Interview articles from July 2006

Interview archives from July 2006

The muse bulletin.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Dear Interview, Your May issue featuring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood was right up there with my other all-time favorite Bruce Weber spectaculars, from the Mark Wahlberg (then Marky Mark) cover [February 1992] to the Christina Ricci...

A line in the sand.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Dear Interview, Graham Fuller's column on The Proposition [May 2006] failed to mention one of the more fascinating details in the script. Unlikely as it sounds, when Ray Winstone's character, Captain Stanley, utters the line, "Australia, what...

A dose of big love.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Dear Interview, Thank you for your article about Aziz Ansari in the May issue and for introducing me to a fresh and funny talent. Shortly after reading the article, I got the opportunity to see Aziz perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade in...

Correction.(LETTERS)(Correction notice)
July 1, 2006... In the June 2006 interview with Hugh Jackman, Michael Chow was identified as an actor. In fact, he is best known as a restaurateur.

Bird's-eye view: the peacock is fair game for fall.(LOOK OF THE MONTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... In many cultures around the world, peacock feathers are considered symbols of good luck. If that's true, the fall season promises to be a beaut. Veronica Etro, Alberta Ferretti, Giorgio Armani, and others presented looks that called to mind a...

Tapes 'n Tapes: bedraggled ballads that harken back to a time when indie rock was homemade, not industry-made.(MUSIC SCOOP)(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... "Tapes 'n Tapes started late at night, after a few beers," says Josh Grier, the Minneapolis quartet's 26-year-old singer and guitarist. "One of us would start the kitchen timer, and the other one had to play a song until somebody else said...

Ane Brun: dark, dreamy pop from the land of the midnight sun.(MUSIC NEWS)(Brief article)(Biography)
July 1, 2006... Already a star in her native Norway, Scandinavian darling Ane Brun is ready to charm America. Brun's latest album, A Temporary Dive (V2) is her U.S. debut and the much anticipated follow-up to her 2004 Europe-only first record, Spending Time...

Help wanted: a pragmatist with a rock 'n' roll heart hears the cry of a beloved country.(ACTION)(Jacob Lief founded Ubuntu Education Fund)(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Eight years ago a University of Pennsylvania student named Jacob Lief held an on-campus raffle, used the $400 raised to buy office supplies, and started the Ubuntu Education Fund. Today Lief is 29, and the fund--which builds libraries and...

Keegan McHargue: what would Beckett say?(STUDIO view)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Keegan McHargue lives and works in a funky but ornate Victorian flat in San Francisco's Mission District. From the window of his sparely furnished third-floor studio--accessorized with a worktable, an Apple laptop, art books, and paintings by...

Paul Dano: why casting directors are saying "book him, Dano!" with increasing regularity.(MOVIE BREAKOUT)
July 1, 2006... The movie that sparked Paul Dano's love affair with independent cinema wasn't a film like Sex, Lies & Videotape (1989) or A Woman Under the Influence (1974). Rather, it was the first one he ever starred in, L.I.E. (2001), a gripping story of...

Rebecca Mader: when you get to wear long-string pearls for roles, you know the world is your oyster.(MOVIE SPOTLIGHT)(Brief article)(Biography)
July 1, 2006... As a child in Cambridge, England, Rebecca Mader hated clothes and makeup. "I was a bit of a tomboy," the 27-year-old actress says. Her aversion to glam had eased sufficiently by age 16 for her to enter the modeling biz, and is now buried under...

Ana de la Reguera: she cut her teeth on the outlandish games and over-the-top melodrama of Mexican television--negotiating Hollywood should be a walk in the park.(MOVIE HEAT)(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Like a lot of other Hollywood-bound hopefuls, Ana de la Reguera moved to Los Angeles prepared to tough it out as she pursued her lifelong dream of breaking into the movies. But the difference between de la Reguera and the bus-loads of others...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.(Walt Disney Co. to launch the sequel movie)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Preview: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST (Disney) Directed by Gore Verbinski The 2003 original is better than any movie based on a theme-park ride has any business being--due to a witty script and Johnny Depp's Keith...

Lady in the Water.(Warner Bros. to launch a horror movie)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Preview: LADY IN THE WATER (Warner Bros.) Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Uberschlub Paul Giamatti plays a Philly super who finds in his building's swimming pool a "narf"--a water-nymph-like creature--who looks suspiciously like Bryce...

My Super Ex-Girlfriend.(Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. to launch a movie directed by Ivan Reitman)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Preview: MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND (20th Century) Directed by Ivan Reitman Reitman, the director of Meatballs (1979) and Ghostbusters (1984), knows a thing or two about casting comedies, and his lineup here looks promising: Anna Faris,...

