Barrett unsure of his future
REGINA (CP) - Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Danny Barrett waxed philosophically when asked Monday about his future.
"I feel good about my future," Barrett told reporters, a wide, toothy smile shooting across his face. "I'm alive, I'm breathing, I've got a beautiful family. Future looks good." Asked whether his future includes the CFL team he has led for the last seven years and he's a little less sunny.
"I would say 50-50," Barrett said. "I'm an open-minded individual, always have been.
"I know a lot of things have been said out there about different things, but right now it is 50-50 and I look forward to sitting down sometime in the next couple of days and seeing what is going to happen."
Barrett's future was the question on everyone's mind as the Roughriders gathered to clean out their lockers Monday. The team was dispatched from the playoffs in humiliating fashion by the B.C. Lions 48-18 in Sunday's Western final.
It was a less-than-storybook ending to a tumultuous season for a team that has lost three times in the Grey Cup precursor since 2003.
While the players lined up to support their coach, there was a subtle sense of resignation in the locker-room that things could be different next year.
"I don't know if there should be changes, but I anticipate changes," said linebacker Reggie Hunt, a five-year veteran with the club. "Who knows what's going to happen? We got a new general manager in the middle of the season so anything's possible."
Speculation about how long Barrett would remain with the Roughriders has been rampant since the middle of the season when the team fired his friend and mentor Roy Shivers as general manager.
Shivers and Barrett joined the Roughriders following a disastrous 3-15 season in 1999, forming the first African-American management team in pro football history.
While the two have been credited with restoring respectability to the community-owned franchise they have also been criticized for never being able to rise above the level of mediocre.
Barrett's regular season record as a head coach is 57-68-1 including 9-9 finishes in each of the last three seasons. The team has never finished higher than third, meaning Barrett never achieved the oft-stated goal of hosting a home playoff game.
The Roughriders' new general manager Eric Tillman, who has said his priorities are quarterbacks, Canadians and the kicking game, has been diplomatic about the Barrett situation saying the two enjoy a good relationship.
After Sunday's loss, Tillman said he would sit down with his coach over the next three days and decide what direction the team will head.
Barrett is quick to point out that it's a two-way street.
His contract expired at the end of the season and he will have to decide if he even wants to come back.
"I am a free agent," he said. "I'm open for anything and everything. I'm not going to pigeon hole myself. Obviously you want to stay at the highest level that you can. I'm not going to even rule out being a general manager."
The players - Barrett's biggest allies over the last few months - want him back.
"He's a father figure," said defensive back Omarr Morgan, a free agent who has spent seven years with the club.
"Anytime any of the players get into something in the community they come back and tell Danny. He's like a father figure and to deal with what he has been dealing with the last seven years, most coaches can't do that. I'd love to see the next coach they bring in and how he handles it, because it's hard."
Whatever happens in the off-season, wide receiver Matt Dominguez said he hopes the changes are not catastrophic.
"I'd like to see Danny back. I think some things need to be tweaked, but I don't think our team needs to be overhauled," Dominguez said.
"You don't need to renovate the house. You just need to fix the basement and that is the kind of team that we've got."
New Releases, Nov. 14: Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Game, Damien Rice
Neil Young (music) and Crazy Horse "Live at the Fillmore East"
Many would say that Stephen Stills was the finest partner to ever collaborate on guitar with Young. Crazy Horse fans, however, would probably disagree and offer up instead the late Danny Whitten.
This 1970 live set, recorded at one of the most storied venues in rock history, features Young (vocals/guitar), Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), Jack Nitzsche (electric piano) and Whitten (guitar). It includes versions of such classics as "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down By the River."
* * *
The Game "Doctor's Advocate"
The heavily tattooed Compton rapper returns with the follow-up to 2005's "The Documentary," a work that produced such big tracks as "Higher" and "Fresh '83." The Game recently made headlines when he reportedly admitted to being the one responsible for leaking the clean version of "Doctor's Advocate."
