Cloverfield sets monster record in US & other

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Finally, Some Drama at the Tonys: Could ‘Passing Strange’ Upset ‘In the Heights’?

Photos: Carol Rosegg (Stew); Joan Marcus (Miranda); Courtesy of the American Theater Wing (Tony)
Despite the fact that most of the nominated shows are actually pretty good, this year's Tonys look to be the most boring ever — because nearly every award has already been decided in the conventional wisdom. Best Play? August: Osage County, the Pulitzer-winning, hugely entertaining, three-and-a-half-hour cavalcade of family members saying mean things to each other. Best Revival of a Musical? South Pacific. Best Actress in a Musical? Patti LuPone. Best Actor in a Musical? Paolo Szot. Not that these weren't all worthy recipients, but when a baker's dozen theater writers all agree on most of the major awards, it suggests kind of a dull show.

But wait! Michael Riedel thinks that Best Musical — the big prize — might still be up in the air. Most everyone thinks the reggaeton romance In the Heights has the award locked up, but Riedel says that the power of Stew's score, plus Stew's ability to work the voters, makes Passing Strange a dark horse on Sunday night. "He and his porkpie hat have been all over town this past month, charming pretty close to all of the 765 Tony voters," Riedel writes. Could it be true?

We doubt it. It's one thing to give the Best Musical award to a show like Spring Awakening, which is rockish and fun but is still made by people who love musical theater and Broadway. It's another thing to give the award to a show that consciously rejects Broadway tradition — to great effect, it must be said — written by and starring a guy who's made it clear he doesn't really care for, well, Broadway. "If you asked all of us, you could probably count the number of Broadway shows we've seen on two hands," Stew says, describing himself as a guy "you have to drag to the theater."

Contrast this to In the Heights, whose Lin-Manuel Miranda speaks enthusiastically about his love of musicals, and whose show embraces those traditions even as it spices them up with a touch of reggaeton and hip-hop. Sure, this makes the show a little more "energetic and bland," as Riedel snipes, but it also makes it a much better crowd-pleaser than Passing Strange, even if Passing Strange is more innovative a show. Argue all you want about which musical is better, but if you were a Tony voter — that is, in most cases, a devoted Broadway lover — which one would you vote for?

On the other hand, by that logic, maybe Cry-Baby will win. Now that would be an upset!

'STRANGE' TALK IN TONYS [NYP]
Experts predict who'll win the Tonys [Gold Derby/NYT]

Thursday, 19 June 2008

Cold War Kids

Artist: Cold War Kids

   Genre(s):
Rock

Discography:

Robbers and Cowards

Year: 2006
Tracks: 12

Fullerton, CA's Cold War Kids make music with roots that go deep and spacious, embrace influences as various as Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Jeff Buckley, and the Velvet Underground. Matt Aveiro, Matt Maust, Jonnie Russell, and Nathan Willett began crafting their soulful, blues-inflected withdraw on indie rock as Cold War Kids in 2004, recording demos in Los Angeles soon afterward they formed. After sign language to Monarchy Music, Cold War Kids released their debut EP, Mulberry Street, in spring 2005. The band's unique intelligent and fiery bouncy behave generated a buzz -- in particular from bloggers -- that grew with each tour and waiver. Maust's clean simply attention-getting designs for EPs like With Our Wallets Full and Up in Rags and the group's web site too added to Cold War Kids' mystique. They spent practically of 2006 on the road with Tapes 'n Tapes, Figurines, Sound Team, and Editors and appeared at that year's Lollapalooza. That summer, they signed to Downtown Records, besides home to Art Brut and Gnarls Barkley. The band's full-length debut Robbers & Cowards arrived that hang.

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Carrie Underwood: "I Scare Guys Off!"

Nashville's golden girl Carrie Underwood is one of the hottest country acts around, and yet despite her undisputed beauty and talent, the former American Idol can't seem to find love.

At this CMA Music Festival, there was buzz mounting that Carrie had a new man, 26-year-old Ryan O'Nan, whom she met through his employer and Carrie's tourmate, Keith Urban.

The pair had been on a handful of dates, including down-home parties in Nashville and outings at the Four Seasons and Mix nightclub in Las Vegas last May. Following weeks of whispers, the duo was rumored to finally be going public at the festival, but when the shy Southern gal sadly showed up solo for the big ceremony on June 6, it seemed that love had once again gone wrong for America's Idol.

So just what caused the relationship to flame out so quickly � her success? "I scare guys off," Carrie, who previously dated Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, 28, and Gossip Girl hunk Chace Crawford, 22, tells OK!. "I don't really need any help."

While the blonde beauty may blame herself for her bad luck with men, it appears that Ryan's rumored roving eye may have played a role in her most recent split.

"Ryan is a really fun, nice guy, and he and Carrie never run out of things to talk about, but he has a reputation as a player, and she jokes that he's bad news," a source close to the 25-year-old star tells OK!.

For the complete story on Carrie's love-life woes, pick up the new issue of OK! � on newsstands everywhere Thursday!

See Also

Thursday, 5 June 2008

Davina Mccall - Davina Returns For Big Brother 9

Davina McCall will return to present the ninth series of Big Brother, Channel 4 has confirmed.

The show will return to TV screens in June, despite reports that Channel 4 bosses were considering resting the reality series for a year and that Ms McCall wanted to quit to pursue an acting career.

Brian Belo won the competition last year, but the 2007 series - the eighth - was panned by critics and viewing figures were down compared with previous years.

Meanwhile, the new Big Brother logo - a shattered eye - has been unveiled.

Channel 4 bosses cancelled spin-off show Celebrity Big Brother in January, following rows over alleged racism and bullying last year.

This year, it screened Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, in its place, but the new format was only screened on digital channel E4, where it attracted an average of 600,000 viewers.

E4 presenters George Lamb and Zezi Ifore have also been announced as the new hosts of Big Brother's Little Brother.

Last year Dermot O’Leary who had presented Big Brother’s Little Brother quit the show to allow him to host ITV series The X Factor.

13/05/2008 14:58:43

See Also

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

Control - 6/3/2008

Ian Curtis was only 23 when he hung himself in the kitchen of his wife's house on May 18th, 1980 in Manchester, England. His band, Joy Division, had been only responsible for one album, 1979's Unknown Pleasures, while the finishing touches were being put on the second, 1980's Closer. These two pesky albums, along with a single "Love Will Tear Us Apart," would constitute posthumous fandom unlike anyone could have imagined. Both Pleasures and Closer were futuristic pieces of musical intrigue that ignored the nostalgia boasted by the bands that influenced them; Bowie and Iggy Pop sure looked futuristic, but their music was only somewhat forward-looking. Uniformly, Anton Corbijn's Control's ostentatious demeanor belies a somewhat routine ponderance of Curtis' abruptly interrupted popularity.

When we first come across Curtis (a well-researched Sam Riley), he is rushing home with a copy of Aladdin Sane under his arm. Like any experimental teen of that era, he dances and contorts in androgynous bliss while his parents quietly read the paper and prepare dinner in the other room. His quick courtship and marriage to Deborah (the consummate Samantha Morton) quickly sticks him in a go-nowhere house with a go-nowhere job at an employment office. Curtis, like most of England, gets a kick in the knickers when he hears The Sex Pistols for the first time, immediately walking into the street and inquiring whether his friends still need a singer for their band Warsaw.

There are moments that will make any Division fan wince. In a long take, Deborah and Ian walk down a street, passive aggressively hassling each other until Ian comes out and says that he doesn't think he loves her anymore; cue "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Not to mention hearing "Atmosphere" played for the umpteenth time to signal Curtis' demise: an eye-rollable offense. An attempt at finding Curtis' final reasoning is a fool's errand that Corbijn can't help but fall for, but for every scene of inescapable creation and familial bickering, there are also moments of devastating solitude that Corbijn, a famed photographer, captures acutely.

Shot beautifully by promising cinematographer Martin Ruhe, Control's first half has a more rambunctious energy that eventually fizzles out. Corbijn invests the early rumblings of the band with humor and fetishized moments of production. The band incapable of doing anything but farting before their first gig is especially ingenious, but Corbijn's staggering recreation of the band's first appearance on Tony Wilson's show playing "Transmission" is easily distinguishable as the film's peak.

Altogether, Control distances itself from the fray but it also can't distinguish itself as a substantial foot forward. Corbijn, a friend of the band in his early days, doesn't address the mythology of Curtis, in turn disregarding his importance and relegating him only to the moments of personal anguish that every Division fan already knows about (his seizures, his affair with a journalist). By defining him by the same actions as any other music legend, Corbijn commits the crime of turning Curtis into just another music legend.

Love tore him apart.

See Also