Psidream and Mechwarrior & other: June 2008

Monday, 23 June 2008

Lydon blasts "humourless" Coldplay

John Lydon has launched a scathing attack on Coldplay, calling the group "utterly humourless".

Speaking to The Sun, the lead singer of the Sex Pistols also described their music as joyless.

He said: "I pity the poor bastards who have to watch them. They are utterly humourless.

"I met them a few years ago, said hello and realised they were just men in anoraks. They looked like a gang of little poncey masturbators.

"There is no fun, they don't offer joy. Their music has a couple of quite nice tones here and there but it's a box of tosh sold to slightly inadequate, half-baked people."

Lydon, who headlined the Isle of Wight Festival with the Sex Pistols at the weekend, also discussed the group's plans to record a new album.

"There could be a new record. That would be nice," Lydon said. "But I won't do anything in a patronising way. The music, the subject and the attitude all have to be right at the same time. Everything has to be from the heart."

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Monday, 16 June 2008

Lockup

Artist: Lockup

   Genre(s):
Metal: Death,Black

Discography:

Hate Breeds Suffering

Year: 2002
Tracks: 16

Pleasures Pave Sewers

Year: 1999
Tracks: 13

"Indiana Jones" unearths more gold at box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The massively hyped "Indiana Jones" movie whipped up an impressive $56 million in its first two days of release across North America, its distributor said on Saturday, but will struggle to break industry records during the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend.

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the first film in the adventure series to hit the big screen in 19 years, earned an estimated $31 million on Friday, according to Paramount Pictures.

A day earlier, it opened amid mixed reviews to $25 million -- the fourth highest-grossing Thursday debut on record. The industry, suffering a tepid year so far, is seizing on such benchmarks as early signs of a recovery. The second-day tally ranked more modestly at No. 15 for Friday sales, according to Box Office Mojo, which analyzes movie sales data.

"Indiana Jones," reuniting actor Harrison Ford as the eponymous archeologist, director Steven Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas, also opened in 61 foreign countries on the heels of its glitzy world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last Sunday. Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, did not have early foreign returns.

In North America, industry observers expect "Indiana Jones" to earn more than $150 million in its first five days.

Comparisons with the record-holder for the Memorial Day weekend, last year's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," are a little difficult. The third film in the swashbuckler franchise also opened on a Thursday -- but in the evening, whereas "Indiana Jones" screened for a full day. Ticket prices have also risen since then.

Still, "Pirates" also managed to earn $56 million for the two-day period, on its way to $153 million for the five days through Monday. The five-day record is held by "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," which opened to $173 million in 2005, a week before the Memorial Day holiday in 2005.

"Indiana Jones" siphoned off some of the audience from last week's leader, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," which opened to a disappointing $55 million last weekend.

Sunday, 8 June 2008

Erik Norlander

Artist: Erik Norlander

   Genre(s):
Rock
   Electronic

Discography:

Threshold

Year: 2007
Tracks: 8

Seas Of Orion

Year: 2004
Tracks: 6

Music Machine ( CD2-2)

Year: 2003
Tracks: 10

Music Machine ( CD1-2)

Year: 2003
Tracks: 11

Into The Sunset

Year:
Tracks: 12

Friday, 6 June 2008

Clooney jokes about fight with model

Hollywood star George Clooney has joked about his alleged feud with Italian male model Fabio.
Media reports claimed that the pair exchanged words in a restaurant recently, with Fabio later saying that he could beat Clooney in a physical fight.
In an interview with Esquire magazine, Clooney said of the comments: "Yeah, that's probably true. He's a big guy."
"There is a moment when you are actually in the argument and you're thinking, 'If I do get beaten down by Fabio, that will be far worse than the pain.' I wouldn't shake that."

World Of Music

Artist: World Of Music

   Genre(s):
Instrumental

Discography:

The Andes

Year: 2001
Tracks: 20

Gareth Gates voted off Dancing on Ice

Avril Lavigne to launch her own perfume

Fancy smelling like a Sk8er Boi? You may indeed have a chance, as next year punk brat Avril Lavigne launches her own perfume.

The Canadian singer has inked a deal with that fragrance house of renown - Procter & Gamble. The first bottles are expected to hit stores (and then Costcutter bargain bins) in the autumn of 2009.

Lavigne, who evokes for us the scent of bubblegum and vinegar, said that she was delighted "to be working with Procter & Gamble on releasing my first fragrance. Creating this fragrance is a fun process and I am looking forward to sharing it with everyone."

Parents will be happy to learn that the line of fragrances will be targeted at the early-teens market. Soon, every little girl will be able to spritz some punk-pop perfume and go scampering into the arms of a Sum 41 member.

Lavigne does, however, have some of the most fashionable 11-year-old fans around. Madonna and Guy Ritchie's daughter, Lourdes, was spotted at the pipsqueak punk's gig in London on Wednesday.

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Lindsay Sloane joins 'Orgy'

Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte among comedy cast

Lindsay Sloane has been cast as one of the female leads in "A Good Old Fashioned Orgy."

