Monday, 30 June 2008

Tyler Perry - Perry Distances Himself From Cousins Film


Actor/director TYLER PERRY has threatened legal action against his producer cousin MARLON CAMPBELL - after he used the star's name to help promote his own film OBLIVIOUS.

Campbell claims Perry's lawyers sent him a letter warning him against name-dropping to try and raise the profile of his own movie.

According to website TMZ.com, the letter says any connection linking Perry to Oblivious is "intentionally misleading" and "wrongfully infringes up the economic value of Mr. Perry".





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Mike Judge compiles the weird and wacky for "The Animation Show 4"

Touring programs of short films are an endangered species in the age of Internet distribution, but Mike Judge continues to nurture a theatrical audience for independent animation. Not surprisingly, the creator of "Beavis & Butt-head" and Fox's long-running animated sitcom "King of the Hill" compiles his annual "Animation Show" with an emphasis on outré comedy for grown-ups who refuse to grow up.



Featuring more than two dozen works from around the world, "The Animation Show 4" includes a few artistically redeeming shorts for a touch of class, but goofy mayhem still gets top priority. Judge has also commissioned four original works exclusively for this year's program, each reflecting the seemingly unlimited variety of techniques and styles that have become a staple of Judge's yearly compilations.



Even when you account for juvenile trifles like "Yompi the Lovable Crotch-Biting Sloup," it's an entertaining showcase for ingenuity, beginning with Joel Trussell's wacky "Show Opener," a manic tribute to heavy-metal air guitar.



"Yompi," the brainchild of clay animator Corky Quackenbush, resembles a yellow mutation of the Pillsbury doughboy. In three separate one-minute shorts, this paunchy little charmer snuggles up to his victims, batting his puppy-dog eyes before baring a mouthful of nasty-looking fangs and chomping his favorite part of the human anatomy. Resistance is futile: Your inner 12-year-old will be laughing out loud.



Commissioned from Australian animator Dave Carter, three one-minute "Psychotown" shorts are equally childish but irresistibly hilarious, using simple cutout figures in a staccato barrage of nonsensical dialogue and wanton absurdity. In stark contrast, the humor from award-winning British animator Matthew Walker is perfectly droll and understated: "Operator" features a young man's pleasant phone chat with God, while "John and Karen" presents the amusingly low-key reunion of an unlikely couple: a polar bear and a penguin.



Steve Dildarian's "Angry Unpaid Hooker" is the basis of a new, 10-episode animated series premiering this fall on HBO ("The Life and Times of Tim"), employing simple animation and deadpan dialogue as the main character must explain the presence of a cranky prostitute to his disapproving girlfriend.



France's Gobelins School of Animation is the source of several new works from gifted young animation students, the most impressive being "Voodoo," in which an overconfident adventurer becomes the unwitting pawn of a mischievous witch doctor. France is also represented by "Raymond," a zany dose of slapstick in which a lazy swimming instructor is jostled about like a toy on a string, the unwitting guinea pig in an experiment involving high-velocity manipulation of his body.



Some of the best shorts in "The Animation Show 4" are computer-generated marvels like "This Way Up," commissioned from the celebrated animation team of Smith & Foulkes. But there's also the poetic, low-tech simplicity of "Forgetfulness" (an effectively grungy meditation on fleeting memory), the stop-motion cleverness of "Western Spaghetti" (in which everyday objects become the ingredients of a colorful meal) and the geometrically abstract swirl of colors and shapes in the Swiss short "Jeu" (also shown at SIFF earlier this month).



Tim Burton fans will love "This Way Up," a visually inventive, madcap Gothic tale of two undertakers and a decidedly uncooperative corpse. The use of CGI to resemble old-school animation is further indication that all kinds of animation are thriving with the introduction of new and increasingly accessible technology.



Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net








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Bustin' Down the Door

BUSTIN? DOWN THE DOOR chronicles a tumultuous two-year period of competitive and cultural clashes in the mid-Seventies in surfing's Mecca - Hawaii's North Shore of Oahu - as a small crew of Australians and South Africans set out with attitude and determination to change the world of surfing.

