admwill smith | leonardo dicaprio george clooney

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GEORGE CLOON
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SLOAN | MXPX
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ALPHARETTA/WINDWARD | 678.393.2733
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MIDTOWN | 404.249.6404
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S
It’s All About tyle
For Less
CONTENTS
JANUARY 2007 VOL. 15.4
INTERVIEWS
12 LEONARDO DICAPRIO
12
15 NICK CASSAVETES
22 SLOAN
23 GHOSTFACE KILLAH
25 SCRAPPY
29 MXPX
30 EVA GREEN
OPEN 7 DAYS!
34 GEORGE CLOONEY
Choose from over 25,000 pairs of the MOST UNIQUE fashion shoes
for men and women with brands like Kenneth Cole,
Steve Madden, Robert Wayne, Clarks, Børn, New Balance, Adidas and
many more! All at 30% TO 60% OFF department store prices!
New styles every day!
FEATURES
Monday - Saturday 10 -7. Sunday 1- 6 . www.shoemakerswarehouse.com
14
35 WILL SMITH
10 NOODLE BOWLS
Looking for something to warm you up this
winter? Our Noodle Bowl Guide profile the
top restaurants offering them in Atlanta.
14 THE YEAR IN MOVIES
500A Amsterdam Ave . Atlanta . 404/881-9301
From action epics like The Departed and
foreign fantasies like Pan’s Labyrinth to Al
Gore’s globle warming doc, An
Inconvenient Truth, we highlight the year’s
best Films.
23
26 THE YEAR IN MUSIC
What do Jenny Lewis, Corinne Bailey, Rae,
Lupe Fiasco and The Hold Steady have in
common? They all made our critics year
end Top 10 lists.
31 WINTER EDUCATION GUIDE
If you’re New Year’s resolution was to
enhance your career or expand your education, our Guide spotlights some great programs to help you do it.
30
36 THE YEAR IN SPORTS
Remember when Kobe Bryant scored 81
points in one game? When that French soccer player head-butted an opponent in the
chest? When the NBA tried out a new ball,
with disasterous results? So do we!
COLUMNS
6 ON TAP
8 AROUND TOWN
9 UNDER THE LIGHTS
34
13 WANTON DISTRACTION
16 MOVIE REVIEWS
20 CONCERT CALENDAR
22 ROAD WARRIORS
24 ALBUM REVIEWS
37 FANATIC
38 HOROSCOPES
35
www.insiteatlanta.com
PG 4 • insiteatlanta.com • January 2007
Januar y 4th through Februar y 27th
Cu
Fr st
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com W y
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ed ve Di ng
fra r 50 xi
e
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WINTER SALE
40% TO 50%
ing yea
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OFF
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ON SELECT PAINTS, BRUSHES, PADS, EASELS,
PORTFOLIOS, PENS, PAPERS AND MORE!
All Blick Canvas
buy 20 or
more save
70%
buy 10 or
more save
buy 9 or
less save
off list
60%
50%
off list
off list
any combination
of style or size
New Roswell Blick Store:
1165 Woodstock Road, # 830
770-993-0240
Roswell Corners Shopping Center/ Super Target Center
L A R G E S T D I S CO U N T E R O F Q UA L I T Y A R T M AT E R I A L S
The Local Scene
ON TAP JANUARY
Email events to ontap@insiteatlanta.com
January 7:
World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions
The Lipizzaner Stallions bring their 37th Anniversary Tour to the
Arena at Gwinnett Center. In 1970, Producer Gary Lashinsky created a new family arena attraction, starring The "World Famous"
LIPIZZANER STALLIONS. Many horses and riders were
brought from Europe to perform in this unique family oriented
arena attraction. Over the years, twenty-three million people
throughout North and South America, Great Britain, Europe,
Australia and Hawaii have seen this internationally acclaimed
spectacle. For more info, head to: http://www.gwinnettcenter.com
January 13: Golden Dragon Acrobats
Atlanta Symphony Hall is the place for one of China's
most delightful exports. The Golden Dragon Acrobats
represent the best of a time honored tradition that began
more than twenty seven centuries ago. Direct from
Hebei, China, our company has traveled around the
world to all 50 states and to over 65 countries on five
continents. With performers trained in the rigorous art of
acrobatics since early youth, the troupe has garnered
international acclaim. The Golden Dragon Acrobats are
under the casting direction of Asian Artists Productions
located in Plano, TX. For more info, head to:
http://www.atlantasymphony.org/
January 17 - February 25:
Sister Act the Musical
Sister Act is coming to the Alliance Theatre this month. Alan
Menken and an award-winning creative team join forces to
bring the 1992 sleeper hit movie to a fabulous and funny new
life on stage. This glorious new production is a World
Premiere presentation in co-production with the Pasadena
Playhouse. Don't miss your chance to see this new musical,
sure to inspire you to raise your voice in laughter as you
dance down the aisles to the disco beat. Inspirational, heartwarming, and funny, this musical raises its voice to the rafters
in a story beloved over the last decade. For more info, head
to: http://www.alliancetheatre.org.
January 19 - February 4:
Girl Scout Cookie Sale
More than 25,000 Girl Scouts from 20 counties served by The Girl
Scout Council of Northwest Georgia will participate in the annual
cookie sale program. Girl Scouts ages 6-17 will be taking cookie
orders. Proceeds from the sale directly benefit the Girl Scout troops
that sell the cookies and their communities. New this season, all
cookies sold will have zero grams of trans fat, including the allnew sugar-free Little Brownies cookie made with sugar-free chocolate chips. Other cookies offered are Samoas, the legendary
Trefoils, Tagalongs, Café Cookie and the all-time American
favorite, Thin Mints. Each box sells for $3.50.
For more info, head to: www.girlscoutsnwga.org.
January 20: Rod Stewart
Come see one of the most popular crooners sing at Philips Arena.
Rod Stewart, one of the biggest 'superstars' of the century, has
turned 50 without his audience diminishing in any way. His credibility as high as it had ever been, Stewart then released When We
Were The New Boys, debuting at UK number 2 in June 1998. On
the album Stewart covered newer material by 90s bands including
Skunk Anansie ('Weak'), Primal Scream ('Rocks') and Oasis
('Cigarettes & Alcohol'). He also revisited the Faces on the single
'Ooh La La', originally sung by Ron Wood on the album of the
same name. For ticket info, head to: www.ticketmaster.com.
January 23: Incubus
Rock out at the Tabernacle this month when Incubus comes to
town. The band is a five-piece alternative rock band based out of
Calabasas, California. The band has enjoyed great success over
their fifteen-year long career, with singles like "Drive" and "Wish
You Were Here" making them household names in today's musical
climate. Incubus has enjoyed multi-platinum album success with
albums such as 2001's Morning View Incubus has just released
their latest studio effort Light Grenades on the 28th November
2006. On release, the album went straight to the top of the charts
in the United States due to the success of first single "AnnaMolly". For tickets, head to: www.ticketmaster.com.
• insiteatlanta.com
• April 2005
PG PG
6 • insiteatlanta.com
• January
2007
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Check out
Ugallery.com represents the top collegiate
artists from around the country.
Apply today and launch your art career or
purchase original artwork at Ugallery.com.
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Smar t Fun
COMMUNITY AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AT
THE ART INSTITUTE OF ATLANTA
TAKE YOUR SKILLS TO A NEW LEVEL OR
LEARN SOMETHING NEW JUST FOR FUN
Art and Graphic Design
Web Site Design
Photography
Animation
Audio and Video Production
Interior Decorating
Cooking and Cuisine
The winter class schedule is now online!
Go to www.artinstitutes.edu/atlanta and
click on Community Education. For more
information, call 770.689.4764 or contact
us at aiasmartfun@aii.edu.
In addition to community and professional education,
The Art Institute of Atlanta offers diploma, associate’s, and
bachelor’s programs in over a dozen fields in design, fashion, media
arts, and culinary arts. For more information about degree programs,
workshops, or Creations, the college’s student-run dining room open
to the public, call or visit www.artinstitutes.edu/atlanta.
6600 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd. 100 Embassy Row, Atlanta, GA 30328
1.800.275.4242 / 770.394.8300 / www.artinstitutes.edu/atlanta
07-209 1206
January 2007
Volume 15.4
INsite Magazine of Atlanta
2250 North Druid Hills Rd. #100
Atlanta, GA 30329-3118
404-315-8485 Fax 404-315-1755
email feedback@insiteatlanta
website insiteatlanta.com
The Arts
UNDER THE LIGHTS
W h at ’ s H a p p e n i n g o n S t a ge i n A t l a n t a
Advertising Information
Call 404-315-8485
advertising@insiteatlanta.com
President Stephen Miller
National Managing Editor Bret Love
Graphic Designer Michael T.
Local Events Editor Rav Mansfield
Local News Editor Glenn LaFollette
Sports Editor DeMarco Williams
Web Design Kalico Productions
Contributing Writers / Interns
John Davidson, John Moore, Russell
Fisher, Zena Scott, Margo Aaron, Andrew
Gilstrap, Mathew Goldberg & Kim
Guelcher
INsite is published on the first Friday of the
month and is distributed free on 23 college campuses and at over 1,000 locations throughout
metro Atlanta. Editorial content of INsite is the
opinion of each writer and is not necessarily the
opinion of INsite, its staff, or its advertisers.
INsite does not knowingly accept false or mi
leading advertising or editorial content, nor do
the publisher or editors of INsite assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial appear.
No content, i.e., articles, graphics, designs and
information (any and all) in this publication may
be reproduced in any manner without written permission from publisher.
© Copyright 2007, Be Bop Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reservedd
8 1/2 X 11:
“SEX, DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL”
Jan 19-Feb 17
D a d ’ s G a r a ge T h e a t r e
TA L E S O F E D G A R A L L E N P O E
Jan 17-Feb 11
Center for Puppetr y Ar ts
Love, obsession, madness, tortured psyches
and the evil that men do– all were fodder for
classic horror stories such as “The Raven,”
“The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat.”
Directed by Bobby Box in collaboration with
Jon Ludwig, this innovative production finds
puppeteers dressed in period clothing in full
view of the audience, and even appearing as
characters in some of the vignettes. With
puppets designed by Jason von Hinezmeyer
and music performed by Klimchak, this is
easily the month’s most intriguing theatrical
production. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1202
Spring St. 404-873-3391. www.puppet.org.
Curated by Dad’s Garage Artistic Director
Kate Warner, Atlanta’s most irreverent
short play festival returns with 8.5 world
premiere shorts inspired by our three
favorite sins. Playwrights offering up new
work include Alice Tuan, OBIE-award
winner Kyle Jarrow, John Pierson (former
guitarist for punk band Screeching Weasel)
and Atlanta’s own Steve Yockey, who was
voted Best Local Playwright of 2006 by
Creative Loafing. This year’s pieces will
also include a rotating lineup of local
singer-songwriters as well as an improvised sketch by members of the Dad’s
Garage ensemble. Dad’s Garage Theatre,
280 Elizabeth St, Suite C-101.
404-523-3141.
www.dadsgarage.com.
WINTER STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
Jan 26-28
KSU Center
Now in its 24th year, this annual festival
presented by the Southern Order of
Storytellers at Kennesaw State University is
dedicated to preserving the fine art of the oral
tradition. Offerings will include three days of
performances and workshops by a variety of
local, regional and nationally-known storytellers running the gamut from children’s stories and those with universal appeal to sacred
storytelling from a variety of cultures. There
will also be a live auction, festival feast, an
SOS Shoppe selling books and recordings,
and two opportunities to share your own colorful yarns during Story Swaps on January
27 and 28. KSU Center, 3333 Busbee Dr NW,
Kennesaw. 404-329-9950.
www.southernorderofstorytellers.com.
FUNNY FARM
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Admit Yourself Today
Darren Carter
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Jan 11,12,13 & 14
Roz G
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Jan 18,19,20
& 21
Janke Studios
John Mulrooney
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Jan 25,26,27 & 28
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Jimmy Cup Set
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STUDIOPLEX
Conveniently located between
Inman Park & the King Bir th Home
659 Auburn Ave. Studio G-9
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 584-0305
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Emo Phillips
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Feb 1,2,3 & 4
For Reservations
770.817.HAHA
www.FunnyFarmComedyClub.com
Intersection of Alpharetta Hwy/ Holcomb Bridge
608 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell
Local Cuisine
TASTE OF THE MONTH NOODLE BOWLS
Here are the top places in town serving up hot Noodle Bowls this winter
beef, shrimp or tofu accompanied with steamed vegetaMama Fu’s Asian House chicken,
Doc Chey’s Noodle House
bles, white or brown rice along with Mama’s special dipping
Emory Village 1556 N Decatur Rd. 404.378.8188
Morningside 1424 N. Highland Ave. 404.888.0777
Vinings 1675 Cumberland Pkwy. 770.333.9657
Sandy Springs 227 Sandy Springs Pl. 404.943.0113
www.doccheys.com
oc Chey's was
D
the original
pan-Asian noodle
house in Atlanta.
They opened their
first restaurant in
1997 in the
Virginia Highland
neighborhood of
the city. They followed that with a
second restaurant
in Emory Village and now have four noodle houses in metro
Atlanta as well as Athens, Georgia; Asheville, North Carolina;
and Greenville, South Carolina.
Doc Chey's menu is truly pan-Asian; it encompasses the
cuisines of China, Japan, Thailand, Korea and Vietnam. Menu
categories include dim sum (starters), noodles, stirfries, soups
and salads. Best sellers include the Spicy Thai Basil noodles
consisting of wok seared vegetables and rice noodles tossed in a
spicy Thai sauce, and the Szechuan stirfry, which includes a
wide variety of vegetables stir-fried in a traditional Chinese
Szechuan sauce and served with white or brown rice. All noodles and stirfries are freshly wok'd to order and served with your
choice of chicken, tofu, beef, shrimp or veggies-only. Doc
Chey's also offers a wide variety of handmade dim sum items
under five bucks that are perfect for starters, such as Shanghai
Dumplings, Fresh Vietnamese Basil Rolls, Thai Shrimp Rolls
and Crispy Veggie Spring Rolls. The majority of menu items
are under $8 and each meal is served with a smile.
Doc Chey's was recently voted Best Noodle Bowl by INsite
Magazine. Other recent awards include Best Cheap Eats, Best
Lunch Spot and Best Pan-Asian by Citysearch.com. Visit a Doc
Chey's near you for a healthy serving of peace, love and noodles.
1935 Peachtree Rd 404.350.9999
3027 N. Druid Hills Rd. 404.844.6262
6590 Sugarloaf Parkway 678.213.0521
5530 Windward Pkwy. 678.393.6262
10779 Alpharetta Hwy. 770.992.7120
www.mamafus.com
sauces. These bowls are healthy, delicious and a lot of fun.
Also new to their menu this year is the Thai Shrimp, Thai Beef
Salad, and Thai Green Beans. They also have great side items
like Mama’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Basil Spring Rolls and
Potstickers. On the lighter side, try their Ginger Sesame
Chicken Salad or the Ahi Tuna Salad.
resh, cooked to order Pan-Asian cuisine is the mantra at
Noodle
Mama Fu’s. With nine locations in Georgia, and noodle
F
Midtown 903 Peachtree St. 404.685.3010
houses in seven states, Mama Fu’s is one of the fastest growing
restaurants in the country.
Here you will find a variety of noodle bowls to choose from.
All come with a choice of chicken, beef, tofu or shrimp. One of
the most popular is the Pad Thai. It is prepared with a Thai
peanut sauce with carrots, scallions, tofu, bean sprouts, and egg.
This is all tossed with rice noodles and garnished with cilantro,
peanuts and lime. Another spicy noodle dish is the Thai Basil
bowl. It comes with mushrooms, onions, basil, red peppers,
scallions, sprouts in a chili hoisin sauce. For something a little
different go for the Vietnamese Crunchy Noodles, served with
carrots, mushrooms, snap peas, red bell peppers, sprouts and
seared garlic.
With the New Year, Mama Fu’s is proud to introduce their signature Steam Bowls. The Steam Bowls are served in a bamboo
steamer and brought to your table. Inside you get a choice of
Mama Fu’s North Druid Hills Location
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Steam
Bowls
Decatur 205 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. 404.378.8622
College Park 3693 Main St. 404.767.5154
www.noodlehouse.net
an-Asian cuisine with three
P
locations. Noodle
offers a blend of
korean, chinese,
japanese and Thai
inspired dishes
featuring their signature Noodle
bowls. Open now
on Peachtree street
in the heart of
mid-town, on his- Noodle Midtown Location
toric Main Street in College Park and one block from the
Historic Decatur Square. The original location in Decatur is
large and open and more family oriented, their midtown location
is a hip spot for the singles scene and the newest College Park
location has its own unique charm.
A blend of homemade noodle and rice bowl dishes have made
this unique restaurant a favorite in metro Atlanta since 2001.
Popular dishes such as yaki soba noodles, chinese lomein, curry,
thai peanut and thin pan crispy and fried rice. A wide variety of
appetizers include Chinese dumplings, lettuce wraps and satay
chicken. Salad choices include Asian chicken, warm sichuan
tofu and Vietnamese cold Noodle. Parking and Take-out available at all three locations.
restaurant.
bar.
Beef • Chicken • Shrimp • Tofu
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midtown
903 peachtree st. ste. a
404.658.3010
decatur
205 east ponce de leon ave.
404.378.8622
college park
3693 main st.
404.767.5154
takeout
www.noodlehouse.net
Neighborhoods
EAST ATLANTA
An Eclectic Oasis of Cool Coulture
BY BEN MILLER
hether it’s Greenwich Village or HaightW
Ashbury, virtually every major city has a
quirky little neighborhood that serves as an
enclave for artists, musicians and other bohemian types. East Atlanta has emerged in recent
years as the ATL’s hottest hipster haven, attracting an influx of young adults and families drawn
to the area’s combination of affordability, convenience and eclectic cool.
There was a time when the area seemed destined for little more than destitution. After middle class black families moved in under the protection of the Fair Housing Act back in the ‘60s,
opportunistic real estate agents fanned the flames
of fear and racial prejudice, resulting in a “white
flight” that allowed slumlord investors to snatch
up available houses for a song. Real estate values dipped and the neighborhood’s rep suffered.
Even as recently as a decade ago, more than
50% of the shops in East Atlanta were boarded
up. But as the 1996 Summer Olympics brought
an influx of new residents into the metro Atlanta
area, savvy home buyers began buying up East
Atlanta’s charming mix of bungalows, ranchstyle homes and century-old Victorians, which at
the time were listing for well under $100,000.
One of those forward-thinking investors who
jumped on the East Atlanta bandwagon early
was Avenue Realty’s Candace Fuqua, who started out renovating homes nearly a decade ago
and is now one of the area’s leading real estate
agents. “The area has changed dramatically in
the years that I’ve been working here,” Fuqua
recalls. “Back then my buyers were true urban
pioneers, but now we’re getting families from
Alpharetta wanting to move to the area. It’s convenient to everything that makes Atlanta great,
and it’s all in what feels like an eclectic, small
town.”
At the heart of this hip epicenter is East Atlanta
Village, the retail development where almost all
of the area’s shops, boutiques, bars and restaurants are located. “The Village is hip and funky,
fun and friendly,” says Fuqua, “with lots of oneof-a-kind boutiques, great music venues, a Sohostyle coffee shop, an old 50’s-type Barber shop,
a tattoo parlor and a great furniture and accessories store. Urban home buyers want to be near
little village-type areas where they can take the
dog for a walk to have a cup o’ joe, have sushi
around the corner, share fajitas and tequila shooters with friends, then be able to stumble home
on foot after a night out.”
“East Atlanta has emerged in
recent years as the ATL’s
hottest Hipster Haven”
In addition to the area’s eclectic soul, Fuqua
cites its prime location as a major reason so
many people are flocking to East Atlanta. “It’s so
close to I-20 and downtown Atlanta, close to
Little Five Points and the great shopping at the
new Edgewood Retail District. All the chain
store from the ‘burbs are here now!” For families, the newly-renovated Brownwood Park
Recreation Center is located in the middle of the
neighborhood, while tourist attractions such as
Grant Park and Zoo Atlanta are practically right
around the corner.
Of course, with such rapid gentrification, and
so many old homes being refurbished and new
homes being built, property values in East
Atlanta are soaring. The average cost of a home
in the area rose from $172,512 in 2002 to
$191,436 in 2004 (an 11% increase). “The value
of homes in the area has greatly increased in the
last few years. I have a lot of buyers using 100%
financing,” says Fuqua, “so they put no money
into the house, then sell it 3 years later, making
$50,000-$100,000 profit. Sometimes, they’ve
had 10%-20% price appreciation per year. Of
course, it’s all in how you buy, and when.”
VOTED BEST CAJUN - 2006 Insite Magazine
VOTED BEST NEW RESTAURANT & BEST NEW CAJUN
- 2006 Creative Loafing
A
lthough critics have been fairly
divided on the film itself, nearly
every review of Blood Diamond
recognizes the dramatic intensity of
Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as
Danny Archer, a Rhodesia-born smuggler
of “blood diamonds,” whose profits fund
brutal battles in war-torn countries such as
Sierra Leone. It’s his second dynamic turn
in recent months, with his sizzling role in
The Departed (his third pairing with director Martin Scorsese) virtually guaranteed
to garner the actor his third Oscar nomination.
The 32-year-old actor finally seems
to have made the awkward transition from
promising young actor to one of the finest
thespians of his generation, and forthcoming pairings with directors Stephen Gaghan
and Scorsese (on The Rise of Theodore
Roosevelt) seem to promise more great performances to come. We recently sat down
with DiCaprio to discuss diamonds, third
world poverty and dedication to his craft.
What was your knowledge of the diamond
trade situation before doing this movie?
I think I was like anybody else; I’d heard
whispers of it, but until I got there and
started to do the research I didn't really
quite understand the immense impact on
Sierra Leone and other places in Africa. I’d
heard the Kanye West song and bits of it in
conversation, but it wasn't until I really got
to Africa, where I heard the firsthand
accounts and started to read books, that I
really learned what really had happened.
Why did you want to do this movie?
It was such a powerful storyline, and that's
what you look for first. I wasn't going out
seeking films with a sociopolitical message
just to do it for the sake of doing it. You
know, it has to have an entertainment
value, it has to be a good movie and it has
to convey a message without the audience
feeling they are being preached to. I really
felt this script accomplished that, and to me
it was representative of a huge issue in the
world today of corporate responsibility.
Here was this character that was exploiting
others that were less fortunate than him,
dealing in the black market and not really
being conscious of the world he lives in. It
was really (director) Ed Zwick and (producer) Marshall Herskovitz who learned
about the diamond trade and brought the
political aspects into this story in a way
that I felt was authentic.
Do you feel you have grown up since
being in this business?
I never thought, throughout the entire
course of my career, about choosing a specific role because it would make me seem
more man-like. Even with roles like Catch
Me If You Can, I was 8 years or 10 years
older than the character I played. It was an
interesting character, and I knew that might
be one of the last times I could be playing
a character like that. I think these are really intangible things that you can never really control. You do these movies, you give it
to the world and you really have no idea
how people are going to react to you, or the
subject matter. I've been in plenty of situations where I thought the film would turn
out one way or my performance would be
looked at one way, and it was an entirely
different situation. Once you make these
movies, you give it to the world and you
guys get to pick it apart.
How did you nail the accent?
Spending a lot of time with the locals,
drinking beers with them, hearing their stories... a lot of guys from the South African
military. I got to hang out with this guy
named Tom Delfuse, a military expert, just
listening to them talk. Of course, I had an
accent coach and he was there guiding me
through it. But we had conversations with
these people, listening to their stories, and
I made them say sentences over and over
again. I wanted to definitely go to Africa
Out of Africa
Why Leonardo DiCaprio
Doesn’t Want to Hear
Your Bitching
“These people have been through so much.
They’ve been in a civil war for 30 years and the
poverty rate [is remarkably high], but people
were still literally dancing in the streets.
