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If Andra Day‘s Golden Globe upset for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” transfers to the Oscars, she will become the first performer to win Best Actress for her first film since Marlee Matlin won in 1987 for “Children of a Lesser God.” It’s a quirky group that includes Barbra Streisand (1968’s “Funny Girl”), Julie Andrews (1964’s “Mary Poppins”) and Shirley Booth.

Best Actress is kind to debut performers — Day would be the 17th nominee, just two years after the most recent one, Yalitza Aparicio for “Roma.” And the singer’s Globe win was a huge pick-me-up in her Oscar prospects after she got snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTA longlist.

Several factors are working in Day’s favor to become the fifth member of this group. Billie Holiday’s turbulent life, previously captured in “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972), which brought Diana Ross a Best Actress nomination,...

From her haunting vocals to her raspy cadence, Golden Globe winner Andra Day is wholly absorbed as the title character of “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Her visceral performance is the anchor through which Pulitzer award winner Suzan-Lori Parks and filmmaker Lee Daniels’ drama comes to life. The 1940s-set film reshapes Holiday’s legacy as the Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement, centering her activism through her seminal song “Strange Fruit.” It also showcases Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger’s (played in the film by Garrett Hedlund) obsession with dehumanizing and silencing Holiday, and how he weaponized her drug addiction against her.

While the movie has been met with mixed reviews, Day’s performance has been routinely hailed as a major breakthrough for the Grammy-nominated singer, who had never played a leading role before in film or TV. In the wake of a recent Golden Globe...

Andra Day, 32, paid homage to the influential legacy of Billie Holiday at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival with an impassioned performance of the infamous protest ballad, Strange Fruit. The Grammy nominee partnered with Google and the Equal Justice Initiative to shed light on the powerful social justice message embedded in Holiday’s song, which redefined the power of music almost 80 years ago.

Andra Day used her powerhouse vocals to send a strong message against racial violence to the thousands of global citizens in the audience. After singing her last note of the emotional lyrics, she reached out to the audience on...

R&B singer Andra Day delivered a striking rendition of the famous protest song "Strange Fruit" on The Daily Show Wednesday. The song was first made famous by Billie Holiday, but has also been performed by Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, UB40 and Annie Lennox.

The sparse arrangement found Day partnering with just a guitarist, who unspooled blues riffs beneath her stunning vocals. Day began singing Abel Meeropol's vivid lyrical poem about the lynchings of African Americans in the South at a low moan. Day also tied the song to...

Andra Day also performed a haunting rendition of “Strange Fruit.”...

“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.” Marvel VP of Sales David Gabriel, Marvel Retailer Summit, March 2017

“Let’s find a place they say, somewhere far away, With no blacks, no Jews and no gays” The Machine, Lyrics from There But For The Grace Of God, Go I, Dec 1979

“Now the big publishing guns are on this diversity thing, but for how long? Think it’s going to last? It won’t. It won’t because it’s a trend, a ploy. It’s a stunt. This, my friend, is nothing but business.” Michael Davis, Bleeding Cool, Feb 2015

Just as I predicted the fate of comic’s only true diversity architect, Milestone Media, I said the current diversity bug would go away. I did not think...

“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.” Marvel VP of Sales David Gabriel, Marvel Retailer Summit, March 2017

“Let’s find a place they say, somewhere far away, With no blacks, no Jews and no gays” The Machine, Lyrics from There But For The Grace Of God, Go I, Dec 1979

“Now the big publishing guns are on this diversity thing, but for how long? Think it’s going to last? It won’t. It won’t because it’s a trend, a ploy. It’s a stunt. This, my friend, is nothing but business.” Michael Davis, Bleeding Cool, Feb 2015

Just as I predicted the fate of comic’s only true diversity architect, Milestone Media, I said the current diversity bug would go away. I did not think...

Scream Factory brings an under-appreciated horror anthology to Collector’s Edition Blu-ray.

