Raphael Sbarge, an accomplished actor of over four decades, sat down with Blast to talk "Once Upon A Time."

Raphael Sbarge, who plays Dr. Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket on ABC’s “Once Upon A Time,” recently took the time to answer of my questions. He delved into his character, reflected on the season, and spoke about the show’s improbable success in its first year.

BLAST: First, your career spans many recognizable titles in TV and film. You had a role on The Guardian as well as several parts on notable shows like Dexter, Heroes, 24, Prison Break, and the list goes on. No doubt you’ve had a prolific career and have been sought after for many parts. What in particular drew you to the role of Dr. Archie Hopper a.k.a Jiminy Cricket?

RS: Thank you for your kinds words.  Yes, I have been blessed with a career that had many wonderful opportunities.  Needless to say, there are hills and valleys in any actor’s journey, and one never knows what is coming next, and so you learn, as a matter of survival, to finesse the twists and turns that are inevitable. As far as Once Upon a Time is concerned, my feeling from the moment I read the script was that it was something special.  My concern (on the page) was that it was wildly ambitious, and could never be pulled off.  I mean, how on earth could they create two distinct worlds— and one a fantasy world, in a regular 8 day shooting schedule (the standard amount of time for a network show?)  Clearly they have exceeded expectations on all counts.  I shudder to think how this idea would have been done in lesser hands.

BLAST: Now, funny enough, I started reviewing Once Upon A Time for Blast a few episodes into the season and the first review I did was of your spotlight episode, “That Still Small Voice.” Tell me what it was like to delve into this fresh back-story for the Jiminy Cricket character and what may have surprised or intrigued about the somewhat dark direction the show took with his beginnings and transformation from man to cricket.

RS: When I first heard that it was “coming”( from our creators, Eddie Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz)  I got very excited.  When I finally got to read it, I was really moved by the story they had created— it made me weep, actually.  Jiminy’s story is not a happy one.  His “conscience” was born out of some terrible stuff, which, in my humble opinion, gives it some depth (and doesn’t make him a “know-it-all.”)   Once I got past the teary stage, then I got to the “Holy-Cow!” stage, meaning, this is a big bite, and one that will make a lasting impression.  There are moments, and this was one of them, when the “Hey, I’m portraying an icon and I hope I’m up to the challenge” gave me more than a few sleepless nights.   I was very happy with how it turned out, and been greeted with folks saying, “Wow!  I didn’t know that was Jiminy Cricket’s back story.”  Of course they made it up, but I consider this a huge compliment to their ingenuity.

BLAST: A follow-up to my last question about “That Still Small Voice,” your real-world arc in that episode surrounds Archie’s relationship with Henry. Will that doctor-patient relationship play a role as Emma seeks custody of her son?

RS: As I write this, I believe that you will have seen a scene with Emma and I that addresses that, yes [In last week's "An Apple Red As Blood].   There is clearly a struggle, a battle for Henry and for who knows best.  Adam and Eddie have set up a huge power play between two powerful women— both seemingly with Henry’s well being in mind, but with different methods, it seems.  Henry too, has emerging ideas about who he wants to spend time with.  Clearly we have not seen the end of this.  Archie, as the man in the middle, will have a lot to discuss.  Won’t it be interesting if the Mayor comes to the therapy room, too?

BLAST: A couple weeks ago in “The Return,” Dr. Hopper had his first pivotal scene since Jiminy Cricket’s “fairyback” (my term for the fairy tale flashbacks) where Archie has a mini-therapy session with Mr. Gold. This exchange fascinated me and a lot of fans because it gave Gold a vulnerability we hadn’t yet seen. How did you approach that scene and do you think Gold will return to Dr. Hopper for further therapy?

RS: I love that term, “fairyback!”  You may have coined something!  Ha!  Yes!  We got tremendous response to that scene— I LOVE Robert Carlyle, and was a huge fan of his even before I got to be on a show with him( and now that I get to watch him every week, my appreciation has only grown!)    We had a blast together, and I do hope we have many more opportunities to explore some of the themes that got initiated in that episode.

BLAST: ”The Stranger” was one of my favorite episodes of the season, and you as the voice of Jiminy Cricket played a significant role. Can you tell our readers a little more about how you feel your character played a vital part in Geppetto and Pinocchio’s story (on the show)?

RS: I loved this episode too (but I have so many favorites now, its hard to pick one out, personally).  Tony Amendola who plays Gepetto, quite by coincidence, is an old friend of mine.  We have known each other for 25 years, and done more plays together than I can count.  He is such a wonderful actor, and I was incredibly proud of him.  I loved too, the last moment in the episode when August/ Pinocchio says to his father, “I want to fix things.” Killed me.   I was there doing off camera Jiminy work for the scene at the enchanted tree, when Gepetto and Jiminy have a tiff— and was so pleased that we got to revisit the painful past between these two.  There is a lot to mine, in that relationship I think.  And, needless to say, the episode was just wonderful!

BLAST: Can you speculate at all about how Archie/Jiminy Cricket will factor in next season? If you can’t speculate, what would you like to see for Archie/Jiminy in successive seasons?

RS: Well, I am in the dark as much as you are, frankly ( the story lines to future episodes are a very closely guarded secret, especially for next year).  But that said, I will be interested to see if we get a chance to explore Archie’s love life and or his life in the town outside of his time in the office.  As well, I would love to see more time with Mr. Gold, or Emma, or the Mayor in the therapy room.  Based on the finale, I would say there is a lot of job security ahead for a therapist in Storybrooke.

BLAST: Do you approach your character as separate entities (Archie Hopper AND Jiminy Cricket) that you play differently (distinct voices, personalities, demeanors), or do consider them as one person at two places in time that happens embody a human and cricket form?

RS: This is a very interesting question.  They are, I believe, as you suggest, the same person, in two places at once.  One has a broader view of things, and one is locked in time.  And there is indeed a different voice that Jiminy has.  But, they are both bound by a conscience, born of some hard knocks, and a desire to help others find their way.

BLAST: Obviously, doing the voice of a CGI cricket is a lot different from playing a human therapist. What can you tell us about filming the Jiminy scenes and how involved you are in the process?

RS: It is a fascinating experience.  Completely different from any other I have ever had on a set.  I mean, to be an actor in the scene, playing it full out, but to always be off camera is very unusual.  The actors in the scene, ON camera have been very thankful that I am there to do it (and not a script supervisor, reading lines from way off set, as is the norm).  It has given me, as well, a chance to find him amidst the action, and not just on a dark sound stage by myself.  I have done a lot of voice over work in other mediums (in video games, and commercial work), and it is a particular skill.  But, this is unique in my four decades as an actor.

BLAST: As a Lost fan, I have great respect for Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. I often talk in my reviews about the similarities the shows share. Kitsis and Horowitz use flashbacks in both to add depth to characters, and I talk about the theme of faith vs. reason—a continuous thread in Lost and something Emma is struggling with mightily on Once Upon A Time. What is it like to work with those two (Kitsis and Horowitz) and what elements of Lost do you think they’ve carried over to this show?)

RS: Wow. Big question.  You elucidate the theme quite beautifully. I would say simply, that it is a marvel to work with them. They have created a very, very complex world, with distinct rules, and clear structure (very hard to do).  I don’t know if I can speak to how Lost themes or elements have carried over, but I can say that I am constantly surprised how they are able to surprise me.  I mean, I watch television.  I work in television.  More often then not, I can anticipate where the story is headed, who the killer is, or where it might be headed.  With this show, I never know where they are going next, and this seems to be one of the things that fans are so excited about (amongst others, of course).  What they have done is create a world of characters that are both good and evil, but complex, and multidimensional.With the Evil Queen or Rumplestilskin, we see evil deeds, with devastating consequences, but we also get to see the cost, the pain, the horror of their interior life, that gives us compassion for them, even as we love to hate them.
This is no easy task— and to do it week after week, I am as I say, slack jawed at how they can balance so many stories at once. I feel at times like a squealing fan, and when people tell me ( as they often do), “I’m totally addicted to your show.”  I say, “I know!  Me, too!”

BLAST: To be honest, it seemed improbable this series would last. It’s such a high-concept show that asks a lot of its audience in terms of patience and trust that it will all become clear soon. Though it helps that the source material includes familiar and timeless tales like Snow White and Pinocchio. But against formidable odds, it has a huge following and is the most watched new drama. Are you surprised at all by the show’s success?

RS:  I am 100 percent surprised by the success.  Not as any disparagement to any of us.  But, just because the odds of any new show finding its audience is slim to none— let alone to be dubbed the “most watched new drama.”  Just as I was writing these answers to you,  I just got an email from Adam and Eddie saying it was official, we are picked up for next year (thrilling to hear!).   Based on the honor of Most Watched, we all felt pretty confident, but needless to say, after years of doing this job, it makes you very humble and grateful for those rare moments when something comes together and works.  This is one of those rare moments.

BLAST: here’s some incredible acting on this show (yourself included, obviously ha-ha). Who have you most enjoyed working with?

RS: I feel like I am on an All-Star team, and every time I come to the set, the level of  commitment and pride that we all share is very evident.  In fact, it is shared by every department— camera, props, costumes— even the guy who watches our cars in the parking lot told me how proud he was to be on this crew!   We all feel like we are on something very special.

BLAST: Overall, what have you considered most rewarding about working on Once Upon A Time and playing Archie/Jiminy?

RS: As actors, we are innately story tellers.  We are, of course, completely reliant on the world that is created by the writers, and the elements that they craft for us.  What is most rewarding?  The absolutely breathtaking stories that we get to tell, every week.  I am so incredibly grateful.

BLAST: For our readers, what should fans know before going into the finale? Will their minds be blown? Can fans look forward to more answers (like the many provided in “The Stranger”) or will more questions arise?

RS: I can’t tell you. But, even if I could, wouldn’t you rather find out yourself?  So much more fun to unwrap you own Christmas present, isn’t it?  :)  What I will say is this, prepare for a big finish!

BLAST: Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Sbarge. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to speak with you and I wish you (and Archie/Jiminy) all the best. I hope I get to speak with you in the future regarding Once Upon A Time and possibly any other roles you take on.

RS: And, thank you for these great questions!

Mara Marini guest starred as Brandi Maxxxx on this season's episode, "The Debate," on NBC's "Parks and Recreation"

Mara Marini may be from Canada originally, but her face and ambition say Hollywood. Even in a phone interview she exudes an infectious sweetness that you’d imagine would have to carry over on the small or big screen.

And while she would tell you she’s blessed and appreciative of all that her time in Los Angeles has afforded her, it almost doesn’t seem fair that it’s taken this long for her star to shine.

“I literally told my parents since I was four years old, ‘I’m gonna move to L.A. as soon as I graduate…I knew I wanted to be here, I just didn’t know how I was going to get here,” Marini recalls.

Her ticket was acceptance to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). After attending York University in Toronto, Marini auditioned for the prestigious school that has trained many noteworthy names, including Adam Scott, Marini’s co-star on the hit NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation.”

Coincidentally,  Adam Scott spoke at her graduation- and fellow “Parks” guest star Paul Rudd spoke at Adam Scott’s graduation, creating what Marini calls a “trifecta” of AADA alums on “Parks and Recreation.”

Regarding the idea of “making it,” Marini “never really had any grandiose ideas about being a star,” she says. “I just knew I wanted to act and I never wanted to do anything else.”

She had gained theatre experience in Canada and continued on that track in L.A. She also “did a lot of indie films, anything I could get my hands on.”

Only recently did she hire an agent that she really likes. Before that, she was self-made – a scrappy, door-to-door saleswoman of sorts, pitching herself at meetings. Amazingly, her problem was that she was just another blonde beauty with personality. “We have someone just like you” was an oft-heard soft blow sort of rejection she’d receive. Then there would be the vulgar male agents looking to capitalize on her sexuality: “We need you to come back in a bikini.”

After graudation, she faced many of the anxieties most young professionals face. “It was a lot of hustle…I knew I’d have to find my niche, so I tried a bunch of different things. I did stand-up [comedy] for a while,” she recalls. Though that foray only lasted about a year, like anything it was a learning experience.

“The problem for me was, to get into comedy,  you really have to make that a career. You start off as either a ‘bringer’ or a ‘ringer’. So unless you’re a ‘bringer’ , which is like the star, you have to bring a certain amount of people per show or they’ll take speech time. So the first few times were great, but I didn’t want to be asking my friends to  come every week, so it was a catch-22.”

Marini learned that it takes full devotion to make it as a comedian. Her friend, comedian Colin Kane, has taught her by example. ” … 24/7 he’s on it, promoting himself, him and his manager just going at it,” she says.  ”It really has to be your love and your career. And acting is where my passion lies.”

Of course, nothing in her acting career has come close to “Parks and Recreation,” which she describes as “the best time of my life.” The gig to end all gigs came about when Dorian Frankel, the casting director on the show, was holding a workshop. “Most of the time it isn’t super fruitful, I feel. But this time, I saw a breakdown for this Brandi Maxxxx character and submitted myself,” she recalls. “I felt like, ‘I have this, I have this. This is totally me.’”

Despite being disappointed with her audition, Marini landed the part. “That’s why you never know,” she says simply.

She’s had instances where casting directors have said “‘you will definitely hear back from us,’  then nothing. Or you will walk out feeling really bad about yourself, and you end up booking it. You just never know.”

The struggles to please industry professionals don’t stop there, however. The casting director for a now cancelled ABC  show, The Whole Truth,” had brought Marini to try out several parts, and was not blind to her talents – but there was one aspect of her that he took issue with.

“He called my agent— a totally unsolicited call, which is nice—and said ‘Pilot season is coming up and we love Mara, we think she’s really talented, but you know—her hair is just so blonde. Maybe you should tone it down. Maybe she’s a bit too sexy,” Marini recalls with a laugh.Still, she admits that she did concede, dying her hair dark brown.

As fate would have it, though, she got the call from “Parks and Recreation” in January to appear for a second time as Brandi Maxxxx. Her first appearance was on April 28, 2011 in last season’s “Jerry’s Painting,” (seen at right) in which Brandi Maxxx publicly defends a painting that Jerry (Jim O’Heir) made depicting a topless Greek goddess that bears a striking resemblance to Leslie (Amy Poehler). The dark-haired look didn’t work for the buxom adult film star’s image, and Marini went back to blonde.

“Being yourself” is a challenge Hollywood, and something that Marini has struggled with since leaving the halls of the AADA. “You’ll be typecast as the tough guy or the nerdy guy, but that could be your ‘in’,” she says. “I could go out for more things and tone it down, but that wouldn’t be me.”

It isn’t only her brand of femininity that presents obstacles. Being a woman in the hypersexualized atmosphere of acting still has its pitfalls. “I feel that … there’s still a little bit of an old boys’ club,” she says. Even when she came across female agents, she felt the same discrimination. “I chopped [my hair] to just above my chin, [and dyed it] brown, and she didn’t even get me one audition. And that’s when I was like, ‘No, I’m not listening to anyone else but me’,” she recalls. “She would tell me you’re to pretty to go in for young moms and stuff, but you’re not pretty enough to play a supermodel.”

Given its April 6th debut, there’s a good chance most diehard “American Pie” fans have already seen “American Reunion” by now. If this latest slice left you craving second helpings, never fear. Screenwriter David H. Steinberg recently penned a novel. “Last Stop This Town” follows high school seniors Dylan, Noah, Pike and Walker as they spend their days drag racing down residential suburban streets, bribing homeless guys to buy them beer, and signing yearbooks at pathetic house parties. When Dylan suggests they live up their last weekend of high school at an underground rave in New York, the guys are ready to go crazy and make memories for the ages. Chock full of Steinberg’s signature humor, “Last Stop This Town” should be enough to tide you over between now and the premiere of “American Midlife Crisis.” Here, the writer talks process, poop humor, and why your story won’t go anywhere if you can’t develop characters that make people care.

BLAST: What draws you to coming of age stories? Did you have a particularly interesting coming of age yourself?

DAVID H. STEINBERG: I actually left high school after my junior year to go to college and I’m sure a psychologist would say that writing in the teen genre is my way of filling in the gap in my teenage experience. But I think there’s something more to it than that. It’s just a magical time. Those high school years are the time in everyone’s life when the flood of emotions and surging hormones makes everything seem so important and dramatic and you go through a million highs and lows every day. It’s a time when you really feel alive, and that’s something really cool and unique. Of course, there’s something to be said for those feelings subsiding as an adult and living without the daily drama, but for me, I actually loved that feeling of being invincible, that everything was possible, and that my whole life was still ahead of me. That youthful optimism (and maybe a bit of naiveté) is really what “Last Stop” is all about, as the four friends are about to graduate and go off into the unknown. But it’s also a book about homeless dudes throwing poop at you, so don’t let me pretend this is “Catcher in the Rye.”

BLAST: Which came first: the characters or the plot?

DS: It’s really all about the characters. Once you breathe life into them and know them intimately, then the plot unfolds because that’s what these guys would do. It’s like your vacation pictures. No one cares about the shots of buildings—they only want to see the ones with you in front of the fountain–because people care about people. So I start with high school archetypes—the player, the monogamous guy, the guy who can’t get laid, and the stoner—and then try to build on this to create three dimensional characters. If I’ve done my job well, they become real and unique. Pike starts out as “the stoner” but winds up being a completely new and different take on the original archetype. Look at Spicolli from “Fast Time at Ridgemont High”—same archetype, totally different character.

BLAST: How long has this novel been in the works?

DS: I originally wrote it as a screenplay, then adapted it into a novel because I fell in love with my guys. Overall, the process took four years–not very fast considering it’s under 200 pages. But I have a day job writing and directing movies, so cut me some slack.

BLAST: Which character from your “American Pie” series would you most like to hang out with?

DS: Nadia, duh.

BLAST: Which to do you prefer to write: fiction or screenplays?

DS: It’s hard to choose. Writing for film is a pretty amazing gig. Watching a movie in a crowded theater, seeing your name flash on the screen, and hearing them laugh at your jokes—there’s really nothing that can compare to that. On the other hand, screenplays are like sonnets—the structure and formatting is very restrictive. Plus, when you’re done, other writers re-write you, the director puts his stamp on it, actors improvise, editors move things around—it’s a hugely collaborative medium. Sometimes that’s awesome when talented people “plus” the script and make the movie great. Sometimes it’s not so awesome. Novels are liberating stylistically. I can write what characters are thinking and feeling, and screenplays obviously can only contain moments that can be seen or heard onscreen. But really, it’s about flying solo. If you love or hate my movie, I’m not sure how to take it—I only wrote the screenplay. But the book is all on me.

BLAST: How does your process for writing fiction differ from writing screenplays?

DS: You want to know the biggest brain adjustment? Writing in the past tense! Screenplays are all present tense because it’s technically stage direction. (“Dylan picks up the yearbook,” not “picked up the yearbook.”) But on a less mundane level, it’s really all the same. Create the characters and outline. Months and months of outlining. Write a draft really quickly, then months and months of re-writing.

BLAST: You’ve gotten a lot of praise for penning raunchy scenes that are also somehow sweet. How do you manage to walk this line?

DS: I have to own the raunchy humor, but the truth is I’m all about the drama and emotion of teenagers going through this traumatic time in their lives. Look at the “American Pie” movie posters. “American Pie 2″ was literally just a picture of the ten characters standing there, doing nothing, because the marketing department knew that audiences care about characters, not the specifics of the raunchy humor. I think movies that try to “out-gross” each other without giving us characters to root for ultimately fail because they’re hollow experiences. Look at “Project X.” Sure, it’s funny and crazy, but the characters are unlikeable and no one goes through any sort of relatable life moment. So at the end of the day, who cares?

Now I know there are definitely critical people out there who will think this sounds pretentious and self-aggrandizing because really, I’m a guy who wrote this book where a homeless guy throws poop at people. But for me, it’s about four high school kids going to desperate measures to get beer for a party. Without the characters and the universally relatable situation and emotion, the poop joke isn’t funny. So ultimately, yes, I’m writing some very lowbrow material here, but I’m always also trying to say something worthwhile about the experience of being a teenager.

She has acted on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and plays a main character on Showtime’s “Shameless.” Aside from acting alongside Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, she has also received acclaim over her filmmaking. Emma Kenney plays the complex character Debbie Gallagher on “Shameless.”

And she is only 12 years old.

Raised in New Jersey, Emma recently got an apartment in Los Angeles as a place to stay when shooting for the show.  “My Dad quit his job at the New York Post so he could let me film ‘Shameless,’” said Emma, “my parents are making tons of sacrifices for me.” Emma’s Dad now works at Fox Sports LA, while Emma goes back and forth between coasts.

Blast Magazine had the opportunity to talk to Emma about her life and career:

BLAST: When did you start acting?

EMMA KENNEY: I started acting when I was about five. And I just did improv classes. I didn’t actually do it to be an actor, I just did it for fun. When I got into acting, my manager came to one of the improv showcases and talked to my mom and said, ‘you know, I would like to represent your daughter’ and then my mom asked me and I said, ‘why not, I will give it a try.’ I didn’t think much of it. But then I got into the swing of things and started to like it.

BLAST: Do you still do improv?

EK: I love improv. Definitely, yes. My acting teacher is Diane Hardin. I have an improv class with her and it is so much fun. We do this game, it’s my favorite, called ‘emotional family,’ where four people – a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter – are all at a dining room table, and we have to pretend that we are eating food. Then someone from the audience will randomly call out an emotion or a scene that the family is. So maybe they will call out ‘criminal’ and then we all act like we’re criminals. So then maybe we will be on the floor or something. And then someone else in the audience calls ‘freeze’ and we ‘freeze’ and go back to a normal family and have to be like ‘wow, I wonder why I am on the floor? Oh, I am on the floor because I dropped this batch of pancakes.’ So it is really, really fun.

BLAST: Has it helped you with acting for “Shameless”?

EK: Definitely because everything in the whole show is not one thousand percent scripted. They don’t, for like a breakfast scene for the show, say, ‘Debbie takes a bite of pancake, now. Debbie puts pancakes back.’ We all work with the director beforehand before we do the scene. In the rehearsals, the director will say, ‘okay, I want you to come up here and put the pancakes down and then come back, take a seat, and grab your orange juice.’ Technically it is improv because it is not written in the script.

BLAST: As well as being an actor, you are also a filmmaker?

EK: I am! I directed this movie called ‘The New Girl in Town” and I entered it into a few film festivals. I became a finalist in the New Jersey International Film Festival. But I have made a bunch of other movies too.

BLAST: Do you prefer acting or directing?

EK: Probably acting just because I have been doing it for longer and I am kind of better at the craft than I am at directing. But I like both. But if I had to choose, I would probably pick acting.

BLAST: What’s your favorite television show?

EK: “Pretty Little Liars.” I am obsessed with that show. I read all of the books that are out and it is such a good show. It’s amazing.

BLAST: What do you like to do in your free time?

EK: I like to ski and play tennis and I am starting field hockey this spring, but I don’t do a lot of sports. I am not very athletic. I like to write. I love to read. I like to hang out with my friends. And also on my flip video camera whenever I am with friends, we will always make a movie, whether it is comedy, or drama, or suspense.

BLAST: In ten years, where would you like to be?

EK: I will hopefully still be acting. Hopefully be in a movie. If I was not acting, I would love to be a detective. I love murder mysteries and all that type of stuff. I would definitely want to be a detective.

BLAST: What’s you favorite murder mystery?

EK: This sounds kind of crazy, but I just love Alfred Hitchcock movies. I have only seen a few of them, but I love them. I just saw ‘Psycho’ two weeks ago and it’s really scary. I love scary movies though. I saw ‘Rope.’ I think I’ve seen one more, but I don’t remember.

BLAST: Let’s talk about “Shameless.” Describe Debbie

EK: Debbie is the middle child in the Gallagher family. She’s smart. She is sweet, innocent. Kind of more little girlish, I guess. But this season, she is totally different. She is grown up more, growing up way too fast. She is getting into boys and makeup and clothing. I don’t want to think she is going down the wrong path, because I know she’s not. She has a lot of common sense, but she is trying to be something that is not best for her to be doing. But she thinks, ‘why if everyone else gets to grow up, why can’t I?’ She is also more cynical and frustrated and angry and mad at the world that she’s in. She doesn’t care about Frank or Ian or really anybody other than herself this season.

BLAST: Is there any overlap in character between Emma and Debbie?

EK: Really no. Other than we’re both really good in school. Nothing, I am completely different from Debbie.

BLAST: What’s you favorite subject in school?

EK: Writing. I love to write. I really like to write short stories and scripts. I have written tons and tons of movie scripts on my laptop. I have written short length movies and full length movies and action movies and scary movies and everything.

BLAST: What’s it like working with William H. Macy?

EK: It’s so fun. Bill is such a great guy. I learn so much from him every day, not just verbally teaching me, but more just watching him. Like there was this scene, an emotional one for him. And I remember thinking, ‘how do you get in that type of a situation and then two seconds later when they call cut, you’re back to your old Bill.’ I just remember thinking, ‘Whoa, how is that even possible?’ But he also does verbally teach you stuff too. Like I have the tendency to talk very, very fast. Bill will be like, ‘slow down’ and I will be like, ‘thank you.’ Because if I didn’t slow down, I would have one line the whole scene and it would all be mushed together.

BLAST: What’s it like working with Emmy Rossum and the rest of the cast?

EK: We are all really close, like a big family. Other than being close, they all do teach me stuff. They don’t teach me stuff just to be nagging, but they also teach me how to be a good person and how to be nice and how to treat people with respect. We’re all a really big family and we are all close.

BLAST: What is your favorite part of acting on ‘Shameless’?

EK: The cast is my second family, so I guess it is a part of that. But it’s also just that I am having such a learning experience. It’s weird that I have had my first job since I was ten years old. But it’s also cool because I have been acting forever – well, not forever – but it’s cool because I finally booked something. It’s also fun to be in Hollywood and getting to meet all these veterans and working with such amazing people and I am learning so much at this age. I’m having such a blast and I am really grateful.

BLAST: What’s next for you?

EK: Nothing at the time. But hopefully, I really want to do a movie. My dream movie is to do an action movie. Where I am being chased down the streets and doing back flips and doing all this really crazy action stuff.

BLAST: Why not a detective film?

EK: That’s a cool type of movie to do too! I think that is a good idea. I definitely want to do that too now.

In almost every article or interview of Jack’s Mannequin, two details about Andrew McMahon — Jack’s front man — are always mentioned: (1) he was in Something Corporate and (2) he has lymphoblastic leukemia. But with Jack’s Mannequin now on their third full length album and his leukemia in remission for the past six years, it is safe to say Andrew McMahon is now in a different headspace.

“People and Things” — an all-encompassing title — is Jack’s Mannequin’s third album, which was released back in October of 2011.  It debuted at number one on Billboard’s alternative rock album chart and has received warm reviews from critics. The songs on the album range from the radio-friendly “My Racing Thoughts” to the anthemic “Release Me” to the piano ballad “Platform Fire.” Andrew has stated that the album in many ways is about love, relationships, and his marriage: his goal to write songs that offered less flowery language exposing the more honest underbelly of relationships. The song, “Television,” exemplifies this idea about Andrew’s literal inability to fall asleep without a television on; but the idea is extended to explain the intimate state of uneasiness in his relationship. Jack’s Mannequin is currently on tour in support of “People and Things.”

BLAST: How is the tour going so far?

ANDREW MCMAHON:The tour has been excellent. We’re on our fifth or six show. All the shows have been, truthfully, better than I expected. It has been a fun run. I’m in Chicago tonight actually, just pacing around the House of Blues.

BLAST: How is it there?

AM: It’s great. I love Chicago. I actually spent a little bit of time growing up here when I was a kid. I certainly feel at home when I make my way out here.

BLAST: You moved around a lot as a kid?

AM: Yeah. I actually lived outside of Boston too. (Andrew chuckles)

BLAST: Are you excited to return? Do you ever feel nostalgic for the east coast?

AM: I do. A lot of my nostalgia probably comes from my early travels with Something Corporate just because I was so young when I lived out there. I was in Massachusetts for my first few years of life and then Jersey for the following three. So I don’t have tons of memories from the east coast. But I think there is a sort of feeling of home when you go to places that you’re from and have lived. I definitely feel a kinship to the east coast. No doubt.

BLAST: Are you still doing yoga on tour?

AM: Oh yes, yeah, it is a big part of my life on and off the road now. When I’m on the road, I get a good three or four days of yoga per week. But it got a little tricky with all the show days and the record coming out and doing press and things like that. So I do it every other day, including my days off. It keeps me feeling pretty good.

BLAST: What else do you do to fill your time on the road?

AM: There is not a ton of free time on the road when you’re promoting a record. A lot of it will be sneaking around to radio stations or doing phone interviews. When I do have time, I try and read. And when I am on the bus, I try and put on a good movie and get myself to sleep. But I’m pretty busy out here.

BLAST: You have said before that you are a fan of Billy Joel, so does your song “Television” have any relationship to Joel’s “Sleeping with the Television On”?

AM: It’s so funny that you should say that because truthfully there was no relationship to it. Actually, as I was finishing that song, I was going through a bunch of old vinyl and I came across the Joel album. I forgot what record it was on. So I saw on the back of it and I was like, ‘Oh my God are you kidding me?’ So it is hard to say whether or not it had any subconscious influence on me. As a kid, I don’t remember ever listening to the song. I remember listening to his Greatest Hits volume one, while I was growing up as a Joel fan.  But yeah, I was definitely surprised to see the song title when I came across it.

BLAST: What television show do you usually fall asleep to?

AM: Truthfully for me, it is usually movies. I try to put in movies that I’ve seen like a million times, so that I can kind of zone out. It is usually The Big Lebowski, Super Troopers, usually a funny movie. But that tends to be my prescription before bed.

BLAST: Jack’s Mannequin’s bio by Warner Brothers Records says that People and Things “delves into the joys and conflicts of the first years of marriage” and you have stated that the album is about love and relationships. What does your significant other think of the album?

AM: (He chuckles) I think she likes it.  Yeah I hope so. I don’t think she would tell me otherwise. But I think in a lot of ways it’s kind of our album as well. I think it’s tricky for anybody in my life who ends up being the subject of the songs that I write. In my wife’s case, we’ve been together for the better part of ten years and [she] knows that it kind of comes with the territory. But as far as I understand, this is her favorite of the Jack’s records. I think I did alright by her.

