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The Behrend Beacon
Grammy Awards hit a sour note
review by Greg Smith
contributing writer
Technical difficulties. Lack of plan or
"rehearsed" feeling. Bad jokes. Mediocre
performances.
Am I talking about an episode of the
Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn? No,
not exactly. That was my quick summary
of the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, which
aired this past Sunday night on CBS.
Every year the Grammys honor some
of the best (and some of the worst,
depending on whose side you're on) that
the music business has to offer. The
Grammys normally are not the most
exciting of the flux of early-year award
shows, but this year they were even worse
than usual.
CBS was already intensely cautious
about the show because of certain exposed
body parts of certain Super Bowl
performers from the previous Sunday.
Because of Justin and Janet's "wardrobe
malfunction" at halftime of the big game,
CBS aired the Grammys on a 5-minute
tape delay to guard against any new
creative ideas by performers. Sure, the
delay nixed any nudity plans, but it
couldn't help the lack of talent and ideas
that the telecast presented.
Where to start, where to start? How
about the beginning. To open the show,
Beyonce Knowles teamed up with Prince
for an interesting medley of songs. While
the performance somehow seemed to work
for me, it was a forerunner to the oddball
nternet film 'Fight Circle' fails to impress
review by Daniel J. Stasiewski
managing editor
Watching "Fight Circle," a feature
length, medieval martial arts film dis
tributed solely on the Internet, I had this
odd sensation that I was watching some
thing familiar. Not story-wise, rather, the
film has a production value, low-bud
get, but admirably high quality, that
mimicked something I'd encounter be
fore, but rarely in the cinema. When I
sat down in front of my television and
flipped on a late night episode of the
syndicated sci-fi show "Stargate: SG-1,"
I realized why "Fight Circle" was so
easily consumable.
The film, with mysticism established
in repetitive imagery and an emphasis
on the action over story, feels like a syn
dicated action series in the vein of "Her
cules: The Legendary Journeys." And it
deserves all the accolades that a great
If you couldn't get enough of the rich, ditzy duo, Paris Hilton and Nicole
Richie, no worries. They're back! The two girls are taking their popular reality
show "The Simple Life" on the road for their second season.
Taping hasn't begun yet because the two girls are looking for another family
home to invade. If you think you're up for the challenge, applications are still
being accepted.
After all, who wouldn't want to spend 30-odd days with these two?
Late night with MTV:
MTV has done it again. They've decided that a few of their videos are a little
too racy and edgy for daytime veiwers. The top guys at the music channel have
decided to move such videos as, "Toxic" by Britney Spears and "Megalomaniac"
by Incubus. MTV has moved the videos to a later time slot (10p.m. to 6a.m.)
since the kiddies are in bed at 10 and can't witness the scandalous videos. Not
sure what the problem is since MTV doesn't seem t..) air music videos anyhow
during the day.
And it has begun:
The American Idol judges have scoured the country and have found their star
singers. Tuesday night, Americans had their first chance of many to dial in and
vote for their favorite singer. Wednesday night, the horrific 30-minute show filled
with 29 minutes of commericals aired. Announced was the first two to make it to
the top 12. Welcome America, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo. Simon
Cowell actually likes these two!
combinations that were used throughout
the night, crossing that fine line between
strangely intriguing and just strange.
Either way, Beyonce looked great in her
pink dress and popped back on stage after
the performance to claim her first of five
Grammys of the night.
Beyonce wasn't the only star with a high
pitched voice who was wearing pink at the
awards. But enough about Justin
Timberlake! Seriously, Timberlake won
for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, a
category which also saw the likes of the
late George Harrison and Warren Zevon
as nominees. These are moments when
you realize the Grammys are a business
driven, popularity contest instead of a
judgment of music. While Timberlake
apologized for the Super Bowl fiasco in
his acceptance, he should've been
apologizing for his utter lack of talent and
given thanks to be nominated with two
great musicians like Zevon and Harrison.
Moving on, the pain continues as I quickly
realize that there's no host for the evening,
just different performers and celebs sent
onstage to read horribly scripted jokes from
the teleprompter. n I noted before, the
combinations of award presenters were just
plain weird. The list started with Steven
Tyler, Joe Perry and 8.8. King (handing
out a rap award, no less) included Tony
Bennett and Missy Elliot, and ended with
my absolute personal favorite, Snoop Dogg
and Jason Alexander. Alexander looked
physically scared. Oh yes, folks, it doesn't
get much better than that.
syndie series should get. Regrettably, the
action film would work better as a se
ries than as a feature, making the story
more exhausting than it should be.
After the ancient fight circle is taken
over by thugs and murderers, a jaded
master fighter, Undan (Runyun Woods),
abandons combat and travels the coun
try using his skills to protect and defend
the innocent and abused. In travel,
Undan and his loyal page Mullag (Tho
mas Shanks) save two cousins from the
filth that would take advantage of those
unable to put up a defense. The female
cousin, Paky (Anna Henke), is im
pressed by Undan's show of force and
follows the master and his page, urging
them to train her to do battle in the fight
circle.
But Undan has long rejected the idea
of training for the circle. The stubborn
girl, who must fight for the cause that
took her father, doesn't want to go
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Friday, February 13, 2004
I think this is a great point to talk about
some of the performances that went on
during the telecast. Were they all bad? No,
actually, I was pleasantly surprised by a
number of the songs. But it's
unquestionably more fun to point out the
horrible moments! Christina Aguilera's
awful performance solidifies her "fastest
fall from pop diva to tramp" status.
