20
Carlton Street, Suite 1032, Toronto, ON
M5B 2H5
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
LE NEWSLETTER
December 11, 2008
Are
the holidays really just two weeks away? Well we certainly have been
having 'festive' weather in Toronto.
And what would make a perfect holiday gift? Tickets
to the Soweto Gospel Choir on
December 17 and 18 at Massey Hall! Check them out - you won't be sorry!
Tons of entertainment news again so take your time and take a walk into your
weekly entertainment news!
::HOT EVENTS::
Soweto Gospel Choir Returns to Toronto For Two Performances
Only! - December 17 & 18
Source: Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
The exciting and dynamic Soweto Gospel Choir will return to Toronto for two
performances only on December 17 and
18, 2008 at Massey Hall. The performances are presented by The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.
Two-time Grammy® Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir thrilled capacity
audiences on each of their previous visits in 2005 and 2007. These return
performances will include their newest holiday offerings as well as traditional
favourites.
Expect earthy rhythms, rich harmonies, a cappella numbers as well as
accompaniment by an exciting four-piece band and percussion section. Add
energetic dancing and vibrant, colourful costumes, and the mix is awesome. The
Choir performs in six of South Africa’s 11 official languages.
The popular Choir has made its mark on the international stage performing with
such luminaries as Bono, The Eurythmics, Jimmy Cliff and many others. They have
also performed for Nelson Mandela. Often referred to as the “Voices from
Heaven”, the Choir reaches across cultural boundaries and each performance is
uplifting, exhilarating and thrilling.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17 AND THURSDAY,
DECEMBER 18, 2008
SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR
Massey Hall, South side of Shuter
Street, between Yonge & Victoria Streets
8:00 pm
Tickets: $18-$78 plus applicable service charges
Tickets can be purchased through the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office (60 Simcoe
St., Toronto), by telephone 416-872-4255, online at masseyhall.com or ticketmaster.ca.
GROUPS of 10 or more call Roy Thomson Hall 416-593-4822 ext. 225
Visit www.masseyhall.com for more details.
::TOP STORIES::
Humble Nico Archambault Is Canada's Dance King
Source: www.thestar.com - Rob Salem, TV Columnist
(December 08, 2008) It was an emotional end
to an exhausting and exhilarating nine weeks as 24-year-old Nico Archambault was named "Canada's Favourite
Dancer" on last night's much-anticipated season finale of So You Think You
Can Dance Canada.
The announcement was accompanied by an ear-splitting standing ovation and the
boom of confetti cannons, with Archambault's returning Top 20 competitors
hoisting him high above their heads – just the sort of thing you would expect
dancers to do.
Audience favourite Archambault, a contemporary dancer from Quebec, is just the
sort of guy you would expect to win – voted into the top spot by more than
three million calls from an audience of roughly half that number – followed in
more or less logical sequence by the other Final Four contenders:
Allie Bertram, the cute-as-a-button 19-year-old Calgary ballerina who embraced
everything that was thrown at her and in the process blossomed into confident
young womanhood before our very eyes.
Her fellow Calgarian, 21-year-old Miles Faber, a "B Boy" popper who
similarly embraced and excelled at every new and unfamiliar style and
technique, with an eagerness and enthusiasm – not to mention washboard abs and
a winning smile – that endeared him to all.
And finally, the 29-year-old Torontonian, the equally ab-fabulous Natalli
Reznik (see sidebar), whose fiery versatility simply scorched the dance floor
every time she stepped onto the stage.
But for weeks now it's been increasingly clear that heartthrob Archambault was
going to take home the grand prize Mercedes-Benz and $100,000 cheque.
Clear to everyone, that is, but Archambault himself.
"I honestly never thought about it," the somewhat numb Montrealer
allowed backstage right after the broadcast.
"You can never take (these things) for granted. You are in danger every
week. Every week you have to start from scratch with new styles, new
moves."
But surely the screaming teenagers were a giveaway, at least a clue.
It got to the point last night that every time his name was mentioned it was
like the second coming of Beatlemania.
"I was sort of aware of it," he bashfully allows. "But not
really. I'm half deaf; I can only hear out of one ear. I didn't really know
about it until the other guys told me."
His plans post-win are to keep learning and dancing, but nothing much more
specific.
"I'm not one for making plans," he says. "I kind of fell into
this. I tend to be directionless, just to see where life takes me."
Of course, now it will take him there in style, in a shiny new Mercedes-Benz.
And where is the first place he's going to drive it?
"To a driving school, I guess," he laughs. "I need to get my
licence. I never learned to drive."
Bills Game Was Much Hype, Little Excitement
Source: www.thestar.com - Dave Perkins
(December 08, 2008) There you have it: The
greatest regular-season NFL game in Canadian history. That's at least until
they play the second one, which surely can't be as lacking in entertainment
value as this field goal-fest.
The Miami Dolphins beat the Buffalo Bills 16-3 before 52,134 fans witnessing one of those magnificent kneel-down
finishes at the Rogers Centre. The good news is that not all the customers paid
the $575 top price for this dog. Plenty of people likely didn't pay anything,
although let's not rush into calling them the lucky ones. Sometimes you get
what you pay for.
Undoubtedly, some customers were delighted to witness this kind of overhyped
NFL greatness. Why, these two teams yesterday once went six or seven plays in a
row without a false-start penalty.
As they say about another product that can induce stupor, those who like this
stuff, like it a lot. Those who bet the Dolphins didn't mind, either. Many will
be back, because there are six more of these games – four regular-season and
two exhibition – scheduled to be played here in coming seasons as part of the
so-called "Bills in Toronto" series. The Bills surely will return,
though, without coach Dick Jauron, who might not have made it back over the
Peace Bridge with his job intact.
The Bills, missing No. 1 QB Trent Edwards, once again were so woeful on offence
that people named William should sue.
The crowd, which contained several thousand unoccupied seats at the beginning,
provided one magical moment when a singer named Kreesha Turner, doing a weak
and terribly slow version of the Canadian anthem, was loudly overtaken by the
entire stadium singing Calixa Lavallée's biggest hit at the proper tempo and
thankfully drowning her out.
It was easily one of Toronto's greatest unscripted sporting moments. Ever.
They defended our anthem very well, which is kind of ironic because there has
been about 10 months of hand-wringing about this series being the beginning of
the end of the Canadian Football League and so on. The easy answer is not this
particular game. If more are going to be like this, the two-word answer shouts
itself out: Keep it.
The U.S. anthem was sung, incident free, by one Divine Brown, who, upon closer
research, turns out to be a Toronto-based singer and therefore obviously not
the Divine Brown who was the, uh, automobile companion of actor Hugh Grant that
night he got busted in Los Angeles.
A guy had to ask because, you know, organizers were offering all kinds of
"special attractions" for the $575 ticket price, without being
specific.
The fans greeted a four-yard run by Ricky Williams early in the proceedings
with gusto and why not? It was probably the one-time Argonaut's longest run in
the building. Actually, Ricky later puffed his way to about a 20-yard TD run,
but – you'll never guess – it was called back for a holding penalty.
The game was called a sellout by promoters representing the late Ted Rogers,
who bankrolled this series to the tune of $78 million (U.S.), but it wasn't,
obviously, sold out in any real definition.
Tickets were available at both the box office and online. (You could buy up to
10 together Saturday, according to a couple of online investigators.)
This kind of blatant dishonesty – otherwise known as peeing in our ears and
telling us it is raining – is a long-term problem.
If they make it up so obviously about something insignificant, how can we trust
anything they say on any subject?
The NFL, likewise, can't be impressed by people, no matter how rich, who show
they didn't do their homework on the business of what a handful of games is
worth.
Molly Johnson's Roots Are Showing
Source: www.globeandmail.com - J.D. Considine
(December 09, 2008) Making an album of standards always involves a certain
amount of looking back. First, there are the songs themselves, which mostly
date from the 1930s and 40s; then, there's the inevitable acknowledgment of
landmark performances by great artists of the past.
But for jazz singer Molly
Johnson, there's a third element: personal history. While the
dozen pop chestnuts packed into her new album, Lucky, range from the
venerable ( Lush Life, Solitude) to the relatively recent (
What Lola Wants, Ode to Billie Joe), it would be hard to imagine
another jazz singer matching the emotional investment Johnson has placed in
each. These aren't performances so much as they are statements about who she is
as an artist and person.
Her choice of I Loves You Porgy and It Ain't Necessarily So, two
well-worn favourites from the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess,
aren't merely nods to a pivotal moment in American popular music but a direct
statement about Johnson's artistic roots.
“I dedicated the record to Ed [Mirvish],” says Johnson, sitting in a noisy
College Street coffee house a few blocks from her home in Toronto. “You know,
Ed started this thing by putting me in Porgy and Bess when I was five
years old.” Johnson and her siblings were cast as extras in the show after
Mirvish and Johnson's mother got into an argument one day on Markham Street.
“Ed was buying up Markham Street to make
an artists' colony for his wife, Ann, and the lady who babysat me when my mom
was going back to school was a painter on that street,” Johnson says. “My mom
is blond and blue-eyed, and out we come skipping, me and my brother. Ed took
one look at us brown-skinned kids and said, ‘Where did they come from?' And my
mother said what she loved to say: ‘Well, I birthed each and every one of
them.' ”
Johnson wasn't the only Toronto kid who wound up in showbiz because of a chance
encounter with Mirvish; Johnson mentions knowing actress Cynthia Dale since she
was 5 because the Dales were “the other family that Ed cast from a lot.” Nor
was there any sense of careerism in Johnson's early exposure. It was more like
a holiday for the family. “If my brother or sister's homework wasn't done, they
didn't get sent to the theatre that night. It was that simple.”
Johnson is full of such stories, so much so that trying to interview her is
less a matter of question and answer than an exercise in herding shaggy-dog
stories. “I'm a bit of a rambler,” she admits with a laugh.
Yet, for all the digression, her conversation doesn't often stray from the
Toronto she grew up in, be it the production of Hair, where she first
encountered the late Doug Riley, one of her musical mentors (“He was playing
piano in the pit band,” she recalls), to the years she spent working through
the Great American Songbook in the back room at the Cameron Public House.
“People back then said I should make [an album of standards], and I said, ‘You
know what? I'm still working on this thing,' ” Johnson says. “This is something
you grow into anyhow. This is a life thing – I recognized that singing in the
back room of the Cameron.”
Still, there were songs she loves and has sung that she felt wouldn't be right
for such an album. “I love Strange Fruit,” she says of the legendary
anti-lynching song. “But Strange Fruit is not something you pull out of
the bag and do at parties. I did it for Nelson Mandela – that's about it.'”
Even the inclusion of Solitude, a Duke Ellington song inextricably
linked to Billie Holiday, gave her pause, in part because of the “You're just
like Billie” reaction her standards performances would invariably spark.
“It was annoying to me, to the point where I just stopped singing it,” she
says, clearly riled.
“’You're just like Billie.' You know what, people? You need to get past the
colour and the fact that my hair is slicked back, and just say that I am
because of Billie. And it used to really annoy me – I mean, that whole
generation, they fought, they lost lives so I could not be like Billie.”
Chantal Petitclerc Named Lou Marsh Trophy Winner
Source: www.thestar.com
- Cathal Kelly, Sports Reporter, with files from Star archives
(December 09, 2008) Two months after blazing through Beijing,
wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc is still stuck in an Olympic fog.
“It’s been so crazy since I got home,” she said. “My life has changed. I can’t
go out and have a normal day. I feel I’m still on this adrenaline rush. I know
at some point it will wear off and I’ll be able to take a step back.”
Maybe. But probably not now.
Petitclerc capped a year of outsized achievement today by winning the Lou Marsh
Trophy as Canada’s top athlete. Named for a former Toronto Star sports editor,
the award is voted on by sports journalists from across the country. Petitclerc
is the award’s 71st recipient since 1936.
Speaking from her home in Montreal, Petitclerc, who turns 39 next week, seemed
alight with glee after her win.
“It makes the magic of Beijing live a little longer for me,” she said of the
award. “It’s a great recognition for Paralympic sport … it gives us great
respect.”
In what was seen as an open field, Petitclerc beat out several high-profile pro
athletes (basketball’s Steve Nash, baseball’s Justin Morneau) and several
Olympic colleagues (equestrian rider Eric Lamaze, triathlete Simon Whitfield
and figure skater Jeffrey Buttle).
She did it by entirely dominating her sport. In Beijing, Petitclerc won five
gold medals. She set three world records, two of them coming in races held only
90 minutes apart. Her wins in the T54 category of spinal injury ranged from the
100-metre sprint to the 1,500-metre test of wills. She retired from track
racing after the games, bringing her consecutive gold medal streak to an end at
10.
It’s hardly turned her head. She found out she’d won the Lou Marsh by email,
just as she was headed out the door to reward herself with a post-Olympic
present.
“I was on my way out to buy a new car. This was a very exciting day,
altogether,” Petitclerc laughed.
Petitclerc grew up in the Quebec village of Saint-Marc-des-Carrieres, about 75
km south of Quebec City. She was paralyzed from the hips down in a childhood
accident – a barn door she and a friend were trying to prop up for use as a
bike ramp fell and crushed her.
Unable to participate in gym class, Petitclerc took up swimming. At 18, she was
introduced to wheelchair racing. A distant last-place finish in her first race
has become a cornerstone in the Petitclerc legend.
In four years, an uncommonly strong will and a Herculean training regime had
transformed Petitclerc into an elite racer. In her first Olympics – the
Barcelona Games in 1992 – the 22-year-old Petitclerc won two bronze medals.
Maybe something of what drove her is explained by the five “heroes” she lists
on her personal website. They include Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves and
Australian runner Peter Norman, the third man on the podium during the famed
black power salute at the 1968 Olympics. What links those two men?
“Passion and conviction,” Petitclerc said. “That’s what inspires me, no matter
how they express that passion.”
Since Barcelona, both Petitclerc and the Paralympic movement have taken strides
in depth of quality and level of performance.
“I don’t mind people analyzing Paralympic performances versus Olympic
performances. I encourage it,” Petitclerc said. “A gold medal in Paralympics is
worth the same as a gold at the Olympics, because it took the same amount of
work and it was at the same level of competition to get it. I don’t think I
could have said that in ’92.”
Over a career that spanned five Olympic Games, Petitclerc won 21 medals in all,
14 of them gold.
Her athletic success, pin-up smile and ease in front of the camera made her a
celebrity in Quebec. She’s going to transition slowly into her post-athletic
life by moving to road and marathon racing for a few years.
“That’s going to allow me to see what I want to do now that (pause and a
giggle) it’s time to grow up.”
She will continue public speaking. A TV career is a possibility. She’s never
used her degree in history. Right now, she’s in no rush to decide.
After nearly two decades spent doggedly pursuing athletic success, she’s going
to take a moment to enjoy it.
Petitclerc will now add the Lou Marsh to her many other honours, including Maclean’s magazine’s Canadian of the
Year in 2004.
She joins Rick Hansen as one of two wheelchair athletes to win the Lou Marsh
Trophy. She is the 72nd recipient overall.
Rap Ode To The TTC Draws Online Fans
Source:
www.thestar.com - Tess Kalinowski, Transportation
Reporter
(December
10, 2008) It's been 22 years since the Shuffle Demons released their classic,
"Spadina Bus," and more than half a century since "The Subway
Song" celebrated the construction of the Yonge line in the 1950s.
Now there's a new ode to Toronto transit, a rap song and video called "I Get On
(The TTC)," that has attracted thousands of
hits on YouTube and social networking sites since it was posted last week by a
couple of 21-year-old performers from Scarborough.
The affectionate, lighthearted look at the city's quintessential ride on the
Rocket was written, performed and shot by Humber College student Syrus, whose real name is Rudolph
Anthony Watson.
His friend, Randal
Paul Medford, a former MuchMusic intern and graduate
of Centennial College, assisted with the video shoot, backup vocals and 10
hours of editing on the project.
Shot in late November, the video is a playful parody of American rapper Young
Jeezy's, "Put On," a song Syrus loved.
Instead of convertibles and scantily clad women, the Toronto duo's version
features scenes from Keele and Kipling stations, the 43 Kennedy bus and the TTC
stop near Syrus's home.
In one scene, Syrus spills a deck of Metropasses from his pocket. In another,
Medford is shown chasing a bus down the road after it fails to stop for him.
"I take the subway from Kennedy to Kipling on a daily basis. I've got
nothing to do basically and I'm in comedy writing so I figure I might as well
take the hour and a half and write some stuff," said Syrus, an aspiring
actor who is studying comedic performance at Humber College.
The video, which pokes fun at the TTC's downside and praises its convenience
and affordability, has caught on because so many people can relate to the
content, he said.
"Everybody has their individual experiences on (the TTC) but you've got to
love it because it's convenient and you see funny stuff all the time, which is
why I wrote about it," said Syrus, who has seen it all, from fighting
couples to people sitting and standing too close and digging in their ears.
Medford, who wants to direct, act and produce films, says he can't sit down on
the bus or subway without falling asleep. But once, standing on a packed
Dufferin bus from the Caribana parade for more than an hour, he and a friend
engaged fellow passengers in a loud debate on the difference between the sexes.
"The whole bus got into it. It was the most entertaining bus ride I've
been on in my life," he said.
The proud pair of Metropass owners knew they were onto something last Friday, a
day after Medford posted the video on his YouTube page.
That morning Syrus noted 726 hits. By the time he went to bed, "I Get
On," had attracted 4,262 viewers.
A new version of the video was posted yesterday, deleting a brief homophobic
slur that appeared in the original and was causing controversy online.
Syrus and Medford say it was meant as a joke but when they realized it was
offensive they dropped the word from the video.
TTC chair Adam Giambrone, who happened to ride the Dufferin bus with Medford on
Sunday following an awards reception, is supportive of their effort.
"This song, along with a lot of the other pop presentations of the TTC,
all confirm the fact that the TTC is important to the day-to-day lives of
people. That comes through not only in pop culture references but in ideas and
positions people articulate," he said.
::SCOOP::
Got stuff?
Source: The Urban Organizer
[Note: I’ve used Marie’s services and was very impressed with her ideas, design
skills and professionalism … so CALL her!] While
some of you may know her as Sweet Marie, host of Loungin’ Da After Party on
CKLN, Marie Mercurius is also the founder of The Urban Organizer, an organizing company specializing in small space living.
Marie’s goal is to make your living environment work better for you by using
creative solutions that suit your lifestyle and budget. The result is a home that is functional and
stylish.
With a little help from The Urban
Organizer, you too can live large in a small space.
For more information about our services or to book a free ½ hour assessment:
Call 647-341-7370 or email info@theurbanorganizer.ca
Please visit us at www.theurbanorganizer.ca.
