Posts Tagged ‘Entertainment’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Canada’s Emerson Drive finds success—and tasty vittles—down South
By Brian Truitt
Courtesy of Emerson Drive
Not even Canadian country music stars can pass up the very American culinary fare of county fairs.
Funnel cakes. Fresh, greasy potato chips. Deep-fried Twinkies.
Mmm.
The season finds Emerson Drive’s five guys playing off those calories at summertime festivals and fairs, including this year’s annual Celebrate Fairfax!, more nights than they have since they invaded the U.S. nearly seven years ago.
“That’s what we usually look forward to the most, the cooking,” said lead singer Brad Mates, 29, whose band closes out the event on Sunday, June 8. “The home cooking at a lot of these county fairs is usually over the top, so that’s always nice. If you’re there for the day and leaving at night, you take in as much as you can.”
The hottest Canadian import to Nashville since the city got a hockey team, Emerson Drive shifted gears last summer when they topped country charts with “Moments,” a heavy ballad about a homeless vet and the man he prevents from jumping off a bridge.
For as good as the band felt then, the members were brought back to Earth in the fall when their own bass player, Patrick Bourque (who had left the group a few months earlier), committed suicide. According to Mates, the tracks Emerson Drive will be playing from the follow-up to 2006’s successful “Countrified” will reflect both the past year’s ups and downs. The new album is scheduled for release later this summer. But he’s not sure how or when they’ll deal lyrically with Bourque’s death.
“Finding or writing the right song is important. It has to make sense for everybody in this group,” Mates said. “That’s a subject that’s either going to be put on there because we feel it’s the right thing to do, or else we’re just gonna wait till something comes along we all feel comfortable with.”
“Moments” has opened up several avenues for Emerson Drive, who now find themselves with A-list material options at their fingertips in the songwriting department. Mates said he would like to go the route of recording another “story song,” much along the lines of “Moments” or hits characteristic of George Strait, whom he grew up listening to in the hunting and fishing environs of Grand Prairie, Alberta.
“If you can find something that people connect with and they believe, that’s when story songs kind of take over and have a life of their own,” he said. “Finding another one like ‘Moments’ will be a tough thing to do because it’s a career song, and those songs don’t come along every other day.”
Further signs of success: Performing on national late-night TV, and getting inked courtesy of Kat Von D’s shop on TLC’s “L.A. Ink” last September. To commemorate “Moments” going big, each of the five members got tattoos; for Mates, that meant an “ED” bisected by the number one, forever imprinted on his left wrist.
“It was something that meant a lot to each of us,” Mates said. “I don’t know; it’d be a tough thing to put a tattoo on your body if it didn’t have any meaning behind it.”
(June/July 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
“Love in the Time of Cholera”
By Brian Truitt
Love in the Time of Cholera
It’s impossible to count the number of cinematic stories that center around a good amount of tortured love. Still, good luck finding one that tops “Love in the Time of Cholera.” Based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s tome of the same title, “Cholera” stars Oscar nominee and indie film icon Javier Bardem as a South American who is forced to wait more than half a century to be with the woman of his dreams, after her father nips the idea in the bud when the two are youngsters. Features include a commentary by British director Mike Newell and a series of deleted scenes. New Line home video, $27.95
(May 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Celtic drifters buoyed by ‘Float’
By Brian Truitt
Courtesy of Flogging Molly
Somewhere between the mosh pit-churning spirit of Dropkick Murphys and more laid-back sensibilities of Great Big Sea is Flogging Molly, the Celtic punk-rock act that’s quietly improved on every album since its 2000 debut, “Swagger.”
A follow-up to 2006’s “Whiskey on a Sunday,” recent release “Float” features the return of recently absent accordion player Matt Hensley, and the tin whistles, fiddles, mandolins and other Irish folk sounds found in such tracks as “Punch Drunk Grinning Soul,” “Paddy’s Lament,” “Us of Lesser Gods” and “On the Back of a Broken Dream.”
(May 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
By Brian Truitt
The Heartbreak Pill
By Anjanette Delgado; Atria, $14 (paperback)
Who hasn’t, at one time or another, wanted some sort of medicine to cure her shattered being after a romance gone horribly wrong—an anti-potion No. 9, if you will? In Anjanette Delgado’s debut novel, a lovelorn researcher heroine uses her pharmaceutical surroundings to attempt to make just such a drug (with mixed results, of course) in a witty read that’s part “Ugly Betty,” part “Sex and the City.”
