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(11/13/02 3:55am)
LOS ANGELES -- As video gamers have matured, game content has grown up, too -- and it seems to be supporting itself on a life of crime.\nThe upcoming holiday season has brought digital mayhem to stores as a mob of combative, adult-themed titles led by "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" and "Hitman 2" and "BMX XXX" target older gamers.\nSome see it as a backlash against "Pokemon"-type kid games.\n"Older gamers have been playing 'cutesy' for a long time and there's been a large shift to make up for what's been missing in the market," said game enthusiast Ned Jordan, 36, editor of the Web site GamersTemple.com.\nThe technology of current consoles -- Sony's PlayStation2, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox -- allows for so much realism that plots in some games have taken on the gritty feel of movies.\nThe average age of a video game player is now 28, the Interactive Digital Software Association says, and 90 percent of all games are purchased by someone over 18.\nMost sports games are rated E for "everyone." Not Acclaim's new cross-console bicycle stunt game, "BMX XXX."\nRated M for "mature," it features topless women riders and images of dancers from New York's Scores strip club. Objecting to its content, retailers including Wal-Mart and Toys R Us have decided not to sell the game.\nBy far, the "most wanted" game of the season has been "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," a mature-rated takeoff on "Grand Theft Auto III," in which outlaws car-jack, murder and fornicate their way to triumph in the criminal underworld.\n"Vice City" features more of the same anti-social behavior but abandons its predecessor's gloomy, urban setting for a sun-dappled, beach locale filled with cocaine dealers and bikini-clad women. The game's soundtrack includes oldies by Michael Jackson, Run DMC, Foreigner and Ozzy Osbourne.\nLike its predecessor, "Vice City" is available first on PlayStation2 -- and Sony officials hope the clamor will boost its console sales. "Grand Theft Auto III," released later in a PC format, has sold more than 8 million copies.\n"We've found that a lot of people purchase PlayStation2 just to play this product," said Molly Smith, a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment America.\nThe dodgy morals in "Vice City" have prompted some retailers to check IDs to avoid selling the game to minors. Its maker, Rockstar Games, and Sony have openly stated that "Vice City" is inappropriate for young children.\nSome older gamers consider such titles no different from crime TV shows.\n"It's that feeling of escapism. I would never want to start my own crime family or start throwing people into Jersey landfills, but I still enjoy 'The Sopranos,'" said Tim Lewinson, 29, a Vancouver, British Columbia software designer.\nNintendo's quest for adults hinges on the mature-rated, living-dead shooter "Resident Evil Zero" and the teen-rated "Metroid Prime," a state-of-the-art remake of a 1980s title in which an armored space soldier obliterates grotesque alien menaces in plumes of green goo.\nAmong adult-themed Xbox games are the mature-rated survival-horror shooter "The House of the Dead III" and the teen-rated "Splinter Cell," in which terrorist enemies are infiltrated and eliminated.\nAmong games marketed across all three consoles are developer Majesco's "BloodRayne," a mature-rated adventure in which a sexy vampiress slices and bites her way through the supernatural world, and Activision's "Minority Report," a teen-rated derivation of the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film that features hand-to-hand combat.\nThe cold-blooded-killer sequel, "Hitman 2: Silent Assassin," in which a genetically engineered murderer battles conflicting desires for redemption and revenge, is available on PlayStation2, Xbox and PC formats.\nDeveloper Eidos advertises the game as: "Travel the world, meet interesting people and kill them."\nMeanwhile, the popularity of online gaming will be tested this gift-giving season as each of the major consoles dabbles in titles that connect players via the Internet.\n"The Sims Online" debuts for PC systems, taking the dollhouse manipulation of characters and animals online, while PlayStation2 showcases its multiplayer shooter "SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs" and the football simulators "Madden NFL 2003" and "NFL GameDay 2003."\nThe upcoming Xbox Live network will feature the brutal tournament shootout "Unreal Championship" while the sci-fi "Phantasy Star Online" has been designed by Sega for the GameCube.\nFor PC gamers, "Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe" puts armchair pilots behind the realistic controls of World War II-era fighters and "Virtual Resort: Spring Break" is a teen-rated design simulator in which building restaurants and beach facilities attracts young tourists for wet T-shirt contests and topless sunbathing.\nThe tiny revelers are so small, however, that little detail can be seen.