Great horror anthologies are hard to come by these days, but luckily there are still plenty to be rediscovered thanks to home video labels like Scream Factory. 1995’s Tales from the Hood is a highly entertaining blend of horror and social commentary from director Rusty Cundieff (who co-wrote alongside Darin Scott who also co-wrote an earlier horror anthology From a Whisper to a Scream), and it’s now found a new home on Blu-ray. Keep reading as we take a look at the film and new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray.

As with all the best anthology films Tales from the Hood features a wraparound tale (“Welcome to My Mortuary”) from which the individual stories are born, and the script couldn’t have chosen a better setting. Three gang-bangers come to a mortuary to pick up a shipment of drugs, and...

Using music as a tool of protest isn’t anything new. But with the current political climate, we have a sneaking suspicion that music in the U.S. is about to get ever-so-slightly more angry. Here are the most important ones from the genre’s history in America.

“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)

One of the first anti-war pop songs, this song was a hit in 1915, selling 650,000 copies. It also drew scorn from a number of people, including Theodore Roosevelt, who said, “Foolish people who applaud a song entitled ‘I Didn’t Raise My Boy...

This article originally appeared on EW.com.

Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration will take place Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., but so far, the president-elect has had some difficulty assembling a star-powered lineup for the ceremony. Over the last month or so, more and more musicians have publicly declined to perform — even those who Trump has praised or have a previous relationship with the president-elect.

In preparation for the inauguration, here’s a handy list of everyone who won’t perform for the president-elect.

Andrea Bocelli

The classical singer was one of the first names to emerge as an inauguration performer.

Thus far, several internationally-known singers —including Andrea Bocelli, Elton John and Celine Dion — have refused to perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20. Rebecca Ferguson Says She Will Sing At Trump’s Inauguration The only three confirmed performers are the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the New York City Rockettes, and 16-year-old America’s Got Talent runner-up Jackie Evancho. This is […]

Source: uInterview

The post Rebecca Ferguson Says She’ll Sing At Trump’s Inauguration If She Can Sing “Strange Fruit” appeared first on uInterview.

Rebecca Ferguson took to Twitter on Monday to reveal she had been asked to perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

The 30-year-old British singer posted a response on Twitter, saying she would agree perform, but only if she could sing “Strange Fruit,” a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday.

Ferguson said the song “has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial. A song that speaks to all the disregarded and down trodden black people in the United States.”

Inauguration ceremony

Read: https://t.co/CHVDH7Qzbx

— Rebecca Ferguson (@RebeccaFMusic) January 2, 2017

//platform.

Rebecca Ferguson (no, the other one) has been asked to perform at Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the singer says she would do it — on one condition. The former “X Factor U.K.” contestant says she’ll only perform at the Jan. 20 ceremony if she’s allowed to sing Billie Holiday’s famous protest song “Strange Fruit.” In a statement on Twitter, the British soul singer wrote that she’d “graciously” accept the Trump inauguration committee’s invitation if it would grant her permission to perform the song “that is a reminder of how love is the only thing that will...

Here's a tough question: Do you judge Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation as a film, or put the man behind it on trial as a former student at Penn State in 1999 who was accused of raping an 18-year-old woman – a crime for which he was acquitted. I'll leave the playing God stuff to social media, where it thrives, and stick to what's onscreen which, by any standard, is a monumental achievement.

The Birth of a Nation is a passion project for Parker, who labored for seven years...

You may have heard the buzz about Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation during Sundance. Now you can see what the festival's double winner -- Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award -- looks like. Maybe also get a sense of why it's now such a heavy contender for other, bigger honors at the end of this year and beyond. Yes, people are already talking it up for a Best Picture nomination.  Fox Searchlight has debuted the first trailer for the historical drama, which will surely remind viewers of recent Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave. The spot does make the film look like it could be just as strong a work, but the trailer itself already sends chills down the spine with its use of Nina Simone's rendition of "Strange Fruit" on the soundtrack...

Read More...

The first trailer for The Birth of a Nation has been released just a day after earning rave reviews at CinemaCon. Nate Parker - who won the breakthrough director of the year award at the convention - writes, produces and stars in the powerful period piece, which dramatizes Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion. The film borrows its title from D.W. Griffith's abjectly racist 1915 film of the same name. The Birth of a Nation is already generating serious Oscar buzz after winning the grand jury prize and audience award at Sundance, where its screening received a raucous standing ovation. It...

