Month: August 2011

Categories
Nirvana

I am QUITE STOKED for this!!!

Inside the 20th-Anniversary Reissue of ‘Nevermind’Nirvana members open the vault on the making of the classic album
 
One afternoon in April 1990, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing arrived at producer Butch Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, after driving 1,900 miles from Seattle nonstop. “They rolled up in a van,” says Vig, “and they probably hadn’t taken a bath or shower in three or four days.”
The songs Nirvana began recording that day would eventually become Nevermind, the album that kicked off the alt-rock explosion of the Nineties. Eight of the demos from that week, including ferocious test runs through “In Bloom” and “Lithium,” are among the never-before-heard treasures on the 20th-anniversary edition of the landmark album, due September 27th. The set, which will be available in versions ranging from a single CD to a five-disc box, was assembled by Novoselic, Dave Grohl, Vig and Nirvana’s management, as well as representatives of Cobain’s estate. Along with a remastered version of Nevermind, the multidisc packages offer killer extras including B sides, alternate mixes and an entire live show.
“We had this motel room, and we would go to Smart Studios and work every day,” says Novoselic. The sessions were fruitful but not without difficulties. “Kurt was charming and witty, but he would go through these mood swings,” says Vig. “He would be totally engaged, then all of a sudden a light switch would go off and he’d go sit in the corner and completely disappear into himself. I didn’t really know how to deal with that.” Although Nirvana’s studio money ran out after five days, the demos they had recorded in that span were strong enough to score them a major-label deal a few months later.
In the spring of 1991, Nirvana – by then with Grohl on drums instead of Channing – regrouped in Tacoma, where they cut another batch of demos. “We were this transient band, crashing other bands’ practice pads,” says Novoselic. Whenever they found a place to play, they’d work on whatever Cobain brought in that day.
“Kurt was so compelled to write songs, so he’d always be banging something out,” Novoselic adds. “He’d have these ideas, and we’d just kick ’em around for hours.” They recorded the rehearsals on a boombox, and those rough tapes – including spellbinding sketches of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are” – are another highlight of the reissue package. “The boombox recordings are some of the coolest stuff for hardcore fans,” says Vig. “They sound superlow-fi and dirty and trashy, really primal.”
That May, the band met Vig in L.A. and began recording the versions that appeared on Nevermind. “We were really focused, no shenanigans or messing around,” says Novoselic. “Every day, we’d go in around 11:00 or noon until 9:00 at night, just doing our thing.” Vig remembers a more relaxed schedule: “They’d stay up all night and take drugs and go to the beach in Santa Monica, then wander in at three or four in the afternoon the next day. They were really enjoying a moment of freedom, and in the back of their minds, they knew they were making a great album. Those were fun times, man, before any of the craziness happened.”
The band’s first attempt at mixing Nevermind, though, was a disaster. “I’d be balancing the drums and the guitars,” says Vig, “and Kurt would come and say, ‘Turn all the treble off. I want it to sound more like Black Sabbath.’ It was kind of a pain in the ass.” They mutually agreed to bring in a hired hand, Slayer producer Andy Wallace, to do a final mix; the discarded, original mixes sat in a vault until the reissue.
Nirvana spent the weeks surrounding the album’s September 24th, 1991, release on a whirlwind tour of Europe. “People were telling us that we were blowing up, and we were just like, ‘Really?'” says Novoselic. The newly minted stars came home to Seattle’s Paramount Theatre for a legendary Halloween ’91 show that fans can hear for the first time on the deluxe reissue. “We were burned out,” says Novoselic. “But it was a Halloween show, so we got pumped up and pulled it off.”
Looking back, Novoselic sees that show as a turning point for Nirvana: “That was like the end of the innocent days. Then everything just got so huge, and it was hard to make that adjustment. I’m still trying to reconcile with all that.”
Last fall, as the reissue was taking shape, Novoselic traveled to L.A. to play bass on a track for Foo Fighters’ Vig-helmed album Wasting Light. Grohl, Novoselic and Vig sat around reminiscing for hours after the session was done. “We started pulling stories out of each other,” says Vig. “It was a special night.”
“It can definitely be emotional,” adds Novoselic about those memories. “It’s loaded with a lot of things. But if you just think about the music, that’s what kept Nirvana together – we liked to play together, and we played together well. That was at the core of it, and that’s what endures.”
Categories
Nirvana Radio

I wanna go!!!