Unspoiled
Splendour
Source:
www.canadiantraveller.net
- By Melanie Reffes
Strung like
a necklace in the southeastern Caribbean – 30 minutes as the gull flies from
Barbados – St. Vincent and the Grenadines
is a strand of 32 islands stretching across the sapphire sea. Named for the
Spanish deacon Saint Vincent of Saragossa, the patron saint of sailors, the
islands have been perennial favourites for sailors and yachties; however, savvy
travellers are catching on to the unspoiled splendour that is St. Vincent and
the Grenadines.
St.
Vincent
The heart of the archipelago is St. Vincent with its lush mountains, flowered
hillsides, black sandy shorelines created from volcanic ash and underwater life
with healthy reefs and a riotous array of marine species. With a movie-perfect
landscape, it’s no wonder Hollywood filmed the swashbuckler trilogy Pirates
of the Caribbean in Wallilabou Anchorage on the west. The cobblestone
capital of Kingstown is easy to navigate on foot although there are plenty of
taxis for hire. With cannons pointed inland, Fort Charlotte is a must-see while
centuries-old churches beckon history buffs. The Methodist Church was built by
freed slaves and the nearby St. George’s Cathedral salutes the Georgian period
with a galleried interior dating to 1880. Close to the ferry pier, the Market
hustles and bustles with tropical treasures and is busiest on Friday and
Saturday when fish, fruit and crafts are sold from stalls that spill onto the
sidewalk. Nearby, Heritage Square comes alive when the sun sets with musicians
providing a soundtrack of get-up-and-dance rhythms into the wee hours.
Without all-inclusive resorts and swimup bars, St. Vincent is all about Mother
Nature at her finest. The best black sand beaches are on the west coast at
Wallilabou, Cumberland Bay and Richmond Beach. Brighton Salt Pond is a
favourite of locals who come to take a dip and knock back a few at the beach
bars.
Founded in 1765 and the oldest in the western hemisphere, Botanical Gardens is
a green wonderland with stately teak, mahogany and breadfruit trees that were
brought from Tahiti by Captain Bligh after his mutiny on the Bounty failed.
With gentle currents and an unruffled surface, diving is best on the west and
south coasts where impressive walls give way to a luminous kaleidoscope seen no
where else on the planet. A drive up the Leeward Highway and you’ll find
cascading waterfalls, sleepy fishing hamlets and greener than green rainforests
stocked with wildlife and rare bird species. La Soufriere Volcano, at more than
1,200 metres high, is still active and popular with the hikers in the crowd
while the photographers stick close to Crater Lake. On the leeward coast, Bat
Cave is a crowd-pleasing adventure above and below the waves. For divers, the
adventure begins in a darkened cave first crossing a long tunnel and then
navigating a deep fissure in the rocks. Explorers swim down to two enormous
boulders where sponges and corals and multihued marine life await. A one-hour
hike from Richmond Beach, Trinity Falls is smack in the middle of the
rainforest with some of the best photo opportunities on the island. The three
falls – hence the name Trinity – are warmed by hot springs with strong currents
and the occasional loose boulder.
Accommodations include the Cobblestone Inn overlooking the harbour and
Beachcombers Hotel, with a seaside eatery specializing in delectable Vincy salt
cod. Perched on a hill with glorious views of the bay, Grenadine House gets
rave reviews from foodies who swoon over local-born Chef Ruben Stephens’
cuisine. At the water’s edge, Mariner Hotel’s gourmet French Verandah
Restaurant bustles until the last person leaves. A two-minute ferry ride away,
Young Island is a chic retreat with sparkling beaches, hummingbirds flitting
about the nutmeg trees, guava seed foot scrubs at the Spa Kalina and swishy
cottages including #6 where Johnny Depp stayed while filming the Pirates movies.
Scrumptious fruity bread is the star attraction and according to Chef
Christopher John, his loaves leave a lasting impression. “When our guests get
home,” he smiles, “they tell me they miss my warm slices of cinnamon toast.”
Note to bread fans: A take-home loaf is US $4.50.
The
Grenadines
Measuring 18 square kilometres, Bequia is the largest atoll in the
chain. Ferries pull into Port Elizabeth with its funky bars, restaurants and
the market the Canadian government helped to build in 1991. Gingerbread houses
shaded by almond trees and draped in bougainvillea are scattered about while
golden sandy beaches disappear into coves. Steeped in maritime history, model
boat builders like Corsini Pollard are delighted to offer tours of their
studios. “It takes me three weeks to fashion a boat from the wood of a gum
tree,” he says showing off one his delicate creations. Accommodations include
Firefly, a plantation house amid coconut and banana groves and Frangipani
Hotel, overlooking the yachts in Admiralty Bay. Not yet a year old, Bequia
Beach Hotel & Villas is adding 11 swanky suites to open in December with an
additional 35 suites to open next year. Sitting pretty on one of the island’s
best beaches in Friendship Bay, the cozy hotel is surrounded by tropical
gardens in a mélange of rainbow colours. The on property Blue Tropic Café
dishes up a cornucopia of Caribbean specialties peppered with Mediterranean
charm. Breakfast on the terrace jumpstarts another day in Paradise but for
those enjoying the privacy of their suites, room service is available until 10
a.m. and included in the rate. A unique and very private development, Moonhole
is a community of 20 free-form homes that cling to the natural curves of the
hillside. Without windows or doors, the imaginative structures have no straight
lines – some even have trees growing right in the living room.
As famous for its celebrity beachcombers as it is for its sultry sunsets, Mustique
is coveted for its lack of crowds and no traffic lights. Mick Jagger owns a
villa, so does Tommy Hilfiger and Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. Herons and
sandpipers strut in the sun and frigate birds glide overhead while the rest of
us wile the day away in a swaying hammock strung between two coconut palms or
on one of the nine white coral beaches. Cotton House impresses with a pillow
menu, sorbet on the beach and vistas of the sea from the spa. Sitting on stilts
over Brittania Bay, Basil’s Bar is lorded over by Basil Charles and his
partner, Dianne Wilson who moved from Ottawa in 2002. “Wednesday night is our
“jump-up” and if Mick is in the mood, you may hear the concert of a lifetime,”
she says. A 15-minute flight from St. Vincent, Canouan is home to the
uber-luxe Trump International Golf Club and Raffles Resort with the Amrita Spa
that welcomes travellers with a lemon and ginger salt glow and a sea crystal
body polish. The Resort is amphitheatre-style around the bay with ocean views
from each of the 156 luxury villas. Perched high on a hill overlooking the
northern Grenadines is the exclusive Villa Monte Carlo with the Trump Club
Privee that includes a European-style casino, fine dining at La Varenne and an
elegant ballroom for weddings and corporate meetings.
No airport and a tiny unnamed village, Mayreau sits on a half-moon shaped
beach and is one of the smallest inhabited Grenadine Islands. Accessible only
by boat, this tiny sliver of tranquility received electricity only a year ago.
Chocked full of Marley memorabilia, Robert Righteous’ & de Youths Seafood
Restaurant is legendary for both the sumptuous fish menu and the chilled-out
vibe.
Petit St. Vincent is a sliver of Shangri-la with 22 cottages and one
restaurant serving seafood so fresh it’s still angry. With a bamboo flag pole
as the main means of communication (yellow flag brings cocktails to the beach
and a red flag signals Do Not Disturb); the biggest decision will be a lobster
picnic on the beach or an apple-rubbed turkey dinner under the stars. Pam
Duffield markets the island to those hatching winter escape plans and says
seclusion is the big allure. “Guests immediately disconnect from the worries of
everyday, beginning from the moment they arrive when they are whisked away to
their private cottage which has no TV, phone or Internet.” Although such a
sunny paradise doesn’t come cheap with nightly rates from US $675 to US $1,020,
it’s well worth the splurge.
Union Island is a Mecca for scuba excursions; Palm Island suits
seclusion seekers, and the five islets protected by a rainbow-coloured reef are
the Tobago Cays, one of the finest snorkelling spots in the world. From
traversing nature trails and sailing the high seas to fine dining and a massage
on the beach, there is something for every vacationer in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.
More St.
Vincent &The Grenadines
For more information on St. Vincent and the Grenadies, visit the St. Vincent
Tourist Office at www.svgtourism.com.
::MUSIC NEWS::
And The Grammy
Nominations Go To ...
Source: www.thestar.com
- Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(December 04, 2008) Rap and pop-rock lead the
field of contenders for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, which will held Feb. 8.
Southern hip-hop star Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which lived up to the
single "A Milli" by selling a million copies its first week, received
eight nominations including best rap song for "Lollipop" and Album of
the Year.
That was followed by seven nods for Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All
His Friends, which is also vying for Album of the Year, along with
Radiohead's In Rainbows, Robert Plant/Alison Krauss's Raising Sand and
surprise entry Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman.
The contest for the next most coveted prize – Record of the Year – is a diverse
field with Coldplay ("Viva La Vida") and Plant/Krauss ("Please
Read the Letter") again, along with Brit vocalists Adele ("Chasing
Pavements") and Leona Lewis ("Bleeding Love") and an
out-of-the-box entry by rapper MIA ("Paper Planes"), who recently
said she was giving up music.
Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West and Ne-Yo rounded out the top-tier with six
nominations apiece.
The nominations were revealed last night in a televised prime-time concert, a
first for the Recording Academy, which usually announces nominees at a morning
press conference. The telecast is seen as a way to boost interest in the awards
show whose last offering ranked as one of the least watched Grammys with 17.2
million viewers.
Mariah Carey opened The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to
Music's Biggest Night singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
and looking like a retro snow bunny in a red minidress and white knee-high
leather boots.
The event, hosted by two-time Grammy winner LL Cool J, 40, and country newcomer
Taylor Swift, 18, featured A-List singers performing Grammy Hall of Fame
Classics before an audience of 6,000 at the Nokia Theatre in L.A.
The highlights included a seated, subdued Celine Dion singing Janis Ian's 1975
Grammy winner "At Seventeen," the Foo Fighters rocking out on Carly
Simon's 1973 No. 1 hit "You're So Vain," Christina Aguilera showing
off jazz chops with George Gershwin's gem "I Loves You Porgy" in tribute
to Nina Simone and a sizzling "Let the Good Times Roll" by axemen
B.B. King and John Mayer.
Just six of the event's 110 categories were announced during last night's
concert; not unlike how only top-tier prizes are given out on camera during the
awards show.
The full list of nominees was rolled out online afterwards and includes
Canadians Neil Young for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, Rufus Wainwright for
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Northern Cree for Best Native American Music
Album and Walter Ostanek for Best Polka Album.
The Jonas Brothers and Duffy lead the Best New Artist field against Adele, Lady
Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan. Shockingly shut out were Lewis and Katy Perry,
who was considered a shoe-in on the basis of her big hit "I Kissed a
Girl."
Best Rap Performance By A Duo or Group will be a tough call between Big Boi,
T.I., Lil Wayne, Ludacris and Young Jeezy.
Nominated for Best Country Performance, Duo or Group With Vocals are Brooks
& Dunn's "God Must Be Busy," Lady Antebellum's "Love Don't
Live Here," Rascal Flatts "Every Day," Sugarland's
"Stay" and the SteelDrivers's "Blue Side of the Mountain."
The hour-long show also celebrated the launch of the new $34 million Grammy
Museum next door.
With files from the Canadian Press
Lil
Wayne Cops Seven Grammy Noms
Source: www.eurweb.com
(December 04, 2008) *To say
Lil Wayne is having a big year is an understatement. And to underscore how big
a year he's having, Wednesday evening the diminutive rapper from New Orleans
was nominated for a whopping 8 Grammys, including album of he year for "Tha Carter
III." Rock band Cold Play was close behind, scoring seven nods.
This year the announcements of the 51st Grammy nominations were made
public within a new format. They were part of an hour-long live prime-time CBS
concert special hosted by LL Cool J and Taylor Swift.
While Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" was not regarded by critics as his
greatest CD, it was the album that made him a pop superstar, thanks to massive
hits like "Lollipop" and "A Milli," noted AP writer Sandy
Cohen. it also got a lot of attention because it was the only record this year
to sell 1 million copies in its first week.
Meanwhile, artist and songwriter/producer Ne-Yo didn't do too badly either.
When all was said and done, he wound up with six nominations for his "Year
of the Gentleman."
"When I was putting it together, I was trying to do something that
everybody could get into, as opposed to just my pop and R&B core
group," Ne-Yo said after the ceremony. "I was trying to do something
that the world could enjoy and I think that the Grammy people paid attention to
that."
Also nominated was new singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan, who has drawn
comparisons to Lauryn Hill with her hit "I Need You Bad." She scored
an impressive five nominations.
Other multiple nominees included Jay-Z and Kanye West, who had six each.
For a complete list of nominees, visit the Grammy Awards website: www.grammy.com.
Normally the nominations are announced during a morning news conference. But
because award shows in general are losing their edge, NARAS, the organization
behind the Grammys and CBS decided to put on the prime-time event.
The show kicked off with past Grammy winner Mariah Carey singing a song from
her classic Christmas album, decked out in a short red minidress to give some
holiday cheer. Held at the Nokia Theatre, the show also celebrated the Saturday
opening of the new Grammy Museum next door.
The Grammy Awards telecast itself will be held on CBS on Feb 8 from the Staples
Center in downtown Los Angeles next door to the Nokia Theater.
Source: www.globeandmail.com - James Bradshaw
(December 04, 2008) It's Pandora myth meets Degrassi High on an operatic stage, complete with swearing, sex, violence and a didactic twist.
Toronto composer Dean Burry's newest creation, Pandora's Locker, is a provocative one-act opera aimed at teenage audiences and commissioned by the Royal Conservatory of Music's Glenn Gould School.
The goal is to create great art that will resonate with young adults and a production that advances the conservatory's educational mandate by taking on topical social issues.
Tomorrow night's world premiere in the conservatory's Mazzoleni Hall will be lavish. Conductor and composer Brian Current will lead a 13-member orchestra through Burry's work, which is scored for piano, a string quartet and two turntables. The production, directed by Jennifer Parr, features elements of Greek drama and mythology such as a chorus and masques and has been cast with conservatory students of all ages. The story's characters contain elements of archetypal Greek figures from Zeus to Prometheus.
Burry, 36, has wanted to work with the Pandora myth for many years, but had to wrench it into the present. He disposed of what he saw as misogynistic elements in the story, replacing them with a tale of a woman's struggle to find her voice against the social backdrop of her high school. Conscious of the fact that it had to resonate with a teenage audience, Burry frankly addresses issues of gun violence, broken families, peer alienation and anger.
His libretto contains liberal use of expletives and he consulted a younger crowd to get a handle on slang. But he tried not to go overboard, hoping to avoid using language that would sound dated in a matter of years.
"I want it to get down, I want it to be gritty, I want it to really speak with an authentic voice. This is the way kids talk to each other in the hallways," said David Visentin, associate dean of the Glenn Gould School, who had been discussing the commission with Burry since 2006.
To get the point across to potential audiences, the conservatory enlisted the University of Toronto's department of social work to help write a suitable disclaimer to attach to the piece. "It's about finding solutions to contemporary problems using art," Visentin said. "Pandora is about dealing with that which blocks potential: anger, violence, this type of thing."
Burry, who teaches at the conservatory and has carved out a niche composing for younger audiences, said the educational element is crucial but secondary. "The ultimate goal here is to create a viable, integral, exciting work of art that appeals to younger audiences," he said.
That also meant exploring the musical tastes of a new generation. "A lot of the rhythm and cadence that you find in rap is used directly in the opera," Burry said, admitting he was no expert in the genre.
To enhance the rhythmic feel, he incorporated a turntable scratch artist, a delicate task which Burry has managed brilliantly, according to Visentin.
"I didn't want it to be, 'Let's tack on the scratch guy so it looks hip.' He's become an integral part of the orchestration," Visentin said.
As Burry points out, some phrases were directly inspired by the sounds and rhythms of the DJ scratch: "Pandora-dora-dora, whatcha gonna say, whatcha gonne be, whatcha gonna do?"
Visentin worked hard to fund the new opera, especially when original cost estimates ballooned to between $25,000 and $30,000. He had to "beat bushes" to find new sources of funding, no small task given that the conservatory was in the midst of a major renovation of its Bloor Street home in Toronto, driven by a $110-million fundraising campaign.
But Visentin found the funds and hopes to commission more projects in the future. It is the conservatory's first operatic commission on this scale, but a model exists in a similarly themed touring production of The Brothers Grimm Burry composed for the Canadian Opera Company from 1998 to 2001.
About 50,000 schoolchildren have seen that production, which is believed to be the most viewed Canadian opera in history. Pandora's Locker could have a similar run, having been designed to pack easily into the back of a van and mount virtually anywhere there is a piano.
Q-Tip Still A One-Man Tribe
Source: www.thestar.com - Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(December 04, 2008) It's taken nine years for
Q-Tip to produce a follow-up to his solo debut Amplified, which
yielded hits "Breathe and Stop" and "Vivrant Thing," but
the Brooklyn native hasn't lost form: with his abstract rhymes and hypnotic
pinched flow, The Renaissance, released last month, is winning acclaim
as one of the year's top hip-hop albums.
The disc, which features jazz musicians like pianist Marc Cary and guitarist
Kurt Rosenwinkel, alongside R&B singers Raphael Saadiq and D'Angelo, as
well as beats from deceased hip-hop producer J. Dilla, builds on the MC's
reputation for creating a unique style out of a fusion of the traditional and
contemporary.
He came to the fore with Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad in the trio A
Tribe Called Quest, which disbanded in 1998 after a decade of notable tunes
such as "Bonita Applebum," "Can I Kick It?" and "I
Left My Wallet in El Segundo."
These days Q-Tip, 38, a self-taught musician who plays drums, bass and
keyboards on his new record, is touring with a five-piece band that includes DJ
Scratch from EMPD.
The Star spoke with the rapper by phone in advance of tomorrow's show at
the Phoenix, which he said will showcase solo material and A Tribe Called Quest
gems.
Q: Why did you choose this name for the album?
A: I wanted to indicate a re-energizing feeling, of harmony, of melody,
of earnestness, or just goodness. I felt like there was a void, so the title
spoke to having a hopeful renaissance.
Q: Record label politics have been cited for the long stretch between your
solo albums. Was there any interference from your label about the direction of
your music this time around?
A: No. They tried and they kind of held me up for a little bit, because
(Universal Motown boss) Sylvia Rhone was trying to give me advice on something,
but not really knowing much about it.
Q: Why did you ask Norah Jones to provide vocals for hip-hop ode "Life
is Better?"
A: I just love her tone. I love her instrument. She has an amazing
voice. She's one of the most popular artists in the world, but in the hip-hop
setting certainly not as much. People would probably think it better served to
get someone like a Mary J. Blige, or Alicia Keys, or Rihanna, or someone like
that, but I just thought Norah was uniquely herself.
