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Derek
Luke Gives Finest Performance Ever in South African Thriller:
CATCH A FIRE!
 Opens
in theatres October 27TH
Celebrity Profiles By Sandra Varner
Derek Luke stole our hearts
in the title role of the poignant biopic, Antwone Fisher,
the 2002 directorial debut of two-time Academy Award winner,
Denzel Washington, and nabbed an Independent Spirit Award
for Best Male Lead.
 Years
since, Luke has had either starring or costarring roles in
a string of films to include: “Pieces of April”
(2003) with Katie Holmes; “Biker Boyz” (2003)
with Laurence Fishburne; “Friday Night Lights”
(2004) with Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton; “Glory
Road” (2006) with Josh Lucas and now; in his most passionate
role to date as Patrick Chamusso in director Phillip Noyce’s
politically incendiary drama, “Catch A Fire,”
also starring Academy Award winner Tim Robbins (Mystic River,
Shawshank Redemption, Jungle Fever). Noyce helmed the Harrison
Ford box office successes: Patriot Games (1992) and Clear
and Present Danger (1994).
The 32-year-old New Jersey
native said he poured himself into this role wearing numerous
hats including that as one of its producers. His due diligence
is evident. Luke shines brilliantly and Catch A Fire —in
my opinion— is among the top ten films released this
year, garnering the 2006 Mill Valley Film Festival Audience
Award.
Robbins puts forth a commanding
portrayal as the autocratic police security officer, Nic Vos,
whose unethical investigative methods render a chilling impact
upon which the plot centers. The stunning South African actress
Bonnie Henna, as “Precious,” Chamusso’s
first wife, is superlative in a composite role as his scorned,
embittered and confused companion.
A Brief History of
Patrick Chamusso
Patrick Chamusso was born into
a rural Mozambique family in 1950. His father was a migrant
laborer who worked over the border in South Africa as a miner,
and as such was only allowed home once or twice a year (for
Easter and/or Christmas) and was only minimally compensated.
From an early age, Patrick knew that he would have to go out
and make a living for himself.
As a teenager, Patrick followed
his father to South Africa, taking odd jobs in the mines.
He then worked as a house painter and street photographer.
He was also a talented soccer player, playing for local leagues.
By his early twenties, he was doing well enough to buy a car
and a camera, unusual for a young black South African at that
time.
One day in the 1970s, Patrick
was stopped and his car was searched by the police. Patrick’s
camera was confiscated as being suspicious; there had been
acts of ANC sabotage in the area, and Patrick was suspected
of spying for the organization. He was arrested and deported
to Mozambique. His camera, and car, was never given back to
him.
Patrick got forged papers so
he could return to South Africa. He settled in Secunda, a
town several hours east of Johannesburg. He got a job at the
oil refinery there, which was one of the largest in the world.
Well-liked and a hard worker, he advanced quickly at the plant.
His soccer-playing prowess also made him popular at the refinery
and in the-community.
On May 31st, 1980, the ANC’s
military wing (MK) bombed the Secunda plant, along with two
other installations. Hitting these targets with no loss of
life was a major strategic victory for the ANC; a propaganda
coup, it demonstrated to whites that the apartheid government
could be demoralized and to blacks that the ANC was capable
of effectively fighting back.
Patrick was arrested as a suspect
in June 1980. Though he was completely innocent, the police
suspected him of having helped the ANC gain access to the
plant. South African police at that time had the power to
hold people suspected of political crimes indefinitely, without
access to a lawyer or family. Patrick’s torture was
so harsh that when he was released, he was a changed man.
After having avoided political involvement for all of his
life, he now decided that he had suffered needless trauma
for a reason, and so he had to do-something.
Leaving his family behind,
he crossed the border illegally into Mozambique and traveled
to the capital, Maputo, where the ANC had its regional headquarters.
There, he was initially held in a detention camp while the
ANC checked out his story and made sure that he was not a
South African police mole. Patrick was accepted into the organization;
he trained with and met MK commander Joe Slovo, one of the
few senior white members of the ANC. Joe was running Special
Ops, a military unit set up to engineer spectacular acts of
armed propaganda – without casualties – within
South Africa. He had been responsible for planning the first
refinery attacks, and wanted to strategize a bigger strike.
Patrick lobbied to Joe that
with his inside knowledge of the Secunda refinery, he could
bring the plant to a standstill and make it burn for days.
Joe approved the operation, and the ANC agreed to send him
back to South Africa for what would be – by Patrick’s
choice – a one-man assault. He first completed further
training in Angola and then returned to Maputo before traveling,
under an assumed identity, by car via Swaziland back to South
Africa and then into-Secunda.
