Best Leisure Time Blog

Lounging on the sun deck of a cruise ship as it navigates the warm waters of the Caribbean or Mediterranean, perhaps with a cooling cocktail in hand, is how many travelers envision spending a cruise. But others seem increasingly drawn to a vacation where the ice isn’t just in their drinks, but in the very waters that surround them.

Among the fastest growing trends in the cruise industry are itineraries that take passengers to the coldest parts of the world — not just Alaska, of course, which has long been a popular cruise destination, but places like the Baltic Sea, the northern reaches of Canada and Greenland, and even Antarctica.

Indeed, more than 35,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctica this spring and summer, compared with just 6,750 during 1992-93, according to the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat.

Among the cruise lines heading to Antarctica with new itineraries are Crystal Cruises (www.crystalcruises.com), whose Crystal Symphony will offer a Christmas and New Year’s trip around South America, Cape Horn and Antarctica, including a stop in Puerto Montt, Chile, and a cruise around Elephant Island, Antarctica (rates start at $7,995).

Hurtigruten (www.hurtigruten.us) is offering a 17-day round-trip cruise out of Buenos Aires aboard its newest expedition ship, the M.S. Fram. With the help of smaller PolarCirkel boats, the cruise will go farther south on the Antarctic Peninsula — all the way into the rarely visited Marguerite Bay — than it ever has in the past. Departures are next January and February, and rates start at $5,799. (The Fram will also head to Greenland this summer, with eight-day trips that include viewings of Jakobshavn Glacier — ”the world’s most active glacier,” according to the company — and walking tours of several Inuit villages and towns.)

Among the other cold-water options for 2008:

Cruise North Expeditions (www.cruisenorthexpeditions.com), a company based in Kuujjuaq, in northern Quebec, and owned mostly by Inuits, will sail the Arctic in northern Canada this summer, including a trip stopping at Beechey Island to visit the remains — grave sites and all — of the famously ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition led by Sir John Franklin.

Hapag-Lloyd (www.hl-cruises.com) will offer two 14 and 15-day trips to Greenland in July and August aboard its 184-passenger expedition ship, the Hanseatic, above, that include stops at Disko Bay and some Inuit settlements

Princess Cruises (www.princess.com) will have eight ships, more than in any previous year, sailing to Alaska destinations in 2008. With first-time stops in Kodiak, Seward and Valdez, the line will offer 37 new options for shore excursions, including one that will take travelers to the Columbia Glacier in Valdez.

Abercrombie & Kent (www.abercrombiekent.com) is offering a two-week trip in July aboard its 118-passenger ship Clipper Odyssey that sails round trip out of Nome, Alaska and includes stops in Siberian Russia, including the Chukotka area, which is home to reindeer-herding nomadic tribes, and Kamchatka, a peninsula that has 29 active volcanic craters.

Source: NY Times

Highways remained slippery Monday for some holiday travelers in the upper Midwest in the aftermath of a blustery snowstorm that blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and snarled air travel.

 At least 19 deaths were linked to the weekend-long blast of ice and windblown snow, which led to multi-car pileups that closed sections of several major highways on the Plains.

Conditions had eased Monday, with sunshine across much of the region, but that didn’t necessarily mean safer roads, authorities cautioned.

Highways in northwestern Wisconsin still had slippery patches Monday, said State Patrol dispatcher Linda Luhman in Spooner.
“We haven’t had anything major, accident-wise. Slide-ins and minor property damage, but no serious injuries or fatalities,” Luhman said.

Early Monday, Sgt. Tim Elve of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said: “The roads aren’t quite as ice-covered, but we’re still telling people not to drive unless they have to. The interstate is still slick and the rural roads are really bad.”
Authorities had issued urgent pleas for travelers to stay home Sunday but officials worried that people would insist on driving Monday, regardless of the weather, to get to Christmas Eve destinations.

“I know it’s the holidays, but we hope people use some common sense when traveling,” said Sgt. Chad Breuer of the Grant County Sheriff’s Department in southwest Wisconsin. “There are a lot of people saying, ‘I’ll just leave that much earlier,’ but still, the roads are not favorable for traveling.”

The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Wisconsin. On Sunday, snow fell across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota and parts of Michigan and Indiana.

Up to 15 inches of snow fell over the weekend on parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which typically gets heavy snow, and freezing drizzle glazed some highways Monday morning in counties along Lake Michigan. The area of Madison, Wisconsin, got three to four hours of freezing rain early Sunday, making driving treacherous.

The storm system had blown out to sea Monday morning, but in its wake wind blowing at 25 mph picked up moisture from Lake Erie to create lake-effect snow in Buffalo, New York. Five to 10 inches of snow was possible there and in other parts of western New York by Tuesday morning, the weather service said.

Wind was measured at 88 mph over Lake Michigan, with gusts of 50 to 68 mph across the Chicago region, according to the National Weather Service.

Because of the wind, airlines canceled more than 300 flights Sunday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the city Aviation Department said. Municipal officials said the wind had knocked out nearly 170 traffic signals, and there were more than 500 reports of fallen trees and limbs.

Travelers packed hotels in Albert Lea, Minnesota, Sunday night after blowing snow and poor visibility forced them off Interstate 35. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty authorized the National Guard to open the city’s armory for stranded travelers.

Accidents on highways slippery with snow and ice killed at least seven people in Minnesota, three in Indiana, three in Wyoming, four in Wisconsin and one each in Texas and Kansas.

