Emmanuel Itier: Was this character in Hamlet 2 a very irresistible character for you to play?

Steve Coogan: I wouldn’t say irresistible. I was something of two minds about it. I thought it was very funny, and he was a very interesting character. Whether I had the chops to do it, as you say — whether I was capable of doing it, I thought, was a bit of a question in my mind.

EI: Why was that?

SC: Well, because it’s quite different from things I’ve done before and movies I’d done before. I tend to play people who are not very nice, basically, and Dana Marschz might be foolish and make stupid choices a lot of the time, but he’s basically a nice person who’s trying to do the right thing, and that’s not normally what I play. So that part of me was a little nervous about it.

EI: He’s also a man full of the kinds of insecurities I suspect that actors go through on a regular basis. Could you identify with that facet of the character?

SC: Oh, sure. Especially when you live around that all the time when you do what I do. So you see other people being guilty of it. I myself am sometimes guilty of it, but that’s just like these inward-looking neuroses. So there’s a load of stuff we’ve got to tap into…without doing much research — put it that way.

EI: What ended up being particularly challenging? Playing the character, I guess, during the finale of the movie, where you finally have to play these kind of Shakespearean characters seriously, as it were, but at the same time parroting them?

SC: Well, that’s a tough spot. The whole thing, to be honest, is trying to do both those things — trying to be both mocking and playing for a laugh, and at the same time being the very thing that you’re laughing at and actually giving it some emotional truth. Trying to square those things is a tough thing — trying to get the balance right so that people care. You don’t want it just to be a comedy movie, and you don’t want it to have one of those third acts where there’s nothing funny going on because lots of people are patting each other on the back and shaking hands and talking about life. It’s all about getting the balance right.

EI: You wouldn’t have done this, I wouldn’t imagine, if it didn’t have a sense of humanity about it, would you?

SC: I think you probably could have done the movie, but it might have worked on a kind of comic level, if you ramped up the comedy. But it wouldn’t have been very satisfying. I think it’s possible to do a movie like that, but you want to bring something extra to it. I think, for me, it’s what makes the film charming. It’s not cynical. The film becomes like the character. At first, the audience, and the film itself, is almost mocking the character. And then the film, as it were, becomes more like him. The film and he are one thing together at the end. The characters have a similar sort of attitude. The film is the cynic and he’s the innocent, passionate…and then the film becomes much less cynical, and I love that about it.

EI: How surprised are you, Steve, that your career has taken off in leaps and bounds? I mean, you’ve been doing this, obviously, a long time. Are you surprised at how your career has kind of undergone this metamorphosis?

SC: Well, it’s very difficult to say yes or no to that. You try to keep doing the same thing and you know that some things work and some things don’t. And sometimes things come along and you go, “Oh, I need this.” You have to find the right thing. Like most of us, I thought, “I just need the right thing to do, and I’ll be able to show people how good I am.” I say this slightly ironically, but there’s a lot of truth in it. I always expect the worst, so it’s always a bonus when things go well because I’m naturally a pessimist that people will like things, that it’s a relief. But I can’t say I haven’t been trying to work — coming over here to America, trying to find projects and do something different, and in some ways, I’m not surprised that the Americans have taken and wanted to work with me, and collaborate with me, because there was a newness to me. And then I’m sort of part of the furniture in England a bit. So I knew that I’d have some sort of novelty value that I might be able to capitalize on, because they’re not tired of me here yet.

EI: Do you miss British television?

SC: Not really, because last year I did the second of two TV series back there, which I wrote and acted in, produced for the BBC. So I’ve never walked away from it, really. And also I did a series this year called Sunshine for BBC1 — it’s actually the last thing I did. I did it after Hamlet 2, so I’ve just completed something for the BBC. So I thought, if I didn’t do it, I would miss it. I do like working for the BBC, and I do like doing things on British television. It’s a different television. In enables you to be a little more adventurous because the stakes are different. It’s a place where you can take risks. It’s a safer place to take risks, and I enjoy it for that respect.

EI: Do you live on both sides of the Atlantic?

SC: I spend most of my time in Britain and some in LA. I spend like a quarter of the year, maybe a third, in LA, all told, and I like it that way. And I do like coming to work in America. I like working with different people. I like a change of scenery. One thing informs the other. And I want to have my cake and eat it.

