Friday, 30 May 2008
Music highlights for Saturday, May 10
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Dark Globe
Artist: Dark Globe
Genre(s):
Electronic
Discography:
Nostalgia for the Future CD2 (Remixes)
Year: 2006
Tracks: 11
Nostalgia for the Future CD1
Year: 2006
Tracks: 12
Stars turn out for Empire Film Awards
The Best Film award went to Paul Greengrass' 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and the 'United 93' director was there on the night with his leading man, Matt Damon.
Accepting the award, Damon said: "I want to say thank you to the readers of Empire because I don't get many awards and I don't get nominated for a lot of awards but when I do I tend to lose out to more younger, talented, better-looking guys like James McAvoy."
He added: "I'd also like to salute the one-time loser Paul Greengrass over there, my friend who got out-directed by the other guys in the category he was nominated for."
The Best Director award went to David Yates for 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.
Damon lost out on the Best Actor gong to James McAvoy who won for his role in 'Atonement' and McAvoy had this to say about the film magazine: "I used to get it all the time as a kid, I still get it now if I'm being honest... this year's been amazing for intelligent film, for good film."
He added: "What Empire has done is to tell people what to see and well done this year for getting people to see the good stuff."
McAvoy's co-star Keira Knightley received the Best Actress award but due to filming commitments was not present at the ceremony.
The Empire Icon Award went to Ewan McGregor and describing the title of the award the magazine said: "...it's in no way a Lifetime Achievement Award with a different name, so he doesn't think that he's about to peg it!"
Accepting the award, McGregor said: "I've been so lucky to work with a great many talented and passionate actors and directors and occasionally producers and so I'd like to thank you all."
'Control's' Sam Riley received the Best Newcomer award for his performance as Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis and the film also picked up the award for Best Soundtrack.
'Hot Fuzz' was voted as Best Comedy and the Best Thriller award went to 'American Gangster'.
The Empire Inspiration Award went to 'Pan's Labyrinth' director Guillermo del Toro.
Check out our Empire Film Awards Gallery here.
Wheatus
Artist: Wheatus
Genre(s):
Other
Rock: Punk-Rock
Discography:
Suck Fony
Year: 2005
Tracks: 12
Hand Over Your Loved Ones
Year: 2003
Tracks: 10
Hand Over Your Loved One
Year: 2003
Tracks: 12
Long Island, NY, Brendan B. Brown put together the foursome Wheatus as a vehicle for his witty, up-and-coming john Rock songs, beginning with his blood brother, Peter Brown, on drums and adding multi-instrumentalist Phil A. Jimenez and bassist Rich Leigey (replaced in July 2000 by Mike McCabe). The radical recorded their self-titled debut record album in the Brown menage, producing it themselves, and it was released by Columbia Records in August 2000; the album was preceded by the single "Teenaged Dirtbag," which was featured in the pic Also-ran. The workweek of the album's liberation, Wheatus embarked on their first national circuit with labelmates Zebrahead. The ring by and by gone Columbia to liberation 2005's Suck Fony.
Leslie Feist
Artist: Leslie Feist
Genre(s):
Rock
Pop
Discography:
Let It Die
Year: 2004
Tracks: 10
Monarch
Year: 1999
Tracks: 10
'American Idol' Predictions: Who Was Right, And Who Got It Wrong?
It became obvious early on in the seventh season of "American Idol" that Wednesday night's Super Bowl-like finalewould come down to two men who ostensibly share nothing in common beyond a first name.
But which of the Davids would it ultimately be? Would David Archuleta, the 17-year-old talent with the pinch-worthy cheeks, walk away victorious, as expected, or would David Cook, the token rocker with the perennial 5 o'clock shadow and a penchant for post-grunge hard rock, shake things up, capping what was arguably one of the heaviest seasons — talent-wise — with a shocking groin-kick of an upset?
It certainly was unexpected when "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest crowned the comb-over-sportin' Cook this season's champ — especially when you consider that, after Tuesday night's performancesall signs seemed to point to an Archuleta trouncing. Of course, it wasn't Archuleta's time to shine, and Cook — who went to the "Idol" auditions to support his brother, with no intention of going before the judges — pulled off an epic surprise victory, winning the title by a margin of 12 million votes.
In the weeks leading up to this week's finale, MTV News surveyed a number of established artists, celebrities and fans to find out who they'd forecast as the nation's best undiscovered talent.
Last year's champ, Jordin Sparks, told us in early April that she thought the winner would have a Y chromosome. But while she favored Jason Castro's style and approach to the competition, she eventually admitted that a Cook/ Archuleta showdown was more likely.
"I like David Cook," she said. "I think the guys are where it's at this year. I love you, girls — please don't get me wrong — and I could be totally wrong because the show is so unpredictable. [But] it's going to be either David Archuleta or David Cook. ... I guess I'll go with David Cook."
The Jonas Brothers, on the other hand, were split on which David would dominate. "We don't really know who to go for," Kevin Jonas said. "One's the rocker and one's, like, more all-American. You just don't know." But brother Joe, when pressed, did reveal his pick for "Idol": "For me, I would say David Cook."
Actress Denise Richards told MTV News this week that she's a huge fan of the show, and ultimately, a "Cougar for Cook."
