Its 25th anniversary concerts' lineups, and the institution itself, are worth arguing about.
Bruce Springsteen
Pop Music Critic
In pop, as in the sporting world that provided a model for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one fan's dream is another's disappointment. This is true of the annual artist inductions, which elevate some while ignoring others -- Rush was robbed again! -- and the pattern will repeat Thursday and Friday in New York at the hall's 25th anniversary concerts.
The shows at Madison Square Garden promise everything a classic rock fan desires. The headliners are U2 and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, rock's most reliably awe-inducing live acts. Soul legends including Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin will collaborate with worthy inheritors including John Legend and Annie Lennox. Heavy ax men Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Metallica likely will reach new heights of guitar-face.
For those baby boomers who come to sing along, Simon & Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash will harmonize with pals including Dion and Bonnie Raitt.
Yet these once-in-a-lifetime shows are missing so much. Where's the hip-hop? The disco? The funk? The punk? (Proto-punk's in the house: Lou Reed will perform with Metallica.) Why no Latin music, not even Carlos Santana? Wasn't Madonna invited?
Madonna might show up, I suppose, in one of the montages sure to be shown during the evening's intermissions. Her 2008 induction exemplified how the Rock Hall is adapting to a new era, one in which the grand narratives of capitol-R rock 'n' roll have given way to a broader understanding of contemporary pop music.
Mutual admiration
The Rock Hall was founded as a kind of countercultural Friars Club, in which the titans of the post-Elvis and Little Richard era feted each other at black-tie dinners, which always ended in star-studded jam sessions. It was a flush time for the music industry, and the once scruffy street heroes who'd made rock a viable career seemed happy to join an establishment they could control.
Highlights from these dinners are now vicariously open to all, via "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live," a nine-DVD collection that also features footage from the stadium concert that celebrated the Cleveland museum's opening in 1995. Viewers will be drawn to these discs for the performances, but the induction speeches are more revealing. The one Mick Jagger gave for the Beatles in 1988 sounds like a wedding toast.
"They had on these beautiful long black leather trenchcoats," Jagger recalled of the night he first spotted his rivals standing in the back of a club. "I could really die for one of those. And I thought, even if I have to learn to write songs, I'm gonna get this." Jagger's impish smile as he said these words showed that, just then, he was less concerned with making history than with getting a laugh out of the room.
Such moments reveal the driving force behind the Rock Hall in its pre-museum days: an interest in tracing personal connections instead of larger cultural shifts. Because its ceremonies revolved around either peers or heirs giving personal testimonies about the artists being inducted, the Rock Hall grew up as a family institution, one that encouraged an understanding of rock music and culture as something passed on from one musician to another.
It took eloquent speakers like Bono and Springsteen to connect the ideas of inheritance with legacy and to argue for the music as both traditional and dynamic. Inducting the Boss in 1999, Bono compared him to Elvis, Brando and Steinbeck, but he also said that his music offered "the first whiff of Scorsese, the first hint of Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and the Clash."
Honoring U2 in 2005, Springsteen remembered that he discovered the band on a night out with Pete Townshend, "to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us."
All this whiff-catching portrays rock's spirit as something in the air, not necessarily passed from hand to hand, but preserved and adapted by strangers who then become artistic stepchildren. That's legacy. The shift toward this point of view began when the museum opened in 1995, transforming the Hall from what was essentially a private club into a public institution.
(Full disclosure: I have given talks at the museum several times throughout the years, and when I worked for the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Rock Hall's former education director, Robert Santelli, who is now with L.A.'s Grammy Museum, was my boss.)
In 1997, Santelli, then the education director of the fledgling institution, wrote that the task of the Rock Hall's first curatorial team was twofold: "[N]ot just to preserve rock 'n' roll history, but to identify it. The curatorial team attempted to build a rock and roll historiography, one that would create a basic foundation from which future discourse on the music could be launched."
He was using curatorial lingo to say something Rock Hall haters should be happy to acknowledge: At least since it took on the larger project of archiving and interpreting pop history since the rock era, this is an institution whose primary purpose is to cause arguments.
Quarrelphenia
In the 1980s, arguments about the Rock Hall reflected many people's discomfort with the insider mood of those dinners and the idea that pop music (and especially rock) could support an elite at all. The squabbles shifted in tone in the 1990s. The idea of authenticity was big then, as punk, hip-hop and indie rock rose in influence; so was the romance of the rock underground.
To many, the Rock Hall came to represent corporate excess, especially after its museum's five-hour opening concert in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium with an overstuffed lineup featuring young mainstream stars such as Bon Jovi and Sheryl Crow seemed antithetical to the notion of rock as a grassroots art form.
Today, the arguments have shifted again. Pop has replaced rock as the ruling force within contemporary music, and instead of seeming inauthentic, the Rock Hall appears too focused on authenticity. Pop is all about mixed-up fun -- it's multicultural, global and novelty-obsessed. (It's also feminine, and its return to dominance makes one long for more female voices and faces in the Hall.) Its champions don't care much about tracing the legitimacy of inheritance. They open their arms to every stray sound and shiny star.
This weekend's concerts, with their heavy focus on 1960s countercultural icons and arena rockers, might be great, but they seem old-fashioned. After all, this year's Rock Hall nominees include ABBA -- to many, the cheesy Nordic antithesis of acts the Rock Hall was established to celebrate. But that's how inheritance expands into legacy. And it's also a case of what goes around comes around.
When the Beatles were inducted, Ringo Starr responded to that gentle ribbing from Jagger with a zinger of his own. "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," he said from behind his aviator shades. "I love it. They always called us a pop group!"
If he hadn't been grinning so widely, one might have thought he was trying to start an argument.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-ca-hall-of-fame25-2009oct25,0,2398479.story
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's discord progression-latimes.com
Its 25th anniversary concerts' lineups, and the institution itself, are worth arguing about.
Bruce Springsteen
Harvey Levin stands for a principle-latimes.com
'Beach Bums' and Mini-Me's sex tape notwithstanding, the man behind TMZ is a champion of the 1st Amendment.
My 1st Amendment hero brings close-up photos of celebrity rear ends to the world, under the witty, witty headline "Beach Bums." My 1st Amendment hero delivers us the news any time someone famous looks fat, drunk or plain gaga.
My 1st Amendment hero posts Mini-Me's sex tape and treats the Kardashians as if they were America's first family. And my hero also lands real scoops that the rest of the media, including this newspaper, would love to have.
Yes, Harvey Levin is my 1st Amendment hero, and I'm not (that) embarrassed to admit it.
The man who stirs the putrid caldron of banal, soul-sucking celebrity infotainment -- epitomized by his TMZ website and TV show -- also works harder than just about anyone else in media and delivers a measure of what even traditional outlets must concede is real news.
Levin has earned his outrage in recent days over the revelation that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (perhaps with the aid of the district attorney's office) and a Superior Court judge think it's a good idea to snoop around in a journalist's phone records.
The multiple arms of the law went after Levin's phone logs in the apparent belief that it's more important to expose the individual who leaked the embarrassing news of Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic rant than to attend to messy technicalities like the independence of the press.
I suspect many media outlets have ignored this story because they can't reconcile the idea that a website appealing to our lower instincts can also defend our higher principles.
The contretemps coming to the fore in recent days began three years ago with the arrest in Malibu of Mel "Braveheart" Gibson. His simple DUI beef would have been relatively small potatoes if someone hadn't told Levin that the actor also insulted the Jewish sheriff's deputy who made the arrest.
Most significant, Levin uncovered what appeared to be an instance of celebrity justice -- sheriff's supervisors keeping the actor's ugly behavior quiet and even ordering the arresting deputy to keep Mad Mel's rantings out of the public arrest report.
The captain who oversaw the original investigation told me Thursday that he wanted Gibson's tirade confined to a "supplemental" report in an attempt to avoid the sort of public outrage that might taint a jury pool that could have heard the case of driving under the influence.
We'll never know for sure about law enforcement's private motivations, but let's just say I'm skeptical.
Sheriff Lee Baca's department -- apparently students of the Shoot-the-Messenger School of Management -- instead spent the last three years trying to find out who revealed the full scope of Gibson's bad behavior.
My colleagues Jack Leonard and Richard Winton reported last week that the D.A.'s office had concluded over the summer that it could not prove who leaked the information.
A summary of the case findings also revealed, for the first time, that investigators had looked at phone records of TMZ's Levin, as well as those of Deputy James Mee, who made the arrest.
When I called Baca to ask him Thursday about his department's foul-up, he said he didn't know much about the matter. That became clear when he insisted, incorrectly, that only Deputy Mee's phone logs, not the newsman's, had been searched.
I set him straight on that point, but he insisted, nonetheless, that the whole thing was "much ado about nothing," because his department had never intended to target Levin or his website, which draws as many as 10 million unique visitors a month.
"This is a story of the media, by the media and for the media," Baca said. "There is no harm to Harvey Levin, and if there is any intent by anyone in the organization I run to harm a reporter, they are going to have to answer to me."
But the sheriff said something else that I think calls into question how his department handled the Gibson affair from the very start.
"Drunks do a lot of things when they are drunk," Baca said. "Mel Gibson made some anti-Semitic comments and, in that regard, further verified that he was drunk."
Exactly. And that's doubtless why Deputy Mee included those facts in his original report, the one a captain ordered kept out of public view and put in a supplemental report.
The captain and other sheriff's officials insist Gibson's ugly-speak eventually would have been taken to the D.A.'s office, even without Levin's expose.
Maybe. But it seems to me that, without the public exposure, the makings of a coverup were all in place.
The actor previously had a cozy relationship with the Sheriff's Department, serving as a "celebrity representative" on a group that supports the children of slain deputies and even dressing in a sheriff's uniform to film public service announcements.
Baca's department gets, at best, a fig leaf of cover by arguing that the D.A.'s office gave advice on the warrants (something that office has denied) and that the warrants were issued by a judge, Deborah Andrews of the L.A. County Superior Court.
The D.A.'s own media guidelines, drawing from the state Penal Code and the reporter's Shield Law, conclude that "a search warrant cannot be used to obtain the source of any news information, or unpublished news information in the possession of the news media."
I called Judge Andrews to find out how she could reach a different conclusion, but she didn't call me back. Perhaps she believed reporter Levin and his sources would be protected, because the phone records have been kept under seal.
But the law does not allow for any fudging when it comes to invading media records. The government simply can't go there.
As a practical matter, the case has already shown how easy it is for supposedly secret facts to creep into broad daylight.
"These sources might have reason to worry now," said Levin, who is considering legal action. "Maybe they get a little more skittish about talking to me or anyone else in the media the next time."
It doesn't really matter much that a tequila-pickled movie star acted like a lout after a night on the town. But it's a considerably weightier matter when authorities, whose salaries we all pay, show even a hint of favoritism to those with special clout.
Our free speech champions -- from Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt to New York Times reporter Judith Miller -- don't always come in the most appealing packages.
We must not turn the press into an arm of law enforcement. For reminding us of that principle, we have a new 1st Amendment hero to thank.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-et-onthemedia23-2009oct23,0,7269954.column?page=2
Philadephia Phillies again beat Los Angeles Dodgers at game 5/ 5phillies-4dodgers
One more win and the Fightin’ Phils will have another World Series trip to celebrate.
Rollins lined a two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning off All-Star closer Broxton and the Phillies rallied past the Dodgers 5-4 Monday night for a 3-1 lead in the National League championship series.
The defending champions can earn their second consecutive pennant with a victory at home in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Last year’s NLCS and World Series MVP Cole Hamels take the mound for the Phillies.Clayton Kershaw or Vicente Padilla will start for Los Angeles. “This is big,” Rollins said. “The pressure’s all on them.”
Trailing 4-3, the Phillies started their rally with one out in the ninth when pinch-hitter Matt Stairs walked on four pitches against Broxton. Stairs hit a two-run homer off Broxton in Game 4 of the NLCS last year at Dodger Stadium.
Rollins, just 3 for 18 in the series to that point, ripped a 99 mph fastball to right-center and the ball rolled to the wall. Andre Ethiers throw toward the infield was high and off line, and Ruiz slid home without a play. “I’m all right. I had to curl up in the fetal position and throw some punches of my own,” Rollins said before taking a cream pie in the face from a teammate. It was the sixth time two postseason games have ended in walk-off fashion on the same day, according to STATS LLC. The previous time was Oct. 5, 2007, when Boston beat the Angels and Cleveland topped the Yankees in AL division series. J-Roll got the biggest hit for Philadelphia.“He likes the moment,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “He wants to be there, and he can control his adrenaline and he can handle the moment. The bigger the stage, the better he likes to play.”Before Rollins came through, Dodgers relievers hadn’t allowed a hit in 3 1-3 innings. “They’re a very tough lineup to go through,” manager Joe Torre said. “You try to be careful. He almost dug himself out.”
Wolf of Dogers pitched 5 1-3 effective innings against his former team while his “Wolf Pack” fan club sat in seats he left for them—and rooted against him.
George sherill struck out Howard with two runners on in the eighth and Broxton retired Jeyson Werth on a fly ball to end the inning. At that point, Torre had made all the right moves one day after hearing criticism for starting Hiroki Kuroda in Game 3. Torre let Sherrill face Howard, even though he was 0 for 10 against Broxton.
“He put some good wood on it and it went to the wall,” Broxton said. “It was a good game, just let it get away in the ninth.”
Trailing 4-2 in the sixth, the Phillies got within a run on Chase Utley's RBI single. Shane Victorino tripled into the left-field corner as Ramirez nonchalantly chased after it. Victorino scored on Utley’s liner to right.
It was another brisk night—48 degrees for the first pitch—at Citizens Bank Park. Bundled-up fans kept warm by waving their “Fightin’ Phils!” rally towels and screaming “Beat LA! Beat LA!”
They had plenty to cheer early when Howard ripped a 3-1 pitch to the seats in right, giving the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the first. Fans gave Howard a standing ovation and many chanted “M-V-P!” as he came out for the early curtain call.
The streaking slugger has driven in a run in each of the Phillies’ eight playoff games this year. Gehrig’s streak stretched over two World Series with the Yankees in 1928 and 1932.
“I’m just going to go up there and keep throwing my bat at the ball,” Howard said.
Making his first start since he lasted only 3 2-3 innings in Game 1 of the division series against St. Louis, Wolf gave up three runs and four hits. The Wolf Pack—a group of fans who used to sit in the upper deck and cheer for Wolf when he pitched in Philadelphia—was in the crowd. Wolf left them tickets, knowing they would root for their beloved Phillies.
Read More:http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_ylt=ApQ5wSgJN0gCeJPrEkyvVmIkPMsF?gid=291019122&prov=ap
Phillies come back to beat Dodgers in the 9th, 5-4-latimes.com
Jonathan Broxton gives up a two-run walk-off hit to Jimmy Rollins. Philadelphia takes a commanding three games to one lead in best-of seven series.
