Bowie Heads Britain's Mercury Prize Shortlist
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Lifestyle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013 Bowie heads Britain’s Review Mercury Prize shortlist ock icon David Bowie’s re-emer- Portishead, Pulp and Franz Ferdinand. first nomination. gence into the limelight continued Bowie reconquered his home charts Two-time former nominee Laura Ron Wednesday when he was in March by scoring his first number one Marling makes the list again for “Once I named on the shortlist for the Mercury album in 20 years with “The Next Day”. Was an Eagle” Bowie and the Arctic Prize, one of Britain’s most prestigious Bowie surprised the music world by Monkeys emerged as early favorites with music awards. The winners of the award, breaking a decade-long musical silence British bookmakers. The Mercury Prize for the best British or Irish album of any in January when he unveiled a new sin- organizers claim it is Europe’s top arts award in terms of influence and media coverage. Winning, or even being short- listed, usually sparks a surge in sales. The prize is known for representing an eclec- tic range of styles, but usually leans towards indie and rock music. Simon Frith, chair of the judging panel, ‘Blue Caprice’ is mature described the list as the culmination of “a fascinating year for British and Irish and intelligent music. “You don’t have Adele and all her lue Caprice” is a disturbing, masterfully controlled thriller imitators in the charts, so it’s kind of an based on the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, DC, open field,” he added. Leeds indie band suburbs. The national discussion of mass shootings and Alt-J scooped last year’s prize. “B gun control stands to heighten the impact of director Alexandre Moors’ head-turning debut, which is driven by performances of Shortlist: brooding intensity from Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond. Arctic Monkeys-”AM” Following a grainy montage of news and surveillance video accom- David Bowie-”The Next Day” David Bowie panied by traumatized 911 calls reporting shootings in the DC area, Disclosure-”Settle” the story opens amid the lush island vegetation of Antigua in the Foals-”Holy Fire” Caribbean. genre released in the year to July, will be gle entitled “Where Are We Now?” to Jake Bugg-”Jake Bugg” A teenage boy, Lee (Richmond), watches in mute fury as his announced at a ceremony in London on coincide with his 66th birthday-his first James Blake-”Overgrown” mother leaves their home to take work elsewhere, saying she’ll be October 30. Also on the list are former release since the 2003 studio album Jon Hopkins-”Immunity” back for him. But as her absence stretches on, Lee grows bored, frus- winner Arctic Monkeys, folk singers Jake “Reality”. Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, Laura Marling-”Once I Was An Eagle” trated and then desperate, seemingly attempting to drown himself in Bugg and Laura Marling and Oxford art- winners in 2006, said they were “delight- Laura Mvula-”Sing to the Moon” the rough surf. He is rescued and taken in by John (Washington), a rockers Foals. The victors, chosen by an ed and hugely flattered” at being nomi- Rudimental-”Home” visiting American whose three young daughters have been removed independent panel of judges, will join an nated for their latest release, “AM”, while Savages-”Silence Yourself” from their country in violation of a custody agreement. With no word exclusive club of past winners including Jake Bugg’s self-titled album secured his Villagers-”Awayland” —AFP from Lee’s mother, John eventually takes him back to Tacoma, Wash. From early in their relationship, John begins drilling his life-is- unfair views into Lee, whose absence of a father figure renders him highly susceptible to the older man’s influence. The bottomless pit of Syrian intervention John’s anger becomes steadily more apparent back in the US, as he takes Lee on a tour of the middle-class suburban neighborhood of his gets a no-vote former life. He talks of the evil that lives there, the ghosts left behind, and the vampires like his ex-wife, who sucked him dry. Since their return from Antigua, she has taken out a restraining order against from Sheryl Crow him and removed their children to parts unknown. This gnaws at him like a cancer. n case you were wondering, a US military strike on Syria would When Lee is taken along with John and his Army buddy Ray (Tim not make Sheryl Crow happy. The “Leaving Las Vegas” singer Blake Nelson) to let off steam with some target practice in the dropped in at HuffPost Live on Wednesday to add her voice to I woods, he