Mandatory News

Monday, February 9, 2015

Nauset Graduate Pop Sensation Meghan Trainor Destined To 'Leave A Legacy'

BOSTON (CBS) With her number one 1 hit, All About That Bass, Meghan Trainor may seem like an overnight pop sensation. But at Nauset Regional High School, many people saw firsthand her years of passion for singing and songwriting.

She was a good student, very tenacious. She knew what she wanted and she went after it, says Tom Faris, Meghans music teacher at Nauset Regional. She was a student here then she would go home in the afternoons and spend hours and hours just crafting songs.

The walls in Faris classroom now document Meghans rise to stardom, from local newspaper clippings to her Billboard Magazine cover. Meghan was born in Nantucket but her family sent her and her two brothers to school on Cape Cod.

Heres a kid that you knew as a freshman in high school and is now on the world stage. Its pretty spectacular, says Faris.

Throughout high school Meghan was part of the jazz band. Her senior year she was voted most likely to leave a legacy. And next to her senior photo is the John Lennon quote Count your age by friends not years.

I think everyone always kind of knew what her dream was. I dont know if everyone realized it actually would happen so quickly, says Emily Faris who graduated with Meghan in 2012. Emily was part of the jazz band with Meghan, it was really fun singing with her because she just has so much confidence when she sings.

And that confidence inspired many classmates well before she had a hit song on the radio. Its just very cool. Its like anyone can do anything if they set their mind to it, says Eliza Fitzgerald, a junior at Nauset Regional. It was a really kind of a uniting feeling on the Cape to have this connection to this huge star now, explains Karli Herwig, also a junior.

Right after graduation Meghan packed up and moved to Nashville to pursue her dream of singing and songwriting. Meg was her own person. She kind of knew what she wanted to do and you didnt get in the way of Meg, says her former guidance counselor Brian White. The gamble paid off. In May Rascal Flatts recorded one of her songs and one month later Meghan was at the mic with what would become an anthem of self-empowerment.

Principal Tom Conrad beams when talking about the Nauset regional graduate.

Its caught our school, our community, and I would think the whole Cape with a great deal of pride, said Conrad.

Source: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/08/nauset-graduate-pop-sensation-meghan-trainor-destined-to-leave-a-legacy/

College basketball fans remember Dean Smith with the perfect story

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, center, and his players observe a moment of silence in honor of former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith. (AP Photo/The News &Observer, Robert Willett)

When the death of legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith was announced, a story from a 2014 John Feinstein column began making the rounds around the Internet. Feinstein, who wrote the column shortly after Smith celebrated his 83rd birthday told an anecdote from when he was working on a story about Smith during his coaching days.

From the Washington Post:

In 1981, Smith very grudgingly agreed to cooperate with me on a profile for this newspaper. He kept insisting I should write about his players, but I said I had written about them. I wanted to write about him. He finally agreed.

One of the people I interviewed for the story was Rev. Robert Seymour, who had been Smiths pastor at the Binkley Baptist Church since 1958, when he first arrived in Chapel Hill. Seymour told me a story about how upset Smith was to learn that Chapel Hills restaurants were still segregated. He and Seymour came up with an idea: Smith would walk into a restaurant with a black member of the church.

You have to remember, Reverend Seymour said. Back then, he wasnt Dean Smith. He was an assistant coach. Nothing more.

Smith agreed and went to a restaurant where management knew him. He and his companion sat down and were served. That was the beginning of desegregation in Chapel Hill.

When I circled back to Smith and asked him to tell me more about that night, he shot me an angry look. Who told you about that? he asked.

Reverend Seymour, I said.

I wish he hadnt done that.

Why? You should be proud of doing something like that.

He leaned forward in his chair and in a very quiet voice said something Ive never forgotten: You should never be proud of doing whats right. You should just do whats right.

Feinsteins column is nearly a year old, but worth another read today. You can find it here.