Jon Stewart to host session with Nirvana members
NEW YORK (AP) — Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart will host a Q&A session with the surviving members of rock band Nirvana to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its album “Nevermind.”
Stewart will host the event on SiriusXM for two hours on Sept. 24. It will feature fans, Nirvana band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, and Butch Vig, the producer behind “Nevermind.” Kurt Cobain, the band’s lead singer, committed suicide in 1994.
“Nevermind” was the band’s second album and has sold 10 million units in the United States. It features Nirvana’s biggest hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Grohl is now the lead singer of the Foo Fighters.
SiriusXM will also launch the all-Nirvana channel, Nevermind Radio, on Sept. 23 until Sept. 28.
Categories
The Couch Potato Report

It is a few days late, but I am posting it anyway!! :D

The Couch Potato Report – August 20th, 2011
 
Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is Newfoundland Private Eye, you’ll meet Monica Velour, and the Dude abides, in High Definition.
 
If you are in – or have ever been to – the fantastic city of St. John’s, Newfoundland, you know of the beauty…the view from Signal Hill, the look of The Battery, the colours of the houses downtown…you know how incredible the city looks.
 
But if for some reason you have never been there, you can see some of the unbelievable beauty of St. John’s each week on CBC television’s very entertaining private eye show REPUBLIC OF DOYLE.
 
And I am not just calling it “entertaining” because my Mother is from Newfoundland and I have family in St. John’s and think it is one of the greatest cities in the world…or because I work for CBC…I honestly really enjoy this show!!
 
REPUBLIC OF DOYLE centers around a father and son who are private investigators and the very colourful group of family and friends who help them and work with them as they travel the streets of St. John’s solving cases, and trying to stay out of jail themselves.
 
Allan Hawco stars as the son – Jake Doyle – and in the entertaining, engaging and action filled COMPLETE SECOND SEASON he is joined by a wealth of great Canadian guest stars, including Don McKellar, Gordon Pinsent, Victor Garber, Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea and Paul Gross, from DUE SOUTH.
 
I enjoy REBUBLIC OF DOYLE and I can easily recommend the thirteen episodes in the three disc set for THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON!!
 
And if you have never been to St. John’s…you really should go!! The city is fantastic!!
 
Oh, and don’t forget, SEASON THREE of REPUBLIC OF DOYLE can be seen Wednesdays at 9 pm on CBC Television starting in January…featuring special guest star Russell Crowe!!
 
From Newfoundland, we now travel all the way across Canada to Courtenay, British Columbia, for that city on the east coast of Vancouver Island is where actress Kim Cattrall – from SEX AND THE CITY – was raised.
 
Kim is now starring in a semi-interesting new film called MEET MONICA VELOUR where she plays a former adult film star who has fallen on hard times. She is trying to find a job, any job, but nobody will hire her because of her past. She is also trying to regain custody of her daughter from her jerk of an ex-husband.
 
When she meets an awkward teenager – who has travelled thousands of kilometres to meet her as he is her biggest fan and has seen and owns all of her old films – both of their lives change.
 
Kim Cattrall is known as the very glamorous Samantha Jones on SEX AND THE CITY, but in this film she goes without make-up most of the time, and her hair is less than combed.
 
I enjoyed her work here – I liked both main characters actually – and although MEET MONICA VELOUR is never great, I liked it. It is an interesting character study.
 
Also interesting is the Canadian-South African, based-on-a-true-story, THE BANG BANG CLUB about the lives of four photojournalists and the limits they pushed themselves through gunfire, bombing and multiple murders, in order to take pictures and capture what was happening in the days prior to the downfall of Apartheid in South Africa.
 
Kelowna, British Columbia’s Taylor Kitsch – from the television series FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – plays one of the photographers.
 
Canadian actress Malin Akerman from WATCHMEN also stars, along with Ryan Phillippe, of THE LINCOLN LAWYER.
 
THE BANG BANG CLUB – due to the time in history that it takes place – is very interesting…but it is never compelling. With all of the action taking on screen and during the time the film is set, this should have been a movie that always kept my attention, yet it didn’t.
 
But that said, the story is still interesting enough for me to profess it a good rental.
 
I have two films for you now that have religious undertones…coming up is twenty-five year old religious murder mystery starring Sean Connery, but first is PRIEST, starring Paul Bettany – from A BEAUTIFUL MIND – as a priest who goes against church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.
 
