Artist: Karma Tashi
Genre(s):
Folk
Discography:
Tibetan Singing Bowls
Year: 1995
Tracks: 2
Nick Cave
Thursday 26 June 2008
Karma Tashi
Artist: Karma Tashi
Genre(s):
Folk
Discography:
Tibetan Singing Bowls
Year: 1995
Tracks: 2
Nick Cave
Monday 16 June 2008
Holmes talks about love at first sight
Actress Katie Holmes has spoken about the moment that she fell in love with her husband Tom Cruise, saying that time stopped.
In an interview with In Style magazine, Holmes said: "It happened in an instant. When you fall in love, it's like time stops."
Speaking about their relationship now, she said: "I try every day to make Tom know how much I love him. It gets better and better."
"[He] and I stay in really good communication with each other. I talk to him about anything, at any time."
"He works 48 hours straight, comes home, and if I ask, 'Would you help me with this?' he'll do it."
In an interview with In Style magazine, Holmes said: "It happened in an instant. When you fall in love, it's like time stops."
Speaking about their relationship now, she said: "I try every day to make Tom know how much I love him. It gets better and better."
"[He] and I stay in really good communication with each other. I talk to him about anything, at any time."
"He works 48 hours straight, comes home, and if I ask, 'Would you help me with this?' he'll do it."
Saturday 7 June 2008
Duplex 100
Artist: Duplex 100
Genre(s):
Techno
Discography:
Plus 1 Vinyl
Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
Ex-Busted members lose royalties case
Friday 6 June 2008
Il Trovatore, Holland Park Theatre, London
John Lloyd Davies's production reimagines Verdi's great examination of the psychology of violence as a surrealist phantasmagoria set during the Spanish Civil War. It arouses mixed feelings, to put it mildly. Lloyd Davies is clearly having none of the usual criticism that Il Trovatore consists merely of a series of good tunes hitched to an intractable plot. Yet the opera's dramaturgy - a reflection on extreme events rather than a direct depiction - is notoriously tricky, and Lloyd Davies's solutions are both confused and simplistic.
His fondness for symbolism hinders rather than helps a work not noted for narrative clarity. The set is a bombed-out palazzo, with Latin slogans about self-sacrifice on the walls. A horrid, Otto Runge-style painting of two inscrutably knowing children stares down, while the stake at which Azucena's mother was burned is visible throughout. Di Luna's and Manrico's soldiers are repeatedly herded on opposite sides of the stage, while Leonora and Azucena, the victims of this masculine society, are passed or flung from one male group to another. Awkwardly, however, Lloyd Davies equates Di Luna with the fascists and Manrico with republicans, imposing moral bias on a work that depicts conflict as a senseless mess in which neither side has ethical superiority.
Musically, things are more consistent. Brad Cohen's conducting is all fire and steel, and apart from Katarina Jovanovic's squally, approximate Leonora, the opera is well sung. Rafael Rojas's macho, thrilling Manrico is pitted against Stephen Gadd's super-subtle Di Luna. Anne Mason gives a tremendous performance as Azucena, rising to genuinely tragic heights. She's well worth hearing, whatever you think of the inequalities elsewhere.
· Until June 20. Box office: 0845 230 9769.
See Also
Bled
Artist: Bled
Genre(s):
Pop
Discography:
Silent Treatment
Year: 2007
Tracks: 11
Inspired by groups like Refused and the Mars Volta, Tucson-based post-hardcore fivesome the Bled explode onto the national scene with their 2005 Vagrant debut, Found in the Flood. By that point the band's lineup featured vocalizer James Muñoz, guitarists Ross Ott and Jeremy Talley, and a calendar method of birth control section of Darren Simoes (bass) and Mike Pedicone (drums), though like most bands they'd endured some lineup changes in the past. Previous to the Vagrant apportion, the Bled had been on Fiddler, where they issued the 2003 album Croak the Flask. That album, however, finally hide out of print and became hard to find, prompt Vagrant to reprint it in March 2007 with extra bonus tracks (which included cuts from the Bled's earlier EPs).
