Grammys ready to award year's best music

The Grammy Awards, dubbed "music's biggest night" by organizers, are set for a massive celebration of the past year's best in North American music on Sunday.

Heading into the 56th annual celebration, rap heavyweight Jay-Z leads the field of contenders with nominations in nine categories. That said, a host of relative newcomers who made a major splash last year — including American rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, New Zealand teen singer Lorde, rising U.S. hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and emerging country artist Kacey Musgraves — aren't too far behind.

Others in the running for multiple trophies include singers Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and singer-producer Pharrell Williams.

Canadians vying for Grammy glory on Sunday include Toronto rapper Drake, rocker Neil Young, crooner Michael Bublé and singer Robin Thicke (a dual citizen as son of Canadian actor Alan Thicke).

Some Canadians to watch on Grammy weekend:

• Toronto hip-hop artist Drake has five nominations: best rap album for Nothing Was the Same, best rap performance for Started from the Bottom and two nods for best rap song — his own Started from the Bottom and as a guest appearance on ASAP Rocky's F--kin' Problems. He's also included as a featured performer on Kendrick Lamar's album of the year nominated Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
• Dual-citizen crooner Robin Thicke has three nominations: record of the year, best pop duo and group performance  as well as best pop vocal album, all for Blurred Lines.
• Canadian rock legend Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse have one nomination: best rock album for Psychedelic Pill.
• B.C.-bred singer Michael Bublé has one nomination: best traditional pop album for Remember You.
• Toronto composer Mychael Danna has one nomination: best score soundtrack for visual media for Life of Pi.
• Toronto singer The Weeknd has one nomination: best rap song collaboration as a featured artist on Wiz Khalifa's Remember You.
• Halifax-raised songwriter and producer Henry (Cirkut) Walter has one nomination: song of the year as co-writer of Katy Perry's Roar.
• Ontario singer-songwriter Deric Ruttan has one nomination: best country song for co-writing Blake Shelton's Mine Would Be You.
• Vancouver-born, Montreal singer-songwriter Jennifer Gasoi has one nomination: best children's album for Throw a Penny in the Wishing Well.

Other Canadians in the mix include:

• Toronto's James LaBrie, frontman of best metal performance contender Dream Theater.
• Darcy James Argue, Vancouver-born bandleader of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, a best large jazz ensemble album nominee for Brooklyn Babylon.
• Cologne-based Canadian performer and composer Chilly Gonzales, named on Daft Punk's album of the year nomination for Random Access Memories and also a contributor to Drake's best rap album contender Nothing Was the Same.

Nominees in central categories include:

• Album of the year: The Blessed Unrest, Sara Bareilles; Random Access Memories, Daft Punk; Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar; The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; Red, Taylor Swift.
• Record of the year (for performance): Get Lucky, Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams; Radioactive, Imagine Dragons; Royals, Lorde; Locked Out of Heaven, Bruno Mars; Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell Williams.
• Song of the year (for songwriting): Just Give Me a Reason, Jeff Bhasker, Pink & Nate Ruess; Locked Out of Heaven, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine & Bruno Mars; Roar, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Katy Perry & Henry Walter; Royals, Joel Little & Ella Yelich O'Connor; Same Love, Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis.
• Best New Artist: James Blake; Kendrick Lamar; Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; Kacey Musgraves; Ed Sheeran.

Over the past week, the U.S. Recording Academy, which administers the Grammys, has held a series of events honouring nominees and special award winners. Celebrations included a producers and engineers ceremony saluting Canadian rocker Neil Young on Tuesday and a Friday gala celebrating the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year: influential singer-songwriter Carole King.

In recent years, the Grammys broadcast has become known for unconventional or unlikely musical pairings, which have the potential to become memorable match-ups (for better or worse).

In keeping with tradition, this year's tag-team performers include metal icons Metallica performing with classical pianist Lang Lang, rapper Kendrick Lamar with alt-rockers Imagine Dragons, R&B singer Robin Thicke with power balladeers Chicago and soul legend Stevie Wonder with dance hitmakers Daft Punk.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Lorde, Pink and surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will also take the stage during the televised gala.

