Artist: Forgotten Sunrise
Genre(s):
Metal: Gothic
Discography:
RU:MIPU:DUS
Year: 2001
Tracks: 11
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Monday, 16 June 2008
'Britney Spears To Hit Broadway In Grease'
Britney Spears may be getting herself some Summer Lovin’ – She’s been tipped to play the role of Sandy on a Broadway stage version of Grease.
Following the lead of Katie Holmes, who will be treading the boards in All My Sons, the Toxic singer is said to be considering the female lead in the hit musical.
The singer proved her acting credentials with a highly successful stint in sitcom How I Met Your Mother and was recently linked with a move to the London stage.
Spears was reportedly in talks to star in a West End production of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the lead role of Blanche DuBois.
A source tells newspaper Metro: "The producers (of Grease) were bouncing around the idea of casting Britney in the role of Sandy.
"They're recasting the roles in July and they thought that Britney looked like a Sandy. She would be terrific."
Following the lead of Katie Holmes, who will be treading the boards in All My Sons, the Toxic singer is said to be considering the female lead in the hit musical.
The singer proved her acting credentials with a highly successful stint in sitcom How I Met Your Mother and was recently linked with a move to the London stage.
Spears was reportedly in talks to star in a West End production of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the lead role of Blanche DuBois.
A source tells newspaper Metro: "The producers (of Grease) were bouncing around the idea of casting Britney in the role of Sandy.
"They're recasting the roles in July and they thought that Britney looked like a Sandy. She would be terrific."
Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears to Receive Makeovers; Childhood Spoiled
Strawberry Shortcakes old and new.Courtesy of TCFC
When we were kids, our family's van was stolen from the library parking lot. Upsetting to our mom, but earth-shattering to us — because our favorite Care Bears Hugs and Tugs were in the back, patiently awaiting an overnight trip to the grandparents'. Now it seems we're about to lose our beloved bears all over again — this time to a makeover. According to the Times, American Greetings will soon introduce new and improved Care Bears with "less belly fat, longer eyelashes." But that's not all! This change comes as part of a larger movement to update the animated friends of our youth. "If the classic characters look less stodgy, the companies hope, they will appeal not only to parents who remember them fondly, but also to children who might automatically be suspicious of toys their parents played with," the Times tells us. "Stodgy"?" How could a lovable, cuddly, squishable — albeit mascara-less — companion be stodgy?
Other "improvements" you can look forward to (or not): The company's new Strawberry Shortcake is way skinnier (thanks to a more "fruit-forward" diet), and she has replaced her calico cat with a cell phone. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will make a comeback with "more muscles and less attitude." And over at Disney, even Mickey Mouse will be subjected to a series of tweaks to be named later, not to mention the possible urban renewal on his home, Toontown. "One plan features an old-fashioned trolley," reports the Times, but Disney "is not sure that is a smart idea. Will modern children know what an old-fashioned trolley is?" (Parents, whatever you do, do not take your kids to San Francisco!) Oh, and it gets worse: Warner Bros. will let kids style their Looney Tunes themselves. “You want a dark, Goth version of Tweety Bird? Have at it,” says Warner VP Lisa Gregorian. For God's sake, who wants a Goth Tweety? Would he hang out with the Tasmanian Angel?
Let us be clear: We are not old fogeys, but all of this makes us unbelievably depressed. Sure, we feel nostalgia for these characters and would love our (hypothetical) kids to embrace them like we did, but how will we explain the Care Bear Stare while holding an emaciated, not-so-stuffed animal? Okay, we can't think about this anymore. If you need us, we'll be playing Granola Land with our no-frizz Troll dolls. —Lori Fradkin
Beloved Characters as Reimagined for the 21st Century [NYT]
When we were kids, our family's van was stolen from the library parking lot. Upsetting to our mom, but earth-shattering to us — because our favorite Care Bears Hugs and Tugs were in the back, patiently awaiting an overnight trip to the grandparents'. Now it seems we're about to lose our beloved bears all over again — this time to a makeover. According to the Times, American Greetings will soon introduce new and improved Care Bears with "less belly fat, longer eyelashes." But that's not all! This change comes as part of a larger movement to update the animated friends of our youth. "If the classic characters look less stodgy, the companies hope, they will appeal not only to parents who remember them fondly, but also to children who might automatically be suspicious of toys their parents played with," the Times tells us. "Stodgy"?" How could a lovable, cuddly, squishable — albeit mascara-less — companion be stodgy?