Yes, you head me right, this is a movie about a priest who goes against church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.
 
PRIEST is set in an alternate world – one torn apart by centuries of war between man and vampires – and the aim of the filmmakers was to give us a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller.
 
While there is nothing all that thrilling about it, PREIST does have some good acting and very good action scenes, so the end result is what I would label an okay action film…and a good rental
 
Sean Connery’s THE NAME OF THE ROSE is also a good rental, as long as you saw it when it first came out. It is a bit slow for today’s audiences, namely people who love the pace of THE DIVINCI CODE, but for those of us who saw it when it was released in the Fall of 1986 it remains and engaging and interesting religious murder mystery.
 
Connery stars here as an intellectually brilliant, non-conformist monk who is brought in to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated medieval abbey.
 
THE NAME OF THE ROSE is new on Blu-ray and the video transfer is not pristine, but it is very good, and it all comes with some great Special Features, but it is the film itself that I still enjoy…primarily because I saw it when it first came out!
 
This movie holds up, and should you enjoy an older, slower moving murder mystery…check it out!!
 
Sean Connery is super in that film, not super? The dark-comedy-superhero-film SUPER.
 
SUPER stars Rainn Wilson – Dwight Shrute from television’s THE OFFICE – as a everyday regular guy who isn’t happy, especially after his wife leaves him for a drug dealer, played by Kevin Bacon, so he become The Crimson Bolt, a superhero who wants to help people and stop crime.
 
But he lacks heroic skills, and he actually causes more crime than he stops.
 
Halifax Academy Award nominee Ellen Page – from JUNO – stars as a young woman who wants to be The Crimson Blot’s sidekick…once he admits he is The Crimson Bolt, that is.
 
I liked the premise going in, and I still think that it would make for a great movie…but SUPER is not that movie. This is a dark, very dark comedy that just doesn’t work…primarily because the lead characters are not likeable…and because of that, and the lack of any fun, this film is one that you should skip.
 
I’m glad I’ve seen it, but you shouldn’t bother.
 
No SUPER is not super, but at least it isn’t as bad as the absolutely awful romantic comedy SOMETHING BORROWED!!
 
Now I like a good romantic comedy, even those with women as the lead characters…I believe people refer to them as “chick flicks”…but this is not a good romantic comedy, it is the opposite of that, it is awful!!!
 
With an hour left, I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get through the rest of this boring, predictable mess.
 
Somehow, I did…but you should absolutely skip SOMETHING BORROWED!!! Absolutely!!!
Ginnifer Goodwin – of the television series BIG LOVE – stars here as a lawyer who fell in love with a guy named Dex in Law School, but never told him how she felt. He also loved her…but never said a word. En
ter her best friend – played by Kate Hudson – of too many bad romantic comedies to name – enter her pushy, obnoxious best friend who – manages to get Dex to ask her out, and then becomes engaged to him.
 
Who will Dex end up with, the nice lawyer who deserves to be happy, or the friend? Who do you think…but no matter who it is, you…won’t care!!
 
SOMETHING BORROWED is predictable, clichéd and just awful!!
 
Skip it, at all costs!!
 
One romantic comedy you may see on the shelf and decide to skip is WAITING FOR FOREVER, but this one is actually not bad.
 
It isn’t believable, but it is likeable.
 
WAITING FOR FOREVER features Tom Sturridge  from PIRATE RADIO as a pajamas wearing man in his twenties who is so in love with his female best friend from childhood that he follows here wherever she goes because he wants to be near her…he doesn’t talk with her or tell her how he feels, he just moves around to wherever she goes.
 
She is played by Rachel Bilson from the television series THE O.C.
 
Both Sturridge and Bilson are likeable enough, and I enjoyed this film…as long as I didn’t think about it. You see, she has become a TV star, and he is a homeless, unemployed man who always wears pajamas…yet somehow she can see through all of that…after initially strongly rejecting him, because she loves him.
So, don’t think about that fact…and you could like WAITING FOR FOREVER too!!
 
The most enjoyable romantic comedy I saw this week is one called JUMPING THE BROOM, about two very different families – one uptown, one downtown – who all converge on Martha’s Vineyard one weekend for a wedding.
 
There is absolutely nothing in JUMPING THE BROOM that we haven’t seen before…in one movie or another…but I still enjoyed it!!
 