BLAST: What music do you listen to that you wouldn’t normally tell anyone about? What’s your guilty pleasure music?

AM: I don’t know. I don’t normally subscribe to like the guilty pleasures thing. I like lots of different types of music and I tend to be pretty okay with that. I can’t really think of the type of example that I wouldn’t be so proud to share. You got me stumped on that one.

BLAST: That’s okay. You have said before that you love to explore other mediums of art. What kind of other art are you working on?

AM: Personally, in a hobby sort of way, I have been taking a lot of pictures. I got a new camera over the summer that I have been experimenting with and have a lot of fun with that. I used to do that a lot with my Polaroid, but it is a little bit more difficult to get the kind of film that I need for my old camera. I also do quite a bit of writing on the side, none of which has really come out, other than in the forms of blogs.

BLAST: How many tattoos do you have? Do you have a favorite?

AM: Let me count here: one, two, three, four, five. Five! So five. You know, I am pretty close to all of them. The cool thing about my tattoos is that they all represent a different time in my life. There’s the Starry Night on my left arm, which I am very close to. So I will go with that for now.

BLAST: Who would your perfect collaboration project be with?

AM: I’ve definitely been digging Danger Mouse. I like a lot of what he has been up to, something in that vein. I like the thing he did with Broken Bells; I thought that was really cool. There is certainly a lot of great stuff that he has been attached to.

BLAST: What’s the Dear Jack Foundation?

AM: It’s something that I started after my own experience with cancer. We do our best to raise money for organizations that are fighting leukemia and young adult cancer. It’s what we have been up to for the better part of six years. We help raise money for research. We try things with initiatives for young adults like sending kids to camp who are sick.

BLAST: Anything else you want to tell the Blast Magazine readers?

AM: Thanks for listening. And I hope to see you at one of the shows in the next few weeks.

Jack’s Mannequin will be in Boston on February 3 at House of Blues. The list of tour dates can be seen here.

More than anything, Chaske Spencer just wants to keep it real.

This may seem strange coming from the man who just wrapped up a multi-film stint in the massively successful fantasy-laden Twilight series, but a brief conversation with him makes this all too clear.

Take, for example, his perspective on his Twilight character, werewolf pack leader Sam Uley. While he appreciates many things about his animalistic alter-ego, not the least of which are his CGI antics played out on the big screen – “I never thought I would see myself jump off a cliff. I mean it was amazing!” he says – what he most hopes fans will take away from the most recent installments is that which makes the character most relatable – most human.

“What I got from talking to the kids, the fans of Twilight, is that a lot of them just hated Sam. A lot of them did not like Sam,” he recalls with a laugh. “So what I want to do is make him more human, more a character that you can relate to. In the Breaking Dawn film you get this sense that, in the script, he’s out to just kill Renesmee and he hates Bella, but that’s not the case. It’s just that it’s a job that he has to do.”

Similarly, Spencer notes, it’s the human element of filmmaking that has been the most rewarding through his work on the Twilight series and beyond. His bonds with cast and crew from the Twilight films have stayed strong, he assures: his fellow wolves are “like my brothers now,” he says, “and then you have Julia [Jones] and Tinsel [Korey, both costars] who are like my sisters.” It’s like “joining the circus,” he explains. “That’s basically what a film crew is. You join the circus, you all get tight, you’re like a family for a month or two, and then – boom. Maybe you’ll stay in touch, maybe you’ll see them again, maybe you won’t, you know?”

He emphasizes that this is one aspect of filmmaking that continues to draw him in – “Not just working on a character or just being an actor but the stuff behind the scenes.” It’s an affinity for the world behind the camera, bolstered by his recent experience in independent films Winter in the Blood and Desert Cathedral, that has clearly shaped his philosophy on his work and his art. An independent film, he says, is “where the artist comes into work”.

To hear him explain it, it’s answering a call to artistic integrity. He easily ticks off the names of examples and influences, a list that crosses genres and all levels of celebrity. “I grew up watching Johnny Depp,” he recalls, “and like a lot of young actors, I wanted to be Johnny Depp – and we can’t. But he inspires us to stick to artistic credit.” Depp, he notes, had a penchant for turning down big-budget roles in favor of independents, “and he got massive street cred for it.”

He’s quick to cite famous crossover acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam as well. “I always like bands who stretch, who go further,” he says. “You could be working a 9 to 5 job, but you’re trying to find the easiest way to make a living doing what you love, and of course you’re not going to say no to those paychecks.” But, he says, these bands were able to avoid earning the dreaded “sellout” label. Of Pearl Jam, he notes, “They used the tools that they had, and they just gave themselves some self-respect, and they stuck to their guns, and, obviously, they’re a huge group. They turned down Ticketmaster, and fought the good fight, and they’re still rockin’ and rollin’, they’re still touring.”

So what does this mean for Chaske Spencer, an actor moving into 2012 with a slew of major-budget films under his belt and many of these treasured independent efforts in the works? “I enjoy work on a franchise too,” he stresses. “[You] get a good paycheck, work on a big budget. But then you go back and do an independent movie and you can make up for I guess, ah, whoring yourself out,” he laughs.

Make no mistake: he’s grateful for the opportunities that Twilight’s success has given him – especially the freedom to gravitate toward those projects that allow him to emulate those he so admires. “You’ll never hear me talk bad about ‘Twilight!’”, he assures with a laugh. “Yeah, it’s given me a life.”

The sixth season of Showtime’s “Dexter” and IDW’s third and fourth issues of “Suicide Girls”, all depend on one thing: the work of Brea Grant, actress and comic book writer for IDW’s “Suicide Girls” series and previously “We Will Bury You” series.

Starring as Masuka’s lab intern on “Dexter”, Grant plays Ryan Chambers, a smart young lady with something dark about her personality.

Grant goes on to describe her partner C.S. Lee, “He’s really funny and quick-witted in real life. He’s not a pervert in real life either.” She continued on about Michael C. Hall’s popularity among fans and the strides they make when they show up on-location with t-shirts on and DVDs ready to be signed.

Grant gave us a sneak peak of the new season as she puts emphasis upon the new love interest that develops for Masuka.

“I feel like Masuka’s story line has been interesting, but it’s nice to give him an actual girl that can keep up with him,” Grant elaborated. She guarantees by episode three that all viewers’ jaws will drop.

Grant continues to say, “Each time I’ve read a script I’m continuously shocked about how crazy the show is getting.”

She notes that guest appearances will be made by rap artist Mos Def and actor Colin Hanks.

The actress also stars in the film productions “The Baytown Disco” and “Detour”. Shot earlier this year, “The Baytown Disco” is a Southern action movie in which Grant plays part of a prostitute assassin gang.

“There are a lot of guns, craziness, and southern accents,” Grant exclaimed. “There’s a great cast.”

“Detour” is an indie disaster film in which Grant plays the girlfriend of the main character, a man buried alive in his car after a natural disaster. The best way to describe “Detour”, as Grant tells, is ‘super intense’.

Grant went on to tell of her love for indie films and then her passion for acting. “I love doing blockbusters and letting things explode on the screen,” she said.

The actress; however, aspires to break out of the ‘emotionally draining’ horror film scene and take a lighthearted role for a change.

“At some point I get tired of super crime. I do a lot of horror so there’s screaming and crying and horror,” Grant said.

Just as Grant finished up her work with the film production “Homecoming”, also set to hit the big screens this 2011, the highly anticipated release of IDW’s “Suicide Girls” series’ issues three and fourth has come and the books are available for individual purchase within the Suicide Girls official website.

In the “Suicide Girls” series, as Grant explains, there is an elite fighting team taking down a giant religious corporate cult. The writer divulged that readers are in store for lots of ass-kicking and guns.

Alongside David Hahn, Cameron Stewart, Steve Niles, and Missy Suicide herself, Grant works to perfect this crazy girl power comic book that has a certain kick-ass vibe to it. Co-written with her brother Zane Grant, the penny series is a step beyond the duo’s previous work “We Will Bury You” as it has stricter direction.

Grant said, “It’s different because we created that idea from start to finish, but this one is definitely representative of the website. The Suicide Girls know what they want.”

Niles has devised an interesting way to incorporate the Suicide Girls into historical events throughout the comic book series. Grant described how this aspect of the comic books hints to solidify the elite fighting team’s presence in history as they canoodle with Cleopatra in Egypt and endure the horrific events that took place during the Salem Witch Trials.

Grant also praises Cameron’s direction that he’s taken with the artwork he has provided for the series.

She simply said, “Cameron does beautiful cover girl pin-up art.”

Despite the controversy surrounding the original Suicide Girls website concerning material with bondage, knives, swords, and blood, Grant esteems the popularity of the comic book among loyal fans of the website and those of the comics as well.

“The comic book is going insanely well,” she said. “I even had a crazy conversation with a guy who was trying to ask me in a nice way whether or not there were naked girls.”

Grant’s involvement with this comic book series landed her a spot at Comic-Con 2011.

In addition to Niles, brother Zane, and a few other writers such as Joshua Hale Fialkov and David Guinn, Grant attended “Horror on the Paneled Page”, a panel discussing horror within comic books.

Later during the weekend of Comic-Con 2011, Grant took part in a signing at the Geekscape Booth with her brother and another signing at the IDW Booth with Missy Suicide, Hahn, and Stewart.

Grant is hopeful that “Suicide Girls” and “We Will Bury You” will be converted into television series in the future.

For more information on Grant’s work, visit her personal blog at http://breagrant.com/blog. For updates on the “Suicide Girls” series and IDW’s various other publications, visit http://www.idwpublishing.com.

Photo credit: Teren Oddo

NEW YORK — Hip hop scene suddenly got a newcomer, Brooklyn-based rapper Max Burgundy, who just released his debut EP “#Waiting.” He effectively illustrates his own emotion throughout the EP by mixing his real words with the colorful/solid beats. With his raw straightforward hip hop style, Burgundy has already shared stages with artists including Das Racist and Twin Shadow, and also has collaborated with producers such as OMEN (Drake, Lil Wayne, Ludacris) and KHRYSIS!!! (9th Wonder, The Away Team, Little Brother). Blast sat down with Burgundy and he openly discussed this crucial turning point in his life and where he would go from here.

BLAST: You just released your debut EP “#Waiting” on May 2. What does this title mean?

MAX BURGUNDY: “#Waiting” means a lot of things to me. The first is, I feel like I’ve been waiting to be a musician, waiting to rap, but also, I’ve done a lot of work in the food service industry so I think a lot of people say, “Oh, what are you doing?” “Oh, just waiting.” You know, “Waiting for a table to come,” “Waiting for people to leave,” “Waiting for people to pay.” And, I’m just waiting to do something different. [I’m] waiting for art to, um, to make itself. [I’m] waiting for me to make art. It’s kind of what it meant.

BLAST: Why did you choose “Hey Love!” as the first single?

MB: As the first single, I just felt like it was…it was approachable, I think the rest of the album is a little bit darker, um, in a good way. And, I felt like “Hey Love!” was something that could be a song people could really get into and listen to. And, I thought it was an alternative love song. I think a lot of people are quick to come in for 3 minutes and just say to many babies, “Love this” and, “Love that,” and leave. I think that’s great but I think “Hey Love!” is really supposed to capture, and I hope that it excessively captures, what love is like, especially as a younger maybe more humble shy guy. You know, I think it gets to the point where sometimes women are so beautiful that it’s intimidating. And, I think that’s what I’m trying to capture there!

BLAST: What was your first reaction when you finished making the EP?

MB: Um, I was just glad [that I] had it done. I had 6 songs that I can perform and I can go out and start, maybe tour a little bit, do shows and get some recognition but more than anything, it was just relief to get that done because I felt like that the first couple of songs needed to be deeply personal. And now I can go in to start making some more music, maybe collaborate with other people and [it could be] more experimental [to do] electronic album or live music album. So, relief, pretty much!

BLAST: For your song “UNITE,” what kind of unity are you talking about?

MB: Um, I think, the first level of unity is something that hits close to home, which is just being from the Bronx and having lived a lot of different neighborhoods that people would consider [as] bad neighborhoods, um, just, warning all those people to realize [that] we are all kind of being pushed down but if we really unite, if we stand up, then there is, um, we have a voice that can be heard. There is a movement that can take place and really starts with us and our own self determination. And, that’s pretty much what I’m talking about there on a personal level, but I tried to make it as broad and approachable as possible. So whether you are in Egypt or Wisconsin, what happened with the teachers and the unions, or whether you are in, um, you know, Jamaica or anywhere like all oppressed people can be united. In fact, the more oppressed people that are united, the stronger those people would be!

BLAST: How do you think unity will affect the society?

MB: Oh! I mean, unity makes like, an ideal society, so I don’t think unity would ever really happen but unity would make life great. I mean, you would see no crime. You would see people helping all people cross the street and you would see everyone have food, equal amounts of food on their plates. Um, I mean, I guess unity is somewhere, it’s for,,, to some people would become, I don’t know!! Um, but, I think, unity could make society go further than where we are going right now.

BLAST: What’s your main music influence?

MB: Main music influence? Um, older hip hop. Hip hop that I grew up with. Um, Jay-Z, a little bit of Eminem, and then also just alternative itself, I feel like I have a lot of friends and groups right now, and bands here in Brooklyn that are really pushing the limit musically. Maybe they are not doing rap but they are doing different stuff, Twin Shadow, Das Racist. Um, then some of the newer guys, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, I feel like I really respect their grind. I mean, you see them everywhere. So, I respect a lot of those dudes. Those are the guys that push me to get back into this and say, “Alright, I really can compete, regardless of age, regardless of, if it’s my time now or later, I can compete with them.”

BLAST: When did you start making music?

MB: I mean, I’ve been writing rhymes my whole life.

BLAST: How old are you?

MB: 25. So I’m from the Bronx and an 80’s baby, and the first genre I ever really remember listening to is hip hop, so hip hop has always been there. I definitely am one of the first generations of people [saying,] “No no, other genre than hip hop!” And, it took me a long time for me to expand my horizons and get into stuff like Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, and you know, Daft Punk, and all those crazy shit but I’d say, in earnest I started making music, maybe, in October. I went on a trip. I was in the Middle East and I was supposed to go there to do some business stuff and I realized, “I don’t wanna be that kind of corporate business slave” and I had a flight, took the flight back, had been over to London, um, got off the plane in London and I said, “I’m not going back to New York right now. I wanna take a break.” Once in Paris, [I] hang out with beautiful waitresses, ate amazing food, smoked a lot of weed, and, I needed it to make music creating arts, so that’s it. So, [it was] October last year when I said, “That’s it. I’m gonna make an album. I’m gonna call it ‘#Waiting.’” And, I’m gonna start finding producers now.

BLAST: Your slogan is “Oreos for breakfast!” What’s the meaning behind this phrase?

MB: “Oreos for breakfast,” it’s like, you know, when you are a kid and your parents are gone, or you have a substitute teacher, or, you only have a babysitter, and you are so unruly and crazy that it’s just like, do whatever the fuck you want. Have Oreos for breakfast. It’s like, I got a feeling like, you grow up in this regiment society, and it’s like, you need to wake up, you shave, you wash your face, take a shower, you have a bowl of cereal with lots of grains of oats, and then, you have to go to school, you learn, you plug away at your desk job, and then, you come home and you eat your, you know, steamed vegetables and all that. And, it’s like, “No! Fuck it. Have Oreos for breakfast!” So, that’s kind of one meaning and the other meaning is just like, in a lot of ways, “I’m an Oreo,” that was the phrase that a lot of people said for a long time and a lot of different, and, you know, it has so many other connotations but, on the surface, it just means you are mixed-race, it’s kind of like, “I’m an Oreo. Have me for breakfast.” What’s the most important meal of the day? Breakfast. Why not having Max Burgundy when you wake up?

BLAST: You state on Facebook that you “hate fucking celebrities and twitter beefs.” Can you explain further?

MB: Um, “hate fucking celebrities and twitter beefs,” that’s pretty much what I do, I think. I saw a lot of people getting into those beefs on Twitter. Twitter almost all of a sudden just exploded. You have people like Fab (Fabolous) and Soulja Boy going on at each other and it’s kind of ridiculous so I was like, “Man, where does it come from?” I felt like, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, hip hop was so real and people were dying, you know, it’s crazy, now people are on Twitter having beefs, not even having real-life beefs. I mean, a lot of people forget [something like] that Jay-Z stabbed someone. It’s not even what my anger is going for but, it’s so silly but it’s what you have to do, you have to exist on Facebook or Twitter so that’s kind of more me just mocking it and saying, you know, “Fuck Twitter. Fuck Twitter beefs.” And, in terms of “hate fucking celebrities,” um, yeah, I just think the ideas of celebrities are kind of ridiculous. And, whatever your art is, you should be recognized just for your art. But right now, you have someone who puts out a great song and it’s not even about the song anymore. It’s like, what picture do you have of them? Do you have something of them that compromises their position? Do you have videos of them? Weird shit of them, you know, getting out of a taxi. But it’s like, what about the song? Is this song good? Is this song good at all? So, it’s kind of like, if you are a celebrity, I’m gonna get close to you because obviously, it’s gonna get my name out but then, I just, you know, fucking leave.

BLAST: Is there something people should know about you?

MB: I’m Max Burgundy and I’m them. I’m just trying to be a vehicle for a voice for what I think and I think a lot of people think like me. So, never be shy. Always salute if you see me in the street. Let me know where you are headed [and] we can share a cab together. I’ll give you a swipe on the subway [or] whatever you need because I’m here for my people and my fans, you know, my movement.

BLAST: You will have a show in New York City on May 12. What kind of show can we expect to see there?

MB: A lot of, you know, medley work, a lot of new shit that you haven’t heard, some old stuff that I have done. Um, obviously records off of “#Waiting” and maybe a couple of new things off of a project that I’m assembling with Kay Kay On The Beatz, coming out in June. You should hear a little bit of both? But, in terms of my show, what I will bring is gonna be me and my DJ Jeff Haze, and we are just gonna go in and go crazy. The beats are gonna be very loud. I’m probably gonna scream at people [and I] may even bring a megaphone. I might take my clothes off and people would be dancing onstage!

Max Burgundy will do a show at the Arlene’s Grocery in NYC on May 12.

We are going to show a bunch of early wrestling clips…of course.

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper ruled the wrestling ring for the better part of four decades, crafting a Hall of Fame career that brought cheers — and huzzahs — from fans across the globe. Along the way, Piper established numerous milestones that set his career apart from all others.

At 15, Piper was the youngest professional wrestler to ever enter the squared circle – and he would proceed to hold more than 38 titles while eclipsing 7,000 victories in professional matches. It was the main event at the very first Wrestlemania – pitting Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T – that truly established the WWF/WWE.

Today, Piper is out of the wrestling spotlight, but he remains in entertainment with a one-man show and an autobiography, “In the Pit with Piper” on shelves. He has also been doing movies since 1978.

On June 7, Piper shows some voiceover acting chops when he plays the barbaric Bolphunga in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.

Piper’s character – Bolphunga the Unrelenting – is the central antagonist in the episodic segment entitled “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize.” Based on the 1985 story created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the story centers on Bolphunga’s search for Mogo, the largest Green Lantern, in hopes of engaging the famed warrior in a battle worthy of the villain. The role serves as a perfect vehicle to showcase Piper’s strength and wonderful sense of humor.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights weaves six legendary stories of the Green Lantern Corps’ rich mythology around preparations for an attack by an ancient enemy. As the battle approaches, Hal Jordan mentors new recruit Arisia in the history of the Green Lantern Corps, telling tales of Avra (the first Green Lantern) and several of Hal’s comrades – including Abin Sur, Kilowog, Laira and Mogo. In the end, Arisia must rise to the occasion to help Hal, Sinestro and the entire Green Lantern Corps save the universe from the destructive forces of Krona.

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) lead a diverse array of performers as the voices behind the Green Lantern Corps, including actor/spoken word artist Henry Rollins (Sons of Anarchy, The Henry Rollins Show), Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films), Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), Kelly Hu (The Vampire Diaries) as Laira and Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Deegan. Radio Hall of Fame commentator/talk show host Michael Jackson voices the esteemed Guardian, Ganthet.

Bruce Timm is executive producer of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Directors are Lauren Montgomery, Jay Oliva and Christopher Berkeley. Oliva directed “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize” from a script by Gibbons.

Piper spent a few moments after his recording session to discuss his current activities, his love of acting, and the responsibilities of being a role model. Listen closely … because Roddy just ran out of chewing gum.

QUESTION: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights was your first-ever voiceover for animation. How was the experience?

RODDY PIPER: That was about as much fun as I could ever hope to have. You can really lose yourself in an animated role. There’s so much freedom, so much room for creativity. It’s a blast.

QUESTION: Professional wrestling gave you plenty of experience being both the villain and the hero. How does the public perceive you today?

RP: I guess a lot of folks have grown up with me and, in an awkward way, for people who really have seen the good sides of me, I’m like a father figure. It’s remarkable – every place I go, there’s somebody that has an inspiring tale to tell. At one of my shows, there was a policeman named Paul who had been awarded a Congressional citation for saving someone’s life. He came up and gave me his citation. He said that when he was a little boy, he had troubles – but he would watch me and that’s where he found inspiration and direction. So when he goes into a tough situation, he relates to (my actions), and he says it saved his life.

The profession that I took upon is a lawless, tough piece of work, and so many of my friends are dead now. So in my one-man show, I tell the folks about people that they grew up with, people that they may have related to in different ways. My profession is very renegade. But as crazy as it seems, it’s as real as it gets.

QUESTION: What’s your approach to performing these one-man shows?

RP: I was with Burt Reynolds at his house in Jupiter (FL) and he said to me, “The one thing I try to convey as actors is that we don’t get enough ‘Atta Boys.’ So I try to make them leave with an ‘Atta Boy.’ And that really sticks with me. Encouragement is an essential.

QUESTION: You seem like a natural for animation. What’s your attraction to playing an animated character?

RP: I like the fact that I can go away and lose myself so I don’t have to live in the world of courage that everyone else does. I like creating, it’s what I do, and acting allows me to stretch all those different muscles in all kinds of ways. That’s pretty cool.

QUESTION: There are those that would claim wrestling is acting. What are the key differences in those two performances?

RP: Wrestling and acting couldn’t be anymore different in terms of what it takes to entertain. Wrestling is explosion, acting is implosion. One really screws up the other. That’s why Hogan sucks. If I came out on camera like I do in Madison Square Garden, it would look crazy. Clint Eastwood just shakes his head and raises his eye and it works. But when you’ve got 96,000 people at Wrestlemania, I need to get through to the back row. Fighting is not internal, but it can be very spiritual. Everything acting is internal. One of my problems in making the transition is pulling back, but I’m working on it.

Just in time for the summer, Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live,” “Paul”) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (“Reno 911!”) burst into theatres with the bawdy, sassy comedy “Bridesmaids.”

Blast sat down with these lovely comediennes to talk improv, the benefits of being weird, and why this isn’t just another ‘chick flick.’

BLAST: So we have to ask, as the film seems so organic, how much of it was ad-libbed and how much was scripted? Because I know you both have great ad-libbing skills.

WENDI MCLENDON-COVEY: Well, we filmed all the scenes as scripted, but then there were some scenes that kind of lent themselves to more improv. So we made sure we got the coverage of the scripted version, and then they would just…let us go, you know?

At the restaurant, and definitely in the opening engagement scene, where you see all of us for the first time. A lot of improv for that.

KRISTEN WIIG: ‘Cause we’re being introduced to their characters, so we’d done a lot of rehearsal and they had an opportunity to kind of figure out who their characters were and where they were from. So, when we meet them at the engagement party – Paul [Feig, the director] and Judd [Apatow, the producer] were so great about being like “Go. Just talk.” It was so fun to watch all the ladies do their stuff.

BLAST: You mention character development, and I think this fill really fleshes everyone out nicely. When writing the script, was that a focus?

KW: We definitely wanted to have each person be different, but not in the way where you would question how all of these people were in the same room together. Also, after meeting the girls and having them do a lot of improv in the auditions and rehearsals – we rehearsed for…how many weeks?

WMC: I’d say six weeks. And the audition material we were given was not in the film, so we all read the same scenes. It was just who’s going to do it what way, and we’ll kind of make their characters up, depending on what their take is on this material. That was kind of part of it too.

KW: Exactly. It just sort of worked out.

WMC: And again, where else but a wedding would you put these idiots together? Wedding parties are notorious for putting together a mélange of people who would never be friends.

KW: That might be one of the reason why there are a lot of movies about weddings, because you can put any person you want in the same room.

BLAST: Ok, so there are plenty of movies out there about weddings, mostly in the ‘chick flick’ vein. This is far raunchier and real than your average rom-com. What was the impetus behind doing this kind of women’s movie?

KW: I feel like when we started writing it, we never saw it as a ‘wedding movie.’ Actually in the earlier drafts, for the first maybe three years, there wasn’t even a wedding in it at the end. We didn’t really set out the make it different from other movies, or make a statement about those movies. The wedding is the backdrop, in a way.

I don’t know – we just wanted to write a fun script that our friends could come in and play, and write something that had a lot of women in it.

WMC: Without being a chick flick. Because so many movies, it’s like – I mean, I know what you’re saying – who talks that way? Nobody I know. We aren’t like a bunch of Victorian ladies who speak in code for things. Yeah, we’re very real and yeah, we talk about sex. Then we talk about our feelings afterwards. But it’s just like, this is how people are.

KW: Yeah, we drink, we swear, we have a good time.

WMC: I don’t know why this is so surprising. Just like all men don’t love sports. Women don’t go shoe shopping every day, and men don’t go to the Super Bowl every day.

BLAST: This film has a number of cringe-worthy moments, most notably in the scene at the bridal shop. How does shooting something like that go?

KW: We were there…I feel like it was a four day shoot.

WMC: The bridal shop scene was about four days. The actual “bathroom” stuff – that took a mere eight hours. Lots and lots of takes.

KW: Sorry about that. I realize now, I got out of it pretty easy. I just had to eat some candy. No, we were there – we were making sure the vomit was the right consistency and that the girls were ok.

WMC: It was great. For as much as I didn’t want to do it when I read it, it was fun while it was happening.

BLAST: Melissa McCarthy was hilarious in that scene, and she steals a lot of scenes, I think. When you two were wrestling on the couch, did you have to choreograph that?

KW: No, it was just ‘throw me around and I’ll try to stay on the couch.’

BLAST: And she bit your butt.

KW: She didn’t really bite my butt! I don’t think. I think I would’ve remembered that.

WMC: You blocked it out. I’m pretty sure she bit your butt.

KW: She’s very funny in that, with the dogs coming over. Actually getting all those dogs in the patio took a lot longer than it looks. She just had to get them in there, to stay in, and it was a little difficult. Because you can’t take a leash and just go ‘that way’ with a dog.

BLAST: Did you do your own driving in the film, to get the cop’s attention?

KW: Part of it? I didn’t do the doughnut. The parts where you’re seeing the two of us in the car, we’re being pulled, so I had to loosely touch the steering wheel. But when we were driving by, that was me. Except for like, super high speed stuff. I’ve got to give the stunt driver some credit there.

BLAST: There’s been some talk about the marketing of the film – that the trailer isn’t selling the full hilarity of it. Do you get to play a role in that?

KW: I don’t, I have no part in the trailer making.

WMC: You had no part in the editing of the movie.

KW: Right? I mean, I could make suggestions and things but, ultimately, I really didn’t have any say in that.

BLAST: Kristen, we recently saw you in “Paul,” which was a pretty funny flick as well, thought definitely more canted toward men. How different was making a decidedly more female film?

KW: I will say that, being on a predominately female set is rare, not just in reference to “Paul.” Besides “Whip It” for me, every movie I’ve done has been mostly guys. And “Whip It” is actually a good example of another movie that has mostly women in it. I hope that it’s not a rare thing, for the future, to have a comedy or any movie have a lot of women in it.

So many people are saying it’s this different thing because of that, and that’s sad to me – to see a poster with six ladies on it is rare. There are so many amazing, funny women out there. We should have the opportunity to do more things like this.

BLAST: Are you thinking about doing another script with a lot of women? Or are you taking a break now?

KW: Well, I’m finishing up the season [of “Saturday Night Live”] now. I’m writing something now that’s the adaptation of a novel so there’s not that many characters in it.

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg attend the "Paul" Los Angeles Premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on March 14 in Hollywood (WireImage)

They’ve conquered zombie flicks (“Shaun of the Dead”) and action movies (“Hot Fuzz”) on their way to becoming the UK’s comedy darlings, but in their new sci-fi farce “Paul,” Simon Pegg and Nick Frost bring hilarity to the States. Blast sat down with the British funnymen to talk about life in America, meeting their heroes, and why they’re proud to be geeks.

BLAST: Can I ask you right away – there’s a moment in the film where you say, “That was my American accent.” You’ve been traveling so much and working in America, does the American accent just drive you up the wall?

SIMON PEGG: Not at all, I love it. Actually Phyllis, our publicist, has an amazing Boston accent and I love listening to her speak. It’s something that we don’t tire of and you just get really used to it. You look at all of our references, the stuff we allude to in our films and in our sitcom even, it’s almost exclusively American stuff. We grew up on a diet of American culture – you do if you’re from the UK. We’ve got this amazing resource, a country that’s hundreds of times as big as ours that speaks our language. It’s like having a huge “lucky dip” to take stuff from, so I’m used to it.

Nick Frost (left) and Simon Pegg chat with Blast (Molly J. Coombs for Blast Magazine)

NICK FROST: For me, personally, what gets slightly tiring is when I’m watching the Food Network. Because I usually just watch the Food Network. The commercials come on and the way cynical marketing people use a thousand words to describe a red pepper, that’s a bit crazy for me. But everything else is great.

BLAST: So how are your accents, specifically? Better than Hugh Laurie’s?

SP: Hugh Laurie’s got a great one. I wouldn’t dare do an accent in front of all you lot.

NF: Go on, do it! Show everyone!

SP: No, no. I’ve played American before – it’s not quite as easy as everyone thinks. It’s quite a gymnastic language. You guys really chew your words. It’s actually deceptive, because it sounds very laidback but it’s actually very muscular…this is what a dialect coach told me once. So no, I won’t do it. But Hugh Laurie does a great job – especially considering that he’s a posh Englishmen

(At this point, the interview devolves into Simon and Nick doing imitations of Hugh Laurie’s “posh” accent)

NF: When you have so many good American actors, why use an English person doing an American accent? As an actor, I always feel a bit weird…

SP: You sound like an American racist – ‘Coming over here, takin’ our jobs.’

