The James Logan Courier

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Wonder if he got "the two-minute warning"?

George Carlin's fans know what I'm talking about. It's part of a routine he did in the '70s, about the possibility of getting notice that you're about to die ... a voice inside your head that goes, "TWO MINUTES. Get your (Bleep) together."

His spirit's probably lurking beneath my car, chewing off the timing belt for censoring him like that, but hey, this ain't HBO.

By Robert W. Butler
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

The most ambitious film yet from the House of Pixar, "WALL-E" is an intergalactic epic about robot romance, furious physical comedy and the fate of humanity.

If that's a lot of ground to cover, if the film's reach exceeds its grasp ... well, this critic is in a forgiving mood. You can't advance an art form without taking risks and making a few missteps. "WALL-E" bravely charges into thematic territory and a presentational style that few movies — much less animated ones — have dared to explore.

In the wordless but exhilarating first half-hour of Andrew Stanton's film we find ourselves on a barren dusty planet littered with the remains of civilization. People once lived here, but they're long gone, leaving behind a ravaged landscape of skeletal buildings and mountains of trash.

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Cheekbones, eye shadow, tattoos and lips — that's the essence of Angelina Jolie.

And guns. At least, that's what the skinny action heroine amounts to in "Wanted," a nervy, stylish and deeply silly movie about a clan of assassins training its newest recruit.

James McAvoy is that recruit, a downtrodden Chicago cubicle drone who suffers from anxiety attacks and apologizes for everything. Until, that is, "Fox" (Jolie, natch) shows up and "rescues" him from his dull life of victimhood, shows him "your long-awaited destiny to join us" and teaches him to use "the weapons of fate."

By Katherine Cole
VOA News, Washington

Traditional Cajun music is a mix of instrumental sounds and styles. It comes from combining music brought to the southern U.S. state of Louisiana by early settlers with the sounds brought by later immigrants. Steve Riley leads one of the most popular Cajun bands in the U.S.; his new greatest hits CD is a good place to begin learning about this all-American sound.

Apple Computer Inc. (MCT)

Top 10 albums on iTunes Music Store for June 25:
1. "Viva la Vida," Coldplay
2. "Camp Rock (Music from the Disney Channel Original Movie)," Various Artists
3. "Tha Carter III," Lil Wayne
4. "Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust," Sigur Ros
5. "Love on the Inside (Deluxe Fan Edition)," Sugarland
6. "Saints of Los Angeles," Motley Crue
7. "The Sound of Madness (Bonus Track Edition)," Shinedown
8. "Last 2 Walk," Three 6 Mafia
9. "Last Days at the Lodge," Amos Lee
10. "Modern Guilt," Beck

For more information, please visit the iTunes Web site at www.apple.com/itunes/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

By Joanne Weintraub
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)

MADISON, Wis. — Shaking hands with Tom Farley Jr., I don't quite see the resemblance to Chris.

Shorter, darker and much thinner than his late brother, Tom, at 46, looks like the businessman and dad he is, where Chris, who died 10 years ago at 33, never outgrew his resemblance to an enormous kid.

Over coffee, though, I can see that, behind Tom's glasses, his eyes are light blue, the same shade that looked out from all those pictures of his kid brother. Those baby-blue eyes that, coupled with his dangerous bulk, made Chris Farley appear to be two-thirds frat boy and one-third altar boy.

By Mike O'Sullivan
VOA News


The ancient teachings of Zen Buddhism and the art of organic gardening are the inspiration behind the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, outside San Francisco.

Wendy Johnson, 60, spent 25 years working here, seeking enlightenment through hard work and meditation.

"Everybody has some sense of the garden or farming as being meditative," she says. "Sometimes we ask ourselves, is this a safe haven from the world? Or, is it a field of action? And I think it's, of course, both."

Johnson has written a book on her experiences called Gardening at the Dragon's Gate.

By Rob Watson
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)

The other day, I was reading this Newsweek online article called "The Coming Energy Wars" by Rana Foroohar. It was a very stark picture of what the world would look like if oil hit $200 a barrel — pretty scary. Nations would be forced to pull away from the global economy, many legendary companies, carmakers in particular, would go belly-up, and of course, the violence that would arise from such an economic hit would be hard to contain.