Carlos Ruiz leaps in the air as he scores the winning run on a Jimmy Rollins double off Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, background, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4 of the NLCS. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Reporting from Philadelphia - Once Game 4 of the National League Championship Series turned into a battle of bullpens, the Dodgers had to like their chances.
But against one of the most airtight closers in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies rallied for an improbable 5-4 victory tonight at Citizens Bank Park.
Jimmy Rollins' two-run double into the gap in right-center field off Jonathan Broxton drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in the ninth inning to give the Phillies a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The teams will take Tuesday off before resuming the series with Game 5 here on Wednesday.
Things began to unravel for Broxton in the ninth when he walked pinch-hitter Matt Stairs -- who had hit a game-winning, two-run homer off Broxton in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS -- on four pitches with one out and hit Carlos Ruiz with his next pitch.
Pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs hit a soft liner to third baseman Casey Blake for the second out. That brought up Rollins, who was mobbed by teammates after delivering his winning hit.
Trailing by a run, the Phillies threatened in the eighth when Dodgers reliever George Sherrill hit Shane Victorino on the right foot with one out and then walked Chase Utley. Dodgers Manager Joe Torre let Sherrill face the left-handed-hitting Ryan Howard even though Howard was 0 for 8 with six strikeouts in his career against Broxton. The move worked when Sherrill struck out Howard.
After falling behind by two runs in the first inning, the Dodgers tied the score in the fourth and took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on Matt Kemp's homer off Phillies starter Joe Blanton. The Dodgers added a run in the sixth thanks to third baseman Pedro Feliz's throwing error and a pair of bloop singles, including one to right field by Blake with two out that drove in Manny Ramirez.
James Loney and Russell Martin each drove in a run during a fourth-inning rally in which the Dodgers tied the score but stranded the bases loaded when Blake grounded out to second baseman Utley. You could almost feel the sellout crowd of 46,157 hold its collective breath before Utley, who had committed a pair of throwing errors in the first two games of the series, made an uneventful throw to first baseman Howard.
Randy Wolf rebounded from a rough start in his first postseason appearance against his former team, giving up three runs in 5 1/3 innings. He surrendered a two-run homer to Howard in the first inning before retiring 14 of the next 15 batters.
Wolf spent the first eight years of his career with the Phillies but never reached the postseason and acknowledged that he was jealous when his former team won the World Series last year.
The left-hander ran into trouble with one out in the sixth inning. Victorino hit a standup triple into the left-field corner and scored on Utley's single past second baseman Ronnie Belliard. Wolf walked Howard on five pitches, prompting Torre to bring in reliever Ronald Belisario to face Werth.
Werth hit what looked like a potential double-play grounder to third baseman Blake, who threw the ball to Belliard for a force out. But Belliard dropped the ball attempting to transfer it from his glove to his throwing hand, putting runners on first and third with two out.
Torre brought in left-handed reliever Hong-Chih Kuo to face left-handed-hitting Raul Ibanez, who momentarily put a charge into the crowd when he ripped Kuo's first pitch to left. But Ramirez silenced the crowd and elicited profanity from Howard in the dugout when he charged forward to make a shoestring catch.
The Dodgers plan to juggle their rotation for Game 5, starting Vicente Padilla ahead of Clayton Kershaw. Padilla has been the Dodgers' best starter in the postseason, allowing only one run in 14 1/3 innings during his team's victories over St. Louis and the Phillies.
Philadelphia will counter with Cole Hamels, who has not resembled the pitcher who twice defeated the Dodgers in the 2008 NLCS. He has not pitched more than 5 1/3 innings in either of his postseason starts this year, giving up four runs in each outing.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodgers-phillies20-2009oct20,0,7427549.story
Beyonce delays Malaysia show amid Muslim criticism-latimes.com
R&B star Beyonce Knowles has postponed a planned concert in Malaysia, the event's organizer said Monday, following accusations by Islamic conservatives that the show would be immoral.
Knowles, known for her provocative clothes and choreography, had been scheduled to perform at a Kuala Lumpur stadium Oct. 25. The show "has been postponed to a future date to be announced shortly," Malaysian entertainment company Marctensia said in a statement.
"The postponement is solely (the) decision of the artist and has nothing to do with other external reasons," the statement said.
A Marctensia representative declined to say whether the decision was prompted by criticism from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, the country's largest opposition group, which has called for the show to be scrapped because it would promote "Western sexy performances."
Knowles also canceled a planned performance in Malaysia in 2007 following protest threats by the opposition Islamic party. At the time, her talent agency said the show was called off due to a scheduling conflict.
Instead, Knowles went to Indonesia, also a largely Muslim country, which has less stringent rules about how performers should dress and behave. Female artists at Malaysian concerts are required by government rules to cover up from the shoulders to knees, with no cleavage showing.
Last month, Marctensia addressed concerns that Knowles might wear inappropriate outfits, saying "all parties have come to an amicable understanding" about stage costumes.
Other female pop stars such as Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani have performed in Malaysia despite similar protest threats by conservative Muslims. Both singers wore clothes that revealed little skin.
Some entertainment industry officials say the strict regulations and frequent controversies have discouraged many international artists from visiting Malaysia.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-beyonce-malaysia-19oct19,0,5144336.story
Roger Daltrey at the Orpheum Theatre Live
The Who's 65-year-old frontman flourishes as a solo act in the intimate confines of the historic downtown L.A. venue.
What's the difference between hearing Roger Daltrey perform the Who's music when he's fronting the legendary band versus hearing him play those same songs solo? With the Who, you get Daltrey's voice, one of the Olympian wonders of classic rock; with Daltrey alone, you get an entire human being.
Daltrey spent a generous amount of time sharing of himself during a nearly two-hour show Saturday at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the fifth concert on his first solo trek in nearly a quarter-century. Creating that level of intimacy can be difficult when the juggernaut that is the Who is in motion and playing to capacity crowds in 18,000-seat sports arenas.
Justifiably, Pete Townshend always has been considered the heart and mind of the towering British quartet because of the remarkable body of songs he's written since the beginning. But on Saturday the 65-year-old Daltrey made it clear what he's given Townshend in return for such grandly emotive source material: an expressive instrument capable of channeling feelings from primal rage to the joy that comes from spiritual liberation.
For the record, a Townshend was there: Pete's younger brother, Simon Townshend, who looks, and more significantly, sounds, a great deal like his older sibling, played guitar in Daltrey's backing band, which also included Jon Button's free-range bass and Scott Devours' Keith Moon-inspired drumming.
Reports from previous shows had indicated that the singer's set relied predominantly on the Who's deep catalog, but for L.A., Daltrey split things about half and half. He touched down on the early "Pictures of Lily," an ode to a young boy's struggle with raging hormones, in addition to material from what is arguably the band's finest moment, 1971's "Who's Next": "Baba O'Riley," "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Going Mobile."
The emotional evolution that comes with age was most striking in the phrase of "Behind Blue Eyes" in which he sings, "My love is vengeance/That's never free." What sounded like a threat nearly four decades ago emerged Saturday as a sorrowful confession for such a primitive impulse.
Interestingly, there was nothing from "Tommy," though Daltrey did offer up the Who obscurity "Naked Eye," a strong treatise on self-deception that's long been one of Townshend's favorite subjects.
Unexpected song choices made for some of the most revealing parts of the show. Daltrey delivered a straightforward reading of the Johnny Cash hit "Ring of Fire" and a pair of numbers from the 1998 concept album/song cycle "Largo," a multi-artist project coordinated by members of the band the Hooters.