Q: What determined which songs you played on the album?
A: Sometimes the feeling was there, sometimes certain people can better
get certain things out of an instrument, which makes the idiom of music so
vast. You can get Herbie Hancock to sit at a piano and you get Paul McCartney to
sit at a piano and they can play the same song, and you'll get two totally
different things. The same thing holds true for me. It's about the colour
you're trying to access.
Q: Do you think there will ever be another Tribe album?
A: No.
Q: Why so definitive?
A: Because Tribe is done. The last album we did was 10 years ago.
Q: But you guys still tour occasionally.
A: Because we enjoy that aspect of it. But to go in and try to create
something ... I think we're pretty far gone from that.
Q: Why does the album version of "Shaka" not include excerpts of
Barack Obama speaking as I understand earlier versions did?
A: Because Universal Motown is scared and they think that the president
of the United States is gonna sue them. That's record company people for you.
Go figure.
Just the facts
WHO: Q-Tip, with Cool Kids and The Knux
WHERE: Phoenix Concert Theatre, 410 Sherbourne St.
WHEN: Friday, 10 p.m.
TICKETS: $24.50 at Ticketmaster
Kradjian Shines From The Shadows
Source: www.thestar.com
- John Terauds, Classical Music Critic
(December 06, 2008) Some people prefer
working alone in the spotlight. Others draw strength and inspiration from
collaborations.
Toronto pianist Serouj Kradjian belongs in the second category, which may be why not many of us are yet
aware of the substantial talent living and working in our midst.
His biggest claim-to-fame right now is accompanying and arranging music for his
wife, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. Their latest collaboration, a disc of songs
by Armenian composer Gomidas, which Kradjian arranged for chamber orchestra,
earned Bayrakdarian a Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Performance on Wednesday
night.
As of this season, the pianist has also become a member of the Amici Chamber
Ensemble, as well as writing new music for them. This high-powered chamber
group includes Toronto Symphony principal clarinet Joaquin Valdepeñas and
assistant principal cello David Hetherington.
What you won't find Kradjian doing, at least in this part of the world, is
playing solo piano.
The roots of his unprepossessing need to share comes from an early childhood in
civil war-ravaged Beirut. Kradjian, now in his mid-30s, is the oldest of four
boys, born of Armenian ex-pats living in Lebanon – by many accounts, an idyllic
place to live before it was torn apart by civil war starting in the mid-1970s.
Kradjian's parents weren't going to let anything get in the way of their son's
musical education. "When my father decided to bring in a piano in the
middle of the war, everybody thought he's crazy, because that was the last
thing people were thinking about," Kradjian relates of a fateful day when
he was 5 years old.
The piano was carried up to the family's fourth-floor apartment in downtown
Beirut, "where it became a source of love, if I can describe it in one
word," Kradjian continues.
The building's residents would cower in basement bunkers during periods of
heavy shelling. "When there was a break in the bombardments, my father would
take me up to the fourth floor so that I could practise a bit," the
pianist recalls.
"My parents used to sit beside me when I practised – they were vocal
critics sometimes, appreciative sometimes – but it really became something
which made us forget for a while the situation outside.
"That's my memory of what this instrument could do."
Even though a piano is not portable, Kradjian's father had chosen it because
there were a lot of piano teachers around, he says.
By the 1980s, the Kradjians, like so many other Lebanese, had given up on peace
returning to their ruined country. They were also afraid that their sons would
eventually be called for military service, so they emigrated to Toronto.
Kradjian graduated with a degree in piano performance from the University of
Toronto in 1994, then went to the world-renowned Hochschule für Musik und
Theater in Hanover, Germany, to study with a favourite pianist, Einar
Steen-Nokleberg. "His claim to fame is the complete Grieg works for piano
for the Naxos label," Kradjian says. "It's wonderful. For me, it's the
recording of those pieces."
Kradjian hadn't made a final commitment to a piano career until he went to
Germany. There, the school emphasized practical work over theory. It is also
where he discovered the joys of collaborating with other musicians instead of
spending solitary hours every day practising solo material. "Looking
around, all I saw was participating in competitions. For most of my friends,
not only pianists, it was the thing to do," says Kradjian.
"So I made a conscious decision. It was not that I didn't like
competitions, but I found them too limiting and too lonely, both on the stage
and off the stage. I wanted to explore every type of music making."
After graduating from Hanover, Kradjian took a teaching post at the
conservatory in Madrid, and made his first solo recordings with Warner Music
Spain. He is still officially on the faculty, but only goes for master classes.
"Toronto is my main home base now," says Kradjian. He and
Bayrakdarian have a son, Ari, who turned 1 yesterday. Home is an important
place to be right now.
Kradjian says the first chamber music concert he ever attended was given by
Amici. Patricia Parr, the ensemble's pianist for two decades, was his
chamber-music teacher at U of T. So he feels honoured to be able to pick up
where Parr left off after retiring at the end of the 2005-06 season.
Kradjian's professional ideal is French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, known
worldwide as a superb accompanist and chamber-music collaborator – as well as a
top solo performer.
Tomorrow afternoon, Amici is getting together at the Glenn Gould Studio to will
play a new composition by Kradjian, as well as Olivier Messiaen's Quartet
for the End of Time, in honour of what would have been the French
composer's 100th birthday on Dec. 10. (For ticket info, go to
glenngouldstudio.cbc.ca/concerts/current/dec.html)
That masterpiece was written and first performed in a prisoner-of-war camp
during World War II.
It's fair to say that Kradjian may have been better prepared than most to
tackle the intense emotions and spiritual reflections behind this music born in
conflict.
Arranging his way toward Grammy glory
Late last summer, Isabel Bayrakdarian, left, released an album of songs by Armenian
composer Gomidas, recorded by the Armenian Chamber Orchestra (a program the
couple presented live in October at Roy Thomson Hall with the Manitoba Chamber
Orchestra).
Bayrakdarian earned a Grammy nomination on Wednesday for her vocal performance
on that album.
All of the orchestral arrangements were by Serouj Kradjian, who came up with
the light-as-air textures through trial and error: "Doing it, listening to
it, learning from my mistakes – learning what I don't like, what I like,"
he says.
Kradjian calls Gomidas's piano originals "almost minimalist. There are few
notes on the page." So he wanted to be careful not to change the music's
character. The pianist says it's important to capture the "meaning of the
music, to give a why you're orchestrating it.
"There was a temptation to go bigger – symphony orchestra," instead
of chamber, he admits. "I started out, for some songs, to do a bigger
orchestra, but it did not convince me at all because it completely changed the
character."
Gomidas has been rearranged "many times," for string quartet for
example, but Kradjian says these versions are not true to Gomidas's
compositional spirit.
Kradjian says he works away from the piano most of the time when arranging or
composing, because he can hear the orchestra in his head. It gives pianists
more depth at the keyboard. "I believe it really contributes to their
imagination of sound and what they want to bring out from a particular piano
piece."
Joyous Homecoming For Singer In Ethiopia
Source: www.thestar.com - John Goddard, Staff Reporter
(December 9, 2008) ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA–Toronto singer Kemer Yousef
pranced and swirled through a sensational first homecoming performance at the
capital city's Millennium Hall last night before upward of 20,000 celebrating a
national unity holiday.
"Hello, hello, hello, hello," he growled mischievously to begin his
hit song "Hello."
Some fans sat on other's shoulders and waved banners boasting
"Oromiya," the pop star's birth region, while others sported colours
and flags representing the country's more than 70 ethnic groups. They were
celebrating Nations and Nationalities Day, an event that spills over today into
a parade of tribal peoples through the city centre.
The concert also coincided with Eid-al-Adeha, marking the end of the pilgrimage
to Mecca, an important holiday for the large Muslim population in this
otherwise Christian Orthodox country.
"I'm overwhelmed," the star said earlier in the day, his eyes tearing
slightly, after a man rushed to his car window and offered him his white prayer
cap.
"I have nothing to give you but this hat," the man said as others
quickly gathered around. "I am your biggest fan. I don't even understand
your language, but I am learning it to know your lyrics."
As concert headliner, Kemer (Yousef is his father's name) solidified his status
as a symbol of unity and reconciliation for this East African country.
Now 45, he fled Ethiopia on foot to Somalia 24 years ago to escape the
murderous Derg, the communist military dictatorship of Col. Mengistu Haile
Mariam.
Three years later in Toronto he began a singing career, eventually establishing
himself in expatriate communities throughout North America, Europe and
Australia as one of the top singers among his ethnic Oromo people.
Then came his astonishing breakthrough. His seven-track music DVD Nabek,
released in Ethiopia last year and featuring Toronto as a luxury backdrop,
seemed to cross all ethnic lines.
Former persecutors of the long-exploited Oromo embraced such pop hits as
"Hello," "Oromia" and especially "Nunawe."
Whatever the explanation, Kemer rose to No. 1 pop star in almost every region
and his arrival here two weeks ago only increased the frenzy.
Smiling police officers yesterday ushered him through otherwise closed downtown
thoroughfares. Passersby bowed and reached to shake his hand.
"Kemer is more than a singer," Oromia state President Abbaaduulaa
said in an interview. "He is part of our history, part of our struggle....
He is one of Ethiopia's most unifying musicians."
Paradoxically, such popularity poses career risks for the star.
Until last year, Kemer's fan base had been Oromo exiles, including members of
the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front. While many Oromo people have turned toward
federalism in recent years, a separatist movement continues and many exiles
hang on to old resentments.
"I want to concentrate on cultural things," Kemer said in an
interview. "Once you get into politics some people love you and some
people hate you. Now, even if people don't love me they don't hate me."
Kemer's homecoming, which continues with concerts in other parts of the country
in coming weeks, also coincides with the criminal conviction last week of
long-time pop star Teddy Afro, a U.S. resident known for politically
controversial double entendres.
The court handed him a six-year sentence for killing a homeless person in a car
accident and leaving the scene, although the charge was brought two years after
the alleged incident and the death certificate was found to be falsified.
"All of his supporters, and there are a lot, believe that the government
wants to shut his mouth," French musicologist Francis Falceto, producer of
the popular Ethiopiques CD series, said in an interview Friday.
Source: Elkin Hoyos, ThinkTank Marketing, elkin@thinktankmktg.com; Tresa Sanders, Interscope Geffen A&M, tresa.sanders@umusic.com
(December 10, 2008) *Hugely successful Grammy nominated R&B singer and songwriter KEYSHIA COLE is set to close out 2008 with a bang.
Three (3) songs from her second album reached number one (#1) status -- "Let It Go" (w/Missy Elliott and Lil Kim), "I Remember" and "Heaven Sent."
Her reality show "The Way It Is" became the most-watched program in BET's history, and with season three having started yesterday, November 11th, Keyshia Cole is sure to make history again.
Keyshia's third album, A Different Me - Executive Produced by Keyshia, Manager Manny Halley and Geffen Records Chairman Ron Fair is set for release on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.
Click HERE to instantly HEAR Keyshia Cole's new single, "You Complete Me."
Keyshia Cole is the definitive soul singer to emerge in this decade, and she is in good company. Over the past seven decades, precious few R & B females have touched the hearts of America. From Billie Holiday to Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, Whitney Houston, and Mary J. Blige - Keyshia possesses the same innate quality of telling the truth through song like her predecessors. Her pain becomes your pain, her joy, your joy.
All of the songs for A Different Me were written or co-written by Keyshia with production from award-winning producers such as Ron Fair, Polow Da Don, the Trackmasters, The Runners, Kwame and Neffu. Guest appearances include Kanye West, Nas, a duet with Monica, and a posthumous appearance from Tupac.
Keyshia was nominated for two Grammy awards in 2007 for "Best Contemporary R&B Album" for "Just Like You" and "Best Rap-Sung Collaboration" for "Let it Go" (w/Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim). She has also received awards and or nominations from the American Music Awards, Music Choice Awards, NAACP Awards, BET Awards, Vibe Awards, and ASCAP Awards.
Born in 1981 in Oakland, California, Keyshia didn't have it easy. The Cole's adopted her after her mother Frankie, an addict at the time, could no longer take care of her. Twenty plus years later, she is still trying to put all of the pieces of the puzzle we call life together - discovering long lost siblings, mending the relationship with her mother who was recently released from jail and supporting her sister, Neffe, and her four children.
The road to riches wasn't easy for Keyshia and still isn't. Besides the release of a new album, new season of her BET reality show, touring and personal appearances, Keyshia is gearing up for the production of a movie based on her life. Be sure to catch her on BET every Tuesday night at 10PM.
Source: www.eurweb.com
(December 10, 2008) *Jamie Foxx says his upcoming album "Intuition," due Dec. 16 via J, was crafted as a departure from his chart-topping, double-platinum 2005 release "Unpredictable." "'Unpredictable' was more, like, slow, bedroom things, which was great but when I went on the road we had all these ballads, so sometimes I had to work a little harder to keep people's attention," the singer tells Billboard.com. "With ('Intuition'), we've got all these legitimate club, international hits and the tempo is up. People hear this record and go absolutely nuts for it."
Guests and producers on the project include T.I. (on the first single, "Just Like Me"), Kanye West, the-Dream and Tricky Stewart, Ne-Yo, Fabolous, Timbaland and Floetry's Marsha Ambrosius.
"Number One," with Lil Wayne, is currently being "floated" into the clubs, while "Blame It," with T-Pain, is slated to be worked in mid-January.
"I think people are slowly wanting to work with me more as far as music is concerned," notes Foxx, who studied piano on a scholarship to United States International University. "I do run into a lot of roadblocks. I've been trying to break down those sort of preconceived thoughts that this is just a hobby to me or ... 'He's already got enough.' People want to work with you, but sometimes they don't take it seriously until they hear the records and see the direction I'm going with. I think it'll be even easier to get people to feature with me for the next record."
Foxx says he will promote "Intuition" with a spring tour, after he finishes a 10-week shoot for "Law Abiding Citizen," a drama with Jerry Butler. His next film, "The Soloist" -- the true-life story of homeless cello virtuoso Nathaniel Ayers -- is due in theaters this March.
"I just see something really high-energy," Foxx says of the shows. "I see myself probably with Ne-Yo, out on the road, a little different demographic than what 'Unpredictable' was. A high-energy, great show -- just hit 'em and quit 'em."
Metric On The Road Again
Source:
www.globeandmail.com - Guy Dixon
(December
10, 2008) A few steps up from Queen West on Ossington Avenue sits a tiny
vintage clothing shop, ground zero for alt-altitude in Toronto. It's also near
the studio where indie champions Metric have been finishing their
much-anticipated, long-awaited new album. But the exact location of the studio
is well concealed.
Inquire inside the shop and you're directed, with barely a flick of a finger,
to an adjacent doorway, as in “God, you must be soooo out of it not to know
where to go.”
As it turns out, the sequestered backroom studio, built by Metric guitarist
James Shaw and Sebastien Grainger, formerly of the band Death From Above 1979,
could well become a must-know spot for indie musicians. With its stacks of old
equalizers and pre-amps, dusty organs lining the wall and an utterly giant
mid-eighties mixing board, it's where Shaw and Metric's
singer-songwriter-keyboardist, Emily Haines, have been completing the new
album, finally due to be released in late winter-early spring.
Currently the band, perpetually on tour, is heading out again across Canada,
beginning tomorrow in Toronto, with the Dears and other acts, in support of
Covenant House and other charities aiding children. But earlier, while still
completing the album, Shaw and Haines could be found on the studio couch,
talking about the very long recording process.
“I always used to romanticize walking in, and it'd be like ‘Oh, it's so
brilliant,' and then you'd walk away,” Haines said. What she means is the exact
opposite: It's rarely so easy.
The band's last studio album, Live It Out, in 2005, tried for that sense
of upfront immediacy. Compared with the layered sound of Broken Social Scene –
the sprawling Toronto rock collective that Haines and Shaw have also worked
with – Metric gravitates toward a stripped-down garage sound.
But after only a few minutes with Shaw and Haines behind the stacks of
pre-amps, it's clear that the two, particularly Shaw, enjoy the endless studio
tinkering, the creative grind over stardom for stardom's sake.
For Haines, recording this album and feeling secure about the band is “total
redemption for all the years of wondering why we weren't in a conventional
[record] deal,” she said.
Added Shaw, “In retrospect, when I look back at people who did take those
[deals], I'm not like that. I prefer to do things our own interesting way.”
This has meant a circuitous path. They have had to move their base of
operations over the past decade from Toronto to Montreal, New York, London, Los
Angeles and back to Toronto, if not entirely by choice. The new album is
self-financed, but will be released in Canada through Last Gang Records.
“In this band, there has always been the question, should we have gotten a big,
major-label record deal in the nineties when we were in New York? Or people say
to us, ‘You guys should be bigger and it all should have happened faster,' ”
Haines said. But, she added, this is “who we are and that's the life I want.
You're constantly revising. In our case, it's always been steady, small steps.”
For the new album, the sessions were sporadic. An early session took place at
Bear Creek Studios, a recording space in a converted farmhouse north of
Seattle, where the band captured the first batch of songs with a woodsier, more
mellow feel than Metric's usual sound.
Then last summer, Metric continued with a writing session in Toronto
incorporating electronic, dancier elements. Recently, Haines, a compulsive
traveller, went to Argentina in a kind of self-imposed alienation to write.
Adding to this peripatetic method is the fact that bassist Josh Winstead lives
in New York and drummer Joules Scott-Key lives in Oakland.
The album isn't trying for reinvention, but refinement. “It has more depth. But
in terms of the material, we've experimented with losing a little bit of the
trickiness. I think the last record was more prog than this one. This is more
pop. We just went for the idea that simple is good,” Shaw said.
Asked whether Metric inevitably has a discernible Toronto sound, Haines
immediately sat up and challenged the idea. For her, Metric's music is simply
autobiographical. She has a hard time hearing similarities with other bands.
“When you write a record, you're writing a script for your life, particularly
for a band like Metric which tours so much,” she said. “Any band can tell you
that if you've toured for three years straight, certain aspects of your ability
and part of what brought you into music to begin with starts to recede behind
the repetition and boredom of touring.
“I know, at least for me, I was not interested in taking a photograph of myself
in that place. It was really about using this record as a way to go further …
and basically to make sure I'm totally uncomfortable,” she added with a laugh.
Metric plays Toronto on Dec. 12 and 13; Winnipeg, Dec. 15; Saskatoon, Dec.
16; Edmonton, Dec. 17; Calgary, Dec. 18 and 19; and Vancouver, Dec. 21, 22 and
23.
Math Teacher Keeping His Country In The City
Source: www.thestar.com - Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(December 04, 2008) Like most of his
songwriter heroes, Cape Breton-raised troubadour Michael Brennan doesn't have much to say about himself. Humble and self-effacing,
perhaps to a fault, he's happy to let his rugged, bighearted songs do his
talking. He figures if people listen, the songs will take him where he needs to
go.
