The legendary WCCO radio host died of cancer at age 81.
By NEAL JUSTIN , Star Tribune
Steve Cannon, one of the most unforgettable voices in the history of Twin Cities radio and for years the highest-rated afternoon drive host in the country, died late Monday after a short, fierce battle with cancer.
Cannon's booming baritone voice steered WCCO's drive-time show, "The Cannon Mess," for 26 years -- a national record -- aided only by sportscaster Morgan Mundane, sexpot Ma Linger and the effeminate Backlash LaRue, all voiced by Cannon himself.
Those characters were so beloved that Cannon became the only inductee in the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame with two plaques: one for himself and one for his make-believe trio.
Cannon died just after 10 p.m. Monday at his home near Minneapolis' Lake of the Isles, surrounded by family members. He was 81.
In the 1970s and '80s, when WCCO dominated the airwaves, Cannon held court as the gruffest, most gregarious of the "Good Neighbors," making his voice as recognizable to many Midwesterners as everyone's cantankerous but lovable uncle who never skips the cocktail hour.
"It's awfully tough comparing the 125 people in our hall of fame, but in terms of sheer talent, does anyone stand out above Cannon?" said Steve Raymer, managing director of the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park, which honored the legend in 2002.
Cannon actually attended that ceremony, which was somewhat of a surprise since he was well-known for his insistence on privacy. Dark Star, who has worked at WCCO for decades, recalled the time Cannon was temporarily run out of his intimate studio because of fire damage and was forced to broadcast from the main studio. He refused to go on the air unless staffers covered the windows with newspapers so no one could see him slip in and out of his characters. Dark Star also remembered that the station had prepared a big party for his final show in early October 1997, but Cannon sabotaged the celebration by signing off one day early and slipping out the door.
Selasa, 07 April 2009
BLIND PILOT LANDS SUPPORT SLOT FOR UPCOMING THE DECEMBERISTS TOUR BAND IN THE MIDDLE OF FIRST-EVER U.S. TOUR
The Portland, Oregon based indie-folk-pop outfit Blind Pilot, touring as a six-piece with Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar), Ryan Dobrowski (drums), Luke Ydstie (upright bass, backing vocals), Kati Claborn (banjo, dulcimer, backing vocals), Ian Krist (vibraphones), and Dave Jorgensen (keyboards, trumpet), have just landed the support slot for the upcoming The Decemberists tour.
Starting out as a duo, and recording their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound with the help of friends (some of who have since joined the band), Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski, friends since college, have traveled many a mile to get to where they are today.
In 2007 and once again in 2008 (in 2008 Kati Claborn and Luke Ydstie joined them), Israel and Ryan embarked on a West Coast bike tour. This wasn't a tour where they road bikes, and had a van hauling the equipment. They hauled everything on their bikes. No gas. One hundred percent leg-powered.
With big signs on the back of their bike trailers that read "BLIND" and "PILOT," a lot of concerned motorists screamed about the "PILOT" leaving the "BLIND" guy behind. Playing little towns that don't often get shows by "touring bands," they were able to share their brand of music with people who weren't particularly familiar with indie pop, or indie anything. But they found that heartfelt lyrics and beautiful music appeal to just about everyone. In fact, they completely sold out of their EPs.
They returned to Portland anxious to complete their first full-length album. The long road to this album has paid off in spades. Blind Pilot sounds something like a wistful mix of The Shins with a bit of Iron & Wine folksiness. But these comparisons don't give a full representation of the unbelievable beauty of this album. As Willamette Week's Casey Jarman proclaimed, "Front man Israel Nebeker sounds like a less theatric version of James Mercer: every bit as sincere and captivating, with vocal control and style to spare. And this band has songs coming out of its ears: deep, clever guitar-driven tunes fleshed out with soaring horn arrangements. Listening to and thinking about these songs has kept me awake at night lately."
www.jambase.com
Starting out as a duo, and recording their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound with the help of friends (some of who have since joined the band), Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski, friends since college, have traveled many a mile to get to where they are today.
In 2007 and once again in 2008 (in 2008 Kati Claborn and Luke Ydstie joined them), Israel and Ryan embarked on a West Coast bike tour. This wasn't a tour where they road bikes, and had a van hauling the equipment. They hauled everything on their bikes. No gas. One hundred percent leg-powered.
With big signs on the back of their bike trailers that read "BLIND" and "PILOT," a lot of concerned motorists screamed about the "PILOT" leaving the "BLIND" guy behind. Playing little towns that don't often get shows by "touring bands," they were able to share their brand of music with people who weren't particularly familiar with indie pop, or indie anything. But they found that heartfelt lyrics and beautiful music appeal to just about everyone. In fact, they completely sold out of their EPs.
They returned to Portland anxious to complete their first full-length album. The long road to this album has paid off in spades. Blind Pilot sounds something like a wistful mix of The Shins with a bit of Iron & Wine folksiness. But these comparisons don't give a full representation of the unbelievable beauty of this album. As Willamette Week's Casey Jarman proclaimed, "Front man Israel Nebeker sounds like a less theatric version of James Mercer: every bit as sincere and captivating, with vocal control and style to spare. And this band has songs coming out of its ears: deep, clever guitar-driven tunes fleshed out with soaring horn arrangements. Listening to and thinking about these songs has kept me awake at night lately."
www.jambase.com
School scores perfect SAT score
Published Date: 07 April 2009
A St Helens primary school achieved 100 per cent scores in last year's controversial SATS tests.
