 NEW
YORK NEWS FLASH
Conan
O'Brien popularity is increasing...Full
article
HOT...
Pussycat Dolls: Just
chill out and enjoy the show.
How do you
categorize a sextet that preaches self-empowerment while dressing
like they just stepped out of a bordello? What do you call a pop
group apparently formed largely on the basis of how hot each
member is? The answer: don't. Just chill out and enjoy the show.
"We don't take ourselves too seriously," says Nicole Scherzinger,
the Dolls' lead vocalist. "I don't think we're trying to be
anything that we're not. We're not, like, trying to reinvent the
wheel or anything." The Dolls, who trace their heritage to a
naughty revue on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, are currently riding
high with the ballad Stickwitu, the second single from their debut
CD PCD. The disc has already produced the late-summer smash single
Don't Cha, which not-so-coyly asks, ``Don't cha wish your
girlfriend was hot like me? Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a
freak like me?'' That song's infectious mix of pure pop and rap --
courtesy of Busta Rhymes -- is only enhanced by the video, which
features the six members vamping in buttock-grazing miniskirts and
bare midriffs. "We always say we're sassy but classy," says member
Kimberly Wyatt. "We would never want ourselves to be interpreted
badly. If we're sexy, we're lucky." With Scherzinger, a former
member of Eden's Crush, handling virtually all vocals, it is easy
to be catty about the rest of the Dolls' musical chops. The CD
also heavily relies on collaborators like Cee-Lo Green, the Black
Eyed Peas' will.i.am and producer Timbaland. The album -- like the
Dolls -- offers something for everyone, from raunchy hip-hop to
remakes of Donna Summer's disco Hot Stuff and even Soft Cell's
Tainted Love. "It's a fun, affirmative, female-empowerment
tour-de-force of musical styles that embraces pop music and urban
music," says A&M Records president Ron Fair, who helped produce
the album. But music is only part of what can only be described as
a Dolls merchandising juggernaut: there are plans for a Dolls
perfume, a line of clothing and lingerie, a make-up line and even
a reality-style TV project. There's even a Pussycat Dolls Lounge
in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, featuring another group of
attractive women dancing and singing. All this is part of what the
group calls "the Pussycat Dolls movement." "We like to say that
there's a Pussycat Doll inside every girl," says group member
Ashley Roberts. "I think we're just out there inspiring all these
young girls, older girls, grandmas, to find that confidence and
that Pussycat Doll within them." And their message? "Just to live
life to the fullest," she says. As for the Dolls themselves, they
seem to have stepped out of an adolescent boy's fantasy. They are
a collection of women leaving nothing to chance looks-wise --
virtually every race and hair colour is represented. There's
sultry Scherzinger, who is of Hawaiian-Russian-Filipino descent;
Roberts, a blonde who has appeared in commercials and a Counting
Crows video; and Wyatt, a tomboy trained by the Joffrey Ballet.
There's also Carmit Bachar, a redhead who placed fifth in the
Olympic rhythmic gymnastics trials in 1992; Melody Thornton, a
former backup singer who is of Mexican and African-American
descent; and Jessica Sutta, a brunette who was once a Miami Heat
dancer. "We all fit like pieces of a puzzle," says Thornton.
"Everybody's input and their journeys and where they've been help
put that puzzle together." That puzzle was originally put together
a decade ago by L.A.-based dancer and choreographer Robin Antin.
The idea was for a wink-wink cabaret act that mixed Bob Fosse and
a lingerie-filled Hugh Hefner dreamscape.
After years at
Johnny Depp's club The Viper Room, the Dolls were reconceived as a
pop band. The line-up changed and their ranks were thinned from 12
to six because, says Fair, there were "too many to keep track of."
"A lot of time we didn't know where we were going or how it was
going to transition from fishnets into hip-hop," says Scherzinger.
"But it's worked out. We believe in what we do and I think people
get that." Fair envisions the Dolls eventually becoming a sort of
right-of-passage for young talent, with girls graduating from the
group to become stars in their own right and others filling in the
void. "The rule book was thrown out with this thing," he says.
Their music, looks and trashy heritage have led some critics to
lambaste the Dolls as an American version of the Spice Girls, but
the six are determined to remain positive. "We're just doing our
thing," says Thornton. "We don't try to overthink it because then
you're trying to please everybody and you can't please everybody.
You just do what you do best." -By M. Kennedy.
W
|
 |
|
|
ONE BIG
CELEBRATION IN NEW YORK
 Photo:
The Strokes (clockwise, from top left:
Nikolai Fraiture, Julian Casablancas, Fabrizio Moretti, Albert Hammond
jnr and Nick Valensi) have started to delve more into their own lives
for inspiration.
