Vol. 8 No. 8
Pick Hits
Off The Record
The
Quireboys - This Is
Rock 'N' Roll
The Quireboys came out
right around the same time as the rest of the late'80s early'90s post Guns N'
Roses wave of bluesy hard rock bands around the globe. The band was all the
rave in the UK where they were heralded as the second coming of the Faces and
the Stones, but were quickly overshadowed by the Black Crowes' rise to
fame and faded away. Now in 2002, the Quireboys are back in action with almost
all original members and an 13 song album of swaggering whiskey biscuits that
rock, roll and weep in all the right places. This Is Rock 'N' Roll covers every
nuance of the blues-rock palate, the boozy rockers, the soulful ballads, the
boogie piano, the twin guitar attack, the Hammond organ swells, and so on. Nice
one boys.
At The Movies
The Queen
of the Damned
The Vampire Lestat has become a
rock star, and it's that music that awakens the 6,000-year-old Egyptian vampire,
Akasha (aka The Queen of the Damned). She soon sets out on a plan of revenge
against many of the male vampires that followed her, in the hopes of ruling the
Earth with Lestat at her side. Meanwhile, there's a young female vampire hunter,
Jessie Reeves, who begins to fall in love with Lestat. This is one of the most
ambitious vampire movies in a long time. The costumes and special effects are
major elements in the film's most crowd-pleasing moments. With a blistering
heavy rock soundtrack and several original songs by Jonathan Davis (lead
singer of Korn) and Richard Gibbs that are performed by Lestat and
his band, "Queen" is a change of pace for Rymer, and the widescreen production
shows affection for the genre and some respect for the viewer.
On Video
Dont Say
A Word
In this edge-of-your-seat
suspense flick, Michael Douglas plays an Upper West Side N.Y.
psychiatrist who's summoned by a colleague (Oliver Platt) to a
psychiatric hospital to help a crazy teenage girl (Brittany Murphy) with
viscous tendencies who's spent the past 10 years in mental institutions. Douglas
is intrigued by the girl, who doesn't speak, and gets drawn into her case even
further when his daughter is kidnapped by a nasty Englishman (Sean Bean)
and he is forced to try to pry from the disturbed girl's mind a six-digit number
that is somehow connected to a bank robbery 10 years earlier. Shades of
Alfred Hitchcock show up here and there. It's kind of The Man Who Knew Too
Much on steroids.
The Buzz...
NBC Studios and the Jim
Henson Co. have inked a deal to develop an original Muppet movie targeted to
premiere this year during the holiday season. It's a Wonderful Muppet Christmas
Movie will incorporate parodies of classic Christmas films and feature guest
shots and cameo appearances for NBC stars.
New Line's John Q, starring
Denzel Washington was last weeks top film with an estimated four-day gross
of $24.1 million. This opening marks the biggest debut ever for Presidents Day
weekend, topping The Wedding Singer, that tuned in $21.9 million in 1998.
Britney Spears is set to
play Samantha's sex-crazed niece on Sex and the City, and will seduce Samantha's
lover. Kim Cattrall who plays Samantha, also plays Spears' mom in
Crossroads.
Josh Lucas is poised to
reteam with his A Beautiful Mind co-star Jennifer Connelly in Universal
Pictures' big-screen adaptation of the Marvel comic book The Hulk for director
Ang Lee. The computer-generated, effects-laden project is targeted for a
spring start and a tentative release June 20, 2003.
Sabre Holdings Corp. offered
$34.5 million for the shares leading travel Web site Travelocity.com that it
doesn't already own.
A publicist for 21-year-old pop
singer Jessica Simpson is confirming her engagement to 28-year-old
Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees. The couple, who've been together for three years,
have yet to announce a wedding date.
ABC is confirming that veteran
news anchor Diane Sawyer has landed the first TV interview with Rosie
O'Donnell in which the popular talk show host is expected to talk about her
homosexuality. The interview will air in March while O'Donnell's new book, Find
Me, is due out in April.
Kevin Smith, a
38-year-old New Zealand actor who played the leather-clad God of War, Ares,
opposite Lucy Lawless on TV's XENA: Warrior Princess, died after suffering head
injuries in a fall while filming a movie in Beijing, China.
Former Sweet drummer
Mick Tucker, 54, passed away on February 14th around noon from complications
brought on by the leukemia he survived five years ago.
|
BILLY IDOL STORYTELLERS LIVE
COMING SOON |
Look for the new Billy Idol
storytellers live CD due out on February 26th, followed by the March release of
the extended storytellers DVD and VHS.
A group of Holocaust survivors has threatened to boycott an
upcoming exhibit of Holocaust-related art that features a depiction of a
concentration camp built from Lego blocks.
For the first time, the public is getting a large-scale view
of the CIA's and KGB's real-life James Bond gadgets, from a replica of the
Russians' deadly poison-dart umbrella to some of
America's most ingeniously
hidden cameras.
Sylvester Stallone has filed a lawsuit against a
former business manager, claiming the manager told him not to unload more than
$7 million in Planet Hollywood stock while telling others that the restaurant
chain was headed for bankruptcy.
After having negotiated out of
his recording contract last year with Columbia Records, his label of 20 years,
saxophonist Branford Marsalis launched Marsalis Music, which will focus
on jazz artists not quite ready for prime time.
David Lee Roth has
posted a video for a brand new song on his website www.davidleeroth.com, a cover
of a Lords of Acid track called Crablouse.
Oasis is releasing its
first single in nearly two years in April. The track, titled The Hindu Times, is
the first song from the band's as yet untitled fifth studio album, scheduled for
release in July. |