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LE NEWSLETTER
March
31, 2011
Went to the 40th Anniversary of the Junos this
year, thanks to a friend at
work. It was truly Canadian - which unfortunately means
that the general public had not heard of a lot of the artists or bands.
It broke my heart that so many young people hadn't heard of Neil
Young before - they were there to see Drake, for
the most part. Good marketing tool but alas, Drake was shut out. He
was a great host for sure ... funny, sincere and not a hint of corny. His
skits were truly funny (look under TOP STORIES for one
targeting Old Money! And nice touch that he invited the seniors out and
they were present in the mosh pit, which was the
driest I've seen for sure).
At the same time since Arcade Fire won a Grammy ... Junos tend to
follow suit. Not undeserving but would have been nice to see Drake win
SOMETHING! Peeps read my newsletter regularly and you would have seen
something on almost all the artists that no one had heard about before ... hint
hint! Stay up to date on Canadian artists right HERE!
For instance, my cousin's son, JP of the band, Fond Of Tigers, won the Juno for Best Instrumental Album! Congrats JP and we finally
have a Juno in the family! See more info under TOP STORIES!
Japan is having such a horrible and tragic time in history right
now so I'm putting in the article again that gives you ways to donate for
different relief efforts. Say a
prayer at 12 noon today (March 31) for a worldwide
collective prayer for Japan!
For those of you going to tonight's hot concert featuring the group Naturally 7, there has been a slight
time change! The doors now open at 7:00 pm with the show at 8:00
pm. Check it out under HOT EVENTS! It's a sold out
show!
Now, take a scroll and a read of your weekly entertainment news.
This newsletter is designed to give you some updated
entertainment-related news and provide you with our upcoming event
listings. Welcome to those who are new members!
::TOP STORIES::
VIDEO:: Drake's Juno Shutout Unprecedented For Host Of Show
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- The Canadian Press
(March 28, 2011) TORONTO — Musicians
who host the Juno Awards
typically take some hardware home from the show, so there were a few raised
eyebrows when rapper Drake came up empty Sunday night.
“Hmmmm...... Drizzy wit no Junos in Toronto?” tweeted Drake's Juno-nominated producer
Boi-1da, a native of Ajax, Ont.
“Really?”
Indeed, the shutout for the 24-year-old Toronto rapper – who had a leading six
nominations – was especially surprising considering how past hosts have fared.
At the 2007 show in Saskatoon, Victoria songstress Nelly Furtado
hosted and – fresh off the
success
of her rump-shaking club smash Loose – was feted with five awards,
including album of the year and artist of the year.
Country crossover superstar Shania Twain was similarly successful back in 2003,
the same year her succession of hockey-themed dresses sent tongues wagging.
Twain won three awards that night, including artist of the year.
Celine Dion was similarly dominant when the beloved Montreal chanteuse hosted
back in 1993, claiming four awards including single of the year and female
vocalist of the year.
The only recent examples of Juno hosts who went home empty-handed – the
Barenaked Ladies in 2002 or Alanis Morissette in ’04,
for instance – occurred because those artists hadn't released material during
the eligibility period.
But Drake won two Junos last year – and that was prior to the release of his
smash debut LP, Thank Me
Later, so he seemed destined to claim at least one award out of his
six nominations.
A representative for Drake declined to comment.
Though Drake didn't nab any awards, the show's
youngest-ever host did receive plenty of glowing reviews for the way he capably
steered the telecast.
A day later, Twitter was buzzing over two of Drake's skits – one in which he quizzed
senior citizens on their hip-hop knowledge, and another that involved the rapper
sparring with teen-pop star Justin Bieber over Skype
– and he received positive notices in the press, too.
Gossip blogger Elaine Lui – who also works for Junos
broadcaster CTV – wrote that Drake was “everything that (Oscars host) James
Franco wasn't,” Macleans called him “charming” and
deemed the Junos “more entertaining than either the Grammys or the Oscars,”
while Billboard reported that Drake “proved a solid emcee, with equal amounts
of respect, well-timed jokes and pre-planned bits.”
Even Bieber – a two-time winner this year – showed
his support for Drake on Twitter: “to my big bro (Drake) i
share these awards with you because you deserve them too. #greatfriend and a #greatartist.”
You've Come A Long Way, Baby Boyz
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- By Paula Citron
(March 25, 2011) Rather than a straightforward review, consider
this
an encouragement award.
It would be very easy to dismiss Three Boyz,
Three Countries, One Dream (a.k.a. King Ah De Dancehall) out of
hand - the show certainly needs a lot of fixing. But there is also much to
praise.
First for some background. Baby Boyz
Dance Group, based in Brampton, Ont., is one of the Toronto area's most
successful urban dance companies. The eight-member, all-male troupe was founded
in 2003 under the direction of choreographer Trevor Brown, and their usual
performing venues are clubs and corporate events, with pit stops at churches,
community centres and private gigs.
Several years ago, I saw Baby Boyz at Dusk Dances in
a park in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood. I said in a review at the time that
this company was different because the young men tried to tell a serious story,
about being black and coping with life on the margins.
Three Boyz, Three Countries, One Dream is
another ambitious attempt at dance theatre.
For this show, Baby Boyz have put their b-boy crew -
known for the detailed precision of a military drill team - at the centre of a
drama that looks at three young men, all called Stripes (Tabby Donaldson), who
share the dream of being King of the Dancehall.
The story begins in Ghana, then moves to Jamaica and finally to Canada. In
Ghana, a hunter sees a ritual dance. He learns the steps and takes them back to
his village, and so inspires Stripes to dance. In Jamaica, where reggae and
dancehall reign supreme, Stripes wants to be the best dancer on the island. In
Canada, Stripes is a famous dancer who has lost his way, and finds it again
through dance.
The eight Baby Boyz and Trevor Brown form the core of
the cast, which also includes guest male and female dancers, children, actors,
singers and the poet Afua Cooper. In other words,
this is armies marching. More than 20 people fill the stage.
Not only that, the Boyz are
stretching themselves. First, they are acting, speaking lines from a script
written by Joseph Jomo Pierre and directed by Dian
Marie Bridge. They are also performing contemporary choreography by Kevin A. Ormsby, which is entirely different from their usual urban
dance. Kay-Ann Ward is also credited as a choreographer.
The show is being presented under the auspices of Dance Immersion, Toronto's
important presenter of black dance under program director Vivine
Scarlett.
But, okay, here's the bad stuff: There is an amateur quality to the show, which
includes long (read: embarrassing) pauses between scenes. Some of the acting is
weak, and the African and West Indian accents can be impenetrable. There is a
sense of the Boyz being defeated by their own ambition.
That said, I doubt there is another show in the
country featuring urban dance with such sweeping storytelling. It's a new
Canadian hybrid, and that's worth encouraging. There are certainly urban dance
companies, particularly in Vancouver and Montreal, that perform narrative
shows, but not with this breadth and depth, and mix of other disciplines.
Needless to say, the dance numbers in Three Boyz
are wonderful, even electrifying by the end. That's to be expected. I want Baby
Boyz to keep on experimenting, but when they put
together another dance theatre piece, I hope to see polish and sophistication. Three
Boyz, Three Countries, One Dream is only the
beginning.
Three Boyz, Three Countries, One Dream (a.k.a.
King Ah De Dancehall) continues until Saturday.
Three Boyz, Three Countries, One Dream
Baby Boyz Dance Group (and friends)
Dance Immersion At Enwave Theatre
In Toronto on Thursday
Remembering:
Black-Rights Activist Dudley Laws
Source: www.nationalpost.com
- Peter Kuitenbrouwer
(March 24, 2011) Dudley Laws, the black activist known for his 
curly silver locks and his acid tongue, died Wednesday
after a long battle with kidney disease. He was 76.
Mr. Laws gained prominence when he called police to account for a number of
shootings of young black men in Toronto in the 1980s. Not one to mince words,
he once called Toronto Police the most murderous in North America.
Born in Jamaica, Mr. Laws immigrated to England at age 20 and attended
Kensington College, where he trained as a welder and boiler-maker. His
community activism began in London’s Brixton neighbourhood
before he moved to Toronto in 1965, where he joined the Universal Negro
Improvement Association. Later he co-founded the Black Action Defense Committee
with lawyer Charles Roach and Denham Jolly, who went on later to found a
Toronto black radio station, Flow 93.5 FM.
Mr. Laws took a prominent role in a downtown march in May, 1992, following the
acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney
King, and the shooting by Toronto police of a black drug suspect. Mr. Laws led
a demonstration that began peacefully in front of the U.S. consulate on
University Avenue, but then turned into a riot when about 1,000 black and white
youth went on a rampage, smashing store windows and looting businesses. Police
blamed him for the mayhem, but he refused to apologize.
“You can never control a people who have been brutalized,” he said.
In 1991 police arrested Mr. Laws and charged him with conspiring to smuggle
illegal immigrants in and out of Canada. He was convicted and fined, but the
Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial after learning that the trial judge
had met privately with prosecutors. The Crown later stayed the charges.
Then in 1995 he was charged with raping a young girl; he was acquitted. He
later called both court cases a campaign to silence him. If there were one, the
campaign failed; in the 1990s he continued to raise his voice in defence of the black community.
Councillor Michael Thompson, vice-chair of the
Toronto Police Services Board, said the police have become more sensitive to
the communities they serve, thanks in part to Mr. Laws’ efforts.
“People didn’t always agree with his methods,” Mr. Thompson said. “Still, I
think history can judge him as an agent of positive change between police and
the black community. He exemplified a real desire that all people be treated
fairly and with respect.”
In 2000, Mr. Laws told the National Post that, “The worst thing to do in
life is to live in fear. I have no fear at all. If one becomes afraid, you
can’t do your work. You’ll be looking over your shoulders and be afraid to say
what you want to say.”
Vancouver and B.C.-Based Artists Shine
Source: Vancouver Sun, By Francois Marchand
(March 28, 2011) You may not have seen them during the televised
broadcast of the Juno Awards on Sunday night, but several of Vancouver's and
British Columbia's finest musicians managed to scoop up a trophy during Juno
weekend in Toronto.
. Hip-hop artist Shad, who is now based in Vancouver, surprised everyone by
topping Juno host Drake and his album Thank Me Later in the rap recording of
the year with his superb effort TSOL.
. Vancouver Indie rockers Said the Whale were named new group of the year
during the non-televised portion of the gala at Toronto's Royal York Hotel on
Saturday night.
. In a category that used to be a staple of the Juno broadcast, rock album of
the year, Matthew Good and his album Vancouver were named the best of the
bunch.
. Vancouver's Elaine (Lil' Bit) Shepherd D'Maestro won
in the reggae recording of the year category for her album Likkle
But Mi Tallawah.
. "Post-everything" outfit Fond of Tigers, which
features some of Vancouver's best jazz and experimental musicians, won
instrumental album of the year with its stellar offering Continent &
Western.
. Journeyman Vancouver blues veteran Jim Byrnes scooped up his third blues
album of the year trophy, this time for his latest record Everywhere West.
. Salmon Arm soul-pop artist Greg Sczebel won in the
contemporary Christian/gospel album of the year category for his album Love
& the Lack Thereof, repeating in a category he won back in 2005.
. Finally, Abbotsford-based pop-rockers Hedley, who performed during the
televised broadcast on Sunday night, were awarded the video of the year trophy
for their song Perfect with music video director Kyle Davison on Saturday
night.
How To Donate To
Relief Efforts In Japan
Source: www.thestar.com - Star staff
(March 15, 2011) Organizations helping earthquake- and
tsunami-ravaged Japan have made it easy for Canadians to
donate.
Canadian wireless customers with most major carriers can text ASIA to 30333, to
donate $5 to the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund
and there is no charge for the text.
According to the Canadian Red Cross, a total of $3 million has already been
donated by Canadians since the catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake Friday.
Those wanting to help can donate online at redcross.ca or call 1-800-418-1111
James Astleford, donor-relations director for ADRA Canada, a humanitarian agency established by the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, said his organization has representatives in
Japan working with stranded residents.
The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee has set up a Japan donation website as well and says it is working with partners on the
ground to determine what role its volunteers can play.
Donations to CRWRC can also be made by calling 1-800-730-3490
Médicins Sans Frontières says two teams of three people are trying to reach
the worst-hit areas in Japan’s Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.
“The MSF teams, composed of medical and logistics personnel, will try to reach
the area by helicopter,” said spokeswoman Naomi Sutorius-Lavoie
in an email Friday. “Once there, the two teams will liaise with local
emergency-response authorities to assess medical needs. Another 25 MSF medical
and logistical staff in Japan are on standby to respond once the situation has
been assessed.”
UNICEF says it
has already positioned supplies and personnel in countries throughout the
Pacific region.
Plan
International Canada had an
emergency-response team on standby in Indonesia, where it has a warehouse
stocked with 5,000 family kits available for immediate distribution.
World
Vision Canada has
also set up a webpage to
solicit donations to provide disaster relief for victims of the earthquake.
UJA Federation of Greater
Toronto, a group that
supports IsraAid, an Israel-based humanitarian
organization sending teams of rescue personnel, emergency medical officers and
water pollution purification specialists to Japan, is also accepting donations here.
CARE
Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Quebec and Save the Children Canada have formed a group called The Humanitarian
Coalition and began accepting
donations Saturday.
The Salvation Army announced it was allocating $75,000 to the earthquake
relief effort in Japan and is accepting donations online here.
Canadians can also donate online through International Development and
Relief Foundation or by
calling 1-866-497-IDRF(1-866-497-4373Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada says “the best way for
Canadians to help is to donate money — not clothing or food.”
:MUSIC NEWS::
GALLERY: Indie Rockers Rule Junos, While
Host Drake Is Shut Out
Source: www.thestar.com
- Ben Rayner (This article has been edited from a
previous version.)
(March 27, 2011) The Juno Awards did a
fine job of covering the bases this year in all respects but one: they
neglected to give their host, homecoming Toronto hip-hop hero Drake, a
single trophy of his own.
Instead, the job of “owning it” at the 40th-anniversary Juno ceremony broadcast
live on CTV from the Air Canada Centre on Sunday night fell to Montreal
indie-rock ensemble the Arcade Fire, who wound up with four trophies in their
possession as Juno Week festivities in Toronto drew to a close.