It's one big
celebration at the Strokes' HQ in New York City. Drummer Fab Moretti
has just spilt red wine on his crotch while singing the praises of
band frontman Julian Casablancas. Then Casablancas stumbles through
the door and interrupts him to say the room stinks of alcohol. To this
Moretti raises his voice and yells at the singer: "That's probably
because I spilt it all over myself when I was talking about your
beautiful vocal cords." It's true, 27-year-old Casablancas doesn't
sound his usual lazy self on the band's new album, First Impressions
of Earth. "He really did take it up a notch with his singing, and
lyrically as well," says Moretti, who goes out with actress Drew
Barrymore and is arguably the world's sexiest drummer. "Julian always
had it in him, in my humble opinion he was always a great vocalist but
he really wanted to celebrate this time, and we wanted to celebrate it
too," he says from the band's studio in the New York City Music
Building. This is the same place the band - also made up of Nikolai
Fraiture (bass, 26) Nick Valensi (guitar, 24) and Albert Hammond jnr
(guitar, 25) - first started jamming together back in 1998. It's also
where they recorded the new album. It is a different sounding Strokes
from 2001's breakthrough Is This It and 2003's Room On Fire.
 Not only
is Casablancas sounding more committed, his band has solidified its
attack compared with its sometimes foppish earlier offerings - take
Juicebox on the new album with its cross between Batman,
blaxploitation and dangerous rock'n'roll. "It was one of those songs
that Julian brought in and it just fell into place. I guess we were
all in a rockin' kind of mood that day," he laughs. Then there's Ask
Me Anything's mid-album interlude with mellotron - a distinctive early
electric keyboard which dates back to the Beatles era - that sounds
like an experiment. But Moretti disagrees: "It's stripping the band's
sound to the most minimalistic version. It's a melody I would expect
to hear from Julian, but it's played in a way you can really celebrate
that." The Strokes' approach to First Impressions also has a lot to do
with their new producer David Kahne whose past credits include the
Bangles and Paul McCartney. "He totally like inspired us to revamp our
sound - you can still tell that the heart is still the Strokes but the
limbs are a little different," says Moretti.
Former producer, Gordon
Raphael had some involvement on the new album "but then Gordon was
like, 'You know, I think I'm gonna bust a move'," says Moretti.
According to him, Raphael was a "free spirit" whereas Kahne is "more
of a boss". "He really knew how to fill up the space, and get around
sounds, and not just have them smash into your face." There was
something ever so cool about the Strokes' debut - the three-track
demo-cum-EP The Modern Age released in early 2001. Its three songs
excited rock'n'roll fans around the world with its nods to the Beatles
and fellow New Yorkers Television and the Velvet Underground. By the
time of Is This It, the hype was huge. The five styley scruffs from
New York City lived up to it. Inevitably, though, they became just as
well-known for their girlfriends and silver spoon upbringings (Casablancas
is the son of Elite model agency boss John Casablancas), as they were
for the music. Then, with the release of Room On Fire - the
"difficult" second album - the feedback was mixed. But Moretti defends
it. "I think, even if I do say so myself, Room On Fire is a pretty
[expletive] good record. But I think it was a step that we needed to
take to be able to get here. And as much as I love the first two
records, they're like old girlfriends. You respect them for having
pleased you a while ago but now you gotta focus on your new woman,
unless you want it to go awry. "I don't even think getting the press
we got was intentional in the first place. It's just part of the flow
of things. It's like the ocean, it crashes on the beach and then it
recoils, and then it crashes later on." He hopes it breaks with a big
smack on the shore for First Impressions of Earth. "I think we have
done all that we can do to make the music we want to make, and
hopefully people will like it, and if they don't, so be it." Nowadays
the Strokes have settled down a bit. "We've learned the values of not
being crazy all the time and just really enjoying the endearing
moments of life. I think we've all learned to strip each other's egos,
to be closer, and be more productive," he says. And musically? "We
started out just trying to figure out what we wanted to do [as a
band]. During the Modern Age EP we were young and happy to figure
these new things out, and now I think we're a little more together as
a unit. And more and more we're starting to find inspiration within
each other and our lives, and less from listening to stuff that has
been recorded before. It's more about us and our lives." Right from
the start the Strokes have always said they will make music until they
die. And Moretti still believes it. "Absolutely. I mean regardless of
what kind of success we have, this is one of the most gratifying
things in the world - to work with your friends, and make good music,
by our standards."
Who: The Strokes. Line up: Julian
Casablancas (vocals); Fabrizio Moretti (drums); Nikolai Fraiture
(bass); Nick Valensi (guitar); Albert Hammond jnr (guitar).
Formed: 1998, New York. Past albums: Is This
It (2001); Room On Fire (2003). New album: First
Impressions of Earth (out January 3). -By Scott Lara.
RALPH LAUREN
 
c
NEWSFLASH
 GREAT
SHOWS AT NEW YORK BIRDLAND
New
York's Birdland music and entertainment program, this month, is
charged with super duper, world class stars, such as Freddy Cole,
Hilary Cole, Christine Ebersole and the sensational Sofia Laiti, who
will be performing on Monday 26th at 7 PM.
Photo: Sofia
Laiti, New York Diva of modern Jazz Cabaret.
Laiti In
Concert is a must see show. It has all the elements of a mesmerizing
musical event: Vocal virtuosity and style originality of Laiti, rich
and melodious arrangements blended into an intellectual Mata Hari
ambiance. Laiti's voice is out of this world. Go see her on stage.
It is quite an experience at many levels. Read more about Sofia
Laiti in the
MUSIC REVIEWS
of this issue.