The first trailer for The Birth of a Nation has been released just a day after earning rave reviews at CinemaCon. Nate Parker - who won the breakthrough director of the year award at the convention - writes, produces and stars in the powerful period piece, which dramatizes Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion. The film borrows its title from D.W. Griffith's abjectly racist 1915 film of the same name. The Birth of a Nation is already generating serious Oscar buzz after winning the grand jury prize and audience award at Sundance, where its screening received a raucous standing ovation. It...

"The Birth of a Nation" captivated audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and set a record when it was sold to Fox Searchlight for $17.5 million. The movie, which has been compared to "12 Years a Slave," is set to open during awards season this fall, and now has a new teaser trailer.

The teaser is more of a mood-setter than an outline of the plot, which is based on true events during the slavery era. Writer/director/star Nate Parker plays Nat Turner, a literate slave who is also a preacher. His master (Armie Hammer) directs him to quell unrest among his fellow slaves, but Nat ends up orchestrating an uprising.

Set to Nina Simone's haunting cover of "Strange Fruit," the teaser is stirring — it's easy to see why the movie won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance. And just as the movie won acclaim from the festival circuit,...

Though it won’t hit theaters for nearly six months, The Birth of a Nation got its first trailer today — and it’s a stunner. The film — written, directed, produced and starring Nate Parker — wowed critics and audiences at Sundance earlier this year, where it won both the Audience Award and Jury Award and sold to Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million, making it the biggest Sundance deal of all time. Set to Nina Simone’s cover of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” the trailer artfully presents snippets of the story, which follows Parker’s Nat Turner as becomes the leader of the 1831 slave rebellion. […]...

Nate Parker leads a slave uprising as Nat Turner in the first trailer for “The Birth of a Nation.” Few words are spoken as evocative images from the film are edited together to Nina Simone’s haunting cover of Billie Holiday’s classic “Strange Fruit.” Parker not only stars, but directed and wrote the feature, based on a story by Jean McGianni Celestin, about the most successful slave rebellion in American history. “Submit yourselves to your masters with all respect,” Parker’s Turner tells a group of fellow slaves in the trailer. “The Birth of a Nation” premiered to raves back in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Fox Searchlight picked up distribution rights for a reported record-breaking $17.5 million at the fest. The film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. Parker accepted both awards on the film’s behalf. The multi-hyphenate Parker additionally accepted the Breakthrough...

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to premiere tomorrow, Saturday night, March 12, 2016. Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon. Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous, including "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's...

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to premiere this Saturday night, March 12, 2016. Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon. Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous, including "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's...

With songs like "Mississippi Goddam" and "Why (The King of Love Is Dead)," Nina Simone earned a reputation as the voice of the civil rights movement as racial tensions reached a peak in the 1960s. Now, Simone's life is once again coming to the fore thanks to the upcoming biopic Nina, with Zoë Saldana drawing controversy for portraying the legendary musician. (Its release comes a year after What Happened, Miss Simone, which was ultimately nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar.) But just who was Nina Simone? In the end, she's a woman who left an important legacy in both...

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to premiere on Saturday, March 12, 2016. Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon. Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous, including "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's...

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to debut Saturday, March 12, 2016. Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon. Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous, including "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness." McDonald...

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to debut Saturday, March 12, 2016. Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon. Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday's life story through the songs that made her famous, including "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness." McDonald...

2015 was an impressive year for comics. Image continued to rise as the champion of indie titles, with its ever-expanding library of books by successful veterans and newcomers. Vertigo returned with a new line of comics containing dark, complex, character-driven genre stories that made them the most interesting American publisher back in the day. After years of being stuck making grim-dark, generic comics, DC decided to launch its #DCYou comics to breathe new life into its slowly decaying world: these were comics with characters/creators that were women, Lgbt, and Poc. Not only that, but they managed to come out with some of their best work in years like Batgirl, Midnighter, and Black Canary. As far as I’m concerned, Marvel doesn’t know what they’re doing, and I’m only reading Ms. Marvel right now as everything else is either too expensive or generic looking. Oh, well. At least Ant-Man was a good movie.

