Entertainment Gab

INDIANAPOLIS, IN—In a stern indictment of the cash-grabbing scandal that the student athletics organization was somehow kept completely in the dark about, the NCAA announced Monday the launch of an investigation into why it wasn’t making millions off of the recent college admissions controversy. “After the disturbing revelations that massive bribes were being paid out to people other than us, we’re launching an immediate inquiry into how we possibly missed out on this,” said NCAA president Mark Emmert, who claimed it was a “total failure of the system” that they were not raking in cash from wealthy celebrities when universities like Stanford, Yale, and USC were. “As an organization that always strives to squeeze money out of college athletics, I’m disgusted that this all went on right under our noses without us getting so much as a taste. There’s no way there isn’t some desperate millionaire out there willing to pay for his son to be a benchwarmer on a D1 team. To miss out on such a lucrative pay-to-play scheme goes against everything the NCAA stands for.” At press time, the NCAA had fined and suspended dozens of college coaches for not letting them in on the action.

Teen Titans GO! to the Movies hit theaters in July, and today Warner Bros. announced that fans will be able to watch it at home next month.

The Teen Titans GO! to the Movies Blu-ray and DVD will be available on October 30th, the same day as Batman: The Animated Series in HD. If you prefer digital or just don’t want to wait, you can grab Teen Titans GO! to the Movies at digital retailers on October 9th.

Check out all of the details, including special features, in the press release below.

Burbank, CA, September 11 – When the Teen Titans go to the big screen, they go big! “Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” finds our egocentric, wildly satirical superheroes in their first feature film extravaganza—a fresh, gleefully clever, kid-appropriately crass and tongue-in-cheek play on the superhero genre, complete with musical numbers. Get ready to LOL when “Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” arrives on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital.

The first-ever big-screen version of DC Entertainment and Cartoon Network’s animated TV show stars Greg Cipes (TV’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) as Beast Boy, Scott Menville (TV’s “Spider-Man”) as Robin, Khary Payton (TV’s “The Walking Dead”) as Cyborg, Tara Strong (the “My Little Pony” franchise) as Raven, and Hynden Walch (TV’s “Adventure Time with Finn & Jake”) as Starfire, reprising their roles from the series. Will Arnett (“The LEGO® Batman Movie”) and Kristen Bell (“Frozen”) also lend their voices as the evil Slade and Hollywood director Jade Wilson.

Peter Rida Michail and Aaron Horvath directed the film from a screenplay by Michael Jelenic and Horvath, which is based on characters from DC. Horvath, Jelenic, Peggy Regan, Michail and Arnett produced the film with Sam Register serving as executive producer. The music is by Jared Faber. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

“Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” will be available on Blu-ray Combo Pack for $35.99 and DVD for $28.98. The Blu-ray Combo Pack features a Blu-ray disc with the film and special features in high definition, a DVD with the film in standard definition and a Digital version of the movie. Blu-ray special features are filled with music and fun, including the “DC Super Hero Girls: The Late Batsby” mini-movie, sing-a-longs, a hilarious look at the Teen Titans characters dubbing their favorite lines in other languages in “Teen Titans GO!: Translated” plus much more!

“Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” will also be available on Movies Anywhere. Using the free Movies Anywhere app and website, consumers can access all their eligible movies by connecting their Movies Anywhere account with their participating digital retailer accounts.

Fans can also own “Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” via purchase from digital retailers beginning October 9.

SYNOPSIS

It seems like all the superheroes are getting their own movies – everyone but the Teen Titans, that is! Determined to be a star, Robin vows to change this. If only they could get Hollywood director Jade Wilson (Kristen Bell) to notice them! With a few madcap ideas and musical numbers (of course), the Teen Titans head to Tinsel Town. But when Supervillain Slade (Will Arnett) messes with their plans, the Teen Titans will have to become true superheroes to save the world!

BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

“Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” Blu-ray Combo Pack contains the following special features:

• Lil Yachty Music Video: “Teen Titans GO! Rap”
• Sing-a-long with Silkie “DC Super Hero Girls: The Late Batsby” Mini-Movie
• Red Carpet Mayhem
• Teen Titans GO! To the Movies: WB Lot Shenanigans
• “Everything is Fake”: Exclusive song not in the movie
• “Teen Titans GO!: Translated”
• Storyboard Animatics:
  • Storyboard Animatics: Time Cycles
  • The Final Battle 

“Teen Titans GO! to the Movies” Standard Definition DVD contains the following special features:

• Storyboard Animatics: Time Cycles
• The Final Battle

Ever since Dick Wolf brought us Law & Order, the show has been an obsession for fans. Excluding the original that aired for 20 seasons, there have been six other incarnations in the franchise. Some have been more successful than others, but clearly, they're popular.