That's one reason he has been able to hold down Sunday afternoons at
Graffiti's, the honky-tonk boite in Kensington Market that is home to Toronto's
most earnest and least affected country, folk and blues artists, for nine solid
years.
"The audience there waxes and wanes," Brennan said earlier this week,
"but it's casual and cozy, and they let me do what I want to do."
But partly as the result of critical praise for his just-released second solo
album, Anywhere But Here, Brennan, a part-time math teacher and
full-time dad, is starting to make a name for himself outside his traditional
home turf ... as far north as College St. He's the featured artist tomorrow
night at Free Times Café's recently inaugurated Blue Fridays showcase of
"big names in a small room, offering an intimate personal
experience," in the words of curator and booker Brian Gladstone.
"Blue Fridays is for artists who need no introduction ... mostly blues
acts, because sadly there are fewer and fewer places to hear the blues in
Toronto," Gladstone said. "On Wednesday nights we bring in folk
artists and songwriters of all kinds.
"The idea was to create a place for roots musicians and songwriters to
hang out with friends, the way I used to hang out at Norm's Living Room (hosted
by Toronto songwriter, the late Norm Hacking) at the Tranzac Club.
"Norm's gone and I miss him, and there are no rooms I know that provide that
kind of informal pass-the-guitar environment."
For Brennan, who'll be accompanied tomorrow night by Steve Briggs, primo guitar
slinger and co-founder of the country swing band The Bebop Cowboys, the gig is
a chance to get in front of a crowd that's not so familiar with his muscular
performing style, deep and intense baritone, and the raw-edged songs of
displacement, misplaced hope and heartbreak that are the core of Anywhere
But Here.
"I'd like to be playing more often," Brennan said. "Because of
my job and family, I can't really get out and tour, though I'm hoping to get
some festival bookings in the summer."
Brennan's new songs retell the quintessential Canadian story – about the
journey from the desperate edges of the landscape to the gleaming urban heart,
and the dreams and spirits that are broken there – with all the passion and
power that his true Maritimer's heart can muster. These are pure country songs,
delivered with an emotional candour that makes the detached irony of many
contemporary composers sound phoney and contrived.
"I don't have an agenda," Brennan said. "I write when the urge
strikes me. I write about the dichotomy of life in Cape Breton, where I tour
every summer, and Toronto. This past year death touched my family in the East,
so that got me thinking about mortality and distance. If people are looking for
a theme, that just about sums it up."
Just the facts
WHO: Michael Brennan with Steve Briggs
WHEN: Friday, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Free Times Café, 320 College St.
TICKETS: $10 at the door
M.I.A. Finds Herself A Star
Source: www.thestar.com
- Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Associated Press
(December 07, 2008) NEW YORK–Though M.I.A. has been hailed by critics since she made
her debut in 2005, her fiery lyrics, which speak against corrupt political
systems and talk of revolution and violence, have always ensured her a place
far outside of music's mainstream – until recently.
Her song "Paper Planes," an incendiary song about the frustrations of
immigrants, became a hit after its use in the summer stoner comedy Pineapple
Express, and now, M.I.A. has gone from underground artist to commercial
success. Her ranking on music's ``It" list shot up last week when the
Recording Academy nominated "Paper Planes" for record of the year.
But in a recent interview, the British-born, Sri Lankan-reared rapper conceded
that it has taken time to get used to her new position in pop.
"I came out on some sort of political edge, and I was inspired by the
politics that were going on at the time," says M.I.A., who's expecting her
first child in February.
"I never thought it would get accepted and I was gonna be like,
commercially accepted, or accepted by the masses, because that was the point –
people who thought like me were outsiders."
M.I.A., whose music is an eclectic mix of raps, world beats and whirring
sonics, first arrived on the scene with Arular. The CD was as much a
political statement as a musical one, as she referenced Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tigers, separatists who have been battling the Sinhalese-controlled governments
to create a homeland for ethnic minority Tamils. M.I.A.'s father was part of
the group.
Partly because of those ties, she was denied a long-term work visa to enter the
United States for a time, receiving one in 2007, when she also released Kala.
That CD was even more influenced by world affairs after she travelled to places
like India and Africa to record it. "Paper Planes," which is featured
in the acclaimed movie Slumdog Millionaire, has a dreamy world beat but
its lyrics have a darker tone.
"People could say, 'Oh my God, this song is so violent,' but at the same
time, there was a war in Iraq. I felt like certain people made so much money
from selling ammunition and military weapons and stuff, and killed a million
people, and it wasn't even an issue that was raised," says M.I.A., who
splits her time between her New York apartment and Los Angeles.
"For a song like that be listed in the top 10, it made me really
happy," she adds.
Although she gained worldwide attention for her song, she says she doesn't
consider herself a commercial artist. She credits her success to people
becoming more open and accepting to alternative views – and music: "The
world is becoming more conscious."
And she says fans don't have to worry about her softening her style. But she
allows impending motherhood may provide her with new material, and perhaps a
new outlook on life.
"I always kind of made music from quite an angry place and I always
thought it was more macho," she says. "(But) I don't want to be
(tough) like a dude. I wanna be a good woman."
|
::FILM NEWS::
When Deepa Met Salman
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Gayle Macdonald
(December 05, 2008) Deepa Mehta first met Salman Rushdie three years ago when friends of hers invited the author to an advance
screening in New York of her film Water, the film that went on to an
Oscar nomination.
The avid reader (Mehta) and the exuberant cinephile (Rushdie) immediately hit
it off, and over subsequent months, the two became fast friends – e-mailing
often, and grabbing meals or drinks together whenever they were in the same
city.
Earlier this year over yet another (this time, home-cooked) meal at Mehta's
Toronto home, the friendship blossomed into a professional collaboration, with
the director and her producing (and life) partner David Hamilton acquiring the
film rights to Rushdie's 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel, Midnight's
Children.
And so, starting in mid-March, the pair plan to hole up in Rushdie's current
hometown of New York for a month, where they'll hammer out a screenplay of the
multilayered novel. Given that the book has often been called “unfilmable” –
its 650 pages are a fantastical allegory that span three decades, innumerable
voices and historic events – Mehta readily admits the big screen adaptation
will have its challenges.
But , reached by phone at her mother's home in Delhi, Mehta says she believes
they can pull it off. “Both Salman and myself feel one of the reasons that
makes Midnight's Children ‘filmable' is because the book is
multilayered! Think Tristram Shandy!” (The 2006 Michael Winterbottom
film-within-a-film – adapted from the classic 18th-century novel – that went on
to be nominated for numerous British film prizes.)
“We speak the same language. … We understand each other,” adds Mehta, who was
originally booked to fly to India on the same day terrorists attacked multiple
locations in Mumbai, but postponed the trip for three days after her mother
pleaded with her to stay put.
“He grew up in Bombay. I grew up in Toronto. He's in New York and I'm in
Toronto. Our sensibilities are very similar. We can talk in shorthand and we
know the language of India.”
Midnight's Children, a historical novel of modern India, is one of
Mehta's favourite novels. It is a complex allegory combining three main tales:
the turbulent history of 20th-century India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the saga
of a Muslim family; and the story of one man, Saleem Sinai, (pronounced
SEE-nigh) whose telepathic powers allow him to communicate with other children
born at the stroke of midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, the date of India's
independence from Britain.
It is a highly imaginative, sweeping tale in which Rushdie places Saleem at the
site of every significant event that occurred on the Indian subcontinent in the
three decades after independence.
In recent weeks, Mehta has already begun plotting the structure of the
screenplay in her head. After they hammer out the draft in April, she will then
shift her focus to her next $20-million-plus film, Exclusion – about the
Komagata Maru incident in which more than 300 Indian nationals were refused
entry into Canada – which is slated to begin shooting in Vancouver this
September. And she is still involved with her last film, Heaven on Earth:
This week, she will be heading to the Dubai Film Festival where the movie is in
competition with her brother Dilip's documentary, The Forgotten Woman.
Midnight's Children will get under way in 2010, mostly likely filming in
Sri Lanka or India, or both.
“Salman is very easy to work with,” says Mehta, of the man whose fourth novel, The
Satanic Verses (1988) earned him death threats from Muslims in countless
countries as well as a fatwa (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran. As a result of the latter,
Rushdie spent nearly a decade underground, appearing in public only
sporadically to criticize the fatwa as a threat to freedom of expression.
“He is somebody who is so brilliant and decorated, and he has a wonderful sense
of humour. He's not at all precious, and he's a very hard-working and generous
man. Both of us feel it's so much easier to be good friends working together as
opposed to two people who don't know each other.
“What Salman wants from me is to actually do a treatment,” further explains
Mehta. “What I want from him are the details and his sense of dialogue. He is
an amazing writer and talker. I will provide the structure, the skeleton [of
the screenplay], and he will provide the meat – or the skin and bones.
“I've started a skeleton thing as images come to my mind, and I feel I know how
to start the film, and how to condense the characters.” The first week of
co-writing, Mehta adds, she and Rushdie will walk through the treatment. Then
they will each go away and communicate by e-mail. The fourth week, they will do
the draft together.
Like Mehta, Hamilton readily concedes the interwoven material in the book will
“stretch our ability to create … in a way that visually expresses the richness
that is in Salman's voice, a lot of it which is almost his stream of
consciousness.
“But they're confident they can do this together. Salman says it won't take too
long because he's written it three times now,” says Hamilton with a chuckle.
The triple effort that he's referring to? Rushdie wrote a BBC television
adaptation of his own novel in five episodes, which was about to begin filming
in Sri Lanka when the government abruptly withdrew its permission. The project
was abandoned. He then took that pared-down television script and co-wrote a
theatrical version which appeared – to mixed reviews – in January, 2003, at
London's Barbican Theatre, where it had a five-week season. It has since toured.
Mehta believes this is a book that was meant to be filmed. “I've always loved
this book – on one hand it's very particular. On the other, it's extremely
universal at the same time. It never talks down to anybody. It just holds you
and takes you on a journey with this young man who has the conceit to think
he's linked to the history of India – with humour and such an incredible sense
of imagination. It's historical as well as personal, and I love that
combination. One informs the other.
“With dark humour, Salman challenges many things that we take for granted
politically. I see this as a political book. But then I think everything is
political these days.”
When Mehta arrived in Delhi late Saturday night, the airport was still on high
alert and grenades were being lobbed at the Taj in Mumbai. She says she watched
the news until 5 in the morning, trying to make sense of the violence that
killed 195.
“There has been lots of bomb blasts and terrorist attacks in India in the last
few years, but they've been nothing like this,” she says. “This was so blatant.
So co-ordinated. It's a very particular kind of terrorism that makes everyone
feel vulnerable. But the people's feelings of vulnerability turned to anger
very fast.
“The public was very voluble about the politicians letting them down. The
accountability factor has become huge. And as an Indian and a Canadian I'm
really proud [of this reaction],” adds Mehta, referring specifically to the
resignation last Sunday of India home minister Shivraj Patil, the first
high-profile casualty of the terrorist attacks. “It's people saying, hold on,
we don't have to take this.
“Wanting – and demanding – answers is a very good thing,” the auteur filmmaker
says. “Politicians – everywhere in the world, including at home in Canada – are
feeling vulnerable right now, which is great. As they should.”
Christmas DVD Shopping Guide
Source: www.globeandmail.com - Warren Clements
(December 04, 2008) Must be a
holiday coming. The DVD shelves are full of outlandish boxes packed with all
manner of gewgaws, all the better to make you buy a favourite film for the
second or third time.
If the romantic on your list has a soft spot for Casablanca, for example
— and who doesn't? — Casablanca Ultimate Collector's Edition supplements
a previous special edition of the 1942 classic with a passport holder, a
48-page photo book and a documentary about studio boss Jack Warner. If the
conspiracy theorist on your list loves Oliver Stone's JFK, JFK:
Ultimate Collector's Edition yokes a recent special edition to a new
documentary on the Kennedy dynasty and facsimiles of John F. Kennedy's letters
and inauguration address.
Of course, the biggest question this season is whether to give regular DVDs or
Blu-ray discs, now that Blu-ray has defeated HD-DVD as the reigning
high-definition format. Blu-ray players will play regular DVDs as well as
Blu-ray discs, but regular DVD players won't play Blu-ray discs. So there will
be tough choices. The regular-DVD "ultimate collector's edition" of A
Christmas Story comes in a metal box with an apron, a recipe book and five
cookie cutters, one in the shape of the lamp resembling a shapely female leg.
The Blu-ray edition comes in a metal box with Christmas-tree lights shaped
like, yes, leg lamps. Nobody said giving presents was easy.
Here are 10 tips, divided by category.
Beyond their sharper picture and sound, Blu-ray discs hold a great deal more
information, so optional picture-in-picture commentaries are increasingly
common. With Pan's Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro appears in a
corner of the screen to show off his sketches and discuss the film. The Blu-ray
disc of del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army is even more adventurous,
with three picture-in-picture options: a director's notebook, a tour of the set
and a "Schufften Goggle View," which shows scenes at various stage of
development. With the soldiers-versus-giant-bugs film Starship Troopers,
director Paul Verhoeven and others discuss whether the movie is fascistic or an
ironic deconstruction of fascism. Actor Neil Patrick Harris says Verhoeven
filmed one scene so many times that co-star Denise Richards cried.
Chase films, for the action-lover interested less in plausibility than in
thrills
In Timur ( Night Watch) Bekmambetov's Wanted, Angelina Jolie
introduces James McAvoy to the wild world of the hitman while dangling from the
front of a speeding car. Harrison Ford belies his age as the returning
adventurer in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And
villain Paul Giamatti makes a great foil for Clive Owen in Shoot 'em Up,
which doesn't have a plausible bone in its body and doesn't stop for breath as
awesome stunt follows stunt.
Animated films
Top of the list is WALL-E, the gorgeous tale of a lonely trash compactor
in search of a companion. The Blu-ray version has a pic-in-pic commentary by the
director and another by four colleagues, who say the film was originally called
WAL-E until someone realized it would be pronounced "whale." Also
worthy is Watership Down: Deluxe Edition, a 1978 film of the Richard
Adams novel about dislocated bunnies.
Silent films
Buster Keaton's extraordinary 1927 comedy-drama The General has a
would-be Confederate soldier scrambling to retrieve a locomotive stolen by
Union soldiers in the U.S. Civil War, but it's really a vehicle for Keaton's
timing, athleticism and power of invention. Kino's The General: Ultimate
2-Disc Edition offers three separate musical scores. Next week brings the Murnau,
Borzage and Fox Collection, with 12 silent films made by F.W. Murnau and
Frank Borzage at what was then Fox Studios. Titles include a remastered version
of Murnau's unmissable Sunrise (1927).
Documentaries
Out next Tuesday, Man on Wire revisits a death-defying 1974 stunt by
Philippe Petit, who spent an hour illegally performing on a tightrope stretched
between the towers of the World Trade Center. For Animals in Love,
Jean-Pierre Bailly and his team spent 500 days shooting 170 species of animals
in 16 countries. They condensed the results into an 85-minute French
documentary showing animals wooing and mating to the music of Philip Glass; the
making-of extra is in French only. Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
follows the celebrity photographer from childhood through her long stint at
Rolling Stone to her work with Vanity Fair (until then, "I didn't realize
that people had a good side and a bad side") and the death of her partner,
Susan Sontag.
Short films
The series Cinema16 has previously focused on European films, British films and
American films. Cinema16 World Short Films (www.cinema16.org) devotes
two discs to early short works by the likes of Senegal's Ousmane Sembene, New
Zealand's Jane Campion and South Korea's Park Chan-Wook, whose tale of a morgue
attendant and a husband and wife disputing the identity of a woman killed in a
shopping-mall collapse has a warped touch of CSI to it. Canada gets
three look-ins: Guy Maddin's My Dad Is 100 Years Old, written by
Isabella Rossellini about her filmmaker father Roberto; Chris Lavis and Maciek
Szczerbowski's Madame Tutli-Putli, a fever dream with stop-motion
puppets; and Sylvain ( The Triplets of Belleville) Chomet's delightful
animated film The Old Lady and the Pigeons, a co-production between
Canada and France.
Television
Here the boxes grow huge. The complete series of The Sopranos, The Wire,
Deadwood and Get Smart are out, and hooray for all of them, but for
supplementary toys it's hard to beat The Lone Ranger: 75th Anniversary
Collector's Edition, distributed by Alliance Films. The 78 black-and-white
episodes from 1949 through 1951 look fine, with Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels
as the masked man and Tonto, and there's even an episode of Lassie in
which the Lone Ranger appeared. But spare a moment for the enclosed comic book,
trading cards and 84-page booklet of photos and text. Hi-yo, Silver! Away!
More television
If you're buying for the lover of TV comfort food, Perry Mason Season 3
Volume 2 offers 14 episodes from 1960 of the great courtroom drama with
Raymond Burr. The writing wasn't as sharp in another 1960s series, Burke's
Law, but Gene Barry did a nice job as a millionaire chief of detectives in
Los Angeles who interviewed a raft of celebrity suspects each week before
nailing the culprit. Among the guest stars in Burke's Law: Season 1 Volume 2
are Buster Keaton, John Cassavetes, William Shatner and Jayne Mansfield.
James Bond
The three-disc "collector's edition" of Casino Royale (2006)
is stuffed with bonus features about the film, Bond and creator Ian Fleming,
and transports us to those halcyon days before Quantum of Solace, back
when Bond (Daniel Craig) still took a modicum of enjoyment from what he did for
a living.
Science fiction
One good thing about remakes is that it gives studios an excuse to rerelease
the originals. The Day the Earth Stood Still: Special Edition (1951) is
the classic tale of an alien visitor (Michael Rennie) prepared to use violence
to secure peace. Copious extras include two commentaries, an isolated musical
score (by the great Bernard Herrmann, employing the otherworldly sound of the
theremin) and, inevitably, a preview of the forthcoming remake with Keanu
Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. Consider as well Dark City: Director's Cut,
a spooky sci-fi film noir with Connelly, Rufus Sewell and William Hurt.
Also of note: The Dark Knight, the latest Batman film, is out next week.
And if the recipient of your gifts will accept a rain check, the marvellous
1946 British fantasy A Matter of Life and Death (a.k.a. Stairway to
Heaven) is slated for a DVD release on Jan. 6.
Frost/Nixon: You, me and the TV
Source: www.thestar.com
- Peter Howell, Movie Critic
Frost/Nixon
(out of 4)
Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt
and Sam Rockwell. Directed by Ron Howard. 122 minutes. At the Varsity. PG
Note: This article has been edited to correct a previously
published version.
(December 05, 2008) Frost/Nixon is a championship bout between anxious
egotists, a journalist and a politician who seek to buff their images as much
as to make history.
