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June 2007
Friday Open Post — Pre-Fourth
It’s — maybe — a pre-Fourth of July weekend coming up and it’ll be a plus if the sun that’s shining now, Friday afternoon, does more of the same over the next few days.
Got anything on your entertainment mind to share? Bummed out by concerts cancelled or relocated due to high waters and rain? Planning to see National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry talk about his work Saturday afternoon at MCC? Preparing bikes and wagons for Fourth of July parades? It’s your time, our (symbolic) dime.
Others on my soapboxes
The value of the arts and of public libraries are two of my soapboxes and it’s nice to see others using their bully pulpits to promote them.
Here’s National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia giving a commencement address at Stanford University on the former and radio host/writer Garrison Keillor advocating the latter in a Salon.com essay.
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You say Hollywood Jewel, we say — er, Hollywood Jewel
Some of you may have noticed the change in our movie listings last week when Wallace Jewel 16 quietly morphed into Hollywood Jewel 16. For those who’ve wondered why we consistently referred to Wallace Jewel 16 when the outdoor signage clearly had “Hollywood Theatres” in big letters, here’s the back story.
When Oregon-based Wallace Theaters bought out many of Hollywood Theaters’ properties back in 1999, I called its corporate offices to determine what they wanted to call the theater and was told Wallace Jewel 16. That’s the way they had it for several years on their recorded phone messages and that’s the way we had it, even though Hollywood was on the theater’s exterior and in their advertising.
Well, times and management minds change. We received an email from their marketing team earlier this month, asking for a change online and in print back to Hollywood Jewel 16.
And there you have it.
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Waco-based “American Messiah” soon on DVD
This just in from Baylor film prof/director Chris Hansen: His film The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah will be available on DVD at such retailers as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble Booksellers and through Netflix, beginning this fall. The locally-shot movie, which made its theatrical debut this spring at American Film Institute Festival in Dallas, will also be available in the future through digital download.
Hansen’s film, made possible through lots of support at Baylor and Waco, is becoming the Little Film That Could - a low-budget film now with national distribution. Hats off for the hard work there.
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“American Idol” hits Dallas - get ready
The auditions for “American Idol’s” seventh season have been announced, with Dallas as one of seven cities where tryouts will take place. More details will follow later, but the Dallas auditions are scheduled for Aug. 6 at Texas Stadium (yes, I know that’s in Irving, but there you go) with registration Aug. 4 and 5.
So, if you’re between 16 and 28 years old and think you’ve got singing talent (or at least a repertoire of offbeat hair styles), you’ve got about a month to get into shape.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Music
Music videos?
I’m trying to get back in shape, and so I have been spending more time at the gym, particularly on the treadmill.
However, 30 minutes of walking without a change of scenery gets boring, so I’ve started downloading music videos onto my iPod to help pass the time.
I’m bringing this up because I could use some help. I don’t watch MTV — I never have time — and so could use suggestions of good music videos to include in my routine. My current faves are the videos to Three Days’ Grace’s “Pain” and to 30 Seconds to Mars’ “The Kill.”
Any suggestions are welcome!
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Open post time!
It’s time once again for an open post, a place where you can share your thoughts on almost any entertainment topic.
Going to see Evan Almighty, A Mighty Heart or 1408 this weekend? Or how about REO Speedwagon? Perhaps you want to talk Harry Potter? Or Paris Hilton? This is the place for you.
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This week’s new movies
Three new movies hit Waco’s theaters this week: Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty, which stars Steve Carell as a modern-day Noah and Morgan Freeman as God; the horror movie 1408, based on a Stephen King story and starring John Cusack; and the true story A Mighty Heart, starring Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, whose journalist husband, Daniel, was kidnapped in Pakistan toward the beginning of the war on terror.
Looks like a little something for everyone this week.
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Predicting Harry Potter’s final chapter
INTERACTIVE GAME
In conjunction with our multimedia game in which we’re asking Harry Potter fans to rank the characters most likely to die in the final volume of the series, due to arrive next month, we’re providing a thread here for you Potter buffs to share your conjectures about what will happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Will Harry live in his fight against Lord Voldemort? Will he find the parent supposedly still alive? How about friends Ron and Hermione?
For those of you obsessed about solving the plot threads of this saga - and you know who you are - step up and share your solutions.
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Made-in-Waco film making
Yes, that was a camera crew seen in Bellmead, Hewitt, Waco and Robinson last week and it was shooting real actors in a real (short) film.
The movie, with the working title Prescription, is from a short story by Baylor English professor and author Greg Garrett and directed by Baylor film professor, Joe Kickasola.
It’s only about 20 minutes long and in HD Video, but uses a mix of professional and amateur actors. In a nutshell, a widowed, small town pharmacist schemes revenge on the man his wife had an affair with, but a new piece of information turns his plans around and he must decide between revenge and forgiveness.
