Langfield Entertainment
 424 Yonge Street, Suite 301, Toronto, ON  M5B 2H3
(416) 677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com

NEWSLETTER

Updated:  August 19, 2004

Langfield Entertainment goes to the Bahamas!  I'm very excited to be invited to join the Canadian entourage of artists heading down to Bahamas in November for the First Annual Caribbean Aids Awareness Festival!  An incredible opportunity for which I am very grateful.  See the related article below under MUSIC NEWS.

Lots of Canadian MUSIC NEWS this week.  Don't forget about the Gary Beals CD release party tomorrow night (Friday) - see RSVP information below.   And check out the brief recap of Morley's moving performance last Sunday at The Drake.  Irie continues to set new precedents to excite its patrons by offering the culinary delights of Chef Greg Couillard during the week of the film festival. 

The Olympics are well underway - don't forget to watch for our Canadian athletes.  See related article on Daniel Igali below under SPORTS NEWS.  As well, much more news under FILM NEWS, TV NEWS and OTHER 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.  Want your events listed by date?  Check out EVENTS. 

 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.  Want your events listed by date?  Check out EVENTS. 

 

 

::HOT EVENTS::

 

 

Gary Beals’ Debut Album Release Party – August 17 (Halifax) – August 20 (Toronto)

Source:  Plasma Corporation

Canadian artist Gary Beals, who tantalized fans in early July with his hit single Summer Nights, will release his much-anticipated debut album on Tuesday, August 17th. To celebrate, Plasma Corporation (www.plasmacorporate.com,) Kindling Music and EMI April Music Canada have coordinated a series of live events and press conferences.   The party kicks off with a live performance and autograph session at the Mic Mac Mall in Halifax  (10:30 AM, August 17th,) followed by a public release party for all ages at 3 PM at The Marquee Club on Gottingen Street in Halifax, a private press conference at 7 PM, and then continuing for the 19 and over crowd at 10 PM. Price of admission for the Marquee Club event is a Gary Beals CD.  (See related article below under MUSIC NEWS.)

Change of venue: Toronto. A private, by invitation only release party is also being hosted in Plasma’s hometown of Toronto on August 20th at 9 PM at the trendy Two Rosehill (www.tworosehill.com) club/lounge.

Gary’s “I-rban” breed of music appeals to more than 3 generations of fans. He remembers a childhood heavily influenced by the soul music that always seemed to be playing in the background, and grew up listening to such greats as Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge & Lenny Williams. It is the influence of these “soul masters”, combined with his gospel roots, that define Gary's vocal tones, capturing the essence of an era when soul music penetrated the core of your soul and made it sing along.

His debut album includes his hit single Summer Nights, the vulnerable ballad Not That Strong, the in-your-face truth of Put Your Hands Up, and several other original tracks, including a song written by Gary to express his gratitude to all of those who have helped him along the way, aptly named Thank You.  Gary is very much looking forward to this album release, and is already making plans for a Fall/Winter 2004 tour to further promote it. As always, he gives credit to God for his success.

For more information or to hear sample tracks from the album and download lyrics, please visit Gary’s official Web site at http://www.garybealsonline.com.  For more information about this press release, Gary Beals, GaryBealsOnline.com or Plasma Corporation, please contact Shar Thompson at sthompson@plasmacorporate.com

Friday, August 20
 Gary Beals CD Release
 Two Rosehill
 2 Rosehill Avenue
 9:00 pm
 Free admission with CD (available at the door)

 

 

 

Irie Update

As the cool vibe of Irie continues, Carl Cassell (proprietor) has got more in store for us!  Carl will be enlisting the culinary expertise of Greg Couillard as his guest celebrity chef the week of the Toronto International Film Festival beginning September 9-15.

Chef Couillard - widely known as one of Canada's premiere executive chefs - returns to his Queen Street West roots and reinstates his comeback at Irie - a unique privilege that most reputable restaurants would be thrilled to experience.  But he chose our IRIE - mostly because of his respect and ongoing relationship with Carl!  See below for more information on Chef Couillard's background. 

The menu at Irie will continue to consist of Caribbean fusion, with the spicy influences of Chef Couillard.  Carl will have his special guest grilling on the newly expanded patio for the entire week.  Book your reservations now as this master chef has his own following of loyal patrons that will be thrilled to know he is back behind the grill.

Chef Couillard has worked in some of Toronto's most prestigious and highly-rated restaurants in Toronto (including Sassafraz, Amber, Sarkis, to name a few) for more that three decades. 

"The nomadic Couillard (with more than 10 restaurants under his belt) is blessed with great skill. Tired of 100-hour work weeks and the burden of running a kitchen, he is now content to play second fiddle and lend his skills on a consultative basis. Indeed, after a planned six-month stint at Sassafraz, he expects to divide his time between the restaurant and Silver Springs conference center in Collingwood, Ont., where he will resume chef duties and continue to hold cooking classes."

~ Review by Alan A. Vernon & Don Douloff

"Greg Couillard lives up to his billing as celebrity chef within culinary circles of all walks.   A flamboyant figure both in personality and culinary art, Greg expresses his talents through a personal style of eclectic cooking that can be only described as sophisticated yet exotic, adventurous and without a doubt, joyous.  His harmonious, creative combinations feature high flavour fusion cooking, incorporating ingredients from different cuisines around the world, and guarantee to arouse a blissful delirium to the senses of taste, smell and sight." 

~ Silver Springs

And as always, until then, the high standard of Irie continues ...

 

 

 

::SCOOP::

 

 

CUMA Nominations Update!

Source:  UMAC

The nominations process has officially closed, and the Selection Committees are currently busy doing their difficult tasks of narrowing down the vast nominee pool to the final four or five nominees in each award category. The final nominees will be announced on Tuesday, August 31, and then it will be all up to you, the UMAC family, to select the winners!  Voting will take place from September 1-19, 2004.  Note: The free membership offer extension (available at www.umacmembership.com) will end on Tuesday, August 31. Only UMAC members will be permitted to vote, so this is the last chance to get your peeps to sign up FOR FREE!)   I’ll be asking you to vote for me soon so please register with UMAC so you can support me!

 

 

 

::RECAP::

 

 

Morley Kamen In Concert

The conscious folk of Morley reached out and fully engaged  the full house at The Drake on Sunday night.  Morley's eclectic vocal style was accentuated by the powerful strokes of Ernesto Villa-Lomos' violin and the Brazilian beats by Aline Morales and Nunca Antes.  Morley has a unique ability to capture the attention of an audience and her message of positivity seeps through even the most negative energy.  She has a genuine love of performing and it leaves her listeners with a keener sense of themselves and each other.  Morley joins the entourage of artists going to the Bahamas for the first annual Caribbean Aids Awareness Festival in November. 

Stay tuned to www.morleymusic.org for her future performances and CD release updates.

See photos from the performance in my PHOTO GALLERY. 

 

 

 

::THOUGHT::

 

 

Motivational Note:  Can You See it Yet

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Willie Jolley

Can You See it Yet ... How do you make your dream come true? First, you have to know what your dream are/ If I gave you a ball and told you to hit a ten- foot wall that was five feet in front of you, could you do it? Of course, no problem! But if I blindfolded you and took you five steps back and then twirled you around ten times would you still be able to hit the wall with ease? No! As it is difficult to hit what you cannot see, and it is impossible to hit what you don't know! That is why you must set goals. The starting point for your goals are your dreams. A goal is nothing more than a dream with a deadline. What is your dream and what is your goal?

 

 

 

::MUSIC NEWS::

 

 

Canadian Artists Perform In The Bahamas At The First Annual Caribbean Aids Awareness Festival

Source: www.west-indian.com

As you’re probably aware, on November 12, 2004 West Indian Entertainment Ltd. will be hosting the First Annual Caribbean AIDS Awareness Festival. The AIDS Fest is hailed as the Caribbean’s biggest education and awareness project for this global AIDS epidemic, and Canada is poised to lend a BIG hand. 

Confirmed artists include Toronto’s Kayte Burgess, whose smooth deliverance of soul and dynamic vocal technique, topped off with a three and a half octave range, engages her listeners in intricate, sultry and fun performances.  Artists such as Gunz n Rosez (Tasha and Chantay Rozez) hail from Toronto's boroughs and they are best described in their own words as "Conscious Rude Girls...What Dancehall Requires".  Talks and negotiations are also on the way with artists such as Glenn Lewis, and Avenue (sisters Theresa Guillemette and Felicia Graham).  Some of you may also know that a large Canadian community resides in The Bahamas - a community of Canadians that cannot wait for the first ever ‘Canadian Concert Performance in The Bahamas’.

There will also be airfare, hotel, and concert ticket packages available for Canadians that are interested in attending this AIDS Fest in The Bahamas. Packages are expected to be in the region of US$500 (can’t beat this opportunity to Paradise).  One thing that’s for sure, Langfield Entertainment will be in Nassau, Bahamas covering every step of the performances by the Canadian entourage.  For more information on the Festival, and updates on the signing of more and more Canadian acts, visit www.west-indian.com.  

Artists will also be attending from England and from New York; the acclaimed Morley Kamen will lead the way.  Several artists from various Caribbean Countries have joined up under West Indian Entertainment’s banner to raise AIDS Awareness in their region via a 12 hour All Inclusive Caribbean Concert/Festival. The AIDS Festival will showcase the various diverse cultures, music and people of the Caribbean. The music will range from Salsa & Meringue, to Reggae & Dance Hall, to Soca & Rake n Scrape, to R&B and Rap to the various Caribbean Festivals such as Junkanoo and Carnival. Jamaica is sending 3 of their biggest artists, Trinidad is sending 6 of their best Carnival/Soca artists, Haiti is also sending 2 of their up and coming bands and the list goes on including Cuba, Barbados, The Dominican Republic, The Turks & Caicos Islands, St. Lucia, The Bahamas and St. Vincent all have an entourage of at least 2 Artists performing. This type of 12-hour festival (which they call Insomnia) is said to be a norm in The Caribbean.  

 

 

 

Beals Appeal

Excerpt from Halifax Herald - By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter

(Aug. 18, 2004) Dartmouth got a dose of Garymania on Tuesday morning when Cherry Brook native Gary Beals appeared at Mic Mac Mall to celebrate the launch of his self-titled debut CD.  Officially graduating from Canadian Idol finalist to Canadian R&B performer, Beals was greeted by over 800 fans who gathered under the glass-domed roof of The Bay courtyard. They ranged from toddlers to grandparents, all waiting to see the 21-year-old gospel-singer-made-good perform.  While younger viewers clambered atop the towering potted palm trees surrounding the courtyard for a better view, others pressed up against the stage or lined the railing on the upper level. Gasps of recognition ran through the crowd as Canadian Idol judge and Beals' manager Farley Flex came down the escalator, while C100's R.S. Smooth took to the stage at 10:30 a.m. on the nose to pump up the crowd.  "Are you guys ready?" he shouted. "YEAH!" came the reply. Clearly, pumping up was not required.  But Flex came on next to get the crowd to scream even louder, so Beals could hear them before he came out himself. "It's amazing for me the amount of support Gary's got from you," said the gracious Toronto soul impresario.  "We need to show support for our Canadian artists, and you've been doing it for Gary before, during and after Canadian Idol. . . . This is probably one of the biggest days in Gary's life!"  With that, Flex instigated chants of "GA-RY! GA-RY!" and the man of the hour came down the escalator accompanied by a couple of security guards. "How you guys doin'?" asked Beals before launching into the album's upbeat Put Your Hands Up, accompanied by a pair of lithesome dancers in white jeans and halter tops. Beals showed off some smooth moves of his own, while the crowd did the "raise the roof" hand gesture in time to the music.  "How many of you have the CD?" asked Beals. A healthy proportion of the crowd cheered and waved their new copies in the air, putting a smile on the face of local EMI Music Canada representative Marc Perry, also a longtime booster of the African Nova Scotian music scene.  Next came Not That Strong, a sensitive ballad destined to be the next single, which Beals performed with deep emotion over the instrumental backing track. (He'd perform this and other songs later in the day with a full live band at all-ages and 19-and-over shows at The Marquee Club on Gottingen Street, Halifax.)

Flex could be spotted mouthing the words behind the mixing board, and as if on cue, Beals told his fans that he wanted to see them mouthing the words too the next time he performs locally.  The show wrapped up with Beals singing the current single Summer Nights, while the dancers performed moves that were somewhere between hip-hop and hula. Beals swayed to the old school Philly soul groove, smiling while trying to ensure that his headphone microphone stayed in place.  As soon as the song ended, the curious onlookers went back to their shopping while friends and fans paraded to the other end of the mall for an autograph session at Music World. The lineup stretched as far as the food court before doubling back to the games arcade. While security personnel shouted instructions in the interest of crowd control, fans readied their CDs, photos, homemade posters and autograph books and braced themselves for the long wait to get their items signed.  Sitting behind a table, flanked by his mom Brenda who chatted excitedly with family and friends, Beals took his time with each fan, posing for photos and making each message personal.  "This is exciting," said a former Auburn Drive High School classmate of Beals, Pamalita Brooks, wearing a T-shirt bearing a colour photo of the singer. "My children love him, and I really like the record, that's why I got in line.  "He wasn't like this in school, I remember he was kind of shy. But anybody would change after being on Canadian Idol."  Flex got to bask in some of the celebrity glow as well, signing autographs and posing for snapshots with those waiting in line.  "There's a really good vibe here today," he grinned, noting that the new disc is already getting sizable rotation at radio stations across the country.  "Support from your audience in Canada is so important, whether it's sports or entertainment or whatever," said Flex. "It's too easy to get distracted by what's coming in from the rest of the world.  "But here we see families buying more than one copy of Gary's CD so each individual member can have their own. That's real support."  Pig-tailed 11-year-old Cornieka Tasco stood with friends and watched Beals sign autographs even after getting their own. When asked if she thought Beals' music was as good as other artists on the radio, she replied, "No . . . it's better!  "When his song comes on the radio it makes me dance. I just like the way it sounds, it's cool and it makes me happy."  What more could you ask for in a performer?

  

 

 

Canadian Urban Anthem—"Claim The World," By Top Musicians

Source:  The Contessa Group

(Aug. 13, 2004) (Toronto) — The Contessa Group today announced that its original Canadian theme song, "Claim the World," written and recorded by top Canadian R&B and Hip Hop artists now dubbed "Artists for Gold," is being released today simultaneously by Musicrypt's digital distribution company DMDS (Digital Music Distribution System) to almost 500 radio stations across Canada as well as exclusively to Athens radio station Star FM 97.1 and then to the athletes themselves in Athens.  "Claim the World" will be available today for the public to download for a single loonie at www.claimtheworld.ca  80% of the proceeds will go to Canadian Sport Centres and 20% to "Artists for Gold." The site opens at 1:30pm Friday to coincide with the opening ceremonies in Athens.  The "Artists for Gold," the musicians who wrote and recorded the anthem in 24 hours in February, are: Grammy nominee and Juno winner Glenn Lewis; three-time Juno winner Moka Only; Juno nominee and super-producer Saukrates of Big Black Lincoln; Contessa recording artist Chris Rouse; Juno winner Ivana Santilli; and Juno nominees S-Roc and Clip of the Hip Hop group Brassmunk.  "'Artists for Gold' came together in support of athletes and we're pleased to announce that any proceeds from 'Claim the World' will go to Canadian Sports Centres and to the artists themselves," said Rasool Verjee, chair of the Contessa Group, the driving creative and financial force behind the anthem.

The Canadian Sport Centre organizations across the country deliver essential support services required by high-performances athletes and coaches alike in order to achieve fair and ethical top-level international results. "The proceeds dedicated to Canadian Sport Centres will be directly applied to providing much needed additional support to the Canadian high-performance athletes we serve," said Robert Bettauer, President & CEO of the Canadian Sport Centre Ontario. "We welcome this opportunity with Contessa Group and applaud the artists for their kindred support of Canada's athletes."  "Claim the World" was produced by Juno-nominated producer/DJ Agile (of Brassmunk and Big Black Lincoln) with co-production by DJ T.R.A.C.K.S. of IRS and remixed by emerging young producer Colin Munroe.   The inspiration to record "Claim The World" stemmed from the revelation that many Canadian amateur athletes live below the poverty line. While training to compete in international competitions, most struggle to afford proper training, coaching, nutrition and often even basic living expenses. Accordingly, the single was recorded to raise support and awareness for Canada’s amateur athletes, in a gathering of artists unprecedented since the 1980s' "We Are the World" and "Tears Are Not Enough." 

"Everybody get up out your seat and Claim The World/As yours and mine 'til the end of time."  www.claimtheworld.ca  

 

 

 

UMAC Profile:  Ray Robinson

Source:  UMAC by Victor Tenuta

This issue, UMAC celebrates T-Dot R&B crooner Ray Robinson, whose inaugural release, "What It Is", hits stores August 24.  Ray's songwriting talent combined with his musicianship on keyboards, drums, guitar, and, of course, his voice, have culminated in a superb collection of R&B ballads and up-tempo club tracks.  Ray Robinson has proven that success can be attained while sticking to your roots. His album features T. Dot's own Saukrates and Kid Kut as producers on "Missed Your Chance". His videos for that single and its follow-up "Be Da One," which can both be seen on MuchMusic, MuchVIBE and MTV2, exhibit the talents of Canadian directors RT! and Michael P. Douglas. "What It Is" will be released on Toronto's Soul Clap Records and distributed across Canada by Universal Music. Visit www.soulclaprecords.ca and www.rayrobinsonmusic.com for more info and updates.

 

 

 

Idol Finds Secret To Great Theatre

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard Ouzounian

(Aug. 13, 2004) They must be doing something right.  This week, I went to see a live stage performance that was not only sold out weeks in advance, but had hundreds of people waiting outside in the hope of getting last-minute tickets.  Hairspray? Mamma Mia? Guys And Dolls?  Guess again. It was Canadian Idol.  Like millions of other people in this land of ours, my family has become hooked on CTV's version of the mega-popular weekly series and so, when vacation time hit, we made getting in to see the show, live, one of our major priorities.  My wife and kids wanted to be just there for the fun of it all, but I had a hidden agenda.  I wanted to see just what made for a sell-out smash in this post-SARS climate of underachieving box office returns.  The scenario is a sad, but almost universal one. All of our playhouses — in Toronto, Stratford and Niagara — have lots of empty seats, waiting to be filled.  So how come you have to beg, borrow or steal your way into the John Bassett Theatre every Wednesday and Thursday night?  As I sat there the other night, watching seven talented young people give their all to a septet of Lionel Richie tunes, I thought of several reasons why Canadian Idol isn't just the most popular TV show in Canada, but the most popular stage show in Toronto as well.

IT'S UNPREDICTABLE: Sure, every episode has certain set features that you wait for, but there's no getting away from the exciting fact each program is live.  The pressure-cooker, gladiatorial-combat element of the event is part of its fatal charm. One performer must be eliminated each week, no matter how well they do.  Watch them walk the high wire without a net. Who's going to finally break through? Who's going to crack under pressure? You never know.  No matter how fresh the actors in a hit musical keep their performance, you know there's no way of it winding up any differently than the version your friends saw last month.

IT'S EXCITING: You may think there's a buzz going on when you watch Canadian Idol on TV, but, hey, try seeing it live.  You can't begin to imagine the energy generated by 1,000 screaming fans, all waving cunningly made homemade signs. I had to persuade my wife not to proclaim her devotion to that 18-year-old cutie, Kalan Porter, with a placard announcing "I'm A Kougar For Kalan."  It's totally different from the adulation you find at the Air Canada Centre, when you come to hear a favourite performer. They're stars already; they don't need the fans to put them on top. (Staying there is another story.)  But every one of the Idol wannabes has to earn the affirmation and support of the people in the theatre and at home to make their dreams come true. The synergy is electric. It leads us to the next point, which is...  

IT'S EMPOWERING: You get the feeling what you do in the audience matters. If you wave wildly enough, or cheer with sufficient abandon, you can help drive your favourite to victory.  No Roman crowd ever screamed louder in opposition to an Emperor's thumbs-down than the Bassett babies did the other night when the judges found Jacob Hoggard's version of "Brick House" to be "too campy."  And when a favourite, such as young Porter hits it big (which he did with his soulful take on "Still,") the approbation of the mob is awesome to behold. If positive energy alone could generate stardom, all seven of these kids would have it made in the shade.  

IT'S INEXPENSIVE: Here's the bottom line, in every sense of the word. Seats are only $5.00. I know no theatre company could afford ongoing prices like that, but I see crowds lining up for the $10 Urinetown rush seats every morning and the discount tourism packages for the Mirvish musicals are certainly helping to fill their houses.  But when almost every seat at Shaw and Stratford, for example, costs more than $50, you don't have to wonder why our theatres aren't attracting more people.  I'm not saying that I would rather go to a taping of Canadian Idol than a first-rate show like Soulpepper's Translations, or Stratford's Timon Of Athens. There's no question which has the more satisfying and lasting content.  But if our playhouses are finding themselves more empty than full these days, they might turn to Canadian Idol for lessons in unpredictability, excitement, empowerment and cost.  It could do all of us a lot of good in the end.

 

 

 

Kaleb Simmonds Receives Fewest Votes On Canadian Idol; Six Remain

Source:  Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - Kaleb Simmonds, a contestant who was repeatedly lauded by the judges as an outstanding talent and "the real deal," was eliminated from Canadian Idol on Thursday night.  Simmonds, 21, a singer and carpet layer from Dartmouth, N.S., was voted off the show during a half-hour episode that featured guest singer Lionel Richie. "I want to say thank you to everybody that supported me," Simmonds said graciously as his stint on the CTV musical talent show came to an end.  "Thank you for Canada, thank you for Canadian Idol for giving me this opportunity. God bless everybody out there."  Richie, who was in Toronto last week to coach the contestants and tape rehearsals that aired Wednesday night, sang on the Thursday night program and said it was "absolutely unbelievable" to work with the young singers.  "I don't know where they're finding that extra oomph from, because I'm telling you something - this should be called Fear Factor... it is absolutely nerve-racking to watch them when they're taking care of business."  Six contestants remain in the competition, which will wrap up this fall. 

 

 

 

Urban Innovations

Source:  UMAC

Congratulations to the 3Bone Audio family for the upcoming release of KAJE's DVD-Audio and CD double-package. Produced by one of t-dot's veteran community radio hosts, KAJE from CKLN, one of the hottest tracks on the release is performed by a favourite live singer in the city, Sasha. Best known for her gigs along the College street strip, Sasha is in fine form here; this highly innovative audio product is an excellent showcase of their combined musical prowess. Also on the album are vocalists Naomi Nsombi and Valntine, as well as KAJE's now-famous brand of Electronic Funk of course.  3Bone Audio Inc. is owned by rez Digital and is Canada's first DVD-Audio specific record label. In today's highly competitive digitized music technology market, DVD-Audio is the music format of the future. DVD-Audio offers more than what you would get from the regular CD, plus copy protection. Power packed 5.1 uncompressed surround sound music, DVD-Audio discs utilize 96kHz sampling rates and 24-Bit recording techniques to present a listening experience superior to CD or DVD-Video. DVD-A discs are playable on all players featuring the DVD logo and can be enjoyed as a listening experience alone or in conjunction with a TV to access visual content.  This 3bone product will be released on August 17. Check out www.3boneaudio.com for more info!

