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Sat Eye Candy: SNL Turns 33
Source:
JamBase
“LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT"
On this evening in 1975, George Carlin hosted the very first episode of Saturday Night Live. Joined by musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston, he kicked off one of the longest running comedy variety show in TV history.
Each Saturday night for a good chunk of each year, the 90-minute NBC series has honed young talent and offered up a satirical eye on popular and political culture. But beyond the yucks, SNL ...
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"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer": All That Jazz and Plenty of Drama
Source:
All About Jazz
Anita O'Day sang like an angel, lived like the devil and made enough great music to fill a couple of lifetimes. Actually, she did live twice, considering that a heroin overdose killed her briefly in 1966, before revival with a then-experimental electric-shock device. It's practically a miracle O'Day lived to age 87, singing nearly until the time of her death in 2006. “Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer" tells the tale in documentary form, enabling the self-destructive diva ...
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Movie for Masekela
Source:
All About Jazz
International jazz giant Hugh Masekela travels the world, playing London, New York, Paris and more in any given year. But he has such fond memories of his childhood in Emalahleni, which was called Witbank at the time, that he's planning a movie about those years. “I want the film to depict how Witbank was back in those days. There is so much about the place that defines who I am, even today, “ he says. The movie is very much ...
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Forest Whitaker to Play Louis Armstrong
Source:
All About Jazz
Oscar Winner Will Also Direct What A Wonderful World Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker is about to bring another jazz legend's life story to the big screen.
Whitaker, who portrayed Charlie Parker for director Clint Eastwood in Bird, will star in and direct a film on jazz great Louis Armstrong. According to Variety, Whitaker will direct and star in What a Wonderful World. The trade magazine said that the film will begin shooting in the summer in Louisiana. Whitaker ...
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Studios, Theaters Near Deal for Digital Movies
Source:
PC Magazine
Walt Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal are soon expected to announce a long-sought $1.1 billion digital cinema deal that Hollywood hopes will boost attendance, cut costs and enable more 3-D viewing, sources close to the deal said on Thursday. The studios declined to comment, but sources with knowledge of the talks said the deal to help co-finance the upgrade for a group of movie chains was virtually complete, with an announcement expected within days or weeks. Long delayed ...
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Jack White, Alicia Keys Misfire on New Bond Theme
Source:
Michael Ricci
The song: Jack White and Alicia Keys, “Another Way to Die"
The good: It brings a bit of rock 'n' roll bite to the Bond theme and is instantly more memorable than the song Chris Cornell recorded for Casino Royale.
The bad: Any hooks by the song are provided by riffing on the instantly recognizable Bond theme, not by anything new offered in the song. And Keys, usually a relatively bold, in-your-face R&B singer, seems oddly tamed here, her voice ...
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About Half of U.S. TV Stations Ready for DTV
Source:
PC Magazine
Approximately 56 percent of full-power television broadcasters are ready for the February 2009 digital television transition, while 41 percent are still working to meet their goals, according to a Thursday report from the Federal Communications Commission. Of the 1,798 broadcast stations in the country, 1,002 have completed the necessary work and need only turn off their analog signals next year. In order to free up valuable spectrum, television broadcasters have been ordered by Congress to shift from analog to digital ...
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