EI: How would you describe working with Ben Stiller (in Tropic Thunder), both as an actor and as a director?

SC: Well, that’s not entirely true. Ben met me and tracked me down because he’d seen my British stuff and a couple of movies I’d done over there, and he said that he really liked me and wanted to work with me. That was very flattering. So I think he genuinely made it clear to me that I was favored. I was favored by the king! We talked about doing a few projects, and then these things were just coming along. I think he started to think what Steve Coogan might be appropriate for in those two things. Working with him as an actor and director: As an actor, he’s very enjoyable to work with. He’s a very funny person, very good company. He’s very intense as a director, though. Very, very exacting. Very, very knows what he wants. But then he also is quite picky with which actors he works with. So if you’re there shooting with him, you know you’ve already achieved something because he doesn’t “suffer fools gladly,” I think is a euphemism. But he is a total perfectionist, and the results of that are plain to see. But he’s someone who raised my game. He chooses you because he likes you. But just because he likes you doesn’t mean he’s just gonna let you do…you know — he really pushes you, whoever you are, so he would make all the actors crank it up or just squeeze that extra bit of stuff out of your performance. Yeah, I would work with him again at the drop of a hat.

EI: Are you still shooting Night at the Museum II, or have you done your bit already?

SC: No, I’m about to do it in September.

EI: Do you think the film is going to be dramatically different from the first one?

SC: Well, I’ve seen the script, and it’s the same but different. It’s got enough to satisfy people who liked the first one, but there’s more happening and it’s more poetic than the first one. There’re some great moments and some great set pieces.

EI: You’ve just finished working with Jonathan Glatzer – Safety – which strikes me as being a tad different from some of these other films. How would you describe the character of Campbell that you play in that?

SC: How would I describe him? As a lost soul, I guess. A lost, dysfunctional, damaged person. I’m used to playing damaged people, but normally they’re in comedy, so the damaged part wasn’t a complete novelty to me. The guy who’s got issues is something that I’m always playing. So this guy was one of these dysfunctional, unhappy people who somehow learns something about himself through a very circuitous, unusual route, and it was very dramatic. I kind of like to do that, occasionally. My first love is comedy, but I do like experiments, and working with Jonathan was a great experiment. I have no idea what the movie’s like, but it was a great education.

EI: How about working with James Gandolfini in In the Loop?

SC: I did one day on that. I never met him. I did a one-day shoot. I’m on IMDB for that movie; I’m surprised I am. I just did that as a kind of a favor to a friend, and I’m in a few scenes. But all that stuff was shot in New York, and mine was shot in London.

EI: Are you reteaming with Michael Winterbottom?

SC: Yes, I will reteam with Michael Winterbottom. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, but I am going to work with him again, for sure, and we’re talking about what it is we’re going to do. But there’s nothing specific, and whatever you might have read online is just not accurate — we haven’t decided what we’re going to do.

EI: What kind of influence do you think Michael has had on your career?

SC: A big influence on my career, in terms of the way people perceive me and also in terms of what I’ve learned as an actor through working with him, so it’s twofold. He helped me broaden my horizons, in terms of media perceptions of me, and certainly stopped me being pigeonholed, working with him. And that’s opened up new avenues for me, in terms of collaborating with people on more interesting stuff. So I’m always grateful for that. But I learned a lot from a technical standpoint, of learning to not be totally in control of something, because he has a strange way of working, which is…I couldn’t do it by myself. But working with him, I quite like. There’s a kind of chaos to what he does, but it results in something quite beautifully crafted and interesting in a strange way that I don’t quite understand, but it’s fun.

EI: Were you always interested in acting as a kid, or were you more interested in being the focus of attention and making people laugh?

SC: I wasn’t really the class clown. I didn’t want to be the focus of attention, really. I was more of a daydreamer — someone who escaped in TV and movies and stuff like that. It’s the place I went to escape in my mind. It wasn’t really that I wanted to be the guy saying, “Hey, get a load of me,” but I did like to fantasize and go off and be different characters and things. It was more a way of escaping rather than a way of getting attention.

EI: Did you ever think you would pursue acting as a profession?

SC: Yes, I did.

EI: Why?