More than 11,000 homes and businesses were without power at some point Saturday in Wisconsin because of the freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow, utilities said. Michigan utilities reported some 31,000 customers were still without power Monday morning, and in Illinois about 3,900 ComEd customers remained without power Monday, down from a Sunday morning peak of more than 225,000.

Source: CNN

Brandon Sanderson, author of the fantasy “Mistborn” series, will finish Robert Jordan’s final novel.

Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., died from a blood disease in September in South Carolina. He was working on the 12th book in his “Wheel of Time” fantasy series at the time of his death.

More than 44 million books in the “Wheel of Time” series have been sold worldwide, according to publisher Tor Books. The final book is titled “A Memory of Light.”

“To me, Robert Jordan is still kind of a mythological figure,” Sanderson told the Daily Herald of Provo. “I would have done this with no credit and no payment, to be perfectly honest.”

Sanderson, whose first novel, “Elantris,” was published in 2005, has four books in print.

Jordan’s widow and the book’s editor, Harriet Popham Rigney, said she was “absolutely delighted” that Sanderson agreed to finish it.

“He left copious notes and hours of audio recordings,” Rigney said in a statement on Tor Books’ Web site.

Jordan’s books tells of Rand al’Thor, who is destined to become the champion who will battle ultimate evil in a mythical land. The first title in the series, “The Eye of the World,” was published in 1990.

Source: CNN

Two prides of lions stretched luxuriously in the midday sun, casting an occasional lazy glance at crowds of zebras, impalas and giraffes waiting anxiously for a turn to quench their thirst at the water hole.

 shadow of mud-caked elephants in the shimmering afternoon heat punctuated only by whirlwinds of dust. In the distance, herds of wildebeest and gemsbok emerged on the vast salt plain.

Typical scenes on an average day in Namibia’s Etosha National Park, which is home to rare black rhinos and the world’s largest population of cheetahs and where a single photo frame captures multiple species of wildlife, shaming its more famous neighbor — South Africa’s Kruger Park.

“Thank goodness for digital cameras,” I thought as our two oohing and aahing daughters clicked away endlessly and jostled for the best vantage point at the car window, which was hastily closed as a male lion heading for a shady bush sauntered way too close for comfort.

We visited in late September, the end of the six-month dry season when the landscape takes on almost ghostly qualities as dust and sand envelops the scrub and vegetation. It’s the best time for instant, quick-fix game viewing — in contrast to the hours sometimes spent in Kruger. Although visits are possible all year round, it can get uncomfortably hot between November and February.

Etosha is deservedly the highlight of a visit to Namibia, a country dominated by the Namib and Kalahari deserts and roughly the size of France and Germany combined, which is attracting growing numbers of tourists — especially from Europe — lured by safaris and sand. Endless, endless sand.

And above the sand?

Ballooning, paragliding, skydiving and rock-climbing adventures abound as the southern African nation seeks to carve out a niche market among well-heeled tourists in search of the wild and adventurers thirsting for the spectacular.

Nearly 850,000 tourists visited Namibia in 2006, according to official statistics, a rise of 7 percent on 2005. Small fry compared to the numbers who flock to Paris or Rome, but in a country with a population of less than 2 million, this translates into big bucks.

A recent study carried out for the government estimated that tourism accounts for 18 percent of gross domestic product and in the next 10 years will be the largest single contributor to the mineral-dependent economy.

It’s not just the “Brangelina factor” — although Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s decision to have their daughter Shiloh in the seaside resort of Swakopmund certainly helped catapult the little-known corner of Africa onto the international map.

It’s also because Namibia remains wonderfully unspoiled, an “insider’s secret” tempered by increasing accessibility through regular nonstop flights from Frankfurt and London as well as daily connections with South Africa. Cars are few and far between on its fantastic, tabletop roads — one of the happier results of brutal German colonial influence and apartheid-era South African control which ended only with independence in 1990.

It’s clean, safe — at least by African standards — and the food is simple but tasty, with game being a staple on many menus. Our daughters — having declared they wanted to become vegetarians — sneaked seconds of the gemsbok steaks, although drew the line at zebra.

There is a high quality, though fairly limited, choice in guest houses, farms, hotels and posh safari lodges — as well as camping for the budget-conscious. Prices are comparable to those in South Africa — the Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand, which can be used everywhere.

A taxidermist store, with luridly painted model animals, stands near Windhoek airport in testimony to Namibia’s growing popularity with the hunting fraternity that is not content to view the wildlife through the lens of a camera.

The government has woken up to the economic potential and is seeking to overhaul the tourist industry and spread its benefits.

Accommodations in Etosha were upgraded ahead of the park’s centenary celebrations in September. Locals complained that prices also rose, but even so they are cheaper than the privately run lodges around the park and offer unrivaled nighttime game viewing around the water holes in the camps. Bed and breakfast in a double room at a waterhole chalet in Okaukuejo — near the western entrance to the park — is $104 per person.

It’s easy to travel independently — be warned that car hire is expensive because of the high rate of accidents by tourists driving too fast along empty roads. But it is often cheaper and easier to go with an organized tour as their all-terrain vehicles are equipped for long desert drives. Some also combine it with a visit to other southern African countries. Budget camping tours — with equipment included — cost as little as $100 per day while 10-day luxury safari packages — including internal flights — can be up to $10,000. One option for the adventurous is to hire an off-road vehicle with its own tent built in the top.

We met an Italian couple who had asked family and friends to contribute to a honeymoon tour embracing South Africa’s Kruger Park, Botswana’s famed Okovanga Delta and Chobe Park and the Victoria Falls on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“Why, oh, why did we settle for a TV, toaster and towels?” I sighed, listening to accounts of their dream journey.