And because of this there's a third antagonist in the picture, symbolic yet no
less real. It's television, which, through its seduction of the masses, created
indelible images of British interviewer David Frost as a show-biz lightweight
and disgraced former U.S. president Richard Nixon as a sweating reprobate and
fugitive.
The TV-induced insecurities of the two men are tipped early in Ron Howard's
persuasive new film about their totemic 1977 encounters, as both Frost and
Nixon (with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella faithfully reprising their
original stage roles) grapple with broadcast misconceptions.
Frost bristles as people mimic his oily trademark greeting ("Hello, good
evening, and welcome"), insisting that he doesn't really say that. He's mocked
even by his girlfriend, comely socialite Caroline Cushing (Rebecca Hall), whom
Frost perhaps unwisely begins dating just as his preliminary negotiations with
Nixon are heating up.
Nixon, preparing for his first of four taped interviews with Frost, asks that
he be allowed to daub his upper lip with a handkerchief after each question, to
remove the flop sweat that made him seem so shifty in his 1960 televised
presidential campaign debates with John F. Kennedy.
"They say that moisture on my upper lip cost me the presidency," he
ruefully tells Frost.
Both men hope their televised encounters will restore lost glories.
Frost wants to be seen as a serious journalist in America, erasing memories of
a failed interview series there that sent him packing to the hinterland of
Australian TV and the ignominy of celebrity puff pieces.
"Success in America is unlike success anywhere else," Frost tells his
friend and producer John Birt (Matthew Macfadyen).
Nixon hopes to elicit public sympathy and historical redress for the crimes of
Watergate, the break-in and cover-up scandal that forced him to resign in 1974.
The somewhat naïve Frost is convinced he can persuade the unrepentant
ex-president to confess his sins on camera, giving him "the trial he never
had."
The wily Nixon is convinced he can spin the Watergate questions to his
advantage, while pocketing the controversial $600,000 (U.S.) fee, arranged by
L.A über-agent Swifty Lazar (amusingly rendered by Toby Jones), that Frost has
agreed to pay him.
Each man believes he has the upper hand. But take a closer look at the
deliberate title symmetry of Frost/Nixon, which points to the film's
deeper meaning: two names of five letters each, joined with a symbol that
implies connection rather than contention.
Writer Peter Morgan (The Queen) might well have made it Frost vs.
Nixon. It would have suited the gladiatorial overtones of his creation.
But the "versus" wouldn't have nailed the raw emotional needs that
link the two men, both of whom were seeking salve for wounded egos.
That this much drama can be wrung out of the Frost/Nixon conversations is no
small achievement.
Anyone old enough to remember them knows that Frost struggled mightily to control
Nixon's verbosity, only managing to wring gripping testimony out of him in the
final interview segment, the one devoted entirely to Watergate.
The difficulty of prying succinct answers out of Nixon consumes the middle part
of the film, as Frost, Birt and researchers Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and
James Reston (Sam Rockwell) confront the reality that a big name doesn't always
make for great TV.
Zelnick and Reston also secretly grapple with the thought that Frost is really
in it for the fame, not the delayed justice of bringing Nixon to the ground.
Zelnick dismisses Frost as "a man of no political convictions
whatsoever."
Meanwhile, Nixon's point man Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), an ex-Marine
unaccountably dedicated to the racist, sexist and paranoid former
commander-in-chief, vows to bury anyone who tries to bully his boss.
It all comes together in the third act, when Frost finally gains his footing
just as Nixon starts to lose his. It's here where the brilliance of casting
original players Sheen and Langella really comes to the fore.
The two men exude confidence born of lived-in roles. As the camera moves
closer, and Hans Zimmer's emphatic score heightens the drama, there's a feeling
of the hunter and the hunted achieving symmetry.
But who exactly was the hunter, and who the hunted? Both men claimed to get
what they wanted from the Frost/Nixon encounters. Both felt they had
"won" the interviews.
It probably didn't matter, since victory in circumstances such as these is all
in the eye of the beholder, and the television "eye" never blinks.
AMC To Air Samuel L. Jackson
Tribute
Source: www.eurweb.com
(December 04, 2008) *For the
seventh time, AMC will broadcast the 23rd annual American Cinematheque Awards,
which this year honoured the film career of Samuel
L. Jackson.
The special will premiere Tuesday (Dec.
9) at 10 p.m. ET as " Hollywood Celebrates Samuel L. Jackson: An American
Cinematheque Tribute."
Many of Jackson's colleagues and past co-stars were in attendance to help
celebrate his cinematic accomplishments, including Denzel Washington, Justin
Timberlake, George Lopez, Andy Garcia and Sharon Stone.
One running theme of the evening was guessing what the "L" in
"Samuel L. Jackson" stands for. Timberlake, who acted in "Black
Snake Moan" with Jackson and who started off the evening, said it stood
for "Love. Man love." Lopez said it was definitely not for
"Latino."
Stone put her hands on her hips and purred words such as "Luscious,"
"L'amour," "Ladies love Samuel L. Jackson" -- and told a
story about seeing Jackson "nekkid" in a movie and then trying to
talk to him at a premiere. She eventually got serious, talking about the moral
compass he brings to his characters, and saying that the "L" stood
for "Legend."
Denzel Washington said Jackson plays men who can be considered "the
righteous who believe they are sinners and the sinners who believe they are
righteous." Vin Diesel called Jackson "a poor man's acting
coach," and Kerry Washington noted that the actor brings truth to his
roles, making his "heroes so imperfect and (his) villains so
lovable."
Also making speeches were Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who used basketball
terms to describe Jackson as being as unstoppable as Kobe Bryant, as versatile
as Larry Bird and as smooth as Michael Jordan; John Singleton, who told
anecdotes from the set of "Shaft"; and Jackson's wife, LaTanya, who
talked of the movies Jackson made with Spike Lee.
After finally accepting the award from his "Star Wars" director
George Lucas, Jackson talked about how much the experience of going to the
movies meant to him, when he would catch Saturday double features in a
segregated theatre in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and how important
he thinks the Cinematheque's work is in promoting the social side of
filmmaking.
"I felt a bond with everyone in that theatre," Jackson said,
according to the AP. "(It was) a kinship that opened up a whole new
world."
Sundance Premiere Film Line-up 'Best In Years'
Source: www.thestar.com - David Germain, The Associated Press
(December 04, 2008) LOS ANGELES – Top
Hollywood stars are going the indie route at next month's Sundance Film
Festival, where the line-up features Jim Carrey, Ewan
McGregor, Winona Ryder, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Ashton Kutcher.
Carrey and McGregor star in the con-artist tale I Love You Phillip Morris,
one of the star-studded premieres announced Thursday for the independent-film
showcase that runs Jan. 15-25 in Park City, Utah.
Also on the schedule: Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton in the drama The
Informers; Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle in the cop saga Brooklyn's
Finest; Thurman and Minnie Driver in the family tale Motherhood; and
Kutcher and Anne Heche in the gigolo story Spread.
"I think it's the best premiere section we've had in the festival in
years," said festival director Geoffrey Gilmore.
The general quality is higher this time partly because Sundance organizers
pared back on the number of films in the premiere section to open up more
screening time for movies competing in the festival's competitions, Gilmore
said. Premiere films do not compete for prizes.
Other premieres include Adventureland, a 1980s tale set at an amusement
park and featuring Ryan Reynolds and Twilight star Kristen Stewart; Shrink,
with Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams in the story of a celebrity psychiatrist
in crisis; the South African apartheid thriller Endgame, with William
Hurt and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and the time-shifting romance 500 Days of Summer,
starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
The festival's opening-night film is the clay-animation feature Mary and Max,
with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette providing lead voices in the
story of two pen pals, a lonesome eight-year-old Australian girl and a
40-something obese man in New York City.
Sundance's closing film is the documentary Earth Days, a portrait of
nine people at the heart of the environmental movement's origins.
Along with the high-profile premieres, Sundance announced films in several
other categories Thursday, including Helen, with Ashley Judd as a
psychiatrist battling depression; World's Greatest Dad, a comedy with
Robin Williams; and Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy, a
documentary featuring Chris Rock, Bill Cosby and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
The 64 films in Sundance's four feature-film competitions for U.S. and world
drama and documentary were announced Wednesday.
Carrey And Mcgregor To Headline Sundance
Source: www.thestar.com
- David Germain, Associated Press
(December 06, 2008) LOS ANGELES–Top Hollywood
stars are going the indie route at next month's Sundance Film Festival, where the lineup features Jim Carrey, Ewan
McGregor, Winona Ryder, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Ashton Kutcher.
Carrey and McGregor star in the con-artist tale I Love You Phillip Morris,
one of the star-studded premieres announced Thursday for the independent film
showcase set to run Jan. 15—25 in Park City, Utah.
Also on the schedule: Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton in the drama The
Informers; Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle in the cop saga Brooklyn's
Finest; Thurman and Minnie Driver in the family tale Motherhood; and
Kutcher and Anne Heche in the gigolo story Spread.
"I think it's the best premiere section we've had in the festival in
years," said festival director Geoffrey Gilmore.
The general quality is higher this time partly because Sundance organizers
pared back the number of premieres to open up more screening time for movies in
the festival's competition sections, Gilmore said. Premiere films do not
compete for prizes.
Other premieres include Adventureland, a 1980s tale set in an amusement
park, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Twilight star Kristen Stewart; Shrink,
with Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams, the story of a celebrity psychiatrist in
crisis; the South African apartheid thriller Endgame, with William Hurt
and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and the time-shifting romance 500 Days of Summer,
starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
The festival's opening-night film will be the clay-animation feature Mary
and Max, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette providing lead
voices in the story of two pen pals – a lonesome 8-year-old Australian girl and
a 40-something obese man in New York City.
Sundance's closing film is the documentary Earth Days, a portrait of
nine people at the heart of the origins of the environmental movement.
The 64 films in Sundance's four feature-film competitions for U.S. and world
drama and documentary were announced Wednesday.
Columbus
Short: The 'Cadillac Records' Interview
Source: www.eurweb.com - Kam Williams
(December 09, 2008) *Columbus
Keith Short Jr. was born on September 19, 1982
in Kansas City, Missouri, although his family moved to L.A when he was just 5.
Soon thereafter, he started studying acting at a youth theatre and began
performing before he was a teenager.
After graduating from Orange County High School of the
Arts, he joined the traveling Broadway production of Stomp. He also appeared on
stage in Grease, Bus Stop, Once upon A Mattress, Guys and Dolls and The Wizard
of Oz.
During a lull when he couldn’t find any theatrical work, he decided to try his
hand at dancing and fairly quickly met with success. However, he became the
subject of speculation in the tabloids when he was rumoured to be conducting a
clandestine affair with Britney Spears while choreographing her In the Zone
concert tour.
Last year, he landed a lead role in Stomp the Yard, a hit flick which was #1 at
the box office. Since he’s appeared in This Christmas and Quarantine, and is
set to star in 2009 opposite Kate Beckinsale in Whiteout, and with Laurence
Fishburne and Matt Dillon in Armored.
Here, Columbus talks about his new movie, Cadillac Records, a musical with an
ensemble cast which includes Beyonce’, Cedric the Entertainer, Mos Def,
Gabrielle Union, Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright.
Kam
Williams: Hey, Columbus, thanks for another interview. Of
course I have to start you off with the Columbus Short question: Are you happy?
Columbus
Short: Yeah. What I did in this film and what I’m doing in my
career are bringing me immense joy now. I’m getting to do things that make me
happy.
KW: What interested you in Cadillac Records?
CS: Getting the opportunity to challenge Hollywood’s perception of me.
KW: Did you enjoy working with such a talented ensemble?
CS: Yeah, we had an amazing cast.
KW: How did you prepare for your role as Little Walter? Was there any video of
him available?
CS: No, there was no footage. I relied on pictures, biographical information,
and the music. The music was huge. I also tried to learn the harmonica and to
understand where he came from, and to find the Cajun dialect he spoke in, in
order to embody him. I did all of that, so it was a lot of work.
KW: And how about the womanizing aspect of his personality?
CS: That was fun to delve into, but that was nothing special, since it wasn’t a
trait unique to Little Walter. That’s what a lot of bluesmen were doing at that
time. They really lived by the music, and with the music they created sex, and
with the sex they created babies. And drugs were added to the mix as another
element of this lifestyle.
KW: In making this movie, did you reflect upon the exploitation of black
artists, historically?
CS: Yeah, it was amazing to see, especially when you think that black people at
that time were basically about 30 seconds past slavery. Certainly Muddy
[Waters] was. And then they became gods in their world because of the music
they created. Yet, you see the limitations placed upon them by racism. Not only
that, it’s shocking to see how these white promoters were taking the music that
these talented African-Americans had created and simply giving it to their own
people, and letting their own be the beacons of light. That was just
unbelievable to see. That’s why I’m glad this story is being told. It’s telling
the truth about where Rock & Roll originated, on the front porches of
Mississippi. Raw music with guitars, folks singing about what they were living,
and living what they were singing. These guys weren’t putting on airs. They
were sweating in the fields living the blues. That makes them very
interesting.
KW: Music maven Heather Covington asks: What’s music are you listening to
nowadays?
CS: A lot of blues, actually. I think popular music is in a horrible state. So,
I find it inspiring to go back. I’ve always been kind of a jazz head, but the
blues really speaks to me right now. Little Walter and Muddy Waters were
incredible. And Bo Diddley was doing some great stuff, too.
KW: I know you have Whiteout coming out in 2009, which is set in Antarctica
during the short days with very long nights of winter. Was it cold and dark on
location?
CS: Oh yeah, it was. We shot it in Winnipeg, Canada, but it still felt like we
were in the Antarctic. Man, it was crazy.
KW: Your other film coming out next year is Armored. What can you tell me about
that?
CS: I’m excited about Armored, because it’s the first movie where I’ve been
able to be the lead, and I’m in good company with Laurence Fishburne, Matt
Dillon and Jean Reno. It’s an action thriller, which puts me in that hero light
and gives me a chance to show that I can not only do a Cadillac Records, but a
big commercial movie as well. That’s how I’ve been trying to shape my career.
KW: Earlier this year you were in Quarantine, a horror film. I didn’t see it.
In most horror films, the black guy dies first. Were you the first character to
go?
CS: No way. Times are changing. Look at Obama.
KW: How did you feel about Obama winning the election?
CS: It was emotional to see what the picture of the President-elect, the First
Lady, and the First Family look like. The man who’s running our nation looks
like me. It’s incredible. I never thought I’d see it, nor did my grandmother or
great-grandmother. So, it was a very emotional moment, because even though
we’re not in the Civil Rights era, it’s still not easy being a black man. And I
hope that times will change in this business to the point where Don Cheadle can
play a lead in movies without all the preconceived notions about Middle America
not being ready for that. There are as many quality African-American actors and
actresses as Caucasians, but it seems that they get a lot more opportunities.
For instance, we supposedly can’t do period pieces, because we were slaves back
in the day. Well, Obama’s win is changing the game, and Denzel or Laurence
Fishburne ought to be able to play the president authentically.
KW: I heard that you’re now romantically-linked to Cherish Chiurme. Is that
true?
CS: Who’s that?
KW: Apparently, she’s a writer from London. I guess you can’t always go by
Wikipedia. On your page there it says the two of you are dating.
CS: Never heard of her.
For the full interview with Kam Williams, go HERE.
Source: www.thestar.com - The Canadian Press
(December 09, 2008) There were no bombshells, no bizarre meltdowns and no berating of interviewers yesterday as Tom Cruise did a series of TV appearances in Toronto to promote Valkyrie, which opens on Christmas Day in the heart of Oscar-contention season.
Cruise's star power began fizzling after his infamous couch jumping on the The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 and a combative interview with The Today Show host Matt Lauer that touched on the legitimacy of antidepressants and psychiatry.
But Cruise is attempting to get back atop Hollywood's A-list with his new movie, and scheduled a two-day gauntlet of media interviews in an attempt to build buzz and charm back his old fans.
It was a very cool and collected Cruise who appeared on the set of CBC's The Hour With George Stroumboulopoulos.
Hinting at the interviews with Winfrey and Lauer, the star told Strombo he's learned from past mistakes. "You just go, `Okay, (I) could have handled things better' and you just learn from it and move on," he said in the interview, which will air tonight at 11.
"I think that that's all you can do. And just focus and take care of the family and take care of my work."
Cruise told Stroumboulopoulos he no longer answers queries about his Scientology background: "I just said, `That's it, no more, go to the (Scientology) website.'"
He's scheduled to visit CTV's eTalk studios at 299 Queen St. W. today at 1 p.m. for a half-hour interview in front of a live audience. The special, Tom Cruise: Live at eTalk, is to air at 7 tonight (repeated at 8:30 p.m. on Star!).
The interviews come at a time when bad press is dogging Valkyrie, in which Cruise plays Cpl. Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer who led a plot during World War II to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Valkyrie is being seen by many industry observers as a litmus test of Cruise's future viability as a star.
Meanwhile, several Internet gossip sites are reporting that Cruise's wife, actor Katie Holmes, is pregnant with their second child.
Holmes has reportedly been seen looking "glowing and happy and ... placing a protective hand" over the beginnings of a baby bump, according to website Stuff.co.nz.
Wendy And
Lucy Allowed Michelle Williams To Work In A Way She Has Always Wanted
Source:
www.globeandmail.com - Michelle Nichols, Reuters
(December
10, 2008) NEW YORK — Director Kelly Reichardt admits Wendy and Lucy is depressing, but actress Michelle Williams says making the
low-budget movie – one of the U.S. National Board of Review's top 10
independent movies of 2008 – was a gift.
Williams has earned rave reviews for her performance as Wendy, a drifter
chasing a better life who suffers a series of setbacks that culminates in her
losing her dog, Lucy. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles theatres this
week.
“It's a gift to be able to work in the exact way that you have always wanted
to. I feel really lucky,” Williams said as she sat beside Reichardt on a couch
at the film's distributor, Oscilloscope Laboratories, in New York's TriBeCa
neighbourhood.
“The performances aren't performances, they're just like a documentary; you
feel like you are spying on people, and that has always been the kind of
filmmaking that I like.”
Made for less than $500,000 (U.S.), Wendy and Lucy premiered in May at
the Cannes Film Festival where Lucy, Reichardt's own pet, won the unofficial
Palm Dog prize for her role.
“She was a big upstager, always finding the lens,” Williams joked of her canine
co-star in the movie that was filmed in 18 days in August, 2007, in and around
Portland, Ore.
Reichardt wrote the screenplay with Jon Raymond, with whom she had worked on
her 2006 film Old Joy.
“He writes in the way that I make films,” Reichardt said, “both somewhat
minimalist and character-driven, and I like having some space to fill up. It
gives actors room to be able to take their time and bring things to a scene,
and it leaves you room to work in the environment where you are shooting.
