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(04/28/11 4:42am)
Have you heard of X-Factor? No, you likely have not, but that will change soon. Like American Idol, X-Factor originally premiered in the U.K., and follows a group of talented contestants through a series of auditions leading to fancy live shows where the fate of the hopeful stars is decided by a public vote. Created by former Idol judge Simon Cowell in 2004, X-Factor attempts to separate itself from other talent shows with big, flashy stage productions not only focusing on a contestant's voice, but on star quality as well.
(03/03/11 6:16am)
Working through the five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - can be an exhausting, traumatic and frustrating process, but on her second album, 21, Grammy-award winning songstress Adele forgoes the psychiatrist's leather couch in favor of singing through her heartbreak. Her feelings are messy, and one cannot help but sympathize for the girl as she treks towards acceptance by the record's end, but what a gloriously bittersweet ride it is.
(01/27/11 5:00am)
Drug use, heavy eye-shadow, hot pink tank tops, daisy dukes and a heavy Boston accent - these were just a few of the things that helped Gossip Girl poster girl Blake Lively break out of her typecast mold in last year's The Town. Rather than strut around New York or Paris with a designer handbag in tow, Lively inhabited The Town as a broken and luckless girl desperate for another life - and although not revelatory, it was exciting to watch a young actress handle a script so far from her perceived comfort zone.
(01/27/11 5:00am)
Amy Chua recently caused waves in the entertainment world when excerpts of her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, were published in The Wall Street Journal early in January. Among other indignities, Chua claimed that she called her two daughters "garbage," threatened to burn their teddy bears if they didn't practice piano and refused to allow them social lives. Most threateningly, her memoir plugged into fears that the "demanding Eastern model" of parenting is chugging out children more geared toward success in comparison to the "permissive Western model," to use the words of the Journal. Chua has countered her critics - who accuse her of everything from child abuse to a Chinese superiority complex - by claiming that the book is a memoir, not a how-to guide. Indeed, in the very lengthy subtitle, Chua describes the book as "a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old."
(01/20/11 6:10am)
Tonight marks the return of one of the funniest shows on television, NBC's Parks and Recreation, and we could not be more excited. Now in its third season, Parks has emerged out of its first season growing pains into a hilarious and refreshingly optimistic ensemble comedy.
(12/02/10 5:59am)
It's that time of the year. December usually signals an outburst of "Best of" lists, from books to albums to movies. But this December is a tad exceptional. It's 2010, which means that "Best of the Year" suddenly becomes "Best of the Decade," with media outlets scrambling to put together lists that reflect a hodgepodge of critical favorites, cult hits and box office sensations.
(11/18/10 5:36am)
Following the premiere of its fifth and final season a few weeks ago on DirecTV, I found myself dreading the inevitable end of one of the best television series of the past decade: Friday Night Lights. Set in the rural Texas town of Dillon and following the lives of a determined high-school football coach, his ever-resilient wife and all of the people they touched, Lights revels in the smaller moments that, when piled together, form a life.
(11/11/10 5:17am)
With How I Met Your Mother now well into its sixth season, Josh Radnor, who stars as Ted in the series, has experienced the ups and downs of a young adult trying to establish himself in New York.
(11/11/10 5:16am)
Very few places around the world have as much on-screen character as New York City - as the city that never sleeps, New York has a naturally progressive feeling, which often serves as a background for fictitious characters to drive themselves toward self-fulfillment and better relationships with those around them. Such is the case in Josh Radnor's directorial debut, happythankyoumoreplease
(11/11/10 5:15am)
The 23rd annual Virginia Film Festival, which ran from Nov. 4-7, drew a diverse range of films, speakers and presentations, culminating in the most successful festival yet. It shattered all previous records, in both attendance and sales, drawing nearly 24,000 people to watch more than 130 films.
(11/11/10 5:11am)
Whether she's walking the halls of the CIA, dealing with a foreign contact in a tense situation or preparing breakfast for her family, Naomi Watts inhabits Fair Game with a cool, steely-eyed demeanor that rarely breaks, even when surrounded by her collection of well-off Washingtonian friends at dinner parties. Watts perfectly embodies Valerie Plame, the infamous ex-covert CIA agent who was said to be exposed by members of the Bush administration following her husband's controversial op-ed contradicting the White House's assertion about Iraq's supposed purchase of nuclear materials from Niger. Indeed, Watts marches through each scene with a military-style determination that transcends the politics of the movie, creating an interesting study in character instead.
