Halifax preps for Stones concert
HALIFAX (CP) - From her perch overlooking the Halifax Commons, Norma Boggs can see a beehive of roadies slaving over a tangle of rising steel. For days, Boggs has watched from her eighth-floor apartment balcony as preparations for the biggest rock concert in the city's history have gone on below.
On Saturday night, up to 60,000 people are expected to gather on the Commons to see the legendary Rolling Stones and three other acts perform.
"I never thought they would ever play here, let alone practically in my backyard," said Boggs, who will watch the show with family and friends from her balcony across from the park.
"We were out there with binoculars today watching them set up. It's like a small city being built out there."
For the past week, about 100 roadies have unloaded 78 tractor-trailer loads of equipment, including an 8 1/2-storey stage being erected by four heavy-lift cranes.
The Commons, a sprawling recreational greenspace in the heart of Halifax, isn't your typical setting for a large, loud rock show.
Thousands of people live in the Victorian-style homes and high-rise apartments ringing the park, or on surrounding tree-lined streets.
Many have complained about the congestion and noise the concert will produce.
Others worry that 60,000 pairs of feet and thousands of tonnes of equipment will destroy the Commons' verdant sports fields, especially if it rains.
Jill Ceccolini likes the Stones and even travelled to Toronto in the 1990s to see them. But she isn't thrilled to see them again in what amounts to her front yard.
"This is a mixed residential neighbourhood of homeowners, businesses and people who are renting," she said. "Having this kind of event going on across the street really impacts our lives."
Ceccolini and her family live in a house almost directly behind the massive stage. For days, they've listened to the hum of generators and round-the-clock construction work.
But more than that, Ceccolini has a philosophical problem with a public space being used for a money-making venture.
"I love that about the Commons," she said. "It's not for any one group of people and people don't need to pay to use it."
By contrast, newspaper columnist Marilla Stephenson said she's glad the Stones are coming to town.
"If all the groaners, whiners and complainers don't stop trying to make this city as dead as the people in the historic graveyards, there's going to be no future for this city," said Stephenson, who writes for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
"Any time someone tries to do something here, people seem to line up and put their hands out for compensation after complaining. I get pretty fed up with it. It's really starting to hold this city back."
In 1984, about 30,000 people stood in driving rain as Pope John Paul II held at papal mass on the Commons.
But there has never been a rock concert on the site and organizers are hinting more could follow if this one is a hit.
"It's an absolutely beautiful site," Ken Craig of Donald K. Donald, the show's Montreal promoter, told the Halifax Daily News. "The whole industry is seeing how this show goes because it's a new site."
The Nova Scotia and municipal governments are forking over $240,000 to help pay for the concert, which will include performances by rapper Kanye West, shock-rocker Alice Cooper and alt-rockers Sloan.
The money will help cover the cost of extra policing that night and to repair any damage.
Joan Massey, the provincial NDP's tourism critic, believes the money would be better spent elsewhere.
"The government increased tourism funding by just $388,000 in the summer budget and has blown a large chunk of that on cleaning up after the Rolling Stones - some of the richest musicians in the world," she said.
For Boggs, though, it's all about the thrill of seeing a band that typically shuns smaller places like Halifax.
"It's only one day, right? Then everything is back to normal," she said of the inconvenience.
"I've never seen them in person and I never thought I ever would, so this is quite a treat."
Sloan excited to open for Stones
HALIFAX - It's a big deal when guitar pop quartet Sloan returns home to Halifax to play a show, but opening for The Rolling Stones on the Halifax Common has to be the biggest deal yet.
Not only is it exciting, but there's something poetic about the event and the locale for guitarist Jay Ferguson, who began his musical career 20 years ago with his first band Deluxe Boys just, if you'll excuse the pun, a stone's throw away.
"I got an e-mail from Walter Kemp the other day, who was the first drummer for the Deluxe Boys," Ferguson explains over the phone from Toronto. "He couldn't believe we're playing with The Rolling Stones, because kitty-corner to the Commons is Walter's house, where we had our very first practice in the living room, right behind the Holiday Inn on Pepperell.
"It was John Gould, Walter and myself, with Walter's grandfather sitting in the dining room very disgruntled while we plowed through
Route 66. So it's kind of come full circle, from covering the Stones in Walter's living room to opening for them across the street."