Timberlake's performance was quite
brutal, however. I used to complain about
his lack of integrity because he never
played instruments. After hearing the
painful chords bark out of his keyboard,
I'll rescind my prior argument and hope
he never plays an instrument again. And
finally, this just in: Jack White can't sing.
The guy lays down some cool riffs on the
guitar, but whatever record exec thought,
"Hey, this kid's got a great voice," ought
to be locked away somewhere.
As for the good numbers, Prince and
Beyonce were cool, and OutKast was
Out Standing on two occasions (once with
Earth, Wind, and Fire and once performing
"Heya"). Two tributes in the show were
the two high points, one featuring Sting,
Dave Matthews, Vince Gill and Pharrell
Williams playing the Beatles hit "I Saw
Her Standing There." The second was an
all-star tribute to funk, which came closer
than anything else to blowing the roof off
of the place.
With intros given by the unassailably
cool Samuel L. Jackson and featuring the
likes of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Robert
Randolph and the Family Band and George
through the rigorous metal training and
instead leaves Undan to train with
Trebor (Sam Hargrave), a young fighter
seeking to bring the fight circle back to
its glory. Eventually, Paky's training
with both Trebor and Undan sets her up
to fight, but she still must face those who
don't want a woman in the male-domi
nated fighting tradition.
There is also a dark warrior in "Fight
Circle" named Kas, who serves as the
example of what is wrong with the
circle. Unfortunately, his slow charac
terization doesn't make him feel like the
villain he should be. Like Kas, Undan's
intellectual warrior builds slowly and
Paky doesn't seem to have much of an
arc until the final moments of the film.
All the characters are built well enough
to make me care about them in the fu
ture, but the film ends leaving any view
feeling merely teased.
"Fight Circle" is treated more as a
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Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, the funk
tribute rocked the show and made up for
the majority of lackluster performances.
The energy that the funk-masters brought
to the table was unparalleled, especially the
intensity displayed by up-and-coming
pedal steel player Robert Randolph.
The positive pretty much ends there as I
must talk about some technical glitches that
occurred throughout the evening. Some
poor mic work left Sting sounding like he
was singing in a cave during his number
with Sean Paul (another brilliant
combination).
After a couple of odd occasions
where CBS technicians' voices could
be heard on the telecast, the night was
going very poorly, technically
speaking. But the low point of the poor
audio work was when Celine Dion's
mic wouldn't work at all. When a
technician brought her a new one, she
let us all know that her earpiece
monitor didn't work while looking
extremely pissed off. Then she put on
a fake smile and went to town. It was
unintentional comedy at its finest.
If you were reading this article
looking for some actual information,
here it is, in the form of a recap of
awards received. Beyonce led the way
with five Grammys out of her six
nominations. Luther Vandross
garnered four awards, followed by
unique rappers OutKast and great
country artist Alison Kraus with three.
Some notables winning two Grammys
character-building story than an action
film, but the action is what dominates.
Like "Star Wars," this film creates char
acters that are interesting, but without
an exploding Death Star, "Fight Circle"
doesn't have a climax that is worth sit
ting through an hour and a half of te
dious characterization.
I did enjoy the story, but I just don't
feel fulfilled. "Fight Circle" would be a
great pilot episode for a long-running se
ries (which I do hope writer/director
Donald Whittier does decide to create),
but the amazingly advanced fight cho
reography is the only part of this film
that is self-sustaining. The "Fight Circle"
Web site would have you believe Paky's
Ann Coulter feminism is the heart of the
story, but the spontaneous combat scenes
always overshadow Paky's story.
The film's big accomplishment is still
its method of distribution. Though the
individually downloadable chapters do
Offer valid all week long!
Daniel J. Stasiewski & Erika Jarvis
a&e editors
behrcolls@aol.com
Beyonce holds her winnings as
she brings light to the Grammys
this past Sunday.
were Eminem, Jay-Z and the late June
Carter Cash and Warren Zevon.
OutKast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love
Below" took home Album of the Year
honors and in a complete shocker,
Coldplay won Record of the Year for
"Clocks" (I thought for sure that
Timberlake or Beyonce would win).
Evanescence won for Best New Artist.
So the Grammys have come and gone
once again, filled with lackluster
performances and oddcouples galore.
I wouldn't blame you if you didn't even
realize the award show took place. The
show provided me with some laughs
(unintentional, mind you) and one or
two nice musical moments, but thank
God I don't have to witness it again
until next year.
feel make the film feel like it should
have commercial breaks, the clarity of
the picture, both visually and aurally, is
spectacular. I don't know how much it
cost to make and distribute "Fight
Circle," but I hope its the budget is low
enough to allow for a sequel. This is a
film that deserves a fan following, one
that will know the ins and outs of the
mystical fight circle and care about
where the characters are headed. If I had
such a promise going into the film, I
would have probably treated it less
harshly. Unfortunately, "Fight Circle" is
sold as a feature, and sweet tasting
crumbs are still crumbs. Right now, I
want the whole cake.
"Fight Circle," directed by Donald
Whittier and starring Runyun Woods and
Anna Henke is currently available for
download at www.FightCircle.com. The
cost is $7 for a 25-ticket pass.