The joy, the energy, the happiness they exuded
was unbelievable, and it made me come
back home and not want to listen to
anyone's problems. I don't want to hear
what we as Americans have to deal with.”
early, because that whole area was completely alien to me. I had never really spent
any time in Africa, let alone a white South
African man. It was completely alien to me
when I first heard of the film.
How has being in contact with Africa and
the poverty there changed your own life?
What did you learn from this experience?
Playing a character like this who was taking advantage of the poverty around him
and taking advantage of the continent, it
was uncomfortable as an actor to portray
this man in front of an African crew in
locations like Mozambique, where there
was a tremendous amount of poverty.
Mozambique is having an economic resurgence, but four out of 10 people supposedly have HIV or AIDS. It's astounding. What
I was left with after spending time with
Africa– and this is not at all to sound trivial– but it really was the power of the
human spirit there. These people have been
through so much. They’ve been in a civil
war for 30 years and the poverty rate [is
remarkably high], but people were still literally dancing in the streets. The joy, the
energy, the happiness they exuded was
unbelievable, and it made me come back
home and not want to listen to anyone's
problems. I don't want to hear what we as
Americans have to deal with. When you’re
immersed in a place like that for six months
and you see the extreme levels of what people have to deal with there, yet they’re able
to keep a positive attitude, you just don't
want to hear people's problems out here
anymore.
What impressed you the most about being
there and shooting this film?
We did a lot of faux-military activities of
hunting and tracking in the bush, hanging
out with a lot of guys in the South African
army. And really, that was the tough stuff–
getting that military background– because
they’re some of the best-trained guys in the
entire world as far as living in the bush. I
didn't go out and live in the bush with them
for a week or even a day, but it was a matter of doing these exercises with them.
There was a lot of hanging out with them
and hearing their stories; there’s a certain
amount you can get from books, but you
need to speak with real people and ask specific questions that affect your character.
Otherwise you'd be skimming through hundreds of books trying to get that specific
answer. What I was really overwhelmed by
with Africa was its tremendous natural
beauty. I got to go to some pretty amazing
places. Every other weekend we got a day
or two off to go on a safari or see the natural wonders of Africa. If anyone gets the
opportunity to go there, it's something you
have to do in your lifetime.
We heard you and Djimon Hounsou both
got injured on set, but continued to work
through the pain. Where does that sort of
dedication come from?
Yeah, Djimon got banged up and I hurt my
knee [during] a full week of squibs and diving behind cars. I'll tell you, it comes from
being a fan of this artform of film. I think
this is the great modern artform. There
have been 100 years of cinema, but there is
so much still to be done. There is something about watching a film that is burned
into celluloid for all time, that’s now a
piece of history. My children and their children are going to be watching these
movies. To make a great movie requires
such a combination of different things that
need to come into play to actually make a
memorable film and not have it to fall by
the wayside, and one of those elements is
the commitment the actors have to their
performance. It doesn't always come into
play– there have been a lot of great performances in the past in films that weren't
great– but if you are lucky enough to get
that combination together, that to me is like
being part of a piece of art that is going to
last forever. –B. Love
The Arts
WANTON DISTRACTION
Skewed Views On Entertainment News
T
he Hollywood Foreign Press Association's
Golden Globe ceremony is important for
one reason and one reason only: proximity. It's Oscar's less attractive friend, whom you
have to win over if you want a chance at the
much prettier and far more meaningful golden
statue. The following are my thoughts on the
nominations of the major categories, plus the
absolutely ludicrious nominations for “Foreign
Language Film.”
As for the TV nominations, I haven't
included those because the time between the
Globes and the Emmys is about nine months,
and the wins in those categories probably won't
translate... or will at least be more daring.
BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Annette Bening, "Running With Scissors"; Toni
Collette, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Beyonce
Knowles, "Dreamgirls"; Meryl Streep, "The
Devil Wears Prada”; and Renee Zellweger,
"Miss Potter"
If you need more proof that good roles for
actresses are hard to find, file this category as
Exhibit A. Meryl Streep will win by virtue of
being Meryl Streep. But Benning, for being an
obnoxious bitch? Toni Collette, in what really is
a supporting role (and a sparse one at that)?
Beyonce Knowles, for playing a hot, successful
singer? Why are all the good roles for comedic
actresses on television?
BEST PICTURE, DRAMA
"Babel," "Bobby," "The Departed," "Little
Children" and "The Queen"
Bobby gets a nomination, but not United 93?
FAIL! At a roundtable last month, a fellow (yet
wholly irritating) journalist shot down the idea
that United 93 would get nominated for Best
Picture because it was too much of “a downer.”
A real downer is the IQ
level of people that don't
acknowledge great cinema
because it *gasp* actually
has an emotionally complex
ending. But the good news
with this category is that
The Departed has basically
locked its Best Picture
Oscar nomination and Little
Children, while not going to
the Oscars, gets some
much-needed and muchdeserved attention.
BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat"; Johnny Depp,
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest”;
Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You for Smoking";
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Kinky Boots”; and Will
Ferrell, "Stranger than Fiction"
The big question here is, will Cohen attend as
himself or as his Kazahk alter-ego? I think we all
know it's the latter, and that
the tape delay will be crucial whenever he's on camera. Still, it's an awesome
way to boost your Nielsen
ratings, and I look forward
to his future nominations
for both the Nobel and
Pulitizer prizes. As for the
rest, any acknowledgement
of Eckhard and Ejifor is
good stuff in my book.
Ferrell might actually win,
Jim Carrey-style, as a
comedian taking a dramatic
turn but having zero shot at
an Oscar nomination. With
Depp, I love the guy and I
love the sequel, but he made
Capt. Sparrow more cartoony, not more interesting.
Why no nod for Dreamgirls'
Jamie Foxx?
BEST ACTRESS,
DRAMA
Penelope Cruz, "Volver";
Judi Dench, "Notes on a
Scandal"; Maggie
Gyllenhaal, "Sherrybaby";
Helen Mirren, "The
Queen”; and Kate Winslet,
"Little Children"
This category is kind of a yawn because ever
since The Queen came out, everyone decided
that Mirren will get the Oscar. You want to
shave time off the telecast? Just hand out the
sure bets during the boring pre-show.
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond";
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Departed"; Peter
O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of
Happyness"; and Forest Whitaker, "The Last
King of Scotland"
I like Leo, too, but you decided to waste a nomination by nominating him twice when you
could’ve thrown Matt Damon a nod for The
Departed? Or what about Hugh Jackman for The
Fountain? Well, The Fountain is fucked. It's this
year's best neglected picture. But I guess it's all
a moot point since Whitaker should also expect
one of those pre-show Oscars.
BEST PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
"Borat," "The Devil Wears Prada,"
"Dreamgirls," "Little Miss Sunshine" and
"Thank You for Smoking"
Little Miss Sunshine may already be living in
backlash, but this nomination probably secures it
a Best Picture Oscar nod (it's the “indie” film this
year). Dreamgirls can also expect an Academy
nomination, but it's a close call for who will win
the Globe. Looking at LMS' DVD sales and
Dreamgirls’ box office take over the next few
weeks will help identify the winner. Also, I'm
happy to see the unsurprising, but still deserving
nomination of Borat.
BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers"; Clint
Eastwood, "Letters from Iwo Jima"; Steven
Frears, "The Queen"’ Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu, "Babel"; and Martin Scorsese,
"The Departed"
Please let it be Marty's year. Give the man a
fucking Oscar already! He certainly deserves it
for this film. Regarding Eastwood, this doubling-up shit has got to go, especially since
Flags of Our Fathers is weak sauce anyway.
Why not show some love to Bill Condon
(Dreamgirls), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men)
or Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain)? Do the
members of the HFPA really want to rub elbows
with Clint that badly? It's not like he's gonna
clone himself, or be twice as happy to be there.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"Apocalypto," USA; "Letters from Iwo Jima,"
USA/Japan; "The Lives of Others," Germany;
"Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; and "Volver"
SpainApocalypto? You're shitting me, right?
And Letters from Iwo Jima?! Please, tell me
you're making with the shit. How the hell did
two American films made by two American
directors get on the list? Leave it to the
Hollywood Foreign Press to defeat the purpose
of the Foreign Language Film category.
Oh, and here’s one last tip from me to the HFPA:
Ditch that popular music parody you open with
every year. It's like an endurance test before the
real show, and I hate wasting cotton balls to
clean up all the blood that spews from my ears.
–Matt Goldberg
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invites you and
a guest to a
special advance
screening of
on Thursday,
January 25 at
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To receive a complimentary pass, simply visit
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Opens Nationwide Friday, January 26
2006:
F
ilms can entertain and inspire, but they can also teach
us. So what lessons can we learn from the films of
2006?
Lesson #1: Detached Internet Irony Only Takes You So
Far- Snakes on a Plane sold itself to the buzz machine
solely through title and the casting of scenery-chewer
Samuel L. Jackson. Unfortunately, only the title was worthy of the “so-bad-its-good” quality people were hoping
for.
Lesson #2: We're All Gonna Die- Al Gore took last year's
hit documentary, March of the Penguins, and made a pseudo sequel (An Inconvenient Truth) about how we're killing
the penguins, ourselves and basically the entire planet.
Hopefully we'll soon see a film about evolution vs. “intelligent design” because in today's partisan world, all facts
are political.
THE
Lesson #3: It's Time to Talk about 9/11- Five years after
the events of September 11th, we received not one but two
films that brought us directly into that day: Paul
Greengrass' cinema verité-style United 93 and Oliver
Stone's more conventional World Trade Center. Some cried
“too soon,” but the tragedy’s continued relevance makes
artistic examinations all the more important.
Lesson #4: George Clooney has the Politics Market
Cornered- While last year had the political call-to-arms of
Good Night, and Good Luck and Syriana, this year only
political documentaries like Inconvenient Truth and The
Ground Truth managed to stir up controversy. In terms of
fiction, Home of the Brave and American Dreamz failed,
while quality films like V for Vendetta and Children of Men
failed to grab the attention of the mainstream. Some might
mention Happy Feet for being global-warming “propaganda” for kids, but those people are just trying to fill the Fox
News cycle, so cut them some slack.
IN
garnered director Clint Eastwood his worst reviews in
years, Warner Bros. wisely bumped up the release date on
this companion piece, which tells the same story from the
Japanese side. Ken Watanabe is the only recognizable
actor, the dialogue is subtitled and there’s more fraternizing
and ruminating than fighting, yet Eastwood’s steady hand
at the helm makes this one of the year’s most compelling
and classic films– a timeless koan about the inevitably of
loss in war, and the grim senselessness of it all.
UNITED 93- “Do not go gently into that good night,” wrote
poet Dylan Thomas, and director Paul Greengrass’ emotionally gripping ode honors the men and women on United
Airlines Flight 93 who refused to go down on September 11
without a fight. Some critics carped that it was too early for
such a brutally frank docudrama about one of the darkest
days in this nation’s history, but the film wisely avoids sensationalism or sentimentality. This is as raw and realistic as
filmmaking gets, giving viewers the almost sickening feeling of being a passenger on that ill-fated flight. But it also
inspires us, reminding us that even the most average among
us can find the courage to become heroes.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH- Speaking of heroes, who
PAN'S LABYRINTH- This is the kind of story the Brothers
THE DEPARTED- Fans of Asian cinema may want to deride
BORAT- In Dante's Inferno, the final level of Hell is
reserved for history's great deceivers: Judas, Brutus and
Cassius are continually chewed in the mouth of Satan.
When Sacha Baron Cohen dies, he'll probably have to join
their ranks, but he'll still be the funniest guy in Lucifer's
mandible. He'll also have a lot of company, and his deceptive Kazak reporter Borat Sagdiyev managed to highlight
the hypocrisy, absurdity and self-deception of our fair
country and turn it into comic gold. The film is lewd, crude
and cleverer than you'll ever want to admit. Cohen may be
going to hell for deceiving all the film's subjects, but he
may get into heaven for creating both the best satire and the
best gross-out comedy in years.
Grimm would tell if they were still alive today. The film is
folktale before fairy-tale– a grown-up myth that comes out
of the past ,yet feels distinctly modern. Writer/director
Guillermo Del Toro perfectly blends the most wondrous
dreams with the most haunting nightmares and does the
impossible by bringing the mythical into the real, with both
sides enhanced rather than cheapened by the experience.
It's not just this year's best foreign-language film; it's the
year's best fantasy, best story and most beautiful and sorrowful melody. A lot of people like to toss around the word
“masterpiece,” but when every frame of the film is masterful, Pan's Labyrinth more than earns that title.
this film on principle since it's based on one of Hong
Kong's great movies, Infernal Affairs. But where Infernal
Affairs was fast action paired with a tight premise (a cop
undercover as a criminal, and a criminal infiltrating the
police force), Martin Scorsese and screenwriter William
Monaghan go much deeper and build the story to create an
urban epic only Scorsese could produce. With perfect casting, quotable dialogue, rocking soundtrack, fresh setting
(Boston instead of Scorsese's usual NYC) and hardcore
violence, the argument here isn't whether or not it's better
than its Asian ancestor. The argument is whether or not it's
better than Goodfellas.
THE QUEEN- In the months leading up to the Oscars, you’re
going to hear every critic in the country hyping Helen
Mirren’s regal, restrained performance as Queen Elizabeth,
whose entire family fell from grace in England’s eye for
their ham-fisted handling of Princess Diana’s funeral. And
yes, the grande dame delivers in spades, capturing every
subtle nuance of Her Majesty’s royal repression and quiet
rage as a nation calls her out for being a heartless ice queen.
But credit also goes to Michael Sheen for nimbly capturing
the naive optimism and “How the hell do I handle THIS?!”
panic of then-new PM Tony Blair, and to Stephen Frears,
whose brilliant direction virtually guarantees an Oscar nod.
DREAMGIRLS- Quick, name the last film you saw that actu-
MOVIES
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA- When Flags of Our Fathers
would’ve guessed a year ago that the former “future
President of the United States” would appear in one of the
year’s most gripping films? Sure, the idea of the oftenwooden Internet inventor giving a Power Point lecture
about the impending dangers of global warming sounds
about as exciting as watching paint dry. But the former VP
revealed himself to be knowledgable, humorous, even
immensely likable while at the same time scaring the everloving crap out of anyone with half a brain. To quote Roger
Ebert, “You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do
not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to
them why you decided not to.” Yes, it is THAT important.
Now, without further ado, our Top 10 Films of the
Year...
YEAR
Jennifer Hudson’s gut-wrenching turn as the proud, selfdestructive Effie White, blowing the roof off with her emotionally gripping rendition of “And I’m Telling You I’m
Not Going,” ranks among the finest film debuts in recent
memory.
ally got a standing ovation DURING the movie. A rare bit
of pure Hollywood escapism in a difficult year that
could’ve used a lot more razzle dazzle, writer/director Bill
Condon’s adaptation of the Broadway smash succeeds on
every front. From the poignant script and show-stopping
musical numbers to gorgeous costumes and Oscar-worthy
performances, this is arguably the finest movie musical in
decades. And newcomer (and ex-American Idol contestant)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE- What do you get when you mix a
heroin-snorting grandfather (Alan Arkin), a controlling dad
(Greg Kinnear) whose only plan for success is a half-assed
motivational speaking scheme, a goth-punk son (Paul
Dano) who refuses to speak, a depressed gay uncle (Steve
Carrell) on suicide watch, and a mother (Toni Collette) desperately trying to keep it all from falling apart? You get the
year’s most heartbreakingly dysfunctional comedy, charting the Hoover family’s cross-country quest to get adorably
weird daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) to a beauty pageant
in California. Heartwarming but not treacly, funny but not
fake, the latest from directorial team Jonathan Dayton and
Valerie Faris was the little indie that could.
CHILDREN OF MEN- We've seen the post-apocalypse plenty
of times. But director Alfonso Cuaron takes us to a far
more frightening place by showing us the pre-apocalypse.
The world is dying and, in a world without children, the last
generation is eating itself alive. England has managed a
semblance of stability by becoming a police state bent on
making sure the rest of the world doesn't overrun their semblance of normalcy. All that changes when Theo (Clive
Owen), a man completely without hope, meets Tia, a pregnant refugee and the world's last hope. The film is skillful
without being showy, overwhelming without being overt,
and miraculously hopeful when everything that came
before should have destroyed any trace of hope. It's easy to
hope when you have nothing left to lose, but Children of
Men actively fights to make sure everything is not lost.
HONORABLE MENTIONS- Babel, Last King of Scotland,
Little Children, The Proposition, Shut Up & Sing, Thank
You For Smoking, V For Vendetta, Venus
--Matt Goldberg & B. Love
A
DIRECTOR NICK CASSAVETES
ON HIS STRUGGLES TO
BRING ALPHA DOG TO
THE SCREEN
nectability... is that a word? I mean, we enjoy
films we can relate to, and as humans we
connect through communication, whether
verbal or non-verbal. Emotion is non-verbal
and can be evoked from a simple facial
expression or a choice of background, like
with a funeral backdrop, almost immediately
60's 70's 80's
HIPPIE DISCO ROCKER
enjoys
a film
that
lacks
con-
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e
believe that’s one of the most romantic films
of all time. You have this ability to convey
genuine human emotion, and Alpha Dog
has a broad range of emotions as well. How
important are the characters to your style of
storytelling?
I believe the ability to relate to a
character is
v e r y
important
in filmmaking. If
you go to
a film and
walk away
believing a
character,
I ' v e
done
m y
job.
N o
o n e
CONSIGNMENT SHOPS
This isn’t like anything you’ve done before.
Why did you want to take on this project?
Truth be told, my daughter, who was attending a high school that Mr. Hollywood once
attended, mentioned the story to me. Mr.
Hollywood had become a sort of teenage cult
hero to the Valley kids. Previous to that I
knew nothing about him. Once I started
researching the case, I knew I had to do it.
For a small film, it has some very big names
in it, from Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis to
Justin Timberlake. How'd you manage
that?
I sent the script to Sharon and she read it and
wanted to be apart of the project. Anton
Yelchin is a force to be reckoned with– a lot
of those up and coming stars will have to
learn to hold their own around him. He’s
extremely and natural in front of the camera.
I wish him all the luck with his future film
endeavors, because I know there will be
many. Now with Justin, that's where the story
is... I actually contacted him for The
Notebook, but we never could get it together. So when Alpha Dog came about I
immediately contacted him, and the rest
is history.
Speaking
of
The
Notebook,
I
honestly
TANGLED UP
IN TRUE
you will feel sorrow or grief. So I work hard
at setting moods and putting the audience in
the frame of mind of each character.
The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance
Film Festival. How was it received there?
Alpha Dog was warmly welcomed at
Sundance, which was REALLY good for the
movie. We got the last spot on closing day, so
there were very high expectations for the
movie. Although the movie shows a violent
response to panic in young adults, it’s a very
real subject matter. I've gotten tons of
responses from audience members thanking
me for exposing the dangers of violent
imagery in youth, so I couldn't be more
proud of the film.
Weren’t there legal issues with the film?
The Jesse James Hollywood case is very real,
and Mr. Blatt– a defense lawyer on the case–
sought an injunction against the release of
the film. My researcher, Michael Mehas, had
to turn all our notes and interviews over to
the courts. While researching the case, I was
able to build a relationship with Mr.
Hollywood's father, Jack, and many inferred
that I had some inside scoop. I was actually
subpoenaed myself, but I've cooperated and
will continue to cooperate.
I know you didn't anticipate those legal
woes.
(Laughs) I honestly didn't. Mr. Hollywood
had been on the FBI's Most Wanted list for a
considerable amount of time, and I never
thought he would be captured during filming.
Go figure.
So what's next for you?
I'm adapting a book to film called God Is A
Bullet, by Boston Teran. It's a very dark
thriller about a father's quest to save his kidnapped daughter. There are twists and turns
and nonstop action in this film. It is handsdown one of the greatest books known. It
depicts human instinct at its finest. It's horrifying and disturbing, being a story of ultimate redemption. I can't wait to share it with
the world. Get the book! –Zena Scott
PSYCHO SISTERS
s the son of renowned film director
John Cassavetes and Oscar-nominated actress Gena Rowlands, many
would say Nick Cassavetes’ filmmaking success is in his blood. But the humble director
describes it as sheer “dumb luck.” Since
stepping behind the lens in 1996 with his
debut film, Unhook the Stars, Cassavetes has
proved that luck, whether dumb or just plain,
has definitely been on his side. With such
accomplished works as John Q (starring
Denzel Washington) and The Notebook
(which proved Rachel McAdams’ breakout
role), Cassavetes exhibited a classic filmmaking style, combining a universally accessible tone with a knack for character-driven
emotion.
Now, with his new film
Alpha Dog, Cassavetes thinly veils the true
story of Jesse James Hollywood by changing
names and recreating the days leading up to
a crime that landed him on the FBI's Most
Wanted list. After successfully showing the
film at Sundance and being served courtordered subpoenas by Hollywood’s legal
reps, Cassavetes sat down with us to discuss
his buzzed-about thriller.
Entertainment
MOVIE REVIEWS
APOCALYPTO- Set in the mysterious Mayan civilization of Mesoamerica, Mel Gibson's latest
directorial effort is a visual marathon driven on
pure adrenaline. The film starts with the first of
many chases. Several male members of a local
village are celebrating their catch when their tranquil lives are disturbed by a visibly fear-stricken
tribe, whose members ask permission to pass
through in search of a new beginning in the forest.
After letting them pass, Flint Sky (Morris
Birdyellowhead) describes fear as a contagious
disease that must not infest their village, but his
son, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), is clearly
infested. The next morning Jaguar Paw is awaken
by a dream which quickly turns into a nightmare
as his village is ravaged, his father is killed and he
is forced to leave his pregnant wife and young son
as he is taken captive. Once the survivors reach
Culiacan, a busy city filled with human markets,
non-stop constructionand an all-day praise rally in
honor of the Sun God, the male captives realize
their fate– death by sacrifice. As they trek to the
sacrificial alter, Jaguar Paw remembers his
father's last words, “You must not be afraid…”
and a prophesy from an unsuspecting little girl as
he denounces death and fear. From that point on
Jaguar Paw embarks on a death-defying quest to
save what matters to him most in a world on the
verge of total ruin. With Apocalypto, Gibson has
created a rousing adventure that commands not
only the eye, but also the mind. Given the graphic
nature of the film, many will deem it gruesome,
but to walk away with such a notion is to completely miss the point. This is a story of survival
in bloodthirsty times, and kudos should be given
to Gibson for not shying away for difficult subject
matter. Some critics may point out the historical
or cultural inaccuracies of the film, but this is a
courageous tale of human will and destiny that
cannot be denied. (A) -Zena Scott
BLOOD DIAMOND- The latest in this year's string
of politically-themed dramas set in Africa (which
also included Catch A Fire and The Last King of
Scotland), Blood Diamond has divided critics
with its dogged determination to not just tell a
story, but to actually make a difference. Your
enjoyment of it will therefore likely be based in
part on whether you believe great art should
aspire to effect change in the world, or prefer popcorn entertainment that doesn't weigh down your
conscience as you exit the theater. In his second
award-worthy performance of the year, Leonardo
DiCaprio chews up the scenery as Danny Archer,
a Rhodesia-born smuggler of “blood diamonds,”
whose profits fund brutal battles in war-torn
countries such as Sierra Leone. Djimon Hounsou
capably matches DiCaprio's dynamic intensity as
Solomon Vandy, a proud fisherman whose family
is torn apart when he's captured by warlords and
sent to work in the diamond mines, where he
stumbles upon a massive rock he manages to hide
as military forces invade the slave encampment.
When the scheming Archer learns of Vandy's hidden diamond, he promises to help the man reunite
with his family in exchange for half the profits
from the sale of the multi-million dollar stone,
and the two hook up with a feisty, idealistic journalist (Jennifer Connelly) looking to blow the
cover of companies who deal in blood diamonds.