“The story is depressing, but you get a charge out of working with people you
like working with.”
With a simple story and little dialogue, Wendy and Lucy reflects the
minimalist goal, which has been well received by critics.
“Strong reviews and the superb central performance of Michelle Williams should
help the film reach Reichardt's largest audience to date,” Variety critic Scott
Foundas wrote.
Reelviews' James Berardinelli said Williams' acting holds the film together.
“She's in every scene and often she's not playing off another actor. She
radiates the despair, loneliness and fear of a woman in her position, and we
never doubt her,” he wrote.
Reichardt said she wanted to make a film about people who fall through the
cracks, and at the same time play with a couple of myths like the idea that you
can “go west and improve your situation.
“Or the conversation that's very much in the air during [U.S. President George
W. Bush's] administration that if you have spunk and ideas and initiative,
that's all you need to improve your lot in life, and if you aren't able to pull
yourself out of poverty, it's clearly because you are lazy,” she said.
Williams said she did not find the story of Wendy and Lucy depressing.
“Personally I like seeing those kinds of movies,” she said. “I find them
comforting because they make me feel less alone.”
After a tough year coping with the death of actor Heath Ledger – her former
partner and father of her young daughter, Matilda – Williams is taking time off
“to get rested.”
Ledger, 28, died from an accidental overdose of painkillers and other medicines
in his New York apartment in January.
Asked how she is feeling, Williams just shook her head.
“She's great,” Reichardt jumped in as she gave her friend a hug.
Source: www.thestar.com - Ryan Nakashima, The Associated Press
(December 10, 2008) LOS ANGELES – The Screen Actors Guild plans to send strike authorization ballots to more than 100,000 union members on Jan. 2, a date that leaves the Golden Globes safe but puts Oscar night within reach of a potential boycott.
Votes will be counted on Jan. 23, nearly two weeks after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, but ahead of the Feb. 22 Academy Awards, the most important date on the Hollywood calendar.
Approval by 75 per cent of voting members is required to pass the measure. If it is approved, the SAG national board can call a strike.
Guild President Alan Rosenberg has said a strike is the last resort to force a resolution in stalled contract talks with major movie studios, but that if it is necessary, it would be timed to have the most impact.
"SAG members understand that their futures as professional actors are at stake," Rosenberg said in a statement Wednesday.
The guild is at odds with the studios over the treatment of Internet productions and the benefits that actors can get when earthquakes or other unforeseen events, such as a strike by another union, shut down productions.
For instance, actors have an outstanding claim for payments they say they are due for work lost during the 100-day strike by writers last season. The strike reduced the Golden Globes this past January to a glorified press conference.
Major studios called the strike vote poorly timed.
"It's now official: SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history," said a statement by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
That group represents studios such as Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. The alliance has stuck to what it called its final offer made when the previous contract expired June 30.
Similar deals have already been accepted by other unions, including those representing directors, writers, stagehands and a smaller actors union. On its Web site, the movie and TV producers' group says the Screen Actors Guild has so far foregone more than $37 million in pay increases by continuing to work under the terms of the old deal.
On Monday, the guild held a closed-door town hall-style meeting at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood, and Rosenberg said he was ``encouraged by the response" by the 500 members in attendance.
But the guild, which had expected to send out ballots this month, pushed back the strike vote date after the producers' alliance accused it of using the holidays to ensure a low turnout and leave more working actors out of the process.
"We want SAG members to have time to focus on this critical referendum," Rosenberg said.
The guild plans another town hall meeting in New York on Monday and one in Hollywood on Dec. 17. As well, the guild is sending out e-mails and fact sheets to members, and will put up testimonials from prominent actors such as Hal Holbrook and Ed Asner on its Web site to urge actors to vote yes.
But actors are divided. In guild elections in September, an upstart group called Unite For Strength broke up the majority control of the national board that had been held by a faction that supports Rosenberg.
However, the Unite group has not clarified its position on the strike vote.
Last week, at a benefit performance at the University of California, Los Angeles, "Mad Men" actor Jon Hamm told The Associated Press that he hoped the labour strife would not affect next year's TV season.
"I wish it was not happening. I wish there were sound heads on both sides who were able to discuss this like adults," he said. "If history is any judge, it's not looking good, but we'll see, especially given the financial climate."
Carrey's Cure For Recession Blues
Source: www.thestar.com - Peter Howell
(December 04, 2008) Got the economic recession blues? Jim Carrey says you should just laugh them off. "This is what comedy is about," the Canadian actor said yesterday in Beverly Hills. "To laugh at the pain, laugh at the confusion, whatever. You need it. Comedy is always welcome, but especially in times like these ... you want to have something positive happen in your life, you know?" Carrey was at a news conference to promote his new comedy, Yes Man, which opens Dec. 19. He was responding to a question about whether it's wise or appropriate to make merry in turbulent economic times. Carrey's character in Yes Man is a doom-and-gloom "no" guy who begins saying "yes" all the time with zany consequences. Carrey said he hopes people will see Yes Man as an escape from life's worries. Carrey's co-star, Zooey Deschanel, said this isn't the first time people have used movies to escape tough times. "I think the best comedies came out during the Depression." Carrey had tongue firmly in cheek when he talked about how he's coping with the recession. "I'm not in a recession. I'm doing incredibly well.... I really am kicking ass."
Is That A Hamster In Your Pocket?
Source: www.thestar.com - Peter Howell
(December 05, 2008) Dustin Hoffman really "hammed" it up yesterday for his new role as an animated rodent. He showed up with a hamster hiding in his business suit pocket at a Santa Monica, Calif. junket promoting The Tale of Despereaux, a new movie in which he supplies the voice for a cartoon rat. The hamster jumped out in the middle of a press conference, startling co-star Sigourney Weaver. "Oh! I hope there are no cats here!" she said. Hoffman's other co-star Matthew Broderick was even more surprised. Hoffman showed up at Broderick's hotel room prior to the presser, hoping to get him involved in the gag. Broderick plays a mouse in the movie, the title character Despereaux. "Man, he's hilarious," Broderick told the Star later. "I hadn't seen him in years and he knocked on the door and he had a box of two hamsters. He had one his pocket and he wanted me to put one in my pocket. But I'm wearing a sweater, so I couldn't." Prankster Hoffman got lots of laughs for his stunt, but he seemed to want more. "I was hoping for a better take ...you're a tough house!"
::TV NEWS::
Nobody Does It
Better Than Barbara Walters
Source: www.thestar.com - Joel Rubinoff, Torstar News Service
(December 04, 2008) The most common
reaction to Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 (10 p.m. tonight on ABC, Global) is that –
given the glut of overexposed celebrities and People magazine cover
stars on her annual list – she must be easily fascinated.
I mean, it's not as if Miley Cyrus and Tina Fey haven't received enough media
attention this year. So have Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, right-wing pitbull
Rush Limbaugh, movie star Will Smith and the perpetually spin-doctoring Tom
Cruise – enough about the couch, already – who has already appeared on Walters'
list, back in '05.
I suppose you can make a case for transgendered parent Thomas Beatie and
veteran actor Frank Langella – both of whom have flown, comparatively, under
the radar.
But does failed vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin really need another
televised forum to display her folksy intolerance and inability to find
Afghanistan on a map?
Probably not, but this doesn't negate the buzz around Walters' annual
schmoozefest, which allows coddled athletes, movie stars and politicians to
refute unsavoury allegations, kick-start stalled careers and flog upcoming
projects under the guise of a celebrity tell-all.
With the No. 1 position blank, as always, until the special airs – though
everyone knows it will be President-elect Barack Obama (unless I'm wrong and
it's Joe the Plumber) – this year's line-up will provide plenty of
opportunities for the queen of compassion to furrow her brow with understanding
as her ingratiating subjects fight back tears of relief for, I'm guessing, not
being asked any really hard questions.
"Tell me, Miley, what's it like to be a 16-year-old uber-celebrity?"
"Will, you're the biggest movie star of the year and everyone loves you.
How does it feel?"
"Sarah, you've been so misunderstood by the liberal elite media. Care to
set the record straight?"
"Tina, you're so funny. Why are you so funny?"
"Tom, what are you doing here? I told my producers to escort you off the
premises. Just kidding – tell me about your lovely wife and latest attempt at a
comeback."
"Barack, omigawd – I love you, man, I love you. What's happening with the
new puppy?"
I jest, of course. The truth is, Walters – a journalism pioneer who was the
first female network news anchor back in the neanderthal '70s, and who remains
one of the most powerful women in TV today – gets a bad rap. As someone who has
interviewed celebrities in far less intimate surroundings – such as the annual
TV press tour in Los Angeles, where I'm proud to say I once cornered Calista
Flockhart in a parking lot – I can attest that getting them to say anything
unscripted or in any way revelatory is like trying to teach a frog how to tap
dance.
Sure, you might get James Woods to rant about network lackeys who bug him about
off-duty insurance protocols, or the actors on Criminal Minds to
badmouth a co-star who quit without warning – Mandy Patinkin, you have broken
our hearts! – but most of the time what you'll come away with are the
flatulent, media-coached ravings of TV Stepford wives: "I love my job! I
love my life! I love my co-stars! Now, which way to the VIP tent?"
There's no way Walters or anyone else is going to get Tom Cruise to admit he's
a brainwashed Scientology drone, or Sarah Palin to agree she's the most
unlikely candidate for political office since the guy who played Gopher on The
Love Boat (with Sonny Bono a close second).
But her deferential attitude and motherly – actually, in the case of Cyrus,
great-grandmotherly – concern for her subjects is no less effective than, say,
David Letterman belligerently grilling presidential nominee John McCain about
dirty campaign tactics on The Late Show. (Guess what? McCain didn't
flinch).
It's all a dance. When you get right down to it, Walters – who has pirouetted
her way through almost 50 years of interviews – knows the moves better than
anyone.
Joel Rubinoff is the TV columnist at The Record of Waterloo Region. Send
email to jrubinoff@therecord.com
Source: www.thestar.com - Bill Brioux, The Canadian Press
(December 05, 2008) Have the worldwide recession, panic in the stock markets and daily reports of job losses turned us all into freelancers and entrepreneurs – or just TV watchers?
Perhaps both, judging by the one place where everything is heading in the right direction – ratings for the CBC venture-capitalist series, Dragons' Den.
This past Monday the series hit a new high with just over a million viewers. The week before, 971,000 tuned in across Canada. That's a big jump from the 600,000 or so who were watching earlier in the season.
Host Dianne Buckner initially dismisses the notion that the ratings spike has anything to do with the faltering economy.
"It's entertaining, that's why it's so popular," says Buckner. She admits, however, there have been an unusually high percentage of people pitching business ideas this season from the hard hit auto town of Windsor, Ont.
"It is true that if ever you had a dream to get away from a corporate job, start your own venture and make your own way in the world, now may be the time to do it."
Originally scheduled to wrap up its third season on Monday (Dec. 8), soaring ratings have led to an order for a 12th episode, which will extend Dragons' Den to Jan. 11.
Even the CBC, it seems, has caught the business opportunity bug. Dragons' Den is its own success story. After launching in Japan (where the format is owned by Sony), the series has been franchised internationally, with versions produced in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the Netherlands, Finland and Nigeria.
The format is the same in every country: fledgling entrepreneurs walk into the "den" and pitch their big business ideas to proven capitalists in an attempt to secure real investment in their companies. It's the money version of American Idol, with dreams shattered or fulfilled and judges even richer, and sometimes nastier, than Simon Cowell.
This season, the five fiery Canadian "dragons" have been Arlene Dickinson, the impressive redhead with the supervillain shock of white hair who owns media company Venture Communications; Robert Herjavec, who made a fortune selling his IT security firm at the height of the dot-com boom; Kevin O'Leary, the bullet-headed host of Business News Network's Squeeze Play, who sold his educational venture the Learning Company to Mattel in 1999 for $3.7 billion; Mountie-turned-multimillionaire Jim Treliving, who owns the Boston Pizza chain; and W. Brett Wilson, founder of Calgary's big oil bank, FirstEnergy Capital Corp.
None suffers fools for a living, and all are quite capable of telling some of these dreamers to wake up.
"They're all trying to give the person in front of them a reality check," Buckner says.
Some people need it, she says.
"Their focus group has been their friends and family who love them and want to tell them what a great job they're doing. What they really need is somebody who is brutally honest to say, `You're wasting your time and energy and money, and you need to stop that.' "
Then again, there are presenters who get turned down or who even turn down the dragon offers and go on to do quite well. One such woman will be featured on Monday's show.
"People have this perception that the dragons have all the power and all the money," says Buckner, but just getting on the show gives these budding entrepreneurs national exposure and sometimes results in a better offer from other potential investors.
Then there are the offers even the dragons can't refuse. All five pledged on air to invest $1.25 million in the Uno, a Segway hybrid pitched by Ben Gulak, an MIT student from Milton. The prototype even drew interest from The Tonight Show.
Buckner adds that while the dragons are not exactly pussycats off camera, they're "all very likeable and personable. Then again, I'm not asking them for anything."
She admires anyone who can come into a cold studio and take their shot with the dragons, although some could stand a few lessons on making their pitches more palatable. One guy recently wheeled out trays full of meals for the judges to snack on and sample before hitting them with his pitch – for gourmet dog food.
Others have impressed the judges into investing real money in their ideas, including a married couple who appear on this Monday's show with an idea for marketing their new mosquito repellent. "The way they interacted with the dragons is so savvy," says Buckner.
Buckner herself is a survivor in the tough business of television. Breaking out two decades ago as the looker on the breezy CTV lifestyles magazine Live It Up, she has carved out a career as a reporter and news anchor at CBC News, hosting the business series Venture and Newsworld's Fortune Hunters as well as wading into the Dragons' Den.
The series is not about "villains and victims by any stretch of the imagination," she says. "Everyone on this show is an opportunist."
Including the host?
"Absolutely!" says Buckner. "It's an opportunity to have a fabulous suit!"
King Of The Awkward Pause
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- R.M. Vaughan
(December 05, 2008) In the opening moments of
Ricky Gervais's new HBO show Out of England - The Stand-Up Special (airing tomorrow night at 10 on HBO Canada),
the beloved comedian/actor/writer struts onto the stage sporting a brilliant
gold crown and red velvet cape. How fitting, as Gervais is without question the
King Midas of television - everything he touches turns into award-winning gold.
Gervais, best known for co-creating and starring in the original British
version of The Office and for doing the same with the HBO-BBC cult hit Extras,
is an unusual sort of comedian in that he appears to be completely without ego
(at least by comedian standards). All of his best jokes are on him or one of
his self-absorbed characters, and he relishes being the target of his own
merciless wit.
Part of the long tradition of self-lampooning British comedy, Gervais has more
in common with Dame Edna than Eddie Murphy.
In Out of England, Gervais wanders back and forth across the stage like
an agitated but adorable hedgehog, musing hilariously on tricky, out-of-bounds
topics such as Nelson Mandela, Nazis, obesity and autism. But what could be a
night of one-note cruel comedy is transformed by the comic's presentation of
himself as a character, as "Ricky Gervais," a pompous, selfish
celebrity bored by his own status and the need to appear constantly caring,
constantly concerned. Here, he shows us, is what really goes on in the heads of
cynical "charity stars."
Speaking with Gervais is subsequently rather nerve-racking. Which one is he -
the actual Ricky Gervais or the Gervais persona? Or, a bit of both?
That's quite the Judas Priest pyrotechnics entrance.
Obviously, because the show's about fame, it ties in. I sort of play a brash,
arrogant celebrity - well, you've seen it - and of course I deconstruct it by
saying I spent the entire budget on it. It's also having a go at those
comedians who would rather be rock stars.
Names?
No, no, of course not! Ha! I just think there's no place for trying to be cool
in comedy, so I'm spoofing comedians who care more about what they look like
than writing jokes. I can't stand that sort of comedy that's above the
audience. Then it's down to me in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt looking fat,
drinking beer. When a comedian starts getting vain, then what's remotely funny
about that? Why would people want to see someone who thinks they're better than
them. Comedy is about empathy. All the people I love are precarious, and they
fall over, but they get up and dust themselves off.
At times, the audience appeared to have difficulty processing all the layers
of irony.
A sharp intake of breath? Yeah, but that's because I deal with taboo subjects.
Firstly, I can justify the jokes. I'm not one of these comedians who tries to
shock, who thinks that comedy is their conscience taking a day off. My
conscience never takes a day off, I can justify every single joke, both
comedicly and politically. I'm playing, obviously, with prejudice, middle-class
angst, my own stupidity.
Now I understand there is a chance people would take it on face value, but if I
did too many nods and winks, it would ruin the satire. And, of course, my
targets are purposefully wrong - I don't have a go at George W. Bush or
cigarette companies, because there's enough comedians to do that. Going to the
wrong target well is just as effective a satire as going to the right target.
I'm clearly the fall.
Why do some British comedies instantly translate outside of Britain while
others do not?
Well, actually, they [British comedies] don't really. The Office was the
first remake since All In The Family. I don't know why that worked and
others didn't. They don't really work outside, because, I guess, most people
like homegrown stuff. Honestly, I think it's luck - it's a thousand-to-one
shot. The reason a lot of British things don't really work in America is that
Americans don't really need it. They've got enough.
I know for a fact that since The Office, everyone is trying in Britain.
Every week, I see a thing saying "so-and-so is being made for America,
following the success of The Office!" Two weeks later, the pilot
wasn't picked up. Every week, every time. And they always blame America -
"They ruined it!" It's like a comedian blaming the audience! Ha!
A third of your show is a reading from an eighties gay safe-sex guide, of
all things. Is it just me, or is contemporary British comedy obsessed with gay
men?
I think it's because Britain likes smut. And also, because, obviously, you
scratch a Brit and he's still really stuck in the 1950s. It's weird, actually,
because in Britain you've got that idea, bordering on homophobia, that
"everything gay is funny," but then camp is one of the biggest
British things.
But, I mean, I've never found drag funny. I've never understood it. Just a
bloke putting on a dress - why is that funny?
Have you tried it?
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I did, years ago. I dressed up like Marilyn Monroe for Comic
Relief, but someone said I looked more like Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be
hanged! Ha! So I didn't do it again!
*****
Particulars
Born: June 25, 1961, Reading, England
The Charo of his generation: Judging from his IMDb.com profile, Gervais
has a healthy sideline as a talk-show guest and awards-show presenter.
What's next? Gervais has two projects in the works for next year: Flanimals,
a TV series based on his popular children's books, which feature imaginary
creatures such as the octopus-like Frappled Humpdumbler; and This Side of
the Truth, a film starring Tina Fey and Christopher Guest, about an
overwhelmingly tedious society where no one ever tells a lie.