Saturday's show won't be Sloan's first encounter with the Stones the band was asked to open for them for two nights in Boston in January -- but playing in front of tens of thousands of fellow Maritimers is still not the sort of experience you take lightly.
"It's surreal for me, for sure, but pretty exciting. My joke is, 'Yeah, the Stones, we already played with them, whatever,' " laughs Ferguson. "But those two shows in Boston were fantastic. We got to meet them, and it was outrageous seeing them face to face, it's a pretty big thing. Obviously to them it's "Yeah, whatever.' But to me, who's been a Stones fan for the better part of 25 years or something like that, it's pretty exciting. I mean, they were lovely, and they were gentlemen, and it was very thoughtful that we got on the Halifax lineup.
"I'm sure it's not like Mick Jagger's pounding the table saying, "We must have Sloan back! They were such lovely lads!' It has more to do with promoters and all that. But I think our band was easy to deal with, and we got along with their crew, and it was more like, "Hey, it's Sloan's hometown, let's have them back.' So it's a very nice feeling being invited back to play with The Rolling Stones."
The other big news for Sloan this week is the release on Tuesday of its first CD of new material in three years, the mammoth 30-song collection Never Hear the End of It.
The album sees the return of drummer Andrew Scott to the songwriting fold and bears a cornucopia of styles ranging from pop to psychedelia, in a broader display of the members' personal tastes than the power-chord packed Action Pact, released in 2003.
After having a couple of years to write new songs, Sloan started making the record in February in its warehouse rehearsal space with live soundman Nick Detoro taking over production duties. Recording continued over the summer, with new songs being added all the time, and then it was time to take care of the artwork and photos, followed by rehearsing for the upcoming shows.
"I'm actually looking forward to touring, because it'll be like a vacation," says Ferguson. " I'm just going to zone out and watch movies and relax when we're not playing. I have to get out of town to relax, basically."
The first taste of Never Hear the End of It was Ferguson's catchy single Who Taught You to Live Like That, which he describes as a cross between T-Rex and Instant Karma. But the record also veers from the pure aggression of Patrick Pentland's Hardcore ("Patrick was wondering if we should do it, and we said, "Yeah!' ") to Scott's trippy Golden Eyes. "It might take longer to get into, but that doesn't bother me," says Ferguson of the record whose title is a sly wink at its 72-minute length. "I think it'll have a longer life because of that.
"I like the idea that on the White Album, The Beatles did things that were really outside of the box, like Honey Pie, which sounded like something from the '20s. So doing something like Hardcore is the other extreme. I was really into the idea of making an album that is all over the place, changing from song to song, with really short songs, and some longer songs, and having it all connected up.
"I think we wanted to do something new, for fun, and it made sense because there were so many songs to choose from. And Chris and I had both fantasized about doing a double album at some point."
So this week Sloan fans get two fantasies at the same time.
'U2byU2': A portrait by the artists
Arguably the greatest rock band on the planet, U2 now offers the definitive version of how it got there.
U2byU2 (HarperCollins, $39.95) has 1,500-plus images and a rich band autobiography culled from 150 hours of interviews with singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and manager Paul McGuinness.
"We felt it was important to get the story on record, but that's not to say we're not going to go on a good many more years," he says. "This is the story thus far."
In this exclusive excerpt, the band has decamped to Berlin to record Achtung Baby. They arrive Oct. 3, 1990, the official day of Germany's reunification, but soon realize their vision and brotherhood is anything but unified.
Edge: We went to Berlin with a lot of ideas but most of them were very skeletal and undeveloped. They were directions and hints that we hoped would become fully-fledged songs when we kicked them around in rehearsal but unfortunately, since a lot of them started out from unusual origins, sometimes drum machines, sometimes just strange sounds, they didn't sound very good when the band tried to play them. There was an awkward phase where things weren't working out and there were two ways to analyze it. Adam and Larry were convinced the song ideas were crap and Bono and I thought the fault lay with the band.
Larry: I thought this might be the end. We had been through tough circumstances before and found our way out, but it was always outside influences that we were fighting against. For the first time ever it felt like the cracks were within. And that was a much more difficult situation to negotiate.