The band, fresh off an upset Album of the Year win at the Grammy
Awards in Los Angeles last month, collected an Album of the Year Juno, too, for
last year’s much-celebrated international hit The Suburbs. Bragging rights
for Artist of the Year and Group of the Year were also the Arcade Fire’s, while
three tunes from The Suburbs – “Ready To
Start,” “We Used to Wait” and “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” – were
enough to secure the group Songwriter of the Year honours, as well. Not a bad
haul on the night, considering The Suburbs had already taken Alternative
Album of the Year at the pre-broadcast Juno gala dinner at the Allstream Centre on Saturday night. Oh, and they delivered
a walloping performance of “Rococo” on the broadcast to top it all off.[ARCHIVES 2011/photogallery/photo00015708/real.htm]
Drake, on the other hand, didn’t wind up with anything to show for his six
nominations. His Thank Me Later even lost to Shad’s TSOL in the
Rap Album of the Year category on Saturday night, surprising many.
He did a decent job of hosting the show, though, and showed a reasonably deft
hand at comedy during pretaped interludes that
variously had him plotting a Call of Duty videogame night with CTV anchor Lloyd
Robertson and rollin’ with his “Old Money” posse of blinged-out and possibly armed senior citizens.
The other multiple winners as the weekend wound down were polar opposites,
generationally speaking, but – taken in tandem with the Arcade Fire’s successes
– definitely indicative of the more inclusive nature of the present-day Juno
Awards.
Can-rock icon Neil Young, on hand at Sunday’s ceremony to accept the Allan
Waters Humanitarian Award, added an Artist of the Year title to the Adult
Alternative Album of the Year he scooped up for Le Noise on Saturday
evening.
His heartfelt acceptance speech – “Just look inside yourself and look inside
the eyes of your friends and you’ll find the secret of being a humanitarian” –
for the Allan Waters award was utterly, wonderfully Neil-like and one of the
night’s highlights. He also ensured his place in Juno video reels for an
eternity to come by hoisting his Artist of the Year trophy and offering the
doting crowd an “Oh, Canada” later in the night.
It was a lot of Neil Young all at once, considering the Winnipeg-raised,
Toronto-born legend isn’t typically that generous with his public appearances.
For a notoriously shy guy, though, he was remarkably funny and chatty
backstage.
“It’s very unusual for me to be this exposed,” he conceded to the press room.
“Maybe if I’d been this exposed a long time ago people would know what I’m
like. I’m just trying to be myself and avoid the teleprompter as much as
possible.”
Stratford-raised teen-pop sensation Justin Bieber,
meanwhile, scooped up a pair of statuettes of his own during
the Juno broadcast. His My World 2.0 was named Pop Album of the
Year, while he rather predictably overtook Drake, Hedley, Michael Buble and Sarah McLachlan in the race for the viewer-voted
Juno Fan Choice Award.
Bieber was in Europe for the affair, albeit present
via videotape Skyping with his friend Drake in an
oddly homoerotic opening sequence and saying his pre-recorded “thank yous” from afar at the appropriate moments. The young
pop-culture phenomenon’s absence didn’t seriously diminish the Juno show’s
superstar wattage, however, with the likes of Drake, Young, the Arcade Fire,
McLachlan and Bryan Adams – in town to induct another pop titan, Shania Twain,
into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame – in the building. In terms of “star
power,” it might as well have been the Grammys, a fine testament to how much
the Canadian music industry has matured since the Junos
began in Toronto as the Gold Leaf Awards 40 years ago.
Timmins-born Twain, reappearing after a long media silence, was particularly
effusive in her praise for her home nation, joking onstage that “I feel like I
should be wearing the Canadian flag.”
She was similarly gracious backstage. “There’s no day like today,” she said,
keeping humble in the face of her Hall of Fame honours
and brushing off. “Honestly, what can I say? This is a really big moment and it
feels very genuine in every way …
“I don’t feel iconic. I don’t feel that way at all. I feel like a small-town
girl from Timmins. That’s never going to change. I’m 45 years old … That’s who
I am.”
UMAC Presents Urban Music Showcases During JunoFest
Source: www.broadcastermagazine.com
(March 17, 2011) UMAC, The
Urban Music Association of Canada, The
Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences & The JUNO Award Urban
Music Committees, have come together to fete the best and brightest from urban
music in Canada during the 2011 JunoFest
activities. As the JUNO Awards celebrate their 40th Anniversary in Toronto, UrbFresh will also honour urban music's contribution to the
Canadian & global music culture over that same
period.
"The Association couldn't be happier! UMAC looks forward to growing UrbFresh's stature, visibility & star power for years
to come at JunoFest!",
stated UMAC President Will Strickland.
Featuring stellar performances from 2011 Rap, Reggae and R&B Soul nominees Karl
Wolf, Eternia & MoSS,
Silver, Tony Anthony, D-Sisive, Elaine Lil' Bit
Shepherd and more, UrbFresh will be hosted by
the Cornerstones of Canadian Rap, Wes "Maestro"
Williams and Michie Mee and is poised to be one of the most dynamic
presentations during JunoFest.
The 2011 UrbFresh Urban Music Showcases happen on
both Friday, March 25th and Saturday, March 26th at Toronto's Hard Rock
Café.
Down With Webster: The Fans' Band
Source: www.thestar.com
- Brendan Kennedy
(March 25, 2011) It’s hard to imagine a better homecoming.
Local pop-fusionist party boys Down With
Webster wrapped up their headlining North American tour two weeks ago
with a sold-out show at the legendary Massey Hall.
The dynamic, 7-member group was joined by a five-piece horn section, 10-piece
string ensemble and nearly 3,000 screaming fans — mostly teenage girls.
“It’s great to be home!” crowed Martin “Bucky” Seja,
one of the group’s two MCs, before launching into the title track from their
2009 major-label debut, Time To Win Vol. I.
“It was surreal,” said Cam Hunter, Seja’s
rhyme-spitting counterpart, in an interview with The Star a few days after the
show. “It was a far cry from working our asses off to get 300 people into The Rivoli.”
The boys from The Beach — vocalist-guitarist Pat Gillett, bassist-vocalist
Tyler Armes, drummer Andrew “Marty” Martino, DJ Dave
“Diggy” Ferris and “hype-man” Kyle “Kap” Fairlie, plus Seja and Hunter — have another chance to expand their
growing fan base Sunday, when they perform at the Air Canada Centre as part of
the nationally televised Juno Awards.
The band is also nominated for Best Group and Pop Album of the Year. But
they’re up against some stiff competition: Grammy-winning Arcade Fire in the
first category and the superhuman force of nature known as Justin Bieber in the second.
The boys figure they don’t have a chance.
(They were nominated three times last year, losing Best New Group to The Arkells and two other awards to Justin Bieber
and Hedley.)
“None of my favourite artists ever win awards anyway,” reasoned Hunter, who
despite taking sips of Red Bull between questions, dialled down his manic stage
presence for the interview.
Besides, he and bassist-vocalist Tyler Armes agreed
that the performance is the real honour.
“If they told me you could not play and win both your awards, or you could not
win the awards and play, I’d play every time,” Hunter said.
DWW’s ascent along the Canadian music industry food
chain may seem a rapid rise for the Jackass-generation rap-rockers, who toiled
in Toronto’s club scene before they became MuchMusic
darlings.
But like most overnight success stories, theirs is more complicated.
“If you’ve only known about us through the media or through MuchMusic,
it seems fast, because it seems like one day we weren’t there and one day we
were there. But to us it was a thing where we were getting small breaks over
many, many years.”
As the story goes, Down With Webster was formed by Armes and vocalist-guitarist Pat Gillett for a Grade 8
talent show at Glen Ames Senior Public School in 1998. The band
stayed together through high school at Malvern Collegiate Institute and were
already recording songs in Armes’ garage before
graduation.
Their old high-school music teacher, Steve Irwin, recalls teaching Armes and Gillett.
“They were kind of our on-call band for the class. If I needed 10 minutes of
music or a fill here, they would always step up and support.”
Irwin, now retired, said he immediately recognized the boys’ musical talent and
would let them skip class to write songs and rehearse. “I thought it was time
well spent for them.” And what were they like outside of class? “I’m not going
to comment on that.”
By the time they left high school, they were pursuing the band full time,
helped by manager and former Canadian Idol judge Zack Werner.
Without any label or publicity support, they started selling out big rooms in
the city.
By the time they were named the Rogers Mobile/Universal Music Best Unsigned
Artist in Canada in 2008 and labels started sniffing around (most famously
those run by Gene Simmons and hip-hop super-producer Timbaland),
they already had established a fan base, growing bigger and more rabid all the
time.
Part of the strong connection the band continues to enjoy with its fans can be
attributed to their social media presence. All the group’s members regularly
tweet and post to the band’s Facebook page (which now has more than 350,000
members), responding to fans’ questions and updating them on shows and new
songs.
Almost to a person, fans mention their idols’ accessibility as a major reason
they feel so attached.
“You can post something on their wall on Facebook and they actually reply,”
said Erika Caldwell, 12, from Scarborough. “It’s kind of cool to know that
they’re talking to you.”
“When you feel like you know the band more, you want to keep on going to see
them,” said Jules Stricker, 13, who has been a
diehard fan ever since she saw DWW last year in Barrie.
“They’ve gotten pretty big over the last couple of years,” said Ivana Konkevic, 19. “And they
still make an effort to reach out to their fans and talk to them at every
show.”
For its part, the band doesn’t take any of it for granted.
“(Our success) is all viral and it all came from the fans,” says Hunter. “I
still think they have control over our career — and everyone else’s.”
It’s a new spin on an old-fashioned ethos: tour relentlessly and count on your
popularity to grow by word of mouth. Except in the Web 2.0 world, word of mouth
means tweets and status updates.
On that front, DWW have killed, to the tune of selling out the city’s most
prestigious venue on the strength of a single EP, and scoring three
platinum-selling (80,000 units sold) singles.
Because of their success — and perhaps their mostly teenage audience — Down With Webster are an easy target for critics: there is a
frat-boy, almost misogynist stupidity to their videos; their lyrics are goofy;
and a lot of the macho posturing feels contrived.
Hunter — who cites Rage Against the Machine, Cypress Hill and Wu-Tang Clan as
major influences — says if he was a critic, he might slam the band, too.
All he asks is that you give them a chance by checking out the live show, which
has garnered a reputation as being among the most energetic in the country.
“I don’t want to be a gimmick band. I don’t want to be a band that relies on
its looks. I don’t want to be a boy band that is just popular because girls
think you’re good-looking and the music is secondary. I don’t want to be
shallow and meaningless.”
It’s their call; the band
not only writes and performs all of their songs; they also produce everything
themselves. Hunter and Armes say they want to be
known for the music and nothing else.
Time To Win, Vol. II — which was planned to be another EP, but will now
be a full-length — will be released in the next three to four months, according
to Hunter, who said it will be an important moment for the band “to establish
that this is not just a flash-in-the-pan, this isn’t a boy band . . . I think
this is where we prove and show people what we are and what we’re capable of.”
Shad Nips Drake For Rap Juno
Source: www.thestar.com
- Ben Rayner
(March 27, 2011) Well, one day into the weekend’s Juno Awards
festivities and we have at least one major upset to consign to the history books.
Eccentric Vancouver-via-London, Ont.-via-Kenya rapper Shad gave
everyone a pleasant surprise on Saturday night by stealing the Rap Recording of
the Year trophy for his acclaimed third album, TSOL, from this year’s
expected Juno golden boy Drake and his international smash hit debut, Thank
Me Later.
It hardly counts as a shutout against Drake, of course. The Toronto MC is up
for five more statuettes tonight with the Juno Awards broadcast on CTV from the
Air Canada Centre and he’s hosting the damn ceremony on top of it, so expect a
little bit of luck to come his way.
Way to go Shadrach Kabango, though. TSOL —
which also mustered itself a Polaris Music Prize shortlist position last year —
came out last year on teensy indie hip-hop label Black Box and has relied on
word of mouth and its own, inarguable quality to reach a still-growing
underground audience on both sides of the border, without a shred of the hype
or the all-points, big-budget rollout that helped push Thank Me Later to
the top of the charts. Shad’s win is one of those little triumphs that keeps serious music going at functions like the Junos.
Other than that, there were few major surprises and no discernible themes or
frontrunners emerging after the first 32 trophies had been handed out at the
pre-broadcast Juno gala, held at the windswept Allstream
Centre down on the Exhibition grounds on Saturday evening.
Neil Young showed up, making up for a no-show at the Junos in Winnipeg six
years ago when he was sidelined by a brain aneurysm. Good thing, too, because
the notoriously awards-shy rocker – who’ll be getting a humanitarian award on
the broadcast tonight – found himself the recipient of an Adult Alternative
Album of the Year Juno for his album Le Noise. And the indirect
recipient of another, since the record’s producer, Daniel Lanois,
nabbed the Jack Richardson Producer of the Year trophy in part for his work on
the Le Noise track “Hitchhiker.”
“I’m not really an awards kind of guy, but it’s great to get one,” Young
remarked afterwards in the press room. “It’s a great honour. I appreciate it.
And the older I get, the more appreciative I get.”
As to being relegated to the fuzzy “adult alternative” category, he dryly
observed that it was the logical place to put him.
“I’m an adult. There’s no alternative. That’s me,” he quipped. “I don’t really
know anything about that, all the handles and everything. Those are other
people’s things.”
Other notable winners on the night included the first of the weekend’s Junos
for five-time nominees the Arcade Fire, who took Alternative Album of the Year
for The Suburbs. Caribou’s Swim
became the first-ever album to win in the brand-new Electronic Album of the
Year category. Polaris Music Prize winners Karkwa
took Francophone Album of the Year honours for Les Chemins
de Verre.
On the “mild surprise” front, Matthew Good emerged from oblivion to claim a
Rock Album of the Year trophy for Vancouver.
