New Releases, Nov. 28: Incubus, Clipse, Mark Kozelek
Incubus "Light Grenades"
The alt-metal act returns with its follow-up to 2004's "A Crow Left of the Murder."
"Light Grenades," the band's sixth studio effort, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, the studio wiz known for his work with the likes of Pearl Jam and Korn. The first single from the album is "Anna Molly."
Incubus will support "Light Grenades" with a 25-city tour that is set to kick off Jan. 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The trek currently stretches through a Feb. 11 date at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.
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Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury"
After numerous delays, the Virginia-based hip-hop duo known as the Clipse is finally set to drop "Hell Hath No Fury."
The record--which follows 2002's "Lord Willin'"--features a number of guest stars. Notably, Pharrell Williams shows up on "Mr. Me Too" and Slim Thug makes an appearance on "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)."
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Mark Kozelek "Little Drummer Boy Live"
Mark Kozelek, a singer/songwriter best known for his work with the Red House Painters, furthers his solo career with the release of this two-disc, in-concert set.
"Little Drummer Boy Live" features 20 tunes taken from recent shows in both North America and Europe. The set includes covers of songs originally performed by the likes of The Cars, AC/DC and Modest Mouse.
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Jamiroquai "High Times: Singles 1992-2006"
This 19-track collection features all of the best-known songs from funky dance act Jamiroquai. The set includes such fan favorites as "When You Gonna Learn," "Canned Heat," "Too Young to Die," "Cosmic Girl" and "Blow Your Mind." The album also offers two new tracks: "Runaway" and "Radio."
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Ying Yang Twins "Chemically Imbalanced"
The duo that brought us "Wait (The Whisper Song)" and "Bedroom Boom" is back with "Chemically Imbalanced." The record includes the single "Dangerous," which features Wyclef Jean.
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Other new releases:
April Wine, "Roughly Speaking" (April Wine)
Crime in Choir, "Trumpery Metier" (Gold Standard Labora)
Faithless, "To All New Arrivals" (Sony)
Figgs, "Follow Jean Through the Sea" (Gern Blandsten)
Aled Jones, "You Raise Me Up: The Best of Aled Jones" (Universal)
The King's Singers, "Landscape & Time" (Signum)
Little Diesel, "No Lie" (Telstar)
Pilot Speed, "Into the West" (Wind-Up)
Reset, "No Limits No Worries" (Union Local 2112)
Max Richter, "Songs From Before" (Fat Cat)
Rick Springfield, "Catch Me If You Can" (Renaissance)
Kate Taylor, "It's in There" (Sony)
Too $hort, "Mack of the Century: Too $horts Greatest Hits" (Jive)
Various Artists, "Cream Anthems 2007" (Cream)
Young Buck, "Buck Tha World" (Interscope)
No Seinfeld for You?
Jerry, Elaine and George could end up paying for Michael Richards' rant.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson called for a boycott Monday of the latest Seinfeld DVD, a way of exacting economic punishment for Richards' racist meltdown.
In a bit of bad timing for Jerry Seinfeld, et al., the seventh season of Seinfeld was released as a four-disc set last week, just as Richards' caught-on-video, Nov. 17 Los Angeles comedy club raving was made public.
The new Seinfeld package, featuring much quoted episodes such as "The Soup Nazi" ("No soup for you!"), was Amazon.com's 11th-biggest-selling DVD on Monday and was expected to be a big stocking-stuffer for Christmas.
Richards, 57, won three Emmys for playing the wired Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, which ran from 1990-98 on NBC.
In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.
"My best friends were African-Americans," Richards said Sunday on Jackson's Premiere Radio Network show.
The Jackson gig was the latest in Richards' reaching-out effort to African-American men who have run for president. Before the radio appearance, the actor was said to have placed contrite phone calls to Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton. There was no word if Alan Keyes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, was sought out.
On his show, Jackson said he hoped the Richards "crisis" would create an opportunity.
On Monday, the civil-rights leader joined others in calling on everyone—blacks, whites, Seinfeld players, presumably included—to refrain from using the N-word, on stage and off.
"Its roots are rooted in hatred and pain and degradation," Jackson told a Los Angeles press conference. "And whether it's hatred toward African-Americans or whether it's self-hatred, a concession toward it is still wrong."
At the Laugh Factory, the Sunset Boulevard scene of Richards' off-the-rails routine, owner Jamie Masada announced Monday that the N-word would be banned at the club.
Masada called on Richards to donate millions to charities serving black neighborhoods and reiterated that the actor would remain barred from the Laugh Factory until he personally apologized to the patrons who bore the brunt of his racial epithets.
Last week, Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, the two men whose observations of Richards' act sent the performer into a racist rage, teamed up with camera-ready attorney Gloria Allred to seek out their own formal apology—and perhaps some judge-ordered financial compensation.
