Saturday, April 2, 2011
What did they expect? Crowd boos Sheen during his 1st leg of stage tour - Yahoo! News
DETROIT – Charlie Sheen and his "goddesses" took the stage to thunderous applause Saturday night for the first leg of his "Torpedo of Truth" tour. The 70-minute show hadn't even ended when the first reviews were in, and they were brutal.
The former "Two and a Half Men" star showed that comedic success on the screen doesn't necessarily translate to the stage, and the capacity crowd at the 5,100-seat Fox Theatre rebelled before he left the stage, chanting "refund!" and walking out in droves.
Linda Fugate, 47, of the Detroit suburb of Lincoln Park, walked outside and up the block yelling, "I want my money back!"
She said she paid $150 for two seats.
"I was hoping for something. I didn't think it would be this bad."
Fans who gathered outside the theater before the doors opened Saturday — some who had to fly in for the show — said they were hoping to see the increasingly eccentric actor deliver some of the colorful rants that have made him an Internet star since his ugly falling out with CBS and the producers of "Two and a Half Men."
They got the ranting. It just wasn't funny.
"I expected him to at least entertainment a little bit. It was just a bunch of ranting," said Rodney Gagnon, 34, of Windsor, Ontario.
Promising to give fans "the real story," the 45-year-old Sheen kicked off a month-long, 20-city tour Saturday night, with the second show scheduled for Sunday in Chicago.
The show started well for Sheen, as the crowd stood and cheered as he and the women he calls his "goddesses" took the stage. The women, one a former porn star and the other an actress, carried signs with the words "War" and "Lock," references to one of the catchphrases Sheen recently coined.
"I don't see a single empty seat," he said.
After one audience member booed, Sheen sanguinely replied, "I've already got your money, dude."
He tried on a bowling shirt like one his TV character Charlie Harper would wear, then took it off and had his goddesses burn it. He then donned a Detroit Tigers No. 99 jersey, a reference to his role in the film "Major League."
He told everyone he wanted them to enjoy "a night of winning." Winning, in fact, was one of many of Sheen's catchphrases to be displayed in a video montage. Others: "Violent hatred" and "Adonis DNA."
Sheen had said rapper Snoop Dogg would perform at the show, but he didn't. Instead, the show ended with a video for a new Snoop Dogg song before the lights went on.
Toronto-area resident Ronnie Prentice was among several fans outside the theater who said they were hoping to see Sheen rant.
"It's kind of like a NASCAR race. You're just tuning in because you're just waiting for the accident to happen," said Ronnie Prentice, 37.
Adam Hawke said he bought a ticket for the same reason.
"He might be doing something really crazy," said Hawke, 47, who works in the construction business and lives in Michigan. "He's a wreck. That's half the draw."
Geoff Rezek, 69, flew in from New York to see what he believed was going to be "history in the making."
"I wouldn't miss the first show. Who knows if there's going to be a second show?" said Rezek, a computer consultant from Connecticut, who said he also bought a ticket for Sheen's show next week in his home state.
Sheen has made headlines in recent years as much for his drug use, failed marriages, custody disputes and run-ins with the police as for his acting. His father, actor Martin Sheen, has compared his son's fight against addiction to that of a cancer patient's fight for survival.
In August, Sheen pleaded guilty in Aspen, Colo., to misdemeanor third-degree assault after a Christmas Day altercation with his third wife, Brooke Mueller. The couple recently finalized their divorce.
The wayward star's behavior, which included lashing out at the show's producer, Chuck Lorre, finally became too much for Warner Bros. Television, which booted him from "Two and a Half Men" on March 7.
Sheen fired back with a $100 million lawsuit and all-out media assault in which he informed the world about his standing as a "rock star from Mars" and a "warlock" with "Adonis DNA" who lives with two "goddesses" — both of whom he said would be at the Detroit show.
His unique banter and catchphrases — think "winning" — have spread over the Internet and onto T-shirts, more than a few of which are expected to be sold on the tour, which wraps up May 3 in Seattle after stops in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New York, San Francisco and others. Sheen has said the Detroit show, where tickets cost $45 to $80, sold out.