The full list of Saturday’s winners:
Rap Recording: Shad, TSOL
Rock Album: Matthew Good, Vancouver
Alternative Album: Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
New Group: Said the Whale
Country Album: Johnny Reid, A Place Called Love
Adult Alternative Album: Neil Young, Le Noise
International Album: Katy Perry, Teenage Dream
Vocal Jazz Album: Kellylee Evans, Nina
Contemporary Jazz Album: Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra, Treelines
Traditional Jazz Album: John MacLeod’s Rex Hotel Orchestra, Our First
Set
Instrumental Album: Fond of Tigers, Continent & Western
Francophone Album: Karkwa, Les Chemins de verre
Children’s Album: Peter Lenton, Proud Like
a Mountain
Classical Album, Solo and Chamber Ensemble: Gryphon Trio, Beethoven:
Piano Trios Op. 70 No. 1, Ghost and No. 2: Op 11
Classical Album, Large Ensemble or Soloist with Large Ensemble
Accompaniment: Lara St. John, Mozart: Scott and Lara St. John/The
Knights
Classical Album, Vocal or Choral Performance: Gerald Finley, Great
Operatic Arias
Classical Composition: Murray Schafer, “Duo for Violin and Piano”
Dance Recording: Deadmau5, “Sofi Needs a
Ladder”
R&B/Soul Recording: Quanteisha, “Stars”
Reggae Recording: Elaine Lil’Bit Shepherd, “Likkle But Mi Tallawah”
Aboriginal Album: CerAmony, CerAmony
Roots and Traditional Album, Solo: Old Man Luedecke,
My Hands Are On Fire and Other Love Songs
Roots and Traditional Album, Group: Le Vent du Nord, La part du feu
Blues Album: Jim Byrnes, Everywhere West
Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album: Greg Sczebel,
Love & the Lack Thereof
World Music Album: Élage Diouf,
Aksil
Producer: Daniel Lanois for “Hitchhiker” by
Neil Young and “I Believe in You” by Black Dub
Recording Engineer: Kevin Churko for “Let It
Die” and “Life Won’t Wait” by Ozzy Osbourne
Recording Package: Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Robyn Kotek and Joe
McKay (art directors/designers) and Jimmy Collins and Elisabeth Chicoine (photographers) for Broken Social Scene’s Forgiveness
Rock Record
Video of the Year: “Perfect,” by Hedley (director: Kyle Davison)
Music DVD of the Year: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Electronic Album: Caribou, Swim
Hip Hop Summit A Showcase For Can-Hop Talent
Source: www.globeandmail.com
– Joshua Ostroff
CBC Hip
Hop Summit
At Glenn Gould Studio In Toronto on Tuesday
(March 30, 2011) In hip hop, timing is everything – it’s how beats and
rhymes
become rap – and the timing of CBC’s Hip
Hop Summit was telling. Two days earlier, the Canadian music industry
celebrated the 40th annual Juno Awards but somehow forgot hip hop.
2011 seems a long way from 1998, when the Vancouver-based Rascalz
famously declined their award. “They gave back their Juno because they wanted
to have the hip-hop award televised,” said Toronto rapper Kardinal
Offishall in the CBC lobby in Toronto, moments before
the Hip Hop Summit got under way on Tuesday. “I remember the next year they
televised it, and after that it reverted to how things always were.”
Northern Touch,
the Rascalz’s Juno-winning pan-Canadian
collaboration with Offishall, Choclair
and others, won in 1999 and their broadcast performance became a landmark
moment for Canadian hip hop. But this year, not even multi-nominated host Drake
performed, and though K’Naan picked up best single,
it was for the Tears Are
Not Enough-esque charity version of Wavin’ Flag rather than the
original, which lost to Michael Bublé last year.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Offishall. “It only made sense
that if you have one of the biggest rappers in the world hosting your event,
there would be more hip hop representation. But it is what it is. You have to
work within the system that you have and do things to showcase hip hop in other
ways, find other avenues to expose the talent that you have here. And this is
an amazing example of that.”
Though Drake was notably absent, the Hip Hop Summit did include almost every
other relevant rapper of the past quarter century, from Radio 2 host Buck 65 to
Can-hop pioneers Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee to acclaimed rappers Cadence Weapon, (non-televised
2011 Juno-winner) Shad, k-os and Offishall.
The evening kicked off, appropriately, with Classified’s
Oh…Canada which
updated our “north of America” national anthem to include references to
marijuana. He was joined by Maestro for Hard
to be Hip-Hop, before the country’s very first rap star big-upped
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings and performed his Guess Who-sampling hit, Stick to Your Vision.
That mix of old- and new-school stars continued throughout the night. Ghetto
Concept reunited for their first original line-up performance in 16 years, then brought out 15-year-old Reema
Major who, in turn, introduced Canada’s first cross-border rapper Michie Mee. In a red Adidas track
suit, with dreads up in pigtails, she busted moves while dropping classics like
her dancehall-inflected Jamaican Funk, which influenced the next (and most
electrifying) performer, Offishall, who juiced the
crowd with his hometown-repping singles BaKardi Slang and The Anthem.
Next up came Cadence Weapon and Shad, who each performed a couple solo joints
before debuting their thrilling collaboration Baby, I’m Yours. K’Naan, in town for the Junos, made a surprise appearance
to perform his soft-spoken Take
a Minute, note that the “entire black population of Toronto is
backstage – it's like Haiti,’ and introduce Dream Warriors on their
iconoclastic jazz-rap classic My
Definition Of A Boombastic
Jazz Style.
K-os took the stage with his full band before
bringing Saukrates back out for I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman,
which saw the pair crooning the event-appropriate lines, “Oh Toronto, here we
come/Right back where we started from.”
The summit followed suit, with Maestro returning in full Symphony in Effect
regalia – black tuxedo, conductor baton and Africa medallion – to perform
Can-hop’s biggest-ever hit Let
Your Backbone Slide with k-os and Shad
before a gleeful freestyle session with each emcee spitting off-the-cuff rhymes
about themselves, each other and the summit, concluding with Kardinal’s: “CBC, I hope you got my cheque/peace out till
next year/one love, respect.”
Then, in one final attempt to outdo all that had come before – and perhaps as a
reminder to the Junos about our rap scene’s resilience of spirit and depth of
skill – the MCs joined together on the Rascalz’s anthemic Northern
Touch, wrapping up what had become a new and more powerful landmark
moment for Canadian hip hop.
The CBC Hip Hop Summit will
screen at CBC's Barbara Frum
Atrium in Toronto on Friday and will be part of CBC Radio 2's Canada Live
broadcast, which starts at 7 p.m. ET.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Beyonce No
Longer Managed By her Father
Source: www.eurweb.com
(March 29, 2011) *The business
relationship between Beyonce and
her
father Mathew Knowles has come to an end.
A publicist for the singer said Monday that the Grammy winner will no longer be
managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, who has overseen his daughter’s career
since she debuted as a teen in Destiny’s Child.
“He is my father for life. I am grateful for everything he has taught me,” Beyonce said in the statement. “I grew up watching both he
and my mother manage and own their own businesses.
They were hardworking entrepreneurs and I will continue to follow in their
footsteps.”
Beyonce’s publicist Yvette Noel-Schure
didn’t say what led to the split, but her father said in a separate statement
to the AP late Monday that the decision was mutual.
“Business is business and family is family. I love my daughter and am very
proud of who she is and all that she has achieved. I
look forward to her continued great success,” Knowles said.
Knowles oversaw all aspects of Beyonce’s professional
life, from music to movies to fashion and more. Her career includes 16 Grammy
awards, top-grossing movies “Dreamgirls” and
“Obsessed,” fashion ventures and lucrative endorsements.
His plans moving forward include focusing on his label’s work in gospel
and inspirational music, where he said the company has made a “tremendous
investment.”
Under Knowles, Beyonce, 29, released three
multiplatinum albums — “Dangerously In Love,” “B’Day”
and “I Am … Sasha Fierce” — and had 12 Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100
chart, including five No. 1s. Destiny’s Child had 11 Top 10 hits on the Hot 100
chart and six No. 1s.
During Beyonce’s teen years in Houston, Knowles
prepped her, her friend Kelly Rowland and two others for R&B girl group
Destiny’s Child, which released its self-titled debut in 1998. Their sophomore
album, “The Writing’s On the Wall,” came a year later and garnered multiple
hits and two Grammys, but the success also shook up the band and Destiny’s
Child became a trio with Beyonce, Rowland and
Michelle Williams.
The three also released solo albums, all managed by Knowles. He launched his
own label, World Music Entertainment, via Columbia Records, a division of Sony
Music.
Rowland parted with Knowles as her manager in 2009 and Williams followed a year
later.
Knowles and Beyonce’s mother, Tina, divorced in 2009
after 29 years of marriage. Tina Knowles worked as a stylist for Destiny’s
Child and continues to style her daughter. Together they launched a clothing
line, House of Dereon.
Noel-Schure didn’t comment on who Beyonce’s
new manager would be.
Sick Of Bouncers Who Play God? Here’s Your Revenge
Source: www.thestar.com
- Jenni Dunning
(March 28, 2011) An Australian advertising company is giving
bouncers a taste
of their own medicine with a new commercial that features a man blocking a
burly bouncer’s entry to a public restroom, calling it the “VIP entrance.”
The ad is for a chocolate bar called Chokito,
a classic chocolate, caramel and crisped rice candy bar from the 1970s that was
relaunched in Australia in 2010.
The ad company, JWT, used real bouncers
with no script to “ensure their responses were genuine,” although they were
hired to be in the commercials, Jason Ross, head of copy at JWT Sydney, told
the Star.
“Aimed at 20- to 25-year-old guys, the ads were all about saying ‘No’ to things
that get in the way of having a good time. That’s because Chokito
is all about the good stuff.”
At the beginning of the ad, an actor sets up the prank: “At Chokito,
we have a slight problem with bouncers who play God, so we’re going to see how
they feel when the shoe’s on the other foot,” he says into the camera.
The noticeably less muscular actor then proceeds to block the entrances of a
public restroom, gym, and parking garage from several men twice his size.
He stops and asks them to take a couple steps back, even getting one to show
his ID. He then makes up reasons why they can’t enter: dress code, members-only,
a “girth” restriction.
“I don’t make the rules, man,” he says to one of the bouncers when he protests.
As others who are not in on the joke enter the locations, the actor calls out
to them as if they are regulars: “See you, Derek,” and “Janet, how are you
doing, darling?”
Mimicking a bouncer denying entrance to a drunk
person, the actor asks one of them, “Been to a couple gyms before today? I
think you’ve had enough gym for today.”
The Chokito ad campaign, which features nine commercials, began online, with the ads appearing on YouTube,
Collegehumor.com and Funnyordie.com.
It has been “very successful” in Australia and online, said John Lam, JWT
Sydney’s art director.
Sales of the chocolate bar tripled in the first three months after the campaign
launched and outsold Snickers, she said.
One of the bouncers in the latest ad also appears in a separate one for Chokito, in which he stops an actor from getting inside.
Audio: Jennifer Lopez Teases New Single Feat. Lil Wayne
Source: www.eurweb.com
(March 30, 2011) *With “On the Floor” still active on the charts and on radio, Jennifer
Lopez has
decided to unveil the second single from her forthcoming album “Love?” The
“American Idol” judge previewed “I’m Into You,” featuring Lil Wayne, and
discussed the latest “American Idol” happenings during an appearance on Ryan Seacrest’s syndicated radio show this morning (Mar. 30).
“When I look into your eyes, it’s over/You got me
hooked with your love controller,” Lopez sings on the synth-heavy pop track. Weezy kicks off the song with off-the-cuff lines like
“You’re way too fly, I could be your jet fuel,” in a verse that’s more sedated
than Pitbull’s guest spot on “On the Floor.” A
30-second snippet on “I’m Into You” was played on Seacrest’s
radio show, and the host announced that the full track will be “unlocked” once
enough fans “Like” Lopez’s new single on her Facebook page. [Listen below.]
In the meantime, Lopez talked with Seacrest about
last week’s dramatic “Idol” elimination episode, in which the judges decided to
use their only save on Casey Abrams.
“That was one decision I have not lost one ounce of sleep over,” says Lopez. “I
just knew it was the right thing, Randy knew it was the right thing, Steven
knew it was the right thing. This is one of our most dynamic performers — he’s
so interesting, he’s so talented. I know it’s crazy, but we have to do it.”
“American Idol” continues tonight at 8 p.m. EST on Fox, with two contestants in
the Top 11 getting cut during tomorrow night’s elimination episode.
Music, Movies And Method Man
Source: www.thestar.com
- Jason Richards
(March 30, 2011) It's hard to bring Meth across the border.
This has been the lesson over the years for Toronto promoters
attempting to put on a show by Method Man of the
Wu-Tang Clan, causing many of the city's hip-hop fans to wonder if he'll
actually make it to the Sound Academy this Thursday, March 31.
While the rapper did successfully find his way here for a concert in 2007, his
2004 show was cancelled mere hours before start time. More recently, Method
Man's criminal record has been complicated by marijuana possession and tax
evasion charges.
Promoter Jaime McClellan of Lights Out Entertainment is confident that Mr. Meth
will get through customs without issue, as the paperwork has been sent to
Immigration Canada. “I'm told that if you don't hear anything back from them,
it's fine. That's where it stands right now.”
Method Man spoke with the Star about the border situation, as well as
his upcoming projects and new, drug-free image.
What are you up to right now?
Method Man is in bed watching All in the
Family.
In the past, you've had some trouble entering Canada. Do you anticipate any
border problems this time around?
Every time we pass into Canada, into their border, it's always a long wait. I
guess you guys have to be safe. I really don't have a problem with it, but
like, I just feel like some of it is very unnecessary. Especially
when you have all your proper paperwork and all that. I don't know
exactly what they do in the back when they take your information and walk in
the back with it, but they keep you sitting there for an hour and some change.
What can you say about your upcoming album, The Crystal Meth?
I'm still writing. I actually haven't been in the studio yet. I don't want to
jinx myself, but I do want this to be a classic album. I feel like my past
albums fell short of that mark. This time, it took me a long time to get it but
I finally know exactly what I have to do.
Is it too early to talk about the next Wu-Tang project?
I think I have to go grab RZA and put him in a headlock and see what I can make
happen.
Can you address the rumours of a sequel to your 2001 movie with Redman, How
High?
It's just rumours. Me and Redman constantly tell
people we want the movie done.
Personally, I'd love to put another How High out there. To my knowledge,
the movie made over $50 million overall. I think that warrants a sequel, don't
you?
What's your take on these new “weed rappers” like Curren$y
and Wiz Khalifa?
I heard Wiz Khalifa's stuff, that boy nasty right
there. But honestly, being an active member of my community, I'm trying to distance
myself from the reputation of weed, unless it's like, for an acting role.
