Interview articles from October 2007

Interview archives from October 2007

To Internet or not to 'net.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Interview, Elton John's August "Tip Sheet" was spot-on and very insightful. He's right when he says that maybe once we get a change in government things will change musically as well. And I believe that...

Snap, crackle, pop!(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... Dear Interview, Your July issue was appropriately hot for several reasons: 1) Your cover boy or, rather, cover man, Daniel Craig: Sam Taylor-Wood captured Craig beautifully, both in words and images. Long before he proved it to the...

Spreading the word.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2007... Dear Interview, I recently came back from Cameroon, where I met someone who may very well have restored my faith in the human race: a 26-year-old American guy called Ryan Hanson who looks after nine children and three adults at the New...

Jim Sturgess: this actor is going places: Sin City, the middle ages, and--in the new film Across The Universe--on a fantastic voyage through '60s America.(MOVIE BREAKOUT)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Twenty years ago Jim Sturgess was just an average 6-year-old in London who was enchanted by the animal sounds on his parents' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heads Club Band LP (1967). Now, with a little help from his newfound...

Kelli Garner: the movies' new girl next door bowls a strike.(MOVIE HEAT)(Lars and the Real Girl)(Movie review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The plot of Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl--in which a shy guy (Ryan Gosling) takes a lifelike sex doll as his girlfriend--sounds creepy, and doesn't begin to describe the unexpected warmth, humor, and...

Gregory Smith: just what a former child actor needs to grow up quickly: a battle with the forces of darkness.(MOVIE SPOTLIGHT)(The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think I was one of the reasons they invented the whole frequent-flier program," jokes Gregory Smith. The 24-year-old actor recently made a more permanent move back to Los Angeles after spending the last four years...

Amber Heard: attention big-screen funnymen: here comes the competition.(MOVIE TIP)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's not often that Ayn Rand, Charlize Theron, and Steve Carell all manage to wend their way into an actor's conversation about inspirations, but such are the influences of 21-year-old Amber Heard. The Austin, Texas,...

Alicja Bachleda: a breakout role that's all bruises, bloody lips, and bravery.(MOVIE ONE TO WATCH)(Trade)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The story of a woman who becomes caught up in an international sex-slave ring in German director Marco Kreuzpaintner's tough and searching new film Trade is most revealingly told through the eyes of Alicja Bachleda....

Dan Fogler: from the theater world, a big-screen funnyman cometh.(COMEDY LIVE WIRE)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's only after speaking with Dan Fogler for a few moments that the immensity of his concentration emerges. Once he begins to answer a question, his focus on the response is thorough enough that he seems to be...

A conversation between David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen: when the director known for getting under the skin teams up with the actor famous for playing strong, silent, offbeat types, anything can happen--and it does.(LOOK WHO'S TALKING)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the recently released Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, and Naomi Watts, director David Cronenberg zeros in on London's Russian crime community. As he did with 2005's A History of...

Julie Taymor: in everything director Julie Taymor has created, she has taken a leap. Now she dares to center her latest movie, Across The Universe, on the cathedral of pop music: the Beatles catalog.(view WOMAN)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In directing films like Titus [1999] and Frida [2002] and lavish stage shows like The Lion King, Julie Taymor has proven herself a visual innovator and a true original. With Across the Universe, she takes a number of...

Spellbound: own your witchiness.(LOOK OF THE MONTH)(Alexander McQueen)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Witches usually get a bad rap. From Roald Dahl's square-toed baldies to Shakespeare's cauldon-stirring hags to the Wicked Witch of the West's green beakiness, the picture traditionally painted is one of a cackling...

Velozzi: meet the responsible race car that reminds us that Green also means "go!".(GREEN DESIGN)(X1)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As wars roil in the Mideast and gas prices hit surreal heights, the world seems headed for an environmental disaster of apocalyptic proportions: It's enough to make a high-performance auto enthusiast with a...

Collier Schorr: the intimate story of a local hero from queens who dreamed big and died too young.(ART AND THE TRACK)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Collier Schorr is known primarily for her painfully beautiful portraits. They get under your skin, tug at your emotions, and can tease out memories long forgotten or buried. Her work is also known for incorporating...

Millard Kaufman: the man who shows it's never too late to try something.(AUTHOR! AUTHOR!)(Bowl of Cherries )(Book review)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The manuscript for Bowl of Cherries (published this month by McSweeney's Books) arrived at the San Francisco offices of Dave Eggers's literary imprint unsolicited, without the usual trumpet blast from an agent. As...

Michelle Ryan: looking for a TV heroine who really packs a punch? Here she is--and she's got the $50 million body to prove it.(TV BUZZ)(Bionic Woman)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I actually find accents quite easy," says actress Michelle Ryan, who stars in the new television series Bionic Woman, NBC's updated version of the '70s show. But perfecting an American dialect is nothing compared to...