Strange Fruit #1

Writers:J.G. Jones and Mark Waid

Artist: J.G. Jones

Letterer Deron Bennett

Publisher Boom! Studios

Strange Fruit # 1 deals with racism during the 1920s. The title of the comic makes reference to a famous Billie Holiday song “Strange Fruit”, which dealt with the lynching and death of blacks. On that note, Strange Fruit dives straight into racism and tension head first. Jones and Waid produce a strong premise, but weak writing. The writing suffers from a lack of in depth characterization for the characters and a continuous jumping about in the plot. However, the artwork from Jones is priceless in its exquisiteness and attention to detail. The comic is issue one of four and leaves a lot of space to grow.

The story opens in 1927 Chatterlee, Mississippi. A great trouble faces Chatterlee as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 is coming, and levees need to be built to protect the town.

In Shops This Week:

Negative Space #1

Writer: Ryan K. Lindsay

Artist: Owen Gieni

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $4

Description: When one man’s writer’s block gets in the way of his suicide note, he goes for a walk to clear his head and soon uncovers a century-old conspiracy dedicated to creating and mining the worst lows of human desperation.

Our Take: Despite being fairly prolific and has worked on books that would fit in here at Destroy The Brain, writer Ryan K Lindsay premieres on this site with Negative Space, alongside a remarkably skilled and talented artist whose coloring work graced high profile titles like Shutter and Manifest Destiny. But clear away your preconceptions about what Negative Space is going to be; it’s not quite horror but it’s certainly horrifying at times, despite also having a darkly comedic mood. Comparable to The Life After but more grounded,...

One Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series Museum of Modern Art, NYC hrough September 7, 2015

One of the most startling impressions that one takes away from seeing the reunited Migration Series at the Museum of Modern Art is how current the paintings still feel current in a way that Céline still does, or Christopher Isherwood, or John Steinbeck -- documenters of a very specific moment of transition, faithfully recording sensitive observations. Jacob Lawrence’s cycle of sixty paintings on the subject of the Northern Migration is both a landmark work for an artist who was just twenty-three years old when he began it, and it is a work of historical importance in American art of the 20th Century.

Lawrence, who had dropped out of school when he was sixteen, was encouraged by his single mother to take art classes and visit museums. He studied at the Harlem Art Workshop, in the...

Annie Lennox during the ‘Great Performances Annie Lennox: Nostalgia in Concert’ performance and panel discussion at the PBS Network portion of the Television Critics Association press tour, January 19, 2015 in Pasadena (Getty)

Annie Lennox was criticized online last fall for not mentioning on Tavis Smiley's show the connection between the lyrics of "Strange Fruit" and lynching.

On Monday night, at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in Pasadena, Calif., where Lennox made an appearance to promote "Great Performances: Annie Lennox 'Nostalgia' in Concert" on PBS, she had a chance to address the criticisms that came ...

Copyright 2015 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sons of Anarchy house band the Forest Rangers have been known to kick it old-school: Last month, they unveiled their scorching cover of blues classic "Baby, Please Don't Go" for the Season Seven episode "Poor Little Lambs." But for this week's installment, "Greensleeves," the eclectic group went even further back, reworking the titular English folk ballad into a brooding textural epic.

"Greensleeves stirred my heart anew / Greensleeves caught my eye of blue," sings the show's star Katey Sagal over drifting acoustic guitars, cello and keyboards. "Greensleeves put my soul at...

This year's edition of the Festival du Film Merveilleux was as entertaining as ever, but... There's always a but isn't there?

On one hand, the visual quality of the shorts on schedule was in overall higher than before, sadly this was in many cases plastered over a non-existent script. Only a few had a real story going on, and of that group fewer even were feeling like a complete work and not a teaser to get budget for the feature film they were hinting about.

Based on that it's no wonder Strange Fruit, being next to the only one combining real art direction and a story (a preachy one yes, but story nonetheless) was hailed as winner by the jury.