I just want people to take me seriously for a change. Not every time they see
me and look at me and think I'm high, even when I'm not. It's a burden.
This is a whole new Method Man.
Nah, I've been here. It's just that I haven't opened this chapter yet in the
book.
Just the Facts
Who: Method Man
When: Tonight
Where: Sound Academy, 11 Polson St.
Tickets: $42-$47 at Soundscapes, Rotate This,
Play de Record
|
:FILM NEWS::
TIFF Closing In On Its Lightbox
Fundraising Goals
Source: www.globeandmail.com
– By James Adams
(March 30, 2011) It's been an arduous eight-year ascent for the
Toronto
International Film Festival but it appears the summit is within reach.
This week the festival announced it recently received donations totalling
$7-million, all of them earmarked for the $196-million capital and endowment
campaign for the Bell Lightbox, the
festival's purpose-built headquarters which opened last September in downtown
Toronto.
The announcement means that TIFF has reached 96 per cent of its fundraising
goal and is now "only" $8.2-million short of completion.
The festival, founded in 1976, announced in April 2003 that it had decided to
construct a purpose-built headquarters, including several theatres, with an
anticipated construction start of 2005.
However, ground for the Lightbox was only broken in
spring 2007. When it appeared likely that the five-storey facility, built as a
podium for a condominium high-rise, would not reach its fundraising targets by
opening day, the Ontario government in spring 2009 agreed to provide TIFF with a
low-interest loan of up to $46-million.
Spearheading this most recent round of donations, according to sources close to
TIFF, were HSBC Bank Canada and Toronto hotelier Steve Gupta.
Together they're contributing a total of $4-million. The $3-million from HSBC,
described by the film festival as "one of the largest philanthropic
contributions ever made to TIFF," gives the bank naming rights to the Lightbox's main-floor gallery, which is currently hosting
an exhibition of works by U.S. director Tim Burton.
Gupta's $1-million gift gets his name and that of his wife, Rashmi,
affixed to the Lightbox's box-office. In addition,
three Gupta-owned downtown Toronto hotels, the Marriott Residence Inn and two
Hilton Garden Inns, get to be called "Premiere TIFF Bell Lightbox Hotels."
Meanwhile, TIFF is reporting that it is half-way to its goal of raising
$1-million in its "Reach for the Top" initiative. The campaign,
started a year ago, is to finance the Lightbox's
rooftop space, including a large outdoor staircase inspired by the Malaparte staircase on the isle of Capri, immortalized
cinematically in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt starring Brigitte
Bardot.
Outside The Law: A Fast-Paced Political Revenge Thriller
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Jennie Punter
(March 25, 2011) In Rachid Bouchareb’s sprawling historical
melodrama Outside the Law, the
political underground meets the Parisian underworld.
And while the 138-minute film takes way too long to hit that morally intriguing
intersection, its relentless forward momentum – propelled by revenge and
splattered with tense action sequences –holds your attention through one
family’s experience of the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial
France.
A French director of Algerian descent, Bouchareb
casts three key actors (Jamel Debbouze,
Roschdy Zem and Sami Bouajila) from his acclaimed 2006 film Days of Glory (about
North African soldiers serving France in World War II) which, like Outside the Law and his
1995 film Dust for Life,
was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar.
In his new film, the trio play brothers from a poor family who follow very
different trajectories after being evicted from their ancestral home in the
film’s prologue, set in 1925. This act defines one constant in the film: The
French are the bad guys, often hiding behind or working with co-operative
Algerians.
It happens again in the next scene, a provocative depiction of the 1945 Setif massacre, during which French soldiers shot and
rounded up people in an Algerian market town. Bouchareb
provides no background or context. Soldiers and local collaborators suddenly
appear with firearms and conduct an ambush-like slaughter. (The scene was the
subject of controversy when the film opened in France, but you can imagine
that’s what the event felt like for many local witnesses.) The brothers’
elderly father and sisters are killed; their motive is stoked.
We then leap to the early 1950s and a shantytown outside Paris where the
youngest brother Said (Debbouze), an aspiring boxing
promoter, and his mother (Chafia Boudraa)
settle in to be closer to Abdelkader (Bouajila), the scholar of the family, serving time in a
Parisian jail for his political views. Messaoud (Zem), a career soldier in the French army, is deployed to
Indochina and, later, taken prisoner by Vietnamese guerrillas fighting the
colonial power.
Well into the film the brothers are finally united. Although their new,
complicated adult relationship seems to be the heart of the saga, the film
nevertheless continues its sketchy, connect-the-dots style and we never really
feel the humanity of the personal or the political story.
War vet Messaoud commits himself to Abdelkader’s cause, which is to build support for the
F.L.N. (National Liberation Front), a socialist party dedicated to securing
independence for Algeria from France. His commitment requires him to do some
nasty things, while the organization stages terrorist acts around the city.
The righteous Abdelkader becomes a key figure in the
F.L.N. but is eventually blind-sided by pride and power. And the comparatively
apolitical Said, reluctantly funding his brothers’
cause through his successful cabaret, wants so badly to see his prize Algerian
boxer topple a French champion he can’t see the potential political
repercussions of the big fight.
Outside the Law
is a great-looking, fast-paced film and, to his credit, Bouchareb
doesn’t bathe the F.L.N. in a completely flattering light. But narrowing the
focus to one central conflicted character and tightening the time frame might
have given the audience something more to ponder than the action of a
historical revenge thriller.
Outside the Law
Directed by Rachid Bouchareb
Screenplay by Rachid Bouchareb
and Olivier Lorelle
Starring Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan and Chafia Boudraa
(In Arabic and French with English subtitles)
Classification: 14A
Outside the Law opens in Toronto
and Montreal on Friday.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Jennifer Garner To Play Miss Marple In
New Movie
Source: www.thestar.com
- BANG Showbiz
(March 29, 2011) Jennifer Garner will
play sleuth Miss Marple
in a
new movie.
The Alias actress will take on the role – previously made famous by
stars including Gracie Fields, Angela Lansbury and Joan Hickson
– in a Disney version of the traditional Agatha
Christie novels.
Although traditionally played by an older woman, a new concept sees her
reinvented for a younger generation, with Twin Peaks screenwriter Mark
Frost scripting the project.
According to Deadline.com,
38-year-old Garner will produce the movie with Juliana Janes,
who has previously worked as her assistant on films including 13 Going on 30
and Elektra.
In the 1980 movie The Mirror Crack’d starring
Angela Lansbury, an all-star cast including Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson
and Tony Curtis took part.
It is not known who else will appear in the film.
A Restless Artist’s Welcome Return To Filmmaking
Source: www.thestar.com
- Peter Howell
(March 30, 2011) Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski makes a good
case for taking restorative time off.
He made global waves from the early 1960s through early 1990s, first as a
screenwriter and then as a writer/director. He penned Innocent Sorcerers
(1960) for Andrzej Wajda
and later co-wrote Knife in the Water with his friend Roman Polanski,
for the latter’s feature debut.
His screen achievements include Deep End (1970), The Shout (1978)
and Moonlighting (1982), which established him as a writer/director of
sharp eye and mind. He also worked as an actor, in his films and others.
But he dropped off the radar in 1991, following the release of the Second World
War drama 30 Door Key. For most of the two decades to follow, he worked
as a painter in Los Angeles, taking occasional acting assignments, including a
part in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises
(2007).
He returned to filmmaking three years ago with the well-received Four Nights
with Anna. You could say he’s back with a vengeance with the existential
drama Essential Killing, about a hunted man named Mohammed, chased by
Americans, who may or may not be a terrorist on the run. It opens Thursday at
TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Made with producer and co-writer Ewa Piaskowska, Essential Killing took two prizes at the
Venice Film Festival, from a jury headed by Quentin Tarantino: A special jury
prize for the film, and Best Actor for Vincent
Gallo.
Skolimowski talked to the Star from his home
in Poland, where he’s relocated after spending many years in L.A. At 72, he
shows no sign of slowing down.
Are you glad you took so much time off filmmaking, and are you glad you came
back?
Well, I used the time away from filmmaking in the proper way. I was painting,
and I was very successful as a painter: I had exhibitions all over the world. I
sold my work to museums and private collectors, so that wasn’t wasted time. I
made a career as a painter and, as such, I returned to filmmaking feeling like
a young artist.
Do you recommend this? Do you think there are other directors who should
follow your example?
Only if they have a talent for painting!
Your original title was The Essence of Killing rather than Essential
Killing. Why the change, which also changes the emphasis and suggests a
more political stance?
We thought at first it should be The Essence of Killing and then we
decided to change it to Essential Killing. It deals with war, after all.
We thought that it was the proper title for this film.
How much did you intend to have a political reference, if at all?
No, I avoid all the political references and I purposefully made the film as
ambiguous as possible. I’m not using any names or places. We don’t know if this
whole story starts in Afghanistan or Iraq or the Pakistani border or somewhere
else, and we don’t even know if it ends in Poland or Lithuania or Romania. I
really put in a lot of effort to not use any facts, anything which would point
out any real historical events.
Why the mystery?
I thought that the whole subject was much wider than any particular war or any
situation which took place in any specific circumstances. I thought that the
story was universal, that it could be played any time in any place. This is the
story of the process of the human being turning into the wild animal. As such,
it’s timeless.
Even though you don’t want it to be political, some people may interpret it
that way, and judge you sympathetic to somebody who could be Taliban or some
other kind of terrorist.
Well, he is not a Taliban. If you watch the beginning of the film carefully, he
is in civilian clothes: he’s not wearing the black turban which is a sign of
being Taliban. He actually tries to escape when he hears three Americans
approaching . . . and that’s what puts him into the roller coaster of events,
where he has to kill more and more in order to survive.
Flashbacks suggest indoctrination, but the expression on his face suggests
he isn’t buying it.
Yes, that’s a fair reading. Whatever happened in his past, or whether he
imagines that, it’s not necessarily that he was following that advice or orders
or whatever.
I hear you accosted Vincent Gallo in a crowd at Cannes and gave him your
screenplay.
That’s true. I gave him the whole script. Two hours later, he called me,
saying, “Oh, this is a fantastic script! I want to do it. I must do it! I was
born in Buffalo — I’m used to the cold weather. I actually love running
barefoot in the snow!”
Imagine! I was so surprised. I thought he might be exaggerating but his
enthusiasm, from the beginning was tremendous. I said, “Listen, this is May,
now. If we shoot this picture, it will be in the winter, so if you are serious
then start to grow your beard and your hair.” He was really very enthusiastic.
Were you aware of his reputation as being difficult to work with? And were
you put off by that at all?
Yes, I was aware. No, I wasn’t worried. I thought that if I was able to handle
Klaus Maria Brandauer (for 1985’s The Lightship),
who has the reputation as the most difficult actor in the world,
I thought that I could cope with Vincent as well.
It seems you had a great collaboration with Gallo.
Difficult, but the results are great. I’m very, very happy with what we got.
FILM TIDBITS
70s Classic ‘Sparkle’ Being Remade
Source: www.eurweb.com
(March 29, 2011) “Sparkle” the remake has been green lighted by
Sony productions and is set to begin filming soon. It’s not “Dreamgirls” and it certainly isn’t anything like it, let’s
just put that out there right now, at least that’s what producer Debra
Martin-Chase told Sister 2 Sister and now you know. Although the story is also
inspired by the story of The Supremes, the plot is a bit thicker and a bit
darker than most are used to. To be written and directed by film couple Mara
and Salim Akil (known for
“Girlfriends” and “The Game”), the film takes place in the late 50s in Harlem.
It takes a journey with the Williams sisters who encounter some obstacles along
the way on their path to success. “The plots are very different. I mean,
Sparkle’s much darker,” Debra said. “It has some real things about ‘what price
are you willing to pay for success. The original “Sparkle” was released by
Warner Bros. in 1976 and starred Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara and Lonette McKee.
50 Cent and Robert De Niro in New Film
Source: www.eurweb.com
(March 29, 2011) *That busy 50
Cent is set to star again alongside
award winning actor Robert De Niro in an upcoming film being
directed by Jesse Terrero (“Soul Plane”). In
“Freelancers,” the rapper/actor will play the role of a cop who joins the force
after his father is murdered in the line of duty. While in the beginning stages
of his new career, he joins a league of rouge cops lead by De Niro’s character, Captain Vic Scarcone.
What happens next is yet to be seen. 50 and De Niro
worked together in the 2008 movie, “Righteous Kill,” which co-starred Al Pacino. Shooting will begin mid-April in New Orleans.
::TV NEWS::\
Air Farce Founder Roger Abbott
Dies At Age 64
Source: www.thestar.com
- Lesley Ciarula Taylor
(March 27, 2011) Actor and comedian Roger
Abbott, one of the
founders of Canada’s long-running beloved comedy troupe the Royal
Canadian Air Farce, has died after a 14-year battle with leukemia. He was 64.
“I’m heartbroken to tell you that our beloved friend, Roger Abbott, died last
night at Toronto General Hospital, 14 years after being diagnosed with chronic
lymphocytic leukemia, a progressive disease that he kept secret from all but a
few close friends and family until a week ago,” friend and co-star Don Ferguson
said on the show’s website on Sunday.
“Roger was the guiding light of Royal Canadian Air Farce since it began in
1973, and all of us who have had the honour of
working with him and the pleasure of knowing him will dearly miss his kindness,
generosity, integrity, leadership and wonderful sense of humour.”
Abbott was born in Birkenhead, England, and later lived in Montreal and
Toronto.
He played a revolving door of characters on Air Farce, including former prime minister Jean Chrétien, former U.S. president George
W. Bush and the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge. He said his favourite roles were Chrétien, Mansbridge,
Leonard Cohen and the “misogynist TV critic Gilbert Smythe
Bite-Me.”
He once said, however, that the former prime minister told him his impersonation
sounded more like Preston Manning than Chrétien.
“I’m easy to please,” Abbott wrote of working on the show. “Every time a
theatre is sold out, or a new joke gets an incredible roar, or our ratings
climb higher, I’m happy.”
The show, which became a CBC radio hit before its long successful run as a
weekly CBC Television series, satirized Canadian politics, culture and
multiculturalism, using an armoury of accents and
dialects, instantly recognizable skit characters and the now retired Chicken Cannon.