It's not hard to imagine this story as a direct-tovideo B-movie starring, say, Steven Seagal. But
what in lesser hands might come off as thinly
drawn caricatures are rendered full 3D characters
by the talented cast and director Edward Zwick,
who established a similar balance of explosive
action and sociopolitical relevance in Glory and
Courage Under Fire. Few mainstream Hollywood
directors are better at making a point, and few
actors could wrench every last drop of honest
human emotion from the occasionally melodramatic script. This is a political story disguised as
an action-adventure, and it makes one hell of an
impact despite its flaws. (B) -B. Love
BOBBY- A stellar cast, including 22 members of Hol-
lywood's “who's who” (Anthony Hopkins, William H.
Macy, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood and
Demi Moore, among others), captivates audiences in
this film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The
story is told through the eyes of fictional characters
whom were at The Ambassador Hotel the day Senator
Robert F. Kennedy was killed. Kennedy is shown
through historical footage and still photographs, reenacting the last moments and speeches of his life and run
for presidency, which were prematurely ended by the
very same acts of cowardice and violence he so publicly railed against. Still recovering from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby emphasizes the
state of the America at a time when America reeled
from violence overseas and on our homeland. Bobby is
more than a biographical look at the end of RFK's life.
This film is grandiose in its portrayal of RFK's idealism, his heart, and his true love of all people. For those
Americans and people around the world who witnessed
RFK's assassination on that dark day in 1968, either in
person or via media footage, the emotions they felt that
day have now resurfaced. For those of us who came
into this world afterward, we have finally seen a glimmer of the man behind the politics and have been more
educated as to the events surrounding his death. For all
people, Bobby inspires us, encourages us, and challenges us to embrace RFK's purpose, his ideals, and his
plan for a greater America. Despite shaky (and somewhat comical) appearances by Ashton Kutcher and
Lindsay Lohan, overall the ensemble cast carries the
film and brings relief to the heavy, underlying political
tones, allowing the audience to connect on an emotional level. (B+) –Tracey Gould
CHARLOTTE’S WEB- A delightful interpretation
of E.B. White's classic children's story. Directed
by Gary Winick (13 Going on 30), the live-action
genre suits this story much better than the animated version did. Cute live animals, and even those
not-so cute species (a spider and rat), become
even more adorable and believable with such colorful voices behind them. Julia Roberts portrays
Charlotte, the unsightly and misunderstood spider
who has a heart of gold and insight way beyond
most human capabilities. With a sweet voice such
as Roberts’, it's hard not to love a spider, when
when it’s as frightful as Charlotte looks. Other
voices include Oprah Winfrey (Gussy the Goose),
Cedric the Entertainer (Golly the Goose), Reba
McIntire (Betsy the Cow) and Steve Buscemi as
the greedy rat, Templeton. The always adorable
Dakota Fanning plays headstrong pig-lover Fern
and, as usual, delivers a brilliant performance.
Versatile and mature beyond her years, Fanning
has proven time and time again that she’s a force
in Hollywood to be reckoned with. With its great
cast and timeless story, Charlotte's Web is a fantastic film for all ages that will warm your heart
and touch your soul. (A) -Tracey Gould
CHILDREN OF MEN- We've seen the post-apocalypse plenty of times. But director Alfonso
Cuaron takes us to a far more frightening place by
showing us the pre-apocalypse. The world is
dying and, in a world without children, the last
generation is eating itself alive. England has managed a semblance of stability by becoming a
police state bent on making sure the rest of the
world doesn't overrun their semblance of normalcy. All that changes when Theo (Clive Owen), a
man completely without hope, meets Tia, a pregnant refugee and the world's last hope. The film is
skillful without being showy, overwhelming without being overt, and miraculously hopeful when
everything that came before should have
destroyed any trace of hope. It's easy to hope
when you have nothing left to lose, but Children
of Men actively fights to make sure everything is
not lost. (A) –Matt Goldberg
DREAMGIRLS- Turning Broadway hits into block-
We know Brad Pitt and you, Matt Damon, are no Brad Pitt. Still,
he plays spy hubby to Angelina Jolie in The Good Shepherd.
buster movie musicals is a notoriously risky business, but few filmmakers are as qualified to give
it a go as Bill Condon, whose adaptation of
Chicago earned him a Best Screenplay Oscar
nomination back in 2003. To start with, he enlisted a knockout cast that includes Oscar-winner
Jamie Foxx, Grammy-winner Beyoncé and Eddie
Murphy, in what is arguably the most remarkable
performance of his career as waning soul legend
James “Thunder” Early. He's also got a sizzling,
gospel-influenced R&B score that includes several new songs by composer Henry Kreiger (who
co-wrote the original with the late Tom Eyen), not
to mention a sensational story about the pitfalls of
selling one's soul in the name of greed. That story,
for those weak on music history, is loosely based
on the rise and fall of The Supremes, whose original lead singer Florence Ballard was replaced by
Diana Ross, whom Motown founder Berry Gordy
found prettier, skinnier and more likely to cross
over to white audiences. In Dreamgirls, ambitious
car salesman-turned-talent manager Curtis Taylor
Jr. (Foxx) replaces sassy, brassy belter Effie
White (Jennifer Hudson) as lead singer of the
Dreams with her childhood pal and backup singer
Deena Jones (Beyoncé), for essentially the same
reasons. Set in Detroit against the backdrop of the
Civil Rights movement, the story follows the
group's struggle for equality in a music industry
that allows white artists to co-opt black music and
water it down until it's deemed fit for mainstream
consumption. But the only color Curtis sees is
green, and with Deena as his malleable wife he
begins to drain the color from the Dreams so they
can play white clubs, top pop charts and live Hollywood's champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
From the flashy costumes and lively music to the
performances themselves, the group's razzle-dazzle rise is truly a wonder to behold, with audiences literally cheering the musical numbers as if
it were still the '80s, and Jennifer Holliday was
still tearing the roof off the sucker on Broadway.
Which brings us to Hudson, making her big
screen debut in the role that earned Holliday a
Tony Award. As Effie, the former American Idol
contestant grabs you by the balls and rips your
heart in two, delivering a gutsy performance that
begs for an Oscar nomination and an emotionally
devastating take on “And I Am Telling You I'm
Not Going” that dares you not to feel every last
word in your bones. She's arguably the brightest
light in a mesmerizing film in which every single
member of the cast and crew gets their moment to
shine.. (A) -B. Love
ERAGON- This film is Exhibit A in the case against
adapting novels written by an author who was
only 15 at the time of the book's release. Let’s
face it, 15-year-olds tend to lack scope. They just
haven't had the time to digest enough material to
synthesize something fresh. Instead, they just
steal and write fan-fiction, changing the names
and locations. In short, Eragon is Star Wars if it
took place in Middle-Earth. You have Luke Skywalker (read: Eragon) as a boy who discovers not
only the same hairstylist as Luke, but also finds
that he can use the force (read: Dragon Magic).
He then finds a Jedi (read: Dragon-rider) named
Brom (read: Obi-Wan Kenobi) who will teach
him the ways of the dragons so that he can join
the rebellion and defeat the evil empire, thus
avenging his slain uncle. Along the way, you'll
see other familiar Star Wars characters. Leia, Han
and Darth Vader are all here, but in far less interesting forms. One could argue that Star Wars also
cribs from Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and
mythic archetypes, but there's no denying that
George Lucas was able to synthesize his wider
knowledge into something magical and unique.
Eragon might as well be Dragonslayer 2 (and if
you don't remember Dragonslayer, don't worry–
neither does anyone else). But the film's secret
hope is that, with its PG-rating, it will draw kids
too young to see the parallels. Unfortunately, their
parents will be less fortunate, and as they grind
through a film with atrocious pacing (director Stefen Fangmeier has no idea how to raise tension or
expectations), they'll try to let their minds escape
to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Their
minds might occasionally snap back into place as
they notice the quality costume design or Rachel
Weisz' solid voice acting for the dragon Sephira,
but their brains will have returned to white noise
by the time the Vader clone is spouting “You
have failed me for the last time,” to one of his
orcs. I haven't read the book, but I took along a
friend who had. Judging from her reaction, fans of
the novel will be disappointed in the anemic adaptation. Only those with a clean slate and no concept of better works will enjoy this film, limiting
its effectiveness to a weekend diversion for the
12-and-under set. (D+) -Matt Goldberg
THE GOOD SHEPHERD- Do secrets lead to loyalty or
to betrayal? And at what point does the protection
of secrets lead to the vulnerability of all else?
Director Robert DeNiro and writer Eric Roth ponder these questions as they follow the development of the CIA through fictional agent Edward
Wilson (Matt Damon). The final product is highly cerebral, and would be thought-provoking if
the film didn't wholly inhabit the personality of its
cold and distant lead. The story follows Wilson
from his days at Yale all the way to the postmortem of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. While the
aging makeup is almost nonexistent, Damon
shows for the second time this year (the first
being his dirty cop in The Departed) that he’s one
of the best actors working today. Wilson is a man
of secrets who must wear a constant poker face
and have a voice without inflection, yet Damon
manages to speak volumes through his silences.
Everything Wilson does is covert rather than
overt, but if you're paying attention you'll see
what's going on beneath the surface. DeNiro
deserves credit for crafting a film that perfectly
mirrors Wilson's clandestine demeanor. The film
is rarely intimate, filled with gloomy navy-grey
hues, going around the world but making every
place feel faded and empty. Unfortunately, in
keeping us a distance all along, it becomes a
chore to penetrate each scene to have a basic
understanding of Wilson's motivations and the
machinations of the spy game he plays. The film
also has a few cracks in Angelina Jolie's onedimensional, long-suffering wife character, as
well as secret messages which transform the film
from a cloak-and-dagger tale of Godfather-like
proportions into the world's longest, most deadly
serious episode of Mission: Impossible. The Good
Shepherd requires a lot from its audience: We
must follow a complicated series of intrigues,
shaded loyalties and outright betrayals, then go
deeper if we want to understand the motivations,
desires, hopes and dreams of the man who leads
us through almost every scene. Some may enjoy
the challenge and find the film to be an ultimately
rewarding experience, but by the end I was just
exhausted. (B-) -Matt Goldberg
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA- After making what some
critics deemed his directorial misstep earlier this
year with the WWII epic Flags of Our Fathers,
Warner Bros. wisely bumped up the release date
of this companion film, which tells the same story
from the Japanese perspective. Led by Ken
Watanabe as the understaffed general charged
with the impossible mission of fortifying the
island against the impending American invasion,
the noble but fearful Japanese troops bond over
memories of home, grinding grunt work and the
dawning realization that no reinforcements are
coming to their rescue. Eastwood’s classic, starkly
beautiful images look like something that might
have been filmed in Howard Hawks’ heyday, capturing the grim realities of war ranging from the
most mundane (see: leaving the cave in which
troops are holed up to empty out the pot they piss
in) to the most horrific (see: an entire unit committing suicide rather than be killed by Americans or
taken captive). In the end, the film serves as a
striking reminder us that our enemies are often
very much like ourselves, and that war is one
game in which everyone loses, no matter which
side emerges victorious. (A-) –B. Love
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM- Ben Stiller has gotten a lot
of mileage out of his ability to play up the
comedic side of quiet rage. His kid-friendly take
on that character in Night at The Museum is no
less satisfying. Stiller plays Larry Daley, a failed
entrepreneur who takes a job as the new night
watchman at a museum of natural history to show
his kid and ex-wife that he can hold down a steady
job. At night, all of the exhibits– from the T-Rex
in the lobby to an Attila the Hun statue– come to
life inside the museum. Though Stiller is true to
form, it's the cameos and supporting actors that
really raise the film’s quality level. Robin
Williams (as Teddy Roosevelt), Owen Wilson (as
a Manifest Destiny-era cowboy) and British comedian Steve Coogan (as Roman gladiator Octavius)
all manage to play their parts as gleefully overthe-top as expected. The result is a smart comedy
masquerading as a kid's movie– free of fart jokes
and predictable pratfalls– that truly has no age
limit. (B) -John B. Moore
NOTES ON A SCANDAL- With Closer and now Notes
on a Scandal, I'm convinced that no one writes
about the desperate struggles of human relationships better than Patrick Marber. His characters
always act realistically and, in the hands of even a
half-decent actor, their actions are always compelling. Thankfully, Marber and director Richard
Eyre have two of the best actresses working today
leading this film. Dame Judi Dench plays Barbara
Covett, an uptight schoolmarm who’s too busy
judging everyone else's life to reconcile her own
desires for love and companionship. But when the
naïve Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) enters her life
as a fellow teacher, Covett begins an infatuation
which only deepens as she stumbles upon Hart's
salacious affair with a 15-year-old student. Lesser
storytellers might be drawn more to the rippedfrom-the-headlines story of a female teacher's
affair with one of her students, but Marber sticks
to the more universal and harsher themes of what
people will do out of what they think is love. Hart
doesn't love the boy, but she loves the feeling and
feels entitled to her affair. An even deeper character study is required of Dench's Oscar-worthy performance as a woman wrestling with concepts of
love, obsession, and control… if only she wasn't
so busy trying to control others. While Marber has
definitely staked out his own territory and style
with this follow-up, Notes on a Scandal is certainly not Closer 2. It possesses the same essential
understanding of human relationships, but in place
of Closer's charming mean streak, Notes on a
Scandal features the sadness and desperation of
solitude with a dash of resentment, anger and
humor thrown in for good measure. Half-decent
actors might fumble this confusing concoction of
human pathos, but Dench and Blanchett manage
to weave it into some of the finest performances of
their respective careers. (B+) -Matt Goldberg
THE PAINTED VEIL- Part period piece, part melodrama and total Oscar bait, The Painted Veil is an apt
film but brings nothing fresh or unique to the proceedings. The story follows the fickle, spoiled
Kitty (Naomi Watts), who marries Walter
(Edward Norton), a stoic bacteriologist. He marries her because she's enchanting (by virtue of
being played by Naomi Watts) and hopes that
she'll grow to love him. She marries him because
she wants to get away from her mother. But since
opposites don't always attract, Kitty ends up having an affair with Charlie (Liev Schreiber) and,
once discovered, Walter offers her a choice:
divorce, or coming along to a small Chinese village to fight a cholera epidemic. Between Dr. Phil
and cholera, I'd choose cholera, but Kitty decides
to brave the risk of disease rather than bear the
disgrace of divorce. The film deserves credit for
remaining faithful to its time period. For example,
we know Kitty is a bit of a free spirit because she
likes to have sex with the lights on. Kinky!
Unfortunately, the dedication to the setting never
manages to translate into making the world seem
compelling. The film always feels like it's doing
the bare minimum required by the story. No one
character feels flat or ignored, but neither does
anyone come alive and make the story feel real.
Even the over-arching themes only come down to
Kitty's growth as a person. The film, for whatever
reason, does not reach for the big love between the
leads or the big conflict of rural China in the
1920s. The Painted Veil is merely melodrama at
its most mediocre. (C) -Matt Goldberg
PAN'S LABYRINTH- “Beautiful” and “Grotesque.”
“Heartfelt” and “Heartbreaking.” “Magical” and
“Genuine.” Lesser directors would find their film
torn asunder trying to work with these opposing
themes. At best, they could only frame these concepts as dualities and recenter the story to avoid a
thematically jarring experience. Only the confident hand of one of today's best directors could
not only embrace all these concepts, but mix them
all together in a fairy tale that is both ancient and
modern. Guillermo Del Toro does not hide from
complicated worlds of moral or even existential
ambiguity. He masters them and, in doing so, he's
created one of the year's best films in Pan's
Labyrinth. The story presents us with a brief prologue about a princess who will one day return to
her kingdom in the Underworld. The story then
seamlessly shifts to the tale of Ofelia (Ivana
Baquero) and her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil)
who must live with her new stepfather Vidal
(Sergi López), a captain in the Spanish Civil War
who is as dogmatic as he is cruel. While her mother strugles with an increasingly difficult pregnancy and Captain Vidal attempts to wipe out the
guilleras surrounding the camp, Ofelia wanders
into an old stone labyrinth outside the camp where
she meets a faun (Doug Jones). The faun tells her
that she may be the Lost Princess of the Underworld, but she must prove herself by accomplishing three tasks. From there, Del Toro weaves his
plotlines effortlessly. Despite the surface distance
for stories about coming-of-age, the suffering presented in the Spanish Civil War and a lost princess
seeking to return to her kingdom, nothing seems
out of place. The confidence and precision of
Guillemo Navarro's cinematography makes everything from the alternate dimension of the Pale
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CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL FOR SOUND INFORMATION AND SHOWTIMES
Man (a creature truly made from nightmares) to
the storehouse of the camp all seem drawn from
the same world, while Javier Navarrete's melodic
and haunting score blends perfeclty with Del
Toro's world. Those expecting a work similar to
Del Toro's previous film, the comic book romp
Hellboy, should go further back in his filmography to his previous foreign language film, The
Devil's Backbone, a story about a ghost who
haunts an orphanege in 1939 Spain. Pan's
Labyrinth is an amalgam of the two films, taking
Hellboy's Lovecraftian creatures and bringing
them into the magic and tragedy of mid-20th
Century Spain as seen from a child's perspective.
And yet such a description sells the film short
because Del Toro goes far beyond a simple
reworking of his previous accomplishments. He
takes various elements and transmogrifies them
into something familiar, yet entierly new. Some
may find Pan's Labyrinth to be a frustrating film
because it lacks a clear thematic organization
where they can feed at any particular idea trough
and ignore the others. But Del Toro demands
more of his audience, and we should thank him
for delivering a film that cannot be understood
morally or psychologically or aesthtically without understanding it holistically. Del Toro has
embraced the fantastic and the real, the universal
and the unique, and a whole host of other ideas
to create a cinematic classic. He challenges us to
join him in this embrace, and film-lovers everywhere should find this monster of a masterpiece
a worthy challenge. (A) -Matt Goldberg
S TA RT S F R I D AY, J A N UA RY 5
AMC THEATRES
DISCOVER MILLS 18
I-85 at Sugarloaf Pkwy, Exit 108
(404) 816-4AMC
AMC THEATRES
LANDMARK’S
REGAL CINEMAS
PARKWAY POINTE 15 MIDTOWN ART CINEMA HOLLYWOOD 24
3101 Cobb Pkwy SE
(770) 333 - Film#282
931 Monroe Drive
(678) 495-1424
800-FANDANGO #220
REGAL CINEMAS
MEDLOCK CROSSING 18
800-FANDANGO #222
SORRY, NO PASSES
ACCEPTED FOR
THIS ENGAGEMENT.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS- It's just adorable
that people still believe in the American Dream,
and want to make you believe it as well. That
beautiful Horatio Alger rags to riches story suggests that, if you just work hard enough, then
goshdarn it, you're gonna make it in this beautiful country of ours! And if you don't? Well, then
you're probably just lazy. After books like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel & Dimed and other
framings of The American Dream as The American Delusion, how does Chris Gardner's story of
triumph work? If you've seen a commercial for
this film, I doubt anything in the plot will surprise you. Gardner (Will Smith) becomes a single dad after his wife (Thandie Newton) leaves
him because she's the worst person in the world.
Okay, that's stretching it, but she is a dreamcrusher. Granted, she offers to take their son
(played by Smith’s son, Jaden) when she leaves,
which is more than that bitch Meryl Streep ever
did in Kramer vs. Kramer, but other than that?
Crusher of dreams. Gardner has a crap job selling a useless piece of medical equipment, but he
takes a chance on an internship at a brokerage
firm. See, Chris is tenacious and smart, and
though it's going to take a lot of hard work and
sacrifice for him and his son, you know he’s
gonna make it in the end. While the film may be
trying to tell me the origin story of the one black
guy at every Republican National Convention, it
still allows for Will Smith to give his best performance since Ali. I applaud screenwriter Steve
Conrad for making the relationship between
Chris and his son authentic, rather than a hagiography. It would be too easy if Chris were mostly
upbeat, and just had a good cry now and then.
Instead, he shows that even the best parents lose
their tempers. Chris Jr. is adorable, but he
could’ve been the perfect kid, never giving his
father a reason to snap. But sometimes Chris Jr.
gets obnoxious, and you can see his dad instantly
regretting the decision to let his child have sugar.
If there's a reason to see this film, it's the moving
relationship between a father and son. It's wellwritten and well-performed, and that's where
credit is due. The father-son story is where the
film shines, but because it brings nothing unique
to that narrative, the more divisive economic
story subverts the personal into propaganda. (B-)
-Matt Goldberg
THE QUEEN- Unless you’ve been living under a
rock for the past couple of months, chances are
you’ve already heard the hype surrounding
Helen Mirren’s stunning portrayal of Queen
Elizabeth II, which pundits predict will earn her
a Best Actress Oscar. Fortunately, this is one
instance in which the hullabaloo is warranted, as
Mirren is the brightest light in this brilliant
behind-the-scenes look at Britain’s Royal Family
in the days following Princess Diana’s death.
Her performance captures the subtle blend of
stoic regality and a repressed resentment that
bubbles beneath the surface as she is urged first
by new PM Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), then
her son Prince Charles, and finally the entire
British commonwealth to address her nation and
publicly grieve the death of “The People’s
Princess.” Director Stephen Frears’ latest film is
not a pretty portrait of monarchy, but it is a
provocative look at an empire teetering on the
threshold of crisis, and the dysfunctional family
at the center of it all. (A) –B. Love
ROCKY BALBOA- Apollo Creed. Mr. T. Captain
Ivan Drago. All of these great warriors were
accomplished fighters in their own right; however, they were all ultimately defenseless against
the classic cinematic underdog, Rocky. Once
again played by Sylvester Stallone (who also
wrote and directed the film), this time around
thge Italian Stallion faces perhaps the greatest
challenger he has ever faced... himself. Since
making his start in the boxing world in his native
Philadelphia, Rocky has been traveling around
the world, defeating opponents at every stop.
But time finally catches up with the aging boxer
(Stallone himself is approaching AARP age) in
the sixth and final film charting his rollercoaster
boxing career. In Rocky Balboa, we find Rocky
retired from the ring and widowed (what, Talia
Shire was busy?), living back in Philly. Now an
entrepreneur running an Italian restaurant, fittingly called Adrian's, Rocky has anger and
resentment in his “basement” (soul) that he sorely needs to release. Of course, the only way he
knows to do that is to fight. Rocky defies all
attempts at reason from his friends and family,
including Paulie (Burt Young) and Rocky Jr.
(Milo Ventimiglia), not to fight in an exhibition
bout with the current undefeated champion,
Mason “The Line” Dixon, who is on his way out
of the sport. In the end, both fighters come out
winners. And for diehard Rocky fans who have
weathered the last few sequels, hoping to get a
glimpse of the Italian Stallion we first saw in the
1970s, your wait has ended. (B) -Tracey Gould
WE ARE MARSHALL- And speaking of rags-to-riches underdog sports stories, these days it seems
you can’t swing a stick without hitting one at
your local multiplex. Miracle, Glory Road,
Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights,
Coach Carter, Invincible, The Greatest Game
Ever Played, Seabiscuit... hell, at this point I’m
surprised Disney hasn’t released a film about a
quadraplegic bowler, or a water polo champion
with no arms. All tactless jokes aside, sports are
by their very nature a dramatic business, and
100+ years of organized competition have produced a gazillion true stories ripe for cinematic
adaptation. But does that mean that EVERY one
needs to become a film? There’s no arguing that
the story upon which We Are Marshall is based
resonates with emotional impact: The 1970 crash
that killed more than 70 of the college football
team’s players, coaches and boosters ranks
among the greatest tragedies in sports history,
decimating the school’s athletic program and
leaving an entire town in mourning. But while
director McG’s latest film aims for inspirational,
it winds up with mediocrity, emotionally manipulating the audience to first weep, then cheer, as
Matthew McConaughey’s bizarro coach fights to
build a team to honor the crash victims’ legacy.