(11/13/02 3:54am)
From Associated Press Reports\nRALEIGH, N.C. — Joshua Jackson, who plays Pacey on the WB series "Dawson's Creek," was arrested and charged with drunkenly assaulting a security guard at a hockey game. \nThe 24-year-old actor was arrested Saturday night at a game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's scheduled to appear in court on the misdemeanor charge on Dec. 4. \nArrest warrants allege that Jackson grabbed 40-year-old guard Drew Grissom around the neck and struck him. \nIn jail, tests showed his blood alcohol content registered 0.14. He posted $1,000 bail early Sunday and left. \nReached on his cell phone Sunday, Jackson declined to comment to The News & Observer of Raleigh. \nThe native of Vancouver, British Columbia, appeared in the "Mighty Ducks" series of hockey movies before joining the cast of the teen-oriented "Dawson's Creek," which films in Wilmington. \nAlso arrested was Terry Dean Long of Wilmington, a production worker on the series, who told a magistrate he jumped into the fight with Jackson. \nLong, 38, was charged with being intoxicated and disruptive and possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia, arrest warrants show. He posted bail and left the jail Sunday morning.
(11/13/02 3:52am)
LOS ANGELES -- The American Film Institute is trying to separate the good from the bad, announcing plans Tuesday for a new top-100 list that will rank the top screen heroes and villains. \nVoters can choose among 400 nominated characters from American film history and decide which should be considered wicked or virtuous. \nThat may seem easy when considering Kevin Spacey's serial killer from "Seven" or the pure-hearted pig from "Babe" -- but voters may have a tougher time when categorizing nominees such as Robert De Niro's loner vigilante Travis Bickle from "Taxi Driver." \n"It gets trickier as the characters become more complicated," said Bob Gazzale, producer of the planned CBS special in June that will reveal the final list of 50 good guys and 50 bad guys. "We're asking people not only to determine who is the greatest, but also decide if they're good or bad." \nThe institute is sending ballots to nearly 1,500 directors, actors, studio executives, critics and others involved in the entertainment industry. \nReal-life astronaut Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13," is up for consideration, along with Malcolm X, as performed by Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's biopic of the civil rights leader. \nSome characters are nominated en masse, such as the zombies from 1968's "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Wild Bunch" cowboys from director Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western. \nArnold Schwarzenegger's killer robot is nominated twice, once for the attacking character he played in 1984's original "The Terminator," and again for 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."\nPrevious AFI lists included the 100 best American films, led by "Citizen Kane," and the 100 funniest movies, with "Some Like It Hot" at No. 1.
(11/06/02 4:20am)
NEW YORK -- Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, his killer still at large six days after he was shot in his recording studio, was mourned at his funeral Tuesday as "the embodiment of hip-hop." \nA fleet of white stretch limousines was parked outside the Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Queens, the borough where the rapper, whose real name was Jason Mizell, first met up with his bandmates, Joseph "Run" Simmons and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels. \n"Jam Master Jay was not a thug," McDaniels told the overflow crowd inside the church. "Jam Master Jay was not a gangster. Jam Master Jay was a unique individual. … He was the embodiment of hip-hop." \nMcDaniels did a rap from the band's song "Jam Master Jay," with the whole audience joining in at the end to shout out the slain DJ's name. As McDaniels stood at the altar, he was surrounded by more than a dozen funeral wreaths — including one in the shape of twin turntables. \nAs the group's DJ, Jam Master Jay had worked the turntables as Simmons and McDaniels rapped a string of hits over nearly 20 years. \nAlong with the two bandmates, those attending the service included Simmons' brother, hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, and performers LL Cool J, Chuck D and Queen Latifah. \nOutside the church, dozens of fans and police officers mingled on the streets. Several of the fans sported the classic white Adidas sneakers that the band turned into a fashion statement. \nThe heavy police presence included officers on surrounding rooftops. \nFollowing the funeral, the 37-year-old rap DJ will be buried at a Westchester County cemetery. \nOn Monday night, thousands of fans lined up outside a funeral home where the wake was held. Detectives investigating the unsolved shooting scanned a crowd of tearful relatives, friends and fans. \n"I grew up listening to them," social worker Sharon Kline said. "I felt like it was important to pay respects." \nPolice reported little progress in their hunt for the masked gunman who fired a single .40-caliber bullet to Jay's head as he played video games Wednesday night in the lounge of his recording studio.
