong? I love you. Your
mother.”
Sophie Calle's Take Care of Yourself continues at DHC Art Foundation in
Montreal until Oct. 19 (514-866-6767).
Cross-Border
Slamming
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Marsha Lederman
(August 04, 2008) VANCOUVER — With much of the world focusing on the Beijing
Olympics, a small group of Canadians is gearing up for a different sort of
international competition. This week, teams from Vancouver and Toronto will be
in Madison , Wis. , for the U.S. National Poetry
Slam.
For the uninitiated, poetry slams are competitive spoken-word events, where
poets get on stage, perform their work, and judges selected at random from the
audience rate them. At the end of the night, a winner is chosen and a
(generally small) cash prize is awarded.
The poetry is highly dramatic, sometimes very funny and at other times super
serious. The issues dealt with by the poets on the Toronto and Vancouver teams
range from Santa Claus to slavery, from heartbreak to homelessness. The poetry
can be excruciatingly personal.
"Last year all of my writing was primarily me trying to find the
confidence in myself, so I wrote a lot about that," says Toronto team
member Jogindra Siewrattan (stage name Yogi), 26, who has lately been focusing
more on the issue of tolerance.
Toronto teammate Truth Is (her stage name) offers an intense delivery and a
seething indictment of racism and poverty; Arianna Pozzuoli slams about her
nephew undergoing heart surgery; Krystle Mullin writes about an estranged
father; White Noise Machine (real name: Mike Smith), a city-hall columnist for
Now Magazine, covers off topics as diverse as sex, central air conditioning and
soft drinks within a two-minute work.
"I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the poetry slam," says
Vancouver team member Chris Gilpin (stage name Faust McKenzie), who likens
spoken-word poetry to stand-up comedy.
"Certainly when I went to [my first slam] I didn't know what to expect,
but I thought it would be kind of weighty and fondling your chin and thinking
deeply about things."
Gilpin's poetry puts those preconceptions to rest. "I write about very
specific things that people might not spend a lot of time considering, and I
try to make them seem weird and marvellous all over again." Among them:
donair kebabs, former game-show host Bob Barker, and, in a poem called Ode
to the Snooze Button, those extra few minutes of sleep. "It's a very
unappreciated thing, snoozing," Gilpin, 32, says.
While Vancouver is a veteran participant in the U.S. event, it's the first time
for Toronto . David Silverberg, the Toronto Poetry Slam's artistic director,
says there's momentum for the art form in the city right now and he feels this
is the time to take it across the border. "The poets are ready. I think
that was the key point. There's a lot of passion in these poets' rib cages and
the work is just mind-blowingly tight. I think we can compete with Americans as
much as we can compete with Canadians at our own national festival,"
Silverberg says. (The Canadian event is set for November in Calgary .)
"We think this is a first step for Toronto to gain some recognition in the
U.S. as well as to show America what Canada has to offer in terms of spoken
word - that it's not just Vancouver."
The Vancouver scene, to be sure, is well established. With more than 100 people
consistently packing Commercial Drive 's Café Deux Soleils on slam nights, its
popularity can't be questioned. The city has been sending a team to the U.S.
nationals since 1996, missing only one year since then.
"We've definitely always been a leader," says Vancouver 's slam
mistress Lisa Slater, who adds that the Vancouver scene has come a long way
since the early days.
"There have been years when someone had to put [the cost of the trip] on
their credit card and hope that the team members would be able to pay them back
eventually."
Now the regular slams bring in so much revenue that travel expenses and the
$450 ( U.S. ) entrance fee are covered.
In Toronto , where the scene is less established, team members are paying their
own way, subsidized by funds raised at local slams. The cost is estimated at
$700 a person.
As for the competitive aspect of the event, the poets say for most teams, the
rivalry is beside the point: This is a chance to get together, share their work
and get inspired.
The very nature of spoken-word poetry, it seems, is more about the verse than
the versus. "It's a competition that builds camaraderie," Gilpin
says. "I think it helps that when it comes down to it, no one's ever going
to make any big money doing this.
