'Emmerdale' actress Roxanne Pallett has spoken about how her current domestic abuse storyline has brought back memories of a real-life abusive relationship.
In 'Emmerdale' Pallett's character Jo Sugden is the victim of psychological and domestic violence at the hands of her husband Andy (Kelvin Fletcher), who has recently been released from jail.
The 25-year-old actress told 'This Morning' that the storyline was difficult to film because she once found herself in a similar situation in real-life.
Pallett said: "Kelvin and I have been living this storyline since Christmas and you're researching it and it brings it all back to you and it's devastating."
"I can't even watch these scenes back without it choking me up. I watched it with my mum and we just sat and she held my hand through it all because it's devastating."
The actress also said: "And what you're seeing is just a fraction of what people are still going through."
When asked if her mother knew that she was in an abusive relationship, Pallett said: "She got me out of it."
"A friend found out and she was my rock. And then my mum found out and it was only then that I thought, 'This is it now, I'm at a crossroads in my life where I can either continue in this spiral or I can get out'.
"It just takes one person and you have to just tell one person and confide in one person. People turn a blind eye, people don't want to know other people's problems."
Speaking about her storyline, she said: "We need to bring this subject to the forefront where women are watching it."
"Not just women, I'm sure there are plenty of men in that situation where women are controlling men... But there's people all over the country that I'm sure tonight will be sitting there and they'll see Andy and Jo at home and they'll be watching it. Behind closed doors they're suffering from that."
Friday 11 July 2008
The SoHo Dolls
Artist: The SoHo Dolls
Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
All music and videos
Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Guy Ritchie is the Next Heather Mills
Agua Blanca
Artist: Agua Blanca
Genre(s):
House
Discography:
Boca Loca
Year: 2004
Tracks: 1
Kiss and Tell: Rock Legend Gene Simmons
New CDs: Beck, Kerli and Greg Laswell
Beck "Modern Guilt" (DGC Records)
* * *
There are many probable reasons Beck made "Modern Guilt," his concise yet deliberately cosmic collaboration with fellow shaggy pop auteur Danger Mouse. He's finishing up a long contract with his record label; he has two small kids and doesn't want to kill himself with a long, eclectic project; he's 38 and can't break dance anymore.
But let's consider an artistic one: He and the producer also known as Brian Burton share a predilection for a particular kind of sci-fi. This is their soundtrack to a film not yet made -- or maybe, accidentally to one that does exist and already has primed summer popcorn-munchers for Beck's latest explorations of modern consciousness.
"Modern Guilt" is “Wall-E” for anyone who prefers rock 'n' roll to kids' movies. That adorable dinged-up robot lives in the same eternal twilight that Beck and Danger Mouse evoke in their 30-minute drift through space.
"Wall-E" has its own excellent soundtrack by Thomas Newman, which uses the gently prophetic voice of Peter Gabriel and those uncanny snippets from "Hello, Dolly!" But someone (maybe Danger Mouse) should make a mash-up of the film's quiet opening scenes and this equally sad, equally mystical album.
Like "Wall-E," "Modern Guilt" embraces the gentle dystopianism of films like "Silent Running" and "Solaris" and of music like "Here Comes the Flood," Gabriel's 1977 love song to the apocalypse.
At its most upbeat, on the Kinks-esque title track and the twangy "Gamma Ray" -- a sexy little number about electromagnetic radiation -- Beck welcomes his own obsolescence backed by tarnished vintage beats.
More often, the mood is calm but chemically altered: psychedelia for a pharmaceutical age. "Orphans," the opening track, has a backing vocal from indie chanteuse Cat Power that drifts in and out like a buried personality state.
In "Chemtrails," the song I'd love to hear during Wall-E's anti-gravitational love scene with Plasticine cutie Eve, Beck's falsetto retreats deeply into the mix, merging with Danger Mouse's analog synths. (Joey Waronker's drumming plays evil robot, spazzing out at the end.)
Beck, Danger Mouse and Wall-E are all scavengers, crafting beautiful environments from the discards of modern life. The difference between the musicians and the Pixar creation is that Wall-E, inspired by love, pushes on toward a better future. "Modern Guilt" dwells in the darkness of lost hope. The world it portrays, whether it's meant to be a damaged psychic landscape or an Earth trashed by uncaring humans, has its beautiful side, but there's not a lot of positive energy there.