The troupe made up the first Canadians inducted into the International Comedy
Hall of Fame.
“It was also a highlight when we performed at the ’88 Olympics in Calgary the
night after the Battle of the Brians (skaters Orser and Boitano) and Brian Orser was our surprise guest. The audience went wild.”
Among his awards were the Gemini Humanitarian Award, the Governor General’s
Performing Arts Award, 15 ACTRA awards, a Juno and a star on Canada’s Walk of
Fame.
His major influences, he said, were the British comedy troupe Monty Python and
fellow Farcer Dave Broadfoot.
Abbott emigrated to Canada in 1953 with his parents
and sister. At Loyola High School in Montreal he met Ferguson. He went to
Loyola College, now Concordia University, in 1963.
He was working various jobs in radio when he, Ferguson and John Morgan founded
the improvisational comedy ensemble The Jest Society in 1970.
Broadfoot joined just as the Society was becoming the
Air Farce. They made their first appearance on CBC Radio on Dec. 9, 1973.
The troupe kept performing on radio and television until 2008, becoming one of
the country’s best-loved comedy teams. They also played cross-country live
tours and recorded several albums of material.
Abbott and Ferguson turned down an offer to write for the American sitcom Taxi
because, Ferguson wrote when Air Farce was retiring, “we realized it was
important to our listeners’ lives” to keep working on Air Farce.
Of Abbott, Ferguson said at the time, “Roger, the heart, soul and driving force
behind Air Farce, possesses a combination of artistic, organizational and
business talent that’s rare anywhere.”
During their first eight years on TV, the troupe said, they pulled in 1.27 million
viewers for their Friday night show and 2 million for their New Year’s Eve
specials. Air Farce was broadcast in the U.S. by public broadcasting
stations and in Australia, New Zealand and Israel.
Abbott and Ferguson also produced Dave Broadfoot’s
three TV specials and the comedy series Sketchcom
(1998). Abbott and Ferguson also hosted the Easter Seals telethon on the CBC
for more than 20 years.
In 1993, Abbott was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Brock
University in St. Catharines, Ont.
APTN: The Native Network
That's Getting A Nation's Attention
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- By Marsha Lederman
(March 25, 2011) There's a story Paul Barnsley
likes to tell about a
newsroom, which shall remain nameless, in Southern Ontario. When a reporter was
leaving the paper, the story goes, a fist fight broke
out over the resulting shift in beats. The loser would have to cover Six
Nations Council.
"Most reporters, if they get put on the aboriginal beat, they do their
darnedest to get off as quick as they can," says Barnsley,
executive producer of investigative news for the Aboriginal
Peoples Television Network. "It's easier to cover
city hall or to cover a provincial legislature or federal Parliament. It just
is."
Barnsley, 54, is responsible for APTN Investigates,
the show that broke the Bruce Carson story - a government-connected scandal
that has been picked up by every major news outlet in the country, and has
received a lot of attention on Parliament Hill.
It's a rare moment in the spotlight for APTN, a network that languishes high up
on the dial, and whose newsroom operates on a much smaller scale than its
mainstream competitors. "There's a lot of people
in this country that don't know we exist," says Barnsley.
Launched in 1999, APTN offers programming about first
nations, Inuit and Métis, ranging from cartoons (Little Bear) to drama
series (Blackstone) to news programming in English, French and several
aboriginal languages. Most of the programming originates in Canada, but
you'll also find Hollywood films and Northern Exposure reruns - and a
lot of infomercials.
With an annual budget of about $37-million (based on 2008 figures) APTN derives
the bulk of its revenue from subscriber fees. That year, the federal Canadian
Heritage department gave the network $2.1-million; advertising brought in about
$2.5-million. APTN's hiring policy favours aboriginal
candidates, and more than three-quarters of the staff are native. (Barnsley, incidentally, is not.)
On the news side of the operation, APTN airs APTN National News on
weekdays; and on alternating Friday nights, the current-affairs programs APTN
In Focus and APTN Investigates. Their
mandate: focus on aboriginal issues, and also provide an aboriginal take on
other news.
"Please don't take offence," Barnsley said
during an interview this week, "but the mainstream media doesn't really
spend a lot of time on aboriginal issues in-depth and doesn't necessarily
understand them that well."
Since launching in 2000, APTN's news operations have grown substantially, with
11 bureaus now across the country, each staffed, when at full complement, by a
cameraperson, a video journalist and a reporter. They cover stories of interest
to aboriginal viewers. Among them: funding issues, court proceedings, Assembly
of First Nations activities, and protests.
APTN's investigative unit, based in Winnipeg, consists of seven people, plus a
half-time Web writer who's shared with the news operation. Right now, due to
the Carson story, they're operating with nine people.
For some journalists, APTN is a launching pad into the mainstream media. Others
come to APTN from non-native outlets, sometimes because they're dissatisfied
with the treatment of aboriginal stories by their networks.
But there can be real frustration breaking intensely human stories - especially
when nobody notices.
Karyn Pugliese, 41, was
with APTN for six years beginning with its news programming launch, and now
hosts the current-affairs show @issue on iChannel.
"One of the reasons that I had to leave APTN was that I was getting too
emotional. There are certain stories that I have a hard time talking about
without starting to cry because you go into communities and you see who are nice people. They have loving families and they're
living in conditions that are just intolerable."
Pugliese knew people in those communities often spoke
with her - sometimes about a taboo subject, against the wishes of others - in
order to effect change. But she also knew her stories wouldn't necessarily
accomplish that.
"You sometimes see W5 or CBC break the story and then at the end of
the day when they go for their Canadian Association of Journalists awards they
can talk about how that made a big difference. You sit there and you watch over
the years the amount of stories that APTN has broken, and the really quality
work and quality journalism and facts, and follow the money. They put all this
research and all this effort into it, but it doesn't have the same
impact."
The Carson story has certainly been an exception.
Earlier this month, Jorge Barrera (that Web writer) and freelance journalist
Kenneth Jackson broke the story alleging that Carson, a former PMO adviser,
used insider connections as he lobbied on behalf of a company trying to land
contracts to sell water filtration systems to native reserves with severe water
quality problems.
It was a story APTN was planning to reveal on the season finale of APTN
Investigates on March 25. But when the PMO called in the RCMP, the Ethics
Commissioner and the Lobbying Commissioner, Barnsley
knew he had to act immediately. As a result, APTN wound up scooping itself. Two
hours after learning the PMO was taking action, the network ran a short item on
its national newscast. It posted an online piece that night.
The sensational story has been picked up everywhere. "When you have CBC
national, CTV national, The Globe and Mail, The [Toronto] Star, every big
paper, every big media organization now saying this story was broken by APTN,
all those news consumers out there are going, 'Who?' Now they know who we
are," says Barnsley.
"I think this will give them enormous profile as an organization that does
serious journalism," says Candis Callison, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
While there has been great interest in the political scandal in the mainstream
media, APTN has continued to follow the issue at the centre of the story: the
poor water quality in native communities.
"There are incredibly important stories out there that aren't being told
right now, and now we're being given the opportunity to do that," says Barnsley. "And they're the kind of stories that can
make life better for an awful lot of people who maybe right now have got some
real challenges they're facing.
"The more successful the show is, the better our chances of getting more
resources, to do it even better."
This isn't the first story APTN has broken to mainstream - and political -
attention, but it's been a real morale booster at company headquarters in
Winnipeg and at bureaus across the country.
"This is a story that has affected the government of Canada, the Prime
Minister," said Barnsley. "If the
government falls ... a lot of the pundits are saying that this story will have
played a role in that."
N.B. This story has been changed to reflect
the following clarification: As of 2010, APTN no longer receives funding from
the federal government.
‘Mad Men’ Officially Put On
Hold Until 2012
Source: www.thestar.com
- Lesley Ciarula Taylor
(March 29, 2011) Fans will have to wait to find out if Don marries
Megan, Joan has Roger’s baby and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce survives 1965.
AMC has confirmed that the fifth season of Mad Men will be delayed until
2012, Variety reported Tuesday.
“AMC has officially authorized production of season 5 of Mad Men,
triggering our option with Lionsgate (Mad Men's
production company). While we are getting a later start than in years past due
to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth
season in early 2012,” the company said in a statement.
The announcement came as word leaked out that negotiations on a fifth season
were unravelling. Rumour
had escalated to declarations the show had been cancelled outright, forcing AMC
to make a statement despite having no deal with Weiner.
The touch-and-go talks had been close to a deal in time to start writing and
filming for an August debut. But creator and executive producerMatt
Weiner was refusing to budge on three AMC and Lionsgate
demands, deadline.com and The
Daily said.
They are:
• A two-minute running time cut to allow for more commercials.
• Eliminating two regular, still-unidentified cast members.
• Product placement.
“This is their storied franchise, and they want it shorter and cheaper, with
fewer actors and more product integration,” deadline.com quoted “an insider” as
saying. “The negotiations are about to collapse as a result.”
Mad Men, winner of three Emmys, three Golden Gloves and a Peabody, has
already missed its production deadline to launch its fifth season this summer.
Now industry watchers believe the next round of shows may have to wait until
2012.
AMC pays $2 million an episode for the period drama about New York advertising
executives.
Weiner stands to make $30 million for two new seasons. His contract ended after
last season; he told Entertainment Weekly in January: “I want the show
to go on and on and on until it has worn out its welcome with viewers and we
can’t think of anything more for the characters to do.”
The cast, meanwhile, is waiting for their call back to work.
John Slattery, who plays agency chief Roger
Sterling, said at the premiere of his film The Adjustment Bureau in February: “I’m looking
for a job.”
Jon Hamm, who plays leading man Don Draper, told
Variety last week when he thought the show might be back: “2012. And you
can write that.”
When last we saw them in Season 4, it was 1964 and Don had proposed to Megan,
Joan was pregnant with Roger’s child, Lucky Strike had dropped
the ad agency and Greg was facing a tour of duty in Vietnam.
“Mad Men is definitely coming back for Season 5, but don't ask me when, because
we're not sure yet,” Joel Stillerman, AMC senior
vice-president of original programming, told television critics in January.
The 2008 negotiations between Weiner and Lionsgate
also took months to resolve, delaying the season premiere until August.
But AMC is not dependent on Mad Men the way it was two years ago, the
last time the contracts were renegotiated, the New York Times reported.
Breaking Bad returns this summer, while The Walking Dead has
brought in twice the viewers of Mad Men. A third drama, The Killing,
launches April 3.
TV TIDBITS
Final episode of ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ to air May 25
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- The Associated Press
(March 25, 2011) The final original episode of The Oprah Winfrey
Show will air May 25. Winfrey's
Chicago-based Harpo Productions confirmed the date
Friday. Winfrey announced live on the show in November 2009 that she would end
its run after 25 years. She since has launched cable's Oprah Winfrey Network. The Oprah Winfrey Show
has been in reruns for the last few weeks. But Winfrey tweeted Thursday that
she was “hard at work planning the final shows” and new episodes would begin
April 7. The final episode brings an end to what has been television's
top-rated talk show for more than two decades. It airs in 145 countries
worldwide.
‘Talk’s’ Holly Robinson Peete Headed
to ‘Price is Right’ in CBS Crossover
Source: www.eurweb.com
(March 28, 2011) *Entertainment Weekly is reporting that CBS is
planning a daytime crossover event between “The Talk” and “The
Price is Right” involving Holly Robinson Peete. On April 6, “The Talk”
co-host, together with cohort Julie Chen, will appear on the network’s
long-running game show in the morning, and later that day, “Price” host Drew
Carey will “stop by” the chat show. Chen and Peete
are reportedly taping their “Price” appearance today, so that the instalment is ready to air for the live crossover next
week. It’s unclear what role the two women will do on the game show.
Rosie O'Donnell Returning to TV on Oprah Network
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- The Associated Press
(March 29, 2011) The Oprah Winfrey Show" is shutting down
at the
end of the season, but the lights won't be going out at Winfrey's
studio in Chicago. The Oprah Winfrey Show" is
shutting down at the end of the season, but the lights won't be going out at
Winfrey's studio in Chicago. That's because Rosie
O'Donnell's new talk show will be produced at Harpo Studios on Chicago's West Side. Executives at Harpo announced the move on Tuesday. O'Donnell is slated to
return to daytime TV with the one-hour show on Own: Oprah Winfrey Network in
the fall. In a statement Tuesday, Winfrey says she's delighted to welcome
O'Donnell to the studio that's been her home for years. The final original
episode of Winfrey's show is scheduled to air May 25.
::THEATRE NEWS::
A Life In Dance: Karen Kain At 60
Source: www.thestar.com
- Michael Crabb
(March 27, 2011) Come Monday, Karen Kain plans to indulge herself.
She's taking the day off and sleeping in. That evening Ross Petty, her
actor-producer husband of almost 28 years, is gathering a close circle of
friends for a dinner in her honour.
The special occasion? For some it may seem like
yesterday that the National Ballet's artistic director was thrilling audiences
as one of the world's top dancers but despite her youthful looks and enviable
figure, Canada's perennial ballet sweetheart is turning 60.
Kain joined the company as a standout corps de ballet
member — well, she was a “tall girl” — in 1969. Despite Kain's
youthful insecurities, National Ballet founding artistic director Celia Franca
soon cast her in solo roles. Within two years Kain
danced the gruelling Swan Queen in the full-length Swan Lake.
When Soviet-born superstar Rudolf Nureyev arrived to stage his
version
of The Sleeping Beauty in 1972, he quickly spotted the talent of two
company youngsters, Kain and Frank Augustyn. With Nureyev as an exacting mentor — and champion
— Kain and Augustyn, “the
gold-dust twins” as they were dubbed, vaulted to stardom.
Nureyev loved dancing with Kain and took her as his
partner to stages worldwide. Kain also attracted the
attention of outside choreographers who invited her to dance with their
companies. But despite tempting offers, her loyalty remained with her roots, in
Canada and with the National Ballet.
That loyalty was rewarded with a remarkably long and artistically rich career.
Even as Kain, ever the perfectionist, was
relinquishing major classical roles she felt no longer able to dance to her own
high standards, choreographers remained eager to create new ballets for her.
When Kain finally retired as the National Ballet's de
facto prima in October 1997, it was in a role tailor-made for her mature talent
by then-artistic director James Kudelka. In the final
moment of The Actress, a ballet full of remembered moments — highs and
lows — in an artist's long career, Kain triumphantly
but symbolically drew a curtain on an important chapter in her life. And she
wasn't sure what would come next.