Massimo Commanducci
Co-Productions Make A Comeback
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Kate Taylor
(December 05, 2008) Cops will be chasing
robbers and medics will be saving lives across North American television
screens in 2009. What's new is that these dramas will unfold not only in New
York and Los Angeles but also on the mean streets of Toronto.
Canadian TV drama has taken a beating in the past decade as broadcasters turned toward
reality shows, which are cheaper to make, popular with audiences and – since a
change in government regulations in 1999 – count toward Canadian-content
credits. These days, however, there are signs the one-hour drama may be poised
for a comeback, thanks in part to co-productions with American networks showing
a willingness to air programs not set in the United States.
CTV picked up a second new drama for 2009 last month: the police show The
Bridge. Previously, it had announced The Listener, a drama about a
telepathic paramedic emphatically set in Toronto – which will also be seen on
NBC. Meanwhile, CanWest has announced it is commissioning pilots for five
potential series to run on Global and Showcase, a slate that includes two crime
shows as well as dramas about a used-car dealer, a troubled addiction
counsellor, and an alien. Also, industry sources say the network is set to
announce a new police drama for 2009 entitled Copper.
“There's a definite move,” says Christina Jennings, chairman of Shaftesbury
Films. “Three years ago, CTV, CBC and Global were nowhere compared to pay
television.” Previously, Shaftesbury has produced dramas such as ReGenesis
for specialty channels like Showcase. Today, it is shooting The Listener
for CTV and NBC.
In part, the flurry of press releases has to do with politics. Both private
broadcasters will appear before the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission in April to get their licences renewed; both CTV
and CanWest must spend on Canadian content some of the millions in “tangible
benefits” they promised the CRTC last year, when CTV was allowed to acquire
CHUM, and CanWest was allowed to acquire Alliance-Atlantis (which also owned
Showcase.) While the networks are expected to look for concessions on Cancon
requirements because ad revenues are now down, they cannot be seen to be
flouting those previous agreements.
“Without getting too cynical about it, you are getting into licence-renewal
time. They want to look as good as they can in front of the commission,” says
Guy Mayson, president of the Canadian Film and Television Producers
Association.
Although they continue to spend hundreds of millions on U.S. shows, the
broadcasters were already bemoaning fragmented audiences and competition from
the Internet last spring. That's when they asked the CRTC to order cable
providers to start paying them for their signals, a quest they lost. Now they
are facing a recession. However, since U.S. networks face similar problems, the
Canadian networks have also seen opportunities emerge for co-productions,
opportunities hastened by last year's strike by U.S. TV writers.
“It's one of those situations where necessity is the mother of invention,” says
Bill Mustos, producer of Flashpoint, the Toronto SWAT-team show that
aired on CTV and CBS last summer, and which will return to both networks in
January. “We came along with Flashpoint just when the big networks
concluded they needed a new model.”
He says CBS executives had been “kicking the tires” on various SWAT concepts
for several years but, because Mustos had just signed on with CTV for a show
based on the tactics of Toronto's actual emergency-response unit, they were now
forced to decide if they wanted a show not set in the U.S. “There was this
moment's hesitation in the room,” he says, “and then a decision that it would
probably be interesting.”
Mustos and Jennings agree the writers' strike opened a door, but they think
these recent co-production deals, led off by the CBC when it signed with Irish,
British and U.S. partners to create the steamy historic drama The Tudors,
were on the way anyway.
Such deals are not without their critics, who worry Canadians will begin to
surrender creative control on putative Canadian content. “The Tudors is a
Canadian/Irish co-pro, but it is purely a British story with very little
Canadian talent,” notes Maureen Parker, executive director of the Writers Guild
of Canada. “...The American studios will want to control the creative process
and content: Flashpoint has been an exception, but let's see if it
holds.”
In that series, where the Eaton Centre and Toronto's ravines played starring
roles, and in The Listener, the shows are clearly set in contemporary
Toronto. “I promised them: You will never see Toronto looking as beautiful as
it will in our pilot, because you have only seen Toronto sitting in for some
generic U.S. city,” Jennings says of her negotiations with NBC over The
Listener.
Still, both Mustos and Jennings are cautious about declaring the new
co-production model a slam dunk before it has been tested by U.S. audiences.
“These are still very early days … to get excited about the dawning of a new
era,” says Mustos. Flashpoint did well with American audiences in the
summertime. However, Mustos sees a much more serious test of their willingness
to embrace Toronto coming in January, when Flashpoint has been given a
less-than-prime spot – Friday night – at a time of year when there is a lot
more competition for eyeballs from top U.S. shows.
While the U.S. belatedly turns to the co-production model with which Canadians
and Europeans have always been familiar, Canadian broadcasters are belatedly
borrowing the practice of shooting pilots before they give series the go-ahead,
and this also explains some of the new activity. Previously, Canadian broadcasters
had argued that pilots were too expensive, and simply green-lit shows based on
scripts, but changes at the Canadian Television Fund, which helps underwrite
most productions, have made pilots more common. The Listener and Flashpoint
were two of four pilots that CTV shot last year, and Mustos reports Flashpoint's
narrative structure was significantly reworked after the two networks saw the
pilot.
CanWest has just started the process, testing content for its newly enlarged
stable with its five pilots. “Come February, we have incredibly tough choices
to make,” says Christine Shipton, a senior vice-president at CanWest: She
expects to take only three shows, one on Global and two on Showcase.
Piloting also has its critics, however: Producers who have assembled a creative
team are left waiting on a decision about whether they need to keep it
together, a decision that may come very slowly in a time of economic
uncertainty. Meanwhile, because public money has been spent, the broadcasters
cannot simply throw the pilots away: Unsuccessful pilots appear on air as
one-offs that may mystify the viewer.
That said, producers and broadcasters do think Canadian audiences are warming
to Canadian drama. “We are showing Canadian dramas to their best, and they are
gaining some ground,” says Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network
programming at the CBC, where the police show The Border, for example,
has increased its audience by 7 per cent this season, its second.
“Ten years ago, Canadians would turn their noses up at Canadian wine,” Jennings
agrees hopefully. “They don't do that any more.”
Why According To Jim Is Indestructible
Source: www.thestar.com
- Joel Rubinoff, Torstar News Service
(December 09, 2008) As According to Jim (9 p.m. on ABC, City) kicked off its eighth
season last week while disbelieving critics gnawed their fingernails and banged
their heads in frustration, the indestructible Jim Belushi was engaged in a
violent struggle with his T-shirt.
"Cheryl! Cheryl!" he shouted as his arms became enmeshed in the
shirt's neck hole and his bulbous head got stuck in a sleeve.
"I just got the babies to sleep," hushed his wife (Courtney
Thorne-Smith), exasperated with this beer-bellied bumbler. "What did you
do?"
Belushi, whose fabric-flattened features made him look like a guy about to rob
a 7/11, answered with outraged defiance: "My shirt got me!"
My own reaction is that the mere fact he's still alive indicated the shirt
didn't go far enough but, alas, I'm in a minority.
The great American unwashed – hard-working Joe Sixpacks and Sally Housecoats
who make hits of under-the-radar shows like NCIS and Two and a Half
Men – have been enamoured with the younger brother of comedy legend John
Belushi since he helped pioneer the tubby schlubster/supermodel wife sitcom
back in October 2001.
George W. Bush had been in power just nine months at that point, the 9/11
tragedy was barely three weeks old and lumbering Belushi – hot off a B-level
movie career with non-hits like K-9 and Curly Sue – was just what
middle America was pining for: a cranky, lumbering dinosaur whose wrinkled
forehead, broad slab of a face and unquenchable thirst for validation (and
beer) harked back to an earlier, simpler era (no, not the Paleolithic).
"Jim, help me be more interesting!" begged his improbably vixenish
wife last week, informed by her belligerent hubby she'd become mind-numbingly
boring since giving birth to twins. "I used to be interesting,
right?"
"Probably," he replies unconvincingly. "To be honest with you, I
was just staring at your chest most of the time!"
Ba-da-boom. You don't hear jokes like this on The Office or 30
Rock, defiantly modern comedies that treat guys like Jim as objects of
satirical derision (witness The Office's Dwight Schrute and 30 Rock's
Tracy Jordan).
But there's no irony in Jim itself, which harks back to '50s series like
The Honeymooners and Flintstones for its
bleating-Neanderthal-trapped-in-marital-bondage premise and seems more dated
than an "I Like Ike" election button.
But there's the titular everyman – strutting around with his expanding
waistline, making objectionable comments about women and stuffing five bottles
of beer in his pants like the Creature from the Black Lagoon – a toxic sludge
by-product that, like a persistent rash or Duckie in Pretty in Pink,
refuses to go away.
The question, of course, is why?
I mean, it's not as if the show's ratings are anything to brag about.
Peaking in Season 4 at an embarrassing No. 46 with no awards or hint of
critical praise, it hit a series low last year at No. 123, well below cancelled
series like Carpoolers, K-Ville, Cashmere Mafia and Cavemen
(though it did rank higher than Secret Talents of the Stars and Beauty
and the Geek 4).
And yet, pundits agree, because the show is cheap to produce, does well in
syndication and provides a handy fallback in the chaotic aftermath of the
Hollywood writers' strike, it's perceived as a winner by network suits and will
likely continue until 54-year-old Belushi is hobbling around on a walker.
At which point I humbly submit that instead of ranting about Belushi's furrowed
brow and leathery skin – which give him the look of a constipated lizard – we
instead follow the lead of Joseph Conrad's fictional Lord Jim and "embrace
the destructive element."
Jim, you obnoxious pot-bellied boozer, you may have set TV comedy back 50
years, but your continued prime-time presence indicates showbiz connections and
an ability to pinch pennies will overrule hard work and raw talent every time.
I'm not sure that's something to cheer about, but it sure sounds impressive.
Joel Rubinoff is the TV columnist at
The Record of Waterloo Region. Email: Jrubinoff@therecord.com
Priscilla Set To Ride Into Toronto In
2009
Source:
www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre
Critic
(December 10, 2008) The original Dancing
Queen is coming to Toronto.
Mirvish Productions announced yesterday that it would mount an all-Canadian
version of the stage musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, based on the iconic 1994 Australian
movie about two drag queens and a transsexual who wind up lip-synching their
way to dusty fame in a windswept cabaret.
The film's triumphant final sequence, set to the music of ABBA's "Mamma
Mia!" is generally credited with starting the revival of interest in the
Swedish supergroup. But, ironically, since that song lent its title to the
worldwide hit ABBA musical, it is no longer allowed to appear in the Priscilla
stage show.
Although no specific venue or date was mentioned in the Mirvish announcement,
informed sources indicate that the Canon Theatre is the likely location, with
previews probably beginning sometime in November 2009.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical, as the show proudly calls
itself, sans punctuation, first opened in Sydney in October 2006 and has played
to more one million theatregoers, grossing more than $90 million in Australian
dollars ($75 million Canadian), making it the most successful Australian stage
show of all time.
The plot of the musical sticks fairly closely to that of the film (which
starred Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving), following the odyssey of
Tick, Bernadette and Adam, a trio of high-camp, super-glam performers who
decide to take their baubles, bangles and beady eyes to the Australian outback.
They hit the road in a battered old bus named Priscilla, and wind up learning
more about friendship and love than they had bargained for.
There are some similarities as well as some differences between this show and Dirty
Dancing: The Classic Musical on Stage, which is currently playing at the
Royal Alexandra Theatre.
Both are based on favourite cult movies (although the crowd that hoots at Priscilla
is considerably different than the one that swoons at Dancing), both
began in Australia and went on to London before opening in Toronto.
The differences occur in the timetable. The Mirvish organization waited until Dirty
Dancing was an established hit in Australia, Germany and London before
bringing it to Toronto, whereas with Priscilla, the Canadian version has
been made official months before the London one has even opened. (March 24,
2009 is the date now set for the West End premiere.)
That would seem to indicate a high level of confidence in the future of Priscilla,
especially because it's such an expensive show to stage.
The central scenic element, the giant bus, which gives the show its title,
weighs six tonnes, has three internal lifts built into it, is covered in 840
LED lights and cost $1.2 million to construct.
Because of the flashy, trashy wardrobe tendencies of its leading characters,
the show features more than 500 costumes, 200 hats, 160 masks, 150 pairs of
custom-made shoes and 100 wigs.
There are 20 giant production numbers in the show, and the original cast
recording of the Sydney production indicates there are 18 additional songs on
top of that.
But the movie and stage version differ musically in several important ways.
While both incarnations lean on such camp disco favourites as "I Will
Survive" and "Shake Your Groove Thing," the theatre incarnation has
much more music, and considerably more ballads, like "MacArthur Park"
and "The Morning After."
The major change between the two Priscillas lies in the way the songs
are sung. In the movie, they were all lip-synched by the three leads to the
original recordings.
But onstage, there is a trio of surrealistic super-charged ladies called The
Divas, who fly in from all over the stage to provide the live singing that our
three women wannabes mime their performances to.
John Karastamatis, director of communications for Mirvish Productions, who saw
the stage version in Australia, calls it "a fantastic show that I know
Toronto is going to love."
Some insiders suggest that the timing of the show has been engineered so that
Mirvish can convince Stratford and Shaw stalwarts to move directly from the
classical stage to this ultra-camp musical.
Let's see, Colm Feore in the Terence Stamp role, Evan Buliung as Hugo Weaving
and Jonathan Goad as Guy Pearce.
Works for me, mate.
Peanuts-Inspired Play Stars Degrassi
Leads
Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(December 08, 2008)
Did you know that Charlie Brown went to Degrassi High when he grew up?
That's the impression you may get when a show called Dog Sees God opens in March.
Producer Michael Rubinoff is really playing the Degrassi card by casting four
of the leads in his production with alumni from the wildly popular show Degrassi:
The Next Generation: Jake Epstein, Adamo Ruggiero, Mike Lobel and Paula
Brancati.
Loosely inspired by the iconic comic strip Peanuts, the free-wheeling
satire was a big hit with New York audiences from the moment it premiered at
the New York Fringe in 2004 through its opening off-Broadway the following
year.
A guy known as "C.B." has to cope with issues of mortality once his
beloved dog is put down after killing his pet bird. (Snoopy fans, you're out of
luck.) In his search for answers, he exchanges comic insights with carefully
disguised figures like "Beethoven," the classical-music freak facing
recently discovered issues of childhood sexual abuse; "Van," the kid
who once clutched a blanket and now tokes a constant doobie, and Van's sister,
now a pyromaniac placed in a padded cell after she set The Little Red-Haired
Girl's hair on fire.
Get the picture? It's way past meta and all the way out the other side into
surreal. The gang from Peanuts have had their identities shaken up in
the name of good dirty fun and their names changed in the interests of avoiding
a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Who else surfaces from the past? C.B.'s super cute sister is now a hateful
Goth; Peppermint Patty now parties so hard she could give lessons to the Lohan
girl and the Artist Formerly Known as Pig-Pen is now a homophobic clean freak
named Matt who puts Purell everywhere (and I mean everywhere!).
The original New York production got a jolt of welcome media hype from the
presence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer regular Eliza Dushku in the cast,
but that's nothing compared with the Degrassi tsunami that Rubinoff is
bringing to the Toronto production.
The show is set to open for a strictly limited four-week run on March 13 at Six
Degrees, 2335 Yonge St.
The female audience members at Ross Petty's Cinderella who have been
swooning over Epstein as Prince Charming will probably be the first in line to
buy tickets.
Maybe they should change the name to "You're a Hot Dude, Charlie
Brown."
Young Centre Launches Resident Program
Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(December 08, 2008)
Albert Schultz, General Director of the Young Centre, announced a
far-reaching series of initiatives today that will see the multi-venue
performance space in the Distillery District stay busy most of the time and
serve as a breeding ground for some of the most creative artistic work
happening in Toronto.
At the heart of these plans is the appointment of 12 Resident Artists, who will
not only to create events on their own, but will mentor developing talents,
helping them see their work realized.
All of it will be made possible by a $1 million grant from Donna and Gary
Sleight, which will guarantee the support of the program through 2012.
The 12 artists are:
Waleed Abdulhamid: A multi-instrumentalist, composer, vocalist and
producer. Founding member of the bands Tikisa, Radio Nomad, Kings of Kush and
Balimbo.
David Buchbinder: Leader of The Flying Bulgars and the David Buchbinder
Jazz Ensemble. Creator of the Shurum Burum Jazz Circus and the Ashkenaz
Festival of New Yiddish Culture.
Roberto Campanella: Founder, choreographer and Artistic Director of
ProArteDanza, the contemporary dance company he has run since 2004.
Andrew Craig: A singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger,
producer, director, broadcaster and impresario. Best known for his work as
radio host and producer on CBC.
Weyni Mengesha: Award winning director and composer best known for her
work on Trey Anthony's 'Da Kink in My Hair. Associate artist at Theatre
Passe Muraille and graduate on the inaugural Soulpepper Academy.
John Millard: Singer, composer and songwriter. Well-remembered for his
work with The Polka Dogs as well as John Millard and Happy Day.
Claudia Moore: Artistic Director of MOonhORsE dance theatre,
award-winning performer and choreographer whose work has been seen from
Vancouver to New York.
Andrea Nann: Contemporary dance choreographer, performer, teacher and
artistic director of Andrea Nann Dreamwalker Theatre Company. Former member of
the Danny Grossman Dance Theatre.
Patricia O'Callaghan: Actor, singer, cabaret artist, creator of theatre
works and frequent performer on radio and television. Has appeared with
Soulpepper Theatre and released four CDs.
Soheil Parsa: The founder and Artistic Director of Modern Times Theatre
Company, winner of ten Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Director, actor, writer,
dramaturge, choreographer and teacher.
Noah Richler: Award-winning author, columnist, broadcaster and
commentator, best know for his work with the National Post and for CBC
Radio.
Suba Sankaran: This award-winning artist is a multi-instrumentalist
musician, using voice, piano and percussion. Has appeared with world music
groups like autorickshaw and Trichy's Trio.
::OTHER NEWS::
OJ
Squeezed To The Max: Simpson Sentenced To 33 Years!
Source: www.eurweb.com
(December 05, 2008) Simpson was immediately led away to prison after the judge
refused to permit him to go free on bail while he appeals.
*We knew he was gonna get slammed, but we didn't think it would be to this
degree. The verdict is in and O.J. Simpson is going to do some major time. Read
on for the details:
A broken O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to as much as 33 years in prison for
a hotel armed robbery after a judge rejected his apology and said, "It was
much more than stupidity."
The 61-year-old football Hall of Famer stood shackled and stone-faced when
Judge Jackie Glass quickly rattled off his punishment soon after he made a
rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, choking back tears as he told her:
"I didn't want to steal anything from anyone. ... I'm sorry, sorry."
Simpson said he was simply trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and other
mementos, including his first wife's wedding ring, from two dealers when he
stormed a Las Vegas hotel room on Sept. 13, 2007.