Given the current state of the economy, the weather and the world in general, there's a fair debate to be had over whether Beck's meandering anomie is more realistic than the happy ending of "Wall-E's" re-seeded Earth.
--Ann Powers
Debut is full of contradictions
Kerli "Love Is Dead" (Island Records)
* *
Although it's titled "Love Is Dead," Estonian vocalist Kerli's debut album is filled with songs that have a surprisingly positive outlook. But that's just one of the contradictions from a singer whose cover art makes her look like a Goth Bratz doll dropped into a Tim Burton animated feature.
She's been compared to Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and Björk, but Estonian vocalist Kerli is none of those chanteuses -- yet somehow all of them. Although her songs occasionally feature the alto piano of Apple or the otherworldly trilling of Morissette or Björk, her voice can sound thin and inconsistent, giving the whole thing a somewhat derivative feel.
But for a girl who says she "grew up without music" in a former Soviet state, "Love Is Dead" has a few standout tracks, such as "Butterfly Cry" and "Bulletproof," that speak to the consequences of a broken heart.
The first single, "Walking on Air," has an appealing tinkly melody, and it showcases Kerli's voice at its best. Yet it speaks again to her incongruity: "A little creepy girl, oh, she loves to sing. She has a little gift, an amazing thing." Frankly, a little more creepiness would give Kerli the edge that her appearance advertises.
--Christy Grosz
Heavy songs with power to uplift
Greg Laswell "Three Flights From Alto Nido" (Vanguard)
* * *
"I think I like how the day sounds through this new song," sings Greg Laswell on his third studio album. He should: This well-connected San Diego-based folk-pop guy, a beneficiary of Hollywood's current infatuation with earnest young singer-songwriters, has a knack for musical transformation. He feeds depression and dejection into his tune-making mill and out come melodic marvels that lift the spirit despite their heavy subject matter.
Like the numerous TV shows his songs have soundtracked, Laswell is a beautifier of the real -- not a bad job at a moment when reality shows no sign of prettying up itself.
You can hear Laswell's influences loud and clear throughout "Three Flights From Alto Nido." With its lopsided rhythmic shuffle and minor-key guitar strums, "Days Go On" could be an unplugged outtake from Radiohead's recent "In Rainbows," while Elliott Smith-style harmonies give "Comes and Goes (In Waves)" an ethereal wee-hours glow. (Other tracks recall -- and should appeal to fans of -- Coldplay, Nick Drake and Death Cab for Cutie.)
Yet Laswell, who plays a record-release show Friday at the Hotel Cafe, channels all those borrowed sounds into a satisfying whole. He leaves these 42 minutes more welcoming than he found them.
--Mikael Wood
* * *
There are many probable reasons Beck made "Modern Guilt," his concise yet deliberately cosmic collaboration with fellow shaggy pop auteur Danger Mouse. He's finishing up a long contract with his record label; he has two small kids and doesn't want to kill himself with a long, eclectic project; he's 38 and can't break dance anymore.
But let's consider an artistic one: He and the producer also known as Brian Burton share a predilection for a particular kind of sci-fi. This is their soundtrack to a film not yet made -- or maybe, accidentally to one that does exist and already has primed summer popcorn-munchers for Beck's latest explorations of modern consciousness.
"Modern Guilt" is “Wall-E” for anyone who prefers rock 'n' roll to kids' movies. That adorable dinged-up robot lives in the same eternal twilight that Beck and Danger Mouse evoke in their 30-minute drift through space.
"Wall-E" has its own excellent soundtrack by Thomas Newman, which uses the gently prophetic voice of Peter Gabriel and those uncanny snippets from "Hello, Dolly!" But someone (maybe Danger Mouse) should make a mash-up of the film's quiet opening scenes and this equally sad, equally mystical album.
Like "Wall-E," "Modern Guilt" embraces the gentle dystopianism of films like "Silent Running" and "Solaris" and of music like "Here Comes the Flood," Gabriel's 1977 love song to the apocalypse.
At its most upbeat, on the Kinks-esque title track and the twangy "Gamma Ray" -- a sexy little number about electromagnetic radiation -- Beck welcomes his own obsolescence backed by tarnished vintage beats.
