Movie Review: 'Morrissey 25Live' fully captures the singer's legacy

I can't say enough good things about the new film Morrissey 25Live now playing in limited release and bound for a scheduled release on DVD by Eagle Rock Entertainment on Oct. 21, 2013.

The James Russell-directed concert film provides a front row seat for Moz' already-legendary performance at Hollywood High School on March 2, 2013 in the intimate 1,800-seat school auditorium.

The 90-minute concert film celebrates Morrissey's 25-year anniversary as a solo artist, and includes many of his most beloved songs including "Everyday Is Like Sunday," "November Spawned a Monster" and "You Have Killed Me." Thankfully, Morrissey also performs a number of celebrated Smiths classics, including an unsettling "Meat Is Murder," a tender "Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want," acapella take on "Asleep" and a set-ending "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side." 

Morrissey's band offers nuanced and powerful playing throughout (notably guitarists Boz Boorer and Jesse Tobias), and the audience's clear devotion to the singer adds additional layers of excitement to the performance (we get testimonials at the start and end of the film). At the heart of it all, of course, is the always-enigmatic Morrissey's arresting performance. 

Theatre listings and ticket information is available at www.morrissey25live.com.

Morrissey 25: Live From Hollywood High Official Trailer: http://youtu.be/iFRGfOVjN0g

Danny Elfman to sing 'Nightmare Before Christmas' classics on Halloween

I hope everybody has a great weekend. Here is some pretty exciting news to send you on your way. I was at the fabled final performance from Oingo Boingo on October 31, 1995 and it was one of the concert events of a lifetime...