Namibia’s coastline is long and desolate — and notorious for shipwrecks. Its best-known resort, Swakopmund, remains heavily influenced by its German colonial past — Germany gained control in 1883 and surrendered the territory to South Africa in 1915 — and is particularly popular with German tourists. It was hard to share in the enthusiasm for a Bavarian-style beer festival (though Namibia makes an excellent brew) and the town’s designer shops and kitsch held little allure after the raw beauty of Etosha.

By contrast, the sand dunes were breathtaking between Swakopmund and the port of Walvis Bay (which is incidentally the starting point for journeys to Napoleon’s island exile, St. Helena, for those with an extra couple of weeks on their hands).

The dunes have become the center of adventure activities like sand boarding — where the intrepid reach speeds of up to 55 mph an hour and sand skiing. Being in the midst of the dunes is almost like being in the Alps surrounded by an endless expanse of virgin snow — only of course it’s yellow rather than white.

We opted for a quadbiking tour which catered both for adrenaline junkies seeking thrills and spills as well as those wanting more leisurely sightseeing. Victor Gouws, our guide from Dare Devil Adventures, said his oldest client had been an 86-year-old American woman. And she didn’t fall off, he grinned.

Brad Pitt also made a brief foray into the dunes last year, Gouws mentioned casually, as heavily pregnant Jolie stayed in a nearby hotel. But Gouws and most locals shrugged their shoulders about the famous visitors. Tourism is increasing on a monthly basis, and it doesn’t depend on the whim of visiting celebrities.

The majesty of the Swakopmund dunes apparently is insignificant to the famous, much photographed star dunes further south at Sossusvlei, deep in the Namib desert.

Sadly we didn’t have time to make that long trek, settling instead for a quick catamaran cruise in Walvis Bay to see dolphins, seals and pelicans, and look at the nets of one of Namibia’s newest industries — oyster farming. Neither did we make it farther south to the Fish River Canyon — said to be one of the world’s biggest after Colorado’s Grand Canyon.

Source: CNN

LONDON, England (AP) — A book of fairy tales created, handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling sold for nearly $4 million at auction Thursday.

The buyer, London art agent Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, now has one of only seven copies of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” which is leather bound with silver mounts.

The book originally had been expected to sell for about $100,000. The standing-room-only crowd at Sotheby’s auction house applauded as bidding topped the £1 million ($2 million) mark.

The money will benefit The Children’s Voice, a charity co-founded in 2005 by Rowling and Baroness Nicholson, a member of Britain’s House of Lords.

Rowling, 42, watched the auction on the Web from her home in Edinburgh, Scotland, and said she was ecstatic.

“This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help,” she said in a statement. “It means Christmas has come early to me.”

Rowling, whose Harry Potter books have sold nearly 400 million copies and been translated into 64 languages, wrote the Beedle tales after finishing the seventh and final work in the Potter series.

“‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” Rowling said.

She said the six other copies of the Beedle books have been given to people who were closely connected to the Harry Potter collection.

The information is taken from: CNN

• Chuck Norris wants to stop distribution of “The Truth About Chuck Norris”
• Norris says book is spoiling his image, includes false “facts”
• Book thanks Norris for “playing along”

NEW YORK (AP) — Trading karate chops for lawyers, tough guy actor Chuck Norris is taking on a new book titled “The Truth About Chuck Norris,” saying it’s a big lie and he wants to stop its distribution.

On Friday, Norris sued Penguin Group Inc. and the book’s creator, Ian Spector, saying his good image is being spoiled by a book that depicts him as callous and unlawful and which he says includes false “facts” that are sometimes racist and lewd.

In a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the actor, whose real name is Carlos Ray Norris, says the preface of the book refers to meetings between Norris and Spector, a Westbury, New York, resident and an undergraduate at Brown University, and the book also thanks Norris for “playing along.”

But, the lawsuit said, Norris never authorized Penguin or its Gotham Books division to use his name, image or likeness in connection with commercial sales of the book, which was published on November 29.

The lawsuit said Norris told Penguin it was not authorized to publish the book but the publisher rejected Norris’ claims. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, a halt to publication and a recall of books already sold.

A message left with a spokesman for Penguin was not immediately returned.

Norris has been in more than 20 films. The actor was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middle Weight Karate champion who in 1997 became the first man in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an 8th degree Black Belt Grand Master recognition in the Tae Kwon Do system, the lawsuit said.

Source: CNN

CHICAGO — R. Kelly avoided arrested Thursday by appearing in a Chicago court for a hearing in his child pornography case.

A warrant for the R&B superstar was entered Wednesday after he missed a scheduled appearance. Kelly’s lawyer said his tour bus was stopped by police in Utah after a log showed the driver hadn’t had enough rest, causing him to miss the 9 a.m. hearing.

Kelly is in the midst of a prolonged legal fight after prosecutors say he allegedly videotaped sex acts with a teenage girl. He has pleaded not guilty.

A judge is expected to set a trial date during his Thursday appearance.

CD sales were sluggish industry-wide in 2007. Then Oprah Winfrey recommended Josh Groban’s ‘Noël.’

A truly dismal year for the recording industry is ending with a December surprise — thanks in large part to an Oprah Winfrey endorsement (yes, she does that a lot these days): The bestselling album of the year is now “Noël,” Josh Groban’s lushly orchestrated Christmas collection.

“Noël” has now sold close to 2.8 million copies and it’s ramping up by the week as holiday shoppers reach for it as this season’s designated dinner-party soundtrack. The only person, it seems, who is tired of hearing Groban’s pa-rum-pa-pum-pum-ing is the 26-year-old singer himself.