SC: Because when I did funny stuff, people would say, “You should be on TV,” and then I thought, well, I kind of had this light bulb moment when I realized — when I was 17 or 18 — I think I thought that there had to be a new generation of people that will emerge one day and that they are as yet unknown. And if I play my cards right and did the things I was supposed to do, I could be one of those people.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

This phrase, etched on the base of New York City’s Statue of Liberty, has welcomed countless newcomers to the city.

Now the huddled masses that journey to the city are yearning for some cutting-edge, fresh nightlife entertainment.

It’s no secret that main stream entertainment in New York City (especially when it comes to music) is often associated with Broadway’s latest jazzy show or classic hit. However, while one cannot deny the theatre’s overwhelming presence and deep-rooted history in the city, it is also impossible to ignore the voice of the streets — the gritty and very real sound of urban artists that have risen to contrast New York City’s Broadway culture.

This urban voice has a way that it can be delivered and presented to the people who want to hear it.

Enter Adam and Jon.

Adam Riccio of Hidden City Entertainment is known for coordinating and successfully executing notable events, while Jonathan Master of Same Plate Management is recognized for artist management, specifically in the Hip-Hop genre.  Young, driven, and a whole lot of fun, the two gentlemen, in pure entrepreneurial spirit, have custom-made a professional path by recognizing the relation between both their enterprises.

Highly concerned with reputation and integrity, they are striving to “bring a new type of structure and innovative organizational tactics” to Hip-Hop and the music industry.

In early 2008 (think February), they began to merge their strengths and take an extraordinary and unprecedented approach to music management and nightlife events in New York. This creation can only be described as the yin and yang of nightlife and music entertainment.

“We are both on the same highway, heading towards the same destination, in two separate lanes,” Adam said.

Well, they are certainly in the right town to be driving. There is no other city more fitting than New York, where their vision can thrive in a demanding market. This immediate need for top-notch nightlife guidance could be caused by the fact that, in New York, people work unbelievably hard, which is exactly why New Yorkers make a point to play even harder.

In fact, bars close in this city at 4:00 a.m. or later — a nightly phenomenon that does not happen everywhere, as New Yorkers often discover with disappointment when traveling.

However, because the nightlife scene is so large, finding the right party can sometimes be a grueling task. Yes, the city is full of luxurious and chic venues, but there is one very important fact to keep in mind when planning after-dark activities:

It’s not where you party but rather who’s throwing the bash.

If it’s an event presented by Same Plate and Hidden City, then a great time is guaranteed, as they keep their focus on bringing the performers to the people and the people to the party.

I have personally experienced their ability to put together a memorable event this month, when the duo hosted the AZ mixtape release party at the Knitting Factory on August 7th. The well-known NYC venue was filled that night, and the crowd that poured out of the doors and into the street was a clear indicator that something big was happening.

But it’s not all about having a drink and a good time (although, I must admit, that is a top priority). With awareness and change on the agenda, they also strive to approach Hip-Hop in a very professional manner by the application of traditional business standards.

“We want to shine a new light on the genre and disarm some of the negative stigma that surrounds the musical genre,” Jonathan said. “There are a lot of things that are negative but also positive, and this good side is not accentuated.”

They definitely don’t stand alone in their campaign either. Extremely thankful for the support they have, artists currently under the Same Plate/Hidden City umbrella include Don Cerino, Emilio Rojas, J the S, Dan Johns, CP, Midi Marc, DJ Ings, and videographer Court Dunn. Also closely associated with Same Plate/Hidden City is the Elementality Productions team flowing out of New Jersey, consisting of DJ KO, Silent Knight, Kaze, East, and Analogic.

Although Labor Day is quickly approaching and the hottest season of the year is about to make its annual exit does not mean the party has to stop. In fact, it’s just getting started with Hidden City Entertainment and Same Plate Management’s plan for the fall.

It looks like autumn is going to be just as hot as summer.

The advance single is “Take Back The City,” with a video shot in East London by director Alex Courtes (White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”).

Gary Lightbody (vocals/guitars) says, “I’m so proud of this record.  Everybody played out of their skin. Garret (Jacknife Lee) continued his progression from maverick genius to one of the best producers in the world.  Musically, lyrically, and sonically the best record we’ve made”

The new album — the band’s fifth studio set – was recorded throughout the Summer of 2008 in Hansa Studios in Berlin (where Bowie recorded Low, Heroes and Lodger), and at Grouse Lodge deep in the Irish countryside. Written by Snow Patrol, the album was produced by Garret “Jacknife” Lee (Bloc Party, REM, U2).