Bono: What we thought were just hairline cracks that could be easily fixed turned out to be more serious, the walls needed underpinning, we had to put down new foundations or the house would fall down. In fact it was falling down all around us. We were running up hotel bills and we had professional people, the U2 crew, staring at our averageness and scratching their heads and wondering if maybe they'd have been better off working for Bruce Springsteen. We came face to face with our limitations as a group on a lot of levels, playing and songwriting. When you're at sea the smartest thing to do is to find some dry land as quick as possible. So I think Larry and Adam were just anxious: "Stop messing around with all this electronica, let's get back to doing what we do. Because all this experimental stuff isn't working very well, is it? And, by the way, Clockwork Orange was (expletive)." There was a bit of that going on. "Did somebody say we were a rock band?" As you were walking down the corridor, you'd overhear that kind of remark.
Larry: In the past, when we were writing music, we would be in a room playing and the discussion was always along the lines of: "I don't like that particular part, try something else." There seemed to be consensus. We were starting on a blank page to a large degree, perhaps with just a guitar or melody or a riff or a vocal idea. So we started at the same place and ended at the same place. This time around, it wasn't a blank page. The parameters were already set, by drum machines, loops and synth pads. And it's kind of hard to embrace new rules when you don't understand them.
Adam: We weren't getting anywhere until One fell into our laps and suddenly we hit a groove.
Bono: Maybe "great" is what happens when "very good" gets tired. We kind of out-stared the average, it blinked first and One arrived.
Edge: I was trying to take one of our half finished ideas and give it some inspiration. I went off into another room and developed a couple of different chord progressions, neither of which actually worked where they were supposed to. (Producer) Danny Lanois said, "What happens if you play both of them, one into the next?" I was playing acoustic guitar and Bono got on the microphone and started improvising melodies and within a few minutes we had the bones of the song, melodically, structurally and even lyrically.
Bono: The words just fell out of the sky, a gift. We had a request from the Dalai Lama to participate in a festival called Oneness. I love and respect the Dalai Lama but there was something a little bit "let's hold hands" hippie to me about this particular event. I am in awe of the Tibetan position on non-violence but this event didn't strike a chord. I sent him back a note saying, "One — but not the same."
Edge: At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power. We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment, when everyone finally went, "Oh, great, this album has started." It's the reason you're in a band — when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting. One is an incredibly moving piece. It hits straight into the heart.
Larry: It was similar to the way we had recorded in the past. In some ways it was a sign that the blank page approach was still valid. Everything was not broken.
New cast members add spice to "Law & Order"
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Yes, "Law & Order" is back for another season (its 17th), which is a bit like saying the sun is back for another rise. Four more seasons and it ties "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running drama in primetime history, and it would be a mistake to bet against precisely that ultimately happening. Creator Dick Wolf, in fact, has said he is determined to achieve nothing less.
It's easy to see why this procedural is virtually trend-proof and cancel-resistant. You get crime, punishment, action, solid character interplay and a nice, generally tidy resolution within the space of 48 minutes. Life itself should be so uncannily reliable. And we have one more detail that is nothing if not splendidly redundant: There's new regular cast incorporated seamlessly into the "L&O" neighborhood. Out are Dennis Farina and Annie Parisse, in are Milena Govich and Alana De La Garza in moves that carry a nice little dollop of diversity.
Govich (a regular on Wolf's short-lived "Conviction") plays Detective Nina Cassady. Meanwhile, De La Garza (who logged a season on "CSI: Miami") portrays assistant DA Connie Rubirosa, the show's first Latina prosecutor. It's notable that a show on the air this long can still achieve "firsts" of anything.
The season opener, titled "Fame," carries forward the comfy and compelling "L&O" formula, with a cop killing story line that dances around the edges of headline issues: paparazzi, immature young starlets a la Lindsay Lohan, a self-involved white rapper and knotty details of journalistic shield laws. Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson and Sam Waterston are back to provide the guiding backbone of a clockwork concept that just keeps rolling along, a singular oasis of creative stability in a notoriously fickle television world. Long live the king.
Oh boy! "Jackass" set to lead U.S. box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Between new releases "Jackass Number Two," the sure winner at the weekend box office, and " Jet Li's Fearless," male youngsters are again the primary target of Hollywood studios.
The question is, can the coveted demographic possibly support both films, as well as reigning champ "Gridiron Gang," which opened to $14.4 million last weekend?
Add on the fact that the World War One aerial drama "Flyboys" is targeting older males and the political saga "All the King's Men" is out to reach adults, and one must wonder what teenage girls will be doing this weekend.