League tables published this week show that the borough's test results were well above the national average, with record numbers of local 11-year-olds achieving the grade.The main goal in the Key Stage Two exams is to get as many pupils to achieve a Level Four pass as possible. And of the St Helens class of 2008, one school, Eccleston Lane Ends Primary in Albany Avenue, Eccleston, managed a perfect score.
Headteacher Carol Gowan said: "Eccleston Lane Ends has a long standing excellent reputation built on a strong partnership between pupils, parents, governors and the community.
"We are very proud of our school and achieving such outstanding results is only part of the story for our school. We believe in excellence and enjoyment and our pupils really do enjoy and achieve."
Another school school, Bleak Hill primary, in Hamilton Road, Windle, posted near perfect results, with 99 per cent of pupils achieving level four passes in English and maths.
Overall, 84 per cent of St Helens schools gained Level Four English compared with 81 per cent nationally. Some 82 per cent locally passed with 79 per cent nationally; and 91 per cent made the science grade while the national average is 73.
The combined English and maths score is 77 per cent - up four per cent.
Councillor Shirley Evans, executive member for Children and Young People's Services, said: "This is the result of a lot of hard work by teachers and pupils with the support of governors and parents. We are seeing a year on year improvement across the board which is excellent news as we all strive to improve the attainment and aspirations of our young people."
www.sthelensreporter.co.uk
Sabtu, 21 Maret 2009
The Perfect Man
Interview: IT ALL SEEMS so normal. A long car journey through a winter landscape acquires an element of fun as an American mother encourages her daughters in a guessing game at which the younger child is very good, or so it seems.
The triumphant little girl becomes dangerously excited and in a split second the joy turns into tragedy. Their father, an Englishman, is left to make sense of his own grief as well as the respective resentment and guilt dividing his two daughters. The chance of teaching in Italy presents the family with a year away from the US and the legacy of an accident that should never have happened.
Genova is British director Mike Winterbottom’s first movie in five years. It marks a brilliant return to film and, drawing on his various strengths, including documentary film-making, it is his finest work to date. Either way, it is a remarkable piece, intense, believable, beautifully shot and sufficiently shocking to have a viewer gagging with terror. There are elements of the surreal as a benign presence becomes sinister. It is as much a thriller as it is a faltering romance. And yet again it demonstrates the subtle, persuasive gifts of the most sympathetic, and understated of actors, Colin Firth. Playing the bereaved father Joe, Firth is caught between the contrasting needs of 10-year-old Mary, tormented by nightmares and bedwetting, and the more complex tensions introduced by Kelly, her 16-year-old sister, bored by adolescence. It is a movie of unexpected power.
Firth seems genuinely pleased and admits to being very taken with it. “I keep looking at it and I have to say I’m quite besotted by it. It’s beautiful and it’s real. It’s also quite different, Mike uses a small camera. It’s really opened my eyes to the wonders of working in natural light.” He refers to the contrasts: “The sharp, blinding sunlight and those long, dark alleys.” There is also the contrast between the snow and ice of the opening sequence and the subsequent summer haze of Genoa where most of the film is set.
Firth looks me straight in the eye, and speaks about the new movie with all the enthusiasm of someone who sat in the audience instead of being the star. “It’s about grief and the way people deal with it. It’s also looking at a particular family and how love is tested.” Any parent watching it will experience several pangs of recognition.
A father of a grown son and more recently two younger boys by his Italian wife, Firth is very good with children and his scenes with the little girl who plays his daughter in Genova are convincingly affectionate. Also moving is his growing helplessness in dealing with his angry older daughter played by the assured Willa Holland. One magnificently well shot sequence in which the younger girl attempts to cross a busy street is terrifying.
Having seen Firth in so many movies it is a bit odd to be meeting him in person in a Dublin hotel. There is no affectation, no pretence, no theory; he says acting is about “suspending disbelief”. He is handsome without being sexually intimidating and often smiles that sweet quick little smile that some of his characters use to great effect. Mention him to anyone, male or female, and the response is invariably the same; people like Colin Firth. Some, myself included, went to see Mamma Mia! only because he was in it. The child actors who worked with him on Emma Thompson’s Nanny McPhee consistently remind their own parents of how nice he is, while his performance as Mr Darcy did more for Jane Austen than an army of admiring literary critics.
On a Friday afternoon, he looks more like an off-duty vet or doctor than an actor; in fact he speaks like a lively academic and is decidedly unactorly. This observation makes him laugh. Interested in books, he has always read a lot and likes history, the subject his father studied at Cambridge. “My grandfather went to Oxford, he read theology.” Firth does not belong to that precocious Oxbridge set of British actors. He didn’t go to university and still seems more surprised than regretful about missing out on the experience. “I didn’t do that well at school, I don’t know, I wasn’t focused at the time . . . I don’t really know what happened.” He still seems a bit mystified, but not at all defensive about it, as if he is merely trying to figure out what happened.
