Wikileaks for Nobel Peace Prize

In your face, Facebook! Wikileaks has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Bono will be pissed if he gets passed up again...

First 'Spider-Man' preview filled with problems

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bugs_beset_spider_man_on_stage_NfctVtDnuFc5Lv0XNc8f0J

First 'Spider-Man' preview filled with problems
'Guinea pig' audience rips show
November 29, 2010
Michael Riedel

Not even Spider-Man could avert this disaster.

Last night's opening pre view of Broadway's most expensive production ever, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," was an epic flop as the $65 million show's high-tech gadgetry went completely awry amid a dull score and baffling script, theatergoers griped.

Stunned audience members were left scratching their heads over the confusing plot -- when they weren't ducking for cover from falling equipment and dangling actors at the Foxwoods Theatre on West 42nd Street, some said.

At various points, overhead stage wires dropped on the audience, scenery appeared on stage missing pieces -- and the show's star was even left swaying helplessly over them midair during what was supposed to be the climatic end to the first act.

The production -- directed by Julie Taymor of "Lion King" fame and with a score by U2's Bono and The Edge -- appeared cursed from the start, audience members said.

It opened with Taymor's personal creation, the eight-legged female character Arachne, taking the stage.

The spider is the radioactive arachnid that bites Peter Parker, giving the photographer his superhuman Spider-Man powers.

As the character, played by actress Natalie Mendoza, finished her big number "Rise Above" while suspended over the crowd, an apparent wire malfunction left her stopped in midair -- where she remained for an embarrassing seven or eight minutes as stagehands worked feverishly to figure out the problem.

The stage manager finally said over the loudspeaker, "Give it up for Natalie Mendoza, who's hanging in the air!"

The show had to be stopped four times in the first act alone for various snags.

Parker's love interest, Mary Jane, was supposed to be saved from atop the Chrysler Building. But part of the building was missing, and Mary Jane was no where in sight.

As puzzled theater patrons looked around, Spider-Man -- played by Reeve Carney -- suddenly flew in with Mary Jane in his arms and put her down on stage.

He was then supposed to fly off in a dramatic end to the first act.

Instead, Spider-Man got stuck in midair and swung back and forth over the crowd as three stagehands leaped up and down futilely trying to grab onto one of his feet to haul him back to earth.

Another sticky situation involved Spider-Man nemesis Green Goblin, said disgruntled audience members.

As the Goblin -- played by Patrick Page of "Grinch" fame -- sat down at the piano for a scheduled number, he was left to continue playing on . . . and on . . . as stage workers openly rushed around to fix faulty equipment.

Page finally started vamping it up for grateful audience members, riffing on the tune, "I'll Take Manhattan."

"This is the best part of the whole show," grumbled theatergoer Steve Poizner of California.

The production dragged on for nearly 3½ hours.

In its last 10 minutes, the show was completely stopped for at least half that time to work out kinks.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like a guinea pig tonight!" one woman angrily shouted out from her orchestra seat during the down time.

"I feel this was a dress rehearsal!"

Taymor was at the preview, as was producer Michael Cohl, although Bono and The Edge were in Australia on tour with U2.

michael.riedel@nypost.com

Rock's Short List (5' 8" and Under)

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/getback/123828/rocks-short-list-5-8-and-under/

Rock's Short List (5' 8" and Under)
Fri May 22, 2009
Shawn Amos in GetBack

The world's a cruel place for a short dude. Barred from basketball, left off firefighter shortlists, and unable to ride Space Mountain, his life is a never-ending "you must be this tall to ride" sign.

Music is the only place a short dude can go for salvation. While most athletic teams, branches of the armed forces, and theme parks have height requirements, bands do not. A 5-foot-tall dude may never be starting guard for the Lakers, but there's nothing preventing him from shredding a solo at Madison Square Garden. He may get overlooked at the McDonald's counter trying to order a Happy Meal, but he's always 10 feet tall on the JumboTron.

Some say short dudes compensate for their lack of height by becoming overachievers or hostile. Or both. It's not my job to psychoanalyze just to lay out some selectively chosen facts that make my case the way I want.

So I present you with Rock's Short List. Randy Newman was wrong. Short people DO have reason to live. It's rock 'n' roll.