 

 

 

Ivana Santilli Looking To Further Solo Career With Funk-Heavy Corduroy Boogie

Source:  Canadian Press – By Angela Pacienza

(Aug. 13, 2004) TORONTO (CP) - Ivana Santilli has been poised to break out for about a decade.  First it was with the Juno-winning funk group Bass Is Base in the mid-'90s. She followed that with a solo record in 1999. It somehow missed the mainstream despite good reviews, Juno nominations, decent album sales and critical praise for her packed live shows.  But the Toronto-born indie singer - who picked up a trumpet in high school and was encouraged to learn South American pop songs by her wedding-band leader father - isn't letting it get her down and is back with a new record five years later.  She's taken the notion of not always getting what you deserve and turned into a funk-laden track on her new record, Corduroy Boogie.  "I can work harder, maybe last longer but that don't mean that I'm gonna get what I am worth," she sings in the bopping Deserve, currently making the rounds on pop radio.  "Deserve is a way to make fun of myself," Santilli said, sitting in an office at a small recording studio in Toronto.  "It's about me but I looked around and a lot of people are dealing with this stuff. They're working really hard and honestly and not getting ahead. I always thought paying dues was what you do. But I've seen it happen where people just pop into the business and get signed right away.  "You can't look at it as 'Oh, I deserve this.' But that's not how life works . . . sometimes you have to just grab what's yours, and at this point I'm grabbing it," she adds clenching her fists to emphasis her intentions.  For Santilli "grabbing it" meant taking advantage of respected producers like electronica prince King Britt and British nu-soul giant Omar - both of whom showed interest in her previous projects - to make the new record.  It's also about booking lots of live shows where she can show off her musicianship. She'll be taking her trumpet and piano skills on the road this fall to let people know she's back.  But it wasn't easy, says Santilli, who's of Italian and francophone background. The five-year lag time between records was partially caused by financial restraints.  The distributor of her debut record Brown went bankrupt and, she says, never paid her for the 30,000 units sold, leaving the self-financed singer in the lurch.  "It was difficult because when you self-fund a record you need to see some of that come back so you can fund the next project," said Santilli, who is coy about her age.  "I turned my back on music for a while. I didn't find hope in anything."  It didn't help that industry professionals were telling her to tone down her R&B and hip hop influence.  "It was a lot of people telling me I had to change what I was doing, which was rough," she said. "How can I lay off something that influenced me for years?"  She snapped out of her spell with a writing trip to Philadelphia sponsored by Peer Music International, an independent music publishing house which hired Santilli to craft songs.  "There's a newness there. It allowed me to understand my validity again. I was away from home so there was no 'Let's support her because she's one of ours.' "  Corduroy Boogie takes listeners on a trilingual (she also speaks French and Italian) jazzed-up funk ride into soul, R&B, electronica and disco while somehow maintaining Santilli's signature smoothness.  It's a record that might finally propel her in front of new audiences because it's hitting radio at a time when most music sounds the same, says Mocha, music director and afternoon drive host at The Beat 91.5 FM in Kitchener, Ont.  "When you have something like Deserve that comes out and is completely different from everything else, it's refreshing," said Mocha, who added the song to the station's heavy rotation cycle. "It catches your ear.  "The commercial radio audience probably hear the song and they think she's a brand new artist."  -  On the Net: www.ivanasantilli.net

 

 

 

Buddah Brothas: Anwan Ekpo and Cisco Martinez

Source:  Buddah Brothas

Emerging fresh from the success of their first single, Toronto producers Anwan Ekpo, and Cisco Martinez - better known as the Buddah Brothas - are still hard at work in the studio, producing a unique sound that has been missing from the industry for several decades.   This productions team, like fine wine; continues to improve as time passes, and will inevitably emerge as a production force to be reckoned with. Nothing but heat escapes their studio as the Buddah Brothas strive to be the innovators of a new style of music packed with the best of the old school sound. With a little flava from all genres, the Buddah Brothas continue to prove that there are no boundaries to their music.   The pair has now released the eagerly anticipated second single from their upcoming album "The Missing Pieces" scheduled for a November 2004 release.   Side A features newcomer Chimere, whose effortless style will see her sitting at the top of the charts in the years to come. Chimere joins the Buddah Brothas over a feel good summer slammer that inspires the listener to kick back, relax, and enjoy the groove.   Side B features the sultry vocals of Toronto's beautiful and talented Kayte Burgess. The track is an R&B / Jazz mix with lyrics that every woman can relate to; again over top of another Buddah Brothas banger.

 

 

 

Keyboard Kings Coming To Town

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Robert Crew, Arts Writer

(Aug. 18, 2004) Three of the world's leading jazz pianists will perform in Toronto as part of the Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall 2004-05 concert season.  First up is the Chick Corea Elektric Band, featuring the eclectic keyboard artist and 11-time Grammy winner, which will take over Massey Hall on Nov. 3.  The innovative Keith Jarrett will be joined by bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette at Thomson Hall on Dec. 5.  And Herbie Hancock combines with the trumpet of Roy Hargrove and the tenor sax of Michael Brecker to explore the jazz of "Our Times," the second part of the Directions In Music series. That one is at Massey Hall on March 4.  Jazz and blues are a strong component of the concert season, to be formally announced today.  The Afro-Cuban All Stars are at Massey Hall on Oct. 2, and there are two performances at Thomson Hall by superstar Tony Bennett Oct. 14-15.  Toronto Blues Society's 18th annual Women's Blues Revue is at Massey Hall on Nov. 27. It features Cookin' At the Cookery's Jackie Richardson.  World music and dance is represented by Tango Flamenco (Massey Hall, Oct. 28), the spectacular Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company (Massey Hall, Feb. 22) and the 22-member song and dance troupe Peru Negro (Thomson Hall, Feb. 25).  Variety shows include the Massey Hall debut of Politically Incorrect satirist Bill Maher on Nov. 13. The popular Australian troupe Ten Tenors return (Thomson Hall, Feb. 28); impersonator Andre-Philippe Gagnon drops in at Thomson Hall on March 12 and the Imperial Circus of China gives four performances at the same venue March 18-20.  As previously announced, the vocal recital series at Thomson Hall will feature the talents of baritone Matthias Goerne (Sept. 26), mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade (Nov. 10), young Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra (Jan. 22) and Canada's luminous soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (May 8).  Also at Thomson Hall: Quebec's Les Violons du Roy perform Mozart's Requiem on Oct. 26; the renowned Tallis Scholars arrive Dec. 7; the China Philharmonic Orchestra, with pianist Lang Lang, visit March 16; and the superb Kirov Orchestra under Valery Gergiev give two concerts April 21-22.  Tickets go on sale to members today at 10 a.m. and to the general public on Aug. 23 at 10 a.m.  For tickets and information, call 416-872-4255. Online ticketing is also available 24/7 at http://www.roythomson.com and http://www.masseyhall.com

 

 

 

Alanis 'Steps' Back Into The Past In New Video

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

(Aug. 13, 2004) Alanis Morissette revisits her past, literally, in the video for her new single, "Eight Easy Steps." In the Liz Friedlander-directed clip, Morissette is digitally inserted into a host of pre-existing footage from throughout her career, including the video for her star-making single "You Oughta Know" and a teenage appearance in which she is "slimed" on the TV show "You Can't Do That on Television."  Wherever possible, Morissette's face in the previous clips has been morphed to show her singing the lyrics to "Eight Easy Steps." Says Friedlander, "The first step was to go through literally hundreds of hours of archival footage." From there, Morissette spent more than 16 hours recreating facial expressions for digital manipulation.  "It was eerie to watch the footage of present day Alanis run side by side with the early footage," Friedlander says. "Her ability to match her old actions was uncanny."  The video begins with present-day Alanis performing "Eight Easy Steps" with her band, and proceeds to run chronologically backward, concluding with clips of the artist at a child's birthday party and frolicking naked as a baby in her backyard.  "Eight Easy Steps" is drawn from Morissette's latest Maverick album, "So-Called Chaos," which debuted in late May at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 365,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.  The artist wraps her summer tour with Barenaked Ladies Saturday (Aug. 14) in Cincinnati.

 

 

 

The Hip Talk About New Management

By KAREN BLISS -- For JAM! Music

Not much changes within The Tragically Hip camp. The Canadian rock band has kept the same line-up for 21 years, has been signed in Canada to Universal (originally MCA) for more than 17 years, and consistently plays arenas and amphitheatres in Canada.

So when the Kingston, Ont.-born band decided to let go of its long-time management, Jake Gold and Allan Gregg of Toronto's The Management Trust, it caused a bit of a stir in the Canadian music industry. Why did it happen? What did they want out of new management? There was much speculation and puzzlement, especially since lead singer Gord Downie chose to remain with TMT for his solo career.  One of the silly rumours was that the band made the move because it wanted to finally break the United States.  "No, that would be pretty naive of us after being in the business this long to think that a management shift is going to make that happen," dispels The Hip's bassist Gord Sinclair.   "It was probably the toughest decision that we've ever had to make, as a group," he reveals. "In respect to Jake and our long relationship, it wasn't an acrimonious thing. We had reached an impasse in our career. We realized that something had to change -- the external things like the record companies (we couldn't), and obviously we weren't going to change from within the group. It was the only management arrangement that we'd ever known and we made the resolution to try something different.

"Jake was at that position in his career, looking outside of the rock world for some new challenges. You can tell what he does now," Sinclair says referring to Gold's moonlighting as a "Canadian Idol" judge.  "It's like any relationship, if it becomes too routine and too comfortable, you can run the danger of falling into bad habits. One of the bad habits we'd fallen into over a period of time was that we had less faith in the decisions that were being made on our behalf, in terms of what our business was. We were doing the same things over and over. So we really were looking for new management. We wanted to get a fresh perspective on what it was we do for a living in a business sense."  In May of 2003, after meeting with various managers, The Hip -- Downie, Sinclair, guitarists Paul Langlois and Bobby Baker, and drummer Johnny Fay -- signed on with Sam Feldman and Stephen Macklam of Vancouver's Macklam Feldman Management, whose clients include Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, and Elvis Costello.  "We have tons of great friends and people we have known over the years in business, but they are our contemporaries," says Sinclair. "Sam, he's the godfather of the Canadian music business, and someone we had known and respected for a long long time and someone whose opinion and ideas we really valued. So far, he's been pushing us on a business level and challenging us to do things that we've never done before.   "The other great thing about Sam is he has a very broad outlook for what he's hoping to achieve with us. For the first time ever in our careers, we're actually sitting down and having long-term forecasting and strategizing on how we want to approach things, how we want to tour, how we want to record, the whens and the wheres. It's a great feeling for us to know there's someone looking down the road. We're at a stage in our career where a lot of people want to put us out to pasture."

The first step was relocating to the West Coast to write and work on new songs, ultimately choosing to record in Seattle with producer Adam Kasper (Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters). Not surprisingly, when the album, "In Between Evolution," came out on June 29 of this year, it entered the Nielsen SoundScan Canada chart at No. 1 and has already surpassed gold (50,000). That's just the normal course for The Hip.  So what has changed? The band always did surprise or last-minute club shows, devised the unique Hip Club card-accessed web site, and the touring festival Another Roadside Attraction. So what exactly is different, if it's not the ideas themselves?  "With Sam, he's basically pushed us to become more involved in the industry side of things, except on a very creative level," explains Sinclair. "We've always had a tendency to approach the music business as a tangent or an auxiliary industry to what we do.  "This time out, we were very involved in the radio promotion side of things, and certainly in terms of doing press and printed media, we approached everybody very openly, which is kind of a new thing for us. We've done it, but always very reluctantly and kind of in a scaled back situation.  "We've also done a lot more things with corporate partnership I guess, for want of a better word. We always shy away from that. There was a promo earlier in the year with Labatt. We did a TV and radio campaign. We released one of our songs in conjunction with a couple of other bands, Sum 41 and OLP, and that Australian band Jet. It was a completely different opportunity for us. The jury is still out on how it affected us, positively or negatively, but that's just something that we never would have tried."  "Everything is unfolding perfectly," says Sam Feldman, whose booking agency, S.L. Feldman & Associates also handles the band's tour dates in Canada now. "So far so good. I think this record has outperformed the last couple in terms of both airplay and sales." However, first week sales of the last album, 2002's In Violet Light, was 33,500, while In Between Evolution was 22,500.

According to Nielsen SoundScan Canada, to date, In Violet Light, sold about 119,000 units, and the previous Music@Work 178,000, decent amounts compared to any other domestic act, but no where near the multi-platinum sales of 1998's Phantom Power (392,000) and 1997's Live Between Us (357,000).  Earlier albums did even far greater numbers: 1989's "Up To Here" has been certified diamond (1 million copies); 1992's "Fully Completely" and 1991's "Road Apples" are both eight times platinum, and 1994's "Day For Night" six times platinum. No doubt, The Hip is a band whose catalogue keeps on selling.   "The challenge we face and our management face is how to you take this commodity and have it continue to grow and have people perceive it as an evolving changing thing," says Sinclair.   And how do you?   "Still the best thing that this group does is translate the recorded material onto the stage," says Sinclair.   Feldman feels the same way. "I think (In Between Evolution) is more back to the records that seemed to sell better (of theirs)," he says. "It's back to a very energetic feel and it really connects directly with their live show. The whole modus operandi when they recorded it was to give it a very live straight off the floor (sound), which is obviously very similar to what they do onstage and I just think that works. This band is the biggest live attraction ever in the history of Canada."   Since the mid nineties, Wayne Forte of U.S.-based Entourage Talent had booked the band's shows in Canada as well as America (another change, Sinclair says, was difficult), but when The Hip debuted with 1987's self-titled EP Feldman had represented the band at the time. Now, years later, Feldman agents Jeff Craib, Vinny Cinquemani and Shaw Saltzberg handle The Hip in Canada.   Feldman affiliates Marty Diamond and Larry Webman of U.S.-based Little Big Man take care of U.S. bookings. The Hip has a licensing deal with Rounder Records in America, and will be touring there in September. So far, the band has been concentrating on Canada. 

"The touring schedule is kind of unique for Canada," says Feldman. "We chose to do some festivals over the summer so that we can reach a lot of people, particularly secondary markets, without affecting in any negative way the tour that we've got scheduled for November where we're going to cross the country. The idea really is to let the record gold, and then tour in November so that we have the bumper into the Christmas retail season."   The Hip is one of those rare acts capable of playing the same market in Canada as many as four times on one album -- a special club show, an intimate theatre, an arena, amphitheatre, sometimes multiple nights. It also keeps its ticket prices low, allowing for fans to attend more than one show.   "We're not going to buy into the greed factor with these guys," says Feldman. "It's all about reaching a lot of people and making sure that their fans and their people are treated well. When we were talking to them about joining up and being their managers, it was so important to them that we were in sync with treating their fans the right way. You just can't rip them off and it's not just because you want to be around a long time, it just comes from a place of integrity and morality.   "There's an insatiable appetite for this band live because they're that good and that fresh every time they play," says Feldman. "What we did this time out too was a couple of small showcase clubs just to let the media know that we're back in business with this record. Those things were just so energizing for the band and I think all that carried forward particularly into the shows the July 1 show at the Molson Amphitheatre, which a lot of people commented was probably the best rock shows they'd ever seen in their life."   That said, with Canada in the pocket, if the band does have expectations at this point in their career of breaking internationally, that will be Macklam Feldman's biggest challenge.   "We've had four different record companies in America -- we did three with Universal, MCA back then, and a couple with Atlantic, a couple with Sire and a couple now with Rounder," Sinclair recaps. "Every time that we've gone in to make a record the entire echelon of people that we deal with, the foot soldiers, the people that are actually working the record, it's a completely different crop of people. It's always been very challenging."   Feldman agrees. "It's a monster challenge. There's no question about it. Any artist who has tried to break into the American market place over a certain amount of time and has only achieved marginal success, it's really tough. There's an industry down there that looks for something new all the time or something that's guaranteed, and if you've been around a while then you start to expect the success level that you've achieved. In other words, they don't believe that you can get as big as you really should be.

"So you don't get a lot of support, particularly if you don't have a record company with a monster marketing approach. It becomes very difficult for someone who has been around a while. Having said that, we have got some independent publicity that has worked very well in getting the music out. We're going to tour the band down there in September and probably through next year. The whole point is to make sure that they are in the right places at the right time and get a certain number of people out to see them and hopefully their live base will continue to expand."   As the band has done in the past, Krista Mettler of independent music publicity firm Skye Media in New York City is handling media, and Bruce Moser of Could Be Wild Promotions out of Buffalo is working rock radio.   "They're going to go out and hit those stages again and see if the print media and radio support what we can attract and keep the ball rolling," says Sinclair.   "They're with a smaller record company. If you follow Rounder at all, I don't think in terms of their business strategy they really allocate a lot of resources to radio for any of their artists. They do well at adult oriented radio with Kathleen Edwards and Sarah Harmer, but that's not our format.   "I still think we're developing in the United States. We have markets where we do really well and we have other markets where no one has even heard of us before."   The Hip, which has been to Australia in the past, and tours Europe and the U.K. behind every album, Europe, doesn't have record deals in those territories. "We're currently looking to license this record over there and we'll probably do that in the next four months," says Feldman.

 

 

 

CRTC Went Too Far On CHOI: Lawyer

Source:  Canadian Press  

(Aug. 12, 2004) The federal broadcast regulator went too far when it ordered CHOI-FM off the air at the end of the month, the lawyer representing the station said Thursday. Guy Bertrand said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission can't place limits on freedom of expression. He said the federal body is not a court and it went outside its jurisdiction when it decided not to renew the station's broadcasting license. "It's not a tribunal," he told a news conference. "It's an accuser." He compared the CRTC with an employer who fires an employee but has to listen briefly to the employee's side of the story before showing him the door. Mr. Bertrand also said he's upset that Quebec's artists, unions and sovereigntists have not come to the defence of the radio station. The station has been the subject of repeated complaints about off-colour humour and remarks. The station's owners, Genex Communications, have asked the Federal Court to extend CHOI's license past Aug. 31 until a judgment is rendered. Genex also wants the court to suspend the CRTC's decision to award its radio frequency to another broadcaster. Mr. Bertrand said he also wants the decision suspended until the end of legal proceedings. Parti Quebecois Leader Bernard Landry broke ranks with the leaders of Quebec's two other provincial parties in refusing Wednesday to condemn a federal regulator's decision to close CHOI-FM.

 

 

 

Queen Of Neo-Soul Is For Real

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Guy Dixon

(Aug. 12, 2004) Yellow tartan cap. Tight red-dyed curls. Photo-shoot makeup, subdued by a jean shirt and long jean skirt. An entourage of assistants and media people is outside her hotel suite. More had been waiting in the lobby bar. Even the alt-rock band Interpol happened to be there, talking at a side table, looking like kids compared to soul singer Jill Scott upstairs. Inside the hushed suite, she's talking, not in the pointed, demonstrative tone of her calling-card hit Gettin' in the Way, or in the lung-filled holler of her live performances, but in the quiet, girlish voice of her most intimate songs. Queen of the new soul. High jazz poetess from North Philly. Essence magazine role model. Oh Lord, Jill Scott will be the first to say with a shrug. Being a black female soul performer, a real woman not cut from the same sexy-waif mould as singers Beyoncé and Ashanti, means having to endure a whole other set of labels. It only gets worse when she speaks her mind, she says. She can tell "by the shocked faces when I say what I say. I can tell I wasn't supposed to say that," she explains mock innocently during a publicity and performance stop in Toronto prior to the release of her album Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 later this month. Even if she swears, like any other woman would, people will incongruously respond, 'Wow, you're an Earth Mother! You're air, sky and water! You're poetry!' And I'm, like, I am a human being," she says. It's a reputation she has to endure, even if, truth be told, she obviously tries hard to maintain a natural aura. But since her praised 2000 debut Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1 and 2001's mostly live Experience: Jill Scott 826+, Scott has kept largely out of the picture. She wasn't sure if she was comfortable with her fame. "Also after those two years of touring, my well was empty. There was really little positivity left. I was just working." Instead of responding to the usual calling inside her to write music and poetry, "I was too tired. It was banging me like 'Get up! Write this down!' And I said, 'No, I don't feel like it.' And that stinks." After touring in support of the last two albums, she did little but sleep for a month and then for a year didn't write anything. The fear of losing the will to perform has, in the past, kept her from the spotlight. At 14, growing up in Philadelphia, she sang in high school and got her first standing ovation. It changed how people reacted to her. So she tended to avoid singing by herself again. Later she began reciting her poetry in clubs and community theatre, but still avoided singing until, at 21, she couldn't hold back any longer in the hot-bed Philly soul scene. Before her solo career, she even performed for three months with the touring company for the musical Rent in Vancouver and was twice offered a part in the New York production. She turned it down. She didn't want to get stuck. By then, she had clicked with Philly rap stars the Roots, writing the hook for their single You Got Me.

Now 32, she says that keeping fame in check is critical to her work. As a relative unknown, "I was very happy in Philadelphia. I was happy catching the 33 bus everywhere I went. It gave me a chance to watch people. I was very happy performing for $15. I was very happy being on stage in community theatres. But now I've made some money.  I can go create my own theatre." Scott's music, like so much of the neo-soul movement over the last decade, isn't intent necessarily on striking new terrain. It's about touring the block again and studying much more intimately the emotions in Stevie Wonder keyboard inflections, deep staccato basses that wiggle in the right places, and heavy, two-step beats. Self-assured and satisfying, with a touch of retrospection, Scott's new album stays true to the settled mood of her first disc, intent on staying clear of the bluster and pique of much of today's R&B pap.  In Golden, the first single off the record, Scott asserts her freedom by "putting it on my chain/wearing it round my neck." It's tangible. It's real. It lends meaning to a gold chain like no video crammed with ostentatious bling can ever communicate. At the same time, the music demurs with descending bass and keyboard lines. It gives strength by giving her room, letting her declare she's "living my life like it's golden" over and over throughout the chorus. Does she get frustrated that these messages of freedom and self-affirmation still have to be repeated? No, Scott says, they are messages that always have to be said, and they stem from her own childhood. "There was a woman I knew who lived around the corner. When I was little, I used to say, 'Wow, when I grow, I want to be like her.' She had that kind of thing. I'd see men, where a woman would walk by and they would turn their heads and howl and, you know, say things to her, sometimes kind of graphic. "But with this woman, they would just be silent and watch her. And I thought, I want to be like that. Whatever that is, I want that. Whatever she's got is so much that they can't not look, but they can't disrespect her either. I want that. Well, that damn crack [cocaine] came, and that same woman was digging in my garbage. That was a monster, and it spread. Agh, it spread." This was in the mid-1980s, and the memory of how her neighbourhood was changed by crack still has an impact on her work, even though she now does her writing in a comfortable home office. The song Rasool off the new disc is about a street-corner shooting and her North Philly neighbourhood, but it could be about countless places.  It's also easy to imagine her old neighbourhood bringing her back to a more realistic, mixed-message sexuality. In another album highlight, Whatever, she sings, "You put it down last night/knocked me out then had me dreaming 'bout waking up, all right." Giving in, she adds, "Do you want some money baby? How about some chicken wings? Do you want some fish and grits? I'll hurry and go get it." The lyrics are an inside joke, she says. That's something the cloying sexuality of pop-R&B can never touch. Neo-soul sprang from the understated, jazzy consciousness of late eighties, early nineties hip-hop. But as a name, it has always been a weak label for something best defined by what it isn't: uptempo R&B warmed over by too many handlers. Just the return of the word soul, rather than being merely synonymous with R&B, links directly back to Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Wonder in their deepest, early seventies introspection and yearning. That's where Scott and the movement, if it can be called that, are at.

 

 

 

Destiny's Child Flipping Over New Album

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - -- Gail Mitchell, L.A.