His reading has filled many of the gaps and he researches his roles well, often continuing the reading after the shoot is over, such as when he was in Conspiracy (for which he got an Emmy nomination) and became interested in Albert Speer. No, even if the famous Victorian actor/manager Henry Irving is a distant relative by marriage, Firth is not a typical actor, much less a movie star. He laughs on hearing this, and says of acting: “Well, it’s kept me amused”.
It has also kept him in work; Firth is in demand and has never been short of a role. His range is impressive from the obsessed Arsenal supporter in Fever Pitch to the world-weary Roman soldier in The Lost Legion, to a detached Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring, in which he showed how ruthless an artist can be. Few actors can convey the uptight Englishman as well as Firth does; he can look heartbroken as he did in Love, Actually – but is also a good comic actor and is the only saving grace in The Accidental Husband. He has been in two of the most successful British films ever made, The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love.
“I don’t think many people noticed that I was in Shakespeare in Love; there I was, the only one of all my colleagues not winning awards or being nominated and in a film celebrating poetry and language and love and beauty, and I was this miserable fellow with no imagination, no romance in me. I’m rather fond of my Wessex.” His character, Lord Wessex, is the bankrupt aristocrat intent on marrying Gwyneth Paltrow’s Lady Violet De Lesseps, who is secretly in love with Shakespeare. Wessex, says Firth, “can’t even tell her what he admires about her – is it her eyes or her lips? – he is utterly indifferent, and just wants to solve his problem”, which amounts to the funding of his ships heading to the New World.
Being in the film was exciting, and Firth became interested in Elizabethan politics and read widely on the subject. He seems to have the sort of mind that, once it gets drawn to a subject, quickly becomes immersed. “I’ve always liked reading, and when I was approached about The English Patient I was very pleased with myself because I had already discovered Ondaatje and had read Coming Through Slaughter and Running in the Family.” How about In the Skin of the Lion? “Oh yes,” he smiles, “I’d read that. Did you know that some of the characters from that were in The English Patient?” Like a child playing snap, I say: “Caravaggio”. Firth smiles and describes how the late Anthony Minghella had read the novel “and just put it away, left it for a while, and then wrote his version of it, as an impression instead of an adaptation”. In the film, Firth played the doting husband of Katharine who, though only a minor character in the novel, becomes central to the film as the lover of the English patient. “Her character was the one that most struck Anthony. Interesting?” he asks, as much as states.
Interviews promoting new movies are part of an actor’s job, but Firth manages to turn an interview into a conversation. Yet with the clock ticking and the publicist waiting in an alcove off the room, it is a race against time. Asked about one of his earliest roles, that of a young shell-shocked soldier in Pat O’Connor’s crafted A Month in the Country, he says: “I did like that; it is the one film I would like to see again.” Based on JL Carr’s novel, it tells the story of Tom Birkin, who arrives at a Yorkshire village in the summer of 1920.
Hired to uncover a medieval mural known to be painted above the nave in the local church, Birkin is troubled. The war has left him with various twitches and a stammer. Another new arrival is Moon, another war veteran, played by Kenneth Branagh. His job is to locate the burial place of a wealthy woman’s ancestor. While Birkin is falling in love with the vicar’s wife, Moon is greatly taken with the moody, rather beautiful Birkin. Firth gives an inspired performance which also revealed what have become two of his great strengths as an actor: his ability to let his expressive face and eyes convey volumes, and his flair for playing well off his colleagues. Watching that movie now not only makes one conscious of how young they both were, but how good they were at such an early stage of their careers.
“I think good acting makes good acting. I’ve never understood why actors choose to act in solitude, or why they are so competitive. It is more of a team thing. I enjoy having someone to work with rather than against.”
In Another Country (1984) Firth featured as Judd, the independent idealist at a boarding school apparently based on Eton. His classmate is the openly homosexual Guy, no doubt intended to be Burgess, played by Rupert Everett. The two have a natural rapport and brought this dynamic to a lively film version of The Importance of Being Earnest in 2002. They also appeared in a subversive remake of the British comic classic, St Trinian’s, with Everett playing the headmistress to Firth’s Education Minister with a mission to clean up the bankrupt and anarchic St Trinian’s – his mission was compromised by the minister’s having had a previous relationship with the headmistress. Most recently, Firth played a distressed, confused son to Jim Broadbent’s overbearing Dad in And When Did You Last See Your Father? based on poet Blake Morrison’s memoir of a complex, ambivalent father/son relationship.
Handsome, intelligent, witty, approachable, sincere, manly, soothing voice, looks good on a horse – what more could one possibly ask for? Speaking with Firth is enjoyable, even if the conversation is racing between topics because of the time restraint. Ironically, it had started rather badly. When the hotel receptionist had failed to locate Firth I was given a swipe card and directions to the suite. A strange conversation in the lift with a guest who looked like a spy was interrupted when a tall, slim man and a small woman entered the lift. The man was Firth. He and the woman were having an animated conversation.
When the lift stopped, they got out, and so did I. Their conversation continued; Firth, with his slightly awkward elegance, was gesturing, telling a funny story, and the woman was laughing. Close on their heels, I followed, too awkward to say anything. It is unlikely that the hotel corridor was about a mile long although it seemed so as I lurched along behind them. The woman looked around and asked, “Are you following us?”. Firth took off his glasses, peered like a schoolmaster and muttered, “You could have introduced yourself.”
It was a Mr Darcy moment. My excuse about not wanting to interrupt them sounded feeble even to me. But the ground failed to open. I could hear my words spoken some months earlier announcing that there were only two actors I wanted to interview: Johnny Depp because he is so weird; and Colin Firth because he was so gorgeous . . . I mean, such a fine actor.
“Both of my parents were born in India. I grew up all over England, well, mainly the south, the Home Counties.” His Englishness manages to avoid the stereotypes while also being used to great effect, such as in Genova. There is a terrific scene following his wife’s funeral when Firth the Englishman is having a half-hearted conversation with his American in-laws. The cultural distance seems to echo the sense of shock.
Referring to the part he plays in Atom Egoyan’s dark, unsettling movie, Where the Truth Lies, Firth says, “You know in the book, my character was an Italian American, and I didn’t mind playing that — I can do an American. But Atom decided I should make use of my Englishness, that’s what happened there.” It is a dark, stylish piece, screened amid controversy at Cannes in 2005. Firth is one half of a nightclub act, the other half being Kevin Bacon. Again, the partnership was electric. “Kevin is such a fine actor, you have no choice but to perform well.” It was also a daring role for Firth: “My character was violent, sadistic, sexually deviant, and so on.”
It is strange to be discussing Where The Truth Lies when so many people immediately think of Firth as the attractive, uptight lawyer in the Bridget Jones movies. Yet even those romps which made so much money had certain “Mr Darcy” in-jokes, as did St Trinian’s. Does he mind being asked about Pride and Prejudice? “No, not at all.” Is it not true that Firth is irritated by the way that role continues to stalk him? “No. I know that there is this perception that I’m sick of it, but I never said that, and I’m not. It is odd, though, because it was so successful, but for me it was a five-week shoot and then I went on to do other things. That’s the way it is, you move on from jobs to the next one before the other one is finished; the acting is over, but the other work is still going on.”
Had he read Austen? Was he conscious of portraying a character who is so much part of his tradition? “I had never read Austen. I was conscious of her, that school I was in at Eastleigh, near Chichester cathedral, where she is buried. I’d never read her because I thought she was just for girls,” he laughs at himself, “but also, at that age, I was more interested in reading Sartre and Camus, I wanted to be brooding and existentialist. I never studied Shakespeare either, until I went to drama school. But when I read Pride and Prejudice, I loved it. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on and read all the novels.” How about Persuasion? He would be a good Wentworth. “No, I’m probably past it now.” How about playing Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge? “That’s my favourite novel; Henchard is a fascinating character because he has flaws and he has done this terrible thing and had had to live with it,” says Firth, who reckons humans are more interesting than heroes.
In the forthcoming film of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Firth plays Lord Henry Wotton, while Dorian is the young English actor Ben Barnes, who played Firth’s son in Easy Virtue, based on the Noël Coward play. Released last year, it is a stylish period comedy, with Firth as a disillusioned ex-soldier. He was pleased with the movie, and says: “It has done very well in Italy, but got mixed reviews over here.”
How does Firth feel about Mamma Mia!? “That was great fun, I was delighted to be asked to be in it, it wasn’t easy singing and all that . . . but I knew that it was going to be a big hit and fun, and it was great being part of it.” His nostalgic solo in the boat was very good. “Why, thank you,” he says.
He seems a contented person, neither complacent nor smug. He mentions Tennessee Williams’ plays and is intrigued to hear that the short stories are even better. Mention of a German novel that would make a fine film causes him to praise Downfall and The Lives of Others.
In between all the films, the jobs, the reading,Firth is involved in promoting fair trade for producers in Third World countries. Initially, when he was approached by Oxfam in 2003 he was wary of becoming a token celebrity. But he looked at it in a practical way. “I went to Ethiopia to see for myself. You know, we are all complicit in this exploitation, every time you buy something that has been produced for nothing by a person who has no say, no rights. Ethiopia is beautiful and the people are dignified, but the poverty . . . I thought it would really get to me, but in fact it was far worse when I came home and saw us all drinking our cappuccinos and not thinking about the real costs. The farmer you see doesn’t realise how much we pay for his coffee. He gets so little, he thinks we get it for free. My involvement started as symbolic, but it quickly became personal.”
Through his involvement with Progreso, of which he is a director, he has made his celebrity work with a shop in Chiswick (Ecò Age Ltd), which sells a wide range of fair trade goods.
Just one final question: did he do his own riding as Mr Darcy? “I did indeed,” he says proudly. “Recently I was in something else and my character had to ride a horse, and I thought, ‘Oh I’m getting on a bit, get someone else to do it’, but when I watched him, I didn’t think the double was doing that well. So I decided I’d do it myself – and I did.”
www.irishtimes.com
The triumphant little girl becomes dangerously excited and in a split second the joy turns into tragedy. Their father, an Englishman, is left to make sense of his own grief as well as the respective resentment and guilt dividing his two daughters. The chance of teaching in Italy presents the family with a year away from the US and the legacy of an accident that should never have happened.