“I’ve been singing Christmas songs since June,” the 26-year-old Los Angeles native said this week with a mock moan. “I’m ready to move on. I’m sure the album will be in the bargain bin by Dec. 26.”

That’s false modesty: “Noël” has already assured itself a spot in music history by breaking a 50-year-old record by the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. “Elvis’ Christmas Album,” by Elvis Presley, logged three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts in 1957, and no holiday collection matched that until this week. Groban’s album has now spent four weeks at No. 1 and just posted its strongest week (669,000 copies sold) since its October release.

It has also eclipsed the other top-sellers of 2007: the soundtrack to the Disney Channel’s “High School Musical 2″ (2.7 million copies sold in the U.S. since its August release) and “Daughtry” (more than 2 million this year, in addition to the 1.1 million copies sold in 2006) by “American Idol” alumnus Chris Daughtry and his namesake band.

All three bestsellers were success stories that started on television, not radio — the traditional physics of the music business don’t apply anymore.

Groban pointed to the recent pay-what-you-want initiative by the esteemed rock band Radiohead as an example of the novel ways that artist need to approach the marketplace.

“It’s a revolutionary time. Look at Radiohead — you have to find ways to get out there,” Groban said Thursday by phone from a promotional stop in Paris. Groban’s style is a burnished throwback of sorts to operatic pop tenors such as Mario Lanza — hardly the type of music that gets embraced by mainstream pop radio. But he has sold more than 16 million albums since his 2001 debut album by using television, be it his singing-and-acting role on “Ally McBeal,” his PBS music special or his six visits to the career-shaping soundstage of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Winfrey has banged the drum for Groban’s Christmas collection in an especially big way. His most recent week was the strongest for any holiday collection since Kenny G’s “Miracles — The Holiday Album” in 1994. Geoff Mayfield of Billboard also points out that “Noël” is the first No. 1 album to show sales increases four weeks in a row since “Tragic Kingdom” by No Doubt in 1996.

“It was enormous. I can’t emphasize enough how big it is to have Oprah’s endorsement,” Groban said.

The recording industry will take any and all support these days. This year started on a sour note when the soundtrack for “Dreamgirls” had the dubious honor of hitting No. 1 on the charts with just 60,000 copies sold, the lowest one-week sales total for a chart champ since SoundScan began tracking retail sales in 1991.

Tom Whalley, chairman of Warner Bros. Records, said the state of the marketplace is “disheartening,” and he frets about the long-term effect on artistry. “It’s a sad day in the culture of music around the world,” he said of the widespread “devaluing” of music due to file-sharing.

Against that bleak winter backdrop, Whalley said, “Noël” has been a bright spot, thanks in part to a fan base that skews older (”These are fans who aren’t using peer-to-peer sites to download music for free or burning 25 copies for their friends”). He also cited the ambition of recording sessions by Groban and his Grammy-winning producer and mentor, David Foster, which also included the London Symphony Orchestra and several guest vocalists, among them Faith Hill, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and gospel star Kirk Franklin.

“People have fallen in love with this record, and they are inspired by it,” Whalley said. “It’s not your standard Christmas album. It goes beyond that . . . and I think it’s going to sell into January and well after Christmas.”

Source: Los Angeles Times

Classic rock acts like the Police, Van Halen and Genesis packed arenas in 2007, but it was Hannah Montana’s year.

Contentious or congenial, rock reunions were the hot tickets in 2007, as three high-profile band resurrections finished among the 10 highest-grossing concert tours of the year.

The Police led the way, topping Pollstar magazine’s annual ranking of the North American concert business. The trio’s reunion tour pulled in $131.9 million over 54 shows, coming close to the Rolling Stones’ $138.5-million take that topped last year’s list.

As much as the reunion of the three frequently bickering musicians had been eagerly anticipated, “I don’t think anyone, including the band, expected the Police to be as huge as they were this year, not just here but worldwide,” Pollstar Editor Gary Bongiovanni said Friday.

The return of “Diamond Dave” Lee Roth to the Van Halen fold in 2007 put that historically squabbling group’s tour No. 5 on the list, generating $56.7 million in ticket sales in 39 tour stops. And even though veteran British rock band Genesis played only 25 shows in North America, it placed No. 8 on the list with $47.6 million in sales.

Nevertheless, the tour that placed only No. 15 on Pollstar’s ranking was, by most accounts, “the hardest ticket of all to get last year,” Bongiovanni said of the “Hannah Montana”/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds tour.

The Disney Channel star generated sellouts at virtually all 49 shows she played and created near-hysteria among parents desperately trying to score seats for their preteen children. EBay’s auction listings were rife with offers of tickets commonly selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars for seats with an average face value of $54.16.

The tour wound up only at No. 15, Bongiovanni noted, because Pollstar’s rankings are based on face-value ticket sales, not real-world dollars generated through second-party transactions by individuals or ticket brokers, which are impossible to monitor.

The year also was something of a breakthrough for Justin Timberlake, who finished No. 3, with $70.6 million in ticket sales.

“Justin definitely got beyond the teen-pop/N* Sync image and the transitory nature of that audience,” Bongiovanni said. “That’s something Miley Cyrus will have to face at some point as well, but right now she’s on top of the world.”

Operatic pop singer Josh Groban, who as of this week has the year’s top-selling album with his “Noël” holiday collection, finished in the top 10 for the first time. His 2007 tour came in at No. 9 with $43 million in ticket sales from 56 shows. Last year, Groban didn’t even break the top 50, Bongiovanni said.