Danny Elfman's music from the films of director Tim Burton to be featured at Nokia Live in Los Angeles on October 31, 2013 Danny Elfman to perform for first time since Halloween night, October 31, 1995  Celebrate Halloween 2013 with Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, a unique concert with the Hollywood Studio Symphony and the Page LA Choir conducted by John Mauceri, for one night only at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Thursday, October 31 at 8:15 pm. The program includes newly created suites from all fifteen film collaborations of the legendary composer Danny Elfman and visionary director Tim Burton.  Elfman himself will perform his songs from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”  He was the singing voice of Jack Skellington in the 1993 classic film.  The concert will be accompanied with large screen film clips, and the artwork of Tim Burton. This will be Elfman’s first live U.S. performance since his Farewell: Live from the Universal Amphitheatre concert with Oingo Boingo on Halloween, 1995, and the West Coast debut of this concert.  The Nokia concert will follow the world premiere of this concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which has already completely sold out. Danny Elfman's Music From The Films Of Tim Burton is produced by Columbia Artists Management Inc & Kraft- Engel Management.   Dates for a national tour of this concert are to be announced. Tickets priced from $45.00 go on sale Friday, September 13 at 10am through AXS.com, and by phone at (888) 929-7849.  Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE is located at 777 Chick Hearn Ct., Los Angeles, CA 90015.   There will be music from Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Alice In Wonderland and others on the program.   Among the most popular films of our times, the films featured in this concert have grossed over $3.5 billion dollars worldwide. The concert is conducted by John Mauceri featuring the 87-piece Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and 45-member Page LA Choir.  Mr. Mauceri, regarded as one of the world’s leading conductors of live film music, was Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for 15 years.  For his farewell concert in 2006 Mauceri commissioned Danny Elfman to compose The Overeager Overture.  Mauceri also conducted the recording of Elfman's classical work, Serenada Schizophrana. Danny Elfman and Tim Burton's collaboration has spanned 27 years from Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) through Frankenweenie (2012).  They are currently working together on Big Eyes starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz about painter Margaret Keane for 2014. Elfman won the Grammy Award for Batman.  He has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Score for Milk, Good Will Hunting, Men In Black and Tim Burton's Big Fish and nominated for three Golden Globes for Alice In Wonderland, Big Fish and The Nightmare Before Christmas.   The retrospective box set Danny Elfman & Tim Burton's 25th Anniversary Music Boxfrom Warner Bros. Records was nominated for a Grammy.  Elfman’s recent scores include Silver Linings Playbook and Oz: The Great And Powerful. About Danny Elfman and John Mauceri Over the last 30 years, four-time Oscar nominee Danny Elfman has established himself as one of the most versatile and accomplished film composers in the industry. He has collaborated with such directors as Tim Burton, Gus Van Sant, Sam Raimi, Paul Haggis, Ang Lee, Rob Marshall, Guillermo del Toro, Brian De Palma, and Peter Jackson. Beginning with his first score on Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Elfman has scored a broad range of films, including: Milk (Oscar nominated), Good Will Hunting (Oscar nominated), Big Fish (Oscar nominated), Men in Black (Oscar nominated), Edward Scissorhands, Wanted, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mission: Impossible, Planet of the Apes, A Simple Plan, To Die For, Spider-Man (1 & 2), Batman, Dolores Claiborne, Sommersby, Chicago, Dick Tracy, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland. Elfman's most recent projects include Silver Linings Playbook, Oz: The Great And Powerful, Hitchcock, Epic, and the Errol Morris Documentary The Unknown Known: The Life And Times Of Donald Rumsfeld. A native of Los Angeles, Elfman grew up loving film music. He travelled the world as a young man, absorbing its musical diversity. He helped found the band Oingo Boingo, and came to the attention of a young Tim Burton, who asked him to write the score for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. (28 years later, the two have forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history.) In addition to his film work, Elfman wrote the iconic theme music for The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives. He also composed a ballet, Rabbit and Rogue, choreographed by Twyla Tharp, a symphony Serenada Schizophrana for Carnegie Hall, an overture The Overeager Overture for the Hollywood Bowl, and, most recently, Iris—a Cirque du Soleil show at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. Danny Elfman’s music from the films of Tim Burton will be having its concert premiere at London’s Royal Albert Hall. “Having a particular style is not bad,” says Elfman, “but I prefer to push myself in the direction of being a composer who you never know what he’s doing next.” John Mauceri’s distinguished and extraordinary career has brought him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the most prestigious halls of academia. Regarded as the world’s leading performer of the music of Hollywood’s émigré composers, he has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many kinds of music and has supervised/conducted premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Bernstein, Hindemith, Elfman, Ives, and Shore. As an accomplished recording artist, John Mauceri has over 70 albums to his name, and is the recipient of Grammy, Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Edison, Cannes Classique, Billboard, two Diapasons d’Or, two Emmys, and four Deutsche Schallplatten Awards.

Danny Elfman

Bright Blue Gorilla to perform, screen latest film 'Go with Le Flo' in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday, Aug. 31

Saturday night, Aug. 31, 2013 marks the California premiere of the latest full-length movie from the creative talents of Bright Blue Gorilla. The amazing duo featuring Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz have long since extended their reach from genre-defying music making to film making. 

Following a live concert from Bright Blue Gorilla at 7 p.m., the new film Go with Le Flo will be screened. The event will be held at San Juan Capistrano Regency Theatre, 26762 Verdugo Street, in San Juan Capistrano. The phone number of the theater is (949) 661-3435.

Tickets to the concert and film showing are only $10. 

For those who haven't ever heard the music of Bright Blue Gorilla (Mantra for the American Jungle is a masterpiece) or seen any of their wonderful movies (Sister Sarah's Sky, The Mind of Henry Lime, etc.) visit www.brightbluegorilla.com to learn more, see more, hear more.

Below are all the essential details about tomorrow's event:

Photo credit: Rick Mendoza

Go with Le Flo California Premiere &

Bright Blue Gorilla concert

West Coast Film Festival

Saturday, August 31, at 7 p.m.  Tickets $10

 

Bright Blue Gorilla Concert at 7 p.m.

Go with Le Flo Film at 7:30 p.m.

