EastEnders set for stabbing storyline & other

Sunday 7 September 2008

Off the Beaten Path: Multisport Vacations

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. � The scarily steep expanse of granite looms, but intrepid Patrick Kudej, 13, scampers up nearly 200 feet and then rappels backward off a cliff, with the help of a harness, careful rope support and insomniac instructor. So do his sister and three young cousins.

Their sire, computer graphics artist Rob Kudej, 46, amazes himself by doing the Spider-Man-like ascent and cliff-drop, though he, too, has no previous rock climbing experience.

The kids' mother, a lawyer, is more tentative, but she gamely gets through. "I'm glad I'm trying it," Betsy Conway, 47, says. "But I really get a charge out of watching the kids."

The family of little Joe from Norwich, Conn., have got joined Betsy's sister and her clan on a six-day Grand Teton-Yellowstone multisport tour, a best-selling jaunt from The World Outdoors. It's peerless of a growing number of multi-adventure trips catering to today's appetite for easy-to-organize getaways providing varied physical challenges. Outfitters stage guides, lodging, transportation, equipment, instruction and meals.

Parents like multisport because kids "get bored" doing one thing, says The World Outdoors president Bill Marriner, an energetic 55-year-old who is guiding this trip with guest services director Sherry Malanify, 47. Seasoned travelers no thirster are content to sit in tour buses, he says. They like stretching boundaries and new experiences.

This August duty tour in the jagged, snow-capped Teton raft range and geyser-dotted Yellowstone National Park includes rock'n'roll climbing, mountain biking, hike and whitewater rafting -- with kayaking and hogback riding as pay-extra options.

The two families assemble in Jackson, Wyo., the night before the tour's start. Bill and Sherry meet the foursome adults and five kids in a white GMC van, with bins of energy-boosting granola mixed with nuts and M&Ms under the seating area and a rack of bikes on top.

They give an orientation with the admonition that if you see a bear, don't make eye contact and don't extend. If attacked, get on the ground in a fetal position. "We've never had a problem," Sherry says soothingly. Still, Bill totes a can of hot-pepper acquit spray.

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Friday 29 August 2008

Australia wants 'thorough assessment' of Snoop Dogg

Immigration officials in Australia have aforementioned they testament conduct further investigation into Snoop Dogg before allowing him back up into the country to tour there.

A ban was imposed on Snoop, whose real list is Calvin Broadus, later he was denied entrance to the country in April 2007 after he failed a character examine. Snoop had previously pled no competition to drugs and gun charges in the US, and Australia�??s Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told Sydney's Macquarie Radio that the rapper was �??not the kind of bloke�?� they wanted in the country.

As a resultant of the ban, Snoop was then unable host the MTV Australian Video Music Awards.

The ban against Snoop was lifted last week, merely public complaints prompted the government to reassess the lift to more thoroughly investigate his character, reports Rolling Stone.

The rapper will be minded strict rules to digest by if he is permitted entry to the country.

--By our New York staff.
Find out more or so NME.

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Tuesday 19 August 2008

America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty" win ALMA Awards

PASADENA, Calif. �

"Ugly Betty" and its headliner, America Ferrera, took top honors at the 2008 ALMA Awards, which recognise achievements by Hispanic artists.

The ABC comedy series won awards for directing and best performance by a Latino-led tout ensemble cast. Ferrera, 24, was named Chevy Entertainer of the Year for her on-screen cultivate as Betty Suarez in "Ugly Betty" and her off-screen efforts to encourage young mass to get involved in the political process.

Shakira was also recognized for her offstage efforts, receiving the Humanitarian Award for her work in early puerility education.

A host of artists, including BeBe Winans, Wynonna Judd and Lucero, performed a protection to Linda Ronstadt, wHO received the Trailblazer Award for her contributions to American music.

The Black Eyed Peas, the Cheetah Girls, Sergio Mendes and Cheech and Chong also performed at the ceremony, hosted by Eva Longoria Parker at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Sunday.

Other acting-award winners included Charlie Sheen, Edward James Olmos, Roselyn Sanchez and Judy Reyes. Designer Narciso Rodriguez was honored for special accomplishment in fashion.

The National Council of La Raza, the country's largest Hispanic protagonism organization, created the ALMA Awards in 1995 to honor Hispanic performers and promote positive images of Hispanics in entertainment. ALMA stands for American Latino Media Arts and besides means "

Saturday 9 August 2008

Beauty industry gets face time in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Greta Garbo's beauty was legendary. It earned her the adoration of audiences and captivated even Adolf Hitler, world Health Organization allegedly implored her to go to Germany to become the mother of his Aryan race.