Other "improvements" you can look forward to (or not): The company's new Strawberry Shortcake is way skinnier (thanks to a more "fruit-forward" diet), and she has replaced her calico cat with a cell phone. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will make a comeback with "more muscles and less attitude." And over at Disney, even Mickey Mouse will be subjected to a series of tweaks to be named later, not to mention the possible urban renewal on his home, Toontown. "One plan features an old-fashioned trolley," reports the Times, but Disney "is not sure that is a smart idea. Will modern children know what an old-fashioned trolley is?" (Parents, whatever you do, do not take your kids to San Francisco!) Oh, and it gets worse: Warner Bros. will let kids style their Looney Tunes themselves. “You want a dark, Goth version of Tweety Bird? Have at it,” says Warner VP Lisa Gregorian. For God's sake, who wants a Goth Tweety? Would he hang out with the Tasmanian Angel?
Let us be clear: We are not old fogeys, but all of this makes us unbelievably depressed. Sure, we feel nostalgia for these characters and would love our (hypothetical) kids to embrace them like we did, but how will we explain the Care Bear Stare while holding an emaciated, not-so-stuffed animal? Okay, we can't think about this anymore. If you need us, we'll be playing Granola Land with our no-frizz Troll dolls. —Lori Fradkin
Beloved Characters as Reimagined for the 21st Century [NYT]
As MMVAs approach, has the Internet killed the video star?
TORONTO - Music fans and celebs including Rihanna and New Kids on the Block are getting ready to party at the MuchMusic Video Awards this weekend, but in the age of YouTube and MySpace some observers can't help but ask: Has the Internet killed the video star?
Belt-tightening across the music business has slashed video budgets drastically, while TV's youngest viewers are migrating to the Internet to find new music through MySpace and YouTube, note many in the business.
"It's just sad," says Montreal-based video director Dave Pawsey, who helmed Sam Roberts' "Them Kids" and "Bridge To Nowhere."
"You see budgets shrinking because people aren't selling as much music or it's all based on licensing songs. There's this whole angst in the industry as a whole, I think. ... Even if you do a music video it's not going to be shown on TV. It might get rotations for two weeks and then it finds its way onto YouTube and you get a compressed crappy version of it."
Even acts with the clout to get airplay are eschewing the traditional format altogether, favouring online experiments such as the interactive, game-like videos Arcade Fire put together for "Neon Bible" or asking fans to create digital videos for their music and submit them online, like R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails.
Arcade Fire's label, Merge Records, actually counsels its bands against making videos, with co-founder Mac McCaughan noting that limited funds are better spent elsewhere.
"We never recommend that people make videos," McCaughan told "Wired" magazine in December.
"I like videos, actually, and I think that it's a cool art form, but it's not something that's going to sell a lot of records for you.... Really, the most old-fashioned way of doing things is still the best, which is touring."
It's a marketing strategy that's worked for a band like Montreal's Arcade Fire, underground heroes who fostered a loyal fanbase through word-of-mouth, theatrical live shows and music clips that went viral online.
But such tactics don't apply to everyone, says Nettwerk exec Pierre Tremblay, who manages acts including Billy Talent and Martha Wainwright.
TV exposure is still where it's at for the musicians he steers through the Vancouver-based label and management company, although online exposure is considered just as valuable, he says.
Rather than leading to the demise of videos, he says the Internet has offered up more opportunities than ever for the medium.
"If you look at a Billy Talent video on YouTube, the top videos got over six million plays," Tremblay says by phone from his office, where Nettwerk handles acts including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies.
"That's a pretty good promotional tool."
But for many bands, conventional videos simply aren't worth the cost if there's a sizable audience to be found online.