BLAST: Can you explain how you work as writers? Do you ever just write stuff to make yourselves laugh?

SP: That’s what “Paul” is. I think everything we write is to make ourselves laugh. We learned very early on that what we find funny is shared by other people as well; it’s not exclusive to us. The first litmus test our writing has it whether or not we find it funny. Some comedy writers try and guess what other people find funny when you should always write what you find funny and just hope to God that someone else does too.

NF: We make films to make Edgar [Wright, the pair’s friend and frequent collaborator] laugh. You know what I mean? If Edgar likes it, it’s probably good enough. Just our mates, you know? We talk sometimes, and obviously this would never happen, but sometimes it would be great to make a really expensive film and then just give it to your mates and not release it.

SP: Not suffer the horror of handing it over to people who don’t care as much as you do about it. There’s joke in the film, one of my favorite jokes, that Nick says. It was just an offhand comment in the writing room that made me fall off my chair laughing. It’s when Paul (Seth Rogan), Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) are all walking down the street, holding hands and Graeme says, “We’re trying to look like a family” and Paul says, “Yeah, the fucking Friedmans.” It was such a bizarre reference to a documentary about an abusive family that seemed so out of place, I just thought ‘That’s got to go in the movie.’ It just goes to show that we don’t just reference popular 70s cinema – we’re not opposed to the odd millennial documentary about child abuse.

BLAST: Do you have nicknames for each other, like you do in the film?

NF: We do, yeah. They don’t stick though; it’s whatever we fancy at the time. We’ll answer to anything really.

SP: I called you Pom Pom this morning.

NF: You did call me Pom Pom this morning.

SP: Generally speaking, it’ll be other names like ‘Jim,’ ‘Fred’ – Fred was an old nickname of yours. The first thing that comes to mind when we text each other good morning, which we invariably do.

NF: Double Axe or things that have double names like ‘Crabtree & Evelyn.’

SP: We laugh at each other when we call each other by our real names, because it sounds odd calling him ‘Nick.’

NF: Because we don’t say each other’s names a lot, we’ll say the full name to feel what it’s like in your mouth. Does that sound weird? So I’ll say ‘SI-mon. SI-mon. His name is SI-mon.’

SP: That’s what you texted me that yesterday. You’re really being drawn into our weird world here; this is quite odd.

Duncan Jones at the "Source Code" Press Conference at The Four Seasons Hotel on March 18 in Beverly Hills (WireImage)

Alfred Hitchcock. Martin Scorsese. Steven Spielberg. Christopher Nolan. Duncan Jones?

The average moviegoer can be forgiven for not knowing director Duncan Jones, whose second feature film, “Source Code,” opened in theaters this weekend. His first feature film, Moon, was a sci-fi indie with a budget of $5 million that earned $9 million worldwide. Although the film wasn’t a big box office success, Jones’ knack for storytelling and his compelling vision generated a cult following for Moon and grabbed the attention of some of Hollywood’s biggest names. “Source Code” is a solid sophomore effort, one that seems to foreshadow a brilliant future for this up-and-coming director. So who is Duncan Jones?

During his recent “Source Code” publicity tour, Jones proved that he’s just as friendly and likable in person as his fans would hope. When we enter the small conference room for the press interview on a Tuesday morning in Boston, he shakes each person’s hand and greets us with as much enthusiasm as if we are the first press he’s ever met with. He’s just getting over a cold, but it doesn’t seem like the recent illness has taken a single ounce of enthusiasm out of him. When we ask him our questions, many of which he must be hearing for the 100th time, he answers earnestly and excitedly. It’s clear that this whirlwind press tour (he’s due in New York by the afternoon for yet another screening that night) has done nothing to quell his passion for “Source Code.” And though he would have every right to have a Hollywood ego after working with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga, Jones remains humble and even self-deprecating at times.

Directing “Source Code” was a major step up for Jones on many levels. First, the film’s budget of $35 million was seven times the budget for Moon. In addition, after working with the talented but lesser known Sam Rockwell, Duncan would be working with a higher-profile star in Jake Gyllenhaal as well as a cast of veteran known actors that include Vera Farmiga (“The Departed,” “Up in the Air”), Jeffrey Wright (“Casino Royale,” “Quantum of Solace”), and Michelle Monaghan (“Gone Baby Gone,” “Mission Imposible III”). Finally, in Source Code Jones would be using predominantly CGI special effects as opposed to the models and skilled camerawork that Moon relied on. It’s clear that in just about every sense, Source Code was a giant leap from Jones’ humble beginnings.

We asked Jones if he felt an enormous amount of pressure heading into the production of “Source Code.”

“I felt a real responsibility to hopefully deliver something that [fans of "Moon"] could enjoy,” Jones said, “Now I was very, very apprehensive because, although there are similarities between the two films, they’re very different. Pace wise, they are exceedingly different. But fortunately people who loved Moon seem to enjoy this. And I think that they do see that they’re very different kinds of films. But yeah, that was very nerve-wracking. As far as working on a bigger budget, I wasn’t nervous about that. That was one of the reasons I wanted to do this film, I wanted to prove that I could do that and work with name actors.”

So how exactly did he prove that he was ready to work with the likes of Gyllenhaal and Farmiga, especially after having directed only one feature film? As the son of music icon David Bowie, Jones was exposed to film and the arts early in life. He was introduced to movie-making when he was just six years old. Says Jones, in an interview with The Telegraph, “We would do silly things like pretend to levitate around the room, by standing in one place, jumping, taking a picture, taking a step forward, jumping, taking a picture, so it would look like we were floating around the house.” In addition to these experiences, his father’s career gave Jones plenty of chances to be on set and experience the world of film-making. Little did Bowie know that these experiences would ultimately inspire his son’s future career.

Jones didn’t originally set his sights on a career in film. In 1985, fresh off a philosophy degree, Jones decided to pursue a PhD at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. However, before completing his degree he changed course, leaving Vanderbilt for the London Film School. After graduating from film school, Jones began his career shooting commercials.

Three years ago, Jones was still directing commercials. Though he had his sights set on feature films, he was satisfied with honing his skills both as a director and as a special effects guru. The lessons and techniques he learned on those sets would become very important when it came to launching his film career.

For his first full-length movie, Jones was certain of two things — it would be a science fiction film and it would have to star Sam Rockwell, one of his favorite actors. After writing his first science fiction screenplay, he approached Rockwell with the script. The two quickly realized how well they got along and worked together, but they soon hit a bump in the road. Jones envisioned Rockwell in one role while Rockwell saw himself in another. At an impasse, the two discussed the possibility of working together on a different film. Rockwell explained the type of role he was looking to play and Duncan told him that he would get back to him with a different, new script written just for him. Months later, he returned to Rockwell with the screenplay for “Moon,” with the main character named after Rockwell himself. Sam immediately took a liking to the project and soon pre-production on Jones’ first feature film began.

“Moon” debuted on July 17, 2009 at the South By Southwest Festival in Texas. The film opened to a crowd of enthusiastic science fiction fans who were eager to see what the new director had to offer. The film’s gripping story and Rockwell’s impressive performance did not disappoint.

When “Moon” went on to a worldwide release, it received plenty of accolades. Roger Ebert raved, “Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction,” The Hollywood Reporter called it “a well-assembled sci-fi thriller,” and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the film, saying “This mesmerizing mind-bender sneaks up and hits you hard…. Moon is a potent provocation that relies on ideas instead of computer tricks to stir up excitement.” In addition to admiration from top critics, Moon received a 90 percent rating from the popular site Rotten Tomatoes — a sign that the common man was just as fond of the film.

Despite its triumph with critics, “Moon” failed to convert that success to box office dollars. At the end of its run in theaters, the film had grossed $5 million domestically and $4 million in foreign markets. Still, Jones had made an impression on sci-fi fans and movie buffs alike. As a bonus, Moon had caught the attention of some well known Hollywood movie makers.

In an interview that Jones did before the release of “Moon,” he was asked what his reaction would be if the film did really well. He responded, “It would be wonderful if the actors that I admire all of a sudden were like, ‘You know, I wouldn’t mind doing a film with that guy.’”

And from his lips to Hollywood’s ears, that’s exactly what happened. As Duncan began thinking about his second project, Jake Gyllenhaal was looking for a director for his next project – a movie called Source Code. Impressed by Jones’ feature film debut, Jake insisted on screening the movie for the producers of Source Code. They loved it and invited Jones to discuss the possibly of him directing the new film. Jones, already a big fan of Gyllenhaal, read Ben Ripley’s screenplay and realized he had found his next project.

Source Code seems poised to prove Jones’ worthiness of working with pricier productions and bigger Hollywood stars. On opening day, the film was doing well critically, getting a 74 percent positive rating on Metacritic.com and an 87 percent positive rating on the popular RottenTomatoes.com. The sci-fi thriller should easily take top prize at the box office this weekend, going up against Insidious and the widely-panned Hop. With the impending success of Source Code, we are left to imagine what promises lie ahead for Duncan Jones’ career.

When talking about his own future, Jones makes an interesting connection between himself and one of today’s biggest directors.

“I don’t know if I’m going to have the same career path as Chris Nolan, but I did kind of look at his career,” Jones said. “You see a film like Memento and then you see a film like Insomnia. He starts off with a little independent film that he did with a lesser known actor at the time – Guy Pierce. And then he does Insomnia where he’s working on a bigger budget with a studio, with well known actors – Robin Williams and Al Pacino. And then you kind of see how he’s showing what he’s capable of. And I wanted to try to do the same, so – “Source Code:” bigger budget, working with the studio, bigger name actors, same kind of deal.”

With his recent success, Jones may be on track to becoming Hollywood’s next in-demand director. With the critical success of “Source Code,” expectations are sure to be high for Jones’s third outing and fans will be anxiously awaiting any news of his next project. And you can bet that Hollywood will be too.

For a full transcript of the (spoilers included) press interview with Duncan Jones, head over to Bill Peloquin’s blog.

NEW YORK — When Blast first interviewed Linda Perry in April last year, we mainly focused on her life as a music producer since even though we all know her former band 4 Non Blondes’ song “What’s Up,” she has been very well known for working with many musicians (Christina Aguilera, Courtney Love, Adam Lambert, Pink and more) as a producer. When we asked her if there would be any possibility for her to create her own album and play shows again, she wasn’t really sure about that. A few months later, however, Perry stated on Twitter that she was going to form a new band. Eventually, with Fatso Jetson drummer Tony Tornay, she created a new band called Deep Dark Robot. Even before officially releasing their debut album “8 Songs About A Girl,” they started “It F!!cking Hurts” Tour. When they stopped by New York on March 25, Blast went to check them out.

We got a chance to ask Perry and Tornay how Deep Dark Robot’s been doing. And, needless to say, this time, we feature Linda Perry as a musician.

BLAST: How did you guys meet?

TONY TORNAY: Through Clementine Ford. (Clementine is Linda’s ex and Tony’s really good friend)

BLAST: Where did the name “Deep Dark Robot” come from?

TT: From a lyric Linda was writing about a robot trying to be human, “Deep dark robot falling in love.”

BLAST: “Won’t You Be My Girl?” was the first single from the debut album “8 Songs About A Girl.” Why did you choose this song as the first impression of the band for the public?

LINDA PERRY: Because we both thought it felt right. It was a mutual organic decision.

BLAST: I heard you made a video for each song in the album. Is that true? If so, how was the process of doing that?

TT: Yes, that is true. We are halfway through making them. It has been a really fun process.

BLAST: I watched the music video for “Won’t You Be My Girl.” It was very powerful, cool, and fun. That made me speechless. Can I just say, ‘WELCOME BACK!’ to Linda?

LP: Thanks. It’s nice to be back.

BLAST: The debut album just came out on March 22. Considering the album title “8 Songs About A Girl,” why 8 songs in total? Is there any reason?

LP: 8 songs just felt right.

BLAST: What was the inspiration for the song “Fuck You, Stupid Bitch”? I love this song but it does not sound like Linda is singing at all. Your voice is so different for this one.

LP: The whole album is about a girl, all of the songs have a different emotion. “Fuck You, Stupid Bitch” is basically just me letting go and moving on… The voice showed up with the song.

BLAST: Overall, the whole album is quite surprising. They are all love songs and it was unexpected, to be honest. Are those tunes based on your personal experience though?

LP: Yes, the entire album tells a story about a relationship that I went through and the all of the emotional things that one goes through when falling in love. I never got the girl and that will be a lingering emotion.

BLAST: When I interviewed Linda in April last year, you were saying that the whole idea of making your own record and doing shows was something back of your head, but not really a plan. Now, that’s what’s happening right now. What made you put the idea into action?

LP: I didn’t put the idea into action. The idea put me into action.

BLAST: Deep Dark Robot is currently on the road. At the last year’s interview, when we talked about the 4 Non Blondes activities, Linda said, “I think playing shows is fun. I never really liked touring because again, it was having to do things, you know, on demand, and I am not good about doing things on demand. I like to do things on my own pace when I’m ready to do it because I like to give everybody more than 100 percent of myself. So, what I have to do things on demand, you are not getting 100 percent of me.” Are we getting 100 percent of you at shows this time?

LP: I am having so much fun, I can’t believe it!!! I have felt lighter and more free than I have in years!!!!

BLAST: Can we expect to get to listen to some 4 Non Blondes songs or tunes from Linda’s previous solo albums at shows sometime?

LP: No. This is a band called Deep Dark Robot and we have our own songs.

BLAST: As a newly formed band who just started its journey, what’s the main goal that you want to accomplish this year?

LP: [Having] fun, make music, and have fun.

BLAST: I asked Linda to define “Love” last time since it was the main topic that we talked about. This time, how would you define “Art”?

LP: Believing in yourself.

TT: [It’s] a beautiful gift.

Blast coverage area tour dates:

4/3/11 Dallas at House of Blues-Cambridge Room
4/4/11 Houston at Rudyards
4/6/11 Albuquerque at Launchpad
4/7/11 Denver at Larimer Lounge
4/9/11 Boise at Neurolux
4/11/11 Seattle at The High Dive
4/13/11 Portland, Or. at Mississippi Studios
4/19/11 San Francisco at Red Devil Lounge
4/20/11 Santa Barbara at Velvet Jones
4/21/11 West Hollywood at The Roxy Theatre
4/22/11 Las Vegas at Beauty Bar

Having sold more than 100 million records worldwide, five-time Grammy award winner Janet Jackson one of the most well-known pop and R&B artists of all time.

With her countless hit songs like “Together Again,” “Rhythm Nation,” “Miss You Much,” and “All for You,” Janet is currently on the road. But it’s a little different this time. In her “Number Ones: Up Close and Personal” tour, she strongly focuses on the connection between the fans and herself at shows.

The tour also coincides with her recently released biography last month. Despite the busy schedule, Jackson kindly sat for an interview with Blast about her long journey as a fearless entertainer.

BLAST: You are currently on the road with Mindless Behavior. How is the tour going so far?

JANET JACKSON: Being onstage, performing for my fans is always fun for me. I get so much energy from them and it is great to be on tour. I talked with the kids from Mindless Behavior over the phone a few years back, and fell in love with them. I decided to have them open for me after seeing them on YouTube. They are not on the entire tour with me, but I am excited to have everyone in New York get to know them. They are so talented.

BLAST: For this tour, the venues are relatively smaller, compared to the ones where you’ve performed in your previous tours. Also, you only perform your ‘number one’ tunes this time. Is there any reason behind all these decisions?

JJ: I was at Radio City Music Hall for a private performance last year. It was so much fun. While I was on stage, I could look out and see the faces of everyone in the audience. All I could think of during the show was “this is exactly how I wanted to do my next tour, up close and personal.” I am excited to be back in Radio City Music Hall for the public dates. I just put out two CD’s from the “Number Ones” collection and that is why I have chosen the set list. The fans are really enjoying it and so am I. It has been a lot of fun!

BLAST: What can we expect to see at your shows during the current tour? Is there any surprise?

JJ: This tour is not about special effects. It is just me and my fans. I have been doing things a little different in each city. This show is a love affair between me and the fans.

BLAST: You’ve released 10 studio albums so far, and even your recent greatest hits compilation album, Number Ones, has 34 tracks. Which song do you love performing the most?

JJ: I really can’t answer that. I love to sign all of them. My music is so personal to me. I write about what is going on in my life at that time so whenever I am singing these songs, they bring back special memories.

BLAST: Looking back at when you released your self-titled debut album in 1982, what do you think has driven you to keep going at full speed for so long in the music industry?

JJ: Though singing was never my first choice, I am very grateful for the success I have had. I am a very creative person and I love creating…music, tours, acting roles. I am having too much fun to quit. Besides, I still have so much more that I want to accomplish in my life and career.

BLAST: A lot of musicians are big fans of yours, and some of them grew up watching you perform. You have been a huge positive influence on the younger generation of musicians.

JJ: I am grateful to hear that. The way was paved for me by women like Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge and Diana Ross. I hope that in some small way, I have been able to do that for others.

BLAST: Can we get excited to listen to new music coming from you?

JJ: Absolutely. Though I don’t know what it will be yet, I plan to go back into the studio later this year.

BLAST: You released your biography book “True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself” on Feb 15. What was the main message that you wanted to convey to the readers?

JJ: I want readers, specially the kids, to know that they are perfect just the way they are. If there was a book like it when I was a kid, I would have read it. There was nothing that I really liked about myself, it was like, I was all alone, and I felt like there was nobody I could talk to. I finally did talk to someone and only then did I feel like things started to get better. It has been a long road, but I am happy with my life now.

BLAST: In the book, you talk about your struggles with weight loss, self-esteem, and relationships. Those issues are not uncommon and there are so many people out there who are not able to like themselves. If you are going to give them advice, what would you say?

JJ: I talk a lot about this topic in “True You.” If I had to say just one thing, I recommend that people find someone that they can talk to about anything.

BLAST: The book recently ranked number one on New York Times Bestseller list.

JJ: I was told that we ranked in that position. I was so surprised but grateful to everyone that supported “True You” and made that possible.

BLAST: Even though you’ve gone through a lot of struggles including what you wrote in your book, you always look fearless and shining onstage, which encourages a lot of people. How do you transform all the pain into something creative and positive through music?

JJ: Whenever I am creating my music, or a tour, I am inspired by whatever is going on in my life. It is very healing and rewarding to take those experiences, the good and the bad, and create something that is positive. I hope that the fans can relate to what I create.

BLAST: What’s the next project that you will work on after this tour?

JJ: (laughs) I have never been great at multi-tasking, but I am working on that. I am having fun with everything that I am doing right now. The CD will be my next project at the moment.

Janet declined to answer questions about her brother, Michael Jackson. Janet plays Tuesday at the Wang Theatre in Boston. She plays Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on Wednesday before a Friday, Saturday, Monday stop at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Far from Wonderland, Mia Wasikowska (“Alice in Wonderland,” “The Kids are All Right”) tackles yet another literary icon – the eponymous heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s classic gothic love story, Jane Eyre. Blast sat down with Mia and director Cary Fukunaga to discuss history, the challenges of literary adaptation, and why the 27th time is the charm.

BLAST: Cary, what draws you to shooting stories in foreign countries?

CARY FUKUNAGA: I don’t know, I’ve only done two so far, and they both happened to not be in America. Doing a movie in English is already a big step, isn’t it? I don’t know – I’ve always looked at work and doing work as an opportunity to go away rather than stay home so maybe that’s part of it.

BLAST: Is it the locations that draw you or the stories themselves?

CF: I’ve certainly never been dying to go to England in my entire life. It’s one of those things that just sort of happened. I love the story, the Bob Stevenson version of the film when I was a kid. I happened to be in the UK promoting “Sin Nombre” and had a general meeting with the BBC and found out it was on their slate and that’s how I crossed paths with it.

Prior to that, I hadn’t really thought about taking on someone else’s story or screenplay but as a classic, it seemed like a pretty interesting sort of second film rather than spending a year or two developing what I was already writing. It gave me the opportunity to direct almost instantly, so that was another attractive part about it. Then also, I love history – I was a history major as an undergrad, 19th century in particular was an area of focus for me, so I was familiar with it and we thought it would be exciting to depict it as well.

BLAST: It’s a story that’s been told 27 times on film.

CF: How many have you actually seen of those?

BLAST: …None.

CF: I actually had no idea – when I signed on, I knew about the black-and-white one and that’s it. Then, as I started to do more research, to try and get a feeling for that style and that world, I was amazed that there were so many versions of the film. I’ve joked in a couple of the other press screenings that a movie should be remade every 5 years just to, you know, even it out. And I have no doubt that it will probably be made again.

Why? It’s the same question as why we do anything. It doesn’t have to be a movie, it could be plays – Shakespeare’s repeated around the world in different languages just because it’s good storytelling and at this point, it’s classic.

MIA WASIKOWSKA: The classics are always relevant.

BLAST: So did you know there were 27 Janes before you?

MW: I don’t know if I knew it was exactly 27. I didn’t watch any of them, actually. I was partially overwhelmed by how many there were – I didn’t know where to start – and then I also didn’t want to be influenced by anything, even in a way that I didn’t realize. Both of us had talked about not wanting to not do something because it’s been done a certain way.

My first introduction to the story – I was always aware of it, but I hadn’t actually read it until I picked it up in the middle of 2009 and I started reading it. I was halfway through and thought it was really incredible, so I got in touch with my agent and asked if there anything in development or if there was a script around. There wasn’t, and it was about two months later that she sent me the script, and then I met Cary and that’s how it went from there.

BLAST: We were amazed by the film technically: you shoot a lot in candlelight and you make it look so natural. It’s so different from your first film – technically, were there big challenges for you?

CF: It’s only hard for the focus puller. This film is different in that, in the last film, I wanted to do more of photojournalism and everything was handheld, even if it wasn’t shaky handheld, which allowed a lot of freedom. If I didn’t like a shot, it’s really quick just to readjust it for the next take; where in this, the camera’s often locked off, there was much of a sort of ballet-like choreography to some of the camera moves, which require laying track and committing to a shot. When you’re putting time in and your schedule’s compressed, there’s much more pressure to get it right the first time.

In terms of the lighting and the candlelight and all that kind of stuff, it was just trying to be as naturalistic as possible and not trying to make things look overlit in a sort of ‘Hollywood movie’ kind of way. Just keep it raw and simple.

BLAST: Did you have any challenges as far as the style goes?

MW: What the camera does doesn’t really ever restrict me or the lighting, none of that; I’m not aware of that stuff, but the costumes were a big constraint. They were a blessing and curse though, because it was good to understand the repression that women were under in that time and what that would feel like, and that was such a huge part, such a metaphor for the whole society and the way women were treated then. So that was useful and then also painful.

BLAST: Do you have an interest in class structure and how that plays in the film?

CF: I’m definitely aware of it. Will that be something I focus on as a theme in my other films? Maybe. It’s so interesting, because I was so unaware of class growing up in the Bay Area. I grew up in the ‘hip hop granola’ East Bay, and there were no racial lines, there were no class lines in Berkeley. Everyone went to school together. It wasn’t actually ‘til I was in high school or college that I became aware that there was a sort of aristocracy, even within San Francisco – the wine families and the Newsoms and the political families of the Bay Area. I had no idea that existed.

As I got more educated and learned more about history, that’s a huge theme, obviously, in the last couple hundred years in terms of the change of class. In the UK, that still lives today. There are hyperaware of class – the accents play a major role in class.

Being more sensitive to that, I started to pick up on peoples’ sometimes unspoken class prejudices. It’s interesting: the kids who go to private schools, public schools, what part of London you’re from, different parts of England, what kind of accents they have, when they try to hide their accents – it’s fascinating. So that makes its way into the film.

BLAST: Were you at all intimidated to work with Judi Dench?

MW: She instantly disarms you, so the intimidation doesn’t last long. She’s a young spirit, really modern and friendly and so cool. She’d go missing, and you’d find her in the corner, making shadow puppets in the lights. She’s really a lot of fun.

CF: There are some people who’ve just got it. I don’t think you can really define it, and it’s a charisma that is so immediate. Whenever she’s onscreen, every audience member is just sort of lightens up. It’s great. She’s my secret weapon.

BLAST: Was it different working with Jamie Bell again?

MW: I worked with Jamie before on “Defiance” a few years ago, so we’ve been married in a previous film. It’s fun being able to work together again, and it’s always really wonderful when you have some history with the cast and the people you have to be intimate with in that way.

BLAST: So the ending was happier, but in terms of the book, it could have been happier. Why did you choose to do that?

CF: I think it’s the equivalent, in cinematic language, of saying ‘Reader, I married him.’ It’s like a wink at the camera, and that’s just a different film. Every time I think that Charlotte addresses her audience in the book is like a departure – that was a unique sort of device at that time period, in terms of a literary device. But I think to be consistent in the film there has to be a consistent tone, especially over as short a period as two hours.

So what I wanted to do is end it in a way that, for the people who know what happens, it’s great, for people who don’t know what happens, there’s still this ‘what’s going to happen’ that shouldn’t be all buttoned-up and answered for them. It’s what makes the story live inside you after you’ve finished watching it. In a way, I think the weakest part of Charlotte’s book is the end, that last chapter, where she just say ‘Oh well, I’ve written 500 pages, I might as well sum this up.’ I was kind of disappointed in that part of the book, actually.

BLAST: Who did you go to to make a period piece like this work?

CF: The good thing about the UK is that there is a giant industry of period films and there are huge amounts of research available. The costume designers, the production designers, hair and makeup – they have done their work. Part of working in the UK and doing those departments is probably having done films that span all of English history. So you can rely on them a lot to provide information, but also you can ask them questions or create small challenges for them to figure out more details on specifics like charity-school girls.

Also, we had a historical adviser from Random House that was there at our disposal whenever we needed her. I would send her e-mails all the time with, like, seven questions as varied as ‘What kind of parlor game would they play?’ or ‘Would the potential bride and groom face the vicar or each other during the wedding ceremony?’ Of course, people say you don’t have to be historically accurate, but I prefer to have all of the information and change it if it doesn’t fit my vision. At least I want to know what I’m breaking, in terms of rules.

BLAST: Does any of this shift over to you in your acting, the historical details?

MW: I also like to be as informed as I can because it’ll always help you out when you have a bank of knowledge that you can draw on. And then there were a lot of things that informed my experience and Jane’s character: the costumes and the corset and understanding that restriction and that repression, and then also the locations and just being in those castles and feeling the isolation of them and the loneliness and how distant one estate is from another. All of those things help.

BLAST: Do you have any personal preference as an actress for playing a literary character like Jane or Alice (of “Alice in Wonderland”) versus an original character like you did in the “The Kids are All Right?”

MW: Well, with original material and an original character, the audience is going to take it for what you give them. But when you’re dealing with a character like Jane or Alice, they’re so well known by people and they’re so ingrained in peoples’ minds and they’ve lived for such a long time, there’s a bit more risk – you hope that people will accept your interpretation.

BLAST: You’ve played such varied characters – is there anything in particular that draws you to a role?

MW: I like doing things I haven’t done before so anything that’s different or anything that’s a challenge. It’s so important to do things that are different in order for me to remain interested in it and challenged by it. That’s the main thing.

BLAST: Do you prefer the larger-scale productions like “Defiance” and “Alice in Wonderland” or smaller works like this?

MW: They all have their pros and cons. I think often the restrictions make everybody pool their resources and make everybody work a little bit harder on the smaller things, even just to get it done. The big ones, you have a bit more time – you have the luxury of time because that’s so rare on the smaller films.

BLAST: Cary, in contrast to what Mia’s said — what’s it like to work with a larger budget for something like this after doing “Sin Nombre” and your short films?

CF: We didn’t really have a larger budget. After you go from making a film in Mexico to making a film in the UK, it’s almost like our budget shrank. We had two cameras on “Sin Nombre,” but we could only afford one on this film.

BLAST: What was behind your decision to go with the widescreen, the 1.85:1 frame size?

CF: It’s because I felt the story was really centered around the tête-à-tête between Rochester and Jane – it’s about their heads, not the rooms around them. And in 2.35, which would be the sort of kneejerk aspect ratio for historical films, you’d be missing so much more about what’s happening around them.

BLAST: Mia, we understand that you have a background in dance as well. How did that career arc go?

MW: I danced very intensely from the age of 8 to about the age of 15 and I was doing full-time dance, so when I was in high school, I would leave school at 1 and dance until 9 at night every day so it was about 35 hours a week. I thought it was really what I wanted to do and acting never dawned on me as a career until I came to the end of my dance life.

Dance was so much about achieving the physical perfection and I was watching a lot of films in the last year of dancing that were so much about the imperfections of people, and that seemed like a really interesting thing to explore. It’s a similar form of expression – acting and dancing. They’re just different industries.

BLAST: On the same note Cary, when did you find your passion for film?

CF: After my dance career? It’s one of those things. It sounds so cliché like, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a director,’ but I guess I always wanted to be a director. Since I was 10, I would make up little stories – I think my first one was a pirate story and I tried to use my mom’s humidifier as a fog machine. I wrote my first script when I was about 15, which was about these two brothers in the Civil War, in love with the same nurse who was taking care of them. That’s when I learned to type.

Then I kind of gave up on a film for awhile – I wanted to become a pro snowboarder – but I think when I was 23, I realized that I was over the hill. I’d still been doing film stuff on the side, photography, so a friend of mine offered me a job down in LA to work as a camera intern. That was my first set experience, on music videos for Destiny’s Child, those kind of things. I figured out pretty quickly the lay of the land on a set, I was doing AC [assistant cameraman] work, but I realized that you’d never be a pilot by being a flight attendant for 20 years. So, I applied to film school and then it all kind of worked out. For me, once I decide I want to do something, that’s just what I focus on and I do it.

BLAST: With the idea of writing versus directing, do you prefer one to the other?

CF: I like being a writer/director, even if it’s classical literature, just because if you want to change something, you just do it. Obviously, when you collaborate, you work with a lot more people and everyone has their opinions and things slows down and you get wonderful things out of that, but when you’re a writer/director, I think you have more control in the end. It’s an all-in-one sort of power, in the sense that you don’t need anyone else – you’re on your own.

BLAST: Mia, you’ve done a $200 million tent-pole and a Best Picture nominee – what is the experience like on the road, promoting these films?

