- Beatles fans, good news for all of us. A "lost" Beatles track recorded in 1967 and performed just once in public could finally be released, according to Paul McCartney, one of the band’s two living members. “Carnival of Light” -- a 14-minute experimental track recorded as the band was deep in psychedelia, LSD-inspired rock and inspired by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. For a long time, critics of the song have labeled it too adventurous and abstract for mainstream audiences - well, those not high on hallucinogenic drugs. In an interview for BBC radio, McCartney he and the other living Beatles - George Harrison and Ringo Starr at that time - along with producer George Martin vetoed its inclusion on the exhaustive 1990s "Anthology" collection. However, McCartney confirmed he still owned the master tapes, adding that he felt "the time has come for it to get its moment." Releasing the track would be a rare treat for fans because nearly every song recorded by the Beatles from their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg to their break-up in 1970 has already been released because of their still-rabid following. It’s been 40 years since its recording, and in that time, "Carnival of Light" has acquired near mythical status among Beatles fans. Those fans argue that the the track provides evidence of the group's experimental ambitions beyond their commercially successfully pop career, which is something that tends to get lost in the scope of Beatle-mania all these years later. No word on how the track would be released, but given that fact that the Beatles have their ongoing rift with Apple and none of their music is sold through iTunes, I’d say that’s a no-go. But the song features distorted electric guitars, discordant sound effects, a church organ and gargling interspersed with McCartney and John Lennon shouting random phrases like "Barcelona" and "Are you all right?" In order to release it, McCartney would need the consent of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia. I for one hope it happens, because listening to the Beatles is one of the best ways to spend time for any music fan…..
- There may not be a lot of good or worthwhile things about Huntington, West Virginia (trust me, I’ve been there), but at least the city can claim on title: America’s fattest and unhealthiest city. No, it may not be the distinction you would choose for your town, but Huntington residents, take what you get (and clearly, many of you do so, often at all-you-can-eat buffets) and stop whining. That goes for all of you, including you, Mayor David Felinton. Yet there’s Felinton, whining about the city’s other woes and trying to brush aside the one area in which no city in America can surpass his. “It doesn't come up,” said David Felinton, 5-foot-9 and 233 pounds, in regards to his city’s fatness and unhealthiness. “We've got a lot of economic challenges here in Huntington. That's usually the focus.” Look, I’ll give you the fact that your economy sucks.
Huntington's economy has withered in recent years; its poverty rate is worse than the national average, but none of that is as bad as the htealth of most of Huntington’s citizens. Nearly half the adults in Huntington's five-county metropolitan area are obese - tops in a nation with no shortage of FAT people. Not surprisingly, that has resulted in Huntington leading the U.S. in a half-dozen other illness measures, too, including heart disease and diabetes. Oh, and confirming an old, overused stereotype about West Virginians in general, the city is even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth (half of them have). And no, I don’t accept the excuse that you can attribute all or most of this to Huntington’s history with manufacturing jobs in the chemical industry and in glassworks, steel and locomotive parts and a time when the traditional diet, which was heavy with fried foods, salt, gravy, sauces, and fattier meats and its many calories could burnt off through manual labor. You’re going the wrong way in a hurry, Huntington, and it isn’t going to end well for you if you don’t put down the deep-fried country steak, the grits and mashed taters and hit the gym every once in a decade…..
- Say what you will about the quality (or lack thereof) of recent James Bond movies, moviegoers still love 007. The newest installment in the franchise, "Quantum of Solace," with Daniel Craig returning as Bond, made $70.4 million in its opening weekend in the U.S., and coupled with its totals from overseas beginning two weekends before its U.S. debut, its worldwide total now stands at $322 million. The domestic total is nearly $30 million more over opening weekend than its predecessor, 2006's "Casino Royale”. It beat out the previous weekend’s No. 1 film, DreamWorks Animation's "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which slipped to second place with $36.1 million. That was still enough to push its 10-day total over the century mark at $118 million. Strong weekends from this films gave a much-needed boost to overall revenues as Hollywood heads toward Thanksgiving, with the top 12 movies taking in $142.9 million, up 54 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when "Beowulf" led the box office with $27.5 million. At this point movie revenues are running a scant 1 percent ahead of 2007's record pace, when the industry took in $9.7 billion - unless you
factor in inflation, then the number of tickets sold this year is 3.5 percent behind 2007's. However, the next two weekends are looking promising with the much-anticipated vampire romance "Twilight," and the family-friendly John Travolta and Miley Cyrus' animated comedy "Bolt" set to come out in the days ahead. Overall, here’s how the top 10 shook down: 1) "Quantum of Solace," $70.4 million, 2) "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," $36.1 million, 3) "Role Models," $11.7 million, 4) "High School Musical 3," $5.9 million, 5) "Changeling," $4.2 million, 6) "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," $3.2 million, 7) "Soul Men," $2.43 million, 8) "The Secret Life of Bees," $2.4 million, 9) "Saw V," $1.8 million, 10) "The Haunting of Molly Harvey," $1.6 million. Not an inspiring, legendary weekend at the movies, but maybe next time around…..