Vancouver pop band The New Odds enjoyed heavy video rotation in the '90s when they were known as The Odds, but ruled out making more videos when they launched a comeback bid this year.
"We had a great concept but it seemed to be too far-reaching for the budget, so we decided to do a few promo ones (instead)," singer/songwriter Craig Northey says of their aborted video plans.
"We did five shorts, interviews and clips and things that we put on our website for now."
Leading the nominees for this year's MuchMusic Video Awards are rapper Belly, ska band IllScarlett and rock pranksters Hedley, whose "Never Too Late" video pays homage to Duran Duran's 1984 hit, "Rio," with a shot-by-shot recreation.
"Rio" dates back to a time when artists spent money on videos - loads of money - for epic productions that soared into the multimillion-dollar range. Today, budgets hover in the low six-figures, say Pawsey and Tremblay, and often dip below that.
Pawsey gives credit to MuchMusic's VideoFACT fund for helping to keep the medium alive through grants for Canadian artists.
MuchMusic's David Kines says videos are still very much a key component of pop music, offering a powerful tool that sells tours, DVDs, merchandise or an artist's pet social cause, if not CDs.
Despite that, he acknowledged that videos don't hold audience attentions the way they used to, and that Much has dropped much of its videoflow and replaced it with talk shows, reality programming and movies.
"The notion of people actually just sitting there and consuming in a linear fashion 30 minutes of music videos is long gone," says Kines, senior vice-president of music and youth services.
"They consume them on our website, they consume them on our shows ... only when they've got some additional storyline - whether it's a countdown or a commentary, (such as) 'Video on Trial.' "
This Sunday, MuchMusic celebrates its favourite music television with the celeb-packed MuchMusic Video Awards. The bash is set to feature performances by New Kids on the Block, Rihanna, and Kardinal Offishall with Akon.
Other guests include Mel C of the Spice Girls, Rainn Wilson of "The Office," "Gossip Girl"'s Chace Crawford and girl band, Girlicious.
-
On the Net:
www.muchmusic.com
www.beonlineb.com/click-around.html
www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff-byrne?currentPag e1
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
See Also
Was Edward Norton Right About the Editing in ‘The Incredible Hulk’?
Photo-illustration: Courtesy of Universal and Marvel
According to Fox News's Roger Friedman, The Incredible Hulk's Edward Norton has "slipped off to a desert island rather than do publicity for the movie he stars in and nominally wrote" (not that this will make the film any less enticing to moviegoers whose only other option this weekend is The Happening). As you'll probably recall, Norton, who rewrote a draft of Zak Penn's screenplay, had reportedly been feuding with Marvel Studios over the editing on Hulk, and had threatened not to do interviews if he wasn't satisfied with the final cut. That now appears to be what happened, and poor Liv Tyler has been left all alone to endure reporters questions like, "What's it like working with a publicity-hating jerk?" But was Norton actually right?
We'd assumed that Norton's draft of the script just added a bunch of boring actor-y things, such as crying and extended Shakespearean monologues, and Marvel, not wanting to remake the mistakes of Ang Lee's Lifetime Original–style The Hulk in 2003, was just editing those bits out. But now it sounds like Norton was just trying to flesh out the backstory and give the non-green Bruce Banner a little more depth (Friedman says he "added lots of dialogue, and worked on the character of the Hulk's alter ego to make him more human") — things that most critics, even the ones who liked it, say this movie is lacking. Roger Ebert says it "sidesteps the intriguing aspects of Hulkdom and spends way too much time in, dare I say, noisy and mindless action sequences." "The origin story, dwelled upon at great length in [Ang Lee's] Hulk, is here telescoped into a neat little montage that accompanies the opening titles," writes A.O. Scott in today's Times. "[W]ithout a vivid, complex character at the center of the movie, even the more inspired bits … feel perfunctory and familiar." Should Marvel have listened to Norton? It sort of looks like it!