You can as always check the whole list of winners [Continued ...]...

This year's edition of the Festival du Film Merveilleux was as entertaining as ever, but... There's always a but isn't there?

On one hand, the visual quality of the shorts on schedule was in overall higher than before, sadly this was in many cases plastered over a non-existent script. Only a few had a real story going on, and of that group fewer even were feeling like a complete work and not a teaser to get budget for the feature film they were hinting about.

Based on that it's no wonder Strange Fruit, being next to the only one combining real art direction and a story (a preachy one yes, but story nonetheless) was hailed as winner by the jury.

You can as always check the whole list of winners [Continued ...]...

The Montagues and the Capulets got nothing on Abby Arcane and Swamp Thing. Few romances in the big two have been so thoroughly explored and fleshed out. Abby and the dream of Alex Holland are two crazy kids caught on the wrong side of an insane monster, or on opposing sides of two of the great forces behind all life on earth, depending on who’s writing. During Alan Moore’s fantastic run, their relationship transformed into a thoughtful fairy tale, transcending the difficulties of intimacy between a female human and a super vegetable.

Under Moore’s pen, Swamp Thing evolved into a modern fairy tale about what it means to be human, and to love. Swamp Thing became a monster that once dreamed he was the man, Dr. Alex Holland. With that poetic first step, Moore’s Swamp Thing takes his new origin to its logical and creative end,...

The Coen brothers' new film about a 1960s folk singer in Greenwich Village is a reminder of how authenticity became the rod that folk music made for its own back

The new film by the Coen brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis, evokes Greenwich Village at the beginning of the American folk boom. The date is February 1961. Metropolitan young Americans sit in smoky clubs listening reverently to music that they believe is purer, more honest and more heartfelt and therefore more elevating than the commercial mainstream of Sinatra, Buddy Holly and Doris Day. Folk music is still mainly a process of discovery and renewal rather than invention; singers tend to see themselves as curators of tradition. Lines such as: "Here's a song I first heard Leadbelly sing," remain the staple fare of introductions in a form that awaits the great singer-songwriter. Bob Dylan has just arrived in town but is still a...

D’Angela Proctor will provide strategic direction of all original programming and oversee all development and current production for TV One, reporting to President & CEO Alfred Liggins, the network announced today. Proctor joins TV One from Strange Fruit Media, where she was a co-owner and co-president. During her 15 years with Strange Fruit, Proctor developed, created and/or produced music videos, live music and comedy recordings, documentaries, feature films and television series. In the television arena, Proctor served as exec producer and creative consultant to Bet from 2008 to 2010. During her stint there, she developed multiple film and television concepts, executive produced The Family Crew, Vindicated and Sunday Best. Most recently, Proctor created the upcoming Own docu-reality series, Crazy. Sexy. Life. Proctor also produced the Family Reunion television series for TV One and the Daddy’s Girl Laila Ali documentary for the network.

New York — Miley Cyrus' foam finger, Lady Gaga's thong, Taylor Swift's mean streak and the look on Rihanna's face while Drake performed will surely be remembered, but these MTV Video Music Awards belonged to Justin Timberlake.

Timberlake briefly reunited with `N Sync, won moonman trophies including top honor video of the year for "Mirrors" plus the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and managed to overshadow most of today's top pop stars while doing it.

"I don't deserve the award, but I'm not going to give it back," Timberlake said. "I'm taking this home."

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were the night's other top winners, taking home trophies for best hip-hop video and best cinematography for "Can't Hold Us," and best video with a social message for "Same Love." They performed that song with Mary Lambert and Jennifer Hudson in a show-stopping moment.

"Gay rights are human rights," Macklemore said during the telecast.

People can, at times, simultaneously feel conflicting emotions of love and hate towards any person they have an intimate relationship with, particularly their parents. While it can be difficult to understand other people’s motivations, people learn to come to terms and understand the actions others take as they mature. This is the intense motivating factor in director Daniel Algrant’s new drama, Greetings From Tim Buckley, which is based on the true story of the title musician. In the film, Penn Badgley plays Tim Buckley’s son, Jeff, who doesn’t fully understand the respect his late father garnered until he truly looks into his father’s past.