Paramount Pictures' "Jackass" stars Johnny Knoxville and his gang of knuckleheads, who will stun audiences again with their stupid human tricks. Industry insiders expect the R-rated film to open in the neighborhood of the $22.7 million garnered by 2002's "Jackass: The Movie." But with the box office down the past two weekends, underperforming is a possibility. Directed by Jeff Tremaine, who shot the original, "Jackass" reunites Knoxville with cohorts Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Steve-O, among others.
"Fearless," a martial arts film from Rogue Pictures, the genre unit of Focus Features, is expected to open in the $9 million-$11 million range. Based on the true-life tale of Huo Yuanjia (Li), the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, the PG-13 film is directed by Ronny Yu. Jet Li most recently starred in last year's "Unleashed," which opened to $10.9 million.
Sony Pictures' "King's Men," from director Steven Zaillian, originally was set to bow last year at this time but was delayed in postproduction. The critics' early response has not been kind, and handicappers are putting the opening gross in the $8 million-$10 million range.
A remake of the 1949 film based on Robert Penn Warren's novel about a fictional Louisiana governor modeled on Huey Long, "King's Men" stars Sean Penn as populist governor Willie Stark. With a cast that includes Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and James Gandolfini, the film has been touted for awards consideration, though its reception at this month's Toronto International Film Festival could present problems.
MGM's "Flyboys" centers on the Lafayette Escadrille -- Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered the war. The PG-13 release stars James Franco and Jean Reno. Producer Dean Devlin was hoping for a bow in the $10 million range, but tracking, strongest with older males, is showing that about $6 million is more likely.
In limited release, the Weinstein Co. will open the R-rated "Feast" in 146 theaters. A Project Greenlight production, the film will play only Friday and Saturday night. Directed by John Gulager, the story revolves around a group of drinkers in a remote bar who are trapped and preyed upon by a band of creatures.
Warner Independent Pictures will open Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" in 14 theaters. The R-rated film stars Gael Garcia Bernal as a man whose dreams invade his waking life. Charlotte Gainsbourg co-stars in the film, which received primarily positive reviews at its festival screenings.
Sony Pictures Classics will open the documentary "American Hardcore" in New York. From director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush, the film chronicles the U.S. punk movement from 1980-86.
Sven Nykvist, cinematographer for Bergman, dead at 83
Cinematographer Sven Nykvist, who helped create the distinctive look of films by director Ingmar Bergman, has died.
Nykvist, 83, died Wednesday at a Stockholm nursing home where he was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, according to his son, Carl-Gusaf Nykvist.
The Swedish cinematographer won Academy Awards for his work on the 1973 Bergman film Cries and Whispers and 1982's Fanny and Alexander.
His partnership with Bergman lasted 30 years, beginning in 1954 with Sawdust and Tinsel.
Nykvist was a master of lighting and expressing emotion through the camera throughout his career.
"He was called 'the master of light' because of the moods and atmospheres he could create with light. It was a near impossibility to create the moods he created," said Carl-Gustaf Nykvist, who directed a documentary on his father called Light Keeps Me Company.
Born to a missionary couple, Nykvist was raised in a religious household where his access to the movies was restricted.
He became an assistant cameraman in 1941 at the age of 19 and worked on a series of small films that didn't make it out of Sweden before his collaboration with Bergman.
He first gained acclaim for his work on Bergman's frightening and atmospheric Virgin Spring.
Nykvist is known for his naturalistic approach to light, allowing characters to walk in and out of shadow.
His work strongly influenced Hollywood in its move toward more a realistic look in film.
Nykvist also worked with Canadian director Norman Jewison on Agnes of God and with Bergman admirer Woody Allen on Crimes and Misdemeanors and Celebrity.
Among Nykvist's last movies were Sleepless in Seattle, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, directed by Swede Lasse Hallstrom, and 1999's Curtain Call.
"Sven Nykvist was somewhat of a father figure for me," Hallstrom said in an interview with Swedish news agency TT.
"He taught me very much during the movies we made together. He was the one who got Americans and the world to realize that lighting could be simple and realistic."
Nykvist is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, Helena Berlin, and grandchildren, Sonia Sondell and Marilde Nykvist. His wife, Ulrika, died in 1982.
"SNL" Drops Sanz, Parnell, Mitchell
Come next week, Studio 8H is going to be a little emptier than usual.