(Thanks to Mother Jones for bringing this to our attention)

Dean Smith, North Carolina Tar Heels, NCAAB

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Source: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/02/dean-smith-feinstein

Sunday, February 8, 2015

This weekend on TV: 'Better Call Saul' is like 'Bad' in a good way

After Sunday's premiere, Episode 2 airs Monday at 11 p.m. on AMC in the show's regular time slot.

Friday on TV ...

Women's college gymnastics (6 p.m., P12N): Arizona State at Utah

"Undercover Boss" (7 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2): The CEO of Armando Montelongo Companies, a top real estate company that specializes in educational seminars that teach wealth creation and financial independence, goes under cover.

"Constantine" (7 p.m., NBC/Ch. 5): Manny helps John investigate a mysterious attack in a hospital.

"World's Funniest Fails" (7 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13): Terrry Crews hosts,

"Hart of Dixie" (7 p.m., CW/Ch. 30): Zoe and Wade realize they need more money before the baby arrives.

Men's college volleyball (7 p.m., BYUtv): Cal Baptist at BYU

Women's college basketball (7 p.m., P12N): Utah at USC

NBA (7 p.m., ROOT): Utah Jazz at Phoenix Suns

"Hawaii Five-0" (8 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2): The team hunts for a notorious criminal who has never been seen.

"Grimm" (8 p.m., NBC/Ch. 5): Nick and Hank investigate a series of murders that lead to a mysterious Wesen bounty hunter.

"Shakespeare Uncovered" (8 p.m., PBS/Ch. 7): Morgan Freeman presents "The Taming of the Shrew"; David Harewood presents "Othello."

"Glee" (8 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13): Mercedes returns to Ohio to convince Rachel to pursue her Broadway dreams.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/tv/2150067-155/this-weekend-on-tv-better-call

'Flip this House' Montelongo on TV again - in disguise

San Antonio real estate investor Armando Montelongo of Flip this House fame will be on TV again on CBS Undercover Boss but you may not recognize him.

In a first for the show, CBS said that he hired a body double to help conceal his identity while undercover at one of his seminars. His episode airs at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 on CBS.

Montelongo rose to prominence with the now-defunct A&E reality show Flip this House. He currently is CEO of Armando Montelongo Cos. Inc., which is based in the Alamo City and specializes in seminars on wealth creation and financial independence.

According to a CBS release, Montelongo hoped to see first-hand what keeps his company on solid ground.

This isnt the first time a business owner with S.A. ties has gone undercover on Boss.

Shane Evans, who makes her home here and started one of the largest massage chains in the country in the Alamo City, went incognito as a masseuse on the show in 2013. Massage Heights COO Evans had to overcome her aversion to touching people while going undercover.

More recently, Rocket Fizz candy store on East Houston Street buzzed with excitement over last weeks episode featuring the chains founder and President Robert Powells.

jjakle@express-news.net

Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/S-A-CEO-goes-Undercover-for-CBS-6049824.php

Man, 22, reported missing after failing to return to Arizona

A 22-year-old man was reported missing by family members after he failed to get on a bus to return home to Arizona last Friday.

Family members told News 2 Lee Young was last seen around 4 p.m. leaving the Papa Murphys located on Lebanon Pike.

According to Lees sister, he was supposed to be on his way back to Yuma, Arizona, after he purchased a one-way bus ticket; however, he never got on the bus.

Lee is 5 feet, 11 inches tall with a thin build. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt.

Anyone with information is urged to call police at 615-74-CRIME.

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Source: http://wkrn.com/2014/10/30/man-22-reported-missing-after-failing-to-return-to-arizona/

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Tiffani Thiessen to star in new Cooking Channel show 'Dinner at Tiffani's'

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Tiffani Thiessen is returning to television this month in a new cooking channel show named Dinner at Tiffany's.

The 40-minute episodes will center around Thiessen hosting dinner parties at her home for her celebrity friends. Some of the announced guests include her old co-stars Jason Priestley and Seth Green as well as Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez.

The show's pilot will premiere on the Cooking Channel on Feb. 25 and is available for streaming now on the network's website.