Matthew Fox is impressive, lending remarkably
restrained gravitas to his supporting role as assistant coach, but it’s not enough to save a clichéridden film whose director has a tendency to be
shallow and schmaltzy. (C) –B. Love
UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND SIDNEY KIMMEL ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT A VIP MEDIENFONDSCASTING
2/A-MARK ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION A NICK CASSAVETES FIMUSIC
LM “ALPHA DOG” BEN FOSTER SHAWN HATOSY EMILE HIRSCH CHRISTOPHER MARQUETTE
MUSIC
ASSOCIATE
SHARON STONE JUSTINPRODUCTION
TIMBERLAKE ANTON YELCHINDIRECTORAND OFBRUCE WILLIS EXECUTIVE
BY MATTHEW BARRY CSA NANCY GREEN-KEYES CSA BY AARON ZIGMAN SUPERVISOR SPRING ASPERS PRODUCER MICHAEL MEHAS
¨ N ANDREAS SCHMID STEVE MARKOFF ROBERT GERINGER AVRAM BUTCH KAPLAN
EDITOR ALAN HEIM ACE DESIGNER DOMINIC WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHY ROBERT FRAISSE PRODUCERS MARINA GRASIC ANDREAS GROSCH JAN KORBELI
PRODUCED
WRITTEN AND
A UNIVERSAL RELEASE
BY SIDNEY KIMMEL CHUCK PACHECO DIRECTED BY NICK CASSAVETES
SOUNDTRACK ON
MILAN RECORDS
© 2006 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes - Text ALPHA with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)!
STARTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 12 AT THEATRES EVERYWHERE
Check local listings for a theatre near you
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OVER 45 STORES
IN 16 STATES!
ATLANTA
2999 Cobb Pkwy • (770) 818-0042
www.samashmusic.com
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Friday, Jan. 5
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BIG 10-4
Jag Star
Saturday, Jan. 6
GROOVE STAIN
The Bastard Suns
Friday, Jan. 12
CRASH DAVIS BAND
Brendan O’Hara
Saturday, Jan. 13
GRINGO STAR
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Justin Melendy & The Bros. Pena • Anna Kramer
Friday, Jan. 19
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COLOURSLIDE
The Pennies • Nikki Barr Band
Saturday, Jan. 20
SAM THACKER
Berg • Marshall Seese
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Friday, Jan. 26
FOUR WAY FREE
Fulturn Jones
Saturday, Jan. 27
SAM THACKER
One With The Bullet
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TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER
Open Daily 4pm
Ask About Atlanta Room for Private Parties
1578 Piedmont Ave.
404-875-1522
www.smithsoldebar.com
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NO COVER Tuesday –Thursday
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thly
ment Mon
Entertain
Atlanta’s
is looking for
A FEW GOOD
WRITERS
Actually, we need a few good
writers that like theater
and music. Ok, so there’s no
pay, but the perks are great,
and you won’t find a better
launching pad for a writing
career. Here are a few of the
companies our writers went
on to work for:
• ESPN
• ROLLING STONE
• People
• Maxim
• Playboy
• TV Guide
• SPIN
• The Source
To get Involved, Send Letter of
Interest & Writing Samples to
bret@insiteatlanta.com
No Phone Calls, Please
��
Friday, Jan. 5
SCOTT LITTLE &
SHAWN ARNOLD
Saturday, Jan. 6
THE BRIAN WILTSEY BAND
Fri, Jan. 12 & Sat, Jan. 13
MIKE LEE &
JEFF BRAMWELL
Thur, Jan. 18 & Fri, Jan. 19
STEVE QUEISSER &
CHRISTIAN JONES
Saturday, Jan. 20
Thursday, Jan. 25
GARETH ASHER
& NAKED
Friday, Jan. 26
MATT MAUTZ &
JOHN THRASHER
Saturday, Jan. 27
Thursday, Feb. 1
MIKE, LARRY &
CHAINLETTER
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For Booking Send Press Kit To:
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ROAD
WARRIORS
THIS MONTH’S
HOTTEST SHOWS
THE BLACK LIPS
(The EARL- 1/12)
Atlanta's most exciting band– a bloozy blur
of psych garage that sort of spins a Nuggets
vibe on its head– is doing a few shows early
this year while prepping their new album. If
2005's Let It Bloom is any indication, the
crowds aren't going to be thinning for the
Black Lips any time soon. A great way to
shake out your post-holiday blues. –John
Davidson
“dinosaur” acts of that era did, Mission of
Burma has proven to be a potent live show
over the past few years. These guys are all
pushing 50 years of age, yet their recent output (see: 2006's The Obliterati) easily stands
on par with their legendary early work. –JD
CARBON LEAF (Smith's Olde Bar- 1/17) Last
year's Love Loss Hope Repeat wasn't a
watershed moment for either Carbon Leaf or
the music culture at-large, but these guys
churn out pleasant pop-rock in the vein of
Matchbox 20 fairly competently. The problem is that they don't have an ace in the hole,
and the result is that they fade into the woodwork of good conversation a little too easily.
Then again, maybe that's exactly what you're
looking for on a cold Wednesday night at a
good bar. –JD
FALL OUT BOY (Tabernacle- 1/19) As
much as we here at INsite have criticized the
UK hype machine for creating disposable
pop stars on what appears to be a weekly
basis, punk bloggers appear intent on providing a similar service here in the U.S. Fall Out
Boy are the MySpace generation’s poster
children, and the truth is we know more about
the bassist’s penchant for sending naked pics
of his weiner via Blackberry than we do
about the band’s lasting contribution to the
pop culture pantheon. Still, the kooky emo
kids seem to dig it, and with bands like New
MISSION OF BURMA (The EARL- 1/13) This
seminal post-punk act disappeared for a couple of decades, and has now found life on the
alt-rock revival circuit. While it's kind of
ironic that many independent bands from the
1980s are now succumbing to the same financial opportunism that the so-called
Found Glory, The Early November and
Permanent Me opening, they should be out in
spades for this show. –B. Love
ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. (Tabernacle- 1/23)
The Strokes' guitar player apparently had a
lot of hooky melodies left over from their last
album, what with the surprising solo-album
stint. Shockingly, perhaps, his debut Yours To
Keep is pretty solid. If his day job goes to
hell, he's definitely got chops of his own to
survive. The weird thing about this show is
that he's playing with Incubus. –JD
JEFF TWEEDY (Tabernacle- 1/29) Wilco has-
SONGWRITERS TOUR 2007
(Tabernacle1/27) January is historically a slow month for
the concert business, which makes it the perfect time for a package show like this, which
might go unnoticed during the busy summer
season. Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, John Hiatt and
Guy Clark are all distinctive, distinguished
songwriters in their own right, though they’re
all long in the tooth enough to avoid the headline-grabbing antics of, say, Ryan Adams.
Only Lovett is a household name, and that’s
primarily from his brief fling with Julia
Roberts. Still, each has tunes and tales to
spare, with sweet sounds running the gamut
of the American roots music spectrum. –BL
S
loan is a classic case of a great band
never quite finding a good record
label home. Award-winning rock stars
in their native Canada, with nine albums
under their belt and 15 years of touring
behind them, this quartet has never been
more than a cult phenomenon here. Yet they
keep trying, churning out marvelous records
and playing for small but loyal crowds. We
recently phoned up Chris Murphy to find out
if Never Hear the End of It will finally earn
Sloan some well-deserved recognition.
The great thing about your band is that
your success in Canada provides you with a
leaping point down here.
We're on the radio and in the mainstream
media up here, but we're not rock stars,
either. I do own a home, which is good for
someone in a little band like ours, so we're
successful on a Canadian level. The
Canadian dream as a musician is to not have
to have another job, which I guess is the
American dream, too. We do well up here,
kind of like Guided By Voices did down
there, and then just hope to break even when
we go to America. But then we also get on
big, shitty festivals. That helps keep us
alive, and more importantly we're still able
to make the records we want. We're still
around.
Do you make your records with the
American audience in mind?
We always refer to it as throwing water on
sand because we go back and nothing ever
sticks. We're never really able to follow up,
but we play good clubs in Chicago, and it's
fuckin' awesome. There are a million stories
about how we've tried to do things differently. For example, on the record before this
one, Action Pact, we had commercial aspirations for it. We worked with a producer
and spent more money than we ever would
have otherwise, but that all went into the
shitter because RCA had a regime change. It
seems like every time we go to do something big, that happens. So you can't really
WORKING FOR A LIVING
SLOAN’S 15-YEAR STRUGGLE FOR U.S. SUCCESS
plan anything unless you're already established. Part of the reason we haven't been
able to get farther is we want to control our
own destiny: we're not willing to bow down.
We're not purposely making un-commercial
records, we're just an underfunded commercial band.
So was the process of writing for Action
Pact different because of your commercial
aspirations back then?
No, we just worked with a guy who helped
with song selection. We all write, but he told
us which ones he thought we should use and
it turned into a record that was less eclectic.
For the people who already love us, I think
they saw that as a betrayal because it wasn't
completely representative of the whole
band.
Are you guys each conscious of how many
of your own songs make the record?
We split the money equally on everything
we do, so it doesn't matter in that context. I
think that artistically it does matter, though;
until this record came out, Andrew hadn't
had a song on a record since 2001. When we
were making 12-song albums and no one
was telling us what to do, we agreed that it
would be three songs each. Early on, I
always had more songs than anybody, but I
was encouraging everyone to write not only
because I liked everybody, but because I
wanted to have everyone involved so that
they wouldn't leave. Especially Andrew,
because he's the most bored of it! (Laughs)
n’t released an album of new material since
2004’s A Ghost Is Born, and Tweedy hasn’t
released a solo album since 2002’s Chelsea
Walls soundtrack. But still fans are salivating
over this tour, which– like his recently
released Sunken Treasure- Live in the Pacific
Northwest DVD– promises to include songs
spanning his entire career, from Uncle Tupelo
and Wilco to the lesser-known Loose Fur. It
should be refreshing to hear classic songs
from the No Depression movement’s heyday
in a stripped-down acoustic setting, but we
can’t help wishing Tweedy would spend a little more time writing new songs and a little
less revisiting old ones. –BL
BOTTLE ROCKETS (The EARL- 1/30) The
perennially under-appreciated Bottle Rockets
almost got famous during the mid-1990s,
back when Uncle Tupelo was on the wane
and Wilco was barely a glimmer in Jeff
Tweedy's eye. But alt-country went to the
backburner, and suddenly the Bottle Rockets
were also-rans... or, at the very least, a
delightful historical footnote. It seems like
every few years this great little band mounts
up a tour to find out if anyone still cares, and
damned if they don't usually sell out. –JD
Tell me about opening for the Rolling
Stones.
We played with them in January, two nights
in Boston, and I had to PAY for seats to see
them. Like $150 per ticket per night, and I
was on the show! People were coming out of
the woodwork [trying to get tickets], even
my ex-landlord. He called me out of the blue
and I was like, “Dude, who are you?!” I had
to tell them all that I was paying. None of us
really even knew how we got booked for
those shows, but we think their promoter's
son, who goes to school in Boston, wanted
us to see us play in Boston so he told his dad
to make it happen.
Was it a full-on, first class gig?
It was the difference between playing in a
packed club when everyone's there to see
YOU, versus when you’re sometimes the
opening act and lots of people don’t give a
shit. In this case, ALL the people didn't give
a shit. (Laughs) But fuck, I don't care. The
Stones had us on their show, it's a feather in
my cap. It's cool. We didn't hang out with
them, but we had a photo op with them. I
was likening it to a show where some band
gets added and they're probably real excited
to meet us, but we don't even meet them in
the process of the show. It's not that we're
untouchable, but at this point I'm not really
going to care that much who the third band
in a lineup with us is.
Finally, what were you guys thinking by
making the new album 30 tracks long?
I've been threatening since Navy Blues to
put out a double album. I always thought it
would be cool because we can't control
who’s into our band, where we tour, or how
things fall through. The only thing we can
control is our output, so I’d always want to
put out a record every six months. But there
are lots of reasons not to do that, although I
think it would be great for us to each do a
solo album at the same time like KISS did.
And a lot of the songs here are short... it's
not like we have two full CDs or anything!
–John Davidson
GHOSTFACE
KILLAH
THE GAME IS FISHY
T
here's never been a group like Wu-Tang
Clan before, in hip-hop or any other
musical genre, and chances are there
never will be again. I can still the remember the
day back in 1993 when I was working as a marketing rep at BMG (which at the time distributed the group's label, Loud Records), and we
first heard the group's debut single,
“C.R.E.A.M.,” on full blast in the company
conference room. The energy in the air was palpable, as typically jaded industry types gave in
to the colorful charisma of this electric Staten
Island ensemble, everyone breaking into smiles
at the unmistakable sound of a guaranteed hit in
the making.
Thirteen years later the group's debut
album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),
stands tall as a bona-fide classic, blazing the
trail for the resurgence in hardcore New York
hip-hop that gave birth to legends like Biggie,
Jay-Z and Nas. Though that album's creative
and commercial success was never duplicated,
the group produced more eatraordinary MCs
than any other act in hip-hop history, with
Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol' Dirty
Bastard, Raekwon and RZA all going on to
achieve various levels of solo success.
Of course, nothing lasts
forever in the here
today, gone
tomorrow
world of hip-hop, and in 2006 Wu-Tang Clan's
relevance seems largely relegated to the history books. Since ODB's untimely death in 2004,
RZA and Method Man have been busier making movies (the former as a soundtrack producer, the latter as an actor), while Raekwon has
been largely AWOL since 2003's The Lex
Diamond Story. All of which leaves Ghost to
carry the group's legacy on his shoulders. His
last album, Fishscale, was a stunning return-toform and a critical success, but failed to even
reach Gold status. Now, just nine months later,
he's back with More Fish, hungry to prove that
he's just as vital to the game now, at the age of
36, as Wu-Tang ever was.
You've been in the game almost 15 years now.
Why do you think you've been able to stay relevant for so long?
Just being around young people and keeping
my ear to the streets, ya know? I still try to
study my craft, listening, practicing my flows,
seeing what shit other niggas ain't doin',
hangin' around the youth and listening to what's
hot.
There's a lot of people who were hot when the
Wu first hit- De La, Tribe, Public Enemy- who
were very talented, but weren't able to stick it
out over the years like you have.
Right. It's hard for certain people. It's not an
easy thing cuz your mind's gotta stay young
and your imagination's gotta stay strong. When
you get older that tends to leave you. I don't
have the same imagination I had when I was
younger and my mind was more vivid. Now, it
takes me more time.
So it's kinda like an athlete, working harder
to exercise those muscles as you get older?
Yeah.
How has the industry changed since you
first started coming up in the game?
You don't gotta have talent no more.
Back in the day, you had to
have talent. Now, you
can just get on a
record, sound like
somebody else
and win. If
you wanna
sound like
the South
and make a
g o o d
record like
t h a t ,
whether
a
it's
one-hit
wonder
or
not,
[you can
s e l l
records].
Who do you
think is to
blame for
that,
slack
lis-
teners who don't insist on better quality or the
radio stations who spoonfeed the masses with
the same ol' same ol'?
All that. The record companies and the radio
stations for playing the same ol' stuff, the DJs
that's getting paid to play certain shit... If somebody gives you $20,000 to play a song, and the
song is wack, it takes away [airtime] from the
authentic shit. Now this nigga comin' in and
gettin' into my spins with that bullshit! It's just
fucked up.
So do you think that makes it harder for
artists with an original sound to stand out,
because you gotta fight to get airplay amongst
20 other artists who all sound alike?
It definitely makes it harder! All that comes
into play. Like I said, it's not about talent no
more, it's about politics.
You mentioned the need to stay young in order
to stay relevant. When you first start out, you
got something to prove, but a lot of artists
grow complacent once they get their spot.
Does having to battle to keep your spot like
that keep you hungry on some ol' “Eye of the
Tiger” shit?
Yeah, and I'm still trying to battle for that spot.
But I can't go out of my element and try to
change up. I gotta keep doin' what I been doin'
until it comes back around.
Genres like rock 'n' roll, punk and R&B all
have so much respect for the innovators who
originally made them group. Why do you
think that hip-hop has so little respect for its
elder statesmen?
Because right now hip-hop is violent, and people don't respect each other no more. They
don't give a fuck about what came before and
they not worried about tomorrow; they just
worried about right now. If a nigga don't
respect himself, how's he gonna have respect
for the pioneers who were doin' it back then?
Motherfuckas don't give a fuck about this
group or that group, because that group ain't
here no more. They tryin' to go for what's new
right now. They don't even give a fuck about
the future.
There's never been a group like Wu-Tang
Clan before, and certainly nothing like it has
come along since. What made it so special?
Our creativity. The things we rhymed about.
Everybody was different, and we were saying
the right shit that needed to be said at that time.
When you're working with a group that has so
many talented individuals, is it a struggle to
get your time to shine?
It was like a battle, cuz you gotta make sure
you rep. Everybody just tried their best to
make whatever sound good, ya know?
It's been two years since ODB passed. How
did losing him affect the group dynamic?
That shit was like losing an arm or a leg, man,
and the group is like a body. If you lost your
leg, it's hard to get around. With his presence,
ODB was an important, if not THE most
important, piece. With that piece not there no
more, it's gonna fuck shit up cuz your body is
used to having that leg. Now your legs can't
depend on each other no more, and it's crazy,
man. That's how it is with ODB. He taught me
a lot of things. He taught me how to have the
soul that I have. I learned a lot from him. With
him not being here, it's like a major chess piece
is missing. We're all important pieces, but a lot
of motherfuckas knew him and respected him
for what he did. He mighta had more motherfuckas on his dick than mine, ya know what I
mean? When you got that type of foundation
and movement going, for a nigga to lose you is
fucked up, yo.
You've had more consistent critical and commercial success than most of the other Wu
members. Is it tough watching your fam
struggle like that?
We all struggling, but we help each other out.
I'm not a platinum or gold artist now. It's hard
to sell records right now the way the game is
structured, and with sales down all around the
board, it's kinda crazy. We all go through what
we go through. That's why I'm putting out two
albums in one year, and still gonna try and
come with another new one in seven or eight
months, just so I can stay out there. But the
game is hard now that we're older. Meth hasn't
been around for a minute cuz he been doin' his
movies and all that shit, and once you away
from the game for a minute, it be changing.
You gotta stay in people's face, cuz motherfuckas forget about you unless you a R&B
singer that's real hot, like Usher or something.
What's the status of Wu-Tang now? There
was a lotta buzz on the Internet that there
might be some beef after you failed to perform
with the group at the VH-1 Hip Hop Honors.
Nah, there's never no beef. What it was, the
VH-1 Honors was supposed to have took place
in August, so I switched my European tour
dates to October. So when October came we
had to start that tour, and when they changed
their date to October it just didn't work, ya
know what I mean? But when everybody gets
situated, we're gonna do another album. Even if
it's our last album, the world will know, yo, this
is it and we're hanging it up. But whatever we
do, it's just gotta be monster. --B. Love
Music
ALBUM REVIEWS
by B. Love, DeMarco Williams, John Davidson, John Moore, Tom DeFreytas & Andrea Hatter
The Dean’s List
VARIOUS ARTISTS- DESPERATE MAN BLUES, I
BELONG TO THIS BAND & HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
(Dust To Digital)
The roots of American folk music.
BL Founded in 1999 by WRAS DJ Lance Ledbetter, Dust-to-Digital has emerged as one of the
most respected labels in the country, earning
props from Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Inspired
by the 1997 CD reissue of The Anthology of
American Folk Music, Ledbetter began to seek
out vintage 78 rpm records. Five years later, his
labor of love was unveiled as Goodbye, Babylon,
a 6-CD boxed set of gospel music accompanied
by a 200-page book and hand-packed with raw
cotton in a wooden box. Nominated for two
Grammys, the set established a trend of impeccable quality that was followed by the label's subsequent releases. Now, with three excellent new collections, Dust-To-Digital seems prepared to make
the leap from relatively unknown indie to a major
player in the field of high quality reissues.
The Desperate Man Blues DVD tells the story
of Fonotone Records founder Joe Bussard, an
obsessive music lover who's spent much of his life
in search of vintage folk, gospel, bluegrass and
blues records. A genuine eccentric whose body jitters and jumps every time he unveils a gem from
among the more than 25,000 78s in his collection,
Bussard is portrayed as the ultimate fan. And
whether it's blues legends like Charley Patton or
country icons like the Carter Family, the soundtrack proves he's also a man of impeccable taste.
I Belong To This Band is the soundtrack to
another stirring documentary film, Awake, My
Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp. Both pay tribute to Sacred Harp singing, a haunting form of
shape note hymn singing with roots in the rural
south. With 12 tracks recorded before 1940 and
13 recorded at 2006's Henagar-Union Convention
(an annual Sacred Harp gathering in Alabama),
the 30-track album is a wonderful introduction to
this vocal tradition, which includes some of
America's oldest songs.
The label's latest boxed set, How Low Can
You Go? Anthology of the String Bass, is a brilliantly packaged collection featuring 3 CDs and a
96-page book. With one CD devoted to songs
recorded 1925-1930, another to songs recorded
1931-1941, and a third devoted to bassist Bill
Johnson, the compilation charts the instrument's
rise from the shadow of the tuba, and its potency
in a range of styles. All in all, these releases establish Ledbetter's imprint as one of the world's finest
indie record labels.
ASOBI SEKSU- CITRUS (Friendly Fire)
The annual shoegazer revival continues.
JD The shoegazing
movement– blissedout, Velvet Underground-inspired droning fueled by dreamy
vocals and guitar
effects– had the
unfortunate timing of
emerging
with
grunge. Perhaps that's
why it never got much farther than college radio
in the U.S., and yet the towering recordings of that
era (such as My Bloody Valentines' Loveless)
continue to inspire countless acts in their wake.
Brooklyn's Asobi Seksu (Tokyo slang for “playful
sex,” allegedly) is one of them.
Citrus steps out confidently from 2004's selftitled debut, and while the fuzzy, layered guitar
work is still prominent, singer/keyboardist Yuki
Chikudate brings a Japanese pop vibe á la Puffi
AmiYumi vibe in the melodies. Elsewhere, things
are straight-up friendly (“Goodbye”) or rippling
washouts of guitar (“New Years,” “Red Sea”).
Chikudate forgoes the vocals on “Pink Cloud
Tracing,” and only the incendiary arrangement
saves the song.
Although Citrus can't entirely get out from the
shadow of its influences, it dodges the weight of
them with great songs. In other words, Asobi Seksu's retro tendencies may play to nostalgia in
some, but for those who never knew the shoegazing scene, the fresh songwriting stands on its own.
YOUTH GROUP- CASINO TWILIGHT DOGS (Anti-)
Rocking the world... in a mellow sort of way.
JM Considering how
popular Death Cab for
Cutie and the Decembrists became last
year, it's a bit surprising that Australia's
Youth Group didn't
become instant millionaires with their
debut, Skeleton Jar. If
their sophomore record doesn't make the Top 10
lists in 2007, there’s clearly a powerful conspiracy
against the band. Though mellow rockers at heart,
Toby Martin's heavily emotive vocals (matched
with an obvious love of the Pixies) help Youth
Group stand head and shoulders above most of the
other indie-rockers vying for just a brief mention
in Paste magazine.
Songs like the opening “On a String” and
“Dead Zoo” stand out on an album chock full of
standout tracks. And if their cover of “Forever
Young” doesn't impress even the most crusty
music snob, then Youth Group should scrap indiepop and re-invent themselves as an Australian
Panic! At the Disco, goofy top hats and all.
WHAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS- TRYING TO NEVER
CATCH UP (Barsuk)
Ready for the next step.
JD After garnering a
coveted spot opening
for Franz Ferdinand,
the awkwardly-named
What Made Milwaukee Famous found
themselves suddenly
noticeable in the
crowded
Austin,
Texas rock scene.
They'd just finished recording their debut album,
Trying To Never Catch Up, which brought lots of
local acclaim, and their elevated profile brought
new record label interest (Barsuk, who's roster
includes Death Cab For Cutie, John Vanderslice,
Menomena, etc.) and national recognition. But is
all the buzz justified?