Prince (5' 2")
One of the most diminutive musicians around, Prince makes up for his height by wearing high heels, playing every instrument on his recordings, and making sure none of his women are taller than him - and wear flats.

John Mellencamp (5' 7")
The former Johnny Cougar fits the profile of an angry short dude. He was arrested at age eight for breaking and entering, started his first band at 14, and lost a college job for using profanity. To complicate the theory, though, his wife is supermodel Elaine Irwin, who stands at 5 feet 11 inches.

Bono (5' 7 1/2")
Bono is the classic overachiever. He's determined to be in the biggest rock band in the world, save said world, and receive all of its accolades (he's the only person to be nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy, and Nobel Peace Prize). If the dude was 6 feet 1 inches tall, we wouldn't know who he is.

Thom Yorke (5' 5 1/4")
The Radiohead singer's height is overshadowed by another physical trait: his left eye, which was closed shut at birth. Yorke underwent five operations by the time he was six to correct it. He was left with a drooping eyelid.

Angus Young (5' 2")
The 54-year-old AC/DC guitarist has played the instrument since he was five. And he's dressed in a schoolboy uniform the whole time. It's the perfect way to get people to ignore your adolescent height: just dress like a kid.

Roger Daltrey (5' 7")
Within The Who, Daltrey had a reputation for quickly punching anyone who disagreed with him, including the 6-foot-tall Pete Townshend. He also gets around the height issue by swinging his microphone around his head onstage. It adds a couple feet at least.


Ronnie James Dio (5' 4")
Dio sings so loudly and looks so satanic that no one would notice his elfin height. That is, unless you paid attention to some of those early band names, like Electric Elves and Elf. Those were unfortunate.

Iggy Pop (5' 7 1/2")
Iggy's bare-chested stage antics distract from any height issues his fans may possess. Between the self-mutilation, stage-diving, and self-exposure, who's counting inches (no pun intended)?

Paul Simon (5' 3")
Simon and his duo partner, Art Garfunkel, have famously feuded for more than 40 years. Some say the tension was caused by Garfunkel's acting career. Others say it was Art's jealousy of Simon's solo success. I say it's Simon being overshadowed by a dude who's 6 feet tall - 6 feet 5 inches with the Jewfro.

Bob Marley (5' 7")
The Rastaman was proof that big things come in small packages. Marley is as close to a musical deity as you can get. He had a sound and a message that transcended mere mortals. And with his lion's mane of dreadlocks, you'd think you were standing in front of a giant.

Spider-Man musical set for 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7909772.stm

Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Spider-Man musical set for 2010
U2's Bono and The Edge will provide the music and lyrics for the musical

A musical based on the Marvel comic book hero Spider-Man will open on Broadway in 2010.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will include the story of the superhero's origins and will feature music and lyrics by U2 members Bono and The Edge.

It will be directed by Julie Taymor, the creative force behind Disney's long-running Lion King.

The musical will open in February 2010 at the Hilton Theatre with preview performances beginning in January.

The show is reportedly the most expensive Broadway production ever, costing $40m (£27.6m).

The Hilton Theatre as it is the only venue big enough to allow the superhero room to spin his way around the sprawling skyscraper sets.

Details on casting, or which villains will appear, have yet to be announced.

Tobey Maguire has starred as Spider-Man in three big-screen versions of the comic book franchise. He is expected to return for a fourth instalment, to be released in 2011.

Beast of the Month - August 2007

Beast of the Month - August 2007
James Inhofe, Oklahoma Senator

"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

Granted, the Live Earth concert didn't have a single defining moment, like a Pink Floyd reunion or Sir Paul McCartney singing "Sgt. Pepper" with U2 (much less Freddie Mercury rocking Wembley in 1985.) And it's true (as Matt Drudge would mince with joy over on his Website) that the Al Gore founded concert didn't do well in the TV markets of either the US or UK. And it's also true the concert had its share of critics who slammed the event for lacking concrete goals (although the main promulgator of this criticism, Bob Geldof of Live Aid and Live 8 fame, may just be moaning because both Gore and Bono have passed him in the Nobel Peace Prize sweepstakes.)

Still, with all due respect to Elvis, 2 billion Live Earth viewers in the world can't be wrong. And while the English-market TV ratings may have been a flop, it was even a huger hit on the Net than Live 8, becoming the most viewed event in Web history. Besides, its hard to knock any concert that could unite the following talents: The Beastie Boys, The Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Cornell, Duran Duran, The Foo Fighters, Genesis, Macy Gray, Enrique Iglesias, Keane, Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz, Ludacris, Dave Matthews, MIA, The Police, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, The Smashing Pumpkins, Snoop Dogg, Spinal Tap, Cat Stevens, Joss Stone, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban and Kanye West (as well as The Pussycat Dolls, Xuxa and, from the Antartic, the climate researching indie rock band Nunatak.)

Some may say the big winner in the Live Earth sweepstakes was Al Gore, who appears ready for a political comeback that would put Tricky Dick in '68 to shame. For once, that may be a little too cynical for The Konformist. As far as we're concerned, the big winner of the Live Earth concert is the Earth itself. Because for all the hype and all the criticisms of Live Earth, it did succeed at its one main goal: making climatic change issues a central focus of the world population. This was no more evident than in the USA, where global warming is now a mainstream issue that can't be ignored or mocked by politicians seeking the White House.

Right about now The Konformist can hear the clicking of keyboards as throngs of angry emails are being written. No doubt we'll get letters accusing us of buying into the NWO communist conspiracy and declaring that "Global Warming is a hoax!" Fair enough, it comes with the territory. And it’s true that there are some who dispute the evidence of global warming that we can't ignore or dismiss (most notably the fine folks at PrisonPlanet.com.) Besides, The Konformist has long been a promoter of dissident science, most notably with the cold fusion controversy, AIDS-HIV claims and even the debates surrounding evolution (even if we doubt that the universe was created 6,000 years ago in six days by a silver-haired god-man.) We encourage debates about scientific issues, and global warming and climatic change should be no different.

The problem is, the vast majority of supposed "science" challenging climatic change theories is nothing more than pseudo-science of the worst kind, namely korporate financed propaganda to promote their own business. In this case, we're referring to the oil industry (with ExxonMobil front and center) peddling fraudulence to cover their own culpability.

It doesn't help that the leading proponents of "global-warming denial" in the political sphere are such blatantly self-discrediting asses. Leading the charge is Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma senator and The Konformist Beast of the Month. A right-wing buffoon of the worst sort, he once declared that global warming was "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state." He has compared environmentalists to Nazis, the EPA to the Gestapo, and linked the "global warming hoax" to a conspiracy involving the Weather Channel as part of the plot to increase viewers. Despite these statements and viewpoints, he was incredibly the Senate Environment Committee Chairman before the GOP got their ass kicked in the 2006 election.

Unsurprisingly, the environment isn't the only area where Inhofe is a first-rate jackass. Though he cites the Bible as the source for most of his political stances, he has defended the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and was one of only nine senators to vote against an amendment banning torture on individuals in US Government custody. (So much for turn the other cheek.) As for gay marriages, he declared a group photo of his family "the most important prop we’ll have" in the debate over the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution, bizarrely adding: "My wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I'm really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we've never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship."

Still, Inhofe seems even more obsessed about Global Warming than fags getting married. Perhaps that's because oil companies are more plentiful in Oklahoma than gay bars. In his last campaign in 2002, the only senate nominee who received more oil company funding than Inhofe was John Cornyn of, unsurprisingly, Texas.

In his defense, though, The Konformist suspects that Inhofe may be such a fool he actually believes his pronouncements. The same can't be said for Dick Cheney, who deceptively declared in February about climatic change: "We're going to see a big debate on it going forward... the extent to which it is part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it's caused by man." He added it's "not enough to just sort of run out and try to slap together some policy that's going to 'solve' the problem." (Too bad such statements were never applied to "The War on Terror.") Thanks to Donkey Dick, the Bush Administration has filled the EPA and other agencies with hacks serving the oil industry bottom line and repeating lies as though they are truth. In the end, such deceits may lead to more damage than the lies leading to the Iraq Quagmire.

Fortunately, barring a blatantly dictatorial coup in 2008 (which The Konformist can't rule out the possibility of at this point) Cheney and his minions will be out of power very soon. As for Inhofe, though he appears safe for reelection in 2008, he has become an increasingly marginalized figure. This was shown powerfully last March, during Senate hearings featuring Al Gore. After Inhofe had repeatedly cutting off Gore from answering questions that he had asked, California Senator Barbara Boxer (one of the few Democrats in the senate with any guts) finally cut him off, pointing out she was now chair of the Environment Committee, not him. As Boxer put it: "You’re not making the rules. You used to when you did this. Elections have consequences. So I make the rules.” The audience responded by applauding loudly.

Even after being put in his place by Ms. Boxer, Inhofe tried to get his petty revenge on Gore, using parliamentary tricks to block the North American leg of the Live Earth concert from taking place at the National Mall in DC. He succeeded, to a degree, as the main North American concert took place at Giants Stadium in New Jersey instead. However, in a last minute deal, a special set featuring country superstar Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood was presented at the Washington Mall after all, courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. As Gore put it, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall, but here we are. And it wasn't the cavalry who came to our rescue, it was the American Indians." The Konformist couldn't put it any better. And frankly, when it comes to the issue of climate change, we think a side that includes Al Gore, Barbara Boxer, Garth Brooks and Tonto is a winner over one featuring Inhofe, Donkey Dick and ExxonMobil. A winner, that is, in honesty, morality and, hopefully, politically.

In any case, we salute James Inhofe as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Jimmy!!!

Luciano Pavarotti Dies

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20623995/site/newsweek/

Luciano Pavarotti Dies
Luciano Pavarotti, dead at 71, sang with such beauty that he beguiled listeners around the globe. Some were opera fans, but most were just fans of his honeyed tenor and outsize personality.
By Cathleen McGuigan
Newsweek

Sept. 6, 2007 - Luciano Pavarotti was one of the biggest opera stars of the last century, but he was much bigger than opera. A lyric tenor whose remarkable voice was so honeyed and brilliant that even non-opera lovers were readily moved by its beauty, he married his natural musicality with a gift for blatant showmanship. Besides his triumphs in the world’s greatest opera houses, he sold more than 50 millions record albums; his arena concerts were packed like a rock star’s; and he would happily sign autographs for his fans for hours. As he aged, and performing on the opera stage became more demanding, Pavarotti and his manager found amazing ways for him become even bigger in the public eye, especially with the phenomenally successful Three Tenors gigs, where he joined Plácido Domingo and José Carreras: their televised concerts were seen by 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. For his charity concerts and albums, “Pavarotti & Friends,” he roped in such singers as Bono, Elton John and even the Spice Girls. Critics may have disdained such commercialism, but with the help of recordings and television, Pavarotti doubtless reached the widest audience of any opera singer in history. Dubbed at various times “Lucky,” “Lurch,” “Deep Throat” and “Lucianissimo,” he took a long time to let go of his career. Like Sinatra's, his farewell tour didn’t seem a final goodbye—but after surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006, he never appeared in public again.

Pavarotti died, at 71, where he was born, in the northern Italian city of Modena, where his father had worked in a bakery, his mother in a cigar factory. His father was a tenor too—and Luciano grew up listening not just to his father’s voice but also to his phonograph recordings of such greats as Enrico Caruso. Pavarotti sang in the Modena opera chorus, and when the chorus took first prize at a music festival in Wales, he began to seriously embrace the idea of a singing career. He took lessons, though he never had conservatory training, and it was said he couldn’t really read music. His first big break came when he filled in for a sick tenor in “La Bohème” at Covent Garden in 1963, and he went on to sing the role of Rodolfo in his La Scala debut and in his 1968 debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where, over the course of his career, he sang 378 performances, more than he did anywhere else. In 1972 at the Met, when he sang Tonio in Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” opposite Joan Sutherland, he so magically hit the nine high C’s in a row that audiences went crazy and he was invited to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. That began the crossover to show business.

“The King of the High Cs,” as his record company called him, lived large and was famous for his outsize appetites—for food, wine, sports. A few years back he hit the gossip pages when he left his wife of 35 years—they had three daughters—for his much younger assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani, whom he married in 2003 (they have one daughter). He sang at the Met for the last time in Puccini’s “Tosca” in 2004. Though most of his great roles were in Italian operas, he was never as big a star in Italy as he was abroad, where his ebullient personality won him a wide legion of fans. His personality overpowered most of his roles; as critics pointed out, his acting ability was no match for his singing. Pavarotti was always Pavarotti—and that’s what his fans loved. That and the beautiful voice, which reached across the world.