 

San Juan Capistrano Regency Theatre

26762 Verdugo Street

San Juan Capistrano, CA  92672

Regency (949)661-3435  

West Coast Film Festival (949)489-7771

http://www.gowithleflo.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/westcoastfilmfestival

http://westcoastfilmfest.com/

Online tickets: http://67017.formovietickets.com:2235/Tickets.ASP?WCI=buyticket&Page=PickTickets&SHOWID=10488

 

Please arrive early for parking structure next to the train station

tickets available at box office and online 

 

'Beatles Stories' showcases endless reach of Fab Four's magic

What do members of the Beach Boys, Badfinger and the Bangles, as well as actors Henry Winkler, Sir Ben Kingsley and Jon Voight have in common? All are among the endless parade of notable personalities who share fascinating tales relating to the Fab Four on the forthcoming documentary Beatles Stories (the Julukesy Films release is set for release on July 7 in honor of Ringo Starr’s 72^nd birthday). Los Angeles-based filmmaker/author/singer-songwriter/Beatles fan Seth Swirsky set out in 2005 to document personal reflections from famous and not-so-famous personalities on both sides of the Atlantic to recount a wealth of stories ranging from revealing events that played out when the members of the band were teens just starting out in Liverpool to seminal events that played out during the height of Beatlemania and incidents involving John, Paul, George and Ringo following the breakup of the group. Brian Wilson, Susanna Hoffs, Justin Hayward, Art Garfunkel, Graham Nash and Denny Laine (of Moody Blues and Paul McCartney & Wings fame) provide some of the most emotional insights during the wonderful film. It is bittersweet to see recently-lost names such as Monkees singer Davy Jones, Andrew Gold, one-time Capitol Records president Alan Livingston and Norman “Hurricane” Smith featured in some of their last interviews, but that sobering feeling of loss enhances the importance of Swirsky’s powerful and poignant film.

Beatles Stories is a must-see for fans of rock’s greatest band, as well as anyone who loves classic rock ‘n’ roll and popular music.

In addition to the Beatles Stories documentary itself (which was an official selection at the Newport Beach International Film Festival in 2011 and will now be available for the first time on both DVD or Blu-ray), the release has many bonus materials including more than a dozen additional interviews (including with famed Grammy Award-winning Wings guitarist Laurence Juber), a commentary track by Swirsky and a short feature on the aforementioned Normal “Hurricane” Smith, the Beatles’ long-time recording engineer who worked with producer Sir George Martin on the majority of Beatles recordings in the 1960s.

Information: http://beatlesstories.com/

'It's About You' opens in Los Angeles on January 6

I can think of few music-minded documentaries that have left me thinking as much about the fusion of art and fame, the frailty of America – and even life itself – as It's About You, a fascinating look at so much more than its subject, singer-songwriter John Mellencamp.

It's About You opens in New York today, and in Los Angeles on Jan. 6, 2012.
Directed by acclaimed photographer Kurt Markus and his son, Ian Markus, the film chronicles Mellencamp on tour in the summer of 2009 and during those already-legendary recording sessions for his outstanding 2010 album No Better Than This.

And while the film has previously been shown as a kind of opening act at some of Mellencamp's concert dates and at the SXSW festival in 2011, It's About You is an important film that will likely divide fans of both independent film making and Mellencamp so is worth exploring here on Rock 'n' Roll Truth.

This is a 79-minute documentary with virtually no interviews. Indeed, the project began as a kind of creative duel between Mellencamp and Kurt Markus, with the legendary rocker insisting that the film be about Markus, and the legendary photographer (Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, The New York Times Magazine) adamant that the documentary be about Mellencamp.

In the end, the film sheds its light and shadows on both men and discerning viewers are the better for it.

During his stage performances, as well as in those magical recording sessions around a single microphone at Sun Studios in Memphis, the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas where bluesman Robert Johnson recorded in the 1930s, it is Mellencamp who takes center stage.

