4VF News – Daily News Channel

TV talent shows – and their value to the music industry – has been a point of debate for years.

Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl’s point of view is very clear: they’re not much chop.

“I don’t want my kid to think that the only way you can be a musician is to stand in line at a song contest audition,” Grohl told US media this week. “And then wind up having a bazillionaire tell you if you’re not a good singer.”

“To me, that’s not what music’s about,” he said.

Grohl is not the first musician to hit back at the TV talent show genre, for either its failure to deliver lasting talent, or for its shortcomings in nurturing emerging artists while exploiting them for television entertainment.

Sir Elton John famously said TV pop competitions had “killed talent”, while Sting, the former frontman of The Police, has described

BRAVE NEW WORLD By Aldous Huxley

Reviewed by Melissa Goode of Hamilton City Libraries

Though originally published in 1932 and observing a futuristic society, Brave New World has stood the test of time remarkably well. It is still an engaging and deeply unsettling read today, where dystopian fiction is enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity.

Intending to create the ideal society, where all the citizens are happy, without pain or suffering, this Brave New World has efficiently stamped out individuality, and eliminated messy ideas such as art, religion, love, and family. Humanity has embraced the idea of mass production, introduced by Ford in their assembly line creation of motorcars; indeed they revere Henry Ford as the founding father of their society.

Cloned humans are grown en-masse in hatcheries, raised according to their eventual function. They are programmed with societal doctrine from infancy using hypnopaedia – repeated messages to the sleeping mind – and shock treatment. Those destined for lower classes are stunted as embryos in their physical and mental development.

After many generations of this upbringing, the idea of living as a family is now completely repugnant. Humans are the complacent consumers they are designed to be, conditioned to “like their inescapable social destiny”. It’s the perfect world . . . or is it

In 1958 Huxley wrote a collection of essays Brave New World Revisited’ in which he points out the dangerous progression of our society toward the kind of nightmare vision he portrays in this novel. Indeed it is the plausibility that makes Brave New World so very sinister. However, it remains an entertaining novel, bleak yet darkly humorous.

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– Waikato Times

Carla Russell is the ultimate commuter. She lives with her husband and two children in Taranaki, far away from the colour and crowds of the New Zealand Art Show of which she is the director. Her work pulls her back to Wellington for a week every month and fulltime once the serious business of getting the show on the walls approaches. “In July and August I pretty much move to Wellington.”

The big commute makes sense for the 40-year-old. In Taranaki, the family can afford an idyllic lifestyle in a 1920s cottage with a big, flat lawn and a view of the sea and the mountain. More importantly her husband, Adam, fulltime dad and extremely keen surfer, is close to his favourite surfing beach. “Wellington,” Russell says, “just wasn’t doing it for him.”

The cottage and the lawn are a canvas for Russell, who has dutifully bought artworks from the show since its beginnings a decade ago. “I support it. Actually, I can’t help it.”

She has so many works festooning the walls and perched in the garden that she almost needs to catalogue them to remember who made or painted what.

“I spend about $600 per artwork. The average for the show is $650. That’s where I’ve been quite consistent from the first year.

“But the most expensive thing I’ve bought is a huge sculpture in the garden, a $5000 piece from Lower Hutt made out of aluminium. It’s kinetic and in three separate pieces and it’s huge and beautiful.”

Inside, among the treasures, a favourite is a lightbox installation. “You have to plug it in. It’s got fibre optic cables and they light up fluorescent blue. We turn it on when visitors come round.”

When the show opens with a gala evening at the TSB Bank Arena on July 25, Russell will have picked her favourites. Photographs are at the top of her wish-list. There’s no getting in before the ordinary punters, but she has the advantage of seeing the work first.

She buys for love, “but having a look around my house it’s pretty much a history of the show”.

“I don’t have enough wall space now and I have to put some away. My philosophy is, if you like it, you should buy it. Don’t buy it as an investment, and if one does turn out to be an investment, that’s fine.”

Russell has been associated with the show since the beginning, from when it was the Affordable Art Show and anyone who fancied themselves as an artist could put their work in a frame and have their belief confirmed. At its height, there were more than 1000 enthusiastic entrants. A decade on, says Russell, “We’ve learned it’s best to showcase quality artworks at affordable prices. We know we can only handle 3500 artworks.”

This year saw about 600 would-be exhibitors, with about 200 making the grade in the “general” category, allowed to show five artworks each. Selected artists have a wall-sized space each and can show as many works as they like.

