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FEB
13
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
FEB
13
Goodbye, Whitney The investigation Los Angeles Times: Authorities probe possible bathtub drowning scenario New York Times: A voice of triumph and pain: “She was, alongside Michael Jackson and Madonna, one of the crucial figures to hybridize pop in the 1980s ... Jackson and Madonna built worldviews around their voices; Houston’s voice was the worldview.”Mashable: The social world explodes L.A. Times: The Grammys plans tributes THR: Houston dominates iTunes Michael E. Ross: One nation, two minutes in Tampa, indivisiblePhoto: REUTERS/Gary Hershorn
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JAN
31
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
31
The Gross Liam Neeson’s dances-around-wolves thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness notched first place this weekend in theaters. Underworld Awakening, with Kate Beckinsale reprising her kickass role as vampire huntress Selene, slipped to second. And Red Tails continues to show strength in theaters, placing strongly in the top five — and probably in a great position to find a new audience, and repeat business, with the start of Black History Month on Wednesday. Source: Rentrak Corporation. The Grey logo: © 2012 Icon Films
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JAN
29
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
29
Chemicals and reaction The Chemical Brothers performed a triumphal concert one night at last year’s Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Director Adam Smith was there to commit a movie. The result is what some critics have suggested is one of the best concert films ever made. Don’t Think (screening in select theaters worldwide starting Wednesday, in the UK on Friday) works because of its fan-centric perspective. Kia Makarechi of The Huffington Post says it “bravely faces the challenges of translating a concert to the cinema without relying on an imposed narrative frame. Smith's ability to resist layering a hokey story on top of the concert experience is admirable …” It also works because of the sound; it’s being marketed as the first concert recorded in Dolby 7:1 surround sound. Want tickets? Here.Photo: The Chemical Brothers/Adam Smith/Parlophone
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JAN
29
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
29
Strangeness in Seattle The trailers have been trickling out since late October, and the word has been building on YouTube, Facebook and IMDb about Chronicle, Josh Trank’s much-anticipated horror film about three Seattle high-school students who acquire supernatural powers — and the discovery of their dark sides in a city whose Space Needle looks strangely outsized. Check the trailer, you be the judge. The 20th Century-Fox film opens Friday. Poster: 20th Century-Fox
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JAN
29
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
29
Matthew Lickona, at the San Diego Reader, surveys highlights of Day 3 of the San Diego Black Film FestivalLogo: San Diego Reader
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JAN
25
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
25
Hugo sets the Oscar pace Martin Scorsese’s fanciful 3-D paean to Georges Méliès and the history of filmmaking leads the field with 11 nominations. The Artist, a tribute to the movies of the silent era, follows with 10. Jonah Hill, Viola Davis, George Clooney and three (!) stars of The Help also won Oscar nods. Jen Chaney of The Washington Post surveys everything.Poster: © 2012 Paramount PIctures
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JAN
23
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
23
The Gross Underworld Awakening and Red Tails set the pace for the weekend’s movie box office in the United States. Source: Rentrak Corporation
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JAN
21
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
21
The end of a great R&B song When Johnny Otis and Etta James died this week — about 48 hours apart — it ended one of the great stories of rhythm & blues. Mark Jacobson, writing in New York magazine, looks back at two stellar careers whose sounds weaved their way into music history.Photos: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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JAN
19
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
19
Sundance 2012: Action! For Michael O’Hehir at Salon, the most recent iterations of Sundance — under new management — has meant a leaner, more muscular festival refocused on the work of film, something he expects to see again this year. See Movies The Hollywood Reporter: Robert Redford kicks off a festival for "dark and grim" times With a deep page of previews, trailers and interviews, The Hollywood Reporter has the festival’s anticipated big draws all buttoned up (enough to know that anything can happen). Back for more: After a wild Sundance 2011, film buyers are returning with high hopes of making the next big indie discovery, despite buys last year that didn’t perform as well as expected. THR’s Jay A. Fernandez and Daniel Miller report. See Movies Logos: © 2012 Sundance Institute; © 2012 The Hollywood Reporter
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JAN
19
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
19
Priceline Negotiator checks out After 14 years, The Priceline.com pitchman (Wlliam Shatner) has made his last deal. As the travel services company begins a rebranding, travelers everywhere are said to be in deep mourning. Below, the details of his final earthly transaction (the ad begins airing on Monday). We’re betting he finds a great deal on a room ... at the Great Beyond Hotel. YouTube
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JAN
19
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
19
140 to the Twitterverse SPIN Magazine recently announced a bid to “reinvent the album review” as 140-character posts on Twitter, a move that’s aroused some outrage among music writers. NPR's Ann Powers and Jacob Ganz weigh in on SPIN’s move, with ideas on what could be said with a little more space. In Music Logo: © 2012 National Pubic Radio
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JAN
17
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
17
London: Hockney goes big Spanning past work in conventional media (watercolors and outdoor oils) and more adventurous creations (big-canvas oils and drawings done on an iPad), moving from expansive views of the Grand Canyon and the Hollywood Hills to studies of the Yorkshire countryside, the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is a marvel. For Martin Gayford, “the boldness and panache of the total ensemble” makes for an “exhilarating” experience. See Art Winter Timber (2009) by David Hockney (detail); photo by Jonathan Wilkinson/Royal Academy via Bloomberg
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JAN
16
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
16
Hollywood’s Asian whitewash Two of Japanese popular culture’s biggest exports to the United States, manga and anime, have brought that culture to a much wider audience. But when those art forms make the leap to the major motion picture, Asian American actors are strangely in short supply. Stephanie Siek of CNN reports on how Asian pop culture without Asians is, to quote one scholar, “an affront to their identity.” See Movies Cover: VIZ Media LLC
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JAN
16
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
16
Bald, beautiful Barbie? A Facebook movement is on to create a "Bald Barbie" as a role model for young girls experiencing the rigors of chemotherapy or the trauma of hair loss conditions such as alopecia. Diane Mapes reports at msnbc.com Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy.