Greetings From Tim Buckley follows young musician Jeff Buckley, as he rehearses for his public singing debut in 1991 at a Brooklyn tribute concert for his father, the late folk singer Tim Buckley. As he struggles with the legacy of a father he barely knew,...

Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley on playing Jeff Buckley, leaving La and his attempt to bring the World Cup to America

Hi! Where are you right now and what are you doing?

I am home in New York, eating oatmeal. It's one of the first beautiful days of the year, so I think I may go to the park. Lay in the sun, on the grass, get some fresh air. That's really all I have planned.

I thought movie stars were too busy to do that sort of thing?

When you're working hard and the hours are long, yeah. You're not sleeping much, you don't have the time or energy for anything else. But when you're not …

You can be a bum?

Exactly. It's a beautiful balance.

Your breakout role was playing Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl for six years, where you became a tabloid fixture (1). What was the best thing about it?...

Even More Movies You Never Heard Of! week continues at Trailers from Hell with director Mick Garris introducing Brit rock comedy "Still Crazy." Although nominated for two Golden Globes, this British rock comedy about an apocryphal '70s rock band called Strange Fruit acrimoniously reuniting in middle age for a 20th-year reunion concert is virtually unknown in millennial America. Think Spinal Tap with Bill Nighy, Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall.

German actor Susanne Lothar, best known for her work with director Michael Haneke, has died suddenly at the age of 51. Her family lawyer, Christian Schetz, confirmed that Lothar died on Wednesday. He added he would not be providing further details "for understandable reasons".

Born in Hamburg, to actor parents, Lothar cut her teeth in theatre before winning the German federal film prize for her screen debut in the 1983 drama Strange Fruit. She went on to star in the likes of Snowland, the political saga If Not Us, Who? and Stephen Daldry's Oscar-winning Holocaust drama The Reader.

Lothar, however, was most acclaimed for her quartet of films with Haneke, starting with The Castle in 1997. She played an imperilled bourgeois in the controversial Funny Games, an anguished mother in The Piano Teacher...

Nothing Like I Planned: The Art of John Mellencamp Tennessee State Museum

John Mellencamp doesn't see himself as an activist, which I suspect is his humility speaking. There is no escaping the fact that Mellencamp is political artist. And I say this with the utmost respect, as his views are heartfelt, witnessed first-hand and lifelong. With work ranging from the alarming "Strange Fruit" (2006), which points to past, horrific atrocities; to the straightforward "Coast to Coast" (2005), which reveals the continuing problems and degradation more and more are facing across our once-great nation, we see the thoughts and concerns of a passionate creator. And like one of his greatest influences, Max Beckmann, Mellencamp paints powerful, impassioned, difficult, and haunting imagery that will find its way deep into the mind of the viewer as it picks and prods memories, moods, and impressions most would like to overlook.

In Mellencamp's art, we often see...

While Radiohead wasn't the first band to break free of the corporate machine and drop an album on their own terms, they were easily the most promiment. And while this was par for the course for underground artists and bands through the '80s and '90s who thrived within a specific independent framework (that was arguably co-opted by the mainstream post-Nirvana, but that's another discussion), the release of In Rainbows opened the eyes of acts of similar stature, proving that they didn't need to rely on the expensive machinations and iron clad contracts of a major record label to survive. And in fact, they could sell less records and earn more money by striking it out on their own. Nowadays, if a band isn't founding their own label, they're at least setting up vanity shingles under corporate umbrellas, and taking a stronger say in how they conduct their careers.

DVD Playhouse—April 2012

By Allen Gardner

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Warner Bros.) An eleven year-old boy (newcomer Thomas Horn, in an incredible debut) discovers a mysterious key amongst the possessions of his late father (Tom Hanks) who perished in 9/11. Determined to find the lock it matches, the boy embarks on a Picaresque odyssey across New York City. Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth have fashioned a film both grand and intimate, beautifully-adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, thought by most who read it to be unfilmable. Fine support from Jeffrey Wright, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis and the great Max von Sydow. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Battle Royale: The Complete Collection (Anchor Bay) Adapted from Koushun Takami’s polarizing novel (compared by champions and detractors alike as a 21st century version of A Clockwork Orange) and set in a futuristic Japan,...