Russell’s art show involvement began by happenstance. She’s not an artist and nothing was further from her mind than a career in art. Russell travelled until her mid-20s and then studied at Victoria University, leaving with an arts degree majoring in Mandarin.

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“I had a love affair with Asia.”

She taught English in Taiwan, but after four years knew she didn’t want to continue. “I wanted to live in New Zealand. As I got older, family was more important. I’d just turned 30 and was still single and wanted to settle down.”

Her return coincided with her mother, Frances Russell, having been to a Sydney art fair and realising there was nothing on that scale in New Zealand. “She had the idea and at the same time I’d come home and I said I’d organise it.”

A board of six or seven trustees was rounded up and for the first year Russell was contracted to put the show together. It was much easier than she had anticipated. Within three months more than 500 hopefuls had applied – “it was phenomenal” – and eventually more than 5000 people visited the show and one-third of the artworks were sold. In 2005, Russell was employed by the trust as executive director. “It’s gone from there.”

The New Zealand Art Show is on at the TSB Bank Arena from July 25-27.

– The Dominion Post

Frances Bean Cobain says Courtney Love taught her to “survive”.

The 21-year-old daughter of the Hole rocker and late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain took to Twitter to celebrate her mother as she turned 50.

Despite years of public turmoil between the pair, Cobain said she credits Love with helping her grow as a person.

“Happy birthday to my unorthodox/free spirited mother @Courtney thanks for teaching me to embrace creativity&survive,” Frances wrote.

Love re-tweeted the message, and several others wishing her a happy 50th.

The outspoken musician also took the opportunity to turn heads with a list of “50 obsessions I couldn’t live without”, published on xoJane to mark the milestone year.

“Let’s start with my favorite. And that would be: Sex. Obviously,” the star wrote.

“Frances” came in at number two on the list.

“My proudest accomplishment always makes me prouder. Her artwork is phenomenal, too,” she boasted of her visual-artist daughter.

“My fans. Thank you, every single one,” she listed at number three, followed by “Nostalgia. Particularly in musical form,” and “Good girlfriends” who “make life complete”.

Love also made mention of “dirty songs”, “headline-making cleavage”, “making reporters do their job better”, “fashion”, “perfume” and “epic kisses”.

Wrapping up the list at 48, she wrote: “Taking down those who take you down. With wit, style and penis jokes.”

But she didn’t miss the opportunity to self-promote.

Her clothing line, Never the Bride, came in at 49, followed by her upcoming book.

“Girl With the Most Cake, coming soon from HarperCollins, and no, it won’t be a kiss and tell,” she mused.

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– Cover Media

X marks the spot for Ed Sheeran on The Official NZ Music Charts this week, as he takes out the number one placing for both album and single.

Michelle Rodriguez has paid tribute to Paul Walker as Fast & Furious 7 wrapped.

The actress posed in the front seat of a car with Vin Diesel in a photo posted on her Instagram account as she gave a nod to their co-star, who passed away in a fiery crash while on break from filming late last year.

“Ride or Die through thick and thin 15 yrs later surreal to think we made it through such a tough painful production. But this ones for you P I hope we make you proud love you,” she wrote.

P love you (2/2) pic.twitter.com/Ea1rew58Jt

— Michelle Rodriguez (@MRodOfficial) July 11, 2014

The image followed moments after another showing members of the cast and crew raising their hands in the air as they gathered in the middle of a desert.
“Final day on FF7 an emotional roller coaster but we’ve wrapped most of principle photography one love to all those who stuck it through with respect,” the 35-year-old actress added.

Mad love to the fast crew for a labor of love & respect to a legacy that will live on long after were gone One Love pic.twitter.com/Muxy2MPMat

— Michelle Rodriguez (@MRodOfficial) July 11, 2014

Rodriguez’s messages also followed a touching note to fans posted earlier in the day on the film’s Facebook page.

“We made it. Today we completed the last shot in the production of FAST & FURIOUS 7. We wanted to take this moment to express how thankful we are for your support. We felt the love and strength from our fans throughout this journey, and it’s because of you that we got here,” the note reads.

The announcement also expressed everyone who worked on the action flick were devastated when Paul Walker died.

“Our family is big and strong but it won’t ever quite be whole again without Paul,” the statement continued in part.

“All of us — those who’ve been here from the start and those whose first FAST film is 7 — wanted to create a special film for him and for you. We believe we have.”

The action film is slated for release next April.

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– Cover Media