With the theater debuts of filmed-in-Waco Broke Sky and The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah last year, and with the future premiere of the zombie film Risen still ahead, someone could assemble a Waco film fest …
Waco: We Do Films. Just a thought …
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Pythons and “Spam-A-Lot”
“Spam-A-Lot,” the Broadway musical inspired by the gloriously loony comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, opens its two-week Dallas Summer Musicals run Tuesday, June 19, at Dallas’ Fair Park Music Hall.
Monty Python is the British comedy troupe whose BBC program (er, programme) became a television cult classic on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1960s and 1970s.
Give Python fans an inch and they’ll silly walk a mile. As a tie-in to “Spam-A-Lot’s” opening, the Grapevine Anglophile store British Emporium is sponsoring a “Weekend of Monty Python Madness” this weekend.
On tap, for the benefit of Waco-area Pythonites inclined to make the drive:
- The first annual general meeting of The Monty Python Appreciation Society with a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, complete with accompaniment by the Texas All-Coconut Orchestra, 6 to 9 tonight, June 15.
- Live in-store performances of Python skits, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 16.
- Argument Clinic open, noon-3 p.m., $3 per argument, Saturday, June 16.
- Gumby Flower Arranging and SPAM Cooking Demonstration, 12:15-12:45 p.m. Saturday.
- Have Your Photo Taken With a Viking, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
- Monty Python Sing-A-Long, 4:45 p.m. Saturday.
- Father’s Day “Dads in Plaid” with store discounts given for those dressed as lumberjacks or mounties.
If you’re more into silliness at your computer, though, the DSM’s “Spam-A-Lot” ticket site offers songs from the musical, the secret password for discounted student tickets (“Rabbit” - wink wink nudge nudge) and a cow-tossing game.
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Art movie alert - “Waitress” arrives Friday
If this week’s big movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer doesn’t shake your popcorn, you might check out the indy movie Waitress that’s getting some buzz this spring and coming to Waco this Friday.
The film follows a waitress (a glowing Keri Russell) caught in a bad marriage, an unexpected pregnancy and an affair with a handsome doctor. She also has a flair for pie-making and her emotional states inspire her pie creations (shades of Like Water For Chocolate).
Anyway, it’s a smaller, quirky film in a summer of lumbering blockbusters and easily lost in the shuffle - hence the notice here. It opens at Starplex Galaxy 16.
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Baylor’s “Sylvia” — it’s a dog’s laugh
Dog-lovers and those married to them will nod understandingly at the laughs in the Baylor Theatre production of A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia,” which continues tonight and Saturday (June 8 and 9) at 7:30 p.m. in Theater 11 inside Baylor’s Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
The three-person comedy, directed by grad student Amber Jackson, explores the tensions that result when unhappy New York stocks trader Greg (a sympathetic Patrick Matzig) picks up an exuberant stray lab-poodle mix named Sylvia (Mary Laws) during a walk through the park. Much to the chagrin of his academic wife Kate (Meredith Owens), on the verge of advancing her career after their kids have left for college, Greg devotes more time and energy to the dog than her.
With a floppy energy and puppylike immediacy, Laws provided much of the play’s comedy on opening night, whether it’s her calculated attempts to foil Kate and sneak on the couch or her cat-triggered profane outbursts. She’s aided by clever costuming touches such as pigtails, hair ribbons and matching owner-dog outfits, as well as Gurney’s witty script.
Next to Laws as Sylvia, the evening’s biggest laughs came from Sam Hough’s assortment of odd characters - dog-owning Tom who’s free with Bronx-accented advice on the perils of dog-owning; prim socialite Phyllis, with her goldfish-loving husband; and the androgynous therapist Leslie.
As the cool and orderly Kate, Owens has the least sympathetic character, but she does manage to win a measure of the audience’s regard by comedy’s end.
Strong language and some sexual references - particularly when Sylvia goes into heat - make “Sylvia” more suited for older audiences, but it’s an entertaining production and proof that movies and television haven’t cornered the market on laughs.
Tickets cost $10. Call the Baylor Theatre box office at 710-1865 for information.
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Friday Open Post amended — Paris back in jail
This just in: Paris goes back to jail.
Paris screaming, her mother sobbing - reads just like a TV script, doesn’t it?
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Friday Open Post — Steamed about Paris? Offended by “Knocked Up”?
Time for our weekly Open Post in which you can comment about anything that’s on your mind in the world of local entertainment or beyond.
Let me toss out some blogging chum:
Is anyone surprised that Paris Hilton’s jail time may already be done? Are we abetting her no-talent career by pretending outrage over “celebrity justice”?