Daltrey wasn't part of that project, but he chose to sing "Freedom Ride" and "Garth Largo," performed on the album by Taj Mahal and the Band's Garth Hudson, respectively, because he said they brought together his longtime love of Celtic and folk music with the rock that's been his bread-and-butter for nearly 50 years.
As those years have rolled by, Daltrey's voice has gained sonority, while appearing to have lost a bit of range. He struggled with notes at the top of the scale and had to take three stabs at "Blue Red and Grey," a tune from 1975's "The Who by Numbers." He sang accompanied by his own ukulele strumming and some nicely restrained keyboard work from Loren Gold. A rock deity with a more fragile ego might have given up after a failed first attempt, but Daltrey simply explained that taking a day off before the Orpheum show left his vocal cords not quite supple enough for the song's higher notes. Even after muffing it a second time, he came back to it once more at the end of the set.
When he successfully scaled the passage that had tripped him up previously, a wave of elation rippled through the audience. Daltrey demonstrated in that moment that while rock godhood has its benefits, connecting human to human ultimately is the more profound experience.
Source:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/live-review-roger-daltrey-at-the-orpheum-theatre.html
Michael Jackson's final steps Recalling
With the documentary 'This Is It' due out soon, some who worked with Michael Jackson recall his final days.
MOVING: Choreographer Travis Payne, who had worked with Michael Jackson for years, is in step with some of the star's backup dancers. (Nancy Pastor)
Short of someone inventing Smell-o-Vision before Oct. 28's global rollout of the feature documentary "Michael Jackson's This Is It," fans will never get to know one of the most visceral aspects of working with the King of Pop. ¶ "He had this amazing fragrance," said Mekia Cox, one of 11 backup dancers who worked with Jackson between April and June on "This Is It," his series of 50 sold-out concerts scheduled to start taking place at London's O2 Arena over the summer. The shows would have marked the superstar's return to performing after a 12-year touring absence. ¶ Another dancer, Daniel Celebre, referred to Jackson's singular musk as "the love potion," recalling its ability to trigger an almost Pavlovian response in those downwind. "No matter what you're doing, as soon as you smell that smell, boom! You have to get more focused," Celebre recalled. "Because he needs to know we're having that love. And throwing the love around." ¶ It's not uncommon for those who worked with Jackson in his final months to speak about the entertainer in emotionally overheated terms. Several close collaborators on what was being touted as Jackson's final tour -- a concert extravaganza that could have resurrected his finances, reestablished his cultural relevancy and spread messages of global interconnectivity, love and environmentalism -- seem to have gotten swept up in his grandiose vision. It's one that would have involved elaborate aerial dance numbers, the world's largest three-dimensional LCD screen, pyrotechnic illusions, 12 original short films and even the presence of a bulldozer and a children's choir onstage. ¶ With the release of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" next week for a limited two-week theatrical engagement, his fans and doubters alike can see a nearly actualized version of that vision for themselves. To hear it from those who worked on "This Is It," the film will provide new insight into the private Jackson that few outside his inner circle ever see.
"Michael was a new Michael," said "This Is It" concert director Kenny Ortega, who also directed the film. "He was 12 years a dad, a businessman, an entertainer's entertainer. That wonderful, innocent part of Michael was ever present, but there was another Michael there with more worldly concerns. He had deeper reasons for wanting to do this than I've ever seen for him to want to do anything else before."
Consisting of digital video footage shot in rehearsals during the weeks before the production moved to London for final run-throughs, the movie also will throw Jackson's physical and mental bearing into stark relief -- at a time when many are still struggling to understand the circumstances surrounding his death. Jackson, 50, died of acute intoxication by the anesthetic propofol on June 25, and according to his autopsy, he also had been taking a laundry list of sedatives, anti-anxiety medications and painkillers.
Some people who worked with the entertainer daily, however, insist there were no outward signs of his drug dependence.
"He was on a whole new level," said backup dancer Dres Reid. "When you saw Mike, it was a different Michael. He had a swagger about him."
Ortega directed the singer's "HIStory" and "Dangerous" tours in the '90s and is the force behind the "High School Musical" franchise and the "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour." The director had been in talks with Jackson for more than two years about mounting some kind of performance. Yet Jackson had held out for a "substantial reason" to return to performing, Ortega said.
In March, Jackson called Ortega with news that he had signed to mount a series of concerts with promoter AEG Live.
"He started saying, 'Kenny, my kids are so fascinated with what I've been doing my whole life, they're like super-fans. So I want to share with my children now that they're old enough to appreciate it and I'm still young enough to do it,' " Ortega recalled.
The superstar intended his concerts as payback to fans and a platform to broadcast his concerns. "The messages in my songs, the ones I wrote 10 years ago, are more meaningful today," Ortega quoted Jackson as saying.
Associate director Travis Payne, a choreographer who had worked with Jackson on world tours and music videos since the early '90s, said: "This was to be the biggest platform possible for him to refamiliarize the messages that had been in his music and films for years. . . . Michael was going to remind everyone of the job we have to complete with regard to reversing our damage to the planet."
Although the pop icon was about $400 million in debt heading into "This Is It," Ortega insists their conversations never broached Jackson's financial predicament. Nor, despite Jackson's long absence from the world's stages, did the word "comeback" factor into their discussions.
"One time, I said to Michael, 'You're going to get your crown back. I can't wait,' " Ortega said. "Michael just giggled at me. 'God bless you, Kenny. You're so funny.' He just didn't think that way."
"Michael Jackson's This Is It" will showcase a dimension of the performer that falls well outside the prevailing images of one of the most photographed men of the last half-century. Whether your notion of Jackson is as the surgical mask-wearing eccentric who was acquitted in a 2005 criminal trial on child molestation charges, the guy who dangled his baby over a hotel balcony, or the man who moonwalked across the stage during his epochal 1983 "Motown 25" performance and urged the world to "look at yourself to make a change" -- the movie presents a competing notion of the "Thriller" singer. Jackson as the boss, a perfectionist and creative visionary who was personally invested in the smallest details of his show.
"If he was in the middle of a dance number and something wasn't right, he'd say, 'Stop!' Everything would come to a stop," Ortega said. "And he'd say, 'Don't do that! Wait for me. Watch me.' And remind people that this wasn't an automatic production. You don't just push buttons. You watch Michael."
Cox said: "He was commanding."
"As much as he'd fire off what was on his mind at the time, he'd still have a light gesture at the end," added fellow backup dancer Shannon Holtzpffel. "But he'd be very direct. And we'd be like, 'Wow.' "
According to those close to him, Jackson's exacting nature took a physical toll on him that is visible in the film. Ortega said the singer had been losing weight and grew fatigued from missing more and more sleep as the production's London deadline neared. Both Payne and Ortega spoke of Jackson's penchant for rehearsing until as late as 1 a.m. and then calling them around 4 to brainstorm new ideas.
"He didn't sleep a lot," said Ortega, who like many others interviewed by The Times said he had no idea that Jackson had a drug dependency. "He had been losing weight and didn't like to eat much when he was in my company. It was always, 'I'm dancing. I don't want to eat.'
"I discussed it with him, with his doctor, with his team. I was really concerned about Michael getting the proper rest, the proper nourishment. We were told -- and Michael assured me -- that he was in good health," he said.
Payne, who had gotten to know the singer's professional M.O. working with Jackson on his "Dangerous" and "HIStory" tours, made sure to have Boost meal replacement shakes, Orangina and Martinelli's apple cider on hand to keep Jackson replenished.
"He'd go for periods of time without eating or sleeping because he was so immersed in what we were doing," Payne said.
