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Ten Moments That Shook 'American Idol' in 2008
Source:
Michael Ricci
To some (myself included), it was the greatest season in American Idol history. To others, it was sagging proof that the series was overdue for a reboot.
We had controversies, surprises, tragedies, outrages and amazing triumphs, and in the end hints of big shake-ups in the year to come. Below is my list of the most earth-jolting moments that rocked the Idoldome in 2008. Which did I leave out? What were yours?
10. David Hernandez stripping controversy. The ...
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Australia' Boasts a Banquet of Music
Source:
All About Jazz
Australia boasts one of the more complicated and diverse soundtracks in recent memory. But will the Academy reward what director Baz Luhrmann calls “as musically layered a world as the film is culturally layered"?
The Australia score is a patchwork quilt of David Hirschfelder's orchestral underscore, spiced with such indigenous Australian instruments as the digeridoo, wobbleboard and clapsticks; the folk music of the Northern Territories, from bush ballads to Aboriginal chants; music of the period, from “Over the Rainbow" to ...
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Roy Hargrove, Gloria Lynne, Sonny Rollins, and "Jazz for Obama" Featured in New Jazz It Up! Episode
Source:
All About Jazz
New York, NY - The second episode of season 2 of Jazz it Up! is now available! To subscribe and see a five-minute preview of the new episode: Jazz it Up! Each episode of Jazz it Up! features two main artists; each performs two songs. This edition features ensembles led by trumpeter Roy Hargrove and vocalist Gloria Lynne. Roy Hargrove begins the show with fire and edge, cementing his reputation as one of the best trumpet men of his generation. ...
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Oscar Short Sparks Controversy
Source:
Michael Ricci
The collision of entertainment, media and pop culture. If youre a documentarian, you know that while its a great honor to make the academys short-list for best documentary short, its almost impossible to get anyone in the media to write about your movie, since theyre almost totally obsessed with handicapping the ups and downs of the various actor and best picture races. But thanks to the Canadian government, in particular Albertas minister of culture, Leslie Iwerks documentary short Downstream has ...
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Extinction-Level Television Event
Source:
Michael Ricci
IM a runt of Generation X, which means 1) Im supposed to define myself entirely through ironic references to pop culture, and 2) as a member of the last generation to come of age in an era of only three TV networks, I assume everyone will understand when I drop a quote from Scooby-Doo or The A-Team. But the generation immediately after mine has never known life without cable, and the generation after that wont know a life without streaming ...
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Doors Documentary Revisits 'Strange' Days
Source:
Billboard Magazine
As first tipped here in May, the Doors documentary “When You're Strange" will premiere Jan. 17 at the Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Tom DiCillo, “Strange" utilizes a wealth of previously unseen footage to chart the band's beginnings at UCLA's film school through to frontman Jim Morrison's mysterious death in 1971. Describing the movie to Billboard earlier this year, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek said it was “the anti-Oliver Stone," in reference to the 1991 film “The Doors." “This ...
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Steven Spielberg's Nod to Big Bands in 1941
Source:
All About Jazz
Happy Birthday to Steven Spielberg No director or producer has ever put together a more popular body of work. That's why the movies we're now seeing are made in his image.
Steven Spielberg born December 18, 1946, first films were made at a time when directors were the most important people in Hollywood, and his more recent ones at a time when marketing controls the industry. That he has remained the most powerful filmmaker in the world during ...
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The Jazz Video Guy Live at the Village Vanguard
Source:
All About Jazz
"I finally got a chance to shoot at the Vanguard!" the Jazz Video Guy happily exclaimed. As part of his ongoing mission to keep Jazz from becoming invisible, Bret Primack has posted the latest installment of his Jazz Video Guy Blog, “Joe Lovano: In The Music," which features the saxman's new group, Us Five, live at the Village Vanguard last month. In town last month to document the group's subsequent recording session, which will be released next year on Blue ...
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