(11/06/02 4:20am)
NEW YORK -- If she had to do it over again, Sharon Osbourne says she wouldn't have invited MTV's cameras into her home. \nAt least, that's what the cancer-stricken matriarch of television's favorite dysfunctional family told ABC's Barbara Walters when she talked to her earlier this fall. \nOsbourne said, in an interview to air on a special "20/20'' edition Wednesday, that she's calling it quits after an upcoming, 10-episode season is through. "We can't do it anymore," she said. \nWhen ABC released those quotes on Monday, an obviously concerned MTV President Van Toffler called Osbourne. He said she told him: "You know you can't believe everything I say." \nThrough MTV, Osbourne then released a statement saying she intends to fulfill her contract, which calls for 20 episodes total. \n"I love my MTV," she said. \nMTV's second season of "The Osbournes" begins Nov. 26. The first set of episodes drew record ratings for the network this spring and made aging heavy-metal star Ozzy Osbourne and his family household names. \nSharon Osbourne, who is fighting colon cancer, told ABC that the show has "changed us all so much." Her teenage children now have lawyers and business managers, she said. \n"Because it's a moment in time, when we were innocent to it all, we went in feet first and you can't recreate that," she said. "Yes, now, this series, people will see what the first series has done to our lives and it will take people to the next stage. But after that, it's over." \nThe family hasn't exactly shunned the spotlight. ABC said Monday that Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne will be hosts of the American Music Awards on Jan. 13. Daughter Kelly has recorded her own CD that's due out soon. \nSharon said Ozzy has begun drinking again in response to her cancer. \n"We agreed to do the show and so the cameras are here all the time," she said. "So it's a little bit invasive right now and we have no privacy. You know when you're sick, you want to be on your own? I can't throw up on my own and Ozzy can't get drunk on his own." \nToffler said he believed the ABC interview, which was recorded Sept. 28, came at a low moment for Osbourne with her illness. \n"She was probably having a difficult time and she was venting in the moment," he said. \nThe third, 10-episode season of "The Osbournes" will air sometime next year. \n"I've developed sort of an iron stomach because of Sharon Osbourne's volatility," said Toffler, who was involved in contentious negotiations before the family agreed to more episodes. "I'm accustomed to this, and perhaps the rest of the country isn't"
(11/04/02 4:53am)
LONDON -- Dressed in wizards' hats and witches' robes, hundreds of screaming fans greeted the stars of the new Harry Potter movie at its glitzy world premiere Sunday in London. \n"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel,'' chanted a crowd of teenage girls, as Daniel Radcliffe, the young actor who plays the boy wizard, arrived for the screening of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.'' \n"It is really strange, but very exciting,'' Radcliffe said of the enthusiasm that greeted him upon his arrival at the Odeon cinema in London's Leicester Square. \nFans waited several hours, braving rain and wintry weather, in the hope of getting a glimpse of the film's cast. \nThey cheered wildly at the arrival of Rupert Grint, who plays Harry's ginger-haired friend Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson, who stars as schoolmate Hermione Granger. \nRobbie Coltrane, who plays the half-giant Hagrid, also received a warm welcome from the crowd, which lined the famous square and stood in a specially constructed stand decorated in the colors of the story's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. \nOne star absent from premier was the late Richard Harris, who played Professor Albus Dumbledore. He died late last month of Hodgkin's disease. \n"He would have liked to have been here tonight,'' Radcliffe said. "He liked a good party. We did some very emotional scenes together. It is very hard.'' \n"Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone'' remains the second biggest film of all time -- second only to "Titanic'' -- and has grossed $975 million worldwide.
