Student-made Peas video a hit
MONTREAL - A YouTube video of students at the Universite de Quebec a Montreal lip syncing the Black Eyed Peas hit "I Got a Feeling" is quickly becoming a phenomenon on the web.
Two UQAM communications students created the lip dub video to the popular tune during the first week of school and it has taken on a life of its own, with more than 400,000 views on the video-sharing website as of Wednesday.
The walking, first-person video takes the viewer on a tour of UQAM's downtown Montreal campus, right through the front door and snaking through the hallways as students sing and dance to the hit.
Luc-Olivier Cloutier and Marie-Eve Hebert, the student duo behind the Internet hit say it was a tremendous task to co-ordinate the roughly five-minute video, which was remarkably filmed in just one take.
"We really had to plan everything in advance, starting with the itinerary," said Cloutier, 22, who was the cameraman.
"We had to write, line-by-line, who would do what, everything had to be timed."
Six students worked on the concept for over a month and volunteers were recruited using social networking site Facebook, but they had no idea how many would actually show up until the day of filming.
A total of 172 students took part in the video, which was filmed in the span of about two hours.
According to the Viral Video Chart, the video was ranked number 12 as of Wednesday.
"There was no way we though that it would become as popular as it has," Cloutier said, adding the comments are added minute by minute on YouTube.
Local and international media have also taken notice, with CNN interviewing the creators on Sunday night and an NBC interview in the coming days.
"They are really impressed, that's what is special," said Cloutier of the media attention.
Both students are to graduate next spring and have been receiving job offers since the video went viral, meaning it became a mainstream hit on the Internet through word of mouth.
The clip is available on YouTube right here!
Stewart Copeland Tells Police 'War Stories' In New Book
The Police drummer Stewart Copeland doesn't want to make his new book, "Strange Things Happen: A Life With the Police, Polo, and Pygmies" (HarperStudio) a conventional autobiography. "It really isn't because of all the stuff I left out, the boring stuff -- I was born here, then I moved there, then I went to this school, then that school...Who cares?" Copeland tells Billboard.com. "These are war stories."
Many of those, not surprisingly, come from his days with the Police, though Copeland acknowledges that "the eight years of Police supremacy back in the day (i.e., the 80s) get a little bit of short shrift." But that, he adds, was by design. "The first part (of the Police), I told that story with my movie ("Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out"). Sting and Andy (Summers) both wrote books about it and covered it very well, I thought," he explains. "But the last third of my book is all about the reunion tour, which, unlike the first eight years, is untold."
Copeland adds that he hopes "Strange Things Happen" also portrays what he feels is a more insightful and accurate view of the famous volatility that is part of the Police's legend.
"I think I did succeed in clarifying the conflict in the band," he explains. "It has always been too easy to assume it was just a clash of egos, and that was always very frustrating for me because it's so far from the truth. In fact, we are very selfless in the Police, all three of us; we really leave our egos at the door and go in there and take a pasting from each other -- and we take it. That's what life in the Police was all about. It was always a clash of musical ideals...We were fighting over the right things."
"Strange Things Happen" isn't solely about the Police, of course. Copeland writes about his CIA agent father, his youth in the Middle East and England, and his other musical experiences, including the all-star Oysterhead with Primus' Les Claypool and Phish's Trey Anastasio, jamming with Rage Against the Machine and Foo Fighters and the time he nearly went on tour conducting an orchestra for the Moody Blues. Copeland also chronicles his transition into film scoring and writing classical and operatic music.
He notes that a large number of his "war stories" didn't make the cut, but rather than a second book Copeland envisions publishing them episodically in magazines -- which, he says, was his original intention for all the tales before he was "persuaded to save them and put them all in a book."
Copeland, whose score for the theatrical production "Ben Hur Live" that's now touring Europe, is currently finishing a concerto for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra that will premiere in 2010. He's also finalizing a commission from a British opera company. As for another Police reunion...