On the day of the operation,
October 21st, 1981, Patrick attached land mines to his body
and hid himself on a conveyor belt. The belt carried coal
from a neighboring mine to inside the refinery, and now would
successfully transport Patrick himself as well. His carefully
worked-out plan was to place one mine on a water-pump, followed
by another on a reactor inside one of the main plants. The
impactful first explosion would act as a warning to the thousands
of workers inside the reactor, since ANC policy was that no
lives were to be lost in any operations; and would make it
that much harder for the authorities to fight the fire. He
planned for the reactor land mine to explode 15 minutes after
the water-pump one.
Patrick left the plant as the
first mine went off. The main plant emptied as planned. Police
arriving on the scene guessed that there was another land
mine, and found and disarmed it before it-could-explode.
Six days later, on October
27th, after a massive manhunt, Patrick was caught. He was
held for nine months without trial, during which time he was
brutally tortured.
His trial eventually took place
in Pretoria Supreme Court, in August 1982. Patrick was found
guilty on three counts of contravening the Terrorism Act (undergoing
training in Mozambique and belonging to an illegal organization;
committing sabotage; and unlawfully possessing arms and explosives),
and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Patrick served nearly
10 years on Robben Island until he was amnestied and released
in late 1991, along with all political-prisoners.
Today, Patrick lives in northeast
South Africa with his wife Conney, whom he married after his
release from prison. Patrick and Conney have three children
of their own, and have foster-parented 80 more, all of the
latter orphans. Their orphanage is named Two Sisters (www.twosisters.org.za).
NBC
to Axe 700 Jobs
By John Delaney
Both Ray Charles (if he were
alive) and Stevie Wonder could easily see the cuts coming
at NBC. Profit drives Wall Street and meeting revenue goals
and EBITDA forecasts are a must if investors are to be kept
happy. NBC, with its bothersome duplicities in many areas,
became a prime candidate for a restructure. It is about to
become leaner, meaner and more digital: Like rumored last
month, NBC Universal said it will cut 700 jobs/5% of its workforce
and streamline its news operations as part of an overhaul
that is aimed at exploiting new forms of electronic distribution.
Under the initiative "NBCU 2.0," NBC said it expects
to save a whopping 750 million in operating expenses by 2008.
As part of the reorg, MSNBC will move its ops to Rockefeller
Center. Some 1,500 MSNBC personnel will move to 30 Rock, where
two floors will be rebuilt as a modern digital home for NBC
News, MSNBC-TV and MSNBC.com's East Coast ops. Others will
be transferred to CNBC HQ across the river in NJ.
The reason? Likely due to three
un-stellar years at NBCU, where operating profit fell 10%
in each of the past three quarters. NBCU entertainment programming
has dipped to fourth place in ratings. These results have
cut into GE's earnings. GE reported Q3 profits of 6% last
week. It said its performance was dragged down by NBC, where
profits fell 10% from Q3 last year.
Some of the cuts also
include:
The NBC TV station group will
create a consolidated news facility in Burbank that will support
both NBC and Telemundo. NBC Universal Studios will make cuts
to consolidate support and marketing functions. NBCU will
also revamp its prime-time entertainment schedule as part
of NBCU 2.0. It'll stop scheduling high-priced dramas and
comedies during from 8-9 PM, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal's TV group CEO, said he'll focus
on cheaper programming. Zucker told the WSJ scripted shows
cost too much given the lack of advertiser interest (note
BIA's analysis below).
Layoffs include folks from
the company's 11 news divisions, including on-air talent.
NBC News execs plan to make cuts through attrition, buyouts,
layoffs and elimination of duplicate processes. Some correspondents
now report only to individual shows, rather than share their
reporting across the network. That'll change. Centralization
of graphics across the network is also expected.
Observed Mark Fratrik, VP/BIA
Financial Network: "NBCU's announcement of the reorganization,
significant cuts in personnel and changes in their programming
strategy as just other indications that the present media
landscape is vastly different than it was just five years
ago, and does not even resemble what it was 20 to 30 years
ago. Over-the-air television networks now face more competition
from other over-the-air networks, cable/satellite delivered
networks, and the unlimited number of video choices available
over the Internet. While NBCU has diversified to become more
of a presence in these other related areas, it still has suffered
as a result. Hence, the cutbacks and reorganization announcement.
Given the competitive landscape, a drastic change is necessary
for these operations.
Over-the-air networks still
provide a forum for high quality programming that attracts
large audiences that are important for many advertising campaigns.
Yet, those audiences are smaller given the many more choices
available. Many advertisers, for that and other reasons, are
not as drawn to these advertising options. NBCU's announcement
that they will no longer air dramas the first hour of prime-time
is just a reaffirmation that the advertising community is
not interested enough to the smaller audiences at that time
to warrant the more expensive drama programming."
