Winnipeg Free Press - September 17/09
This Is It
SCREENED for the first time during the MTV Music Video Awards last Sunday, This is It is a new film about Michael Jackson and his preparations for what would have been his sold-out 50-show comeback at London’s O2 arena. It will hit theatres nationwide on Oct. 28.
Put together from over 100-plus hours of HD video that was shot over three months as the King of Pop rehearsed for his last series of concerts and fully approved by Jackson’s estate, the documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off the type of show Jackson was hoping for, along with giving fans a rare opportunity to see the singer’s final days before his tragic death on June 25. Beginning Sept 27, tickets for the limited two-week engagement of the film go on sale.
Bicycle Diaries
IF the recent success of the local Ciclovia event last Sunday and the push for more cycling paths is any indication, we Winnipeggers probably love our bicycles as much as David Byrne does.
For the past 30 years, the musician/artist/author has used his bike as his main mode of transportation. In his new book, Bicycle Diaries, Byrne “explores what it’s like to see the world on two wheels.”
Along with documenting his life in the Big Apple and his travels across the U.S. on bike, he offers insight on what it’s like to see Berlin, Istanbul, London and other major cities as a cyclist.
“This point of view — faster than a walk, slower than a train, often slightly higher than a person — became my panoramic window on much of the world over the last 30 years, and it still is. It’s a big window and it looks out on a mainly urban landscape. (I’m not a racer or sports cyclist.) Through this window I catch glimpses of the mind of my fellow man, as expressed in the cities he lives in” writes Byrne.
“Cities, it occurred to me, are physical manifestations of our deepest beliefs and our often unconscious thoughts, not so much as individuals, but as the social animals we are. A cognitive scientist need only look at what we have made — the hives we have created — to know what we think and what we believe to be important, as well as how we structure those thoughts and beliefs. It’s all there, in plain view, right out in the open; you don’t need CAT scans and cultural anthropologists to show you what’s going on inside the human mind; its inner workings are manifested in three dimensions, all around us.”
The book will be available in stores on Monday.
ALTHOUGH there is no Canadian release date (it will premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin), a new indie film, Paranormal Activity, is already being called “this generation’s Exorcist ” and has been compared to The Blair Witch Project and J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield. Focusing on a couple who set up cameras in their house because they believe it to be haunted, this lowbudget psychological thriller is already generating a lot of buzz online. Along with the trailer, Twitter is being used for a viral marketing campaign to crowdsource things that have made people scream. If you’re a participant on the social-networking site, you can follow the feed by adding@TweetYourScream or you can visit Twitter.com/ tweetyourscream.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 17, 2009 E3