A Hundred Million Suns follows up the 2006 Number One, seven-time platinum album, Eyes Open, which featured the giant hit “Chasing Cars.”

www.snowpatrol.com
www.myspace.com/snowpatrol

The relationship gift set comes with sex as a special feature. However, sex most definitely does not come with a relationship. In fact, it seems that in college, emotions are sold separately and are only available at select store locations.

With no magical map to lead the way, single ladies (and single men) are left to fend for themselves in an ever-shifting Never-Never Land of college dating where sex is as prominent a landmark as the Eiffel Tower is in France.

I may not be Carrie Bradshaw or Bridget Jones, but I have seen my girlfriends go through numerous dating disasters and have experienced my own fair share of humorous mishaps (which were somewhat tragic at the time) to know that in college, the protocol of real world dating generally does not apply.

While sex itself is a timeless act (and in some cultures surrounded by much ritual and ceremony), it’s the contemporary undergraduate circumstances surrounding sex that turns the situation into a strange (and often comical) hybrid product of co-ed lifestyle.

Factor in the party scene and the nocturnal bar sub-culture, and your dating experiences are basically a game left up to chance, bound to be a hit or miss, making sex a nice bonus at the end of a night out.

I could probably write a book filled with hookup tales starting from freshman year to senior graduation that would become a bestseller based upon the fact that, whether single or taken, many young women (and no doubt some men) from universities across the country could say, “Hey! That happened to me!”

Over in Never-Never Land (aka college), the formula of girl-plus-boy-plus-sex could equal: a) a relationship, b) friends with benefits, c) a one-time hookup that has been reduced to an occasional “hey, what’s up,” or d) an emotional train wreck that perpetually floats around between all of the above.

Our society has done a thorough job creating expectations of emotion and sex through romanticized media, but it seems as though, in college, the two are like oil and vinegar. They simply don’t mix — especially when finding someone to have a relationship with can be so hard, and finding someone to have sex with can be so easy.

Literally.

And with hooking up being the game of “the seven degrees of so and so” that it is, the chance of not knowing at least two other people that your current object of affection has “hooked up” with is slim to none.

The funny thing is, even if you are in a relationship, there’s all the drama that comes with dating within a collegiate network that increasingly becomes smaller and smaller as you approach your senior year.

There are the spies of your significant other and the loyal friends who document and report your every move to the point where you feel as though Big Brother is watching. The only thing that seems to be missing is a weekly tabloid documenting the weekend bar-hopping gossip, events and drama complete with blackmail-worthy photography.

Wait, we have Facebook.

Then there is the ultimate battle, the one that puts sex at the forefront of all dating endeavors: Why have sex with just one person when there are so many opportunities to play the field? Well, at least there might be. Keep in mind that these additional opportunities vary for the sexes, depending on your school’s male-to-female ratio. You could luck out, or your love-life could start to look like an old episode of The Bachelor.

Wonderful.

My point is: while we are stuck in this alternate dating desert, we need to realize the world in which we are dating and having sex and relationships. It’s a mini realm that we can’t see we are stuck in because, well, we really are stuck. I’m not saying all sex in college is casual, random, and under more or less shabby conditions, because there is always the exception.

That is exceptionally rare.

However, pay attention because there is good news — a little light at the end of the dismal dating tunnel. Once we are on the outside looking in, when our post-college lifestyles begin, sex, dating, and relationships will inevitably be upgraded from the tattered mayhem that college students experience.

It’s true, and if you’re lucky and resourceful, this enhancement could possibly even happen prior to graduation, if you take a step outside of this dating world before you officially become alumni. It won’t be perfect, as there still will be no enchanted guide map or authorized rulebook entitled “Dating 101 for Dummies,” but it will be kicked up a notch.

Whether you prefer to be in a fulfilling, committed relationship or enjoy the liberating freedom of the single lifestyle, the mere possibility of sex within a more sophisticated and mature environment takes us out of the desert and a little closer to paradise.

