Do You Love Music?
Here are the new CD releases for Tuesday, October 12, 2004:
311 311 Day 2004 - Live In New Orleans (Zomba)
ALICIA KEYS DVD-TBA-WW (J Records)
AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB Love Songs for Patriots (Merge)
ARETHA FRANKLIN TBA (Arista)
BACKSTREET BOYS TBA (Zomba)
CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN New Roman Times (Cooking Vinyl/spinART)
CAVE IN TBA-WW (RCA)
CELINE DION Miracles (collaboration with Anne Geddes) (Sony)
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND TBA-WW
DIDO TBA-DVD (Arista)
HOPE OF THE STATES The Lost Riots (Sony)
KIRK FRANKLIN TBA (Zomba)
LONESTAR DVD-TBA-WW (RCA Country)
THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES Origins (Warner)
All release dates are subject to change.
'Team America' Takes on the World
LOS ANGELES - Sometimes Trey Parker and Matt Stone are trying to make you laugh, and sometimes they're trying to make you squirm. The "South Park" creators do all of the above with their new film, "Team America: World Police," which narrowly avoided an NC-17 rating by trimming a hardcore sex scene — between puppets.
"Team America" is inspired by the old "Thunderbirds" puppet sci-fi adventure TV show. Parker and Stone, who delight in pushing the limits of both comedy and taste, borrow the format to mock the Iraq war and Hollywood blow-up epics like "Con Air" and "Armageddon."
The movie follows a squad of marionette heroes who fight terrorists (never mind that they reduce Paris and Cairo to ruins in the process). They recruit a Broadway actor, Gary, as an undercover operative. But Gary isn't always on board with their aggressive ways — yet he's tired of Hollywood liberal whining and, hey, somebody's got to stop North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il from destroying the world, right?
Parker and Stone had puppets made of President Bush and John Kerry, but ultimately cut both characters from the movie, saying they didn't want it to be blatantly political.
"For us, it's a way to think about all the emotions behind the politics," Stone said. "It's not so much, 'Here's what we should do. ...' Gary is supposed to (represent) all the emotions that we've felt over the past couple years (about America's role in the world.) Are you proud? Are you ashamed? It's probably a combination of both."
Parker and Stone don't feel they have much to add to political discourse in general.
"I think the only thing we do assert is that it's fine and good for everyone to hate us (Americans) and think we're (jerks), but there is a big difference between (jerks) and (psychos)" like Osama Bin Laden, Parker said — substituting profane body-part slang for his descriptions.
Body parts were conspicuously absent from the puppet sex scene — the marionettes have only a network of joints and hinges awkwardly bumping and grinding. After the scene was cut, the movie ratings board gave "Team America" an R.
"It's still funny," Stone said if the scene, "but nowhere near what it was. The scene itself is so funny and innocuous. It's not mean-spirited. It's not edgy. It's just what kids do. We all did that with dolls growing up."
Old college friends Parker and Stone are mostly tickled by what they see as the silliness of the ratings board decision. Parker points out that the pervasive gruesome violence — such as the gory, bullet-riddled bodies of puppet celebrities — didn't raise any eyebrows.
The old phrase "equal opportunity offender" applies generously to this movie, which attempts to place the world's population in three groups: sissies represented by Hollywood peaceniks like Tim Robbins and Michael Moore; jerks played by hard-charging "My country, right or wrong" nationalists on the "world police" team; and psychos — terrorists, dictators and global criminals.
In "Team America," jerks need the sissies to keep them in line, and sissies need the jerks to protect them from psychos.
Overall, the movie is just meant to provoke people, regardless of their politics.
"That's much more interesting than, 'Here's what we think!'" Stone said. "We don't know anything about foreign policy or anything. We don't know anything about anything."
"We make cartoons," Parker added, with mock feebleness.
So far only one celebrity they lampoon has lashed back: Sean Penn, who entered their comedic cross-hairs when he made a trip to Iraq and then published ads denouncing the then-impending American attack.
In the letter, the Oscar-winning "Mystic River" star said he didn't "mind being of service, in satire and silliness" as a character who becomes a pawn of North Korea's super-villain, but took issue with Stone on another matter.
In a recent Rolling Stone magazine article, Stone mocked hip-hop mogul P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" registration campaign, saying he didn't think "uninformed" people should be encouraged to go to the polls.
"It's all well to joke about me or whomever you choose," Penn wrote. "Not so well, to encourage irresponsibility that will ultimately lead to the disembowelment, mutilation, exploitation, and death of innocent people throughout the world."