Probably. The album has been re-released
with several new songs mixed by Spoon's Jim
Eno, and Barsuk is going to put Trying To Never
Catch Up on the radar. The collection of songs is
eclectic, with an adventurous pop bent that
includes the Strokes-y “Mercy Me,” the Ben
Folds-y “Sweet Lady,” the Flaming Lips-y “I
Decide,” and a knack for tucking a million little
interesting hooks into every corner of everything
else. Better still, the wry sense of playful humor
on “Hellodrama” shows that, despite stacked
arrangements, these guys don't take themselves all
that seriously.
Still, this work is ultimately nearly three years
old– a lifetime in the world of constant touring
and a musical landscape that changes at the pace
of a “refresh” button on a browser. These songs
are so compelling, so full of life and urgent
curiosity that the temptation is to wonder if they
are at the apex, or on the upslope. If it's the latter,
then What Made Milwaukee Famous is an act
with an exciting future.
FIVE STAR IRIS- SELF-TITLED (Hooptyville)
Riding behind the times.
BL The
press
release announcing
this Atlanta quartet's first major tour
mentions Collective
Soul almost as
many times as it
does Five Star Iris:
Their debut album
features two songs
co-written by Five Star Iris' Alan Schaefer
and Collective Soul frontman Ed Roland, was
co-produced by Dexter Green (who also produced Collective Soul), and the band has
opened for Collective Soul on numerous
occasions. Sure enough, 5SI boasts a slick,
radio-ready sound not remotely unlike the one
their obvious stylistic forebears rode to fame a
decade ago, and as a result sound significantly
behind the times.
It's not that the band is bad: Their compositional structures are sound and occasionally
dynamic, their guitar-driven melodies rock
hard enough to please the frat-boy crowd (but
not too hard to drive away the sorority girls),
and songs like “Only Imagine” and “Weathered” boast simple sing-along choruses that
beg comparisons to Live and Tonic. But ultimately there's an antiseptic, edgeless lack of
soul to these 12 tracks that makes them seem
utterly disposable, forgotten mere seconds
after the CD stops spinning.
Five Star Iris clearly has looks and talent,
and the right team in place (including bigname producer Sylvia Massy Shivy) to take
things to the national level. But if they want
to be more than one-hit wonders, they need to
learn to write songs that connect with listeners
on a more intimate, personal level before they
try connecting with them inside the vast confines of the arenas to which they so clearly
aspire. (C)
MOS DEF- TRUE MAGIC (Geffen) & KIDZ IN THE
HALL- SCHOOL WAS MY HUSTLE (Major
League/Rawkus)
Hip-hop without guns? Now that's an idea!
DW Mos Def's last two film roles (in The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and 16
Blocks) leaned towards annoyance. The conscious MC’s fans want to see him in more
parts like the one from The Italian Job. You
know– smart, charming and gets the job done.
True Magic, Mos' third solo effort at his rapping night gig, has all three qualities and then
some. Intelligently going with a Motownapproved musical foundation for his laid-back
flow, Mos speaks on past loves (“U R the
One”) and present inner-city issues (“Fake
Bonanza”). Unlike on his last effort, The New
Danger, there's very little sign of the uneven
rock stuff Mos sometimes gravitates towards.
Good. Lots more room for the MC's smart
pen to address the edgier subject matter (the
Hurricane Katrina-sparked “Dollar Day” and
“Murder of a Teenage Boy”) fans expect from
him, both on the big screen and in the recording booth.
Who knew what they'd get from Kidz in
the Hall? Two young men, zero history of
crack-dealing, one strong love for Blackstar,
De La Soul and all things progressive hiphop. Sounds like the makings of a cuddly
Hallmark Channel feature, right? Hardly.
When you hear MC Naledge rhyme, “Singled
out like McCarthy/I'm trying to be the black
McCartney” on the amazing “Wheelz Fall
Off,” you know this duo is different. These
Kidz's School Was My Hustle is whip-smart,
but not all in your face with the fact that they
can conjugate verbs. DJ Double-O's beats on
“Go Ill” and “Wassup Jo'” express a keen ear
for hotness and sound note-taking off Pete
Rock. Sadly, some of the beats have less
punch than the aging Rocky Balboa, but it
can't be denied that these Kidz are all grown
up. Yeah, hip-hop, looks like they're ready for
their close-up. Both (B+)
THE BRONX- SELF-TITLED (Island) & BRAND
NEW- THE DEVIL AND GOD ARE RAGING INSIDE
ME (Interscope)
Emo-punks called to the show.
JM The rush of major labels stumbling over
each other to sign any band that had ever been
referred to as “punk” or “emo” hit its peak in
2005, so 2006 brought a slew of groups trying
to make the jump from indie to major label.
The results were mixed.
LA-based punk-metal group The Bronx
are among the more successful bands that
made the leap. On their self-titled sophomore
release, the band makes a seamless transition.
The album is cleaner, production-wise, but
still gritty enough to impress the indie-metal
kids that first latched on to the band. Tracks
like “Around the Horn” and “White Guilt”
sound like the type of songs a 2006 Guns ‘N'
Roses should be releasing.
Long Island's Brand New, who turned in
one of 2003's best albums with Deja Entendu,
had a rougher time with their major label
debut. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside
Me, one of the most eagerly-anticipated emo
albums of 2006, simply couldn't live up to the
hype created over the past three years. Taken
as a whole, it’s not bad, but it simply lacks the
creativity and wealth of standout songs that
made their last album such a brilliant effort.
The Bronx (B); Brand New (B-)
CLINIC- VISITATIONS (Domino)
A more industrial Radiohead.
JD Clinic was once
on the cutting edge,
a band that saw
what Radiohead
was doing on
breakthrough
albums such as Kid
A and made a case
that there was more
left to wring out of
post-punk. Chunks of aggressive guitars,
eccentric rhythms and a sly use of dance beats
made their 2000 debut, Internal Wrangler, a
cold touchstone of their potential, but they've
spent the past five years trying to justify that
promise. Visitations comes as a turning point
for Clinic, one that feels more make-or-break
than ever.
“Family” kicks off the album with guitars
and a one-two backbeat– a tribute to seminal
post-punk acts like Wire, right down to the
snarling vocals. There's always been an evasive, nightclub sexiness to Clinic, and the
delicious “If You Could Read Your Mind”
affirms this with a snaking guitar line transported straight from the Velvet Underground's
heyday. As Visitations progresses, the influence of that band becomes nearly overwhelming and the paucity of ideas threatens.
After all, filler such as “Animal/Human,”
“Interlude” and an uninspired cover of Fleetwood Mac's “Tusk” undercuts Clinic's fortitude and forte. The album loses steam at these
moments, leaving suspicion rather than
curiosity about a band four albums into their
career trajectory. If Clinic still has something
left to say, Visitations seems occluded by a
lack of conviction. (B-)
EMINEM PRESENTS THE RE-UP (Shady/
Aftermath)
Mix CDs that show plenty of shine.
BL Think TNT knows drama? They’ve got
nothing on Marshall Mathers, whose life in
the year leading up to the release of this
album saw more ups and downs than all the
rollercoasters in all the Six Flags theme parks
put together. The platinum-haired provocateur
checked himself into rehab, reunited with
Music
infamous ex-wife
Kim, broke up with
her shortly thereafter, and lost his
best friend Proof in
a nightclub shooting
that proved that
sometimes gangsta
bravado can go a little too far (remember the video for “Like Toy Soldiers,” in which
the D-12 MC was depicted being rushed to the
hospital after getting shot?).
Returning to the game after a two-year
absence, you might expect The Re-Up to bear
the creative fruit of Em's fucked up year. But
you'd be wrong. In fact, Shady's profile here is
surprisingly slim, instead focusing the spotlight
on his extended rhyme family, including G-Unit,
D-12, Stat Quo and newcomers Bobby Creekwater and Ca$his. Originally intended as an underground mix tape, the album brings some serious
heat despite its mastermind's relatively low profile, with plenty of blazing highlights to suggest
that Eminem's empire remains strong.
The opening posse cut, “We're Back,” sets
the blistering tone, with a piano-laden beat, subtle strings and syncopated rhymes, while Creekwater makes a case for himself Rookie MC of
the Year on the percolating “Shake That Remix”
with Obie Trice and Nate Dogg. The Bomb
Squad-style beats and sinister funk of “Ski Mask
Way” support some of 50's best bars in years,
while the touching Proof tribute, “Trapped,” is
chilling in light of his untimely demise.
But as on most mix tapes, there are some
weak moments here, too, such as Bizarre and
Kuniva's gratuitous gun talk on “Murder” (which
seems disrespectful of their former D-12 bandmate) and the monotonous beat that drags down
Ca$his' aggressive spitting on “Everything Is
Shady.” Still, when Em snatches the mic and
takes the lead on songs like the title track, “You
Don't Know” and the closing “No Apologies,”
he makes a strong case for his claim to be one of
the tightest MCs in the game. Fans may come
away wondering why Kim, Proof and rehab
barely merit a mention, but they'll also appreciate the man's skill for scouting out some of hiphop's hottest undiscovered talent. (B)
NAS- HIP HOP IS DEAD & YOUNG JEEZY- THE
INSPIRATION: THUG MOTIVATION 102 (Def Jam)
Def Jam gets the game off life support.
DW What bit of feuding that transpired
between Nas and Young Jeezy at the end of '06
was the result of miscommunication more than
anything else. When Jeezy heard Nas' new
album would be called Hip Hop is Dead, the
Atlanta rapper took it personally because he and
his Deep South brethren were atop all the charts.
While all the snap-friendly music may have been
part of the problem, that wasn't the message the
beloved Queens native was trying to convey.
ALL of hip-hop was problematic– the South, the
Midwest, everywhere. “Dead” is just Nas' way of
personally challenging MCs in every area code
to step up... even those in the 212.
Keeping it real, NY hip-hop has slumped of
late. A lil' over a decade ago, the Rotten Apple
sound was undeniable. Nasty Nas reflects on that
very subject on “Where Are They Now,” a shout
to the artists who paved the way for him and
Jeezy to land atop the Billboard charts. “Carry
on Tradition” and “Hold Down the Block” don't
inspire old house parties, but they do conjure
memories of in-your-mug ‘90s hip-hop. But
Dead, Nas’ fourth straight great album, isn't just
on some reminisce ish. The Kanye-rocked “Still
Dreamin'” speaks to those living in a fantasy
world, the Jay-Z-assisted “Black Republican”
speaks out on Jeffersons-style comeuppance, and
the percussion-heavy “Let There Be Light”
speaks to every ounce of soul in your body.
Jeezy's second album really only speaks to
one type of person: those who appreciate a good
thug tale. “I'm the Realest,” “I Got Money,”
“Still On It” and “Bury Me A G” are damn near
the same– kinetic tracks shedding light on all the
material things the ex-dope boy's come across
the past few years. But the thing keeping Jeezy
ahead of the Southern pack is his ability to flip
metaphors like a coked-up gymnast. True, “Keep
It Gangsta” and the reflective “Mr. 15” are selfimportant bars put to Chevy-riding beats, but
with all the swaggering coming across, they're
actually appealing. One could even see Nas
bumpin' his head to the last one, especially. Of
course, afterwards, God's Son would look over to
his labelmate and rightfully ask, “What else you
got, kid?” Nas (B+) Jeezy (C+)
PJ HARVEY- THE PEEL SESSIONS 1991-2004
(Island)
Seminal performances for a seminal host.
JD The wane of
influence from radio
DJs has been marked
for decades, beginning with the payola
scandals of the ‘50s
and spiraling even
more rapidly in the
new millennium, as
computer-generated
playlists wrestle away all the control from the
personalities who once were the arbiters of taste.
John Peel, who DJ'd at the BBC in London
from the late 1960s up until his death in 2004,
was the last towering voice of his peers– a guy
whose list of musical discoveries (Pink Floyd,
the Doors, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, the
Cure, Pulp, the Smiths and dozens of others) had
enormous impact on their popularity both in the
United Kingdom and abroad. PJ Harvey was one
of his favorite artists.
Peel recorded live performances of most, if
not all, of his favorite artists in his studio for
broadcast. His “Peel Sessions” are legendary, not
only for their breadth of style but for the performances that his guests delivered. These weren't
the phoned-in, sloppy one-offs that musicians
proffer for morning drive-time shows in the
States. Peel's guests were always earnestly trying
to impress the host. The result is that, in his
death, many of these wonderful shows have been
officially released on compact disc.
Harvey's a natural for the live setting, and
intimacy of Peel's studio. She visited several different times over thirteen years, and The Peel
Sessions 1991-2004 is an excellent representation of her prowess and songwriting. While this
collection doesn't include every note she sang for
John Peel, these songs are probably her best performances. It's an excellent tribute to an eternal
friend of popular music. (A-)
YOU AM I- CONVICTS (Yep Roc)
Rowdy barroom rock.
JD You Am I has
frequently
been
described as “the
Replacements of
Australia,” which
has been fairly accurate if you came of
age in the mid1980s. For newer
generations, this
band's music would probably have a good home
on the Warped Tour or opening up for Green
Day. It’s poppy punk with roots in the Jam, the
Buzzcocks and even the Clash. Classic punk
never goes out of style, and while You Am I
doesn't have much edgy anarchy, they fit the bill
and defy their fifteen years of existence.
Convicts, therefore, follows the pattern of
the brawling rock on the band's previous eight
(or so) albums without many surprises. “Thank
God I've Hit Bottom” hints at hardcore, there's
some heavy riffing on “Nervous,” and “I'm A
Mess” has that sort of Westerbergian weariness
(and guitar line) that guarantees a mention of the
Replacements in every review. Convicts reaches
for the band's high water mark (1996's Hi-Fi
Way), and isn't far off.
Singer-songwriter Tim Rogers’ side-project,
The Temperance Union, is an outlet for his less
raucous songs, and in truth this album could use
a break every now and again from the ball-busting onslaught. But Convicts has a hunger that
belies the band's longevity, an unrest served well
by energetic slabs of guitars and gutsy vocals.
Instead of a pensive recollection of where
they've been, You Am I makes the case for
where they've yet to travel. (B)
THE PURSUIT OF SCRAPPYNESS
MEET LIL SCRAPPY, ONE OF THE SOUTH’S HOTTEST MC’S
U
pon first glance, he comes off like all
the rest from this neck of the woods–
flashy jewels, baggy jeans, New Era fitted tilted about 45º, a stare to make Suge
Knight piss his Hanes. Seriously, what's so
special about Atlanta’s Lil Scrappy? That's
easy. When given the opportunity, the kid can
truly spit on subjects beyond money rolls,
stripper poles and his candy-painted Olds. He
just elects not to do so very often. But for an
MC who's been in some part of the game for
four years, times are a-changin'.
A long-time business friend of Lil Jon's,
the two decided to bring the influential 50 Cent
into the fold for his polished December release,
Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live. The professional
move doesn't bring about drastic lyrical
changes (“Livin' in the Projects,” however, is
some hold-nothing-back prose), yet it does
offer hints that the swag-filled 22-year-old can
separate himself from the crunk bunch.
Some folks see you as a torch-bearer for the
Southern sound. Why are they high on you?
I ain't the one to brag, but I'mma brag this time.
I'm one of the youngest out here in the game
from the South and I know how to make good
music. We gonna see if they right.
Okay, give me your recipe for a good album.
Umm, you need concentration. You need to be
free from anything that's going on around you.
I didn't know that at first. I was thinking you
gotta go through stuff and make the album
while you're going through it. But you're not
able to do that. I don't come out right. So, you
need concentration. Me? I need a blunt, a shot
of Patron and then it's on.
A lot of the excitement from this album
revolves around Lil Jon and 50 Cent working
as executive producers. But like the Dream
Team, it takes more than big names to make
stuff work. The pressure's crazy, right?
I really don't care. I'm gonna do me regardless.
Whether it's Jon and 50, Eminem and Dre,
whoever. I'm gonna still do me at the end of
the day. Really, the artist has to help the record
label help [the artist]. You gotta do something
to make muthafuckas even look at you. People
only look at what's interesting. If you don't
make nobody look at you and go “Wooow,”
you definitely not going anywhere.
With all the other stuff those two dudes have
going on, were they truly able to dedicate a lot
of time to your project?
Yeah, they was dedicated. I'mma tell you like
this, 50 and Jon actually took out they time or
whatever they was doin' and set down with me
and crunched it out-especially 50. Jon was
kinda still on the road a lil' bit. 50 was on the
road, too, but he laid back a whole week to
work with me. It don't take that long to work
with me. I know what I want.
Your album title, Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live,
hints that you've overcome a lot. What do you
credit for you not becoming a statistic?
I’m a biological daddy, my mom, God and
especially life. Life taught me that, going
through stuff. See, I went through [growing up]
what half these niggaz go through they whole
life, know what I'm sayin'? By the time I got 18
or 19, I'm saying, “Shit, I ain't going down
there [to that trouble].” It's crazy. People actually walk to their death sometimes. A muthafucka know he fixin' to go to a shootout and he
know there's a chance he might not come back.
Why? 'Cuz he want to be hard.
That hardness gets you in a casket quick.
Yeah, you really be hard then. You'll be in a
casket-hard as hell. Stiff like a muthafucka!
You're young, but you seem like you've been
rapping for a long time. What do you dislike
most about the game you chose to play?
It's super-fake. That's the only thing I dislike
about it. Niggaz don't wanna fuck with you
until you show them something interesting.
Then, when you get in [to the recording industry] and you don't fuck with nobody, they get
mad. It's almost like they feel like they let you
in or sumthin'. They don't even remember that I
was the same muthafucka that said “Hey,
what's up” to them and they just ignored me.
That fakeness goes beyond the record level
though, too, right?
Yeah, man. It's niggaz on the street that are
fake. They get around you to try to get some of
your light, some of your fame, some of your
bread. It's ignorant. You call yourself a man?
What about the game makes you smile?
The money, the music and sometimes the business. You can get a lot out of the rap game.
You can get other stuff poppin' that has nothing
to do with rap, so it's an opportunity.
What's your proudest accomplishment?
Just staying in the game, keeping the flow.
Being young and having good credit. I remember back in the day I didn't even know nuthin'
about credit. It was just cash.
Is the music you drop entertainment, or are
listeners supposed to get something from it?
Yeah, it's supposed to teach you. When we're
rapping, we're telling you stories. People forget
that we talkin' aboutshit that niggaz USED to
do. They make it like, “Oh, they talkin' about
shit they do NOW.” –DeMarco Williams
2006- The Year In Music
T
he futile exercise in summarizing 365 days is getting harder. After all, not only does culture ignore endpoints such as arbitrary dates
on the calendar, our world of music is getting more disparate. For example, ten years ago, virtually no one was listening to music
online, let alone buying (or “sharing”) millions of songs. Digital distribution via the Internet is now the premiere route to your ears,
cutting sales of compact discs nearly ten percent from last year and signaling the end of that coaster-shaped medium. But what your connection really gets you is choice-the choice to follow your own route to musical bliss, as opposed to what a handful of record labels or radio
stations limit you to.
Thus, this year was the continued validation of the promise of the niche. The decline of the Top 40 or massive-selling mass appeal
means that more of us are loving more things, that our tastes are free to go beyond Clear Channel radio programming . Your iPod, your hard
drive, your Tivo, your on-demand, your network gaming, your every entertainment impulse is rapidly being served by digital technology in
such a robust way that we may never have another Beatles or Rolling Stones. We may never have another Public Enemy or Garth Brooks or
Sinatra. The days of a handful of music acts dominating the mass consciousness are over, and in their place is something more refined to
individual taste.
We know this because of the explosion of new options that are chipping away at the old: if you give Yahoo Music your musical preferences, they will stream high-quality radio commercial-free and tailored to what you love; podcasts time-shift radio shows and let anyone
be a DJ in the process; OnTour looks at your iTunes file and tells you when any of the artists are playing in your area; there are now a halfdozen credible sites to legally purchase songs; the rise and rise of MySpace.com has given anyone with a guitar a place to gather and show
their wares. This vast amount of choice gives music fans the consuming power they've always deserved and creates more opportunity for
artists to be heard. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved, and it continues to get better. --John Davidson
DEMARCO WILLIAMS’ TOP 10
JOHN DAVIDSON'S TOP 10
1. THE HOLD STEADY- BOYS & GIRLS IN AMERICA
(Vagrant) The best bar band in America moved to a bigger
record label for their third album, and not much changed in the
process. The signature sound-big fat classic guitar riffage,
barstool wisdom, and sing-shouting vocals-is threatening to
become the kind of habit that will scare the hipster indie kids off,
but in the end that's kind of what the Hold Steady is all about.
2. NEKO CASE- FOX CONFESSOR BRINGS THE FLOOD
(Anti) Neko Case's sumptuous voice- hearty, confident and
smoky- will always be her calling card but each successive album
finds her songs finally living up to her well-praised reputation.
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood highlights Case's sense of noir,
the artistic touch of a singer-songwriter at the top of her game.
3. GIANT DRAG- HEARTS AND UNICORNS (Universal)
Hearts and Unicorns actually came out in 2005, but was rereleased this year when Giant Drag signed a big deal with a major
record label. Led by the charismatic Annie Hardy, this album is
quite simply the best album that the Breeders never made, a bag
of songs bursting with sunny, fuzz-laden guitar pop.
4. SONIC YOUTH- RATHER RIPPED (Geffen)
A legend in their time, Sonic Youth is aging gracefully as they
continue to tighten up their albums instead of trying to remind
everyone how modern they are. Rather Ripped is like U2's All
That You Can't Leave Behind, where the aging giant reverts to its
strengths and reminds us all how some reputations are welldeserved.
5. THE HIGH VIOLETS- TO WHERE YOU ARE (Future
Farmer) The shoegaze sound of the 1990s- gauzy guitars,
washed out vocals, drawn out hooks- threatens to make a comeback every year, and in 2006 the High Violets pulled it off with
aplomb. To Where You Are stands tall on well-crafted melodies
that never disappear under gated instruments or droning mindbenders.
6. TV ON THE RADIO- RETURN TO COOKIE
MOUNTAIN (Interscope) In an era where novelty is often mistaken for quality, TV On the Radio backs up the hype that they’re
the most interesting band on the planet. Return To Cookie
Mountain consistently compels, and while there is no indication
that this band will make it out of the ghetto of the independent
music scene, it is a cause of hope for all those who dare say that
rock is dead.
7. THE STARLIGHT MINTS- DROWATON (Barsuk)
While the Flaming Lips continually corner the market on weirdo
pop, the Starlight Mints quietly released an album better than
anything the Lips have done in a decade. Drowaton is daring in
its curiosity and surprising in its execution; most bands don't
have the talent to make such racket sound carefully orchestrated.
8. ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANAGAN- THE
BALLAD OF BROKEN SEAS (V2) Her ex-bandmates in
Belle & Sebastian also released an album this year (the terrific
The Life Pursuit), but Campbell's duet with Lanagan is more satisfying. The lovely chanteuse reaches deep into trad folk and
blues territory and in the process seems to find herself, unveiling
an artist with much more potential than previously thought.
9. AMY MILLAN- HONEY FROM THE TOMBS (Arts &
Crafts) Moonlighting from her day job with Toronto's Stars,
Amy Millan wanders effortlessly through pop stylings before settling into Americana on this wonderful debut. Mostly sparse and
acoustic, Millan fills the spaces with an earnest voice and drinking-buddy lyrics of love lost.
10. THE OOHLAS - BEST STOP POP (Stolen Transmission)
Best Stop Pop is a home run debut for enchanting singer Ollie
Stone, whose sugary pop songs sit atop a summery breeze of guitars and blissful harmony. It's also a stunning career revival for
drummer Greg Eklund, whose former band (Everclear) could
have used some of this delightful mojo.
1.THE CLIPSE- HELL HATH NO FURY
(Jive) Four years can make you bitter as
hell… or so say corner-hugging sibs Pusha T
and Malice on their murky second disc. At
times a trip down a dark alley, at others just
a head trip, the Neptunes really get busy.
