Friday, October 23, 2009

Biographies “Run-DMC set for Broadway musical? - Entertainment.uk.msn.com” plus 4 more

Biographies “Run-DMC set for Broadway musical? - Entertainment.uk.msn.com” plus 4 more

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Run-DMC set for Broadway musical? - Entertainment.uk.msn.com

Posted: 22 Oct 2009 05:44 PM PDT

Run-DMC could be set to have heir songs and biographies translated into a Broadway show.

Rev Run (aka Joseph Simmons) and DMC (aka Darryl McDaniels), the two surviving members of the seminal hip-hop group, are reportedly set for talks this week which could see their life story hit the stage.

"I feel their story lends itself perfectly to the stage," producer Paula Wagner told Variety. "This project has been a passion of mine for some time and I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with them."

Run-DMC formed in 1984, but split in 2002 when Jam-Master Jay (aka Jason Mizell) was murdered.

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National Book Award nominees feature tycoons, evolution - San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 14 Oct 2009 11:56 AM PDT

NEW YORK — Tycoons, evolution and the environment were among the subjects of this year's National Book Award nominees.

Winners in the four competitive categories, each of whom will receive $10,000, will be announced at a Nov. 18 ceremony in New York. Humorist Andy Borowitz will host and honorary medals will be presented to Gore Vidal and San Franciscan Dave Eggers.

Fiction judges nominated Bonnie Jo Campbell's "American Salvage," Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin," Daniyal Mueenuddin's "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders," Jayne Anne Phillips' "Lark & Termite," and Marcel Theroux's global warming novel "Far North." High-profile releases passed over included Lorrie Moore's "A Gate at the Stairs" and Richard Powers' "Generosity."

In the non-fiction category the nominees were T.J. Stiles' "The First Tycoon," a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt; Greg Grandin's "Fordlandia," about Henry Ford's ill-fated effort to set up a colony in Brazil; Sean B. Carroll's "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species"; David M. Carroll's journal of New England wildlife, "Following the Water"; and Adrienne Mayor's "The Poison King," a biography of the Greco-Persian ruler Mithradates.

Numerous books about Darwin, born 200 years ago, came out in 2009, including Young People's Literature finalist "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith," by Deborah Seligman. Other nominees in the youth category were

Phillip Hoose's "Claudette Colvin," David Small's "Stitches," Laini Taylor's "Lips Touch" and Rita Williams-Garcia's "Jumped."

Finalists for poetry are Rae Armantrout, Ann Lauterbach, Carl Phillips, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon and Keith Waldrop.

In association with this year's awards, the National Book Foundation is posting a daily blog page at www.nbafictionblog.org about each fiction book that has won the award since 1950.






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Biographies garner bulk of National Book Award nods - Pioneer Press

Posted: 15 Oct 2009 10:24 PM PDT

NEW YORK — The subjects of this year's National Book Award nominees were better known than the authors.

Biographies about tycoons Henry Ford and Cornelius Vanderbilt were among the finalists announced Wednesday, along with two books relating to Charles Darwin. But judges also omitted such widely publicized releases as Lorrie Moore's "At the Gate of the Stairs," Richard Powers' "Generosity" and Blake Bailey's biography of John Cheever.

Five books from university presses were among the 20 chosen in four competitive categories. Fiction judges picked Bonnie Jo Campbell's story collection, "American Salvage," a paperback original released by Wayne State University Press, the publisher's first National Book Award nomination in its more than 60 year history.

Winners, each of whom receive $10,000, will be announced at a Nov. 18 ceremony in New York.

Charles Darwin was featured in two nominated works: Sean B. Carroll's "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species," a nonfiction finalist; and young people's literature nominee "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith," by Deborah Seligman.

Marcel Theroux, son of travel writer and former National Book Award finalist Paul Theroux, was a fiction nominee for "Far North," a story of global warming disaster set around Siberia.

Also selected were such critical favorites as Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin," Daniyal Mueenuddin's book of stories "In Other Rooms,

Other Wonders" and Jayne Anne Phillips' "Lark & Termite." T.J. Stiles' "The First Tycoon" and Greg Grandin's "Fordlandia," about Henry Ford's ill-fated effort to set up a colony in Brazil, were nonfiction nominees, along with Carroll's "Remarkable Creatures" and David M. Carroll's journal of New England wildlife "Following the Water." (Stiles, who attended Carleton College, grew up outside Foley, Minn.; his father was Benton County coroner. He lives in San Francisco.)

The fifth nonfiction finalist was Adrienne Mayor's "The Poison King," a biography of the Greco-Persian ruler Mithradates. (Mayor grew up in Hopkins and attended the University of Minnesota. She is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California.) Besides Seligman's "Charles and Emma," young people's literature finalists included Phillip Hoose's "Claudette Colvin," David Small's graphic work "Stitches," Laini Taylor's "Lips Touch" and Rita Williams-Garcia's "Jumped."

The poetry nominees were Rae Armantrout's "Versed," Ann Lauterbach's "Or to Begin Again," Carl Phillips' "Speak Low," Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon's "Open Interval" and Keith Waldrop's "Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy."