Mixed reception for Indiana Jones at Cannes
Harry Potter Actor Knox Murdered In Knife Attack
Young Harry Potter actor Robert Knox has been stabbed to death after attempting to save his brother from a knife attack in Kent, southeast England. The 18-year-old, who won the role of Marcus Belby in the forthcoming film Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, sustained multiple stab wounds on Friday night , after becoming embroiled in an argument with two armed men who had threatened his 17-year-old brother Jamie. Four other men were stabbed following the brawl - which reportedly stemmed from the theft of a cell phone - at the Metro Bar in Sidcup, Kent. Knox was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, southeast London, but was pronounced dead on arrival. A police inquiry into the murder has now been opened. A spokesperson for the authorities says, "At this early stage, we retain an open mind as to any motive, and inquiries continue to establish the full circumstances of the incident. We do not believe the incident is gang-related." Executives at Warner Bros. Studio, which produces the Harry Potter movies, have released a statement expressing their condolences to Knox's relatives. It reads, "We are all shocked and saddened by this news and at this time out sympathies are with his family."
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Terry Riley at Walt Disney Concert Hall
AT 4:53 p.m. Sunday, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars, and two hours later pictures from the dusty red planet arrived at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to prove it.But sound doesn't travel as fast as light, so it took a half-hour longer before we had an indication of extraterrestrial life stirring. That is when Hurricane Mama awakened and began to make miraculous music a few miles from JPL at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Terry Riley -- a Space Age Prospero dressed in black, wearing a black skull cap and in striped stocking feet, his long gray beard flowing -- walked to the organ consol. The hall was darkened. The wooden pipes were illuminated deep purple. No longer "French fries," a nickname Riley told the audience he felt inelegant, the pipes were newly dubbed "radiant columns of Orfeo." Hurricane Mama is his name for the Disney organ.
For the next two hours, Hurricane Mama howled and roared. Orfeo's columns traced the shapes of swirling galaxies and accompanied accelerating quanta as they collided releasing astonishing quantities of energy. They strung out strings of space-time and hymned drones of mystical oneness with the universe. All of that came before lift-off, which occurred in a long-held ground-shaking, gravity-defying final chord. Riley and the organ are a match made on the other side of Mars, namely heaven. As the composer who launched Minimalism in 1964 with "In C," he was an obviously crucial figure in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Minimalist Jukebox" festival two years ago. At that time, the orchestra invited Riley to create a new work for the organ. "Universal Bridge," which began with an Anthem for Disney Hall and concluded with nature unleashed in "Hurricane Mama Blues," was the result. "Minimalist" is a strange tag for Riley. It suits him in that he has never lost his love for interlocking repetitive figures imbued with the strength to send the brain into psychedelic reverie. But Riley is really a musical accumulator.Years of study in India have made him a master of raga, played on the keyboard and sung. A virtuosic pianist and inspired improviser, he began as a jazz player and, at 72, remains a brilliant jazz player. Hardly remaining in or anywhere near C, he roams through modes and microtones continually enriching his harmonic palate. Melodically and rhythmically he flows naturally between East and West, ancient times, recent music history and the present. Although he has performed before on the pipe organ, Riley's main instruments are piano, electric organ and synthesizer. To prepare for Sunday's concert, he made several trips from his home in Northern California to spend nights familiarizing himself with the Disney organ, typically practicing from midnight to 6 a.m., a period when he could play in the dark uninterrupted with only the night watchman looking on. His original idea was to give an all-night concert, from around 11 to dawn, but he had to scrap that when the Philharmonic put him on its regular organ series. For the first half of his program, Riley revised two classic pieces, first updating "Persian Surgery Dervishes," a study in whirling repetitions for electric keyboard and tape delay. (A famous performance of that was given and recorded in Los Angeles in 1971). Sunday's new "A Persian Surgery Dervish in the Nursery" made his performance on the old electronic technology seem downright primitive. On Disney's instrument, Riley achieved a sense of awe-inspiring vastness with thick church-like diapason textures. For an arrangement of a few themes from his epic 1985 string quartet, "Salome Dances for Peace," Riley began with spellbinding rumbling of low notes and then traced trilling fanciful melodies, at one point adding raga-like vocalization. The "Universal Bridge" premiere was after intermission. Its opening Anthem for Disney Hall proved an embracing celebration