Posts Tagged ‘space’

Jesse McCartney

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Jesse McCartneyJesse McCartney was born on the 9th of April 1987 in Ardsley New York. At the age of seven he was performing in musicals and at ten he had joined the national tour of The King and I. At 11 he moved to Los Angeles to become and actor and singer. After performing in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden McCartney landed a role on ABC’s soap Opera, All my Children, playing Adam Chandler Junior. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his role.

McCartney joined the boy band Dream Street in 1999, a group that earned a gold record with their debut CD. They broke up on tour in 2002. At just 15 he began his solo career with a local band. His debut full-length solo album, Beautiful Soul, took two years to make and was released in September 2004. The album featured four songs which were co-written by McCartney. His album later went on to achieve platinum status, selling over 5 million albums. His first solo tour with the same name as his album was launched in May 2005. It featured fifty six stops and a new band.

McCartney’s second album was released in September 2006. The title track, Right Where You Want Me, was again co-written by McCartney as were all the other tracks on the album. He did not launch a second tour because his record company, Hollywood Records, was not supporting it.

In 2007 McCartney appeared in two Disney Channel shows, Hannah Montanna and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, as himself.

Jesse McCartneyIn 2007 he was featured as Theodore in “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. In 2008 McCartney lent his voice to Jojo McDodd, in the Jim Carry and Steve Carell animated feature, Horten Hears A Who!.

In May 2008, a full year and a half after his second album, McCartney released his third album – Departure. This was his first R&B album. He joined Jordin Sparks on a co-headlining tour for the length of August 2008 to promote his new album.

But there is more to Jesse McCartney than singing and acting. He also writes songs for other artists. Hit songs. In 2007 he co-wrote the hit song “Bleeding Love” for Leona Lewis’s debut album, Spirit. His version of the song is on some editions of his Departure album. He has also co-written for Venessa Hudgens’ album Identified. Simon Cowell has hinted at McCartney and David Cook, winner of American Idol 2008, working together on Cook’s debut album.

McCartney told the Associated Press, “I certainly knew there was going to be some shock value. Musically, I definitely took a risk; I took a chance. I wanted to do something new. But it was also something that I knew I was comfortable with, and so I’m really happy”

McCartney has supported various charities and charity events throughout his career including “Come Together Now”, “Little Kids Rock”, “Kids for a drug free America”, “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital”, “SPACE”, and “City of Hope Cancer Centre.”

Wall•E

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Pixar is up to its old tricks again by pulling off the craziest and most daring thing I have ever seen in animation. They have made us believe toys could be real, taken us to worlds of monsters and cars, and made us fall in love with ants, fish and a rat. This year they are taking us into the future and through space with WALL•E.

WALL•E, or Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, is the last of his kind. Stranded on our earth long after all humans abandoned it due to extreme pollution. He spends his days neatly sorting the trash into giant towers and collecting little tit-bits that interest him as his trusty pet cockroach follows him everywhere. That is until EVE arrives. A slender and many have said iPod looking bot, sent to earth to see if life is sustainable again. Our hero WALL•E immediately falls head over heals for her, but when EVE finds what she is looking for she is called back to the Axiom space station to inform the humans of life on the trash filled earth. WALL•E follows her and his journey through space begins.

Now the really groundbreaking news is that the movie has no dialog besides robotic beeps for the first half an hour of the movie. And even from there the dialog is extremely limited. Although it is pulled off in a spectacular fashion many movie goers may be slightly annoyed by the extreme lack of dialog. Although it provides for a breakthrough in storytelling it may keep a chunk of movie goers at a distance, creating one major movie flaw. As amazing as it is to see movies as art, if the viewer can’t appreciate the art, it has been wasted.

With that in mind, Pixar have managed to pull a beautifully executed love story together, along with adventure, sci-fi, and slap stick comedy. Neatly packaged in the robot whose cute eyes and zest for life will melt even the hardest of hearts. It’s a movie that caters for kids and those who can only see surface deep, but more excitingly it caters for those who see deeper. It challenges our product saturated, over indulging, over polluting ideals. It premieres a love story that grows and blossoms as in the most classic films and takes us into a future that is not only extremely fun but visually amazing.

What worries me, although it’s hard to judge such bold and innovative story telling, is that I don’t know if movie goers are ready for a movie of this calibre, although I may be underestimating how adaptable most movie goers are. If you see this movie for the first time and it just didn’t sit right with you, watch it again there is so much to experience if you just forget about the limited dialog.

8/10

——————-

As a side note, the Pixar short before the movie is one of the most hysterical pieces I have seen. The piece shows a magician and his rabbit that is desperate for his carrot. What follows is fast paced slap stick humour that only Pixar can achieve. It is nothing short of brilliant.