Nonetheless, Ortega remains resolute that "This Is It" was nothing but a "nourishing" experience for the entertainer, not the cause of his demise. And that for Jackson fans -- for that matter, anyone curious about Jackson's final days -- the movie can still offer a meaningful interface with the King of Pop.
"The movie is dedicated to Michael's fans and his children," said Ortega. "But he's so alive and present in this movie, when we were in the editing room, there were times I'd forgotten he was no longer with us. . . . He's so big, so engaging. He draws you in. And I think there is a fascination that will go beyond the fans."
Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-jackson19-2009oct19,0,3751825.story
Watch Aliens & UFOs
The word alien means something or someone "not from here". In astrobiology and in popular culture, alien refers to a living organism that originated beyond the environs of the earth.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that there has never been any indisputable proof of alien life, aliens hold a huge public interest. A vast amount of data has been collected concerning alien sightings. Alien-related publishing is a sizeable industry.
UFOs
Definition: Acronym for “Unidentified Flying Object”, a UFO is an object or light in the sky that is not readily explainable by the observer.UFOs: Explained or Unexplainable?
Daytime UFO sightings are often discounted as reflections of the sun’s rays from airplanes, weather balloons, or other known objects and night sightings are dismissed as fireballs, meteors, or weather related phenomena. Yet, although they represent a small percentage, some sightings remain unexplained.2 As late as 1969, 30% of UFO cases remained unsolved.3 However, with modern technology, the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) reports that today less than 10% of UFO sightings are unexplained.6
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 57% of Americans believe UFOs exist. Both former US Presidents Carter and Reagan believe they have seen a UFO.3 However, although they are among the most prestigious UFO sighters, they certainly aren’t the first!
UFO sightings may have occurred throughout history.
Medieval paintings, tapestries, frescoes and other art objects portray airborne saucers and the same domed saucer shapes that are similar to current UFO reports. Perhaps one of the earliest UFO sightings in the US occurred in Texas, described in the January 25, 1878 issue of The Denison Daily News. It was reported that local farmer, John Martin had seen a large, dark, circular object, resembling a balloon, flying “at wonderful speed.”4 Nearly three-quarters of a century later, pilot Kenneth Arnold estimated the speed of a similar object at 1000 MPH.
The 20th Century Brought UFOs to the public eye.
WWII was the advent of modern day UFO reports when Allied airplane crews reported seeing “foo-fighters”, blobs of light or fire in the Pacific and European theatres. Thought at the time to be the Axis’s “secret weapons,” the origin of foo-fighters remained unexplained at the end of the war.In 1947, UFOs first made the headlines when private pilot Kenneth Arnold described his sighting of nine flying disks near Mount Rainier in Washington. In July 1947, a United Airlines crew also reported sighting nine disk-shaped objects over Idaho, an experience that turned skeptic Captain E.J. Smith into a believer in the existence of UFOs. Newspapers used the term “flying saucers” to describe the disks.
US Government Investigates UFOs.
Believing that a broader definition than “flying saucers” was needed, in 1952, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book suggested the term UFO.
Preceded by Projects Sign and Grudge, in 1952, the US Air Force’s Project Blue Book became the major government effort to study the UFO phenomenon, resulting in several different reports until it was discontinued in 1967. Project Blue Book brought classification to types of UFOs:
UFO Investigative Organizations.
SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute takes the search for UFOs into the Universe. Its mission is to detect intelligent extraterrestrial life, generally in searching the skies to find transmissions from civilizations on other planets in the Universe.
The mission of the UFO Research Coalition is to share resources and to fund and promote the scientific study of UFOs in collaboration with the three main UFO investigative organizations in the United States–FUFOR, MUNFON, and CUFOS.
- FUFOR is the Fund for UFO Research.
- The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), currently headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, is one of the oldest and largest UFO investigative organizations in the United States.
- The J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) is an international group of scientists, academics, investigators, and volunteers dedicated to the continuing examination and analysis of the UFO phenomenon.
Watch The Ghost 2009-Ewan McGregor Upcoming movie: roles with controversy-latimes.com
Ewan McGregor
Upcoming films include Roman Polanski's 'The Ghost,' 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' and 'I Love You, Phillip Morris.'
Ewan McGregor's next films are surrounded by controversy. There's Roman Polanski's unfinished film "The Ghost," a thinly veiled indictment of Tony Blair. The satirical "The Men Who Stare at Goats," also featuring George Clooney and Jeff Bridges, alleges that the U.S. military engaged in "psychic spying" against the Russians. And in "I Love You, Phillip Morris," out in February, McGregor plays tonsil hockey -- and then some -- with Jim Carrey. But first, he'll star as the young All-American Gene Vidal (father of Gore) in "Amelia," director Mira Nair's Amelia Earhart biopic.
You play Earhart's lover-on-the-side in "Amelia," but the part itself is fairly straightforward. What was the draw?
Hilary Swank, who plays Amelia, has been a good friend of mine for years, and we've always talked about working together. I suppose we kind of kept our eyes open for something. She called me about "Amelia" just as I arrived to start shooting "I Love You, Phillip Morris," and we struggled for quite some time, but I really wanted to make it work dates-wise. So I literally made the two films at the same time, flying back and forth from Toronto.
How did it go?
Oh, my gosh, I was just happy to be working with her because I think she's such an amazing actress.
What was it like working with Polanski?
He pushes you quite hard and always demands that you look for the truth of the scene and pushes until you get there, until you stop acting it and you start feeling it. But he's also got quite a brusque manner, so you have to have a thick skin.
That said, I'm very fond of him. He's one of the very few completely brilliant directors that I've worked with. There aren't really very many, I have to say, or it's a shame to say. To be an artist in terms of what you see and what you want to feel out of each scene, a kind of master of the technique and the technicalities of filmmaking, and a master of directing actors, which is usually the one that's missing -- there are many who have no idea how to speak or to pull good work out of actors -- is very rare. Roman was all those things.
Have you been following the news coverage of what's been happening to him?
No, I try not to. I was pretty upset. I don't like to think of him sitting in a prison cell. But I wouldn't comment upon it because it's a very complicated issue, you know? It seems odd. He's been living in Switzerland for years and I've visited him there, so this is all very strange.
How much of what goes on in "The Men Who Stare at Goats" do you think is true? The LSD, the telekinesis, the military secrecy . . .
Most of it's true! In fact, the most unbelievable parts of the film are the true ones. The mundane bits are the bits we made up. The journalist in Iraq -- my story, the character I play -- is an invention. But there was a rumor that the Russian psychics were bombarding the U.S. president with negative energy, and there was a group within the military trying to combat it. It's crazy, but war is crazy.
For the actors, it certainly looked like a good time.
My first scene with Jeff Bridges we were supposed to be tripping on acid. We had these amazing contact lenses that made it look like our pupils were wide open and we were waiting in this room that just so happened to have this old electric piano in it and I remember Jeff got so excited. He was like, "Oh, man! They put this keyboard here so we can get into it!" And so he started playing these wild, trippy sound effects on this keyboard. Us in our big black eyes, the Dude on keyboard, I just thought, "It doesn't get much better than this."
Do you still get recognized for ' Star Wars'?
It depends on where I am. At home in Scotland it's always for "Trainspotting," but more often than not, I'm stopped in the street for the two motorcycle reality shows I did [titled "Long Way Round" in the U.S.]. Television really is more immediate, isn't it? It was very successful here in Britain, so I get complimented for my bike riding more than my film work, which I'm not sure is a good thing.
Is there anyone you really want to work with?
Yeah, I've never worked with Johnny Depp, and I'd really love to. Kate Winslet. Rebecca Hall. Directors, I don't know. I'm odd with directors because I don't have a kind of wish list. Daniel Day-Lewis? I don't know. I think I'd like to work with him.
