Boy Zone

I love Boyzone and love them even more now! I knew there was a reason why they were called Boyzone! Now when is my other favorite boyband Westlife going to show Mark with his guy in a video (assuming they still make videos)? Here's Boyzone's new video "Better" with the first appearance by a gay male couple in a boyband video (I know, it's a lot of nouns and adjectives but hey, it's a first! and a start):



I have no shame in admitting I have all their albums (including the "Best of" repeat), I have all of lead Ronan Keating's albums, and I was the one who bought Stephen Gately's album.

Stephen Gately is "married" ("in a civil partnership" which is the true fact, doesn't seem to have quite the same ring to it (so fight on!)) to Andy Cowles.

In fact, I always loved Gately's "I Believe" that plays at the end of Billy Elliot (the movie and it's too bad it's not in the musical because that's about the only thing I felt was missing from the stage version, which incidentally, opens tomorrow on Broadway)

Oh man, now I want to watch the movie again! Jamie Bell is so adorable!

I also loved Stephen Gately's "New Beginning" which is essentially his little coming out anthem:


Ronan Keating is probably most famous for "When You Say Nothing At All" from the Notting Hill soundtrack:


Boyzone's most famous song is probably "No Matter What" which like all British boybands, seemed to sweep the entire world except North America (probably because people gag on that kind of schmaltz here but personally I love it! Well except that starting "cheeka cha ha ha" part):

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Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions of the New (York) Top Chefs

Top Chef: New York (Season 5 of the series) starts tonight (Wed. Nov. 12th) on Bravo at 10pm! I had been enjoying Top Chef for a while but I really got a bit obsessed this past summer when I started catching up with as many old episodes as I could.

So in anticipation of tonight's season premiere (sadly with no Ted Allen this year), here's some gloriously uneducated preconceptions about the new contestants! (Since they proved popular with the latest Survivor and The Amazing Race)

In opposite alphabetical order:

Stefan Richter, 35
HOMETOWN Tampere, Finland
RESIDES IN Santa Monica, CA
POSITION: Chef, StefansCatering.com
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Confident and fatherly and will totally boss people around yet people will love it.

Richard, 27
HOMETOWN Sayville, Long Island, NY
RESIDES IN San Diego, CA
POSITION: Executive Sous Chef, Confidential Restaurant & Loft, San Diego
No picture available.
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The big lovable bear (in both the snuggly sense and the big gay one (I'm just assuming since he works at Pecs, a San Diego gay bar)).

Radhika Desai, 28
HOMETOWN Chicago
RESIDES IN Chicago
POSITION: Executive chef at Between Boutique Café & Lounge in Chicago
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Can play nice but will be easily swayed to one side by peer pressure.

Patrick Dunlea, 21
HOMETOWN Quincy, MA
RESIDES IN Hyde Park, NY
POSITION: Culinary student
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The twirp, the young buck, the bouncy energetic-to-the-point-of-annoyance contestant.

Melissa Harrison
HOMETOWN Maryland
RESIDES IN Boulder, CO
POSITION: Sous chef at Centro Latin Kitchen & Refreshment Palace in Boulder, Colo.
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Thinks she's all hippie dippy zen-like but is truly a bossy know-it-all.

Leah Cohen, 27
HOMETOWN Scarsdale, NY
RESIDES IN New York City
POSITION: Sous-chef at Centro Vinoteca in New York
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The girl with the heart who needs a boost of confidence.

Lauren Hope, 24
HOMETOWN Cincinnati
RESIDES IN Stationed at Fort Stewart, in Georgia
POSITION: Chef Tournant, Jag’s Steak and Seafood
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Like your little sister always trying to prove she's better than you as you try to swat her away. Or the coolest contestant this season. Could go either way.

Jill Snyder, 28
HOMETOWN Latrobe, PA
RESIDES IN Baltimore
POSITION: Executive Chef, Red Maple
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Strong and independent and definitely ready to clash with the others all to prove that her looks have nothing to do with her success.

Jeff McInnis, 30
HOMETOWN Niceville, FL
RESIDES IN Miami
POSITION: Chef de Cuisine, the DiLido Beach Club
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The All-American guy who will be liked for having the least personality.