- Uh oh. This isn’t going to help my main man Mark Cuban’s case in trying to purchase my beloved Chicago Cubs, currently for sale to the oldest, whitest, most conservative highest bidder. No, being charged with insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t help your case for anything but a hefty fine from the government. Fortunately for Cuban, currently owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, the charge against him is a civil complaint, not a criminal one. Still, the government alleges that in June, 2004 Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Canadian search engine company Mamma.com after he learned it would be making a stock offering. Additionally, the complaint filed against Cuban claims that the management of Mamma.com invited Cuban to take part in the stock offering after he agreed to keep it a secret. In case you’re not familiar with insider trading, any inside information that a stock holder acts on in order to benefit financially, information not available to the general public, constitutes insider trading. Thus, the SEC has a beef if Cuban knew the stock price would fall when the offering was publicly announced. His decision to tell his broker to sell all of his shares in Mamma.com the very same day he learned about the impending offering, is kinda, sorta….well, illegal. Well, it’s definitely going to raise a red flag or ten when the company's largest known shareholder is jettisoning all of his shares. It’s going to raise even more red flags when, after the stock offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com's stock price dropped more than 9 percent from the previous day's closing price. That nifty bit of business savvy helped Cuban avoid losing more than $750,000. Had Cuban held onto that stock, he now would be sitting on a lot of shares of stock trading for less than $1 a share. Cuban insists that these charges are baseless and without merit, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see……
- As last week’s Heroes ended, Hiro Nakamura was in a precarious position, in the clutches of Arthur Petrelli, the man who steals people’s powers and who was also none too happy with Hiro for going on a spirit walk in which Hiro dreamed and learned much about Arthur’s past. To kick off this week, Hiro’s pal Ando tried to attack Arthur from behind and was easily tossed aside by Arthur and his telepathic powers. But what does save Hiro and Ando is when Arthur is distracted by one of Usutu’s paintings on a nearby rock, a picture of a solar eclipse. That buys Hiro and Ando time to escape via Hiro’s teleportation powers, only his encounter with Arthur has left him without a memory of those powers. Thankfully, he still has them and with Ando’s help of simulating his trademark cheek puffing and blinking, the two teleport to safety - at a Tokyo bowling alley. After that, it’s a matter of Ando helping his friend regain his memory. Initially, Hiro thinks he is 10 years old, but Ando convinces him that he is not and also helps Hiro relearn his powers, with the help of a visit to a comic book store where the graphic novel about Hiro and his exploits that was prevalent in Seasons 1 and 2 is found. Finding things also plays a big part in the other major storylines for the episode, as Matt Parkman finds Angela Petrelli in her Arthur-induced coma at the Primatech headquarters in New York and tries to use his power to manipulate, get inside of and control people’s mind to help her. While inside, Matt talks to Angela and learns that Arthur is the one holding her in her current state. Things turn for the worst when Daphne, Matt’s special lady friend/future wife rats him out to Arthur, who previously planted her in a relationship with Matt to keep an eye on him and threatened to take away her powers if she didn’t cooperate. So Daphne rats out Matt and Arthur appears inside Angela’s mind as well. Daphne is also there and she actually stabs Matt, leading Arthur to say that all women will eventually betray you. But back in real life, outside of Angela’s mental prison, the real Daphne tries to get through to him that she didn’t really stab him, just the version of herself Arthur is projecting in Angela’s mind. The ploy works and Matt brings the real Daphne into Angela’s mind, where she admits her duplicity but says she really does love him. Angela seizes the chance to implore Arthur to remember how they were once in love and to release her from his hold. He does so and together with Matt and Daphne escape back to reality. Angela’s son Peter and his niece Claire Bennet are also busy trying