The Grammys officially get underway Sunday at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. ET with a pre-telecast ceremony — hosted by singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper — where awards in approximately 70 categories will be presented. This portion will be streamed live at Grammy.com/live.

The festivities continue Sunday evening at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with the televised Grammy gala — hosted by performer LL Cool J — beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The broadcast will air on CBS and Citytv.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

FILM REVIEW: I, Frankenstein a monstrous mess of a movie

CBC News Posted: Jan 24, 2014 5:02 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 24, 2014 5:02 PM ET

In Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Victor Frankenstein recoiled in horror at the creature he gave life to moments after it was complete. Many critics, including the CBC's Eli Glasner, have done the same in the wake of its latest film interpretation, I, Frankenstein.

Based on the graphic novel by Kevin Geroux and directed by Stuart Beattie, gone is the green-skinned creature moviegoers knew as Frankenstein's monster from Boris Karloff's 1931 version. Instead we have a well-groomed, brooding Adam Frankenstein played by Aaron Eckhart.

Eckhart finds himself in the modern day, 200 years after his creation and caught in a war between demons and gargoyles. The demon lord Prince Naberius, played by Bill Nighy doing the best with the material he's given, wants to use the science that breathed life into Adam Frankenstein to win the war by resurrecting the dead into an unstoppable army.

Watch the video above as Eli Glasner takes apart the monster of a movie, piece by piece.

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Courtney Love wins Twitter libel trial

A Twitter posting by Courtney Love suggesting that one of her attorneys had been "bought off" wasn't defamatory, a jury decided Friday.

The verdict came after roughly three hours of deliberation in a case that spanned eight days and focused on the Hole frontwoman's postings on the social networking site. The case centered on one 2010 post that suggested that San Diego attorney Rhonda Holmes had been "bought off" and that was why she wasn't representing the singer anymore.

Fired by Love

Love had hired Holmes to file a fraud case against the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobain. The lawyer contended during the trial that she was fired by Love and that the tweet and other statements the singer made against her have caused her substantial damages.

'I was (expletive) devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of san diego was bought off'- Courtney Love's alleged tweet

Love's tweet stated, "I was (expletive) devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of san diego was bought off" in response to a question from a user of the popular social media site.

The message was never meant to be public, Love told jurors. She said she meant for it to be sent as a direct message, which only the recipient would see, but it instead went public and was quickly deleted.

Swift verdict

The swift verdict wasn't witnessed by Love, who had left court after closing arguments ended Friday morning. She arrived just as the courthouse was closing down and met her attorneys, John Lawrence and Matthew Bures, in the hallway where she hugged them both.

Love praised her attorneys and the jury after the verdict. Asked about her social media presence, Love said she refrained from posting on Twitter during the trial. "I didn't tweet out of respect for the case," she said.

First 'Twibel' trial

While the case was billed as the first "Twibel" trial in which Twitter and libel law intersected, Lawrence said it was tried by the same rules as traditional defamation cases.

Jurors determined that Love's tweet included false information, but the musician didn't know it wasn't true.

Holmes' attorneys urged jurors in closing arguments to award the attorney $8 million and send a message that false statements online had consequences.

Holmes' lawyer Mitchell Langberg said that while his client was disappointed with the verdict, her reputation was upheld and the world now knows that Love's statements were false.

"At the end of the day, her biggest asset in life is her reputation," Langberg said. "That she got back today."

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Patrick Dempsey confirms extension with 'Grey's Anatomy'

Dempsey also plans to run a full season in the United SportsCar Championship.

The Associated Press Posted: Jan 25, 2014 11:57 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 25, 2014 11:57 PM ET

Patrick Dempsey's acting and racing careers will be intermingled for the foreseeable future.

Dempsey, a driver/owner racing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance event this weekend, confirmed Saturday night that he has signed a two-year contract extension to continue with the popular television series Grey's Anatomy. The show has not officially been picked up beyond its 10th season, but Dempsey's deal provides a strong indication that it will be back.

Double life

Dempsey also plans to run a full season in the United SportsCar Championship.

Dempsey said the acting gig has been a huge help to his other full-time job. Dempsey and co-driver Andrew Davis are racing 13 events — which would be the actor's first full season.