Jamie Lauren, 30
HOMETOWN New York City
RESIDES IN San Francisco
POSITION: Executive chef at Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in San Francisco
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Strongwilled and bitchy when she has to be but we will like her anyways.

Hosea Rosenberg, 34
HOMETOWN Taos, NM
RESIDES IN Boulder, CO
POSITION: Executive chef at Jax Fish House in Boulder, Colo.
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The big bro of the group. Goofy but determined.

Fabio Viviani, 30
HOMETOWN Florence, Italy
RESIDES IN Moorpark, CA
POSITION: Owner, Cafe Firenze Italian Restaurant Martini Bar
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Has all the signs of a douchebag but will be a completely surprising sweetheart.

Eugene "Gene" Villiatora, 33
HOMETOWN Whitmore Village, Hawaii
RESIDES IN Las Vegas
POSITION: Executive Chef, Executive Sushi Chef & Chef Consultant
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: This year's Dale or Hung. I mean come on, Pacific Fusion is his specialty AND he looks all asian gangsta? Whatever.

Danny, 26
HOMETOWN New Hyde Park, NY
POSITION: Chef De Cuisine, Babylon Carriage House
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Most likely to say "Aye Oh, Oh Aye".

Carla Hall, 44
HOMETOWN Nashville, TN
RESIDES IN Washington, DC
POSITION: Owner/Chef, Alchemy Caterers
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The quirky dame that is cooler than her glasses but slightly a know-it-all.

Ariane Duarte, 41
HOMETOWN Verona, NJ
RESIDES IN Verona, NJ
POSITION: Chef/owner of CulinAriane in Montclair, NJ
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: Loved for being the mom of the bunch and grating for all the nagging.

Alex Eusebio, 33
HOMETOWN New York City
RESIDES IN Los Angeles
POSITION: Executive chef at Restaurant 15 in Los Angeles
Gloriously Uneducated Preconceptions: The attitude guy that will verge on hilariously uncooth and annoyingly uncooth.

And the first chef to be cut? I'm going to make a dartboard guess and say it's Hosea. First winner? Stefan.

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Jesse McCartney Acts Up Again

Jesse McCartney is on Law & Order: SVU tonight (NBC/CTV at 10pm). I'm such a sucker. I SOOOO want to see this!



Is it me or are the kids from Summerland doing better than we would have guessed back when the show was on?

Ryan Kwanten (NSFW) is doing pretty well on True Blood. Jesse McCartney (above with Kwanten from Summerland) has some hits on the radio, and then there's that Zac Efron dude. He doesn't seem to be in the unemployment line.

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Some Respect for Valkyrie

Love or hate Tom Cruise, love or hate Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2, Superman Returns), you will have to admit that the new poster for Valkyrie is quite nicely done.

I mean, there are still a few movies I'm anticipating more (Milk, Doubt, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire, Australia, Yes Man) but the poster alone intrigues me. That hasn't happened in a long while.

Also, I didn't realize Kenneth Branagh, Billy Nighy, Tom Hollander, Terrence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann and Tom Wilkinson are in it. I'm giving a bit more respect to this movie.





Here's another trailer:

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Alphabet Movie Meme

I was tagged by mB at A Blog Next Door and Dame James Henry at Rants of a Diva

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Warstrilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Arkbelongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in theChronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

About Schmidt

Billy Elliot

City of God

Dancer in the Dark

Election

Far From Heaven

Ghost World

Hable Con Ella (Talk To Her)

I'm The One That I Want

Junebug

Knocked Up

L.A. Story

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Notting Hill

Out of Sight

The Pianist

Quiz Show

Ratatouille

Six Degrees of Separation

Trainspotting

United 93

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

X2 (X-Men 2)

You Can Count On Me

Zoolander

Apparently Zoolander is the only movie I've ever seen that starts with Z.

I'm also still working on a 12 Movies Memes so I refrained from using some movies here because I'm already going to be using them there. Like I've said before, I take these things WAY too seriously.