MW: It’s a big contrast to being on the film sets. It’s a really interesting side bubble that everyone experiences, I think. It’s fun, I get to see different parts of America I haven’t seen before, but it’s strange – I mean, we’re focusing on Jane Eyre and that was a year ago and with “Alice,” it had been two years since I shot it. It’s sort of like you go back in time for a really intensive period, and you talk about something that seems like such a long time ago but is really only now becoming present. It’s a continuation of something you thought ended, but didn’t.

BLAST: What are you going to do next?

CF: I’m going to start spreading my focus out again, do a bunch of different things. Just to have the inspiration alive. I’m going to go home and maybe build a chicken coop or something.

With their film “Take Me Home Tonight,” a nostalgic comedy that toasts the excess of the 1980s in one wild night, stars Topher Grace (Matt Franklin) and Teresa Palmer (Tori Frederking) sat down with Blast to talk acting, the post-grad life, and why this isn’t just another 80s movie.

BLAST: It took a little while to get distributed — it was about four years ago that you put this film together and there were issues regarding the cocaine use in the film — How frustrating was that whole debacle for you, in terms of being a producer, trying to get this film out into theaters?

TOPHER GRACE: Very frustrating…the story of that is that we wanted to do the generational film that hasn’t been done yet for our generation. I remember growing up in the 90s and watching Dazed and Confused, which is about the 70s, and then getting into that movie and thinking “Man, those movies are great” and wanting to do, like…American Graffiti, which was in the 70s, about the 50s. But no one’s done it for this generation.

Look, it’s a party in Beverly Hills in the mid-80s, a bunch of kids in their 20s – it’d kind of be lying to not show that there was some cocaine use.

So we developed it really quickly, found a cast we were psyched about really quickly, and then when we tested it, it did really well with the audience, but our former studio is owned by a huge corporation and it’s frustrating: executives who are 60 or 70 years old, telling you what people in your demographic want. They had big problems with drinking and driving in [American Graffiti] when the studio saw that, they had problems in Dazed and Confused with people smoking joints, and they will have problems with the 90s movie, in ten years, when the kids are doing Ecstasy. But this is what the one in the 80s was about. It’s going to be dated. It’s already entirely dated, so you’re fine.

What they were proposing, the studio we had been with, would literally neuter the film and we felt would hurt every plot line. This is, artistically, what we wanted. I think a lot of times it gets watered down, things get cut when something’s held – this is the exact opposite. We got to put stuff back in! Mostly cocaine stuff.

I mean, it’s not Scarface. We’re thrilled with it – it’s exactly how we imagined it. You’ve got to do what’s right for the movie.

BLAST: You made the movie in 2007, but when did you make your music video?

TG: Just recently.

TERESA PALMER: We loved that whole process, and for me it was really interesting because I was born in 1986, so I wasn’t too familiar with a lot of the films that we referenced in the music video, but it was like getting the gang back together again.

TG: We all remained really close. Chris (Pratt) and Anna (Faris) got married, Dan Fogler stays at my house when he comes to L.A. …It’s rare actually. A lot of casts are lying to you when they say “we’re all really great friends.”

TP: No, we really hung out in our down time. It’s nice, because I think that camaraderie, that connection between us really bleeds into the film, and you can pick up on that.

BLAST: Can each of you talk about the time in your lives when you made the decision to be actors?

TP: For me, it wasn’t really a conscious decision. I finished high school and went through the same sort of confusion and lost feelings that these characters are going through. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and I felt this incredible pressure from my parents and my peers to figure out what I wanted to be for the rest of my life. I thought it was ridiculous that I should be expected to know that at the age of eighteen, I still didn’t know who I was.

I just dabbled in a few things – I wanted to do teaching, didn’t really like that, then I tried out journalism, that didn’t really work for me. Then acting fell into my lap and I haven’t really looked back since. It’s been snowballing and that’s what I’m doing for now, I guess.

TG: I had a similar thing to Tess where I had no idea what I wanted to do. My senior year at boarding school, this couple Bonnie and Terry Turner, who wrote Wayne’s World, Tommy Boy and 3rd Rock from the Sun, which they created, they were the parents of the girl who did the sets of this play I was in. I wasn’t even in that many plays – I just had sprained my ankle a couple times for tennis that year and decided, “I’m really going to go out for the lead in the musical.” If you heard me sing, it’s ironic…

TP: He’s really good!

TG: So they called me freshman year – I’d just been rejected from the film school, I didn’t know what I was going to do out there – they said “Do you want to come try out for this show about the 70s?” I’d never auditioned before. But I really grew to love acting, which is good because I signed a six-year contract to do it.

BLAST: Did you draw upon your experiences at Suncoast Video for this movie?

TG: That’s right, I worked at Suncoast. It’s not autobiographical, though I was about as lucky with girls in high school as Matt Franklin is. We were thinking about what stores, in the beginning, we could have in this mall that don’t exist in malls anymore. Like Sam Goody. That’s gone. I think more in the future, kids will say “What is that? What is a record store?”

BLAST: Who came up with the scene with two white guys rapping? That will always be funny.

TG: Well, that’s a classic 80s thing we wanted to have. The soundtrack – what we did when we first came up with the idea, we made kind of an 80s mix. Like the film, we didn’t want to spoof the time. You know, I love the Wedding Singer – it’s a great romantic comedy – but it was only made eight years outside of the 80s. If someone made a 90s film now, it would be very hard to not make fun of it. It’s been the right amount of time to go “You know what? There was something really amazing about that period of time.”

It’s like a relationship with an ex: at first you’re like, “Screw that person, that was horrible” – that’s probably about ’92, the reaction to the 80s in ’92, like “What were we thinking?” By ’98, you’re like, “You know, there were some good times. It was weird that I dressed that way but overall, there was some good and some bad.” Then about 20 years outside of a relationship, you’re probably like “You know, that person changed my life.” And that’s probably how people are just getting about the 80s, so we wanted to hit that moment.

DALLAS — Local musicians Jaret Reddick (Bowling for Soup) and Ryan Hamilton (Smile Smile) are People on Vacation.

The name of their newly-formed band rings true in more ways than one; Reddick and Hamilton are taking a break from their respective (musically disparate) bands for this new collaboration, leaving fans shocked and curious.

The unusualness of the pairing isn’t lost on Reddick and Hamilton. Bowling for Soup has had relative commercial success with hits like “1985” and “Ohio (Come Back to Texas).” Smile Smile is a less-notorious folk band comprised of Hamilton and Jencey Hirunrusme.

So naturally, fans of the bands scratched their heads when the two lead singers joined forces for People on Vacation. But their first show in Dallas last month took steps toward explaining the madness.

“People came with crossed arms at the beginning…” said Hamilton. “People seemed very confused by it. And it was nice to play some shows and kind of watch the audience have a light bulb moment.”

Reddick and Hamilton met a few years back when Reddick dropped by Smile Smile’s show at Austin’s South by Southwest. He was impressed by what he heard, but Hamilton didn’t feel the same way at first.

“I leaned over to Jensi,” Hamilton said, “and said ‘What the hell is the singer from Bowling For Soup doing at our show?’”

But a few months later, Smile Smile would be touring with Bowling for Soup, and as they say, the rest is history. Hamilton and Reddick developed an appreciation for each other as musicians, and through their collaboration, found a way for each of them to explore new musical territory. Reddick wanted to perform more serious material, and Hamilton wanted a chance to “not be so sad and awkward.”

The duo went to the recording studio, and walked out four days later having written and recorded 15 songs. “It was the accidental songwriting chemistry,” said Hamilton. “Who knew?”

Neither musician is leaving his original band. They’re not sure of People on Vacation’s trajectory, but claim that for now, they’re just booking shows and having a good time.

“I’m typically not one to buy into when the stars align…” said Hamilton. “But I feel like there’s something special with this thing the way it’s all falling into place.”

People on Vacation is currently on tour. For tour dates and more information, visit Wearepeopleonvacation.com.

Patrick Maguire, author of the award-winning blog "I'm Your Server Not Your Servant."

The other day, a customer of a South End restaurant demanded a gift certificate when he forgot his doggie bag of leftovers. This is the type of behavior that drives Patrick Maguire, author of the popular blog “I’m Your Server Not Your Servant,” insane. Maguire, who has worked too many service jobs to count, from bartender to landscaper to cemetery worker, was named the author of Boston’s Best Blog in Boston Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards last month.

He is currently working on a book — you can read it in progress on his blog — about the bullshit endured by service workers thanks to holier-than-thou customers who believe in the sacred “customer is always right” mentality. Maguire could have easily written a memoir about his various experiences, giving us perspective into a well-seasoned worker’s gripes, but instead he chose to create something to unite all service workers in expressing what they have gone through, with the goal of making us all aware that they are our servers, not our servants.

BLAST: You’ve had lots of service jobs. Which one was the most difficult?

PATRICK MAGUIRE: I loved bartending, but it was definitely one of the most difficult jobs I’ve had. Dealing with douchebags was a common occurrence, especially after they’ve had a few beverages. Customers have almost as much to do with the success of the customer-server human interaction as the server does, but unfortunately, a lot of people are clueless when it comes to common courtesy and mutual respect. I put a list together of 64 Suggestions for Bar Customers. A lot of people need to read it.

BLAST: What service job do you think — perhaps from your own experience or from your research — is the most under-appreciated?

PM: Support positions, such as prep cook, dish washer, nursing assistant, secretary, paralegal, food runner, busser, and bar-back, to name a few. They are the unsung heroes, and are subject to some of the harshest behavior that human beings are capable of. A lot of customers treat support personnel in a condescending, elitist fashion because they think that workers are “beneath” them. It’s appalling.

BLAST: Tell us about a horrible experience you’ve had with a customer, one that really sticks out in your mind. How did you handle it? How should horrible situations be handled?

PM: Most of the horrible experiences I’ve had of late are with fellow customers in the supermarket, sandwich shop, at Fenway, restaurants, the doctor’s office, the library, the T, in fact, everywhere human beings share public space. You pick and choose your battles, but I’ve become more vigilant about pushing back and speaking up. We need to look out for each other and not tolerate abuse when we hear it or see it. I have a chapter in my book called, Confront Without Being Confrontational that will offer suggestions on pushing back and raising awareness.

BLAST: In your introduction, you say, “The 5 percent factor is steadily growing, and…civility and common decency are declining.” Why do you think that is?

PM: The 5 percent factor that I referred to was my perception of the number of impossible customers who are also miserable, awful people with their families, co-workers and everyone they encounter.

I was in a diner a few weeks ago and I watched and listened to a waitress offer a woman a coffee refill. The woman clearly heard her but said nothing. The waitress responded with, “Okay, the silent treatment.” When the customer was out of earshot, I said, “What’s up with her?” The waitress replied, “Some people struggle with kindness. At least I don’t have to go home with them.” Touché. I always wonder what it’s like living and working with those bastards.

There are several reasons for the decline of civility and common decency: poor parenting, lack of role models, poor education, narcissism, entitlement, lack of awareness, and ignorance, to name a few. We also live in an instant gratification society where we expect everything now.

BLAST: Do you think that customers feel they have a sense of power over their servers? Is there a disconnect for customers, where they don’t see the server as a person?

PM: Some customers do have a sense of power over their servers. Many of them are making up for their own lack of self-esteem. They have an “I pay you; I own you” mentality, and love to degrade and torture workers and fellow human beings. It’s a very twisted, sick mindset and existence.

A lot of customers forget or don’t care that they are dealing with fellow human beings. Their lack of empathy and awareness is frightening.

BLAST: What do you hope readers get out of your blog and your future book? Why did you feel compelled to write it?

PM: I was driven to write the book because I was sick and tired of witnessing the abuse of service industry workers from a growing population of arrogant, entitled, demeaning customers. It’s very disturbing to witness what a lot of people think is okay. I had to speak up and do something about it. Everyone wants to point the finger at bad customer service, and no one is advocating for workers and shining the spotlight on bad customers. The book will be a voice for service industry workers who can’t say what they would like to for fear of retribution.

In addition to advocating for servers, the heart and soul of the book will be in the chapter, “Human-to-Human Service.” As I immersed myself in writing the book, I soon realized that beyond the customer-server relationship, my mission is really to promote civility, common courtesy and compassion in all walks of life. That explains the book’s subtitle, “A Case for Human-to-Human Service and Civility,” which is about co-existing, communicating with and responding to fellow human beings. I want to engage readers in a dialogue and raise awareness about mutual respect and common courtesy.

“Fans may come because of Twilight, but they stay because of the music,” Ben Graupner said in his interview with Blast.

Graupner is a member of 100 Monkeys, a funky rock band that is also made up of “Twilight” star Jackson Rathbone, as well as Jerad Anderson, Ben Johnson and Lawrence Abrams (whom they call “Uncle Larry”).

The 100 Monkeys has rapidly been gaining popularity over the last few years. In July, they released “Live and Kicking,” a live album with tracks from their most recent tour around the country.

The 100 Monkeys are an indie band distinguished not only by their wide musical range and astonishing energy, but by their performance as well. Don’t be surprised to see the band members switch instruments and vocalists every other song during their theatrical live sets. It’s just their “Monkey Switcheroo.”

“It’s a huge party,” Graupner said about their performances. “That’s exactly what it is. It will make you smile and move. The lights come up, the energy thrums and then it’s just a bunch of fun.”

The goal of the 100 Monkeys is simple: to have fun and inspire creativity. That’s where their name comes from – the 100 monkeys affect, the idea that once a large group of people start doing something it spreads to everyone else and becomes common knowledge. 100 Monkeys aims to inspire people on this same principal.

Graupner chatted with Blast about the music, current and upcoming projects and jamming with his friends.

BLAST: What is your favorite instrument?

Ben Graupner: Oh man, that’s a hard one. It changes from moment to moment. Right now my favorite instrument is the piano. But I don’t know what it’s going to be tomorrow.

BLAST: Are you playing any new instruments?

BG: Yeah, actually we got this really great, cool…well we actually have a couple of cool new ones. Jackson (Rathbone) got gifted this five string guitar from Puerto Rico. I don’t know the actual name for it, but the thing is pretty awesome. We also got, from some fans in Texas, an instrument called a waterphone, which you play with a violin bow and it sounds like those screeching sounds you hear in a horror movie; it’s really fun. And we have a musical saw; we’ve been playing lately too.

BLAST: Some fans on Twitter suggested the bagpipe.

BG: (Laughs) Oh yeah, who knows. Maybe one day someone will pick one up. But that’s one of the trickiest instruments to learn, kind of like the violin. You just have to have the time.

BLAST: How many instruments do you play?

BG: You know I haven’t really kept count. I kind of have a varied skill level on all the different ones, but we’ll really pick up anything and give it a whirl.

BLAST: The music of 100 Monkeys has been described as a fusion of rock, jazz, blues, folk and even country. What would you call it?

BG: We always call it funky rock and roll, but we’re always throwing in something to change it up. We play a lot of country style tunes; we love to plays blues and things like that. We kind of look at the catalogue of music that we’ve been making, and we see if there’s a gap in there. Like if we haven’t done a reggae song in a while or we haven’t done something with kind of a hip hop beat, we’ll do a song then just for the sake of having one like that.

BLAST: What is your favorite part about performing in front of an audience?

BG: All of it. (Large audiences, small audiences) it’s all the same. It’s just all so wonderful. That’s one of the best parts about performing – how varied it is. You can really turn anything into a stage or venue whether it’s a parking lot or bowling alley or a candy store or a giant theater for six hundred people or a thousand people – you name it.

BLAST: Do you have a favorite 100 Monkeys song?

BG: I really don’t. I really like playing “The Thank You Song,” that’s a staple we play at almost every performance and the make up songs are always great too.

BLAST: What’s the best improv (make up) song that you’ve done?

BG: Oh, I don’t know. There are just too many. I was just listening to the tracks from the last tour we were on, you know the house recordings, and we had one called “Road Trip” that we played in a venue up in Vancouver and that was just a fantastic make up song. It was just really great, with everyone yelling and having a great time.

We try to do improv songs at every show. There’s been a few exceptions, but almost every show we’ve played we’ve made up at least one song, sometimes two or three.

Of course (some of those songs have been a complete disaster). There have been some where the endings don’t come the way you want them to, or the middle just doesn’t happen the way we want it. It’s just part of the territory.

BLAST: Describe your song writing process.

BG: It’s different every times. Sometimes someone writes it in its entirety and brings it into the band, and then we’ll all work in specific instruments. Other times we’ll all be jamming on the riff, and it will evolve into a song like “Future Radio.” We made that song in the course of a day, and we were just kind of hanging in our studio playing and it evolved.

Other songs like “Junkie” and “The Thank You Song,” we’ve been playing for as long as we can remember, and they’re different every time because there’s a staple album and improv album. That song (“The Thank You Song”) was originally this jazz riff that Uncle Larry was playing on the piano and then we put the bass line behind it and Jackson started singing you know, (singing) “Thank you for existing.” So the process is different every time.

BLAST: What are you guys working on now?

BG: We’re finishing up our sophomore album. We’re going to be announcing its release date the first week of November. We’ve got almost all of the tracks laid down, and we’re going into the mixing stage. We’re really excited about it. It’s a great project.

We aren’t going to know (how many songs will be on it) until we’re finished. We recorded our songs, and they need to fit on one single CD. So when we go in to mix the album, we’re going to have to pick which ones go on there. Maybe the other ones, we’ll keep for our next project. Perhaps we’ll just release them as singles. We don’t know.

We actually don’t have a name (for the album) yet. We sit around all day throwing names at the wall, and you know we just don’t know what we’re going to call it yet. We’re still waiting.

There will be some tracks that we’ve been playing live for a while; there will be some tracks from way back when the band just started; there’s also going to be some tracks that we’ve never played in public. So there’s a little bit of everything on the CD.

As porn movies continue to grow in budget and blur the line between controversy and mainstream, Lupe Fuentes is “super.”

The star of the latest big-budget sex flick, “Super Pooosey,” the 23-year-old Colombian/Spanish starlet portrays a feisty, tough good-bad-girl in a mainstream move for this hardcore adult star.

The trailer for “Super Pooosey” was announced on the Howard Stern show and already has tens of thousands of views.

“People are not sure what they are seeing; is it porn? Is it a mainstream movie? When everyone finds out what this really is, I think they are going to be very surprised,” said male porn star Evan Seinfeld, who is known, himself, for playing biker gang leader Jaz Hoyt in the HBO prison drama “Oz.” “Lupe is a superstar who transcends mainstream to hardcore.”

But perhaps most noteworthy about this tiny bag of tricks is how far she was willing to go for one of her fans. Last year, a man named Carlos Timmeron was traveling from Venezuela to Puerto Rico with a Lupe Fuentes DVD in his luggage. American federal authorities arrested him in San Juan on suspicion of child porn possession, because Fuentes is so small (4’9″) and looks so young. The man spent several months in jail awaiting trial, but when Fuentes found out, she flew to San Juan, with a lawyer, and testified that she was over 18 when the film was made, springing Timmeron and possibly saving him from decades in jail.

Fuentes sat down for a chat with Blast last week.

BLAST: Where and how did you get your start in the business? We heard you stared performing abroad?

LUPE FUENTES: I started in the business in Spain when I was 18. I was doing mainstream modeling and artistic nudes. I had a boyfriend who was a director, and I was offered a lto of money to shoot some hardcore porn — a lot of money! My teen site was blowing up on the web, and I was an instant success.

BLAST: What is the porn industry like in Spain?

LF: The industry in Spain is realy small. You cannot do much to become a big star in Spain. Most of the business as we know it is in the USA, mainly in L.A., where I live now.

BLAST: Tell us a bit about your personal life.

LF: When I’m not on camera shooting porn, I am really a kind of traditional teenybopper. (laughs) I live in L.A., spend a lot of time working on my site and chatting live for ilovelupe.com my official website. Also I do a lot of press and interviews, on Howard Stern, in magazines etc. I shoot for wicked pictures and of course my own production company, ilovelupe.

BLAST: August 2009. San Juan. Tell us the story.

LF: A man named Carols Timmeron was arrested when he came into the country from Venezuela with a bootleg video from my website, and the customs police thought it was child pornography. He spent nine months in jail, and his lawyer got him out on house arrest. The public defender contacted me and said the guy was a big fan and was in jail because the court thinks I am underage.

I flew down to San Juan and testified in the federal court room. All the news people were there. The prosecutors freaked out, because they usually win all their cases down there. I verified that I was 18 when I made the videos. He was set free, and we all walked out together. It was nice to help a fan. I love my fans.

BLAST: We hear you’re a classically trained ballet dancer. How does one go from “Swan Lake” to having anal sex on camera?

LF: I grew up doing ballet and synchronized swimming in Spain. Of course, modeling too and dancing at the parties, but I was always very sexual. The first time I saw a porn video, I was with a group of friends, and I was about 15. I watched how everyone was so turned on, I was like “I want to do that. I want people to watch me fuck!”

BLAST: Tell us about “Super Pooosey,” your latest film.

LF: “Super Pooosey” is my first mainstream movie that I am staring in and producing also. I love these kinda movies, in between classic Russ Meyer and modern “Grindhouse,” with some retro sexy! I love acting and modeling. We have 70 thousand views of our trailer on YouTube in just a few days. It is really exciting for me

BLAST: Do you enjoy the acting and “mainstream” elements of the film? You’ve done FHM magazine and Howard Stern — Do you want to do more mainstream work?

LF: I love porn. I love mainstream. I love to work and be busy in general. I just shot with Terry Richardson last week, and I am constantly trying to branch out and do more different and exciting things.

You may know Ed Zwick by some of his bigger movies: “Glory,” “The Last Samurai,” “Blood Diamond” and “Defiance.” It’s been nearly two decades since he directed a film not considered a blockbuster. But that time away from the smaller films, and the experiences he’s had in that time period created a desire for something different.

“These last number of years, I’ve done big movies but really haven’t done (intimate behavioral comedy), that kind of stuff, Zwick said. “I love it and I’d been away from it, so that was the appetite.”

In “Love & Other Drugs,” Jake Gyllenhaal plays a pharmaceutical salesman who meets a free spirit (Anne Hathaway) who suffers from an incurable disease. Set in 1997 against the backdrop of increased drug company advertising, the film is a commentary on love, life and, of course, drugs.

“This is 1997, the year the FDA allowed the drug companies to begin advertising drugs on television,” Zwick said. “Before that, you’re not allowed to talk about Lipitor or Ativan or Celebrex. Suddenly these drugs became consumer commodities, and the whole culture changed. You used to count on your doctor to tell you what to do; now people are relying on advertising and telling their doctors.”

Gyllenhaal’s character, Jamie Randall, is a philanderer and smooth talker who doesn’t live up to his millionaire brother, or physician father and sister. Hathaway plays Maggie Murdoch, whose early Parkinson’s diagnosis drives her to fear her own mortality and to push people from her life.

“I didn’t want to do a standard romantic comedy, something that was contrived so it was about finding the right story,” Zwick said. “And more than that, it was about finding the right actors.”

Zwick has a history of eliciting strong performances from his actors: Denzel Washington won his first Oscar for Glory, while Ken Watanabe, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Djimon Hounsou all scored nominations for their roles in Zwick’s films.

“You have to look at an actor’s body of work,” Zwick said. “I’ve been watching Annie’s work in the last couple of years. Increasingly, the braver she gets, the more she takes chances and the better her work. She’s clearly someone who is ambitious and serious and coming into the height of her power. I thought, well gee, nobody has seen how earthy and tough and funny Anne really is.”

“And Jake, really when given the right script has been extraordinary. Some choices are less good than others I think, but when I got to know him, I saw something nobody else has seen, just how funny he is, and how charming and open and attractive in this way. Nobody has seen Jake be that seductive bad boy, and I said let’s show audiences parts of these actors they think they know but don’t.”

Though audiences have seen powerful performances from Gyllenhaal, such as his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain, Zwick thinks he’s still coming into his prowess as an actor.

“There is a moment in every actor’s life when those things come together,” he said. “There is a moment in every young man’s life, not necessarily when you’re 24 or 28. Sometimes you have to get a three in front of their age before everything starts to function and they fire on all cylinders. I think it’s happening and very abundant and clear in the film.”

Though billed as a romantic comedy, the film does exactly what Zwick wants and detours from typical contrived conventions, and detours into more serious territory as the bond between Gyllenhaal and Hathaway’s characters deepens. Zwick credits life as inspiration for their performances.

“Everyone goes through things. Annie had this relationship that was traumatic. Jake was deeply in love with someone that had two children and it ended, and these things mark you. They have an effect on your soul and your instrument, and it’s happened to both of them.”

For Zwick, the same rule applies. Great things happen, but they are not the sole moments in life. Visibly moved, he briefly shed some light on that moment in his life.

“When I was 30, I got married,” Zwick said. “And within two weeks, my mother died. I think it pertains to this movie, that is has the word and in it. Sometimes the best thing happens, but the worst thing happens as well. It’s not just — it’s and.”

Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are best known for their award-winning documentaries, “The Life and Times of Harvey Milk” and  “Celluloid Closet.” On this reputation, the estate of celebrated Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg, approached them about creating a film exploring “Howl” the groundbreaking poem that helped define a counterculture and gave rise to a landmark obscenity trial.

That film opened in Boston last weekend. Starring James Franco as Ginsberg, it uses both live action and animation from Ginsberg-collaborator, James Drooker, to dramatize the poem’s inception, original performance, controversial reception and aftermath. Blast spoke with the writer/directors about the concept of the film, working with James Franco, and the legacy of “Howl.”

BLAST: I went into this film pretty cold. I know it was about “Howl,” and so I thought, “maybe it’s a biopic about Ginsberg, or maybe it focuses on the obscenity trial,” and it turned out to be what I took to be a biography of the poem.

JEFF FRIEDMAN: Yeah, we call it a “poem pic.” That’s our new categorization.

BLAST: Have you seen this done before? Did you have a role model for this?

ROB EPSTEIN: We had different role models for different reasons. “American Splendor,” was a role model””a film that incorporated documentary reality, fictionalization of that documenting of reality, and admitting how one influenced the other, and animation. And just elementally we found inspiration from different films.

For the interview, we thought of and looked at a film called “Portrait of Jason,” a 1967 documentary by Shirley Clark, who was a beat filmmaker herself. The film is an interview with a black hustler/queen/drunk; A great character study, completely mesmerizing, and all it takes place in this one room, an interview in the course of a day. We saw that as a film that could really hold you because your really interested in what this character has to say and represent. For animation we looked at Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

BLAST: On the idea of being upfront about what was real and what was fictionalized, I read that the trial scene was completely culled from transcripts of the original trial?

JF: The trial scene and the interview were all taken from documentary texts””things people really said. They’re edited and rearranged and made more dramatic by juxtaposition, but that trial is verbatim. And that’s what drew us to it. It was so crazy that people were having this trial where they were discussing what an “angel-headed hipster” was.

BLAST: The interview scenes as well, that was culled from real interviews?

RE: Multiple interviews throughout his lifetime. The inspiration for that was that we had read that when the trail was going on, Allen Ginsberg was out of the country. He didn’t really give a shit about the trail. He was in Tangiers.

JF: Except he didn’t want Lawrence (Ferlengetti) to go to jail.

RE: Yeah, right. I guess he did give a shit about the trial. But Time Magazine flew him from Tangiers to Rome and did this interview in a hotel room, but this was never published and there was no record of the interview. So, we were intrigued by this idea and thought, “We’ll, recreate it.”

BLAST: So did (James) Franco study other video footage of Ginsberg?

RE: A lot of audio. There was a radio show with Studs Terkel. You get a lot of Allen’s character from this interview, so James listened to that a lot. There’s very little footage of Allen from that period but there’s later footage of Allen, so he could get a sense of him physically””

JF: “”“Pull My Daisy,” which is just a little bit after that period, a Robert Frank film with Ginsberg and Kerouac just kind of clowning around and being normal.  You can get a sense of them.

RE: Most of the rehearsal time that we did with James was about the content””about what was going on emotionally and psychologically for Allen for each of the lines of dialogue he had.

BLAST: With Franco””and this is probably not the first time you’ve heard this””I was pretty surprised he was going to be playing Ginsberg, mostly because I think of him as kind of a heartthrob and Ginsberg, not so much, and I wondered, having Franco as your Ginsberg””how did that end up shaping the material you wound up using?

RE: You know the most important thing for us was that we have an actor who was smart and really understood, certainly the text””which is so complex””of the poem, but also really understood Allen’s story, that he understood the heart and soul of what was going on, because that has to come through in his recounting, because he’s not performing it, he’s recounting it. We knew that James is a great actor, because we knew his work, especially in the “James Dean Story,” so we knew that he would get it.

JF: You know looking at young pictures of Allen it was at least plausible. I mean, Ginsberg was not gorgeous that way that James is gorgeous, but you know, he was a good looking guy when he was 30, and you know, James was able to bring that kind of youthful energy that was really so essential to the poem. It really is about youthful rebellious creativity.

RE: He was able to act the New York, Jewish, nebbishy part of Allen too.

BLAST: Thinking again about the structure and the idea of a “poem pic,” did you think of the poem as a character? Did you try to give it the same journey or arc?

RE: Yeah, that’s a very good description, and I don’t think we ever articulated it that way, but yeah, very much so. Each of the ways the poem lives in the film has its own arc and narrative.

BLAST: There’s a moment in the trial that particularly stood out to me and stayed with me; it was when a literary critic is testifying about what he thinks the poem means and he says, “You can’t translate a poem into prose.” You guys were translators of sorts and I wondered if that was a quote you thought about in terms of the kinds of translating you were doing.

RE: Yeah, I think that would be a great tag line for the poster.

JF: We didn’t think of it as a translation, we thought of it as an adaptation, the way you would adapt a novel. And that’s just one part of it, the animation. The poem lives in several different ways in the film. It lives as performance art, because it was the first spoken word performance art, as the first poetry slam, and it exists as evidence in the court room when people are trying to understand it. So we felt that we were presenting it in enough different ways that the audience would be able to understand it in the way that was most comfortable for them.

RE: And the animation seemed liked an opportunity to bring to life some of the ideas and themes in the film that you could do in cinema that you couldn’t do in any other form. It was a way to create cinema out of the idea of Moloch and what Moloch represents, for example.

JF: And because Eric [Drooker] has collaborated with Allen on this book of illuminated poems, including “Howl,” we felt like the process had begun with Allen. Allen had chosen Eric to illustrate his work and we just animated it.