Scheduling around races

He said his TV bosses do "a remarkable job scheduling around these races now, and I wouldn't be able to do it without them. The fact that they continue to let me race is remarkable in itself, so I am grateful for that and grateful to have employment that is known around the world. It gives me a platform to come and do this type of thing, and it helps the sponsors. I'm lucky to have the gig."

When the 48-year-old Dempsey was asked whether he's had any thoughts about giving up acting for racing, he said, "When I grow up, I want to race full time."

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Grammys ready to award year's best music

The Grammy Awards, dubbed "music's biggest night" by organizers, are set for a massive celebration of the past year's best in North American music on Sunday.

Heading into the 56th annual celebration, rap heavyweight Jay-Z leads the field of contenders with nominations in nine categories. That said, a host of relative newcomers who made a major splash last year — including American rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, New Zealand teen singer Lorde, rising U.S. hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and emerging country artist Kacey Musgraves — aren't too far behind.

Others in the running for multiple trophies include singers Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and singer-producer Pharrell Williams.

Canadians vying for Grammy glory on Sunday include Toronto rapper Drake, rocker Neil Young, crooner Michael Bublé and singer Robin Thicke (a dual citizen as son of Canadian actor Alan Thicke).

Some Canadians to watch on Grammy weekend:

• Toronto hip-hop artist Drake has five nominations: best rap album for Nothing Was the Same, best rap performance for Started from the Bottom and two nods for best rap song — his own Started from the Bottom and as a guest appearance on ASAP Rocky's F--kin' Problems. He's also included as a featured performer on Kendrick Lamar's album of the year nominated Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
• Dual-citizen crooner Robin Thicke has three nominations: record of the year, best pop duo and group performance  as well as best pop vocal album, all for Blurred Lines.
• Canadian rock legend Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse have one nomination: best rock album for Psychedelic Pill.
• B.C.-bred singer Michael Bublé has one nomination: best traditional pop album for Remember You.
• Toronto composer Mychael Danna has one nomination: best score soundtrack for visual media for Life of Pi.
• Toronto singer The Weeknd has one nomination: best rap song collaboration as a featured artist on Wiz Khalifa's Remember You.
• Halifax-raised songwriter and producer Henry (Cirkut) Walter has one nomination: song of the year as co-writer of Katy Perry's Roar.
• Ontario singer-songwriter Deric Ruttan has one nomination: best country song for co-writing Blake Shelton's Mine Would Be You.
• Vancouver-born, Montreal singer-songwriter Jennifer Gasoi has one nomination: best children's album for Throw a Penny in the Wishing Well.

Other Canadians in the mix include:

• Toronto's James LaBrie, frontman of best metal performance contender Dream Theater.
• Darcy James Argue, Vancouver-born bandleader of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, a best large jazz ensemble album nominee for Brooklyn Babylon.
• Cologne-based Canadian performer and composer Chilly Gonzales, named on Daft Punk's album of the year nomination for Random Access Memories and also a contributor to Drake's best rap album contender Nothing Was the Same.

Nominees in central categories include:

• Album of the year: The Blessed Unrest, Sara Bareilles; Random Access Memories, Daft Punk; Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar; The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; Red, Taylor Swift.
• Record of the year (for performance): Get Lucky, Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams; Radioactive, Imagine Dragons; Royals, Lorde; Locked Out of Heaven, Bruno Mars; Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell Williams.
• Song of the year (for songwriting): Just Give Me a Reason, Jeff Bhasker, Pink & Nate Ruess; Locked Out of Heaven, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine & Bruno Mars; Roar, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Katy Perry & Henry Walter; Royals, Joel Little & Ella Yelich O'Connor; Same Love, Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis.
• Best New Artist: James Blake; Kendrick Lamar; Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; Kacey Musgraves; Ed Sheeran.

Over the past week, the U.S. Recording Academy, which administers the Grammys, has held a series of events honouring nominees and special award winners. Celebrations included a producers and engineers ceremony saluting Canadian rocker Neil Young on Tuesday and a Friday gala celebrating the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year: influential singer-songwriter Carole King.