We’re off to the beach now for what is meant to be an inspirational movie about a teenager who fights the odds to do something she loves.
 
SOUL SURFER is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, who – at the age of thirteen – lost her arm while surfing in a shark attack, yet she never gave up her dreams of getting back on the board again.
  
Bethany Hamilton’s life is inspirational, and her actions in and out of the water are commendable, but unfortunately this movie SOUL SURFER about her life isn’t very good, so I suggest you ignore the movie and search out Bethany’s biography instead.
 
It is called “Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board.”
 
Okay, it is time for what is hands down, the worst movie of the week…this is the worst film I watched all week…no matter how bad I have said other movies this week were, this is worse.
 
This is MARS NEEDS MOMS.
 
MARS NEEDS MOMS is the latest performance capture film from Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers studio…they also gave us THE POLAR EXPRESS (with Tom Hanks), BEOWULF (with Angelina Jolie) and A CHRISTMAS CAROL (with Jim Carrey)…all not very good, and all featuring characters that look creepy since performance capture has the actors doing the work, with everything captured and then animated on computers. It is not quite animated, and it is not quite live action, but it is all quite awful!!
 
I haven’t liked any of those films, and I did not like MARS NEEDS MOMS about a nine-year-old boy who is mean to his Mom, but realizes how much he misses her after she is abducted by Martians.
 
MARS NEEDS MOMS might be a great book, but it is not a great movie. The Performance Capture method still looks creepy, and the characters aren’t interesting at all.
 
No, this is not the worst movie of all time…but it is easily the worst movie of the week!!
 
SKIP IT!!!
 
That mess behind us, lets have some fun now, with the childish, immature, painfully funny television show CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL!!
 
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL is a satirical comedy television and web series that lampoons the medical drama genre.
 
It was created by and stars former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry and also features – among many others – Megan Mullally from Will and Grace, Canadian actress Malin Akerman, and Henry Winkler joined the cast for season two.
 
THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS are now available in a two-disc set and if you enjoy a good laugh, check out CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL.
 
It is a blast!!
 
The other television show I have for you this week is THE FINAL SEASON of SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL.
 
SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL is a British television drama based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous “Belle de Jour,” a London Call Girl.
 
Billie Piper from DOCTOR WHO stars as Belle, and in this final season she has to decide between quitting a job she loves for the man she loves…a decision that gets more complicated when she meets his Mother.
 
I am a huge fan of Billie Piper, but I have never been a fan of this series, and that is also true of THE FINAL SEASON. At times SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL is fun and funny, and the people on it – including Billie – are all beautiful, but I just never got into it. She either wants to continue to be a call girl, or she want sto be with this guy…they dragged that on for four seasons…make a decision already!!!
 
I am glad I’ve seen it all, and I admit that I was very satisfied by the finale, but I can’t recommend it. It would have been a great movie, but the series goes on too long.
 
Finally this week, The Blu-Ray Beacon shines on a modern day classic…a movie featuring Mr. Jeff Lebowski.
 
THE BIG LEBOWSKI came out in 1998 and it was Joel and Ethan Coen – The Coen Brothers’ – follow-up to the Academy Award winning film FARGO and it wasn’t nominated for any Oscars, and it wasn’t as well received as FARGO either.
 
But over the years this very funny pseudo-private detective film about a Los Angeles stoner who is just trying to get his urinated on rug replaced, and then go off and enjoy a few games of bowling, has become beloved.
 
Jeff Bridges plays Jeffrey Lebowski – and he prefers to be called The Dude, by the way – and this is one of those movies that gets better each time you watch it…because each time you notice more and more!!
 
For instance, I never noticed before this week how little The Dude actually bowls!! And I have seen the movie dozens of times!!!
 
Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed THE BIG LEBOWSKI since I first saw it, and I had a great time this week watching the film in High Definition on Blu-ray for the first time, for in addition to the film, the package has a 28 page book and a wealth of special features…new and old! Here is co-star Steve Buscemi.
 
I love THE BIG LEBOWSKI, and it is a movie I have always…and will always…recommend!!
 
Spend some time with The Dude, you will enjoy it…just maybe not the first time.
 