Genova is British director Mike Winterbottom’s first movie in five years. It marks a brilliant return to film and, drawing on his various strengths, including documentary film-making, it is his finest work to date. Either way, it is a remarkable piece, intense, believable, beautifully shot and sufficiently shocking to have a viewer gagging with terror. There are elements of the surreal as a benign presence becomes sinister. It is as much a thriller as it is a faltering romance. And yet again it demonstrates the subtle, persuasive gifts of the most sympathetic, and understated of actors, Colin Firth. Playing the bereaved father Joe, Firth is caught between the contrasting needs of 10-year-old Mary, tormented by nightmares and bedwetting, and the more complex tensions introduced by Kelly, her 16-year-old sister, bored by adolescence. It is a movie of unexpected power.
Firth seems genuinely pleased and admits to being very taken with it. “I keep looking at it and I have to say I’m quite besotted by it. It’s beautiful and it’s real. It’s also quite different, Mike uses a small camera. It’s really opened my eyes to the wonders of working in natural light.” He refers to the contrasts: “The sharp, blinding sunlight and those long, dark alleys.” There is also the contrast between the snow and ice of the opening sequence and the subsequent summer haze of Genoa where most of the film is set.
Firth looks me straight in the eye, and speaks about the new movie with all the enthusiasm of someone who sat in the audience instead of being the star. “It’s about grief and the way people deal with it. It’s also looking at a particular family and how love is tested.” Any parent watching it will experience several pangs of recognition.
A father of a grown son and more recently two younger boys by his Italian wife, Firth is very good with children and his scenes with the little girl who plays his daughter in Genova are convincingly affectionate. Also moving is his growing helplessness in dealing with his angry older daughter played by the assured Willa Holland. One magnificently well shot sequence in which the younger girl attempts to cross a busy street is terrifying.
Having seen Firth in so many movies it is a bit odd to be meeting him in person in a Dublin hotel. There is no affectation, no pretence, no theory; he says acting is about “suspending disbelief”. He is handsome without being sexually intimidating and often smiles that sweet quick little smile that some of his characters use to great effect. Mention him to anyone, male or female, and the response is invariably the same; people like Colin Firth. Some, myself included, went to see Mamma Mia! only because he was in it. The child actors who worked with him on Emma Thompson’s Nanny McPhee consistently remind their own parents of how nice he is, while his performance as Mr Darcy did more for Jane Austen than an army of admiring literary critics.
On a Friday afternoon, he looks more like an off-duty vet or doctor than an actor; in fact he speaks like a lively academic and is decidedly unactorly. This observation makes him laugh. Interested in books, he has always read a lot and likes history, the subject his father studied at Cambridge. “My grandfather went to Oxford, he read theology.” Firth does not belong to that precocious Oxbridge set of British actors. He didn’t go to university and still seems more surprised than regretful about missing out on the experience. “I didn’t do that well at school, I don’t know, I wasn’t focused at the time . . . I don’t really know what happened.” He still seems a bit mystified, but not at all defensive about it, as if he is merely trying to figure out what happened.
His reading has filled many of the gaps and he researches his roles well, often continuing the reading after the shoot is over, such as when he was in Conspiracy (for which he got an Emmy nomination) and became interested in Albert Speer. No, even if the famous Victorian actor/manager Henry Irving is a distant relative by marriage, Firth is not a typical actor, much less a movie star. He laughs on hearing this, and says of acting: “Well, it’s kept me amused”.
It has also kept him in work; Firth is in demand and has never been short of a role. His range is impressive from the obsessed Arsenal supporter in Fever Pitch to the world-weary Roman soldier in The Lost Legion, to a detached Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring, in which he showed how ruthless an artist can be. Few actors can convey the uptight Englishman as well as Firth does; he can look heartbroken as he did in Love, Actually – but is also a good comic actor and is the only saving grace in The Accidental Husband. He has been in two of the most successful British films ever made, The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love.
“I don’t think many people noticed that I was in Shakespeare in Love; there I was, the only one of all my colleagues not winning awards or being nominated and in a film celebrating poetry and language and love and beauty, and I was this miserable fellow with no imagination, no romance in me. I’m rather fond of my Wessex.” His character, Lord Wessex, is the bankrupt aristocrat intent on marrying Gwyneth Paltrow’s Lady Violet De Lesseps, who is secretly in love with Shakespeare. Wessex, says Firth, “can’t even tell her what he admires about her – is it her eyes or her lips? – he is utterly indifferent, and just wants to solve his problem”, which amounts to the funding of his ships heading to the New World.
Being in the film was exciting, and Firth became interested in Elizabethan politics and read widely on the subject. He seems to have the sort of mind that, once it gets drawn to a subject, quickly becomes immersed. “I’ve always liked reading, and when I was approached about The English Patient I was very pleased with myself because I had already discovered Ondaatje and had read Coming Through Slaughter and Running in the Family.” How about In the Skin of the Lion? “Oh yes,” he smiles, “I’d read that. Did you know that some of the characters from that were in The English Patient?” Like a child playing snap, I say: “Caravaggio”. Firth smiles and describes how the late Anthony Minghella had read the novel “and just put it away, left it for a while, and then wrote his version of it, as an impression instead of an adaptation”. In the film, Firth played the doting husband of Katharine who, though only a minor character in the novel, becomes central to the film as the lover of the English patient. “Her character was the one that most struck Anthony. Interesting?” he asks, as much as states.