Double-digit seasons for a TV show is hard enough to accomplish, but the Law & Order franchise brought the original to 20 seasons, and Law & Order: SVU Season 20 begins this fall. How is that possible?

We're not all simply voyeurs, delighting in the crimes committed against others. That may be part of the draw, but luckily for the franchise, it's not the only one. If it were, we'd have ditched the series long ago.

With Law & Order, we don't just have the law part of the crime; we have the order, too. The shows take us from the offense, which only takes up a small part of the show, through the entire judicial process.

Related: Enjoy UNLIMITED access to thousands of Movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video. WATCH ANYWHERE. CANCEL ANYTIME!

That's not something people usually get to see. Even the public servants involved in the judicial process itself don't get to see the perp's walk from soup to nuts. It's nice to get that closure, even if the end doesn't always work out in favor of the good guys.

The basic structure of each show is the same. A crime is committed, the police solve the crime and make an arrest, and the ADA prosecutes. The end. Every show has a beginning and a conclusion, but that's not all. If it were, it would get repetitive quick. 

We also have the police and their families, and we have the ADA and their relationship with the police. All of them have backstories revealed slowly over time. They're complex characters with arcs, and we care about them.

We root for Olivia Benson to overcome her demons left by her mother and the fact that she is the product of a rape. We wonder why Elliot Stabler is so angry all the time, and whether he can keep his family together. We look up to Jack McCoy, and we get to know him so well that we know what he'll say before he even says it.

We invest ourselves in these characters. We relate to them. We're with them in the scene when they're in the line of fire, and when they're making tough decisions.

Both Law & Order, and Law & Order SVU have survived and thrived past many casting changes. How?

Sometimes a show is strong enough to handle character changes because the stories themselves are strong, and the characters left are beloved.

One of the reasons for this is the stories are "ripped from the headlines." In real life when we read about a story in the paper or hear about it on TV, we might find out where it ends up in its resolution, but more often than not, we don't.

Sometimes we're left hanging, and even if we aren't, we don't know how the conclusion came to be.

What happened?

On Law & Order, we get to see the problems, and obstacles to convicting a criminal. We get to watch the investigative process performed by the cops and see how hard and sophisticated it is. 

Related: Law & Order: Hate Crimes Coming to NBC!!

The stories are all interesting in their own right, and we get to see those stories affecting the characters we've grown to love. We also get to look at the families of the victims and sometimes the criminals, and the effects on them.

The show reveals all of the cogs in the wheel, and we get a peek behind the curtain.

Not only does it somewhat satisfy our curiosity, but it also gives us a new appreciation for the police and the prosecutors. We see the challenges in the lab, and how much the forensic examiners are part of the entire process.

The Law & Order franchise might not delve as deeply into the criminal mind as Criminal Minds, but the audience does get to see and hear what the perp is thinking. Why did they commit the crime? We want to know!

For everyday citizens who follow the law, some crimes are incomprehensible. It's natural for people to ask why, when they hear of something terrible someone has done. The shows help us with the why and by giving us that glimpse gives us an answer.

Sometimes.

Related: Get True Crime Files by ID via Prime Video Channels for Over 1,000 Real-life Mystery & Suspense Shows!

We don't always understand the why, and at times we don't even get a reason, but more often, we do. Feeding our curiosity and trying to understand is a big reason for the success of the multi-series franchise giant.

The why also helps keep the shows fresh. We have murders and rapes over and over on the show, but we keep watching. It's because the why is seldom the same. There are as many reasons for committing a crime, and prosecuting that crime, as people who commit the crimes themselves.

It's personal, and that makes every story unique.

Add the variety of the stories to the deeply developed characters, while fulfilling a basic human need for understanding, and a bit of mystery and people cannot look away.

That's Law & Order.

What about you, Law & Order fanatics? Why do you continue to watch Law & Order season after season? Are you looking forward to the newest in the franchise, Hate Crimes? 

Watch Law & Order: SVU online for a taste of the franchise, and hit the comments to share your thoughts!

Kim Russell is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.

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Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week - October 18th, 2018

In the weekly Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week, the Montreal bookstore recommends several new works of fiction, art books, periodicals, and comics.