The still great Coen Brothers’ comedy THE BIG LEBOWSKI, , THE FINAL SEASON of SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL, THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS of the very funny – but stupid – non-kids show CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, the bad kids movie MARS NEEDS MOMS, SOUL SURFER, , the entertaining JUMPING THE BROOM, the skippable romantic comedies SOMETHING BORROWED and WAITING FOR FOREVER, the failed action hero dark comedy SUPER, Sean Con
nery’s THE NAME OF THE ROSE, the not great religious vampire flick PRIEST, the interesting but not compelling THE BANG BANG CLUB, the never great MEET MONICA VELOUR and THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of the very entertaining made-in-St. John’s, Newfoundland CBC series REPUBLIC OF DOYLE are all available now in stores and online.
 
And if you have never been to St. John’s, you should go!! It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world!!
 
Coming up inside the next Couch Potato Report
 
FORCE OF NATURE – THE DAVID SUZUKI MOVIE features the Canadian scientist, activist, environmentalist and educator, delivering what is referred to as a ‘last lecture’, the documentary THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD looks at product placement, marketing and advertising in movies, and Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson star in the dramatic comedy THE BEAVER.
 
I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
 
For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
 
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!
Categories
People

That comes as a bit of a surprise.

Tests show no illegal drugs in Winehouse body
LONDON (AP) — Amy Winehouse had no illegal drugs in her system when she died, and it is still unclear what killed the singer, her family said Tuesday.
The family said in a statement that toxicology tests showed “alcohol was present” in the singer’s body but it hasn’t yet been determined if it contributed to her death.
The 27-year-old soul diva, who had battled drug and alcohol addiction for years, was found dead in her London home on July 23, and an initial post-mortem failed to determine the cause of death.
A statement released by spokesman Chris Goodman on the family’s behalf said “toxicology results returned to the Winehouse family by authorities have confirmed that there were no illegal substances in Amy’s system at the time of her death.” The statement did not mention whether any legal drugs were found.
It said the family awaited the outcome of an inquest that is due to begin in October.
Winehouse’s father, Mitch, has said his daughter had beaten her drug dependency three years before her death, but he admitted she was still struggling to control her drinking after several weeks of abstinence.
Mitch Winehouse told mourners at the singer’s July 26 funeral that she had said to him, “‘Dad I’ve had enough of drinking, I can’t stand the look on your and the family’s faces anymore.'”
The Winehouse family announced plans to establish a charitable foundation in the singer’s name to help people struggling with addiction — although Mitch Winehouse has said the plans are on hold because someone else had registered the name Amy Winehouse Foundation.
In her short lifetime, Winehouse frequently made headlines because of drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, destructive relationships and abortive performances.
Her health often appeared fragile. In June 2008 and again in April 2010, she was taken to hospital and treated for injuries after fainting and falling at home.
Her father said she had developed the lung disease emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack, although her spokeswoman later said Winehouse only had “early signs of what could lead to emphysema.”
She turned her tumultuous life and personal demons into songs such as “Rehab,” from her Grammy-winning album “Back to Black.”
Her death prompted an outpouring of emotion from fans — many of whom left flowers and offerings outside her house in north London’s Camden neighborhood — and from fellow musicians.
Her final recording, a duet with Tony Bennett on “Body and Soul,” is due to released next month as a charity single.
In Britain, inquests are held to establish the facts whenever someone dies violently or in unexplained circumstances. Winehouse’s inquest is due to begin Oct. 26 in London.
Categories
Music

Off To iTunes I Go!!

