BriefMe: News, Reviews, Editorials, Opinions and Rants

In New York and worldwide, thousands await the summers when the Lincoln Center Festival presents a performances of dance, theater, music, opera, and circus invited to perform in Lincoln Center after ariving from across the globe. Highlights mentioned in the recent announcement of this summer’s event include:Highlights include:
U.S. premiere of Indonesian epic I La Galigo directed by Robert Wilson
U.S. premiere of Le Theatre du Soleil’s Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) dramatizing the plight of refugees, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, in Damrosch Park
A night of hip-hop teams Wyclef Jean with Senegal’s Daara J
World premiere of My Life As A Fairy Tale conceived and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, music by Stephin Merritt, libretto by Erik Ehn, with Blair Brown
U.S. premiere of Brian Ferneyhough and Charles Bernstein opera Shadowtime
World premiere of a new work by Shen Wei Dance Arts
Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s acclaimed Arlecchino, Servant of Two Masters directed by Giorgio Strehler and starring Ferruccio Soleri
N.Y. premiere of Basil Twist’s version of Respighi puppet opera
Two of Mishima’s Modern Noh Plays directed by Yukio Ninagawa with rising young star Tatsuya Fujiwara
Revival of Merce Cunningham’s spectacular, Ocean; U.S.Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s AtaXia by Random Dance

Bo Bice looks like a rock star, an American Idol, so who would be surprised if he never had run-ins with the law or never used drugs. Come on, he’s not a Christian Rocker; he’s a regular rock band member. Fox spokesperson commented, “The information disclosed on various salacious gossip websites regarding Bo Bice’s past was already well-known to FOX and the producers of ‘American Idol.’ From the beginning, Bo was honest and forthcoming in revealing his previous indiscretions and their outcome.” Bo is favored to win, competing with Carrie Underwood for the title of this year’s American Idol.

Nicole Richie must have really pissed of Paris Hilton to get herself booted from a lifelong friendship. Rod Stewart’s daughter Kimberly Stewart will be the likely replacement on the hit TV show The Simple Life. Paris said, “Nicole knows what she did, and that’s all I’m ever going to say about it.” Kim Stewart has been on the red carpet many times both alone and with her dad and her dad’s girlfriend Penny Lancaster.

Emancipation Of Mimi, Mariah Carey’s latest album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart. Over 400,000 copies were sold the first week. Mariah Carey also got stuck seated next to ex-husband Tommy Mottola and his new wife Thalia at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But Mariah has plenty of great news to keep her busy and distracted. her album also tops the “Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums,” Carey’s first R&B chart-topper in almost 10 years. Can Mariah keep the momentum generated through It’s Like That & We Belong Together.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has taken a step beyond boxing to evolve to mixed martial arts. Ultimate Fighting is hotter than ever with the UFC 52 turning into a new sport. It can be a brutal sport, but perhaps not any more brutal than boxing. The stars are attracted to the big purses, the fame, the babes and the high visibility of the new sport. Of course if you are a “mean dude” and can fight then why not take your fighting skills into the world of PPV (pay-per view) and sold our areas filled with screaming fans? Clearly ultimate fighting is taking over where professional wrestling left off.

Grey’s Anatomy will bump Boston Legal for the remainder of this season. Grey’s Anatomy follows ABC’s hit Desperate Housewives. Who would have thought that ABC could kick NBCs gluteus maximus. It wasn’t long ago that ABC was considered almost as boring as CBS. Now ABC has the must-see shows. Is Disney a positive influence on the programming at ABC? Who knows? One thing is for sure, casing an underwear model as an intern combined with forbidden romance… Boston Legal is by no means dead. Danny Crane will run for 27 episodes next season, including the five episodes that were originally scheduled to air this season.

Adobe is buying Macromedia for $3.4 billion. That will create powerhouse in digital media creation and manipulation. However, since Photoshop and FireWorks are competing programs, particularly with the release of ImageReady, which integrates well with Photoshop, will the two products merge or will both survive? The big question really is Flash and the newer video player enhancements that have made it into recent versions. Adobe also had video editing software, with OpenHD, Premier and After Effects.

W & Laura are doing the tax thing and paid $207,307 in federal income tax of course they paid more tax than most people in America earn. As a matter of fact, the couple contributed $77,785 to charity, churches and other charitable organizations, and that’s still more than the average household income of the US family which is in the low $40K range. The Internal Revenue Service probably get deluged in main this week as late filers get their 1040 returns in just in time. Or, the taxpayers could file an extension. It would be cooler if the president had to file an extension.

The Pontiac Solstice roadster was featured on the Apprentice. It’s the best product placement money can buy. Actually, its amazing that Pontiac decided to use the brochure that Kendra basically put together by herself. The car is a winner, but the apprentices are mostly losers. Pontiac has a winner with a hot little roadster convertible sports car.

Over the millenniums Jerusalem has been conquered by many nations. Way back it was the Babylonians then the Persians came. The Romans hung around for a while followed by Byzantines and Muslims Next the Crusaders raised Christianity’s flag only to be kicked out by the Ottoman Turks who in turn were sent packing by the Brits. Now the Israelis hold sway.

Visit the Holy City and you can see that each culture has left its mark. It’s what makes the place historically so rich.

While there’s hardly anything that the various religions who call Jerusalem their spiritual home see eye to eye on, they all agree they’re facing a new insidious threat – gays.

It seems that an International Gay Pride festival scheduled for August resulted in a rare show of interfaith unity when the religious leaders of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities met to forestall the 10-day festival.

Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, seemed to speak for his fellow clerics when he said: “We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem.”

What is really shocking is that these gentlemen would blend easily into any gay pride parade.