"It's not enough to say 'I'm sorry' on Letterman," Allred said.
Richards appeared on Letterman's Late Show on Nov. 20 to offer his first public apology. The mea culpa, which drew laughs from a confused studio audience, was criticized as not being enough.
In the Los Angeles Daily News, Najee Ali of Los Angeles' Project Islamic H.O.P.E. slammed the Letterman apology, which came on the same night as an appearance by scheduled guest Jerry Seinfeld, as "damage control in light of the DVD of the seventh season of Seinfeld."
Even Kenny Kramer, Seinfeld cocreator Larry David's former neighbor and inspiration for Cosmo Kramer, moved to distance himself from the actor who made his surname famous.
"In no way do I condone or endorse what Michael Richards said or did," Kramer said on his official Website. "It is really annoying, and sad, that people are saying that Kramer is a racist."
"Michael Richards ceased being Kramer eight years ago."
Richards has appeared infrequently on camera since Seinfeld ended. Per his new PR guru, the actor is now appearing regularly in a psychiatrist's office for counseling.
"I have been trying to get to the source of where that anger comes from," Richards said on Jackson's radio show.
According to Richards, he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and never attempted to find the fun in lynching until the infamous Laugh Factory routine.
"That's not an image I carry around every day, [that] every time I look at an African-American I think he should be upside down and hung from a tree," Richards told Jackson. "I have too much love for the African-American."
Richards also denied previously dropping the N-bomb.
"I haven't spoken like this to an African-American before," Richards said. "It's a first time for me to talk to an African-American like this."
In an entry on the Huffington Post, blogger Trey Ellis, who is black, advised Richards to stop apologizing, especially to the likes of Jackson and Sharpton.
"Calling up Jesse and Al as if they were the co-Popes of black folks is almost as dumb as your lame, racist onstage repartee," wrote Ellis.
According to Ellis, Richards should just wait for another celebrity to star in an embarrassing videotape.
"There is nothing you can do to win back black fans," Ellis wrote. "That ship has sailed."
Dyn-O-Mite! TV Land lists catchphrases
NEW YORK - Sometimes it takes only a word, or just a few, to become immortalized in television history. The TV Land cable network has compiled a list of the 100 greatest catchphrases in TV, from the serious — Walter Cronkite's nightly signoff "And that's the way it is" — to the silly: "We are two wild and crazy guys!"
The network will air a countdown special, "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catch Phrases," over five days starting Dec. 11.
"We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers' DNA that it makes sense that so much of America's pop culture jargon has come from TV," said Larry Jones, TV Land president.
The greatest number of moments, 26, come from the 1970s. TV Land identified nine moments from this decade. Ten are from commercials, and 28 from comedies, including six from "Saturday Night Live."
In alphabetical order, TV Land's list:
_"Aaay" (Fonzie, "Happy Days")
_"And that's the way it is" (Walter Cronkite, "CBS Evening News")
_"Ask not what your country can do for you ..." (John F. Kennedy)
_"Baby, you're the greatest" (Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, "The Honeymooners")
_"Bam!" (Emeril Lagasse, "Emeril Live")
_"Book 'em, Danno" (Steve McGarrett, "Hawaii Five-O")
_"Come on down!" (Johnny Olson, "The Price is Right")
_"Danger, Will Robinson" (Robot, "Lost in Space")
_"De plane! De plane!" (Tattoo, "Fantasy Island")
_"Denny Crane" (Denny Crane, "Boston Legal")
_"Do you believe in miracles?" (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics)
_"D'oh!" (Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons")
_"Don't make me angry ..." (David Banner, "The Incredible Hulk")
_"Dyn-o-mite" (J.J., "Good Times")
_"Elizabeth, I'm coming!" (Fred Sanford, "Sanford and Son")
_"Gee, Mrs. Cleaver ..." (Eddie Haskell, "Leave it to Beaver")
_"God'll get you for that" (Maude, "Maude")
_"Good grief" (Charlie Brown, "Peanuts" specials)
_"Good night, and good luck" (Edward R. Murrow, "See It Now")
_"Good night, John Boy" ("The Waltons")
_"Have you no sense of decency?" (Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy)
_"Heh heh" (Beavis and Butt-head, "Beavis and Butthead")
_"Here it is, your moment of Zen" ( Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show")
_"Here's Johnny!" ( Ed McMahon, "The Tonight Show")
_"Hey now!" (Hank Kingsley, "The Larry Sanders Show")
_"Hey hey hey!" (Dwayne Nelson, "What's Happening!!")
