Hall of Fame quarterback

"Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath was the first football player to find rock-star status.

Universal Pictures will turn the life of Joe Namath into a feature film, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing the Hall of Fame quarterback.

David Hollander will write the script once the writers strike is over. Mad Chance's Andrew Lazar will produce. Jimmy Walsh, who runs Namanco Prods., exec produces.

Walsh said he and Namath OK'd the movie after a long pursuit by Lazar, a strong take by Hollander and the belief that the athletic Gyllenhaal was the right actor to play him.

While other quarterbacks racked up bigger lifetime stats, Namath became the first football player to achieve rock-star status. The pic will tell the story of how the golden-armed kid from Beaver Falls, Pa., became Broadway Joe, the New York Jets quarterback who became a '60s cultural figure.

[...] Gyllenhaal, who is coming off "Rendition" and "Zodiac," is currently shooting the Jim Sheridan-directed "Brothers" with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman and will follow that by teaming with Doug Liman on an untitled project at DreamWorks that revolves around a moon expedition". Source: Variety.com

Music Review of Mushman

Akin to the same effect of a lit match on a perfectly sunny day, producing a subsequent yuxtaposing of both lights. There is a melodic overabundance pouring from this debut album by alternative Acoustic Folk/Pop-rock band Mushman and their leaders, actors, and musicians Patrick Fugit and David Fetzer from Salt Lake City.
David Fetzer plays the guitar, the harmonica, some additonal keys, the guitar-banjo, and he's the main singer. Patrick Fugit plays the guitar, the Flamenco guitar, the harmonica, and occasionally he dares to sing a bit. Camden Chamberlain plays the bass and he's the recording wizard who does the mixing and mastering of the songs. Doug Grose plays the keys and Ian Aldous is the drummer. Their influences are varied: Iron and Wine, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, The Shins, Grandaddy, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, etc.

The band's name refers to movie star Steve McQueen, who used it as an alias: "He would check into hotels under the name Harvey Mushman", Fugit told to Deseretnews in an interview "McQueen was pretty cool, and we couldn't think of anything better. So it stuck."

Their debut album "Eddie Do", released on November 2, 2007 is a quirky compilation of stories of the life of a fictional kid. “Eddie is sort of a... um... metaphor for my neurosis in relation to girls. I think it’s manifested as a 6 year old boy – that’s my emotional maturity when it comes to dating” -David Fetzer tries to explain the biographical origins of Eddie in an interview for Elitestv.

The record contains thirteen tracks written by Mushman, except "From the ground, Looking up," which is by David and Scott Fetzer and "Brennan's Theme" composed by Seth Bernard (Earthworkmusic.com). His contrasts broaden the emotional childlike roller coaster vibe providing a naughty comfort while listening and even quite time after listening to it.

The first track, "Eddie's Balloon" has a similar atmosphere and melodic line to a song called "Spaceman," "Eddie was afraid to die but didn't know why" introduces in the fearful mind of Eddie the young lonely antihero: "from his window" he waited, maybe a revelation looking at a distant high heaven, with a sad choir extending in a mute and inconclusive instrumental silt.

The second, "It's Too High" is like a brief joke through a vocal counting up (6,7,8).

Third song, "I don't Know" was featured in the hilarious comedy film Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006) by Scott Lew and is about the continuous doubting by the paranoid kid: "I don't know if you tell the truth, I don't know if I want you too... I don't know what to do, what to do with you, I don't know you." It makes him look like a particularly traumatized boy by mercurial femenine behaviour.

In the fourth "Pirate Pete" Fetzer would confess: “I was going to school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan for acting and theater. I was in a production where I was playing a character that had syphilis and so I was in a strange mind-set during that production. There is a certain scene where he is loosing his mind and it was really messing with me. At the same time, my roommate had this figurine of a pirate with a provocative looking telescope... the two sort of combined and then I wrote the song”. Certainly, a weird inspiration for a song whose obsessive request is "I wish you were my friend".

The fifth track, "From the Clouds, Looking Down" is a cloudy instrumental gone haywire through a granular guitar sound.

Going on with "Eddie's Nightmare," some latent schizo symptoms lie hidden under a slothful tempo whose reverberations are expanding and receding as a nightmare blocking our numb conscience: "The summer so bright... and some people were blinded," our protagonist mumbles again.