(11/04/02 4:49am)
Friday night started out with a taste of soul and r&b. Then I was treated to a great interpretive dance performance in the African tradition. To top everything off, I was then taken to church, as I heard some great choral and southern gospel music. I got to hear all of this in two and a half hours, as the African American Arts Institute put on their annual Potpourri of Arts Friday night at the Buskirk Chumley Theatre.\nThe evening got off to a great start, as the IU Soul Revue took the stage to thundering applause. This crowd was pumping from the very start, and once the group began performing, there was no going back. The Soul Revue played classic R&B and Soul songs from the seventies through today. The band's rhythm section of bass, keyboards and percussion was backed by a very talented horn section, and the vocalists who fronted the Soul Review were sublime. Though they only played for 45 minutes, there was no mistaking the fact that the Soul Revue had the crowd in the palm of their hand.\nThen, after a short intermission, we got to watch the African American Dance Company perform interpretive dances that really were moving. The group of performers caught our eyes from the start and didn't let go, especially during the performance of "I Thought I Was Free", from an unfinished original choreographic piece called "Once Upon A Rural South". I'm not a very emotional person, but the desperation of the vocalist combined with the emotional performance by the dancers almost moved me to tears. If the whole piece is this moving, it's sure to be a success.\nThe African American Choral ensemble then took the stage, in order to "take us to church," as director James Mumford put it. There's no denying that he was right, not after hearing all this great music. The songs performed alternated between straight choral arrangements and reworked small group renditions of more well-known contemporary pieces. The full 80 member ensemble knocked the audience for a loop while performing "Rockin' Jerusalem," while small group God's Progress stole the show with their performance of "He Reigns", as performed in the past by Kirk Franklin. The only downer during this section of the show was the performance of "Tomorrow" by the small group Soul-ACE. This group seemed as though their song was just a chance for a bunch of longer solos, the blending of which never really succeeded. The song didn't sound like a group arrangement, but rather just a series of mismatched solos. But that surely didn't put a damper on the evening.\nI can't think of anything more entertaining on Friday night than the Potpourri. These students all have worked hard to put on performances in the African tradition, and they did an admirable job in the process.
(10/30/02 3:58am)
NEW YORK -- The sounds of boat engines recorded beneath the Hudson River echo through a World Financial Center walkway. In another, photos of landfill containing the twin towers' debris cover windows overlooking the World Trade Center site. \nNine works focusing on changes Sept. 11 wrought on lower Manhattan were unveiled Tuesday in the public spaces of the battered World Financial Center, in what organizers call a vital part of its revitalization. \nFalling steel beams from the collapsing north tower gutted the Winter Garden, the financial center's centerpiece aluminum-and-glass atrium. A $50 million restoration replaced its metal framework, 2,000 panes of glass and 16 40-foot Florida palm trees. \nRepair work continued Tuesday on other sections of the building as office workers hurried past crowds of tourists snapping shots of ground zero from windows. \nOverhead were simulated surveillance cameras, made from cardboard, wax, a shopping bag and other everyday materials by German-born artist Elke Lehmann, to defuse with humor the newfound sense of discomfort and anxiety in many public spaces. \n"All the artists' work in some way responds to this new environment," center spokeswoman Karen Kitchen said. "It's a renewed facility, a new psychological environment in a post-9-11 world." \nIn the upper floor of an entrance atrium, artist Andrea Ray covered five large windows with a panoramic digital photograph of the Fresh Kills landfill, where the wreckage of the trade center was sifted for human remains. \nBleachers face the windows, which overlook the trade center site. Spectators are invited to slip on headphones and listen to a recording following an unnamed person's recovery from an unspecified trauma. \nArtist Charles Goldman asked passers-by to write down stories of their memories, which in turn inspired 120 small clay sculptures that he arranged on metal shelves near a series of retail outlets. \nThe work is meant to evoke the randomness of experience and the loss of those killed in the trade center attack, organizers said. \n"We've lost billions of potential memories in the World Trade Center," said Moukhtar Kocache, director of visual and media arts initiatives for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. \nThe council's "New Views: World Financial Center" program, which began in May, gave the artists free space and small stipends. Their works make the center more lively and appealing for employees and their families, Kitchen said. \nThe works will be on view through Jan. 17.