I'm tagging:
3guys, 2k9's
LinzMcC's Completely Pointless Blog
The Film Experience
ModFab
The Cinemaniac

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Just Dance - In The Upper Room & others - Ballet Review

In The Upper Room & Symphony in C & Polyphonia - The National Ballet of Canada - Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto, ON
Closed Nov. 9th 2008

The first show of the new season was basically an exercise in ballet exercises and a showcase to the skills of the terrific company but in the end, I felt underwhelmed with the show as a whole, at least compared to some of last years mixed programming shows, and only Twyla Tharp's In The Upper Room (above, to Phillp Glass music) felt exhillerating and exciting.

The show starts off with Symphony in C (above) and is a neat exercise in variations the tutu'd ballet dancers can form in geographic patterns all to the music of Bizet but I respected the piece more than loving it. Still, I had the always wonderful Heather Ogden and Aleksandar Antonijevic as well as my personal faves Martin Lindinger and Robert Stephen (who I really think is going to be a star, and both Stephen and Lindinger were featured dancers in last seasons Rooster).

The second act Polyphonia (above) is another ballet exercise that looks more modern with dancers appearing out of the blackness of the stage into a cloudy stage with some great simplistic lighting but again, I respected the piece more than loving it.

Finally In The Upper Room ends the show with essentially an exercise in tiring out the dancers to their last calorie but it was so fast and such an aerobics class that this last piece was exciting and breathtaking, mainly to match the dancers breathlessness! There was a fantastic section where 3 male dancers and 3 female dancers take centre stage in a bevy of jumps and sweeps and tricks and in our show, Robert Stephen again took centre stage and his strength and precision really makes him look bigger and better than his small frame. (The guy close to me probably agreed since he shouted Robbie's name over and over to annoyance during the curtain call).

In The Upper Room & Symphony in C & Polyphonia - The National Ballet of Canada - Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto, ON - ***1/2

Here are my previous reviews from visits to The National Ballet of Canada:

The Fiddle and The Drum & Etudes & the second detail & Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan ****
Cinderella ****
Rooster & Soldiers' Mass & 24 Preludes by Chopin ****
An Italian Straw Hat ****1/2
West Side Story Suite & Glass Pieces & In The Night ****1/2
The Merry Widow ****

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Can Do Anuff - Jersey Boys and Caesar and Cleopatra - Theatre Reviews

Jersey Boys - Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto, ON
Currently the National Tour (Sherry) cast, Canadian Cast begins Dec. 13th 2008
Music by Bob Gaudio, Lyrics by Bob Crewe, Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Directed by Des McAnuff

Caesar and Cleopatra - Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre - Stratford, ON
By George Bernard Shaw, Directed by Des McAnuff
Closed Nov. 8th 2008

Without planning it on purpose, I ended up taking in two shows within 2 days that were both directed by Toronto's own Des McAnuff upon his return to his hometown after being artistic director at La Jolla's Playhouse and is currently the artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (AND is directing Guys and Dolls on Broadway this winter as well! Busy man!)

(l to r: Gouveia, Bwarie, Rannells, Kushnier)

I had seen Jersey Boys on Broadway already with its original cast and I remembered being totally taken in by the slick direction of a solid yet simple musical headed by an amazing cast but I wondered if replacements would do the show justice. Well, the current National Touring cast certainly does an amazing job.

Joseph Leo Bwarie is almost as good as Tony winner John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli and since Bwarie looks younger, probably fits the role even more.

The great pride comes with Canadian Jeremy Kushnier (plucked from the Vegas version to play in his homeland) whose Tommy DeVito is devastating and slick and if he had replaced Christian Hoff. he would have won the Tony instead. Thankfully when the cast moves on with the rest of the tour, Kushnier will stay put to anchor the new all-Canadian cast.

I will mostly miss Andrew Rannells who has the baby face and earnest charm for playing Bob Gaudio (excellently played by Daniel Reichard in the original) and Rannells voice is wonderfully full and vibrant.

The only major disappointment is with Steve Gouveia as Nick Massi who has a disappointing voice with caricature acting on an already underwritten role.

Still, the show is so well directed and fast paced with great choreography from another Canadian, Sergio Trujillo, that the show is still a lot of fun and totally solid, despite being essentially a glorified tribute show.

Over in Stratford, I happen to catch one of the last shows for Caesar and Cleopatra, the play Shaw wrote prior to Pigmalion but essentially has a similar structure. Silly girl gets tutored by an elder man.

