“Shelter dogs go show biz in 'Dalmatians' musical - Miami Herald” plus 4 more

Shelter dogs go show biz in 'Dalmatians' musical - Miami Herald
Who's that girl? - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Auto-tune a sound reason some songs are perfect - Rock Hill Herald
CUBA - When the school bell rings, does that signal the end of any ... - Times-Herald
Make My Day - American Reporter

Shelter dogs go show biz in 'Dalmatians' musical - Miami Herald

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 10:08 PM PDT

There are no divas among the cast of The 101 Dalmatians Musical, but plenty of stars. Take Rascal, the puppy with a broken leg who was rescued from the side of a road.

A late addition to the cast of more than a dozen dogs -- most from shelters -- Rascal has become ``the charmer of the bunch,'' said animal trainer Joel Slaven.

``I thought, `Just what I need -- a 4-month-old puppy with a broken leg.' But he was my guy,'' Slaven said. ``He goes out with the big dogs and he watches them. He's learning from them and he's like, `I can do this. This is what I was meant to be.'''

The shelter-dog stars of The 101 Dalmatians Musical got a second chance with a new home on a Florida ranch, a rock star-style tour bus, top-billed roles in a stage show, and, in all likelihood, a place in the audience's heart.

It's hard not to fall in love with these dogs -- any dogs, actually -- on stage, said lead producer Lee Marshall, whose track record includes shows with David Copperfield, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears, and Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde. But dogs are almost universally accompanied by humans and taking cues from them, which he said can take away a little magic.

For this show, which comes to Miami in December, the three-minute finale is all dogs -- performing what is essentially a song-and-dance act to a tune by composer Dennis DeYoung of Styx fame.

``It's just jawdropping,'' Marshall said. ``This is a choreographed number they do all by themselves.''

(It should be noted that in the bulk of the show, though, the Dalmatians are actually portrayed by actors, a la Cats.)

Slaven started looking for Dalmatians back in January using a network of shelters and rescue groups, who were, he said, hesitant at first to be his partners.

After the live-action Disney 101 Dalmatians came out in 1996 and its sequel in 2000, there was a rush on the black-and-white spotted dogs as family pets -- a role this breed is not necessarily suited for, Slaven explains. That meant a flooding of shelters a few years later, and canine rescuers weren't eager for that to happen again, he said.

``The toughest thing I've ever done is finding the dogs,'' he said. ``When the movies came out, they were overbred and that made the breed, which already has some health problems, even worse. People got the dogs, couldn't afford vet bills, found the dogs untrainable, or didn't get along with kids. Shelters, Humane Societies and rescue groups don't want anyone to use these dogs for entertainment, and they don't want to help someone who's going to do this again.''

But Slaven said he persuaded some that he would use the dogs' celebrity as a teaching tool.

``I knew we'd have to do it differently than the movie. We have to explain about the stars that, just because they're cute, doesn't mean you should get one for the kids tomorrow.''

The traits Slaven, who often trains animals for theme-park shows, was looking for in the dogs included stage presence and the ability to live in a pack, not things usually at the top of the list for families, he said.

``These are the outgoing, playful, confident dogs -- the dogs that aren't going to be happy laying on someone's couch each day,'' he said. ``They're the ones chewing and barking because they want to be doing something.''

He has given them plenty to do. Until last week when they boarded their tricked-out tour bus to head to Minnesota for final stage rehearsals, they were up at 6 a.m. at Slaven's facility in St. Cloud, Fla., for a walk and then they were off to a day of exercise, rehearsals, confidence-building classes so they wouldn't be fearful of any surfaces and the occasional drive on a flatbed truck so they'd be used to moving vehicles.

They also had ``fame training,'' including desensitization to lights, wheelchairs and noise. ``I've got a drum set going because we'll have a live orchestra at the show,'' Slaven said. ``We have jam nights and bring the dogs there and play with them. Everything is made positive for the dogs and everything they are trained to do is so they can have fun with it.''

Now that they are on the road, the dogs have two rehearsals, playtime in the afternoon, grooming sessions and, of course, media appearances.

Rascal, along with the 14 other dogs, will need to find permanent owners after the tour, which is slated to run through at least June. However, Slaven, who already has two yellow Labrador retrievers, has committed to bringing back to his ranch any dogs who don't find a home.

Until then, ``home'' is the bus. Kennels line one side (with living quarters in the rear for two full-time trainers), with a pet-care area for bathing and grooming. An awning pops up alongside the vehicle for shade and there are attachable pens for outside time.