(11/04/10 5:42am)
If it's a day that ends in "y," that means another major role in an upcoming Hollywood film has been cast. This week, all the buzz is centered on director Baz Luhrmann's (Moulin Rouge) upcoming adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, The Great Gatsby, and who might play the pivotal role of Daisy Buchanan. The usual 20-something suspects - Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley - are, as they say, in the running, as are lesser, proven talents such as Blake Lively and Rebecca Hall, who were featured along Ben Affleck in The Town earlier this fall.
(11/04/10 5:41am)
It was clear from the start what kind of concert Miranda Lambert was about to put on for the crowd at John Paul Jones Arena last Thursday night. As the first song, "Only Prettier," began to play and Lambert strolled onto the stage dressed in all black with her hot pink guitar draped on her shoulder, anyone could see that this was not going to be a show full of dazzling effects or dramatic reveals. And the night was more enjoyable because of it.
(10/28/10 5:40am)
Set to hit the stage tonight at John Paul Jones Arena, country singer Miranda Lambert spoke with tableau about her current tour, her successes during the past year and life on the road.
(10/21/10 5:49am)
When stripped of all the glitz and glamour, barely a handful of popular artists today could hold their own on a colossal stage. When the latest chart-topper stops by John Paul Jones Arena, we expect pyrotechnics and big smoke screens, and it is acceptable - even perhaps expected - that the music may get lost in the show. Part of what makes Charlottesville a great place for any music lover, then, is the variety of places for different musicians to showcase their individual talents, just as The Avett Brothers did this past Sunday at the Charlottesville Pavilion.
(10/07/10 5:35am)
We here at tableau do not like to get political often, but sometimes the occasion calls. Much attention has been drawn recently to ABC's Modern Family broadcasting a kiss between its two gay characters, Cameron and Mitchell. There has been substantial praise for Family this year, and it solidified its place on television this past fall when it won the Emmy for Best Comedy. Throughout the first season, however, the show was repeatedly criticized for not featuring any noticeable displays of affection from its gay couple.
(09/30/10 5:23am)
Last Saturday, flocks of readers congregated in Washington D.C. for the 10th annual National Book Festival, which gathered dozens of renowned writers under white tents on the National Mall. The writers ranged from Suzanne Collins, author of the young adult phenomenon The Hunger Games, to Chilean writer Isabel Allende, from former First Lady Laura Bush to Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. Unsurprisingly, the festival's headlining name was Jonathan Franzen, whom Time has called the "Great American Novelist."
(09/02/10 5:14am)
When Tiger Woods, America's most famous and beloved athlete, crashed his car in his driveway last November and subsequently set off a firestorm of tabloid hysteria, his wife all but vanished from the public eye. That's no easy task in today's world of TMZ and the 24-hour news cycle, but Elin Nordegren pulled it off. Unlike Lindsay Lohan or LeBron James, who seem to feed off of media attention, Nordegren almost acted as if the spotlight were nonexistent. That is, until Aug. 25, when People magazine unveiled its first September issue, with Nordegren's model face quietly smiling on the cover with the headline, "My Own Story." One must ask: With the court of public opinion already on her side, what is the point?
(04/29/10 5:48am)
As illuminated by February's e-book pricing battle between Amazon.com and book publisher Macmillan, the future of the book industry is moving away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores and into Internet-based sellers. This may seem fairly obvious - today, nearly everything is going digital - however, it is interesting to note that contemporary writers are likewise entering the online realm.
(04/22/10 5:40am)
Why do bad things always happen to great television shows? That's the question I asked myself when I recently read that the popular channel, FX Networks, may be forced to cancel one of its marquee shows, Damages, because of rising production costs. Sadly, it is common law in TV land that as shows age, they become more expensive. Actors, writers and producers ask for more money as their shows gain recognition, and in the case of a critical hit like Damages, their demands seem legitimate. The other side to the television business, however, is whether the show is attracting enough viewers - and subsequently advertising revenue - to maintain production. But at what point do you sacrifice art for profit?