SPT LIGHT: War refuge’and heavy metal

The News Review:

- SPT LIGHT: War refuge’and heavy metal
- The world of L
- Eyewitness 1833: Pittsburgh supports theater music and books
- Spring music preview: The female rulers of rock
- First Chapter ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’

SPT LIGHT: War refuge’and heavy metal
Pakistan Dawn – Mar 23, 2008
“We first heard about Acrassicauda through our friend Gideon Yago” says film-maker Suroosh Alvi adding “he had been doing some reporting in Baghdad for MTV News in 2003 after Saddam’s regime had been toppled. After he got back he told us about them. The mere idea that a heavy metal band was playing in Baghdad in those circumstances seemed incomprehensible to us so we decided to investigate. And investigate they did. Following the band’s tumultuous journey over a span of three years in a country pregnant with fear its jaded skies etched with missiles and buildings riddled with brutal bullets and grenadesBaghdad no matter how crippled is still considered ‘home’ to Faisal Talal (vocalist) Tony Aziz (lead guitarist) Firas Al-Lateef (bassist) and Marwan Reyad (drummer extraordinaire) Acrassicauda’s tight-knit lineup of musicians. “We had no real mobility nor were we able to walk the streets freely… There were virtually no other journalists there at the time and westerners were being targeted constantly so we were at the mercy and care of our bodyguards who we credit with getting us out of there safely. I was scared of roadside bombs and of being kidnapped but by the end of the week as Eddy Moretti says ‘we got comfortable with the feeling of uncomfortability’. In the documentary while jamming at a gig held in Al-Fanar Hotel (in Baghdad) with over 100 Iraqi men head-banging a young man in the audience faces the camera and says (in thick Iraqi accent): “We are of the heavy metal music. We are in the Iraq. Nobody here can grow long hair you know? Because they will think we are the bad guys. So we need real freedom”. Soon after Faisal begins belting out Massacre a fierce angst-ridden Acrassicauda number.

The world of L
Malaysia Star – Mar 23, 2008
The actor says he is drawn to characters who are totally unlike himself such as the dark hero L. AP In L Change the World Matsuyama 22 reprises his role as the mysterious and taciturn L who has a sweet tooth and other quirks such as having a slight stoop and a tendency to go barefoot and to squat on chairs. This time instead of fighting Kira L has to battle time as his death approaches. In an earlier interview the actor answers some questions about his role in the Japanese movie: If you can what will you do to change the current world? I like this world as it is now. I like now the best. Is it tough being the only male lead for the new movie especially since the burden of box office will be on your shoulders alone? There was pressure on me but because of that I think we could make it great. When you first learnt of the spin-off on the character L what was your reaction? I was simply glad for the fact that I got another job… Do you always enjoy being the odd one out in school or in the entertainment industry in Japan? Are you always the popular student in school or the ignored nerdy student? I am often told that I am assertive. (Laughs) Your most recent characters L and Robo (in the TV drama series Sexy Voice and Robo) are obsessed with analysing crime cases and robots. What’s your personal obsession? I am now addicted to heavy metal music. You have listed pole vault and wheelchair basketball as your favourite sports. I’ve not had time to play those sports lately. Wheelchair basketball is recognised as a sport for people with disabilities but it is actually a hard and wild sport and very exciting when the wheelchairs clash with one another. If like L you knew that you have a limited time on Earth exactly 23 days how will you spend your last days? I would sign up for a life insurance policy (laughs) and be with my parents and do something nice for them.