reveals himself to be a natural with a gun. Watching the the growing list of celebrities who’ve weighed in on the Syria crisis, a list that also includes “Vogue” singer Madonna and tough-guy boy’s face the first time a semi-automatic “widow-maker” is placed actor Chuck Norris. As it turns out, in his hands is especially disquieting in light of recent events. After Crow is against a US military inter- File photo shows filmmaker George Lucas looks John’s erratic behavior gets them kicked out by his girlfriend vention, likening a possible attack to over a Chewbacca costume at the “Star Wars” exhib- (Cassandra Freeman), they end up staying with Ray and his equally “throwing a rock in a beehive.” it at the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space trashy partner Jamie (Joey Lauren Adams), providing access to Ray’s “It is like throwing a rock in a bee- Museum in Washington. —AP arsenal of firearms. hive. We cannot know the outcome Some of the film’s most powerful scenes are brutal interludes in of going into a country that has that which John subjects his young protege to various tests, leaving him kind of instability and a lack of rea- ‘Star Wars’ actor Mayhew tied to a tree overnight in the woods or forcing him to fight in a sys- son when it comes to leadership .... tematic campaign to harden the boy and break his moral resistance. I’m never a proponent for going into has surgery on knees Demanding proof of Lee’s love and gratitude, John instructs him to shoot a woman who testified against him during the divorce pro- somebody else’s war.” ctor Peter Mayhew, who portrayed Chewbacca in the While Crow did acknowledge ceedings. That initiation kick-starts the escalating chain of violence “Star Wars” films, has had double knee-replacement that leads them to the DC area, where John has traced his estranged that fundamental rules of civilization surgery at a Texas hospital. Mayhew was recovering must be adhered to, she added, “I think that in those countries A family. Showing refreshing faith in the audience’s ability to connect Wednesday at Plaza Medical Center in Fort Worth. Angie the dots, Moors employs frequent narrative ellipses and nonlinear who have very different ways than we do, to go in and bomb or Mayhew says her 69-year-old husband had the surgery editing to strong effect. send missiles or whatever is really not the way to preach about Monday and hopes to walk again. She says her spouse has The film expertly manipulates mood and atmosphere with a freedom.” President Obama, who’s been pushing for military been using a wheelchair for two years. muscular sound design that juggles dense textures, uneasy silences, action in Syria since an August chemical-weapons attack that Angie Mayhew says her hus- a suspenseful score and striking classical music choices. Visually, too, reportedly left more than 1,000 dead, addressed the nation and band also had a tendon-stretching the work is impressive, with cinematographer Brian O’Carroll’s night- said that he’d asked Congress to postpone a vote on the use of procedure to stabilize his legs. force in Syria in favor of a more diplomatic approach, such as con- Peter Mayhew was born with a con- time shots of the Caprice cruising along the Beltway planting an vincing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to surrender his chemical dition known as gigantism, which ominous sense of dread. weapons. causes excessive growth. He’s 7 The randomness of the Beltway killing spree shocked America a Crow applauded the president’s newfound stance, saying that feet 3 inches tall. The British-born decade ago but recedes from the national memory with every new it’s uncertain how involved the Syrian leader was with the attacks. actor’s medical issues will be the mass shooting. Revisiting that episode, the filmmakers have made a “In this particular instance, we don’t know how much Assad had to subject of an upcoming documen- smart, sobering movie that speculates with compelling detachment do with it, or how much he’s a pawn in the game, and whether it’s tary, “Standing in the Stars - The on how the abhorrent urge to take innocent lives might evolve. going to fuel a bigger movement,” Crow offered. “It’s very convo- Peter Mayhew Story.” The Mayhews “Blue Caprice,” an IFC release, is rated R by the Motion Picture luted, and I appreciate the fact that the president is holding back live in Boyd, about 20 miles north- Association of America for “disturbing violent content, language and and saying, ‘Let’s exercise reason.’”—Reuters Dr Jeffrey McGowen, left, brief drug use.” Running time: 93 minutes. —AP west of Fort Worth. —AP and actor Peter Mayhew. .