Jessica Simpson is ditching pop music and staying true to her Southern roots by sticking to country music.
The singer, who is due to release her first country album later this year, admits she enjoys the genre so much, she wants to focus the rest of her career on her new found musical direction.
She tells People: "I'm planning on making country (music) for the rest of my life, and I don't want to go back to that other world."
Simpson was originally criticised for choosing to sing country music after she slipped up during a performance of Dolly Parton's Nine To Five at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.
But the star insists she has won over the critics with her new single.
She adds: "A lot of people have listened to Come On Over and told me, 'I really wanted to hate it, but I like it,' (It's) a backhanded compliment, but I'm glad it's that way and not the other way around.
“I take a lot of pride in my talent and in the record I was able to put together. I'm not giving up."
If you've yet to hear Jessica's country 'talent', listen to it here.
Monday, 16 June 2008
Pilot Preview: TNT’s ‘Raising the Bar’ Perverts the Justice System
Courtesy of TNT
This week, Vulture's taking a look at the best and worst of the fall season's picked-up TV shows. Which are good? Can anything replace Cavemen? And, most important, what's worth a DVR season pass?
Title: Raising the Bar
Stars: Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell), Gloria Reuben (ER), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell)
Network: TNT, premiering in late 2008
The pitch: Everyone in the New York legal system is in bed with each other — literally and figuratively. If Law & Order and Melrose Place had an orgy with Ally McBeal, this would be the unholy offspring.
Pilot report: Idealistic public defender Jerry Kellerman (Zack from Saved by the Bell, with the Unabomber’s hair) lays it all out in the first act: “I’ve got a no-forensics rape case with a crappy family alibi and the A.D.A. won’t listen to a word I say. So in about an hour I’m going to defend an innocent guy in front of a crazy judge,” he tells his boss. Thanks for the exposition! But really, it’s so much more complicated. Kellerman doesn’t mention to his boss that he’s sleeping with the A.D.A. (Sagemiller) or that his best friend (Jonathan Scarfe) is a clerk for the crazy judge (Kaczmarek) with whom he is sleeping — despite the fact that he is actually gay. But then, he probably didn’t need to: Kellerman’s boss (Reuben) is, along with seemingly everyone else in the justice system, an old pal. Of course, Kellerman and his pals are too upstanding to allow their friendships to pervert the course of justice. Unless it’s for a really good cause.
Representative dialogue:
Michelle: What are you doing?
Nick [staring at Ernhardt’s cleavage]: Just daydreaming about a heart-healthy breakfast. Two perfect, swollen mounds of creamy white yogurt, each topped with a pert, succulent raisin.
Michelle: Have you even heard of a hostile work environment?
Nick: Santucci v. Sussman, 8th circuit, 1997: "Even unusually vivid descriptions of foodstuffs do not, as a matter of law, constitute harassment for purposes of a Title Seven claim."
Breakout star: If we were coerced by a detective to pick one out of a lineup, we’d go with pretty, gap-toothed Sagemiller, who somehow appears in three dimensions while the rest of the cast is stuck with two.
Worth a season pass? Maybe. As creator Stephen Bochco’s record (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) proves, The People love a legal drama. This one might even stand a chance, especially if it develops characters other than Kellerman, who comes across strident instead of earnest and crazy instead passionate. This is probably because Gosselaar’s sole method of conveying emotion seems to involve deeply furrowing his brow, an expression that, by the way, is taking its toll. Soon he’ll look like Alan Rickman. —Jessica Pressler
This week, Vulture's taking a look at the best and worst of the fall season's picked-up TV shows. Which are good? Can anything replace Cavemen? And, most important, what's worth a DVR season pass?
Title: Raising the Bar
Stars: Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell), Gloria Reuben (ER), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell)
Network: TNT, premiering in late 2008
The pitch: Everyone in the New York legal system is in bed with each other — literally and figuratively. If Law & Order and Melrose Place had an orgy with Ally McBeal, this would be the unholy offspring.
Pilot report: Idealistic public defender Jerry Kellerman (Zack from Saved by the Bell, with the Unabomber’s hair) lays it all out in the first act: “I’ve got a no-forensics rape case with a crappy family alibi and the A.D.A. won’t listen to a word I say. So in about an hour I’m going to defend an innocent guy in front of a crazy judge,” he tells his boss. Thanks for the exposition! But really, it’s so much more complicated. Kellerman doesn’t mention to his boss that he’s sleeping with the A.D.A. (Sagemiller) or that his best friend (Jonathan Scarfe) is a clerk for the crazy judge (Kaczmarek) with whom he is sleeping — despite the fact that he is actually gay. But then, he probably didn’t need to: Kellerman’s boss (Reuben) is, along with seemingly everyone else in the justice system, an old pal. Of course, Kellerman and his pals are too upstanding to allow their friendships to pervert the course of justice. Unless it’s for a really good cause.
Representative dialogue:
Michelle: What are you doing?
Nick [staring at Ernhardt’s cleavage]: Just daydreaming about a heart-healthy breakfast. Two perfect, swollen mounds of creamy white yogurt, each topped with a pert, succulent raisin.
Michelle: Have you even heard of a hostile work environment?
Nick: Santucci v. Sussman, 8th circuit, 1997: "Even unusually vivid descriptions of foodstuffs do not, as a matter of law, constitute harassment for purposes of a Title Seven claim."
Breakout star: If we were coerced by a detective to pick one out of a lineup, we’d go with pretty, gap-toothed Sagemiller, who somehow appears in three dimensions while the rest of the cast is stuck with two.
Worth a season pass? Maybe. As creator Stephen Bochco’s record (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) proves, The People love a legal drama. This one might even stand a chance, especially if it develops characters other than Kellerman, who comes across strident instead of earnest and crazy instead passionate. This is probably because Gosselaar’s sole method of conveying emotion seems to involve deeply furrowing his brow, an expression that, by the way, is taking its toll. Soon he’ll look like Alan Rickman. —Jessica Pressler
Juneteenth Freedom Festival
It's been 143 years since slaves in Texas learned they'd been freed from slavery. Unfortunately, that was two years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had officially freed them.
So was born Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Here in Seattle, Juneteenth is being celebrated with a three-day festival presented by the Central Area Chamber of Commerce today through Sunday at Pratt Park in Seattle, with at 2 p.m. Saturday parade from East Cherry Street to East Yesler Way, then on East Yesler Way to Pratt Park. Entertainment includes DJs and live music and dancing, featuring hip-hop and spoken word today and R&B and jazz Saturday. Sunday's "Church in the Park" Gospel Expo highlights local choirs, preachers and soloists.
Noon to dusk today-Sunday at Pratt Park, 18th Avenue South and South Main Street, Seattle; free (206-325-2864 or www.scacc2108.org).
Seattle Times staff
See Also
Libraries to create Shakespeare web resource
The Bodleian Library in Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC are to put all 75 editions of William Shakespeare's plays from before 1641 online.
The quartos are the earliest printed editions of the plays and are the closest to what Shakespeare actually wrote still in existence.
The project is intended to give the public greater acccess to the plays and downloading of the quartos will begin next month.
Online users will be able to compare and study the texts, which are the earliest sources for the 37 plays Shakespeare is known to have written.
"There will be countless new ways for scholars, teachers, and students to examine the quarto texts, particularly of 'Hamlet'," Folger library director Gail Kern Paster told Reuters.
"You find out all sorts of things - about how the copies went through the press, and also about the printing process," she added.
The quartos are the earliest printed editions of the plays and are the closest to what Shakespeare actually wrote still in existence.
The project is intended to give the public greater acccess to the plays and downloading of the quartos will begin next month.
Online users will be able to compare and study the texts, which are the earliest sources for the 37 plays Shakespeare is known to have written.
"There will be countless new ways for scholars, teachers, and students to examine the quarto texts, particularly of 'Hamlet'," Folger library director Gail Kern Paster told Reuters.
"You find out all sorts of things - about how the copies went through the press, and also about the printing process," she added.
Jamie Lynn Spears - Jamie Lynn Needs Help Naming Unborn Daughter
JAMIE LYNN SPEARS is begging friends and family to help her choose a name for her unborn daughter.
The 17-year-old sister of superstar Britney has confirmed rumours she is expecting a baby girl.
But Jamie Lynn and boyfriend Casey Aldridge are stuck picking a name.
She says, "We want it to be something special. That's something we haven't figured out yet, but I'm thinking hard. I'm working on it. No one has given me any suggestions. I wish they would."
Jamie Lynn also confirmed the couple are house-hunting, so they can bring up their baby in a home of it's own: "We're definitely looking because we want to give this baby the most normal life she could ever have. We haven't bought yet, we're still looking."
See Also
Sing-a-long-a-James Joyce
It's not every day you hear a pop musician admit to being inspired by James Joyce. But a new album features songs by 36 artists - among them Peter Buck of REM, Mercury Rev, Ed Harcourt and Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth - interpreting the writer's early poems. Called Chamber Music (James Joyce), and released this month on Fire Records, the album is named
after Joyce's 1907 collection of love poetry.
after Joyce's 1907 collection of love poetry.
Not all the contributors have produced romantic interpretations, however. "I wanted to do something different," says Harcourt. "I had the idea of shouting the words like some kind of mad preacher. I think Joyce was quoted as saying, 'I wrote Chamber Music as a protest against myself.' I like that."
See Also
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)