(10/30/02 3:54am)
NEW YORK -- NBC is promoting a night of Halloween-themed series as "Must Scream Thursday." The WB is pitching "Haunted Thursday." \nWe can meet "Ghost Detectives" on Discovery Channel, cackle at Mel Brooks' masterpiece "Young Frankenstein" on Comedy Central, or, on VH1, get creeped out by a circa-"Thriller" Michael Jackson. \nThen we can throw the jack-o'-lantern out and clean the eggs off our car. But Halloween TV won't be over until Monday when, fashionably late, Stephen King's high-school horror "Carrie" premieres on NBC, starring Angela Bettis in the title role that launched Sissy Spacek a quarter-century ago. \nAs in the original film, Carrie White is a loner scorned by her schoolmates and tormented by her religious-zealot mother. An added burden: She has telekinetic powers which seem to control her as much as the other way around. \nPoor Carrie is caught in a titanic struggle between the sacred and the profane, and, just as in the earlier film, a climactic battle is waged at the senior prom. This is no dance, it's payback time as Carrie teaches all the kids an awful lesson. \nA massacre in a high school gym at the hands of an alienated student -- this classic scene seems overtaken by real-life episodes of school violence in recent years. \nEerie enough. But watching "Carrie" or any other freaky Halloween TV, we may be plagued by an even more immediate issue: What could be scarier than the newscasts we've been watching leading up to Halloween? What could be more macabre than the real-life events TV news is covering: \n-- Just last week, 800 Moscow theatergoers were held hostage by Chechen rebels for 2 1/2 days. Then 115 of those captives died from knockout gas used as part of the rescue effort by Russian special forces before storming the theater. \n-- War against Iraq is in the air, and therefore on the air. Still in the talking stage, we hear more than see this story in the form of saber-rattling from President Bush, arguments pro and con from other officials, and, of course, endless chatter from the pundits. And it all seems to take place beneath the spectral gaze of real-life monsters Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, who we never see but, we fear, can see us. \n-- The sniper shootings in the Washington area seemed to borrow from a horror-movie formula: an unknown, deadly stalker terrorizes a community, picking off its citizens one by one. But this carnage was real, with 10 killed and three wounded in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia since Oct. 2. \nHour after hour through the month, cable news networks carried police briefings, spun theories and maintained chopper-vision vigils over each successive shooting site. \nWith such a sprawl of airtime to fill, TV news even found time to raise the possibility that its coverage was excessive. \nTV commentators "are just engaged in sheer conjecture," said radio talk show host Laura Ingraham on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Oct. 19. "No one knows anything and yet everyone keeps talking about it .... I call cable news `tragedy TV."' \nNew York magazine media critic Michael Wolff agreed that, aside from the actual shootings, the story being covered "is all made up. There is nothing here, absolutely nothing. It's television engaged in ... selling this event. This is theater." \nThe story reached a resolution of sorts with last week's arrest of two suspects. But even if the "who" was answered to the great relief of a preyed-upon public, "whys" remained in short supply. And weighing on everyone were these prevalent unknowns: What will be the horror-film scenario next time, and where and when will it unfold? \nThis year, as with last year after the terrorist attacks, no wonder some of us condemn Halloween. Real-life evil puts us out of the mood. \nBut the fault isn't with Halloween, which offers us an annual safe haven for identifying what most horrifies us (or amuses or enchants us) -- then becoming that thing for a night. Halloween invites us to face (and even mask ourselves as) what we dread, then have a fine time spitting in its eye. What could be more restorative? \nAnd as spectators, we could hardly ask for a better time than Halloween to quaff a witches' brew of ghoulish TV. 'Tis the season to be morbid, to submit to our demons while the media assists. \nOn TV and off, then, Halloween is a good day. \nIt's the rest of the year that should continue to alarm us.