You think?
Daniel Day-Lewis has made me want to give up acting a lot. Whenever I watch him, I think, "What's the point? There's no point in carrying on. That's it." I remember watching "In the Name of the Father" and coming out of the cinema and burning my equity card and going "I'm finished." There's no way I can ever be that good, and it's so depressing. I feel like I'm talking myself out of it again . . .
Do you think America is ready for "I Love You, Phillip Morris," which is based on the true story of a man who falls in love while in prison and then stages multiple successful escapes to be with his lover after his release?
It seemed to go down very well there at Sundance. It's a love story, an escape movie and a comedy, all about this man who goes to incredible lengths to be with the man he loves. I like it because it's a gay film, which is to say it's a film about two men in love, and I think that's an important element of it. But it's not a film about them being gay. They just happen to be gay. I also got to French kiss Jim Carrey a lot, and I quite like that too.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-conversation18-2009oct18,0,4862518.story
Watch The Stepfather 2009-Dylan Walsh
In this remake, Dylan Walsh takes over the title role from Terry O'Quinn and makes an equally chilling family man.
Dylan Walsh
"The Stepfather" is that rarity, an effective remake of a screen classic that can stand alone on its own considerable merits. Director Nelson McCormick and writer J.S. Cardone deftly reworked the 1987 original (written by Donald E. Westlake and directed by Joseph Ruben) while wisely adhering to the essence of the chilling original.
Both center on a monster with pathos, a man forever searching for the perfect family to love -- and turning into a homicidal maniac when it inevitably proves to be all too human. Terry O'Quinn was unforgettable in the original, striving to play the '50s "Father Knows Best" parent with a nerdy squareness that was darkly amusing when he wasn't terrifying.
In the new version, Dylan Walsh's crazed David Harris similarly craves to be the old-fashioned dominating patriarch but he's a different type -- handsome, sexy, smoothly forceful. He's just the man to sweep lovely, vulnerable recently divorced Susan Harding (Sela Ward) right off her feet. In no time, he's moved in with Ward, who has three children and lives in a spacious, vintage Craftsman home in Portland, Ore. Ward's ex (Jon Tenney) is not a bad guy, but his immaturity and hot temper play right into Walsh's increasing dominance. In his understated way that's just right for this version of the psychological suspense thriller, Walsh is as impressive as O'Quinn.
His Harris is a phenomenally quick thinker, able to cover any missteps rapidly, but Susan's eldest son Michael ( Penn Badgley), home from a year at a military academy, gradually finds himself growing uneasy about Harris' controlling ways. Youthful audiences can identify with the likable Badgley and Amber Heard, who plays his girlfriend, but the filmmakers don't focus on them so much as to throw off the trajectory of the plot.
Indeed, the film is all of a piece, a handsome, thoughtfully crafted production that generates a mounting terror securely anchored by assured performances, consistent psychological persuasiveness and believable dialogue. What's most chilling about "The Stepfather" is that it was inspired by an actual incident in New Jersey in 1971.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-etw-stepfather16-2009oct17,0,1512123.story
Jeremy Piven Ari Gold: This guy's for real
He shares a name with a character from HBO's 'Entourage' and works in the same industry, but there the similarities end. He's touting his movie on air drumming called 'Adventures of Power.'
The real Ari Gold travels without an entourage. He isn't angry. He's not swearing at anyone. But he may be a little more stressed these days than usual.
Jeremy Piven
It's a few weeks before the release of his first
feature film “Adventures of Power” and Gold, 39, a lanky, soulful redhead who wrote, directed and stars in the $2.5-million indie comedy, is gearing up for the big day. It took him four years to make his movie (currently playing at Laemmle's Sunset 5 in Los Angeles) about the world of competitive "air drumming." He shot it over 13 nonconsecutive months, guerrilla-style, whenever money came in. And now he's trying to promote it with the same limited resources. But this Ari Gold doesn't express his anxiety by smashing his cellphone into the nearest wall.
Gold the independent filmmaker might share the same name (and industry) with the hyperactive, fictional super agent Jeremy Piven plays on HBO's series " Entourage," but the two are worlds apart. Instead of tailored suits, Gold sports an outfit he undoubtedly pulled out of a wad in his backpack -- blue corduroys, blue T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Mucca Pazza," one of his favorite bands.
Originally from New York's East Village, Gold has paused in Los Angeles to play ukulele at the Troubadour with his band, the Honey Brothers, which includes his twin brother, Ethan Gold, who composed the score and all the music for the movie; two college buddies, D.S. Posner and Andrew Vladek; and "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier (which only adds to the Ari Gold confusion). The whimsical, new-wave folk band is winding up an exhausting, 10-city West Coast tour, but Gold is buzzing from his side trip up the coast to Oxnard, where he just shot a video with Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush (who makes a cameo appearance in the film). They went face-to-face as Peart played real drums and Gold played air drums to " Tom Sawyer," the song that "destroys drummers instantly! The hardest song in history!" as Gold's character says in the movie.
But wait. Grenier is a fellow Honey Brother? Is that where they got the name for Piven's larger-than-life character, who is loosely based on Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel?
The bio on the filmmaker's Twitter account reads: "Yes, they stole my name, calm down."
In person, Gold is more circumspect. "Look, the official story from the 'Entourage' camp is, 'What a coincidence' " The official story from the people who are named Ari Gold in real life is: 'How odd.' "
That description might also work for Gold's new film. "Adventures of Power" is about a copper miner named Power (played by Gold) who was denied the chance to play music and has become the ridiculed "air drummer" of his small town. When his union-leader father (Michael McKean) calls for a strike at the mine, Power embarks on a cross-country journey to become one of the best air drummers in the world.
"I thought it was a funny visual," Gold says. "The joke is one thing, but I thought it was a great opportunity to explore this idea of making something of nothing and finding your own rhythm."
That was the motivation for the movie, but Gold didn't think he'd be learning the same hard lesson. "Adventures of Power" premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, during a period when the indie world was "going through a convulsion, and a lot of companies were on the verge of disappearing," Gold says.
Sundance had welcomed him before, as a short-film director. (Gold won the Student Academy Award for his autobiographical short "Helicopter," an exploration of a family's grief after the unexpected death of their mother.) When he finally arrived in Park City, Utah, with his feature, which also stars Grenier as the hero's nemesis, as well as Jane Lynch ("Glee," "40-Year-Old Virgin"), Gold thought the studios would be fighting to make a deal.
That didn't happen. Instead, he left the festival without a buyer, and wound up securing Brooklyn-based Variance Films to distribute "Adventures in Power." Since then, he has been developing unconventional ways to promote his film. "I have volunteers in every city around the country. I have people getting the word out online, on Facebook, blogging about it, cartoonists submitting drawings for the movie. [There is] the feeling of a groundswell movement, which really fits the message of the movie perfectly."
So has his famous name proved to be an asset or liability when trying to convince people to check out his movie?
"Look, I could be named Jeffrey Dahmer," Gold says. "So it could be worse."
Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-etw-gold17-2009oct17,0,2492821.story
From Internet to the TV screen, with the help of Netgear
What I want most in life, aside from world peace and Jack Nicholson's Lakers tickets, is an inexpensive gadget that can bring the rich world of online video to my TV set.
Netgear's Digital Entertainer Live (aka the EVA2000) isn't that device. But it comes tantalizingly close -- close enough, perhaps, to satisfy the needs of some avid online video fans. It also brings into focus the technical and design problems that need to be solved before the living room TV can be as friendly to Internet video as the PC in the den.
