| Celebrate Pop Culture and Comics LIVE on Fanboy TV
DALLAS, TX -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/12/07 -- The life and history of pop culture comes to you LIVE, through Fanboy TV Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 7:30-8:30 p.m. CDT in an exciting review of the latest comic books, movies, books, toys and more. Meet the talent and minds behind some of the most popular publications; the show is accessible via Instant Message and phone during the LIVE episodes at www.fanboy.tv. Samax Randolph and Rick Remender are the featured guests for this Thursday's show. Randolph is the artist and writer behind the Champion of Children, Manchild and Dare. Remender's creations include Fear Agent, Strange Girl, Captain Dingleberry, Black Heart Billy and more. Remender has penciled issues of widely acclaimed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and various other comics, and also worked in animation on several movies including The Iron Giant.
After 30 years of FESTAC: A flashback......
Thirty years ago, a congregation of about fifty-nine countries gathered in the city of Lagos to celebrate the best of the continent's art and culture. This article revisits that epoch- making cultural fiesta and examined in very brilliant terms the gains and losses deriving from that cultural show. ROUGHLY thirty years after the epoch-making cultural and artistic shortcoming cum renaissance tagged FESTAC 77, a revisitation of the Nigerian artistic environment precipitates an interesting admixture of feelings and reactions. Within the myriads of possible denotations, certain questions plague an average Nigerian mind: can it really be said that, the much hyped event has really spurred the Nigerian, and indeed, African people into the advocated artistic and cultural consciousness? Has the qualitative tempo of cultural and artistic alertness suggested and possibly inaugurated by that carnival been significantly sustained going by current trends in the culture-artistic arena? Have the Nigerian art and culture advanced to the level of marketability, even up to the status of a foreign exchange earner so eloquently anticipated by such an indefatigable melting pot? To what extent has the battle to swing the cultural and artistic pendulum, and with a spirit-lifting degree of patriotic zeal too, to a kind of distinct Nigerianness that will indicate originality, authenticity, independence and a decolonized mentality? What has the temperament of government in the promotion of art and culture been like since that memorable 1977 meet? Our attempts to provide objective answers to each of these questions constitutes the thrust of this article.
Briefly: Dance theater to present ‘Fairytales’
A repertory dance theater production of Modern Fairytales will be presented at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday on the Center Stage of the Performing Arts Center at St. Cloud State University. Modern Fairytales will feature two new epic fairy tales, Beauty White and Alices Parts. Beauty White is a modern dance about a young girl and temptation, complete with apples and falling snow. Alices Parts takes a pop culture view of a classic tale, emphasizing the coy aspects in Alices encounters. Artistic directors are April Sellers and Tracy Vacura. The universitys department of theater, film studies and dance is sponsor for the event. The performances are free. For information, contact Adam Raine at 282-0349 or raad0402@stcloudstate.edu. .
HarperCollins on board with Sharkey
Lisa Sharkey, the former "Good Morning America" producer selected by HarperCollins to fill the shoes of Judith Regan, has tapped several editors from Regan's former imprint to join her staff. ReganBooks longtimers Maureen O'Brien and Doug Grad were named executive editor and senior editor, respectively, of HarperCollins' Creative Development Team, headed by Sharkey. Also named was editor Matt Harper, who reports to Sharkey, and associate editor Stephanie Fraser, who reports to O'Brien and Grad. In the wake of Regan's acrimonious departure from HarperCollins, the publisher shuttered her West Coast publishing operation and offered jobs to many of her former employees in New York. HarperCollins tapped Sharkey to head its newly created Creative Development Team to aggressively chase pop-culture and ripped-from-the-headlines tomes to farm out to various HarperCollins imprints.
Commentary: Hip-Hop Must Brave Twin Assaults
Even though the tragedy at Virginia Tech has chased the Don Imus uproar off the front page and cable-TV screens, some of those who led the successful campaign to expel the crotchety shock jock from the airwaves aren't ready to let the issue fade. They have already set their sights on a new target: hip-hop music. Emboldened by compelling Imus' corporate masters to finally cut him loose, many seek to continue the fight and exorcise those that they blame for popularizing racism and misogyny in other pop culture arenas. The Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the most outspoken advocates for Imus' dismissal, told CNN that the entertainment industry is on his radar screen. "It would be wrong if we stopped here and acted like Imus was the only problem. There are others that need to get this same message," Sharpton was quoted as saying on CNN.com .
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