In the seventh "Intermission" there is a rather comical vocal reminder "Ladies and gentlemen we take one minute four seconds intermission." which ends with a non-ironic dry "thank you".

The eight track (and beginning of Side B) is another instrumental "Here Again, Gone Again." It's a very solemn passage punctuated with bold flamenco guitar chords.

The next is also an instrumental piece. "From the Ground, Looking Up" is beset by crystalline string swells that remind me of the famous "Hotel California" by The Eagles.

We return back to the thoughts of Eddie spoken in riddles "You Don't Know," a beautiful song with a very low and slow beginning which gingerly shows us Eddie's sweetly conflicted heart: "You don't know me... don't say you know what I've been through... you don't know how I see you..." ending with this choir "turuturututu tururututu" which reminded me partially to the final desperate choir of Lou Reed's "Smile" from "Growing up in Public" (1980).

The eleventh track "DVD Menu" is a velvetian type instrumental, encompassing coyly a progressively uplifting feeling.

Only to be darkened fiercely through the next "Eddie's Lament:" "And then one night he run away, too young to drive but too sad to stay", which culminates with a series of "Aha, Aha, Aha" which combines a hopefulness breeze with a restless sadness.

The final theme "Brennan's Theme" appears in the recent film "Wristcutters: A Love Story" (2006) by Goran Dukic, which focuses on suicidal misfits and that was nominated in Sundance and won the Grand Jury Feature Film award at the 11th annual Gen Art Film Fest. Patrick Fugit comments about this song: “I had asked my friend Seth Bernard to do the score for a documentary I was filming about T. Casey Brennan and I just loved what he did. It captured this guy’s tragic and crazy side; the part of this dude who took way too much acid”.

The record was mixed and mastered by Camdem Chamberlain at Kitefishing's studio during the summer of 2004. It is produced by Mushman and Camdem Chamberlain, artwork and layout of the record by Susan Fawcett, and is available for sale in:
Fox on a hill Productions

Published on 16th November in Blogcritics.org.

WATCH "SPACEMAN" VIDEO

Blonde, pretty, actress

Rememoring old times with old girlfriend Kirsten, Jake seemed very happy, now Jake acts happy again with his new crush Reese, so what do you prefer, "Gyllendunst" or "Gyllenspoon"?

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Marriage proposal?

A source commented: "Reese says it is just too soon after her divorce from Ryan to think about marrying again.

"She is madly in love with Jake, but her divorce just became final, and she doesn't want to rush into anything". Source: Rte.ie

"22 November 2007- Jake popped the question during the couple's recent romantic break to Rome, but Reese - whose divorce from Ryan Philippe was finalized in October - turned him down because she does not want to rush into another union.

A source said: "Reese says it is just too soon after her divorce from Ryan to think about marrying again. She is madly in love with Jake, but her divorce just became final, and she doesn't want to rush into anything."

Jake planned a day filled with romantic gestures before he plucked up the courage to ask Reese to marry him.

The couple - who met on the set of their film Rendition earlier this year - strolled around the Piazza di Spagna, walked up the Spanish Steps and visited the Trinita dei Monti.

They then visited the Piazza Campo di Fiori for an intimate lunch. In the evening, Reese and Jake climbed up the Monte Mario hill, before dinning at the Zodiaco café - where the actor went down on one knee.

However, despite Jake's best romantic efforts, Reese is being cautious for the sake of her two children, eight-year-old Ava and four-year-old Deacon.

The source added to National Enquirer magazine: "Reese wants to take things very slowly because of her two young children. She doesn't want anything to upset or disrupt them. It took her a while to introduce them to Jake - she didn't want them to know they were a couple until they were definitely serious about each other.

"They are madly in love. They really are the perfect couple". Source: news.sawf.org/gossip

With Reese or alone

Jake walking alone in Beverly Hills, on 13th November, 2007.

Rai tv interview

Watch this conference at the Festa del Cinema di Roma 2007 about "Rendition", with Gavin Hood, Jake and Reese Witherspoon: at the Rai.tv

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

I WISH YOU A HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO MY U.S. WEIRDOS READERS, HAPPY TURKEY!