BLAST: One of the things that I loved about the way the animation popped up is that you see him sitting at a typewriter, starting to hammer away at the poem and you think to yourself “they’re not really going to dramatize the typing of Howl”¦

(Laughter)

And then it explodes into hallucination.

RE: We were struggling one night with how do you make the literally transition from how you go from the live action to the animation, and we had never really solved that riddle. It was late one night in the editing room when we realized we could have those typewritten words transform into imagery. It seems obvious now, but it was a light bulb moment.

BLAST: Getting back to the idea of what’s based on reality in the film and what’s speculation””another moment I really enjoyed was a moment of Ginsberg on a park bench with Kerouac, where he reads the famous line about “I was eating a meaty sandwich and discovered that I had bitten into a dirty man’s asshole,” to see if he can get Kerouac to laugh, to break up, and when he doesn’t, he’s slightly mortified, like, “man, I’ve really got to work at this…”

(Laughter)

Did that come from any account or was that imagined?

RE: That was totally improvised. We just gave the actors their agenda and directed them as to what was going on between them at that moment””I mean Jack’s motivation at that moment is to show that he really isn’t impressed, that that just isn’t good enough, and Allen’s motivation in that moment is to please Jack. That’s what was driving him initially until he got to the pivotal moment where he was just writing to please himself.

JF: James said, “You’re not going to use any of the dialogue from this, right?”

(Laughter)

BLAST: So let me ask you guys about the poem. What shocks you about “Howl?”

JF: I was surprised at how radical it is in every way. I was surprised at how queer it is. It’s not something I remembered””I think I sort of blocked it out when I was in high school. I mean it’s about a lot of things: it’s about corporate mind control and consumerism and millitantism and all kinds of sexual liberation, but there is a really strong queer thread that runs through it. And it still has the power to shock, I think. Some of the language and imagery still has the power to shock, which is kind of amazing.

BLAST: So you guys have obviously thought of the way that mores have changed since the 50′s, what about the way poetry is received? How has that changed from the 50′s to the world of your viewers for this film?

RE: Well, we thought of this as a spoken word performance and a precursor to rap, so we thought just putting it out in the world to contextualize current art forms in terms of their antecedents was an interesting thing in-and-of-itself.

JF: Poetry really did start becoming a performance art that night in San Francisco when Allen read “Howl.” We really did feel that that was a moment of shift in the culture we could capture. These poets were sexy, and this moment really was about youthful, rebellious, exuberance.

A genre in pop culture that has not been heard from in some time: The Stoner Comedy.

Though a few attempts have been made to rival the classic for our generation, one movie stands up to be called “The modern day Cheech and Chong.” I’m speaking of course about the movie “Half-Baked.” It has been over a decade since the movie’s release, but still it remains a staple in the recreational smoker’s movie repertoire. A major contributing reason for the movie’s cult-like success is due, in large part, to Mr. Jim Breuer.

His upcoming book “I’m Not High (But I Do Have a Lot of Crazy Stories About Life As A Goat Boy, A Dad, And A Spiritual Warrior)” will hit shelves on Tuesday. Blast had the pleasure of talking with this resin-soaked legend about this new endeavor and life as an author, comedian, Goat Boy, dad, and spiritual warrior.

BLAST: What are you feeling as you wait for the official release of your first book? Excitement?

JIM BREUER: You know what, I’m excited, but I don’t really know what to expect. I try not to get my hopes up. It’s like when I was doing Half-Baked. I thought that was going to be the greatest stoner character ever. Thought it would open up the doors for big blockbuster movies. But I haven’t been in a movie since!

BLAST: You’ve got to be a little anxious.

JB: Well, the thing is, I can live with the fact if it doesn’t do well because I wrote it. So I’m alright with it. I love the content. I’ll know I did a good job if I see someone with a copy of it at the airport, reading it in the terminal, like “This is really good!€

BLAST: How did you find the whole writing process? Since they were your stories, did you just find yourself flying through the pages?

JB: It was Emotionally draining. The whole. Freakin. Book. I hand wrote it. No computer or typewriter. Every single story in the book I have an emotional tie to. Whether it be sad, happy, funny, whatever. So by the time I was done, I was exhausted.

BLAST: You say there are sad stories too. Where these personal stories about family, or yourself?

JB: Yeah about family members that died. My brother, A really close friend of mine who passed away as well. There are a couple stories in there about some deep moments with Chappelle. Kind of shows some other sides of him.

BLAST: How did you go about editing the book?

JB: I actually just kind of gave out some copies I had my sister make to some close friends, and asked them to tell me what they thought. Once they read it, they all were pretty positive and told me “I loved this part€ or “This was my favorite section€. Then I knew I was really on to something.

BLAST: Getting away from the book for a second, are you still on tour right now?

JB: I am. This tour goes until December, then I start a little book signing tour. Then next year I really want to push the book with a decent length storytelling tour. Then I’d like to go back to radio full-time.

BLAST: How have you noticed your stand-up act change over the years as you mature.

JB: It’s changed a lot. I am constantly trying to keep the happy medium, though. That being changing the content and subject matter, but not changing the style of the delivery. I probably crush, now, more than I ever have before in my sets.

Jim Breuer is currently touring Midwest comedy clubs and will be making his way up the east coast, and appearing in some New York and New Jersey late November. “I’m Not High (But I Do Have a Lot of Crazy Stories about Life as a Goat Boy, A Dad, And a Spiritual Warrior)” will be available on Tuesday.

Candace Charee is the official musical talent for the 2010-2011 Official Twilight Convention Tour, which is traveling throughout the US and Canada.

With her lingering voice and stirring lyrics, she gives audiences an unforgettable experience. Charee’s soul wrenching, poignant songs bring listeners into the bestselling love story of Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart in the films) and Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson) as thoroughly as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books do.

Charee is currently working on two different music ventures. She has been to seven Twilight Conventions, performing her "alternative rock, big arrangement" Twilight inspired songs. She is also working on producing a "dance, pop album." In the last two years, Charee has acquired thousands of loyal fans and over one million hits on her music.

"I really connected to how they (Bella and Edward) felt about each other," Charee said. "It’s the ultimate love story; and I was hooked, inspired immediately after reading the first three books."

The 27 year-old performer started singing when she was 12 months old. "My mom wrote in my baby book that I would be a singer before I was even born," Charee said. "My mom predestined me to be a singer."

Charee moved from Arizona to Nashville when she was 18 to become a country singer. "I love country music. I wanted to be a country singer for a really long time."

However, after living in Nashville for ten months, Charee returned home for a family emergency. She remained a few weeks, telling her family she wouldn’t move back unless she fell in love. "Two days later, I met this guy; and it was one of those love at first sight type of things."

After dating for six months, they broke up. "I gave up my music for him. I stopped working, and it took me a long time to get over that."

It wasn’t until Charee reluctantly agreed to read a book series about a vampire who sparkles and the human he loves just as desperately as he craves her blood, that Charee found the inspiration to write music again.

"I was instantly, madly, obsessively in love with Edward Cullen," Charee exclaimed. "I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t sleep; I was a total Twihard. All of sudden, I was inspired to write. I had all these ideas and feelings. I needed to write again."

So after reading the first three books in just five days, Charee sat down at her piano and wrote her first Twilight song, “The Smell of Your Skin.”

"When I’m really inspired by a story, I can write a song in an hour. I’m blessed that way,” she said.

From there, Charee took her song to Saltmine Studios in Phoenix. She posted her song on MySpace, and two days later she had over 10,000 hits.

"Most of us married a long time don’t feel that same first love kind of feeling (that Edward and Bella have) anymore. Twilight was a story of being in love with somebody who was the total non-convenient relationship and everything it takes them to be together — it’s just the ultimate love story," Charee explained her attachment to the series. "I really connected with how they felt about each other, a love that’s amazing and totally unrealistic…We all long for that."

While Charee originally wrote The Smell of Your Skin wanting it to be on the Twilight movie soundtrack, she now sees it working in (Spoilers) the Breaking Dawn film’s honeymoon scene.

"When he’s (Edward’s) in the water with his back to her (Bella) and she’s walking toward him, I think this song would work great there," Charee said. "The scene, it’s so sexy and kind of emotional; and so is this song."

While Charee was inspired by the love between Bella and Edward, she has greater musical aspirations than simply retelling Bella and Edward’s story.

"I want to become a good role model for women," Charee said. "A lot of women struggle with self-esteem, and I feel like I have a lot to offer to them. In a year and a half, I’ve done with my career what it takes most years longer because I have a positive outlook and knew I could do it. I really want to help women and men be positive and love themselves and get out of this self-hatred crap."

Charee’s second song, which was sung with Josh Leon, was written for New Moon and has almost two million hits on YouTube. Never Erase not only captures the deep struggle both Bella and Edward face when he leaves her in the second book, but it elevates audiences to feel such a level of genuine commitment that even novices to the Twilight world will live the heartbreak of Edward and Bella’s breakup.

Charee’s third Twilight single, Escape the Rain, was also written for New Moon. Charee brings the heartbreak millions felt through Bella as she chased after Edward alive through music.

"All the songs are so emotionally different for me," Charee said. "I have personal relations to all of them. But I would probably say most beautiful is Escape the Rain. It’s one of the most emotional, that and Silent Misery."

Jacob Black (played by Taylor Lautner in the films) was not left out of Charee’s inspiration. In fact, the songwriter finds it impossible to choose Team Edward or Team Jacob.

"I love both of them in their own right, and if I personally had to choose…" her voice drifted uncertainly. "Wow…that’s a hard one!" she exclaimed. "They’re so different. I mean I don’t believe that you only have one soul mate, and Bella has two soul mates. She’d be perfectly happy with either one," she hesitated. "I’m Team Both," Charee finally decided with a laugh.

Charee’s final Twilight song, Silent Misery, was written from Jacob’s perspective. The song was written for the final scene in the Eclipse book, which will probably be included in the first part of the Breaking Dawn films. Jacob receives an invitation to Bella and Edward’s wedding.

"He freaks out and transforms into a wolf. He just runs," Charee explained. "He has to get away from that pain; and that’s where this song comes from."

Charee’s CD with all four Twilight songs is available at conventions and her website – http://www.wix.com/candacecharee/candace-charee. Charee does not plan to write more Twilight inspired music.

Charee has done seven Twilight Conventions, and should be attending all dates except Dallas, TX this year. At Charee’s first convention, Phoenix August 2009, she was nervously waiting backstage for the rest of the band when Michael Welch (Mike Newton in the Twilight films) walked in.

"I had a total fan moment at first!" Charee said happily. "He was the first Twilight star I met. We started talking; and he was really, really nice." Charee invited Welch onstage. "He was so excited to come on stage; it was really cute." Charee’s fan girl reaction has worn out, and now she looks at Welch as an equal.

"He’s an awesome dancer," Charee said. "He’s really fabulous and a very, very talented singer; but you don’t always notice it because he sings really silly, going for the comedy of it. But he’s really great."

Welch has performed with Charee at four different Twilight Conventions — Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

"It’s all a dream come true," Charee said appreciatively. "It’s amazing, looking into an audience whose never heard me sing before and then after I do a song, the excitement in their faces, that approval that I get from them makes me feel like I’m still doing the right thing."

In addition to her four Twilight songs, Charee performs her pop music at conventions. Two tracks from her upcoming pop album are available to listen to online — Comin to Getcha, written for the new dating TV series Cougars, and Restitution.

Charee’s pop album, which will have at least ten songs, has a style quite unlike her Twilight music. "Each song has a different feel, a different emotion. They’re upbeat, different; but the Twilight community has been really receptive of my other songs," Charee said.

Right now she is focusing on finishing her pop album, getting on the radio and selling records, touring, and making friends with her fans.

"The best thing about doing performing is the new friends that I make. Pretty much everyone that is a fan of mine turns into a friend," Charee said. "I think it’s more important than having a bazillion fans that don’t know anything about me. Creating personal relationships with fans, that’s one of the most gratifying things I can do."

Charee recently recorded Gravity for the Sacred Oath film soundtrack. Sacred Oath is a young adult fantasy novel written by D.C. Grace. Gravity will be the film’s featured song.

"I want to continue doing music inspired by amazing books and movies," Charee said. "Gravity has a different feeling than my Twilight stuff. The story is quite different, but the song still came to me rather quickly."

Gravity is a piano ballet, and a demo will probably be released in the next month on Charee’s MySpace.

"The best thing (about my career) has been being on the Twilight tours," Charee said. "Meeting all of the new people and the friends that I made just from the tours, it’s just the best thing and really the most rewarding."

Can a movie grant you the same sensory experience as a live-action theater performance?

Can a THX sound system compare to listening to an orchestra as it accompanies your viewing of a movie? 

The "movie" we are referring to is not so much a night out at the cinema; it’s a mixing of mediums.

The film “Louis” is a silent film that chronicles the journey a young Louis Armstrong follows as he searches and finds his coronet, as a child in the streets of New Orleans. Though its performers silently act the film, it speaks volumes.  Thanks mainly, to its incredible acting, but also to the live orchestra, which accompanied the movie at each of its showings in the 5-city tour.  Blast had the pleasure of speaking with one of the actresses in the film, Shanti Lowry.

BLAST: LOUIS is an experience unlike anything I’ve ever heard of before.  How do you feel audiences will receive the film?

SHANTI LOWRY: The film seems to have gotten really warm reviews.  People who didn’t know what to expect say they really loved the presentation and the story.  As far as it being a silent film, audiences have said that the story and the acting is done in such a way that you don’t even notice that there isn’t a dialogue.  You can actually hear what the characters are saying through the story.

BLAST: You play a character named Grace in the film.  Can you tell us a little about her?

SL: My character Grace is a continuation on my character in the accompanying film “Bolden!,” which is going to be released in 2011.  She is a seamstress who, out of necessity, finds herself working in a bordello as a prostitute, trying to support her infant daughter.  Her paths cross with Louis, and her life is impacted greatly by him and his music.

BLAST: You say “Louis” is an accompanying piece to “Bolden!” Explain.

SL: Yes, “Louis” is a more light-hearted story about the young Louis Armstrong, and “Bolden!” is a more dramatic piece about the life of Charles "Buddy" Bolden, who played an extraordinary influence on Louis Armstrong.

BLAST: You are an accomplished dancer.  Do you think your background in that art form helped your performance in this film,  since you had to portray Grace’s emotions without using dialogue?

SL: I didn’t really feel like I needed to overact the part of Grace just because I didn’t have the luxury of speaking in the film. I didn’t think I needed to interpret her emotion onscreen by flailing and gyrating for the scene. Grace is so intense. You really feel her character presence in both films.

“Louis” premiered in five cities for its opening tour: Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia.  It will begin a West Coast tour and a European tour early next year.  For those of us who live in the Northeast, “Bolden!” will be released in select theaters in 2011. 

Shanti Lowry can also be seen in new episodes of “The Game” on BET.

As they prepare to release their ninth studio album, “Something for the Rest of Us,” it would be understandable if multi-platinum crowd-pleasers the Goo Goo Dolls were feeling a little blas© about their music career. But even after 24 years, four Grammy nominations, 13 top 10 songs and more than 10 million albums sold, that’s not the case.

From the first notes of raucous album opener "Sweetest Lie," it’s clear that the band isn’t holding back on its latest effort.

Bassist and founding member Robby Takac recently chatted with Blast about the Goo Goo Dolls’ evolution after more than two decades of recording together, their perspective on the new record and approach as they move forward in a changing industry.

News of yet another new record might leave fans wondering how "Something for the Rest of Us" differs from the group’s previous efforts.

"I’ve had to answer that question a lot of times over the past 20 years," Takac said. "And I guess the only thing I can narrow it down to is, it’s made by a band that’s been together for four more years. … It never gets easier. Whenever you sincerely want to do a better job than you did the last time, you know it’s not going to be easy, because you have to go places and you have to reach plateaus that you haven’t been to before. … Musically and topically, we’re just looking around us to see what kind of things we can bring into this to keep it interesting and to keep it moving forward."

To that end, Takac explained, the record draws heavily from the newsworthy events of recent years.

"We try to stick to things that are relevant around us, because we come from a school that pretty much wears their hearts on their sleeves," he explained. "I think the political landscape is part of it. I think the social landscape is part of it. I think the technological landscape is part of it. Technology is moving a lot faster than people … can keep up with. … It’s interesting to just watch people try to assimilate those things into their life."

As far as the title (which came courtesy of singer Johnny Rzeznick), Takac said the band was trying to tap into a perceived sense of camaraderie among the proverbial "little guys."

"As we were writing this record, I think one of the things we were looking at is sort of (being able to channel) that frustration that people are feeling," he explained. "People look for something to grab onto, to kind of let them know that they’re not the only people feeling that way. … From my point of view, (it means) there’s an awful lot of people who make the decisions for the rest of us. And I think the tables have turned. I think there’s a hell of a lot more of the rest of us than there are of those who are controlling everything. And I think that group of people really needs to have their voice heard."

Though the album wasn’t released until August 31^st (preceded by first single "Home," which began radio rotation in June), the band found itself in the difficult position of premiering new songs throughout shows over the summer, Takac said, and finding that fans already were familiar with the songs — clearly through less than legal means.

"I know those people didn’t pay for those songs, and it (bums) me out that a thing that we used to get paid for … is no longer for sale, is pretty much free now," he acknowledged. "We have to figure out, okay, how do we exist, then?"

Their record label’s solution was to intervene and have the bootlegs taken down, a tactic that Takac seems to view as less than forward-thinking.

"That is a fight that you don’t want to have," he said, laughing. "And they learned that really quickly, like within three or four days. You don’t want to have that fight, man. It’s like, this is the way it works now. And, if you’re going to dig your heels in the dirt and say, ‘You’re stealing my music, therefore I’m not going to deal with you,’ then you’re not going to have any bands anymore. It’s just the way the world is."

"You have to morph with that," he added. "You have to figure out what your place is in that music industry. It’s not about changing anything. You’re not going to change what goes on. … For a band that’s been around for as long as we have, it’s just something that you’re going to need to understand and embrace. … Some of the companies are going to figure it out and they’re going to make it work, and some of them aren’t."

For a band that started in the 1980s, Takac (the only member of the trio who keeps an active personal Twitter account) said it’s been a bumpy road adjusting to the changing responsibilities bands face in the modern age.

"It used to be, a band would make their record, and the band’s job was to, A, write great songs; B, make a great record; C, go out there and perform those (songs) for people, and your job was pretty much done at that point. There’s a whole other component now that involves technology. And if your band, and if (the) people who surround you don’t understand the importance of that technology, you’re going to get left in the dust these days. "

"We’re a lucky band," he went on. "I mean, we’ve got 13 songs that have hit the top 10 that people come to see us play. So, we can go play shows. We know we can do that. So, how do we make up the rest of it? … How do we figure out how to maintain what we do, keep our band and still make you feel that (connection)? That’s a huge process."

While it’s undeniable that songs like "Black Balloon" and the ubiquitous "Iris" have propelled the Goo Goo Dolls to the megastar status that allows them such luxuries, one gets the sense that Takac thinks of it as a double-edged sword.

"With a band like us, there’s a (divide) between things that we’d like to try, things that we’d like to work into what we do, and things that are appropriate for what we do," Takac said. "And I guess that all (factors into) how your band … moves forward. I don’t think you’re ever going to hear a Goo Goo Dolls hip-hop CD, you know? But I do know that the fact that hip-hop has made its way into our lives over the years, you know, that there’s components of it that we’ve borrowed."

Fans will be hard-pressed to find any traces of hip-hop on "Something for the Rest of Us," which sticks to the tried and true Goo Goo Dolls formula of anthemic pop/rock. Rzeznick’s lyrics, which tend to be generic, are sung in such soaring hooks that it doesn’t really matter what he’s saying. The man has perfected the art of writing an arena-ready chorus.

On the technical side, the band enlisted help from people like Butch Vig (of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins fame) for this record. In terms of production, Takac said, the band draws much of its inspiration from U2 albums ("There’s something about the way those records sound, it’s just crazy good," he gushed), although he was reluctant to name specific artists from whom the band draws musical influence.

"People are always a little surprised, I guess, when I talk about music I like," said Takac, who runs a small record label as a side project. "I’ve been signing Japanese girl rock bands, J-rock bands. So, the majority of my time right now is spent listening to Japanese girls screaming over indie rock music."

"I’m not going to drag you into that world right now," he added with a chuckle.

So, aside from running record labels, how do the band members spend their time between records?

"It’s usually a couple very, very short vacations, a couple of extended nervous breakdowns, a bunch of rehearsals, a good chunk of not speaking to each other," he said, laughing. "You know, all of the excitement and chaos that makes for a good miniseries. And then we pull our act together and realize that all the quibbling really doesn’t matter and we need to get this record out."

As what started out as a hobby has evolved into a career, it’s clear that Takac and his bandmates are poised to adapt in order to sustain their momentum within a changing industry.

"I think our mindset’s a lot different. When our band started, there wasn’t an awful lot to do. You know, we weren’t competing with the Internet and video games and all this other stuff that’s out there. We had … cable and record players. … There’s a lot of instant gratification that happens right now. If you’re on the Internet and you’re reading something you don’t like, you know, you can just (close the window). You can change a remote. You have 200 channels. You (have) satellite radio, or you’re listening to one of the 4,000 records you have stored on your telephone. It’s like, all these options are out there for you.

"If our band were to come around right now, I don’t think we would have necessarily the patience to do what we did," he added. "We didn’t know what was out there, so we weren’t that depressed that we didn’t have it. Because, you know, we had to learn everything out of the back of a van, you know, and on the end of a pay phone. … We weren’t really looking for that success. We were just looking to be as badass as we could possibly be. And that’s what motivated us."

Though no one would probably characterize the Goo Goo Dolls as "badass" these days, Takac, for his, seems relieved that the band has a bit of success to ride on, and doesn’t envy artists who are just getting their start in this new era.

"It’s always a crapshoot," Takac said. "You’ve just got to do what you love to do and make it happen. To be able to do it for a job is amazing. But if you don’t, the ultimate reward is just having done something well."

SAN DIEGO — The landscape of television serials is somewhat of a tight rope act. Between the strains of competitive time slot schedules, and pilot series pick ups, even the most critically acclaimed series can be dropped unexpectedly. NBC’s series, "Chuck" has managed to weather all the trappings of cancellation with its witty dialogue, fun cast of characters, and cult like following from both viewers and critics alike.

As season three wrapped up in May, the sobering finale left plenty of questions up in the air. One of them being the fate of Buy More (a parody of the Best Buy electronics store) and its tech support crew (the Nerd Herd). Vik Sahay plays Nerd Herd Lester Patel, a techie who specializes in Apple products. Lester’s storylines generally bring the more humorous side of the series between cage fights with his best friend Jeff to collaborating on their band conveniently named: Jeffster.

Blast recently sat down with Vik Sahay to talk about his work on "Chuck" and what it means to play a diverse character like Lester Patel during his visit to the San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

BLAST: Right now the Buy More is no more. And we love Lester–

VIK SAHAY: Do we?

BLAST: We do! (laughs) If you were hypothetically, in your opinion, envision your character coming back into the game, how would it happen?

VS: I think, this all hypothetical, and this is just me imagining it. I think Lester should come back into the game as a true, dark, and evil rival to Chuck. I think he should get recruited by The Ring, and planted back in to that world as a counterspy.

BLAST: No one would expect that, I think.

VS: Yeah, and he’s already got this thing about him where he doesn’t like Chuck. So I think he would be easily convinced and we could really bring out that dark side.

BLAST: There’s the music of Jeffster (Lester’s band with best friend Jeff,) they’re huge amongst fans of the show. There’s as much a cult following for them as much as the show.

VS: Really? Is that true?

BLAST: Actually, apart from fans of the show itself (who love Chuck and the spy world,) we got a lot of comments about Jeffster.

VS: That’s amazing.

BLAST: Did you ever expect the Jeffster moments to be as popular and go this far?

VS: No, not at all. I mean my goal was to get through the singing, but it was important for me…for Jeffster to be an extension of what Lester was (on the show.) I think maybe, it’s connecting (with fans) in a way because he’s such a train wreck. This is his outlet for his rage and anger; he sings the way he does because of that…he gets to pour all that madness into (Jeffster.) So it’s interesting to use Jeffster through the character of Lester in that way.

BLAST: So what about Lester in love? Anything romantic for him?

VS: Well, he’s on the lamb as it stands (right now.) So maybe out there…either his root chakra will open up (and we’ll see that evil side;) or his heart chakra…(laughs) I think what he wants most out of life is unconditional love. He’s a broken boy, so the way he goes about it is that he’s like a rattlesnake…but I wonder what would happen, and what that woman would be — who would love him.

BLAST: Lester plays in shades of grey on the show, he’s a complicated character.

VS: Yeah, I think one of the things I try and put out there about him is that he’s very complex; his emotions. It’s not just bad, good, bad, good…I think if what he wants is unconditional love, then who he is the scorpion…in the scorpion and the frog fable. He’s like please get me across this river, to the frog on the lily pad; (the frog) is like "no…you’re going to bite me." And (the scorpion) is like "no I promise." He can be very sweet. Then halfway through he (the scorpion) bites…and when you ask him why, (the scorpion) says, "Because it’s in my nature." So that’s how I see (Lester) as the scorpion, but it’s complicated.

BLAST: It’s also interesting that for Lester he comes from such a diverse background. How did you feel about the script and the Lester character when you first got the script? As an Asian actor, you’ve most likely have been offered a wide range of roles.

VS: What I loved about it is that the character is undefined; his name is Lester…so there was no forethought in casting. I think when I was cast they (didn’t consider it.) They were colorblind about it, which is great! Then they put part of his background in it…being Indian even though they’ve written some Jewish stuff which I love! I love it; I have no problem playing Indian or anything like that at all. I like it, I like exploring it; it’s actually good for me as an actor to think to my roots and connect that way.

I like that he’s (Lester) isn’t overly sweet, or obviously nerdy. I like that he kind of has that wild side.

BLAST: The Asian community can at times be sensitive to the way they’re represented onscreen, were there ever moments when you’ve gotten a script and felt uncomfortable about the direction?

VS: On the show "Chuck" it’s never been really a concern. There’s nothing that’s been on where I’ve said no. In fact, I am trying to; I want to add elements about his ethnicities (Indian and Jewish) to the show. Obviously, I’d be most protective of the Indian side of Lester. (The show) has played up his Jewish side, and they use it to their own discretion.

BLAST: Maybe they’ll bring it (his Indian side) up more?

VS: I hope so too. I want to explore that more. I don’t want to do anything that’s facile or thin. As long as it’s a full character that’s there? I’m very happy to play his ethnicity.

Fans of the series can find Vik Sahay along with castmates: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Irving Bartowski, Ryan McPartlin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Scott Krinsky, and Julia Ling return this fall at the usual Monday 8/7C on NBC with its fourth season premiere September 20th .

Justin’s other women. Frank’s ex girlfriend. Kasey’s tattoo. Craig M’s ridiculously coiffed hair.

ABC’s "The Bachelorette" Season 6 was full of memorable moments and memorable catch phrases; "I will guard and protect your heart" just might be the next great pick-up line…or not.

Jonathan Novack, affectionately known on the show as The Weatherman, hasn’t had enough of the reality TV drama. He’s cast on ABC’s new show "Bachelor Pad," in which former "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" contestants we loved and loved to hate come together to fight for love and money. Novack talks to "Blast" about the season’s scandals,  what he really thought about Ali, and if he regrets being a tattletale.

BLAST: Why did you decide to go on "The Bachelorette"?

JONATHAN NOVACK: A good friend of mine nominated me over a year ago.  I wasn’t sure if it’d be a good move in terms of my career [as a weatherman], but it was an experience that could possibly lead to me meeting my wife.  And the things we got to do, the dates we went on…I feel fortunate to have had that opportunity.

BLAST: If you could describe your experience on “The Bachelorette” as a weather-related event, what would it be?

JN: It was the perfect storm of drama, dating, alcohol…and tanning.

BLAST: Did you actually like Ali? Or did you feel that you had to like her? Do you think that some guys just want to stay to win the game, or do you think that everyone there actually liked her enough to marry her by the end of it?

JN: I really did like her.  I think most of the guys did.  I think some of the emotions were heightened for a lot of us because of the nature of the show and the awesome dates. I’m sure there were a few guys who weren’t into her and still stuck around.  But overall everyone seemed pretty sincere.  If I was already having feelings after a few weeks, then I’m sure the guys who were there for the long haul had strong emotions brewing by the end.

BLAST: When you were kicked off, how did you feel? Were you really that invested in forming a relationship with Ali?

JN: I was definitely hurt.  The experience is so intense, you really can’t anticipate how attached you get and how quickly it happens. The dates are bigger than life, there’s a competition factor with the other guys and watching them go out with her, and Ali was simply a really great girl.  So yeah, it was tough to walk away.

BLAST: Do you think you can really find love on reality TV?

JN: I do.  Think about it like this: Out of all the "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" shows,  there’s been success, meaning marriage, 10 percent of the time.  If someone told you that you had a 10 percent chance of finding your husband or wife in the next three months, that’d be pretty damn good considering we spend years looking.  So yeah, I think in one strange sense, it’s actually more likely.

BLAST: What did you think about Justin and Frank’s “other women in their lives” situations? Did you have any clue that they were as scummy as they were?

JN: Justin is a huge scumbag.  I had no idea that he was the way he was.  I’m usually good about those things, so it was a surprise for me to find out — I just missed it.  I actually gave him the benefit of the doubt the whole time I was there.  But he was clearly there for his [wrestling] career.

As for Frank, it’s not as clear-cut.  I mean, he seemed like a very emotional and sincere guy.  I thought it was strange that he just immediately jumped back into a relationship with his ex, who he had broken up with however many months ago.  I would have thought they’d have to work some stuff out first.  But at the same time, he wasn’t cheating on two girls like Justin was.  And it’s possible that he was just emotionally confused.  I got to know him pretty well and I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt on this.

BLAST: Was Craig M as much of a d-bag in person as he seemed on TV? What was with that hair?

JN: He was a pretty big jerk, but his hair was very polite.  If we could’ve kept just his hair around, things would have been okay.  Craig M actually started trouble with other people in the house, like Justin and Jesse B.  He tried to bait Jesse B into a fist fight for two hours one night, and producers had to keep pulling him away.  That’s when I said someone needs to speak up about this guy.  Would you want him dating your daughter?