Bio: Sofia Laiti was born in
Lapland, the unique society in the northernmost arctic area in
Finland, Laiti retains traces of her distinctive heritage. Since
early childhood, she had a strong desire to use her voice to
entertain. "My mother and father told me I was singing as soon as I
could talk." I remember always singing in my home. As a teenager,
Sofia studied classical music in the Music Conservatory at Kuopio,
in the east of Finland, paying close attention to great classical
vocalists. Here, she developed a solid musical foundation upon which
to build her career. With this solid foundation, Laiti proceeded to
jazz singing, and moved to Helsinki, the sophisticated capital of
Finland. Throughout the 1980's, she made a significant impact there,
winning major prizes and grants, and making triumphant appearances
at top clubs and festivals, such as Pori Jazz International. In 1991
- reversing the trend of Scandinavian-bound jazzmen like Dexter
Gordon - Sofia moved to New York, aided by a grant from the State
Music Council of Finland. She has since led ensembles at such venues
as Birdland, The Village Gate, Visiones, The Squire, The West End
Cafe, Tavern on the Green, and the Cornelia Street Cafe as well as
at Trumpets in New Jersey, Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. Her debut
album, "Manhattan Memories", was recorded in New York in 1989 for
Finnish Columbia Records. Saxophonist Scott Robinson, pianist Larry
Ham, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Klaus Suonsaari join her in a
program divided between compositions by Kivikataja and standards on
which Sofia puts her inimitable stamp. In 1994 she released her U.S.
debut recording "Inspira", on the Midnight Sun Music label. Backed
by John Hicks on piano, Craig Handy on tenor sax, Essiet Essiet on
bass and Cecil Brooks III on drums, her vocalism was praised as
"powerful" by Cadence and "charismatic" by Jazziz. Sofia's 1996
album "The Midnight Sun Will Never Set" produced by Houston Person,
featured Person on sax, James Weidman on piano, Essiet Essiet on
bass and Mark Johnson on drums. Praising the "deep lilt of her
voice" and her "dark, exotic sound" Cadence declared: "Sofia Laiti
is maturing into a classic jazzpop chanteuse."
Now married with a young daughter, Sofia is comfortably New York
centric. Asked what took so long between recordings (The Midnight
Sun Will Never Set 1996 and You Don't Know Me 2004) saying:
Sometimes it's good to be quiet. Even when I wasn't performing I was
singing and playing piano at home. I knew I would come back when the
timing was right." The call came and she is back in the game. While
critics cite the "smokiness", "lushness," and "sultry glow" of her
voice and the "smoothness" and "elasticity" of her phrasing. Sofia
herself has best captured the secret of her appeal: "I naturally use
my whole heart and soul when I sing. I think an audience loves to
hear it " the communication of feeling through song."-By Evan
Eisenberg
CHRISTINE
EBERSOLE
Another
great favorite is "Christmas with CHRISTINE EBERSOLE & BILLY STRITCH"
, Tuesday, December 20 - show time 7pm. Christine Ebersole is more
than a spectacular entertainer. She is a gem. And she proved it
zillion times on Broadway, on films and at so many TV shows. Get
your act together and dash to Birdland to enjoy Christine Ebersole
LIVE!
 Alicia
Keys and Bono to Release Song
Photo: Alicia
Keys arrives for a Keep A Child Alive event on Nov. 3, 2005 in New
York. Keys and Bono are hoping to save the lives of children through
song. The two superstars have collaborated on 'Don't Give Up
(Africa),' and will donate all proceeds to Keep A Child Alive, which
provides medicine to families infected with AIDS and the HIV virus.
The song will be available exclusively on iTunes starting Tuesday,
Dec.6.
Alicia Keys and Bono are hoping to
save the lives of children through song. The two superstars have
collaborated on "Don't Give Up (Africa)," and will donate all
proceeds to Keep A Child Alive, which provides medicine to families
infected with AIDS and the HIV virus. The song will be available
exclusively on iTunes starting Tuesday. The pair first sang the tune
at a Nov. 3 fund-raiser in New York City for the charity (Keys
performed onstage while Bono crooned via satellite from a remote
location). "I love this song. And I love Bono. I really respect what
he has done for Africa and how he has used his fame to do good in
the world. I hope I can do half as much in my life," Keys, a global
ambassador for the charity, said in statement Wednesday. "I believe
AIDS is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the
poor is a reflection of who we are as a people. I urge everyone to
recognize the extreme disaster Africa is facing and step up for the
Motherland." "Don't Give Up" was originally performed by Peter
Gabriel and Kate Bush in 1986, and was titled, "So."
 Sienna
Miller: It's been a 'tumultuous year'
Photo:
Sienna Miller poses.
Sienna Miller wants to move past
what she calls a "tumultuous year." Miller's engagement to Jude Law
appeared to fall apart after the actor publicly apologized in July
for having an affair with his children's nanny. Reports in recent
weeks have suggested the couple may be back together. "Yes, I wish
(the tabloid coverage) wasn't in my life to the degree that it is or
has been, but I accept that it has been a pretty tumultuous year and
hopefully it will die down," the 23-year-old actress told reporters
recently, according to AP Radio. Miller is promoting her new movie,
Casanova, which opens in some theaters Christmas Day. The change of
topic is a welcome one for the actress. "I'm so relieved to be able
to talk about a film ... as opposed to my private life," she said.