But the judge emphasized that it was a violent confrontation in which at least
one gun was drawn, and she said someone could have been killed. She said the
evidence was overwhelming, with the planning, the confrontation itself and the
aftermath all recorded on audio or videotape.
Glass, a no-nonsense judge known for her tough sentences, imposed such a
complex series of consecutive and concurrent sentences that even many attorneys
watching the case were confused as to how much time Simpson got.
Simpson could serve up to 33 years but could be eligible for parole after nine
years, according to Elana Roberto, the judge's clerk.
The judge said several times that her sentence in the Las Vegas case had
nothing to do with Simpson's 1994 acquittal in the slaying of his ex-wife
Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
"I'm not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything
else," Glass said.
Simpson was immediately led away to prison after the judge refused to permit
him to go free on bail while he appeals.
For MORE, go HERE
Rowling Works Her Magic Again
Source: www.thestar.com - Associated Press
(December 05, 2008) The latest magical tome by J.K. Rowling has started to fly off bookstore shelves. Rowling launched The Tales of Beedle the Bard yesterday with a tea party for 200 schoolchildren at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she lives. The author is donating royalties from the book to a charity, which hopes it will raise millions to help vulnerable children. Recession-hit booksellers hope the book – five fables mentioned in Rowling's saga about boy wizard Harry Potter – will give them a festive boost. "We expect it to come straight in at No. 1 and it is very likely to be our No. 1 book this Christmas," said Jon Howells of Britain's Waterstone's bookstore chain. "It's in with a fighting chance of being the bestselling book of the year, even though there are only a few weeks to go. "This is J.K. Rowling. None of the usual rules apply," he said. Beedle the Bard was being published yesterday in more than 20 countries, with a global print run of almost eight million. But it is generating only a fraction of the fanfare that greeted the Potter novels. Rowling has described Beedle the Bard as a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, calling it her goodbye to a world she lived in for 17 years.
::DANCE NEWS::
National's Nutcracker Never Fails To Captivate
Source: www.thestar.com
- Susan Walker, Dance Writer
(December 07, 2008) Every Christmas, British
dance critic Richard Buckle once wrote, "we are one more Nutcracker closer to death." A less jaded viewer
might view this December ritual another way. Every Christmas, The Nutcracker,
especially James Kudelka's production for the National Ballet of Canada, gives
us a chance to recover the wonder of childhood and the dream of contentment.
Even after as many as 15 experiences of this very child-centric Nutcracker,
the magic – forever recoverable through Tchaikovsky's enchanting score –
persists. And still there are new details, fresh delights to discover.
Piotr Stanczyk makes a light-footed, carefree Peter, poised between child and
adult life. Once transformed in Marie and Misha's dream world into the
Nutcracker prince, he falls convincingly in love with his Sugar Plum Fairy,
Sonia Rodriguez. The two dancers are well matched, airily romantic, as if
caught in a vision recovered after waking up. (Stanczyk and Rodriguez will be
the two leads performing in the simulcast of the National Ballet's Nutcracker
on HD movie screens across Canada this Saturday.)
National Ballet School students Alyson McKenzie and Tyler Robinson reprise
their roles as the squabbling sister and brother Marie and Misha, both very
capable of holding our attention even amid the melee of dancing, playing and
fighting. The 40 students and children in this production never look like
lesser players alongside the adult performers, one of its signal choreographic
achievements.
Avinoam Silverman's Uncle Nikolai is the magician who ushers us into a fantasy
world with every quicksilver pirouette on his purple boots. He conjures up the
dancing bears and leads the horse in a four-legged jig. With the fight scene in
Misha and Marie's bedroom toys come to life, wolfhounds, cats and an evil
brigade of mice on horseback. The earthy, material world of Baba (Lorna
Geddes), the barn, the peasants and landed gentry has been left far behind. The
beds carry the children off into a snowy dreamland.
Heather Ogden is a flawless Snow Queen, smoothly manipulated around the Land of
Snow by her two Icicles, Noah Long and Aarik Wells. The Snow Maidens make a
stunning display, reminiscent of a scene from a Balanchine ballet with precise
and ethereal movement, as evanescent as, well, snowflakes.
The Sugar Plum Fairy's Fabergé seems to materialize out of a mirage in Act II,
as Marie and Misha come to a golden palace. Those comfortable family fixtures
Uncle Nikolai and Baba are now the Empress Dowager and the Grand Duke. Where
the scenes in Act I were a constant whirl of activity and dancing, the child
courtiers in Act II remain still, transfixed by the sight of the Sugar Plum
Fairy and the procession of dances: Spanish Chocolate, Arabian Coffee with its
hieroglyphic gestures, Andreea Olteanu is a flirtatious sheep with her flock of
lambs, pursued by Robert Stephen as a lascivious fox. Jordana Daumec makes a
captivating bee, to usher in the dance of the flowers.
The National Ballet's expenditure of $2.7 million to bring this Nutcracker to
the stage in 1995 was surely the best investment the company has ever made,
returned not just at the box office, but in the passion for ballet it inspires
in all who come to see it.
The Nutcracker continues at the Four Seasons Centre until Dec. 28.
Natalli Reznik: We Know She Can Dance
Source: www.thestar.com - Rob Salem, TV Columnist
(December 08, 2008) I must admit, the
prospect of meeting Natalli Reznik, Toronto's best and only chance to win last night's So You Think You
Can Dance Canada final, was a bit intimidating.
The fact that she ultimately didn't win changes nothing. I mean, anyone
talented enough to make what she does look so effortless, and disciplined
enough to mould the body she does it with, and to be doing it at the ripe old
(dancer's) age of 29 ... even in the unlikely event that I did establish eye
contact, what was I going to find on the other side?
And who? In last Wednesday's final performance show alone, Reznik went from
poised, immaculately gowned and coiffed ballroom diva to thuggishly ambisexual
hip-hop delinquent to kitten-with-a-whip go-go dancing Ann-Margret.
In fact, the real Reznik is an odd combination of the lithe, leaping free
spirit you see in her solo routines, the giggly girlie-girl of the pretaped
rehearsal segments and the shyly self-aware flower child of the offstage
interviews.
"There's lots of layers to me that people don't expect," she
concedes.
Fortunately, for the moment, those celebrated "six-pack" abs are
safely hidden away beneath loose-fitting sweats. But I still know they're
there. If this woman had an ounce of body fat it would be lonely. When she's
dolled up in one of those midriff-baring costumes, you can almost see her
intestines.
Every woman and several of the men I know all want me to ask how she does it,
how anyone could possibly chisel themselves into this kind of shape.
It is clearly a question she gets asked a lot. "Dancing and
genetics," she shrugs, curled up in a chair in a CTV boardroom, tousled
mane of blond hair cascading down from beneath a pork-pie hat.
"I have my dad's body. I have hips like my mom, but this whole area
..." she indicates those famous abs, "this is all my dad. So it is
genetics. And I eat really healthy, like, a lot of organic food. I don't mix
certain food types."
It can't be that simple. "Well, yeah," she concedes, "it is a lot
of hard work. When I was 25, I used to dance for Cirque (du Soleil) and the
trainer there used to do crazy abs with us. Then I taught here in Toronto at
different gyms, and did a lot of abs and stuff.
"I don't any more. Last year I kind of stopped and, you know, kind of
relaxed a bit, because I was getting really muscular. And the last two or three
months, I think I've lost a little more weight, with all the stress."
From the first auditions to the Final Four, Reznik's Dance journey has
been arduous, but uniquely rewarding.
"I'm not a competitive person," she insists. "I came here for
the show because I knew what I am lacking, and I wanted to get that experience
so I would get better.
"Honestly, I'm not even thinking about anything but just hitting that
choreography straight and doing a good job, and that's it.
"I think that I am learning a lot from everybody, and I am just enjoying
the experience."
And sharing her experience – particularly with the young ballerina, Allie
Bertram, who she has clearly taken under her wing.
Reznik too started out in ballet, when her family moved here from Israel.
"Allie reminds me so much of me when I was 19," she smiles.
"What I've realized in the last few years is whatever is meant to happen
will happen. Just being in the moment, that's kind of my secret."
::SPORTS NEWS::
New Raptors Coach Gets Thumbs Up
Source: www.thestar.com
- Doug Smith, Sports Reporter
(December 05, 2008) DENVER–Over five years
and countless hours of practice sessions, games and the downtime that mark an
NBA season, Chris Bosh has reached a nice comfort level with Jay Triano. Nothing should change now that there's been
an alteration in Triano's job description.
"I'm comfortable with Jay, he's been in a head coaching position before
with the Canadian national team, he's just not in unknown waters right
now," Bosh said after a two-hour workout here yesterday morning.
"He has a system that he wants to run. We're not changing a whole bunch,
we're going to keep doing what we're doing and he's making some minor
adjustments.
"Only change that was needed was that we needed to play harder and execute
better and come with a better mentality in each and every game."
There was no large measure of remorse among the Raptors a day after Sam
Mitchell was fired.
The NBA can be a tough business, everyone knows, and while players and
Mitchell's co-workers are far from blameless on his demise, there was far more
looking forward than back.
"Me and Sam were very close but that's a decision that the front office
made and we have to move with it," said Bosh. "We all accept it and
I'm sure that Sam is moving on just like we are.
Triano, 50, takes over an 8-9 team that some – primarily general manager Bryan
Colangelo – think should have a better record. The native of Niagara Falls gets
the job after spending seven seasons on the Raptors bench working for Lenny
Wilkens, Kevin O'Neill and Mitchell.
"I think he's the best guy for the job," said Bosh. "I think
everybody knows what they're doing up top. (That's) the reason why they put Jay
as the interim head coach. We all have a comfort level with him, he wants to
work hard and he wants to win basketball games just like we do.''
To Jermaine O'Neal, whose relationship with Mitchell never had a chance to
grow, it doesn't really matter who's calling the shots, it's on the players to
make things work.
"The coaching change, it sparks guys because there are going to be some
guys who haven't played as many minutes as they want to play who feel like
they've got a new chance," said O'Neal. "It's a new flow. The offence
we went over (yesterday) had a little bit different feel than Sam's offensive
system but, again, I think it's unfair to put all the blame on Sam.
"You have to put the blame on the players also. Players play the game and
we have to do a better job of taking it personally and stopping our guys and
not expecting someone to help us as much.
"We've been absolutely horrendous on defence this year so until we
personally take that personally, we're going to struggle no matter who we have
at coach."
Triano said he expects to start the usual suspects tonight in Utah but he also
hopes to limit the minutes of players like Bosh, who's logging about 42 minutes
a game right now.
"Obviously, I'm going to go in having a plan as to how I can maximize
having our best players on the floor for the most amount of time but things
change."
Morten Anderson, NFL's All-Time Leading Scorer, Retires
Source: www.thestar.com - The Associated Press
(December 08, 2008) COPENHAGEN,
Denmark–Kicker Morten Andersen, the NFL's career-leading scorer, is retiring because of knee problems.
The 48-year-old Dane, who scored 2,437 points during his 25-year career, played
for the Atlanta Falcons the past two seasons but wasn't able to get a contract
this year. Andersen said Monday he has given up his search and his NFL career.
"I realized I no longer can train in an optimal way because of my
knees," Andersen told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "So
I am retiring."
Andersen said that his knees were worn out after so many years as a
professional player.
"It's not that I cannot kick, play golf or go bicycling, but it's not the
same anymore," he said.
Andersen said that being a member of the Falcons when the team reached the
Super Bowl in 1999 "was the culmination. It was the pinnacle of my
career."
The Falcons advanced to their only Super Bowl after the 1998 season when
Andersen's 38-yard field goal beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC title game.
Atlanta lost the Super Bowl to the Denver Broncos.
Andersen became the leading scorer in NFL history on Dec. 17, 2006 with a field
goal during the Falcons' 38-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
He kicked for five NFL teams in 25 years, including 13 seasons for the New
Orleans Saints, eight for the Falcons, two for the Kansas City Chiefs and one
season each with the New York Giants and the Vikings.
A Copenhagen native, Andersen went to the United States in 1977 as an exchange student
and played at Michigan State.
He said he decided to announce his retirement in Denmark because of the support
he has received at home. Although the NFL gets modest coverage in the
Scandinavian country, Andersen's record-breaking career has been a top sports
story in Danish media.
After 355 Wins, Maddux Ends Hall Of Fame Baseball Career
Source: www.thestar.com - The Associated Press
(December 08, 2008) LAS VEGAS – Greg Maddux grew up with the same weekend ritual as so
many other American kids.
Tagging along with his big brother, he would run down to the park to play ball against
the older guys from the neighbourhood in regular Sunday scrimmages.
He met a pitching coach who preached movement over velocity, and pretty soon
Maddux was striking out those stronger teenagers. Nearly three decades later,
he walked away from baseball Monday as one of the greatest pitchers to put on a
uniform.
After 355 wins and 23 major-league seasons, Maddux held a 30-minute news
conference to announce his retirement on the opening day of the winter meetings
– just minutes from his Las Vegas home.
"I really just came out here today to say thank you," he said in a
ballroom at the swanky Bellagio hotel. "I appreciate everything this game
has given me. It's going to be hard to walk away obviously, but it's time. I
have a family now that I need to spend some more time with. I still think I can
play the game, but not as well as I would like to, so it's time to say
goodbye."
Next stop, the Hall of Fame.
Wearing a casual shirt and slacks, Maddux spoke softly on stage and never
appeared to get choked up. His parents and family – including brother Mike
Maddux, the Texas' Rangers pitching coach and a former big leaguer himself –
sat in the front row.
A large poster with photos of Maddux hung behind the podium. He was introduced
by agent Scott Boras, who said "Mad Dog" had a ``model" career.
Maddux leaves with four consecutive NL Cy Young Awards (1992-95) and a 3.16
ERA, especially impressive in the steroid era. He ranks eighth on the career
wins list, with one more victory than Roger Clemens.
"I never changed," said Maddux, who turns 43 in April. "I think,
hey, you locate your fastball and you change speeds no matter who is
hitting."
Maddux spent his final season with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles
Dodgers, finishing 355-227. His remarkable resume includes a record 18 Gold
Gloves, including one this year.
::FITNESS NEWS::
The 20-Minute Home Workout
By
Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE, RTS1, eDiets Chief Fitness Pro
The
whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended
to be.
--Oprah Winfrey
I once wrote an article called "Are You Ready for a Quickie?" It's a
workout designed for
those who need to perform brief exercise sessions in the privacy of their home
with absolutely no equipment.
If you've suddenly been hit with a busy schedule or just need something quick,
I have the workout for you.
No long sessions in the gym or hours
of cardio: Just a realistic alternative to all the noise in the world of
fitness that makes us hate exercising. No anatomy lessons today -- simply
something you can do in your living room or office. The only weight you'll need
is your own body.
This series of movements will take about 20 minutes or fewer. Yep, you're
reading correctly -- just 20 minutes. You can do them three to four times per
week. Your entire body will be stimulated and you'll feel rejuvenated -- without
all the added stress of having to go to the gym.
I've designed this routine so that one exercise stimulates multiple muscle
groups. This way you'll get the best bang for your buck in the least amount of
time. Perform each exercise in succession. After completing one movement,
immediately continue to the next one. After you've completed all the movements,
perform them one more time. Attempt 15 repetitions of each movement. Don't
worry if you can't perform all the reps, it will come. If you're a beginner,
take your time and go at your own pace.
1. BENT KNEE PUSH UPS -- Start with your hands and knees on a mat. Your hands
should be shoulders-width apart and your head, neck, hips and legs should be in
a straight line. Do not let your back arch and cave in. Maintain a slight bend
in the elbows. Lower your upper body by bending your elbows outward, stopping
before your chest touches the floor. Contracting the chest muscles, slowly
return to the starting position. Inhale while lowering your body. Exhale while
returning to the starting position. After mastering this exercise, you may wish
to try the full push-up.
2. LUNGE (with household cans)-- Stand straight with your feet together. Hold a
can in each hand with your arms down at your sides. Step forward with the right
leg and lower the left leg until the knee almost touches the floor. Contracting
the quadriceps muscles (front of the thigh), push off your right foot, slowly
returning to the starting position. Alternate the motion with the left leg to complete
the set. Inhale while stepping forward. Exhale while returning to the starting
position. The step should be long enough that your left leg is nearly straight.
Do not let your knee touch the floor. Make sure your head is up and your back
is straight. Your chest should be lifted and your front leg should form a
90-degree angle at the bottom of the movement. Your right knee should not pass
your right foot, and you should be able to see your toes at all times. If you
have one leg that is more dominant than the other, start out with the less
dominant leg first. Discontinue this exercise if you feel any discomfort in
your knees.
3. ABDOMINAL BICYCLE MANEUVER -- Lie on a mat with your lower back in a
comfortable position. Put your hands on either side of your head by your ears.
Bring your knees up to about a 45-degree angle. Slowly go through a bicycle
pedaling motion alternating your left elbow to your right knee, then your right
elbow to your left knee. This is a more advanced exercise, so don't worry if you
can't perform a lot of them. Do not perform this activity if it puts any strain
on your lower back. Also, don't pull on your head and neck during this
exercise. The lower to the ground your legs bicycle, the harder your abs have
to work.
4. BENCH DIPS --- Using two benches or chairs, sit on one. Place palms on the
bench with fingers wrapped around the edge. Place both feet on the other chair.
Slide your upper body off the chair with your elbows nearly but not completely
locked. Lower your upper body slowly toward the floor until your elbows are
bent slightly more than 90 degrees. Contracting your triceps (back of the arm),
extend your elbows, returning to the starting position, stopping just short of
the elbows fully extending. Inhale while lowering your body and exhale while
returning to the starting position. Beginners should start with their feet on
the floor and knees at a 90-degree angle. As you progress, move your feet out
farther until your legs are straight with a slight bend in the knees.
5. ABDOMINAL DOUBLE CRUNCH -- Lie on the floor face up. Bend your knees until
your legs are at a 45-degree angle with both feet on the floor. Your back
should be comfortably relaxed on the floor. Place both hands crossed on your
chest. Contracting your abdominals, raise your head and legs off the floor
toward one another. Slowly return to the starting position, stopping just short
of your shoulders and feet touching the floor. Exhale while rising up and
inhale while returning to the starting position. Keep your eyes on the ceiling
to avoid pulling with your neck. Your hands should not be used to lift the head
or assist in the movement.
Five exercises performed for two cycles in just 20 minutes! You'll begin to
notice a tighter feeling in a few weeks, and you will naturally
perform more reps as time progresses -- all in 20 minutes or fewer.
::MOTIVATION::
Motivational
Note
Source: www.eurweb.com
— Dale Carnegie
"Many
people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job,
they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of
what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future
date."