BLAST: Do you regret being somewhat of a “tattletale” on the show?

JN: I don’t see it as being a tattletale.  I see it as respecting Ali’s wishes that the guys have her back.  There were a few other guys in the house that I didn’t like, but I didn’t go say anything to Ali because I don’t just talk trash about people like that.  I saw Craig M as a legitimate problem in the house, and potentially one for Ali.  I was just looking out for her.

BLAST: Why did you decide to go on another reality show?

JN: I needed a good tan.  And $250,000!

BLAST: You aren’t a weatherman anymore. Why not? What are your upcoming plans? Are you still living in Texas?

JN: I finished up my contract at my old TV station in Houston in May.  I’ve been doing some stand up comedy, and I’m opening up at the Laff Spot in Houston on August 12-15.  I’m moving to Los Angeles at the end of August, and I’ll be doing auditions out there for TV.  I’m kind of like a free agent right now.
BLAST: If you were asked to be the next Bachelor, would you? Would you go on your own reality show like “The Weatherman’s Flood of Love” or something if you were asked to?

JN: Damn, you stole my idea; I’ll have to think of a new title.  If they asked me to be the next Bachelor I’d probably say yes.  Are there any petitions out there?

NEW YORK — "And now this child with rusty knees / and mismatched shoes sees poetry as her scream / and asks me for the words to build her mother again."

Patricia Smith’s voice reverberates through the narrow, dimly lit room in the basement of the Cornelia Street Cafe, a charming French restaurant in Greenwich Village that tonight is transformed into a hub of poetry. The evening begins with an open mic reading in which a series of poets deliver works varying in caliber and style. Whispers and the clanking of silverware can occasionally be heard throughout the room. But when Smith takes the stage, the audience is captivated, sucked into the vortex of her poetry, drawn in by the power of her words and performance. "Can you teach me to write a poem about my mother? / I mean, you write about your daddy and he dead, / can you teach me to remember my mama? / A teacher tells me this is the first time Nicole / has admitted that her mother is gone."

Smith begins every reading with these verses about how poetry helped 6th grader Nicole process her mother’s death. Tonight is no exception, even though she considered devoting her brief 20-minute reading exclusively to newer pieces. She doesn’t feel grounded if she opens with another work because this poem is her manifesto; it is a bold declaration of what poetry can do for others and, of course, what it has done for her.

As the winner of the most prestigious awards in the spoken and written word, Smith has also done a lot for poetry. In her early career, she was crowned the National Poetry Slam champion four times, and her spoken word roots continue to be evident in her heartfelt poetry readings. Later, she garnered the coveted Pushcart Prize for the best literature published by small publishing houses, the very first Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in the poetry category, a National Poetry Series award, and a National Book Award nomination.

But for Smith, poetry is not an esoteric pastime to be used as a backstage pass into elite inner circles. She believes in the profound power of language, and she shares her poems because she knows there are people like Nicole who are waiting to hear them, who need to find a way to come to terms with something intensely personal. "You will always find at least one person in every audience who is there for a reason," Smith says. "And it might be a line that’s inconsequential in a poem of yours that will get them to sit up and go, ‘You know, I’ve felt that way; I just didn’t know there was a way to express it.’" In this moment of connection between speaker and listener, these audience members realize "they have a second throat that they’re not using," Smith says. "Poetry is a responsibility and not just an art…You are responsible for how your words are going to reach other people…You need to know that they will have an effect."

This audience connection is so important to Smith that she makes a point to present her new poems to live audiences as soon as possible. The audience’s response and emotional tenor guide her revision process. For example, audiences often have very strong reactions to selections from Blood Dazzler, her book of poems about Hurricane Katrina. She explains, "If I see somebody who’s a little jumpy when I’m doing the [Blood Dazzler] poems, I think, ‘That might be someone from New Orleans; that might be somebody with something to teach me.’ So you can never put a period at the end of the last line of a poem and think, ‘That’s it; I’ve got it; I’ve done it.’ It’s got to be a conversation." The interchange between audience and poet doesn’t even need to include words. "You can actually feel whether or not a poem is working," Smith says.

Smith’s dynamic relationship with her audiences is one of the reasons her poetry appeals to such a wide array of people. She has shared her work everywhere from hole-in-the-wall Chicago bars and a train platform in Berlin to Carnegie Hall and Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival. People from every walk of life—age, race, class, sexual orientation, educational background—gather together to hear her and possibly discover the words they’ve been waiting for.

The Birth of Slam Poetry

The first audience Smith captivated with her poetry was a community of spoken word poets from her hometown of Chicago. Their brand of poetry was imbued with the sound and the fury of language, and they loved the feel of well-crafted, rhythmic words in their mouths. The excitement of their performances escalated when they instituted poetic duels known as poetry slams. In these competitions, a handful of poets deliver poems of three minutes or less. Audience members are selected to judge the poems and eliminate about half the poets each round. After three rounds, the last poet standing is the winner. The amateur judging process means that audience connection is the lifeblood of slam poetry.

As a journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times in the 1980s, Smith discovered slam poetry when she reported on the city’s first Turf Poetry Festival, little knowing that she was destined to become a defining figure of the movement. She gave her first performance during an open mic night at the Green Mill, the cocktail lounge that hosts the famous Uptown Poetry Slam. Her thrilling performances and moving narrative poems quickly won her the respect and admiration of Chicago’s slam community.

In the beginning days of slam, Smith says, "we had no idea, really, what was going on. It just felt really good and a social circle was building up around it. We were all very nurturing and supportive." The poets thought carefully about each others’ work and offered suggestions for perfecting a phrase or rearranging lines for maximum impact. But, says Smith, "it wasn’t just poetry that connected us…We know each other on a deeper level than just, ‘Hi, what’s your sign?’ If there’s something bugging me, I’m more likely to turn to a member of that community than I am to my own family, just because they know more about me in a deeper way. I’ve said things in poems that I haven’t said to a lot of people."

One member of this close-knit artistic group, Michael Brown, eventually became her husband. The pair of sizzling slammers moved to Boston in 1990 and brought the spoken word revolution with them. Initially, Boston was wary of the unpredictability and competitiveness of slam. "Chicago was pretty much ready to try anything," remembers Smith. "When I came to Boston, it was like backtracking…We just had to change our expectations and get people excited about things we were already doing."

Smith and Brown initially introduced slam at the Stone Soup poetry reading, which was then meeting at T. T. the Bear’s Place in Central Square. However, "the staunch Stone Soup readers…didn’t trust where the performance was going," says Smith. They had spent a long time gathering an audience of traditional poetry readers and weren’t prepared for what Smith calls the "crapshoot" of slam performances. She acknowledges that some slam performers "continue to be clowns year after year because they think that they’ve learned what poetry is and how to push buttons." For these performers, the slam is all about finagling laughter, groans, and applause during their three minutes in the limelight. Many of the highly educated Stone Soup crowd were appalled by these types of poets and consequently believed that slam poetry had very little of the linguistic value found in conventional, printed poems.

However, plenty of slam poets—including Smith—were just as entranced by the written word as any Stone Soup writer. Their performances were so thrilling precisely because they had spent hours laboring over their poems, granting life to their beautiful creations through the birth pangs of thoughtful writing, editing, and preparation. One of Smith’s greatest contributions to slam poetry was that her well-crafted verse legitimized the movement in the minds of the literati who were open enough to listen. Her words cut through the "page versus stage" debate and demonstrated that good poetry can succeed in both arenas.

Though the Stone Soup readers rejected slam poetry, Smith knew she could find some Bostonians who would share her passion for it. And she was right: Boston eventually became one of the first cities to adopt slam outside of its Chicago birthplace. When she and Brown moved the slam to a bookstore called the BookCellar, large crowds began to flock to the competitions. In fact, there were so many people crowded on the stairs inside and trying to listen from outside that, for the first time in Boston, poetry became a safety hazard. Slam soon found a permanent home at the Cantab Lounge and, a few years later, spread to the Lizard Lounge as well. "The slam—if you give it air—will work exactly the way it’s supposed to work," Smith says. Fanned into flame by the frigid air of Boston, slam soon became a national phenomenon.

At the forefront of this exploding movement, Smith was quite a rising star herself. She won the individual title at the very first National Poetry Slam championship in 1990, and she went on to reclaim her crown three more times in 1991, 1993 and 1995. One of the pieces she performed in the 1996 championship, "Undertaker," was turned into a five-minute independent film that won awards at the Sundance and San Francisco Film Festivals. She also appeared in the documentary Slamnation, which chronicled the 1996 championship. In this film, many competing poets spoke of Smith with a mixture of reverence and fear, all agreeing that she could be the downfall of their respective slam teams. She was not just the most successful slammer to date; she had become a legend.

Burning the Landscape

While Smith’s career as a slam poet was taking off, her day job was writing columns for the Boston Globe. She had almost as many fans of her journalism as of her poetry. No matter which genre she employed, Smith painted the full humanity of her subjects, and her readers were touched by these authentic portraits.

In 1998, Smith’s incisive stories earned her a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize. And that’s when the ugly truth came out: Smith had fabricated sources and quotes in some of her columns for the Globe, violating the first rule of journalism ethics. One of the most notorious made-up sources was a cancer patient whom Smith claimed went by her middle name, Claire. The centerpiece of a column about a new cancer treatment, Claire is portrayed as a formerly optimistic person turned somewhat morbid and gruff by what she calls "the ogre" of cancer. In Smith’s farewell column, she said that she had fabricated characters like Claire "to create the desired impact or slam home a salient point."

But while her journalist’s voice and eye often enriched her poems, her poet’s imagination never should have entered the fact-filled world of reporting.

To her credit, Smith admits that her actions cannot be justified by her lack of time, by her drive to succeed or by her desire to produce a shining column every week. She wrote that these hollow excuses "point to the cursed fallibility of human beings, our tendency to spit in the face of common sense." Some of Smith’s colleagues and readers relished the downfall of a heroine while others felt betrayed, disillusioned and disappointed. But many recognized that despite her ability to stir readers’ thoughts and emotions, Smith was only a human being, just like those she wrote about so poignantly.

Smith’s life quickly spiraled downhill. She lost her job at the Globe, as well as her American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and Pulitzer nomination. At the same time, both her health and her marriage fell apart.

But like an arsonist phoenix rising from the ashes of her own making, Smith refused to let these events defeat her. Not knowing where else to go, Smith returned to Chicago and to her last remaining source of strength—slam poetry. She gave what many consider the most memorable performance of her life at the Chicago Cultural Center in front of the community she had always been real with, the one group that would not turn aside because of her professional sin and her personal despair. To thunderous applause and a standing ovation, Smith laid bare her soul.

Almost a dozen years later, Smith says people still remark on that reading. The audience had initially gathered out of curiosity, wondering what Smith would say after suffering through public demonization and private hell. As her words washed over them, they were deeply moved by the gritty emotion, heartache and triumph. These were words they had been waiting for, words that suggested hope and redemption against all odds.

While Smith says that "it was very important for me to be in that place at that time," it wasn’t until the National Poetry Slam, which took place a few months later in Austin, Texas, that she fully recognized how this group of people could be her saving grace. "That’s when I realized that the poetry community is a really unwavering community," she says. "They had kind of pulled me out [of my depression] because I wasn’t talking to anybody. They really just closed ranks, and that was very, very helpful for me."

The poetry community was the lone encouraging voice in the cacophony of opinions about what the Globe incident would mean for Smith and for her career. Smith recalls people asking her what she would do with her life now that she could no longer write. "The world [was] telling me who I was supposed to be," she recalls. "It’s like, nudge nudge, hint hint hint. And you don’t take the hint, so the easiest thing to do is to burn the whole landscape clean and start over."

Fortunately, when Smith burned the landscape of the journalism career she had built for over two decades, she was not bereft of all avenues for writing. In fact, these events allowed her to focus all her energy on writing and sharing poetry, which she says is "exactly what I should have been doing all along. I’m finding great rewards in it. It’s giving me some personal movement; it’s giving me a way to translate my own life without looking to outside people to legitimize me." While the loyalty of the slam community was immensely helpful for Smith, it was pure, unadulterated poetry that enabled her to find strength in herself. She says, "It was a real revelation to realize that I could find solace in poetry when I needed it, that not only was there a community that I could turn to, but that whenever I’m searching for answers, I feel like I have the power to find them myself and that’s in the writing." It’s not always an audience member who needs to hear a poem; sometimes a poem contains the words the author herself needs most.

Smith’s missteps at the Globe actually helped her to stumble onto the path toward becoming the writer she is today. She says, "I’m not thrilled with how I got there, but to tell you the truth, I probably wouldn’t change anything."

Reluctant Hosannas

The many naysayers who thought Smith’s writing career had screeched to a permanent halt clearly did not have their fingers on the pulse of poetry. Before the events at the Globe, she had already published three books of poems, and her work had appeared in literary journals such as The Paris Review and TriQuarterly. But the applause from critics grew increasingly louder as she continued to pour her heart into her poetry. Teahouse of the Almighty, the first book of poetry she published in over a decade, became a 2005 National Poetry Series winner, and Blood Dazzler was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award.

But regardless of the censure or praise her work receives, Smith will always find in poetry a source of personal strength. It’s not about concrete achievements—putting a period at the end of a line, winning a slam or racking up poetry awards. Rather, it is an important exploration, a process, a journey. As Smith says, "It’s not reaching a goal that matters; it’s [the process of] getting to the goal…When you reach what you think is the goal, you look up and say, ‘Well, damned if there’s not more road there.’" This is a road a poet must walk for herself. According to Smith, "Poetry becomes the way you move your own life forward."

Nevertheless, poetry is also about others. In her poetic manifesto dedicated to 6th grader Nicole, Smith proclaims the weighty responsibility poets have: "Angry, jubilant, weeping poets— / we are all / saviors, reluctant hosannas in the limelight." While finding her own answers through writing, Smith’s words also help people process emotions they thought were too deep and complex to express. Her poems lend a voice to those who are often overlooked or forgotten and plumb the varied human experiences that tragic news headlines cannot fully communicate.

In the low lights of the Cornelia Street Cafe, dozens of people listen closely to the forgotten voices buried beneath the torrents of Hurricane Katrina’s flood. Smith introduces "34," the first poem she wrote for Blood Dazzler: "The story [about Katrina] that pushed at me the most was the story of the 34 nursing home residents who were left behind to die. So what I tried to do is turn the clock back just a few seconds and give each one of those 34 people just a minute of their voice back."

After the reading, Jackie Sheeler, webmaster of poetz.com and one of the hosts of the Cornelia Street reading, stops by Smith’s table to tell her privately how much she loves the book: "I normally don’t just sit and read a book of poems that isn’t an anthology because it’s too much of just one voice. But I couldn’t put Blood Dazzler down because it’s filled with voices." The book is replete with the nuanced voices of victims and villains alike, tracing the common thread of humanity that binds us all together despite our differences.

In the midst of her literary success, Smith’s goal remains the same as when she first started out as a slam poet: she writes so that both she and her audience can heal and connect, remember and understand. Words have the power to change lives; in different ways, they saved both Smith and Nicole. Fully convinced of poetry’s profound purpose, Smith concludes her poetic manifesto with an exhortation to her fellow writers: "So poets, / as we pick up our pens, / as we flirt and sin and rejoice behind microphones— / remember Nicole. / She knows that we are here now, / and she is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. / And she is waiting. / And she / is / waiting. / And she waits."

Since it’s inception more than 12 years ago as songwriter Jimmy LaValle’s side-project from the band Tristeza, the Album Leaf has steadily increased its popularity in the lexicon of ambient music. The band’s latest effort, "A Chorus of Storytellers," and its widely successful subsequent tour has cemented their status along with Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and Explosions in the Sky as luminaries of the genre.

Blast got to catch up with ever-humble LaValle to talk about the songwriting process, instrumentation, and the status of the band.

BLAST: Do you think of your songs of having an overall story or emotion or is it more abstract than that?

Jimmy LaValle: I wouldn’t say it’s more abstract than that, I’d just say it’s more natural than that. I don’t really sit and think about what I’m going to write about or try to tell a certain story; it’s not really about that I guess.

BLAST: So how does the songwriting process start, is it some kind of motif or idea?

JL: It’s kind of whatever it starts with really, like maybe some programming I did, or a drum line, or some guitar part I have floating around in my head or a simple melody it just kind of starts with whatever it starts with, I guess.

BLAST: So that’s the start of a song. When do you decide a song is finished?

JL: Well I definitely can and do noodle around a lot (laughs). I don’t know, it just feels like everything’s full, everything’s there. I never really thought about it but there definitely is a point in the process when it is done-it definitely happens, I just can’t explain it. I guess the song just kind of feels right, you know?

BLAST: It seems like in on an Album Leaf record, you hear these certain redundancies, but it’s not overbearing or obvious, it’s like they’re meant to be there. Do you look at an album as a composition with some common themes more than a song, or is it more of a collection of compositions?

JL: I definitely do think of records as front to back-one piece of work. That’s the one thing that bums me out about iPods, or digital music. Everyone talks about quality or saying that vinyl sounds better- I don’t really think those are that big of a concern. But the one thing that really bothers me is not listening to records in sequence.

BLAST: A lot of instruments are used to make an Album Leaf song. Are there any instruments you won’t touch?

JL: I don’t know, maybe a five string bass (laughs).

BLAST: I still haven’t heard an accordion.

JL: (Laughs) No accordion but we used a didgeridoo on this one. We thought it might be cheesy but it ended up sounding really cool.

BLAST: The Album leaf has been your project since 1998 and yet you didn’t sing on it until 2004. Why the wait, and what finally prompted the decision to sing on an album?

JL: Just to do something different really. I know I can play stuff, I know I can write stuff, I know I can run around and play drums, and guitars, and keyboards and whatever else, and singing just kind of keeps things more interesting and more fun and another thing to think about live and think about the fact that now I need to sing this song or whatever it is. It’s just to keep it a little more fresh and a little more challenging. It’s boring to do the same record over and over again so it’s just to do different stuff really.

BLAST: To that point, do you look at the making of an Album Leaf song in terms of accessibility?

JL: It definitely crosses my mind, yeah. There’s a song on the record, "We Are," that’s on the record that I didn’t like at all until we put vocals to it and then it really came together for me. And before this record I had thirty or so ideas floating around for songs and a lot of times I think this, that, or something else just kind of sucks and I just write it off. So, there’s definitely thought behind it and there’s definitely things that I don’t think mix well with other stuff that I want to do but at the same time it’s not really about pleasing people, it’s just about me feeling really good about it.

BLAST: For the latest album, "A Chorus of Storytellers", you brought the live band that you’ve been touring with into the studio to write and record the album. What caused the change? Why not keep total control?

JL: It wasn’t out of my control, we all worked together on this one. It was just a lot of ideas, some were great ideas, some weren’t that great but we worked on them and got them there. It was also a nice way to think about representing what people had seen of us live in the last eight years, and also to experiment with different drumming styles, and a thinking about the music as a whole a little differently.

BLAST: I’ve read it was kind of a shock for you when "In a Safe Place" got big because you had always looked at it as just a hobby and now there was pressure to maintain that level of success. Do you still feel that way or are you past that now?

JL: I definitely do feel that. Being older and being married and having responsibilities and things like that- I mean, at this point in my life, I can’t really turn around and go work at the record store or the coffee shop. It certainly affects the decisions that we make-like it’d be cool if we get to the point where we’re known for our live show as much as the music, so someone could barely know the music but still be enticed to the show. So yeah, it’s like some of the shows we’re doing on this tour are with a stringed quartet. That’s just the way things are nowadays, you’re always trying to look for new ways to be semi-successful and make a living.

BLAST: The Album Leaf has been around for 12 years. To give you some perspective, I’m 20, so you’ve been around for more than half my life.

JL: (Laughs) That’s crazy!

BLAST: Yeah, so is this whole thing a trip for you? The fact is, you travel the world playing your unique brand of music, and there is a market for your work everywhere you go.

JL: Yeah, to be honest, I’m just really grateful. I’m grateful that we can do that-just go around and play to the demand of people who want to see us, and for that I’m just really grateful.

BLAST: You also get to do something that most people can only dream of.

JL: I just really couldn’t be any happier with this situation.

Intense rhythm. Unique sounds. Cultural respect and musical understanding—all come together for Xavier Rudd’s latest album, "Koonyum Sun." His first time with a South African Rhythm section, this work represents the musical endeavors of Rudd, Tio Moloantoa (Bass), and Andile Nqubezelo (drums). The trio met in 2008 at Austria’s Nuke Festival, and will be hitting the United States this fall as Xavier Rudd and Izintaba.

Rudd, an accomplished guitarist, percussionist, didgeridoo and harmonica player, among other instruments, chatted with Blast from Melbourne, Australia, about the new album and his musical background

BLAST: Your new album has an African influence correct?

XAVIER RUDD: Yeah, yeah.

BLAST: Many artists had incorporated this type of influence in the 80s ( Peter Gabriel’s song, Biko, after South African activist Steve Biko, particularly stands out)  Do you feel that with so many issues going on nationally, individuals sometimes forget global conflicts not directly presented to them, and that directing your musical energy to a culture will bring awareness to it?

XR: Yes, I think so, yeah, I do. I think that over time there’s a lot of issues that are almost in and out of control. I think that music is …a way to bring awareness in society. I mean music has the ability to sort of…to break through barriers. Draw connection, connect culture…and religion and country…and people and…oppression and happiness.

So yeah, I think that it’s an important thing. Directing energy…yeah, I think that…musicians can direct their energy to a cause and bring it to their heart (to bring awareness to their cause).

BLAST: In turn, how do you think music brings awareness to another culture’s beauty, as opposed to its social issues? Which one is more difficult to bring across?

XR: I don’t know, I haven’t noticed…well I guess my music focuses on environment and cultures and a lot of my music unconsciously respects that, it’s what sort of comes in my heart. A lot of times I’m not doing it for any reason; I’m not trying to write lyrics for (any reason). It just comes naturally. I haven’t really gotten involved musically in any conflict situations. I support a lot of environmental causes, but I haven’t been really on the front line with conflict. So I’d have to say I don’t really know.

Blast: So…I have read articles suggesting that playing the didgeridoo reduces the impact of snoring and sleep apnea…

XR: All the didge players that I know snore!

Blast: But really, I have watched various performers…well, mainly music students playing the didgeridoo at recitals or jamming. Many had stated that it was difficult to convey a melody through it—versus the rhythm. True? False? I’ve seen some didgeridoo players try very much to create a melody.

XR: Oh yeah, it’s impossible to play melody, it wasn’t made for it. You can voice harmonies through it. But in a sense it’s one note.

BLAST: In respect of that, being a…didgeridoo virtuoso is deemed as very difficult in terms of breath support with circular breathing….I found records of players sustaining notes of up to forty minutes! How did you come to get involved in this instrument?

XR: I sort of played it most of my life and Yirdaki is the traditional name of an instrument that the didgeridoo derives from. (The instrument) is a message for aboriginal cultures, the strongest message that’s ever existed, and that connection is very important.

BLAST: Do you think most people are aware of the musical intricacies of this?

XR: Not a lot of people know, because it’s sort of swept under the carpet A lot of the culture is very unknown.

Blast: Now your new lineup sounds like a rhythm overload—in a good way. Is there something in particular that drew you to this?

XR: We met in Australia and had this heavy connection-spiritually, musically, emotionally. We’ve become great friends. That’s basically the story, you know, I just feel really blessed, and they’re such beautiful people to be around. I feel really, really blessed.

Blast: Do you think working with these … what many would label as ‘world beats’, as opposed to American or European styles, is something you always had an ear for? Are there certain feelings of syncopation or timing you’ve been more attuned to?

XR: I think so, yeah. The way I play, or approach my instruments is very rhythmical, more percussion based. So, I think so, for sure. This is a perfect match for the way I play.

BLAST: Are there any other types of music or cultures you see yourself delving into in the future?

XR: I don’t think too much about that stuff. What happens happens and you can’t really predict it. I’m interested in a lot of cultures and a lot of different music. I like to play, I like to learn about that culture and music, I don’t really have aspirations to any particular style, but at the same time I find that I am very blessed on my journey. There are a lot of cool opportunities that arise.

BLAST: Anything you’d like to add?

XR: Where are you from?

BLAST: Boston!

XR: Oh wicked! Well, Boston, Massachusetts is one of my favorite places; people are very friendly and fun and I look forward to coming through there.

BLAST: Thanks!

MIAMI — "Regards from Tuna Ville, where it’s always 420" was how Robert Platshorn, one of the largest marijuana smuggler from the 1970s, signed off on an e-mail to me.

Along with his other numerous entrepreneurial accomplishments, Robert Platshorn should be known best for being an accomplished fisherman.  Instead, it’s his affiliation with being the leader of the infamous ‘Black Tuna Gang,’ that gives him the most recognition. Back in the 1970s, he and a number of other individuals, were responsible for flooding the states with an abundance of high quality marijuana from Colombia. The ‘Black Tuna Gang’ were the most notorious and sophisticated smugglers of their time.

It was May of 1979 when an indictment was issued by a Miami Federal Grand Jury charging Platshorn and his Black Tuna Gang with operating a marijuana smuggling ring that had allegedly brought into the States 500  tons of Colombian marijuana during a 16-month period. It was this indictment and subsequent conviction that led to Platshorn being placed in federal prison for 29 years. A bounty had been put on his head by President Jimmy Carter’s attorney general, Griffin Bell.

Platshorn’s recently released  first novel, “The Black Tuna Diaries,” is a fascinating depiction of personal stories, along with accounts of the inner working of the well-oiled machine of smuggling, life in prison, what the government did and did not know, and more.

Platshorn and his exploits were also prominently featured in the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys.” The same film company, Rakontur, is now in the process of editing a documentary called “Square Grouper, a film based on Platshorn’s novel that also features DEA agents, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and the other surviving members of The Black Tuna gang. The film is scheduled to be released this fall.

I had the pleasure of meeting Platshorn recently when I attended a special exhibition at the Miami Historical Museum of Southern Florida that highlighted the city’s intimate and unique relationship with crime.

That night, as I walked around the exhibition, I spotted Platshorn, standing by his display, intently reading the captions under the photographs. After he identified himself, we chatted a bit, and he briefly told me about his life as a marijuana smuggler. We planned to meet on a later date for an interview.  Intrigued, I bought his book before leaving the museum and immediately began reading it.

On the afternoon of our interview, a Friday, I arrived a little early and was informed that Mr. Platshorn was already inside. He stood right by his display in the exhibit, the only person separate from the small group of about 10 people around the corner listening intently to their museum guide. I approached  Platshorn, who was dressed in slacks and a navy blue colored Hawaiian button down shirt, and quickly apologized for having kept him waiting. He waved off my apology, announcing, "I’m always at least an hour early wherever I go."

The Platshorn display was set up directly across a mock demonstration of a police line up. His portion of the wall was a small shrine to his involvement with crime: a couple of framed newspaper articles, a small gold necklace that the government accused Platshorn and his gang of using to identify themselves as members of the smuggling gang, and a beautifully-crafted  hand-made wooden boat that Platshorn informed me that was done by his partner Randy, in jail.

The mention of Randy triggered Platshorn’s memory, and he quickly jumped into the story of how he had recently heard from his old partner after many years of silence. They reconnected for the first time a couple weeks ago and went fishing.

During our conversation, Platshorn seemed like the type of person who belonged on a fishing boat rather than behind bars. His outdoorsy, casual appeal evokes a Jimmy Buffet song. His demeanor isn’t one of a hardened criminal that spent 29 years in jail; but rather, the type of individual that you want to drink beers with and listen to, an eccentric individual you can picture taking a hit off a joint with. He’s charismatic with an inviting nature to the point where I almost wanted to relocate this interview to an outside bar, and ask him questions over a cold beer or two.

Platshorn is a talker. His stories are long, elaborate and specific, complete with first and last names, dates and locations. He is a natural storyteller, and a damn good one at that. I had initially planned to film Platshorn standing by his display, but it soon became evident we had to change locations. The museum tour guide’s voice not only dominated the calm quiet of a room that only museums and libraries possess, but the echo of her voice made it impossible for us to conduct our interview there.

Before we settle on a new location, two young men of college age stand in front of Platshorn’s display and ask for me to take a picture with their iPhone. They don’t realize they’re standing next to the captain of the Black Tuna Gang, himself. Platshorn points to a couple of the framed newspaper articles behind them and chuckles. "You would never believe that I use to be that skinny, would you?" The young men quickly look at Platshorn, and then back at the photo. "Yeah that’s me, part of The Black Tuna Gang." They do one more double take, and immediately ask Platshorn if he would mind being in the photo. He is more than happy to oblige.

Before we head out, the former smuggler takes one last look at his wall. He stands proud, in front of his well-documented contribution to Miami’s checkered past, and is quiet for a couple seconds. He looks at his life, all laid out on display for people to see and judge.

Outside the museum, we settle on an empty table in the vast courtyard area across from the main Miami Public Library, and resume our conversation.

Platshorn’s necklace, a simple gold chain with a dime sized replica of a fish, is nestled in a little chest hair, shines in the sunlight. It’s the same medallion that initially caught my attention when we first met. Apparently, the government also took particular notice of his necklace: it helped served as evidence in his case to put him and his gang behind bars. It was suspected to be a symbol of involvement and alliance with his pot smuggling gang. Platshorn vehemently denies this, and claims the only symbol this necklace represents is that it was solely made for his "fishing fools, to celebrate our ‘Grand Slam.’" I believe him.

After a day of longboarding around Boston, the guys from one of the best bands in the city, Art Decade, sat down with Blast to chat about their past, present, and their exciting future.

Guitarist/vocalist Ben Talmi and bassist/vocalist Binod Singh Jr. comprise Art Decade, a band that has been in existence almost as long as they have. Fresh from a trip to this year’s South by Southwest Festival, during which they headlined two shows to much acclaim at the Austin Museum of Art, the guys seem relaxed but focused about what’s to come.

When asked about the band’s background, Talmi smiled and said, "That’s a long story." The condensed version is that the band started as Channel, Talmi’s eighth grade brainchild, and quickly garnered acclaim after two EPs. This led to funding and a tenuous record deal. Talmi, who was in high school at the time, admits he did not fully understand the levity of the money and support that was being tossed around him. He changed the band’s name to Art Decade, citing the need for the band to take a step in a different direction. Shortly after recording and releasing their first EP as Art Decade, Innocence/Experience, Dave Matthews Band’s LeRoi Moore, a major backer of the band, died, and the deal fell through, leaving the band once again on the outside looking in, without a record deal or funding.