Caution: Contents Turn Angry When Shaken [NYT]
Incredible Sulk? Edward Norton Skips 'Hulk' Publicity [Fox News]
Earlier: Edward Norton Battling Marvel Over ‘The Incredible Hulk’
According to Fox News's Roger Friedman, The Incredible Hulk's Edward Norton has "slipped off to a desert island rather than do publicity for the movie he stars in and nominally wrote" (not that this will make the film any less enticing to moviegoers whose only other option this weekend is The Happening). As you'll probably recall, Norton, who rewrote a draft of Zak Penn's screenplay, had reportedly been feuding with Marvel Studios over the editing on Hulk, and had threatened not to do interviews if he wasn't satisfied with the final cut. That now appears to be what happened, and poor Liv Tyler has been left all alone to endure reporters questions like, "What's it like working with a publicity-hating jerk?" But was Norton actually right?
We'd assumed that Norton's draft of the script just added a bunch of boring actor-y things, such as crying and extended Shakespearean monologues, and Marvel, not wanting to remake the mistakes of Ang Lee's Lifetime Original–style The Hulk in 2003, was just editing those bits out. But now it sounds like Norton was just trying to flesh out the backstory and give the non-green Bruce Banner a little more depth (Friedman says he "added lots of dialogue, and worked on the character of the Hulk's alter ego to make him more human") — things that most critics, even the ones who liked it, say this movie is lacking. Roger Ebert says it "sidesteps the intriguing aspects of Hulkdom and spends way too much time in, dare I say, noisy and mindless action sequences." "The origin story, dwelled upon at great length in [Ang Lee's] Hulk, is here telescoped into a neat little montage that accompanies the opening titles," writes A.O. Scott in today's Times. "[W]ithout a vivid, complex character at the center of the movie, even the more inspired bits … feel perfunctory and familiar." Should Marvel have listened to Norton? It sort of looks like it!
Caution: Contents Turn Angry When Shaken [NYT]
Incredible Sulk? Edward Norton Skips 'Hulk' Publicity [Fox News]
Earlier: Edward Norton Battling Marvel Over ‘The Incredible Hulk’
Lizz Wright
Artist: Lizz Wright
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Dreaming Wide Awake
Year: 2005
Tracks: 12
Vocalist Lizz Wright delivers a sultry R&B operation that's divinely layered in gospel and jazz, and keenly standardised to the knead of Oleta Adams and Jill Scott. Wright was natural in early 1980 in the Georgia town of Hahira, and her musical tastes blossomed early on. Her forefather served as the pianist and musical music director at the local church, and he encouraged his daughter to take in the soulful dispositions of classic hymns. Eventually, megrims and jazz were added to Wright's musical plate, and by senior high school she was earning awards in myriad choir competitions. Wright was advent into her warm, smooth vocalizing voice, so her decision to give ear Georgia State in Atlanta to study vocalisation at a professional layer wasn't surprising. Atlanta became her home and her vocalisation became her solace. In 2000, Wright coupled the vocal quartet In the Spirit. The group was quick hailed as the best malarkey mathematical group in the metropolis, motivating Wright to perfect her craft all the more than. Two age by and by, Verve inked Wright a manage. Her impressive singing expressive style was captured on her debut, Salt, the following natural spring. Dreaming Wide Awake followed in June 2005.
Babyshambles - Dohertys Concerns Over Money-management Issues
BABYSHAMBLES frontman PETE DOHERTY is unhappy with the way the band's finances are managed, insisting the rockers are not as wealthy as they're made out to be.
Doherty claims the group's management is to blame for their lack of money, and he plans to look over their financial arrangements to see where they're going wrong.
He tells MTV.co.uk, "We've got a few concerns at the moment over issues with management, where the money has been going (and) distribution of wealth.
"We need to sit down as a band and talk about the future. What's happening and why, when and who with. Two years of arseing about, we could actually make money out of this job.
"I've just realised people are always saying to me 'yeah but you can afford it' and I'm like 'what's making them say that?'"
However, Doherty's concerns came as a shock to his fellow Babyshambles bandmate Drew MCConnell, who responded, "Do we?" when he heard the singer's rant.
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