Cylon Antagonizers vs. Slick Advertisers: A Case Study

Like the rest of Battlestar Galactica’s impassioned fans, I was more than a little disappointed that Emmy this year failed to even acknowledge this critically-acclaimed show on its final flight path. A sci-fi program that has managed to almost single-handedly infuse some mainstream dignity into an otherwise easily lampooned genre surely deserved to be recognized during its descent toward a series finale. Granted, Battlestar is in the midst of one of those confounding mid-season hiatus things, so maybe the back half of the final season (which will air in early ’09) might yet be eligible for some Emmy accolades…(hey, I did say “maybe.” I didn’t necessarily say it with a straight face.)

It’s no secret that science-fiction has historically struggled to compete against more “mainstream” fodder in formal popularity contests like the Emmys. Not that William Shatner in a leotard battling Tribbles didn’t make for entertaining viewing, but man, some moments are nigh impossible for a genre to live down. Worse, when two lone categories — namely, “Drama” and “Comedy” – are meant to encompass virtually every ilk of entertainment within the televised universe, robots and space jockeys invariably find themselves going toe-to-toe with more “serious” contenders, like paramedics who save small children from burning buildings and doctors who heal small children who’ve been burned in buildings, and lawyers who prosecute the criminals who set fire to buildings with small children in them. Drama is a somber business best left to grown-ups who have better things to do than wear spacesuits, after all.

So what sort of serious and suitably mature fodder is considered worthy of Emmy’s fickle fancy? Behold Mad Men, which stands swathed in nominations this season like a swank tailor-made suit circa 1961. Yes, the show is incredibly well-written and well-acted. It’s just that…so is Battlestar.

Is the anti-sci fi bias that pervasive? If you hold them up side-by-side and subject these two examples to an unwavering and merciless scrutiny, it actually becomes a bit more apparent why Battlestar may have failed to trump a competitor as sophisticated as Mad Men. In some cases, the differences are almost imperceptible, but consider the following:

Pick Your Poison

On Mad Men, they swill manly drinks, god-dammit! Like whiskey and gin, and giant martinis with Vargas-styled secretaries swimming around in them. You know –- sexy drinks!

On the good ship Galactica, they drink rationed water. Okay, Colonel Tigh did have a flask filled with something a bit stronger tucked in an inside pocket of his flight suit for a while there, but those furtive sips weren’t “sexy,” per se, so much as a desperate salve applied to a decaying alcoholic’s tortured soul. For Pete’s sake, that doesn’t exactly photograph well.

What to Wear to a Moral Dilemma

On Mad Men, there are slick, tailored suits and smoking jackets for the menfolk, and pillbox hats and gloves, Jackie O. suits, off-the-shoulder evening frocks, and silk stockings with garters for the ladies. Sexy clothes!

Tricia Helfer’s smokin’ wisps of wardrobe notwithstanding, the crew on Battlestar are mostly otherwise adorned in those perennial sci-fi staples: the utilitarian military jumpsuit and all the shapeless variations thereof, available in a dizzying array of color choices — from muted beige to a very tasteful and understated navy. It’s not the crew’s fault, though…the Cylons blew up all the viable planets that housed important natural resources, like the Armani Exchange and Versace boutiques.

This leaves the BSG peeps at a bit of a disadvantage when pondering what to wear to a moral dilemma. Compare and contrast, if you will:

• Early in the Battlestar saga, President Laura Roslin (sporting an unassuming suit and Supercuts coiffure befitting a once-lower-level bureaucrat unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight) must struggle with the rather weighty decision of having to destroy a few civilian ships — which appear to have been infiltrated by enemy spies — for the sake of saving the rest of the fleet — which happens to contain what’s left of all of humanity.
• In Mad Men, Don Draper (lounging jauntily at a bar in a dapper, pinstripe number) must struggle with whether to have extramarital sex yet again with that free-spirited chick from the art department, or order out via the hot waitress at his favorite Chinese take-out spot — both of whom wear lacy underthings.

If clothes indeed make the man, it’s no wonder the employees of Sterling Cooper are having significantly more fun wrestling with their consciences…and each other.

Smoke Or Be Smoked

On Mad Men, they smoke cigarettes, which everyone knows makes you look sexier.