Interviews promoting new movies are part of an actor’s job, but Firth manages to turn an interview into a conversation. Yet with the clock ticking and the publicist waiting in an alcove off the room, it is a race against time. Asked about one of his earliest roles, that of a young shell-shocked soldier in Pat O’Connor’s crafted A Month in the Country, he says: “I did like that; it is the one film I would like to see again.” Based on JL Carr’s novel, it tells the story of Tom Birkin, who arrives at a Yorkshire village in the summer of 1920.
Hired to uncover a medieval mural known to be painted above the nave in the local church, Birkin is troubled. The war has left him with various twitches and a stammer. Another new arrival is Moon, another war veteran, played by Kenneth Branagh. His job is to locate the burial place of a wealthy woman’s ancestor. While Birkin is falling in love with the vicar’s wife, Moon is greatly taken with the moody, rather beautiful Birkin. Firth gives an inspired performance which also revealed what have become two of his great strengths as an actor: his ability to let his expressive face and eyes convey volumes, and his flair for playing well off his colleagues. Watching that movie now not only makes one conscious of how young they both were, but how good they were at such an early stage of their careers.
“I think good acting makes good acting. I’ve never understood why actors choose to act in solitude, or why they are so competitive. It is more of a team thing. I enjoy having someone to work with rather than against.”
In Another Country (1984) Firth featured as Judd, the independent idealist at a boarding school apparently based on Eton. His classmate is the openly homosexual Guy, no doubt intended to be Burgess, played by Rupert Everett. The two have a natural rapport and brought this dynamic to a lively film version of The Importance of Being Earnest in 2002. They also appeared in a subversive remake of the British comic classic, St Trinian’s, with Everett playing the headmistress to Firth’s Education Minister with a mission to clean up the bankrupt and anarchic St Trinian’s – his mission was compromised by the minister’s having had a previous relationship with the headmistress. Most recently, Firth played a distressed, confused son to Jim Broadbent’s overbearing Dad in And When Did You Last See Your Father? based on poet Blake Morrison’s memoir of a complex, ambivalent father/son relationship.
Handsome, intelligent, witty, approachable, sincere, manly, soothing voice, looks good on a horse – what more could one possibly ask for? Speaking with Firth is enjoyable, even if the conversation is racing between topics because of the time restraint. Ironically, it had started rather badly. When the hotel receptionist had failed to locate Firth I was given a swipe card and directions to the suite. A strange conversation in the lift with a guest who looked like a spy was interrupted when a tall, slim man and a small woman entered the lift. The man was Firth. He and the woman were having an animated conversation.
When the lift stopped, they got out, and so did I. Their conversation continued; Firth, with his slightly awkward elegance, was gesturing, telling a funny story, and the woman was laughing. Close on their heels, I followed, too awkward to say anything. It is unlikely that the hotel corridor was about a mile long although it seemed so as I lurched along behind them. The woman looked around and asked, “Are you following us?”. Firth took off his glasses, peered like a schoolmaster and muttered, “You could have introduced yourself.”
It was a Mr Darcy moment. My excuse about not wanting to interrupt them sounded feeble even to me. But the ground failed to open. I could hear my words spoken some months earlier announcing that there were only two actors I wanted to interview: Johnny Depp because he is so weird; and Colin Firth because he was so gorgeous . . . I mean, such a fine actor.
“Both of my parents were born in India. I grew up all over England, well, mainly the south, the Home Counties.” His Englishness manages to avoid the stereotypes while also being used to great effect, such as in Genova. There is a terrific scene following his wife’s funeral when Firth the Englishman is having a half-hearted conversation with his American in-laws. The cultural distance seems to echo the sense of shock.
Referring to the part he plays in Atom Egoyan’s dark, unsettling movie, Where the Truth Lies, Firth says, “You know in the book, my character was an Italian American, and I didn’t mind playing that — I can do an American. But Atom decided I should make use of my Englishness, that’s what happened there.” It is a dark, stylish piece, screened amid controversy at Cannes in 2005. Firth is one half of a nightclub act, the other half being Kevin Bacon. Again, the partnership was electric. “Kevin is such a fine actor, you have no choice but to perform well.” It was also a daring role for Firth: “My character was violent, sadistic, sexually deviant, and so on.”
It is strange to be discussing Where The Truth Lies when so many people immediately think of Firth as the attractive, uptight lawyer in the Bridget Jones movies. Yet even those romps which made so much money had certain “Mr Darcy” in-jokes, as did St Trinian’s. Does he mind being asked about Pride and Prejudice? “No, not at all.” Is it not true that Firth is irritated by the way that role continues to stalk him? “No. I know that there is this perception that I’m sick of it, but I never said that, and I’m not. It is odd, though, because it was so successful, but for me it was a five-week shoot and then I went on to do other things. That’s the way it is, you move on from jobs to the next one before the other one is finished; the acting is over, but the other work is still going on.”
