NMM: Phillip Phillips

Courtesy: UkuTabs.com

This week's look at new music features Phillip Phillips, the winner of American Idol season 11.

Since being crowned the champ, Phillips has already gained much fame. His debut single, "Home," peaked at No. 9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and it was recently certified double platinum by the U.S. RIAA.

Phillips has now released his debut album, entitled The World From The Side Of The Moon, which is expected to do just as well.

True to Phillips' style, the new album features many guitar-driven tunes. One in particular is a great compliment to "Home" called "Gone, Gone, Gone."

With songs like these, expect to hear from Phillip for many years to come.

NMM: Eben Franckewitz

I've decided to feature yet another up and coming star for this week's New Music Monday.

You guys have heard me talk about Eben Franckewitz before on my blog. The teen was a contesant on Season 11 of "American Idol" and ended up making it to the live shows before getting voted off.

Despite that, Franckewitz has continued shaping his career by performing at various shows including Teen Hoot and The Underground Ohio.

In addition, Franckewitz will often upload music videos where he covers popular songs. His latest is a cover of Alex Clare's "Too Close."

Take a look!

SHOUTOUT to Eben for following me on Twitter!

ENG 316: Musical Comes To Durham, Helps Community

Photo: Carolina Theatre

The Tony Award-winning musical, Jersey Boys, is in Durham as a part of its 2nd national tour. And, on their only night off, the cast of the hit show took time to help those in need.

The show runs through Sunday at the Durham Performing Arts Center with nightly performances as well as matinee and evening performances on Saturday and Sunday. 

Throughout its run, the company of Jersey Boys has partnered with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative, Superstorm Sandy relief and the Carolina Theatre's Arts Discovery program to raise money.

This has been done by having the stars of the show stand at the exits with red buckets for people to put a dollar or two in. Various gift items, such as autographed posters and Playbills, have also been available for a small donation.

Photo: Chris White

All of this culminated into a cabaret concert event, called "Rock Like A Man," where cast members peformed songs to fans for $50/ticket.

The cast performed everything from Stevie Wonder to Lady Gaga and wowed the nearly packed out Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre (pictured left).

To date, the BC/EFA program has raised over $195 million through all Broadway, off-Broadway and touring shows and continues to help many people. Even Broadway cast members themselves.

At the concert, Colby Foytick, who plays Tommy DeVito in this production of Jersey Boys, told a heartbreaking story of how he had just lost his mom to liver cancer a few days ago and how BC/EFA helped him.

Foytick said he received an email soon after his mother's death from the director of BC/EFA (whom he had never met) and he was told that the organization was making a $2,500 donation to a local charity in his mother's memory.

This is just a fraction of the great work BC/EFA has done not only for everyday people but for those in the Broadway family as well. Below is a video from Carlos Valdes, who plays bass guitar in the band of a performance of Toto's "Rosanna" at the Rock Like A Man concert Monday night.

Reflection: I have been to see Jersey Boys twice (and will go for a third time on Sunday) while it has been in Durham over the past few weeks. On both occasions, I made a donation and got a signed poster and Playbill.

I also attended the Rock Like A Man concert and really enjoyed it. I am proud to know I supported a great cause and I hope I can continue to do so in the future.

Full Story

NMM: Shaheen Jafargholi

This week's artist is truly a no brainer. I, honestly don't know why it's taken this long to feature Shaheen Jafargholi on the blog. I'll have to talk to the author about that!

Anyway, if you don't know who I'm talking about, maybe this will jog your memory...

It's crazy to think that Jafargholi's incredible audition was three years ago. I still get chills from watching someone that young have an amazing singing voice like that.

The now 15-year-old from Swansea, Wales is steadily climbing the charts. He released a debut album in 2011, called Coming of Age, and has appeared on a few television shows in the U.K. as well.

The very first song on that album, "Last Train Home," is brillant. The writers did a magnificient job with the song and Shaheen delivered a performance as only he can do.

Although the album was released in 2011, this is still new music because it never reached the U.S. Hopefully the album will make its way to the U.S. sometime because I'll be one of the first to buy it.

P.S. Shoutout to Shaheen for following me on Twitter! You're awesome man!

Review: Flight

Photo: Flight / IMDb

What if I said a pilot who saved your life from a doomed airplane was intoxicated and high while he was flying it? 

That's exactly the storyline director, Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Castaway), and writer, John Gatins (Real Steel, Coach Carter), want you to believe in this thrilling drama.