Miranda Lambert’s Pistol Annies trio is loaded and ready
It has been a busy year for Miranda Lambert, who married fellow country star Blake Shelton in May and plans to release a new album in November. But somehow, the 27-year-old Nashville Star alumna found time to squeeze in another project: her girl-group debut.
Tuesday is the release date for Hell on Heels, the first album from Pistol Annies, a trio consisting of Lambert and fellow singer/songwriters Ashley Monroe, 24, and Angaleena Presley, 34. Lambert says the group’s sound and approach are planted more firmly in her country roots than her rock-inflected solo fare.
“I like to say that we make housewife music,” Lambert quips. “We write about things that women are thinking but not necessarily saying.”
The Annies came about organically, even whimsically, according to all the members. Lambert and Monroe had been friends and fellow admirers for years when, the latter says, “Miranda and I had this quick idea of starting a band. I played her Angaleena’s music, and she was like, ‘That’s our band! Let’s call her right now!'”
Presley was skeptical. “I was like, ‘You girls are in slumber-party mode.’ But we got together, and this friendship grew, and the songs just came out.”
Lambert describes their camaraderie in geographical terms. “Ang (pronounced ‘Anj’) is from the eastern part of Kentucky, Ashley’s from eastern Tennessee, and I’m from eastern Texas. We’re all country girls, and when we get together, we don’t mince words — especially Ang and me. Ashley is sort of the peacekeeper.”
Presley adds: “Miranda and I are tough girls. Ashley wears flowers in her hair and flowing dresses; she’s all about peace, love and happiness.”
Age is also a factor, Presley says. “Ashley’s the youngest, and Miranda’s in the middle. I’m like the older sister who’s gone off to college and been married and divorced and has all these hard-knock-life stories.”
In fact, Presley “was going through a divorce when I met Miranda. There’s a song on the album, Housewife’s Prayer, about that time in my life. I was literally thinking about how to burn my house down and not get caught.”
The eldest Annie is more content these days: She’s engaged to the group’s tour manager, Jordan Powell. While she and Monroe travel with Lambert — the Annies have performed in the middle of her concert set recently — Presley also is accompanied by her son, Jed, 4.
“He’s a little road warrior,” she says. “He sleeps till noon, then gets up and eats a protein bar, and he’s ready to rock.”
Monroe is more discreet about her personal life, not wishing to disclose her boyfriend’s name. But Lambert speaks giddily about Shelton, gushing that married life “is awesome. It’s great to know someone always has your back. There are not many like (Shelton). I’m glad I snagged him.”
Lambert would like to have children eventually, though she and Shelton, 35, now reserve their parental affection for seven rescue dogs. “They’re our kids right now. We’re both thriving in our careers.”
Indeed, Lambert is gearing up to release Four the Record on Nov. 1. (Monroe also has an album in the works, while Presley is seeking a label for her self-titled effort.) She has other ventures in mind as well, including starting a line of cowboy boots. “I want to build an empire, so whatever opportunities come my way, I’m ready.”
Mind you, Mrs. Blake Shelton also is looking forward to some downtime with her spouse later this year, at home in Oklahoma. “Things usually slow down after Thanksgiving,” she says. “We both have farms, and it’ll be nice to go fishing and hunting and just be normal.”
Categories
People

May he also rest in peace!!

Rock pioneer Jerry Leiber dies
Despite millions and millions of pieces of contrary evidence, Jerry Leiber insisted there was no magic behind his becoming half of the most famous songwriting team in early rock ‘n’ roll.
Jerry Leiber helped compose some of the early rock era’s most recognizable songs. He died Monday at the age of 78.
Leiber, who died Monday at 78 in Los Angeles, formed a partnership in 1950 with Mike Stoller, who survives him, that lasted the rest of his life and produced million-selling pop and R&B hits for Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, James Brown and The Coasters. But the origin of that career path was mundane.
Working as a 17-year-old busboy in an L.A. cafeteria, “I heard this music coming out of the radio and it was (Jimmy Witherspoon’s) Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” Leiber told USA TODAY in 2009. “It got me. I thought, ‘I can do this.’ I decided just like that. No romantic story.”
Turns out the sly lyricist and the budding blues/jazz pianist Stoller, also 17, could do it quite well: Their 2009 autobiography Hound Dog tells of them hitting the charts in the USA or the U.K. 76 times from 1951 to 1998.
Elvis put them on the map with Hound Dog in 1956 and they followed with such iconic tunes as Is That All There Is? (written for Peggy Lee), Love Potion No. 9 (The Clovers), Kansas City (Wilbert Harrison) and Yakety Yak (The Coasters).
They were enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In May, American Idol’s final four contestants sang the duo’s songs, with Lady Gaga mentoring.
Reflecting on his career in 2009, Leiber said: “We always felt lucky that we were getting paid to laugh.”
Categories
People

May he Rest In Peace!