Had he read Austen? Was he conscious of portraying a character who is so much part of his tradition? “I had never read Austen. I was conscious of her, that school I was in at Eastleigh, near Chichester cathedral, where she is buried. I’d never read her because I thought she was just for girls,” he laughs at himself, “but also, at that age, I was more interested in reading Sartre and Camus, I wanted to be brooding and existentialist. I never studied Shakespeare either, until I went to drama school. But when I read Pride and Prejudice, I loved it. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on and read all the novels.” How about Persuasion? He would be a good Wentworth. “No, I’m probably past it now.” How about playing Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge? “That’s my favourite novel; Henchard is a fascinating character because he has flaws and he has done this terrible thing and had had to live with it,” says Firth, who reckons humans are more interesting than heroes.
In the forthcoming film of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Firth plays Lord Henry Wotton, while Dorian is the young English actor Ben Barnes, who played Firth’s son in Easy Virtue, based on the Noël Coward play. Released last year, it is a stylish period comedy, with Firth as a disillusioned ex-soldier. He was pleased with the movie, and says: “It has done very well in Italy, but got mixed reviews over here.”
How does Firth feel about Mamma Mia!? “That was great fun, I was delighted to be asked to be in it, it wasn’t easy singing and all that . . . but I knew that it was going to be a big hit and fun, and it was great being part of it.” His nostalgic solo in the boat was very good. “Why, thank you,” he says.
He seems a contented person, neither complacent nor smug. He mentions Tennessee Williams’ plays and is intrigued to hear that the short stories are even better. Mention of a German novel that would make a fine film causes him to praise Downfall and The Lives of Others.
In between all the films, the jobs, the reading,Firth is involved in promoting fair trade for producers in Third World countries. Initially, when he was approached by Oxfam in 2003 he was wary of becoming a token celebrity. But he looked at it in a practical way. “I went to Ethiopia to see for myself. You know, we are all complicit in this exploitation, every time you buy something that has been produced for nothing by a person who has no say, no rights. Ethiopia is beautiful and the people are dignified, but the poverty . . . I thought it would really get to me, but in fact it was far worse when I came home and saw us all drinking our cappuccinos and not thinking about the real costs. The farmer you see doesn’t realise how much we pay for his coffee. He gets so little, he thinks we get it for free. My involvement started as symbolic, but it quickly became personal.”
Through his involvement with Progreso, of which he is a director, he has made his celebrity work with a shop in Chiswick (Ecò Age Ltd), which sells a wide range of fair trade goods.
Just one final question: did he do his own riding as Mr Darcy? “I did indeed,” he says proudly. “Recently I was in something else and my character had to ride a horse, and I thought, ‘Oh I’m getting on a bit, get someone else to do it’, but when I watched him, I didn’t think the double was doing that well. So I decided I’d do it myself – and I did.”
www.irishtimes.com
Siena Beats Ohio State in 2 Overtimes
DAYTON, Ohio — When it ended, after Siena and Ohio State battled for 40 minutes of regulation and two overtimes, the Saints gathered underneath a tunnel here at the University of Dayton Arena.
Saints fans hung over the railing, their faces painted the school’s colors of green and gold, their voices gone from screaming. They rang cow bells and leaned down, hoping to touch anyone wearing a green jersey.
It was already early Saturday morning. Even though this game started Friday night, it did not end until 12:21 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, the scoreboard remained stuck. The clock read 0:00. On its right, Siena 74. On its left, Ohio State 72.
“Definitely big,” junior guard Ronald Moore said. “We’ve got to get ready for Louisville.”
Indeed, the ninth-seeded Saints will meet the top-seeded Cardinals on Sunday evening in the Midwest Region in the Round of 32 of the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Saints ensured that with their wild, back-and-forth victory over eighth-seeded Ohio State, a team that led during most of regulation and the second overtime.
Siena outlasted Ohio State by the end of the second overtime, thanks to Moore, who not only tied the game at the end of the first overtime with a 3-pointer but won it with another 3-pointer he sank with 3.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime.
Moore said he struggled Friday night, and the final statistics show he made only 4 of 13 shots, and only 2 of 6 of his 3-point attempts. Of course, two of those four made shots and both of those made 3-pointers were the most important shots taken in the game. Those shots transformed Moore from a solid, if virtually unknown, player into another N.C.A.A. tournament celebrity, another hero made in March.
Moore appeared near tears after the game ended. Asked what went through his mind before the final shot, he said, simply: “Nothing, really. I needed to knock it down.”
After it went in, Siena players huddled on one side of the court, jumping and hugging and celebrating their advancement. This epic game had taken several twists for them to get here.
At the end of the first overtime, Moore hit a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 65-65. The Ohio State sophomore guard Jon Diebler missed a potential winning shot at the buzzer.
Near the end of regulation, Kenny Hasbrouck, the Saints senior guard and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference player of the year, knocked down a 3-pointer and made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 56-56. Evan Turner, Ohio State’s valuable sophomore swingman, missed a jumper that would have won the game in regulation.
Back and forth it went.
Hasbrouck and Turner are the best players on their teams, and they played as if attached to opposite ends of a fulcrum Friday night.
Turner dominated for most of regulation, while Hasbrouck remained stuck in a shooting slump on the worst possible night. Hasbrouck tied the game, but Turner missed at the end of regulation. Hasbrouck opened the first overtime with a driving lay-up, and Turner scored 7 points in the second overtime, tying the game twice and giving Ohio State a lead that did not last.