"I hope David Cook wins 'American Idol,' " she said. "I'm weighing in on David Cook, though. First of all, both of them are so talented, and they'll both have huge careers, but David Cook is my style of music. I like a bit of an edge. I'm a rocker at heart, and he's very sexy, and he has a great voice."
During a recent visit to Miami, some of our MTV News producers came across quite a character: Paul Martin, [LINK Paul Martin TO http://newsroom.mtv.com/2008/05/21/79-year-old-idol-fan-weighs-in-from-miami-and-its-golden/#more-1057] a 79-year-old former corn and soybean farmer. The self-proclaimed "Idol" fanatic liked David Cook before the results came down because he felt Cook was a more rounded performer.
"He knows what's going on," Martin said. "[But] I hear [the vote is split] 50-50." He said he thought Archuleta was too young and was taking too much bad advice from his dad.
So, while Archuleta seemed like the early favorite, it looks as though Cook's triumph wasn't that unexpected after all — at least not for Sparks, Joe Jonas, Richards and Martin.
What did you think of the finale? Head to YouRHere.MTV.com to upload your video reactions to Cook's big win, and check out what other "Idol" fanatics are saying!
Plus, you can get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. And relive six seasons of "Idol" hot messes and high notes in six minutes with our video timeline.
See Also
Standard Operating Procedure - movie review
There have been two documentaries thus far that deal specifically with the actions
taken by the group of military police that resulted in the infamous actions and photographs
from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The first, Alex Gibney's acute Taxi to the Dark Side
, focused on the death of an innocent taxi driver at the prison, a high point in
the atrocity exhibition that Vice President Dick Cheney explained away by saying
"We have to work… sort of on the dark side." Using a case study of sorts, Gibney
found a singular key to our current disregard for humanity (not to mention the Geneva
Convention) and rode his expose to an Oscar win last February.
The second film comes from the venerable Errol Morris, who was last seen polling
the political landscape through a heart-to-heart with ex-Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara in his excellent The Fog of War. His latest film is called Standard Operating
Procedure, and, unlike Gibney's film, the director attempts to take the whole mess in while
focusing on what the photographs from Abu Ghraib were really being used for. In his
usual fashion, Morris does away with voice-over and allows the interviewees, many
of whom were part of the MP squad pictured in the photographs, to use their answers
to sculp the unheard question.
The torture is old news but that's half the point: suspected terrorists, one of which
was given the nickname "Gilligan," were put through agonizing forms of torture and
depravation in the hopes of getting information on Al Qaeda, terrorist attacks, or
future attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Waterboarding, sleep depravation, sexual humiliation,
electrodes: that these things happened is not up for debate. Morris believes, with
due evidence, that these things were admitted to call the hounds away from more
devious, unseen acts, namely incidents like the one depicted in Gibney's film.
Stylized by Danny Elfman's sinister-yet-playful score and reenactments of certain
stories, Morris adds a whole gallery of rogues to his menagerie of human amazements.
The most fascinating of them is Lynddie England, the infamous Specialist who posed
for pictures with a prisoner on a leash and again while callously pointing to detainees
forced to masturbate. Only three years after being court martialed, England has transformed
from the skinny paradigm of decayed morality to a scorned and hardened single moth
er; she resembles something like Clarice Starling if she opted for the night shift
at the Piggly Wiggly instead of Langley. When she talks about her one-time fianc�e
and father of her son Private Charles Graner, you can see the black hole where her
sense of right and wrong use to be.
A casualty of the occupation in her own right, Morris paints England as the poster
child for youth-in-conflict. Does this mean that Morris is cutting these guys a whole
lot of slack? Most definitely, but his argument boils down to just that: the schematics of
the current military call for less intelligent people to be wielded by more powerful,
shameless people to carefully execute an undisclosed agenda. To Morris, this group
of "bad apples" is a battalion of patsies. The argument is considerably shaky and in
somuch as Bush, Cheney, and their cronies deserve a portion of blame, the writing's
on the wall.
Engrossing if inexcusably flashy, SOP feels like a stepping stone to a more undeniable
account of Abu Ghraib and its mirroring effect on our torture culture, the way documentaries
like The War Tapes and Iraq in Fragments felt like links leading to Charles H. Ferguson's devastating No End in
Sight. As Hollywood scrambles to comprehend the effects of this war on soldiers (Stop-
Loss), family (In the Valley of Elah) and media (Redacted), Morris stays glued to the military
institution and its unending ability to sacrifice "our boys" for the "greater good."
It's no picnic: You try convincing people that our heads of state are basically a
collective of pointing fingers.
Everyone with the flip-flops.
See Also
Sydney Pollack - Director Pollack Dies
Oscar-winning director SYDNEY POLLACK has died of cancer. He was 73.
Pollack died on Monday (26May08) at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles following a ten month battle with the deadly disease.
Pollack won critical acclaim and two Academy Awards for his epic romance Out Of Africa starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The 1985 movie garnered a staggering 11 nominations and won seven including Best Picture.
He was also famed for directing 1973 classic The Way We Were and 1982's Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman.
While best remembered as a director, Pollack started out as an actor and continued to perform throughout his career - most recently appearing alongside George Clooney in last year's (07) Oscar-winning picture Michael Clayton.
See Also