Stone claimed Penn misunderstood him.
"My whole thing is I just wish uninformed people would just stay home," Stone told The Associated Press. "If you don't know who you're going to vote for, there's no shame in not voting."
Parker said he was just grateful for the free press Penn gave them by sending his letter to the Los Angeles Times: "It's really funny because in the letter he's really unhappy with us, and yet he couldn't have done anything better for the movie. Now we're on the front page again!"
They reserve their harshest treatment, however, for "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore — but their disdain is as much personal as political.
Stone, who is from Littleton, Colo., agreed to talk about his hometown and the infamous high-school shooting there for Moore's anti-gun documentary "Bowling for Columbine."
"We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore," Stone said. "I did an interview, and he didn't mischaracterize me or anything I said in the movie. But what he did do was put this cartoon right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon."
Parker and Stone still harbor hard feelings about that sassy, anti-gun cartoon because they feel it was done in "South Park" style. They believe the proximity to Stone's interview misled some fans into thinking they had done the cartoon, even though Moore never said they did.
For this slight, Moore's punishment in "Team America" is extreme: he's depicted as a gibbering, overweight, hot-dog eating buffoon who straps explosives to his body to blow up the American do-gooders. The puppet was reportedly stuffed with ham when it blew.
Cruel? Certainly. Unfair? Yes.
But the "South Park" guys like to make you squirm.
Bee Gees Round Up 'Number Ones'
NEW YORK (Billboard) - In the vein of similar projects celebrating the Beatles and Elvis Presley, Universal will on Nov. 9 release "Bee Gees Number Ones," compiling chart-topping hits from the legendary Gibb brothers.
The project will be released with different track lists for international markets and will also be available in a limited edition with a bonus DVD.
The North American/international edition boasts 19 tracks, running chronologically from 1967's "Massachusetts" to 1987's "You Win Again." In between are such massive hits as "Jive Talkin'," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever" and "Tragedy." The disc closes with 2001's "Man in the Middle," included as a tribute to Maurice Gibb, who died suddenly last year.
In the U.K. and Japan, "Number Ones" features a slightly different 20-track running order, adding cuts such as "More Than a Woman" and "Islands in the Stream," a 1983 No. 1 hit for Dolly Parton.
The limited-edition CD/DVD combo includes 18 audio tracks plus rare footage of the group performing "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Jive Talkin'," "Massachusetts" and "I Started a Joke" on the U.K. TV show "An Audience With."
Springsteen's 'Plugged' Grows a Little on DVD
NEW YORK (Billboard) - The Bruce Springsteen home video title "MTV Plugged" will be reissued Nov. 9 on DVD with the addition of one performance not included in the original 1992 concert broadcast.
"Roll of the Dice," which stems from that year's Columbia studio album "Human Touch," joins "Living Proof" and "If I Should Fall Behind," which were not broadcast but appeared on the now out-of-print VHS release of this title.
"Plugged" stems from what was to be Springsteen's appearance on MTV's popular "Unplugged" series, which placed major artists in an acoustic setting in front of an intimate audience. Admittedly not rehearsed well enough to perform in that forum, Springsteen broke the rules and performed electric, leading the network to market the broadcast with the "Un" crossed out in the "Unplugged" logo.
Joining the Boss for the performance were guitarist Shane Fontayne, drummer Zachary Alford and bassist Tommy Sims, sometimes referred to by fans as his "fake band," as they were the players with whom Springsteen performed during an extended break from working with the E Street Band that included the release of the simultaneously released "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town," selections from which make up the bulk of the "Plugged" selections.
Also joining Springsteen for the taping were E Streeters Roy Bittan (keyboards) and Patti Scialfa (vocals/guitar), and multi-instrumentalist Crystal Talifero and backing vocalists Gia Ciambotti, Carol Dennis, Cleopatra Kennedy, Bobby King and Angel Rogers.
Springsteen is in the midst of the multi-artist Vote for Change tour, which will stage its all-star finale Monday night in Washington, D.C.. He'll headline one additional show Wednesday in East Rutherford, N.J., with R.E.M., John Fogerty and Jackson Browne also taking part, among others.
Christopher Reeve Dies at 52
MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - Actor Christopher Reeve, who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade and from his wheelchair became the nation's most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research, has died. He was 52.