of succulent chords in grand progression. The second movement, "The Bull," began with Middle Eastern melodic figuration over an arpeggiated ostinato base that had a faintly tango feel and slowly evolved into Bachian exuberance. In the next movement, "The Shape of Flames," calm, soft-grained Mexican-like figures radiated into musical styles from near and far, with occasional long dissonant blasts, as it built into the rapturous, overpowering, indescribable "Hurricane Mama Blues."On a personal note, I am not a disinterested observer of Riley's music. I have been attending his concerts since the '60s. I lined up with other students waiting for a Berkeley record store to open to buy "In C" the day the first recording of it was released. I attended Mills College in Oakland when Riley taught there in the '70s (although I didn't study with him). I got goose bumps watching him receive an honorary doctorate at CalArts this month. My expectations for Sunday's concert were impossibly high. They were exceeded.mark.swed@latimes.com
For the next two hours, Hurricane Mama howled and roared. Orfeo's columns traced the shapes of swirling galaxies and accompanied accelerating quanta as they collided releasing astonishing quantities of energy. They strung out strings of space-time and hymned drones of mystical oneness with the universe. All of that came before lift-off, which occurred in a long-held ground-shaking, gravity-defying final chord. Riley and the organ are a match made on the other side of Mars, namely heaven. As the composer who launched Minimalism in 1964 with "In C," he was an obviously crucial figure in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Minimalist Jukebox" festival two years ago. At that time, the orchestra invited Riley to create a new work for the organ. "Universal Bridge," which began with an Anthem for Disney Hall and concluded with nature unleashed in "Hurricane Mama Blues," was the result. "Minimalist" is a strange tag for Riley. It suits him in that he has never lost his love for interlocking repetitive figures imbued with the strength to send the brain into psychedelic reverie. But Riley is really a musical accumulator.Years of study in India have made him a master of raga, played on the keyboard and sung. A virtuosic pianist and inspired improviser, he began as a jazz player and, at 72, remains a brilliant jazz player. Hardly remaining in or anywhere near C, he roams through modes and microtones continually enriching his harmonic palate. Melodically and rhythmically he flows naturally between East and West, ancient times, recent music history and the present. Although he has performed before on the pipe organ, Riley's main instruments are piano, electric organ and synthesizer. To prepare for Sunday's concert, he made several trips from his home in Northern California to spend nights familiarizing himself with the Disney organ, typically practicing from midnight to 6 a.m., a period when he could play in the dark uninterrupted with only the night watchman looking on. His original idea was to give an all-night concert, from around 11 to dawn, but he had to scrap that when the Philharmonic put him on its regular organ series. For the first half of his program, Riley revised two classic pieces, first updating "Persian Surgery Dervishes," a study in whirling repetitions for electric keyboard and tape delay. (A famous performance of that was given and recorded in Los Angeles in 1971). Sunday's new "A Persian Surgery Dervish in the Nursery" made his performance on the old electronic technology seem downright primitive. On Disney's instrument, Riley achieved a sense of awe-inspiring vastness with thick church-like diapason textures. For an arrangement of a few themes from his epic 1985 string quartet, "Salome Dances for Peace," Riley began with spellbinding rumbling of low notes and then traced trilling fanciful melodies, at one point adding raga-like vocalization. The "Universal Bridge" premiere was after intermission. Its opening Anthem for Disney Hall proved an embracing celebration of succulent chords in grand progression. The second movement, "The Bull," began with Middle Eastern melodic figuration over an arpeggiated ostinato base that had a faintly tango feel and slowly evolved into Bachian exuberance. In the next movement, "The Shape of Flames," calm, soft-grained Mexican-like figures radiated into musical styles from near and far, with occasional long dissonant blasts, as it built into the rapturous, overpowering, indescribable "Hurricane Mama Blues."On a personal note, I am not a disinterested observer of Riley's music. I have been attending his concerts since the '60s. I lined up with other students waiting for a Berkeley record store to open to buy "In C" the day the first recording of it was released. I attended Mills College in Oakland when Riley taught there in the '70s (although I didn't study with him). I got goose bumps watching him receive an honorary doctorate at CalArts this month. My expectations for Sunday's concert were impossibly high. They were exceeded.mark.swed@latimes.com
'Lie Down in Darkness' gets another shot
'Boys Don't Cry' producer Jeffrey Sharp developing
CANNES -- William Styron's Southern family drama "Lie Down in Darkness" is getting another shot at the big screen, thanks to "Boys Don't Cry" producer Jeffrey Sharp.