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is one of Montreal's premiere independent bookstores.

Bad Friends by Ancco

Bad Friends is set in the 1990s in South Korea in the bleak world of cycles of abuse. But at it’s centre is a story about friendship, and what it means to endure despite the hardship. The illustration style is beautiful, all in black and white, and the expressions on everyone’s faces are humorous and so descriptive. It’s a hard read that’s definitely worth it!

Brat by Michael Deforge

Deforge’s style is unlike any other artist. Colourful and bizarre, his work is absurdly smart and funny. Brat follows the struggles of an aged-out delinquent, looking back at her career and wondering: “My actions were originally politically motivated, but I guess the whole thing got away from me.” Brat is relevant for any artist or activist wondering where their life went, and how they’ve moved from the radical to the mainstream, wondering what it means to be an artist and political.

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Following Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s memoir Dirty River, which talks about their experience as a queer mixed race + disabled person, comes Care Work, a book about a movement that centers the lives and leadership of sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people, although the book packs care information for all. Piepzna-Samarasinha’s work centers radical love and community, and this book is a how-to (start) for anyone trying to build intentional community and what it means to create access for all, a radical idea that is not so radical at it’s foundation.

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

“Wow, just wow” is Roxane Gay’s reaction, so we’re already sold. An exciting and timely memoir, Kiese Laymon talks about weight, race, and being a black in America. In his essay, Green, Laymon’s grandmother is in the hospital with an infection in her scalp, the doctor ignoring her cries of pain as he operates, and Laymon contemplates the ways in which “folk always assumed black women would recover but never really cared if black women recovered”. Looking outside of just his own experiences, Heavy is contemplative and compassionate.

Passing by Nella Larsen

A reissue from the Harlem Renaissance, and yet still so relevant. Passing tells the story of two white-passing black women that choose different experiences, one woman deciding to marry a bigoted white man, and live in the word as a white woman, while her friend only chooses to pass when it suits her needs, shocked by her friend’s choices. Meditating on race, anti-blackness, and the ways we choose and don’t choose to be seen, Passing is a classic that everyone should read!

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly links:

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly's blog
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Facebook page
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Tumblr
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly on Twitter

also at Largehearted Boy:

Support the Largehearted Boy website

other Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week

Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly new comics and graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
WORD Bookstores Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)

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It’s March the 3rd, which means in both hemispheres, our thoughts inevitably turn to basslines and squelchy resonance. Happy 303 day – here’s some video and reading to get you in the mood.

First, let’s take a step back, and before we idolize the box and transistors, let’s talk about just how immaculately early Detroit and Chicago records were composed and mixed.

1987’s “Acid Tracks” by Phuture (DJ Pierre and Earl Spanky Smith) never fails to floor me. (I’ll guess the same about you, as anyone sick of acid has already left the room.) It sounds at once ancient and futuristic, like it fell from some alien civilization. “Acid Tracks” is slow, elegant, meditative – apparently slowed down to appeal to conservative New York dance floors; check out the fascinating write-up at the top of Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/Phuture-Acid-Tracks/release/1949

And, oh yeah – it’s a preset bassline. And very little actually happens in this track. You get the sense of that fresh, out-of-box, what the hell is this amazing thing feeling as a result – but whether intentional or not, it also means the duo settle on this fascinating groove and don’t overthink it. There’s an almost ritualistic, mantra-like steadiness to the track as a result. House legend Marshall Jefferson captures all of this with a mix that holds everything together, and weirdly I think gets away with the extreme panning from side to side, a kind of hypnotic incantation.

It may be the only time a preset pattern worked in a track, but… it works.

That same DJ Pierre joins Roland today to celebrate 303 Day – and yeah, he knows how to program patterns now:

I know we’re not supposed to covet gear as the solution to our problems but … there is something beautiful about really wanting a piece of gear to find a particular flavor, right?

It’s also great to hear Pierre talk about the satisfaction of turning a knob, and feeling like an improviser – I think that’s the essence of synth design. (I, uh, disagree with Maestro Pierre that this is the only instrument that did this, but then I don’t run an all-303 blog.)

But you think Japan is going to let us Americans have all the fun, with the gear they invented? Here is “Japanese Techno Girl Love TB-303 & TR-707 & RE-201” to answer that from the ocean. I’m not entirely sure I believe this is part of her bridal practice, but do you need to know whether that’s true or not?

