September 2009 Archives

In case you missed it, Medium is back on Friday nights - now in it's sixth season. Last Friday's premiere had Allison coming out of her coma and realizing she hasn't had a psychic vision in a little while. But don't sweat it, the visions come back a little at a time as she returns to work.

The show stars Patricia Arquette as wife and mother Allison DuBois, who struggles with a hectic job, a family with three young children and her psychic ability to see clues from dead people while she sleeps. She helps solves the crimes against the victims by using her abilities to aid the authorities.

NBC dropped it from it's lineup last year, so the series went to CBS - without a hitch. it's a pretty cool show and it'll continue every Friday night at 9pm. Arquette is great as the conflicted lead character. So much so that she won an Emmy in 2005 for her performance.

So, when is it? Friday at 9pm on CBS.

Not only is The Hotel Cafe a great music venue, but look for several outstanding artists and bands playing during the month of October. Here are a few:

Schuyler Fisk - October 1 (tomorrow)
George Stanford - October 2nd (Friday)
Lelia Broussard - October 6th (Tuesday)
Andy Clockwise - October 9th (Friday)
Keaton Simons - October 16th (Friday)
(Simons has a song featured in several trailers for the Starz Network television series Crash.)
Brian Wright - Every Friday all month, except for the 16th
Sweet Talk Radio - October 20th and 27 (both Tuesday nights)
The Mornings - October 23rd (Friday)

Also, in early November
Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) - November 2nd (Monday)
Will Hoge - November 5th - (Thursday)

for more on the lineups at The Hotel Cafe, go here

If you're in Hollywood this Friday night, head over to The Hotel Cafe and give a listen to singer/songwriter George Stanford. He is a phenomenal talent, has excellent songs and a great band.

Stanford is from Philadelphia and has been in Los Angeles playing for several years. When I saw him the first time several years ago, he was playing with The Denim Family Band, who split up when two of the guys left - Stanford being one. Stanford then went solo and recorded his debut CD "Big Drop," which was released in June of 2008. He's been playing and touring in support of the album ever since, playing the Hotel Cafe and Crane's Hollywood Tavern several times over the past several months.

Several of the times I've seen him play recently, he was on the same bill as Truth & Salvage Co - which consists of many members of the no defunct Denim Family Band. Like Stanford, Truth & Salvage also got signed and they are now touring with The Black Crowes. They'll be playing Los Angeles with the Crowes in November. More on that later.

If you can, see Stanford play or get his album Big Drop. It's really good - particularly the title song, "30,000 Feet," "Downriver," "My Own Worst Enemy" and one song that's not on the album but still great, "Meet Me in Los Angeles."

He is also playing at Crane's on Wednesday October 14th

Hotel Cafe is 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood.
Crane's is at 1611 El Centro Blvd, in Hollywood/Los Angeles.

You can find the album on iTunes and Stanford's music page on Facebook and here.

Trauma - on NBC - debuts tonight at 9pm. Saw the pilot episode a little while ago and WOW is it intense. Cliff Curtis and Derek Luke (among others) star in the show that is a more action-packed version of the 1970s show Emergency!. There are giant action sequences in the pilot that had to have cost a pretty penny. Love the pilot but not sure if the cost of it is prohibitive in it getting viewers and making money. Good though. Curtis plays a maverick helicopter pilot who ....well, you'll see if you watch it. (I love that Curtis plays an American in this and he's actually Maori from New Zealand.) Curtis started his career in Once Were Warriors and has been in Training Day (as a Mexican gang member) and Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis.

Also tonight on CBS, How I Met Your Mother Episode 2 this season. I liked the premiere last week, but it wasn't a very strong start. I imagine it'll get better.

more later

Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman is the latest contestant to be kicked out of the competition on the Heidi Klum-hosted Project Runway.
In his several weeks on the show, he's either won that week's challenge or finished in the bottom two or three - including in last night's episode, where he finished in the bottom two after his sci-fi-inspired design.

He's not hurting for work though. He is the founder of Ra'mon Lawrence Designs and has three collections at the store Kohl's and he also designed actor James Francis Ginty's tuxedo and tie that he wore at the premiere of the film Surrogates last night in Hollywood.

Surrogates opens today.

Most young boys grow up watching the Indiana Jones and Die Hard movies idolizing the main characters and the actors who played them. James Francis Ginty also did that, but then he did what most people don't have the chance to do - appear in movies with both Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis before the age of 30.

After acting with Ford at age 21, Ginty now stars with Willis as well as Radha Mitchell, Boris Kodjoe and Ving Rhames in the sci-fi movie Surrogates, which opens today. The film is based on a graphic novel by Robert Vendetti and Brett Weldele and is directed by Jonathan Mostow, who has helmed Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines and U-571, among others.

The film is about a society of people who never leave their homes and live vicariously through sexier and better versions of themselves - called surrogates. After an extremely rare murder of a host and subsequent surrogate, Willis's character has to go into the real world as himself to investigate the crime and he eventually confronts a large population of robots.

Willis plays two versions of the FBI agent 'Greer,' with the surrogate wearing a comb over of blonde hair and is clean-shaven, while the 'real' version is the haggard-looking, unshaven, aged agent. While most surrogates look generally like their hosts and are approximately the same age, Ginty's character of 'Canter' is unlike most of the others - with Ginty playing a younger version and James Cromwell portraying him older.

For the part of the younger Canter, director Mostow cast Ginty obviously on his acting talent, but also on his varied arts background.

Ginty studied and performed ballet for seven years at The American Ballet Company, The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada. For his acting training, he studied at The American Drama Academy, The Royal Academy, Interlochen in northern Michigan and Julliard. All of that experience helped Ginty prepare for working on Surrogates.

"Mostow will pull whatever he can out of you," said Ginty, hours before the world premiere of the film in Los Angeles. "Doing this movie was an extraordinary experience."

As a filmmaker, Mostow tries to incorporate as many physical and practical action sequences into his films as he can, as does Willis as an action star/actor. Both of them encouraged Ginty to do the same throughout his performance, including doing some stunt work.

"There was a ton of practical stuff (real stunts) in the movie and there was certainly CGI also," said Ginty. "Bruce was a real mentor to me. He had a mentor playfulness about him. The whole cast was family through and through."

For the premiere of Surrogates at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Ginty teamed up with designer Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman of 'Ra'mon-Lawrence Designs,' who currently has three collections at Kohl's and appears on the Bravo series Project Runway.

Ra'mon - concidentally, a major sci-fi fan and an admitted 'Trekkie'- made Ginty a blue/black tuxedo with a combination sci-fi and an vintage-film look and both collaborated on the silver bow tie.

"I wanted a re-invented Old Hollywood in the tuxedo that was appropriate for him (Ginty), said Ra'mon. "The look has to represent the person as well as the designer."

Surrogates is produced by Max Handelman, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was written by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato.