BAM’s college football favorites for Nov. 21, 2009
OSU’s third-string quarterback Brandon Weeden led the Pokes to a 31-28 victory Thursday night over the Colorado Buffaloes in Stillwater. (Photo by Nate Billings/The Oklahoman)
It’s going to be a slow football season Saturday at the BAM household today.
My No. 12-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys already played their game for the week, with third-string quarterback Brandon Weeden leading the Pokes to a 31-28 victory Thursday night over the Colorado Buffaloes in Stillwater.
The Oklahoma Sooners will play the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 11:30 a.m. today in Lubbock, Texas. The game will air on Fox Sports Net.
The McDonnell family traditionally roots for the defending national champs, the Florida Gators, but we won’t get to watch today’s game. The Gators will play Florida International at 11:30 a.m. at home in Gainesville, but the game will just be shown on pay-per-view.
Still, go teams!
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Nov. 21, 2009
Today’s featured event:
NORMAN – Hear Norman indie pop singer-songwriter Jacob Abello at 9 tonight at The Opolis, 113 N Crawford.
For more information, go to www.starlightmints.com/opolis.html.
For more information, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Friday Featured Track for Nov. 20, 2009: “New Moon” newcomer Hurricane Bells
The song that has been on my brain the most this week:
- “Monsters,” Hurricane Bells, from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack.”
When the lineup for “New Moon” soundtrack was announced, the inclusion of indie-rock stars such as The Killers, Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and St. Vincent drew tons of attention. One of the names that few recognized: Hurricane Bells.
But Brooklyn musician Steve Schiltz, the sole member of Hurricane Bells, has contributed my absolute favorite song on the soundtrack, the rollicking, fuzzy-guitar-filled “Monsters.”
For better or worse, the “New Moon” soundtrack fits the plot of the sequel, which centers on the breakup of human heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). As a result, many of the songs are pretty downbeat. But not the blessedly bouncy “Monsters.”
According to EW.com’s Music Mix, Schiltz only got around to creating a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/hurricanebells) for Hurricane Bells about three weeks before the soundtrack listing was announced.
“Monsters” is one of several leftover songs he recorded under the Hurricane Bells name when they didn’t work for his main band, Longwave. His said his manager quietly got the song placed on the soundtrack, keeping it a secret even from the artist himself.
“I made a record myself without telling anybody. It’s a complete stroke of luck that one of the songs ended up being on the soundtrack,” he told Music Mix.
After Schiltz got an e-mail from Chris Weitz that the ”New Moon” director wanted to put the song in the film, Schiltz’s first move was to borrow a copy of the book “Twilight.”
Although Schiltz recorded his Hurricane Bells album without “Monsters,” I’m willing to bet he will be adding that song to the track listing. And I’m interested to see how far the “Twilight” phenomenon can take the obviously talented Hurricane Bells.
Check out this YouTube video of Hurricane Bells performing “Monsters” live:
-BAM
“Twilight: New Moon” sets midnight screening record with $26.3 million
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has set a box-office record for midnight screenings, according to the Associated Press.
Summit Entertainment estimated today that the sequel earned $26.3 million after opening in the wee hours of the morning, the AP reports.
If the estimate proves on-target, it would break the previous midnight record, held by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which earned $22.2 million in its early-morning screenings this summer.
The 2008 sequel “The Dark Knight” comes in third on the midnight screenings list with $18.5 million.
“New Moon,” the second film in the supernaturally popular “Twilight” franchise, opened at midnight in 3,514 theaters with a per-theater average of $7,476.
Paul Dergarabedian, a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com., says the record-setting midnight start “portends an opening weekend that could be one of the biggest of the year.”
-BAM
Reba McEntire to perform in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Oklahoma native and country music star Reba McEntire will perform during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday in New York City, according to CMT.com.
McEntire will be part of diverse lineup of performers at the parade; others include fellow country star Billy Currington, Italian crooner Andrea Bocelli, “You’re So Vain” songbird Carly Simon, “American Idol” finalist Katharine McPhee, rock band Boys Like Girls, “I Will Survive” singer Gloria Gaynor and Jimmy Fallon and his late-night band The Roots. Naturally, there will be giant balloons of characters such as Buzz Lightyear, Dora the Explorer and Kermit the Frog.
This year, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will follow a new route along 7th Avenue, not taking Broadway for the first time in its history. The parade will air at 8 a.m. on NBC.
For more information, go to www.macysparade.com.
-BAM
Video: Jason Segel performs with Swell Season
Jason Segel (Associated Press photo)
Swell Season
Comic actor Jason Segel made a surprise appearance Wednesday at the Swell Season’s Los Angeles show, and not surprisingly, hilarity ensued.
Segal performed an original song at the show, claiming the Swell Season’s Marketa Irglova had given him the songwriting advice to make his song as personal as possible. So, he crooned a little ditty offering his personal phone number to any available ladies in the audience.