More often, the mood is calm but chemically altered: psychedelia for a pharmaceutical age. "Orphans," the opening track, has a backing vocal from indie chanteuse Cat Power that drifts in and out like a buried personality state.
In "Chemtrails," the song I'd love to hear during Wall-E's anti-gravitational love scene with Plasticine cutie Eve, Beck's falsetto retreats deeply into the mix, merging with Danger Mouse's analog synths. (Joey Waronker's drumming plays evil robot, spazzing out at the end.)
Beck, Danger Mouse and Wall-E are all scavengers, crafting beautiful environments from the discards of modern life. The difference between the musicians and the Pixar creation is that Wall-E, inspired by love, pushes on toward a better future. "Modern Guilt" dwells in the darkness of lost hope. The world it portrays, whether it's meant to be a damaged psychic landscape or an Earth trashed by uncaring humans, has its beautiful side, but there's not a lot of positive energy there.
Given the current state of the economy, the weather and the world in general, there's a fair debate to be had over whether Beck's meandering anomie is more realistic than the happy ending of "Wall-E's" re-seeded Earth.
--Ann Powers
Debut is full of contradictions
Kerli "Love Is Dead" (Island Records)
* *
Although it's titled "Love Is Dead," Estonian vocalist Kerli's debut album is filled with songs that have a surprisingly positive outlook. But that's just one of the contradictions from a singer whose cover art makes her look like a Goth Bratz doll dropped into a Tim Burton animated feature.
She's been compared to Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and Björk, but Estonian vocalist Kerli is none of those chanteuses -- yet somehow all of them. Although her songs occasionally feature the alto piano of Apple or the otherworldly trilling of Morissette or Björk, her voice can sound thin and inconsistent, giving the whole thing a somewhat derivative feel.
But for a girl who says she "grew up without music" in a former Soviet state, "Love Is Dead" has a few standout tracks, such as "Butterfly Cry" and "Bulletproof," that speak to the consequences of a broken heart.
The first single, "Walking on Air," has an appealing tinkly melody, and it showcases Kerli's voice at its best. Yet it speaks again to her incongruity: "A little creepy girl, oh, she loves to sing. She has a little gift, an amazing thing." Frankly, a little more creepiness would give Kerli the edge that her appearance advertises.
--Christy Grosz
Heavy songs with power to uplift
Greg Laswell "Three Flights From Alto Nido" (Vanguard)
* * *
"I think I like how the day sounds through this new song," sings Greg Laswell on his third studio album. He should: This well-connected San Diego-based folk-pop guy, a beneficiary of Hollywood's current infatuation with earnest young singer-songwriters, has a knack for musical transformation. He feeds depression and dejection into his tune-making mill and out come melodic marvels that lift the spirit despite their heavy subject matter.
Like the numerous TV shows his songs have soundtracked, Laswell is a beautifier of the real -- not a bad job at a moment when reality shows no sign of prettying up itself.
You can hear Laswell's influences loud and clear throughout "Three Flights From Alto Nido." With its lopsided rhythmic shuffle and minor-key guitar strums, "Days Go On" could be an unplugged outtake from Radiohead's recent "In Rainbows," while Elliott Smith-style harmonies give "Comes and Goes (In Waves)" an ethereal wee-hours glow. (Other tracks recall -- and should appeal to fans of -- Coldplay, Nick Drake and Death Cab for Cutie.)
Yet Laswell, who plays a record-release show Friday at the Hotel Cafe, channels all those borrowed sounds into a satisfying whole. He leaves these 42 minutes more welcoming than he found them.
--Mikael Wood
Discovery Flees Dallas Jail
The Discovery Channel on Thursday canceled plans to film a documentary inside the Dallas County Jail after a judge had granted county commissioners a temporary restraining order to halt the filming. Earlier in the week the commissioners had complained that Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez had not consulted them about her agreement to allow a film crew access to the jail and raised concerns about inmate privacy and the possibility of security breaches. In an editorial on Thursday the Dallas Morning News commented, "Perhaps the sheriff naively believed that her final-cut authority would ensure the positive publicity she craves, but she must have known it was no coincidence her jail was chosen. No matter what was filmed, this documentary would have mentioned that Dallas County jails have failed five consecutive state inspections - including all four on her watch - and remain under federal court order for neglect and indifference." Columnist James Ragland added, ""Sheriff, seriously, here's what most folks are saying: How about passing at least one state inspection before you start rolling out the red carpet for a film crew?"