A Summer of Hummingbirds
By Christopher Benfey; Penguin, $26.95 (hardcover)
A meeting of the minds between Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Martin Johnson Heade in antebellum America seems to be more along the lines of an Oscar frontrunners drama than a historical text. Yet essayist Christopher Benfey somehow successfully pulls off this so-crazy-it’s-true epic, weaving the lives of these great artists with threads of infidelity, manners, romance and a shared love of hummingbirds.
Adam
By Ted Dekker; Thomas Nelson, $25.99 (hardcover)
What begins as a family tragedy in a 1960s trailer park becomes a taut, spiritually tinged thriller under the pen of best-selling novelist Ted Dekker (“Skin”). FBI psychologist Daniel Clark is in hot pursuit of Eve, a serial killer preying on women connected with churches, and ends up dead for his efforts. He is brought back, however, only to realize that the only way to rediscover the killer will be to die again.
(May 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
“John from Cincinnati—The Complete First Season”
By Brian Truitt
John from Cincinnati
While it did bring Luke Perry back to the small screen, the polarizing HBO series “John from Cincinnati” never could garner the same following that co-creator David Milch had with his acclaimed Western, “Deadwood.” Some viewers, however, still remain wholly fascinated by the story of a mysterious man who reinvigorated an estranged family of California surfers and their Imperial Beach coastal community, just north of the Mexican border. The DVD set includes two audio commentaries by Milch and a behind-the-scenes featurette. HBO home video, $59.98
(May 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Noir artist expands a world of black and white
By Brian Truitt
Via his latest project, comic creator Shawn Martinbrough casts light on a new noir approach. Courtesy of Shawn Martinbrough
Like all great artists, Shawn Martinbrough is in a new phase in his work, what he calls his “very realistic” phase. Which works out well, since his newest project has him illustrating actual people.
In his distinct noir style, the Falls Church resident has drawn the likes of Batman, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men, but graphic novel “Ayre Force: Winterfall” centers on an altogether different kind of superhero team.
The novel is in color, but still captures the dramatic, shadowy, black-and-white style typical of Martinbrough’s work. It’s the same noir bent in his illustrations that the film and production company Verge Entertainment co-founder teaches in his first book, the aptly tagged “How to Draw Noir Comics,” released late last year. The book offers lessons on creating drama and mood with shadow and light, and features his work from “Detective Comics” and other titles.
Writer Joseph Phillip Illidge, one of Martinbrough’s Verge partners, was the one who first suggested the artist take noir to the masses. And it was fellow media mogul Calvin Ayre, the head of the Bodog Entertainment Group, who reached out to both Martinbrough and Illidge for the first tale of secret agent Calvin Ayre and his G.I. Joe-like task force—made up of actual Bodog-sponsored fighters, musicians and poker players—and their fight against bear bile farming. (Martinbrough, 36, swore it’s not nearly as cheesy as it sounds.)
Now, Martinbrough’s even considering teaching art at some point down the line—heck, he already has his own textbook—but said he still has lots to learn.
“Being an artist, to me, is a work in progress,” Martinbrough said. “One of the reasons why I love going to museums and looking at different artists is that when you look at the great artists, their styles changed over the years. Like Picasso had different phases of his artwork, so did Monet and Manet. To me, I couldn’t imagine myself looking the same way now 10 years from now. As time goes by, my work hopefully improves and develops.”
Grainiacs’ Groove
Drill your vocab while saving the world. The concept behind uber-addictive FreeRice.com is simple: For every word definition a web-surfer gets right, the site donates 20 grains to the United Nations World Food Programme.
(May 2008)
Thrills, Chills and Disseverance
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
By Caroline Small
The Finder
By Colin Harrison; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25 (hardcover)
Harrison once again demonstrates mastery of the urban thriller with his latest, “The Finder,” set in New York’s world of corporate finance. His heroine, the beautiful and mysterious Chinese woman Jin-Li, makes for an exotic femme fatale in a story where no one’s true motives are clear. Harrison pulls off the New York setting well—he’s an editor at Harper’s and a Brooklyn resident.
Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon
By May Pang; St. Martin’s, $29.95 (hardcover)
From 1970 to 1975, May Pang served as personal assistant and photographer to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. From 1973 to 1974, a prolific and erratic period of Lennon’s solo career when he was separated from Ono, Pang was his lover—ostensibly at Ono’s request. Although Pang told her side of their story in the 1983 memoir, “Loving John,” these never-before-published photographs document even more intimately the time Lennon called “the lost weekend.”
Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas
By Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher; Broadway Books, $15.95 (paperback)
April marks the paperback release of Washington Post staffers Merida and Fletcher’s controversial, racially inflected biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Although the book’s psychological explanations often fall flat, the authors have a much-needed ability to contextualize Thomas as an individual against the backdrop of the black community in which he grew up and the largely white and privileged world he inhabited—never fully comfortably—in later life.
(April 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Setting stages for record label stars
By Caroline Small
Mute Records media mastermind Leslie Hermelin’s helped to sign such notables as Erasure, Sonic Youth and Depeche Mode. Photography by Nikola Tamindzic
Mute Records director of media Leslie Hermelin can trace the start of her career to a Herndon Giant grocery story. “I was 12 years old,” she remembered, “driving around with my dad, and when we got out of the car at the Giant there was a Case Logic [cassette] tape [holder] sitting abandoned in the parking space next to us.” Hermelin and her father put up signs in an attempt to identify the owner, but no one ever claimed it.
“It was a treasure trove!” Hermelin remarked. “All these bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Echo and the Bunnymen, OMD that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. For someone without older brothers and sisters, it really put me ahead of the curve.”
Fifteen years later, with degrees from George Mason and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Hermelin heads up media relations for the label that gave a home to Depeche Mode and Erasure, as well as Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and Moby. “As I’ve grown in my career, I’ve always wanted to write a thank-you note to that person who left all those tapes,” she laughed.
Hermelin’s got the kind of genuine enthusiasm for artistic creativity that musicians—and music fans—respect. “Being able to engage with these creative intelligent people is the best part of the job,” she emphasized. “Not all musicians want to be rock stars. Artists are inherently thoughtful, and they really want to work.” Not that she doesn’t delight in the job at every opportunity. This year, when 37-member Swedish pop group I’m From Barcelona was invited to Lollapalooza, Hermelin was able to accompany them and stand on the sidelines, watching thousands of people scream and sing along. Even though it’s all technically part of her job, she said, “the minute I stop thinking that’s amazing, I’m quitting.”
www.TaxMama.com
March winds bring April showers—showers of questions about taxes, that is. Take a break from the usual dry and impenetrable pages of IRS advice on the government’s website and visit www.taxmama.com. IRS-enrolled agent Eva Rosenberg offers tax tips, resources and humor on the inspiring and informative site, named one of the top seven tax sites by Inc. Magazine.
(April 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry
By Caroline Small
Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, Archeophone Records, $26.95, double-CD set
Ragtime singer George W. Johnson was born a slave on a Virginia plantation and died a Manhattan theater doorman, but in between he became the first-ever black recording artist and the most popular black singer of his day. (Rumor has it that Thomas Edison himself discovered the singer whistling on the Hudson River ferry.) Johnson’s extant recordings, made between 1890 and 1903, appear on the Grammy-winning “Lost Sounds,” a double-CD set also featuring spoken-word tracks by Booker T. Washington and boxer Jack Johnson. The set boasts extensive liner notes co-written by Maryland resident and NPR producer David Giovannoni. Read more and listen to samples at www.archeophone.com.
(March 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
By Caroline Small
Philip Morsberger: A Passion for Painting
By Christopher Lloyd, Merrell Publishers, $49.95 (hardcover)
Baltimore-bred and Carnegie Mellon–educated painter Philip Morsberger is affectionately celebrated in Christopher Lloyd’s visually beautiful retrospective, featuring detailed full-color plates that highlight the painter’s synthesis of postimpressionism and pop art. The book includes an essay on Morsberger’s life plus personal “letters of appreciation” by his admirers and friends, including science fiction writer Brian Aldiss and Priscilla Tolkien, daughter of J.R.R. View his paintings at www.marypaulinegallery.com.
American Artisanal: Finding the Country’s Best Real Food, from Cheese to Chocolates
By Rebecca Gray, Rizzoli Books, $26.95 (hardcover)
“Joy of Cooking” editor Rebecca Gray’s “natural history of food” pays homage to traditional agriculture and the burgeoning organics movement. Profiling 25 artisan farmers and food producers from across the United States, chapters illuminate how sustainable cultivation of ingredients and small-scale processing make for healthier, higher-quality food. Inspiring reading for farmer’s market enthusiasts and gourmands alike, complete with recipes and ordering information.
My Father’s Heart
By Steve McKee, Da Capo Press, $25 (hardcover)
When Wall Street Journal editor Steve McKee was diagnosed with serious cardiovascular disease at the age of 52, his thoughts went to his father—a lifelong smoker and workaholic who had died of a heart attack when McKee was 16. McKee’s efforts to learn more about his father’s life and disease resulted in this touching memoir of grief and loss, a book that gives personal depth to a common medical concept: “family history.”
(March 2008)