Miller and Law, 32, who appeared together in 2004's Alfie, became
engaged last December. Law divorced fashion designer-actress Sadie
Frost in October 2003 after a six-year marriage and three children.
FINE TUNING: Watching an IMAX
film on a TV screen may seem like a fool's errand, no matter how big
your set is.
 Photo:
Chris Noth and Jennifer Sciole.
In one of the more audacious
experiments of the new TV season, Criminal Intent has been swapping
back and forth between lead characters each week. By bringing in
Chris Noth at the outset of the season familiar to original Law &
Order viewers as no-nonsense tough guy Det. Mike Logan, and
alternating stories between Noth and D'Onofrio Criminal Intent has
managed to breathe new life into what was always the toughest sell
of the Law & Order spin-offs. In tonight's outing, Logan and his
partner Carolyn Barek (Annabella Sciorra, familiar to followers of
The Sopranos as one of Tony Soprano's more ill-fated goomahs)
investigate a Park Avenue plastic surgeon implicated in the death of
a medical student in Guatemala. Criminal Intent is not one of those
tedious howdunits, along the lines of CSI and its countless
imitators, but rather a whydunit. Co-creator, senior producer and
head writer Rene Balcer, a Montreal native who studied at McGill and
worked for a time as a reporter on the now-defunct Montreal Star
before turning to producing TV scripts for a living, has always been
more interested in the psychological underpinnings of fictional
crimes. In Balcer's hands, D'Onofrio's Det. Robert Goren became a
kind of alter ego to the traditional TV police detective, a
shambling bear of a man who immerses himself in the criminal mind
and emerges with the answer in the end: part Lurch, part Lt. Columbo.
It was fun watching D'Onofrio for a time, but his wildly
over-the-top, just-watch-me performances began to take their toll,
in front of and behind the camera. Noth's Mike Logan takes the more
direct approach: He's all about busting heads and getting into
constant trouble with his bosses. Law & Order: Criminal Intent has
always been my favourite of the various Law & Order incarnations,
and that includes the original.
 Photo:
Annabella Sciorra, familiar to followers of The Sopranos.
(I still say the original Law &
Order was at its best during the Michael Moriarty/Chris Noth years).
Balcer has an eye for behaviour and an ear for the way people think
and talk you don't often see on U.S. television it's a Montreal
thing and the stories are often dense and layered, even when you
know from the outset who did it. Criminal Intent is worth seeing.
Avoiding it just because it has Law & Order in the title strikes me
as, dare I say it, depraved indifference. CTV, NBC. Trust Homer
Simpson to get into an altercation with the Easter Bunny which is
exactly what he does in tonight's Simpsons outing, Last of the Red
Hat Mamas.
 Photo:
Robert Downey, Jr.
Homer gets into it with the bonbon
bunny at Mayor Quimby's annual egg hunt, and Marge ends up being
shunned by her society friends as a result. Lonely, Marge joins a
women's group called The Cheery Red Tomatoes and agrees to help with
their upcoming charity drive: robbing Mr. Burns of his prized
Faberge egg collection. And if one of the voices you hear sounds
suspiciously like Lily Tomlin, that's because it is. Tomlin recorded
her guest-voice appearance earlier this year. Global, Fox. Robert
Downey Jr. appears in Family Guy at least, his voice does and if you
think that sounds like a match made in heaven, why, you might be
right! The episode revolves around Peter Griffin's sudden effort to
lose weight. There's a reason, you see, why Baby Stewie keeps
referring to him as ``Fat Man,'' as in, ``I underestimated you, Fat
Man!'' That's a hell of a thing for a baby to be calling his own
father but, hey, if the shoe fits ... Global, Fox. Viewers looking
for a change of pace from Sunday familiars like The Simpsons,
Desperate Housewives Carlos gets religion! and Grey's Anatomy may be
interested in the IMAX film Wolves, which airs tonight on the
Outdoor Life Network. Watching an IMAX film on a TV screen may seem
like a fool's errand, no matter how big your set is, but it's
actually fascinating to see, and not just because IMAX films are
made with a visual language all their own. The big-screen films are
stately paced and immaculately filmed, and Wolves is no exception.
The serene vistas of jagged mountain peaks and snowbound valleys
create a serene, almost surreal effect, and everything about the
film's imagery is calculated and carefully studied.- By A. Stachaan.
Walk The
Line
 It
does happen. You go somewhere once, camera loaded, something
amazing happens, and 37 years later, they make a movie about it.
In February 1998, I wrote about the night Johnny Cash proposed to
June Carter during their show in London, Ont., on Feb. 22, 1968.
