If we're ever watching the Academy Awards' Oscars telecast, the one thing we always look forward to is the "In Memoriam" part of the show, in which tribute is paid to the actors and industry folks that have passed away in the previous 12 months.
Unfortunately, because of time constraints on an already too long show, many people are left out, much to the chagrin of both the Academy and the families of the snubbed. The TCM channel doesn't have that particular problem, and as such does a much better job with their annual "TCM Remembers" tribute, albeit by shortening the onscreen time of those honored.
As for New York magazine's bet that Patrick Swayze will be the last to be honored during this year's "In Memoriam", we dunno...it's hard to pick an end-of-montage actor among people who, while talented and noteworthy, were mid-montage material. It's not like there were Brandos or Newmans who died this past year, right?
Meanwhile, check out the most recent "TCM Remembers":
3/04/2010
3/03/2010
What We're Listening To
GIRLS Album [True Panther / Matador]
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Rapture [Music Club]
LENNY KRAVITZ Mama Said [Virgin]
MASTERS OF REALITY Sunrise on the Sufferbus [Chrysalis]
LOS TRES Fome [Sony US Latin]
What are YOU listening to?
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Rapture [Music Club]
LENNY KRAVITZ Mama Said [Virgin]
MASTERS OF REALITY Sunrise on the Sufferbus [Chrysalis]
LOS TRES Fome [Sony US Latin]
What are YOU listening to?
3/01/2010
RIP: T-Bone Wolk
Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, a 30-year bassist/collaborator with pop icons Hall & Oates, died of a sudden heart attack on Feb.27th.
Once referred to by Hall as "the ampersand in Hall & Oates", Wolk was scheduled to appear tonight with his long-time employers on Jimmy Fallon's 1st anniversary show.
Eerily, this past weekend, unaware of the well-regarded musician's passing, we found ourselves visiting Daryl Hall's Live form Daryl's House website for the first time in months and soaking up some of the stellar performances, of which Wolk was an integral part. Man...
T-Bone was 58 years old.
Once referred to by Hall as "the ampersand in Hall & Oates", Wolk was scheduled to appear tonight with his long-time employers on Jimmy Fallon's 1st anniversary show.
Eerily, this past weekend, unaware of the well-regarded musician's passing, we found ourselves visiting Daryl Hall's Live form Daryl's House website for the first time in months and soaking up some of the stellar performances, of which Wolk was an integral part. Man...
T-Bone was 58 years old.
Guru Suffers Heart Attack; Slips into Coma
Guru of seminal rap duo Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz is in a coma after suffering a heart attack on Sunday. The 43 year-old will undergo surgery this afternoon.
Born Keith Elam, Guru rapped on Gang Starr hits including "Words I Manifest," "Just to Get Rep," and "Full Clip," and the group earned critical acclaim for Guru's earnest, intelligent lyrics and DJ Premier's innovative sampling and use of jazz in their music.
With Guru's Jazzmatazz, the rapper delved into jazz further while also collaborating with the Neptunes, Kelis, and Chaka Khan. He had recently hinted on Twitter that he and DJ Premier were set to work on new Gang Starr material, and had a Jazzmatazz tour planned.
[Guardian.co.uk via All Music Guide]
See No Evil: Network TV Roundup
The NY Times' recap of the returning prime-time network TV dramas pre-Spring, post-Winter Olympics included this gem:
Nice.
Speaking of TV, our new favorite cable show is TNT's Men of a Certain Age starring Scott Bakula, Andre Braugher, and Ray Romano, a well-written slice-of-life about three childhood friends as they approach the big 5-0, created by Romano. Also in the running is HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show, the animated version of the hilarious, world famous podcast featuring The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant and the incomparable Karl Pilkington. Also, a special mention mention to another HBO show: Bored to Death, a Jonathan Aames-created, Brooklyn-based comedy nugget starring Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson.