"I am bringing `My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option' show out to you in the battlefield," Sheen said in a video announcing the tour. "If you're winning, I'll see you there. Trolls need not apply. ... Buy your ticket. Take the ride. And the ride will take you."
___
Associated Press writer Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.
via news.yahoo.com
Sounds Interesting. ‘The Killing’ on AMC, Starring Mireille Enos - Review
There are so many Scandinavian crime solvers besides Henning Mankell’s gloomy detective, Kurt Wallander, or Steig Larsson’s hacker heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Yet even among all those popular imports, “The Killing” stands out — it is as scary and suspenseful, but in a subdued, meditative way that is somehow all the more chilling.
This American version of “Forbrydelsen,” which begins on Sunday, relocates the story to Seattle, a West Coast city that in climate and moodiness comes as close as any to Northern Europe. The first season on AMC is shorter than the original 20-part Danish series, which transfixed viewers in Britain, subtitles and all. But the AMC interpretation is faithful to the three-strand plot, characters and mood of the original, so much so that it almost seems like a perfectly dubbed foreign-language film. The premiere opens with two women running, one a jogger striding purposefully through Arcadian woods at the break of dawn, the other a terrified girl, clothes torn, crashing through trees and bramble in the dark of night, followed by an implacable flashlight. The murder of a high school girl quickly entwines the police, the victim’s family and a prominent local politician.
Mireille Enos plays Sarah Linden, a homicide detective who is supposed to move to California with her fiancé, but catches the case on her last day on the job. Sarah is quiet, even contemplative, an observer who is paired with a brash junior partner, Stephen (Joel Kinnaman), who previously worked narcotics undercover. They track down the victim’s parents, Stan Larsen (Brent Sexton) and his wife, Mitch (Michelle Forbes), and along the way find that their case is complicated by the mayoral campaign of Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell), a handsome city council president.
AMC has a good track record of introducing dramas that are not comparable to anything else. “Mad Men” wasn’t a fluke, because “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” are, in their own ways, equally good. “Rubicon,” a 1970s-style spy thriller, was a disappointment that was quickly canceled, but it was at least a noble attempt to try something new.
In many ways “The Killing” is the opposite of American television’s most popular crime series. Procedurals like “Bones” on Fox or “Criminal Minds” on CBS keep a light touch as they showcase ever more grotesque and disturbing images of violence. A recent episode of “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” featured a serial killer who chopped off his victims’ limbs while they were alive, beheaded them, then stuffed the remains in barrels of cement. Visual horror on these network shows is amplified with music and lurid sound effects, then deflected with calculated flecks of humor; each team has quirky secondary characters whose banter assures viewers that they will not have nightmares once the episode wraps up.
On the new AMC series, horror lies mainly in the consequences of a crime, not its grisly execution, and that can’t be laughed off in time for the commercial break. The camera doesn’t linger long, if at all, on a brutally murdered corpse. It closes in unrelentingly on the grief of parents who refuse even to concede their child could have gone missing, or on the pain of a friend who feels responsible for not doing more to protect the victim.
And while the murder investigation is stark and unrelenting, relationships change, and buried secrets are revealed in ways that are too intriguing to set aside. Recently, the crime series that came closest to “The Killing” was another imported show, “Durham County,” a Canadian thriller that was shown on Ion and that was creepily suspenseful, unrelentingly grim and quite addictive.
There have been plenty of dark, cheerless murder mysteries on television. “The Killing” is as bleak and oppressive as any, but it’s so well told that it’s almost heartening. Murder is tragic, of course, but viewers may find themselves wishing for Seattle to provide many more to keep Detective Sarah Linden at her desk.
The Killing
AMC, Sunday nights at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Produced by Fox Television Studios. Written by Veena Sud; based on the Dan- ish television series “Forbrydelsen”; Ms. Sud and Mikkel Bondesen, executive pro- ducers; Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yor- kin, co-executive producers; Ron French, producer.