(Aug. 13, 2004) The next Destiny's Child studio album, which hits stores Nov. 16 via Columbia, will capitalize on CD/DVD flip-side technology, according to the group's manager, Mathew Knowles. The audio side will feature songs by the group, as well as turns by the individual members. Flip it over, and you have a DVD.  Knowles made the announcement during his keynote session last week at the fifth annual Billboard/American Urban Radio Networks R&B/Hip-Hop Conference. He added that as many as three or four singles from the Destiny's Child record will be worked to radio simultaneously.  While Knowles did not elaborate on the DVD features or plans for his daughter Beyoncé's next solo outing, he did outline a four-year scenario for the Destiny's Child franchise.  Propelling the new album will be a string of appearances, including a two-hour TV special on ABC. As previously reported, the trio will also appear Sept. 9 on ABC's National Football League "Opening Kickoff" broadcast and Sept. 12 on the network's "Play for a Billion" game show.  Meanwhile, DC's Michelle Williams has another solo album slated for later this year, and third member Kelly Rowland has a second solo set due in 2005.  Destiny's Child begins a world tour in April 2005, and Beyoncé will be making films in 2005 and 2006, Knowles said. The group will take a break in 2007 before releasing another Destiny's Child album in 2008.

 

 

 

LL Cool J, Big Boi Lead Atlanta SoulFest

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

(Aug. 13, 2004) LL Cool J and Big Boi, of Atlanta-based hip-hop act OutKast, will headline the inaugural SoulFest event in the Georgia capitol. Set for Sept. 4-5, the festival will take place on the grounds outside of Turner Field, home to the Atlanta Braves baseball team.  LL Cool J will headline the opening day of the festival, which will also feature Mos Def, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Angie Stone, Anthony Hamilton, Kem and SEEK.   Big Boi will close the event on Sept. 5 after sets by Frankie Beverly & Maze, Chaka Khan and the Gap Band. The Sunday bill will also boast a "Gospel Session" with Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers, New Birth's Total Praise Choir, Kierra Sheard, J Moss, and B Chase & Shabach. Additional performers are expected to be announced.  Tickets priced at $60 for a two-day pass and $45 for single-day entry are available via TicketMaster and the SoulFest Web site.

 

 

 

Lil’ Kim Making Moves

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 12, 2004) *Lil’ Kim was so darn proud of her image as hip hop’s first lady of raunch. But now that the rapper faces a perjury trial in February, her camp found it necessary to hire spin company 5W Public Relations to try and change her public image, reports World Entertainment News Network.  The company has already suggested that she immediately get behind high-profile charities – including Mercedes-Benz Carousel of Hope to benefit childhood-diabetes research and the Blossom Project that combats domestic violence - to improve her reputation after she pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to a grand jury.  Queen Bee faces 10 years in prison on three counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction. Her new spokesman Ronn Torossian, explains, "We feel there are a lot of misconceptions out there about Kim, and we want to clear those up. She is completely innocent of these charges."  Meanwhile, the 29-year-old will soon have a nice designer watch to count the hours until her trial. The MC is starting her own line of designer watches, called, Royalty.  "I love fashion and wanted to create a designer watch collection that would translate my personal style into a product which would appeal to stylish women everywhere," said Lil' Kim in a statement Tuesday.  Celebrity jeweller Jacob Arabo manufactures the timepieces, which will range in price from $1,800 to $3,500 and feature diamond bezels weighing from 1.75 to 2.25 carats and interchangeable leather wristbands.  "These watches exude luxury," said Lil' Kim, "but I wanted to create a quality, unique product that fashionable women everywhere can afford."  Tyra Banks and Ashlee Simpson already have a pair.

 

 

 

Ten Years In The Making, 213 Delivers The Hard Way

Source: Joe Wiggins / TVT Records / (212)979-6410x290

(Aug. 12, 2004) New York, NY - The best things in life are indeed worth waiting for. More than a decade in the making, 213 (the super group of hip-hop icons Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg) is set to release its explosive, long-anticipated TVT debut album, THE HARD WAY on August 17, 2004.  The charged collection features production by Kanye West, West Coast hip-hop pioneer DJ Pooh, and Battlecat, among others.  THE HARD WAY hits hard sonically and lyrically, enough to breathe new life into the G'd up sound and style that each member helped define and popularize in the 1990s.  The album's lead single "Groupie Luv" is a playful funk-drenched anthem introducing listeners to 213's player side. The DJ Pooh produced song is a radio-friendly record with an undeniable hook.  With life long friends, unparalleled talent and an 18-track album full of stellar songs, 213 proves that THE HARD WAY has been well worth the wait. "Nate brought the gangster melodies to the game," Warren G says. "Snoop brought the smooth gangster style to the game. We've had an incredible impact. Now its time for us to reinvent West Coast hip-hop." Stand-out tracks on the album include "Another Summer" produced by Kanye West; "So Fly" a revamped version of R&B singer Monica's hit "So Gone"; and "Joysticc", a head-nodding track inviting female fans to an one-night affair.  THE HARD WAY may surprise people who aren't expecting them to produce such a powerful album. " It ain't really talked about as a big record coming out this year and ain't nobody really expecting it, but it's a great record with a lot of good songs on it," says Snoop Dogg.  THE HARD WAY is one of the many upcoming releases from TVT Records. Expected to hit stores this year: hip-hop soul songstress Teedra Moses, promising Cuban-American lyricist Pitbull, highly touted female emcee Jacki-0, and a new album from multi-platinum group Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz. Upcoming urban releases for 2005 include the first R&B Crunk artist Oobie and Lil' Jon-protege Chyna Whyte, a female rapper with vicious rhymes and incredible lyrical dexterity.

 

 

 

Fat Joe and Terror Squad a big hit at Appleton Temptation Isle in Jamaica

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 12, 2004) Rapper Fat Joe and his Terror Squad unit blazed high spirited performances at the annually held Appleton Temptation Isle event held in Negril, Jamaica last weekend.  The event which was promoted by Absolute Entertainment, attracted scores of young adults from around Jamaica, who partied away on the Independence weekend holiday.  Originally, rapper Twista was billed to perform at the event (which was also headlined by Elephant Man), but according to Jomo Cato from Absolute Entertainment, Twista who was contracted to perform, pulled out at the last minute because he didn't want to take a connecting flight from Jamaica to the US.  'He wanted a direct flight which wasn't possible and we even offered to get him limo service from one of the airports in the US to where he was going, but he refused. Some of these rappers need to just get off their hype', said Mr. Cato.  Rapper Fat Joe and Terror Squad were last minute additions to the performance schedule, and the outfit rocked the party from start to finish. Efforts to determine whether monies paid to Twista were returned to the promoter, proved futile at press time.

 

 

 

Rick James Remembered

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 13, 2004) *Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., Chaka Kahn, Jamie Foxx, Jermaine Jackson and Teena Marie were among the 1,200 or so family, friends and fans attending Thursday’s memorial service for Rick James.  The ceremony, held at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills, featured a speech by Minister Louis Farrakhan as well as a musical performance by Stevie Wonder.  "On behalf of the James family, we would like to thank all of his fans. This is his moment of glory. He would've loved to have known he had this much support. We appreciate your prayers," said the singer’s daughter, Ty James.  Rick James died in his sleep last week at his home near Universal City, CA. He was 56. An autopsy has failed to determine the singer's cause of death.  James, who was born in Buffalo, N.Y., will be buried Saturday in his hometown following a funeral service. He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.

 

 

 

Wu-Tang Clan Live Recording Is New CD & DVD

Source:  Tremedia: Tresa Sanders 845 623 2325 or email @ tremedia@optonline.net / www.tre-media.net

(Aug. 17, 2004) New York, NY – The Wu-Tang Clan made their first step to reclaiming the throne of rap as they regrouped on July 17, 2004 to perform at the Rock The Bells festival in San Bernardino, CA.  All nine original members: RZA, GZA/Genius, Method Man, Ghostface Killa, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Raekwon, Masta Killa, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard shared the stage for the first time in years. Joined by special guests Redman, Street Life and Cappadonna, this magical event was recorded in front of 10,000 fans who realized history was in the making as rap’s greatest group had returned.  The CD and DVD of this event, Disciples of the 36 Chambers, are slated for release on Sanctuary Urban Records on September 28 and October 5 respectively.  “I feel this can be the rebirth of another Wu-Tang era and the group has increased its vitality,” RZA states about this momentous reunion concert.  The Wu-Tang Clan exploded onto the scene in 1993 with release of their landmark album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and instantly gained credibility in a time when Dr. Dre seemed to rule the genre. The release of their first single “Protect Ya’ Neck” catapulted the band to success and put Staten Island on the map as a viable home for east coast rap. Wu-Tang Clan took their name from a powerful kung fu sword that was wielded by an invincible group of warriors. The kung fu influence and love of the old movies is apparent in the band’s writing and is heard in samples throughout their debut and subsequent Wu records.

 

 

 

Guests Showcase Two Sides Of Nelly

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

(Aug. 16, 2004) Christina Aguilera, Tim McGraw, Fat Joe, Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg are just some of the artists that will be found on Nelly's upcoming albums, "Sweat" and "Suit." Due for simultaneous Sept. 14 release, the albums will be issued on the St. Louis-based artist's own Derrty Records imprint through Fo Reel/Universal.   "Sweat" boasts the Aguilera appearance, where she teams with Nelly on "Tilt Ya Head Back." The disc also includes guest turns by Jazze Pha and Jasper Cameron ("Na-NaNa-Na"); Murphy Lee and Stephen Marley ("River Don't Runnin'"); Fat Joe, Young True and Remy ("Grand Hang Out"), Lil' Flip and Big Gipp ("Boy"); Ali and Gube Thug ("Down in Da Water") and the St. Lunatics ("Getcha Getcha," "American Dream").   The set will also boast a cut featuring Mobb Deep and Missy Elliott, the title of which is yet to be revealed. First single "Flap Your Wings" is No. 45 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.  The seemingly incongruous appearance McGraw comes on the second disc, "Suit," where the country superstar teams with Nelly on "Over and Over." Guest highlights on this disc are Williams ("Play It Off"), Jazze Pha and T.I. ("Pretty Toes"), Snoop Dogg and Ron Isley ("She Don't Know My Name"), Avery Storm and Mase ("In My Life") and Anthony Hamilton ("Nobody Knows").  That set's first single, "My Place" featuring Jaheim, is a revamp of Teddy Pendergrass' "Come On and Go With Me." The track is No. 5 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks chart, No. 9 on the R&B/Hip-Hop tally and No. 9 on the Hot 100.  "Sweat" and "Suit" follow 2002's "Nellyville," which topped The Billboard 200 and Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and has sold nearly 6.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The set featured the hits "Hot in Herre," "Air Force Ones" and "Dilemma." A remix album, "Da Derrty Versions - The Reinvention," was released in December 2003, bowing at No. 6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and No. 12 on The Billboard 200.  Nelly will be out promoting the albums with several media appearances, including a performance Friday (Aug. 20) on ABC's "Good Morning America" and appearances on "Pepsi Smash," "The Late Show With David Letterman" (CBS) and "Live With Regis & Kelly" (syndicated). In addition, a Sept. 13 concert at an undisclosed New York location will be streamed live online via AOL's "Broadband Rocks."

 

 

 

More To Ask ‘Why’ On Jadakiss Remix

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 18, 2004) *While visiting MTV studios recently, Jadakiss tossed about some names he’d like for the remix of his latest single “Why,” featuring Anthony Hamilton.  "I'm supposed to throw Common and Nas on there,” he told MTV. “I might throw Jill Scott on the hook if I don't leave Anthony on there. I don't want to do it too differently; I want to leave the same track and have a couple of artists I love asking some different questions — Common, Nas and a new verse from Kiss."  Jadakiss also talked about his verse on the new Babyface-produced all-star single, "Wake Up Everybody," which is being recorded to raise awareness about the importance of voting. "I did 16 or 12 bars on the 'Wake Up' song," Jada said. "It's a good look. I remember when I came out of the booth, [Babyface's wife] Tracey Edmonds was like, 'You slaughtered it.' I didn't even hear it yet. It took a while for them to put it together and it has wild artists on there.”  His next single off the “Kiss of Death” album is “U Make Me Wanna,” with Mariah Carey. The two will shoot the video soon. Meanwhile, you can catch the MC live on the current Pepsi Smash Tour with Jagged Edge and Fabolous.

 

 

 

Hip-Hop Acts Bolster ESPN Videogame, Tour

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - Steve Traiman, St. Petersburg, Fla.

(Aug. 13, 2004) In its most ambitious cross-marketing program to date, ESPN Videogames is featuring more than three dozen original or licensed tracks from 22 top hip-hop acts in "NBA 2K5," a fall release for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.  A companion soundtrack CD will be offered with purchase at such retail chains as Electronics Boutique and GameStop. A 45-date tour will feature key game/soundtrack artists, while a film crew and traveling audio studio will accompany the trek to capture material for a DVD/CD package due early next year.  "This is the first year we're licensing music and also commissioning original tracks for our games," ESPN Videogames marketing and promotions director Tim Rosa says. "It's not only our most ambitious 'multimedia' program for any game, but also one of the most innovative for the industry.  Contributing tracks to "NBA 2K5" are such acts as Del the Funky Homosapien, Hazen Street, Holla Point, KillRadio, People Under The Stairs and Aesop Rock. The soundtrack also contains selections by Skillz, the Roots, Aceyalone & Madlib and Hieroglyphics featuring Goapele from the compilation "True Notes Vol. 1" (Okay Player/Decon). Among the acts writing tracks specifically for the game are Truck & Mack.  "I've always loved gaming, so it's only natural to be a part of 'ESPN NBA 2K5' as a character in the game," Del tells Billboard. "I've even got my own dream team. It's also a kick to provide some of the soundtrack beats and to work together on the coming tour."  The Champion Sound tour (aka Cali Comm 2K4) presented by ESPN Videogames kicks off Oct. 13 at the University of California-Santa Barbara and will wrap Nov. 24 at San Francisco's historic Fillmore theater. The trek will also feature Aceyalone, Abstract Rude and Mikah 9 performing as Haiku De Tat, Bukue One and Zion-I.  Decon founder Peter Bittenbender is overseeing the tour's traveling audio/video studio. Tour footage and recordings will become part of the aforementioned DVD/CD, which Decon is targeting for February 2005 release, with distribution by RED/Sony.

 

 

 

Kravitz Bags Fall Tour

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

(Aug. 13, 2004) A little more than a week after announcing a North American tour, Lenny Kravitz has postponed his road plans due to unspecified "family matters." The trek was due to kick off Sept. 11 in Atlantic City, N.J., with Robert Randolph & the Family Band on hand to open.   "I was really looking forward to getting out there to meet and play for my fans," Kravitz says in a statement. "Unfortunately, things come up in life that you cannot control. I hope my fans will understand and I will definitely make it up to them with these shows next year."  The tour was to be Kravitz' first North American outing in more than two years, and had 18 dates on the books through an Oct. 16 show in Las Vegas.   Kravitz' latest Virgin album, "Baptism," debuted in June at No. 14 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 224,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

 

 

 

Two Cultures Woven Together

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Robert Everett-Green

They say that doubters make the best converts. The Mexican-American singer Lila Downs knows a little about that, having spent years of her life trying to reject the native culture she now regards as a precious inheritance. "I was in denial of my Indian roots," she said of her adolescent years, when she bleached her black hair and shrank from the effusive otherness of her mother's Mixtec community. "It was very painful for me to accept that this part of my family was always speaking their native language that everyone else made fun of." Downs grew up shuttling between Oaxaca, her mother's home in southern Mexico, and Minnesota, where her Scottish-American father made films and paintings and taught at the University of Minnesota.  When he died of a heart attack in 1984, his 16-year-old daughter was forced to confront the Mixtec reality that would eventually transform her life and music. Downs is most widely known for her performances on the soundtrack of Frida, the Julie Taymor film about the mixed-race Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (Downs also had a brief on-screen role, singing a tango during a Sapphic dance scene involving Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd). Downs won an Oscar nomination for a closing-credits duet with Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, with whom she performed on the Academy Awards broadcast. Her own recordings are so many solutions to the puzzles of identity. She has recorded traditional songs in native languages with pre-Columbian instruments (on Tree of Life), as well as original pieces that sound archaic but that include rap and reggae rhythms. Her latest album, Una Sangre (One Blood), is as diverse as the New York eastside neighbourhood where she lives with her husband and creative cohort, Paul Cohen, and works with a group of musicians from Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. Quite apart from the fusion of sounds and styles, Downs's ability to merge the distant past and vibrant present is such that the CD might as well have been called Una Vez (One Time). Her journey towards this kind of unified mongrel art was not a simple matter of replacing a white paternal culture with a brown maternal one. It was her mother, after all, who first steered her away from Mixtec songs toward opera, which Downs dutifully studied at her father's university. "I was going to be an opera singer, mainly because that was the choice that was offered to me," she said, a few hours before her performance at Harbourfront's Planet IndigenUs festival on Friday. "If I had known about a jazz school, like Berklee [in Boston], maybe I would have done that instead." Her teachers couldn't agree on her true vocal character, and she was schooled at various times as an alto, mezzo-soprano, coloratura and dramatic soprano. It was like a conservatory enactment of her deeper struggles with identity. Her dark looks and dramatic style seemed a natural fit with roles such as Bizet's Carmen. But her encounters with Susan McClary, an eminent postmodern musicologist at the university, convinced her that a Frenchman's conception of a Spanish Romany woman was not going to bring her closer to her own truth. "She was one of my favourite professors, and I think she kind of drove me to drop out," Downs said. She left the university and took up with the self-selecting tribe that used to follow the Grateful Dead from city to city.

She made and sold jewellery outside the concerts to survive, and tried to ignore the thunderous sounds of her mother's disapproval. She returned to Mexico to study the traditional weaving of the Triqui women. Their way of illustrating tribal narrative in their work became the basis of a thesis she wrote (about "a language of resistance, that women are creating, about their place in history and time") when she went back to Minnesota, to complete a double degree in music and anthropology. Her intense interest in what the Triqui women were doing couldn't be fulfilled merely by writing about it. She had to do it herself as well, and she returned to singing to make it happen. The craft suitable for Bizet and Richard Strauss, however, would not be enough. She had to relearn the nasal, outdoor style of Mexican folk singing, and sound and diction of the other popular styles she had heard from her mother, who was a singer in Mexico City when she met Downs's father. "I think you can tell, on the albums, how I've been moving away from my operatic training," she said. Tree of Life was a pivotal experience in that regard, because it had to do with Mexican music in its least Europeanized forms. Her researches for that disc took her to a pre-Columbian codex, and into corners of her heritage she couldn't ultimately accept for herself. "It was kind of about finding out that I'm not so purely Indian as I thought," she said. "As I became more in contact with my Indian community, I realized that their ways of thinking were quite different from mine. There's something very conservative there -- which is why they have survived -- that I'm not so fond of. . . . They're very afraid of the other."  In this sense, the most provocative and personal number on Una Sangre may be Malinche, a traditional-sounding original song that takes a sympathetic view of the native woman who acted as translator (and lover) for the conquistador Hernan Cortes. Mexican nationalists regard her as a traitor, but for Downs, La Malinche was "our first diplomat," through whom the violent collision of cultures was filtered and, perhaps, softened. La Malinche was also Downs's mother, and herself, because both married outside their native culture. Her ambition, she said, is to be that kind of diplomat, who conveys messages both ways, and who is the beginning of something, not its betrayer. "Native American cultures are very much alive, and many people don't know this," she said. "We're speaking our languages, and some of us are living in the full splendour of our identities. Music happens to be a wonderful way of expressing this." Her performance at Harbourfront was the best proof, a joyous and sometimes cheeky celebration of the ways that different traditions can be made to dance together. For an hour, a space along the waterfront became as Mexican as Oaxaca itself, and as international as the ocean that touches Europe and Africa on one side, and the Americas on the other.

 

 

 

Bootsy Exclusive Baby Bubba!

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 18, 2004) *“I was forced to be different,” funk legend Bootsy Collins says about the origin of his exquisitely mismatched style. “When we were growing up, we were on welfare and I had to get clothes wherever I could get clothes, and it was usually the Goodwill. I had to wear whatever Mama put on us - and none of it ever matched - so all the kids always laughed at me anyway. I had to learn early that this stuff I had on was funny, and learn how to laugh at it.  The world has since come to idolize to the brain that coordinates those otherworldly outfits, because it has also managed to craft some of the nastiest bass lines ever recorded in music history.  William Collins, who as a teenager cut his teeth with James Brown as a founding member of his backing band The Pacesetters, joined forces with George Clinton of Funkadelic in 1972 and began laying the groundwork of 70s funk – one album at a time.  Bootsy, whose nickname was adopted to go along with the alien rock star character from the Mothership, was known for his relentless, hard-thumping attack on the bass that became a staple of the funk genre. In 1976, the musician stepped out and formed his own Bootsy’s Rubber Band, which also brought on a new moniker, Bootzilla – an even more bedazzled and colourful alter-ego that spat vocabulary from another galaxy. Bootsy remembers the exact year when his trademark vernacular and nasal-tinged crescendo-style play on words began.  “It had to be around 1974 when we recorded ‘Be My Beach’ from Funkadelic’s [1975 album “Let’s Take it to the Stage”],” he says. “Me and George was just clowning around in the studio and I was talking like that. And George thought it was just hilarious. He said, ‘Why don’t you record that?’ So we recorded it.” 

Fast forward to 2004 and the U.S. release of Bootsy’s first studio album in six years, “Play With Bootsy,” from Thump Records. Guests on the project range from Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim and Macy Gray, to Bobby Womack and George Clinton, to Kelli Ali of the Sneaker Pimps.  “It’s a tribute to the funk,” says Bootsy. “They’re not actually giving me a tribute, they’re paying tribute to funk as a whole. It’s the younger artists that come in on this album – their version of the funk.”  The record was released in Europe a few years ago before Thump signed on to release the set stateside. The fact that America is on the late freight with this project reflects a larger issue infecting the music industry, says Bootsy.  “They’re into historic things overseas,” he explains. “In the states, they’re into what’s now and what’s next. [In the States], they’re pretty much led to believe whatever the company says and what the TV says. You can’t fault [the audience] because that’s what they’re getting fed. [Companies] manufacture music today, they manufacture everything and put it in your face and say you got to have it. Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to stay in the present and the now and continue to keep the funk alive. If a record company ain’t gonna put your records out, you gotta find other means to get your records out – video games, films and doing an album like this with current people.”  In addition to lending original compositions to the soundtrack of Acclaim’s NBA Jam video game, Bootsy cites his 2002 Nike ad campaign as an alternative way he was able to get his music to the masses.  “It made such a big noise because a lot of people got to see it at the same time,” says Bootsy. “And that’s what record companies do for artists, but companies aren’t into [the funk] like that. To me, Nike was like a big record company because [my music] got played everywhere.”  Finally, Bootsy fans on American soil have something to chew on, with the recent release of “Play with Bootsy,” which also features a joint credited to “One” and Bobby Womack called “Groove Eternal.” One reviewer described the track as “ a slice of cheesy, funk-soul that could have come straight off a mid-80s Prince album.”  “That just might be Prince,” laughs Bootsy. “We call him ‘the One.’ It’s kind of a hush/hush deal. We call him ‘Chris - the One.’ That’s a clue. Throw it out there, you might get some feedback.”  Bootsy is planning to take his “Play With Bootsy” show on the road for a forthcoming tour, pending the availability of various guest stars on the project. In the meantime, the original funk doctor continues to keep the funk alive by any means necessary. He’s even considering an offer from Sears to star in a new ad campaign.  “Those are the straightest clothes you’ve ever seen in your life,” he laughs. “I thought it was hilarious…but I might do it.”