Motown songwriter Nick Ashford dies
Nick Ashford, who wrote many Motown classics with his wife Valerie Simpson, died Monday. He was 69.
Ashford & Simpson — you can’t think of one without the other — penned and produced almost all of the ’60s hits for Motown’s Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, including Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, You’re All I Need to Get By, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing and Your Precious Love. They also wrote hits for Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles, Maxine Brown and the Fifth Dimension.
Ray Charles’ 1966 No. 1 R&B hit Let’s Go Get Stoned was their breakthrough record. They would later write and produce Diana Ross’ biggest solo hits, including her signature Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand). They also wrote Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman, which was later recorded by Whitney Houston.
Though they had initially performed together in 1964 as Valerie & Nick, after meeting a year earlier at Harlem’s White Rock Baptist Church, they didn’t fully break out as R&B stars until the late ’70s and ’80s with songs like Don’t Cost You Nothing, It Seems to Hang On, Found A Cure, Street Corner and Solid. They generated excitement onstage with the tall, leonine Ashford trading harmonies with the sultry Simpson.
Ashford, who was born in Fairfield, S.C., and raised in Willow Run, Mich., had originally aspired to be a dancer.
The couple, who had been married since 1974, were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. They recorded eight albums for Warner Bros., including four that went gold, five with Capitol and two independently. Their last album, 1996’s Been Found, was a collaboration with poet Maya Angelo.
They continued to perform sporadically and frequently hosted events at their New York restaurant, Sugar Bar.
Categories
Letterman

Welcome back, Dave!!!

Letterman back at work after website death threat
NEW YORK (AP) — Even a fatwa is grist for comedy when you’re David Letterman.
Back from two weeks’ vacation and making his first TV appearance since a threat against his life was posted on a jihadist website, the “Late Show” host played it all for laughs during Monday’s monologue.
Letterman began by thanking his studio audience for being there.
“Tonight,” he said, “you people are more, to me, honestly, than an audience — you’re more like a human shield.”
Then he apologized for having been tardy coming out onstage.
“Backstage, I was talking to the guy from CBS,” he explained. “We were going through the CBS life insurance policy to see if I was covered for jihad.”
Until Letterman delivered his jokes, his situation seemed no laughing matter.
Last week, a frequent contributor to a jihadist website posted the threat against Letterman. He urged Muslim followers to “cut the tongue” of the late-night host because of a joke and gesture the comic had made about al-Qaida leaders on a show that aired in June.
“A guy, a radical extremist threatened to cut my tongue out,” Letterman marveled during Monday’s monologue. Then, referring to his disastrous turn hosting the Oscars in 1995, he added: “I wish I had a nickel for every time a guy has threatened (that). I think the first time was during the Academy Awards.”
“And so now,” he continued, “State Department authorities are looking into this.” But they could save themselves some trouble, he suggested: “Everybody knows it’s (Jay) Leno.”
Along with his monologue, Letterman mined the situation for his Top Ten List: “Top Ten Thoughts That Went Through My Mind After Hearing about the Threat.”
Among them:
— “Why is the staff in such a good mood?”
— “How can someone be so angry at a time when Kim Kardashian is so happy?”
— “Some people get Emmy nominations; some people get death threats.”
One joke that may have helped spark the fatwa was one of several lampooning al-Qaida in Letterman’s June 8 monologue. This was just days after the death of al-Qaida leader Ilyas Kashmiri, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan. Though Kashmiri was rumored to be a long-shot choice to succeed Osama bin Laden, he wouldn’t have worked out even had he lived, Letterman cracked, pointing to Kashmiri’s “rocky start” as a front-runner: “He botched up the story of Paul Revere.”
The real butt of that joke: Sarah Palin, potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, who in early June on her “One Nation” bus tour had claimed that Paul Revere’s famous ride was intended to warn British soldiers as well as his fellow colonists.
The website contributor, who identified himself as Umar al-Basrawi, railed in his post that Letterman had referred to both bin Laden and Kashmiri and said that Letterman, in discussing Kashmiri’s death, had “put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter.”
“Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi … to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?” Al-Basrawi wrote, referring to El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted of the 1990 killing of Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane. Letterman is not Jewish.
Al-Basrawi, considered likely to be an alias, has made some 1,200 postings to the Muslim website, according to Adam Raisman, an analyst for the Site Monitoring Service. The private firm, part of the Site Intelligence Group, provides information to government and commercial clients on what jihadists are saying on the Internet and in traditional media. Raisman said the online forum is often used by al-Qaida.
The FBI said last week that it was looking into the threat.
While Letterman and his writers were polishing their jokes Monday afternoon, outside on Broadway, a bomb-sniffing dog was led around the periphery of the Ed Sullivan Theater in midtown Manhattan. Meanwhile, ticketholders queuing up along the sidewalk seemed relaxed about attending Letterman’s first taping since the assassination threat. Some were even unaware that his life had been threatened.
“I’m not worried. They’ve got metal detectors,” said Kendall Phillips, a 25-year-old from Houston, noting a standard provision in the TV world for screening audience members. “Plus, it’s like really hard to get tickets.”
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People

May He Rest In Peace!!!!!

