Sony slashes price of PSP
For those of you who are interested in movies on the go, you may be pleased to hear that Sony has just significantly lowered the price of their Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld. The PSP is now officially priced at $199 and given the wealth of movies that are available for the device on UMD discs, this may be a great little gizmo while you’re preparing for spring or summer break. For more info on movies on the PSP, please feel free to visit our UMD Review section as well.
Almost 350 movies are available for the PSP at the time of this writing and although studios have shown signs of pulling out of the segment a little due to a drop in sales there will still be a great many new releases coming out in the future, making PSP one of the most attractive handheld movie viewing devices, and of course, it plays games, too. Some 200 of them at this time
Radio group calls for 'smarter, more effective' CRTC policy
New technologies like satellite radio and digital players are changing the traditional radio landscape and the industry says it wants help from the CRTC to survive.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission had called for submissions that would be considered in its current review of the country's commercial radio policy.
A number of groups, including the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, filed written submissions before the broadcast regulator's midnight deadline on Wednesday.
The landscape has dramatically changed since the last commercial radio review, the broadcast group says in its submission.
"We no longer have one single and regulated system of radio services delivered over the public airwaves and free of charge to Canadians. Instead, we have both a regulated system of the past and a largely unregulated, parallel system of new delivery platforms for audio content," the CAB said.
"Canadian private radio is confronted with an unheard-of array of competition for listeners and for revenues."
The existence of these new competitors does not necessarily mean that more regulation is required from the CRTC, the group said, "but rather that smarter and more effective regulation needs to be designed."
The group believes that traditional radio could lose between 4.9 and 8.5 per cent of its listeners by 2010, with revenue losses of between $13 million and $39 million.
The CRTC has said that the rapid changes in digital technologies and distribution of media – such as music and other programming– have "presented the radio industry with new opportunities, but also new challenges."
It cited satellite radio, file-sharing and downloading, podcasting and audio streaming on the internet as "new and more flexible alternatives to the traditional practices of purchasing recorded music and listening to radio broadcasting."
The goal of the upcoming review is to examine the effectiveness of the 1998 policy, develop new measures to support a strong commercial radio industry that reflects Canada's diversity and local cultures, make the transition to digital transmission and benefit from new and emerging platforms for distribution, the CRTC said.
The CRTC has scheduled public hearings this spring in Gatineau, Que. as part of the review. A report, including any regulation changes,is expected later this year or in early 2007.
Originally set for 2003, the review of Canada's commercial radio policy was postponed so that that the CRTC could deal with the applications to introduce satellite radio to Canada.
CBC's Tommy Douglas movie frustrates some Saskatchewan Liberals
REGINA (CP) - The CBC's cinematic tribute to medicare founder Tommy Douglas has ruffled Liberal feathers in Saskatchewan and has at least one historian shaking his head in disapproval.
The television movie Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story has been lauded for shedding light on an overlooked Canadian political icon.
But those familiar with the life of former Saskatchewan premier James (Jimmie) Gardiner - Douglas's adversary in the movie - say his portrayal as arrogant, self-centred and vindictive was way off.
"I think it is a shame that they found it necessary to create a kind of blackguard to contrast with the white knight of Tommy Douglas," said David Smith, the retired University of Saskatchewan professor who co-wrote Gardiner's biography.
"I just think it was a very unfortunate or distorted view of the man."
Douglas, a New Democrat, and Gardiner, a Liberal, both enjoyed distinguished political careers in Saskatchewan and Ottawa.
As leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, Douglas was a five-term premier of the province before leaving to become the first federal leader of the NDP.
He is best remembered as the father of medicare.
Gardiner was elected twice as Saskatchewan premier, first in 1926 and again in 1934. Federally, he held the agriculture portfolio for a record 22 years.
Saskatchewan's Gardiner Dam on Lake Diefenbaker is named after him.
When it came to politics, Gardiner was a passionate voice for the West and for agriculture, Smith said. He was hard-nosed and not always easy to get along with, but wasn't boorish the way the movie seemed to portray him.
"He's portrayed in the movie as almost thuggish," Smith said. "I think it's wrong to depict him like that."
He takes particular issue with Gardiner shown drinking in the film.
"He was one of the founders of the United Church of Canada and he, to my knowledge, was a teetotaller," Smith said. "Never, never, never."
Retired Liberal senator Herb Sparrow, who knew Gardiner, said he liked the movie, but didn't like how Gardiner was portrayed.