Eyewitness 1833: Pittsburgh supports theater music and books
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Mar 23, 2008
also offered copies of “MISS AUSTEN’S NEW NVEL. ” “Emma” which had been published in England in 1815 shortly before Jane Austen’s death now was available at “44 Market Street opposite Bank of Pittsburgh. ” “Likewise on hand and for sale by the same Author — Sense & Sensibility; Persuasion; Mansfield Park; Northanger Abbey and Elizabeth Bennett. “Elizabeth Bennett” most likely is another name for “Pride & Prejudice” the Austen novel in which she is the heroine. ne reason southwestern Pennsylvanians could enjoy luxuries like theater music and books was because the city’s manufacturers and shop keepers continued to expand their markets. For 30 years Pittsburgh had benefited from being able to ship its goods throughout the Midwest via the hio and Mississippi rivers… “Two intelligent friends who traveled along the whole western division of the canal and along the line of the rail road over the mountains are returned here highly gratified with their jaunt and with the appearance of the whole line” the Gazette reported on Sept. The “rail road” the Gazette referred to was a 19th century technological marvel: a series of 10 inclined planes running on metal rails — industrial versions of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne and Mon inclines — that would carry canal boats up and down the Allegheny Mountains. “They state that the work along the rail road is exceedingly well done with every promise of strength and durability. When the Allegheny Portage Railroad was completed in 1834 it allowed freight and passengers to be transported inexpensively across Pennsylvania in days rather than weeks.

Spring music preview: The female rulers of rock
New York Daily News – Mar 23, 2008
If this spring’s music releases were made into a movie it might be titled “Female Trouble. ” Women dominate the season’s major musical story lines on every level. Two of the biggest pop divas of all time – Mariah Carey and Madonna – will face off with albums in April. ne of the mightiest and most controversial pop tarts of the last decade – Ashlee Simpson – will issue her first CD since her “SNL” lip-sync disaster. And Foxy Brown rap’s feistiest female unleashes her first verbal torrent since she began spending more time in court than on stage… III & IV: Air & Earth”: Winner of the most pretentious title of the season award goes to this act from the world of so-called “screamo. ” Jordan Zevon “Insides ut”: The debut from the son of the late Warren Zevon features a cover of his dad’s wry ode “Studebaker. ” APRIL 22Blind Melon “For My Friends”: They broke up after singer Shannon Hoon’s death by overdose in 1995. Now they’ve returned with a new singer (and no it’s not the Bee girl from the video). Love & Justice”: England’s smartest and funniest political singer returns with an album that features a cameo from legendary U.

First Chapter ‘The Ten-Cent Plague’
New York Times – Mar 23, 2008
“I like art it’s important to me” she said in a small but firm voice. Her eyes were bright behind grand squarish glasses that covered most of her face. She sat straight-backed in a thin-cushioned metal chair that went with the desk in a half-room that also had her easel and taboret a few boxes of art supplies and a tea set. Her hands formed a teepee on her lap. She wore a pressed linen house dress and well-used tennis shoes and she kept her legs crossed tightly with her calves angled back under the chair as if to hide the shoes. Hanging in a frame on the wall to her right was the original pen-and-ink art to the first page of a Blackhawk comic-book story drawn by one of her old studio mates Reed Crandall. In the days when they were working together Winkleman had sneaked the page home in her portfolio because she admired Crandall’s dynamic compositions and sure line… Why not?”My God” she said. She separated her hands and slapped them on her lap then slowly brought them back together. “I couldn’t go back out there I was scared to death. Don’t you know what they did to us?”In the mid-1940s when Janice Valleau was thriving as an artist for Quality Comics the comic book was the most popular form of entertainment in America. Comics were selling between eighty million and a hundred million copies every week with a typical issue passed along or traded to six to ten readers thereby reaching more people than movies television radio or magazines for adults. By 1952 more than twenty publishers were producing nearly 650 comics titles per month employing well over a thousand artists writers editors letterers and others among them women such as Valleau as well as untold members of racial ethnic and social minorities who turned to comics because they thought of themselves or their ideas as unwelcome in more reputable spheres of publishing and entertainment. Created by outsiders of various sorts comics gave voice to their makers’ fantasies and discontent in the brash vernacular of cartoon drawings and word balloons and they spoke with special cogency to young people who felt like outsiders in a world geared for and run by adults.