Wow, Michael Musto — when asked if he thought Paris Hilton was eventually going to write (sigh…) another book to help re-cast herself in a more sympathetic light — said that she was “going to scratch the letter X on a used tampon.” This on MSNBC…
Daily Archives: June 8, 2007
Paris Hilton Back in Slammer
Fan-freaking-tastic. After readying, in my mind, an admittedly somewhat belated but nonetheless brilliant post about Paris Hilton’s forthcoming Disturbia experience, it appears that Paris has been thrown back behind bars for her reckless driving and suspended license parole violation — at least for now — freaking out in the courtroom and crying out, “It’s not right!” and, “Mom!” All this after being placed in handcuffs in a police car and driven to the courtroom this morning for a hearing on her early release from jail — a hearing that her lawyers tried to get her to “attend” via phone.
None-too-happy Judge Michael T. Sauer said that he saw “no documentation or evidence to support claims of a mitigating medical condition” (e.g., the sheriff’s office filed no paperwork) and reinstated Hilton’s sentence, though with California’s overcrowded prisons and the possibility of good behavior time off, a full, 45-day term shouldn’t be expected. Naturally, an appeal over the house arrest/jail matter should also be filed, probably today but possibly Monday. Meanwhile, TMZ.com managing editor Harvey Levin is on MSNBC playing talking head right now, with paper airplanes flying around his head in the “newsroom” background. Wow. This. Is. America.
Hilton would have gotten through this whole ordeal a lot more smoothly if she just shut up and took it like a champ, with a clenched jaw. This makes her look like even more of a spoiled, out-of-touch brat, though, something I didn’t think was possible. And the courtroom outburst has to rank as top-shelf taunting material for years to come. In fact, if I strain my ears, I think I can hear the “It’s not right!” T-shirts being printed up right now…
UPDATE 6/8: For the photo that will likely be accompanying the above text on those black-market, swap-meet T-shirts, click here.
UPDATE 6/8: For Michael Musto’s hilariously gross comment about the inevitable Hilton PR restoration project, click here.
UPDATE 6/26: For a “celebration” of Paris’ release, and proof that she rocks the bong, click here.
Kristin Korb: Live in Vienna
Classical music pops up chiefly on the news these days
whenever there’s one of those studies every six months or so that shows playing
Bach and Beethoven to your unborn baby can increase his or her I.Q. by 575
percent or something. Once the popular music of its time, it’s now largely the
domain of arts benefactors. Serious conductors aside, many classically trained
musicians try to get into the lucrative world of film composing, or at least
working in orchestral scoring.
occasionally spinning actual records, but also taking my younger sister and I
on trips to see the local symphony orchestra. While pop music and rock ’n’
roll, then old-school crooners, rap and the work of great songwriters like Bob
Dylan, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen would capture my imagination, I think
classical music provided a certain underpinning, as I strongly recall the
wonderment associated with watching violinists working in unison, or cello
players coaxing unusual new sounds out of their life-size instruments.
Charles Mingus with the vocal styling of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Montana-bred
jazz double-bassist and vocalist Kristin Korb has created a deep, evocative
scat sound all her own. This 75-minute concert was filmed in early 2005 at
famous Porgy & Bess jazz club, and features a legitimately engaging performance
by Korb, the former director of jazz studies at
“I’m Old Fashioned” kicks off the play list, followed by a deliberately
dawdling version of “They Say It’s Spring,” “Whirly Bird,” “Wouldn’t It Be
Lovely,” “Lined with a Groove,” “Alone Together,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Nobody
Wants to Sing the Blues” and “Top of the World.” Like blended yogurt, interwoven
with the live concert footage are discrete sit-down interview tidbits with
Korb, which give the title the feel of a real document rather than just a staid
recital.
screen on a region-free disc suitable for worldwide play, this DVD comes with
fairly a solid Dolby digital 5.1 audio track. Apart from the aforementioned
interstitial bits, there are unfortunately no other supplemental extras. While
somewhat limited to classical music fans already faithfully familiar with the
subject’s body of work, Korb comes across as an intelligent and unfailingly
positive-minded guide, and might just spark a certain nostalgia for elementary
school field trips amongst lapsed fans of the genre. To purchase this DVD via Amazon,
click here.
B (Concert) C (Disc)
American Gangster Trailer Drops
I missed this from just a couple days back, but the trailer for Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington’s American Gangster, about a 1970s Harlem drug lord and the cop trying to bring him down, has dropped online, and might even get a wide-pitch hitch on Universal’s forthcoming Evan Almighty, who knows.
All the period detail stuff looks spot-on and immersing, and it’s good to see that we get at least a bit of tête-à-tête between the two, even if all the plot stuff is rendered in deliberately broad strokes. A November 2 release date has been set for the movie; no word yet on its running time, per my other post. I’ll see if I can shake a tree on that. For the American Gangster trailer, click here.