The company gave a preview of the device at January's Consumer Electronics Show, positioning it as an inexpensive yet versatile link between the Web and the TV screen. By the time it started selling the EVA2000 in mid-September, however, Netgear had pared back its capabilities a bit. The box could still connect directly to YouTube and numerous other online video sites. But to access Hulu, Netflix and a handful of other popular outlets ...
... the box had to rely on a computer running PlayOn, a media-serving program that MediaMall Technologies sells for $40. The change helped keep down the cost of the device, and arguably made it more future-proof -- the PlayOn software will be easier to adapt to new video formats than Netgear's firmware.
Netgear loaned me a Digital Entertainer Live a few weeks ago, and I've found much to like about it. Setting it up was ridiculously easy -- I plugged it in to my home network (using a Netgear Ethernet-over-power-line rather than the optional wireless adapter), hooked it up to my TV with an HDMI cable and turned it on, and it quickly found its way online. Enabling it to play media stored on my PC took more effort, but not much -- I had to tweak the settings on the PC's Windows Media Player to enable sharing.
Software on the box enables it to connect to YouTube and close to 70 other websites that offer video on demand. Most of these offer snack-size clips of comedy, news, sports and niche topics, but a few offer long-form video. For example, there's Crackle, which carries full-length movies and TV shows (usually stuff from the vaults, not new releases). The amount of content is overwhelming; to make it easier to manage, Netgear offers a nifty search engine to round up clips from YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, Break.com and Blip.TV, among others. The main weakness of the search is that it's not good at finding full-length material.
The box's built-in software also enables you to download movies from CinemaNow for a fee (typically $3 to $4 to rent, $15 to $20 to buy). The box has no room to store movies, though, so you have to plug a thumb drive or a portable hard drive into a USB port in the back of the EVA2000. CinemaNow's progressive download feature worked like a charm for me the first time I tried it, letting me watch the movie about two minutes after I started downloading it. The second time, though, it was foiled by the dreaded prime-time Internet traffic jam; we had to pause the playback several times to let more bits accumulate. The limits imposed by CinemaNow aren't friendly to renters -- you lose access to the file 24 hours after you start playback, which seems criminally short in comparison to the local video store's terms. But that's not Netgear's fault, or even CinemaNow's -- it's the studios' doing.
The PlayOn software was also simple to install and use, although it mysteriously lost its ability to communicate with the EVA2000 a few days into my testing. I later figured out that when I updated my anti-virus software, it cut off the box's ability to talk to the PlayOn server. (File under "It's Always Something"). PlayOn provided a seamless gateway to videos on Hulu, CBS.com and Netflix (provided, of course, that you're a subscriber). Hulu is a virtual mother lode, providing a huge amount of new TV episodes from the broadcast networks and selected cable outlets. (There's a fair amount of material from the vaults, too.) It also did something my Samsung Blu-ray player can't do: It let me browse Netflix's collection and add to my "instant watch" queue without having to visit Netflix's website via my computer.
That's the good news. Now for the shortcomings. The price -- $179, plus $40 for the not-really-optional PlayOn software -- is twice as high as Roku's evolving digital video player. Roku's box is limited to Netflix, Amazon video-on-demand and Major League Baseball streams, but the company promises more capabilities to come.
Second, the picture quality was disappointing for much of the material. This may not be Netgear's fault -- I have a 50-inch wide-screen set, and some online video clips are hard to watch in full-screen mode even on a 20-inch computer monitor. Most videos from Hulu seemed to be in VHS quality -- better in slow-moving passages, worse in action scenes. Those from CBS.com were noticeably worse, and those from Crackle seemed a little better. The only ones that approached DVD quality were the movies downloaded from CinemaNow. I'd hoped to try out some high-definition streams with the EVA2000, but I couldn't find any. Picture quality may be a universal problem in this market, at least until streaming sites use significantly higher bit rates or more efficient compression technology.
Finally, aside from its search engine, the EVA2000's user interface is an uninspiring collection of menus and folders. It's easy to navigate with a basic remote control, but it can take forever to work your way through a site like Hulu to find, say, the season-opening episode of "30 Rock." The box makes so much content available, it demands an interface that uses smarter menus that take advantage of the whole screen. I'm waiting for gesture-sensitive technology such as Hillcrest Labs' Loop pointer to gain wider use -- that was one of the things I liked most about ZillionTV's demo, although a former employee (now blogging at XYHD.tv) has advised against holding one's breath for that company's service to launch.
These issues are serious enough to make me bide my time and wait for someone like Boxee to find a home on a low-priced set-top. Maybe analyst Phil Leigh is right, and hooking a laptop to a big-screen TV will become mainstream. I will confess to gazing longingly at ads for laptops with HDMI outputs. But darn it, I want something for $150 or less that will let me watch videos not just from YouTube or Hulu, but also from ESPN.com, Cartoon Network and any other site that offers something great. Is that too much to ask?
Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/from-the-net-to-the-tv-screen-with-help-from-netgear.html
Scandals that rocked the Hollywood
Here's a look at sex scandals that rocked Hollywood:
Roscoe Arbuckle
The rotund silent-film comedian and director, nicknamed Fatty, was one of the biggest stars of the era. In 1921, he was accused of raping and killing a young actress named Virginia Rappe after a wild Labor Day party at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
His trial was turned into a three-ring media circus, fueled by the Hearst papers' sensationalized stories. Hollywood executives told his friends and colleagues not to speak up for him. His first two court dates were mistrials. But it took only six minutes for the third jury to find him not guilty. They even wrote an apology to Arbuckle: "Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice had been done to him."
His career never recovered. He directed some films under the name William Goodrich. Arbuckle finally made an acting comeback in 1932, doing a series of two-reel comedies for Warner Bros. He died in 1933 at the age of 46.
Charlie Chaplin
The Little Tramp found himself at the center of a highly publicized paternity suit in 1943, brought about by a fledging actress named Joan Barry. The two had become lovers in 1941, shortly after he signed her to a $75-a-week salary for a film he was considering. But by 1942, the affair and the contract were history. But Barry wouldn't take no for an answer and began harassing him.
After she gave birth to a baby girl in 1943, she filed a paternity suit against him. Though the blood tests proved that Chaplin wasn't the father, her attorney somehow swayed the court to make the tests inadmissible. Chaplin was ordered to support the little girl. And in 1944, federal officials brought Mann Act charges against him regarding his relationship with Barry. He was acquitted, but his public image was severely damaged. Barry was institutionalized in 1953 after she was found walking the streets barefoot, carrying baby sandals and a ring and muttering, "This is magic."
Errol Flynn
The handsome actor was always known for his flamboyant lifestyle -- as a teenager he was expelled from several schools (at one, he had an affair with a school laundress).
And in Hollywood, the star of such swashbucklers as "The Adventures of Robin Hood" was known for his womanizing and vast consumption of alcohol. In 1942, two underage girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused Flynn of statutory rape. A sensationalized trial took place in January and February 1943. He was acquitted of all charges.
His next film, "Gentleman Jim," was a hit. But his hedonistic lifestyle caught up with him. He died of a heart attack at the age of 50 in 1959, with his 17-year-old girlfriend, Beverly Aadland, by his bedside.
Rex Harrison
"Sexy Rexy," who later would win a Tony and an Oscar for his performances on stage and screen as Professor Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady," came to Hollywood with his second wife, Lilli Palmer, in the 1940s after appearing in several films in his native England.