In the final year of Celine Dion’s long-running engagement at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the Canadian pop diva made No. 4 on Pollstar’s list, with $65.3 million. After last week’s final performance, she’ll be going back on the road in 2008 and “doing it the old-fashioned way,” Bongiovanni said of her plans to resume touring the world.

Country acts fared well, scoring four slots in Pollstar’s top 20 tours as finalized Friday. Kenny Chesney again finished near the top of the heap, at No. 2 with $71.1 million in sales. Chesney and the Police were the only two acts last year that sold more than 1 million tickets in North America, a sign of a measurable drop for the overall concert business during the year.

The Tim McGraw/Faith Hill husband-wife tour finished sixth, with $52.3 million; Rascal Flatts just made the top 10 with $41.5 million in ticket sales; and Toby Keith placed No. 19 with $34.3 million.

Given that all those acts have come into their prime in the last decade, as opposed to the classic-rock acts that dominate the rest of the list, “country music has been doing very well developing so many younger, fresher faces,” Bongiovanni said.

One other notable presence in the top 20 is Mexican rock band Maná, one of the first Latin rock acts to make the upper reaches of Pollstar’s ranking. The group sold $33.9 million worth of tickets over 46 dates, and while Colombian rocker Shakira has make the top 20 previously, “Maná’s a different case — they’re not quite the pop star she is,” Bongiovanni said.

On the other hand, he pointed out that the combined take for the top 20 tours is down 16% to 18% in terms of both revenue and the total number of tickets sold compared with 2006.

“This clearly was not the best year for concert business,” he said, “but it wasn’t a disaster year either, like 2000 or 2001, when the bottom of the business just dropped out. . . . And as the business has continued to push the boundaries with ticket prices, the margin for error gets greater and greater.”

Information is taken from: Los Angeles Times

While hits and misses parade in the spotlight, quality shines in the shadows.

‘YEAR-END roundups of bests and worsts are almost by definition hegemonic, tending toward the biggest, the flashiest, the most-paid-attention-to. Herewith, as a counterbalance, is a collection of noteworthy shows, performances and trends that almost slipped through the cracks, including mine.

“The Game” (CW): Earlier this season on “The Game,” which revolves around members of a professional football team and the women who love them, star quarterback Malik Wright (Hosea Chanchez) was being interviewed about his many possessions. “Hey, kids, remember this,” he gleefully offered. “You ain’t gotta sell drugs to live like you sell drugs. And that’s one to grow on.”

The scene was many things all at once — an indictment, a sendup, a wink, a knee-slapper, a peek behind veiled walls. It was both irresponsible and comprehensible, an inside joke and a grim stereotype. For a network sitcom, it was a remarkably nuanced and complicated moment.

For this reason and many others — that the show’s characters are primarily African American probably doesn’t help — “The Game” is the most underappreciated show on TV. Now in its second season, it is utterly modern and refreshingly direct. The writing is blunt and unaffected — not everything feels like a setup for a quick punch line, even though it typically is. And the show toggles easily between humor and pathos — there are serious subplots of steroid use, difficult black-white relations and infidelity — but it never feels labored. (By contrast, show creator Mara Brock Akil’s other series, “Girlfriends,” has descended into melancholy, with a miscarriage, prescription drug abuse and a deployment to Iraq. Both shows are executive produced by Akil and Kelsey Grammer. Yes, that Kelsey Grammer.)

“The Game” succeeds because it feels as much a part of the pop slipstream as the world it mirrors: the stratospheric rise of professional sports, the suffusion of hip-hop culture into all areas of American life and the increasing invasions into celebrity culture and the normalizing of tabloidism. When characters make a misstep on the show, they’re inevitably documented. After Malik’s suspect interview, his mother-manager, Tasha (Wendy Raquel Robinson), appears on a “Crossfire”-like sports show to devastating effect. And when Malik slugs a wheelchair-bound cartoonist who lampooned him for his comment, amateur video footage quickly hits the news.

At the end of last season, Melanie (Tia Mowry) learned that her boyfriend, Derwin (Pooch Hall), had been unfaithful to her. This season opens with a deserved slap . . . again, with camera phones snapping. Commentary is almost as important as actual events on “The Game.” (Cleverly, the CW sent out “Team Derwin” and “Team Melanie” T-shirts to promote the return of “The Game” in the fall.)

Still, even when mediated, the show’s moments have emotional heft, particularly between Melanie and Derwin. Mowry — she and her twin sister, Tamera, starred in the long-running sitcom “Sister, Sister” — has emerged as a dramatic force in her own right. And she’s sharpest when her character is angriest. Given to overacting and bugging-out eyes, Hall strikes the show’s only false notes — he’s believably immature but erratic.

The rest of the cast is sharp. Malik and Tasha are mother and son who look like they could be siblings, but there isn’t a hint of discomfort in their interaction. Jason (Coby Bell), the third player in the inner circle, is a spendthrift with a quick wit and a struggle with performance enhancers, all of which put him in deep with Kelly (Brittany Daniel), his wife.

Kelly is the only main character on “The Game” who is white, but the specter of racial divisions and misunderstandings provides some of the show’s funniest moments. When a friend tells Malik that the cartoon that’s mocking him is read by white people, he exclaims, “Oh, this is serious!” After Tasha deftly handles a crisis, a rival (white) agent deadpans, “You should be running FEMA.”