Talmi’s next move was to Berklee, one he was less than thrilled about. "I had always thought that if I went to college, I had failed," Talmi said. But it was at school that he met his equally talented classmate/bandmate, Singh. He first saw Singh play in a basement jam session.

“Binod (Singh) was the only person, when I was tossing around riffs, that could really keep up with me," said Talmi. The two recorded Art Decade’s most recent EP, Royalty, a huge-sounding effort that puts the band’s technical mastery and songwriting ability on display.

Talking to Talmi, it’s easy to see that the last thing he wants to do is rehash all the trials and tribulations of his musical career with the band that has led him to sitting in a coffee shop on this sunny afternoon. Soon, it becomes obvious why. They’re excited about where they are now and where they’re headed. Talmi admits that he is learning a good amount attending Berklee, but throws in the caveat that he would still leave now if he could, and that his education always takes a backseat to his musical career.

Later this month, Talmi and Singh are headed to Atlanta to record their first LP with producer Dan Hannon, about which Singh says, "The planets are sort of aligning around making this album." That will be followed by a probable tour in support of the album (after school’s out, of course).

Talmi and Singh are wise beyond their years. They have no qualms about drawing on their past experiences to make "art that is honest." This is something that is clearly important to them, as they continually insert the phrase in their answers during our meeting. Royalty is a clear example of this.

"The EP isn’t a concept album but it’s entirely conceptual,” Talmi explained. “There are some reoccurring characteristics, and the overall theme of something being built up and its subsequent let down, whether it’s a record label or a relationship, is definitely in there."

When asked if there was any apprehension about making a record that is so personal, the guys answer, once again, with astounding maturity. "You can’t be apprehensive when you’re going into the process or you won’t create something honest. But once something is complete, one of my great fears is always playing what we’ve done for close friends and parents."

The members of Art Decade are also unafraid to be original in their sound, which Talmi describes as, "If David Bowie fell through a cloud of smoke exhaled by Thom Yorke as he played a game of tennis with Beethoven," or in their live setup which features a stringed quartet and a drummer.

Classical influences have a profound effect on the band’s musical direction. Talmi confides that he listens almost exclusively to classical music now, despite having been enamored with the concept of a power trio when he was younger, and says that the stringed quartet, "are inspirational," and "the best thing we’ve done musically."

Art Decade is playing two shows this weekend, one at the Guru Room in Plymouth, MA on Friday night, and a matinee show at The Middle East Upstairs on Saturday afternoon with The Dirty Dishes, Southern Belle and Shapes and Numbers, a show Blast will be covering. Check out Art Decade’s mature and unique sound now, and be sure to be on the lookout for their debut LP this summer.

I came across "The Boondock Saints" the same way everybody who wasn’t a Hollywood insider in the late 90′s did. A friend handed me the DVD in middle school and said, "Dude, you have to watch this." I did, and like so many others, I adored it. It’s an entertaining film about two Irish brothers on a mission of divine justice that was made for a budget third of Joe Mauer’s annual salary and has since gone on to become the biggest cult film in decades. The word of mouth campaign that helped the film achieve its status and its complete rejection by the mainstream film industry has created an ardent fan base that has developed a special relationship with the film and anxiously waited 10 years for last November’s sequel, "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day."

In congruence with the sequel’s release on Blu-Ray/DVD, some of the franchise’s most notable figures embarked on a 10th Anniversary Tour, including a stop in the film’s principle setting, Boston, on St. Patrick’s Day to make appearances and host a concert at the Paradise Rock Cafe that night.

I was immediately confronted with the fanaticism the franchise has fostered within its fans upon arriving at the club for a mid-afternoon interview to find fans already lining up in front of it for a show that was more than six hours away. Pretty impressive for a 10-year-old franchise that no major studio would even consider touching.

Soon enough, three of the four interviewees (actors Daniel deSanto, Bob Marley, and David della Rocco) arrived outside the club. I got the sense from watching them interact with some of their more die-hard (and apparently jobless) fans that they fully appreciate how special it is to be part of a project that evokes the kind of emotion "The Boondock Saints" does from people. Despite already being behind schedule, all three of the actors eschewed prodding from PR people and producers alike to get them into the club to not only take pictures and sign autographs for the fans, but to really talk to them and establish a connection. I got the sense that the three were enjoying the interactions as much, if not more, than their fans.

I was most apprehensive about the fourth interviewee, writer/director Troy Duffy, whose abrasive nature was the subject of a documentary, "Overnight," which I brilliantly decided to watch the night before the interview. I knew it was stupid, especially since I was press, but what if I said something wrong and he launched into a tirade and ruined my interview (and quite possibly scarred me for life)?

As you will soon see, the four men couldn’t have been nicer or a more enjoyable interview. It has been a long time since the release of the first film, but all of them seem to thoroughly enjoy the spotlight once again shining on them, and made my experience with them as pleasant as they have all their fans. Not bad for my first interview.

After leading the NCIS crew as director on the CBS show’s sixth season, Rocky Carroll is filling his director shoes for both “NCIS” and the popular spin-off “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

Carroll, who also played Carl Reese on “The Agency” and Lieutenant Darik Westergaurd in 1995′s “Crimson Tide,” is back as a series regular on the seventh season of “NCIS,” the most popular show on broadcast television. Carroll’s Director Vance role has become popular on the show, as audiences are still wondering what his connections are to Israel and some shadowy black ops.

BLAST: So thank you for agreeing to talk to blastmagazine.com for a little while. We really appreciate it this morning.

ROCKY CARROLL: Thanks for putting me on Blast as they say.

BLAST: Oh thank you. The first thing we like to ask people who have been playing a character we are getting to know is, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself — tell us a little bit about Rocky.

RC: Well, Rocky is a professional actor now in Hollywood for over 20 years. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I studied theater at a very young age. I always approached this business as a craft. I was in a performing arts high school and then got a degree in fine arts at a university in St. Louis. So this has always been the pattern for my life, to be an actor. Working in Hollywood kind of happened by accident, just sort of fell into it. It wasn’t something I set out to do, I just happened to end up in Los Angeles. I went from one series to the next. I think after 20 years working, primarily in television and Hollywood, the best thing I can tell you is that I still absolutely love doing it. It’s fun, I’m still fascinated by people and I think that’s the thing that separates the difference between a 20 year career and a 3 year career, is that I still really enjoy what I do. I still feel there’s a long way to go and a lot more to learn but I’m fascinated by people. I’m fascinated by people’s perception of celebrity and how people respond to or defer to… and just being an actor. The first question you ask is when people have an impact on you in some kind of way, you know if you meet somebody in a restaurant or a bar or whatever it is and you strike up a conversation and you find them interesting, the first thing you want to do is get to know more about them. The thing about us actors is that, the reason we can kind of keep doing what we do is we kind of have to just play our cards close to the vests.

The natural instinct of people is you want to get to know more about them. But the thing I’ve realized after so many years is that you kind of have to keep people or at least stuff about yourself at arms length because the more you know about me the less likely I am able to go from character to character because when you have so many perceived notions about a person or personality it gets harder and harder to believe them in certain roles. If Madonna were to do the remake or Norma Rae you would spend the first 45 minutes dealing with the Madonna factor you know so it is what it is. That’s the part of this business that fascinates me so much is that it really is a paradox. You become popular because people like you and when people like you they want to know about you and there’s a real danger to that because the more people get to know about you the less they believe you in other roles. All of it is fascinating to me. I probably answered that question more than you wanted.

BLAST: It almost sounds like you kind of model your career after your character on “NCIS” somebody who’s been a little bit in the background who we’re getting to like but there’s still a little bit of mystery that he leaves up in the air for us.

RC: You know I think so. I think it’s not so much by design, but when you’re an actor your goal is to just easily transition from character to character from medium to different mediums. I’ve just seen it happen so many times especially 20 years in Hollywood; where people’s pitfall is you give people… the public what you think they want and eventually they grow weary of it. You’ve given them too much information they know too much about you and they become instantly bored with you and they move on. You know I think you just try to keep it interesting. Not being coy or anything like that I just think it’s very important if you’re going to sustain, continue a presence in a town especially like Hollywood.

BLAST: No, certainly. So one of the early roles that our readers would recognize you in is Lieutenant Westergaurd on “Crimson Tide,” do you still get called out for that role do you still get recognized for that?

RC: I do. I think primarily because of the fact that if you have insomnia on any given night you can probably turn on a cable station and that movie is on. It runs constantly, which is a great thing. I think the advent of cable TV and satellite TV has propelled what would have been a footnote in history. Now people go "Oh you’re the guy with the glasses on ‘Crimson Tide,’" yeah. A lot of guys especially. It’s such a guy movie. Guys love that movie.

BLAST: Oh yeah, we love submarine movies that’s for sure. That’s going way back. Now going forward to “NCIS here,” Leon Vance is a character that was in the shadows in the last season and now you’ve really taken this character to a new level. I guess kind of walk us through developing this character from almost a supporting role to a main role — to someone who really has his own story to tell.

RC: Yeah. When the executive producers from “NCIS” brought me in fir the role of director of NCIS, which had been a part of the show since day one played by different actors, when I was brought in to do it I think there was pretty much discussion of either severely limiting that character on that series or not even having it at all. My character was brought in as a four episode arc at the end of season five. Lauren Holly was still playing the director of NCIS and my character, Leon Vance, came from the San Diego office he was sort of an interim director lower level bureaucrat investigating a case involving Lauren Holly. Her character was killed and Leon Vance suddenly found himself as director of NCIS. I tell people I basically had a 4 episode on (not audible). I guess one thing it was apparent there was a genuine chemistry a real interesting and different dynamic between my character and Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon, something that hadn’t appeared before. A real atmospheric, dynamic, sort of mano y mano attention that was created because the other characters in the series especially the other agents had a very different relationship with Gibbs. Vance and Gibbs are like two gunslingers when they get together and they lock horns. The dynamic worked and the producers thought it, the network, and I guess the audience as well. Suddenly what became this four episode arc I found myself a part of the NCIS family and its sort of the jumping off point. Vance comes in and breaks up the team he enters with a real splash. The audience response was they didn’t know if this was a good guy or a bad guy. These characters that over six seasons had been developed and the audience pretty much could have known if they set their watch to who they were and suddenly you introduce this character who really is kind of a mystery. You don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy, if his motives are good, if he’s there to undermine the team. Especially after 5 seasons I think it was a very refreshing dynamic not only for the creative side the producers and everybody but even for the audience. The death nail to any project is when the audience gets ahead of you and they know what’s going to happen. I think we were successful in keeping them a little off balance there.

BLAST: Of course. That success has translated now onto the role on the new “NCIS Los Angeles,” which is doing really well on its own. How’s that show been for you so far?

RC: It’s been good. It’s a very different dynamic. I call the original “NCIS” the mother ship. People ask what’s the big difference? Well one show has been on the air for seven seasons and one show has been on for seven months. There’s a great deal of energy and anticipation about the future. I’m really still kind of amazed at the fact that sometimes I can turn on the TV and I’ll see promos for “NCIS” and “NCIS LA” and I’ll be in both promos, and I’m thinking wow this is pretty cool man. I’m going back and forth here. It’s been great…its great that the network and the executive producers of the show feel that the character carries enough wait and can transfer between the two series. I’m really having a lot of fun.

BLAST: Great. So when Lauren Holly was in your shoes she got to do a lot of investigating. She did a decent amount of gun slinging on the show. We saw a little bit of that from you finally in a recent episode where you were being kind of not hunted, but pursued by a Korean assassin. Would you like to do more of the hands on, get your hands dirty action, or are you happy kind of being more of a cerebral character on the show?

RC: You know its fun to get out in the field every once in a while, but I don’t mind…I enjoy the dynamic we’ve created between Vance and the rest of the group, but on occasion, you know if its warranted. The fact that Vance was a former operative, he does possess the skills that the operatives and NCIS agents have, its nice to kind of just sort of get in that role and even remind the audience that oh yea that’s right the director used to be an agent as well. You know he specialized in crime scenes, he specialized in you know he’s a bit of a computer geek. So it’s fun, but you know sitting in the seat of power is also a lot of fun too. When they ask me to go into the field I do it on very rare occasions.

BLAST: OK. Now obviously your character’s past is left as a mystery on purpose on the show. There’s always been this question of what’s in that CIA file that Gibbs has on your character. Can you shed some light on your character’s shadowy past?

RC: Well, I think what we realized, cause I think we started to go down that road what we were trying to answer a lot of questions and sort of expose Vance as this character that is much more complex than we even knew from the beginning.

BLAST: Yeah, you’re not a pencil pusher.

RC: The great thing about Shane Brennan, the executive producer of “NCIS,” is he will give audiences little tidbits, little nuggets of information, or he may address something and go away from it long enough. Once it becomes a curiosity, once audiences go we wanna to know more of this, this, and that he will address it. So, nothing is arbitrary. I think over time bits and pieces of this Vance character will be unveiled, but what we’re trying to balance, the real trick especially for the writers and producers, is you can’t have especially in this day and age if a guy has ascended to the level of director of NCIS, there’s certain things about his past would have been vetted.

If he was really a traitor to his country, a rogue, a criminal, or whatever he wouldn’t have ascended to the top level of the federal agency. You know, it just wouldn’t be plausible that he’s one of the highest levels of office in the federal agency only to be found out to be a rogue or a criminal or whatever. I mean its possible, but what we didn’t want was and one of my favorite sayings and Mark Harmon says it all the time, and it’s true the real star of “NCIS” is the agency. Real NCIS agents have said to me and other people connected with the show that now when people find out they are connected with NCIS people are genuinely interested and fascinated by them because what the show has done by sort of putting the agency on display. The star of the show is the agency we don’t want to do anything to tarnish the real federal agency. So to suggest that somebody who is nefarious or that a bad guy could ascend to the top level of the agency, that’s not what we want to do. What we do like is delving into the complexity of a person. You can be the head of an agency and a very very complex individual and that’s sort of what we’re trying to balance out is where this complexity really lies. Was Leon Vance even deep coveted by the CIA, was there some other agency that he was a part of on a bigger government level even before this. So those are the kind of things that we’re kind of tossing around now and eventually we’re going to put on the screen.

BLAST: Great. The show itself has made this real federal agency sort of a household name. Had you heard of NCIS before the show?

RC: Not before the show I hadn’t, no.

BLAST: What do you think, I mean obviously NYPD, FBI, CIA, these are the ones we all hear of, how interesting is it to kind of play with this agency that you’re really setting the tone, creating the mold for NCIS in popular culture. What’s that like?

RC: It’s two fold for me because like I said the show had…I kind of feel like some guy who’s been traded to a playoff contending team you know I already said these guys are a playoff team, I was brought in to kind of help stir up the defense and hopefully kick them deeper into the playoffs. That’s sort of the feeling I have. I mean they already sort of established this relationship — you know when you still after seven years you still have 20 million people watching your show there must be something to it. Its interesting, its fascinating.

Since the heyday of television there have always been shows and about law enforcement on certain levels, but in the old days it was the “Dragnet”, “Adam 12″ — these shows have always existed, but now we get more and more into the science of crime solving so as oppose to just two guys driving around in the squad car and every time their squawk box goes off we’re off on another adventure that sort of has now morphed into the science of getting out of the squad car and into the lab. I think crime shows will always be around, shows about agencies, shows about cops and robbers that will always be a part of television. You can pretty much be guaranteed as an actor that if you do television you’re probably going to play a cop or a doctor at some point in your career. That’s where the most drama happens, it has the most potential for danger, for humor, whatever. Those are the sort of jobs and occupations that have the most dimensions. That’s why guys have been doing cop shows and hospital shows since the beginning of time. It’s interesting and its interesting to see the metamorphosis from the buddy cops driving around in the squad car to now an entire organization that you get to see from the labs to the morgue to the guys on the street all working together to solve a crime.

BLAST: Great. So obviously you’ve done well on television. Do you still kind of long to get involved in more Hollywood productions, or are you happy being in everyone’s living rooms every week?

RC: Well you know it’s funny. I’m at a point right now in my life man — where I am right now is great. I think it’s just the nature of the beast. You always feel that you’re missing out on something; you’re on a hit show, but you’re surrounded by agents and managers saying you should be doing this. But I’ve reached a point in my life where that whole grass is always greener, especially in the business, it’s just too much work man. What happens is you find yourself not really enjoying where you are because you’re on a hit show and you’ve got all these people in your ears going you need to direct, you need to produce you need to make a Christmas album and you’re like I just want to do this show and have a good time, I got 20 million people watching me. So if I’m not everything to everyone…and the business has changed, 20 years ago there was a huge distinction between you were either a film actor or a TV actor, now every film actor that I happen to run into that I know personally the first thing they say is god I’d love to be on a series. I read a very interesting article with Edie Falco recently and she said something I thought was very true, is that in our business doing series television is as close to a normal job as you can have. If you’re doing films or whatever hey three weeks in Prague, eight-week shoot in Virginia, nine weeks in Italy you know whatever it is, but to know from the beginning of July to the beginning of May that pretty much Monday through Friday this is what you’re going to do you’re going to be playing the same character for five, seven, 10 years. It’s just as close to normal as we get in our business and as you get older and life becomes more complicated, families kids what have you, I think more and more actors understand.

And television has gotten better. The sort of subject matter that could only be done on film is now all over the TV, especially with the advent of satellite and cable TV and HBO shows and Showtime, A&E so actors are finding much more satisfying work in the field of television than ever before. So I’m glad to be exactly where I am and I think there are a lot of guys in my business who would love to be where I am because the old distinction between ya know you’re not really living unless you’re doing a movie is just crazy.

BLAST: That makes sense to me. So obviously we’ll let you keep some of your personal details close to the vests, but is there anything else you want the fans to know about you yourself as a person instead of the character? Any hobbies or anything you do when you’re not on TV?

RC: You can usually find me on a fishing boat. That’s how you live in Southern California. The weather’s great 11 months out of the year. I try to be out and about as much as I possibly can. People always wonder what do you watch when you’re at home, I guess because you’re so immersed in it, the last thing I want to do is come home and turn on a cop show when that’s what you’ve been filming for 12 hours a day. I like to laugh and be funny because I play such a character who you know is sort of the straight-laced guy with the scowl on the series, but usually I come home and if there’s an HBO comedy concert or somebody doing stand up I’ll watch that before watching anything else.

BLAST: Okay. Rocky Carroll, who plays director Leon Vance on the top show on television, “NCIS,” Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Any final words for the fans here in Boston?

RC: As a guy in the AFC, good luck to the Patriots.

BLAST: Excellent. Rocky thank you so much for your time today we really appreciate it.

RC: My pleasure.

Blast Correspondent Tara Rufo contributed to this report.

The hardcore punk/Celtic folk band Dropkick Murphys formed in Southie in 1995. With their famous songs such as "I’m Shipping Up To Boston," "Tessie," and "The State of Massachusetts," the band has been spreading their blended sound of traditional Irish folk rock and punk rock, which is known as Celtic punk, by doing non-stop touring all over the world. The band is also well-known for their patronage of the Boston Red Sox and Bruins. Their St. Patrick’s Day weekend shows in Boston sell out almost every year. Of course, they are having seven shows in Boston this coming March. Blast had a chance to ask Matt Kelly, drummer of the band.

BLAST: You have a huge following in Boston. What’s your favorite place to go when you are there?

MATT KELLY: Well, I like to be in my house (Laughs). But probably I like TC’s Lounge, which is a bar on Haviland Street. I mean, it depends. But you know, I like to go to In Your Ear Records in Harvard Square to dive in and check out some records. It depends on what you are looking for. Are you talking about hanging out?

BLAST: Yes, just your favorite place in general. If you like to be in your house, that’s totally fine!

MK: Yeah, but you know, it’s always nice…[my] wife and I have a nice walk…and grab some subs and sodas at a hot dog stand. And it’s also nice to be around historical stuff because you never do that when you are a grown-up; you never check out historical stuff.

BLAST: Historical stuff?

MK: Yeah, you know. It’s like going to Boston Common and walking around the area or even walking around Charlestown and the USS Constitution. Just stuff like that. It’s pretty cool. Other than that, I go to see hockey, old hardcore shows, various bars, houses and venues like that.

BLAST: So you are pretty much everywhere.

MK: Oh yeah, all over the place.

BLAST: Why did you choose to focus on Landsdowne Street in Boston for your live record?

MK: The actual album was recorded over seven nights at the House of Blues which is on Landsdowne Street. That was the stuff we recorded. You’re in the same place seven nights in a row, so instead of having to break down and reset up in different towns…or venues, the ideal thing is to record in the same place, contrary to fact that we have to move recording equipment with the band, which would be very extremely inconvenient. So yeah, you play in one place for seven days and hopefully you can get some good versions of the songs, which I think we did on the new record.

BLAST: Yes, I think so.

MK: (Laughs) I hope a lot of people agree with us, you know.

BLAST: Do you love to play to Boston crowds? And why?

MK: Oh, of course. It’s where we are from. We have been doing this since 1996 in places like The Rathskeller and other venues. We also played in some weird places like…[the] Theater District…But the funny thing is that when we play St. Patrick’s Day gigs, a lot of people come from out of town or other countries. We met people from Sweden, Finland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, all over the U.S. and Canada. They are coming to our gigs on St. Patrick’s Day. People get to see us far way from home. And we have friends and family who are on the guest list. So we probably have 200 family members and friends backstage at the show, too. We are on tour everywhere, so it’s nice to be…at home once a year for family and friends — everybody. It’s just amazing to have such a loyal following and people who even want to come and fly over here. I have friends coming from England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Belgium. There are actual friends that I know, and then there are people that we don’t know who are coming from somewhere else. It’s amazing. It’s an honor for us to have that kind of loyalty and fan base.

BLAST: What’s your favorite song to perform?

MK: Well, I like to play all of them. But my favorite would be "Wheel of Misfortune" from "The Gang’s All Here" record. It’s kind of a slow sweeping tune. We play it during a gig and it’s a resting. It’s a rest for the crowd. It’s not all fast, energetic or brutal. It’s a slow burner…As far as songwriting, I wrote that song. Besides that, there is actually an opening track of the new album….a song called "Famous For Nothing". We open up with that a lot. It’s just like, *Peew!* It’s very fast and a song about hanging out in a park and getting into trouble. It’s a cool, kind of urban teenage troublemaker track.

BLAST: "A cool urban teenage troublemaker track"?

MK: Yeah, that’s right (laughs). It’s about a grown-up being a little cute. So that’s another good one. I love to play all of the songs. They are the songs that you created and people really wanna hear. It’s really cool. We play all the songs and see the reactions we get back from people.

BLAST: How was it playing with Aerosmith last year?

MK: Yeah, it was very cool. I’ll tell you what, the band, even their crew and their management treated us so well. You’d never think that the band with that popularity or who have played for so long would be so nice to us, a smaller band. They were great to us. Yeah, they don’t need us. They could have been complete jerks to us and it wouldn’t have caused any hammer or backlash but they were so nice to us. They gave us a whole backstage area and a big guest list. My father came and my uncle did too. My uncle saw them in a small bar in the early 70s. It was just amazing for that to have come full circle. They were like, "Yay!" because his nephew’s band was opening up for Aerosmith and this was the great joint at the Tweeter Center or whatever it was called these days. So it was really cool, and again, they treated us like gold. And they put a lot to the show too. I thought it was funny that some of the Aerosmith fans’ faces (laughs), I looked at their faces when we were playing and the Aerosmith fans were like, "What the hell is this?"

BLAST: No way! Really?

MK: Yeah, they were looking at us like, "What is this band? What?" Maybe for people who had never heard of us, "What is this garbage?" you know? So it was pretty funny to see but, I don’t know, excellent. It was a great experience.

BLAST: I believe that ZZ TOP was supposed to be the opening act, but for the Boston show, you guys were the opening act.

MK: I was reading the Internet forums and a lot of people talked about that ZZ TOP wasn’t able to play at the gig. Well, I would like to see them too (laughs) but hey, what can you do? You know. But Aerosmith specifically asked us to do it and we were more than happy to.

BLAST: What inspired your idea to write music for Woody Guthrie’s poem "I’m Shipping Up To Boston"?

MK: We were actually approached by his daughter, Nora Guthrie, because she had his unpublished lyrics. It was so funny because people have been trying to get those lyrics so hard for years and years and years! Bruce Springsteen did but I’m sure hundreds of other people have been trying to get those unpublished lyrics. They wanna get permission to use them, but Nora’s son is a fan of us, so she contacted us. We were like, ‘Are you kidding? Wow, okay!’ So for the song “I’m Shipping Up To Boston" and another song "Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight," those are Woody’s unpublished lyrics. And for "Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight," a title song of the album "Blackout," we thought that was a really cool theme that during the World War II, there was a blackout in London and they really had to shut the windows and turn the lights off so the Germans couldn’t see the cities below where they were trying to bomb.

For "I’m Shipping Up To Boston," there are only four lines in the song so it was like, a lyrical fragment, but at the same time, we were like, ‘Hey, he wrote about Boston. That’s pretty cool.’ So we were just like, ‘Go ahead!’ and asked her, ‘Can we use these lyrics?’ and she was like, ‘Sure!’ Music was already written I think maybe a year before that? It was like, you know, you always have a little diddies you are working on, like little bits and pieces of the song, but then we were like, ‘Hey, those lyrics go to the song pretty well!’ And we did the early version of it, which appears on the compilation. I actually forget the name of the compilation. And we were recording songs for "The Warrior’s Code" album, and later on the song was picked up by Martin Scorsese and the people doing "The Departed". Those two songs are Woody Guthrie’s lyrics and others are ours. We are the punk band inspired by folk music. Of course, Woody Guthrie is a famous folk singer. It was just like, ‘Wow, they’re asking us out. Of course we are glad to look through those kinds of lyrics. How amazing, you know? Again, it was such a huge honor.’

BLAST: How do you connect with your audience in other countries?

MK: Luckily, when we are in the German-speaking countries, our singer Al’s first language is German, so that’s easy. I can just get him to talk and say something in German to the audience. And they always seem to like it. And in most of the countries in the south or maybe Japan, people at least know a little bit of English and sometimes we know a little bit of their languages so it helps to have the greetings in their languages and say hello to the audience. Well, there is sometimes a language barrier, but a lot of places in Europe where we have been playing, English is taught to the students from their early ages so people technically speak enough English. So in the places like that, that’s not a problem.

BLAST: What do you hope to do within the next ten years?

MK: I would like us to play in South America. We have never played in South America or Central America. Really would like to get to Brazil, Argentina, Chile or stuff like that. I would love to get there. And we have been trying to do it several times, but it’s always falling through. That’s a big one for me. And I think some of the guys want to play in Rome. We have never played in Rome. We have played in Italy a few times but never in Rome. We wanna play in places like that or maybe in Florence. And maybe someday we will open up our own studio so we can record other bands and ourselves. Basically we want to get a place where we can practice, record, record other bands, and even have practice spaces for the bands. And maybe we even have a T-shirt press there so we can do our own T-shirts. I personally wanna see more of the world and maybe take some college courses because I never went to anything after high school and I have to educate myself a little bit more.

BLAST: Really?

MK: I’m the one, in the band, not very well-educated, so it would be nice to maybe bump that up a little bit and get some knowledge and wisdom.

BLAST: College seems hard but it should be fun.

MK: Oh, I know. Actually my wife is a lawyer and I know all about it from a second-hand perspective. I’ve seen the struggles and I can understand, but I would like to try it myself.

Dropkick Murphys will be playing at the House of Blues in Boston for March 12-17.

"The Art of the Steal," takes a look at the battle over one of the most impressive and valuable collections of art in the world. Valued between $25-30 billion, The Barnes Collection, currently housed in the Barnes Foundation outside of Philadelphia, has been long fought over.

Despite Albert Barnes’ explicit instructions left in his will detailing his desire to keep the paintings at the Barnes Foundation in Merion Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia, backed by a powerful group of allies including the Pew Charitable Trust, has taken steps to move the collection to a new facility in downtown Philadelphia.

The film takes a detailed look at how a desire for tourism dollars has led to the dismantling of one of the most unique art museums in the world as well as a man’s vision for a unique art experience.

Blast got a chance to sit down with the film’s director, Don Argott. We talked with him about greed, money and the Barnes Collection.

BLAST: When did you first encounter the Barnes Collection?

DON ARGOTT: Lennie Fienberg (the film’s executive producer) approached us with the idea of doing the film. I didn’t know anything about the Barnes Foundation up until that point. Lennie took classes there 20 years ago and he lived in the area. And if you live there, just like in Boston, you hear rumblings about the Gardner Museum; it’s one of those local stories that has been around forever. Lennie had the foresight to figure out this was a really big story and no one was telling it. Then I read John Anderson’s book called Art Held Hostage which recounts the history of the Barnes Foundation and the circus that ensued in the 90′s and kind of ends before the idea was to move it. It’s a great book; people should check it out if they want to learn more about the history of it. The film picks up where John’s book leaves off.

BLAST: Watching the film you see how much the former students value the education they got there. What about the education inspires that loyalty?

DA: It is really intimate, really comprehensive. I never took classes there but I don’t think you have to, to appreciate what that place is. It’s not dissimilar to the Gardner in that it’s this small, anti-art museum experience. That’s really what it is. I can’t for the life of me understand why the city of Philadelphia and the region is so committed to destroying this when they should be doing the exact opposite. Why can’t we have the art museum on the parkway and then have this thoughtful antithesis of the art museum experience at the Barnes Foundation. Why isn’t there room for both?

BLAST: It seems like a completely different experience, particularly comparing it to typical art museums.

DA: The whole thing is a work of art. It is different than an art museum. I don’t want to be anti-art museum, but most people who have gone to art museums know it is a pretty sterile environment. You see the painting with the placard that tells you everything you need to know and then you are on to the next thing. The Barnes challenges all that. You go in there and it is a true art experience. It is not just "The Card Players" hanging with the other Cezanne’s. Everything is arranged in such a unique way. Why they would want to dismantle that just doesn’t make any sense to me. The idea [is] that they can’t make it work, where it is proven in the movie that it was never their intention to make it work.