"Jimmie would have been disappointed in the way he came off," he said. "It didn't portray any of the good points that he had."
Sparrow said when it comes to ranking Saskatchewan politicians he would put Gardiner up there with Douglas and former Tory prime minister John Diefenbaker.
David Karwacki, the current Saskatchewan Liberal leader, compared Gardiner to Ralph Goodale in that they were strong western voices in Liberal governments.
"From 1900 to 1950 the Liberals really built the province of Saskatchewan, from Walter Scott to Jimmie Gardiner," Karwacki said.
"I think the movie might have been a little rough on Jimmie Gardiner."
Kevin DeWalt, executive producer of the film, said there was no intention to vilify Gardiner and his character was based on extensive research.
"We feel very confident that we portrayed the times accurately," DeWalt said. "Clearly we have done some fictionalization and compressed some characters into Jimmie Gardiner, but that's something that we have stated right from Day 1 that we were doing,"
That's not the way Regina lawyer Garrett Wilson sees it.
Wilson is a longtime active member of the Liberal party in Saskatchewan and also knew Gardiner personally.
"He was a great Canadian - great western Canadian - and I was never a particular fan of him politically," Wilson said.
"I understand that you'd have to dramatize things a little bit to do this stuff, but I think they went far, far too far."
Fate Helped Lilly Find Her Way to 'Lost'
NEW YORK - To hear Evangeline Lilly talk, her path to stardom on the hit series "Lost" was almost beyond her control. Perhaps a bit like her character, Kate, and the rest of the "Lost" castaways who — submitting to a grand plan, or was it just bum luck? — crashed at the obscure Pacific isle where the ABC thriller (9 p.m. EST Wednesday) has stranded them.
Granted, Kate was aboard doomed Oceanic Air flight 815 in handcuffs, a fugitive from justice. She was being brought back to the U.S. from Australia to stand trial when the jet tore apart in midair.
Nothing so tumultuous for Lilly.
While enrolled at Vancouver's University of British Columbia just a few years ago, the Alberta, Canada native was a budding actress pulling in good money doing TV commercials. Even at this early stage, stardom seemed foretold. Until Lilly, unhappy with acting, bailed out.
Then, in a bizarre display of self-demotion, she happily took work as a movie extra.
"Being an extra, ironically, turned out to be something I loved," she says with a laugh. "I could go in when I wanted. Do my homework. Read books. Eat their food. Rest. That was my job and I got paid for it!"
Never mind the pay was a fraction of what she made before. Her new plan fit perfectly with school (she was studying international relations). More to the point, she didn't like modeling and acting in commercials. It felt like a meat market. Demeaning.
Still, her agent kept pressing her to try for roles in TV shows or films.
As Lilly tells it, she finally saw the light when a friend observed how "you claim to believe in destiny, and yet you're ignoring what appears to be all the signs of destiny. Doors are opening for you, but you're afraid of your own success."
"That struck a nerve in me," Lilly recalls, "and I burst into tears."
In January 2004, she went on the first of a couple dozen auditions.
"By March, I was in Hawaii filming the `Lost' pilot."
There, to her surprise, she fell in love with acting. But she also learned that, on "Lost," it wouldn't just be viewers who were challenged by the mystery and myth. With a tale this complicated, murky and piecemeal, even the actors are often forced to play a guessing game.
For instance, when filming the pilot, Lilly realized what she knew about her character came down to this: Good-looking gal on a plane in handcuffs with a secret.
She remembers imploring J.J. Abrams, the series' mastermind, to relinquish a few more clues: "C'mon, give me a ballpark idea: Am I a fireworks smuggler or a murderer?"
All in good time.
"The first year was very hard," Lilly says. Besides suffering an identity crisis with her role, "I was surrounded by breathtaking actors, and I felt very insecure about performing next to them. I thought I was going to fall flat on my face."
She was part of a cast that also included Matthew Fox (as the sexy doctor, Jack), Josh Holloway (as the sexy con man, Sawyer) — both playing characters Kate has had flirtations with — and dozens more regulars, like veteran actor Terry O'Quinn who, as the mystical Locke, declared, "Each one of us was brought here for a reason."
Unconsciously echoing him, Lilly now recalls, "The first year I just kept thinking, `Well, there has to be a point, a reason I'm here. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened the way it happened: in such a magical and spontaneous way.'