It’s a quick jab, but just the sort of not-fully-thought-out sentiment that smacks genuine. Equally convincing are the show’s music supervision — with hits by Soulja Boy and Shop Boyz — and its wardrobe styling, a study in Los Angeles moneyed casual. Even the guest stars are well chosen, a who’s who of young black America: rappers Lil’ Kim and Mike Jones, a hilarious turn from singer Musiq Soulchild, professor Michael Eric Dyson (”Don’t be a $40-million slave,” he admonishes Malik), comedian Mo’Nique, journalist Tavis Smiley and skateboarder Stevie Williams. In this respect, at least, the relative obscurity of “The Game” is an asset: There’s nowhere else on TV for these folks to come as they are. The show has become a sort of cultural speak-easy. When more people know about it, and when it knows about more people, it might only suffer.

Max, on “TMZ” (syndicated): Amid the committed cluelessness of show macher Harvey Levin and the near-sycophancy of his fellow reporters, the surfer-esque post-irony of “TMZ’s” Max is welcome and intriguing. His colleagues are honed cynics, but he, with his broad face and shaggy blond hair, instead sells childlike innocence about the ways of Hollywood. Levin often pokes at his limited reference points, but when you’re holding forth on Patrick Dempsey’s “goofy-looking Porsche,” what more do you need? As Mark McGrath of “Extra” encouraged him this year: Max, get your own show — your rad reports are too beautiful for this world. (Or, apparently, a last name — “TMZ” declined to provide it.)

Will Yun Lee as Jae Kim on “Bionic Woman” (NBC): As he was on FX’s “Thief,” Lee is a master of quietude here. Even his hand-to-hand combat training with Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan), the new Bionic Woman, is subdued and controlled. He’s shaken only when he comes face to face with previous model Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff), who can reduce him to shivers whether in bed or when he’s forced to put a bullet in her.

Amy Brenneman and Paul Adelstein as Violet Turner and Cooper Freedman on “Private Practice” (ABC): Rightly roundhoused by critics, the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff has been largely without heat, save for the fraught nonrelationship between Violet and Cooper. He loves her. She, hopelessly in her own head, won’t see it. Or more likely, can’t. When she propositioned him for an emotionless fling, he was thrilled. The moment she disrobed, he was devastated, knowing he couldn’t go through with it. That Brenneman was tapped for Dove’s real-women ad campaign, following Sara Ramirez of “Grey’s,” only reemphasizes one of the things Shonda Rhimes does well: boldly showcase unvarnished beauty.

Glenn Fitzgerald as the Rev. Brian Darling on “Dirty Sexy Money” (ABC): No one on television points quite like Darling — he uses two fingers, squeezed tight, and the full force of his forearm. The gesture is more than an insult — it’s an attack. The reason? “He is fueled by contempt. Contempt permeates every cell of his being.” Or so says Tripp (Donald Sutherland), his father, who we’ve recently learned is actually not — Brian is the product of an affair. Suddenly, his inability to gel with the rest of his family over three decades makes sense, and the humanity he’s lately been displaying, especially toward his son Brian Jr., feels like a beginning. Fitzgerald’s tightly wound physicality, his sheer weight of presence — even through the small screen, he betrays his strong theater background — is especially notable on this show in which characters can be frustratingly light.

Music, back on MTV: Sorta. Even though videos remain scarce on MTV, the channel has shrewdly developed a new avenue for showcasing music: specially taped performances and sketches that roll simultaneously with show credits, with a new artist rotating in every week. A few have been legit stars, but mainly they are acts who will benefit from the eyeballs: art-funk outfit Chromeo, agit-punks Against Me!, acoustic shredders Rodrigo y Gabriela, mouthy MC Aesop Rock.

Realists, back on reality television: There are always dissenters on reality television, but this year has seen several decidedly unfazed participants. Yale undergrad Victoria of “America’s Next Top Model” was deemed lippy for talking back to Twiggy when she was just, y’know, conversing. . . . After Trisha was booted from “The Real World” for striking Parisa, Isaac put things in perspective: “No one liked Trisha.” . . . Evel Dick of “Big Brother 8″ won the prize for honesty that bordered on brutality. . . . And finally, Brad Womack, the “sexiest ‘Bachelor’ ever,” reneged on the whole process in the finale and chose no one, Chopard product placement and the dreams of millions be damned.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Nicolas Cage adventure takes in about $45.5 million; Will Smith’s ‘I Am Legend’ and ‘Alvin’ do well as runners-up.

Nicolas Cage, Will Smith and a trio of computer-generated chipmunks are helping Hollywood end the year on a high note.

Cage’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” took in about $45.5 million to lead the industry to its second straight bang-up weekend on the eve of the potentially lucrative Christmas through New Year’s span, studio Walt Disney Co. said Sunday.

The big-budget, PG-rated sequel to the 2004 hit “National Treasure” drew “men and women, young and old — plus kids,” said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s motion picture group. “Usually you hear about ‘four quadrant’ movies but this one got five quadrants,” he said, referring to an only-in-Hollywood mathematical possibility.

Last weekend’s two surprisingly strong openers, Smith’s science-fiction thriller “I Am Legend” and the family-friendly musical comedy “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” placed second and third with $34.2 million and $29 million, respectively, at U.S. and Canadian box offices.

Industrywide ticket sales soared 36% from the same weekend in 2006, according to research firm Media by Numbers. Receipts were up for the second straight time after a five-weekend stretch of declines.

Four other major movies opened to mixed results.

Star power propelled two films to solid openings in the $9-million to $10-million range.

The political romp “Charlie Wilson’s War,” with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, ranked fourth. Fifth was the gory musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” with Johnny Depp. Both opened in the upper range of expectations.

But the romance “P.S. I Love You,” starring Hilary Swank, and the musical biography spoof “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” starring John C. Reilly, stumbled.