Styron, who served as a Cannes juror in 1983, is popular in Europe, and Sharp is on the Croisette talking to potential overseas partners.
Styron's critically acclaimed bestseller, which came out in 1951, was never made into a film even though John Frankenheimer optioned it in the 1960's. Theater producer Jay Fuchs tried it again in the 1980's and also ran into difficulties.
But Sharp, who has a shingle set up at News Corp.'s HarperCollins, said that the time is ripe for another go-round, particularly in the wake of two other literary adaptations of period works: Joe Wright's "Atonement" and Sam Mendes' upcoming "Revolutionary Road," which Sharp developed at his former Hart Sharp Banner. "With those two books being turned into movies, it feels like an appropriate time to do this,'" Sharp said. "The story can be told now with a modern perspective."
"Darkness," Styron's debut book, which he wrote at the age of 22, tells the story of the rich and troubled Loftis family, centering on daughter Peyton, who winds up fleeing for the New York art world.
Sharp has enlisted the late author's daughter, Susanna, a film maker who will serve as a producer and be actively involved in the project. George Sheanshang and Luke Parker Bowles will serve as exec producers.
Styron wrote eight books over a long and complicated career, but only "Sophie's Choice" was turned into a film; that Alan Pakula film garnered five Oscar nominations in 1982. While the setting and themes of the two books differ, Sharp noted that "the common thread is that Styron has the innate ability to get into the underdog character, to see the disenfranchised and tragically doomed, particularly women."
Sharp Independent at Harper Collins is growing a diverse development slate that includes Meg Cabot's "Queen of Babble" and Jay Barbree's "Live from Cape Canaveral." "Darkness" is the first property on the development slate to come from outside the HarperCollins catalog.
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Rascal Flatts expand 'Bob That Head Tour'
Rascal Flatts [ tickets ] have added more than a dozen shows to their "Bob That Head Tour" ahead of its June launch.The country trio will appear this week in Fort Wayne, IN, and Dayton, OH, before officially kicking off the outing June 13 in the St. Louis, MO, area. The guys are scheduled to visit more than 30 US cities from the Midwest to the East Coast through late September, with a stop in Sarnia, Ontario, along the way. Rising star Taylor Swift [ tickets ] will open the shows, along with songwriters Neil Thrasher and Wendell Mobley. The itinerary is listed below.Rascal Flatts' recently wrapped "Still Feels Good Tour" ranked as the best-selling country trek for the first quarter of 2008, according to music-industry trade publication Pollstar.The band has been out all year supporting its platinum-selling September release, "Still Feels Good," which has spawned the hits "Take Me There" and "Winner at a Losing Game." Rascal Flatts are promoting their latest single, "Every Day," with performances this week on NBC-TV's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and ABC's "Dancing with the Stars.""Still Feels Good," the follow-up to 2006's "Me and My Gang," marks the group's third consecutive album to debut at No. 1.Since launching their career in 2000, Rascal Flatts have sold more than 17 million albums and scored nine No. 1 singles, according to a press release. Later this month, the trio will be vying for its sixth consecutive Vocal Group of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music. During the ceremony, the ACM will honor Rascal Flatts with a humanitarian award.
Blur - Celebs Competing For Proms Opportunity
Eight celebrities will compete for the chance to conduct at the last night of the Proms in a new BBC2 reality show.
The winner of Maestro, featuring hip-hop artist Goldie, Blur bassist Alex James and actress Jane Asher, will conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra in front of a 30,000-strong live audience on September 13th.
The programme, which is due to air over the summer, will see a judging panel led by eminent conductor Sir Roger Norrington decide which of the eight contestants gets kicked off the show every week.
Newsreader Katie Derham, presenter Peter Snow, actor David Soul, comedienne Sur Perkins and comic actor Bradley Walsh are the other five conducting-wannabes.
"Maestro will take the audience on a fascinating, surprising, thrilling and informative journey into the heart of music-making," commented Peter Maniura, head of BBC Classical Music Television.
"It will delve into the practicalities, magic and mystery of what a conductor actually does to make great music happen."
23/05/2008 16:38:26
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The Ghost of Celebrity Past!
"Ghostbuster" Ernie Hudson gave a homeless guy some money after getting bumrushed in Hollywood -- but this donation had more to do with saving face than doing a selfless deed.
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