_"Hey hey hey!" (Fat Albert, "Fat Albert")
_"Holy (whatever), Batman!" (Robin, "Batman")
_"Holy crap!" (Frank Barone, "Everybody Loves Raymond")
_"Homey don't play that!" (Homey the Clown, "In Living Color")
_"How sweet it is!" (Jackie Gleason, "The Jackie Gleason Show")
_"How you doin'?" (Joey Tribbiani, "Friends")
_"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" (Alka Seltzer ad)
_"I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes")
_"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hannibal, "The A-Team")
_"I want my MTV!" (MTV ad)
_"I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl ..." (Larry, "Newhart")
_"I'm not a crook ..." ( Richard Nixon)
_"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" (Vicks Formula 44 ad)
_"I'm Rick James, bitch!" (Dave Chappelle as Rick James, "Chappelle's Show")
_"Is that your final answer?" ( Regis Philbin, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire")
_"It keeps going and going and going ..." (Energizer Batteries ad)
_"It takes a licking ..." (Timex ad)
_"Jane, you ignorant slut" ( Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Just one more thing ..." (Columbo, "Columbo")
_"Let's be careful out there" (Sgt. Esterhaus, "Hill Street Blues")
_"Let's get ready to rumble!" (Michael Buffer, various sports events)
_"Live long and prosper" (Spock, "Star Trek")
_"Makin' whoopie" (Bob Eubanks, "The Newlywed Game")
_"Mom always liked you best" (Tommy Smothers, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour")
_"Never assume ..." (Felix Unger, "The Odd Couple")
_"Nip it!" (Barney Fife, "The Andy Griffith Show")
_"No soup for you!" (The Soup Nazi, "Seinfeld")
_"Norm!" ("Cheers")
_"Now cut that out!" (Jack Benny, "The Jack Benny Program")
_"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan and Kyle, "South Park")
_"Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, "The Brady Bunch")
_"One small step for man ..." (Neil Armstrong)
_"Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" (Grey Poupon ad)
_"Read my lips: No new taxes!" (George H.W. Bush)
_"Resistance is futile" (Picard as Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation")
_"Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show")
_"Schwing!" ( Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" (Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle)
_"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" (Trix cereal ad)
_"Smile, you're on `Candid Camera'" ("Candid Camera")
_"Sock it to me" ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")
_"Space, the final frontier ..." (Capt. Kirk, "Star Trek")
_"Stifle!" (Archie Bunker, "All in the Family")
_"Suit up!" (Barney Stinson, "How I Met Your Mother")
_"Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad)
_"Tell me what you don't like about yourself" (Dr. McNamara and Dr. Troy, "Nip/Tuck")
_"That's hot" ( Paris Hilton, "The Simple Life")
_"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" (Jim McKay, "ABC's Wide World of Sports")
_"The tribe has spoken" (Jeff Probst, "Survivor")
_"The truth is out there" (Fox Mulder, "The X-Files")
_"This is the city ..." (Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet")
_"Time to make the donuts" ("Dunkin' Donuts" ad)
_"Two thumbs up" (Siskel & Ebert, "Siskel & Ebert")
_"Up your nose with a rubber hose" (Vinnie Barbarino, "Welcome Back, Kotter")
_"We are two wild and crazy guys!" ( Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Welcome to the O.C., bitch" (Luke, "The O.C.")
_"Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Saturday Night Live")
_"We've got a really big show!" (Ed Sullivan, "The Ed Sullivan Show")
_"Whassup?" (Budweiser ad)
_"What you see is what you get!" (Geraldine, "The Flip Wilson Show")
_"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" (Arnold Drummond, "Diff'rent Strokes")
_"Where's the beef?" (Wendy's ad)
_"Who loves you, baby?" (Kojak, "Kojak")
_"Would you believe?" (Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart")
_"Yabba dabba do!" (Fred Flintstone, "The Flintstones")
_"Yada, yada, yada" ("Seinfeld")
_"Yeah, that's the ticket" ( Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar, "Saturday Night Live")
_"You eeeediot!" (Ren, "Ren & Stimpy")
_"You look mahvelous!" ( Billy Crystal as Fernando, "Saturday Night Live")
_"You rang?" (Lurch, "The Addams Family")
_"You're fired!" (Donald Trump, "The Apprentice")
_"You've got spunk ..." (Lou Grant, "The Mary Taylor Moore Show")
...Riders part ways with Barrett
Danny Barrett will not return as head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders next season, the CFL club announced on Monday.
At a news conference at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, General Manager Eric Tillman said the team would not be renewing Barrett's expiring contract, ending Barrett's seven-year tenure with Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Danny Barrett will not be back behind the bench next season.
"The decision that was made … it's one I've come to accept," said Barrett, who owns a career coaching record of 57-68-1. "You don't always have to agree with things but you have to accept things in life."
Led by Barrett, the Roughriders endured a difficult season in 2006, culminating in a 45-18 loss to the B.C. Lions in the Western Division final.