Radiohead live album for sale on iTunes

Release coincides with band's U.K. outdoor gigs





LONDON -- Radiohead has released a live video album exclusively on iTunes to coincide with the band's run of U.K. outdoor concerts.
"In Rainbows -- From the Basement", released Tuesday, features the band performing their current album at the Hospital studio in London's Covent Garden.
Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich is behind the "From The Basement" music TV show, which screens on digital satellite channel Sky Arts in the U.K. and online at FromTheBasement.tv. In the U.S., VH1 showed selections from the Radiohead Hospital performance on May 3.
The iTunes release sells for £6.99 ($13.80) in the U.K., and will be available to customers across a raft of the online music store's international stores.
The footage features live performances from the international No. 1 album "In Rainbows", with the exception of "Faust Arp" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place". There are also renditions of "Bangers + Mash" and "Go Slowly" from the bonus disc included with the deluxe discbox edition of the album.
The filming was directed by David Barnard and was completed in one day. Godrich took charge of the sound during the recording.
Radiohead plays a second night at London's Victoria Park (Wednesday), followed by dates at Glasgow Green (Friday) and Manchester Lancashire County Cricket Club (Sunday).

EMI Music, Welk Music Group ink deal

EMI will handle Welk's sales, distribution





NEW YORK -- EMI Music and Welk Music Group have signed a distribution deal. The major will handle sales and distribution services for Welk's digital and physical releases. The deal covers all territories.
The pact also covers licensing and synchronization services, which EMI will provide on a nonexclusive basis.
Welk Music Group includes labels such as Vanguard, Sugar Hill and Ranwood.

Old School Punk At Warped

Classic punk bands including Fear and The Germs are set to perform on the newly added "Old School" stage at select West Coast dates of the Vans Warped Tour [ tickets ] 2008. Additional "Old School" bands include Agent Orange, Big Drill Car, The Dickies, D.I., H2O, M.I.A. And T.S.O.L., according to a press release.The "Old School" stage will be featured Aug. 14 at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, CA; Aug. 15 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA; Aug. 16 at Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Wheatland, CA; and at the tour's final stop, Aug. 18 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.

Guitar heroines: Axe-makers, accessories play to girls' fashions

It’s hard to imagine Joe Perry strumming with a Tinkerbell pick or Slash rocking out on a daisy-shaped axe. But the guitar is taking on a decidedly feminine tone thanks to instruments and accessories geared toward girls.
“We had guitar picks in the shapes of skulls and things for guys, but my teenage daughter said, ‘Dad, what are you going to do for the girls?’ Girls like to rock, too,” said Stephen Key, creator of Hot Picks USA. “She said ‘You should match picks to the fashions that girls are wearing.’ ”
Thus, the Girls Rock line - including plaid, polka-dot and candy-heart designs - was born two years ago after Key found up to half of guitar students at schools and stores he talked with were girls. Hot Picks has expanded “girl” options to Tinkerbell, “High School Musical,” Taylor Swift and others, and this year rolls out make-your-own jewelry kits.



“Picks aren’t only for guitar players - they’re a lifestyle product. People like to collect them, play with them, wear them,” said Key.
Ten-year-old guitar student Haley Hauck of Sherborn says girls - even those who don’t play it - like the instrument because “there are so many designs and guitars just look cool.”
“When I shop, I always see tees and earrings and stuff like that. I think they’re really cool and I’m going to get some,” Hauck said.
Robin Hauck says her daughter “has definitely always loved guitar or rock ’n’ roll-themed clothes. Since she loves pop music so much she clearly associates musicians with fashion. Musicians are cutting-edge, daring, cool and stylish, so she wants to emulate them.”
That admiration is about more than fashion. Haley Hauck has taken guitar lessons at Natick’s Allegro Music School for almost three years, where director Doina Simovici says the size of the program has doubled in five years thanks in part to more female students.
“Young people feel the need to express themselves and music is a great way to do it,” said Simovici. “Children turn 11 or 12 one day, and guess what - they look to the guitar to express themselves. Especially the girls.”
Joel Paul, manager of Guitar Center in Danvers, agrees. “Especially in the past five years or so, after Avril Lavigne got popular, we’ve definitely seen a steady increase in the number of young girls who want to come in here and play all sorts of guitars,” he said.
One of his best-selling guitar lines is Daisy Rock, designed just for girls. The instruments are shaped like hearts, flowers and stars, are lighter weight and have slimmer necks than traditional guitars, making them easier for girls to handle.
“I think it gets them excited to play, number one, because the styling is geared toward girls, and because physically it’s easier,” Paul said. “For any beginner, it’s a rite of passage making your hand do these things it’s not meant to do. If we can alleviate any of that by at least putting an instrument that’s the appropriate size in someone’s hands, that’s going to help.”
If sales of flower power are any indication, guitars may not just be toys for boys anymore.
“The Daisy Rocks are extremely popular. We can barely keep them in,” Paul said.
OUR PICKS
Guitars are more popular for girls than ever before, but the music’s not the only thing making a statement - axe-themed fashions are selling faster than tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. Here are a few playful options: