Roger Ebert, the first film critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, has passed away. Ebert bravely battled cancer for years, continuing to use the Internet to write and discuss movies. His website and Twitter accounts were active until the very end, and he even wrote a post yesterday, explaining how his medical condition was going to require him to cut back and take a “leave of presence.” But even while explaining his medical limitations, in that post he promoted the April 9 launch of a redesigned website. So even though he has not hosted a TV show in a long time, we will miss his presence in our everyday lives.
For many of us growing up in the 1970s, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel taught us how to think about and discuss movies on a deep level. While we may not have always agreed with Ebert and/or Siskel, who passed away in 1999, they always made us think, which is the best thing a critic can do. I loved their shows Sneak Previews and At the Movies, and in later years I loved reading Ebert’s articles online. His well-written books on The Great Movies led me to discover a number of classic films, not alone, but with the guidance of a trained master. A year ago, he provoked discussion when he wrote an article about his rankings of the top ten movies of all time, some of which I had discovered through his earlier writings.
In the video below, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel review one of the classics, Goodfellas (1990).
Ebert closed his final post with his sign off, “I’ll see you at the movies.” I will miss his movie reviews, but the truth is that having seen and read so many of his reviews, his intelligent voice already affects the way we watch any movie today, tomorrow, and in the future. So we will still be seeing him at the movies, where we will give him two big thumbs up.
What is your favorite Roger Ebert review? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 2004, I discovered the debut self-titled album from country singer Julie Roberts. It’s traditional sound stood apart from much of the mediocre music that comes out of Nashville. I particularly liked her version of “Break Down Here,” and it is one of my favorite country songs of the last decade.
Check out her song “Break Down Here” below.
I liked the album so much that when her next album, Men and Mascara (2006) came out two years later, I picked it up when I saw it at a Tower Records going out of business.
While the second album never grabbed me as much as her debut album, it was a solid sophomore effort. And I particularly liked the title track.
While Roberts generally recorded songs from other artists on her first two albums, she showed a good taste for music and a talent for interpretation, choosing songs by people such as the talented Julie Miller. The first album, Julie Roberts, had good sales and reviews, leading to national TV show appearances and nominations from the Academy of Country Music and a CMT Awards breakthrough artist nomination.
Her follow-up CD, Men and Mascara, did moderately well but was not as successful. It was a rough time for the music industry overall, and a few years later her record company Mercury Records dropped her. While I had wondered what had happened to Roberts, I did not know until being surprised while watching an episode of The Voice this week.
The years since her breakthrough debut album have not been kind to Julie Roberts. She has failed to surpass or even reclaim the success of her first album, even though she self-released another try in 2010. A 2010 flood in Nashville ruined her home and belongings. And then she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while she was making her second album.
Which brings us to this week on The Voice, where Roberts hoped for a second chance in her career, much like the winner of season three, Cassadee Pope, did when she auditioned. While it was great to see Roberts again, she appeared not as a guest performer but as a contestant, singing for the four judges who face away from contestants and only opt to turn around if they choose to keep the singer on the show as part of their team.
Roberts selected a song by one of the judges she knew during better times, Blake Shelton’s “God Gave Me You.” As she sang, she hoped Shelton or at least one of the judges would hit the button on their chair to give her and her career a new chance. [2016 Update: Unfortunately, The Voice video segment with Julie Roberts is no longer available.]
Ultimately, none of the judges turned their chair around for Roberts, and Blake Shelton felt especially bad after he recognized the singer he had just rejected. Roberts probably made a mistake singing a song recorded by one of the judges because the judges can be more picky when they think a contestant is trying to win them over with the song selection, especially when it is a song with personal meaning to the judge.
Roberts does much better on other songs. And she probably would have been selected had she sang a song like “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which is available along with other stripped down “Naked” recordings on her website.
This week, Julie Roberts released a statement on her website about her experience on The Voice. In it, she notes that the rejection “was heartbreaking for me on many levels but I believe with all my heart that God has other plans for my life that He is working on behind the scenes for me right now.” The good news is that she plans to record new music and head back out on the road. We wish her well with her life, her health, and her career.
[July 2013 Update: After her TV appearance, Julie Roberts signed a record contract with Sun Records and will release an album in October 2013. As of 2022, she is still releasing new music with a new album Ain’t In No Hurry.]
What is your favorite Julie Roberts song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Tribeca Film released the new trailer for Greetings from Tim Buckley (2013), the upcoming film about Jeff Buckley, the singer-songwriter who died in 1997 at the young age of 30 in an accidental drowning. The movie, which is directed by Dan Algrant and stars Penn Badgley of Gossip Girl fame as the singer, focuses on Jeff Buckley’s career breakthrough when he performed at a tribute show for his father, musician Tim Buckley.
Greetings from Tim Buckley will be in theaters on May 3. But if that is not enough Buckley for you, two other movies about Jeff Buckley will be coming out soon too: A Pure Drop (directed by Brendan Fletcher) and the “official” bio-pic Mystery White Boy (executive-produced by Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert). The three movies are a time for Jeff Buckley fans to sing “Hallelujah.”
Do you plan to watch all three Jeff Buckley movies? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Patty Griffin will release her seventh album American Kid (2013), her first with record company New West, on May 7. Below is “Ohio,” the first single from the upcoming album. The song, like the folk song “Banks of the Ohio,” is about the river more than the state. But unlike the old murder ballad, Griffin’s dreamlike song is about the Underground Railroad and people escaping slavery to go north.
The Ohio River borders the southern border of what was then the free state of Ohio, and it is estimated that 40,000 escaped slaves went through the Underground Railroad in Ohio to escape to freedom in Canada. Griffin has explained that her song “Ohio” was inspired by something she read “in a Toni Morrison novel” a few years ago. Based on the lyrics, my guess is that she is referring to Morrison’s Beloved. Check it out.
That voice you hear accompanying Griffin (and the man you see in the video) is legendary Led Zeppelin front-man Robert Plant. Griffin helped on Plant’s Band of Joy album, and Plant here also helped arrange “Ohio.” Luther Dickinson (guitar) and Cody Dickinson (drums) from North Mississippi Allstars also perform on the album.
American Kid features songs inspired by Griffin’s father, who passed away in 2011. As someone who has every one of Griffin’s CD’s, I look forward to this new one.
What do you think of “Ohio”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Last night, as The Tonight Show went into Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, viewers were treated to a duet by Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon. Amid all the rumors about Jimmy Fallon replacing Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, the two hosts got together via phone to address the issue by singing a variation on “Tonight” from West Side Story.
[February 2014 Update: The video of the entire duet is no longer available from NBC, so below is a story about the segment that features a short clip of the duet.]
Reportedly, Fallon came up with the idea and after Leno agreed to do the bit, some of the Late Night staff flew to California to tape the Jay Leno part.
April 3, 2013 Update: NBC has confirmed that Jimmy Fallon will replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show starting after the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Who is your favorite late night host? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Roger Ebert, the first film critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, has passed away. Ebert bravely battled cancer for years, continuing to use the Internet to write and discuss movies. His website and Twitter accounts were active until the very end, and he even wrote a post yesterday, explaining how his medical condition was going to require him to cut back and take a “leave of presence.” But even while explaining his medical limitations, in that post he promoted the April 9 launch of a redesigned website. So even though he has not hosted a TV show in a long time, we will miss his presence in our everyday lives.
(2013), her first with record company 
. Check it out.