 

 

 

Carl Thomas Wants To Talk About It

Source: Bad Boy Records/Universal Music Group

(Aug. 18, 2004) After spending the last three years of his career traveling to towns big and small, meeting with and performing for people of all sorts, Carl Thomas has taken some profound social notes.  "In the years since my last album, Emotional, there's been a lot of serious things happening in the world and I don't think people feel as safe as they once did," the R&B singer postulates. "People have lost a sense of security. So what I'm trying to do is get back to the business of feel good music."  But by "feel good," Carl means to strike people much deeper than merely on the surface; no, what the passionate crooner seeks to do this time with his new Bad Boy Records CD, Let’s Talk About It is massage souls. He believes that music, like the variety of sultry and surprisingly upbeat soul found on Let’s Talk About It, will serve to free folk from the weight of anxiety and tension they face.  Undoubtedly, many real Carl Thomas fans may find themselves doing just that, once they embrace the understanding passion of "Make It Alright" or the gentle, acoustic guitar glide of "Let Me Know." Unlike the last go round, Carl has been able to put his production talent to work on Let’s Talk About It, the results are nothing short of magnetic. And his honesty as a songwriter who focuses on themes of love is transformative.  “We all have a higher and lower nature. And so I'm trying with this music to reflect my higher. I'm not going to pretend that I've only sat on one side of the fence." This time there is such a personal effect from Carl's songwriting and production that a few listens draw one in so close you feel as though you can reach out and touch him. Along with members of his newly founded production team Thom Tunes, (Elijah “Veto” Harris & Milton Thornton), Carl produced and co-wrote half of the CD including the sensual "Baby Maker" and "Dreamer," a pretty self-reflection filled with poetry. I used to love to dream out loud/stand in the middle of an open crowd/ and everybody would see me/ but I was just a little project child? Let’s Talk About It also includes production by The Hit Men (P. Diddy, Mario “Yellow Man” Winans & Deric “D-Dot” Angeletti) and Mike City.  Until this song, it was hard to imagine Carl as the Chicago-born man-child destined to reshape R&B, but this kind of writing proves his depth and colourful vision. "These songs were the ones I just had to get off my chest," Carl acknowledges. "And it was really very different to take complete responsibility of them. It wasn't just about going into a booth. I had to nurture these." 

In fact, nurturing is second nature to Carl who now has a 4-year-old son. And it is this passionate relationship with his child, that has propelled his music to even greater heights. Carl has always been a thoughtful musician, yet fatherhood has sparked even deeper feelings, thoughts that have forced him to challenge the urban music status quo. "What's wrong with talking about things that affect the world and how it connects to music? Nothing." Carl affirms. "The way things are have little or nothing to do with the way things should be. As much as music can elevate, it can pervert. And to an extent, music has perverted the minds of our children. That's something we have to admit. So, I say to myself, why not present another option?  Carl’s music adds a beautiful element to the Bad Boy roster and his creative marriage with producer and Bad Boy CEO Sean "Puffy" Combs is flourishing. In fact, that union is better than ever Carl says, and has added unique touches on the new CD that is sure to stir the senses of an even wider audience. Let’s Talk About It’s first single, the catchy, "She Is," is one of Puffy's productions and it's a song one can't help but move to. "I'm a lot more concerned about people dancing to my music than I was last time," the once balladeer-only continues. “It's the importance of the dance release, that's really good for the soul."  It is this kind of introspection Carl prides himself in. It's what he believes sets him apart from the slew of contemporary R&B singers on the scene. "My belief system is a little different than a lot of men. I believe there is a Divine Universal Order and when you make decisions outside of this divine order, your humanity comes into question. I'm deeply concerned with fair play and I try to approach song writing in the same, balanced manner. How I feel about my place in life affects everything it directly affects my music. Yeah, at times I am a sentimental sap-sucker. I can't help that. But many of the songs I write are not about me at the present time. Many of the songs are about the me I'm trying to be."  And just who exactly is this new Carl Thomas trying to be? Carl is planted firmly in the tradition of the soulfulness you've come to know from him. The concept of Let’s Talk About It, is about becoming aware of how we react to different situations we are presented with in life, he affirms. "More than anything, this music is about learning from ourselves, touching our own souls, about being proactive and not being afraid to talk about it."  Hear 'My First Love' and other tracks from Carl's new CD, Let's Talk About It, at his website: www.CarlThomas.com.

 

 

 

Jimmy Jam Exclusive

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 16, 2004) *“I never get blasé about it,” says legendary super-producer Jimmy Jam on receiving yet another award for his Yoda-like ability to craft a hit record. This particular night in Los Angeles, Jam and longtime production partner Terry Lewis are picking up a trophy from ASCAP for helming Heather Headley’s single “I Wish I Wasn’t,” from her October 2002 album “This is Who I Am.”  He says, “If anything, I appreciate the awards more now, because early on in our careers it was happening, and you think your career is going to go on forever, and all of a sudden you look up one day and the people that you’re dealing with aren’t around anymore, but you’re still there. And you kind of go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, I’m still here. I really appreciate the fact that I’m still here. I’m going to thank the Lord everyday that I’m still here.’ That’s my attitude about it.”  Before there was a “Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis,” there was James Harris III - born June 6, 1959 in Minneapolis. It wasn’t until high school when Harris, a keyboardist who got the name Jimmy Jam during his days as a DJ, met his musical soul mate, Terry Lewis. In 1981, the two formed Flyte Tyme, which in 1981 (under the direction of Terry’s friend Prince) morphed into The Time – led by Prince protégé Morris Day.  As The Time’s debut album was bubbling on the charts, Jam and Lewis had a little side hustle going with their new freelance production outfit, Flyte Time Productions. In March 1983, the dynamic duo took advantage of a short break while touring with The Time and zipped to Atlanta to produce a number of tracks for the S.O.S. Band’s “On the Rise” album.  What happened next is a story to be passed down through generations.  We all know about the snowstorm that left the two stranded in Georgia, unable to make it back to the tour in time for the next show. Unwilling to tolerate insubordination, Prince fired Jam and Lewis – but their track for the S.O.S. Band, “Just Be Good To Me,” exploded on the charts. Suddenly, they were paid, and more importantly, in demand.  Soon Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were putting their rich, glossy-but-gritty signature sound on smash hits for Gladys Knight, Patti Austin, Thelma Houston, Human League and Klymaxx.  Then in 1985, they met Janet Jackson. 

The public had given the youngest Jackson sibling a luke-warm response to her 1982 self-titled debut and the following year’s “Dream Street” album. For her third project, she decided to get rid of that side-to-side, shoulder-shake dance and key hanging from her ear – and try to shake things up. The desperation to step out of her brother’s shadow crashed head-first into Jam and Lewis’ white hot Midas touch - and history was made with Janet’s 1986 landmark album, “Control.”  The set generated one hit single after another: “What Have You Done for Me Lately," "Nasty," "When I Think of You," "The Pleasure Principle," "Let's Wait Awhile" and the title track.  The three musketeers would go on to create magic together on 1989’s “Rhythm Nation,” (“Miss You Much,” “Black Cat,” “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”); 1993’s “Janet” (“That’s The Way Love Goes,” “If,” “Again”) “and subsequent albums – including her most recent LP, “Damita Jo.” But not even a breast-bearing wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl could spark the kind of fervour that’s usually a given with a new Janet album. “It’s tough to click with audiences when you don’t get support from the major media outlets,” says Jam, who feels that an MTV statement claiming they never received the video for the first single is largely to blame for the public disconnect. “It’s interesting because the video was sent to Viacom. [Viacom-owned] BET and VH1 got it, but somehow MTV didn’t? I don’t know, I’m very proud of the album; I personally think it’s a great album. But you can’t really control what happens once it leaves your hands. Janet loves this record, so I think she’s going to go as far as she can go with it.”  Miss Jackson wasn’t the only artist to get a career makeover from Jam and Lewis. In 1989, the two oversaw New Edition’s all-grown-up album, “Heart Break,” and also helmed material for the solo albums of members Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant.  In 1990, Jam and Lewis founded Perspective Records, distributed by A&M, and spearheaded its inaugural release Sounds of Blackness. Their “The Evolution of Gospel” album won a Grammy, and generated even more work, including hits with Lewis’ future wife Karyn White, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige and Vanessa Williams, to name a few.  Twenty-one years after “the snowstorm,” Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are just as in demand, if not more. They’ve recently completed studio work with Mary J. Blige for the forthcoming sequel to “Bridget Jones Diary,” and helmed a bunch of material for the forthcoming “Shark Tale” soundtrack. They also produced a duet for Carly Simon and actress Megan Mullally that will appear on a “Will and Grace” soundtrack, to be released when the show’s new season begins next month.  Jimmy adds: “We’re in the studio right now with Heather Headley working on her new album, we just did two songs with the O’Jays and we just did some things with Earth, Wind & Fire.” As it stands now, Flyte Time has produced more number one singles than anyone in music history – except Beatles producer George Martin. For a long time, as the hits continued piling up, Jimmy Jam and his LA-born wife Lisa Harris chose to remain in Minneapolis with their three children. Jam was close to his beloved Timberwolves basketball team and far away from Los Angeles and its streets paved of fools gold. But with the urging of his partner Terry Lewis, who had already been living in the City of Angels, Jam has since changed his mind. In May, they officially closed the Minneapolis office of Flyte Time productions and decided to make L.A. a permanent home  “You know, right after [Terry and I] had the hit with the S.O.S. band, we moved straight back to Minneapolis because we didn’t want to get caught up in the whole L.A. pit,” he said. “There are a lot of temptations here. We were young men, just beginning to make a little bit of money. We were single, it was dangerous. Now we’re old, we’re spoken-for, we got kids, it’s different. I realized that it’s not really where you live, it’s the people you have around you. I have a great wife, great kids, the whole thing. We’re fine. Plus, it’s not exactly a hardship. I’m living in Malibu right now where I wake up everyday with the ocean beating at my back door. I mean, come on. I’m okay.

 

 

 

Singer TQ Is Back With Hot West Coast Funk And 'Reality R&B'

Source:  Liane Mori / Rogers & Cowan / (310)201-8829 / linori@rogersandcowan.com

(Aug. 16, 2004) TQ the singer/songwriter/producer is back with a brand new album full of smooth vocals and his trademark melodic "reality R&B" flow. He took a break from the music scene to reassess his situation and regain control of his music.  A real musician needs full creative control to explore what's inside of them and release it to share with the world. "If nothing else I have to be true to myself. This time it's exactly the way I want to do it. This is the real me." TQ proclaims about LISTEN, his first album on the HUB Muzic/ Lightyear/WEA label.  He started his professional music career in '93, but after his debut solo album They Never Saw Me Coming. TQ bounced around the music scene lacing hot tracks until eventually becoming stifled by the corporate executive leash. His creativity was no longer allowed to blossom and his music did not belong to him. It no longer originated from his heart, it became what someone else thought it should be. Just take a listen to the new album and you'll find that the integrity of his art is fully intact and pure emotion is pouring out. This is the TQ fans have grown to love and LISTEN was worth the wait.  The first single "Right On" is (reminiscent of his '98 hit "Westside") a smooth laid-back summer anthem about how he's kickin' it in Cali, yet what he describes, are familiar scenarios to people everywhere. "I've been blessed with the opportunity to travel the world and broaden my horizons," says TQ. "I've noticed that no matter what country I'm in, everyone shares the same problems and life situations whether young or old, rich or poor. Through these experiences I have begun to figure out the truth about real life."  "Listen" represents for all people who go through the struggle that life delivers to all of us. We hear the classic hook and catchy tune of motivating encouragement to turn one's situation around and rise above the hardships. Through his music TQ shares what's in his heart and on his mind and allows the listener a brief glimpse at the truth that is a reality at any given moment in time. "Relax" is for those times when you're rundown, stressed out and irritated with life. The perfect song for when all you want to do is escape and do absolutely nothing but relax, kick back and turn off the rest of the world.  Identifying with the experience a musician puts into a song is what truly makes music the soundtrack to our lives. Songs are meant to tell stories - sometimes poignant and scathingly truthful like on "Angela Jones" and sometimes just the kick back have fun vibe that is "Call Me." TQ lets the listener take a peek into his life as he showcases his style of "reality R&B" West Coast style.  "Fly" is an inspirational song, and another one of TQ's favourites on this album.

He dreams of having the power to change the world and make a better life for all those who are going through the struggle. "My soul is looking for something and when my soul finds it that's when 1 write that touching line or verse that tells that story," he explains. His vision is a dream many hope will someday become a reality.  When a talented musical artist can paint a picture so clear and crisp, so full of emotion that it draws out memories of similar feelings, moments and thoughts, the artist has created a piece of music pure in its art form. An example of this is "Gone But Not Forgotten," a tribute to some of the fallen legends of music such as Miles Davis and Billie Holiday who go unnoticed by the younger generation but should be just as respected as the greats that have passed in our time like Tupac and Aaliyah. This is another one of TQ's favourites because "it was a really deep and emotionally personal song that touched me when I was writing and singing it," he explains. "When those close to us pass the memories we cherish become priceless."  "Until" is about maintaining and handling the responsibilities of life while never giving up or giving in to the hardships and instead standing strong, facing all obstacles head on. And "Adore" is a special bonus track that honours one of the greatest musicians of our time. And if you're going to do a Prince cover you better come with some heat and be able to hold your own and represent...and he does.  From the streets to the suburbs TQ makes music for everyone, just give the music a chance and listen. You can't really tell what an artist is about by only hearing the singles playing over and over on the radio. Instead you need to take a moment to hear what they are really trying to say on their entire album. TQ is able to vividly convey the secret silent thoughts that echo clearly in our minds and personifies the aches and pains of reality.  An artist's craft is a reflection of their soul, so just open your ears and your mind and LISTEN to get an education from the street through the music of this reality R&B singer. TQ invites you to sit back, relax and ... LISTEN. You might just learn something. Please be sure to visit www.thugpoetry.com/tq for more info.

 

 

 

Joss Stone's New Video For 'You Had Me' From New Album

Source: Matt Hanks / Shore Fire Media / mhanks@shorefire.com / www.shorefire.com

(Aug. 16, 2004) The video for "You Had Me" - the funky, streetwise first single from Joss Stone's forthcoming album 'Mind, Body & Soul' (September 28/S-Curve Records) - will premiere at 8PM on VH1, TONIGHT, Monday, August 16.  Tonight, Joss will also perform songs from 'Mind' at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC for VH1's "Inside Track" concert.  The concert - which will also feature Maroon 5, Jamie Cullum and Keane - is scheduled to air several times on VH1, premiering at 8PM on Tuesday, September 21.  "You Had Me" was directed by video auteur Chris Robinson (Alicia Keys, Usher), and follows the song's narrative with Joss transcending a once-vibrant relationship gone sour.  If you haven't checked out "You Had Me"'s can't-get-it-out-of-your-head, clavinet-driven groove and defiant, withering lyrics, go to the recently revamped www.jossstone.com where you can stream it and other songs from 'Mind, Body & Soul.' Beginning September 21, fans can listen to the album in its entirety and pre-order it from VH1.com.  For more information please contact Matt Hanks (mhanks@shorefire.com) or Alexis Tedford (atedford@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media - 718.522.7171.

 

 

 

Marcus Johnson Is “Doing”

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Karu F. Daniels (New York, NY)

(Aug. 12, 2004) Seven may just turn out to be a lucky number for music maverick Marcus Johnson.  The suave CEO of the Washington D.C.-based Three Keys Music is also a bona fide musician in his own right, who just released his seventh album, “Just Doing What I Do,” this week to critical acclaim.  So why are we just getting wind of him?  “Haters,” the recently-turned 33 year-old quips. “I have all these degrees, quite a few records, and I am just really learning the record business,” he revealed on a more serious note. ”This should be a lesson to those who feel that they are going to jump on the scene and change it immediately. Things take time.”  It’s been nearly four years since the smooth jazz keyboardist (who got his start playing in a pizzeria) released his last set. But ever since then he’s been cultivating other talents such as the legendary Bobby Lyle and seasoned soul siren Alyson Williams – all artists on his label. And running a studio (8121 East), where he is known to produce an album within an unheard budget of $25,000 within three-month turn-around.  “As an edge-crafter my job is create a vision for the company,” he explained. “Then I must motivate the team around me to desire excellence in the process of creating and not just the outcome. If you focus on creating excellent music, an excellent marketing strategy, an excellent implementation strategy, the result will be excellence. But it starts at the top. Therefore, I am always thinking, reading, learning, testing, adapting, and growing. This is and will be the core of our success.”  We met up with the dapper Mr. Johnson at New York’s upscale Chez Josephine restaurant last week. The down-home Ohio native, who was accompanied by his legal counsel, didn’t have any qualms about ordering the fried chicken dish off of the menu. He brings a certain charm and comfort into spaces that he inhabit. His congeniality wasn’t anything I expected from the seasoned bachelor with the law degrees and the privileged pedigree. And that’s a good thing. His warm and accessible demeanour may have been the stroke of genius that got him in bed with BET’s founder and CEO Robert L. Johnson, who eventually bankrolled his aspirations.  “I met Mr. J at the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival,” he revealed. “He introduced my band and would you believe I asked him out to lunch? He in turn invited me to his office and grilled me for about two hours. At the end he asked how could he get involved and I went straight back to the business plan I had been working on for four years. After I presented it, it was a done deal.”

Talk about chance encounters.  With a reported $3 million investment, Marcus Johnson’s Marimelj Entertainment Group, LLC was born with Three Keys Music, Three Keys Music Publishing, Marimelj Music Publishing, and Studio 8121 East as its main divisions.  “I’m able to do it all only by the grace of GOD,” he confided, while also making references to Rick Warren’s best-selling inspirational book, “The Purpose Driven Life.”  “I have been blessed with a small but committed team of individuals who believe that Three Keys Music is more than a company,” he continued. “ We are a movement that has at its foundation the creation of a new paradigm. The new paradigm has already been created with technology. My blackberry, cell, laptop, UPS, FED EX, Amtrak, discount airlines, and digital recording equipment allow Three Keys to scale to a size much larger than what we actually are.”  The basis of the company is predicated on three principles, elements…keys. When asked about them, he politely obliged: “Key 1 is spirituality: You have to have a commitment to the community and to building something besides wealth. Each employee is required to give 15 hours of community service per month. The artists are required to give the same. It is our belief that if you take care of the streets, they take care of you.”  “Key 2 is artistry: You have to have the talent and the desire to grow your talent. This is the area where we, along with a lot of other labels have gone wrong. There are many people that have the talent. However, they don’t want to strive to the level of ‘artist.’ This is not the level where you demand blue M&M’s. It’s the level where you get in a van with no air conditioning and drive around the country because you believe that you are making a difference and because people want to hear your music. If they will sit in a hall with no AC to hear you, then you need to get your behind out there and play.”  “And lastly, Key 3 is strategy: By any mean necessary. If you sit in a brainstorming session with me, you will ask yourself, ‘Is this fool crazy?’ My mind works so fast right now that I have trouble completing sentences. That’s not good. However, I have a great team of people that help me develop marketing and strategic plans to put my fragments onto paper and into reality. We don’t think outside of the box though…because there is no box. We think with limitless possibilities. Everything is possible.”  Lauded as one of ”Ebony” magazine’s “most eligible bachelors,” Mr. Johnson admittedly is a workaholic. But he’s getting better at it. “I don’t sleep too much, but I work out every other day. I eat pretty well and have learned from the experiences of my mom, who is recovering from a stroke, and my father to let go of the small stuff.”  The 19-track opus is ripe with sonic gems. Original pieces such as the fluid title track and the infectious, mid-tempo groove of the stand-out “Love” (featuring Frank “Scoob” Marshall) juxtaposed with piano-laden takes on Beyonce’s “Me, Myself & I,” Talib Kweli’s “Just To Get By” and Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” provides a current and very textured musical landscape. “The song selection is based on relationships,” Mr. Johnson explained. “I worked with new producers and stretched out a little while being laid back. My goal was to create a project that is multi-functional. You can listen to it in your car, at the crib, or on the patio behind a couple of glasses of Cabernet.” 

He teams up with Ms. Williams to take on Simply Red’s easy listening staple “Holding Back The Years” and the two create their own musical magic. “She is a dream to work with,” he shared about the woman he refers to as his ‘sista in music.’ “We started working together about nine years ago. She has been on almost all of my CDs and I promised that when I got the label up and running that she would have a project of her own. That’s why this is a bonus track. It is truly a bonus.”  Currently on a summer jaunt promoting the new disc, Mr. Johnson is looking ahead to the future, optimistically. “I want people to look at me and think of Tiger Woods’ swing – like ‘Damn… he makes it look so easy I know I can do that.” To get folk to say that, I have drawn a picture in their heads through my actions – That’s art! That’s my goal.”

 

 

 

Ask Him About Jazz: 'They're Killing It, Man'

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Mark Miller

(Aug. 17, 2004) If there's a theme to the programming of the seventh annual Markham Jazz Festival, which runs this weekend at various locations in Markham and Unionville, just north of Toronto, it's piano players. Jamaica's Monty Alexander leads off the three-day event at the Markham Theatre on Friday, followed by the Cuban expatriate (and Toronto resident) Hilario Duran, Montreal's Jean Beaudet, Torontonian Don Thompson, Canadian-in-New York Renee Rosnes and finally the American Benny Green in free concerts at Toogood Pond Park in Unionville on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  It's especially good to find Beaudet in this company. He's too often overlooked when it comes to Canada's finest jazz pianists, an inventive improviser who has reconciled the diverse influences of Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Ahmad Jamal, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell into a personal style whose emotional intensity is in no way diminished by its incisive technical clarity. Beaudet's latest CD, Les Danseurs (Elephant Records), arrived earlier this year accompanied by five pages of glowing press quotes from a 30-year career, but his profile remains relatively low; the Markham concert is just one of a half-dozen or so engagements to date for 2004, four of them festivals. There are reasons for this, of course, not least that Beaudet eschews the acquiescence expected of the Canadian jazz musician. He can be outspoken. His diction -- particularly when disembodied in a telephone interview from his home in Montreal -- is hard. His tone often seems disaffected, his perspective a shade defensive. Ask him about the turn of his career, for example, and he responds quite pointedly. "It's like the Jamaican bobsled team, you know? 'Canadian jazz group' -- there's not a big demand for it." That said, he catches himself quickly. "You just can't let it get to you." He's not alone in his thinking, even if he's alone in thinking it out loud. "The jazz business has become institutionalized with these festivals," he observes, giving voice to a concern felt by many Canadian jazzers whose loyalties, like his own, are first and foremost to the music's creative rather than commercial imperatives. "It's like a pot-smoker I know who said [about marijuana], 'Whatever they do, I hope they never legalize it.' It's the same thing with jazz. They've legalized it, they've institutionalized it, and they're killing it, man." That's perhaps an unfair charge to raise within hailing distance of the Markham festival, which is offering an intelligent, if conservative lineup largely free under Hal Hill's artistic direction from the non-jazz and near-jazz programming that characterizes so many Canadian festivals each summer -- and that rubs so many of the country's jazz musicians raw.