"How competitive can you be? You're like, 'I have five dollars after this
slam and you don't. Oh who cares? Let's just go have a beer.' "
The U.S. National Poetry Slam takes place Aug. 4-10. For more information,
visit http://www.poetryslam.com, http://www.torontopoetryslam.com, http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com
::SPORTS NEWS::
GTA Women Lead Canada To Beijing Soccer Victory
Source: www.thestar.com
- Doug Smith, Sports Reporter
(August 06, 2008) TIANJIN – Canada’s debut in Olympics
women’s soccer will go
down as a success.
In their first appearance ever, Canada beat Argentina 2-1 here Wednesday
evening in the first competitive event of the Beijing Games.
Goals by Candace Chapman in the 27th
minute and Kara Lang in the 71st gave
Canada a comfortable margin and allowed the Canadians to withstand an 85th
minute counter by Argentina’s Ludmila Manicler before about 20,000 fans in the
60,000-seat Tianjin Olympic Stadium.
Appearing in the Olympics for the first time ever, Canada controlled the play
for almost the entire game and was full value for the win.
“Obviously we didn’t play as well as we would have liked to but it’s the first
game of the Olympics. We were a little nervous, a little anxious but we always
say the first game in a tournament is the hardest to get a result in,” said
Christine Sinclair.
The game was played in stifling heat, with temperatures of about 35C at
kickoff; strength-sapping humidity and under a cloud of grey, polluted,
stagnant air that’s been the trademark of the run-up to the Games.
“I think (it was a factor) just in the sense that you’ll start to feel a bit
more tired earlier on in the game than you would in another environment,” said
Lang. “But like I’ve said so many times before, it’s something that both teams
have to deal with so I don’t think it’s necessarily going to change the game
too much or the outcome of the game.”
The first goal was set up by a huge blast from Christine Sinclair that was just
deflected wide of the post to give Canada a corner.
After Rhian Wilkinson’s corner was deflected back toward half, Chapman stepped
into a right-footed shot from about 35 metres and hit nothing but the back of
the net for her fifth goal with the national team in a historic moment for
women’s soccer in Canada.
“After the ball went in the net, I turned around and it just hit me that, this
is the first goal we’ve ever had in the Olympics … it was a special moment for
me and my teammates,” said Chapman.
The clinching goal was brilliant, with Wilkinson taking a free kick from about
30 metres that Lang headed on spectacularly from about 15 metres out in the
71st minute.
Canada had a huge size advantage over the Argentines and used it often. The
backline of Chapman, Emily Zurrer, Martine Franko and Wilkinson simply
overpowered the Argentine attack and Canada won nearly every ball in the air up
front.
“I think we slowly wore them down, they started to get really tired at the end
of the second half and that’s when that type of thing comes into play,” said
Sinclair. “We didn’t lose too many punts in the air, that type of thing.
“We could probably have put away a few more goals on corners and free kicks but
we got one off of it.”
The win is huge boost for Canada’s hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals
of the 12-country tournament. There are three four-team pools in the tournament
with the top two in each pool qualifying for the quarter-finals along with the
two best third-place teams.
Canada faces China here on Saturday and completes its first-round on Tuesday in
Beijing against Sweden.
The victory did not come without a cost, though; Melissa Tancredi, a key
forward and Canada’s most physical presence on the front line, left after just
41 minutes with an apparent left ankle injury. She was knocked down in the
penalty area in front of the Argentina goal in about the 19th minute, left the
pitch for a few minutes to have the ankle treated and returned. But the injury
became too much to handle about 10 minutes later and she left the game for
good.
::FITNESS::
The 2 Most Effective Ab Exercises!
By Staff eDiets
Are you an ab-oholic?
Do you constantly fret over a flatter stomach? Are you obsessed with achieving
a six-pack? Maybe you spend countless hours doing crunches, only to see no
results whatsoever. It's nothing to be embarrassed about.
You're gonna have to face it: You're addicted to abs!
Don't worry, though. That's not a bad thing -- unless you're wasting precious
time on ineffective exercises when you could actually be getting more (results)
for less (time). You heard it right. For those of you doing hundreds of sit-ups
a day, you're probably spending a lot of time doing exercises the wrong way.
So says Michael Stefano, fitness expert and author of The Firefighter's
Workout (HarperCollins). He's witnessed the fitness faux pas many times in
his private practice.