The song also referenced his infamous nude scene in the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and his sweet-natured character on the TV show “Freaks and Geeks.”
Swell Season, the duo of Irglova and Glen Hansard, are best known for starring in and winning a best original song Oscar for the movie “Once.” They are incredibly talented musicians and clearly have an excellent sense of humor.
Check out this YouTube video of the performance; it’s sure to make your evening:
-BAM
Billy Joel-Elton John Oklahoma City concert rescheduled for Feb. 25
Elton John and Billy Joel
The Billy Joel and Elton John Face 2 Face concert originally scheduled for Nov. 25 at Oklahoma City’s Ford Center has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25.
All tickets currently held for the originally scheduled Face 2 Face concert on Nov. 25 at the Ford Center will be valid for the rescheduled Feb. 25 concert. If necessary, refunds are available at point of purchase.
For more information, go to www.okfordcenter.com.
- BAM
Video: Twinprov’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” rap
Twinprov, AKA Oklahoma City comedians Buck and Clint Vrazel returned to the NewsOK studios this week with another of their humorous film-related raps. Since the hotly anticipated sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” opens today, the Brothers Vrazel could only be paying hilarious tribute to Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-romance epic.
Admire both the fast-talking fun and the amusing choreography in Buck and Clint’s latest rhyming comic masterpiece.
As a bonus, Twinprov manager Eric Webb and the guys put together a behind-the-scenes preview video to go along with their big NewsOK debut performance:
The guys also performed their rap at five midnight “New Moon” screenings today/last night at Harkins Bricktown Cinema 16.
Thanks to Twinprov for again paying us a visit. It’s always a fun time.
-BAM
Kristen Stewart finds breaking up hard to do in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Kristen Stewart plays Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Kristen Stewart grows with ‘Twilight’ series, role in ‘New Moon’
LOS ANGELES — Breaking up is always hard to do, but Kristen Stewart learned on the set of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” that acting out an “iconic” split from a book adored by millions of fervent fans presents a special set of challenges.
“I know what’s it like to get broken up with, but I don’t know what it’s like to get broken up with by a vampire who I’ve now been physically and chemically altered by. Suddenly you take an addict, you take whatever they’re addicted to away from them and there’s withdrawal. So that was the most intimidating scene in the entire movie,” Stewart said in a press conference from the classy Four Seasons Hotel.
In “New Moon,” the sequel to last year’s blockbuster “Twilight,” human Bella Swan (Stewart) is heartbroken when her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) ends their romance over concerns for her safety. The depressed Bella finds a new chance for love through her burgeoning friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), only to discover he is a werewolf.
While she called the actual break-up an “iconic” moment in the books, Stewart was even more anxious about the moment Edward leaves, in which the painful reality sets in for Bella.
“I was like, ‘How am I going to, by myself in the woods with a hundred guys standing around me, filming me, die?’ Basically, literally having the equivalent of like a death scene but stay alive and get up and keep walking. It was hard,” she said.
“I really like the movie but I don’t know if anyone ever really would’ve been able to bring that to life the way that Stephenie (Meyer) writes it.”
Based on Meyer’s best-selling four-book series, the “Twilight” franchise has made movie stars out of its young cast. But Stewart’s film career started at age 8, when an agent spotted her performing in a holiday play at her California elementary school. After a few non-speaking roles, she broke out at 11, when she played Jodie Foster’s daughter in David Fincher’s 2002 thriller “Panic Room.”
But the success of the “Twilight” series has catapulted the Stewart, 19, into A-list fame, and all the tabloid gossip, particularly about a rumored romance between her and Pattinson, and paparazzi photography that goes with it. She likened the tabloid situation to a “ridiculous show,” like an obviously false soap opera with her name in it.
“I totally understand why people have a hard time separating ourselves from our characters,” she said. “It’s also just sort of the way our world is going. People are obsessed. There’s an incredibly large group of people that spend most of their time considering other people’s lives. It’s strange to me.”
But the nonstop media circus surrounding the franchise has helped the teen actress become more self-assured in some ways. At last year’s “Twilight” press day, she came across as shy, awkward and a little moody.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with talking about myself and knowing that what you say people are really going to take into consideration. And that always intimidated me so much that I minced every word that came out of my mouth. I couldn’t finish a sentence because I was so concerned about how it was going to sound,” said Stewart, dressed in her trademark grungy-cool style with a black T-shirt and jacket, dark eyeliner and her black hair casually pulled back.
In between playing Bella in “New Moon” and the third installment, “Eclipse,” which wrapped filming in October, Stewart portrayed Joan Jett in “The Runaways,” the upcoming biopic of the seminal all-girl rock band. She got to know Jett personally and studied footage of the ’70 band.
“I can only play characters that I feel like are real people and in a complete way and in such a whole way that if I fake any aspect of it I will have failed them,” she said. “I really wanted to do a good impersonation, but I also didn’t want it to be imitation. I wanted it to be natural.”
