Archive for June 8th, 2009
June 8th, 2009
Kantorei, The Singing Boys of Rockford, will take a nine-day tour to sites in Washington D.C., Gettysburg, Pa., and other eastern cities.
(Register Star photo)
The group will formally perform in Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania and will informally perform at places including Gettysburg National Military Park, the Smithsonian Museums, the White House and the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo will meet the boys at the Capitol on June 18.
June 8th, 2009
Shawn Ryan, former Rockfordian and Keith Country Day School graduate, is in the news for old — “The Shield” and the just-cancelled “The Unit” — and the new “Lie to Me” TV shows he has/is producing:
He comments on “The Shield: Season Seven The Final Season” ($59.95, Sony, available Tuesday), according to CaliforniaChronicle.com. “This four-disc set has 13 episodes of the controversial FX cop drama starring Michael Chiklis. There’s a commentary for every episode, along with 51 deleted scenes that have an optional commentary by creator Shawn Ryan. Featurettes explore the final season and go on the set for the last episode.”
In a telephone call last week with me, Ryan said he would consider producing a big-screen version of “The Shield.” “I would say it’s something we could think about and possibly do, if there is enough interest,” he said.
With regard to CBS cancelling “The Unit,” Ryan said he was “upset” about the axing of the show about covert military operations and the families involved. “Creatively, it was a very good show and finished in the top 30 with 10 million viewers.”
He said the show was cancelled because of “corporate politics; more a corporate than network decision. CBS did not own the show, like they have ownership of ‘Cold Case’ and ‘Medium.’ ”
Ryan said he’s stoked about his new executive producer job, of the Fox show, “Lie to Me,” which premiered this year. It centers around Dr. Cal Lightman and his colleagues taking assignments usually from local and federal agencies to help them reach the truth through interpreting facial expressions and body language.
Read more about lying in general and what Ryan has to say about this show in my June 18 Ask Geo column.
June 8th, 2009
Shuvlhed placed third in the Briggs Battle of the Band online voting, so the Kirkland-area band won’t get to play on a Summerfest stage. The winner: The Runaround.
June 8th, 2009
I haven’t seen any of the TV newscasts that Euna Lee or Laura Ling have done any reporting for. They are the two American journalists that North Korea just sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. The Associated Press said they were reporting on trafficking of North Korean women when they were charged after allegedly setting foot on North Korean soil.
But I was stunned a year or so ago when watching a report about North Korea that Ling’s sister, Lisa Ling, did for the National Geographic channel. The documentary revolves around a Nepalese doctor who brought his team and equipment into North Korea to perform cataract operations on blind North Koreans, and in the process, teach North Korean doctors the procedure. A news team posed as part of the medical team. I was unaware until I saw the show how intense the brutality, isolationism and ubiquitous worshop of leader Kim Jong Il. is in North Korea.
My eyes were opened similar to those of Keith Thode of Detroit sawa, based on his comments in this Amazon.com review: “It’s hard to imagine a society so repressed and isolated where you and your entire extended family can be placed in prison for life merely for questioning the ‘Dear Leader (Kim Jong Il).”
And, I too, wonder about the methods Lisa Ling and her crew used, as is Aloysius Oneill of Vienna, Va., in her comments: “Like some other reviewers, though, I am troubled by the pretenses under which the National Geographic crew and the Nepalese medical team may have gained entry to North Korea. If any of the various North Korean security services came to believe that local intermediaries of those American and Nepalese visitors were either duped or were engaging in any kind of subterfuge regarding the outsiders and their plans, those North Koreans — and their families — would be (or already are) in grave danger. Even unwittingly contributing to a story that would be seen as criticizing the Kim cult of personality could have severe consequences for North Korean medical personnel and others who helped the visitors. It would be reprehensible if National Geographic took chances with other people’s lives to get an eye-catching story.”
Did any of you see National Geographic’s “Inside North Korea”? What did you think about it?