But Beaudet's point about the influence of the business -- not just the festivals, but also the recording industry and the commercial infrastructure more generally -- stands. Suggest to him that he has conducted his career outside the business, his reply is quick and right on cue. "No, in spite of it." In spite of it, then, he has produced four superior recordings of his own since 1987, Jean Beaudet Quartet (Justin Time), Musiques intérieures (DSM), En Concert (DSM) and now Les Danseurs. He has also appeared on CDs by several other noted Montreal musicians, including guitarist Nelson Symonds, flutist François Richard and saxophonist Dave Turner. There he was earlier this year, though, working for the first time in his career on a cruise ship; he was out for two months, plying the waters off the coast of Southern California and Mexico. It's the sort of job that a jazz musician will take but not necessarily talk about. Coming from Beaudet at the age of 54, the admission is doubly surprising; he has always been a hard-core, no-compromise character and this would seem to be fraught with compromise. And then again, perhaps not. "It was a jazz-trio gig, six nights a week, with no objections to anything I wanted to play," he explains, adding mildly, "the only thing is, we were floating." So, okay, a sailor he's not. But Beaudet's integrity remains high and dry. "I'd heard about these gigs before, the kind of gig where you can't leave, you know? But it surprised me that I liked it, really liked it. . . ." It's revealing of Beaudet's aesthetic that one of the cruise's attractions was not simply the opportunity to work, but to work hard. It took Beaudet back to his early days in Montreal when, fresh from his native Ottawa in 1979, he held an extended nightly residence at the legendary Rockhead's Paradise with the equally legendary Nelson Symonds. "I'd rather be playing six nights a week than even be doing one concert a week," he admits now. "I haven't felt like this since I was playing with Nelson." He points to the example of the bands that made many of the classic recordings in jazz history -- the bands of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Bill Evans, to name three, which interacted week-in and week-out. "Playing every night in a group," he notes, "the music evolves; the music we love now came from gigs that were five nights a week for a couple of months." Unfortunately, Beaudet was at sea, so to speak, without his regular Montreal trio, so the benefits of this evolutionary process didn't accrue directly to the music closest to his heart. "Compositions are important, I guess," he suggests, of his working trio's identity, "but they're not really what our music is all about. It's about how we play together. I'm not just towing the whole thing along, with everyone else seconding what I'm saying." He'll be introducing a new drummer at the Markham festival, Hugo Divito, to go with the bassist from Les Danseurs, Marc Lalonde, and he's already looking far enough into his future with his two young band mates that he can hear the music that they'll eventually record together for his next CD. "More fragile," he begins, itemizing its features, "a little less left hand. The drummer, a little bit more sparse and the bass player a little more upfront."  In the meantime, there's a living to be made. Another cruise, he hopes, perhaps in January, and whatever else comes along. It's a typical jazz musician's life, even if Beaudet is not exactly a typical jazz musician. "I don't regret anything I've done," he says plainly, "but on the other hand, if I had a million dollars at my disposal, and I'd spent 15 years promoting myself, I'd be doing better, you know? But I don't have a million dollars." He does have something else, however, something that's clearly even more important. "I have the freedom to do what I want. That's what I've been wanting all along, and the price to pay is that right now it's kind of sparse, gig-wise. But I've got a long life ahead of me, man. I've no illusions, but if something comes up, I'll be ready."

 

 

 

Wayman Tisdale Is Poised For 'Hang Time' On His Upbeat New CD

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Janine Coveney

(Aug. 17, 2004) Wayman Tisdale may not be an NBA baller anymore, but he hasn't lost his sense of fair play or playfulness. The talented musician who spent 12 years on the courts for three different teams before focusing on a music career seems to charm everyone he meets with his easygoing nature, team spirit, and quick smile.  In fact, it's a photo of the towering bass man laughing with closed eyes that graces the cover of his latest album, Hang Time.  It's Tisdale's sixth solo album, but with a new label distribution deal through smooth jazz giant Dave Koz's Rendezvous Entertainment label and a current featured spot on the Koz's all-star summer tour, it feels like a new beginning.  And the upbeat, polished, funky sound of Hang Time -- not to mention that high-profile gig with Koz -- could gain the Tulsa, Oklahoma native enough mainstream attention to keep the smiles coming all around.  "I wanted to do a happy record because that's who I am," he says. "When you see the cover--Dave thought it was such a good idea to use the cover with me laughing so hard, my eyes are closed. That's the type of person I am. It definitely reflects where I am right now. I'm very happy. I'm excited about my life, my wife and kids, my horses and chickens and all that stuff. This is the sixth record and I'm at a place now where I feel like I'm finally turning a corner on the music industry side."  Tisdale and I are chatting backstage on Aug. 6th at San Diego, California's historic Spreckels Theater, where the Koz tour played one night. The tour has been rolling with Koz, Tis, trumpeter Rick Braun, and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler --as well as Rufus guitarist Tony Maiden in a support role -- since early July, but the six-foot-nine bassist shows no sign of fatigue. Backstage there is much camaraderie and joking, and Tisdale laughs heartily when recounting how he body-slammed the diminutive Butler during some hotel horseplay the night before. "We're acting like little kids, I jumped in his bunk and beat him up. It was great!" he enthuses like a teenager.  While Tisdale has earned a considerable following for his bass-forward style, upbeat melodies, and his inspirational foundation, the association with Koz on record and especially on the tour is turning even more folks onto the musician. "Yeah, it's been really cool, you know, to really see that effect happening," he says of the exposure he's been getting on the tour. "I thought I was really falling into that niche on the last record, and things were happening and I had great fans -- I've always had great fans. But to win new fans is always an exciting thing. And this tour has really exposed me to a lot of new fans."  It was actually after Koz's invitation to tour with his annual summer trek that the negotiations for distributing Tisdale's next album came about. As they were finalizing the deal, Koz asked about Tisdale's next project and mentioned his Rendezvous label, which has put new fire under the careers of saxophonist Michael Lington and guitarist Marc Antoine in the last year. Tisdale had established his own production company, Tisway, and released his gospel-oriented 21 Days, and had already begun working on tunes for his next smooth jazz outing. He ended up sending a demo of tunes to Koz, who immediately signed Tisdale to the label.  With the title Hang Time, Tisdale continues in his frequent habit of naming his albums with basketball-related titles. His 1995 debut Power Forward, which had been his position on the court, came out while he was still an NBA player, as did the follow-up, In The Zone. The 1998 follow-up, Decisions, was named for his decision to leave basketball altogether and focus on his music. "I've always had both things in my life, I have basketball terms with my music and it always has double meanings and whatever, like Power Forward, In The Zone, and now you have Hang Time. And I say, man, everybody will be expecting, oh, hang time, you know, like hang time. No -- it's like, oh, it's time to hang out. That's why I liked it so much."  The first single from the album is a version of the McFadden & Whitehead hit "Ain't No Stopping Us Now." The buoyant, upbeat tune is particularly poignant now, since original singer and co-writer John Whitehead was shot and killed May 11th in Philadelphia. Tisdale noted that while he had long wanted to record the song, it was Koz who came up with the suggestion. But Tisdale added: "Yeah he just tragically got killed," he says with a perplexed look. "So the record went from being a cover to now me doing a tribute to him, you know. I'm just so sad that it happened and man I was really blown away by the timing of it because literally, the week before the single hit, that happened."

Our talk turns to the death of Rick James, which took place the day of our interview. Tisdale shakes his head when discussing the punk funk legend, who also played the bass. "Legends are falling by the wayside! I'm one of the biggest Rick James fans, so I was really sad to hear about that. He was on his way back. I knew some friends of his, and it seemed he was having some problems health-wise and he was just trying to get it under control. But you just hate to see that happen. You want those guys to live forever, and it's shocking to see it happen at an early age, at 56."  "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" is rising on the national smooth jazz airplay chart, and it's great way to start the Hang Time party. In fact, Wayman says that Hang Time is definitely something to listen to at the barbecue. The bassist co-wrote almost all of the tunes on the album, including the likely next singles, the album-starting "Ready To Hang" and the title track. He also executive produced the set.  He gets assistance from Koz, who provides a gorgeous solo on the track "Better Days," from Pieces Of A Dream keyboardist James Lloyd on the title track, and from veteran keyboardist Jeff Lorber on two tracks. Tisdale includes a cover of the Smokey Robinson classic "Cruisin'," and well as his inspirational tune "Glory Glory" from the 21 Days album, which he released via his Tisway Internet site last year. According to Tisdale, Hang Time truly represents who he is and what he's about, and he's striving even further to cement his own unique sound on the bass, and to perfect his skills on the other instruments he plays, including guitars and keyboards.  So in nearly a decade of putting out his own music, performing, and working with different musicians and different labels, is there a lesson that he's taken away from the experience? "One great thing I feel like I've learned is: The industry is always changing. But one thing that shouldn't change is me as an artist -- I have to remain true to myself," says the 1984 Olympic gold medallist. "Because people bought my record in the past for who I was, not for conforming to an industry. Everybody has their jazz myths or music industry myths, but artists have to remain artists through thick and thin. And you can't alienate the fans that you've worked so hard to gain."  Tisdale still plans to put out more gospel fare, and is working on projects to be released through Tisway. In the meantime, fans can catch him on ESPN as a colour commentator during the basketball season.  It's almost time for Tisdale to get suited up for the show, but I have to ask: What was that about cows and chickens he mentioned earlier? It seems the country boy has returned to his roots in Oklahoma, where he was raised. "Between the last record and now, my wife and I had the opportunity to purchase 20 acres and design a house, which took about year to design and another year to build," he explains. "So we finally moved in, and on my free time, I'm pretty much full-time Jed Clampett on the farm, keeping the grounds, making sure the animals are kept up, and I'm lovin' it. I'm with nature most of the time."  And as we say goodbye, Tisdale flashes the pearly whites once again. And I have to smile back.

 

 

 

Jarreau Says Return To Jazz Is Really A First

Excerpt from www.billboard.com - By Dan Ouellette

(Aug. 16, 2004) Al Jarreau is a master of pop, R&B and jazz singing. He grooves in the funky zone, romances with artful fluidity and scats with syncopated glee.   He's as much influenced by such players as pianist Bill Evans, saxophonist Ben Webster and trumpeter Miles Davis as he is by such singers as Jon Hendricks.   On Jarreau's new CD, "Accentuate the Positive," released by Verve Aug. 3, he sings ballads and cookers with timeless grace and ebullience. The album -- his third for the label and 13th overall -- reunites Jarreau with producer Tommy LiPuma.   LiPuma was at the helm of Jarreau's breakthrough discs, "Glow" (1976) and "Look to the Rainbow" (1977), which scored a Grammy Award for best jazz vocals.  While Verve is promoting the new album as Jarreau's first jazz release in 27 years, he begs to differ.   "It's really the first jazz record I've ever done," he says. "Everything else that came before was pop and R&B. If people called the early stuff jazz, that's fine. I learned the book of standards as a jazz singer early on and I took Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' for a jazzy vocal excursion, but growing up I was also in love with Motown's Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Martha & the Vandellas."  So, why the jazz bent now?  "It was time," Jarreau says. "Actually, it was overdue. My audience has been asking for a full-on, straight-ahead jazz album. So, it's for them as well as myself. This is a thanks to the kind of music that made me the person I am today."  While Jarreau covers such classics as Johnny Mercer's "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive" and Duke Ellington's "I'm Beginning to See the Light," he also supplies new lyrics to five tunes. Highlights of the disc include his playful, swinging vocal treatments of Eddie Harris' "Cold Duck Time" (retitled "Cold Duck") and Dizzy Gillespie's "Groovin' High."  Jarreau also linked up with Yellowjackets pianist Russell Ferrante to write the rollicking party-time "Scootcha-Booty."   "I went to Russell's house with a little piece of music to work on, and this song evolved in 10 minutes," Jarreau says. "The way Russell plays that left-hand bass line is funkier than a dog. He's so brilliant."  At 64, the high-spirited Jarreau says he has found what Ponce de Leon was looking for. "Music is the fountain of youth. The creative process rejuvenates me. I live to experience that vitality."  On Aug. 20, Jarreau will headline the CD101.9 New York Jazz Festival at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. It continues through Aug. 22 with David Sanborn, Regina Belle, Michael Brecker, India.Arie, Kim Waters, Brian Culbertson, Soulive and Rite of Strings, a super group including Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and Jean-Luc Ponty.

 

 

 

Musical Tidbits

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

Paisley Park Reopens

(Aug. 17, 2004) Prince’s Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis is open for business once again – this time with newly digitalized and upgraded recording and editing rooms available for musicians to rent. The facility opened in 1987, and has served as rehearsal space to such acts as Barry Manilow, the Bee Gees and Steve Miller. The complex has largely been closed since 1996, though Prince continued to record and perform there. A reception marking the studio's reopening on Thursday was attended by members of the local film, music and advertising communities.

Britney’s ‘Prerogative’

**According to Britney Spears’ label Jive Records, the pop tart has chosen to remake Bobby Brown’s 1988 song, “My Prerogative” for her new greatest-hits album due November 16th – to be called “Greatest Hits: My Prerogative.” MTV reports that those who have heard the cover say it doesn’t sound much like the original. The song, one of two new tracks on the set, will arrive at radio stations on September 14th. A separate greatest-hits DVD will be released on the same day as the album.

Will & Jada

**Will and Jada were the new Sonny and Cher Thursday night at LA’s ritzy westside shopping centre The Grove. Jada Pinkett-Smith and her band Wicket Wisdom had just finished performing their fourth song at the outdoor mall’s second annual Summer Music Series when hubby Will Smith jumped on stage and ripped into his classic hit, “Summertime.” Jada’s “Collateral” co-star Tom Cruise was also on hand for the performance.

 

 

 

::CD RELEASES::

 

 

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS Greatest Hits (Rhino)
KEITH SWEAT The Best of Keith Sweat: The Video Collection (Rhino)
KELLY R Happy People/U Saved Me (Zomba)
MASE Welcome Back (Bad Boy)
RAY CHARLES OST Ray! (Rhino)
RAY CHARLES OST Ray! (Rhino)
RAY ROBINSON What It Is (Soulclap)
VARIOUS ARTISTS Soul To Soul (MVA)

 

 

 

::FILM NEWS::

 

 

Non-Ontario Film Directors Take Lead In 2004 Guild Award Nominations

Source:  Canadian Press – By John McKay

(Aug. 12, 2004) TORONTO (CP) - Does Denys Arcand have a lock on the top prize at the 2004 Directors Guild of Canada Awards?  After all, over the past year The Barbarian Invasions has won just about every other international film industry prize, from Cannes to the Oscars (news - web sites), making it the most honoured film in Canadian history. But it's not necessarily a shoe-in for the Quebec filmmaker, insists guild president Alan Gobuloff, trying to maintain some suspense for the third annual awards to be presented Oct. 2.  He believes there's still an interesting race in the feature film category that pits Arcand against Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World), Lea Pool (The Blue Butterfly) and Scott Smith (news - web sites) (Falling Angels.)  "The difference with these awards . . . is that they are in-house," Gobuloff said. "It is peers screening the works of their peers, so it may be slightly different."  Modelled after the much older U.S. guild counterpart, the DGC Awards include 19 categories covering comedy, drama and documentary in home-grown film and television.  In TV races, there's a wide array of contenders, with Da Vinci's Inquest, The Eleventh Hour and Cold Squad among the most-nominated shows. Kari Skogland and David Wellington are in the running for helming different episodes of The Eleventh Hour, while David's brother Peter Wellington is competing with his work on an instalment of the much-lauded Slings and Arrows.  A new category - outstanding team achievement in a family feature film - was added this year, with the holiday film Blizzard as well as The Blue Butterfly and Goose in contention.  The nominees were announced at a news conference Thursday by Jerry Ciccoritti (Trudeau) who has a nomination himself for best direction in a TV movie or miniseries for his work on The Many Trials of One Jane Doe. He's up against Norma Bailey (Cowboys & Indians - the J.J. Harper Story), Lynne Stopkewich (The Life) and Brad Turner (Human Cargo).  Even Ciccoritti insisted Arcand has some stiff competition for best feature film director, but declined to elaborate. He added that if there's a pattern in the nominations this year, it is that a lot of the directors are from outside of Ontario which, he agreed, is good for them, but does point up a political issue.  "It's getting harder and harder financially for (Ontario) directors to make movies in their own province. There were so few submissions because there were so few movies made in Ontario."  Goluboff noted the same trend, adding that it's a good thing for the guild membership coast to coast. And he predicted the same trend when the annual Gemini TV award nominees are announced later this year, that Ontario directors are still making films but just not in Ontario.  "In part because of the system that we have built in this country, a system built on incentives and credits and the provinces are battling each other for this work. And the incentives are considerably healthier outside of Ontario."  Goluboff cited a number of other reasons for lower production in Ontario, including year's SARS (news - web sites) crisis. In addition, TV production is down globally while reality programming is trumping drama throughout the industry. And there's more.  "The dollar goes up and down and there's certainly great pressure in the United States to shop at home - American nationalism is keeping foreign dollars away. And there's a lot of other countries that have taken our incentives that we mastered here and put it into place. So we're competing with Romania, Bulgaria, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, for the same work."  The guild represents more than 3,700 members in nearly 50 different categories of Canadian film and TV production, editing and design.  This year's DGC Lifetime Achievement Award will recognize the body of work of Alberta-born Hollywood veteran Arthur Hiller (Silver Streak, Plaza Suite, Love Story) while a Distinguished Service Award will be presented to guild pioneer Keith Cutler.  Mary Walsh will serve as the gala host.

 

 

 

Toronto Film Fest To Screen Sexually Graphic 9 Songs

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Gayle Macdonald

(Aug. 18, 2004) TORONTO — Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival put some more finishing touches on their 2004 programming line-up yesterday, adding some highly controversial feature films to a roster that will total about 350 films. The latest additions to TIFF's 29th annual roll call are to programs that appeal primarily to non-mainstream cineastes and to the folks who proudly make avant-garde works. Sure to provoke the ire of less-voyeuristic members of the audience this year will be Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, released at Cannes this spring to much tut-tutting. The British director's movie was dubbed by one English tabloid, "the rudest film ever to hit our cinemas." Winterbottom's rock-heavy film features live performances from artists such as Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream and Super Furry Animals, juxtaposed with sexually searing performances from actors Kieran O'Brien and Margot Stilley who, on-screen, engage in full penetration, fellatio, ejaculation and cunnilingus. 9 Songs, surely a crowd-pleaser for some but a taboo-view for legions of others, is one of 11 films added yesterday to TIFF's Visions program, bringing that line-up to a total of 21 films from 14 countries. Also from England is Marc Evans's psychological thriller Trauma, a Canadian premiere, which stars the thinking woman's sex symbol Colin Firth. In the film, Firth plays Ben, who awakens from a coma after a car crash and learns that his wife was killed in the accident. And so begins a psychological journey in which Evans (My Little Eye) explores a character who is fast losing his grip on reality. Several months ago, Firth described the movie to The Globe and Mail as "a dark story about a guy who starts off in a very, very, very bad place, and it just goes down from there." He said he took the role because it entailed exploring a headspace he'd never inhabited before. The actor (Bridget Jones's Diary, Pride and Prejudice) said another selling point was the opportunity to work with Evans, whom he described as "one of the great unsung directors, who hasn't really had the audience in America that he should have. I've known him for many years and been dying to work with the guy. And I will do, over and over again, if I possibly can."

Also in the Visions category are the world premiere of American director David Gordon Green's Undertow, a dramatic thriller about two brothers who run away from their isolated farmhouse following their father's death, and the North American premiere of French filmmaker Claire Denis's unconventional feature film, L'Intrus, which festival programmers describe as "attempting to tell a story in purely visual and aural terms." L'Intrus is a tale of a man who is trying to reconcile parts of his past with events in the present. Another film guaranteed to shake audiences up in the Visions series is maverick filmmaker Catherine Breillat's Anatomie de l'enfer (Anatomy of Hell), another sexually explicit film that, among other things, uses menstrual blood as the prop de jour. Yesterday, TIFF officials also unveiled the complete Discovery line-up, which will present 28 features from 23 countries. This year's candidates include the highly anticipated Off Beat, from Hendrik Holzemann; Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnick's On the Outs; Pete Travis's Omagh and Xiao Jiang's Electric Shadows. Launched eight years ago, Discovery presents films by groundbreaking first- or second-time feature filmmakers. Last year's Discovery Award recipient was Aaron Woodley's Rhinoceros Eyes. Off Beat (Germany) is Holzemann's feature debut about a morose young rescue-team medic who meets the woman who keeps appearing in his dreams.  Silverbush and Skolnick's On the Outs (United States) follows three teenage New Jersey girls from the same Latino neighbourhood whose lives briefly intersect in juvenile detention.  Jiang's feature debut, Electric Shadows (China), looks sensitively at the maimed emotional lives of unwanted children, while Travis's Omagh (Ireland/U.K.) explores the 1998 IRA bombing of the small Irish market town of the same name. Wavelengths -- a TIFF program named after Canadian artist Michael Snow's 1967 masterpiece Wavelength - was also nailed down yesterday.  It will feature 23 experimental motion pictures, including a performance of Anthony McCall's 1973 classic Line Describing a Cone, to be held at the Ontario College of Art and Design.  Also featured in this category is Lynn Marie Kirby's St. Ignatius Church Exposure: Lenten Light Conversions, which pushes the boundaries of digital filmmaking.

 

 

 

Montreal Film Fest Keeps Lips Zipped On Bad Rap

Excerpt from The Toronto Star

(Aug. 12, 2004) Montreal -- The president of the Montreal World Film Festival introduced the event's eclectic lineup on Tuesday while refusing to address a recent scathing report that could affect future funding. Serge Losique was curt and visibly annoyed with reporters who peppered him with questions about a Telefilm Canada study that was critical of his festival's financial performance, management and organization. "No comment now whatever," said the 73-year-old festival organizer, who has refused to co-operate with the report's authors. "We are here to announce films and to celebrate films. That's what the public wants and that's what professionals want," The report, released last month following interviews with film professionals, said the Montreal fest showed poorer results than the country's three other major film fests in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax.  The 28th annual festival runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 6. CP

 

 

 

Spielberg Film May Be Ticket Out For Terminal Man

Excerpt from The Toronto Star

(Aug. 12, 2004) ROISSY, France (AP) — He has no address but his mail arrives just the same. The pharmacy takes his phone calls and the cluster of fast food restaurants assures a steady flow of food, handouts included.  Mehran Karimi Nasseri, for years a stateless person, inhabits a Kafkaesque world. A perpetual passenger stuck in transit, he has lived in Terminal 1 of Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport for the past 16 years.  But change is afoot. His quirky story inspired Steven Spielberg's movie, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. It put money in Mehran's pocket and could be the ticket to a new life — if he chooses.  "Here, it's not life. It's just staying like a passenger and waiting for departure," said Mehran, who goes by the name Alfred.  "To be here is just like being in transit."  Gaunt and moustachioed, Mehran, 59, of British and Iranian parents, has ceded the rights to his story to Spielberg, according to the office of Mehran's lawyer, Christian Bourguet.  The price of the deal was confidential, the lawyer's office said.  Mehran claimed the deal with Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG was worth $450,000 US and said it covers eventual books, television shows and movies over a 10-year period. Despite several calls to DreamWorks, the information could not be confirmed.  "They have access to my life story," said Mehran.  Mehran's twisted personal history — which differs vastly from the Spielberg movie — is stranger than fiction.  The victim of an illicit love affair, Iranian politics, bureaucratic bungling and plain bad luck, Mehran becomes confused by his own confusing history. He has taken to saying that he hails from Florida and never had parents at all.  Life is clearly simpler on the curved red bench that has become Mehran's headquarters in Terminal 1's underground boutique level. Here, he is surrounded by cartons, packages and plastic bags of all shapes and sizes. Used paper cups are scattered about. Despite the makeshift lifestyle, he manages to maintain a slightly aristocratic air.  Mehran prefers speaking English and says he reads and writes profusely.  "I sleep here, I eat here, I read and study here," Mehran said.  He has no real friends, he says, but everyone at the airport seems to know him.  "He's at home here," said Michel Timotjevic, duty officer for South African Airways. "He's agreeable. He doesn't bother anyone."  Born in Soleiman, Iran, to an Iranian father and a British nurse, Mehran ended up adrift. Accounts of his life vary, but Mehran is known to have attended a British university in 1974. He was eventually imprisoned in Iran for demonstrating against now-deposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, then expelled without a passport.  He went to Europe, applying for political asylum in several countries. In 1981, the UN High Commission for Refugees in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, but his briefcase containing the precious papers was stolen in a Paris train station.  French police later arrested him. He did at least one stint in a French jail. In August 1988, he turned up at the airport hoping to fly to Britain — without a passport. With no country to which he could be deported, he has been at the airport ever since.  This isn't the first chance Mehran has had to escape his Terminal 1 bunker. In 1999, the UNHCR in Belgium granted him refugee status again. He hedged, saying that he was waiting for a passport.  Today, Mehran reiterates his need for a passport, and says he wants to go to the United States or Canada.  "The money ... is not the point," he said, referring to his deal with DreamWorks.  Besides, he added, "Tom Hanks stayed one year in the airport, but I stayed 16 years. Amazing."  In the movie, Hanks plays an Eastern European traveller trapped in an American airport because of red tape.  Some doubt Mehran will ever go.  "He has made a place for himself here," said Karima Dubois, who works at the nearby pharmacy that takes his phone calls. "His world is here."