Jack Layton dies of cancer at age 61
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who led Canada’s Official Opposition, has died at his Toronto home at age 61 after a long battle with cancer.
Layton died peacefully at his home in Toronto early Monday, surrounded by family and loved ones, according to a statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael Layton.
“The struggle has ended for Jack Layton, I mean very quickly,” said CBC’s Chief Correspondent Peter Mansbridge, who broke the news over the air. “I think we all knew when we saw those pictures in late July that this was a difficult situation. But it went very fast in the month since then.”
After the news of Layton’s death emerged shortly after 8 a.m. ET, friends, colleagues and Canadians reacted quickly.
Longtime NDP leader and MP Ed Broadbent told CBC News that he is “deeply saddened such a great Canadian is taken from us in the very prime of his life.”
Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the news took his breath away and that Layton’s death is not just a loss for his party, but for all Canadians.
“It’s a loss for the country because he was a political guy who believed strongly in politics and who had a lot of resilience and a lot of guts,” Rae told CBC News.
The leader of the Official Opposition announced on July 25 he was stepping away from the job, a role he coveted and had won only two months earlier, to concentrate on his cancer treatment so he could come back to Parliament in the fall, ready to fight for Canadian families.
Fighting with hope and optimism was a recurring theme in Layton’s life. Long before his battles with cancer, Layton had developed a reputation as a fighter — a determined, goal-oriented, passionate one who would take on a cause and not let go.
In his teens in the 1960s, he led a fruitless bid to have a youth centre built in his hometown of Hudson, Que. Later, as a community organizer and activist in Toronto, and then in his political work, Layton showed a passion for such issues as the environment, AIDS, poverty, violence against women, public transportation and homelessness. Layton also fought for aboriginal issues, and was given credit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008 for his role in shaping the federal government’s apology for the residential school system.
As longtime New Democrat and union leader Al Cerilli told CBC News in an interview several years ago, “Good or bad, he’s on the front page, he’s in your face,” he said. “Jack is not shy, he is of that nature, of bringing the things out and putting them on the front page.”
Born in Montreal on July 18, 1950, Layton had politics in his blood. His great-grand uncle William Steeves was a Father of Confederation. His great-grandfather Philip Layton came to Canada from Britain as a blind teenager and helped pressure the federal government to bring in a $25-a-month pension for the blind. His grandfather Gilbert Layton was a Quebec cabinet minister under Maurice Duplessis and his father Robert Layton was a Tory cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government.
That family tradition lives on. Layton’s son Michael followed in his father’s footsteps as a Toronto city councillor.
In addition to learning about politics first-hand from his family, Layton studied political science and economics at McGill University, graduating in 1970. He went on to earn a master’s degree and his PhD in political science at York University in 1983. He wasted no time putting his knowledge from the classroom into practice and ran for Toronto city council in 1982 before he had even finished his doctorate.
Layton didn’t leave the classroom after winning his seat on city council. While making waves at city hall, he taught politics at the University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson.
Layton ran unsuccessfully for mayor in Toronto in 1991, and twice failed to win a seat in the House of Commons that decade. But he kept fighting.
Layton’s profile on the national scene was boosted by his election as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 2000, and three years later he made a run for the leadership of the New Democratic Party. He defeated several sitting NDP MPs in the heated race and in his victory speech, Layton talked about hope.
“Hope … is what drives New Democrats,” he said, adding that his party “will always be the party of hope.”
He led the party for a year before he tried for a seat in the House of Commons, in the 2004 federal election, when he was finally victorious in the Toronto-Danforth riding. And in 2006, Layton’s wife, Chow, joined him as the MP for the nearby Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina.
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People

Get Well Soon, Bono!!

Bono hospitalized with chest pains
Rocker Bono has been told to take a break following reported heart palpitations and chest pains.
The U2 star checked in for tests at the Princess Grace Memorial Hospital in Monaco on Wednesday during a vacation in France, according to RollingStone.com.
He was examined by a top heart specialist and told to get some rest. He was not kept in overnight.
The health scare comes three weeks after U2 wrapped up their 360 Tour.
The band postponed summer dates last year when Bono had to undergo emergency back surgery.