Signed to a contract at Fox, he starred in such hits as "Anna and the King" and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." In 1947, he began to have an affair with actress Carole Landis. Harrison, however, wouldn't divorce Palmer to marry her. Supposedly despondent over this fact, Landis, who had attempted suicide previously, ended up taking a fatal overdose of pills at her Pacific Palisades home in 1948 after spending the night there with Harrison.
The scandal ended his contract at Fox and temporarily halted his film career. He and Palmer divorced in 1957. He would marry four more times.
Ingrid Bergman
The Swedish actress was one of the top female stars in Hollywood, receiving an Oscar for 1944's "Gaslight." She was married to a dentist and had a daughter named Pia. But then she became persona non grata when she went to Italy in 1949 to make the film "Stromboli" for director Roberto Rossellini. They fell in love and she became pregnant with his son Roberto in 1950. Bergman was even denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Edwin C. Johnson, a Democratic senator from Colorado who described her as a "horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil."
Bergman left for Italy. Her husband divorced her, and Bergman married Rossellini. Two years later, they had twins, Isabella and Ingrid. The two made movies but separated and divorced by 1957. But her private life was still anything but private. At one point, Ed Sullivan polled the audience of his TV show to see if she should be a guest. Though the audience voted in her favor, Sullivan didn't invite her. She won the 1956 lead actress Oscar for "Anastasia" but didn't attend the ceremony. She didn't make her first post-scandal appearance in Hollywood until the 1958 Oscar ceremony.
Rob Lowe
One of the Brat Pack heartthrobs of the 1980s found himself involved in a sex scandal over a videotape made in 1988 of him having sex with two girls, one of whom was just 16. The tape was filmed in Atlanta during the Democratic National Convention. Also on the tape were sequences of Lowe and a friend having sex with a model named Jennifer in a hotel room in Paris.
Lowe entered a rehab clinic for alcohol and sex addiction and later made fun of his problems on "Saturday Night Live." Married for 18 years and the father of two sons, Lowe rebounded from the scandal, starring on the NBC series "The West Wing." He's now on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters."
Woody Allen
The Oscar-winning auteur not only made several films together with his longtime girlfriend Mia Farrow, including "Broadway Danny Rose," they also had three children -- two adopted. But their unwedded bliss ended in 1992 when Farrow came across naked photos of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn in Allen's apartment. A long custody battle for the three children ensued, with Farrow saying that Allen had molested their 7-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan. The judge concluded that the sex abuse charges were inconclusive but stated that his conduct with Soon-Yi was "grossly inappropriate," especially since Soon-Yi could be considered his stepdaughter. Allen says that he never had a paternal relationship with her.
Farrow won custody of all three children. Though some believe Allen's conduct permanently hurt his reputation, he and Soon-Yi married in 1997 and have two adopted children.
Hugh Grant
The British actor exuded charm, wit and sophistication. Then, just prior to the release of his first American film, 1995's "Nine Months," he was arrested by L.A. vice officers near Sunset Boulevard for misdemeanor lewd conduct in a public place with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown. Pleading no contest to the charges, he was fined and placed on two years' summary probation and ordered to complete an AIDS education program.
Grant's grief ended up being a boon for Jay Leno and "The Tonight Show," which had been consistently losing in the ratings to David Letterman. Grant honored his commitment to appear on the show, where he earned marks for not making any excuses for his behavior, even after Leno famously asked him, "What were you thinking?" Grant's reply: "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did bad things. And there you have it."
Charlie Sheen
He plays a womanizing bachelor on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men." And he also played one in real life.
Though now settled down and married to his third wife -- he's also the father of five -- Sheen not only battled drug problems in the 1990s, he also battled sexual demons.
In 1995, a woman sued him, stating that he had struck her in the head several times when she refused to have sex with him. Later it was revealed during the trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss that Sheen had shelled out some $50,000 for ordering her call girls more than two dozen times.
Hollywood Sex scandals-latimes.com
Before there was Roman Polanski, there was Errol Flynn. Before David Letterman, Charlie Chaplin.
Celebrity sex scandals have been around for as long as there have been celebrities -- yes, even before TMZ and Perez Hilton -- so the recent arrest of Polanski relating to his having sex with a 13-year-old girl and Letterman's confession of having sex with female members of his staff are just the latest in a long and sometimes sordid history.
"This is nothing new for the media and the public to become obsessed with this and report this in juicy, lurid, titillating detail," says film historian and critic Stephen Farber, who notes that there is "this very moralistic side to this country that sort of plays on that. Some of these events are not big events in other countries, whereas here they are sources of wagging tongues."
Some stars have seen their careers crash down upon them, but others have endured the headlines and have put their lives back in order.
Farber says some celebrities, such as Woody Allen and Ingrid Bergman, survived sex scandals because of "longevity. Some people go on a longer time," says Farber. "Memories are short."
Read more..
MMA events schedule(UFC)
Saturday, Oct. 24
* UFC 104: Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua, Staples Center, Los Angeles, PPV
Friday, Nov. 6
*Strikeforce Challengers: Jorge Gurgel vs. Billy Evangelista, SaveMart Center, Fresno, Calif., Showtime
Saturday, Nov. 7
*Strikeforce: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers, Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates, Ill., CBS
Saturday, Nov. 14
*UFC 105: Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera, MEN Arena, Manchester, England, Spike TV
Wednesday, Nov. 18
*WEC 44: Mike Brown vs. Jose Aldo, Pearl at the Palms Theater, Las Vegas, Versus
Saturday, Nov. 21
*UFC 106: Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, PPV
Melissa Rycroft Diagnosed with Swine Flu
Former Bachelor star and Dancing with the Stars contestant Melissa Rycroft has the swine flu.
"I am indeed recovering from a bout of the H1N1 flu virus," the 26-year-old told US Weekly. "Like most people who become infected, I thought I had a mild case of the common flu, but when my symptoms exacerbated, I immediately went to the hospital where I was diagnosed with H1N1 and given the proper medications to cure the infection."
Melissa Rycroft sets wedding date
Despite the hysteria created by the virus, Rycroft stresses that beating the bug isn't difficult if proper measures are taken.
"I want to stress to people how easy it is to battle this flu when you take the proper steps, such as seeking the care of a doctor," she said. "I'm a clear case [demonstrating] that by paying diligent attention to your health, it's easy to overcome this illness and be healthy again."
source: http://omg.yahoo.com/news/melissa-rycroft-diagnosed-with-swine-flu/29644;_ylt=AhrOJBcbbqjdM7krRS5.sJgPpxx.;_ylv=3
Watch Astro Boy (2009) Full movie trailer
Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Dr. Tenma.
Powered by positive "blue" energy, Astro Boy is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly.
Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way.
Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny.
Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it means to be a hero.
| Genres: | Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Animation and Adaptation | ||||||||
| Running Time: | 1 hr. 34 min. | ||||||||
| Release Date: | October 23rd, 2009 (wide) | ||||||||
| MPAA Rating: | |||||||||
| Distributors: | Summit Entertainment, LLC
|
Watch Ong Bak 2: The Beginning 2009 full trailer
A young nobleman bears witness to the massacre of his
family at the hands of a treacherous and power-crazed warlord.
Bent on revenge, he joins a band of guerrilla fighters who school
him in a dizzying array of martial arts and weaponry techniques
before unleashing him on his unwavering mission to avenge his
family's murder.
| Genres: | Action/Adventure, Art/Foreign and Sequel | ||||||
| Running Time: | 1 hr. 37 min. | ||||||
| Release Date: | October 23rd, 2009 (limited) | ||||||
| MPAA Rating: | |||||||
| Distributors: | Magnolia Pictures, Magnet Releasing
|
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