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| 8/6/04 |
*NSYNC's Joey Fatone to Present His High School Teacher
With Stage Directions(R) Magazine Award NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 08/06/2004 -- Joey Fatone, of *NSYNC, stage and film, who is currently starring on Broadway in Little Shop of Horrors, will present Stage Directions® Educator of the Year Award to his Orlando, Florida, high school theater director, Karen J. Rugerio. The awards ceremony will take place on August 9, 2004, during Stage Directions® magazine's annual conference at the Hilton New York. Stage Directions® magazine has selected three honorees for the first annual Educator of the Year Awards and the Technical Theater Grant. Karen J. Rugerio, Joe Fatone's teacher, is the winner of the Educator of the Year Award for technical theater instructors at the high school level. In 1997 and 1998, Ms. Rugerio, a nationally renowned education professional at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, was named a National Distinguished Teacher by the Presidential Committee for Scholars in the Arts. Her alumni can be found across the country at top theater programs, including North Carolina School of the Arts, NYU, Juilliard and DePaul University. In addition to Joey Fatone, Ms. Rugerio's past students include Wayne Brady and Wesley Snipes...
PopRepublic interview with JC ...You achieved basically every musical accomplishment you can as part of the group. What goals would you like to achieve as a solo artist? Right now I feel I have created some kind of depth by cutting a solo record, but when it comes to being a "solo artist", one record does not make you a solo artist. What I have to do is push myself & the next record I make so that I feel I am always getting better... The entire interview is on page 11 of the August issue at the PopRepublic website.
Aural exam DUKE UNIVERSITY is conducting an experiment. This month the school will give free iPods to 1,650 entering freshman for a year and watch to see if these portable music players enhance higher education. The $500,000 project sounds at first like a student scam: Everyone gets a free, tiny jukebox on the off chance that they might use it for academic insight as well as listening to Nsync... The iPod experiment is a chance to test whether new audio capabilities can improve education. Success seems likely -- envision a history class that includes recordings of Martin Luther King, whose voice has the power to shake souls even when it's heard on recordings...
The curse of kiddie pop ...In 1997, a teenage cameo on the pop charts was curious and cute. What few realised then, as the peppy MMMBop lit up America's radios, is that Hanson was opening the floodgates to a phenomenon that would dominate popular music into the new millennium. It was an onslaught of teen music now so familiar we take it for granted: featherweight pop made for young people, by young people. Seven years ago, it was a novelty. Today it's the way of the pop world. For followers of contemporary music, it has been an intriguing - and occasionally distressing - seven years. Pop is music for youth, of course, and teen idols have been part of modern culture since Pat Boone was crafty enough to highlight teeth over talent. Even before Hanson kicked in the puppy love instincts of '90s prepubescents, the decade had seen a handful of pop prodigies, mostly a scattering of female R&B teens such as Brandy and Aaliyah. But this was something different. In the wake of Hanson came a seemingly endless stream of fresh-faced popsters: the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, *Nsync, Jessica Simpson, 98 Degrees, Mandy Moore, Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne, Destiny's Child. The airwaves became Disneyfied and American Idol-ised. Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson didn't start anything. They just got there first, providing an undeniable signal: The biggest and richest teen generation in the world's history had arrived. For those irritated by today's lip-synced, airbrushed, choreographed state of affairs, the biggest frustration is what could have been. With the arrival of Gen Y, a new crop of young pop was inevitable. The disappointment is that Hanson, the one that got there first, was the last to do what it did: play rock 'n' roll. Sure, MMMBop was chirpier than an Archies song. But it was rock. Guitars, drums, bass. The kids loved it, plenty of adults secretly loved it, and Hanson's mammoth success seemed to presage a promising next chapter for rock 'n' roll. The Beatles, after all, began as bubblegum, and look what they launched. But it didn't happen. The same adolescent audience that swooned over Hanson soon tore down its Taylor posters and drifted to a decidedly un-rock 'n' roll world - the realm of Britney, Backstreet and *Nsync, dominated by slick stage moves and faux-soul vocals digitised to death by studio wizards. It's a long, pitiful road from Hanson's soulful sunshine rock to Hilary Duff's manicured dance-pap...
Court gives Ballard's OK for Monday military party NEW SHOREHAM -- Thanks to a Superior Court ruling yesterday, a high profile event to be hosted by a popular Block Island bar, restaurant and party spot, will continue as originally planned. On Monday, Ballard's Inn will swell with 2,000 to 3,000 people for Military Appreciation Day. The event will feature performances by Roomful of Blues, Howie Day, J.C. Chasez (formerly of 'N Sync), and Kimberly Locke (formerly of American Idol), as well as free food and non-alcoholic drinks for members of the military and their families. Earlier this week the Town Council voted to suspend the outdoor entertainment license of the beachfront establishment, in response to numerous noise complaints over the last two months. The six-day suspension, scheduled to begin today, threatened to cancel the event, or at least send it indoors. Yesterday, Washington County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear granted a request by Shoreham Inc., the parent company of Ballard's Inn, for a temporary restraining order to postpone the suspension of the entertainment license until further court hearings. The judge also scheduled a hearing for a preliminary injunction for Aug. 13. "We're pretty happy about the decision," said Paul Filippi, whose family owns Ballard's. First Warden Martha Ball, who joined three other council members in unanimously voting for the suspension in a closed session Monday, said she couldn't understand why the judge had granted the order: "I am very disappointed." Ball said that the Town Council had worked diligently yesterday morning to reach a compromise with lawyers representing the owners of Ballard's. But the deal, which included a postponement of the entertainment license suspension, was ultimately rejected. Filippi would not comment on any negotiations.
Nick worries about sharks while Jessica sells Desserts If this week's episode of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica can teach us anything, it's that Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson are infinitely more bearable when they're apart. Nick and brother Drew fly to Fiji for the Kelly Slater Invitational, for which the champion surfer brought together other professional surfers and assorted celebs, including Nick, model Marisa Miller, Jane's Addiction front man Perry Farrell and Lance Bass of 'NSync. (Funny, we don't see much of him...) |
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