Common: why hip-hop's square peg refuses to live up to his name.(MUSIC PROFILE)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Common's seventh album, Finding Forever (G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen), debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts this past summer, the 35-year-old rapper must have thought he was dreaming. For years he'd been working...

The Plastiscines: French rock music, hold the Fromage.(MUSIC BUZZ)(LP1)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Until recently music was of little interest to Katty Besnard and her friends. "We grew up with a lot of R&B and rap, and we didn't really recognize ourselves in that [sound]," explains the 19-yearold singer for...

The D.E.Y.: they've got the beat, the heat, and the sound of the street.(MUSIC SCOOP)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Puerto Rico is the port we all connect from," explains MC Divine, one-third of the new R&B-hip-hop trio the D.E.Y., whose debut album, The D.E.Y. Has Come, will be released this month. "But we're bringing everything...

Sharon Jones: soul music's latest phenomenon isn't a bright-eyed teen or a saccharine quartet, but a prison guard turned singer.(MUSIC NEWS)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Summoning the blazing Memphis soul of Stax/ Volt in its heyday, Sharon Jones is a true anachronism--a Southern-fried belter who sounds more like Mavis Staples than Mary J. Blige. "Sometimes collectors of old vinyl...

Little Britain: the bizarre, brilliant cast of characters from Dudley and Ting Tong to Bubbles de Vere that Matt Lucas and David Walliams created for their warped, hilarious Little Britain series has ensured that the show's catchphrases will become part of the vernacular of pop culture the world over.(CULT OBSESSION)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I am the only gay in the village," sighs Dafydd, a full-figured lad who parades around a sleepy Welsh hamlet in a shiny blue leotard. His mom and his friends point out opportunities for "arse action," but Dafydd...

Sean Penn: the story of a director's decade-long desire to capture a young man's yearning that was so big only Alaska could begin to express it.(ON THE ROAD)(Interview)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his roughly three dozen movies as an actor, Sean Penn has played a variety of roles. In his four movies as a director, however, the locations may be wide-ranging but there is a common theme: individuals who are...

Velvet on the ground: a shoe for all reasons.(STYLE KICKS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The high-gloss shine of the patent leather shoe has reigned supreme as the black-tie companion to many a well-heeled man. Though once the territory of dashing silk-robed playboys and discerning English gentlemen, the...

Block party: how to give the sidewalk some sizzle.(BRIGHT IDEAS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Boldly stepping out of the shadows, bright color-field footwear is making its way into the spotlight for fall-winter 2007. With daring splashes of hypercolor--particularly in pop-flavored primaries or provocative...

Lake of fire: a bristling new documentary ventures to the stormy front lines of a matter of life and death.(CONTROVERSY CORNER)(Movie review)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Attempting to make a documentary about a subject as vast and complicated (and endlessly rehashed) as the issue of abortion in the United States might seem an exercise in masochism. But British director Tony Kaye...

Beirut: The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Brooklyn-based collective Beirut represent the latest indie hype du jour--and they just might live up to the buzz with their sophomore long-player, The Flying Club Cup. Arcade Fire proves an apt comparison: Like the...

Calvin Harris: I Created Disco (Almost Gold).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Calvin Harris represents both what's good and what's bad about the current state of electronic music. From the squiggly grooves of this young Scottish D J-producer's debut, it's clear we're in the throes of a big-beat revival, filtered through...

Underworld: Oblivion With Bells (Side One Recordings).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Underworld may be the Led Zeppelin of the rave revolution: They always sound distinctly like themselves, and they always sound fresh, even if their sound is rooted in another era. At their peak the British outfit represented the height of '90s...

Foo Fighters: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Roswell/RCA).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Dave Grohl is adept at producing solid, mainstream radio fare that doesn't stick and won't stain, and on his band's sixth studio album, the songs remain about as punchy as they've ever been. "Let It Die" opens acoustically, then slowly turns...

P.J. Harvey: White Chalk (Island).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Murder sonatas for maladjusted women--that's one way to describe Polly Jean Harvey's eighth record, an avant-garde, minor-key set of songs about violence, misogyny, and neurasthenia. Warm and fuzzy it's not--the opening lyrics of "The Piano,"...

Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam (Domino).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The members of the art-rock band Animal Collective grew up together, and it shows. On their eighth album, Strawberry Jam, the foursome further build upon their complex, stream-of-consciousness-style songwriting, which melds folk harmonies with...