Brothers Grimm do, too; they just hope four
years was long enough for you to get ready.
2. CORINNE BAILEY RAE- SELFTITLED (Capitol) Her voice doesn't
scream to the heavens, nor are her words
life-changing. Still, there's something of
unspeakable beauty about this UK siren. A
mix of Norah Jones, India.Arie and a Sunday
breeze, her debut will blow you away.
3. GHOSTFACE KILLAH- FISHSCALE
(Def Jam) Ghost makes little sense in his
rhymes, but it's all still such a beautiful
mess. Meth and Masta Killa both dropped
highly anticipated albums, but Fishscale was
really worth the wait.
4. NAS- HIP HOP IS DEAD (Def Jam)
Can you name anybody in rap more consistent than Nasir Jones? Dude gets married,
unifies with an old nemesis and still releases
a majestic CD of reflection, dejection and
reconnection. Dead is one reason hip-hop is
alive and very well.
5. J. DILLA- DONUTS (Stones Throw)
Damn, hip-hop misses Jay Dee. The next
B. LOVE’S TOP 10
1 . L I Z D U R R E T T- T H E MEZZANINE (Warm) This Athens-based songwriter’s
simply adorned ballads are haunted, original
and positively spellbinding. Her sophomore
album is timeless, faultless and utterly uncontrived, as chilling and soul-stirring as any
record I've heard in years.
2.
JENNY LEWIS W/THE WATSON
TWINS- RABBIT FUR COAT (Team Love)
Abandoning Rilo Kiley's infectious indie-pop
in favor of a rootsy sound that veered from
bluegrass to blue-eyed soul, Lewis' delightful
solo debut established her alongside Shelby
Lynne and Neko Case among the reigning
queens of alt-country.
3. DAMIEN RICE- 9 (Warner Bros) It’s gotta
logical link in the Dr. Dre-Large
Professor-Pete Rock production
chain, the late Dilla's life is best
remembered via tracks with
Common and Slum Village, and in
this beautiful collage of beats.
6.
MARY
J.
BLIGEBREAKTHROUGH (MCA) Why
do the streets love MJB? Cuz Mary's
their voice. Her 7th album is not
only a breath of refreshment vocally
(I swear you can hear her exhale on
half the tracks), but it's also brilliant
in its blend of slow burners and
slightly up-tempo grooves.
7. AZ- THE FORMAT (Quiet
Money) If I were AZ, I'd say to hell
with this music stuff. Like a clumsy
chef over the stove, dude's always
dropping hot shit, but only the dedicated take
the time to digest it. The Format is NY hiphop at its finest– boisterous, emotional and
doesn't pretend to give a damn.
8. LUPE FIASCO- FOOD & LIQUOR
(Atlantic) The media saw this “next big
thing” as the voice of the skater nation,
but “Sunshine” and “Daydreamin'”
proved the witty 25-year-old might be
the voice of those who think Tony
Hawk is an exotic bird in Europe, too.
9.
LY F E
JENNINGSTHE
PHOENIX (Sony) This year a few
male R&B vets and upstarts showed
their heads, but it was this Ohio native
w h o m a d e t h e m o s t n o i s e . Ly f e ' s
album feels theatrical, yet the soulful
act never gets old.
10. LITTLE BROTHER- SEPARATE
BUT EQUAL (N/A) This DJ Dramaorchestrated CD features all-new verses from Phonte and Pooh over a mix of
bold, innovative tracks and some
familiar ones. If you say there's a better verse in 2006 than Phonte's on
“Boondocks Saints,” you're lying.
be hell trying to follow-up a damn-near-perfect
debut, but this Irish folkie acquitted himself
admirably, cranking up the volume and even
managing to sound happy (gasp!) on a track or
two. Still, nobody plumbs the depths of
heartache better, and songs like “Elephant” are
likely coming soon to a soundtrack near you.
4 . C AT P O W E R - T H E G R E AT E S T
(Matador) Chan Marshall’s best album to date
boasts a soulful sound laid down at Memphis'
Ardent Studios. It’s a melancholy masterpiece
that finds her walking boldly down the road to
redemption, cautiously emerging from the shadows of darkness and heading into the light.
5.
THE COUPPICK A BIGGER
WEAPON (Anti) Like Prince's classic
Controversy, this CD mixes irresistable bootyshaking jams with sociopolitical content clearly
designed to shake your consciousness.
It’s an infectious funk-hop epic that
makes freeing your mind so damn fun,
your ass can't help but follow.
6. BEDROOM WALLS- ALL
GOOD DREAMERS PASS THIS
WAY (Baria) These dreamy, bittersweet songs balance catchy indie-pop
melodies with melancholy moods that
recall experimental bands ranging
from early Pink Floyd and Talk Talk to
Sigur Ros. Every track is delightful,
and I can't say I've ever heard another
quite like it.
7. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS- GET
LONELY (4AD) The Mountain Goats'
latest was a bittersweet testament to
the beauty of melancholy. Though
Darnielle's approach remains uniform-
ly stripped-down, the emotional complexity of the lyrics stands out in stark contrast to
the relative musical simplicity. Deep, dark, intimate and revealing, this is nuanced indie-folk
songwriting at its finest.
8. ARCTIC MONKEYS- WHATEVER
YOU SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT I’M NOT
(Domino) Barreling out of the gates like a
turbo-charged street racer fueled by caffeine,
cigarettes and testosterone, Arctic Monkeys
boast a snotty, snarling, distinctively British
DIY aesthetic. It's hard to believe in anything
propped up by the UK hype machine, but these
raucous lads crafted a rambunctious debut
album that makes you wanna drink to excess,
get in bar fight and take a stranger home for an
all-night shag.
9. SOUL POSITION- THINGS GO
BETTER WITH RJ AND AL (Rhymesayers)
The second album from underground hip-hop
act Soul Position– producer RJD2 and MC
Blueprint– proves that existing outside the
meanstream and inaccessibility do not necessarily have to go hand-in-hand, while at the same
time establishing thems among the more potent
hip-hop duos since Black Star's heyday.
10.
RACONTEURS- BROKEN BOY
SOLDIERS (V2) OK, so maybe Jack White’s
classic rock side-project with Brendan Benson
wasn’t quite as unique as Get Behind Me,
Satan. But the Raconteurs combined elements
of pop, psychedelia, blues and even funk to create an indie supergroup that made the most of
their respective talents, and there’s no denying
that “Steady As She Goes” was one of the
year’s most infectious earworms, still stuck in
my head more than 7 months later.
TOM DEFREYTAS' TOP 10
1.
BOB
D Y L A N MODERN
T I M E S
(Columbia)
What
new
praise is there
left to extol
upon this living
legend? Aside
from altering
his
singing
style later in
life to save his
vocal cords,
D y l a n ' s
approach has barely changed, yet he still produces fresh and entertaining music. I'm starting to think Dylan's ghost will continue to
churn out amazing albums for the next hundred years.
2. JENNY LEWIS W/THE WATSON TWINS- RABBIT FUR
COAT (Team Love ) Rilo Kiley's leading lady ventured out on her
first solo CD in order to temporarily leave the realms of rock and
set foot in the world of country-folk. With songs harkening back to
the heyday of the Grand Ol Opry, Lewis proves she's one of the
most gifted singer/songwriters today. Her voice is heavenly, her
lyrics are biting and she looks cute in vintage dresses. Is Jenny
Lewis the ideal woman? Without a doubt.
3. GNARLS BARKLEY- ST. ELSEWHERE (Downtown) I
JOHN MOORE'S TOP 10
1. GATSBY'S AMERICAN DREAM- SELF-TITLED (Fearless)
On their fifth effort, the enigmatic Gatsby's American Dream are as
unpredictable as always. The beautifully-crafted release manages to
sound nothing like their peers, combining elements of atmospheric
indie-rock with melodic pop-punk and a layer of distorted guitars. No
idea what vocalists Bob Darling and Nic Newsham are singing half
the time, but it's still music to my ears.
2. LEFT ALONE- DEAD AMERICAN RADIO (Hellcat) On their
second release, LA-based street punks Left Alone turned in one of the
best punk-rock records of the year. With bratty lyrics, a tight rhythm
section and two- to three-minute songs, Dead American Radio was the
anti-emo record of 2006. There are no cute irony-laced song titles, no
piano or acoustic-backed songs, and no weepers about being dumped
by your girl. Just straight-up gritty street punk.
3. ANGELS & AIRWAVES- WE DON'T NEED TO WHISPER
(Geffen) On Angels & Airwaves’ debut, led by former Blink 182
frontman Tom DeLonge, this supergroup churns out atmospheric,
arena-ready songs reminiscent of everyone from late-‘80s U2 to Big
Country. Each song swells to the point of bursting. In just 10 tracks,
We Don't Need to Whisper almost makes up for the decade of juvenile frat-rock DeLonge used to churn out.
4. THE DRAFT- IN A MILLION PIECES (Epitaph) Back with a
new focus and a cleaner sound, three-fourths of the band Hot Water
Music have reformed as The Draft. The dozen tracks that make up In
A Million Pieces show a matured band that has decided to go a different path, having shed the post-hardcore sound for a straight-up
punk-rock vibe. The result is more powerful than anything their previous band ever accomplished.
5. BAD ASTRONAUT- TWELVE SMALL STEPS, ONE GIANT
ANDREA HATTER’S TOP 10
1.
THE
M A R S
V O LTA A M P U TECHTURE
(Universal)
The title says
it all: With
Amputechture, these former At The
Drive-In progrockers have
built
new
music out of
pieces extracted from others. Delineated guitars hypnotize you, then the rest
of the band shocks you with bursts from the horn section. In
other places, you'll feel like you’re caught in a headbanger
concert at Carnaval. Anything goes! And that's the best thing
about them in this country gone to emo hell.
2. THE BLACK KEYS- MAGIC POTION (Nonesuch)
This indie duo has filled a void in my heart that has been longing for blues-rock of late. Their sound is utter simplicity– just
a guitarist and a drummer– but whether you listen in your
room on headphones or in your car, you'll still feel as though
you're standing elbow to elbow in a rundown back-alley dive
bar, surprised to find out that these are two white dudes from
Ohio sounding like old black men from Mississippi.
apologize for the pun, but this album was “Crazy” good. Cee-lo and
Danger Mouse created a visionary work able to transcend genre
boundaries and appeal to all music fans. This CD's got funk, it's got
style, it's one of the coolest CDs in recent memory and, in “Go-go
Gadget Gospel,” it has one of the best song titles of all-time.
4. LUPE FIASCO- FOOD & LIQUOR (Atlantic) Lupe was
groomed to create a great CD. As a former member of Kanye West's
entourage, he made his first appearance with a short cameo in
Kanye's song “Touch the Sky.” On his first solo album, Lupe Fiasco
creates a series of songs that mocks many rap clichés while creating a totally distinct style. Instead of “making cocaine cool and getting more half-naked girls,” Lupe makes fresh songs like the skater
anthem “Kick, Push.”
5. SEAN LENNON- FRIENDLY FIRE (Capitol) The album's
title really does explain the CD as a whole: The lyrics deal with
potentially dangerous emotions, but the songs are well-crafted, with
a light and airy feeling that maintains the weight of the lyrical substance. While it can definitely appeal to those scorned by love,
Lennon creates an ambiance which makes this a soothing album to
have playing in the morning on a beautiful, lazy day.
6. THE DECEMBERISTS- THE CRANE WIFE (Capitol) This
album took some time for me to appreciate. At first, I liked the
band's willingness to experiment with new sounds, but was disappointed with the overall quality in comparison to their previous
work. But just like a great book which requires multiple readings to
fully understand and appreciate, The Crane Wife cements the
Decemberists as one of the most important bands today, with their
unique brand of history-influenced, storytelling rock.
7. MUSE: BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS (Warner
Bros ) One word best describes this album: epic. Listening to this
CD is akin to listening to a science fiction novel turned into a space
opera which mysteriously arrived from the not-too-distant
future. It's got guitar solos reverberating throughout the universe
and songs so catchy they could force alien races into submission
just so they could listen to the songs once more. At the least, definitely see the video for “Knights of Cydonia” on Youtube. It has
robots, cowboys and chicks on motorcycles. Need I say more?
8. ART BRUT- BANG BANG ROCK & ROLL (Downtown) Art
Brut makes a reputation for itself through its absurdity. The first
track on the album, “Formed a Band,” is all about how they… um,
well, formed a band. While they thrive off their own self-reflexivity at times, they also create fun, entertaining songs with awesome
and honest lyrics. The line “I want school kids on buses singing
your name” alone must have garnered the lead singer at least a
decent amount of ass.
9. WE ARE SCIENTISTS- WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR
(Virgin) This trio first gained my attention with their eccentric and
hilarious videos, and after buying this album I was quickly addicted. This is one of those rare complete CDs which runs the gamut in
every way possible. Need songs to rock out to? Check. Needs songs
to explain bad nights, bad dates and getttin' some? Done and done.
Want some intense, nerd-fueled rock that makes you dance your ass
off? W.A.S. delivers it all with gusto.
10. TILLY AND THE WALL: BOTTOMS OF BARRELS
(Team Love) The best way to describe this album may be “pop
songs for the indie crowd.” Thee songs are infectious and require
multiple listenings is order to extricate them from your brain. If you
ever have any ambitions of becoming a hipster, you need to know
this band and play them at all your parties. Even if you hate hipsters, this band deserves attention for the simple fact that the songs
derive their rhythms from a tap-dancing band member.
DISAPPOINTMENT (Fat Wreck Chords) Bad Astronaut's latest
(and best) record almost never came out. After drummer/co-founder
Derrick Plourde committed suicide, longtime buddy and collaborator
Joey Cape didn't think their demos were strong enough to make an
album. But a renewed focus and hours in the studio resulted in a brilliant record full of dark pop-rock numbers that perfectly close a chapter on a remarkable side-project for Cape and the rest of the band
members.
6. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE- THE BLACK PARADE
(Reprise) These New Jersey goth-rockers turned in a career-defining
album inspired by Queen's knack for over-the-top music, with Gerard
Way and Co. soaking their songs in soaring melodies, strong lyrics
and sing-along choruses. Produced by the new go-to-guy for rock
operas, Rob Cavallo (Green Day's American Idiot), The Black Parade
is a love note to everyone from David Bowie to ELO.
7. THE FORMAT- DOG PROBLEMS (Vanity) This album should
have been The Format's second major label CD, but thanks to shortsighted execs, the band was quickly dropped after a preview of the
new songs. They got revenge by turning out a brilliant collection of
pop songs on their own label, bouncing from genre to genre and
boasting influences as disparate as The Beach Boys, XTC and Harry
Chapin. Dog Problems is probably the best example of a record label
flaunting its utter lack of musical taste since Reprise dropped Wilco
over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
8. CATCH 22- PERMANENT REVOLUTION (Victory) It's a ska
album! It's a history lesson! It's both in one! After 10 years together,
one of the most reliable ska-punk bands in the genre decided to go all
SchoolHouse Rock on us and turn in a concept album on the life of
Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army. Seriously. The horn-heavy
result is surprisingly impressive, offering up some of the band's best
songs to date and one of their most cohesive records in years. If
Mamma Mia
can earn a Tony
nomination,
there's no reason these guys
shouldn't start
putting together
the Broadway
version now.
9.
WILLIE
NELSONSONGBIRD
( L o s t
Highway) The
Lone
Star
State's greatest
cultural treasure
more than made up for last year's weak reggae album with this
release. Paired with labelmate Ryan Adams (who’s every bit as prolific as Willie), Songbird is a solid collection boasting Nelson's signature sound, mixing classic country, moody folk and the occasional
cover tune. Nelson's take on the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah”
is worth the price alone.
10. THE FORECAST- IN THE SHADOW OF TWO GUNMEN
(Victory) Over the course of two years, The Forecast have become
the best-kept secret on Victory Records. More indie-pop than punk,
on their second release singers Dustin Addis and Shannon Burns have
perfected their X-inspired style of swapping vocals over songs that
slowly build from a whisper to a shout, ending with a sonic swirl of
drums and guitar. The Forecast is one of those bands that truly
deserves all the hype they'll soon be getting.
3. TOOL- 10,000 DAYS (Volcano II/Tool) You’ve gotta
respect a band that drafts it's work as meticulously as Maynard
James Keenan and Co. do, and the fact that their record label
doesn't flinch at any of their requests only makes the feat all
the more impressive. Sure, you may be able to point out a
trademark formula to their work (as many reviewers have), but
by golly, it's working. At least theirs isn't the same formula as
all the other mess on modern-rock radio these days.
4. LUPE FIASCO- FOOD & LIQUOR (Atlantic) Lupe
Fiasco and Jay-Z have solved the problem that so many conscious artists have: putting smart rap to nice music. (You gotta
love a rapper that gives a nod to String Theory!) With Lupe,
it's not just "a beat," but jazz, a welcome change for those of
us who already have common sense and need a little bit more
than just someone talking in rhythm. Best of all, you can listen to Lupe and still feel mature.
5. RICHARD CHEESE AND LOUNGE AGAINST THE
MACHINE- SILENT NIGHTCLUB (Surfdog) Perhaps
you've heard the jazzed-out version of “Baby Got Back,” or
“Star Wars Cantina”? Nope, that wasn't Weird Al. It was these
zany guys, who seem to have some sort of a bizarre fascination
with smegma. On their sixth studio album, they've returned
with clever covers of Modern English’s “Melt With You,” poprap classic “Ice Ice Baby” and Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”
Even if you're not especially tickled by hits gone lounge, you
can still appreciate the 1920s-style jazz arrangements.
6. CORINNE BAILEY RAE- SELF- TITLED (Capitol)
With a sound somewhere between Erykah Badu and Norah
Jones (with occasional John Mayer-esque backgrounds), this
British chanteuse’s sound is a mellow blend of jazz, acoustic
folk and soul. The lyrics are organic and personal; breakout
track, “Like A Star” is indicative of the atmospheric quality in
her work. Very soothing, like a smooth drink at the end of
a very long day.
7. JOSH GROBAN- AWAKE (Reprise) “The Voice” is back,
setting the adult contemporary genre on fire once again with
his second studio disc. Some regular Groban listeners who
appreciate him more for his classical treatments than the mainstream sound might consider this album a disappointment for
distancing him from the operatic arena from whence he came.
But however pop-ish it is, the songs are still intoxicating, with
rich accompaniment behind his powerful vocals.
8. THE ROOTS- GAME THEORY (Def Jam) Roots drummer ?uestlove said it himself in an interview with Rolling
Stone, “In this day and age, I'm kind of noticing that nobody in
urban music really has the balls to just stop partying for one
second. I mean, partying is good and what not, and it's cool to
get down, but I really think that 2006 called for a very serious
record.” True, indeed.
9. INCUBUS- LIGHT GRENADES (Epic) While making
some fans mad for being more subtle than usual, these modern-rock radio stalwarts still invoke the same EKG-like quality in their songs with a mixture of edgy punk tracks and altrock ballads, plus the usual almost-R&B tinge they always
manage to work in.
10. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS- STADIUM ARCADIUM
(Warner Bros) More than two decades into their careers, the
maturing funk-punk icons released a 2-CD set that came
across like a best-of compilation, taking all the things fans love
about the band and making it sound new again. Critics claimed
that “Danicalifornia” cribbed its riff from Tom Petty, but
tracks like “Hump De Bump,” “Jupiter” and the title track
proved that Flea and Co. can still rock out even as they hit
middle age.
Sports
WILD BILL’S FIGHT NIGHT
Keeps Roping in Fans - Friday Jan. 19
Kevin Gittemeir of McDonough bloodies Joe Cronin of
Pheonix in the main event this past September.
I
t all started in 2002. Wild Bill's opened for
business outside of Gwinnett Mall and David
Oblas began promoting fights at the Roxy
Theatre in Buckhead. Four years later the two
came together to form Wild Bill's Fight Night.
In January of 2006 Steve Mudder's Full Throttle
Entertainment, David Oblas' Undisputed
Productions and Amy Lynn Hoch promoted what
was the first in a series of fight nights appropriately titled Wild Bill's Fight Night.
“The sport of MMA has
grown by leaps and bounds
in the past couple years and
each fight that we put on
garners us more and more
media exposure.”
-Steve Mudder
Full Throttle Entertainment
Now a year later it's time for Wild Bill's Fight
Night 6 on Friday, Jan. 19. Each Wild Bill's
Fight Night matches between 14 and 16 fights of
mixed martial arts (MMA). The fighting syle is
the same as what takes place in the Ultimate
Fighting Championship (UFC). While the UFC
has become today's fastest growing sport, often
compared to NASCAR, Wild Bill's Fight Night
has quickly become Atlanta's "must see" event
every six weeks.
The events have attracted crowds between
3,000 and 4,000 per event making it the most
popular fight promotion in the state, if not in the
Southeast.
"The five fights we did last year surpassed any
expectations that we had," said Steve Mudder of
Full Throttle Entertainment. "The sport of MMA
has grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple years and each fight that we put on garners
us more and more media exposure. At nearly
every fight we promote we have UFC fighters
not only coming to attend our events, but we've
been lucky enough to have several UFC fighters
fight for us."
UFC fighters spotted in the crowd at previous
Wild Bill's Fight Nights include Forrest Griffin,
Rory Singer, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Steve
Berger, Pat Healy and Kevin Jordan to name just
a few. Marcus Davis, a current UFC star, has
even fought at Wild Bill's twice.
Kevin Jordan, a two-time UFC heavyweight
will be headlining the January 19 Wild Bill's
Fight Night along with a four-man tournament at
155 lbs. The tournament will see two fighters
matched up against each other with the two winners fighting each other later in the evening.
"The 155 lb tournament has received a tremendous following from fighters across the country,"
said Oblas. "We did this for the first time in
November and we had to turn fighters away
from entering the tournament. The UFC recently
brought the 155 lbs division to their title rankings and that prompted us to do the tournament.
Steve Kinnison of Chicago won the November
tournament and now we're doing it again on
January 19. Whichever fighter wins the January
19 tournament will face Kinnison in the main
event of our next show on March 2.
"Whomever wins the finals on March 2 has an
inside track to getting to the UFC and that's what
this tournament was all about. We want the best
fighters in the country fighting for us and this
January 19 event will have it."
While Wild Bill's was anxious to be putting on
fight nights at first, they have since embraced it.
Wild Bill's CFO Amy Lynn Hoch said, "The
events are not only some of our best events, but
they bring an entirely different crowd to our
venue which is what we want. It's our goal to
show off our beautiful venue to everyone in
Atlanta and the fight nights allow us to do so.
The events have also been our safest events as
far as crowd security is concerned. There has
never been an incident in the crowd because at
the fight nights everyone is content to keep the
fighting in the ring. The crowd is there to have a
good time and that's proven as the crowds have
increased each show."
“The 155 lb tournament has
received a tremendous
following from fighters
across the country.”
-David Oblas
Undisputed Productions
It seems as though more people are taking
notice of Wild Bill's Fight Night as Mudder and
Oblas have been talking to several television stations about broadcasting the fights, but a decision as to which station has not been made yet.
"We're looking for which station can offer us the
best deal," added Mudder. "Spike TV and the
UFC have proven that there is an extremely large
fan base looking for this programming on television. We're just looking for a win/win situation."
For more information or to purchase tickets to
the January 19 Wild Bill's Fight Night 6, call the
Fight Hotline at (404) 626-2126 or visit their
websites.
Steve Mudder of Full Throttle Entertainment, Kevin
Gittemeier and David Oblas of Undisputed Productions.
Wild Bill's Fight Night 6
16 Fights Total
Main Event:
Kevin Jordan vs Chris Herring
Four Man 155 lbs Tournament:
Stephen Ledbetter (9-0 Athens, GA)
vs
Maajid Alkush (2-0 Hilton Head, SC)
Kevin English (9-2 Chicago, IL)
vs
Jose Figueroa (2-0 Orlando, FL)
Doors at 6:30 / Fights at 8:30
A bloodied and battered Joe Cronin prepares to meet
the left hand of McDonough’s Kevin Gittemeier.