to escape, also from Arthur’s clutches. Following his fall from the top floor of the Pinehearst Industries office building, Peter and Claire have been on the run. Running becomes tougher when Arthur and his scientific muscle, Dr. Mohinder Suresh, realize that their formula to give powers to ordinary people isn’t working and needs an additional component, a catalyst to help the proteins and enzymes properly bond. Arthur realizes that the catalyst, which Mohinder believes to be inside the blood of a living person, is Claire, who was given that special quality by Hiro’s father and former Company head man, the now-deceased Kaito Nakamura. Thus, Arthur sends two of his henchmen, Flint and Knox, after Claire. She and Peter flee from Peter’s NYC apartment into the sewer system to get away, with Knox and Flint in hot pursuit. Claire refuses to leave Peter and save herself even though he implores her to, but when he finally turns to run and she stays to battle the two thugs, something odd happens. It turns out that Knox and Flint aren’t after Peter, who would be defenseless to stop them anyhow, and are after Claire. They seize her and are about to drag her off when Peter intervenes. He opens a gas pipe and then tricks Flint into unleashing his flame-throwing power, setting off a massive fireball. Under the cover of that distraction, Peter and Claire escape and reach the Primatech offices where they meet Parkman and Daphne. After a brief fight because it’s the first time Parkman and Peter have been face to face since Future Peter teleported Parkman to Africa in the season premiere, things calm down. Everyone gathers around Angela, now awake, who tells them about the catalyst that Arthur is seeking. Claire realizes that she is the catalyst and is thus in a great deal of danger. Peter’s big brother (one of them) Nathan is also in danger, walking into the Pinehearst offices to confront his father for the first time since learning that Arthur is still alive. Arthur tries to talk Nathan into being part of his grand plan for the world, but Nathan doesn’t want to enlist. He walks out and as his companion/advisor/girlfriend Tracy Strauss, tries to talk him into going back to Washington, D.C. to think over what to do next. Nathan won’t listen and takes off - literally - flying off the New York to talk to his mother. Meanwhile, Tracy goes back inside and offers to help talk Nathan into helping Primatech and Arthur’s plan - if Arthur will agree to protect her when all of the upcoming chaos goes down in the world. Arthur agrees, so now it’s up to Tracy to fulfill her end of the deal. The last big of drama involved old friends Elle and Sylar. Last week, we learned via flashback that Elle was the first Company agent to find Sylar and talked him into using his powers (and also not killing himself) so the Company could use him as a lab rat. Of course, more recently Sylar also killed Elle’s father Bob, a Company executive. Elle is now a Pinehearst prisoner, and rather than take her ability from her, Arthur uses Elle to teach Sylar a lesson about empathy. If Sylar can learn that, he can take people’s power and make them his own without harming them (i.e. slicing open their heads). Initially, Elle is enraged at the sight of the man who killed her father and spends a long time electrocuting Sylar, who has the power to heal, so he isn’t killed, Through tears, yelling and screaming, Elle rages at Sylar, who takes it all and admits what a monster he is. But when Elle is too exhausted to electrocute him anymore and collapses on the floor after one final, magnificent burst of electricity from her hands, she begs him to just kill her and end it. He instead elects to free her from her shackles and the two then spend some time bonding and have a heart-to-heart. As he learns to empathize, Sylar does pick up Elle’s power to shoot electricity from his hands and she even teaches him how to harness that ability. As the episode ends, Sylar, Elle, Mohinder and Arthur’s other Pinehearst team members gather around him as he uses one of his stolen powers to paint the future and ends up with a picture of the eclipse he saw on the rock in Africa. He tells them that, “It’s coming.” At the same time, Peter, Claire, Matt and Daphne are gathered around Angela, having nearly the same talk. Obviously, the two sides are forming up for a battle, but next week, the eclipse takes center stage and just as the eclipse in the series premiere brought out their abilities, this one will somehow take them away….for now….so until then…..
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