Recently, the phone started ringing. People who knew I was there
that night said I should see the new movie, Walk The Line, because
that moment provides the payoff scene in a film that was doing
very well, second in box office only to some kids' movie. They
wanted to know how it compared. I thought the movie was a crazy
idea. Who could possibly impersonate Johnny Cash? On the other
hand, I always like looking at old pictures, even my own, and I
was soon back in 1968. So here are some of the differences between
life and the movies: - It happened in a hockey arena, not a
theatre. Even John and June were confused in later years about
where in London the proposal came.
(They had played London several
times, since their manager, Saul Holiff, was from London.) -
Johnny Cash was taller than almost everyone and personified
charisma. Jaoquin Phoenix is of ordinary stature and not at all
charismatic, at least not to someone who doesn't go to movies much
these days. But we can't hold it against him that he's not Johnny
Cash. Nobody is. John's dead. - Reese Witherspoon seems very
June-like in her mannerisms, but I was continually distracted by
her chin. When I should have been paying attention to her lines, I
was wishing that chin was still malleable and could be gently
forced back into her jaw where it belongs. This may be the first
time the original characters were better-looking than their
Hollywood stand-ins. - They did sing Jackson that night (``We got
married in a fever...''), but the proposal came between songs. He
said, ``June, will you marry me?'' She was somewhat flustered and
she and her mother and sisters, who were all on stage, seemed
a-twitter for a moment, but I don't recall her replying, and they
certainly did not stop the show as he does in the movie, there was
no kissing and hugging, and I, at least, wasn't sure it was a real
proposal at all until I read in the paper a week or so later that
they had been married. - In the movie John and June have a bad
scene just before the show.
She tells him never to talk to
her except on stage, and taunts him. Just after that moment if it
was real and not just screenwriting is when I appeared at the
dressing-room door, hoping to take some behind-the-scenes pictures
of the stars preparing themselves. John said no way. I then had to
know if that bad scene was real or not, so it was time to talk to
somebody else who was there. Marshall Grant, bass player in the
Tennessee Two (later Three when they added drummer W.S. Holland)
is the guy in the movie who makes a bomb out of a roll of tape.
(``We made more than one. In those days you could buy anything in
a hardware store, dynamite, almost anything. I made one in a ball
of tape the size of a basketball.'').
BEGINOPTIONALCUT: He lives in
Hernando, Miss., and remembered me from when I called him in 1998,
not long after John's collapse on stage in Flint, Mich. ``No, she
did not say that,'' he told me. ``That's just Hollywood coming
out, that's all. They were getting along very well at that time.''
Marshall Grant and his co-worker, Luther Perkins, once Memphis
motor mechanics, go back a long way with Johnny Cash and his
brother, Roy. ``Roy came by and said, `I'm going to pick up J.R.
at the bus station.' He was coming in from New Jersey where he was
discharged from the service. I was the first person that met him,
after his brother. He came straight from the bus station to where
I was working. ``I was playing rhythm guitar in those days. Luther
and I, when we had nothing to do, we'd bring our rhythm guitars
into the shop. Roy kept saying he had a brother in the service who
played a little bit. One of the first things John said to me was,
`I hear you do a little pickin'.` `I said, `Yeah, damn little!' He
said, `Well, me too.' ``He went to San Antonio, Texas, and married
Vivian Liberto and moved back to Memphis. We started to get
together, all three playing rhythm guitar. So I decided I'd play
bass and Luther decided he'd play electric guitar, and that was
the beginning of it all.''``We auditioned for Sam Phillips with
the song that's in there, I Was There When It Happened, just about
the way it happened in the movie. Not exactly the way, but close
enough. ``But it wasn't Folsom Prison. Folsom Prison Blues wasn't
even born at that time. Sam Phillips simply told us to go back and
if we could come up with something original, `Come back and see
me,' and that's exactly what we did. ``About 30 days later we
worked up a song called Hey Porter, and we wanted to put I Was
There When It Happened on the back of that but he wouldn't do it,
he said `Come up with another song and come back,' so we got Cry,
Cry, Cry, and went back, and that's how it all started.''
BEGINOPTIONALCUT: He's not
bothered by the variance between life and the movies. ``Well, they
gotta sell tickets, you know? There's a lot of things in the movie
that are pretty factual but a lot of things that they stretched
out of proportion, but I knew that was gonna happen. ``He didn't
have fights with Vivian like they showed. They had some hollering
and screaming fights, but they never got down on the floor and
fought and all that. It was just that he was gone all the time and
when he came back he was loaded with amphetamines and so they
didn't have much of a family life, and that did cause some
hollering and screaming on Vivian's part, but she was very well
justified at the time.'' It was reported John and Vivian's
daughter Kathy walked out of a screening over the way her mother
was portrayed. ``You know, I usually agree with everything the
kids say,'' Marshall Grant said. ``We're very, very close and stay
together, but I thought the way they portrayed Vivian in the movie
was just fine. She and John were too young. They didn't know. I
was right there in the middle of it when it happened, so I guess I
oughtta know.'' Perhaps the second-most horrible scene in the
movie is the Thanksgiving dinner where the antipathy between John
and his father overflows. Marshall Grant thinks that went too far.