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Damien Rice "9"
This Irish singer/songwriter delivers his second album, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2002's highly acclaimed "O." The set features a number of guest stars, including jazz great Herbie Hancock and vocalist/pianist Tori Amos. Rice is supporting "9" with a short theater tour that currently stretches through a Nov. 20 date in Minneapolis.
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Yusuf "An Other Cup"
You might not know the name. But you'll know the voice. Yusef is the man formerly known as Cat Stevens. Equally significant, "An Other Cup" is his first record of modern pop tunes since 1978's "Back to Earth."
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Tenacious D "The Pick of Destiny"
Rockers/comedians Jack Black and Kyle Gass will kick off a very busy fall season with the release of "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny." The album is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which hits theaters on Nov. 17. Tenacious D will also hit the road that same day on a tour that lasts through early December.
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Emmylou Harris and Carl Jackson "I've Always Needed You"
Having recently wowed critics and fans alike with guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler on "All the Roadrunning," Emmylou Harris now delivers another duet offering, this time with Carl Jackson. "I've Always Needed You," which features early recordings from the pair, and includes appearances by the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Melba Montgomery. In related news, Harris and Knopfler are also releasing the concert recording "Real Live Roadrunning" on the same day.
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Other new releases:
(+44), "When Your Heart Stops Beating" (Interscope)
Akon, "Konvicted" (Universal)
... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, "So Divided" (Interscope)
Army of Anyone, "Army of Anyone" (Firm)
Depeche Mode, "Best of Depeche Mode, Vol. 1" (Reprise)
Nanci Griffith, "Ruby's Torch" (Rounder)
Luis Miguel, "Navidades" (Warner Bros.)
Joanna Newsom, "Ys" (Drag City)
Nickel Creek, "Reasons Why: The Very Best" (Sugarhill)
Joan Osborne, "Pretty Little Stranger" (Vanguard)
Laura Pausini, "Io Canto" (Warner Bros.)
Bianca Ryan, "Bianca Ryan" (Sony)
Staind, "Greatest Hits" (Atlantic)
Sublime, "Everything Under the Sun" (Box set) (Geffen)
Soundtracks and scores:
"Casino Royale" (Sony)
Country music fans vote for Faith Hill
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music fans apparently got Faith Hill's joke.
Nearly 25,800, or 65%, of respondents to a new online poll by Country Weekly magazine said Hill was just joking when cameras showed her screaming "WHAT?" in apparent anger when she lost the female vocalist of the year award to newcomer Carrie Underwood at the Country Music Association Awards ceremony last week.
Her reaction was caught on camera and caused an uproar, with Hill releasing a statement afterward saying it was all a joke. She also called Underwood to clear up any misunderstanding.
"The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me," Hill said in her statement. "For this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving female vocalist of the year."
The poll, which was conducted on the magazine's website from Wednesday through Sunday, drew 39,553 total responses to the question "What do you think of Faith Hill's reaction to Carrie Underwood's CMA victory?"
Nearly 13,000, or about 33%, said Hill was disrespectful, while a scant 842 (2 percent) said the incident was a big deal about nothing.
Country Weekly Editor in Chief Bill Gubbins said fans were very interested in the issue and were still trying to respond after the poll closed.
"Country music fans are very passionate about their stars and always like to participate in things going on in Nashville," he said.
The Couch Potato Report - November 13th, 2006
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on hockey and a squad of inept police.
On Sunday evenings this past September and October many Canadians gathered around their television sets to watch HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY.
The ten-part HOCKEY series traced the history of the game in Canada with re-enactments, rarely seen footage, and the voices and words of some of the pioneers of the game.
It was a superb series that is now available on DVD in a superb six-disc box set.
HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY tells the story of the game's inventors, innovators and the people who built the teams, and the rinks.
I enjoyed watching the series when it first began, and now that I have seen it a second time on DVD, I still enjoyed it, but I have to admit that I do have a few reservations.
Those reservations come from the fact that I wanted more!
Yes, I completely enjoyed what I got, but I wanted a fully comprehensive documentary about hockey, in the same manner as Ken Burn's BASEBALL.
That series looks at the game of baseball as a whole, from inception onward, as does the HOCKEY series, but even though BASEBALL was an American series, it still featured the Canadian team who won the championship.