Fight Hotline: (404) 626-6126
www.WildBillsAtlanta.com
www.UndisputedProductions.com
O
ver a span of 14 years, MXPX have
grown from teenage punks singing
about growing up and high school
crushes into influential rockers that have
inspired a whole new generation of hookheavy bands, perfecting a more mature, but
equally infectious sound. Most high school
bands don't get past the talent show circuit,
yet alone go on to sell millions of records.
With little airplay or mainstream
media coverage, albums like Life in General
and Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo
have become sing-along classics. Though
MXPX started out as a Christian punk band,
they were never overtly preachy. But theyÕre
still chased by that tag, thanks in part to
reporters (like me) that bring it up in interviews.
Comprised of bassist/vocalist Mike
Herrera, drummer Yuri Ruley and guitarist
Tom Wisniewski, the trio from Bremerton,
Washington have become an obsession of
sorts for punk-rock bloggers, who post just
about every aspect of the band's movements.
The latest topic of online obsession is
whether the group is leaving their latest
label, punk-rock indie SideOne Dummy, to
return to Tooth & Nail, the little label that
originally discovered the band.
The band split with Tooth & Nail
rather publicly in 1998, then did a brief stint
on A&M Records before moving to SideOne
Dummy. The band has been quiet about
their future plans, but have managed to confuse everyone by putting out two albums in
the past few months. SideOne put out Let's
Rock, a collection of re-worked tracks that
weren't included on their seventh album,
Panic, while Tooth & Nail handled the rerelease of their rarities record, Let It Happen.
Fresh off a successful co-headlining
tour with ska band Reel Big Fish, MXPX is
in the process of writing songs for their ninth
album, which is slated to come out in late
spring or early summer. Herrera recently
took some time to answer a few questions,
revealing a little about the band's future
plans.
Most high school bands don't end up
recording albums together, let alone sticking together for nearly 15 years. Why do
you think itÕs worked for MXPX?
Well, we got started early and I guess we got
lucky.
At what point did you realize you could
actually make a career out of playing in a
punk band?
After we went on our first national tour and
people actually paid money to see us. It was
WEIGHING ALL
THE OPTIONS
pretty amazing.
Do you think the band has changed much
since you first started out?
I think we've changed a lot. There's no way
around it. We were just learning how to play
back then. Today we're still learning, but we
definitely have a much better grasp on this
music thing.
You were pegged as a Christian punk band
early on. Do you think that label has been
an obstacle for the band at all?
I do think it has affected us and our opportunities, but it's also been a really positive
influence on people.
Let's talk about the new record, Let's Rock.
About half of these songs were written in the
Panic era, but early on we knew that many of
them weren't gonna make it, mainly because
they didn't fit. Many of them were too slow,
or we had a song like it for the record
already, I really like some of these songs,
though.
I read somewhere that you did some rerecording of these songs when you were on
the road with Reel Big Fish this summer.
Yeah, we did guitars and vocals in random
places, some on the bus, some in dressing
rooms when they were nice enough, of
course hotel rooms, and I even did some
vocals, acoustic guitar and piano at a friends
house one night. Mainly we did backing
vocals and guitar overdubs.
Why did you decide to release a deluxe edition of Let it Happen?
Well, it's been out a while and we wanted to
put out a version that we were actually happy
with. We're really happy with how it came
out. There's three brand new songs that we
recorded for it this summer as well.
ItÕs being put out on Tooth & Nail. When
you originally left that label for A&M, there
was a lot of talk about bad blood between
the band and the label, to the extent that
you supposedly wrote a song about that
relationship. Have you guys made up with
the label?
Yes, we've made up with them. We were
young back then and we both made some
mistakes in our business decisions. But it's
in the past now.
You guys were recently given the keys to
your hometown of Bremerton. What that
was like?
That was a pretty cool experience. It's a huge
pat on the back for us. We've always given
back to Bremerton in lots of little ways, and
this time they gave back to us. Now I can go
anywhere in the city. All I have to do is flash
my key!
Do you have any advice for bands just now
stating out in their garages?
Well, I'm sure if you have a computer, you
probably already have a demo online. But
more importantly, just love the music and
enjoy what you do and who you do it with.
ÐJohn B. Moore
New Year's Rockin' Eva
Hollywood's resolution?
O
More Eva Green movies in 2007!
kay, Columbia Pictures, one note of suggestion: We've already heard the rumors
about two more planned installments in
the James Bond franchise with Daniel Craig as
007, but don't release them the same weekend
some other studio drops an animated movie
about tap-dancing birds! While Casino Royale
was a smash on the global scale, domestically
this darker, edgier Bond just couldn't keep up
with Happy Feet.
But hey, don't look at Craig or his female
lead, Eva Green, for the reasons Royale couldn't
march with the penguins. Craig was great, and
the Parisian-born Green (who made her
Hollywood debut in 2005's Kingdom of Heaven)
was quite the sultry presence. Part mystery, part
subtle seductress, all business, Green's Vesper
Lynd wasn't your typical Bond girl by any standards. And after listening to the theatricallytrained actress speak on choosing roles, missing
her mom and being typecast, one quickly learns
that Eva Green isn't your typical femme fatale.
Were there any pre-requisites in order for you
to agree to do a Bond film?
They approached me and said, “In a year and a
half, we're shooting.” I was like, “If you want a
Bond girl, forget it.” They were really insisting.
They sent me a script two weeks before shooting, and I loved it. I thought it was very unusual.
It's not the typical Bond movie. Bond is very different. Vesper is very different. The thriller is
quite dark. You know, I just went straight to the
audition. Luckily, I got the part.
What did you like about the Vesper character?
The fact she had many dimensions. She's very,
very funny. I really liked her. She's so sassy. She
doesn't care about Bond, really. She's heard that
he's an asshole. She's a character that evolves.
She's quite tough, but then she evolves and
opens up slowly and becomes quite vulnerable.
It's a very enigmatic character, and it was actually quite difficult for me to understand all the subtext. [Casino Royale producer] Barbara Broccoli
helped me actually a lot to understand the story.
You didn't want to be the Sigourney Weaver
type, bashing heads in the movie?
That was not in the script. I'm not really a physical person. I'd have to exercise a lot to do that
kind of thing.
You don't exercise?
I go for a run sometimes. I should.
What kind of distances do you run?
I run for, like, 20 minutes.
Is Daniel Craig sexy?
He is very sexy. He's a man, and we don't have a
lot of men in the movie business. He's not a boy.
He's not self-conscious. He doesn't look at himself in the mirror in the morning. He's broke and
rugged and he doesn't care. It's more dangerous
and it makes him more attractive.
If you were writing your career script from this
point on, where would you be headed from
here?
You never know. It depends so much from the
others in this business. It's quite stressful. I just
want to do something quite edgy, something
more independent. I don't know, something a bit
weird. When I did Kingdom of Heaven, people
asked me, “Oh my God, do you want to work in
Hollywood?” I said, “I don't know.” But I ended
up doing another blockbuster. It's not all
planned. It just happens.
How is working on a huge blockbuster studio
movie different than [the French movie]
Jalousie En Trois Fax that you did?
I arrived in the Bahamas, and the next day I had
to do some publicity and talk about [Casino
Royale] and we hadn't even started shooting! It
was a press junket. It was very, very strange.
That was the only difference. Maybe the action
scenes, too. Otherwise, the work remains the
same. You work on your character. It was quite
intimate on the set. There weren't many people.
The exposure was very, very different.
Where do you live?
My family's based in Paris, but I moved to
London a year ago. I feel more comfortable in
Paris. My heart is in Paris, but I think it's quite
good that I live in London because it's new. I feel
more like a grown-up there. I have my little dog.
It's very green, with a lot of parks and things like
that. I love London! I just miss my mom sometimes.
You don't have a trace of a French accent. It's
really remarkable.
People think I'm German sometimes.
You almost have a perfect British accent. Is that
something you had to work on?
I had a bit of an accent on Kingdom of Heaven.
On that one, I really worked hard.
What was it like working with Bernardo
Bertolucci on The Dreamers?
It's my best experience so far. I really loved
doing that movie. He was really like a father. We
went to his house every Saturday evening and he
talked about politics and music. It was just very
easy. I'm always pissed off when people ask me
about the nudity thing [in the movie], as if it's
only about sex. It's about the discovery of sexuality. I'm very proud of this movie!
Compare that movie to Casino Royale.
Hollywood studio movies have a lot of power.
Sometimes they're scared of being too dark, I
would say. They're afraid of taking challenges.
That's the problem. There's a lot of money in
Hollywood. In France, it's very different. I don't
know. I don't have much experience here.
Were you disappointed with the theatrical edit
of Kingdom of Heaven? Do you feel the DVD
version has improved on the film?
It's much better. It can't compare. It's a completely different movie. They cut a lot of scenes
three weeks before the release of the movie and
you can actually see it. Everything makes more
sense now for everybody.
Did you discuss the Bond thing with
Bertolucci?
Umm, that's interesting because I had some
interviews in London two months ago. An
Italian journalist said she saw him recently and
he was a bit angry that I was doing a Bond girl.
I was like, “Please, he didn't read the script.”
He's a bit like a father. He's a bit disappointed, as
if I used my femme fatale image for some Bond
girl thing.
Do you feel you have a “femme fatale” image?
People love to typecast people. What is [a
femme fatale]? It sounds a bit narrow-minded,
as if you're a temptress and, “Oh, I'm going to
seduce you and use you.”
What are you working on next?
A movie called His Dark Materials. It's a trilogy,
with Daniel Craig. I don't have any scenes with
him. It's a fantasy. It started [shooting] in
September. I play a good witch in it. It's quite
dark. I hope it's not like another Harry Potter.
–DeMarco Williams
Continuing Education
WINTER EDUCATION GUIDE
Atlanta has plenty of Continuing Education programs to suit practically every field of
interest. Our Winter Education Guide profiles a diverse group of schools offering a variety
of courses in different fields. We hope that this Guide will help in your search.
The Art Institute of Atlanta
6600 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd.
770-394-8300
www.artinstitutes.edu/atlanta
complete their education or to get a second degree as well
as recent high school graduates. And our career focus is
reflected the success of our graduates: of all 2005 graduates available for employment, 88.1% were working in a
field related to their program of study within six months of
graduation.
Degree programs, diploma programs, community education workshops – want to know more? Call 770.394.8300
or visit www.artinstitutes.edu/atlanta
Brown College of Court Reporting
and Medical Transcription
1740 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
(404) 876-1227 (800) 849-0703
www.browncollege.com
Ieducation to get started at The Art Institute. Here you’ll
nterested in a career in the creative arts? You’ll find the
find relevant, practical, hands-on education in a creative
environment. Our professional faculty bring real-world
insight into the classroom. Internships, class projects, and
community service projects help you build a portfolio
you’ll be proud to show potential employers.
In response to industry demand, the college recently
introduced a bachelor’s degree in fashion & retail management and diplomas in advertising design, commercial photography, culinary arts, and residential interiors to its
offerings, which include audio production, digital filmmaking & video production, game art, graphic design, interactive media (Web) design, interior design, and more.
Our 2,700 students include students returning to college to
here is an insatiable demand nationwide for people with
court reporting skills, and the rewards can be great,
T
include high earning potential, flexible work hours, secure
employment, even
travel options. To
meet this demand,
Brown College of
Court Reporting
and Medical
Transcription prepares students for
rewarding careers
as court reporters,
broadcast captioners, CART reporters
and medical transcriptionists.
Court or judicial reporters are central in America's judicial system as guardians of the record. They take down
sworn testimony in trials and depositions, and use realtime
technology to produce written transcripts quickly. They
work in courthouses, conference rooms, congressional
chambers, anywhere events must be written down precisely
in a readable format. According to the NCRA, average
income is $60,000, with experienced, productive reporters
earning a great deal more.
Broadcast Captioners or Realtime Reporters are also in
great demand because of FCC requirements for TV broadcasts be captioned, which means tens of thousands of
hours of TV programs such as CNN, the Weather Channel,
NFL Football, presidential speeches, C-Span, the Academy
Awards, emergency warnings, etc. CART Reporters also
provide realtime captioning, but specifically for hearing
impaired individuals. They accompany deaf clients to
classes, business meetings, medical appointments, workshops, or other venues where translation is required.
Medical Transcriptionists (MTs) are highly skilled medical language specialists who transcribe dictation and voice
recognition files from healthcare professionals including
doctors, surgeons, and medical specialists. MTs interpret
and edit the information to create medical records which
are essential to good healthcare.
The future for Brown College graduates is bright indeed
with national employment trends predicting continued
strong demand and unlimited opportunities for their specialized skills. Brown College is nationally accredited and
offers distance education. Financial aid is available to
those who qualify.
America’s Real Estate
Academy, Inc.
770-591-5552
www.education-area-ga.com
merica's Real Estate Academy, Inc. (AREA) is one of
AAtlanta's premier full-service real estate education
providers. AREA surpasses standard academics and offers
students functional information as part of the core curriculum. Improved and more relevant education make new and
existing licensees more appealing to hiring brokers,
appraisers, and home inspectors and more successful entrepreneurs. A recent appraisal graduate stated "After talking
FREE
Career Night
January 5th
Appraising
Open House 7-9
New Year - New Career
Registered/License Series – Jan 11 or 17 / Residential Cost Approach – Jan 16
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Appr. Techniques – Jan 21 / Report Writing – Jan 28 / Exam Prep - Mentoring
Home Inspection
Into to Home Inspection – Jan 10 or 19 / Field Inspection – Jan 21 or 23
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in their course, I feel that I not only made
the correct choice but instead the only
choice in taking this course by AREA"
Curriculum director, Dick Viti, with over
30 years of real estate experience in
Georgia and Florida, oversees AREA's
instructors. All instructors are professionals
who teach while conducting successful
appraisal, home inspection, and/or real
estate sales businesses bringing realism and
practical instruction to the classroom,
thereby facilitating a student's entry into
the business. In addition to state mandated
training, students receive print and digital
reports superior to those found in the
industry with essential proven terminology
to guide them and help them get started.
Students
receive useful business
and marketing tools and
tips to assist
them in their
new careers,
which
includes access to national professional
organization memberships and industry
supplies at discounts. AREA bridges the
gap between traditional academic programs
and the real world. AREA offers an
Appraisal Mentor Program and offers real
estate agents across the southeast HUD
seminars to increase their business through
AREA's affiliation with First Preston and
PEMCO. Additional business and technology training and courses to give AREA students a competitive edge are offered at the
corporate office and classroom facility.
AREA services the entire Metro and surrounding Atlanta area with technologically
equipped facilities including a computer
and data center. Students have even traveled from surrounding states to receive
AREA's professional training. Check
schedules and register for classes now by
visiting AREA's website at www.educationarea-ga.com or by calling 770-591-5552.
Aveda Institute Atlanta
3402 Piedmont Road
(404) 876-1227 (888) AVEDA.GA
www.avedainstitutes.com
• Microdermabrasion
T
Aveda network, over 6,500 salons and spas
worldwide, our students have endless
opportunities for growth- both professionally and personally.
Upon graduation, our students have an
average earning potential of $36,100 or
more for a full-time salon professional and
$53,150 or more for salon and spa owners.
And according to industry statistics, new
hires are up nationally by 37%.
Our Institutes also emphasize personal
well-being as well as environmental
responsibility. Using Aveda pure flower and
plant essences and plant-based products, we
affirm the relationship between personal
beauty, wellness and the environment.
For more information, please call our
admissions director at 888.AVEDA.GA.
DeVry University
800.348.1017
www.devrynow.com
D
eVry University provides high-quality,
career-oriented undergraduate and
graduate degree programs in technology,
business, and management. DeVry
University’s Georgia campus offers bachelor's degree programs in Game and
Simulation Programming, Computer
Engineering Technology, Electronics
Engineering Technology, Computer
Information Systems, Business
Administration, Network and
Communication Management, Technical
Management as well as associate degree
programs in Health Information Technology
and Electronics and Computer Technology.
The DeVry curriculum is designed with
input from leading business professionals.
DeVry maintains local advisory boards
composed of business and industry leaders
that help evaluate and refine DeVry programs to keep pace with changes in technology and the marketplace and ensure the
he Aveda Institute was founded to create
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dent, you are missing out on
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even need to live in the same town as your Alma Mater to take
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vides if you are not taking
website for more information about what services are available
s job seekers, we tend to say to ourselves, "I need to find
advantage of your school's
for alumni and for alumni association members. You never
a new job, so I'll need to polish up my resume right
career services office.
know what resources you might uncover!
away!" While this is true, there is so much more to the
Employers are actively
process. Having a slick resume with no clear direction isn't
recruiting at your school
-Kimberly Guelcher, Georgia State University
going to produce the kind of results you're looking for. What
and you may never know it,
might be a great resume for one particular job, could be comunless you take the initiapletely ineffective for yet another.
tive to find out.
Before you launch a job search, you need a clear understand
Graduating seniors and students trying to choose a major
of what you're looking to change. Are you looking to change
should know their counselor's name and phone number by
your industry? Are you looking to change your job function?
heart! It's your role as a job seeker to find out what resources
Or do you simply want to continue to do your same job at
are available to you and to actively participate in career workanother company? Until you've answered those questions for
shops and campus information sessions. If you graduate withyourself, you should not begin to revise your resume.
out taking advantage of these services, you have done yourself
If you find that you cannot answer these questions easily, you
and your job search a disservice.
could possibly benefit from speaking to a career advisor.
Alumni should not dismiss their alma mater's career services
Career advisors can be found everywhere from the Department
as being just for students. All the major universities in the
of Labor to Career Coaches in private practice, and at the col-
Job Hunting
Take Advantage of Your
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Approximately 53,000 students are enrolled at
its 78 locations that are in 22 states and Canada,
as well as through DeVry University Online.
For more information call 800.348.1017 or visit
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f you have marveled at the beautiful free-form
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THE RADNESS OF
KING GEORGE
GEORGE CLOONEY ON POLITICAL
DISSENT, THE RIGHT WING &
LEARNING THE FACTS OF LIFE
T
he reality of the celebrity interview is
that it almost always becomes a game of
cat-and-mouse. The publicists who
oversee such proceedings have only one mission in mind: To help their clients promote
their latest projects and increase box office
revenues (or Nielson ratings, or Soundscan
sales figures, as the case may be), thereby
increasing the celebrity's status in the industry
and their own bottom line. Interviewers– at
least the good ones, who are in it for more than
just a paycheck and a byline– have a mission
that is almost diametrically opposed. We want
the celebrity to open up and reveal some facet
of their hearts and souls that will allow John
Q. Reader a rare glimpse inside the fascinating
labyrinths of the creative mind, perhaps in the
process helping to define what separates the
merely mediocre from the truly great.
And the celebrity? Well, they're the xfactor in this little tête-à-tête tango, and it is
ultimately they who control the dance. Some,
such as Eddie Murphy, remain publicity-shy
wallflowers, rarely (if ever) venturing out onto
the dance floor. Others, including a former
“America's sweetheart” who shall remain
nameless in the interest of discretion, pretend
to be willing partners only to step on your toes
at every turn by refusing to answer any questions unrelated to their current project. Still
others are more than willing to dance, but their
moves are all style and no substance, and their
quotes are the intellectual equivalent of an
extra strength dose of Ambien.
Which makes a guy like George
Clooney the most rare celebrity species of all:
let's call him Interviewus Spectacularis. In
industry terms, Clooney always comes to play,
whether he's promoting a big-budget blockbuster á la Ocean's Twelve (for which he was
paid $20 million) or making the rounds for
labors of love such as the Oscar-nominated
Good Night, and Good Luck (which he wrote,
directed and starred in, paying himself one
dollar) and Syriana (for which he made a paltry $350,000, earning spinal injuries and a
Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his trouble).
The first time I met Clooney it was in a
prototypical Hollyweird setting, in the bar at
the Pacific Design Center. We were there for
the premiere of Solaris, the Steven
Soderbergh-directed sci-fi flop, and the air
was thick with the stench of obsequious
schmoozing. Slick showbiz types, vapid
groupies and geeky scribes were all jammed
into a room whose space-age décor made it
look like something Stanley Kubrick might
have loved, jockeying for the attention of
Soderbergh and James Cameron (who produced the film). Then in walks gorgeous
George, working the crowd like a pro, smiling
and hugging and shaking hands while radiating the sort of undeniable charisma that first
made him a star back in the ER days.
As I would learn from our subsequent
interviews, this is George Clooney's gift. He's
charming without coming off as smarmy,
informed and opinionated without a hint of
intellectual elitism, self-aware but not selfimportant. He's also really amusing, whether
pinching co-star Matt Damon's butt during a
hug while the two were promoting Syriana or
ribbing Brad “pretty boy Pitt” during a press
conference for Ocean's Twelve, joking that his
co-star was a little upset about losing the
“Sexiest Man Alive” title to Jude Law. But
Clooney can also be remarkably passionate
and revealing about subjects ranging from his
craft and career to the politics that have driven
many of his recent films, including The Good
German, in which he co-stars with Cate
Blanchett and Tobey Maguire as an American
journalist assigned to cover a conference
between Churchill, Stalin and Truman who
stumbles onto a murder mystery.
The Good German marks your fifth film
with Steven as director, and until recently you
guys ran a production company (Section 8)
together. What makes you such a good team?
We seem to have the same sort of taste, and
like to work the same way. We're also both in
the position to fight for films we wanna see get
made. I don't know how long that will last, but
right now we're really digging it. It was fun to
work with guys like Todd Haynes (Far From
Heaven) and Christopher Nolan (Insomnia)
before the studios really knew them. I enjoy
the idea of making films like the studios used
to make from 1965-75. Guys like Kubrick,
Scorsese and Coppola were making studio
movies that were unparalleled, and I think that
can happen again. The trick is to have people
like me take less money so we can make them
cheaper, because then the studio's gamble is
less.
Do you feel like you have to throw in a guaranteed hit, such as next year's Ocean's
Thirteen, every once in a while to buy yourself the chance to make personal films like
Good Night, and Good Luck?
Yeah, we understand that and we're not snobs
about it. But it's nice if that film is Ocean's
Thirteen and not Batman & Robin.
I think we're all thankful for that.
(Laughs) I really like the Ocean's series.
They're good movies, they are what they are,
and they do what they're designed to do well.
And that's great, because then they let you go
play, and if you blow it, you blow it.
How rewarding is it to be able to work with
respected directors such as Steven and the
Coen brothers over and over again?
They're not just respected, but I'd say they're
Is there any one film you'd point to as the
high water mark in your career?
You never know what will be a high water
mark. History is proving Three Kings to be a
high water mark because of what it says politically, and I think Out of Sight is one of the
best films I've made. All I know is I'm enjoying the various flood stages. I'll do some bad
[movies] and screw up, but until they take
away the option for me to try and do interesting things– which they will, because every-
“If I'm going to speak out about things, or raise issues,
or ask that we raise questions before we start a war,
I know I'm going to get put on the cover of a magazine
and be called a traitor. I'm a grown-up. I could sit
in my house in Italy and drink wine and have a good time.
Or I can stick my neck out and get slapped a little bit.”
among the best filmmakers. When I think
about working on The Facts of Life, I never
thought I was gonna be where I am today, so
just to be in that company is an honor and a
privilege that I don't take lightly.
Have your experiences as a director changed
your approach as an actor?
It's funny, there are scenes or takes that Steven
cut out of the movie that were better for me as
an actor, but now I understand that what he did
was better for the film. When you're an actor,
it's all very myopic, because you're so concerned with your world. As a director you have
to be concerned with the whole film, so you
need somebody with a strong point-of-view.
body loses it at some point– I figure why not
keep trying to do the stuff I really like and
swing for the fences? At least that way I'll be
happier, whether failing or succeeding, than if
I was just doing things because I think there's
an audience for it. I'd rather try to find the
audience.
Some pundits have criticized your recent
films as anti-American. What's your take on
that?