Little Miss Sunshine.(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... Review: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Fox Searchlight) Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris The Hoovers are a family that isn't quite broken, but their cracks are clearly visible: The father, Richard (Greg Kinnear), is a motivational...

Whassup Rockers.(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... Review: WHASSUP ROCKERS (First Look) Directed by Larry Clark Unexpectedly sweet and affectionate, Larry Clark's latest is a changeup from the godfather of the superskeezy Vice/American Apparel aesthetic. As in Kids (1995) and Bully...

A Scanner Darkly.(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... Review: A SCANNER DARKLY (Warner Independent) Directed by Richard Linklater Richard Linklater uses the same animation style as in his previous Waking Life (2001) to adapt a Philip K. Dick novel, taken from the dark shelf of the...

Once in a Lifetime: the Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.(Movie review)
July 1, 2006... Review: ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS (Miramax) Directed by Paul Crowder Soccer may be a second-tier pro sport in the U.S., but there was a moment, in 1977, when an American team fielded the world's...

Shots in the dark: what today's road movies say about the changing landscape of the American psyche.(MOVIE COLUMN)(Critical essay)
July 1, 2006... Whither the road movie? Michael Winterbottom hasn't rewritten the rules of the genre as much as recast it as the 21st century's route map to geopolitical hell. Following 2003's In This World, in which the British director traced the perilous...

It's a grand old game: stepping up to the plate has never looked so good.(FASHION TAKES A SWING)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... It seems that America's favorite pastime has hit a fashion home run this season, and in the hands of Yohji Yamamoto and Marc Jacobs it's a whole new ball game. At Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs created satin baseball jackets and followed them up...

Have a grape day: coming up purple, from the vineyard to the catwalk.(FASHION FORECAST)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The fashion harvest this autumn is just around the corner, and it promises to be a delicious one. All shades of grape, from burgundy red to the deep purple of Concords, showed up on catwalks for fall. In his first collection for Pucci, Matthew...

Will Shortz: shining a spotlight on the pasha of crossword puzzles.(GAMES PEOPLE PLAY)(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Patrick Creadon's Wordplay turns the cameras onto the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, held annually in Stamford, Connecticut, and onto its organizer, New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz. BILL VOURVOULIAS: You have a degree in...

Darnellia Russell: a cliche-busting documentary captures the defiance of a Seattle high school basketball star.(SPORTS--ON AND OFF THE COURT)("The Heart of the Game")(Brief article)(Biography)
July 1, 2006... Darnellia Russell wasn't sure who director Ward Serrill was when he showed up at her school's basketball court in 1999 with a digital video camera. "I thought he was just going to tape our games," she says. Little did she know that Serrill...

Waist down bottoms up.(PHOTO ALBUM)("Waist Down," a traveling exhibition of skirts by Miuccia Prada opens )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... On April 18 the newly reopened Prada Epicenter (located a few floors below the Interview offices in New York City's SoHo) hosted a special opening for "Waist Down," a traveling exhibition that lifts the hem on the infinite possibilities of the...

All the dish: the Big Apple's Buddha bonanza.(FOOD COLUMN)(Buddakan)(Baby Buddha)(Buddha-Bar New York)(Restaurant review)
July 1, 2006... Recently the front page of the New York Times reported that Nevaeh (that's "heaven" spelled backward) had made the fastest climb in popularity of any name in the U.S. during the past century. It's an interesting statistic made all the more so...

Elephant dancing: the who, the what, the wow, and the why.(MUSIC PICKS)(List)
July 1, 2006... 1 KANYE WEST Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (April 29) Solidifying his position as One of the Best People on the Planet, he switched from singer to DJ and announced he was going to play "one of my favorite songs": A-ha's...

Peaches: Impeach My Bush (XL).(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... The grand talent of former schoolteacher Merrill Nisker, a.k.a. Peaches, lies not simply in her ability to craft X-rated electro-rock anthems with improbable staying power. Rather, it rests in the incidental performance art they have spawned:...

The Futureheads: News and Tributes (Vagrant/StarTime).(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Two years ago the Futureheads' self-titled debut--with its angular postpunk riffs and proud, boyish lyrics, sung a cappella in an unapologetically Northern English accent--earned the group a space at the indie scene's cool table. But aside from...

Nelly Furtado: Loose (Geffen).(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Mostly produced by Timbaland, Nelly Furtado's third album, Loose, lives up to its title--it's a collection of garish, carefree, and fun dance-inflected tracks. The songs here run the gamut, from spine-thumping club cuts ("Maneater") to...

Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways (America/Lost Highway).(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... In the wake of Johnny Cash's death in 2003, the market was flooded with the expected wave of reissues, commemorations, movie soundtracks, and other attempts to celebrate (or exploit) his legacy. But if you get only one posthumous Cash album, it...