When Kudelka ran for the ballet's top job in 1995,
he'd suggested Kain apply with him to become
co-directors. But she wasn't ready then.
“I was still dancing, and anyway, James didn't need me. He got the job on his
own strengths.”
In May 2005, with two years left on his contract, Kudelka
resigned. The company's board of directors took little time to recognize that
the perfect replacement was already working for them.
Now in her sixth season at the head of Canada's biggest classical dance troupe,
Kain says it's still a thrilling ride.
“To be able to make decisions and see them come to fruition and feel the
excitement around them, what it generates within the company, how the artists
get motivated — that's the most rewarding part; feeling I can be a catalyst for
an artistic experience for our artists and for the public.”
Kain admits maintaining a 24/7 pace can be wearing,
but she has no retirement plans.
“I don't put a time on it, and anyway, that's up to a board of directors to
decide. Of course, there are days when I feel incredibly exhausted but every
time I sit out there and watch the company perform — and I try to see every
show — I feel more and more inspired by the idea of the things I can do with
the company into the future.”
Toronto Star
In Karen Kain's mind, the
best birthday gift would be sold-out shows.
Apollo, Russian Seasons, Theme and Variations.
Don Mckellar
Returns To The Stage With War Of The Worlds
Source: www.globeandmail.com
– By Guy Dixon
(March 28, 2011) Three-legged Martian war machines are walking
across
the Hudson River. Poisonous gas drifts over Manhattan. A mass of humanity pours
across the city, like New Year's revellers, only this time panic-stricken.
Actor Don McKellar describes the mayhem in the role of the
radio announcer atop the CBS broadcast building in Orson Welles's 1938 radio
version of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds.
Never again will the news of mass destruction be delivered with quite the same
verve as Welles's dramatization, which tapped into the new power of
broadcasting and famously sent Ma and Pa America into a tizzy, believing the
fake reports to be true.
McKellar will be performing a stage re-enactment of the radio broadcast at
Toronto's Harbourfront Centre on Thursday. As he
practises his metaphor-laced lines ("People in the street see it now, they
are running toward the East River, thousands of them, dropping in like
rats!") with a certain old-time radio voice, the mood of the rehearsal is
pleasantly low-key. Acclaimed actor Nicholas Campbell (Da
Vinci's Inquest) interjects with radio-operator lingo. Young actor Marc Bendavid adds a bit of supper-hour, radio-announcer
slickness. Just the quaintness of the reports of the alien invasion seems
friendly and familiar.
The production will be McKellar's first return to the stage since his wife,
stage and screen actress Tracy Wright, died last June from pancreatic cancer at
the age of 50. But the Toronto-based actor has been busy offstage, appearing as
a guest star on CBC's Republic of Doyle and
developing and directing the CBC sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays,
coming this fall. The series, about the co-dependent relationship between a
psychiatrist and his patient, will feature Bob Martin, with whom McKellar
worked on The Drowsy Chaperone, and Matt Watts.
"Working was a relief to me, and then it became ... It probably took too
much actually," McKellar says, indicating that all these projects may have
ramped up a little more quickly than he had expected.
"When Tracy was sick, I cancelled a lot of stuff, of course. Everything, in fact, except what she was doing. She was
acting still, and I was helping her with that," he says. "In the last months, when she made the choice to act in this
movie Trigger and when I thought about it after, she revived my interest
in the importance of performing. She reminded me, in a way, of why I
started in the first place. I just saw how important it was to her. It was sort
of more important to her than her chemotherapy, for instance."
During her illness, Wright co-starred in Trigger with Molly Parker and
in the movie You Are Here, while also planning stage performances and
readings until she was unable to continue.
As for McKellar's return to the stage, judging by the rehearsal, the
performance of The War of the Worlds will have an intimate feeling, like
someone with an ear close to a radio set. The radio play isn't even the central
focus of the Harbourfront production, but is one part
of a larger presentation on the work of film composer Bernard Herrmann. Hermann
conducted the dinner orchestra that Welles's The War of the Worlds
fictitiously kept interrupting to bring new bulletins of the advancing
Martians.
Rehearsing in a white shirt and suspenders, McKellar says the production is
purposely trying to recapture the late 1930s. Foley artist and musician John Gzowski expertly blows into large jugs to create the bygone
Hudson River boat horns and pings metal coil to create outdated alien machine
sound effects.
However, McKellar doesn't see this as pure nostalgia: "To me, it's not
about nostalgia, but about exploring the performative
aspects of news. It's about one of the first explorations of where news and
entertainment crossed, which I think is still, obviously, pretty
relevant."
The play suits him.
"I've always been all over the map with what I've done. I've always acted
and wrote and directed. I like that. That's what I like about this, it has a
weird intersection with performance and radio and music."
Daniel Radcliffe Is A Musical
Comedy Wizard
Source: www.thestar.com
- Richard Ouzounian
(March 27, 2011) NEW YORK - Want to know how to succeed on
Broadway without really trying?
Cast Daniel Radcliffe in the leading role of your
musical.
When it was first announced that the young actor formerly known as Harry Potter
was going to be playing ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch
in the third major incarnation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, following Robert Morse in 1961
and Matthew Broderick in 1995, there was a certain amount of scepticism.
Yes, he could muggle, but could he mug? And while he
could cast a spell, could he spell a cast?
Well, the buzz around Gotham concerning Radcliffe’s singing and dancing skills
has been pretty sensational and having caught one of the show’s final previews,
I’m pretty darn confident that the reviews following Sunday night’s opening
will be raves.
Time has been kind to this musical, with Frank Loesser’s score and Abe Burrows’
book seeming as fresh as though they were written yesterday.
Sure, times have changed and the world of 1961 is just a wee bit different, but
our recent familiarity with Mad Men has put us in the perfect frame of
mind to accept this saga of a young man who rises oh-so-rapidly to the top of
World Wide Wickets with nothing but charm and the ability to be at the right
place at the right time.
With CNN’s Anderson Cooper narrating the passages from the self-help book
Radcliffe uses to get to the top, there’s a nicely contemporary spin on the
advice, and Radcliffe’s guileless glee as he keeps landing on his feet is
sublime.
One of the things that has always made this show so
solid is its nice base of character roles to beef up the world around Finch,
and director Rob Ashford has cast and utilized them with rare skill.
John Larroquette is nearly as sublime as Radcliffe,
drawing the devious boss J.B. Biggley with the kind
of sardonic humour he deploys so well, wallowing in the mud while keeping his
hands somehow shiningly clean.
Rose Hemingway is just the kind of crisply attractive woman you hope Radcliffe
would wind up with, Christopher J. Hanke
is the piece’s hissable villain, the kind of man who,
as they put it, “gives nepotism a bad name.”
Tammy Blanchard is a scrumptious sexpot, Mary Faber the brisk wide-eyed gal-pal
all heroines should have and Ellen Harvey the perfect battleaxe of an executive
secretary.
Director-choreographer Ashford keeps everything moving with a sharpness that’s
a welcome change from the flat-footedness he showed in last season’s Promises,
Promises.
And when he lets Radcliffe break loose with a series of exhilarating dance
moves in the 11 o’clock number, “Brotherhood of Man,” you know that all is
right with the universe.
The world is a happier place to live in now that Harry Potter has found that
pot of gold at the end of the Broadway rainbow.
::TECHNOLOGY NEWS::
T.O.'s
Swords & Sworcery Unsheathes New Experience
Source: www.thestar.com
- Raju Mudhar
(March 25, 2011) We live in an Angry Birds world. The
physics-based 
puzzler
phenomenon is the closest to a universal app-gaming experience that most people
with a smartphone have tried. It follows the rules
for what makes app gaming sticky: It is cute and straightforward, provides
simple fun and is perfect for short play sessions. It's also exactly the
opposite of Superbrothers: Swords
& Sworcery EP.
Released this past Thursday for the iPad, this Toronto-made game has been hotly
anticipated by the gaming community across North America. It won an art award
at its first appearance at a conference and has been seen as a potential
game-changer on the Ios platform. On release day, The
Unofficial Apple Weblog said “Swords & Sworcery
is a milestone in the maturity of the iPad gaming platform.”
The result of a collaboration between graphic and pixel artist Craig Adams,
a.k.a. Superbrothers, musician Jim Guthrie (whose
long list of credits include Royal City, Human Highway and his solo work) and
Capybara, the local studio behind Critter Crunch and Might and Magic:
Clash of Heroes, S&S EP is as much an audiovisual experience as
it is a game. It has an old-school feel, not just because of its intricate
pixel-art style but in that the game play is somewhat similar to old PC
point-and-click adventure games. And unlike most games on any platform these
days, it doesn't always spell out your options for you.
“It tickles that part of the brain that videogames used to tickle,” Adams says.
“The last 10 years, it feels like (developers thought), ‘We're going to lose
sales if we don't tell people what to do at every exact moment.'
“We haven't made anything too confusing, but we have made discovery part of the
content.”
The idiosyncratic result has some music-based puzzles, shifts into dreamscapes
depicted as a vinyl album, amusing non-sequitur small-talk dialogue and fight
scenes that require you to rotate the iPad to battle enemies. It also has many
surprises, and even areas that change with phases of the moon.
The creators have been deliberately vague about the story, as figuring the game
out is the point. We'll just say that you play as the Scythian, who wanders the
gorgeous 8-bit landscapes with various tasks like finding sprites. It's got a
knowing sense of humour, like when the main character says: “We groan not
another fetch quest, amirite?”
“I sort of see this game as a quilt, like it's really this handmade, woven
thing,” says Guthrie. “After making this game, I realize that even making a
crappy 99-cent app-store game is a lot of work, and a certain amount of care
and craft goes into those, but at the same time, ours is just a different game
... We want you to wrap it around you and snuggle up with it.”
This was the first game Guthrie and Adams have made. Guthrie says game design
is about problem solving: “You have an idea, and then you problem-solve it
until it's dead. And then it comes back to life.”
They point to the expertise of Capybara, and in particular its creative
director, Kris Piotrowski, the main guy who helped
problem-solve their vision to life.
The game is now out on the iPad for $4.99, and we'll see Guthrie's soundtrack
released on vinyl in a few weeks.
The iPhone version will hit the app store in about a
month.
::TRAVEL::
Enjoy Lazy Days In The West
African Delta
Source: www.globeandmail.com
- Rose Skelton
(March 27, 2011) SENEGAL
BEACH— It was
still early morning and I
had
dozed off while keeping vigil on our route. “I seem to have lost the way,” my
friend said. “I was following the track for a while, but the salt flats seemed
smoother to drive on ...”
Looming around us were baobabs, the largely leafless, bulbous-trunked trees
that locals say were stuck in the ground upside down by the devil. They looked
as if they were made from elephant hide, grey and tremendous, casting their
great fingers up to the sky. The headlights picked up a shape ahead – a donkey
pulling a wooden cart, piled with salt and millet, which came to a stop beside
us. “Excuse me,” I said in French to the two passengers, wondering what
language they spoke. “Can you tell us where the road is?” The young men
politely pointed to the north. “Follow the telegraph wires,” one said. “That’ll
show you the way.”
We were travelling through the Sine Saloum region,
south of Dakar, to the Sine-Saloum delta. The area is
a jigsaw of salt flats and shallow waterways that eventually give way to the
rolling waters of the Atlantic and while there is a road – a red gravel route
that snakes inland from the coast and between several villages – it’s not a
comfortable one.
About three hours after we had set off from Dakar, we turned off at a tiny
junction where a sign pointed us to Lodges des Collines
de Niassam (niassam.com), an ecolodge
on the edge of the warm delta waters at Palmarin. The
sun was just about up as we arrived and were greeted with coffee and freshly
baked bread. Just to remind myself I was in the tropics, I washed them down
with a glass of baobab juice made from the seed pods of the tree: cream in
colour, strangely grainy and supposedly with powerful stomach-settling
properties.
The baobab trees were to be our home for the next few days. While tree hotels
might be popular in the east of the continent, out here in the wild west, they are something of a rarity. This is Senegal’s
first and so far only tree hotel – a handful of beautifully crafted wood cabins
perched in the wide branches of the baobab trees. Almost everything inside the
rooms has been made in the local area.
West Africa has long been popular with backpackers who travel around the region
through Mali, Ghana and Burkina Faso in rickety bush taxis, sleep in fleapit
hostels and revel in the fact that this is tough, proper travelling. More
recently, however, tourists have made their way tentatively to Dakar, perched
on the western tip of the continent, for its thriving music scene, which has
produced musicians such as Youssou N’Dour and Baaba Maal. As east and southern Africa have traditionally
attracted the wealthier tourists, lured by the big game and sparkling Indian
Ocean coastline, west Africa was left with a lot of
bad PR, not helped by civil wars.
But what goes on in countries hundreds or thousands of kilometres to the north
or south should not put people off Senegal’s charms. Not only is its culture
thriving and quite unlike anywhere else in Africa, some interesting small
hotels are opening up. The Collines de Niassam was built by a French couple eight years ago. Its
electricity comes from solar panels and almost all its food is grown in the
hotel garden or supplied locally. We soon discovered the food is exceptional –
local fish known as capitaine
cooked with bissap
(hibiscus flower) was my favourite – prepared by a laughing storm of a woman
who, if asked nicely, would divulge her culinary secrets.
But the choice of where to sleep posed a problem. In one of the round houses on
stilts perched above the shallow, lapping waters of the delta? Or high up in the branches of these magical baobab trees?
When I saw that the tree-house bathroom was encased in a wooden cabin around
the trunk of the tree – you take a shower snuggled up against the baobab – my
mind was made up. The stairs leading to the bedroom wind up its trunk, past the
second-floor “living room” – a hammock and breakfast table midway up the
branches – and to the room cradled at the top of the branches, with a
four-poster bed.
We soon settled into a chilled-out lifestyle for a few days. It is easy to do
nothing – the silence that hangs over the delta can pleasantly stupefy a
visitor after the hectic pace of Dakar – but there is a range of things to do
in the area. We were invited to watch a traditional wrestling match in a nearby
village, where the whole community gathers and, with drums and song, cheers on
the young men, and were offered the more indulgent option of a flight in a
micro-light plane to see the salt wells sitting like coloured inkpots across
the land.