 

 

 

Sex, Money, Drugs And Temptation

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter Howell, Movie Critic

(Aug. 13, 2004) The temptations of sex, money and pride know no geographical boundaries.  Spike Lee's She Hate Me and Pan Nalin's Samsara are set worlds apart, one amidst the skyscrapers of New York and the other within the Himalaya mountains of India. But they are right next door to each other in terms of spiritual challenges.  In Lee's film, a man attempts to do the right thing in business while doing the wrong thing in the boudoir. The hero of Nalin's film is equally tarnished, caught between heavenly contemplation and base human desires.  Let's look at She Hate Me first, and the grammar isn't the only thing that's wobbly about it. Over the course of some 20 movies, Lee has evolved into the fist-waver's Woody Allen: a filmmaker with lots of ideas and much appeal to actors, but with increasingly less discipline and impact.  Lee's scattered approach to storytelling marries a serious excoriation of American business values to a satirical look at contemporary sex, as illustrated by maternally inclined lesbians who seek a male stud-for-hire.  The filmmaker has a very big stew pot: He also tosses in a cheap shot or three about George W. Bush, jokes about the Mafia and The Godfather, worries about the African AIDS crisis and reminds us of the lowly security guard who first uncovered the Watergate scandal. The cooling vibes of Terence Blanchard's soothing score can barely keep it all from boiling over.  Lee finds links between all these things that may escape viewers who don't ride his various hobbyhorses, or who are simply looking for a good story. Had he and co-writer Michael Genet concentrated solely on sex, Lee might have made one of his most entertaining films yet, if not exactly one of his best. The film's running time might also have been cut from its unwieldy 138 minutes. But within its messy framework there's a lot to like about She Hate Me.  Anthony Mackie is John Henry "Jack" Armstrong, the Harvard-trained vice-president of a top biotech firm called Progeia. Jack is about to become very rich and save millions of lives — but first the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has to approve Progeia's miracle drug, a vaccine for AIDS. When FDA approval is denied and the company's top research scientist abruptly cashes in his chips, Jack makes inquiries that lead him to the offices of CEO Leland Powell (Woody Harrelson) and henchwoman Margo Chadwick (Ellen Barkin).  Powell and Chadwick want to bluff their way past the FDA to avoid hurting share prices and to make sure their drug hits the market as planned. Jack squeals, gets branded a whistle-blower and is summarily fired.  Mental connections with Enron, Worldcom, ImClone and other recent scandals are encouraged. But just as it seems that Lee is really warming up his anti-corporate assault, he abruptly shifts tone and turns She Hate Me into a sex comedy.  Jack is visited at his apartment by his estranged former fiancée Fatima (Kerry Washington), who left him at the altar because she discovered she was lesbian. Fatima has brought her new lover Alex (Dania Ramirez) and both woman have a proposal: They want to get pregnant using Jack's sperm, for which they will pay thousands of dollars. Regular sperm banks are apparently too lowbrow; they want guarantees of a quality stud.  "We're businesswomen," Fatima explains.  Jack needs some persuasion to accept the proposal, not to mention some warming up, but he needs the money. Before long, Fatima is using Jack as a one-man sperm factory, providing his services to her maternally inclined lesbian friends at $10,000 per shot, with Fatima getting 10 per cent of the action.  

Consider the humour of Jack's role-reversal dilemma: He's living the male fantasy of giving multiple orgasms to a gaggle of women, yet he's feeling used just the same. Cartoon sequences of Jack-faced sperm racing down vaginal corridors help keep the mood comic, as does Jack's reliance on shots of Viagra and Red Bull to stiffen his resolve.  Lee gives equal comic opportunity to all the usual clichés — everyone from the lipstick lesbian to the bull dyke is covered — but at least he sought advice from female experts. You could almost forget, watching Jack's baby-making antics and their various outcomes, that the movie is also supposed to be a finger-pointing corporate drama. And that, as ImClone felon Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.  A character in She Hate Me makes a profound statement that seems taken from eastern philosophy: "Not to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse."  The thought segues nicely with the mental state of Tashi (Shawn Ku), the star of Bombay filmmaker Pan Nalin's life trial Samsara, a beautifully rendered gem finally opening here after a long journey amassing awards on the international film-festival circuit.  The title refers to religious rebirth or reincarnation, and also hints at the difficulties and temptations a faithful person must endure on the road to nirvana. The temptations include the oldest candy: sex.  We first meet Tashi high atop a Himalayan mountaintop, living an extremely ascetic life of deep prayer in an ancient monastery. A caravan of lamas, led by elder monk Apo (Sherab Sangey), find Tashi in a near-death trance, his unkempt hair grown to his buttocks and his uncut fingernails shaped as crude curls.  Tashi sought to cut himself off from the world, but such a thing isn't entirely possible if one wishes to remain living in the world.  "Tashi, you pushed it too far," Apo tells him.  The lamas carry Tashi to their village and nurse him back to consciousness, but his reawakening works on more than one level.  He experiences previously unfelt sensations of lust while gazing at a beautiful young villager named Pema (Christy Chung), who seems to appreciate his attention. Another monk elder introduces Tashi to the concept of Tantric sex, and tells him that one must embrace desire before one can conquer it.  The more Tashi returns to the world, the more the world complicates his life. He becomes both hero and villain to his fellow villagers as he devises a way to outfox an unscrupulous businessman named Dawa (Lhakpa Tsering), who has been robbing them blind but also helping them to sell their crops.  Tashi experiences sexual temptation from more than one lithe form, as another village lovely catches his eye. The road to nirvana, it seems, is paved with cracked stones.  Nalin's cast is largely unknown to western audiences, and many of his actors are untrained, but Samsara makes the case for simplicity in all things. The breathtaking scenery of the Himalayas is a bonus, and the high peaks remind us of the skyscrapers of Lee's Manhattan. Temptation finds us wherever we go.

 

 

 

Reel Black Men Film Showcase

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 16, 2004) *The Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC), a non-profit organization to advocate, educate and preserve the history and future of blacks in film and television, will screen a number of short films from emerging African-American male filmmakers at LA’s Raleigh Studios on August 28 (10 am to 2 pm).  A panel discussion about the future of blacks in filmmaking will follow the screenings – which includes suspense/thrillers, comedies and dramas.  For more information about BHERC's "Reel Black Men Short Film Showcase" and other BHERC programs, visit their Web site: www.bherc.org.

 

 

 

Fahrenheit 9/11 Heats Up Alliance's Bottom Line

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Richard Blackwell, Media Reporter

(Aug. 17, 2004) The box office success of Michael Moore's controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11 has begun to spin revenue for its Canadian distributor Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. While the movie was released just six days before the end of the firm's second quarter on June 30, it generated $3.7-million in Canadian box office receipts up to that date, Alliance Atlantis announced yesterday. With the film now having brought in more than $100-million across North America, it is expected to provide a boost in revenue to Alliance Atlantis in the current and coming quarters. The company does not break out specific revenue numbers for individual distribution deals. But Alliance said strong distribution revenue from films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and DVDs, such as the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, helped propel second-quarter profit to $10.4-million or 24 cents a share, a dramatic turnaround from a loss of $7.1-million or 17 cents, in the year-earlier period. Total revenue at Alliance Atlantis in the second quarter was $267.6-million, a 68-per-cent rise from $159.7-million in the year-earlier period. For the first half of 2004, the company's profit was $8.4-million or 20 cents a share, a turnaround from a loss of $19.6-million or 46 cents in the same period of 2003. Chief executive officer Michael MacMillan told analysts on a conference call that the numbers reflect a "newer and sharper business focus" at Alliance Atlantis, after the company dramatically cut back its production arm to concentrate on specialty broadcasting and movie distribution. The movie distribution group -- now partly spun off into an investment trust -- showed the biggest revenue gains, taking in $155.3-million in the quarter, up 161 per cent from $59.4-million a year earlier. The Canadian theatrical release of Kill Bill, Volume 2, British distribution of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the DVD release of Kill Bill, Volume 1 and strong results from a recently acquired Spanish subsidiary helped boost results in the distribution group. The company's broadcasting group, which includes 14 specialty and digital channels, also showed major gains, with revenue up 20 per cent to $62.8-million from $52.4-million. Advertising spending at those channels is strong and growing in all categories, Mr. MacMillan told the analysts. "We're selling ads broadly across the economy," he said. "It's well spread." Advertising revenue was up 33 per cent in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, Mr. MacMillan said. The remainder of the year should show "solid" growth, he added. Alliance Atlantis's entertainment group, dramatically shrunk after severe cutbacks to its production operations, now consists mainly of its CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television franchise. Revenue in the group rose slightly to $49.3-million from $47.9-million. The company is optimistic about the contribution CSI will make to earnings in the coming years. In the current quarter, Alliance Atlantis will begin to receive substantial bonus payments from its partner, CBS Broadcasting Inc., based on the ratings of each episode of CSI and spinoff CSI: Miami. And in September, CBS, CTV in Canada and other international broadcasters will begin to air episodes of the third series, CSI: New York. One analyst, who did not want to be identified, said Alliance Atlantis might not be able to sustain the second quarter's strong results from the film distribution arm, because the revenue stream is so sensitive to the release of particular movies and DVDs. But CSI revenue, particularly the ratings bonuses, will likely grow consistently for some time to come. "That's something we can expect going forward," the analyst said. Investors also reacted favourably to the Alliance Atlantis numbers yesterday, boosting the price of the firm's class B stock by 36 cents, or about 1.5 per cent, to close at $24.18 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

 

 

 

Acting Can Be A Shark Pit

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By Guy Dixon

(Aug. 17, 2004) Actor Blanchard Ryan had a right to be nervous. She had already received an unscripted bite from a barracuda on the first day of shooting the scuba-diving-nightmare film Open Water. Then it came time to shoot the scenes where she and fellow lead Daniel Travis swim with frenetic, darting 220-kilogram sharks -- real sharks in the real ocean. The film's premise is straightforward.  A young couple take a tropical vacation to ease their overburdened yuppie lives. While scuba diving, they are accidentally left behind by their boat and are stranded miles from land, two bobbing heads in the vast sea. The hours pass. Panic grows. They aren't doing so well. Then the sharks come. The filmmakers insisted on real sharks. Shooting the whole project on digital video, they aspired to transfer some of the Dogme 95 filmmaking ethos to the deep sea, making sure, like other Dogme-influenced films, to shoot only in natural settings and use real props, or real predators in this case. With a minuscule budget of only $120,000, special effects weren't an option anyway. They did splurge on one of the best-known shark wranglers in the business, Stuart Cove, known for his work on James Bond films. And they paid to have both actors receive diving certifications before shooting began. Everyone had been up-front from the start that the film would involve working with actual sharks in the wild. Both of the two leading actors said they were fine with that. Then came the do-or-die dive. The boat pulled to a spot off the Bahamas where the sharks regularly corral. Teams of thrashing grey reef sharks and a few bull sharks, some more than three metres long, surfaced en masse. They are so used to working with the wranglers, they flock like pigeons to the boat. They know the boat means feeding time. But Ryan hadn't let on throughout the auditioning process how terrified she was. She wasn't sure herself what her reaction would be, she said. She had wanted the part so badly that she had even managed to shoulder aside another actor who had been pretty much cast for the role. Now Ryan had to go through with it. "This grey haze floats to the surface. And you're like, oh my God, that's not a shadow, that's 50 sharks. And I just went white," Ryan said, flashing a relaxed, toothy smile in the comfort of the Toronto Four Seasons Hotel, far removed from her teeth-gritting, utterly pained look throughout much of the film. "When I had to step off the side of that boat in the middle of all those sharks -- I mean, they don't get out of your way when you get in. You just sort of jump in on top of them. You just think to yourself, could I possibly be any more stupid?" she said. New York-based husband and wife filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, who had already made the 1997 feature Grind together, are avid divers and made Open Water as a labour of love. They had no expectations for it to have a shot at becoming a summer hit in theatres (it opens Friday across Canada).  "The greatest hope that crept into my mind was that maybe it'll go to festivals, maybe it'll show on cable or video or something. That was my wildest fantasy," Kentis said. Kentis had become fascinated by reports of the disappearance of Americans Thomas and Eileen Lonergan off Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 1998. After writing a script based purely on the idea of what the Lonergans must have suffered on the water, Kentis and Lau were only interested in making a small, entirely self-financed film based on the story. Apart from some help from Lau's sister Estelle, various sea-creature wranglers and some locals on location, the entire crew was just the two filmmakers and the two actors. They took every precaution, Kentis and Lau said. The actors wore protective chain mail under their wetsuits to prevent shark teeth from penetrating. Of course, they had no protection over their heads. Kentis, who shot many of the scenes in the water himself and has an infectious gung-ho enthusiasm about him, had taken off his chain mail because it became too hard to hold the camera. Lau, more matter of fact and seemingly more cautious, nevertheless filmed other shots from the side of the boat with her feet dipping in and out of the shark-filled ocean. To get the sharks to dart past the actors, she and the shark wrangler would throw bloody chunks of tuna into the water. "Because Blanchard was really scared of the sharks, a lot of times I would wait for her to look away before I would put a piece of bait in the water because it would really freak her out," Lau said.

What better way to show how a shark's fin flaps and splashes on the surface of the water like a rat's tail -- rather than the smooth glide in for the kill as depicted in so many Hollywood movies? Apparently sharks aren't like that at all. "They are like snakes in a way. They go over each other. They swarm," Ryan said. "Or like kittens," she added, a little incongruously, "twisting up against each other all the time." The actors have been told by publicists to talk up the dangers they endured as they make the rounds promoting the film. But, "there's a balance between letting people know we were in a dangerous situation and also not making the filmmakers look completely irresponsible and making ourselves look totally stupid," Ryan said. By all accounts, Travis wasn't scared and dove in eagerly with Kentis. "I had so many other things to be afraid of," he said with the same sunken-eyed expression his character has when realizing the couple is stranded in the water. "The anxiety produced by being one of [only] two actors on a film was far greater than the prospects of getting nibbled by a shark." With a background on stage, he is an unknown. So is Ryan, who has had a few roles in little-known films. They have what every New York actor has on their résumés, bit parts in Sex and the City, and both have known each other for years after working on All My Children. They happened to learn they were both going after Open Water during callback auditions. Sharks, being sharks, have a tendency to steal the show. But the film really isn't a shark movie. It's more about being abandoned to the elements, with the ocean being just as life threatening as any predator. The camera lingers often on the water, effectively capturing with the crystalline quality of video the varied light off the ocean. The shark scenes actually only took a day and a half to shoot, during three years of off-again, on-again production, as the two filmmakers and two lead actors flew to tropical waters on weekends and holidays to shoot another batch of scenes. Despite having to depend on the weather, and the occasional accident, such as a tanker drifting far away, provoking an improvised scene or two, the film followed a tight script. A number of other scenes were shot by Kentis and Lau in the Grenadines, the Virgin Islands and off Mexico to prevent one locale becoming too recognizable and hence getting pegged by the film as shark territory. "We did not set out to make a horror film," Kentis said. "We did not set out to make a shark film. If we were going to tell this true story accurately, then there would be some horrific elements -- sharks would become an element. But it's interesting to see how it's being marketed and perceived." Kentis said he can see the rationale behind the emphasis of the movie's distributor, Lions Gate Films, on sharks in ads and trailer, since the actors are unknowns. "All they have to sell from a commercial standpoint are the sharks. But it's a concern that it sets up expectations in an audience's mind. I just hope audiences will go with an open mind."

 

 

 

Crash Kills Blair Witch Cameraman

Source:  Canadian Press

Neal Fredericks, the cinematographer of the hit horror movie The Blair Witch Project, has died in a plane crash while shooting an independent film.  The 35-year-old was filming aerial shots when the accident happened in the Florida Keys on Saturday.  Director Daniel Zirilli survived the crash along with a co-producer, a first camera assistant and the pilot.  He said Fredericks was unable to free himself from a safety harness before the plane was submerged in water.  Although Fredericks was best known for The Blair Witch Project, he had worked on up to 30 independent films, including Ryan Schifrin's Abominable.  He was born in California and went on to study film-making at the University of Baltimore, where he met the people with whom he worked on The Blair Witch Project.     

 

 

 

Film Tidbits

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

Faison In Indie Projects

(Aug. 18, 2004) *Donald Faison has been cast in the new indie comedy feature “Venus and Vegas,” reports the “Hollywood Reporter.” Eddie Kaye Thomas ("American Pie") and Eddie Guerra ("CSI: Miami") co-star in the film about three crooks who must work together to repair their issues after messing up a holdup job. Faison will next star opposite Anthony Anderson in the New Line comedy “King’s Ransom.”

Rodriguez In Indie Projects

Michelle Rodriguez has been tapped to star opposite Michael Madsen and Kristanna Loken in “BloodRayne,” an indie film based on the video game of the same name. Loken (“Terminator 3”) plays the title role, a supernatural huntress looking to eliminate threats around the globe for a secret society called Brimstone. Rodriguez ("Girlfight") will play Katarin, who runs the local Brimstone Society chapter. Madsen ("Kill Bill") is set for the role of vampire hunter Vladimir.

“Survivor’s” Lone Brother

Rory Freeman is the lone African American on next season’s “Survivor Vanuatu,” premiering September 16th on CBS. Freeman will hold it down as one of 18 contestants vying for a million dollars. The cast was finally revealed yesterday morning on CBS' "Early Show," and it looks as if the brother is the sole person of colour on the cast. Freeman, a 35-year-old S8 Housing Case Manager from Des Moines, Iowa, will compete against an FBI agent, a model, a drill sergeant, a sheep farmer, an amputee and a highway repairman, among others.

Rhames Is Kojak

*Ving Rhames has begun shooting his starring role in “Kojak,” a TV movie remake of the classic 70s series for the USA network. Chazz Palminteri plays his boss Frank McNeil, and yes – the lollipop is still in the mix. "I'm really focused on the humanity of the character," Rhames, 45, told the “New York Post” about the role. "I'm playing a man who happens to be a detective. It's trying to put the camera inside the man ... which I think is much more interesting than doing a movie about cops.”

 

 

 

::THEATRE NEWS::

 

 

Love Story Charms By The Lake

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Robert Crew, Arts Writer

(Aug. 13, 2004) In the 20 years since it was first produced at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre, David French's Salt-Water Moon has become a Canadian classic.  It is a deceptive piece, rather more than the folksy love story it appears to be. And what provides its staying power is the anger and real pain that lie not too far from the surface  The year is 1926 — memories of World War I are still fresh and immediate — and Jacob Mercer has returned to Coley's Point in Newfoundland.  He's now 18 years old and has spent a year away in Toronto after having suddenly upped and left his girlfriend, Mary Snow, now 17.  Mary, for reasons that become apparent during the play, has since got herself engaged to a schoolteacher named Jerome McKenzie.  But she is still blazing mad at her ex-beau and has a backbone worthy of Stelco. Can Jacob woo her back?  Mary worries about his sincerity and his motives. There is bad blood between the McKenzies and the Mercers, after all.  The play takes place outside, under a full moon, and is therefore an appropriate choice for an outdoor theatre company in Oakville's Coronation Park.  This year, the festival decided to add a second production and venture a few kilometres west, to the village of Bronte.  We're down by the lake again and while the willow tree in this spot is less spectacular, it is still quite magical.  This production, directed by Michael Waller, is impressive. Waller is one young director who is not afraid to mix mind and heart, with the result that this is a warm and intimate occasion.  The action takes place in front of, and on the porch of, a green clapboard house. It's perhaps not the easiest play to stage but the two actors move around freely and naturally.  Matthew MacFadzean is Jacob, an agreeable young guy who is never at a loss for words. His renewed courtship of Mary is clever.  There's flattery — he compliments her on the yellow dress she is wearing and her perfume. He evokes memory, in particular of a night that they spent together. He brings her a present of silk stockings.  But most of all, he is charming and full of funny stories. MacFadzean has a flashing smile and lots of twinkle. He's a tease at times but his genuine love shines through.  His is a lively and engaging performance; Jacob's fate may appear to hang in the balance but the odds seem in his favour.  Mind you, Erin MacKinnon's Mary is a tough one and certainly no pushover. She is unsmiling and unbending with little suggestion of lingering affection for Jacob.  Her about-turn towards the end of the play is sudden; there has been little suggestion of softness and love to prepare us for what happens but MacKinnon does eventually allow us a peek at the emotion underneath.  All in all, a clever, well-executed choice for the company's first non-Shakespearean production.

 

 

 

Woody Allen Set For Second Theatre Outing

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail

(Aug. 17, 2004) New York -- It's set in Brooklyn in the 1950s, but that's all anyone is saying about the plot of Woody Allen's new play, A Second Hand Memory. The production will have its world premiere in November at off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company. It is expected to feature a cast that includes Michael McKean, currently playing Edna Turnblad on Broadway in Hairspray; Martha Plimpton, and Dominic Chianese, best known for playing Uncle Junior on The Sopranos. In May, 2003, the Atlantic premiered Allen's last theatre effort, a collection of two one-act plays which went under the collective title of Writer's Block and starred Paul Reiser, Jay Thomas, Grant Shaud and Bebe Neuwirth. AP

 

 

 

::TV NEWS::

 

 

TV Shows Are Bolting From Hollywood, With Many Bound For Canada



Source:  Canadian Press, Frazier Moore 



(Aug. 18, 2004) NEW YORK (AP) - A remarkable thing happened in Los Angeles this summer: A TV movie was shot there.  Fancy that! Sure, Southern California, land of swimming pools and movie stars, is virtually synonymous with film production. But increasingly, filmmakers have bolted from the Film Capital of the World -and not just when a better location beckoned, but also when a better financial deal was to be had.  So why was the movie -Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman starring Christine Lahti and scheduled to air on CBS next season -shot in L.A.? All the pieces of the project fell into place there, explain the producers, though offering no specifics.  But whatever kept it at home, this film stands as an exception to a moviemaking trend termed runaway production that has cost Hollywood billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.  Where are the productions running to? As far as possible sometimes: The new Superman film will be shot in Australia.  L.A. is also kissing TV shows goodbye. Among prime-time series this fall, the WB's One Tree Hill is shot in North Carolina. Fox's North Shore and the upcoming Lost (ABC) and Hawaii (NBC) are filmed in the Aloha State. NBC's Law & Order trio are among those shot in the New York City area (where filmmaking is a $5.1 billion US industry).  These series may have strayed from Tinseltown, but at least they're still within the United States. 



Others, however, have headed north.  Canada, a pioneer in wooing U.S. film production with tax breaks, lower labour costs and a variety of locations, will play host to five hours of episodic television on the major broadcast networks: ABC's Life as We Know It (setting: suburban Seattle), the WB's Smallville (rural Kansas) and The Mountain (a Utah ski resort) and Fox's Tru Calling (New York City), all filmed in Vancouver, as well as UPN's Kevin Hill (New York City), shot in Toronto. That's about 12 per cent of all the dramas on the schedule.  U.S. moviemakers going AWOL has Hollywood film technicians, among others, up in arms. And it has been denounced by CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs, who calls his campaign against U.S. companies that ship jobs outside the country Exporting America. A few months ago, he reported that all but five of the year's 88 made-for-TV films were shot outside the United States.  Filmmakers who take their productions elsewhere typically justify their decision in stark terms: If they don't go where costs are lower, the project won't get done.  For example, a TV film budgeted at $3 million to $4 million US within range of the Hollywood sign may enjoy costs trimmed by a crucial $500,000 US in Canada, says Todd Leavitt, now president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and formerly chairman of the Canadian-based Alliance Television Group.  Establishing a model for some 30 U.S. states and a growing number of countries (including Romania and Czech Republic), Canada stepped forward a few years ago with its incentives to court U.S. production.  