04/07/2008
See Also
Andromeda
Artist: Andromeda
Genre(s):
Metal: Progressive
Trance: Psychedelic
Rock
Discography:
Chimera
Year: 2006
Tracks: 10
Temptations
Year: 2004
Tracks: 9
II=I
Year: 2003
Tracks: 9
Extension Of The Wish - Definitive Extension - Disc 2
Year: 2001
Tracks: 7
Extension Of The Wish - Definitive Extension - Disc 1
Year: 2001
Tracks: 9
Extension of the Wish
Year: 2001
Tracks: 7
Andromeda
Year: 1969
Tracks: 16
Andromeda was a psychedelic-progressive rock triplet formed by singer-guitarist John Cann (also known as John Du Cann), at one time of the psychedelic garage band the Attack, Mick Hawksworth (bass, vocals) and Ian McClane (drums, vocals). The group performed in several London venues including Middle Earth and the Marquee Club. Cann's guitar was the prevailing instrument, leading listeners through classically based psychedelic and progressive directions and creative dissonances, conducive to the trio's impressive live sets. Andromeda combined their have original writing with elements appropriated out of familiar classical material. They were signed to RCA in 1969 just in front that they'd appeared alive on the BBC's Round top Gear programme in 1968, and recently former live recordings from their performances at Middle Earth have surfaced as well. The group's first undivided, "Go Your Way" was released in 1969 and a self-titled album (which featured some impressive vocals) followed chop-chop. The group broke up late in the year, and Cann joined Vincent Crane in Atomic Rooster, and revived the group with him at the last of the 1970's, while Hawksworth played with Alvin Lee and became a member of Ten Years After (and Ten Years Later), as well as playacting with Matthew Fisher. Compact record reissues of Andromeda's work began appearing in the 1990's on the Kissing Spell label.
Fairfax to launch weekly magazine
Fairfax Media is to launch a new weekly magazine in September. It will be distributed on Saturdays through the group's three largest daily newspapers.
The yet-to-be-named magazine will be produced by Fairfax, which estimates it will have guaranteed readership of more than 350,000 people.
The magazine will be distributed through The Dominion Post, The Press and The Waikato Times, or about 240,000 newspapers in total.
Fairfax group head of publishing, Rodger Shepherd, said the success of the Sunday Star-Times' Sunday magazine and growing demand from readers and advertisers for high quality newspaper inserted magazines was behind the launch.
Shepherd said he expected the new magazine to become New Zealand's largest circulating weekly magazine. It would supplement Fairfax's existing magazine stable which includes TV Guide, Cuisine and NZ House & Garden.
Paul Thompson, Fairfax's group executive editor, said the new publication would be a flagship for Fairfax's best journalists and their work.
He said weekend newspaper readers wanted to be challenged and stimulated.
"The new weekend magazine will give readers compelling feature stories on a variety of topical subjects tapping into the feature writing talent throughout the Fairfax network," Thompson said.
"It will also offer a well-balanced mix of the ‘chill out' aspects of a weekend read."
These included articles on such topics as food, wine, fashion, beauty, home design and gardening.
See Also
Jerry Saltz Goes Chasing 'Waterfalls'
Photo: Vincent Laforet / Polaris
The facts and figures behind Olafur Eliasson’s The New York City Waterfalls are impressive. Located at four points along the East River in lower Manhattan, the falls cost $15.5 million to build and involved an American-based crew of almost 200 engineers, designers, consultants, permitting specialists, and electricians. There were also scores of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and assistants employed by Eliasson’s own Berlin-based “laboratory for spatial research,” not to mention the gargantuan effort of the Public Art Fund. Things were so specialized that on a boat ride the night of the opening a man told me his job was to coordinate the little red lights atop each fall to protect low-flying aircraft. The fact sheet on the falls says the tallest one is higher than the Statue of Liberty, the other three are as tall as nine to 12 story buildings. That’s big.
Yet the waterfalls seem dinkier than you’d think. And they’re not spectacular. From the South Street Seaport, where you can supposedly see all four, the one near the Manhattan Bridge is almost hidden. Some viewers may have trouble finding the one by Governor’s Island. You can’t hear any of them so you’re never really overwhelmed by the sound of pouring water. In addition, it’s obvious that these aren’t waterfalls at all; they’re just plumbing, tall metal scaffoldings with pipes pumping cascades of water off the top. So don’t go to The New York City Waterfalls wanting to be wowed.