But elsewhere via his articulate narration, powerful black & white photographs, and the wealth of beautifully grainy 8mm footage capturing decaying cities, dying small towns and lonely highways in America's heartland, it is Kurt Markus' voice that emerges loud and clear.
Life is an adventure to be lived.

It's About You is now playing at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street in New York. Click here for more information, including showtime and ticket price information.

Beginning Friday, Jan. 6, 2012, It’s About You (not rated) is showing at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA. Call 310-478-3836 or visit visit www.laemmle.com for more information.

Pearl Jam to celebrate 20th anniversary with PBS special, tour

Pearl Jam. Cameron Crowe's "Pearl Jam Twenty," from the award-winning AMERICAN MASTERS series, will premiere on October 21, 2011, as part of the first-ever PBS Arts Fall Festival. (Photo: Danny Clinch)


PBS has announced that Cameron Crowe’s Pearl Jam Twenty, from the award-winning AMERICAN MASTERS series, will join the first-ever PBS Arts Fall Festival, a multi-platform event, featuring nine programs with a range of artists and performances from around the country, inviting every American into the world of music, theater, dance, art and cultural history.



Carved from more than 1,200 hours of rarely and never-before-seen footage, plus 24 hours of recently shot interview and live footage, AMERICAN MASTERS Pearl Jam Twenty is the definitive portrait of Pearl Jam as told by award-winning director and music journalist Cameron Crowe. The film’s broadcast premiere is Friday, October 21, 2011, 9 p.m. ET/PT on PBS and coincides with Pearl Jam’s yearlong celebration of its 20th anniversary. PBS member station KCTS Seattle is creating a mini-documentary about today’s Seattle arts scene to coincide with the broadcast.



“Pearl Jam is a groundbreaking band, and Cameron Crowe is an amazing filmmaker. I’m thrilled that this remarkable documentary will be a part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival,” said PBS President and CEO Paula A. Kerger. “AMERICAN MASTERS Pearl Jam Twenty joins eight other new broadcasts of classic and contemporary programs showcasing the range of the arts in America.”



“We are delighted to be presenting Pearl Jam’s 20th on AMERICAN MASTERS 25th — a truly perfect anniversary celebration! We continue the tradition of matching world-class filmmakers with subjects like this band, who revolutionized our culture with their music and their exemplary social consciousness,” says Susan Lacy, series creator and executive producer of AMERICAN MASTERS, a seven-time winner of the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series. The series is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET. More information will be available at www.pbs.org/americanmasters.



PJ20



2011 is a yearlong celebration of Pearl Jam’s 20-year history. The band started off the year with the release of a new live compilation album, Live on Ten Legs, followed by the expanded reissues of Vs. and Vitalogy in March. Things kick into high gear in September with the Anniversary Weekend Concert on Labor Day weekend, followed by the release of Cameron Crowe’s film, Pearl Jam Twenty with accompanying book and soundtrack album. For the latest Pearl Jam happenings, including an upcoming tour of Canada, visit www.pearljam.com.



About the PBS Arts Fall Festival



As part of PBS’ commitment to increasing every American’s access and participation in the arts, PBS is kicking off a multi-platform event on October 14th, and every Friday night into December, featuring a range of artists and performances from nine different communities and celebrity hosts from each locale. Full-length performances, behind-the-scenes interviews, profiles of artists and performers, and mini-documentaries of women rock-and-rollers, banjo pickers, award-winning choreographers and local art scenes offer a front-row seat and backstage pass to entertain and inspire viewers. In addition, PBSArts.org will host weekly curated, immersive, themed exhibits that take consumers beyond the television experience and into the creative process itself, and PBS will create innovative classroom tools to help fill gaps in arts education.