Meanwhile, it had three distinctive locales to pitch, as Leavitt explains: "Toronto, which was your 'cheat' for any big urban city. Montreal, which was your 'cheat' for any European-set story. And Vancouver, with trees, snow, mountains, and vast outdoors."  Moviemaking is an exercise in make-believe and deception. But is there something wrong (according to some hard-to-pin-down blend of the patriotic and artistic) when another country routinely masquerades as your homeland?  Certainly USA network's 2003 film, Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, struck some viewers as heretical for using Montreal as the stand-in for New York.  What about the L.A. Law reunion movie NBC aired two years ago? It jilted L.A. in favour of Vancouver, inspiring one cast member to dub it B.C. Law.  Last year, ABC's The Music Man found Matthew Broderick (news) in Toronto for that musical's setting: circa 1912 River City, Iowa.  And the recent Showtime film, Coast to Coast, starred Richard Dreyfuss (news) and Judy Davis (news) as a married couple who drive from their Connecticut home across the country to Los Angeles. It was shot around Toronto.  Thus has Canada served filmmakers as a store-brand version of the United States, with plausible-looking locales that satisfy a viewer's preconceived notions of the real thing. But with more and more films being shot there, the locations have begun to seem less like what they're supposed to be, and more like what they are: something recognizable as something else. It's sort of like encountering a person you mistake for someone you know, then realizing it isn't him.  Recently one TV series made an inside joke about this kind of mistaken identity. The episode of Showtime's Queer As Folk, which is set in Pittsburgh but filmed in Toronto, called for several of the characters to travel to Toronto for a charity event.  "You're probably going to think I'm crazy," said one of the guys, looking around him, "but you know what this street reminds me of?"  Gee, it looks like Pittsburgh, his friends chorused back.  Enough like Pittsburgh to get by, anyway.

 

 

 

 Federal Panel To Study Foreign TV Signals

Source:  Canadian Press

(Aug. 18, 2004) OTTAWA—Heritage Minister Liza Frulla has appointed a three-member panel of experts to study the issue of Canadians' access to public broadcasting services in languages other than English or French from around the world.  The panel will comprise:

 Former MP Clifford Lincoln, who last year chaired a parliamentary committee study on Canadian broadcasting called Our Cultural Sovereignty.
 Roger Tasse, an Ottawa lawyer who was a member of a 1995 federal panel on direct-to-home satellite broadcasting services.
 Anthony Cianciotta, president of Capri Releases, an expert in motion picture distribution and exhibition.

"Canadians expect and demand a broadcasting system that reflects the richness of our multicultural society," the minister said in a statement. "These three panel members bring a wealth of expertise and experience in the broadcasting field to the table."  Frulla added that the panel would look at how to give Canadians greater access to foreign TV services while continuing to reflect Canadian values and ensuring the continued vibrancy of Canadian broadcasters.  When she was sworn into the new federal cabinet last month, the minister was faced with the repercussions of a double-whammy decision by the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator.  It had approved distribution of the controversial Al-Jazeera — often described as the Arab CNN — but with such stringent monitoring conditions that it is unlikely any cable or satellite company will actually carry the channel.  The commission also rejected requests to import RAI, the Italian television service, despite widespread demands from Canada's Italian community.  Of Italian heritage herself, Frulla vowed to look into the issue and find legal ways to respond. 

 

 

 

TV Show Corner Gas Puts Small Saskatchewan Town On The Map

Source:  Canadian Press – By Tim Cook

(Aug. 12, 2004) ROULEAU, Sask. (CP) - Of the thousands of Canadians who tuned in to Corner Gas during its first season, none are more loyal to the show than the 400 or so that live in this dusty rural crossroads just south of Regina.  It's been more than a year since the people of Rouleau and the producers of the hit CTV sitcom entered into a relationship that has taken the town into living rooms across the country each week. As the backdrop for the comedy, Rouleau - or Dog River as it is known to fans - has enjoyed the boost that has come with the show's critical acclaim and surprise success.  "I think just the traffic - the fact that we are getting more people through the town - has been good," said Mayor Ken Hoff. "It is fun to see the actors and the crew and the whole works ... It makes for a lot of excitement and activity."  Created by and starring Saskatchewan-born comedian Brent Butt, Corner Gas takes a lighter look at the little things that happen in a place where everybody knows everybody else.  Audience numbers were phenomenal during the first season and the reviews were flattering. It's been picked up by the network for season 2, and new episodes begin airing in October.  Hoff points out that, when filming is under way, as many as 85 people come to Rouleau to work on the show - roughly one-quarter of the town's permanent population.  A mock gas station/cafe - the centrepiece of the show - has been built from scratch on the outskirts, and a handful of buildings downtown have been refurbished to be used for shooting.  There has not been much of an economic benefit for the town, Hoff said. But it has sure kept things from stagnating.  "A big increase in spending I would not say is there. But they contribute to our school, they contribute to the rental of the hall, they contribute to the rental of the rink and that has helped immensely."  Most of those who live and work in the town have enjoyed all the action.  Louise Huxley minds the till at the local liquor store/car-insurance outlet - a contradiction so odd that it has made its way into the script.  "It's been good," Huxley said. "My husband or daughter have been on the Internet and they have met quite a few people on the Corner Gas site."  At one point, Huxley said, her family hosted a gathering of out-of-town fans at their house so that everyone could come and see the set.  "It's brought a whole bunch of different people together," she said.  To say that Corner Gas has created a tourism industry in Rouleau is a bit of a stretch, but curious outsiders definitely make their way into town as they pass.  Fans Lynn and Barb Laski, from Kenora, Ont., were holidaying on the Prairies, and said they couldn't help but stop off in Rouleau for a look.  "We love the show," Lynn said. "It's so downhome and real. We just love that."  Those who work on the show appreciate the warm reception they have received.  "The nice part about doing it here is it is not like fans in L.A.," said Janet Wright, a veteran Canadian actress who plays the matriarch Emma on the show. "People here get really excited."  There's no telling how long Corner Gas will run, but the people in Rouleau have their fingers crossed.  "I'm sure the town would be happy if it would run for 10 years," Hoff said.

 

 

 

Meth & Red Show Up In Smoke?

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 12, 2004) *The producers of the Fox sitcom “Method & Red” have rejected an additional three-episode order in favour of waiting to see whether ratings will pick up after returning from hiatus.  Method Man and Redman’s embattled series, which debuted to lukewarm ratings in June, will return to the Fox line-up September 8 to finish its initial 13-episode run.  "We plan to move forward with new episodes once everybody — the Fox network, the studio and the cast — signs off on a new direction. So it's far from being cancelled," a spokesman told TV Guide Online.  The news follows initial reports of Method’s frustration over the creative direction of the series, which follows two successful rappers who move into a rich gated community in New Jersey.

 

 

 

Television's Next Tycoon

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Vinay Menon

(Aug. 14, 2004) Mark Cuban may be the world's most likable billionaire.  Sitting in the lobby of the Four Seasons, wearing jeans and a striped casual shirt, the man grinning and fidgeting with a water bottle does little to uphold the stereotypes associated with the uber-rich.  There is no entourage. No handler vetting questions. No material excess. And nothing to support F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation that the rich "are different from you and me."  Cuban, who amassed his nine zeros through high-tech and Internet businesses, is known as the energetic and controversial owner of the Dallas Mavericks.  But on Sept.13, his pop-cultural fame should skyrocket when The Benefactor arrives on television. The "reality" show, premiering on ABC and CTV, has 16 contestants competing to win the validation of Cuban and, by extension, $1 million of his personal fortune.  We move to a quiet table. The first question seems obvious.  "Can I have some money?"  "Sure, how much do you want?" he replies, reaching for his wallet.  I was joking. But his response leaves me tongue-tied.  "In a negotiation, Vinay, you have to know what you want before you ask," he adds, leaning back into the booth and laughing.  Damn you, wise billionaire!  The Benefactor, you see, is all about Life Lessons. There will be challenges designed to test character, intelligence and creativity. There will be interpersonal intrigue. And, undoubtedly, some cutthroat antics.  But, mostly, this will be an exercise in subjective philanthropy — the player who makes the best impression on Mark Cuban will become an instant millionaire.  From Donald Trump's The Apprentice to Fox's upcoming The Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best — starring Richard Branson, the corporate adventurist who helms the Virgin Group — tycoons are swooping down on TV-land like mythological creatures, squawking with prime-time advice, fluttering with talons full of cash.  Before signing with ABC, Cuban says he was approached by reality guru Mark Burnett, who wanted him to star in a sequel to The Apprentice. He declined.  "You don't follow kids, animals, or people with hair like that," Cuban says, mocking The Donald's most mock-worthy attribute.  So why do this show?  "I'd like to sit here and think of some underlying altruistic reason, but there isn't one," he says with a shrug. "This is a reality TV show. I already give away millions and millions and millions of dollars to charity. This was about the experience." 

"Experience" is a word Cuban uses frequently.  "I've had a lot of amazing experiences in my life. When I'm 90 years old, I want to look back and think I tried it all."  Like most contestants on today's "reality" shows, Cuban was once an ambitious 20-something obsessed with success and money. His drive and entrepreneurial spirit emerged at an early age.  As a boy, he sold garbage bags door-to-door in his Pittsburgh neighbourhood. A couple of years later, he bagged parcels at a grocery store. To pay tuition at Indiana University, he started a chain letter and gave disco lessons.  Mark Cuban, it seems, was born to hustle.  He earned his first million at the age of 30, after selling MicroSolutions, a computer networking company he created with — get this — no formal computer experience.  He started another business, the content-streaming Broadcast.com, and sold it to Yahoo! in 1999 for a staggering $5.7 billion. The deal made him a billionaire; it also turned 300 of his 330 employees into millionaires.  Not too shabby considering, a few years earlier, Cuban was sleeping on the floor and sharing a modest apartment with five roommates. The sudden change was beyond the pale.  "I now have enough money that I don't have to worry about anything," he says. "But when it first happened, it was just inconceivable."  Consider the following:  "I've been in situations where I came home and the lights were turned off. I've been in situations where we literally waited until 8 o'clock to get the old chicken packs on sale for $1.29. I ate mustard and ketchup sandwiches. I ate 19-cent macaroni and cheese.  "There are still times when I drive up to my house and I think, `Man, am I living here?' How the hell did this happen to me?" he says, referring to his 24,000-square-foot mansion in a tiny Dallas suburb.  "But I try to catch myself when I do that. It's already happened, so why go back? It's no different than the guy who hit the winning shot in a high school basketball game and that's all he wants to talk about years later."  The Glory Days Syndrome, I offer, making a reference to the Bruce Springsteen song. "Exactly," he says. "That's exactly right."  His first "impulse" buy came in 2000, when he bought the Mavericks for $280 million. He later went online and bought a Gulfstream V jet for $41 million.  It's a little emasculating to sit across from a guy whose net worth has increased by more than your annual salary during the course of an interview. At least, it might be if Cuban didn't seem like such a (warning: cliché ahead) regular guy.  As owner of the Mavs, Cuban has raised eyebrows. He has famously tangled with referees and entrenched league elements who initially disapproved of his change-everything, say-anything approach.  "Whenever you challenge the status quo, people have a natural inclination to maintain it," he offers.  Cuban has emerged as an owner for the people. He writes a popular blog (http://www.blogmaverick.com). He has personally responded to thousands of emails (he gets upwards of 500 a day). He has even incorporated some fan ideas into operations at Reunion Arena — everything from the three-sided shot clock to a storage facility for baby strollers.

Cuban says it would be folly to ignore his customers. It would also betray the sort of class arrogance he disdains.  "I've been on the other side so I don't take anything for granted," he says.  "It's important for me to not think I'm too smart when I'm giving people advice. The biggest mistake people make once they become successful is thinking they're smart just because they have money."  True enough. But being able to downplay the importance of money is a lot easier when you actually have money. Cuban counters by noting that, in all the important ways, his life hasn't changed.  "I still hang out with the same people I did before this all happened. They make me pick up dinner and drinks, mind you, but it's still the same."  Now 46, and with a range of "awesome experiences" under his belt — everything from playing against the Harlem Globetrotters to appearing on WWE Survivor 20 — Cuban says his priorities have shifted.  "What motives me now is waking up with a smile and going to sleep with a smile. It's all about experiencing life. Money does not give me superpowers. Money is not the most valuable asset you can have — time is," he says.  Last year, Cuban and wife Tiffany had their first child, daughter Alexis. Having children, he says, changes everything.  "As many things as I've done financially or business-wise, there's nothing like looking at my daughter's face," he says. "The one thing I truly believe is there are a lot of questions we don't know the answers to. But even though I can't articulate some of those answers, I see some of them in my daughter's eyes."  It would be tempting to cynically dismiss this as mushy blather from a new parent. But, with Cuban, it comes across as genuine and even touching.  "Why should I be defined by how much money I have in the bank?" he asks, glancing up as two executives take a seat near us. "Could there be a worse way to be defined? It's the ultimate insult."  Despite all your success, I ask, are there times when you still feel like that guy struggling to make it? The guy with big dreams who's eating a ketchup and mustard sandwich?  "Every minute of every day," he says. "But I worked my ass off. And now I have time to do whatever I want."

 

 

 

J-Lo May Return To Will & Grace

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 16, 2004) *The “Los Angeles Times” reports that Jennifer Lopez, who appeared on the season finale of NBC’s hit sitcom “Will & Grace,” will make a return appearance on the show at least one mo’ gin.  In her last go-round, J-Lo starred as herself in the April 29th episodes “Oh, No, You Di-in’t” and “I Do.” Janet Jackson has already filmed a guest spot set to air September 23rd.  Word has it that Jenny on the Block’s episode will coincide with the October 15th release of her next film, “Shall We Dance?”  An unnamed source told the “New York Post” that her decision to reappear on the Must-See comedy is linked to her marriage to Marc Anthony.  "She knows it will help boost her image," says the man who didn’t want to be identified. "She can't do Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters because they will ask questions. This is a woman who won't even acknowledge her marriage. But her movie needs help and so does her public image.” 

 

 

 

The L Word Lacks The S Word: Stories

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Vinay Menon

(Aug. 18, 2004) When writing about a lesbian TV show it's probably wise to start with something, well, straight.  So here's the boilerplate: The L Word (CH, 10 p.m. tonight) revolves around a group of lens-friendly and lusty lesbians living in Los Angeles. (Yes, the alliteration is intentional.)  There's Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman), a Sapphic power-couple attempting to have a baby. There's Dana (Erin Daniels), a professional tennis player who remains in the closet for fear of alienating sponsors.  There's Alice (Leisha Hailey), an opinionated journalist (is there another kind?). There's Marina (Karina Lombard), the sultry proprietor of The Planet, the café where the gals meet to chat about three other L-words — lust, love and life.  There's Shane (Katherine Moennig), the least "lipstick" of the bunch, if you know what I mean. There's Kit (Pam Grier), a troubled musician and Bette's half-sister.  And, finally, there's Tim (Eric Mabius), a swimming coach and Jenny (Mia Kirshner), his innocent, doe-eyed girlfriend who has graduated from college and moved to L.A. with dreams of becoming a fiction writer.  The L Word, which premiered in Canada on Monday and runs every night this week, is thus a soapy examination of these intertwined lives — sort of Queer As Folk meets Sex And The City meets Melrose Place.  Fine. But who is the show targeting? This isn't clear.  At times, with all the babbling philosophy, the writers seem determined to wrap The L Word with gossamer commentary on sexual identity and gender politics. Alas, the dialogue is so forced it's more likely to trigger a rolling of the eyes than a rocking of the brain.  "You are going to pickle in that self-loathing homophobia, I swear," a friend warns Dana.  "Oh yeah, well you're going to shrivel in that self-righteous priggishness," Dana replies.  And while one pickles and the other shrivels, viewers are left to disintegrate in the hackneyed slime.  At other times, the show appears to be written by 17-year-old boys who have spent a troubling amount of time watching straight-male porn. In the swimming pool, at parties, in washrooms, in bars, goodness, even at the doctor's office, these lesbians can't keep their hands and lips off each other.  "There's a lot more to a relationship than sex," Tina informs a therapist.  There is? You wouldn't know it by watching this show.  The writers are also eager to fill the void left by Sex And The City, which managed to introduce many original phrases into the popular lexicon. So characters on The L Word say things like "Bush Confidence" (it has nothing to do with the White House) and "The Lesbian Urge to Merge."  "What do you guys think about butt-waxing?" asks Dana, a question so out of the blue it may as well have been, "What do you guys think about Ockham's Razor?"  Yes, after a while, the viewers may feel the urge to purge.  When The L Word debuted on Showtime earlier this year, much was made of the "stereotype breaking." True, the characters don't trudge around in pigtails and Birkenstocks or sound like eastern European swimming champs. But whether the gals are cracking lewd or falling out of their plunging Lycra bodysuits during spinning class, the show's take on lesbianism never strays far from standard-issue male fantasy.  Even the waifish Shane, who is identified as the "dyke" in the group, has feminine bone structure; she could easily pass as one of those insouciant fashion models striking a sexually ambiguous pose in a magazine ad.  For a show about lesbians, it's always a bad sign when the most interesting storyline involves the straight couple. As we learn early in the premiere, Jenny is at a sexual crossroads.  This becomes clear as she gazes longingly through the wooden slats of the backyard fence, mesmerized by the lesbian action taking place in the pool next door.  When she recalls the episode during a pre-coital conversation with Tim, the poor fool is so aroused he remains blind to a looming problem: His inactive girlfriend is suddenly curious about girl-on-girl action.  Yet, for the alleged candour and titillation, The L Word manages to be rather dull. From Roseanne to Ally McBeal, from Ellen to Friends, from Britney and Madonna's kiss to storylines on this season's Six Feet Under, the notional concept of lesbian chic has all but vanished.  They're here, they're queer. We get it.  But, please, give us stories that aren't so L-ame.

 

 

 

::SPORTS NEWS::

 

 

Daniel Igali – Wrestling

Daniel Igali admits there are days when his gold-medal victory at the 2000 Sydney Olympics seems like a lifetime ago. Other times, however, it feels as if no time has passed.   After capturing Canada's first Olympic title in freestyle wrestling four years ago, Igali kneeled to the floor and kissed a Canadian flag in a touching tribute to his adopted country. It was one of the most endearing images from the 2000 Games and vaulted Igali from relative obscurity into one of Canada's most beloved amateur athletes.   But the road since 2000 hasn't been easy for the 30-year-old native of Nigeria who has called Canada home since the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. He's been bedevilled by several injuries, including a herniated disc in his neck that required career-threatening surgery in 2003.   ``Almost every week I come across somebody who hasn't seen me in four years, so it's like it (Sydney) happened yesterday,'' he says while receiving treatment from an athletic therapist on a padded massage table during the recent national team training camp in Guelph, Ont.   ``But in terms of the injuries it feels like it's been a lot longer. But all the same, I'm excited that another four years has come around.''   His preparations for the Athens Olympics have been derailed several times by the injury bug. A rib injury prevented him from competing at the Canadian trials, forcing him to beat Zoltan Hunyady of Fergus, Ont., in a best-of-three wrestle-off last winter to capture a spot on the Olympic team.   During last month's Canada Cup, he jammed his neck and experienced some inflammation and according to the Vancouver Province, he suffered an undisclosed injury during a recent training session.   ``I think at this time of the schedule we have and the kind of training we've undergone it's necessary to have some parts of your body break down and it's normal,'' says Igali.   When asked how he'll feel when the Athens Games are all over, he takes a thoughtful pause.   ``For me, I know that I've had a fabulous career, I've been so lucky,'' he says, flashing his bright smile that has become his trademark. ``I think it's going to be a remembrance of good times.''   While he says it won't be his final competition, Igali admits his fragile body may not be up for another four years in such a rigorous sport.   ``Regardless of what happens, I know I've had a good career and I know that I will never regret doing what I did,'' says Igali. ``If anything, I would probably miss it if I retired. But I know I will be involved in wrestling and sports for the rest of my life.''   After winning in Sydney at 69 kilograms, Igali will compete in the 74-kilogram class in Athens. In order to make room for women's wrestling, the 69-kilogram category was eliminated from the men's program. He's had two years to adjust but due to the injuries, hasn't had the opportunity to face off against all the top 74-kilogram wrestlers.   ``I didn't wrestle some of the people I wanted to wrestle but I think in another way they didn't get to wrestle me so they'll be wondering about how they will do against me,'' he says. ``We'll be worrying about each other so it will finally be settled in Athens. I'm looking forward to it.''   Igali admits he could have used a couple more years to be completely comfortable at 74 kilograms.   ``But I think I've grown enough into it,'' he says. ``I've met some of the guys in the weight class and I'm not far off.''<   Unlike taller wrestlers who use leverage to their advantage, the five-foot-six Igali is all about explosive speed and power.

But Canadian head coach Dave McKay says the competitors in the 74-kilogram category will be stronger than the ones Igali faced at 69 kilograms.   Meticulous preparation will be essential.   One wrestler Igali hasn't grappled with is Bouvaisa Saitiev of Russia. One of the best freestyle wrestlers in the world, Saitiev has won every major international tournament since 1995 - except the Sydney Olympics where he finished a surprising ninth after a loss to Brandon Slay of the U.S.   ``He just didn't think he would ever lose so he came out really sluggish and the American took it to him,'' says Igali. ``So you know he's beatable. And this is the Olympics and everybody's going for it.''   Igali included.   ``He's not interested in just showing up,'' says McKay. ``He wants to remain among the best.''   In 2002, Igali won the Commonwealth Games gold medal and was fifth at the world championships. In an injury-plagued 2003 season, he won the Canada Cup and was 11th at the world championships, narrowly missing out on advancing to the medal round.   So far this year, the former world champion has recorded a second-place finish at the Canada Cup, was fifth at the German Grand Prix and finished fourth at the Olympic qualifying tournament to earn Canada's spot in Athens.   In addition to competing on the mat in Athens, Igali is also the Canadian candidate for the IOC's athletes commission election and is running for the COC's athletes council. Both votes will take place in Greece.   Giving back to the amateur sport is a role Igali takes very seriously.   ``I feel I owe my life to athletics,'' says Igali, who is hoping to pursue a career in diplomacy once his wrestling career is over.   ``I haven't known anything other than wrestling so I feel like because of the impact sports has had on my career and on the careers of most of the people I know, at the tail end of my career I have to start doing things to impact on the lives of younger ones that will hopefully benefit from it as much as I have.   ``I'll do whatever I can for it.'' 

 

 

 

Serena Pulls Out Of Olympics

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 12, 2004) *Hours after telling Kelly Ripa and Bryant Gumbel (sitting in for Reege) how an Olympic gold medal means more to her than winning a Grand Slam event, tennis star Serena Williams had to withdraw from the 2004 U.S. Olympic team on the advice of doctors who examined her injured knee. She released the following statement:  “I am sad and disappointed, not only because I am unable to travel to Greece and participate in the Olympics, but also because I gave my word that I would play. I feel that I am letting down my sister, Venus, Zina Garrison, and the other members of the U.S. Tennis team by not participating. But, I have no choice. I have been advised that by playing, I could cause long-term damage to my knee, possibly causing me to miss the remaining tournaments scheduled for this year. It was a heart wrenching decision not to board that plane tonight, but I must heed to the advice of the specialists, and not risk long-term or permanent damage to my knee.”  Serena underwent successful surgery in Los Angeles one year ago for a partial tear in the mid-portion of the quadriceps tendon of her left knee. However, the area was reinjured the week of July 26 during play at the Acura Classic in San Diego. Serena withdrew from the tournament, and the following Rogers Cup tournament scheduled in Montreal last week so that her knee would be in top form for the Olympics.  During this time, doctors were telling her to skip the trip to Athens because the knee was not 100 percent, and further play on it could sideline her for the rest of the year. Serena, however, wasn’t trying to hear it. Her commitment to the United States Tennis Association, (USTA), the International Olympics Committee, (IOC), and the American Team was too important to her.  So Tuesday, she and her sister Venus hit the talk show circuit (“The Today Show” and “Regis & Kelly”) to discuss their dream of winning a second doubles gold medal. Afterwards, Serena went to her previously scheduled appointment with New York specialist, David Altchek, M.D. - who underscored what previous doctors had told her, and ultimately convinced the player to pull out.