But the Swedish actress owed her luminous onscreen presence to more than her flawless skin and bone structure: Her secret weapon was Max Factor Silver Stone #2 makeup, which made her literally shimmer on film.

In a great deal the same way that Garbo pet to remain out of the spot, however, the working relationship between Hollywood and the beauty industriousness is subtler than i might bear.

"Many times (MAC Cosmetics) is there, and we crataegus laevigata get a credit at the end of the film, or we may be in the literature, but we're there very discreetly," says John Demsey, group president of the United States of Estee Lauder Companies, parent company of MAC. "We're not there in a very sponsorship variety of direction, because the relationship is very real and working."

Indeed, one isn't likely to hear about it, simply makeup artists relied heavily on MAC products for some of this summer's studio menu, including "Sex and the City," "The Love Guru" and "Get Smart."

ANGRY INCH LIPSTICK

But such collaborations do sometimes make headlines, with products highly-developed for specific projects making it all the way to the retail market.

"Sometimes these things actually become promotional activities or tie-ins of the brand itself," Demsey says. "When (2001's 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch') was done, we hosted the opening political party in New York City and actually created an Angry Inch lipstick for Hedwig."�

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Tuesday 1 July 2008

Rattan Mohan Sharma and Chorus

Artist: Rattan Mohan Sharma and Chorus

   Genre(s):
Other

Discography:

Gayatri Mantra

Year: 2003
Tracks: 6

Posh to appear on Oprah Winfrey Show

Monday 23 June 2008

Rob Lowe scores in court

Actor Rob Lowe has scored a minor victory in his battle with a former nanny � two of her 12 allegations have been dismissed by a court, imdb.com reports.

Accusations of labour code violations were thrown out by Santa Barbara, Calif., Superior Court Judge Denise de Bellefeuille on Thursday � but 10 further charges, including sexual harassment claims, remain.

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Monday 16 June 2008

The Wayward Cloud - 6/10/2008

It's all in the timing: Tsai Ming-liang's long-awaited follow-up to Goodbye, Dragon Inn finally finds distribution and, what one would assume to be, a mouth-agape audience at New York City's Anthology Film Archives. A sort of festival myth, The Wayward Cloud premiered at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, was released on DVD in Asia and then began to find itself popping up in small festivals all over the U.S. As much as you love to see a film so elusive and divisive finally get an open forum, The Wayward Cloud finds Ming-liang in a rut and unable to elevate his neon wilderness to the heights of the rest of his consistently fascinating oeuvre.

Following What Time is it There? and the short The Skywalk is Gone, The Wayward Cloud catches up with the watch-salesman-turned-porn-star and the unaffected object of his obsession. The opening scene (one for the books) shows Hsiao-Kang (Ming-liang standby Lee Kang-sheng) sexually violating a watermelon placed between the thighs of a female porn star. While he is tending to his craft, Shiang-chyi (Chen Shiang-chyi) sits in her apartment, all zombied up by her television set. Their chance meeting occurs in a small outdoor booth in a sunny park, where a small spark is relit that sets off the beautiful mess that follows.

Musical digressions come from nowhere and seemingly mean nothing to the story. Whether it's Hsiao-Kang donning a reptilian swimsuit and crooning to an indifferent moon or a parade of dancers twirling umbrellas designed with watermelon patterns, Ming-liang's delusional panorama doesn't suffice as dreamy escapism (e.g. Dancer in the Dark) nor does it further the story in the classical musical sense. There's a sense of hollow pageantry to these scenes that distances the audience rather than engages them; the same goes for the film.

The deeper you go into the bunny hole, the stranger this mess gets: the thematic devices get tired and overplayed (water, elevators, those watermelons!) and the story begins to let go of any sense of trajectory and point. The Wayward Cloud plays out predominantly as a procession of Ming-liang patented sublime compositions but without the fluidity and metaphysical dazzle that has defined his best work (The River, Goodbye, Dragon Inn).

Though by miles more interesting than the normal crap being dumped in your local megaplex, Ming-liang's audacious stab at a sexually-devious musical seems like one of those rare films that doesn't suit the director's goosestepping auteurism in any sense. Anyone but die-hard fans should be warned that they might resemble the two leads laying on the kitchen floor in existentially-bored reverie by film's end. Even as the film's titular image floats by above its characters, one can't help but think that this is the first time that Ming-liang has let his daydream get away from him.

Aka Tian bian yi duo yun.

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