It marked the third time in four years the Roughriders reached the Western Division championship. However, the team has posted only one winning season and has not held a home playoff game during Barrett's time behind the bench.
After the Western final loss on Nov. 12, Barrett, whose contract expires at the end of December, pegged his chances of returning in 2007 at "50-50."
Tillman wanted to move in new direction
Tillman said he did consider bringing back Barrett for one more season, but in the end felt that it was time to go in another direction.
"In the final analysis I had to take emotion out of the equation and look at the internal turmoil that this organization has faced the last couple of years … I realized as much as I have affection and respect for Danny, that we had to either make a multi-year commitment or stabilize the ship."
It had been speculated that Tillman, who took over from the fired Roy Shivers in late August, had planned to make changes to the Roughriders coaching staff in the off-season.
At least publicly, Barrett had the support of his players, but many in the media had speculated that Tillman wanted to put a new stamp on the franchise.
Though Tillman did not name a replacement for Barrett at Monday's news conference, it's believed he's interested in hiring Kent Austin. The former Saskatchewan quarterback spent three seasons as the offensive co-ordinator for the Toronto Argonauts before being fired last August.
Kevin Smith: 'Degrassi' inspired 'Clerks' sequel
TORONTO (CP) - Filmmaker Kevin Smith's ardour for Canada's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" is well-documented - he's written and appeared in five episodes - but he has a new revelation: the CTV series prompted him to make a sequel to his beloved "Clerks."
"I was a huge fan of 'Degrassi High' and 'Degrassi Junior High' but when they kick-started 'Degrassi: The Next Generation,' I was like: 'Oh man, I don't know,"' Smith said in a recent interview to launch Tuesday's DVD release of "Clerks II."
"I wondered if they should leave well enough alone. Where's the wisdom in revisiting characters that people used to love? But then I finally saw 'Next Generation' and not only were they able to go back to the well with it, but they drew fresh water."
In fact, Smith says, Linda Schuyler and the creative team behind "Degrassi" were so triumphant in melding old characters with fresh blood and "Degrassi's" trademark cutting-edge storylines, it convinced him he could successfully revisit Dante, Randal and the rest of the "Clerks" gang.
"It was so inspiring that it really was largely responsible for me winding up doing 'Clerks II.' I thought if they can go back to those characters and find something new in them, I can do the same thing with mine."
"Clerks II" is indeed an affectionate and funny return to the convenience store slackers of the 1994 original - but this time they're in their 30s and grappling with typical thirtysomething angst over what to do with the rest of their lives, both personally and professionally.
"If 'Clerks' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 20s, 'Clerks II' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 30s and settling down," says Smith, the happily married father of a seven-year-old girl.
Fatherhood, he says, hasn't otherwise seriously affected his filmmaking - with the exception of "Jersey Girl," Smith's romantic comedy that featured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the frenzied midst of their ultimately doomed romance.
"If I didn't have a kid I probably wouldn't have written 'Jersey Girl' - I like to blame the kid, by the way, for anyone who didn't like the movie," he says with a laugh before adding ruefully: "I took a world of crap for that movie. If you read the reviews, a lot of people just faulted me for making the movie in the first place, and said it was the kind of movie that Dante and Randal would have made fun of in 'Clerks."'
The 2004 film was released at a time when the public's fascination with all things celebrity-related was moving into serious overdrive as "Bennifer" was routinely making headlines.
That continuing obsession with celebrity culture continues to puzzle Smith, but he thinks there might be an unexpected fringe benefit to the world's fixation on the private lives of stars.
"It's been formed by Sept. 11, I think, in terms of wouldn't you rather think about who Paris Hilton's screwing rather than when the first suitcase bomb is going to go off?" he says. "It's just a diversion - 'let's forget about the real problems and concentrate on stuff that means nothing."'
"Maybe the terrorists are watching the news as well, and they're all so fascinated by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes that they're not thinking about where to strike next. The celebrities that we mock so much - maybe they're the people who are saving our asses. Now that would be a great cosmic joke."
It would be an irony, in fact, that Dante and Randal would take great pleasure in discussing if they ever return to the big screen - something Smith is not ruling out.
"I could conceive of going back to Dante and Randal sometime in my mid-40s. If I had something to say about being in my 40s, I would totally think about it and I'd immediately think of Dante and Randal."
A return to "Degrassi," too, is something Smith dreams about. He played himself in a three-episode arc from Season 4 and then appeared in two more episodes last season. The sixth season of the show premieres Tuesday night on CTV.
"I don't know how they would fit me in logically again, but if they figure out a way I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he says. "I did say at one point let's skew the reality even further and say that I've given up filmmaking and I've decided to teach at Degrassi, so I could be on every episode - but they didn't go for that."