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JAN
09
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
09
Brazil: Diplo on tecno brega With the World Cup coming in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, Brazil is about to blow up in a big way. The nation of 203 million people is in the midst of reinvention – some of it in a bubbling, vibrant music scene. Writing for Vanity Fair, the musicologist and electronica artist Diplo surveys the emerging tecno brega sound (“industrial reggaeton on crystal meth”) as distilled in the music of the group Banda UO. See the slideshowPhoto: Candy Mel by Shane McCauley for Vanity Fair
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JAN
09
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
09
Derring-do in World War II It’s been years in the making, but Red Tails, George Lucas’ long-planned story of the Tuskegee fighter pilots in World War II, is finally leaving the hangar. The film stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston and Ne-Yo, and was written by John Ridley (Three Kings) and Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks. It lands in theaters Jan. 20. Give the trailer a test flight: Red Tails logo: © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox/Lucasfilm Ltd.
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JAN
09
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
09
China turns off the TV The country with the most television viewers in the world – about 1.2 billion people – has officially cut broadcast of entertainment content by about two-thirds, in accordance with a government campaign meant to reduce the impact of “vulgar” reality shows and programming of “low taste.” BBC News reports. See Television .
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JAN
09
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
09
Guessing the Grammys The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2012 Grammy Awards early last month. The actual presentation of the awards goes down early next month (Feb. 12, to be exact). To give Grammy handicappers something to do the rest of this month, PopMatters offers early predictions of who'll walk away with the golden gramophone. Image: © 2012 National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
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JAN
03
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
03
Jesmyn Ward: The next Toni Morrison? With her second and highly personal novel (Salvage the Bones), the 34-year-old author has won the National Book Award, and the attention of a literary world more accustomed to successful authors of majority culture. The novelist talks with Keli Goff of Loop21 about her book, the future and issues with The Help. In WordPhoto: Via Loop21
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JAN
03
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
JAN
03
And still Sharpton rises Four months after the launch of PoliticsNation on MSNBC, the Rev. Al Sharpton is helping the network solidify its progressive bona fides. In The Root, Michael E. Ross reports on how he also represents the emergence “of minority voices finally starting to achieve critical mass in the American commentariat.” In TelevisionPhoto: MSNBC via The New York Times
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DEC
31
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
DEC
31
In with the new, on with the show Top talents across the musical spectrum will heat up concert halls across the country this weekend. For some, a New Year’s gig will be a homecoming, a chance to reconnect with fans who were present at the creation. Some will parlay a good time with a good cause. But they’ll all be out in force in the service of Auld Lang Syne. MSN surveys the fieldPhoto: Cage the Elephant: © Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage, via MSN
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DEC
28
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
DEC
28
L.A.: Joe Bodolai dead at 63 The comedy writer who wrote for NBC’s Saturday Night Live in its infancy, and who was a producer of the successful Canadian comedy series The Kids in the Hall, was found dead on Monday in a hotel room, an apparent suicide. CBC News reports Globe and Mail: “Helped by the wide circulation of the remarkable last post Bodolai left on his blog, his death has emerged as an object lesson about life in an impossible profession.” Read the appreciationPhoto: Via The Globe and Mail
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DEC
23
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
DEC
23
Late night with ... the candidates Used to be presidential hopefuls made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Sunday-morning politics talk shows to get their points across. Used to be. Now, candidates are heading for the younger audiences (and generally friendlier confines) of the late-night talk shows. Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times reports. In Television Short Sharp Shock: Jon Huntsman, still rockin’ after all these yearsPhoto: CBS/Worldwide Pants
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DEC
21
By:
Michael E. Ross
on
DEC
21
‘The Muslims Are Coming’ In post-9/11 America, “Muslim” is too often perceived as a dirty word, with Islam’s adherents often subject to slurs, discrimination, or worse in the wake of that terrorist attack and the two wars that followed. But four Muslim comedians touring the Deep South are working to promote cultural understanding with open minds, courage and the ultimate weapon: self-deprecating and enlightening comedy from the standup stage. NBC’s Harry Smith reports: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Photo: Dean Obeidallah, from "Rock Center With Brian Williams" © 2011 NBC News
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