Testimony: Life and Relationship, vol 1. (Universal Motown).(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... She means well, and you want to be on her side. After all, India.Arie's big humanitarian streak and gorgeous voice deserve praise. But this set of alternately heartbroken and supremely optimistic songs is marred by one too many wince-inducing...

CSS: Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop).(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... Brazilian six-piece CSS--short for the phrase "cansei de ser sexy"--named themselves after a line that they claim to have heard Beyonce once utter: "I'm tired of being sexy." On this, their debut, the group's lead singer, who goes by the name...

The Knife: Silent Shout (Rabid/Mute).(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)
July 1, 2006... The Swedish brother-and-sister duo Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson create dark, intense, and danceable synth pop reminiscent of Depeche Mode, though their layered vocals and harmonization add a surreal, romantic quality that evokes...

View: letter from the editor July 2006.(Billie Jean King)(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... One often hears how the famous can be real letdowns in the flesh. I'm not referring to looks here, but rather to the ubiquitous anecdotes depicting them as self-involved, self-inflated narcissists who want "more, more, more" for "me, me, me."...

Ziyi: she's spirited, she's in demand, she's starring in big American movies, and oh, yeah, she's from China--talking to the woman who may just be the first Chinese actress to become a household name in America.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... INGRID SISCHY: Where would you say you are in your life at this moment? ZIYI ZHANG: It's just beginning, hopefully. IS: And a lot has happened. It seems like you're in a good position to be the first Chinese actress to truly cross over...

Roger Federer: as a kid he'd throw his racket and burst into tears when he'd miss a shot, but today its Roger Federer's opponents who just can't get no satisfaction. Tennis legend Billie Jean King gets the scoop on the man many are saying may just be the best the game has ever seen.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... These days it's not unusual for witnesses to Roger Federer's game to reach for superlatives like "magician" and "genius" when describing his particular brand of on-court artistry, but a mere three years ago this tennis phenomenon was just...

Arctic Monkeys: a year ago, no one had heard of them. Now they're everywhere--touting the virtues of evolution, rattling cages, and driving audiences bananas.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... It's the pun that dare not speak its name: Freezing moniker aside, the Arctic Monkeys have become the coolest band on the planet. The Sheffield, England, quartet in fact broke sales records in their homeland when their debut, Whatever People...

You've got short shorts: the weather report may be full of long, hot summer days, but the fashion forecast calls for short and cool.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... THE LITERARY DEFINITION OF A SHORT STORY; SOMETHING THAT CAN BE READ AT ONE SITTING. THE FASHION DEFINITION OF A SHORT STORY SOMETHING THAT MAY REQUIRE TIGHT FITTING. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ISAK DINESEN COULD COMPOSE A SHORT STORY...

Richard Hawley: like the working-class crooners he admired growing up, Richard Hawley has always embraced his struggles--to make music, to make a living, and, at times, even to make it through the end of the day. Now audiences are embracing him like never before.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... British singer-songwriter Richard Hawley's most recent album, Coles Corner (Mute), is named after an intersection of two city blocks once occupied by a Cole Brothers department store in his native Sheffield--a town currently experiencing a bit...

Kate Bosworth: welcome to the world of Kate Bosworth, where the sky appears to be the limit.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... While Kate Bosworth's delicate beauty may make it tempting to assign her a certain fragility, the pure physicality of many of her roles points firmly in another direction. Just consider her resume to date: It includes stints playing a young...

Douglas Gordon: he used to invite people into his bedroom in order to watch his slowed-down--as in really slowed-down--version of Alfred Hitchcock's psycho. Now people will be viewing his spellbinding works in somewhat more spacious quarters: a big new show at the Museum of Modern Art.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Douglas Gordon visualizes, pictures, and "sculpts" time in many of his works. In his 24 Hour Psycho (1993), for example, which is included in "Douglas Gordon: Timeline," an exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art through September 4, the...

Amy Sedaris: ever wonder what the image of a craggy, inappropriate 47-year-old ex-teenage runaway, recovering drug addict, and retired stripper would look like projected on a big screen, 15 feet high? With the new film version of her cult television show, Strangers With Candy, Amy Sedaris is about to show you--and that's just the beginning.(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Amy Sedaris is a woman for whom the term "out of bounds" holds little meaning. Having cut her teeth as a member of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, the comedian has made a name for herself by going where others might blanch, both in...

Heat of the night.(PAGE 5)(celebrities )(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... 1 Rosie Perez and Jeffrey Wright at the party celebrating iYo Soy Boricua, Pa' Que Tu Lo Sepas!, Perez's directorial debut. 2 Liz Garbus, Mos Def, and Rory Kennedy at the Perez party, Special thanks to IFC, Ten in a Car Productions, and...