I think Catwoman is the most fascinating woman in the DC universe.

I can never have a conversation about the character with men and women of a certain age about her without their mentioning Julie Newmar, who played the lithe kittenish female fatale on the Batman television series of the ‘60s as a woman whom we knew had a thing for her “arch-enemy” but loved her diamonds more. With men a certain look comes into their eyes; I wouldn’t exactly call it “leering,” but it sure comes close. With women, I think they remember Newmar’s Catwoman as an independent woman going after what she wanted – be it the Caped Avenger or the ancient Egyptian cat-stature worth millions. (And what little girl didn’t want to look like Julie Newmar when she grew up?)

Then there is Eartha Kitt, who took over the role from Ms. Newmar. She had...

The documentary, "Strange Fruit: The Beatles' Apple Records", will be available on DVD, April 24, 2012 :

"...in 1968, under a haze of publicity, 'The Beatles' opened their collective door to musicians, writers, artists, film-makers, inventors, designers, freaks and opportunist sharks. But despite a hefty investment, little of substance was forthcoming, except for "Apple Records".

"This is the story of a record label which came to exist under extraordinary circumstances, produced extraordinary records and was operated under extraordinary guidelines..."

"Strange Fruit" offers new interviews with Tony Bramwell, members of 'Badfinger', 'The Iveys', 'Elephant's Memory', Jackie Lomax, 'Brute Force' and David Peel, plus commentator Chris Ingham, author, journalist Mark Paytress and Apple biographer Stefan Granados.

The film also includes Apple music, archive footage of Apple artists, interviews from the vaults, rare images and location films.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Strange Fruit: The Beatles' Apple...

It’s that time again… here are the preview materials for DC Comics releases for May 2012.

As you can see, DC is clearly getting excited about the imminent arrival of The Dark Knight Rises with new movie statues showing Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, and Tom Hardy, the return of Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham’s Batman Incorporated and the long awaited arrival of Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, and the Talon appearing in every single Batman book this month… and even All-Star Western?

Plus, with the return of Earth One, we also get the return of Earth Two– and the return of the World’s Finest.

Shall we get into it? Let’s!

As always, spoilers may lurk beyond this point.

Earth Two #1

Written by James Robinson

Art by Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott

Cover by Greg Capullo

1:25 Variant cover by Ivan Reis and...

The best of your comments on the latest films and music

'David Lynch, you really are quite wonderful and have helped to stretch the way in which I think and the way I perceive the world," Chamba said last week, beneath our interview with the film director turned techno musician. "Thank you for all your films and for Twin Peaks (which got me through my A-levels) and for your wacky interviews! And thank you Xan Brooks for a very funny article."

Lynch was not just interviewed last week, he was the guest editor of Film&Music. Hence articles about getting 21-year-olds from the Ozarks to listen to his music, and having Billy Gibbons of Zz Top discuss the workings of the block and tackle, all of which prompted ZIZI1001 to comment: "Strange fruit … but what a fruit. An embarrassment of riches today."

The Zz Top piece elicited an outburst...

Broadway actress/singer Jane White has lost her battle with cancer at the age of 88.

The star passed away on 24 July at her home in Greenwich Village, New York.

White made her Broadway debut in 1945 when she landed a role in Strange Fruit, but it was her star turn as Queen Aggravain, opposite a young Carol Burnett, in a 1959 production of Once Upon a Mattress which gave her her big break.

The musical led to further work in a number of Shakespeare plays, and she was honoured with an Obie Award in 1971 for her continued career achievements.

White later appeared in a number of U.S. soap operas such as A World Apart and The Edge of Night, becoming one of the first black actresses to land a soap role under contract.

She was also known for her vocal talent and performed as a cabaret singer in her autobiographical one-woman show Jane White, Who? from 1979.