Thiessen, 41, is best known for her roles as Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell and as Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210. She last starred on USA Network's procedural drama White Collar, which concluded its final season in December.

The actress most recently made headlines after announcing her second child with husband Brady Smith will be a boy.

'Jupiter Ascending' a Flop

Jupiter Ascending is incomparable to the Wachowskiss earlier films, such as The Matrix and Cloud Atlas. The most obvious departure is that it is undeniably a teen flick, directed at a younger audience more enraptured by stunning special effects than winding and intricate storylines. But the Wachowski touch is still there: the grandeur of scope, the uplifting message, the lush visuals. As a result, the films failures are all the more disappointing. The Wachowskis, who have never been known to be feckless storytellers, have at times polarized audiences with their films, but the criticisms leveled at their films have labeled them as aiming too high or being somewhat inaccessible, not being incogent.

Jupiter Ascending is in some ways the Wachowskiss most ambitious project yet; while other teen films such as The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner have the benefit of a world already created within a popular book series, Jupiter Ascending attempts to create a similarly complex universe within a standalone film, with little success. The plot of Jupiter Ascending is neither captivating nor sensical. The film, set in the distant future, revolves around fatherless house maid Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), whose unglamorous and menial lifestyle introduces her as a modern-day Cinderella. The story continues in the most predictable manner possible, introducing Channing Tatum as Caine Wise, a stony-faced werewolf who swoops in from the stars to change the helpless Jupiters destiny and crown her queen of the universe.

From the opening of the film, the one-dimensionality of its writing is its weakest point. Its two-hour runtime proves too short to establish the intricate setting the story requires; in particular, the scientific details of the film, necessary background for the rest of the movie, are never clearly elucidated. They are touched on only in an overly artificial scene in which a bewildered Jones asks Wise a series of questions that Wise answers carelessly and unintelligibly. This dialogue and others like it, although they only last for a matter of seconds, nonetheless stand out as awkward attempts to ameliorate gaps in the plot that unfortunately end up detracting from its continuity and credibility. Uncontextualized, these discrepancies appear ridiculous and completely lacking verisimilitude, exemplified by moments like one episode in which half-bee, half-human Stinger Apini (Sean Bean) takes Jupiter aside and confides without explanation, Bees are genetically designed to sense royalty.

The films weakness is further reflected in the characters. The cast is a conglomerate of tropes from the science and teen science fiction canon: werewolves, elves, and dragons all live in relative harmony in a Star Wars-esque world. One of the most disappointing characters is Jupiter herself, who spends a good amount of time following the films fairy tale introduction being carried on Wises shoulders. Wise himself spends his time fighting off various villains, including the paranormal keepers and other extraterrestrial pursuers. The emptiness of these characters is exacerbated by unconvincing acting. In one particularly memorable scene, brothers Balem (Eddie Redmayne) and Titus (Douglas Booth) Abrasax discuss their ulterior motives in such an affected manner that they sound more absurd than malicious.

Jupiter Ascending makes a final, half-hearted attempt to redeem itself by flooding its viewers with flashy special effects, particularly during the its extended fight scenes. Though the scenes use the distinctive Chicago skyline, River, and architecture in a thorough and organic way, they ultimately come off as a gaudy series action film clichs rather than transitional, narrative, or even clearly sequential. The latter half of Jupiter Ascending is stuffed to the brim with these scenes, whose uninspired quality makes the movie drag for 127 unbearably humdrum minutes.

It is hard to say that the Wachowskis are out of their comfort zone on Jupiter Ascending because the film shows no restraining of their idiosyncrasies, especially in its writing. However, the transition from action thrillers to what Lana Wachowski calls a science fiction space opera directed at young adults is not seamless. Pressed to fit their prolific imaginations into a restrictive, teen romance formula, the duo runs out of gas in their latest work. Though the Wachowskis may yet release a movie that rivals their previous filmography in complexity and mesmerism, Jupiter Ascending is an unoriginal attempt to release a more palatable film, which, to Wachowski fans, may be the hardest part to stomach.

Source: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/7/jupiter-ascending-review/