On Battlestar Galactica, they smoke Cylons, and Cylons smoke humans. Alas, war isn’t sexy. Funny enough, in recent years, the U.S. armed forces appear to have turned to advertising agencies to help them churn out all those TV commercials that spotlight recruitment efforts: “Get your college money here! Hot young co-eds hang out at college! You might get to have sex with them!” You can’t blame the military for trying to jazz things up a bit, even though most people still stubbornly cling to the belief that dying in battle might be noble, but it’s definitely not sexy.

But I digress…..

Mode of Transportation

On Mad Men, they drive shiny Studebakers, sparkling Buicks, and sumptuous Cadillacs. Sexy cars!

Battlestar merely offers up the ubiquitous “ragtag” fleet of space junk. They fly stuff like ragtag war ships, ragtag civilian cruisers, and ragtag fighter jets. Fighter jets can be sexy, if you polish them up a bit and have Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer fly them, or play bare-chested volleyball near them, or have sex on top of them while claiming the need — the need for speed. Sadly, it appears that the earnest folk of Battlestar were too distracted with commenting on social issues to bother to apply a little spit-shine to their vehicles. No wonder Emmy refused to reward this sort of lackluster attention to detail.

Assume the Position

One would assume that a person opts to wear sexy clothes and drink sexy drinks and drive sexy cars so that other people will want to have sex with them. It seems to work, at least on Mad Men. Furthermore, it’s not just run-of-the-mill, once-a-week-on-Friday-night martial sex going on — though there’s some of that too. Mostly, it’s trysts in motels! And on desks! And in shiny cars! Wheeeeeeee! It’s sexy sex!!

On Battlestar (again, Tricia Helfer’s scenes notwithstanding), there’s a lot of despondent, wartime, propagating-the-human-race-because-it’s-on-the-verge-of-extinction sex going on, with a few “Oh GOD, we’re all gonna DIE!” quickies thrown in for good measure.

But why marginalize Tricia Helfer’s sex scenes anyway? She’s a sex robot! Battlestar has a bona fide sex robot! Does it get any sexier than that? Or did her pillow talk (which admittedly involved a lot of depressing blather about how the human race is a breed of self-serving, greedy bastards, and isn’t worth saving) put too much of a damper on the proceedings?

Ultimately, it stands to reason: if sex sells (it does) and if advertisers are in the business of persuading you to buy what they’re selling (they are), then sexy advertisers are the most potent adversaries imaginable in the race for Emmy glory.

You have to wonder if those poor suckers aboard Battlestar Galactica ever had a fighting chance.

Old Records Never Die
The Mott the Hoople-Ian Hunter Anthology
Shout Factory

The first compilation covering Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople, this set is close to dead-on but comes up short on the Hunter solo coverage. The first disc covers Mode’s days as what we’d now call “garage rock” pre-glam — underground slammers to David Bowie’s involvement and Hunter’s growth as both frontman and songwriter (those other band members, especially guitarist Mick Ralphs, contributed so much).  We get “Rock and Roll Queen,”  ”Sweet Angelyne,” the can’t-be-beat title of “Death May Be Your Santa Claus,” the band’s great cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane,” and its own classics in the Bowie-penned “All the Young Dudes” and Hunter’s “All the Way From Memphis,” plus “Roll Away the Stone” and “The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”  Would’ve liked to have had the sorrowful “I Wish I Was Your Mother” on there, but it’s still a great set here.

Then there’s the second disc, covering Hunter’s solo career as well as his collaboratin with Mick Ronson. The songs include “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” which still shreds, though the manic “I Get So Excited” is missing.  Also “Cleveland Rocks,” “Ships” (which became a hit for…Barry Manilow!), and the more recent “Still Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” But no “All of the Good Ones Are Taken?”  Another flaw here.  So the first disc is near four-star, the second: three stars.  Nonetheless, a good starting place to explore Hunter and Mott’s musical legacy.

Three Dog Night
Greatest Hits Live
Shout Factory

Exactly what it says it is: Back in the early ’70s, Three Dog Night was a hit machine, fronted by singers Chuck Negron, Danny Hutton, and Cory Wells working with a team of top songwriters.  But they also proved it wasn’t just a studio construct, and this collectiion is drawn from the group’s 1972/1973 world tour.  So yes, you get those giant smashes like Randy Newman’s  ”Mama Told Me (Not To Come),” “One,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Celebrate,” and “Joy To The World” (Jeremiah in all his bullfrog glory),  plus less-remembered-now hits such as “Family of Man” and “Old Fashioned Love Song.”  Damn catchy stuff…still. And just as much in concert too.