Meanwhile, she held her own within the huge ensemble, and as more than eye candy. A slender brunette with a dusting of freckles and a dazzling smile, Lilly is athletic and outdoorsy, which served Kate well. She has infused Kate with strength, fire and daring. Kate is nobody's fool.
Nor is the 26-year-old Lilly, even at her most perplexed.
"What I learned to do to survive on the show and enjoy it," she explains, "is to settle into the bliss of ignorance. I sort of wade my way through the dark waters of 'Lost,' and there's a comfort knowing it's the producers and writers who are responsible. If I'm walking blindfolded, then whoever's leading me is responsible for where I end up."
She has also learned to accept the instant celebrity the show thrust upon her, insisting she can normalize the impact of her fame. "I want to maintain equal footing with the rest of the world."
But although she likes this new life, it may not be forever.
"I don't know how long my career will last," she admits with a laugh. "As far as how long my nerves can hold out, I would say I give myself 10 years, and if I don't get out by then, they'll be shattered.
"I feel this year I've figured it out," says the woman who found herself on "Lost," summing up. "The dust has settled and I understand the new world I live in. That's really exciting and reassuring."
Kanye, Chili Peppers Head Lollapalooza '06
Three is the magic number for Lollapalooza '06.
As the alternative generation's standard-bearer for touring festivals parks itself in Chicago's Grant Park as a standalone affair for the second year in a row, Lollapalooza is expanding from two days to three, and adding a special emphasis on hip-hop.
To that end, organizers announced Thursday rap superstar Kanye West will headline this year's blow-out event being held Aug. 4 6, along with an eclectic group of performers that includes tour veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers, Windy City rockers Wilco, indie faves Death Cab for Cutie, stoner rock gods Queens of the Stone Age and Ween, Hassidic reggae sensation Matisyahu, the Shins, and Jack White's new band, the Raconteurs, among many others.
"It's a kickass lineup. We know you're going to have a sloppy good time," Perry Farrell, the former Jane's Addiction frontman and Lolla's founder and leading visionary, said Thursday at a press conference in Austin, Texas. "We made a concerted effort to book more hip-hop this year, and to mix it with a bunch of other amazing things too. And what we've ended up with is a beautiful, amazing thing."
Hip-hop's always been a welcome addition to Lollapalooza. The inaugural fest back in '91 boasted Ice-T while subsequent editions saw artists such as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg representing. This year, however, Farrell and company are undeniably raising rap's profile by bringing in a variety of hip-hop heavyweights along with West to showcase the genre's diversity.
Joining the "Gold Digger" artist will be socially conscious rapper Common, 19-year-old British MC Lady Sovereign, Gnarls Barkley, a collaboration of famed artist-producer Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, hip-hop combo Blackalicious, and Lyrics Born, with more to come.
After the dismal summer of 2004, when organizers were forced to scrap Lollapalooza as a two-day traveling road show due to sluggish ticket sales, Farrell sold the Lolla brand to Austin-based Capital Sports & Entertainment, which stages the annual Austin City Limits Festival in September, with the idea of giving his baby a serious makeover.
That led to Lollapalooza '05 putting down stakes in Chicago with the intention of being a one-stop destination for music lovers as well as compete with the likes of major music festivals Bonnaroo and Coachella which, after ripping a page from the Woodstock-Lolla playbook, have become runaway successes over the last four years.
More than 65,000 fans braved a sweltering heat in the 69-acre Grant Park to see a reunited Pixies, Primus, the Arcade Fire and Weezer, among other bands, over two days and help initiate what could be the beginnings of a Second City tradition.
Hence, Farrell's desire to add a third day.
"I knew the formula we had would work, and it did," MTV quoted Farrell as saying. "And now, the goal this year is to build on it."
Other big names among the 130 or so bands on the bill include the Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney, Ryan Adams, the Disco Biscuits, Aqualung, the Frames, Nada Surf, Calexico, the Reverend Horton Heat, Nickel Creek, Feist, Blues Traveller, Thievery Corporation and Poi Dog Pondering.
As in previous years, expect the usual funky activities, from a text message scavenger hunt first introduced by Farrell at Lolla '03 and a fashion show from local Chicago designers to a special play area for the youngsters featuring family-oriented musicians, deejays, drum circles and kiddie yoga.
A three-day Lollapalooza pass costs $130 and is now on sale at Lollapalooza.com--not a bad deal considering the price of a decent seat at a Rolling Stones show.