``I've been in show biz my whole life. . . . This is a much easier way for an entertainer to travel than an airplane every night,'' said Lee. ``Showering on a bus for humans isn't the best experience, but I think it will be much more pleasant for the dogs.''

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Who's that girl? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 09:18 PM PDT

'Who needs Madonna anymore?"

That's what New York Times critic Jon Pareles told me with a smile immediately after we'd witnessed Pink's sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden this month. Was he being flip? Cynical? Serious? Well, he didn't use that line in his rave review, but one thing is clear in 2009: There is a new generation of female arena headliners who can out-Madonna the original for pop spectacle.

At Target Center last Sunday, 15,000 Midwesterners witnessed Taylor Swift and her starter kit for arena extravaganzas: an array of sets and scenarios, several costume changes, dynamic dancers and endless energy, plenty of reaching out and touching the crowd, oodles of personality and no lip synching. At 19, she's off to a terrific start. Madonna undertook her first arena tour at age 27.

While T-Sweezy's production -- with fan-friendly $51.50 tickets -- was hardly state of the art, Britney Spears, 29, delivered an over-the-top circus-themed spectacular with $900 front-row seats this year. Big props to her choreographer, director and designer for coming up with nonstop eye-opening, mouth-dropping movements, captivating settings (from cages to pole dancing) and imaginative teamwork that made the concert work without making Britney work too hard. And, yes, she didn't sing one note live. Aw, her fans didn't care a lick. They loved her immensely entertaining eye candy.

Still, she couldn't top Beyoncé, 28, who put on a bedazzling, bewitching, be-wowing spectacular that befit her divaliciousness. To be sure, her show -- a hybrid of Macy's Glamorama fashion event, video shoot, high-end commercial for beauty products and, oh yes, a concert with a $1,000 charity ticket -- was more flash than substance, a little soulless and short on personality. Still, it was a whiz-bang, crowd-thrilling evening that was more satisfying than Britney's similarly ambitious production.

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Auto-tune a sound reason some songs are perfect - Rock Hill Herald

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 08:35 PM PDT

Heresy, you say?

Hardly. It's how it's done in the real world.

The use of Auto-Tune, which was invented more than a decade ago, has exploded since Cher's "Believe" brought an electronic warbling effect into the mainstream in the late 1990s. While Auto-Tune is used today by artists such as T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West to create a similar effect, it is far more widely employed as a sort of singer's safety net that's meant to be invisible. But it's capable of far more. In the February issue of Time magazine, assistant managing editor and music critic Josh Tyrangiel called Auto-Tune "Photoshop for the human voice."

He wrote, in part:

"In a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if there's been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels, or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords."

But some artists are chafing at the high-tech trickery.

They say using Auto-Tune to stamp out even the smallest vestiges of imperfection is giving today's top-40 music all the uniqueness of a Pringle's potato chip. At the Grammy Awards earlier this year, Seattle-based indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie wore light-blue ribbons on their jackets to protest the use of Auto-Tune.

"Over the last 10 years, we've seen a lot of good musicians affected by this newfound digital manipulation of the human voice," the group's front man, Benjamin Gibbard, said. "And we feel enough is enough."

Ditto for Neko Case, an alt-country singer who, in 2006, said in an interview that Auto-Tune was, "for people like Shania Twain who can't sing."

She's a bit miffed at Madonna, too.

"Just hit the note!" Case said. "You can do it, I have faith in you. But don't leave the studio before you hit that (expletive) note!"

Case doesn't claim to sing any better.

"I'm not a perfect note-hitter either, but I'm not going to cover it up with Auto-Tune," she said.

Almost everyone else does.

"I once asked a studio guy in Toronto, 'How many people don't use Auto-Tune?' and he said, 'You and Nelly Furtado are the only two people who've never used it in here,'" Case said.

"When I hear Auto-Tune on somebody's voice, I don't take them seriously. Or you hear somebody like Alicia Keys, who I know is pretty good, and you'll hear a little bit of Auto-Tune and you're like, 'You're too good for that. Why would you let them do that to you?'"

Time's Tyrangiel said the tool is simply too good not to use. He quotes a Grammy-winning engineer:

"You haul out Auto-Tune to make one thing better, but then it's very hard to resist the temptation to spruce up the whole vocal, give everything a little nip-tuck," he wrote. "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box."

What do stars sound like without their audio backstop?

That was the subject of a YouTube posting.

In the video — blogs.nashvillescene.com/ nashvillecream/2009/03/ post_2.php — Britney Spears is heard singing weakly into a headset mic while a perfect pre-recorded Auto-Tuned track (what the audience actually hears) booms through the arena.