But we opted for kayaking in the mangrove lagoons with a local guide, Pierre.
We paddled through the clear narrow waterways before arriving at an island with
pristine white sand. We pulled our kayaks ashore and Pierre picked oysters from
the mangrove roots for us to roast on a fire and eat, admiring the setting sun.
A monkey cackled at us from the high branches of a baobab tree. For the wild west, things seemed very easy and gentle from where I
was sitting.
::SPORTS NEWS::
Canadian Ballers
Strut Their Stuff At Elite U.S. High school Event
Source: www.thestar.com
– Royson James
(March 29, 2011) CHICAGO - He’s the “Pied Piper” of elite
basketball
players; Mr. Personality; The Facilitator and everyone’s dream teammate.
And Wednesday night Myck Kabongo will be scheming to help America’s best
high schoolers impress pro scouts, get closer to
their dreams and light up the United Center here, the house that Michael Jordan
built.
The Star is here to witness the annual high school classic because three
Canadians are among the 24 stars chosen to showcase America’s finest young
talent. They are part of a tidal wave of players who’ve migrated south to
pursue their hoop dreams without forgetting their roots.
Besides the six-foot-one point guard Kabongo,
selectors chose Montreal’s rising star Khem Birch, a
leaper of a power forward, and Kyle Wiltjer of
Portland, Oregon, whose ball-handling and shooting range make a liar out of his
six-foot-10, 225-pound measurements.
All three have played for Canada at the cub level and are part of the reason
basketball lovers expect Canada to soon return to the competitive ranks of
world basketball, including the Olympics.
The players are neither tokens nor bystanders here. Media from across America
battled Canadian reporters Tuesday for a few minutes with the loquacious Kabongo, who swallows up a microphone the way he palms a
basketball.
Wiltjer, whose dad played for Canada, won the
three-point shooting competition Monday night — succeeding Ajax’s Cory Joseph
who won it last year. Kabongo finished a close second
in the skills contest. Birch competed in the slam dunk competition, losing to LeBryan Nash of Dallas, Texas.
Canada’s men’s basketball coach Leo Rautins took in
the practices and skills competition and was all smiles.
Wiltjer, 18, plays for Jesuit High School in Portland
and is headed for the Kentucky Wildcats next year. Imagine a giant stepping
back behind the arc to rain down three-pointers like the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk
Nowitzki and then working the paint from the block.
“He’s a worker and he has good genes. He is like a Euro player who can do many
things to beat you. He has a high basketball IQ, he understands the game and he
can shoot,” Rautins said. “In fact, he can shoot
better than he did” in winning the shooting competition.
Birch, 18, by his own estimation is raw, having played
just five years of basketball on a six-foot-nine body.
“He’s freakishly athletic,” Rautins explains. “He can
be right there with you and next thing his elbows are above the rim. His upside
is tremendous. I don’t think he has scratched the surface of his potential as
yet.” Birch has a scholarship to Pittsburgh.
Kabongo, though, lights up the room with his
personality and then wows everyone else with his tremendous speed,
playground-pleasure moves, and basketball acumen.
He’s headed to University of Texas next year to join “my brothers” Tristan
Thompson and Joseph (both McDonald’s All-Americans last year), but not before
leaving his stamp on a game that has seen only seven Canadians ever, three this
year, five in the last two, in its 34-year history, awarding nearly 800
players. About two-thirds of the 24 players in Wednesday’s game will make it to
the NBA, history shows.
Rodney Terry, assistant coach and top recruiter for the Texas Longhorns, says Kabongo, 19, is his ace in the hole on recruiting trips.
“Everybody wants to play with him.”
Rautins: “He’s an energy guy who can do anything and
get to anywhere he wants on the floor; he’s as quick as a cat. Then, his
influence in the locker-room is dramatic.”
That’s the kind of leadership most coaches crave. And Kabongo
says it’s just something that comes naturally. At the media gabfest Tuesday he
was studiously working the room — a shout out to friend Austin Rivers (player
of the year and son of Boston Celtics head coach, Doc), daps with new-found
teammates, pats on the back, encouragement ...
Kabongo’s mother, Nene, considers him blessed. And
she’s here soaking up the festivities.
Twelve years ago, she arrived in Canada from the Congo with five children to
join a father who preceded them. Myck was only six.
All he remembers of his ancestral home is playing marbles and cricket.
When he took to basketball, mom was not too pleased. School was the priority,
she said — a sweet mom turning sour to drive home the point.
“I get good grades,” Myck says. “I love basketball so
much I had to get good grades. I thank Mom for pushing me.”
When he messed up and she threatened to cut his playing time, coaches would
plead with her to “Please, mommy, find another punishment, anything else.”
Now, she says she understands what all the fuss was about in this sports-mad continent.
“I’m blessed. He’s a good boy,” she says.
An all-star game is a free-for-all that can degenerate into a selfish farce. Kabongo, with scorers all around him — the Canadians are
all on the West Squad — says he will focus on dishing out assists. Jacque
Vaughn (1993) has the record, with 13.
“I want to at least tie that record and leave my mark on the game,” he says.
Leafs Still Hold On To Playoff
Hope
Source: www.thestar.com
- Mark Zwolinski
(March 28, 2011) The math says the Leafs are all
but eliminated
from
the playoffs, but the team sees itself in a different situation.
“We still want to give ourselves a chance, so (Tuesday’s game against Buffalo),
as much as any game we’ve played lately, is a must win game for us,” Leafs
coach Ron Wilson said as his club tries to stay viable in the race for a post
season berth.
That race, from a Leafs standpoint, was made more difficult after a loss to
Detroit in regulation Saturday. With Buffalo winning Saturday, the Leafs fell
seven points behind the Sabres for the final playoff berth in the Eastern
Conference.
Tuesday’s game still ranks as meaningful – at least to the Leafs – but it would
have carried more weight had they beat Detroit and kept the deficit with
Buffalo down to five points.
“Obviously the last game (vs. Detroit) was tough,” Leafs winger Clarke
MacArthur said.
“But I think this (game against Buffalo) is still a big game for us. You have
to keep your spirits up. The big part is getting to within five points again,
from there who knows. Teams could lose and you are still in a position to do
something.”
The Leafs will face a Sabres team that simply refuses to buckle while holding
onto that eighth and final playoff position.
The two teams have been almost identical since the all-star break. Buffalo has
gone 15-7-4 and the Leafs 15-7-5. The Leafs once held a game in hand on the
Sabres, but failed to take advantage of that game. It might have made Tuesday’s
game a pivotal affair in the East playoff race, but the Leafs feel there’s no
use looking back on what they should have done over the past several months.
“Sure you can go back and look at (the) what ifs and what we should have done,
but that is the easy thing to do,” Leafs defenceman
Luke Schenn said.
“We have to play hard and finish strong, if we do that, we only give ourselves
a chance.”
The Leafs, while not wanting to dwell on their playoff situation, have actually
played Buffalo very tough of late — a fact that should have made Tuesday’s game
more important than it appears to be at this point in time.
Toronto defeated Buffalo in the last two meetings between the two teams. That
small measure of success helped the Leafs become a serious playoff contender,
and proved a small measure of payback for the Sabres run of success over the
Leafs, which saw them post a 29-11-1 record over Toronto since the lockout.
The two wins also saw the Leafs solve super goalie Ryan Miller, who entered the
March 12 game in Toronto with a 24-9-0 record over Toronto – the most wins he
has posted over any NHL team in his career.
“He’s played great lately but we have to get traffic in front of him,”
MacArthur said.
“We have to make sure he stays in his crease. When he comes out to cut angles
down, he’s very good. We have to get shots and get traffic at him.”
Patrick Chan Ready To Skate For A Cause
Source: www.thestar.com
– Randy Starkman
(March 30, 2011) Toronto figure skater Patrick
Chan felt pretty
helpless watching the earthquakes in Japan and worrying about friends he has on
and off the ice there.
On Saturday night at 7 p.m., he will try do his part to help out when he skates
in Oshawa Skating Club's Ice Show at the GM Centre in Oshawa. This
will be the last public appearance for the reigning ISU Grand Prix champion
before the world championships in Moscow beginning April 24.
Of course, the worlds had to be moved from their original site of Tokyo because
of the havoc wreaked by the natural disaster in Japan.
Chan is donating half of his skating fee Saturday night to the Canadian Red Cross efforts to help in the Japan
Earthquake/Asia Pacific Tsunami aftermath and the other half to a scholarship
fund in memory of his late coach Osborne Colson.
Don Jackson, the 1962 world champion who was also coached by Colson, is
headlining the show with Chan.
Chan has been on a roll this season and looks ready to move up a notch after
winning silver at the last two world championships.
"The wait definitely hasn't changed anything," he said recently.
"It has just made me a little more hungry. As I wait longer and longer, I
get more anxious and anxious. It's not bad at all. It's just a matter of
staying healthy and staying mentally healthy."
Tickets can be purchase on the General Motors Centre website
and at the box office.
(The photo was
taken by Mike Cassese of Reuters at Skate Canada in Kingston)
Dismal Season For Raptors
Tough To Swallow
Source: www.thestar.com
- Dave Feschuk
(March 26, 2011) LOS ANGELES - Reggie Evans, the Toronto
Raptors forward, was eating a slice of chocolate cake in the visitors’
locker room before Saturday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Suddenly, the man with the sweet tooth turned salty.
“Hey, Ju-Ju,” Evans said, addressing Julian Wright,
his Toronto teammate, in mock confrontation. “Did I ever tell you I don’t like
you?”
Said Wright: “Every day.”
“Hey, DeMar,” Evans kept at it, turning a stern gaze
to DeMar DeRozan. “Did you
know I don’t like you?”
Said DeRozan: “Pretty sure you
never did.”
World-class comedy, it was not. But there were laughs all around. And as the
Raptors continued to limp through the dregs of a dismal season, maybe there was
an ounce of truth in even the best natured locker room jabs. Upon their Sunday
return from a five-game Western road trip, the Raptors will have been together
for most of six months, played 73 games, and lost more than 70 per cent of
them.
So if Toronto’s hoopsters weren’t exactly a model of harmony, especially
considering they were coming off Friday night’s humiliating loss at Golden
State, wherein they set more than one franchise record for defensive ineptitude
and trailed by as many as 47 points, it was difficult to be surprised.
Still, long-time observers of the team were caught off guard by Wright’s
actions on Friday night, when he refused head coach Jay Triano’s
request to check into the blowout in the third quarter. Wright, who remained on
the bench when Triano wanted him on the floor, ended
up as the only able-bodied Raptor not to play in the 138-100 loss. In the wake
of that act of defiance, Wright said he addressed his teammates with an
apology.
“I just apologized generally. But everyone understood,” Wright said. “No one
wants to be singled out at the end of the day. We all know we’re a team . . .
The best way to put it — it’s not characteristic of me. I think that’s why it’s
a thing of the past. That’s probably the most I can say.”
While Wright wasn’t suspended, Bryan Colangelo, the
Raptors general manager, said the matter was “handled internally,” usually code
for the levying of a fine, although Wright declined to discuss the specifics of
his penalty.
“There’s obviously more to it than that,” said Triano.
“But that’s all we’re going to discuss.”
Added Wright: “I’m here, I’m dressed, I’m playing . . . It’s not as big an
issue as it may seem. We’re looking forward to the game. We’re looking forward
to playing the Clippers.”
He was speaking for himself, of course; various members of Toronto’s banged-up
NBA squad weren’t slated to have any part of L.A.’s second most famous basketballers. Evans, nursing a sore foot, was to be in
street clothes, as was Andrea Bargnani, the starting
centre, who was sidelined by bone spurs in his right ankle.
Bargnani, who has been bothered by the bone spurs for
a while now, said off-season surgery to alleviate the pain “is a possibility.”
As for Wright, who is in the final guaranteed year of a rookie-scale contract
that pays him about $2.9 million U.S. this season, to understand the root of
his frustration in Golden State is to know that his future as an NBA is very
much up in the air. While he had emerged as a regular part of Toronto’s
rotation in December, a month in which he averaged more than 21 minutes a game,
he has since been reduced to a scarcely used afterthought.
Ever since the Raptors acquired forward James Johnson in a trade with the
Chicago Bulls last month, Wright, battling for the same small-forward playing
time as Johnson, has been left on the bench for the duration of 12 of the 15
games.
Why? While the coaching staff has lauded him for his
defensive intensity, his jump shot remains, to be kind, below average. The
Raptors, well aware of Wright’s limitations, are focusing their attention on
Johnson’s possibilities, which makes sense, even if it has made for a trying March for Wright.
Still, that he’s in no position to refuse a single second of playing time goes
without saying to everyone but the out-of-touch denizens of the end of an NBA
bench. On a team dogged by losses and injury and its own vast incompetence,
Wright is not alone in not liking what he sees.
“Everybody wants to play 48 minutes. Everybody wants the ball and the offence
designed around them,” Triano said. “And it’s not
happening, and it can’t. I’m sure guys get frustrated.”
Speech By High School Baseball
Player Helps Japan Heal
Source: www.thestar.com
- Joji Sakurai
(March 29, 2011) TOKYO—If Japan has a field of dreams, it’s a
well-groomed
patch of grass and dirt called Koshien.
Twice a year, high school baseball teams compete at the field outside Kobe in
nationally televised tournaments that rivet the country. Last week, at the
start of the spring tournament, a teen stood on a podium in front of home plate
and made a speech watched by millions, with a dignity and conviction some
Japanese find lacking in their leaders as the nation confronts its earthquake
and tsunami calamity.
“We were born 16 years ago, in the year of the great Kobe earthquake,” said Shinsuke Noyama, a team captain
chosen to represent players at the opening ceremony, his face grim and chest
proud. “Today, in the great east Japan earthquake, many
precious lives have been lost, and our souls are filled with sorrow.”
Baseball, long popular in Japan, rallied the country after the Second World
War, providing welcome distraction while serving as a symbol of the
co-operation, hard work, and self-sacrifice needed to rebuild the devastated
land. It could be expected to play a similar role in the latest calamity, but
an ugly squabble over whether to postpone opening day has smeared the image of
the professional game.
Not only that, Japan’s tradition-steeped national sport, sumo, is in disgrace
over a match-fixing scandal, its spring tournament cancelled in an
unprecedented act of contrition.