The Best of Hot Club of Cowtown
Shout Factory

Gotta love that “Le Jazz Hot” meeting Western Swing, and that’s just what Hot Club of Cowtown, another winning export out of Austin, Texas gave us.  This fine collection includes the live “ID Red,” playing off “Ida Red,” the blissful “Forget-Me-Nots” and “Star Dust,” as well as “Fuli Tschai (Bad Girl),” “Tchavolo Swing,” and another live closer in a version of “Orange Blossom Special.”

50 years of Dave Brubeck, Live At the Monterey Jazz Festival
Art Blakey and the Giants of Jazz — Live at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival
Cal Tjader — Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-1980
Concord

The latest releases in Concord’s Monterey Jazz Fest chronicles are all gems that capture the essence of legendary performers. Pianist Dave Brubeck and his various outfits (with players including his second voice, saxman Paul Desmond) sound just as great today as they did five decades back, and the 50 Years release offers a little something from each era, including a 1962 performance of “Someday My Prince Will Come” (yes, from Snow White), and a 1966 outing on his classic “Take Five,” “Jumping Bean,” written by Gerry Mulligan from a 1971 Monterey date and from 1998  ”Goodbye, Old Friend,” written as a tribute to the late musician.

Blakey’s Giants of Jazz superstar band is captured in this 1972 performance, and what a show it is!  The group includes Blakey (of course, on drums), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Al McKibbon (bass), Thelonious Monk (piano), Sonny Stitt (alto and tenor saxophones), Clark Terry (trumpet, flugelhorn), and Kai Winding (trombone). The numbers include Monk’s “Round Midnight,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” and a showstopper — a lilting “Stardust,” featuring Terry, and then 61 Eldridge taking the spotlight for Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.” There’s also “Perdido” and a swingin’ “Blue ‘N Boogie.” What a set, what band.  Get this now.

Tjader, ever the stylish vibe player and percussionst, leaves his imprint on these stage recordings spanning more than 30 years. There’s his first Monterey appearance with a group that includes percussionists Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria, including renditions of Gershwin’s “Summertime,” “Cubano Chant,” and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s The Time” swinging madly bebop.  From other years at the festival, there’s ”Afro Blue,” written by Santamaria, the atmospheric “Speak Low,” and more.
 

Also available, recommended, and new in this on-going series:
Jimmy Witherspoon — Live at 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival
Tito Puente and His Orchestra — Live at the 1977 Monterey Jazz Festival
Shirley Horn — Live at the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival

Robert Hite was raised in the deep, well-mannered, rural south. Memories of his own childhood during the Civil Rights Era — a period of segregation and the plight of the sharecropper, violence, and the decay of poverty — translate into images of haunted structures. The lean-to shacks and shelters he creates are pieced together using recollections of his youthful wanderings up creeks and through the woods of the Virginia tide waters. These black and white images seem, at first, to stand as real-life documentation. Closer inspection reveals an impossible sense of scale — the buildings are suddenly realized to be inaccessible; they are something recreated from memories that have been filtered through time, distilled and distorted through recollection.

Hite’s more recent works have taken on a sentimental quality and have become more playful. His structures have become part of the environment, accepted by living things, supported by the trees growing through the mouths of watering cans. The trees themselves are revealed as sentient denizens of the forest and swamp, and seem to be reclaiming man-wrought structures, lifting them up and adorning them.

Though there seems to be a different narrative when comparing past and present work, the seminal themes remain consistent, persuading us to ponder our own associations with dwellings and the possible lives within and without.

Robert Hite “Living on Earth” will be showing at The Pearl Gallery in Stone Ridge, New York, September 13th to October 26th. For more information, please visit The Pearl’s Website.

Top Image: Mud Flat House, Courtesy of the artist

Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal.  Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Forensic intelligence links an Mi6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti, where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman who has her own vendetta.  Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization.

On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy, and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio).  Using his associates in the organization and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.

In a minefield of treachery, murder, and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth.  As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists, and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organization.

In theaters nationally on November 14th.