``That's one thing that they had no business portraying the way
they did. He and his dad were very close, very close. And they
stretched the thing out about (John's older brother) Jack a little
too much, but that's Hollywood. John had a great relationship with
his dad and all his family. Ray was a good man and he was very
proud of all of his sons, but extremely proud of John because of
the success that he had. ``But nobody at the studio said this was
a true story. Based on truth, yeah, but they made it to sell
tickets and I don't blame them for it. I have no problems with the
movie.''
Then there's the music.
``Fox sent me a soundtrack and
it's absolutely incredible. There's been a lot of bass players
that have tried to duplicate every note that I played on those
records, with the slap and everything, but nobody ever did it. But
this guy (Dennis Crouch) did it. Whoever played bass on this thing
is absolutely incredible. It's scary to listen to, because they
played every note exactly at the same position on the neck as I
played. The slap and everything is there, clean, crisp and clear.
The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.'' And seeing himself
portrayed on the screen? ``Considering where we came from and
where we went in the business, which I guess is as far as you
could go, yeah, it is a great honour seeing somebody portraying
me, and also for Luther and for John. They're both gone now, and
on their behalf I think it's absolutely fantastic. Not many people
in this world, whatever they do in life, ever see that, and for me
it's one of the highlights of my life. ``I'm very proud of how he
(Larry Bagby) did it. I understand from some other people that he
worked at it awful hard. He couldn't play bass and they hired a
music teacher from Memphis State University that worked with him
for a month. They watched old films of us. He did a good job. He's
a nice guy and I was honoured to have him play me. ``After that
night in London, things began to change for the Tennessee Three
very quickly. ``The album At Folsom Prison was the last record
Luther played on. The next album, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, Carl
Perkins and Bob Wooton played on that. Luther died (in a house
fire) in August of `68.''
ENDOPTIONALCUT: Of the adults
who appear in Walk The Line, Marshall Grant is one of the very few
still living: ``It's sorta like an empty house,'' he said. Back in
1998, he and Saul Holiff both predicted Johnny Cash would rise
from his sickbed once again. And in fact he put out three more
albums and lived another five years. ``I always said John was like
a cat with nine lives and he hadn't used up but 12 of 'em, and
I'll stick with that. When people would count him completely down,
then along would come a song like Ring of Fire or A Boy Named Sue
or One Piece At A Time. We did have a little trouble getting him
into the studio, but we always squeezed something out of him. You
could never, ever, ever count him out, and that would be true
today, if he was still alive, too.'' The surprise to everyone was
that June died before John. ``No, that wasn't supposed to happen.
She had to have a heart operation before they could give her a
gall bladder operation, and something went dreadfully wrong and so
she had a massive heart attack and died.'' That was in 2003, and
John died four months later, but Marshall Grant says it's wrong to
think John had just given up. ``No, John never lost his will to
live, or his will for anything. (June's death) had an effect on
him, but he had gathered himself back together. We talked a lot,
and he was looking forward to the future. But he knew without any
shadow of a doubt that his time was just around the corner, and,
unfortunately, it came. ``It was a combination of a lot of things.
He had double pneumonia so many times it took a toll on his lungs
and his resistance was just ripped apart and he couldn't fight
nothin' anymore.'' If Walk The Line has failings, Marshall Grant
thinks Hollywood may get a chance to redeem itself. ``I honestly
think and nobody has told me this but I think there'll be a sequel
to this movie. They almost have to pick up in `68 and go farther
with it, because this has been so successful.'' And that happens,
too.
BIG
WINNER CD OF THE MONTH
 The
Body Acoustic, Cyndi Lauper (Epic)
On her new disc The Body Acoustic, 52-year-old Cyndi Lauper
recasts a slew of her old hits -- from She Bop to True Colors
and Time after Time -- in acoustic form. It's an experiment that
could soar or crash. Alanis Morissette released an acoustic
version of her breakthrough, best-selling 1995 album Jagged
Little Pill to lukewarm reviews just a few months ago. But
Lauper -- both slinky and spunky in a bodiced red dress and
platinum hair on the album's cover -- has penned or performed
some of the most durable tunes to come out of the '80s. And her
voice, at once raspy, perky and thrillingly powerful, can still
pull emotion out of the deep crevices of those 20-year-old
words. The Body Acoustic, while not earth-shattering, shakes up
an old formula with new tricks, from Lauper's own dulcimer
playing to talented guests. First of all, Lauper co-produced the
album with Rick Chertoff, the whizz behind her 1984
Grammy-winning debut She's So Unusual, and William Wittman, who
produced 2003's At Last. Quietly unassuming, She Bop -- which
was originally a bouncy, naughty hit from Lauper's debut, She's
So Unusual -- could fuel a spaghetti western with its dusty
dulcimer chords and whistling interlude. Noteworthy songs
include Money Changes Everything with Lauper and Taking Back
Sunday's Adam Lazzara harmonizing along to a hand-clapped beat.
Sarah McLachlan's breathy duet with Lauper on 1984's Time After
Time provides good contrast to Ani DiFranco and Vivian Green's
inspired yelps on Sister of Avalon. True Colors, from 1986, is
frankly beautiful: simplified to acoustic strings and Lauper
almost sobbing its theme of love and acceptance. Of course,
Lauper wouldn't be who she is without the lasting legacy of
1984's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The only purely un-acoustic
song on the album, it's a cute but fluffy take on the original
with Japanese pop duo Puffy Ami Yumi giggling to a ska-influenced
groove. Yeah, girls just wanna have fun, but then so do grown
women. Rating: 4 stars out of five. -S. Schou.