Turning to the hot comedy of the month, Knocked Up, the Trib has received some letters angry that a movie could get such an unsuitable title for public consumption. It reminds me a little of the irritation I heard from some local Brits when Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me came out several years ago, a title that barely caused a ripple among American moviegoers, but which deeply offended some English natives who grew up hearing “shag” in a different, non-public context. What do you think? Does Knocked Up cross a line?
Club Legacy plans Tony Thompson tribute for Friday
SLIDE SHOW
Club Legacy owner Melvin Thomas has booked Al Pena and his Full Flavor band for a special Friday night show in the memory of Tony Thompson. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. at the club, 100 Mill Street, and there’s a $8 cover charge.
No details on this yet, but I understand there’s also a larger memorial service planned for the Waco Convention Center on Saturday.
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Thoughts on Tony Thompson
SLIDE SHOW
It’s been about 17 years since I first met Tony Thompson and the rest of the group known as Hi-Five. He was only 15 at the time and I did most of my talking with Robert Ford, then the group’s manager/promoter. They were learning some last-minute choreography days before starting off on tour and looked a little rough around the edges. Little did I know that within a year Hi-Five would have a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts to their credit, the first national No. 1 hit with a Waco connection since Billy Walker’s country hit “Cross the Brazos at Waco.”
Thompson’s sweet, smooth vocals and camera-loving charm were key parts of Hi-Five’s success and some, including several at the quintet’s home label Jive Records, thought them cast in the mold of New Edition. That quick fame tapered in a few years, however, whether due to the car accident that tragically injured Roderick “Pooh” Clark, the stratospheric rise of Jive Records’ R. Kelly, a hard-to-sustain marketing momentum for teenage performers or Waco’s bout with global notoriety in 1993.
Thompson went solo around that time, first on Giant Records, later on Bad Boy Records, hobnobbing with some of the top hip-hop and rap producers of the 1990s including Teddy Riley and Sean “Diddy” Combs. But every once in awhile word would trickle back through the Waco grapevine of Thompson’s propensity to party and perhaps party with the wrong crowd.
There was a nasty legal suit over child support concerning a son he’d fathered when young, a move from New York to Dallas where he tried his hand at his own record label and his attempt to launch a new Hi-Five. But fame for the talented Thompson never came as easily as an adult as it did when he was the heart-throb for millions of middle-school and high-school girls.
I talked with him by phone back in November before he was to perform at Club Legacy. He was optimistic about his future. He’d mended fences with his son, who was performing with him, talked about a new album in the works and even a reunion of the old Hi-Five crew.
All of that ended Friday night when his dead body was found outside at a Waco apartment complex. Within hours, word was posted on the Internet that it was a suspected drug overdose; an official determination of the cause of his death is pending an autopsy.
His death at 31 is sad regardless of how it came. The songs posted on his MySpace page show a warm, smooth voice that holds its own with many of the rhythm-and-blues and hip-hop singers on the charts today. Judging from comments found on many fan sites this weekend, Thompson holds a special place in the hearts of many fans who remember him as the sweet, charming Lil’ Tony.
Part of mourning lies in sharing one’s memories. Friends, family and fans who’d like to remember Tony, feel free to share your own thoughts here.
Permalink | Comments (90) | Categories: Music
Hank and Johnny — sweet memories
It was gratifying to see a full house at McLennan Community College’s Bosque River Stage last night for the pairing of Waco music legends Hank Thompson and Johnny Gimble, backed by Johnny’s band Texas Swing.
Fiddler Gimble opened the evening with a set of western swing standards (“Roly Poly”), his stuff (“Under the X in Texas”) and light jazz/swing (“Honeysuckle Rose,” with granddaughter Emily leading on keyboards and vocals). Gimble’s fiddle and mandolin work was as sweet as ever, even if he and the band seemed to be making their playlist up on the fly.
Hank entered the stage about an hour later, walking with a claw foot cane, and playing his guitar while seated. He ran through his hits — “Humpty Dumpty Heart,” “Wild Side of Life,” “Whoa Sailor,” “Six-Pack To Go” — although sometime in a phrasing shorthand that left Texas Swing scrambling to follow.
It didn’t matter to the crowd — one of the largest I’ve seen at the BRS — who seemed content to watch some longtime musical heroes still playing live and jostling warm and welcome memories. There was a whiff of the bittersweet as well, an unspoken realization that with both famed Texas musicians at 81 years of age, seeing the two of them together was a moment not to miss.
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‘Harry Potter’ film moves up date
Don’t know why a Wednesday opening rather than a Friday one would matter in the middle of summer, but Warner Brothers has moved up the date for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the film of Book 5 in the series, to July 11.
The final Book 7 of the Harry Potter series, as all good Muggle Potterphiles know, arrives July 21. Maybe Warner Brothers wanted to add two more days to the movie’s run knowing that once the book comes out, more Potter fans will be reading than going to see the movie of the book released four years ago.