In recent years, the Grammys broadcast has become known for unconventional or unlikely musical pairings, which have the potential to become memorable match-ups (for better or worse).

In keeping with tradition, this year's tag-team performers include metal icons Metallica performing with classical pianist Lang Lang, rapper Kendrick Lamar with alt-rockers Imagine Dragons, R&B singer Robin Thicke with power balladeers Chicago and soul legend Stevie Wonder with dance hitmakers Daft Punk.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Lorde, Pink and surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will also take the stage during the televised gala.

The Grammys officially get underway Sunday at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. ET with a pre-telecast ceremony — hosted by singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper — where awards in approximately 70 categories will be presented. This portion will be streamed live at Grammy.com/live.

The festivities continue Sunday evening at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with the televised Grammy gala — hosted by performer LL Cool J — beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The broadcast will air on CBS and Citytv.

22.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

FILM REVIEW: I, Frankenstein a monstrous mess of a movie

CBC News Posted: Jan 24, 2014 5:02 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 24, 2014 5:02 PM ET

In Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Victor Frankenstein recoiled in horror at the creature he gave life to moments after it was complete. Many critics, including the CBC's Eli Glasner, have done the same in the wake of its latest film interpretation, I, Frankenstein.

Based on the graphic novel by Kevin Geroux and directed by Stuart Beattie, gone is the green-skinned creature moviegoers knew as Frankenstein's monster from Boris Karloff's 1931 version. Instead we have a well-groomed, brooding Adam Frankenstein played by Aaron Eckhart.

Eckhart finds himself in the modern day, 200 years after his creation and caught in a war between demons and gargoyles. The demon lord Prince Naberius, played by Bill Nighy doing the best with the material he's given, wants to use the science that breathed life into Adam Frankenstein to win the war by resurrecting the dead into an unstoppable army.

Watch the video above as Eli Glasner takes apart the monster of a movie, piece by piece.

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

22.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Justin Bieber police escort leads to 3 officer suspensions

Three Florida police officers have been suspended for giving Justin Bieber an unauthorized escort from a Miami area airport on Monday night, a couple of days before his arrest for drunk driving after he was caught drag racing on Miami Beach.

"Their presence at the airport was unauthorized," said Opa-locka Assistant City Manager David Chiverton on Friday.

Police escorts from airports are permitted, but must go through a process, Chiverton said.

"All escorts must be approved ... whether it was Bieber or anyone else, for that matter," he said.

He said the officers were suspended without pay pending the results of an investigation that is also looking into where the officers escorted Bieber, including reports that he went to a nearby strip club, the King of Diamonds.

On Friday, Bieber was holed up in a Miami Beach hotel, The Orchid House, a day after he was jailed on charges of DUI, driving with an expired license and resisting arrest. Miami Beach police said Bieber was stopped after drag racing in a Lamborghini on a residential street early Thursday morning.

News crews, paparazzi and fans waited outside Bieber's hotel, hoping the pop star would make an appearance, just a few blocks away from the Miami Beach police station where he was held initially after his arrest.

He was later transferred to a county jail and released on a $2,500 bond.

On vacation with her parents, 11-year-old Maria-Jose Lobo from Colombia said she still supports her favourite singer.

"Now he is a bad boy, but nobody is perfect, and everybody makes mistakes," she said.

Bieber's next court date is on Monday, but he is not expected to appear in person.

On mobile device? See court documents here, here, and here.

Warning: Documents contain coarse language

22.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Courtney Love wins Twitter libel trial

A Twitter posting by Courtney Love suggesting that one of her attorneys had been "bought off" wasn't defamatory, a jury decided Friday.

The verdict came after roughly three hours of deliberation in a case that spanned eight days and focused on the Hole frontwoman's postings on the social networking site. The case centered on one 2010 post that suggested that San Diego attorney Rhonda Holmes had been "bought off" and that was why she wasn't representing the singer anymore.

Fired by Love

Love had hired Holmes to file a fraud case against the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobain. The lawyer contended during the trial that she was fired by Love and that the tweet and other statements the singer made against her have caused her substantial damages.