Elton to
wed partner in small ceremony
Photo: Elton
John, left, with David Furnish.
Rock star Elton John says he and
partner David Furnish plan a small private ceremony to seal their
civil partnership under new legislation offering gays many of the
legal protections available to married heterosexuals. "It'll be a
very small family affair and then in the evening there'll be a
soirée somewhere, which we have yet to work out," John was quoted as
saying in an interview with Attitude magazine released Thursday.
"But the ceremony itself will be David's parents and my parents and
the two of us. They'll be our witnesses. That's the way we want to
do it. They've been so fantastic to us and so supportive. Out of
respect for their support, we want to just keep it small. Not to
make a ballyhoo of the ceremony," John was quoted as saying. The
ceremony will be held on Dec. 21, the effective date of the
legislation creating civil partnerships. Furnish, a Toronto-born
film producer, and John have been together for 12 years. "As far as
I'm concerned, I've always considered myself committed to Elton and
he's the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with. So in
that sense I don't feel like the dynamic of our relationship is
going to change," Furnish was quoted as saying. "But from a social
standpoint, I think it's hugely significant. It is a major, major
change. It is one of the defining issues of our times. And I applaud
Britain for embracing the diversity of our society."
|
|
MORE ARTICLE AT
THE SECOND SITE
ENTERTAINMENT,
STARS AND CELEBRITIES:
1-Actor
Matt Damon weds in New York...
2-Lennon's day in
New York...
3-Sopranos
creator honored by New Jersey governor...
4-Marjorie
Maye:
She Made It Big Time In the Recording Industry...
5-TEN
MOST WATCHED AMERICAN TV SHOW HOSTS.
Not difficult to guess. And as predicted, according to a poll by the
International News Agency, the 10 most watched American TV show
hosts are in no particular order...
6-The
Bendheim Performing Arts Center Performances and Events Calendar...
7-Jeffrey
Friedberg and the Bossy Frog Band...
8-Carol
Channing & Friends
- Starring Linda Fields, Diana Templeton and Richard Skipper as Carol
Channing...
9-The
Three Phantoms in Concert... Duck Soup Magic Show! FILMS THAT GOT
AWAY...
10-Judy
Dench: A bonafide Grande
Dame.
With
nearly 50 years experience as an actress, Dame Judi Dench has given an
astonishing range of performances. As well as her Oscars and
knighthood, she was the first person to win two Olivier awards and her
marriage to Michael Williams was one of the most successful in
showbusiness. Moreover she has brought grace, warmth and frequently a
fascinating coldness to an extraordinary mixture of roles....Read
the full article
11-
Robert Osborne: Entertainment Man of the Year.
_______________
MUSIC. CDs: NEW
RELEASES WITH BIG BUZZ IN NEW YORK
Confessions
On a Dance Floor. Madonna
(Warner)
It's back to
the future as Madonna fetishizes the disco ball and rides a deep
house beat into the sunrise. This one's for the clubs. She
delivers an ode to one of the planet's great clubbing cities, on
the sure-to-be-big-in-the-Apple I Love New York. At her best,
Madonna lets her voice hang on simple pop hooks. She is at home
amid the thumping beats and synth-laden production (courtesy of
DJ-producer Stuart Price, aka Les Rhythmes Digitales). They lose
the plot a bit, eventually, and songs begin to blur. But it's an
easy, fun listen that captures house music's ability to be both
festive and introspective. Party on. Rating: 5 stars out of five-T
Dounlevy.
Aerial, Kate Bush (Columbia)
Kate Bush hasn't
released an album since 1993's The Red Shoes, and at 47, she's now
more soccer mom than chanteuse. But she's still masterful at making
spooky, sexy music tinged with strangeness. And this double-CD set
should satisfy long-neglected fans. Both discs, A Sea of Honey and A
Sky of Honey, are filled with Bush's lush piano-playing, strings,
moody electronica, nature sounds and her poetic, if not slightly wacky
words. The first single, King of the Mountain, sounds like the onset
of winter itself with synthesized wind blowing and icy computerized
blips. The lyrics are about Elvis, the king himself, frolicking "in
the snow with Rosebud," a presumed allusion to the sled in Citizen
Kane. In Pi, she sings the mathematical equation. And it sounds good.
Really -- if you're the kind of fan who loves her operatic voice and
wouldn't mind hearing her sing a grocery list or the alphabet. On the
second disc, Prologue sounds like soaring movie music with lyrics
about "the light in Italy." If King of the Mountain is winter, Sunset
is summer. Stripped down, the song is about the words. "This is a song
of colour," Bush sings. "Where sands sing in crimson, red and
rust/Then climb into bed and turn to dust." It hits a crescendo with
Spanish-style guitar and a peppy chorus, "Oh, sing of summer and a
sunset." Both CDs are classic Kate -- meant to be played in the dark
when you're up too late. Amazingly, her voice hasn't changed
dramatically over the years. If anything, the squeakiness of Wuthering
Heights and Running Up that Hill, has simply mellowed, leaving behind
a more mature, seasoned voice, but no less haunting. Rating: 4 stars
out of five.-T. Kurtis.