In this case, it's teen queen Cleopatra who must share her throne with her even sillier brother (a hilarious Paul Dunn) and accidentally finds Caesar under a sphinx who slowly guides the girl to confident leadership.

But I was really here to see Nikki M. James (All Shook Up, The Wiz) as Cleopatra go up against Christopher Plummer (fricken The Sound of Music of course! and many many other plays and films) and Plummer was of course commanding and assertive while James was absolutely wonderful as a girl who learns and grows through the course of the play. The acting couldn't have been better and they were accompanied by an amazing ensemble that included Steven Sutcliffe (Ragtime) and Diane D'Aquila amongst many other worthy mentions.

The play itself was hilarious in the first act and then goes darker and deeper in act 2 though I found it almost seemed like too much of a whiplash turn that didn't exactly flow from one to the other. I was fascinated with the darkness in the second act but it felt distant from the enjoyability of the first and almost done to pad up the "importance" of the piece.

Still, the simplicity of the extravagantly looking sets transformed the famous Festival Theatre thrust stage into ancient Egypt and the play had a wonderful regality to it that could easily transfer to Broadway in a split second. My only problem with the production is still the actual play itself which seems like a pre-cursor to later works, particularly Pygmalion which I think felt like a fuller more cohesive play as a whole but this production itself was extremely well done.

Jersey Boys - Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto, ON - **** (4 stars out of 5)

Caesar and Cleopatra - Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre - Stratford, ON - ***1/2 (3.5 stars out of 5)

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No More Spoilers for So You Think You Can Dance Canada

Hello readers, (UPDATE BELOW)

So I'm no longer doing the spoilers on Monday night because my friend that gives them to me was stopped at the show and apparently we aren't allowed to post them on the blog and I just checked and there's an email in the junk folder from CTV's legal division (though no one was answering back this afternoon). They claimed that something is said at the beginning of the live show but I guess my friend misses it everytime since he usually goes for rush and is brought in at the last minute and apparently others in line who had done rush agreed that they've never actually heard someone say "not to blog" or seen any signs or signed any papers but I'll take it they did and we just missed it. (And yes, there is rush. And at this point apparently, everyone who shows up gets in even though it's not guaranteed (see below for details), unless you get stopped for blogging apparently (despite this, this, this, though mainly from someone I won't link to so not to get that person in trouble either but yeah, it's all up and the taping isn't even done yet! Hilarious!)

So sorry to all and to the show, I think I saw things way differently then they did and thought we were just excited fans helping promote the show just like the US version Monday spoilers but apparently they are none too happy with it at CTV. So even though I love the dancers and I love the show and think its well produced and all, and I thought we were keeping the buzz and discussions going all week and reminding people to watch every Wednesdays night and considering the whole blog is essentially an unpaid promo to all the TV shows being recommended (see sidebar), it is probably not worth getting sued over or whatever they want since it's not exactly like I'm raking it in for this blog. Guess I'll find out when I get in contact with the legal department that is apparently chasing me down.

Oh well, funny how the Canadian networks work with blogs so differently than in the states where other bloggers in the states have gotten tickets to the show, the tour and backstage passes while a fellow Toronto blogger here (who is much bigger than I am too) says he's virtually ignored by all the Canadian networks even though he gets tons of stuff and access to the American stuff.

Apparently I can still do my binocular spoilers since it's just something seen from the streets but again they don't love the idea but they can't stop it apparently (at least they themselves admitted that at the studios today).

So I'll ask you readers, do you generally like spoilers or does it ruin the show for you? (Poll is on the sidebar)

It's funny how intentions are seen very differently. I figure it's buzz through the weekend to keep people interested until the next week, they just see it as spoiling it for viewers (um, except people don't have to read or even come to my blog (usually found by googling spoilers) just as viewers don't have to watch anything they don't want to, an argument usually brought up by TV folks when they air questionable stuff).

Of course at this point, I don't know what I can say about CTV and how much stuff I can freely promote for them since I don't want to get in trouble and personally I would love to work with them and support them but apparently I'll find out where the line is drawn. Too bad since you may have noticed that I shill for CTVglobemedia a lot, especially for someone who doesn't work for them.

