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Vol. 9 No. 17
Pick Hits
Off The Record
Igby Goes Down
OST
The soundtrack to the cult
favourite black comedy/coming-of-age film Igby Goes Down features a
Britpop/modern rock-heavy soundtrack spanning relatively well-known tracks like
The Dandy Warhols' Bohemian Like You to more obscure songs such as the aloof
trip-hop of Somersault's Frozen Tears. The collection includes Britpop
selections like Coldplay's Don't Panic, Travis' pleasant and faithful cover of
The Band's The Weight, Badly Drawn Boy's Everybody's Stalking, and the Beta
Band's Broken Up A Ding Dong. The excerpts of Uwe Farhenkrog-Petersen's score
Insanity Is Relative, Love And Remembrance, and Igby Goes Down are very stylized
and capture the film's feel. A great way to put a little edge into your CD
collection.
At The Movies
Confidence
All of the elements for an
entertaining caper are in place in Confidence. Jake Vig (Edward Burns) and his
cronies have pulled off yet another small-time con. Everyone's in on it: the
bartender, the witness, the cops, the guy who gets shot. Everyone, that is,
except the mark, who leaves his money and runs. Unfortunately, he happens to be
an accountant for criminal kingpin Winston King (Dustin Hoffman, as you've never
seen him before), who summons Jake to his inner sanctum to arrange payback. Jake
agrees to scam a mark of King's choosing in a job worth $5 million. It's the big
time now, and the complicated plan involves bank embezzlement, international
border crossings and phobias of public bathrooms. Peppered throughout this
intricate plotline are quirky characters and wisecracking humor. Hoffman,
particularly, is a riot as the gum-popping King, and Burns delivers another
stellar performance.
On Video
The Wild Thornberrys
Inspired by the popular
Nickelodeon TV series, the family consists of British ecologist Nigel Thornberry
(voiced by Tim Curry) and his American wife Marianne (voiced by Jodi Carlisle)
who have taken the clan to the Serengeti Plains on an adventure. The star of the
family, and the film, is 12-year-old Eliza Thornberry (voiced by Lacey Chabert),
who has a magical, secret power. She can converse with animals, but she can't
tell anyone or she'll lose it. Her best friend is a chimp named Darwin (voiced
by Tom Kane) who makes the usual monkey sounds when he's around the other family
members but who speaks in proper English, British-style, to Eliza. Eliza
discovers that poachers plan to kill an elephant herd with an electrified fence
and she and Darwin, must stop them. Its PG rating should be a clue that The Wild
Thornberrys Movie never condescends to its target audience. A superb family
pick.
The Buzz...
Just days after trying to
turn the tables on illicit song-swappers by flooding the Net with bogus tracks
from her American Life, an unknown assailant hacked into
Madonna's
official site, www.madonna.com, and posted the real MP3s of every song from
American Life.
Aerosmith
will likely enter the studio sometime in the next few weeks to begin recording
their much-discussed blues album for Columbia. In the meantime, frontman
Steven Tyler
will be given an honorary Doctor
of Music degree from
Boston's Berklee College of
Music on May 10.
Fred Durst
seems quite confident in his decision to scrap
limpbizkit's
new album months before its scheduled release date and start on a fresh one from
scratch. Seven songs have been written with new guitarist Mike Smith.
WWE has released Jeff
Hardy from his contract this week.
This doesn't come as a major
shock to most people, as
Hardy had been wanting out, or at least extended
periods of time off, for quite a while.
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TERMINATOR 2 GOES EXTREME |
Microsoft's stunning new
Windows Media Video (WMV) 9 format has caught the attention of major Hollywood
movie studios. When the upcoming Terminator 2: Extreme Edition DVD hits stores
this June, it will include a High Definition (HD) version of the film encoded in
WMV 9 Professional format (about six times the resolution of a regular DVD). Few
WMV-capable DVD players are on the market, meaning that most users will have to
use a PC or notebook to play back the superior versions.
Apple Computers is opening a
new online music store that provides songs from all five major music companies
for roughly 99 cents a song. The store will initially require Mac OS X and Apple
iTunes, although Apple will eventually add Windows compatibility. Apple's new
store hopes to curtail online piracy by making legitimate music available
inexpensively.
PlayStation 2 price cuts are likely to occur in the coming
few months. Such
a cut would come at an opportune time with Sony hoping to begin the summer with
a major push for PS2 online gaming.
American Music Awards
organizers plan to shift the show from its usual January date to November of
this year, cutting the nominations window by about two months. The Grammys,
which air on CBS, also will switch from their traditional late February position
to a few weeks earlier, all to try and boost sagging ratings.
The Russian International
Film Festival has awarded actor
Leonardo di Caprio
its Tower Award for his contribution to world cinema.
MTV is offering a modern
take on Wuthering Heights.
Erika Christensen,
who played a high school stalker in last year's Swimfan and a drug-addicted teen
in 2000's Traffic, will star as Cate in a musical version of the Emily Bronte
novel.
After giving away millions
in cash prizes for 41 years, the Reader's Digest sweepstakes is being dropped as
a circulation tool.
The characters on NBC's
Friends have designed their own chairs for charity.
Jennifer Aniston,
Courteney Cox,
Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc,
Matthew Perry
and David Schwimmer
created recliners for La-Z-Boy, which will be auctioned off on eBay to benefit
the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
TV's favorite ZIP code is
gearing up for a comeback.
Beverly Hills, 90210 will bring together its infamous alumni for a 10-year reunion
special next month.
After seven seasons,
Sabrina is fresh out of magic. The sitcom about the
now-twentysomething teenage witch has been zapped by the WB.
Mr. Personality, the Fox
reality dating show with Monica Lewinsky as host, fared very well with
viewers for its premiere Monday night, according to Nielsen Media Research
figures.
The
Walt Disney Co. has agreed in principle to sell the World Series champion
Anaheim Angels to
Phoenix businessman Arturo Moreno for about $180 million.
The four stars of NBC's
Will & Grace will keep
up their zany sitcom antics through at least the 2004-05 seasons under a new
salary pact that is close to being finalized at NBC Studios.
Kate Bosworth
is in final negotiations to jump into Beyond the Sea, playing Sandra Dee
opposite Kevin Spacey
in the Bobby Darin biopic for Mark Damon's MDP Worldwide and
Spacey's Trigger Street Prods.
Viacom will rebrand the TNN
network as Spike TV beginning June 16. The change reflects the cable channel's
intent to recast itself as a programming source for young men.
Mary-Kate
and Ashley Olsen
are branching out into careers behind the camera as producers of TV series and
movies aimed at the tween and young-adult demos. The 16-year-old twins have
struck a deal with ABC Family Channel to executive produce a telefilm that will
serve as a backdoor pilot for a series.
Deftones
are contributing the tune My Own Summer to the new SX Superstar supercross video
game, due out this summer for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.
Hard-rock superstars
System of a Down,
Queens of the Stone Age,
Audioslave
and Disturbed
are among the nominees for U.K. magazine Metal Hammer's annual awards.
Rush
singer-bassist Geddy
Lee says fans
likely can expect another album and tour from the band after the Canadian prog-rockers
finish their current break. |