(10/28/02 5:13am)
Beverly Sills, 73, the noted operatic soprano who has appeared on stage in more than 70 roles spoke at 3:30 p.m. Friday in Auer Hall. The IU Foundation sponsored her visit. Sills will also attend the third annual presentation of the Herman B Wells Visionaries Awards, given at a dinner later Friday evening.\nGwyn Richards, dean of the IU School of Music, introduced Sills to a crowd of roughly 250 people by calling her "a cultural icon and national treasure." He then spoke for a few minutes repeating what he told the IDS earlier last week when he said he felt it was ironic that Sills would speak at IU on the same day "Julius Caesar" would open at the IU Opera, a work important to Sills' career. So important that following her opening night of "Julius Caesar" in 1967 with the New York City Opera, Sills received invitations to then appear at many of the world's most well-regarded opera venues, including La Scala and Covent Garden.\nSills entered the stage dressed in a black, loose-fitting dress and proceeded to speak about her career from its beginning to her current title as Chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera. Sills spoke for 55 minutes and talked about fond memories of her mother's efforts in fighting against her father for Sill's right to enter a music career, which began on popular radio children's shows like "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," whose number of listeners was second only to those of dead-pan master Jack Benny. After recording her first singing radio commercial for a laundry detergent, Sills said her mother hoped she would surpass Shirley Temple.\nJames Patterson, a professor in the Kelley School of Business who enjoys the opera and listens to it for relaxation, said he thought she was humorous.\n"I thought she brought in some nice family ties and pleasant memories," he said.\nSills, who may have been the highest paid opera singer in the world, spoke seriously of her multi-decade career as an opera diva. She mentioned an incident where on a radio show as a little girl she said she wanted a sled for Christmas. Within a week, she had over 60 of them sent to her by listeners. In another anecdote about her mother and father, Sills recounted an incident when her mother got a piano. When her father asked what it was, Sills' mother came back with: "Don't worry, it's something to put your ash tray on."\n"I very much enjoyed the lecture by Ms. Sills," IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. "She is a warm and engaging speaker, and tells wonderful stories about her life and times. She is also an inspiring role model for all of us, though perhaps particularly for women. Her drive, determination, talent and great sense of humor obviously all contributed to her enormous success."\nFollowing the conclusion of Sills' talk, she invited the audience to ask questions. Sills' final comment during the question session was "Don't be taken in by other people's opinions…be true to yourself"
(10/28/02 4:11am)
Brilliant. Excellent. Powerful. These arethe words that describe the Saturday night performance of Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten." The show opened Friday at the Wells-Metz Theatre on Jordan Ave.\n"Moon" is set in a beat-up farm house in 1923 Connecticut, with drinking pals James Tyrone, Jr. (Ira Amyx) and tenant farmer Phil Hogan (Chris Nelson) amusing themselves while in a drunken stupor. In a casual joke, Tyrone says he'll sell his farm and evict Hogan. Hogan, now afraid for his home and way of life, schemes to manipulate the affections between Tyrone and his daughter Josie, played by Sheila Regan.\nThe symbolic curtain rose at 8 p.m. on the dot with Josie milling about the rock-dotted farm, wielding her Irish accent. Normally I consider an accent to be cheap blocking if done badly. Regan's mastery of the accent was continually good and consistent. Her character was the irreverent tomboy who helped her father work the farm who seemed to have classified ads larger than most of the men she supposedly slept with. Her warmth, and range of emotions from happy to angry, from caring to hateful, continually kept the audience paying attention and falling in love with her honesty as a person and as a down to earth country girl.\nJames Tyrone (Ira Amyx) started out the show demonstrating a lack of projection and clarity. I strained to hear him, and he was monotone in his delivery. I basically gave up on him until the third act. And boy, did he come around. His monologue in the third act as he leaned himself on the breasts of Josie talking about his guilt over his mother's death, and his battle with booze brought tears to the woman next to me. I can understand that. I've seen some things on stage that almost made me cry. It wasn't because I liked them, either.