'I was (expletive) devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of san diego was bought off'- Courtney Love's alleged tweet

Love's tweet stated, "I was (expletive) devastated when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of san diego was bought off" in response to a question from a user of the popular social media site.

The message was never meant to be public, Love told jurors. She said she meant for it to be sent as a direct message, which only the recipient would see, but it instead went public and was quickly deleted.

Swift verdict

The swift verdict wasn't witnessed by Love, who had left court after closing arguments ended Friday morning. She arrived just as the courthouse was closing down and met her attorneys, John Lawrence and Matthew Bures, in the hallway where she hugged them both.

Love praised her attorneys and the jury after the verdict. Asked about her social media presence, Love said she refrained from posting on Twitter during the trial. "I didn't tweet out of respect for the case," she said.

First 'Twibel' trial

While the case was billed as the first "Twibel" trial in which Twitter and libel law intersected, Lawrence said it was tried by the same rules as traditional defamation cases.

Jurors determined that Love's tweet included false information, but the musician didn't know it wasn't true.

Holmes' attorneys urged jurors in closing arguments to award the attorney $8 million and send a message that false statements online had consequences.

Holmes' lawyer Mitchell Langberg said that while his client was disappointed with the verdict, her reputation was upheld and the world now knows that Love's statements were false.

"At the end of the day, her biggest asset in life is her reputation," Langberg said. "That she got back today."

22.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hit play Kim's Convenience being adapted for film, TV

The hit Toronto play Kim's Convenience, currently on a Canadian tour,  is being adapted for the big and small screens.

Thunderbird Films says both a feature film and a TV series based on Toronto playwright-actor Ins Choi's charming stage comedy-drama are in development.

Choi told The Canadian Press in July there was "some [TV] development happening" based on his story of a Korean-Canadian family and its convenience store, but he couldn't provide details.

Soulpepper's Kim's Convenience stars (from left) playwright-performer Ins Choi and actors Jean Yoon, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Grace Lynn Kung (Cylla von Tiedemann/Soulpepper Theatre Company/Canadian Press)

Tuesday's announcement came as Thunderbird and Soulpepper Theatre Company revealed a multi-year development and production joint venture for TV, feature films and digital media.

Kim's Convenience features a fiery patriarch who is struggling with changes within his business, family and their Toronto community of Regent Park.

It was a smash when it debuted at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, winning the New Play Contest and the Patron's Pick award.

That led to a sold-out showcase and then a remount at the city's Soulpepper Theatre Company, followed by two Dora Award nominations and the Toronto Theatre Critics trophy for best new Canadian play.

Soulpepper is now touring Kim's Convenience through major cities in Canada.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

50 Shades of Grey movie will be less explicit than book

Fans of the erotic book trilogy 50 Shades of Grey could be left unsatisfied when it comes to the movie adaptation, after a producer confirmed that the upcoming film will be less explicit than the blockbuster novels by E.L. James.

"Obviously, the film can't be as explicit as the book," producer Michael De Luca, recently named the new president of production for Columbia Pictures, said during an industry panel discussion at the Sundance Film Festival.

"The book is explicit by design because the author wanted to go inside the head of Anna — the female lead — and detail her experience. On the literary level, that was necessary. But in a film or any visual medium, a picture is worth a thousand words. To be erotic onscreen is going to have more power than to read the words on a page."

Still, De Luca vowed the film was "going to give [fans] what they expect, which is an intense and erotic love story."

Dakota Johnson stars as Anastasia Steele in the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey. (Getty Images)

Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and currently being filmed in Vancouver, 50 Shades of Grey stars Dakota Johnson as a young woman named Anastasia Steele who encounters the world of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM) when she becomes involved with a controlling billionaire named Christian Grey (played by Jamie Dornan).

Depending on the graphic nature of its content, the 50 Shades of Grey movie could face a NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America — a serious restriction that means no one under the age of 18 is permitted into U.S. theatres to watch it (even if there is a parent or guardian present).

The move is typically considered a major threat to a film's box-office potential since many theatre owners simply choose not to screen movies carrying the NC-17 rating.

In Canada, movies are rated by provincial agencies and different standards apply.

50 Shades of Grey is slated for release Feb. 13, 2015.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More