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (NBC) It must be the first law of “Law & Order” thermodynamics: As the original show has improved over the last two years, “SVU” has declined. The only idea the writers seem to have left is to put Elliot (Christopher Meloni) or Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) in danger, preferably in a situation that includes serious injury or torture. Returns Wednesday, with back-to-back episodes featuring the noted thespians Kathy Griffin (as a lesbian-rights activist) and Mischa Barton (as a prostitute).
Nice.
Speaking of TV, our new favorite cable show is TNT's Men of a Certain Age starring Scott Bakula, Andre Braugher, and Ray Romano, a well-written slice-of-life about three childhood friends as they approach the big 5-0, created by Romano. Also in the running is HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show, the animated version of the hilarious, world famous podcast featuring The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant and the incomparable Karl Pilkington. Also, a special mention mention to another HBO show: Bored to Death, a Jonathan Aames-created, Brooklyn-based comedy nugget starring Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson.
2/28/2010
The Great Green Way?
We caught Green Day live on MTV for the release of their 2004 American Idiot album and were impressed by the energy and maturity of the songs--not enough to become fans, though. We also had to acknowledge the ballsiness of writing a decent concept album and how, musically, the Berkeley, CA trio had finally made something of themselves.
Now we hear that the album has made into a Broadway musical set to debut in late March. Good grief.
Now we hear that the album has made into a Broadway musical set to debut in late March. Good grief.
Avatar up for Best Picture: Really?
We enjoyed the far superior American Beauty (1999) but did not deem it to be Oscar-worthy, so imagine our surprise when we heard James Cameron's Dances with Wolves in space was one of the nominees this year. Man...
2/24/2010
Patti LaBelle Disses Idol Judges
AP:
NEW YORK – Patti LaBelle thinks some people shouldn't be on "American Idol" — and she's not talking about the contestants.
"Some of the judges, I don't think they're qualified to even judge," she said in an interview Wednesday.
The veteran R&B diva wouldn't say which judge she thought was lacking on the hit Fox show, which has Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres picking America's top singers. Tuesday's "Idol" episode saw 12 female semifinalists competing during "Hollywood Week."
LaBelle said she was asked to be a judge on the series before Paula Abdul; a rep for the show had no comment on whether she was. LaBelle feels like the judges' comments to the contestants are too mean.
"The comments that were made, they could make you like wanna kill yourself," the 65-year-old singer said.
LaBelle's advice to singing hopefuls: "If you believe in yourself, just go for it. What do you have to lose? And when people tell you 'You can't,' you have to say, 'I can.'"
On the one hand, it's good she addresses this nonsense of putting any old clown on the panel to judge. For better or for worse, Cowell represents--as well as Jackson and DioGuardi--the gatekeepers of the music industry. If in addition to DeGeneres they're gonna bring on Howard Stern--who has not been involved in music for decades now, except as a fan--they might as well add to the panel average Joes off the street and call the show American Karaoke. Seriously.
As for her words of encouragement to contestants, they are not exactly what the literally dozens of clueless, untalented fools passing thru American Idol's ranks need to hear to further embolden themselves and torture the rest of us with their mediocre to foul vocalizing.
Then again, what do we care?
2/23/2010
The Emperor's New Codes: Celebrity in the 21st Century
We really don’t care about John Mayer’s sex life or any other nonsense his diarrhea of the mouth—and/or computer keyboard—provokes him to put out there. But there was one point he tried to make in his recent, now infamous, Playboy interview when discussing why he and on-and-off girlfriend Jennifer Aniston weren’t together that spoke to us about a much larger topic.
When he mentioned that the bulk of her fame had been achieved in the pre-online social network era, “before TMZ and Twitter”, he basically alluded to the 40 year old Aniston being an old fart who couldn’t understand why Mayer had to constantly tweet, etc. (Allegedly, "she saw [Mayer's] involvement in technology as courting distraction." We think so, too.) “The rules of celebrity have changed” or something to that effect, was his defense.