"Who knows," Copeland says. "I mean, I intend to be on the planet here for another 50 years; who knows what'll happen. To escape from the Police we had to melt down the cage and...dismantle the huge behemoth that grew up around the band. The three of us had to get away from it. As to whether or not we do it again, who knows."
Hugh Craig, Daniel Jackman sell out on Broadway
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, best known for playing big screen action heroes Wolverine and James Bond, have drawn record ticket sales for their play "A Steady Rain," but it drew mixed reviews on Wednesday after opening night.
USA Today raved that the two actors put in "stellar turns," but The New York Times' verdict was "Big names, little show."
The producers said this week the play broke the record for the highest weekly box office gross for a non-musical production on Broadway, taking in $1.17 million in the week ending September 20.
Craig and Jackman are among the big name stars producers hope will boost sales on Broadway at a time of recession.
The play, by playwright Keith Huff, was a hit in Chicago before being brought to Broadway, where Jackman and Craig portray two Windy City cops, Denny and Joey, offering different accounts of a harrowing event that changed their lives.
New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote that the play "is probably best regarded as a small, wobbly pedestal on which two gods of the screen may stand in order to be worshiped."
He added that the woman he saw the play with likely expressed the feelings of many in the audience when she said: "If only ... the play had been set in a police station locker room, where the characters might frequently change clothes."
New York post critic Elisabeth Vincentelli said Jackman was "vastly appealing" but miscast as a self-destructive troublemaker.
"Craig, his upper lip swallowed whole by a police-issue mustache, fares better and single-handedly lifts up the show," Vincentelli wrote. "Craig and Jackman were clearly eager to appear on stage together. Too bad they picked a clunky squad car for a vehicle."
Daily News critic Joe Dziemianowicz said the British and Australian actors "ooze confidence and charisma" but the play "is a stark and modest work that's all talk and no action."
He said the play underlined a familiar lesson: "Megastars can turn reading the phone book into an event. But that doesn't guarantee a wholly satisfying experience."
Elysa Gardner of USA Today was more generous: "Huff's briskly absorbing script has its cliches and contrivances, but Denny and Joey are drawn with such earthy wit and non-patronizing compassion that Rain never rings false or superficial."
"It's hard to imagine a better vehicle for two actors who clearly don't need larger-than-life characters to deliver grand performances," she wrote.
Jackman, 40, an Australian who starred in Hollywood hits such as "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," has starred on stage in New York before, winning a Tony, Broadway's top honor, for his portrayal of singer/songwriter Peter Allen in "The Boy from Oz" in 2004.
Craig, 41, has a strong record on the London stage but is making his Broadway debut. He is best known for playing British super spy James Bond in recent movie box office hits, "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace."
"A Steady Rain" is scheduled to run until December 6.
Paul McCartney to release CD/DVD of NY shows
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Paul McCartney's recent three-night concert stand in New York City -- during which the rock legend delved into his Beatles, Wings and solo catalogs and brought Billy Joel to the stage -- is coming to CD and DVD.
On November 17, McCartney will release "Good Evening New York City," a multi-disc set featuring nearly three hours of performances from his CitiField Stadium shows in July.
Among the set highlights are Beatles classics "Drive My Car," Eleanor Rigby" and "Hey Jude," a tribute medley to John Lennon, and the Wings staple "Live and Let Die," during which fireworks erupted to open McCartney's shows.
"It was three great nights for the band, and for me personally, it was very exciting to be back opening a new stadium on the site of the old Shea Stadium where we had played 44 years previously," said McCartney, alluding to the Beatles' famous christening of the Mets' original home in 1965. "Even more exciting because this time 'round you could hear us!"
"Good Evening New York City," which will also be made available on vinyl, will include a DVD of footage compiled from Hi-Def cameras and digital Flipcam video shot by fans in the crowd. The release will be McCartney's second on Hear Music, following 2007's "Memory Almost Full."