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click any photo to view this story's photo gallery - Daily Commercial

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 04:50 AM PDT

published: Friday, October 23, 2009

An honorable Sacrifice

Lake loses Medal of Honor; seeks replica replacement

DAVID DONALD

Staff Writer

When Pvt. Robert Miller McTureous Jr. stormed a Japanese stronghold with a jacket full of grenades in 1945, he made the ultimate sacrifice. He was trying to protect a throng of medics evacuating the wounded from the battlefield.

For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty," McTureous was awarded the nation's most distinguished medal.

And for 10 years McTureous' Medal of Honor has been displayed at the Lake County Historical Museum in Tavares, on loan from the U.S. Marine Corps.

But on Oct. 31, the contract with the Marines to display the medal expires.

"It's just a source of pride," said Gail Morris, Lake County Historical Society office manager. "I hate to lose it, but you can't fight the Marines."

The McTureous family gave the medal to the Marines and they are responsible for its care, she said.

Morris said the medal would be shipped to Quantico, Va., for restoration to fix the ribbon on the 64-year-old medal.

There is talk about having a replica made to take its place after the medal leaves.

"It would be great to keep it here," said Bob Grenier, president of the Lake County Historical Society. "He is a native son of Lake County."

McTureous is one of two Medal of Honor recipients who lived in Lake. The other, Civil War Capt. Albert D. Wright, was only discovered in the county's archives a few years ago.

While Wright was a transplant from Pennsylvania, McTureous was born and raised in Altoona. The whereabouts of Wright's medal is unknown.

"It could be in a Masonic Lodge or in the trunk of someone's attic," said Grenier. "Who knows."

Wright, who led a company of colored troops behind enemy lines to capture the flag and its colorguard in the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Penn., is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Eustis. Wright received his medal for that battle.

The Veterans' Memorial Group, which is trying to raise money to build a war memorial at Fountain Lake Park honoring veterans who served during wartime, plans to feature photos and biographies of McTureous and Write on the front of a lectern at the war memorial.

For more information about the Veterans' Memorial Group and how you can help, call (352) 314-2100 or visit www.lakeveterans.com.

Medal of Honor Recipients

Total Recipients: 3,448

Living Recipients: 94

Double Recipients: 19

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Amelia' sadly never knows which direction it's heading - St. Petersburg Times

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 06:30 AM PDT

By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
In Print: Friday, October 23, 2009

Amelia Earhart would never take off into the wild blue yonder without a calculated flight plan, so it's logical that the aviation pioneer's biopic shouldn't, either.

Yet Mira Nair's handsomely staged Amelia never knows which direction it's heading.

Is it a can-do American's patriotic saga? Not really, even if Earhart dead ringer Hilary Swank does have one scene in front of a U.S. flag that George C. Scott would envy.

Is it a tribute to feminism in an era when women still had floors of glass ceilings to break through? Not when Earhart can fly airplanes without facing much male chauvinism, and immediately finds dozens of other women to join her. That is, unless you count the fact that an open marriage provided opportunities for Earhart to sleep around. Heroically, of course.

No, Nair's movie is all about natty fashion and computer generated clouds, both of which look gorgeous on screen but miss the point. Biographies should tell us something we don't already know about the subject. Aside from claiming Earhart often spoke in lofty bromides like "I want to be free, George, a vagabond of the air," Amelia doesn't contain many surprises if you've paid scant attention over 70 years.

Swank's performance is technically fine, capturing Earhart's Midwestern twang and modesty in the face of worldwide celebrity. But buying a third bottle of Oscar statuette polish may be premature. Richard Gere provides a few good moments as George Putnam, Earhart's husband, promoter and publisher. The openness of their marriage is limited to Ewan McGregor as Gene Vidal (father of novelist Gore), who surrenders too easily when George gets wise.

Amelia is a movie that, as John Ford would suggest, should print legends when facts aren't good enough.

Nair attempts to camouflage a wispy script with an oddly out-of-place structure, jumping from one Earhart milestone to the next then back to sometime earlier. It might work if some telling information was revealed at each stop but seldom is. Blame it on two screenwriters working from two books, both with their own perspectives to cram into two hours.

There's no problem using Earhart's ill-fated 1937 attempt to circle the globe as a framing device. It's the hopscotch time frame in-between wrecking any cumulative appreciation of what Earhart accomplished. She finishes third in the only racing competition we see, but a scene of rekindled determination is missing. Elinor Smith (Mia Wasikowska) is introduced as a possible source of friendly rivalry but disappears until she's named Aviator of the Year.

We hear about the dangers of flight in the 1930s for either gender but see only one crash in newsreel footage. Earhart faces a couple of in-air crises, severely iced wings and a door flying open during turbulence, that probably happened. But they're shoved into the narrative as if Nair realized the screenplay needing goosing.

Only when Earhart's final flight is presented, with a critical mass of problems that might have caused its failure, does Amelia gain any dramatic altitude. It's also the only sequence when Swank is asked to do more than merely strike familiar Earhart poses for photographs, and talking like a Midwestern motivational speaker.

Steve Persall can be reached at persall@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8365. Read his blog, Reeling in the Years, at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.


If you go

Amelia

Grade: C+

Director: Mira Nair

Cast: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Cherry Jones, Mia Wasikowska

Screenplay: Ronald Bass, Anna Hamilton Phelan, based on the books East to the Dawn by Susan Butler and The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell

Rating: PG; brief profanity, sensuality and smoking

Running time: 111 min.


[Last modified: Oct 22, 2009 10:25 PM]



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