Carey rules over Grammy shortlist
Photo: Carey last won a Grammy in 1990
Singer Mariah Carey has been
nominated for eight Grammy awards, including album of the year for
her comeback The Emancipation of Mimi.
Rapper Kanye West and singer
John Legend also have eight nods each, while Irish rockers U2 have
been nominated in five categories. Sir Paul McCartney received three
nominations, including best album for Chaos and Creation in the
Backyard. The awards ceremony will be held on 8 February in Los
Angeles.
Comeback: Carey, who
last won a Grammy in 1990, released her comeback album earlier this
year, selling more than seven million copies worldwide. Besides
McCartney and Carey, the other best album nominees are U2, for How
To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby and
West's Late Registration. Carey's balled, We Belong Together, is up
for best single alongside West's Goldigger, Green Day's Boulevard of
Broken Dreams, Stefani's Hollaback Girl and Feel Good Inc by British
cartoon band Gorillaz, featuring De La Soul. Gorillaz are competing
for a total of four nominations, including best music video.
NEW YORK
TALKS
King Kong movie
roars into town
Photo: Peter Jackson attended the UK
premiere in London
Director
Peter Jackson says he has fulfilled a childhood dream by remaking
King Kong. Jackson, who directed The Lord of the Rings
trilogy, said the 1933 original had inspired his interest in
film-making at the tender age of nine. "I've always harboured this
desire to remake it. I finally did it," he said. Naomi Watts and
Adrien Brody - stars of the $207m (£116m) film - attended the UK
premiere with Jackson in London on Thursday night.
Jack Black, Andy Serkis and Jamie Bell also braved
cold weather to attend the screening in Leicester Square.
Photo: Naomi Watts, who
is British-born, said it was great to be in London
The director
said he had set out to remake the Fay Wray original at the age of
12. He joked: "I felt I had the necessary skills but I didn't get
very far. It was a little bit ambitious. "I switched to a remake
of Monty Python's Flying Circus. "I tried to do Kong again in 1996
but it got canned so I went sideways into Lord of the Rings."
Jackson added that he was not "a filmmaker with a message". "I
simply want to entertain people," he said. The director said he
planned to take a break from directing "to recharge the batteries"
after 10 years working on Lord of the Rings and King Kong. But
Jackson said he had a few directorial projects in the pipeline,
including a possible movie with the UK's Film Four. "They are all
very, very small," he added. School of Rock star Jack Black plays
the ambitious director who leads a group of film-makers and
sailors to Kong's home on Skull Island. He said: "I didn't ever
imagine being in a fantasy-action-adventure-drama-epic but it felt
very natural. "I felt like I'd been preparing for it all my life
with my imaginary adventures." Watts, who takes on Fay Wray's
character as the actress who Kong admires, said she was pleased to
have actor Andy Serkis to stand in for the giant ape on the set.
"Using an
actor to play Kong made all the sense in the world to me," she
said. Speaking at the premiere, where she wore a stunning midnight
blue Christian Lacroix dress, she revealed the making of the film
had taken its toll. "It had it's challenges.
King Kong is released in the UK on 15
December.
The physical
side of it was difficult. Every day there was something that the
body had to go through and I'm a fairly slight build so I took
quite a beating. "Also, the green scene stuff had its challenges
but thankfully all of the stuff between Kong and I - with me and
Andy - wasn't as difficult as you may think. She added that
Jackson and his team had played sad music to help her with the
more emotionally-wrought scenes. Serkis, who played the CGI
character Gollum in Lord of the Rings, also provided the
"motion-capture performance" which was used as the basis for the
ape animation. But he would not be drawn on which character he
preferred playing. "I loved them both. Over the last four to five
years I've become particularly attached to Gollum because he's so
devious and schizophrenic and represents a part of my personality.
"Kong is more honest and represents another part of my
personality.
They are
both great characters and I don't want to be typecast." Serkis,
who also plays a member of the ship's crew in King Kong, said he
spent time with gorillas to study their movements, including a
female ape who developed a crush on him. He said: "She picked me
out and was very affectionate and doe eyed. "I spent
two-and-a-half months with her. We played games with each other.
"When I took my wife to meet her, the gorilla squirted this big
bottle of mineral tea all over her." Actor Brody, who plays
playwright Jack Driscoll, said the film was a "very, very
fulfilling experience". "I wanted to be the guy who gets the girl
and save the day but also play a sensitive, romantic lead," he
said. "It was a dream come true for me." "There are very few
wonderfully written roles available and there are too many actors
vying for those roles and it's hard to find a great one. I was
very fortunate in this case. "He's heroic. It's a remarkable thing
for a film to have an intellectual man to become the hero." Among
the other stars at the charity premiere were model Jerry Hall with
her daughters Elizabeth, 21, and Georgia May, 14, and TV presenter
Graham Norton. -By Chris Ligett.
|
|