 

 

 

Jay-Z Officially Nets Co-Owner

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(Aug. 13, 2004) *The vote was unanimous. On Wednesday, Brooklyn-born rapper Jay-Z became an official owner of the New Jersey Nets following approval by the NBA Board of Governors.  Jigga is a minority investor in an ownership group headed by real estate developer Bruce Ratner that will reportedly pay an estimated $300 million for the team.  Ratner hopes to move the team from the Garden State to Brooklyn, and into a new 19,000-seat arena.  Plans for the venue and an office and residential complex have met mixed reaction from area residents.  

 

 

 

::OTHER NEWS::

 

 

Native Cultures From Around The World Assemble In Toronto

Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John Terauds, What's On Editor

(Aug. 12, 2004) When the organizers at Harbourfront tell you they've created one of the largest festivals of its kind in North America, you have to believe them.  The people that for years have brought us weekend-long extravaganzas centred on particular cultures are launching something that has even more music, more art and more discussion than this summer's other fare.  Planet IndigenUs, which kicks off tomorrow at the Harbourfront Centre, the Woodland Cultural Centre and several other venues around the city, has brought together indigenous peoples from around the world in a massive 100-event showcase of art, craft, musicianship, dance, writing and film.  And rather than lasting just the weekend, activities continue to Aug. 22.  Describing everything in Planet IndigenUs would take up most of this What's On section, so suffice it to say that there truly is something for everybody, and we have provided information in the relevant listings inside, with more to come next week.  For more information, check out http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com or phone 416-973-4000.

 

 

 

Stanley Tookie Williams Creates Anti-Gang/Anti-Violence Radio PSA'S For Street Peace

Source: Park Hill Entertainment / 818-846-4582 / info@parkhillonline.com

(Aug. 17, 2004) Burbank, CA - Park Hill Entertainment is pleased to announce the completion of two (2) powerful anti-gang / anti-violence radio Public Service Announcements (PSA's) now available for national broadcast.  In gang prevention work it has been demonstrated that ex-gang members are actually the most effective spokespeople in denouncing gang-related crime and violence. Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips, is now an activist against gangs.  While serving time on San Quentin's Death Row for crimes he maintains he did not commit, Williams became an advocate for non-violence. He has conceived and orchestrated a gang violence prevention program, based on a series of nine children s books he has co-authored about his life. The books are now being used in schools and juvenile detention facilities across America, and have generated thousands of testimonials from teachers, parents, youth workers, police officers, prison officials, and from gang members themselves who credit Williams with saving lives by turning young people away from gangs.  As a result of his books, and his highly acclaimed international Internet Project for Street Peace, Williams was nominated for four Nobel Prizes for Peace and three for Literature.  Williams' life story of his redemption from Crips co-founder to street peace advocate was the subject of the FX original telepicture Redemption (starring Jamie Foxx) the highest rated and most-viewed basic cable original movie of the 2003-04 season to date, in adults 18-49.  The movie, along with Williams' Peace Protocol, recently galvanized rival gangs in Newark, New Jersey, to develop a Street Peace/Cease Fire Initiative. In addition, over 14,000 youth, parents, teachers and community leaders have sent emails to (Tookie@Tookie.com) via Williams website http://www.tookie.com telling him how they have stopped gangbanging after watching the movie Redemption, reading his books, or following the steps outlined for launching a local street peace initiative in his Protocol for Peace.  Through his thirty-second (:30) and sixty-second (:60) radio PSA's, Williams hopes to reach an even larger number of at-risk youth to deter them from participating in gangs and decrease the incidence of related criminal activity.  The radio PSA's can be downloaded for broadcast by visiting www.tookie.com, or by contacting Park Hill Entertainment at 818-846-4582 (info@parkhillonline.com)  The PSA's are produced in association with Park Hill Entertainment, a Burbank-based production firm specializing in non-fiction syndicated, cable, network, and short-form programming.

 

 

 

Russell Simmons -- The Better Side of ‘Conscious’ Giving

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - by Deardra Shuler

(Aug. 13, 2004) These days Russell Simmons is taking a shortcut to opportunity and thinking of ways he can share that blessing with others. Russell perused the menu and supped on a bowl of potato broccoli, spinach ravioli and live almond humus at one of his favourite restaurants in the East Village while we talked. A vegan, Simmons, knows the importance of live food, positive mindset and a healthy and spiritual lifestyle.  Simmons has his regal fingers in a few humanitarian pies at this juncture of his life. An opponent of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Russell is planning a New York march on August 30 in opposition to these harsh laws.  The march is a follow up to last year’s celebrity packed rally when the likes of P Diddy, Mariah Carey, Susan Sarandon and Andrew Cuomo, et al., joined forces to get these laws repealed. Once again, it is Russell’s intention to show the government how serious he is about repealing these unfair laws.  “We were able to get our permit for this march. We are one of the only ones that do have a permit. I don’t know whether Governor George Pataki realizes how big this march will be and what it could do to potentially affect his relationship with the black community and really all people in New York State, “claims the hip hop mogul. “But Pataki will feel it! There were a series of hearings called by Senator Joseph Bruno and by the Senate and the Assembly. They were in agreement to do something about the laws, I understand. However, I heard that the governor was the most recent person to keep it from happening. Originally, Pataki seemed like he was helping and now it seems like he is standing in the way. With elections coming up, it’s a political time for these guys to get this done. So, things can change. But for now, if you ask the assembly or the senate what and who is stalling the repeal, they point the finger at the governor,” claims Simmons.  “My work is about making the Rockefeller Drug Laws less harsh. Also, to make certain that some of these unfortunate examples don’t happen any longer. I am referring to the example of people who have never committed a crime serving lengthy sentences of up to 25 years under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. A hundred million dollars is being wasted incarcerating these people. It’s a misappropriation of funds by the government. I don’t think incarcerating people for using drugs is the way to go. There are other ways to help these people,” stated the busy mogul. “For example, this thing with Bill Cosby and the comments he made. I don’t think what he said was wrong. I just don’t think his comments are helpful. I think people are trying to do the best they can in the situations they are in. So, what good are Bill’s comments? Perhaps the dialogue he created and the discussions he has created within the community are important. However, his blaming the community and people the way he did, is hurtful. I give Bill a pass because he has done so much. He has given money to schools and worked with kids. It’s nice and great what Bill does. However, I think when you are fortunate it becomes your personal responsibility to help to uplift. The good things that Bill does, is his personal responsibility. He should do that. Everyone knows what they should be doing. If there are people fortunate enough to have a shortcut to opportunity, than share it. Create those opportunities. Do something! Don’t criticize or blame those less fortunate. Also, it serves no purpose to make judgment about people’s language and culture. Judgment is B.S!”

Simmons goes on to say that it is far better to lead by example. “Wake up in the morning and decide what your contribution will be,” continued Russell. “I think Cosby forgot there was a time he wore a dashiki and sported an afro. In my opinion, telling black people they need to improve themselves doesn’t really help them. People already know what they should be doing. People know when situations are bad -- they don’t need Cosby to tell them. Bill should concentrate on uplifting people and doing something to make people feel better. That is the better service to contribute. That is doing something good. I also think it’s the personal responsibility for people like Bill O’Reilly to push programs that uplift people. Instead, based on his comments, he appears to prefer to embrace the negatives. Reading O’Reilly’s comments one would think O’Reilly thinks: “See, those Niggers ain’t shit!” What Bill Cosby said is what people like Bill O’Reilly most likely want to hear because it confirms something for them --whether it’s true or not. Cosby is way too powerful a figure to make statements such as the ones he made because what he said, does not inspire anyone,” commented Simmons.  Mr. Simmons is doing his part to try to help, uplift and inspire. One way he is helping the community is by teaching African American youth how to political empower themselves through his voter registration drive. “I am in the community every other weekend trying to register voters. That is the kind of work that helps us as a community. Through the Foundation of African Understanding there are several positive programs that I put my money into. I try to live by example. I practice, promote and help people connect to their higher self through art. Through the Hip Hop Summit Action Network we go around the country talking to kids. Artists talk to kids in an attempt to uplift them by telling them to get an education and by supporting them in their goals. That is the best I can do,” explains the head of Rush Communications, and the creator of Phat Farm, Def Pictures and the Def Jam label.  Russell commented on the political climate. “I notice that politically the entire country is turning to a more rigid point of view,” says Simmons. “I personally think the reason many black people are liberal is because they have a feeling that they are next. I spend a lot of my money, registering voters, because it’s part of a process. For each person that registers it’s a step toward waking up and taking part. Once you get a voter’s registration card it makes you feel part of the community. It’s a mind-set. People need to realize that there is power and strength in numbers. As an individual you are not as strong as you would be as part of the whole,” claims the philanthropic entrepreneur. “I am the Chairman of an organization called the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding. I work alongside Rabbi Synder who is the president. Recently, we went up to Capitol Hill with the Black Caucus, the Jewish Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Caucus. We all came together to try and get government to pay more attention to the issues in Sudan. Later, I met with Minister Farrakhan after speaking with Rabbi Synder. I am a big fan of the Nation of Islam. They never do anything to hurt anyone. In fact, they do a lot to help the Black community. I am the last person to be “anti” anything because I don’t want to hurt anyone or anything. I like to stand in the centre and pull all the positive forces together,” remarked Russell.  “I am sure the government would love to stand and monitor everything I do because I am doing so much to try and help the different communities. 80% of the people who buy our records are not black but they listen closely to hip hop music and are becoming sensitized to the plight of the poor. These youths are making changes. These youth are not going to vote to keep doing what we have been doing. So, I am sure this administration is not happy with what people like me are doing. Personally, I don’t believe we would be at war had Al Gore become president. That is why I am pushing this voter drive. Our slogan is: “Vote or Die.”

Talking about his greatest strength, Russell reflected on the art of giving. “I started practicing the art of Yoga and began reading scripture. I do it every day. My brother is a reverend and it was he who influenced me to start giving. My greatest strength is “conscious giving” and being aware that giving is one of the only purposes for any of us to be on earth. When you give out of that true concept of giving that is when you are really giving. I owe my success to those around me. My wife, Kimora, for example, is going to make more money this year than I am. What she is doing through the Simmons Jewelry Company is wonderful. Kimora intends to write a check giving away 1/3 of all the profits from Simmons Jewelry. If you give people support, you end up benefiting from that. That is my gift. My gift is to know when others are smarter than me and to help them realize their talents so that they benefit. And, as a result, I benefit, too.”

 

 

 

Watch Out Google….Here We Come!

Excerpt from www.blogmaverick.com - the Mark Cuban weblog

What could be more fun than taking on Google in the search engine business??
I’m working with a company called IceRocket.com. (http://www.icerocket.com). IceRocket is a brand new search host that combines the best of spidered search, meta search, and what we hope are some unique and different features that make using the engine more efficient and addictive.  I’m not involved in the day to day, I’ve offered to help come up with some unique features that hopefully can allow them to separate from the pack. To me, this is a unique way to “design my own search engine”. The features that are and will be included, are the things I look for when I’m doing my searches.  Some of the things you can already find at http://www.icerocket.com are:

Web Search
- Thumbnail photos of results homepages…..- one of the things I hate about all search engines is that you click on a site hoping for a quality site, and you get an empty or shell website. The photos of the site give a quick look so you can see before you click. This can be turned on or off
- Quick View….Without leaving the results of search page, you can see the top 40 pct of the destination page as a short cut to deciding if the site is what you are looking for. If its what you want, a quick click and the page opens up completely
- Info - This is the traffic ranking from Alexa. It lets you know before you click whether anyone else goes to the site according to Alexa
News Search
A new feature that handles the traditional function of searching news sites, sorted by date.
Picture Search
IceRocket has the exclusive search on non-traditional pictures sites. We search the old standbys, and the web, but also index non-traditional sites like webshots.com. This is a great place to find out if one of your friends took a picture of you and posted it for the world to see!  We will very soon be adding the ability to search Moblogs and other camera phone sites for pictures as well !
Find A Friend
This is a search engine of the Look at my Picture sites, like Game to Fame, Face the Jury, SinglesNet, Hot or Not, and more. We will be adding more sites and more features to this. It’s an addictive part of the site. You can get hooked just searching for pictures
Email a Search
This is for PDA users in particular and is unique to Icerocket.com. Its a pain in the butt to go to a search site, whether its icerocket, google, yahoo, or wherever and input a search term. However, most PDAs are very email efficient. So we have created a “Search Relay”. All you have to do is send an email with the search terms as the subject to search@icerocket.com and it will return the results to you via email. You can do the same with pics@icerocket.com or news@icerocket.com
So try it out and let me know what you think and if there are any other features you would like to see added.. If we can do them, we will !!!

This is just the beginning, Watch out google, here we come :)

 

 

 

Simmons' Sneaks Outselling Competition

Excerpt from www.allhiphop.com - By Mike Winslow

(Aug. 17, 2004) Russell and Kimora Simmons announced that their respective sneaker lines were out-selling major competitors in stores across the country.  The Simmons’ “Diva” sneaker and the Phat Farm Classic shoe moved over 36,000 pairs through 900 Finish Line stores, selling more than Nike, Reebok and Adidas in a single week.  “Nike is $10 billion dollar company,” Russell Simmons told AllHipHop.com. “I remember 10 years ago when I first started in this business, all anyone bought was Tommy and Polo. Now we are competing with them and they still don’t see us coming.” The “Baby Phat” sneaker debuted this summer and helped to establish Phat Farm as one of the leading urban clothing company world-wide. “We are very excited about this news and feel strongly that our product will continue to appeal to everyone looking for a little fashion in their everyday life,” Kimora Lee Simmons, CEO and creative director of Baby Phat. Russell Simmons established Phat Farm in 1992 and since then, the venture has evolved into a global lifestyle company. In January, Kellwood bought Phat Fashions and made it a subsidiary, while Simmons received $140 million dollars. He said that the company's revenue would double this year, from $80 million to $160 million. Russell attributed the shoe’s success to the quality of his sneakers, which he says are better than most in the industry. “No one can deny that the ‘Diva’ sneaker and my ‘Phat Classic’ are better quality and technology than Nike’s Air Force 1’s," he continued. "Those shoes have cheap old technology. Jay-Z and other rappers are doing these sneaker companies a favour by putting themselves with these sneakers. The real truth is we don’t need them [the sneaker companies].”

 

 

 

Julia Child Dead At 91

Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - Associated Press

(Aug. 14, 2004) New York — Julia Child, whose warbling, encouraging voice and able hands brought the intricacies of French cuisine to home cooks in North America through her television series and books, died in her sleep three days before what would have been her 92nd birthday. "America has lost a true national treasure," Nicholas Latimer, director of publicity for Alfred A. Knopf publishing, said in a statement Friday. "She will be missed terribly." The statement said she died Thursday at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. The cause of death was not given. A 6-foot-2 American folk hero, The French Chef was known to her public as Julia, and preached a delight not only in good food but in sharing it, ending her landmark public television lessons at a set table and with the wish, " Bon appétit." "Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal," she said in the introduction to her seventh book, The Way to Cook. "In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal." Chipper and unpretentious, she beckoned everyone to give good food a try. She wasn't always tidy in the kitchen, and just like the rest of us, she sometimes dropped things or had trouble getting a cake out of its mould. In an A-line skirt and blouse, and an apron with a dish towel tucked into the waist, Julia Child grew familiar enough to be parodied by Dan Aykroyd on NBC's Saturday Night Live and the subject of Jean Stapleton's musical revue, Bon Appetit. She was on the cover of Time magazine in 1966.

 

 

 

::FITNESS NEWS::

 

 

Fat-Blasting Workout!

by Raphael Calzadilla, B.A., CPT, ACE, eDiets.com Chief Fitness Pro

(Aug. 11, 2004 ) Most of us know the benefits of cardiovascular exercise: reduced risk of heart disease, improved heart function, improvement in blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, reduced risk of osteoporosis and let us not forget one of our favourites -- less flab!  One fundamental problem with cardiovascular exercise for many people is that it simply becomes boring. I’ve read countless articles related to the type of cardio to perform, frequency, target heart rate, etc., but no one seems to address the fact that this stuff can be boring for the everyday person. I’m not sure I can completely change your perspective about this, but I know I can provide you with a 12-week program that may stimulate your interest, your metabolism and your fat loss.  Most people tend to do the same workout day in and day out. Many end up “throwing in the towel” because they get psychologically burned out. It’s sort of like eating Pizza -- you may love it and it may be your favourite cheat food, but if you had to eat it every day for a year, I guarantee it would make the bottom of your favourite food list.  The same applies to exercise. You simply can’t use the treadmill or elliptical machine every single workout for the same amount of time and with the same intensity levels. It will eventually catch up to you. When it does, you’ll start to make excuses as to why you can’t workout -- and you’ll actually convince yourself the excuses are legitimate.

The human body will adapt to any exercise routine in approximately 4 -6 weeks. If you do the same routine over and over, the body will adapt and become efficient at the movement. That’s a good way to stall your progress.  In order to alleviate boredom and to keep you in fat-burning mode, I’m outlining several methods for manipulating your cardio workouts. You can perform each for three weeks at a time (or even two weeks at a time). The process will keep you motivated and have you burning loads of fat (assuming you're consistent with your eDiets nutrition program). Always remember one golden rule; exercise does not work in and of itself -- nutrition is a huge component.  The following is my 12-week fat blasting workout that’s designed to produce results. If you’ve been power walking for 20 minutes on the treadmill every day for the last year, things are about to change. You can select any type of cardio you wish as long as you adhere to the parameters of each 3-week segment. 

1. Longer duration/ moderate intensity (week 1 – 3) -- This cardio method is based on keeping an elevated heart rate but not working so hard that you’re burning out or short of breath. I recommend 40 minutes (beginners can begin with 15 minutes) of walking or light jogging. This can be performed 3-4 days per week depending on your level of experience. I also recommend maintaining a heart rate of approximately 65 percent – 75 percent. 

2. Interval Training (weeks 4 - 6) -- This workout can be performed 3-4 days per week. Interval training is best described as incorporating higher intensity exercise with lower intensity. This method helps stimulate and speed the metabolism. Intervals can be applied to any form of cardiovascular exercise and although it's been a widely used technique for training competitive athletes since the 50's, the concept grew into mainstream fitness in the 90's.  The beauty of interval training is that you don’t have to work out for long periods. Unless you’re training for a competitive event, anything over 25-30 minutes is unnecessary, and that includes warm up and cool down.  The following is a protocol for interval training using the treadmill as an example:

Begin with a warm up of 5 minutes at level 3.0 intensity (3.0 miles per hour).
a. On the 6th minute increase to 4.0 mph (light jog).
b. On the 7th minute increase to 5.0 mph.
c. On the 8th minute increase to level 6.5 or 7.0 mph.
d. For the next 2 minutes (minutes 9 and 10) return to 3.0 mph.
e. Repeat letters a-d two additional times, but increase the level of intensity one mile per hour on each phase.
f. Cool down for 5 minutes at 3.0 mph.

Total workout time (including warm up and cool down): 25 minutes. Letters a-f above represent one cycle. In this example, you perform 3 cycles of higher intensity training. If you’re at a more advanced fitness level, then you’ll need to adjust the speeds accordingly to make sure the intensity is somewhat demanding at the higher levels.

3. Combination Training (weeks 7-9) -- Combination training can be performed 4-5 days per week. It simply combines the moderate intensity/longer duration method with interval training. Our goal is to stimulate fat loss by changing the parameters of the workout and also to keep ourselves mentally stimulated. Here's an example:

Monday -- moderate intensity/longer duration for 40 minutes.
Tuesday -- Interval training.
Wednesday – rest.
Thursday -- moderate intensity/ longer duration for 40 minutes.
Friday -- Interval training.

4. The Split Workout (weeks 10-12) -- The split workout asks you to perform a different cardio exercise every day (4 days per week) for 30 minutes. Again, we are attempting to change the adaptation from the previous 3 weeks to ignite fat loss. Most people enjoy the variety of this workout after they get over the initial fear of change mind set. An example of the Split Workout is as follows:

Monday -- power walking.
Tuesday –- Stairmaster.
Wednesday -- rest.
Thursday –- jogging.
Friday -- aerobics dance tape.

The beauty of this 12-week program is, based on the fact you've stimulated your metabolism to such a high degree, you continue to burn calories the day after your workout. Most people are obsessed with how many calories are burned during a workout, but one of the keys to losing fat is making sure your body continues to burn lots of calories 24-48 hours after the workout. With the above training parameters, you’re bound to make excellent progress.  Beginners should reduce each workout by one day, decrease time by 5 minutes and perform at a level of intensity that is comfortable (approximately 55 percent to 60 percent of target heart rate). I strongly encourage everyone to invest in a heart rate monitor to accurately gauge your individual target heart rate.  As always, your ultimate success in achieving your goals is based on effective exercise (weight training and cardio), following your nutrition plan and massive amounts of consistency. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. 

 

 

 

EVENTS –AUGUST 19 - 29, 2004

 

 

 

Friday, August 20
 Gary Beals CD Release
 Two Rosehill
 2 Rosehill Avenue
 9:00 pm
 Free admission with CD (available at the door)

EVENT PROFILE: Canadian artist Gary Beals, who tantalized fans in early July with his hit single Summer Nights, will release his much-anticipated debut album on Tuesday, August 17th. To celebrate, Plasma Corporation (www.plasmacorporate.com,) Kindling Music and EMI April Music Canada have coordinated a series of live events and press conferences.   The party kicks off with a live performance and autograph session at the Mic Mac Mall in Halifax  (10:30 AM, August 17th,) followed by a public release party for all ages at 3 PM at The Marquee Club on Gottingen Street in Halifax, a private press conference at 7 PM, and then continuing for the 19 and over crowd at 10 PM. Price of admission for the Marquee Club event is a Gary Beals CD.

 

 

 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22
SOULAR    
College Street Bar    
574 College Street (at Manning)    
10:30 pm
$5.00
    
EVENT PROFILE: Featuring Dione Taylor, Sandy Mamane, Davide Direnzo, Justin Abedin, Dafydd Hughes and David French.

 

 

 

MONDAY, AUGUST 23
Irie Food Joint
745 Queen Street W.
10:00 pm

EVENT PROFILE:  This summer Carl Cassell has chosen to expand his outdoor patio and it is beautiful!!  Stop by and have a look and while you're there, try something from the Irie menu - it will make your tastebuds dance!  The patio bar is stocked and waiting to serve you – swing by any night of the week for an exceptional experience that includes:

 

 

 

MONDAY, AUGUST 23
VIP JAM WITH SPECIAL GUESTS    
Revival Bar    
783 College Street (at Shaw)    
10:00 pm    
NO COVER    
    
EVENT PROFILE: Featuring Rich Brown, Joel Joseph and Shamakah Ali with various local artists. 

 

 

 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29
SOULAR    
College Street Bar    
574 College Street (at Manning)    
10:30 pm    
$5.00    
    
EVENT PROFILE: Featuring Dione Taylor, Sandy Mamane, Davide Direnzo, Justin Abedin, Dafydd Hughes and David French

 

 

 

Have a great week!    
    
Dawn Langfield      
Langfield Entertainment    
www.langfieldentertainment.com