Vanessa Carlton: Heroes & Thieves (The Inc.).(SOUND ADVICE: ROCKERS LET IT FLY, CROONERS LET IT ROLL, BELTERS LET LOOSE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... It's no surprise that Vanessa Carlton's third album, Heroes & Thieves, has the feeling of a mission statement. Her introspective 2002 debut, Be Not Nobody, proved a refreshing bit of musical antiprogramming at a time when her earnest piano...

Shots in the dark: why two movies about dead rock stars come alive onscreen.(MOVIE COLUMN)(The Future Is Unwritten and Control)(Movie review)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Death is the great leveler, the great equalizer. As Jim Morrison sang, "No one here gets out alive." If some deaths are more equal than others, especially in popular culture, it's hard to think of a good movie about...

Letter from the editor October 2007.(VIEW)(Editorial)
October 1, 2007... Following your gut and listening to your heart, it turns out, is a theme that ripples through this issue. It wasn't planned that way, but once all the interviews came in, it became apparent that this is a through line that connects many of our...

Jake Gyllenhaal: he's been called everything from brave to focused to just plain obsessive, but for moviedom's athletically inclined, politically minded man of action, it's 100 percent or nothing. Director David Fincher catches up with the actor whose moment is right now.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... At 6 feet tall, Jake Gyllenhaal is that rare breed of movie star: an actor who's actually bigger in life than he appears onscreen. One reason might be that when Gyllenhaal fills the frame, so much of one's attention is focused on his eyes;...

Tang Wei: a debut as big as the country she comes from.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... Statistically speaking, discovering the next great international movie talent in a country like China, with a population of more than 1 billion, would appear to be a daunting proposition. Trying to do it twice would seem almost hubristic. And...

Richard Prince: the instigator's time has come.
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] They say the days of artists wilting away undiscovered, uncelebrated, and unremunerated in damp garrets, starving and unheard of, are long gone. Indeed, today--thanks to the omnipresent media, a worldwide explosion...

Annie Lennox: her voice is one of the most ethereal in pop. But on her first album in four years, her passions are more of-this-world than ever.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... Annie Lennox is hardly the most prolific of artists. It's been four years since her last album, Bare (2003), and nearly two decades since she and Dave Stewart, her partner in Eurythmics, were a meaningful commercial force. Which means it's all...

Shades of gray.(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... For some people the color gray connotes wishy-washiness. Not for fall 2007's fashion designers! For many of them the season's most prominent neutral is a chance to use hues beloved by modern artists: the celestial silver gray of Georgia...

Kanye West: first came the acclaim, and then the inevitable backlash. Now Kanye West is out to reinvent himself as a man of the world. But is the world ready for what he's got in store?(Interview)
October 1, 2007... DIMITRI EHRLICH: With The College Dropout [2004], Late Registration [2005], and now your new album, Graduation [Roc-A-Fella], you seem to be building a career on zigging when others zag. When you were a kid, were you seen as the weird one? Even...

Gaetano Pesce: designer and architect Gaetano Pesce is a visionary outsider who has made a home for himself on the creative forefront of design, exploring new materials and pushing the boundaries of what we know to be possible.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... Gaetano Pesce first received attention in the late '60s for his Up furniture series, which exploited the possibilities of polyurethane foam, politics, and design. He has been breaking rules and bending minds ever since. Here, designer Brad...

The one and only.(James Kaliardos )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Perhaps it's the fact that most every cell phone can snap a picture that has cemented the feeling that having your photo taken has become a nonevent. There was a time, though, when having your picture taken brought with it a sense of occasion....

Jason Schwartzman: how growing up in a family full of individualists, rogues, and rebels proved good preparation for his latest film.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... The first item on every story about Jason Francesco Schwartzman is that he comes from a creative family: His mother, Talia Shire, was Mrs. Rocky in that Sly Stallone franchise; his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola; and his cousin Sofia Coppola has...

Kara Walker.(Interview SHOWCASE)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kara Walker didn't go for the obvious last year when she organized a show inspired by Hurricane Katrina for New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. And now her curatorial originality is on display again in a...

Our lady detective dresses to kill.(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The weather was hot and sultry, but it couldn't hold a candle to her. You know the type: a long-haired gumshoe with a nose for trouble and legs all the way to China. That night all hell was about to break loose, although we didn't realize it...

Malin Akerman: if things had gone a little differently for this actress, she might have been voted Sweden's sexiest child psychologist.(Interview)
October 1, 2007... Before Malin Akerman landed her breakout role in this month's Farrelly brothers comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, she was best known for a sexpot scene in the stoner farce Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) and for appearances in two television...

One boss night.(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... 1 Laura Harring at the Hugo Boss Rooftop in NYC for an advance screening of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, hosted by Hugo Boss and Interview. Drinks courtesy of Skyy Vodka, Stella Artois, and Casa Lapostolle. 2 Michael Cerveris and...