So again, sorry to the readers for spoiling the show for them, sorry to CTV, call me naive but we thought we were helping them out by being super excited about the show and trying to get everyone else super excited about the show and talking about the show any which way, but apparently not.

UPDATE: So the CTV lawyer was way nicer than I thought he would be and totally understood where we were coming from and what my actual intentions were for the show (excited superfan trying to promote the show as opposed to someone trying to damage it) and so no, we won't be sued or anything and in fact he said he would get me invited back to the show if we were to attend again (even though we can't go anymore anyways). The binocular spoilers still are unclear since he didn't seem to have a problem with it because it's something seen from a public place but he's not sure what the producers like it or can do anything about it either (he seemed more to be calling on behalf of them than actually trying to grill me and sue me). Still, more understanding about the mix up than I thought he would be.

Also, read on the message boards that we are lying about not hearing the whole spiel about not posting anything about the show but honestly, we've never heard it but I sort of deduced that since we get rushed in at the last minute everytime fom the rush line, we probably get there after everything has been said (like the bobbing knee thing which the first time I was like, what the heck? I had to ask those around me what that was all about).

"RUSH LINE

Due to the OVERWHELMING demand for tickets to the very first season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, we are answering the call to fans by creating a Rush Line at our taping location!

If you did not receive a call back to confirm your tickets, come on down to Showline Harbourside Studios at 915 Lake Shore Blvd. East in Toronto and hop in our rush line. We tape every Monday and Thursday until December 4th. Arrive to the line by 5pm at the latest and sign up with the audience usher tending the line.

Please be advised that tickets are not guaranteed to any or all members of the Rush Line, and will only be given as room becomes available in the studio. "

Though apparently group dances are filmed at 3pm on Wednesdays actually. So not sure when you have to arrive by.

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The Big Set Up - Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Degrassi: TNG

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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Saving Face - Gossip Girl and The Amazing Race

Gossip Girl - Bonfire of the Vanity - Ep. 210

OMG. Eleanor has a boyfriend! And while Blair is excited for a possible new hunky daddy, he turns out to be less a Cary Grant and more "Danny Devito". In fact, his name is Cyrus Rose and he's played by the awesomeness of Wallace Shawn!

And thank goodness for his presence because Kaitlin Willa Holland's guest role is wearing as thin as the cheap materials she's wearing. Which is too bad because I liked her as Kaitlin Cooper (on The OC) but as bad girl Agnes and her attempts to run Jenny's new career, Willa is getting plain annoying. As spoiled as Jenny is, I just wanted her to punch Agnes in the face when she went all pyro on Jenny's designs.

I'm also not quite buying the hotness of the photographer Aaron Rose (who happens to be the son of Cyrus) in love with Serena since he's looking a bit dirty so it's hard to feel sorry for S when she's all down about him ignoring her. Even though they aren't "dating". And she knows that. But she wants to. But not. Whatever.

Love Chuck begging Dan not to print the inflamatory story on Bart Bass' past but that was still not as good as Cyndi Lauper showing up at Blair's party on Cyrus' request just as Blair spilled his secret to Eleanor.

"I wanted a Harry Winston choker and instead got a conscience" - Blair.

Except Cyrus was playing Blair with the Cyndi Lauper card just as much as Blair was manipulating him. Go Wallace!

Blair and Cyrus, respected manipulators. Who would have thought?


The Amazing Race - Please Hold Me While I Singe My Skull, My Nose Is on Fire - Ep. 1306-1307

I keep flipping back from hating Ken and Tina (who turned into Elphaba this week) to... well... not quite loving them but not hating them at least. At least not like Terrence who is the most frazzled "zen" man ever.

but yay! Karma bit back and the divorcees are gone! The ex-husbands got lucky!

At this point, it's obvious that Nick and Star and Dallas and Toni are the most likable teams to root for (and it helps that Nick and Dallas are quite cute AND seem like good people) but I did like the divorcees as a good nemesis. Added some drama. Annoying drama but some drama.

Now we have the even more unlikable Terrence or the stupid frat boys (seriously, how many times did they do the wire challenge before they were finally TOLD what the answer was?).

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