"More than half my clients come to me and say they're doing 300 sit-ups
and 100 bicycle kicks a day and nothing is happening," Stefano tells
eDiets. "They feel a little is good, so more must be better. In the
process, they abandon good form and the proper way of doing the exercise.
"My whole change for these people is to inform them of what really works
and dispel the myths."
The first misconception Stefano puts to rest is the notion that you can spot
reduce. FALSE. FALSE. FALSE. It takes more than ab exercises to tighten
that tummy. A firmer physique requires a one-two punch of cardio exercise and
strength training. And don't forget a healthy diet, as well. Here is Stefano's
ultimate workout checklist.
CARDIO TRAINING: three to five times a week, exercise in your target
heart rate zone with some form of sustained aerobic activity
(such as walking, jogging, swimming) for 20 to 30 minutes or more.
STRENGTH TRAINING: two to four times a week, perform anywhere from eight
to 12 sets of properly performed progressive resistance movements (i.e. weight
training, nautilus, pushups) that works the entire body.
FLEXIBILITY TRAINING: Perform at least five to 15 minutes of stretching
exercises (such as simple stretches or yoga) at the end of every workout.
Even if you follow a well-balanced fitness regimen to the letter, it doesn't
guarantee you'll get washboard abs. Genetically, we're not all set up to have a
toned tummy, Stefano says.
"Save yourself time, energy and possible injury... lose the obsession with
things you can do nothing about," he says. "Focus on things you can
change. Eat right and exercise, but don't obsess about either."
One thing you can do to improve the appearance of your midsection is to
practice better posture. Poor posture often gives people the potbellied look.
To improve your posture: keep your head balanced on your neck, not leaning.
Shoulders should be relaxed and down, rolled back. Make sure abdominals are
contracted and your tailbone pointed to the floor. Knees should be kept soft
and not locked. Ears, shoulders, ribs, hips, knees and ankles should all stay
vertically aligned.
"Within reason, if you work on your posture and you do the cardio and
strength-training exercises, it is possible to affect the stomach and flatten
it," Stefano says. "Not everybody will have a super flat stomach, but
it is possible to improve your stomach."
Stefano recommends a simple strength-training regimen that can be done in a
matter of minutes. Perform two sets of 20 for each exercise. Rest one minute
between sets. Do this routine two to three times a week.
CRUNCH
Lie on your back on a mat or padded carpet with your knees partially bent, feet
flat on the floor and arms folded across your chest (least intense). Be sure
the feet are not too near your buttocks. Exhale as you press the lower back
into the floor and begin to raise your head, shoulders and chest off the floor
in one unit, concentrating on bringing the ribs towards the hips. Pause briefly
as you feel your abdominal muscles contract. The movement need only be a few
inches. Inhale and slowly curl back down, trying not to let your head and
shoulders touch the floor and maintaining tension in the abdominal muscles for
the entire set. Repeat to muscle fatigue.
Trainer's Notes:
Be sure to keep the knees only partially bent with the heels at least one foot
from your butt. This engages the oblique muscles as well as the rectus abdominus.
To increase intensity, lengthen the pause when the abs are flexed to two
seconds or place your hands behind your head (as in the bicycle kick). Extend
the arms overhead to maximize intensity levels.
Goal: two sets of 20 to 30 repetitions
BIKE KICK
Lie on your back on a mat or padded carpet with knees bent and feet flat on the
floor. Press the lower back into the floor, engaging the abdominal muscles as
you put both hands behind your head (don't pull on the head). Bring the right
elbow over to the left knee, and then bring the left elbow over to the right
knee in a twisting, bicycle pedal motion. Continue to breathe naturally.
Alternate opposite elbow to opposite knee with hands interlaced behind the head
in a slow and controlled manner to muscle fatigue, with full extension of each
leg on every repetition.
Trainer's Notes:
Be sure to breathe naturally and not hold your breath at any time during this
exercise. Full extension of the legs will increase intensity, as will
performing the motion very slowly. Keep the knees bent throughout the movement
while you tap the feet to the floor (instead of extending the leg straight out)
to decrease intensity.
Goal: two sets of 20 to 30 repetitions
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational Note
Source: www.eurweb.com - Marianne Williamson
(August
05, 2008) In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there
are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."