(Way to go Blue Jays!!!!!)
Meanwhile HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY is only a comprehensive look at Canadian hockey, and while that is the hockey we know and the hockey we love, there are also some American based teams who have been quite successful over the years that are part of hockey history as well, and they are ignored in the series.
For instance, the New York Islanders, a team that won four Stanley Cups in a row from 1980 - 1984, yet they are not mentioned at all in the series.
There also should have been more done on and with Bobby Orr, Steve Yzerman, Guy Laflleur, Peter Statsny, just to name a few players, and the winningest coach in hockey history - Scotty Bowman, who isn't featured at all in the series. Instead he only shows up in an interview on the Bonus disc in the set.
But I happily digress, because while I do have a few reservations about the series, I still think that HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY is superb and it accomplishes what the producers set out to do - to make a series that is a comprehensive look at hockey in Canada, and the parallels between the birth of our nation and the game.
The game that is played by men, and women.
No, HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY isn't perfect, but it is a well written, well produced and superbly entertaining series.
I am pleased to own it and I will keep it on my shelf alongside my box set for Ken Burn's BASEBALL.
HOCKEY: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY did leave me wanting more, but I am still quite pleased that it is now available on DVD.
I am also quite pleased that POLICE SQUAD is also now available on DVD!!
After the success of the movie AIRPLANE! Leslie William Nielsen, a member of the Order Of Canada who was born on February 11th, 1926 in Regina, was cast by the same filmmakers as Sgt. Frank Drebin, a police officer who always gets his man, but doesn't always get why.
POLICE SQUAD is possibly the funniest, short-lived TV show in history. It only lasted 6 episodes, but everyone of them was full of wit, sight gags, and incredible writing.
POLICE SQUAD was a TV show that was a parody of all of the ultra serious police shows that came before it.
Only a few people actually watched it, including me. I loved it and when they made THE NAKED GUN films after the cancellation of the series, I was more than pleased.
And now that POLICE SQUAD is finally available on DVD, I am over the moon!!
Ah yes, I am quite pleased as the hilarious POLICE SQUAD is now available on DVD, and is HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY, a great box set, even if it did leave me wanting more.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
SCTV - THE EARLY YEARS looks back at the origins of the classic series, LEONARD COHEN - I'M YOUR MAN is a documentary on the legendary Canadian, with performances by those musicians he has influenced; SOPHIE SCHOLL is the film about one courageous young woman who stood up to the Nazis in 1943 Germany; and WORDPLAY takes an in-depth look at crossword puzzles and the people who do them.
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 next time on The Couch!
Prince debuts Vegas show
Prince unveiled a pared-down weekly show Friday in something of an unlikely place.
The pop star, known for his grandiose arena shows, put on a low-production but high-energy performance Friday in the intimate 3121 club at the Rio hotel and casino just off the Las Vegas Strip.
Under a deal made public this month, Prince will play shows for the next several Friday and Saturday nights at the club. The announcement surprised some fans who still consider Prince a musical innovator and think of Las Vegas as a place for stars in the twilight of their careers.
"I just didn't think he was at the has-been stage, yet," Pat Ellen, a 36-year-old social worker from Chicago, said before Friday's show.
But bandmates say Prince, who is more than 20 years removed from his megahit album and movie Purple Rain, remains on the cutting edge.
"I think he wants to bring a new element to Vegas; that's the whole point, to bring a new, fresh vibe," said Maya McClean, a Prince spokeswoman and half of The Twinz, the backup group performing with the star.
The Prince shows are expected to run "a couple of months" before the group goes on tour, McLean said.
Private-party feel
The 3121 club — renamed from Club Rio — and an album released in March are named after the street address of the Los Angeles home where Prince once held intimate, private performances. The new show is intended to recapture that private-party feel in the club, which seats about 700.
Prince will also book performers for Wednesday night at the club, and holds a stake in the new 3121 Jazz Cuisine restaurant at the Rio.
Friday's performance started at midnight and ran nearly two hours, later and longer than most Vegas shows. Tickets cost $125 US.