BLAST: Yeah the building and the arboretum are works of art themselves, like you said, and it doesn’t seem like that is being taken into account.

DA: How could it? You see where they are putting it on the parkway. It’s a swath of land. Even if they put gardens in there it will be the difference between a city garden and a suburban garden where there is actually an expanse of horticulture around you.

Blast: Do people in Philadelphia remember Albert Barnes? That there was an actual guy behind this incredibly valuable collection?


DA: The turning point for us was when we got the footage of Barnes. That was an amazing find for us. It was literally under someone’s bed. No one even knew what was on it until we got the film transferred and we were like "Oh my god, it’s Albert Barnes." He was not a heavily photographed or documented guy, and these are actual home movies that we have. The idea of really seeing him as a living human being is more compelling than most people realize, because for so long Barnes has been a name on a building — The Barnes Foundation. But that name doesn’t mean anything. There is only one photograph — it’s not even a photograph, but a reproduction of a painting — hanging in The Barnes Foundation. For all accounts, the Barnes does nothing to bring him back to life or show that he was this real guy. I think it is easier to discount someone’s wishes when you don’t think much about them. Seeing him as a living human being, it is different. You see he was a real guy. To me, this is his story. It’s not my story or my opinion. I think it is the film that Barnes would have made if he were alive. It is a pretty cool thing to have that responsibility.

BLAST: It is really easy to forget that the names on these collections were actual people and that the works they chose to buy represent them in such a personal way.

DA: That is exactly it. There are supposed to be checks and balances for all these things. Frankly, the Barnes trustees, the people who run the foundation — that’s their responsibility. It is not an outside group’s responsibility to make sure the Barnes is maintained as an amazing cultural institution. It is the people who are running it, and the people in place now have the exact opposite idea of what they should be doing with the art versus what the donor asked them to do. That is their responsibility, to make sure his wishes are kept. And they should be ashamed for what they are doing. There is a way to make it work; they’re just not interested in figuring out how to do that. They have moved on. They are all about turning it into something else now. It’s not about preserving what they should be preserving.

BLAST: And the fact that the value of the collection is completely due to Barnes’ incredible eye for the best artwork.

DA: That was important to illustrate. Oh, I get it, these paintings are worth millions and millions of dollars; that is why this is such a big deal. That is why the idea of moving it has more at stake. You see the other side and what they see. They don’t see a Van Gogh; they see a $10 million painting. That is what it has become. They see the paintings hanging in the Barnes as a series of dollar signs held captive away from the tourism community. It is this untapped resource to them that they can’t keep their hands off. It is almost like they can’t help themselves

BLAST: When you can advertise that you have an art collection worth $30 billion it has to be appealing.

DA: They can advertise that now and still be making all this tourism money because, the last time I checked, there is no Merion International Airport. People are going to come in to Philadelphia and not just see the Barnes Foundation. If they are interested in art they are going to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and to the Rodin Museum. If they want history they will go to the Benjamin Franklin Institute. There are amazing cultural institutions in Philadelphia and that’s not even mentioning the history. You can go see the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall. There is a ton to do. The idea that it all has to be in a 20-block radius because you don’t want to inconvenience the tourists by going out five miles into the suburbs and experience something unique is so ignorant. It’s disgusting.

BLAST: Before Richard Glanton took over as President, was there this big push for people to get more access?

DA: I think, to Richard’s credit, or discredit — whichever way you want to look at it — it was his idea was to put this thing on the map. He said as much and he did. He put it on the map in a pretty big way. The problem is the way that he put it on the map didn’t have this farsightedness of all the ramifications that would cause. I think, again, any part of this story, if cooler heads had gotten together and said “How can we figure this out? Where is the middle road?” things could have been different. But that never happened. From that point forward it became about something entirely different. Like everything else in our culture, we start arguing about the things that are not important and not about the things that are. So we are talking about this issue and this issue when we should be talking about how we can make this work without playing the blame game. We need to shift the argument back to what it is really about.

Even now with the film out, the people at The Barnes Foundation and Pew Charitable Trust who have commented are trying to discredit us as filmmakers because of our stance. They are doing everything but telling anybody what is false in the movie. But they will keep it up, hoping by beating the drum about how the film is filled with baseless facts, it will stick without them having to back up what they are saying. It’s all about not having the real discussion. I think that’s what is cool about the movie, because it asks more questions than it answers, and that is a good starting point. As long as the dialogue is talking about things that are really important.

BLAST: And you gave Bernard Watson (President of the Barnes Foundation) and Rebecca Remmel (President and CEO of Pew) the chance to counter the other arguments. That they declined speaks volumes, I think.

DA: You have to ask yourself, “Why wouldn’t they want to talk?” When you pull up Pew’s FAQ page about the Barnes Foundation, the last question is about why they didn’t participate in the film. And their answer was that we were going to be a biased film and they didn’t want to take part. They have gone on to say, because they have so much integrity for the truth and facts, they didn’t feel like it would be worthwhile. But isn’t that statement the whole reason they should set the record straight? It would be like no Democrat wanting to go on Fox News because they know they have a contrary position. That is a sure-fire way to make sure we never get anywhere — by not talking to the other side.

We didn’t have an agenda going into it. We would have still asked the hard questions; we still would have showed what we showed, but maybe there would have been a more compelling answer that would have challenged the viewer to consider their side. Instead, they chose not to. I feel like they are acting like they chose not to participate because they knew we were this nefarious [group] that was trying to discredit them. The truth, is they didn’t think anything of us. They didn’t think they needed to answer to us because they didn’t think we were anything. It wasn’t until we premiered at the Toronto Film Festival that their ears perked up and they were like, "Oh shit." And then we got distribution and it was even worse. Now they are up against the wall and they are trying to save face.

BLAST: Was there a challenge for access throughout?

DA: Only when we tried to get in touch with Barnes and Pew and we just got flat out rejections. We contacted the Barnes so many times throughout this. We almost begged them to be apart of it. I obviously wanted to shoot inside the gallery; that’s why I really wanted their participation…early on, but then throughout I kept telling them that people were saying some pretty nasty things, you should defend yourself. They said we don’t even want to talk about the opposition because if we acknowledge there is an opposition then we are playing right into the idea that this is a worthwhile dialogue to have and we don’t think it is. The courts permitted us to move forward, so we are. Then I told them to come onscreen and say that. That would be more effective than putting a graphic up that said they denied comment.

BLAST: It is so ironic that the people who are supposed to be representing Albert Barnes won’t come on and talk about Albert Barnes.

DA: Thanks for picking up on that.

BLAST: The Barnes Foundation is supposed to represent his vision and Watson wont even come on to talk about it.

DA: Now the film is representing his vision and the foundation that is supposed to be, is doing the exact opposite and that is the grand irony of the whole thing.

BLAST: Going back to Richard Glanton — he was such an interesting interview and you have to give him credit for coming on and being so open. I was curious did he express any regrets for the moves he made?

DA: Like you said Richard is an interesting guy and I gave anyone who came on the record and spoke a lot of credit. I gave Governor Rendell a lot of credit. I give them all a lot of credit for coming on and saying, "Yeah, let’s talk about this and let’s have a real discussion about this." Rendell wasn’t trying to hide anything. He told us the facts. It just so happens that the facts support the other side’s claims, the idea there was this plan set in motion a long time ago. I think Glanton had been kind of painted and portrayed as a bad guy in the press for a long time, and for good reason, no question. But we were giving him a forum to speak and he spoke candidly about it and I think the film shows that. Say what you will about Richard Glanton but at least he did kind of bring the Barnes out of the dark ages — once again, depending how you look at it, that [it] was a good or bad thing.

BLAST: Have they explained how the new building will help with the money problems the Barnes Institution has?

DA: We didn’t put it in the film because we couldn’t get a definitive number but the foundation runs at a deficit about $1.5 to 2 million a year. That means they have to make up $2 million in revenue to sustain themselves. It seems like a pretty big extreme to combat that by building a $200-400 million building and then figure out how to sustain that. The problem is all the other cultural institutions in Philadelphia are really strained right now. They aren’t doing well. This isn’t an example of putting a shopping mall in an area desperate for more shopping. People aren’t pouring into these institutions like they used to. The idea of putting something else on the parkway and that it will help seems wrong. I see it as a bigger strain. You are going to have yet another cultural institution that is going to need significant funding to sustain itself. To combat this very small problem, they are making an even bigger one. I haven’t seen the plans for how much the new building is going to cost because I don’t think they even know. First it was $100 million, now it’s $200 million. They haven’t even started pouring concrete in the hole and they are already $100 million off from your first estimate. I’m not an accountant, but that is off by a lot before you are even done. That should be causing a lot of red flags to go up.

And how much is it going to cost to sustain itself? How much revenue do you expect to bring in every year? What happens when the luster wears off and the tourism numbers drop because it isn’t new anymore? What is the plan?

BLAST: I thought it was funny that John Street (former mayor of Philadelphia) said the Barnes would generate revenue to match three Super Bowls "without the beer." Interesting way to put it.

DA: Yeah. We didn’t show it in the film, but later in the press conference a reporter asked him how much it was going to cost and he said "Oh, I know you people, I’ll say a number and then you’ll hold me to it, I don’t know." He doesn’t know how much it will cost but here you are all excited about it. I don’t know anywhere else in the world, except politics, where you can get away with that kind of ignorance and arrogance. I know I cant as a filmmaker. When a producer asks me how much a film is going to cost, I can’t say, "Lets just get started on it and figure it out as we go." If that isn’t a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is.

BLAST: Another interesting idea that several people expressed in the film was how this isn’t the way Philadelphia should try to establish itself. It’s like they are trying to steal or manufacture culture.

DA: Philadelphia has — probably Boston too — this inferiority complex because we want to be something we are not. Instead of embracing what we are, it’s always about getting better at this or that. No city is going to be New York City. We don’t have to be New York or Washington or Los Angeles. It’s like an identity crisis. But we are already good enough. We have all this history and culture, let’s just be that; let’s promote that.

I shot that sign in front of the Ritz Carlton that says "Philadelphia- America’s Next Great City." What does that mean? Why do we have to be the next great anything? Philadelphia is a great city. I love living there. I have been there for 15 years. I grew up right outside New York, but I chose Philadelphia because of what it is, not what it wanted to be. It’s this idea that we are always falling short. To them this is something that means we won’t fall short now. We are going to have a world-class art institution. But we already do — its called the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That is a world-class art museum. People around the world recognize it as a world-class thing. Why do we need to bring something in to compliment that? We already have that. It’s called the Barnes Foundation and it is five miles outside the city. It’s a 10-minute car ride, 15 in traffic.

BLAST: And a collection that has been in place since 1922 is more impressive than a brand new museum. The Barnes is already a part of the city’s history.


DA: It is beyond counterintuitive.

BLAST: Perhaps the scariest part of the film was how the state allotted $107 million in the budget for the new facility and no can say who put it in. How is there no check or accountability?

DA: It’s terrifying. These budget bills are as thick as novels, and how many more of the little Barnes-type things are in there that we don’t know about? The mayor of Philadelphia announced yesterday that because the city is in such dire financial distress, they are going to start charging $300 a year for trash removal. There is always money for these other things, like the new Barnes building, that don’t benefit us, but they hide behind the idea that they are. They have already used $30 million of taxpayer money for the new building. That is a lot of money. Especially when you are now trying to charge me for my trash removal. That pisses me off. Enough is enough. Can’t we go back to the drawing board? When a family is struggling, they look and say we are going to have to scale back on the entertainment or the going out to dinner and then you figure out how to make it work. But within city government or government in general, there is always all this money and they never look at it because it is untouchable somehow. Instead they see, how can we squeeze more money out of citizens to make it work. Isn’t it time that somebody should look at the numbers and say hey, is there another way here besides charging the residents $300 a year to take out their trash?

BLAST: And you show these public hearings in the film about the Barnes, but in at least this case, it seems that the deals get done long before the process even started.

DA: It’s disingenuous. It’s a dog and pony show.

BLAST: Have you seen the plans for the new building? How does it look?

DA: It’s a big, modern, ugly-looking building. I mean, it looks fine for a new building. But for the Barnes Foundation, it just doesn’t work. I think the architects are stuck between a rock and hard place. The whole idea of the move is so guilt-ridden. The idea that they are going to move but keep it the same is ridiculous. Or that they are going to hang the paintings the way Barnes intended for them to be, but the rooms are going to be bigger. You are already destroying it. Just finish destroying it. The idea that they are trying to do it in the name of Barnes is more insulting and disingenuous than anything else.

Alice Eve is a solid 10 — at least, according to the new comedy "She’s Out of My League."

Eve plays Molly, a blonde-haired, green-eyed knockout who inexplicably falls for quirky, nerdy guy Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel). Despite her best friend Patty’s (Krysten Ritter) doubts, Eve starts to date Kirk and they both find out what happens when a "hard 10" dates a 5.

Beyond introducing the British-born Eve to America, the film marks Jay Baruchel’s first shot as a leading man. Baruchel is a member of Judd Apatow’s never-ending stash of comedic talent that has produced stars like Seth Rogen and Jason Segal.

Blast got a chance to hang out with Alice Eve and co-star Krysten Ritter at Kings Bowling Alley in the Back Bay and talked with the two young stars about playing a a “dream girl,” having potty mouths and the best date advice they ever got.

Video Credit: Brooklynne Kelly Peters

Piper Perabo never appears shy in front of the camera, and the energy and enthusiasm this actress has can’t be prepared for.

The 33-year-old is best known for her role in the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly." Since then she has played several blockbuster characters including Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt’s eldest daughter in "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," Diane Keaton’s sexy, cheeky daughter in "Because I Said So" and Hugh Jackman’s love interest in "The Prestige." Recently, Blast got a chance to sit down with Perabo to talk about the path that led her to acting.

Strangely the actress (or perhaps I should say actor — "I’m not a believer in going like, ‘I’m an actress,’" Perabo said. "I don’t like to gender specify my profession.") didn’t watch many movies or TV shows until recently. Instead she went to ballets and museums or out for walks.

"I spent so much time acting that I just…" Perabo trailed off with a shrug. However, recently she has made a promise to herself to start watching more films.

Perabo always knew she wanted to be an actress. She was directing plays in her family’s living room with kids from the neighborhood when she was only seven years old.

Perabo went to her first audition while she was still attending Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. A former classmate living in New York City had an audition, and Perabo tagged along out of curiosity. The casting director spotted Perabo and informed her they’d be ready for her in 10 minutes. Flustered, Perabo informed the director she was only there to observe the process; but at the director’s insistence, Perabo scurried into the nearest stairwell and prepared for her first film audition. She didn’t get the part.

But the opportunity was not a waste. When the casting director learned Perabo was not represented by anyone, she made some calls and one manager agreed to meet with Perabo.

"I dressed so inappropriately," Perabo said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at her foolish younger self. "I don’t know, I guess I was trying to look cool. Now I know that’s not at important as trying to look professional."
Despite her outfit, Perabo went back to Ohio University for senior year with a manager.

Perabo still has some really good friends from college. Some of her best times were doing dumb, silly things with them, including a memorable night during which a guy friend peed out a window and got his "thing" stuck in the window.

Always creative, Perabo once hosted a party called "Bring a Bottle, Not a Date." Perabo giggled at the memory. "Oh, man! It was awesome."

One of Perabo’s favorite and most useful classes at OU was Outdoor Survival. "I don’t know what possessed me to take it," Perabo said. "I was a senior and needed a credit, and I was like, ‘Huh, that could be exciting.’"

The class involved researching plants, purification of water and learning other survival techniques. For the final, students were left alone outside for 24 hours with only what they could fit in a Band-Aid box.

"It was fucking awesome!" Perabo exclaimed. She said experiences like that have been invaluable to her career. Outdoor Survival taught her to pay attention to details and look at things from a different perspective. Perabo compared the experience to method acting, saying it taught her how to approach characters.

During her senior year, Perabo went on every audition she could get. "I’d borrow money from one friend; get another friend to drive me to Columbus, where I would then take a bus to New York. Seventeen. Hours. One-way," Perabo enunciated, sounding thoroughly exhausted just remembering the journey. The first audition Perabo did on these trips was for "That ‘70s Show."

In 1998, Perabo graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre. Then it was off to New York where she got a job as a cocktail waitress and couch surfed. She got her first movie only a month after moving to New York.

"It was really lucky," Perabo said. "I happened to be in the right place, right time. It doesn’t usually happen like that." It took Perabo eight auditions to get the part. "They kept bringing me back, going ‘Don’t you have any experience? Couldn’t we just see a Skittles commercial or something?’"

Perabo describes the moviemaking process with charming frankness. She lives in a hotel, gets up before the sun and is shuttled to the filming location in a van.

"You go into hair and makeup after you eat your breakfast, standing in the cold with a bunch of truck drivers," Perabo said, chipping away at the glamorous image of Hollywood. "That’s all who’s there — makeup, actors, truck drivers. There’s no champagne and gorgeous guys; it’s just like, ‘Hey! Hang out with those truck drivers and have your sandwich — in the dark.’"

Hair and makeup takes about two hours, Perabo said. So every morning she’s stuck sitting in front of a mirror, looking at herself while people buzz around and poke at her. "It’s interesting to have your ego so ravaged that early in the morning," Perabo joked.

Then it’s rehearsal, more makeup and finally filming starts. After the 16-hour workday ends, Perabo is driven home. So how does Perabo cope with the stress of these long days? Yoga, which can be a source for meditation techniques. Perabo takes her trusty yoga mat with her on every job. She works out when she wakes up, before she goes to sleep and sometimes in between. She also tries to get eight hours of sleep every night.

"When I’m working, I don’t go out," Perabo said. "I’m really not all that fun."

Perabo may not think she’s fun, but she sure is having some. Filming "The Prestige" with Hugh Jackman, she had an opportunity 90 percent of women in America would kill for.

The day they met, during the first scene they filmed, Perabo and Jackman were in bed together. Perabo explained that Jackman came from filming another scene where he put his head underwater.

"So his hair was all wet, and he’s got these suspenders on, and he’s like, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna have my shirt on in this scene.’" Perabo shrugged nonchalantly imitating Jackman. "I was like, ‘Okay.’ So he takes his shirt off." Perabo paused and raised a suggestive brow.

"Because he’s doing reshoots for Wolverine he has the Wolverine body, and his suspenders are hanging down, and we’re trying to figure out what side of the bed we’re going to be on, and I’m like, ‘Are you gonna leave your suspenders on?’" Perabo smiled, already laughing at some joke. "He’s like, ‘Yeah. Yeah. Then you’ll have something, you know, to hold on to.’" Perabo’s mouth dropped open and eyes went wide. "I was like, ‘Oh my god! I can’t breathe!’" she screeched and jumped for a moment, then regained her composure and calmly said, "But of course all I said then was, ‘Okay.’"

Perabo got to work with a hunk; so what about a diva? Perabo politely avoided the question, stating she’s not supposed to talk about that. Our suggestion — Ashton Kutcher? Perabo exploded into boisterous laughter. "Ashton Kutcher is kind of a diva," she chuckled. "You know I don’t even feel bad saying it because he was like a pain in my ass." Perabo and Kutcher played a couple in "Cheaper by the Dozen."

Perabo explained that before Kutcher started dating Demi Moore, Perabo was dating a guy who was about 40. Kutcher would tease her, asking, "What’s with your grandpa boyfriend?"

"And then he started dating Demi who was older than my boyfriend!" Perabo said, thrusting her hands in the air in exasperation. "Hypocrite!"

This spring Perabo fulfilled a childhood dream by starring in her first Broadway play, "Reasons to be Pretty."

"It was incredible. Incredible!" Perabo said. "I loved the play. It was raw and emotional and real fucked up."

The Lyceum Theatre, where Perabo performed, is the oldest continuously-running Broadway house. "Coming out of the stage door every night, walking through Times Square and seeing all the people on the subway felt like such a dream," Perabo said.

Perabo got more than a fulfilled dream on the Broadway stage. She also got her best Hollywood kiss from actor Steven Pasquale ("Rescue Me").

"I don’t know what was going on that night, but he kissed me, and literally I didn’t know the next line; I didn’t know what was going on, and I came off stage and was kinda like ‘Wow,’" Perabo said.

After an exhilarating time on Broadway, Perabo has her hopes set on finding another job in theater, but for now she’s working in television.

Perabo is shooting a new television show called "Covert Affairs" from Producer Doug Liman, who produced the "Bourne" movies and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." In the new one hour USA drama, Perabo plays a CIA agent. When she got the job, Perabo was excited to learn about the CIA world. Perabo visited the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and spent a day with female officers.

"It was crazy." Perabo’s said excitedly. "There was this one lady who was my age, and she was wearing this killer red dress and has this blonde curly hair, and she was like, fit," Perabo said, filled with awe. "She’s like, ‘I have three security detail that travel with me (in Iraq), and they all look native. I look like one of their trick girlfriends and the other two are security; and we look like we’re just there to party." Perabo laughed in disbelief. "It was so awesome!"

This lady in red isn’t the only one who can get Perabo worked up. She is by no means immune from the thrill of seeing a star. Perabo worked with Diane Keaton on "Because I Said So" and was invited to Keaton’s 60th birthday party.

"It was amazing," Perabo said. "I was like, ‘Oh my god. I’m your friend, and I got you a birthday present.’" But what do you get an idol like Diane Keaton?

"Right! She’s so rich, and she’s so awesome and smart," Perabo said, sounding every bit like the admiring fan. Well, the girls who played Keaton’s daughters (Perabo, Lauren Graham and Mandy Moore) decided on a gift together. Perabo explained that Keaton always told them, "Just take it with a grain of salt and don’t be so nervous." Knowing Keaton loves to cook, the trio decided to get her a bunch of different kinds of salt.

"Jack Nicholson got her these beautiful French heels. And I’m like ‘pishaw.’" Perabo waved a dismissive hand. "Whatever. We were just like here’s some salt. You’re awesome."

This delightful, hilarious actress is still living in New York and doing what she has always loved. Check her out in "Covert Affairs" on USA soon. No specific date has been given for the premiere episode yet, but the show is set to start off with a 90-minute pilot, followed by 11 one-hour episodes.

This is one in an occasional series of articles in cooperation with The Good Men Project.

Nick Flynn is a poet and the author of “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City“, a memoir about his relationship with his estranged, alcoholic and homeless father. His latest book, “The Ticking is the Bomb,” is a memoir that interweaves reflections on his childhood, his relationship with his father, his mother’s suicide, the impending birth of his daughter, and his outrage and obsession with the torture depicted in the photos from Abu Ghraib.

Good Men Project co-founder Tom Matlack spoke with Flynn last week about “The Ticking is the Bomb” and about fatherhood. Matlack also invited Flynn to take The Good Men Project’s Manhood Quiz.

TOM MATLACK: One of the things I really love “The Ticking is the Bomb” is the way you write about the way we all get lost. I think many of us men are at a crossroads. You realize this the morning you get up and look in the mirror and don’t recognize who you are.

Nick Flynn: I think it’s hard to tell when you are actually lost. It’s hard to remember that it’s actually a common experience—and maybe just a human experience, and almost a necessary experience—to get lost, and not to assume that one’s life’s going to go in some sort of clear trajectory where everything’s recognizable. I just don’t think that’s realistic.

But it also can be very dark and very troubling. Some people don’t get out of it either. For some people that’s the end of the road. I’ve had a few of these experiences in my life. It’s the nature of life. There’s some element of suffering in life. It comes to all of us. And it’s almost impossible to know how to navigate it until you’re in it.

It does feel a lot like the things I did in Boy Scouts. They drop you in the woods, and you have to survive for the weekend, with a knife and a match and a tarp or something.   There’s a reason that the Boy Scouts do that. It’s a metaphor for what’s going to happen at other points in your life—how are you going to figure your way out of this thing? And hopefully you figure out somewhat healthy ways out of these things. The thing that led you into there might not have been that healthy. Or it might just have been necessary. It could just be circumstantial. Certainly life blindsides you.

TM: You write about the impact of realizing that you were going to be a father. How do you view fatherhood as potentially transformational?

NF: It wasn’t that I suddenly realized I was going to be a father. It was a choice. It was actually a very active choice. But the choice was something that had to be navigated. I had to step up to make that choice. The pregnancy was no surprise. And yet even within this sort of conscious decision, there was a lot of uncertainty. There was a lot of wondering if I was actually up for this moment, that I would be able to show up for it, that I’d be able to be a father. That was really abstract.

My wife (actress Lili Taylor) didn’t put any pressure on me any way. She was very clear. She was like, "This is what I want to do, this is the time for me to do it, and I’d like to do it with you. If you’re not ready to do, we’ll move on." And it became very clear that it was really my choice. It was remarkably clear and simple that whatever I have to struggle with is what I have to struggle with. And it was not about making her happy or saving her. It was really very clear that she would prefer that we did it together.

I realized I hadn’t really approached our relationship in that way before. It always felt like there was some sort of burden of responsibility on me to take care of women or to save them, that there could be some crisis if I wasn’t there, some very serious consequences. And this didn’t seem that way at all. It seemed clear that I just had to wrestle with whatever was inside me and it gave it room to be dragged out into the open.

TM: So in terms of your impending fatherhood and your relationship with your own father and then your awareness of torture, how did all of that get stirred up in your mind?

NF: The book started as a meditation on the Abu Ghraib photographs. I sort of had done all the research and written a draft of a book. But I sensed that I hadn’t quite followed it deep enough. Since this isn’t journalism, it’s not just about what happened; it’s really about why this thing that happened is affecting me. That’s what a memoir is: an individual’s interpretation of events, rather than just what happened.

When I started looking into why these images snagged so deeply in my subconscious, I followed those threads back, and they led back to stuff I had touched on in the first memoir—my father’s time in prison, my mother’s suicide—but they went more deeply into them. In my father’s case, he had been tortured in federal prison; he’d been experimented on. And he would tell this story quite often. He was sleep-deprived, had been put in isolation and sexually humiliated. And as I was writing the book, I started realizing that these were the things that also were talked about at Abu Ghraib.

One of the books I read was by the historian Alfred McCoy. It details the CIA’s involvement in developing the torture techniques we saw at Abu Ghraib. They had a 50-year program to develop those techniques. McCoy talks about how the federal prisons had been the site of early experimentation of these torture techniques. And some of those prisons were prisons that my father was in. So his stories suddenly took on this other resonance.

TM: If it’s OK with you, I’d like to ask you 10 questions that we call the Manhood Quiz. The first question is who taught you about manhood?

NF: It would be a series of my mother’s boyfriends when I was growing up. There were about 10 different boyfriends, and each sort of taught me a little piece of it. So it’s very much a mosaic of 10 different guys—and I actually feel fondly about nearly all of them.  They all have contributed some piece to the puzzle.

TM: The second question is how has romantic love shaped you as a man?

NF: I think that whole idea of romantic love was probably almost too strong an influence early on—getting caught up in the lyrics of pop songs or something and trying to figure out what that meant. I think that can separate one from having actual genuine interactions. And that also brought some sort of a competition with other men over women, which seems very unhealthy in retrospect.

TM: What two words would you use to describe your dad?

NF: Vodka and charm.

TM: How are you most unlike your father?

NF: Well, he’s pure id. And he doesn’t have any sort of container for that. I’m probably the exact same. I’m no different from him. It’s just that I’ve figured out how to keep it in a container a little bit more.

TM: From which of your mistakes did you learn the most?

NF: I think attempting to maintain more than one relationship at a time. The energy it takes is really not worth it. And the energy and the attention it takes away from any one relationship.

TM: This is a two-part question. What word would the women in your life use to describe you, and do you believe it’s accurate?

NF: I’m always reluctant to put words in anyone else’s mouth, but it’s something I really do often ask, like what people feel about how they’ve been portrayed in my book.

TM: How about your wife? What does your wife say about you?

NF: Oh, she’s very supportive. I get good feedback from her. We’re doing well. So whatever the word would be—I hate to give her a word—but it’d be on the positive end of the spectrum.

TM: My wife’s word is narcissistic, and it’s accurate.

NF: There are darker moments when I feel like I’m not quite living up to my potential, but for the most part I do take in what she says, so I’ll say it’s accurate.

TM: What dad in your life do you really admire for his parenting skills?

NF: For years before I became a father I would try to spend as much time as I could with my friends who were parents and their kids. And I was really impressed. They all sort of managed to do it, and do it gracefully. I felt like there was something about this generation, that they had learned something from the previous generation about showing up and being really present as fathers. And it also made me imagine that I could maybe do it. And it felt like it was really just about showing up and being present for it. I don’t mean to disparage my father in any sense, but those were things that he was not able to do.

TM: I have three kids. My experience is that showing up is 90 percent of the battle.

NF: So far that’s working. That simple formula seems to be working.

TM: How old is your daughter now?

NF: She’s 2.

TM: The next question is have you been more successful in public or in your private life?

NF: I feel comfortable with both at the moment. I have a book out right now, so suddenly I’m in public life, or back into public life. That’s the thing about a book: You’re in the public life for a little bit, and then you sort of go away for a little while—several years in my case—and then you come out again, hopefully. It went well. The public thing went well this time, so I feel comfortable with both.

TM: When was the last time you cried?

NF: I can weep pretty easily. I can get tears in my eyes from a beautiful work of art. I get pretty emotional around the time of my mother’s death, so I probably cried around then, just a month or so ago. (Flynn’s mother committed suicide when he was 22; he’s now 49.)

TM: In December, right?

NF: Yeah, so there was a cry around that.

TM: How long has it been since your mom passed away?

NF: It’s a long time—over 20 years.

TM: The next question is what advice would you give teenage boys who are trying to figure out what it means to be a good man?

NF: There’s this sort of male energy that we have that can seem very destructive. But it doesn’t have to be. It actually can be a very positive force. A lot of the ways the male energy’s channeled in the society is in very negative ways: the violence or pornography, there’s all sorts of sexism, and there are all sorts of ways that energy is manipulated. But it’s actually a very beautiful thing, and to honor it for what it is and to try to use it in some positive way is the best we can do.

TM: And last but not least, what’s your most cherished guy ritual?

NF: Well, it’s really about the baby right now. In the last two years I’ve seen basically every sunrise, which has been sort of amazing. At a certain point you’re not sure how many more sunrises you’re going to see. And then I’ve seen every one since she’s been born. We get up together, and we have this sort of meditation thing in the morning for two or three hours—until her mom gets up—where we’re just together, just in this really quiet time that I really cherish.