The original “National Treasure” opened to $35 million in November 2004 and showed unusual stamina, eventually grossing $173 million domestically and $347 million worldwide.

This weekend’s sequel, starring Cage as a treasure hunter probing new evidence in the Lincoln assassination, could be an even bigger blockbuster from producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

The picture got off to a strong start overseas. It opened to $22.3 million in 17 territories, mostly in Asia. With British actress Helen Mirren and locations in Paris and London, the follow-up was clearly aimed at the global marketplace.

“Treasure” could lead the box office through the end of the year, just as the Ben Stiller comedy “Night at the Museum” did a year ago.

That pre-Christmas release opened to $30 million and went on to gross $251 million domestically. Movies tend to hold up well at this time of year, thanks to school and work vacations that make consumers available.

Warner Bros.’ “I Am Legend,” last weekend’s No. 1 movie at the box office, is also racking up big bucks abroad.

Starring Smith as a plague survivor battling zombies, the film earned $25.3 million over the weekend from 15 foreign markets. Its worldwide total through 10 days reached $192 million.

“Alvin,” which 20th Century Fox says was produced for $60 million, held up well in its second weekend and will be highly profitable, especially considering its DVD potential. It dropped 35%, versus 56% for “Legend.”

The characters, created in 1958 as a novelty music act and also remembered from two animated TV shows, will surely be back in a sequel of their own.

Might the studio behind this year’s Christmas Day sequel, “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem,” combine two franchises again and concoct “Garfield vs. the Chipmunks”?

Universal Pictures’ “Charlie Wilson,” the true tale of a playboy congressman, a socialite and a CIA agent who helped Afghan rebels defeat the Soviet empire in the 1980s, was aimed at adults and reached them.

About 80% of the audience was over age 30, and nearly half was over 50 — a crowd that studios are increasingly wooing.

The $75-million production could end up grossing $100 million domestically if it hangs tough in the coming weeks, said Adam Fogelson, the studio’s marketing chief. The low end, he said, would be akin to last year’s drama “The Good Shepherd,” which grossed $60 million.

“Sweeney Todd,” a DreamWorks-Warner Bros. co-production that the studios say was made for a mere $50 million, skewed slightly older and female. The Broadway adaptation, directed by Tim Burton, has earned rave reviews but will be too gory for some tastes.

“Sweeney” and “Charlie” both would benefit from strong showings in the awards season. Depp and Burton are considered Oscar contenders, as is the scene-stealing Hoffman.

Seventy percent of the audience was female for “P.S. I Love You,” which grossed $6.5 million. The movie was produced for a relatively modest $40 million.

“Walk Hard” cost only about $35 million to make but Sony Pictures was disappointed in its $4.1-million opening, especially in light of the film’s enthusiastic reviews.

“We’ve got a movie that everybody thinks is really funny,” said Rory Bruer, the studio’s president of domestic distribution. “It’s tough.”

The competition at multiplexes will get only fiercer.

Along with “Aliens vs. Predator,” a sequel to 2004’s “AVP: Alien vs. Predator,” two other movies open Tuesday: “The Great Debaters,” a drama starring Denzel Washington, and “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep,” a Loch Ness monster tale.

Source: Los Angeles Times

We cast the story’s biggest roles, and wonder if Gerard Butler and David Bowie can also be lured to the set.

With the recent news that Peter Jackson is finally returning to Middle-earth, it’s not just fans of “The Hobbit” who are rejoicing. Just ask Ian McKellen or Andy Serkis. As Gandalf the Grey and Gollum, respectively, these two Tolkien titans are all but certain to return.

But what of the other characters up for grabs in “The Hobbit”? We took a look at some of the bigger roles available and picked our favorites. Following Jackson’s casting decisions for “Lord of the Rings,” we considered names that were known, but not necessarily big stars. Check out our choices below and then head over to the MTV movies blog where we tackle the big one.

Spoiler alert! Major plot points of the novel are revealed below.

Smaug

Book Says: The greatest dragon of his time, Smaug the Magnificent guarded over the stolen treasure of the Lonely Mountain. He is nearly invincible due to a belly covered in gems, and his numerous strengths include his immense size and barbed tail. He also possesses a penetrating gaze with the power to mesmerize. Haughty and hateful, he has but two weaknesses: his arrogance and a small, bare spot on his underbelly.

We Say: Smaug will clearly be a CG creation, either through motion capture or pure animation. But while his appearance will no doubt be spectacular, it’s his voice that should impress the most — conveying his intelligence, his greed, his great disdain for Bilbo, his love of possessing wealth purely for the purpose of possessing wealth. He thinks himself better and more worthy than any other creature, making his conversations with Bilbo a terrifying game of cat and mouse. He should be played by Jeremy Irons.

Alternates: Nobody does the sort of haughty disdain we’re looking for better than Irons … but as Lucius Malfoy in “Harry Potter,” Jason Isaacs comes pretty close. We’d like to see him out of the blond wig and into the red belly of the beast.

Thorin Oakenshield

Book Says: It is dwarf leader Thorin’s great desire for his birthright that sets the action of “The Hobbit” in motion. Although old by the time the novel begins (even for a dwarf), Thorin is nevertheless a capable and cunning leader. Quick to anger, his great weakness is a fierce and legendary stubbornness. He refuses until the very last moment before his death to see the error of his ways.