This is the stuff of video game plots, including recent games such as "Frontlines: Fuel of War" and Tom Clancy's forthcoming "Endwar."

The question is, how will all of this real-life strife over resources affect the game industry?

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)



Someone sure enjoyed "Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" when it released three years ago. That someone's name? Edge of Reality, which delivers a product that, depending on your level of cynicism, either pays major homage to "Destruction" or rips it off wholesale.

In fairness, at this point, "The Incredible Hulk's" design seems inevitable with or without "Destruction's" influence. Open-world superhero games are as increasingly commonplace as the technology that makes them possible, and the only satisfactory way to demonstrate the full might of Hulk's might is to set him loose in New York City, to which "Hulk" hands you the keys. No one could fault Edge of Reality for taking "Destruction's" playbook as long as it improved on it in some fashion.

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Mike Myers goofs it old school with "The Love Guru," his first non-Shrek role in ages, a film that flies in the face of all that is Apatow in today's screen comedy.

It's vintage Myers, with an outrageous, broadly played character borrowed from Peter Sellers, silly makeup, bad puns, innuendo, the occasional pause for song and dance and Myers' ongoing obsession with little people. But is there still a place in filmgoers' funny bones for winking farce in an age of raunchy, explicit "Nerd gets the girl" laughers such as "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Knocked Up"?

Here, the Canadian cut-up taps into America's yen for spiritual advisers, from Dr. Phil to Oprah to his old friend Deepak Chopra in a punny put-on about an American born guru (Myers) trying to crack the saturated U.S. guru market. Wearing a beard, sporting a Canadian-by-way-of-Calcutta accent, Myers' Guru Pitka is all about riding catch phrases and pithy acronyms to happiness.

By Robert W. Butler
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

Apparently there are two actors named Steve Carell.

One appears in sharp-witted, humanistic "small" movies like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Dan in Real Life" and the occasional smart comedy blockbuster like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" — not to mention starring in "The Office," one of TV's edgiest comedies.

The other Steve Carell makes overinflated summer gobblers in which more attention is paid to the special effects than to the script — turkeys like "Evan Almighty" and now "Get Smart."

Carell would seem the perfect choice to reprise the role of '60s TV's Maxwell Smart, bumbling secret agent for a shadowy government agency known as CONTROL. Few actors so embody endearing ineptitude.

And every now and then you get a flash of what "Get Smart" might have been if Carell had cut loose — or if writers Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (working with the characters created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry) or director Peter Segal (a veteran of Adam Sandler films) had gotten off their duffs and actually broken a sweat at being clever

By Verne Gay
Newsday (MCT)

Reason to watch: Teeny-bopper sensations the Jonas Brothers make their screen debut, and newcomer singer-actress Demi Lovato gets her first substantial TV role.

What it's about: Nice, middle-class kid Mitchie Torres (Lovato) really, really, wants to go to the hot music camp, Camp Rock, where kids learn to be stars. But Mom and Dad can't swing the cost — until Mom gets a gig as camp cook. Meanwhile, teen superstar Shane Gray (Joe Jonas) is about to break up his boy band. He doesn't wanna sing anymore because he's sick of the pop pap the band's been reduced to playing, and yearns for ... he's not entirely sure what. His uncle invites him to teach at CR, where he arrives with his brothers Jason (Kevin Jonas) and Nate (Nick Jonas).

By Glenn Gamboa
Newsday (MCT)

Sometimes, it's easy to forget Jordin Sparks is only 18 years old.

She has the big, powerful voice and poise under pressure of singers twice — maybe, three times — her age. She has a natural ease at being onstage, at being in the spotlight.

But catch her behind the scenes — like backstage at Nassau Coliseum last summer, when she was bouncing around with Sanjaya Malakar, giggling like, well, the schoolgirl she was — or talk to her about real life, like wanting to go to her prom or struggling to keep her room clean, and the teenager comes out.

By Peter Dobrin
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)

American composer Charles Wuorinen has been commissioned by New York City Opera to write a work based on Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," a short story about a romantic relationship between two cowboys, the company has announced.