\nIf Amyx hadn't have held himself back against his two counterparts earlier in the show, we wouldn't have seen the powerful contrast we did. Amyx is a character actor who captured beautifully the desperate expression of an alcoholic looking for a drink who then became a mean drunk. He played the part showing the inner psyche of someone haunted by bad memories, regrets and the feeling of emptiness depression and addiction brings.\nThe play moved well throughout. The pacing was excellent. It moved at a constant level of energy with distinct levels plunging first into depression, pulling out of it with a laugh line, and then repeating the process. The dialogue was delivered flawlessly. I only recount one or two stumblings that Josie made. IU Physics professor Bennet Brabson sat behind me. When we talked about the show, the first thing he mentioned was the nice closed ending.\n"A Moon for the Misbegotten" is a definite must-see, enhanced by the three-tiered Shakespeare style theatre-in-the-round at the Wells-Metz theatre. Director Steve Decker did a great job tackling one of the most complex works ever written by an American playwright. His talent will serve him well, and I don't usually review things that nicely.
(10/21/02 5:01am)
BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Robin Williams bounds into a bombed-out airplane hangar, his arms wide, his body cocked as if about to catapult into the crowd. It ain't Carnegie Hall, but no matter. Williams is ready to entertain. \n"Good morning, Afghanistan!" he bellows, and the crowd of soldiers at Bagram Air Base erupts into cheers. Some clamber on top of shipping pallets, craning for a better view of the comedian. \n"I had a lovely military flight, thank you," Williams says. "I love spiraling in — nothing like that to make your colon go, 'Fire in the hole!'" \nThe soldiers laugh knowingly, and Williams points to the bullet holes in the walls. "And I love the lovely Afghan renovation in the wall!" An aide adjusts his microphone; Williams grabs it and drops into a stage whisper. \n"I feel like we're at a golf match," he says, and mimics a sportscaster's voice: "Here we are at the third hole of the Afghan Open. We can't play the 10th hole because it's still mined." \nOn and on the jokes go, each manic gag getting a bigger laugh. After all, Bagram Air Base is a place short on humor — a harsh, dusty place where soldiers work 12-hour shifts, six and seven days a week, in pursuit of an elusive enemy. \n"These guys work so hard, it's good when someone like this comes over and shows support," said Sgt. Jason Gray, 26, of Philadelphia, Pa. \nWilliams visited Thursday as part of a USO tour that also included bases in Kandahar and Qarshi, Uzbekistan. The Army let reporters attend on the condition they not report on it until he left the country Sunday. Williams' manager had asked for the restriction because the comedian's family was worried about his safety in a war zone, Col. Roger King said. \nWilliams spent a day and night at Bagram. He didn't give a full show, but shook countless hands, ate dinner in the mess hall and signed autographs amid a stream of wisecracks. "Ah! Whose hand is that?" he squealed while posing for photos with a group of airmen. \nAt one point, he picked up an M204B heavy machine gun and struck a "Rambo" pose for cameras as hardened GIs guffawed. \nThe troops in Afghanistan have not had many famous visitors. Rocker Joan Jett played a concert here last month, and there was a show by Taps & Blue, an Air Force variety troupe. Outback Steakhouse sent chefs to cook a meal at the base in Kandahar, but otherwise there have been few special events to break up the long hours of work. \nWilliams' visit had some hitches. During the visit to the hangar, his manager insisted that no pictures of the comedian include a gun, evoking snickers from the troops. At Bagram, every soldier is required to carry a weapon always. \nStill, the troops were grateful, and Williams stayed in the hangar until the last autograph was signed. After he departed, the soldiers headed back to work, many of them clutching signed photos. \n"This one is going to my wife," said Chief Warrant Officer Todd Champagne of Fayetteville, Va. "It's nice to have someone famous here. It's nice to know they think about you"
(10/21/02 5:00am)