We Say: Anybody willing to go through the makeup to become a dwarf is already a hero in our book. But while Jackson ultimately has to cast 13 of them, they all flow naturally from the decision he makes with Thorin, on whose moral authority rests, not just the honor of his fellows, but the integrity of the story itself. The role will not suffer the indignity of anything less than strength personified. The actor cast, then, should be someone who doesn’t suffer indignities at all. Period. That actor should be Brian Cox. He’s of the right age, physical proportion and temperament.

Alternates: If physical qualities weren’t an issue (which is a kind way of saying, “If we weren’t looking for a stocky actor”), Ben Kingsley would make an ideal Thorin for all the same reasons as Cox.

Bard the Bowman

Book Says: A skilled archer from the town of Dale, Bard fires the arrow that fells the mighty Smaug. Described as somewhat grim of face, Bard is nevertheless a fair and wise man, who takes leadership of the town after the departure of the Master, ultimately becoming the king of Dale. He is the closest we get in the story to “LOTR” characters like Aragorn or Faramir, an Anglo-Saxon hero in the mold of Beowulf.

We Say: The role of Bard is the easiest and most tempting way to shoehorn a huge star — a man’s man like Russell Crowe or Christian Bale — into the production. Although he’s more of a straightforward good guy, lacking the nuance of representative men from “LOTR,” we’d nevertheless like to see Jackson cast an actor who could invest the character with the same type of soul that Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean did with Aragorn and Boromir. We’d like to see Jackson mend fences with Ryan Gosling, who left the director’s adaptation of “The Lovely Bones.”

Alternates: We said we wanted to resist the temptation to cast a big star. Is it too late for Gerard Butler?

Thranduil

Book Says: King of the Silvans, Thranduil leads the Elves of Mirkwood. He imprisons the dwarves when they trespass through his forest, and then demands a share of Smaug’s bounty once the dragon is defeated. He is described as having blond hair … just like his son Legolas.

We Say: If Orlando Bloom doesn’t come back for at least a background cameo, we give up. Naturally distrustful of dwarves, Thranduil can be spiteful and terse — but he still possesses the wisdom of his kin. Ideally, the actor cast would be somewhat regal, someone we believe capable of great power but also great benevolence. Ideally, that actor would be somewhat similar in speech and appearance to Orlando Bloom. Ideally, that actor would be David Bowie.

Alternates: Orlando Bloom’s old man? Yeah, Stellan Skarsgård has done that pretty well before.

Beorn

Book Says: Of immense size and strength, Beorn is a shapeshifter, able to take on the form of a large bear. He has a thick black beard, large shoulders and brown hair. A skilled and dedicated woodsman, he is most highly regarded for his animal husbandry. He keeps many intelligent creatures, of which he is fiercely protective. Fearsome and fearless.

We Say: If he wasn’t already known for similar work as Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” series, Robbie Coltrane would be a boffo choice. And yet, Beorn is so much more explosive, so much more kinetic than Hagrid, that he demands someone much more menacing. He demands someone possibly a little unhinged, who can go from gentle to ferocious at the drop of a hat. He demands Alfred Molina.

Alternates: The predominant rumor is that “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi will helm “The Hobbit” franchise. If he directs — and right now it looks like he might — well, you know what that means. Given the circumstances, he has to appear somewhere on our list. Let’s stick Bruce Campbell here.

Source: MTV 

I’ve just come across some funny things about music and musical stars, never heard of this before… Here:

Record-holder in gathering the biggest number of fans is “A-ha”. They managed to gather 195 000 people on their concert in Brazil. That was back in 1991. After that they managed to give 10000 autographs to their fans. I always thought that Michael Jackson or “The Beatles” were record-holders…

Speaking of Jackson – he is still convinced that all his problems have begun after a “Pepsi” commercial. A hot floodlight fell on him and burned his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.

Sting left “The Police” and started a new project because he had a bad dream. He saw a wonderful garden spoiled by thousands of blue turtles. He decided that it was a sign for him to leave “The Police” and create a new musical project.

In the beginning of his career, Elton John was put in the list of “The most bizarre dressed women”. Elton is still angry with the author of the list.

The most popular wedding music in the USA is a song of Whitney Houston “I will always love you”. In Britain this song is mostly used during funerals.

A new entertaining park for spies will be opened in Spain. Spyland (future name of the park) will become a part of Grand Scala. Grand Scala is a huge entertaining city that contains several luxury hotels, 32 casinos, 4 entertaining parks and numerous shopping centers. All side-shows in Spyland will be based on the history of world famous super agents. Everyone will be able to take a secret mission, feel himself a secret agent that is responsible for the future of his country. New top technologies and exclusive weapons will be able to use.

The creators of the park say that they were inspired by the Washington’s Museum Of Espionage. More than 3.5 million of people visit this museum annually so Spyland promises to be a successful idea. Spyland grand opening is planned in 2010. It is a great thrilling experience for everyone to become James Bond even for a couple of hours. The park was planned to be build in France and later in Dubai but only Grand Scala agreed to build Spyland as a part of its infrastructure.

Screen version of the world wide famous series of Hitman games has got an R rating and is full of violence and brutal scenes. So it proves to be a good successor of the game. Most people don’t like cruelty of such kind. But Hitman has to be just as good as a game is, so violence is absolutely necessary.

Agent 47: Timothy Olyphant
Nika: Olga Kurylenko
Mike: Dougray Scott
Yuri: Robert Knepper
Belicoff: Ulrich Thomsen
The creators of the movie said that they won’t make any discount to a possible age of spectators. Gamers who know the game should be satisfied with the work of director. There was a rumor that Fox Studios will cut some scenes of violence from the movie, but this fact didn’t take place. It proves to be a really thrilling film. I look forward to its premiere in my city. For a while you may see this trailer here.