Although filming “New Moon” was an intense process, Stewart said she is at ease playing an ordinary teen who finds herself in paranormal circumstances. She is looking forward to taking Bella through to the series’ end with “Breaking Dawn.”
“I’m very protective of her. I feel a shared ownership. It’s weird. If you were talk about the character in a way that was not at all thought out or flippant I would be right there to say that you didn’t know what you were talking about. I’m so defensive of her,” she said.
-BAM
Robert Pattinson plays vision and vampire in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Robert Pattinson plays vampire Edward Cullen in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
‘New Moon’ rising for sexy vampire
Actor Robert Pattinson’s life changed by ‘Twilight’ series
LOS ANGELES — Robert Pattinson goes from vampire to vision in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
The British actor, 23, not only plays brooding vampire hunk Edward Cullen in the eagerly awaited sequel, opening today, he also appears as a flickering apparition to his human ex-girlfriend, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
“Those scenes were the hardest scenes,” Pattinson said in a press conference at the plush Four Seasons Hotel. “It’s not Edward. It’s a manifestation of Bella’s loneliness and desperation. … It was always very difficult. I asked Kristen, ‘How would you play it?’ It’s her opinion. So that was hard.”
Based on the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s popular saga, “New Moon” begins with the seeming fairytale romance between Edward and Bella. But when a minor accident puts Bella in mortal jeopardy, Edward breaks off their relationship and departs Forks, Wash. Bella is left reeling but soon learns she can hear Edward’s voice when she puts herself in danger.
Instead of just using Pattinson’s voice, the filmmakers opted to have Edward appear to Bella in adrenaline-induced visions. But the choice wasn’t just about film as a visual medium: Since starring in last year’s blockbuster “Twilight,” Pattinson has become an international heartthrob.
“It’s tricky. You don’t want too much Edward because then you lose the really important sense of missing him. On some level you don’t want too little because everyone loves Rob,” said “New Moon” director Chris Weitz.
Producer Wyck Godfrey said fighting the instinct to expand Pattinson’s role was vital to developing the saga’s supernatural love triangle. Edward has to be absent so that Bella’s friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who is a werewolf, emerges as a viable love interest.
The filmmakers used green screen to model the ghostly visions on the dynamics of candlelight.
“The way that he moves and flitters in and out is the way that a candle’s flame would behave. So “It’s very subjective to Bella’s experience,” Weitz said. “And I think it’s fair to cheat in that because it’s one of the powers available to a moviemaker as opposed to a novelist.”
Pattinson actually lobbied Weitz to cut out some of his ethereal appearances in post-production, arguing the fewer the visions, the more interesting and eerie they would become.
“Even before we started shooting, people were asking questions and saying, ‘Oh, are you worried that people will think there’s not enough Edward in it?’ But he’s not in the book. I was so worried that it was just going to be random scenes. There was talk, at the beginning, of showing his back story in South America, going around moping. That would have been terrifying for me, and I think it would have been catastrophic for the film as well. I fought as far as I could to keep it as limited as possible, mainly because it just doesn’t happen in the book. But then, at the same time, it’s scary just to do a voice-over because it could end up being very cheesy,” he said.
Although his character appears in it the least, Pattinson said “New Moon” is the “Twilight” book he connected to the most.
“It’s the one … that humanized Edward for me the most, as well. In the first one, he still does remain, from beginning to end, an idealistic character. But, in the second one, he makes a mistake that’s acknowledged by everybody, including himself,” said Pattinson, who looked movie star handsome in a plaid shirt, black jeans and black leather jacket with carefully mussed hair.
Filming one of the sequel’s most dramatic sequences in Italy, when Edward starts to reveal himself in the sunlight, also let the actor connect to fans’ fervor for the vampire hero.
“It was one of the closest moments I really felt to people’s emotional attachment to the character because there were so many extras there who were just ‘Twilight’ fans,” he said. “It’s been the one moment, since the first Comic-Con, where I’ve felt the whole weight of anticipation and responsibility to all the people who are so obsessed with the stories. It was a good moment. It was very nerve-wracking, but I probably felt the most in character that I’ve ever felt, throughout the whole series.”
The rising star has yet to truly connect with how much “Twilight” has changed his life. He has worked on three movies this year: “New Moon,” the next sequel “Eclipse” and the romantic drama “Remember Me.” And he likely will spend most of 2010 on sets, with plans to appear in the sexy period piece “Bel Ami,” the Western “Unbound Captives” and the fourth “Twilight” movie, “Breaking Dawn,” which he said is tentatively set to shoot in fall.
“I don’t know what doing errands and things is really like ‘cause I haven’t had a sustained period of time where I’ve been off. I don’t know how it’s really changed. I still feel like I’m pretty much exactly the same, which is maybe not a good thing,” he said.
-BAM