But you may be wooed. I was. For all the effort that went into making them, Eliasson’s falls aren’t about spectacle. They’re like still centers that put you in touch with the physical world around you. They magically stretch the space of lower Manhattan, making the city seem as grand and amazing as it really is. Concentrating on the falls, you begin to glean the different geographic, economic, and industrial environments along the riverfront, how light plays between buildings and water, the way this setting is in constant motion but also oddly still. The waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge is especially captivating and seems to appear out of nowhere like a portal from another dimension. The Governor’s Island cascade almost rises up from the surface of water. The one near the Brooklyn Navy Yards is like a primordial water spout. Lit at night, the falls turn ghostly. Coming upon each in a boat is like visiting an alien life form.
Unlike Christo's gates, which came on in a whoosh, then faded fast, Eliasson’s works dawn on you slowly, then produce a stirring calm. I’d take them any day over a glitzy Murakami Buddha or a huge Damien Hirst pregnant woman. By zeroing in on something as temporal as running water – the falls flow at 35,000 gallons per minute – Eliasson lifts you out of the moment and places you in a continuum. Whether you like the falls or not, you can't help but smile at the clever twist Eliasson's put on Beatrice Wood's 1917 defense of another piece of abstract plumbing, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a found sculpture of a urinal. "The only works of art America has given," wrote Wood, "are her plumbing and her bridges." -Jerry Saltz
Related: The Falls Guy
The facts and figures behind Olafur Eliasson’s The New York City Waterfalls are impressive. Located at four points along the East River in lower Manhattan, the falls cost $15.5 million to build and involved an American-based crew of almost 200 engineers, designers, consultants, permitting specialists, and electricians. There were also scores of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and assistants employed by Eliasson’s own Berlin-based “laboratory for spatial research,” not to mention the gargantuan effort of the Public Art Fund. Things were so specialized that on a boat ride the night of the opening a man told me his job was to coordinate the little red lights atop each fall to protect low-flying aircraft. The fact sheet on the falls says the tallest one is higher than the Statue of Liberty, the other three are as tall as nine to 12 story buildings. That’s big.
Yet the waterfalls seem dinkier than you’d think. And they’re not spectacular. From the South Street Seaport, where you can supposedly see all four, the one near the Manhattan Bridge is almost hidden. Some viewers may have trouble finding the one by Governor’s Island. You can’t hear any of them so you’re never really overwhelmed by the sound of pouring water. In addition, it’s obvious that these aren’t waterfalls at all; they’re just plumbing, tall metal scaffoldings with pipes pumping cascades of water off the top. So don’t go to The New York City Waterfalls wanting to be wowed.
But you may be wooed. I was. For all the effort that went into making them, Eliasson’s falls aren’t about spectacle. They’re like still centers that put you in touch with the physical world around you. They magically stretch the space of lower Manhattan, making the city seem as grand and amazing as it really is. Concentrating on the falls, you begin to glean the different geographic, economic, and industrial environments along the riverfront, how light plays between buildings and water, the way this setting is in constant motion but also oddly still. The waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge is especially captivating and seems to appear out of nowhere like a portal from another dimension. The Governor’s Island cascade almost rises up from the surface of water. The one near the Brooklyn Navy Yards is like a primordial water spout. Lit at night, the falls turn ghostly. Coming upon each in a boat is like visiting an alien life form.
Unlike Christo's gates, which came on in a whoosh, then faded fast, Eliasson’s works dawn on you slowly, then produce a stirring calm. I’d take them any day over a glitzy Murakami Buddha or a huge Damien Hirst pregnant woman. By zeroing in on something as temporal as running water – the falls flow at 35,000 gallons per minute – Eliasson lifts you out of the moment and places you in a continuum. Whether you like the falls or not, you can't help but smile at the clever twist Eliasson's put on Beatrice Wood's 1917 defense of another piece of abstract plumbing, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a found sculpture of a urinal. "The only works of art America has given," wrote Wood, "are her plumbing and her bridges." -Jerry Saltz
Related: The Falls Guy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)