I don't think any of my films have been antiAmerican. The whole idea of America was
based on dissent and raising questions. It's
why we left King George. It's your right and
your duty to ask questions. I don't think we
provided any answers in a film like Syriana,
we just asked a lot of questions. I think one of
the big surprises for anyone is that you see
films like these coming from a major studio. I
think that's a good thing. Studios used to make
films like Harold & Maude and things like
that.
Your outspoken nature has earned you plenty
of enemies on the conservative side of the
spectrum. Do you ever tire of being the right
wing's unofficial Hollywood whipping boy?
If I'm going to speak out about things, or raise
issues, or ask that we raise questions before we
start a war, I know I'm going to get put on the
cover of a magazine and be called a traitor. I'm
a grown-up. I could sit in my house in Italy
and drink wine and have a good time. Or I can
stick my neck out and get slapped a little bit.
The thing about demanding freedom of
speech– and this is a problem that happens
with some actors who have been on the side of
the aisle that I'm on– is that you can't say,
"Don't say bad things about me." You have to
take your hits.
Last year you got three nominations and your
first Oscar. Is it gratifying to be on top of the
mountain after all the struggles you faced
early in your career?
Well, nobody ever thinks they're at the top of
the mountain. But it is fun to be where I'm at
right now, where I can pick and choose the
roles I want. Coming out of Return of the
Killer Tomatoes, that wasn't an option for me,
so you respect that position once you get it.
But once you direct a movie you don't feel like
you're on top of anything: You feel like you're
at the bottom, with a bunch of crap heaped on
top of you. The truth is I've made plenty of
mistakes, but they all led me here. And here is
fine for me right now. –B. Love
Happyness Is Easy
I
Inspired By A True Story, Will Smith Gets Serious
t's been 13 years since the former Fresh
Prince made the leap from small-screen
silliness to big screen cred with Six
Degrees of Separation, a serious dramatic
departure that cast him as a troubled con
man. In all that time, Will Smith has only
had one other role that truly tested his dramatic mettle, portraying Muhammad Ali in
the Michael Mann biopic.
Still, there was little doubt that he'd be
the perfect actor to star as Chris Gardner in
The Pursuit of Happyness, the true story of
a single dad who battled homelessness and
hopelessness to become a multi-millionaire
stockbroker. The film features Smith's son,
Jaden, making his film debut as Gardner's
boy, and finds the rapper-turned-actor delivering one of the finest performances of his
career.
We recently attended a press conference at New York's Regency Hotel, where
Smith discussed everything from working
with his son and the American dream
to the things parents
(and kids) just
don't
understand.
Jaden's not here today?
No, not today. We did Oprah, and Jaden and
my daughter Willow were both on the show.
Willow was on the show because she wasn't
about to let Jaden be on Oprah [by himself].
During the show I looked at him, and Jaden
is so unaffected. He wants to act and play
videogames. I was watching the two of them
and I'm like, “I got Johnny Depp and Paris
Hilton.”
Have you thought about what happened
with Tatum O' Neal and Ryan O' Neal?
She won the Oscar, and it ruined their relationship!
(Laughs) We were probably about eight
weeks into shooting and he's such a natural,
nailing moment after moment, and I told
him, “It's a good thing you're my son,”
because I'd been leaning into his close-ups
and everything. But it's a beautiful thing.
Was he always planned to play the part?
No, not at all. One night, Jada and I were
laying in the bed and he comes crawling in
between us while we're reading a
script and says, “Tell me the
story, Daddy.” I tell him
and he says, “Pshaw, I
could do that!” We do
shorts around the
house, so he's familiar
with
the
process, so Jada
took him in the
next week to
set up an audiThere
tion.
were 100 kids,
then 50 and 20,
and he was still
there. It got
down to about
10 and I'm
I
thinking,
might need to
pay
attention
over
here.
G a b r i e l l e
Muccino fell in
love with him.
(Impersonating the
Italian director) “I
love your baby,
Will! I must have
your baby!” I was
like, “Hold on. Let me
get clear about what
you're aski n g . ”
(Laughs)
How'd
you get
involved in the project?
Well, it started with the whole 20/20 piece,
and this has been lightning-quick in
Hollywood [terms] from idea to completed
project. It's been just about two years. They
called us in and we loved it.
What about the story connected to you?
I loved the idea that your desire creates what
your future is. The white man don't create
the future, and your circumstances don't create your future. Your desire to be who you
wanna be and your commitment to that is
what creates your future. That's the idea this
country is designed upon: “Life, Liberty and
the PURSUIT of Happiness,” not “Life,
Liberty and Happiness.” Chris Gardner
believed it, accepted it, and connected to it
in the face of seemingly insurmountable
odds. And that's something I've always
believed. There's this bizarre naïveté for
“The Audacity of Hope” that I've always
been committed to and always believed, and
Chris and I shared that.
After you saw the 20/20 piece, did you go
after the chance to play Chris?
No, a couple of other people were a little
quicker on the draw, but they sent it to us. I
don't know if you've seen the piece, but it's
absolutely brilliant. The image that gets you
is Chris Gardner going back to the subway
bathroom he stayed in with his son. That
was the image that made me want to make
this movie. When Chris took me and
walked me through those steps... there's a
moment that actors look for when you “get
it.” Trying to find a character, you're in a
dark room and you're just feeling around and
you grab something. When I walked into
that bathroom with Chris, I got it. I understood. Then to shoot the scene with my real
son on my lap? No acting necessary.
When you're standing in line at the homeless shelter, there are lots of other AfricanAmericans. The film seems to say it's a
racial problem. What are your thoughts on
that?
There's a movie called What the Bleep? that
has a quantum physics idea Chris and I both
connect to, [which says that] that something
is only there if you acknowledge it's there.
Something only has power over you if you
allow it power over you. Chris specifically
said that he knew he was in America and
there was racism, but he never paid attention
to that. He found good people and connected to good people. He felt that if he allowed
himself to say, “Someone's trying to keep
me down because I'm black,” it weakened
him and created an obstacle.
You had a hit with the song “Parents Just
Don't Understand.” Now that you're a parent, is there anything kids just don't understand?
Kids don't know nothin'! That's my new
record... (Laughs) It was actually a beautiful experience because I did more learning
than Jaden did. My entire approach to acting
is forever changed after working with him. I
was reading Zen & the Art of Archery while
I was working on the film, and there's an
idea in the book that you discover the connection between yourself and your goals
more easily when you discover it in a childlike manner [rather than] with some rigid
schedule. You find it at play. There was a
scene where we'd done a few takes and
Gabrielle kept giving ME notes. Jaden
thought it was funny when we'd do a take
and the director would give me a note and
not him; he took that as him winning. So
there's a scene where Gabrielle keeps talking to me, and Jaden just looks up at me and
says, “You just do that same thing every
time, Daddy.” I was a little offended, but the
idea that innately connected to him was,
“How can you give the same performance
every time? We're supposed to be living in
these moments, so how come you're not
reacting to the new stuff that's happening?”
I started watching him and I realized that I
have a lot of different roles: I'm a producer,
I'm Will, I'm a movie star, and I'm all of that
stuff in the scene. Jaden is just a character.
It's a block I've had in my career for years,
and this is the first time I feel free of that.
To hell with continuity. To hell if we make
the damn day and how much the day costs
and all of that. I'm finding that state where
I'm committing to the truth of character, and
it's a liberating and artistic space. I've been
there two other times in my career- with Ali
and Six Degrees of Separation- where I was
just completely liberated. I'm just extremely
excited about it and happy to have my son
show me the way.
You used the phrase, “The Audacity of
Hope.” What did you mean by it?
Who did I hear say that?
Barack Obama.
Right! But what I mean by it is the idea that
you believe in something with no facts and
figures, absolutely no reason to support.
“The Audacity of Hope” is believing, while
sleeping on a bathroom floor, that you're
gonna own a brokerage firm one day. It
takes real audacity to hope. I'm connected so
much to this film and this story, because it is
the fiber of this country. It's time for us to
remember why and how this country was
designed: “We, the people, in order to form
a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.” There are serious, poetic ideas in the promise of what this country
is supposed to be, and I believe it all starts
with the Audacity of Hope.
Did you have audacity in your career?
It feels weird to talk about my “Audacity of
Hope” in the framework of Chris Gardner's
life, but I have to say no, I've never had any
hope so audacious as Chris Gardner. But
I've had situations where there's been no reason to believe that things are gonna turn out
the way they're gonna turn out. Like when
Jada and I got together. At that period in our
lives, there's no reason for us to have been
successful in our relationship. A whole lot of
obstacles lined up for us not to make it. We
always say, “Divorce can't be an option.”
Because if you allow divorce to be an
option, there's absolutely one day where
you'll check that box, so it's audacious to
remove it as an option. That's not one of the
choices we have, no matter what happens.
And that type of audacity is what it takes to
make things be successful.
What do you think are your Oscar chances,
with it being this time of year and the Oscar
race and all the talk, how does it feel?
That period between the nominations and
the show is the best series of parties on the
face of the Earth. It’s a different city every
night. You're a part of this wonderful, elite
group and it's a beautiful time. It's a little
bittersweet when you get to the show
because it makes the transition from a celebration to a competition. I've never been an
“award guy.” It's fun, but, as I tell my wife,
I'm more of a “mall guy.” Like, when I walk
into the mall on Saturday afternoon, if they
don't shut it down, I feel like I'm slippin'.
That's how I judge my worth. That's how I
judge the quality of my work- them having
to shut down the King of Prussia Mall on
Christmas.
-B. Love
2006: sports
year in review
R
ather than taking the usual route
and merely listing our own
favorite memorable moments in
sports, this year we decided to get Top 5
lists from a variety of diehard sports
fans:
TONY MAJESTIC, POP CULTURE
BLOGGER
5. Watching Terrell Owens and his publicist lie to the world about his overdose.
He must be paying her a lot to make her
tell the world that she couldn't tell the
difference between a regular person and
someone who's openly suicidal. See also:
Bill Parcells not giving a damn.
4. Anytime a sportswriter or ESPN analyst got on their moral high horse. I hate
sportswriters, Skip Bayless, especially.
He's a bitter, petty little man.
3. Jake "The Snake" Roberts making a
TV appearance for TNA Wrestling apparently right after he put his crack pipe
down. The sheer comedy value was off
the charts– you never know what a junkie
will say to a room of 2,000 people.
2. Delmon Young. If it weren't for a
Frenchman deciding to man up for the
first time since a syphilis-infected
midget tried to take over the world, this
would have been the funniest sports
moment of the year. Angry at being
called out on strikes, this minor league
baseball player retaliated by throwing the
bat at the umpire. The still photos of it
still make my stomach hurt from laughing.
1. Zinedine Zidane vs. Marco
Materazzi's chest. When the history of
humanity is told, just before that meteor
hits the Earth, this moment has to be
included in the video montage, if for no
other reason than to prove that the term
"Frenchman" isn't always an oxymoron.
RASHIDA JACKSON, FORMER
TIGHT END FOR THE NEW
ORLEANS VOODOO DOLLS
5. Kobe Bryant’s 81 pts. Really, I'm not
a fan of Kobe. Can't stand him. But I
respect his talent. It's undeniable.
4. Tiger Woods. Y'know, six straight
tournaments is a major accomplishment
by any standards, but to do it in the same
year as losing your father is unbelievable.
3. Amelie Mauresmo. Won three titles
this year. She's always been a great player, but now she has the Gold to prove it.
Plus, it always makes me proud to see
women making moves in sports .
2. Vince Young in the Rose Bowl.
Probably the greatest individual college
football performance in history.
1. The New Orlenas Saints' winning season. After Katrina, this team was
bounced from the San Antonio Dome
because of women's volleyball. They had
to lift weights in a tent in the parking lot!
But they got a new coach, a group of free
agents, and now they're 10 and 5, on the
way to the playoffs. This has to be THE
feel-good sports story of 2006.
JONATHAN MARCANTONI,
AUTHOR
5. Kobe’s 81pts. I'm really not a big
Kobe fan, but the fact that he made the
81 pts and was really sportsmanlike
about it. He didn't get all big-headed. He
caught a lot of heat after all the Shaq
stuff and then the court case. I feel like it
brought focus back to Kobe, the player,
as opposed to his personal life.
4. The Tampa Bay Bucs’ 62-yrd field
goal. That was a nail-biter. The Bucs had
lost four in a row, were down by two and
pulled a rabbit out of a hat. It was wild!
3. The St. Louis Cardinals whooping the
Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
Pujols rought the team together. Nobody
thought they could do it, but the whole
team came together and pulled through.
2. LaDainian Tomlinson getting the
touchdown record for most TDs in one
game. Within 45 seconds, he had two
touchdowns!
1. The Miami Heat losing their first
game by 41 pts. That was ridiculous.
CECILE SABALBURO,
SPORTS AFICIONADO
(Worst moments of the year)
5. The Oakland Raiders only winning
two games this season. The silver lining
is that one of those wins was against the
defending Super Bowl champs, the
Steelers, and maybe we'll get a #1 pick in
the next draft.
4. Changing the NBA ball to a microfiber
ball that was more of marketing ploy
then an actual improvement to the game.
No ball was alike, so it bounced differently in different arenas. The ball was too
sticky and at times too slippery.
Thankfully, the NBA has since reverted
to the old ball.
3. The continuing saga of MLB and
steroid use. Why can't they use the same
system the NFL uses? MLB is losing fans
because of Barry Bonds’ stupidity.
2. The brawl between Miami and FIU.
Even worse was the comment of the
Miami home announcer.
1. Kobe's 81 points. I don't like him. I
think he's an arrogant primadonna, and a
ball-hog. And I have to ask, can they
even spell "defense?"
JOHN KENDRICK, CHEF
5. When Tim Hasselbeck got knocked
out early this season. The way he was hit
was so funny. He got jacked up!
4. Tony Romo's debut against Carolina.
He threw something like three touchdown passes and had high completion
percentagess... it was a beautiful performance. For a backup quarterback in
his first game, that was damn good.
3. Cardinals vs. Bears. The Cardinals
were winning to the point that it looked
like there was no hope for Chicago. The
offense was completely gone. But the
defense scored all the points and won the
game. It was crazy!
2. New Orleans vs. Dallas. They embarrassed the Cowboys. The Saints treated
them like schoolchildren. I couldn't even
watch– I just went to bed, laughing.
1. New Orleans vs. Atlanta. When they
re-opened the Dome, Superman couldn't
have won a game that night. I thought
somebody had bought the game at first,
then they started beating everyone else.
ANDREA HATTER,
INSITE SPORTS WRITER
5. Aaron Brooks getting sent to
Oakland. Not that I ever cared about the
dude one way or the other, but I can't
fathom how he could muster the gall to
trash-talk the city of New Orleans after
Katrina. Such insensitivity showed that
he deserved to be put out to pasture on
"the NFL probation team."
4. Jim Mora and Greg Knapp. With the
exception of bad player choices in the
past, these two have been the Falcons'
worst problems. How two coaches can
choose the plays they run is beyond me.
These guys aren't coaching: Mora is
more like a fan with a great view, and the
only coordinating Knapp does is making
sure all his players wear the same colors.
Get 'em outta here!
3. The NBA changing the official ball.
Sometimes I have to wonder what goes
on in David Stern's head. It seems that
every year he comes up with these utterly pointless new rules, the new ball being
the absolute worst of all the new crap
he’s ever come up with.
2. The New Orleans Saints. I remember
as a kid, my dad (who’s from Baton
Rouge) fussing and cussing at the TV
because the Saints could just never seem
to get it together. Even if they started a
game with a lead, they'd find some way
to self-destruct and lose. But now their
city needs revenue, and they've answered
the call and risen to the occasion.
1. Miami vs. Dallas in the 2006 NBA
Finals. For starters, I have to give props
to Alonzo Mourning just for showing up
and wreaking havoc the way he did. This
is a guy who's not only over-the-hill by
NBA standards, but also came out of
retirement after a battle with kidney failure. We should all salute this cat.
Secondly, I have to praise Stackhouse's
grandtastic foul. It was such a sight for
my sore eyes, because I can't stand Shaq.
After that foul, I developed a whole new
level of respect for Stackhouse...
Sports
FANATIC
A Monthly Sports
Wrap-Up
by DeMarco Williams
• Sports innovator Lamar Hunt, founder of the American
Football League, originator of the term “Super Bowl” and
visionary behind football on Thanksgiving Day, recently
passed away from complications due to prostate cancer. The
National Prostate Cancer
Coalition offered its condolences to the Hunt family
with the following statement: “The loss of a great
man like Lamar Hunt only
highlights the fact that,
every year, prostate cancer
deprives the world of nearly 30,000 men, each one
special and dearly missed
by their loved ones. Every
man needs to know the
risks of prostate cancer, and
that early detection saves
lives.” For more details,
visit www.fightprostatecancer.org.
• Is it just us, or is excitement for the Michigan/
USC Rose Bowl almost as
high as it is for the BCS
title game between Ohio
State and Florida?
A.I. and Denver?! Damn, you're going to have to give us a
minute to digest this one. We can see the two megastars living
harmoniously for a while, as a burning desire for that elusive
title will energize the four-time NBA scoring champ to seek
out his inner point guard for a minute. But how many nights
will he or Melo, the league's current scoring leader, take of the
other being offered the last-second shot by coach George
Karl? Ask us that question again around late March...
• Hate him or love him, Bobby Knight knows basketball. The
winningest coach in Division 1 college hoops history, Knight's
methods of getting into player's heads may seem unorthodox
(and illegal in some countries), but his results are undeniable.
Here are a few things you may not know about his brilliant
career of X's and Oh-no's: He's tied with the great Dean Smith
for career NCAA tournament appearances with 27; he's tied for
the lead of most 20-win seasons; he's one of only six people to
play and coach in a Final Four game; and the former Indiana
coach was Big Ten Coach of the Year six times.
• Can we agree that this NFL season has been the most unpredictable one in recent
memory? Every week a
team we thought was
coasting to the Super Bowl
(Indianapolis,
New
Orleans) loses, and every
squad we wrote off for
dead (Tennessee, New
York Jets) finds a way to
win. A colleague said,
“That's what makes the
NFL the greatest league,”
and he's right. About the
only things you can expect
every Sunday are two
touchdowns from LT, a
couple of dropped passes
from Falcons receivers,
rumors of Brett Favre's
retirement, the Lions looking like crap and the
The Knicks-Nuggets brawl, giving a new
Houston Texans looking
meaning to “choking under pressure.”
like asses for not drafting
Reggie Bush or Vince
Young.
• Congrats go out to Troy Smith for not only winning the '06
Heisman Trophy, but doing so with such ease. The OSU QB
won college's top prize by 1,662 votes, the second biggest gap
since O.J. Simpson's runaway victory in '68. “Normally, I'm
pretty cool in pressure situations, but my heart is pounding so
fast now,” Smith said when he accepted his award.
• We're guessing his level of stress went down considerably
when it came to finding out if his name made Sports
Illustrated's list of worst Heisman winners of the past 20 years.
Of course it didn't, but these did: 1) Gino Torretta, Miami; 2)
Eric Crouch, Nebraska; 3) Chris Weinke, Florida State; 4)
Jason White, Oklahoma; and 5) Ron Dayne, Wisconsin.
• Is it just us, or did Denver’s Carmelo Anthony look a tad
punk after he laid that cheap shot on New York's Mardy
Collins during the December 16 brawl?
• And while we're on the Nuggets, we can't go much further
without mentioning the team's newest player, Allen Iverson.
Must-See TV
Top 5 Games this Month
1
BCS CHAMPIONSHIP
2
ROSE BOWL
3
AFC/NFC TITLE GAMES
4
DENVER AT HOUSTON
5
MIAMI AT L.A, LAKERS
January 8 (8PM, Fox) The Florida Gators are a
lot better than a lot of people give them credit
for. But then again, so are Buckeyes stars Ted
Ginn Jr, Quinn Pitcock and James Laurinaitis.
January 1 (5PM, ABC) This match-up of the
“Man, we could almost touch it” Wolverines and
Trojans isn't quite BCS Championship Part 2, but
it's darn close.
January 21 (TBA, CBS and Fox) We're
CLUELESS as to who the four teams are that'll
make these two games. Any combination of eight
or 10 teams is possible… Dang, I love this game!
January 20 (8:30PM, NBA League Pass) Yeah,
it's on one of those subscription-based cable
channels, but seeing Carmelo and A.I. on the
same court for the first time might be worth it.
January 15 (10PM, TNT) Round 1 took place on
Christmas Day. How fitting is it that the NBA
heavies will wage a second battle on Dr. King's
holiday?
• Is it just us, or is Ohio State's Greg Oden the best big man
we’ve seen on a college campus in a very, very long time?
And finally...
• Reggie Bush has the most receptions ever for a rookie running back… Get familiar with Clemson, Air Force, Dayton,
UGA and Notre Dame men's basketball now or look out-ofthe-loop later… On December 17, the Tennessee Titans gained
98 total yards and had the ball for just 15 minutes, yet still won,
making them the first team in 30 years to win with such sad
numbers… According to ESPN's Fantasy Football, LT's earned
nearly 400 fantasy points through Week 14. The next closest is
Chiefs RB Larry Johnson, with 265… Though controversy
and a so-so W-L mark might seem to indicate otherwise,
Michael Vick is still sixth on the fantasy list… The only pitchers in major league history ever to end their playing careers
with a postseason appearance after starting at least 300 games
for one team are Sandy Koufax and Minnesota's Brad Radke,
who retired on December 19… Didn't we tell you the Chicago
Bulls were good?
HELP WANTED!
✌
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CAPRICORN
TAURUS
VIRGO
Relationship issues are at the
forefront this month for Capricorns, with
some reaching their end and others a
new beginning. One way or another,
Mars will encourage positive action.
Travel and other future plans are
at the top of the Taurus agenda, with the
middle of the month bringing the start of
a period filled with reality checks and priority reassessment.
Duriful Virgos aren’t known for
their frivolity, but this month the stars
encourage you to have a little fun,
whether it’s a well-earned vacation or
merely a fabulous night on the town.
AQUARIUS
GEMINI
May 22nd thru June 21s
Sept. 24th thru Oct. 23rd
Have the post-holiday blues left
you wanting to crawl into a hole and
hibernate? Feel free to take time to
pause and reflect, as thoughtless actions
this month may have dire consequences.
Mars is crossing through your
relationship zone, which could either
bring amazing sex or some serious interpersonal issues. Either way, remember
that good communication is the key.
Having trouble discerning fact
from fiction, truth from lies, and fantasy
from reality where your love life is
concerned? Listen to your friends, even
if you don’t like what you hear.
PISCES
CANCER
Apr. 21st thru May 21th
Dec. 22nd thru Jan. 20th
Jan. 21st thru Feb. 19th
Aug. 24th thru Sept. 23rd
LIBRA
SCORPIO
June 22nd thru July 23rd
Oct. 24th thru Nov. 22nd
The full moon in Cancer this
month will bring relationship issues to a
head, allowing a fresh new start in life
and in love. It’s a great time to take a
step forward or close the door for good.
Scorpios aren’t known for
wearing hearts on their sleeves,
but this month is a great time to get
things off your chest. Emotions may run
high, but try to keep it real regardless.
ARIES
LEO
SAGITTARIUS
This is a month for ambitious
Aries to take the bull by the horns. But
don’t let your ego get the best of you
and be careful about saying too much,
even to those who seem trustworthy.
With several planets in your
health/lifestyle zone, lions should have
plenty of energy this month. It’s a great
time to start a new diet or exercise plan
and burn off post-holiday pounds.
There’s a push-coming-to-shove
feeling for Archers, which could usher in
a period of major life changes. Try not to
let your emotions get the best of you
and the month should prove productive.
Feb. 20th thru Mar. 20th
Shrug off the Christmas stress
and get ready to have some fun! Whether
it’s with friends, family or
business colleagues, your social life this
month should be a blast.
July 24th thru Aug. 23rd
Mar. 21st thru Apr. 20
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2007
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