The problem with that is, as a good friend of ours recently brought up in conversation, this unfettered self-promotion may help celebrities stay in touch with their audience but at some point the person's “crazy” is gonna come out and the PR nightmare will ensue. Whatever. Mayer is part of a generation that seems to have very little understanding of what true privacy or instinctual self-preservation are; everything's one big joke. But we don’t care much about that, per se; it’s the current lack of mystery regarding an artist’s public persona that we bemoan.
Are we witnessing the end of the artist as the icon of escapism? If that dude on stage is portrayed as ostensibly just another 9-to-5er on temporary vacation, should we care how they come about creating their art? Do we feel the same about them and their process? Does this feed into the reality TV mentality that you too, however untalented you may be, have a chance at being a “star”?
Surely a middle ground can be found between the over-the-top mythic tales of how, for example, Jimmy Page composed the music to Led Zeppelin classics while secluded in a dark castle, surrounded by Aleister Crowley paraphernalia; and on the other hand, the constant barrage of OMG, I-just-had-an-organic-ham-sandwich-on-whole-wheat tweeting that passes for communication these days. Right?
Which is why this particular bit in the NY Times last week seemed so refreshing:
Of course, we’re talking about an artist who debuted a quarter of a century ago—yes, that’s how long ago 1985 was—one whose audience can be assumed to be the over 35 crowd. But the question is, have the rules indeed changed? Is the audience truly looking for artists to “show that you don’t take yourself seriously,” as Mayer asserts? And is the risk of coming across as a buffoon—or worse—just a byproduct of the way business is done these days?
Let’s hope not.
When he mentioned that the bulk of her fame had been achieved in the pre-online social network era, “before TMZ and Twitter”, he basically alluded to the 40 year old Aniston being an old fart who couldn’t understand why Mayer had to constantly tweet, etc. (Allegedly, "she saw [Mayer's] involvement in technology as courting distraction." We think so, too.) “The rules of celebrity have changed” or something to that effect, was his defense.
The problem with that is, as a good friend of ours recently brought up in conversation, this unfettered self-promotion may help celebrities stay in touch with their audience but at some point the person's “crazy” is gonna come out and the PR nightmare will ensue. Whatever. Mayer is part of a generation that seems to have very little understanding of what true privacy or instinctual self-preservation are; everything's one big joke. But we don’t care much about that, per se; it’s the current lack of mystery regarding an artist’s public persona that we bemoan.
Are we witnessing the end of the artist as the icon of escapism? If that dude on stage is portrayed as ostensibly just another 9-to-5er on temporary vacation, should we care how they come about creating their art? Do we feel the same about them and their process? Does this feed into the reality TV mentality that you too, however untalented you may be, have a chance at being a “star”?
Surely a middle ground can be found between the over-the-top mythic tales of how, for example, Jimmy Page composed the music to Led Zeppelin classics while secluded in a dark castle, surrounded by Aleister Crowley paraphernalia; and on the other hand, the constant barrage of OMG, I-just-had-an-organic-ham-sandwich-on-whole-wheat tweeting that passes for communication these days. Right?
Which is why this particular bit in the NY Times last week seemed so refreshing:
To promote her new album, Sade said little but sang much. She performed on Today, The View and Late Show With David Letterman but gave very few interviews. That reticence—which goes against every rule in the current pop-marketing playbook—may have worked to her advantage on the radio, said Doc Wynter, vice president of urban programming for Clear Channel Radio.
Of course, we’re talking about an artist who debuted a quarter of a century ago—yes, that’s how long ago 1985 was—one whose audience can be assumed to be the over 35 crowd. But the question is, have the rules indeed changed? Is the audience truly looking for artists to “show that you don’t take yourself seriously,” as Mayer asserts? And is the risk of coming across as a buffoon—or worse—just a byproduct of the way business is done these days?
Let’s hope not.
2/20/2010
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