WITH: Mireille Enos (Sarah Linden), Billy Campbell (Darren Richmond), Joel Kinnaman (Stephen Holder), Michelle Forbes (Mitch Larsen), Brent Sexton (Stanley Larsen), Kristin Lehman (Gwen Eaton), Eric Ladin (Jamie Dempsey), Brendan Sexton III (Belko Royce) and Jamie Anne Allman (Terry).
via tv.nytimes.com
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wrigley opener will have familiar faces in stands | cubs.com: News
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
Katie Cobb, 24, and her father, Mike, have been going to Cubs home openers since she was 9 years old, and they have a routine.They'll park near a Red Line "L" stop and get coffee, more for warmth than an eye opener. Then, they take the train to the Addison Street-Wrigley Field stop. They arrive early, walk around the ballpark, stop to listen to WGN Radio's live broadcast from Clark and Addison streets.
This year will be a little different. Cobb will still be missing school, sort of. She's working on her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and, as luck would have it, is scheduled to speak at a conference in Chicago on Saturday. The Cubs' home opener is Friday against the Pirates.
The other difference this year for Cobb and other Cubs fans is that they will begin the season without their voice.
April 1: Pirates at Cubs, 2:20 p.m. CT
RHP Kevin Correia vs. RHP Ryan DempsterBack to the Cobbs. Mike has allowed his daughter to play hooky from school, and one year, she skipped two days in a row when the Cubs' opener was snowed out.
"It's a ritual now," Katie said. "My older sister has been bugging me. She says, 'Maybe you can't make it home.' I tell her no. There are some things you don't share."
She started going to games when her mother decided she didn't like the big contracts some players got.
"My dad brought me to the game, and I fell in love," Cobb said. "My mother understood. It's like a religious holiday in terms of observance."
She keeps score with her father and they've saved all the scorecards.
"We do have our occasional 'NW' for 'Not watching,'" she said.
Carol Haddon switched to scorebooks rather than buying a scorecard each game because of the cost. She's been a Cubs season-ticket holder since 1971, and remembers when her front-row seat cost $3.25. On Friday, her seat in the first row behind the Cubs dugout is priced at $126.
She has missed one opener at Wrigley Field, and that was in 1983, when her brother died.
"With that exception, no one will do anything in my life of any importance on that day, because it's the Cubs' opener," Haddon said. "I missed my grandson's birthday and my daughter-in-law's birthday to make it to the home opener."
Before the season begins, she will line up either a baby-sitter, an animal-sitter or a husband-sitter so she's free for the day. She'll be at Wrigley with her glove and her scorebook.
"I leave the house at a certain time, I wear a certain pin given to me by other friends," she said. "Some of my friends call me, because they know it's the start. My husband's a softball player, a 16-inch softball player. He's always welcoming my season, because he knows his isn't that far behind."
Her mother started taking her to Cubs games when she was 4 years old. Haddon didn't want to give her age now.
"I don't see it as a religious experience," she said. "I truly enjoy professional sports, baseball being the most fun. Sitting in the front row, I'm spoiled, I know that. It gives me such an appreciation of the game. Every day, I feel refreshed."
Friday's Cubs crowd also will include Patrick Russell, 35, who will be attending his fourth straight. He and his stepbrother Steve Adams, 35, decided to make it an annual event. Russell takes the train from his home in Springfield, Ill., and meets up with Adams, who catches the train in Alton, Ill. It's a 3 1/2-hour journey each way, and they return home that night. Last year, they met Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.
"Every year has been great," Patrick said.
They've got a long way to go to catch up with Linda Eisenberg. She's been to more than 40 Cubs home openers, and she will, naturally, be in the right-field bleachers, sitting in the top row with Lambikins. Lambikins is a small stuffed lamb that was a Serta mattress giveaway at a game, and has now become a bleacher regular, like Eisenberg. It even has a toy-sized Cubs outfit, batting helmet, and its own Facebook page. How regular is Eisenberg? She has velcro attachments for her cell phone and seat cushions for her spot in the bleachers.
Her uncle started sitting in the right-field bleachers in 1945, and continued going to Cubs games until he died in 1989. He was always first in line for tickets, back when the team sold tickets on the day of the game.
How special is the home opener?