LOS ANGELES -- Death-by-videotape brought box-office life to "The Ring," a horror flick that scared up $15 million to debut as the weekend's No. 1 movie. \nStarring Naomi Watts as a reporter investigating a video whose viewers die horribly a week after watching it, "The Ring" knocked off "Red Dragon," which had been the top film for two straight weekends. \n"Red Dragon" fell to third place with $8.8 million during the weekend, while "Sweet Home Alabama" remained the No. 2 film with $9.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. \nThe weekend's other new wide releases fared poorly. Katie Holmes' psychological thriller "Abandon" opened weakly with $5.3 million, finishing in sixth place. Samuel L. Jackson's crime caper "Formula 51" bombed with $2.9 million, coming in at No. 12. \nThe overall box office rose slightly. The top 12 movies took in $74.2 million, up 2 percent from the same weekend last year. \nIf those numbers hold when final figures are released Monday, it would be Hollywood's sixth straight weekend of rising revenues and a promising lead-in to the busy holiday season, which starts next month with "The Santa Clause 2" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." \n"People just keep going to the movies," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "That trend just looks like it's going to continue into the holidays." \n"The Ring," a U.S. remake of a Japanese horror sensation, averaged a healthy $7,572 a theater playing in 1,981 cinemas. \n"Abandon," the directing debut of "Traffic" screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, played in 2,341 theaters and averaged $2,264. "Formula 51" averaged a meager $1,562 in 1,857 theaters. \nMost fright films are trashed by critics and come and go quickly, doing the bulk of their business in the first couple of weeks. Distributor DreamWorks hopes for longer life on "The Ring," which received generally positive reviews.
(10/14/02 4:44am)
Saturday night was a good night for theater in Bloomington. The Buskirk-Chumley theater was filled with families eager to see the Bloomington Music Works' performance of Stephen Soundheim's "Into The Woods." And by the end of the evening, it was clear that few, if any, had been disappointed.\n"Into The Woods'" is a different take on the fairy tales we've all grown up with. The difference is that throughout the plot, all of the characters and stories are interacting with each other. And the traditional "happy ending" happens before the first act even ends. So during the second act, you're given a story that is completely original and ultimately entertaining to say the least.\nI'm not going to go into the plot here, because the play's run is not over. If your attention is piqued, you can still go to see it. But the interesting thing was that because the interaction between the characters was the base of the play, the audience was able to see a great ensemble cast put on an excellent performance. I'm going to mention a few standouts here, but be certain that the entire cast as a whole was excellent.\nAngie Shadwick was immensely impressive as the witch in the story. She seemed to easily be able to take on the characteristics of the part she was playing, and in the songs in which she was prominent, she stole the show. The standout was her dark vocal performance on the second act song "Last Midnight."\nBrian Samarzea played the part of the baker in the play; a character who showed quite a range of emotions throughout the performance. Samarzea was able to smartly play the character, while involving the audience in the range of his actions. From the reactions of the audience, I'd say people really enjoyed his performance.\nOf course my favorite character in the entire play was Little Red Riding Hood. She was expertly played by Rachel Simpson. Without spoiling the plot, Little Red learns an important lesson about trusting people, and by the end of the first act, she's become almost street tough. Just try not to crack up when Red pulls out a giant blade and starts eating food from her little picnic basket. Rachel Simpson was able to take this character and run with it, putting on a showstopping performance in many of her scenes.\n"Into The Woods" was a prime example of what great theater can do. This was family entertainment at its finest, and I highly recommend the show to anyone who enjoys a great musical with a lot of humor to boot. And be prepared to expect the unexpected. "Into The Woods" will be playing at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Oct. 17 to 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. For more information call 323-3022.