PBS Arts Fall Festival programs (listed in alpha order):



•PBS Arts From Chicago: AMERICAN MASTERS “Bill T. Jones: A Good Man”
•PBS Arts From Seattle: AMERICAN MASTERS “Pearl Jam Twenty”
•PBS Arts From Minnesota: GILBERT AND SULLIVAN’S HMS PINAFORE
•PBS Arts From the Blue Ridge Mountains: GIVE ME THE BANJO (w.t.)
•PBS Arts From Los Angeles: GREAT PERFORMANCES “Il Postino From LA Opera”
•PBS Arts From San Francisco: GREAT PERFORMANCES “The Little Mermaid From San Francisco Ballet”
•PBS Arts From Miami: GREAT PERFORMANCES “Miami City Ballet Dances Balanchine & Tharp”
•PBS Arts From Galveston: TOMMY TUNE – STEPS IN TIME
•PBS Arts From Cleveland: WOMEN WHO ROCK


Funding for the launch of PBS Arts has been provided by Anne Ray Charitable Trust, public television viewers and PBS. AMERICAN MASTERS is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for AMERICAN MASTERS is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation and public television viewers.

Photo credit: Wout Folmer

“Karate Film Café” (Rated PG)
Where: Mission Viejo City Hall, 200 Civic Center, Mission Viejo
When: 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
How much: $6
Information: 949-470-3062 (Course #1760) or www.BrightBlueGorilla.com

Although Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz have shown their film “Karate Film Café” throughout Europe since its completion in January 2009 and plan to attend its Los Angeles premiere on Oct. 10, the couple is thrilled that the comedy will be screened in their hometown of Mission Viejo this weekend.
Glover and Rosenkrantz – whose musical alter ego Bright Blue Gorilla has been impressing audiences since 1990 – will perform a short set of their groundbreaking eclectic folk and exhibit their full-length film at Mission Viejo Civic Center on Saturday night, Oct. 3, 2009.

“Karate Film Café” is the follow-up to the filmmakers’ wonderful “The Mind of Henry Lime” (2007), which picked up “Best Comedy Feature” honors at the SMTV Film Festival in Bombay, India.

“We have been traveling for 20 years throughout Europe and all these years, we have met so many talented friends,” Rosenkrantz explained. “We set out to film the move in Los Angeles and asked people to come be in our movie. Nine people from Europe said ‘yes.’ “

The cast of “Karate Film Café” features actors from Denmark, Holland, Italy, France, Germany and the U.S. And although the indie filmmakers didn’t have a budget to pay participants, they did provide lodging and meals for the cast and crew who worked on the film.
The film was shot in Koreatown, Los Angeles in February and March 2008, with Bright Blue Gorilla than heading to Berlin, Germany to edit the film and complete post production.

“We shot it in HD (high definition) and make it look like film in post production,” Glover said of the professional look of ““Karate Film Café.”
“The set-up (building the sets and securing a window where everybody is available for the shoot) is the longest thing.”

Glover wrote the script over a two-month period while Bright Blue Gorilla was on tour in 2007. Glover’s film is set in Hollywood, where viewers “find a karate school with a weird type of karate, a DVD store with movies that nobody wants and a café with the world’s worst cook,” according to the production notes for the film. “Add to the story a crazy Italian with a deadly secret; a musician with terrible allergies; a computer nerd who thinks everyone is in love with her.”
The comedic mix adds up to “90 minutes of love, death, bad food and good music.”
Both Glover and Rosenkrantz also appear in the film.

“We were having such a good time, everybody put their energy into this,” Glover said.
“More than 100 people worked on this film, all for the love of it.”

In addition to their three full-length films (including 2005’s “Sister Sarah’s Sky”), Bright Blue Gorilla has also released 11 commercial CDs that have won fans across the globe. This writer considers Bright Blue Gorilla’s 1998 album “Mantra for the American Jungle” to be one of that decade’s best musical releases.
“You should be learning new stuff all the time,” Glover said. “We’re in a routine all our own, but it’s always changing.”

For more information, visit www.BrightBlueGorilla.com.