Reeve died Sunday of complications from an infection caused by a bedsore. He went into cardiac arrest Saturday, while at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma and died Sunday at a hospital surrounded by his family, his publicist said.
His advocacy for stem cell research helped it emerge as a major campaign issue between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. His name was even mentioned by Kerry during the second presidential debate on Friday.
In the last week Reeve had developed a serious systemic infection, a common problem for people living with paralysis who develop bedsores and depend on tubes and other medical devices needed for their care. He entered the hospital Saturday.
Dana Reeve thanked her husband's personal staff of nurses and aides, "as well as the millions of fans from around the world."
"He put up with a lot," his mother, Barbara Johnson, told the syndicated television show "The Insider." "I'm glad that he is free of all those tubes."
Before the 1995 horse-riding accident that caused his paralysis, Reeve's athletic, 6-foot-4-inch frame and love of adventure made him a natural choice for the title role in the first "Superman" movie in 1978. He insisted on performing his own stunts.
"Look, I've flown, I've become evil, loved, stopped and turned the world backward, I've faced my peers, I've befriended children and small animals and I've rescued cats from trees," Reeve told the Los Angeles Times in 1983, just before the release of the third "Superman" movie. "What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn't been done?"
Though he owed his fame to it, Reeve made a concerted effort to, as he often put it, "escape the cape." He played an embittered, crippled Vietnam veteran in the 1980 Broadway play "Fifth of July," a lovestruck time-traveler in the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time," and an aspiring playwright in the 1982 suspense thriller "Deathtrap."
More recent films included John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned," and the HBO movies "Above Suspicion" and "In the Gloaming," which he directed. Among his other film credits are "The Remains of the Day," "The Aviator," and "Morning Glory."
Reeve's life changed completely after he broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.
Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury. He moved an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues.
"Hollywood needs to do more," he said in the 1996 Oscar awards appearance. "Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else."
He returned to directing, and even returned to acting in a 1998 production of "Rear Window," a modern update of the Hitchcock thriller about a man in a wheelchair who is convinced a neighbor has been murdered. Reeve won a Screen Actors Guild award for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries.
"I was worried that only acting with my voice and my face, I might not be able to communicate effectively enough to tell the story," Reeve said. "But I was surprised to find that if I really concentrated, and just let the thoughts happen, that they would read on my face."
Reeve also made several guest appearances on the WB series "Smallville" as Dr. Swann, a scientist who gave the teenage Clark Kent insight into his future as Superman.
In 2000, Reeve was able to move his index finger, and a specialized workout regimen made his legs and arms stronger. With rigorous therapy, involving repeated electrical stimulation of the muscles, he also regained sensation in other parts of his body. He vowed to walk again.
"I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery," Reeve said.
Dr. John McDonald treated Reeve as director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University in St. Louis. He called Reeve "one of the most intense individuals I've ever met in my life."
"Before him there was really no hope," McDonald said. "If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he's changed all that. He's demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done."
Dr. Raymond Onders, who implanted electrodes in Reeve's diaphragm in a groundbreaking surgery to help him breathe, said the sore that led to the infection was not Reeve's only recent health problem.
"Many different problems develop after nine years of being dependent on a ventilator, not being able to move yourself, having intestinal problems. ... It just slowly builds up over the years," Onders told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, son of a novelist and a newspaper reporter. About age 10, he made his first stage appearance — in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Yeoman of the Guard" at a theater in Princeton, N.J.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, he landed a part as coldhearted bigamist Ben Harper on the soap opera "Love of Life." He also performed frequently on stage, winning his first Broadway role as the grandson of Katharine Hepburn's character in "A Matter of Gravity."
Reeve's first movie role was a minor one in the submarine disaster movie "Gray Lady Down," released in 1978. "Superman" soon followed. Reeve was selected for the role from among about 200 aspirants.
While filming "Superman" in London, Reeve met modeling agency co-founder Gae Exton, and the two began a relationship that lasted several years. They had a son and a daughter, but never wed.
Reeve later married Dana Morosini; they had one son, Will, 12. Reeve also is survived by his mother, Barbara Johnson; his father, Franklin Reeve; his brother, Benjamin Reeve; and the children from his relationship with Exton, Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.
Funeral plans were not immediately announced.
In his 1998 book, "Still Me," he recalled that after the accident, when he contemplating giving up, his wife told him: "I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you."
His children helped, too, he told interviewer Barbara Walters.
"I could see how much they needed me and wanted me ... and how lucky we all are and that my brain is on straight."