Now the nation is turning elsewhere for a glimmer of hope: fresh-faced
adolescents who play their hearts out on the baseball field with a seriousness
and integrity sometimes missing from their pro heroes.
Hours after Noyama spoke, his team crashed out in the
first round. But his speech, made against a backdrop of teams lined up like
squadrons on the diamond, was played over and over on national TV, even into
the morning of the next day.
“It was much more beautiful than some mediocre politician’s speech, this
16-year-old youngster performing so magnificently, with that booming voice,”
said Akira Kawaii, a children’s story writer walking
toward Tokyo’s Shimbashi train station. “Pro ball is
all about money, high school baseball is about
passion.”
To put Japan’s love of high school baseball in perspective, it generates the
same kind of excitement as “March Madness,” the ongoing college basketball
championships in the United States. It’s a reaffirmation of values and
identity, an occasion for national bonding, and an expression of nostalgia for
the purity and vigour of youth.
To be sure, high school baseball is a big deal for reasons other than national
identity: Big bucks are at stake with hawk-eyed scouts looking for hot
prospects. Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and
Ichiro Suzuki — all now playing in Major League Baseball — first became
household names in Japan after memorable performances in high school.
But in Japanese high school baseball, losers attract almost as much attention
as winners, and even the no-hopes garner a big chunk of the televised
commentary. Fans are touched to see these youths giving their all, with the
same palpable sense of purpose, even when they’re losing 11-0 in the eighth
inning.
The teenage players have at least momentarily taken over the unifying role that
the pros carried out after the war. During the opening ceremony, the Tohoku
High School team — based in tsunami-ravaged Miyagi prefecture — marched onto
the field carrying the school banner to a wave of emotional applause.
“The tournament shows you can make sports speak to the needs even of a tragic
moment,” said William Kelly, a Japan scholar at Yale University. “And
professional baseball shows how you can also lose that opportunity.”
The discord that has rocked Japan’s two professional leagues at a time the
country needs unity has shocked the country.
The more powerful Central League balked at postponing its season out of respect
for disaster victims, and its Yomiuri Giants — Japan’s most popular team —
insisted it would hold electricity-guzzling night games at a time many families
are eating dinner by candlelight because of rolling blackouts.
Fans were outraged. Players hinted at a possible boycott. And the government
pressured the Central League to reconsider. The Giants, widely viewed as
holding disproportional clout in baseball decision-making, were singled out for
accusations of greed and heavy-handedness.
“Are these the circumstances where we should be doing this?” fumed Senichi Hoshino, the charismatic former manager of the
Hanshin Tigers, who play at Koshien and are the chief
rival of the Tokyo-based Giants.
Early last week, the Central League agreed to postpone the season’s start to
March 29, and the Giants said they would play more day games and conserve
energy during night games. On Thursday, the league caved in completely,
postponing its season to April 12 in line with the Pacific League.
Chad Ochocinco
Earns Reserve Spot On MLS Team
Source: www.thestar.com
- Doug Tucker
(March 29, 2011) KANSAS CITY, MO.—After a five-day tryout proved
he was
a good teammate who lacked enough soccer skills, NFL star Chad Ochocinco got what he was hoping for
Tuesday — a spot on the reserve team for Sporting Kansas City.
Now he'll work out a couple of times a week with the MLS team's reserve squad,
which is what he was hoping for all along.
“This is so awesome I'm an honorary member of SportingKC
and can train with the reserve team as long as I want,” Ochocinco said in a tweet. “Totally
awesome ILuvKC.”
As a member of the reserve team, the six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver for the
Cincinnati Bengals will not be given a contract or be paid. But soccer will be
a great way to stay in shape until owners and players work out their
differences and the NFL lockout is resolved.
Coach Peter Vermes said Ochocinco
had proven himself a hard worker and good teammate and was never a distraction.
“He really loves the game and he was into it. He wanted to try to make it,”
said Vermes. “I think it's also good for him. He
realizes this is a lot more difficult than it (appears to be).
“For our sport, it's great because I think there's a lot of people out there
who question how hard it is to play this game and it's very, very difficult.”
Ochocinco left for home after getting the good news
and said he would return “in a week or two.”
“He realized he's not good enough to make the team and play in games,” said
club spokesman Dave Borchardt. “This way, he gets to
be part of the soccer locker-room, which is a dream come true.”
Ochocinco had appeared to be realistic about his
chances of winning an MLS contract.
“I've been away from the game since I was a little kid. I'm just having fun,”
he said after Monday's practice game. “The skill set is not there like it
should be.
“All I can do out here on the pitch is probably just run fast.”
Ochocinco said his grandmother helped persuade him to
give up soccer and focus entirely on football after the 10th grade. If he had
stuck with soccer, Vermes said, he would have been a
star in that sport.
“There's no doubt in my mind he would be a professional player today,” Vermes said. “No doubt in my mind. We've had guys in here
with lesser physical tools than he has.
“He brings something to the field, his attention to detail and he's very
conscientious about the game. When you bring that every day onto the practice
field you're just going to get better.”
India Upstages Pakistan In
‘Mother Of All World Cup Cricket Matches’
Source: www.thestar.com
- C. Rajshekhar Rao
(March 30, 2011) MOHALI, INDIA—A lucky 85 from Sachin Tendulkar
was
followed by a disciplined bowling effort as India beat Pakistan by 29
runs in a high-stakes semi-final Wednesday to progress to the World Cup final
against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan was dismissed for 231 in the last over chasing 261, sparking wild
celebrations among the 28,000 people inside the Punjab Cricket Association
Stadium and across the nation of more than one billion people.
Pakistan had done well earlier to peg India back to 260-9 after Virender Sehwag’s flying start,
with left-arm pace bowler Wahab Riaz
taking a career-best 5-46.
The victory continued a streak for India, which has beaten Pakistan in all five
World Cup head-to-heads dating back to 1992.
The so-called “mother of all World Cup matches” was touted as a duel between
India’s batting line-up and Pakistan’s bowling attack, but Pakistan’s shoddy
fielding was eventually the difference between the two sides.
Tendulkar was let off four times, giving him the
opportunity to knit together challenging total for India and the bowlers then
ensured a third World Cup final appearance for the 1983 champion.
“Going back to Mumbai, especially for this event, is a wonderful occasion,” Tendulkar said of playing a World Cup final on his home
ground. “All I want to say is, we want to be calm,
focus on our job and get the job done.”
India piled the pressure on a Pakistan batting line-up which failed to produce
a single century in the tournament.
Pakistan’s early promise was slowed down in the middle overs
as Yuvraj made early inroads and the bowlers slowly
took control, marshalled well by captain Mahendra
Singh Dhoni. All five Indian bowlers finished with
two wickets each.
The only time Pakistan looked capable of the chase was when openers Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez were at the crease.
Kamran Akmal slashed a ball
from Zaheer Khan straight to Yuvraj
at point after making 19, while Hafeez went for an
unnecessary scoop off Munaf Patel and was caught
behind for 43.
Yuvraj then dismissed Asad Shafiq and Younis Khan and
Pakistan was reduced to 106-4 by the 26th over.
Umar Akmal added some
interest with a 24-ball 29 and Misbah-ul-Haq made a
late charge of 56, but with the ball not coming on to the bat too well later in
the day, it was always going to be difficult for them.
“I want to say sorry to my nation. We tried our level best,” Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi said. “I want to
congratulation the Indian cricket and all of the
Indian nation for this great victory. We wish them well in the final.”
Critics condemned the fielding performance — Pakistan dropped six catches in
all — and wondered why Afridi didn’t use its batting
power play earlier in a bid to throw the Indian bowlers off their rhythm and
give the big-hitting middle order a chance with the fielding restrictions in
place.
Afridi said it was difficult getting the strategy
right with wickets falling frequently. He also refused to sign off without some
encouraging words for his squad, which had been given little chance before the
tournament started.
“We really played well in this competition — the boys did a great job,” he
said. “I’m proud I’m the captain of these guys.”
In the first innings, Riaz exposed India’s
traditional weakness against left-arm seamers,
striking at crucial junctures. He accounted for a dangerous looking Sehwag (38) and an in-form Yuvraj
for a first-ball duck, as the famed Indian batting struggled against his swing.
Pakistan also made Tendulkar wait for his 100th
international century despite dropping the world’s best batsman four times. Tendulkar also had an lbw decision overturned on referral
and survived a close stumping appeal in what has to be one of his luckiest
innings ever.
“I would not like to rate or compare Sachin’s innings
but it was a very important one for us,” Dhoni said.
“When he is in the middle, it makes a lot of difference to the team because he
helps others to bat according to the need.”
Tendulkar faced 115 balls and hit 11 fours even as Riaz pegged back the Indian middle order with the
dismissals of Virat Kohli
(nine) and Yuvraj off successive deliveries.
Kohli was caught at point and Yuvraj
was bowled off a swinging full toss, while Dhoni was
trapped lbw by Riaz a little later for 25.
After Sehwag’s blazing start which contained five
boundaries in an over from Umar Gul,
India failed to get a big partnership.
Tendulkar continued to work the ball around in the
face of some tight bowling in the middle overs and
was lucky to see two clear spilled catches off Afridi,
the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.
Misbah dropped a sharp catch at mid-wicket when Tendulkar was on 27, while the generally reliable Younis Khan spilled an easier chance at short cover on 45.
Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal
was unable to glove a thick edge when Tendulkar was
on 70 and he was also let off on 81 by Umar Akmal off Mohammad Hafeez.
He was finally out when Afridi himself took a sharp
chance at short extra-cover off Ajmal’s bowling. The
Pakistan captain held both arms in the air in a v-shape to celebrate the
dismissal.
India got a slight boost towards the end as Suresh Raina
struck an unbeaten 36 and India accumulated 43 runs in the batting power play
taken in the 45th over.
::FITNESS::
Go For The Burn?
Make Your Life Easier
Source: Matt Bradbury,
www.trainmefit.com
Hey - it’s true, at first you are going to be a little
sore no matter
what. Some of us may be really sore for that matter!
But nothing great was ever achieved without stepping out of that comfort zone,
just a little. And for you, stepping out of that comfort zone may be
taking that first step toward a healthier life! But you have to
understand this before you go any further.
STOP
right there and put down that dumbbell.
We have talked about this before,… going to absolute failure on a set of
bicep curls at the gym does not necessarily make you stronger, healthier, or
fitter. (with the emphasis being
on “healthier” here at TrainMeFit).
[Muscular Failure: performing an exercise until you cannot possibly do another
repetition]
The research doesn’t lie.
Someone who can only perform a set of 10 push-ups as their max can still
receive benefits if they only do a set of 8 push-ups. (As a set of 10
push-ups may mean someone fully exerting themselves to their max).
What we mean by this is you
do not have to “go for the burn” (as advertised on TV) to get something out of
an exercise. Though many of us still have a love/hate
relationship with the burn - otherwise we feel like we are not being effective.
Researchers Drinkwater et al (2005) found no significant differences between sportsmen
going to muscular failure and those going to non-muscular failure when
comparing the bench press exercise over the course of a 6 week trial.
This other group of dudes (Sanborn et al, 2000) actually followed 17 woman
without any experience in resistance training. The ladies trained 3 times
per week for 8 weeks and they actually found the group that didn’t go to
muscular failure got slightly stronger than the group that did. WOW!
So with all this being
said - what do we actually want to take home with us?
- Using the muscular failure method to bust through plateaus is okay
- Using it to set a new personal rep record for the day is okay too
- You do not have to perform a set until you cannot possibly do any more reps
to still reap the benefits of strength training (this is great for the majority
of us who have a full time life too, since it can save us from being more sore
than we need to be)
- ideally: use the muscular failure method in one or two exercises at the
beginning of a workout (Medrano, 2010)
Next time you leave the gym you do not have to feel wrecked to feel you have
been effective!
References
Medrano, I. Muscular failure training in
conditioning neuromuscular programs. Journal of
Human Sport and Exercise online. Volume 5 Number 2 May 2010.
Diminishing
returns and food variety.
When you first get something new - you are attached at the hip! Literally.
Take for example when you got your new cell phone - if you were like me you
probably carried it everywhere and searched out all the latest and greatest
apps. But what if you had gotten 3 of the same phone at once?
Ya - 3 iPhones all at once.
It really would not make much difference. After the first one the novelty
wore off. Besides - there is just no way you could
use all 3 at once.
When something is new or different we want it and crave it (i.e.. Food)!
So what about the food on your plate?
Well, the more variety you have on your plate the more you eat. The
stimulation of new food allows you to sample each food and receive some benefit
from trying each. So if you put; shrimp, chicken, peas, corn, garlic
bread, sweet potatoes, and french
fries all on your plate you are likely to eat some of each. And CONSUME
MORE OVERALL CALORIES.
So the trick is, or the just of this, is to LIMIT variety for overall fat loss.
Exception: vegetables
and fruit.
Still encourage yourself to pack your cart with produce at the grocery
store. But when it comes to 3 varieties of crackers, 2 types of cookies,
3 different cheeses, and 5 brands of cola in your shopping cart - get real -
how do you expect to get healthy eating like this?
If you encourage
yourself to eat the basics and to not have all that extra stimulation in your
cupboards at home, your fat loss goals will be reached much sooner!
Researchers actually
found that people consumed less calories overall when food variety was kept to
a minimum (Raynor et al, 2005).
Stick to the basics: vegetables, fruit, lean meat/protein, and nuts - and you
won’t go wrong. Sure it makes for a pretty simple selection. But
which is it? Your waistline (aka. Lifeline) or excitement of constant stimulation to the brain with
each new ice cream flavour?
And just for laughs - the only other exception to the law of diminishing returns -
owning multiple four legged friends.
Exponential returns of
love and affection with each new addition. ;-)
References
Raynor, HA., Jeffery, RW.,
Phelan, S., Hill, JO., Wing, RR. Amount of food group variety consumed in
the diet and long-term weight loss maintenance. Obesity
Research. May 2005; 13(5): 883-90
Waistline aka. Lifeline - Thanks Jack Lalanne
::MOTIVATION::
In a world in which demographic
growth and progress in communications have put us in very close contact with
our neighbors, the very survival of humanity depends on our working together.
That is why more than ever, we must look upon humanity as one entity. The
problems that we face go beyond individuals and nations. We can only resolve
them through an effort of shared responsibility.