Given the competitive landscape,
a drastic change is necessary for these operations. Over-the-air
networks still provide a forum for high quality programming
that attracts large audiences that are important for many
advertising campaigns. Yet, those audiences are smaller given
the many more choices available. Many advertisers, for that
and other reasons, are not as drawn to these advertising options.
NBCU’s announcement that they will no longer air dramas
the first hour of prime-time is just a reaffirmation that
the advertising community is not interested enough to the
smaller audiences at that time to warrant the more expensive
drama programming.”
THI Observation: This
is another prime example of broadcast and entertainment companies
living and dying by Wall Street. NBC is a small piece of GE-a
humongous company or merely the equivalent of “a pimple
on a gnats behind.” For commercial credit, General Electric
(GE Financial) is actually the largest bank in the world.
They have 13 divisions. In Q2, for example, NBC sales were
up high single digits and their profits were up. But they
were the only one that didn't go up double digits. But GE
stocks still got hammered by the analysts.
Museum
Of Printing History Print Exhibition Extended Through January
2007
By Virginia Anderson
 From
the Heart of Texas: Prints by Charles Criner
An exhibition of master prints by Charles
Criner at the Museum of Printing History, 1324 West Clay,
which was scheduled to end in October, will be extended through
January 2007. This schedule change will give visitors more
of an opportunity to view an important exhibition of two-dozen
prints, both those created on lithographic stone and through
digital giclee printing.
Charles Criner, a major Houston-based
artist, is renowned for his realist narrations of the African-American
existence in East Texas and on the Gulf Coast. Intensely biographical,
Criner’s images are pulled from childhood memories and
his immediate environment.
Criner was born in 1945 in
Athens, Texas, and studied art at Texas Southern University
under the guidance of the late Dr. John Biggers, internationally
famed realist painter and printmaker. For over a decade, he
exhibited in two-man shows with Dr. Biggers, touring nationally.
Recently, Charles Criner has been showcased in solo exhibitions
at the University of Arkansas, the O’Kane Gallery at
the University of Houston, the Longview Museum of Fine Arts,
the King Center in Columbus Ohio, Southern University at Shreveport,
Southern University at Baton Rouge, Texas A&M University
in Kingsville, Texas Southern University, and the Tyler Museum
of Art.
As a printmaker, Charles Criner
explores historic methods of stone lithography, printing on
an 1830s star wheel oak press. Moving into the 21st century,
he has experimented with digital ink-jet (giclee) printing
methods. Though still controversial in art circles, ink-jet
printing is increasingly used by printmakers and photographers
who press the cause for technological advances in printing.
Criner currently serves as
Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Printing History and
teaches at Houston Community College.
A
Gorey Spectacle: Edward Gorey From The Collection of Ed Snow
By Virginia Anderson
October
1-January 31. Opening Thursday October 26, 6-9pm
The Museum of Printing History presents in its Book Gallery
the illustrations of Edward Gorey. See the work of Edward
Gorey, the acclaimed illustrator. Gorey has illustrated works
as diverse as Dracula by Bram Stoker, The War of the Worlds
by H. G. Wells, and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by
T. S. Eliot. He has illustrated many children's books by John
Bellairs, as well as books in several series begun by Bellairs
and continued by other authors after his death.
Gorey's illustrated (and
sometimes wordless) books, with their vaguely ominous air
and ostensibly Victorian and Edwardian settings, have long
had a cult following. Gorey became particularly well-known
through his animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery!
in 1980, as well as his designs for the 1977 Broadway production
of Dracula.
Bleak
Year Forecasted For U.S. Marketers
By Karl Ghross
The analysts at Blackfriars
Communications are forecasting a fairly bleak year for US
marketers — even online marketers. Blackfriars’
second annual sizing of the US marketing market found that
2006 marketing spending dropped to 4.7% of business revenues
this year, from 8.9% last-year.
“Marketing has struggled
because of bad weather and higher fuel prices over the past
twelve months,” said Carl Howe of-Blackfriars.
A key finding of the survey
— of 317 senior business executives across the country
— was that advertising spending fell to 218 billion
this year, of which 38 billion was online advertising, reported
eMarketer.
But even the news about online
advertising was bad. Expected by Blackfriars to account for
10% of overall advertising spending at the beginning of the
year, online advertising ebbed to only-7%-of-budgets.
“Companies are cutting
back on all forms of marketing from last year,” said
Howe. “But as they cut their budgets, they fall back
on more traditional media and strategies. That’s really
too bad, because the measurability of online marketing allows
executives to clearly demonstrate its value. That can be much
harder to do with traditional media.”
On somewhat of an up note,
Howe added, “If marketing were an industry, the 615
billion spent on marketing this year would still make it the
ninth largest industry in the United States.”
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