The Endgame Entertainment comedy stars Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte and Leslie Bibb and follows a 30-year-old man who is forced to grow up when his parents decide to sell the family vacation home and enlists his friends to throw one final party: an orgy.

Sloane will play a high school teacher who has found religion and is trying to get her friends to go to Bible study but ends up going to the orgy.

Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory are directing "Orgy," which is being produced by James Stern and Wendy Japhet.

Sloane, repped by Endeavor and Thruline, is in production on "She's Out of My League" and will next be seen in the upcoming in "The Six Wives of Henry Lefay." She recently starred in "The TV Set."

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Eddie Murphy To Make Beverly Hills Cop 4?

Eddie Murphy is set to return as Axel Foley in a new Beverly Hills Cop movie, according to latest reports.

The comic actor will pair up with director Brett Ratner to bring audiences a fourth instalment of the popular 1980s series.

It is hoped the film will be shot next year in time for a 2010 release, reports industry publication Variety.

If the project does go ahead, Murphy will be following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford who recently reprised his role in Indiana Jones.

Would you like to see Axel Foley make a comeback? Be sure to leave your comments below.

Sydney Pollack Dies at 73

Acclaimed director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack has died of cancer. He was 73.

According to the AP, quoting Pollack's agent Leslee Dart, Pollack died Monday afternoon (5/26/08) at his home in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by family and friends.

Though Sydney Pollack started out as an actor and acting coach and later ended his career doubling producer duties with cameo and supporting roles, it was as a director that Pollack will probably best be remembered. His films had the sheen of the Golden Era of Hollywood, even though most were made in the `70s and `80s. They also spanned genres and included The Way We Were (`73), Three Days of the Condor (`75), The Electric Horseman (`79), Tootsie (`82), culminating in what was arguably his greatest success, Out of Africa (`85).

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born on July 1, 1934, in Lafayette and raised in South Bend, Indiana. He developed a love of acting at South Bend High School and went straight to New York and the Neighborhood Playhouse School for Theater. There, Sanford Meisner took him under his wing, first as a student and then as his assistant. Pollack received favorable marks from his students, which included Robert Duvall and Rip Torn, and Claire Griswold, a former pupil whom Pollack married and remained married to for 50 years.

His time at the Neighborhood Playhouse was destined not to last as long and, under the encouragement of director John Frankenheimer and nudging from Burt Lancaster, Pollack began directing. He started out small, in television shows such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Ben Casey.

He soon branched out into feature filmmaking. His first was The Slender Thread, starring Anne Bancroft and Sydney Poitier in a story about a desperate woman and the suicide hotline volunteer who attempts to keep her on the line while waiting for the police to find her.

The film fared poorly, both critically and financially, as, to a lesser extent, did Pollack's second feature, 1966's This Property Is Condemned, based upon a Tennessee Williams play (with a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola). It featured Natalie Wood as a girl desperate to break out of her small town who sets her sights and hopes on a traveling railroad official and company hatchet man, played by Robert Redford. Property was the start of a lifelong association and friendship with Redford; Pollack would direct Redford in seven films in total, including some of his most famous.

His first success came with the depression-era The Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which followed the characters involved in a grueling dance marathon. It starred Jane Fonda and shattered her American image as a comely ingénue or a sex kitten and established her as a serious actress once and for all. She received her first Oscar nomination for the part.

Most actors benefited from appearing in a Pollack film. Twelve actors received Oscar nominations after being in one of his movies, including Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, and Dustin Hoffman. He was no stranger to the Academy himself. He was nominated three times for Best Director (Horses and Tootsie, winning for Out of Africa). Oddly enough, Redford never received a nomination for any of the multiply-lauded films in which he starred for Pollack.

Industry recognition was just part of his success. His films were also profitable at the box office. Hits included Horses, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman and The Firm.

Out of Africa was where everything gelled. It had an enormous canvas, an epic scope, a glorious score, luscious cinematography and two superstars (Redford and Streep) in the leads. The film was nominated for 11 awards, picking up seven including Best Picture and Director.

He had misses too. Havana, Random Hearts and Sabrina were the rare examples of critical and commercial failures.

Producing became a passion for him after this string of misfires. Along with the late Anthony Minghella, who died earlier this year during a throat operation, Pollack created Mirage Enterprises. The shop produced The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. But Mirage represented just a smattering of Pollack's producing duties, which also included Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Quiet American, Michael Clayton and the HBO film, Recount.

In recent years Pollack also specialized in the role of the powerful corporate or societal patriarch, one willing to lay down the law or to teach the hard truths of life to the protagonist. He played variations of it in Eyes Wide Shut, Changing Lanes and Michael Clayton and created what can only be described as avuncular malevolence, inspiring fear and awe while exuding a tinge of mercy. It was the stature of Pollack in the industry itself and his commanding presence on and off the screen that lent the roles their gravitas. They sprang from the man himself.

Pollack is survived by his wife, Claire; two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel; his brother Bernie; and six grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Steven, who died in 1993 in a plane crash in Santa Monica.

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