For a good intro to the 303 and how to program it, Tatsuya Takahashi – former chief analog engineer at KORG – did an intro for RBMA. Seeing Tats talk Roland is weird, but on the other hand, I think Tats and his team at KORG built a lot of similar ideas into their instruments – hands-on control, simplified compact design, and a focus on playability. For all the present worship of modular synths and complexity, sometimes a simpler design lets the player explore more.

That skips over a lot of the history to focus on the instrument. So for a deeper look at how the 303 came about, check “Baseline Baseline,” a crude 2005 documentary. It feels a bit like someone is reading you a history of the 303 in monotone, but it’s a nice watch, nonetheless, packed with detail.

Philadelphia’s Akhil Kalepu did a great write-up of that history for DJ Tech Tools a few years back, as well:

History Of The TB-303: Roland’s Accidental Legend

To use the 303 yourself, your first question may be – have I heard that pattern before? (There is this funny quality of the 303, where you’re never certain if a pattern was your own, or a preset, or a classic tune, or the 303 somehow hijacked your brain and an alien consciousness made it for you, or … some combination?)

Let’s just not get too precious about acid house, though.

Part of what I love about the 303 is that it isn’t a classical instrument. You aren’t limited to reproducing half-assed copies of Chicago House just because that beautiful history is there. The 303 can get weird, dirty, trippy, unrecognizable. (Seriously, fight me on this. I love Roland’s TB-03 recreation not because it’s a perfect copy, but because it has some weird digital distortion and delay that you can abuse and warp.)

So, for instance, Germany’s Dr. Walker and Liquid Sky took acid in a different direction, some “acid techno” or make that “afterhour acid techno druggEEE madness.” Oh, sure, you could walk into a Berlin afterhours and someone could play some inoffensive slow tech house track. OR … you could wind up in some dark cave, three days into partying, thick with smoke, unable to find the door, when some end-of-the-world weirdness you can’t follow takes over, or some way-too-fast techno that is slowly speeding up. That’s the sort of 303 you might expect would be part of an unfriendly M-class planet, the kind the one surviving red shirt warned you about, holes burnt in his uniform, after beaming back up.

Playlist of related tracks:

Hold on, though, back up – Sony Music published this? Interesting.

I bring this up just because it’s sort of nicely the opposite of the Phuture track. If the above is the 303 in calm meditation or headed to a wedding, this is a disheveled 303 stumbling out of a bar in Akihabara, its tie in shreds (uh, drunk on alternating current or whatever synthesizers get into):

Acid is getting new leases on life, too, as in the hands of Bloody Mary, the French-born, Berlin-based producer and label boss of acidic dame music. She’s keeping acid alive both as a DJ –

– and as a producer. (Got to talk to her about her love of the 303 and the ability to really focus on this instrument at ADE in the fall.)

So be sure – we love the 303, but its day is not a sacred one. It’s a chance to do what we do every night – make ridiculous sounds with knobs.

And just remember – don’t let anyone convince you synthesis is a game for the rich. The 303 found its way into history thanks to some guys who could only barely afford it, after it had already dropped in value. Speaking as someone who reads tons of press releases from artists bragging about their all-modular setups, this is something worth repeating – and a happy 303 day to you.

Kill List, Sightseers, High-Rise and Free Fire director Ben Wheatley’s mysterious seventh feature, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, which was shot under-the-radar in the UK at the beginning of the year, will be released in partnership with BBC Films, BBC Comedy and BBC Two, reports ScreenDaily.

Following its world premiere in Competition at the BFI London Film Festival in October, it will screen around the UK in a limited run of Q&A sessions with Wheatley and the cast before being broadcast on BBC Two over the Christmas holiday. The BBC’s SVoD service, BBC iPlayer, will then streaming the film for 12 months.

Colin Burstead centers around the titular man (played by Neil Maskell), who hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. Unfortunately for Colin, his position of power in the family is under serious threat from the arrival of his estranged brother David.

Produced by Andy Starke at Rook Films, the ensemble cast features Richard Glover, Peter Ferdinando, Neil Maskell, Mark Monero and Sam Riley along with Asim Chaudhry, Joe Cole, Charles Dance, Alexandra Maria Lara, Doon Mackichan, Sinead Matthews, Bill Paterson and Hayley Squires.

“Funny, acute and very human, it’s a film about families at their worst and best, and a perfect bit of alternative Christmas television,” said Rose Garnett, head of BBC Films.