Then there's Ashlee Simpson, who was roundly booed during her tuneless performance at the 2005 Orange Bowl. Later, Simpson got caught lip-syncing on "Saturday Night Live."

Country crossover star Taylor Swift did sing live on "SNL." But she got savaged both by critics and the blogosphere for being out of tune.

Chuck Chapman, owner of Chapman Recording and Mastering in Lenexa, said you can't always believe your ears.

"We are kind of being sold a bill of goods," he said. "But we as consumers have to realize that that is what the marketplace is today. I'm not saying that's good or bad; I'm just saying that's reality. The responsibility lies with the artist or the producer. If they choose to fix a very bad vocal and pass it off as reality, then yeah, I feel slighted."

In the days before Auto-Tune, Chapman said, it was much harder for engineers to patch up pitchy singers. Oh, they still did it — by re-recording sections of a song, then patching in well-sung notes over clunkers. But it was harder.

Live performances, he said, remain the only true way to judge whether a singer really is as good as advertised.

But there are legitimate uses of Auto-Tune, he said, including creating sound effects and saving an otherwise great performance that's off by only a note or two.

If you're concerned about Auto-Tune, hold onto your microphone because there's a new piece of software hitting the studios called Direct Access.

"It's the most amazing piece of software I've ever seen in my life," Chapman said. "You can actually take a pre-recorded sound — any chord from any instrument — and this will break it down into individual notes so you can fix it. … Beyond fixing things, you can actually change the performance. It's staggering! This is going to be for the instrumental side what Auto-Tune is for singers. Over the next five years, I can't imagine this not changing everything that we do in the studio."

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CUBA - When the school bell rings, does that signal the end of any ... - Times-Herald

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 07:45 PM PDT

News:

Saturday, October 17, 2009 10:52 PM EDT

When do religion, schools conflict?

By Tyler Briggs
Olean Times Herald

CUBA - When the school bell rings, does that signal the end of any religious discussion?

This sort of question was examined during a seminar, "Legal Boundaries for Religion in Our Public Schools," presented by the Teaching and Learning Institute at North Park Wesleyan Church in Cuba Friday night.

The seminar was led by attorney Scott Dixon, an affiliate of Liberty Counsel of Orlando, Fla.

"Tonight is not about right-wing, Christian propaganda," Mr. Dixon said. "The reason I flew up here from Florida and braved your elements, was not because we at Liberty Counsel need more work. The reason I am here is we are the salt of life of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Every time we approach this, we honor our Lord and we also want to stand up for our rights. We want you to be equipped with what the truth is. Knowledge is power."

Rather than lecture on what is and isn't constitutional concerning religion in school, Mr. Dixon supplied all attendees with a workbook.

People were then broken into small groups to read about actual cases involving religion and schools. Later the groups discussed their opinions about those cases, and Mr. Dixon then explained what actually happened with each situation legally.

One issue raised was concerning a second-grader who brought in Valentine's Day cards with religious messages that were disallowed by the teacher, while other students were allowed to hand out Britney Spears or Harry Potter cards.

The judge ruled in favor of the student in this case.

"Schools can impose objective rules of order. That's perfectly appropriate," Mr. Dixon said. "When you single out a viewpoint, not you Christians, Jews or Muslims, now we've got a problem. The state is required to remain neutral."

Another issue concerned whether or not students can wear religious attire or jewelry. Simply because someone finds it offensive does not merit it being banned, Mr. Dixon said. The clothing must interfere or disrupt school activity.

"Did you know that we do not have a constitutional right to never be offended?" Mr. Dixon joked with the crowd.

Student religious clubs must also be treated the same as any other school club, Mr. Dixon said.

"Religious groups are given the same access as other non-curricular groups" to use school property, he said.

Prayer and Bible reading are allowed in public schools, Mr. Dixon said, as long as they take place during non-instructional time, which includes between classes, before and after school, in the cafeteria and on the playing field.

Teachers are a bit more restricted, as they are viewed by the court as state agents, he said.

"They cannot encourage or discourage prayer," he said.

But, when teachers are not functioning in their teaching capacities, they can do as they please.

They can also display religious symbols, like a Nativity scene around Christmas time, as long as they equally display secular items as well.

"It's often typical of the environment we live in that people are getting sued over saying a prayer at school," Mr. Dixon said. "It's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to lose hope.