Twenty minutes after the game ended, the Siena fans and players and band lingered at the arena, as if they did not want to leave. A band member walked off the court, carrying a trombone, pointing at every person he passed.
“I love you,” he said. “And I love you. And I love you. And I especially love you.”
For Siena, it was that kind of night.
By GREG BISHOP
www.nytimes.com
Saints fans hung over the railing, their faces painted the school’s colors of green and gold, their voices gone from screaming. They rang cow bells and leaned down, hoping to touch anyone wearing a green jersey.
It was already early Saturday morning. Even though this game started Friday night, it did not end until 12:21 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, the scoreboard remained stuck. The clock read 0:00. On its right, Siena 74. On its left, Ohio State 72.
“Definitely big,” junior guard Ronald Moore said. “We’ve got to get ready for Louisville.”
Indeed, the ninth-seeded Saints will meet the top-seeded Cardinals on Sunday evening in the Midwest Region in the Round of 32 of the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Saints ensured that with their wild, back-and-forth victory over eighth-seeded Ohio State, a team that led during most of regulation and the second overtime.
Siena outlasted Ohio State by the end of the second overtime, thanks to Moore, who not only tied the game at the end of the first overtime with a 3-pointer but won it with another 3-pointer he sank with 3.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime.
Moore said he struggled Friday night, and the final statistics show he made only 4 of 13 shots, and only 2 of 6 of his 3-point attempts. Of course, two of those four made shots and both of those made 3-pointers were the most important shots taken in the game. Those shots transformed Moore from a solid, if virtually unknown, player into another N.C.A.A. tournament celebrity, another hero made in March.
Moore appeared near tears after the game ended. Asked what went through his mind before the final shot, he said, simply: “Nothing, really. I needed to knock it down.”
After it went in, Siena players huddled on one side of the court, jumping and hugging and celebrating their advancement. This epic game had taken several twists for them to get here.
At the end of the first overtime, Moore hit a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 65-65. The Ohio State sophomore guard Jon Diebler missed a potential winning shot at the buzzer.
Near the end of regulation, Kenny Hasbrouck, the Saints senior guard and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference player of the year, knocked down a 3-pointer and made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 56-56. Evan Turner, Ohio State’s valuable sophomore swingman, missed a jumper that would have won the game in regulation.
Back and forth it went.
Hasbrouck and Turner are the best players on their teams, and they played as if attached to opposite ends of a fulcrum Friday night.
Turner dominated for most of regulation, while Hasbrouck remained stuck in a shooting slump on the worst possible night. Hasbrouck tied the game, but Turner missed at the end of regulation. Hasbrouck opened the first overtime with a driving lay-up, and Turner scored 7 points in the second overtime, tying the game twice and giving Ohio State a lead that did not last.
Twenty minutes after the game ended, the Siena fans and players and band lingered at the arena, as if they did not want to leave. A band member walked off the court, carrying a trombone, pointing at every person he passed.
“I love you,” he said. “And I love you. And I love you. And I especially love you.”
For Siena, it was that kind of night.
By GREG BISHOP
www.nytimes.com
Minggu, 15 Maret 2009
Bill Collectors Target Next-of-Kin When Debtors Die
Dead people are paying their bills like there's no tomorrow.
According to "The New York Times," collection agencies are preying on next-of-kin to collect on the debts of the deceased. That could mean credit cards, utility bills, even medical bills.
Companies like Minneapolis-based DCM can electronically rummage through some three-thousand probate courts around the country.
They use the data to file claims and then deploy bill collectors specially trained to sound compassionate.
While collection agencies can go after money inherited from the estate, most state laws protect the next-of-kin from having to pay out of pocket.
Consumer advocates say that spouses, siblings and adult children often have no idea they're not on the hook for their loved one's debts.
DCM is unapologetic, saying they're doing their part to keep the financial services industry afloat during the credit crunch. CEO Steven Farscht said, quote, "Every dollar we collect improves their profitability."
www.msnbc.msn.com
According to "The New York Times," collection agencies are preying on next-of-kin to collect on the debts of the deceased. That could mean credit cards, utility bills, even medical bills.
Companies like Minneapolis-based DCM can electronically rummage through some three-thousand probate courts around the country.
They use the data to file claims and then deploy bill collectors specially trained to sound compassionate.
While collection agencies can go after money inherited from the estate, most state laws protect the next-of-kin from having to pay out of pocket.
Consumer advocates say that spouses, siblings and adult children often have no idea they're not on the hook for their loved one's debts.
DCM is unapologetic, saying they're doing their part to keep the financial services industry afloat during the credit crunch. CEO Steven Farscht said, quote, "Every dollar we collect improves their profitability."
www.msnbc.msn.com
Boston cops get ready for St. Patrick’s Day parade
BOSTON — Thousands of people dressed in green or wearing shamrocks will fill South Boston for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The parade begins Sunday afternoon and travels through Boston’s historically Irish neighborhood. It has been a tradition for more than 100 years.
Boston police hope new measures will reduce the public drinking they say has become increasingly prevalant at the parade. Police say excessive drinking has led to fights and other problems.
The police department will add up to 200 officers to the 400 they had at last year’s parade. Two officers will stand by every liquor store and bar along the route to curb underage drinking.
By Associated Press
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