Wuorinen, a New Yorker, has won both a Pulitzer Prize (in 1970, for "Time's Encomium") and a MacArthur grant. He has written more than 240 works, including an earlier opera, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories." Based on the novel by Salman Rushdie, it was premiered by New York City Opera in 2004.

Obviously, it's early in the game for firm answers about the new commission, but the 70-year-old composer this week offered a few clues in a phone interview about what might be heard when the work arrives on stage in the spring of 2013.

By Kevin McDonough
Newsday (MCT)

Once a graveyard of repeats and canceled series, the summer season has become a creatively fertile period. "Sex and the City" was a longtime summer hit for HBO. Last season's "Mad Men" (returning to AMC in July, date to be determined) was not just the best show of the summer, but the most critically acclaimed series of 2007. Of course, summer 2007 also produced Fox's "Anchorwoman," canceled after just one airing.

Here's a selective list of new series, returning favorites and a few mind-boggling oddities that simply defy category.

By Glenn Gamboa
Newsday (MCT)

NEW YORK — Ashanti is ready to fight.

She's had a lot of training for it lately — going up against murderous crows and flesh-eating zombies in last year's hit movie "Resident Evil: Extinction"; going up against a music industry infrastructure that didn't support her last album, and, by association, going up against federal prosecutors who tried (and failed) to take down her label's chief executive and producer Irv Gotti, who was acquitted on all money laundering and racketeering charges. And now, with her new album "The Declaration," the Princess of Hip-Hop Soul wants to take back her rightful place in the kingdom.

"When you get pushed into a certain position and your back's against the wall, you're either gonna sink or you're gonna swim," she says, leaning forward on the conference room table at Universal Motown's Manhattan headquarters. "I choose not to sink."

By Richard Pachter
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

I love science fiction, but I'm also a proud member of the reality-based community. Though I may prefer things to progress logically, the whimsical intrusion of random or unrelated events makes things interesting. Let's face it, if drama or comedy unfolded in an entirely reasonable manner, snoozes would ensue. Surprise is the most important element in comedy as conflict is the key to drama.

But in business, we usually try to avoid surprises and reduce conflict. Yet both of these things often produce new opportunities, products and profits. At the very least, they may spark some creative thinking.

Here are three new books that examine randomness, irrationality and creativity:

By Simmi Sangha, Courier Staff Writer

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit movie theaters May 23, 2008. Being that it is the fourth movie in its series, I thought it would be a boring run-on type of movie. Little did I know that it was one of the greatest films I have ever seen!

It starts off with Indiana Jones (aka Indy) being removed from Marshall College under unclear circumstances. Indy then joins the rebellious, Young Mutt, who says he knows the whereabouts of one of the most legendary objects in history called “The Crystal Skull of Akator.” Indy and Mutt get together in search of a land of ancient tombs and gold called Peru.

By Ron Poblete, Courier Staff Writer

"Shawty wanna thug,
Bottles in the club,
Shawty wanna hump,
You know I'd like to touch,
Ya lovely lady lumps"

Nowadays hip hop is all about violence, the "bling‑bling" materialism, and the bad portrayal of woman. Just turn on the radio and you will hear songs like Lollipop, by Lil Wayne, who truly give hip hop a bad name.

But, is hip hop truly dead? With the emergence of various rappers who speak about their "bling," some people truly think so.

By Jessica Stewart, Courier Book Editor

“Olivia smiled politely, reaching for the yeasty chunk of bread that was her meal. As a man of God, her dearest papa—God rest his soul—had always regarded gossip as a grievous sin. No doubt Papa would have chastised her for even listening. Still, Olivia could not help it. Lord knew she harbored no affection for the Gypsies—nay, not after what happened to Papa—yet she could not help it. She was intensely curious about the new master of Ravenwood.”

This is one of those rare historical romance novels that not only present us with a love story, but present us with the issues of the time—and realistic issues between the lovers. I literally could not put this book down. Even when I was doing laundry the book was in my hand, my finger saving my place (making the process a bit slower than usual, but there was no way I was going to waste my time looking for my place). It was excellently written and well-researched, and I enjoyed it the whole way through.