"There is hope. You know where there is hope? It's in this room," Mr. Dixon said. "The point of us sharing information with you is to give you hope. Our hope tonight is that you wouldn't just walk away saying what a nice evening. Our hope is that you will feel a calling deep in your spirit."

Dr. Ralph Kerr, who served as the Olean City School District superintendent from 2000 to 2004, is president of the Teaching and Learning Institute Inc. of Houghton, which sponsored the event. He said the goal of Friday's seminar was to inform people of their rights.

"Our primary mission is to try and encourage people with strong Judeo-Christian faith to consider running for the local school board," Dr. Kerr said.

School boards, Mr. Dixon said, are the reason cases involving religion in school go all the way to court. Board members may not know or are intimidated by all the news coverage of legal challenges involving religious expression in schools, so they overstep their bounds with school policies.

Dr. Kerr's organization looks to get more people of faith onto school boards.

The religion in school seminar will be held in Rochester today. Dr. Kerr hopes to hold more events like it in the future.

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Make My Day - American Reporter

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 04:17 PM PDT

Make My Day
PARIS FOR PREZ
by Erik Deckers
American Reporter Humor Writer
Indianapolis, Indiana

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- It was the snit heard 'round the world. The snarky, scantily-clad video response that got pundits tongues wagging about something other than politics, at least until their wives saw them. Maybe its echo has faded from the news, but it still makes me wake up screaming in the middle of the night.

Paris Hilton says she's running for President.

The vapid blond heiress and star of "The Simple Life," announced her candidacy in a spoof video on FunnyOrDie.com. Hilton said she was running because that "wrinkly white-haired guy" - John McCain, for those of you emerging from under your rocks - used her image in a television spot against his opponent, presumptive President of the United States, Barack Obama.

"Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton, and I'm a celebrity too," she said without a sense of irony or shame. "Only I'm not from the olden days, and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot."

Oh man, this is really bad. I've always been a big supporter of third party candidates, but my one litmus test is whether they can even spell "candidate." And that they haven't starred in an Internet sex video/ I swear, if she wins, I'm moving to Canada with Alec Baldwin, unless he chickens out like he did last time. (Big wussy. The guy swore up and down he would move to Canada if George Bush became President, but we're stuck with him and his 17 brothers.) Still, I don't think she's got a real shot, so I'll probably be here for a while.

"But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which means I guess I'm running for President," she continued. Yeah, right. By that logic, since her boyfriend used her in that sex video, I guess that would make her a slut. . .

Uh, oh. This is worse than I thought! Do they get the NFL in Canada? Can I get the Dish Network to work up there?

"So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude, and I want America to know I'm, like, totally ready to lead."

Oh, good, as long as you're totally ready. I mean, we wouldn't want someone who was , like, only concerned about whether certain other world leaders are, like, hot, or whether the White House clashes with her outfits. She'll probably appoint Extreme Makerover's Ty Pennington the Secretary of the Department of the Interior to make sure.

"I'll see you at the White House," she concluded. "Oh, and I might paint it pink."

Looks like I've got a tough decision to make. Do I go for the big city or the small town? I've been to Toronto, and it's a nice city with a strong arts community. But if I lived in a smaller town, I'd be closer to nature and some really good fishing. Dryden, Ontario is gorgeous in the summer.

But even as I pace the floor and gnaw on my fingernails, I have to admit, her energy policy made some sense.

"We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight, while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way, offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which will create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved. I'll see you at the debates, bitches."

But then she, like, totally shot herself in the foot when she said she was considering Rihanna, the R&B artist, as her vice presidential nominee.

Come on! Rihanna?! Are you kidding me? Everyone knows she doesn't have the foreign affairs experience needed to re-establish the U.S. as a world leader. Plus, she was born in Barbados, so she's not a natural-born American citizen, which means she can't take on that role.

While some people would say Britney Spears, Hilton's fellow celeb and John McCain commercial target, is the emotional favorite, I think Cameron Diaz is the better choice. She can shore up the Hispanic vote and improve relations with Latin America. Of course, you'll also need Ashton Kutcher to head up the Department of Homeland Security (Hey Iran, you've been punk'd!). And what do you think of Scarlett Johansen as the Secretary of State... ?

Uh, excuse me. I don't know what came over me. If anything, I'm worrying too much about something that will never happen. Hilton is only 27, eight years too young to run for president, which means I don't have to worry about a global disaster for eight more years. But with her sordid past, I doubt she could even be elected dogcatcher of Putnam County.

Besides, I'm hoping Lindsey Lohan will be out of rehab and ready to run for Senate by 2016.