Monday, August 27, 2007

Reasons To Be Excited About Coldplay Lite’s Evermore’s New Album!

3:37PM Jess McGuire | OMG, y’all! Those charming brothers from New Zealand, the tousle-haired lads that are Evermore, are promising big things with their new work! “It’s a bit more rhythmic and, how can I say, almost so dance influenced, some of it. It’s different lyrically, almost political, some of it. At the moment we’re being very experimental. We’re at the early stages of making the album so we’re putting all the ideas out there and seeing what [happens].” Rhythmically dance influenced almost political experimental music is our favourite genre! Check our MySpazz if you don’t believe us! Jon Hume adds more. He said Evermore wanted to address serious issues, most likely focusing on poverty and injustice in Africa, but in a different kind of way. Rhythmically dance influenced almost political experimental music about serious issues sounds like it’ll be just the ticket. We’re pre-ordering our copy of the album now. Also, do you think Idol’s Daniel Misfud has been influenced at all by the Evermore lads boundary-pushing use of scarves over the past few years? PS: We really, really liked It’s Too Late and we’re not afraid to admit it. PPS: We know someone who toured with them and alluded to the fellows – well, one of them at the very least – being dirty little buggers. But nice. So that’s something, isn’t it? More »

Owen Wilson Reportedly Hospitalised After Suicide Attempt

3:20PM Jess McGuire | From Contact Music - Actor Owen Wilson was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday (26Aug07), according to reports. The 38-year-old star was taken by ambulance from his home in Santa Monica to the emergency room at L.A’s St. John’s Hospital at midday. The National Enquirer and Star magazine are reporting that Wilson tried to kill himself. Sources tell the magazines he cut his wrists and took a number of pills – and was discovered by a family member, who alerted authorities. We’re sure our Defamer counterparts in the States will have more on the developing story which we will, of course, publish here as soon as they’re good to go. Frankly, there’s no joke we can tack onto the end of this which’d be remotely funny, so we’re just gonna send some warm thoughts toward the general direction of L.A for now. More »

Pomeranz Takes A Swipe At SBS Management

2:14PM Jess McGuire | Former star of SBS program The Movie Show (and personal foe of Zach Braff) Margaret Pomeranz has written an article for today’s Crikey mailout in which she displays both support for newsreader Mary Kostakidis, as well as contempt for the current management of SBS. Here’s a brief excerpt to whet your tastebuds. The recent acrimonious departure of Mary Kostakidis is the last in the long line of defections and ejections from SBS under the current management. The organization has been stripped of just about anyone who had any connection to an SBS where an ethos of commitment pervaded the organization. There has been a cultural genocide at the place. … Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, that dollar will ultimately shape programming. The antics of Paris Hilton are well-covered on the commercial broadcasters, what is the justification for including a story about her at the top end of the SBS news? Did anyone mention dumbing-down? You could perhaps justify the changes if they proved more relevant to more Australians. But the reverse has been the case. SBS news was respected, valued and watched. In its new, more commercial incarnation it is actually less watched. It’s sad to see the demise of this flagship of SBS as the ratings plummeted with the new format. A format very much like Channel 9. Or 7. Or 10. Touche. Meanwhile, smh.com.au has Paul Sheehan declaring that SBS is “an indulgence we don’t need”, stating, amongst other things - the problems facing SBS, in particular, are bigger than any personality or any management policy. The problem is structural. The real question facing the Federal Government, and the overwhelming majority of taxpayers who pay for SBS but rarely watch it, is whether SBS should continue to exist at all. I think it should go. Because SBS is more valuable dead than alive. The Special Broadcasting Service Act should be repealed, the corporation dismantled and sold and its valuable broadcasting spectrum auctioned off. SBS has outlived its charter, and the charter has always been of dubious social utility. (I quote, in part: “As far as practicable, inform, educate and entertain Australians in their preferred languages.”) Australia has moved on. The term “ethnic” is now laughably outdated. Technology has been transformed. Ooer. Personally, this has been the most interesting SBS has ever been in our eyes, excluding the period when it had the show Life Support, and the night we stumbled across Inspector Rex for the first time. More »