What To Know

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writer: John Gatins

Stars: Denzel Washington, Nadine Velazquez and Carter Cabassa

Rating: R for drug and alcohol abuse, language, sexuality/nudity and an intense action sequence. Parents Guide

Plot: Picture this: you get on a plane for a flight in some stormy conditions. The plane is met with intense turbulence and it suffers a major mechanical malfunction. Your plane is heading straight for a crash landing on earth when your pilot comes up with a ridiculous plan which ends up saving more lives than expected. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!! After the crash, an investigation by the NTSB shows the pilot, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) was heavily intoxicated the night before and during the flight. After a series of lies throughout the investigation, Whip finally breaks down and tells the truth.

He spends time in jail where he sobers up, finds God, and shares his story with fellow inmates.

Family Friendly? Nope. You can answer this question just from the first scene where we see a fully naked woman getting out of bed with Whip after a night of sex, drugs, and alcohol. 

In addition, the film uses numerous profanities and we obviously see uses of alcohol and drugs throughout. I would say this is one of those "guys night out" kind of movies.

Should You See It? Definitely yes! Besides Remember The Titans this is my favorite Denzel Washington film. His performance was top-notch and he really sold himself as a troubled pilot who had reached rock bottom and needed help.

Flight is yet another movie I'm putting on my Oscars watch list.

ENG 316: Time To Talk

This week's filter post for news writing class is going to filter the election and the reaction to the results on Facebook. 

Last night, after President Obama won re-election, I saw mostly positive comments from both sides. Some just disagreed with me on Fox News' reaction to the results and other things like that, although the race was over anyway. But some decided to take it a step further. Some people talked about moving out of the country while some others actually made racist comments.

First, for those who would like to move out of the country, who's stopping you? If you want to fine but good luck finding a better place to live. 

Now, where I take issue is how can someone make racist comments and actually publish them on Facebook? It boggles my mind how anyone would be so disgusting, so incompetent to do such a thing! I'm sick and tired of the racist comments toward President Obama. Would you like it if we called Mitt Romney "whitey?" Didn't think so!

The comment has since been deleted but it's still a problem that someone would initially think to make something like that public on Facebook. Yes, I said public. Just because you have your privacy set to just friends seeing your posts doesn't necessarily mean everyone else can't see it.

One more note: by the end of election night, I had lost two more Facebook friends because they obviously couldn't take the heat I was dishing out. Fine, if you want to take the petty way out then be my guest. But that won't stop me from publishing my thoughts nor will it hurt me personally as you intended to do.

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, we must all shut up and work together for the good of our country.  

Pray for President Obama and all our leaders don't bash them. That just divides our country further.

NMM: Triple Threat

I decided to feature three, count 'em, three artists for this week's New Music Monday.

Hope you enjoy!

The first is a group I really love: The Band Perry. This country group has grown in popularity over the past couple years and will be joining Rascal Flatts on their extended "Changed" tour (which hits Greensboro in February).

The group released a new song, called "Better Dig Two," which is a new style of song for them. It's got a really nice base to it and is different from their previous tunes like "If I Die Young" and "Postcard From Paris." Either way, this song is sure to be a hit.

The next artist is another one of my favorite country artists, Toby Keith. He has released a brand new album entitled Hope On The Rocks and I'm addicted to the title track.

The "Red Solo Cup" crooner shows a more serious side, addressing people who face challenges in life and can only turn to the local bartender to talk to.

The final artist I'm profiling this week is a guy who was awesome enough to follow me on Twitter after I mentioned his EP album, Because Of You on my profile.

Beatty is an up and coming artist but don't let that fool you. His songs are a nice mix of happy, pop tunes and slower, ballad-like songs. All are beautifully written and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

Forgiveness

"Forgive those who have hurt you" - Les Brown

Thanks to an minor incident that happened at church yesterday, I'm having to take this quote to heart. I don't want to get into any details but, let's just say, someone who's a close friend and a member of my church family said something to me that hurt pretty bad. I was shell shocked when they said what they did and I couldn't respond other than leaving. 

Now, if you're in my church family and you're reading this, don't worry. It was nothing hateful or cause for concern on your part. It just took me by surprise coming from this particular person. I've sent them a message on Facebook and hopefully they'll respond. 

Forgiveness is a hard thing to do.

Please pray that this situation will be resolved.

UPDATE: The person responded and apologize. Thanks for the prayers!

Coming up later today is THREE TIMES the music on this week's New Music Monday. Stay tuned!