After nearly a month of speculation regarding the fates of several Saturday Night Live castmembers, roundabout confirmation finally arrives from NBC: Regulars Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Finesse Mitchell won't be returning to the late night staple.
The non-announcement was made by simply omitting the players' names from a press release touting the start of the show's 32nd season, though a rep for the network denied there was any bad blood between the M.I.A. cast and Svengali producer Lorne Michaels--or that their departure was the result
of a firing.
"I believe there were mutual choices made," NBC rep Marc Liepis told E! Online. "When you're on the show for eight years, I don't think you look at it as a firing."
Parnell, Sanz and Mitchell, who have been part of the show for eight years, eight years and three years, respectively, have yet to comment on their non-return, though if past remarks are any indication, the decision to part hardly seems mutual.
"I haven't been approached with anything that's led me to believe I won't be back," Sanz told the Chicago Sun-Times less than a month ago. "I definitely enjoy the job and would like to stick with it."
As for Mitchell, his alleged axing is the most surprising, as speculation has pegged fellow castmember Kenan Thompson, who returns this fall, as the third man out. Darrell Hammond, whose 11 seasons on the show mark a series best, is also in the clear, returning to the show despite murmurs that he, too, may have performed his last impression.
The triple departure creates something of a mass exodus from the show of longtime cast, though the others appear to be slightly more voluntary--at least on the surface.
Over the summer, Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch confirmed they were leaving the show to star in the NBC comedy 30 Rock, set behind the scenes at a SNL-like variety show produced by Michaels and costarring fellow alum Tracy Morgan.
Of course, some departees are bouncing back quicker than others.
According to NBC's Website, Parnell, whose "Lazy Sunday" rap with Andy Samberg was one of last season's highlights, is currently shooting the sitcom Thick & Thin for the Peacock net. As for Mitchell and Sanz, neither appears to have a new project in the works.
While Rockefeller Center will be without five of its most familiar faces this fall, there are no current plans to fill the gap.
According to a statement from NBC, no new regular players have been added to the late night mix, though several of the remaining funnymen and women will see various changes to their onscreen roles.
Fey's departure paves the way for a new face to join Amy Poehler at the "Weekend Update" desk, and while no successors have been formally named, early reports peg Jason Sudeikis and Seth Meyers as the top candidates.
Meyers also returns as head writer for the show, a title he previously shared with Fey.
Saturday Night Live kicks off its new season Sept. 30, with host Dane Cook and musical guest The Killers.
"Smart" marketing: Time-Life sells entire series
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO Video is bucking TV-DVD tradition when it releases "Get Smart" on DVD this year.
Instead of rolling out season sets to retailers, HBO is issuing the entire series, all at once, and giving mail-order giant Time-Life a one-year exclusive.
"'Get Smart' is among the most-requested classic TV series, yet because of the retail space squeeze we needed a way to make the series stand out," HBO Video president Henry McGee said.
"Get Smart: The Complete Collection" goes on sale November 15 exclusively through the Time-Life Web site. The collection includes all 138 episodes from the spy spoof series' 1965-70 network run, spread out over 25 discs. It is priced at $199.96. The series will be released to retail stores in fall 2007.
Time-Life and HBO spent nearly a year restoring and digitally remastering each original episode, not the shorter cuts that have lived on in syndication.
"This incredible restoration means that finally 'Get Smart' can be seen the way it was meant to be seen," said Leonard Stern, executive producer of the series.
DVD producer Paul Brownstein was hired to oversee production of the DVD package, and he came up with more than 10 hours of bonus materials, including rare bloopers, network promotional spots, commercials and the hourlong 75th birthday roast of star Don Adams at the Playboy Mansion in 1998. Adams died last year.
Gord Lacey, who runs the popular http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com Web site, said "Get Smart" is No. 3 on the site's list of most-requested TV shows not yet out, behind "The Wonder Years" and the live-action "Batman."
"Fans have been waiting to get their hands on 'Get Smart' for years, and now they're being rewarded with the complete series loaded with special features," Lacey said. "I can't imagine anyone complaining about the release Time-Life has put together -- it sounds amazing."
Other bonus materials on the "Get Smart" collection include commentaries by Stern, series co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, actors Barbara Feldon, Bernie Kopell and Bill Dana, and guest stars Don Rickles and James Caan. Also included will be clips from the 2003 Museum of Television & Radio's "Get Smart Reunion" seminar, the last time the series' key alumni were together on the same stage.