The show featured an even mix of classics and new material, guitar solos, soulful ballads and funk. Prince's racier hits, such as Cream and Kiss, offered a contrast to the tamer songs released since the star became a Jehovah's Witness.
"You don't have to be dirty to be sexy," Prince advised the Sin City audience before launching into a sweet love song. "Let me show you."
Eminem Won't Need To "Travel" For New Movie
Eminem is in talks to star in a modern feature film re-telling of the famous '50s TV western, Have Gun Will Travel.
Moviehole.net says the 8 Mile actor plans on giving his movie career another shot and is rumored to be gunning for the role of Paladin, originally played by Richard Boone.
The television series ran for six seasons, from 1957 to 1963 and told the tale of a West Point graduate and gentleman who refused to use his unbeatable gun skills unless absolutely necessary.
Eminem also plans to produce and record the music for the upcoming movie which plans to shoot in his hometown of Detroit.
Gervais-Penned 'Office' Ready to Go
LOS ANGELES -- "The Office" will go back to its British roots, at least behind the camera, with an episode set for the end of November.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created the BBC series on which the NBC Emmy winner is based, wrote the episode scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 30. It's their first original script for the series, although the pilot was based on the first episode of the British version.
The episode, titled "The Convict," has Michael (Steve Carell) trying to be supportive when he finds out one of his new employees -- presumably someone from the Stamford branch -- has a prison record. Given the way Michael's attempts at empathy usually work out, we're guessing the results are less than ideal.
The newly returned Jim (John Krasinski) also gives Andy (Ed Helms) some dubious coaching when Andy decides to make a move on Pam (Jenna Fischer).
NBC announced early this year that Gervais and Merchant, who are also behind the BBC/HBO series "Extras," would be writing an episode of "The Office." Speaking to reporters in late February, Gervais said he and his partner were nearly finished with the script.
"It was remarkably fast," he said then. "I suppose that's because we'd been away from those characters for two or three years. It's one of our favorite shows, the American 'Office.'"
The Gervais and Merchant episode of "The Office" will be the show's 38th -- which is nearly three times as many as the duo produced for the Beeb. The British "Office" ran for two six-episode seasons and wrapped things up with a two-part Christmas special in December 2003.
'Whiter Shade of Pale' now a court case
LONDON - Two former '60s rock stars appeared before a music-loving judge on Monday for a showdown over authorship of one of the decade's most iconic songs.
The organ strains of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" sounded through Court 56 of Britain's High Court as the band's former organ player, Matthew Fisher, sued an ex-bandmate for a share of copyright in the multimillion-selling song.
Fisher's lawyer, Iain Purvis, said the song "defined what is sometimes called the Summer of Love in 1967" and had achieved cult status.
He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavor.
Purvis said the solo "is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song."
"Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune," he said.
Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song's copyright and royalties.
Brooker, who is credited as the song's author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.
Brooker has said the melody was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on a G-string" and "Sleepers Awake."
Defense lawyers said the fact Fisher had waited almost four decades to bring his claim was "bizarre and obviously prejudicial."
"Mr. Fisher's claim should fail on that ground alone," they said in court papers.
The song, renowned for its mystifying lyrics — beginning "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor" — topped the British singles chart for five weeks and was a top 10 hit in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Purvis said a Web site compiled by a fan lists 771 recorded cover versions, "most of them, sad to say, disastrous."
Fisher, now a computer programmer, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum. The two sat facing the judge and did not look at one another on the first day of the five-day hearing.
A Yamaha electric keyboard sat near the witness box, where Fisher is due to appear later in the case.
The case is being heard by judge William Blackburne, who studied both music and law at Cambridge University.
The judge requested access to the keyboard and sheet music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" so he could run through the song after court hours.
Judges are not always familiar with popular music, and Purvis noted that "one always risks in these cases a 'what are The Beatles' moment" — a reference to a famous but possibly apocryphal story of a judge who purportedly asked that question during a case in the 1960s.
"But I'll hazard that your lordship is familiar," with "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Purvis said.
"I am of an age, yes," said the judge, 62.