"It's like New Year's," Eisenberg said. "Everyone walks around saying, 'Happy New Year' to everybody."
She keeps score religiously, although if the Cubs lose that day, she'll throw out the pencil she used. Not many people around her these days do keep track of the plays. The bleachers have changed.
"It used to be people who were there to watch the game and kept score and everyone knew baseball," she said. "Now it's a drunken frat party. It's sad."
She would know. Her first game without her parents was May 15, 1960, when Don Cardwell threw a no-hitter in his Cubs debut. That's one of the joys of the game. You never know what you'll see.
As soon as Major League Baseball releases the schedule, Eisenberg and the bleacher regulars start preparations.
"We start countdowns," she said. "Everybody prays for sun, and not necessarily warmth."
She'll be 62 this year and has one wish.
"Every year I say, 'All I want is to celebrate in the bleachers on my birthday,' because it's Oct. 20 and the Cubs would be in the World Series then," she said. "It hasn't happened yet."
It's Opening Day. She and thousands others hope this is the year.
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter@CarrieMuskat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Donald Trump's lawyer on birth certificate controversy: No one doubts where Trump was born - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
Donald Trump, speaks at the Conservative Political Action conference (CPAC), on February 10, 2011 in Washington, DC.
(Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)Updated 1:40 p.m. Eastern Time
Donald Trump, who says he is "seriously" considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination, yesterday released what he said was his birth certificate. Trump has been questioning whether President Obama was born in the United States, and he released the document to prove a point.
"It took me one hour to get my birth certificate. It's inconceivable that after four years of questioning, the president still hasn't produced his birth certificate," he said.
As it turns out, however, the document released by Trump was not actually an official New York birth certificate, but rather a document generated by the hospital where Trump's mother gave birth. The situation prompted commentators to sarcastically offer birther-style questions about whether Trump was born in the United States.
"Trump's mother, it should be noted, was born in Scotland, which is not part of the United States," wrote Politico's Ben Smith. "His plane is registered in the Bahamas, also a foreign country. This fact pattern -- along with the wave of new questions surrounding what he claims is a birth certificate -- raises serious doubts about his eligibility to serve as President of the United States."
Hotsheet reached Trump lawyer and advisor Michael Cohen, who is on vacation in Italy, for a response. Cohen said it was obvious that Trump has released "something that his parents had given him years and years ago and he obviously just had it put away."
"I don't think anyone's going to question whether Donald Trump is or was not born in New York," Cohen said. He went on to say that there are hospitals named after the Trump family in New York, yet the only hospitals named after Mr. Obama are in Ghana.
"It's a little bit odd," he said.
Asked whether Trump needed to release his official birth certificate, Cohen pointed out that Trump is "not yet" the president. He said Trump could produce an official birth certificate if necessary.
"If he is asked to produce a raised seal New York City Department of Health birth certificate, I'm pretty sure he can have one in as quick a period of time as you can go down and get it," said Cohen.
UPDATE: A Trump staffer today released what he says is Trump's actual birth certificate to ABC News.
Cohen insisted that Trump is "not part of this birther movement, he's just an individual that is questioning."
"What he is is a person who demands transparency, which is what the president's platform was all about when he decided to run," Cohen said, adding: "If you want to kill the comments, and you want to stop the chitter chatter about it, just show your birth certificate."
Birthers' claims have been widely disproved. The Obama campaign released a copy of Mr. Obama's certificate of live birth during the presidential campaign, and it has been verified by independent journalists. There are also a pair of birth announcements in Hawaiian newspapers from when the president was born. (Trump's camp maintains that a certificate of live birth is not tantamount to a birth certificate, even though the state of Hawaii considers them the same thing.)
Trump says he will formally announce whether he is running for president by June.
"There are many more issues of consequence that Mr. Trump will be talking about if he elects to run in June, issues that are more important to this country's future," said Cohen.
via cbsnews.com
So Trump is a birther and wants to be President. I guess in a country where Rebecca Black can be a recording artist, Trump might become President. But if he gets the nomination I will work damn hard to make sure he does not get to live at 1600 pennsylvania ave.
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