Friday, October 08, 2004
Copyright @ Las Vegas Review-Journal

Avril Lavigne to perform at Thomas & Mack Center
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Avril Lavigne sings Nov. 16 at the Thomas & Mack Center. All tickets are $??.??, go on sale at noon Saturday at the box office, East Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street, and at UNLVtickets.com outlets (at Vegas malls and Stations Casinos). Or charge by phone at 739-3267.

Sunday, October 03, 2004
Copyright @ Las Vegas Review-Journal

Achieving Her Comfort Level
Norah Jones finds lightening up the best way to have fun onstage
By DOUG ELFMAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Norah Jones enjoys being thought of as sensual. "Hey, I'll take that. I'll take that, baby."

Norah Jones says she focuses on the melody and rhythm before connecting with the lyrics. "I'm a musician. Every time I hear a song, I hear the music first."

One song shot Norah Jones to sudden fame in 2002. "Don't Know Why" was a huge hit, partly because it had the sultry feel of a standard ballad. And yet, her record label wanted to release the song first as a dance club remix.

Jones says the song was doing pretty well on public radio before any other radio stations picked it up. But label executives got excited about "Don't Know Why" and hired Virgin Radio workers to speed it up and make it more like an electronic song. Jones put her foot down.

"So they did a really crappy remix of `Don't Know Why,' and I was just horrified, so bad," Jones, 25, says. "They wanted to get it on the radio and sell more records. It wasn't for musical reasons at all."

Jones -- who sings Monday and Tuesday at the Hard Rock Hotel -- ended up with more hit songs that critics and fans found to be pleasingly languid and sultry. In fact, Jones came to be known for singing such seductive lines as, "I waited 'til I saw the sun, I don't know why I didn't come," and "come away with me in the night."

Jones gets a kick out of the fact that someone could view her first two hits as dirty -- "No!" she says and laughs -- or at the very least as sexually loaded.

"But you know what the stupid thing is -- I didn't even write those songs. Those are mostly Jessie's songs," she says and laughs again, referring to songwriter Jesse Harris.

Still, she likes being thought of as sensual.

"Hey, I'll take that. I'll take that, baby," she says.

That doesn't mean she walks around thinking that she's sensual, though.

"No, but I have to say, you know the song, `Turn Me On'? We started doing that in the encore lately (in concert). When I get to the line, `Turn me on,' they go `Wahoo!' They start screaming, and the guys go, `Yeah, baby!' So I've been milking it a little more than I did before."

Ever since releasing "Don't Know Why" and "Come Away With Me," Jones has become more aware of the sexual connotations of her work, she says.

"I do think about lyrics a lot more now, because of that. Everybody talks about how melancholy and romantic my albums are. I know the sound of them is. But I never thought about the lyrics thing that way, because," she says, "I haven't ever placed that much emphasis on the lyrics."

"Lyrics are really hard for me."

What's this? Norah Jones, the vocalist, isn't obsessed with her lyrics? No, she says, but don't get the wrong idea. She does have an emotional connection with her lyrics. It's just that she's a melody and rhythm person, foremost.

"I'm a musician. Every time I hear a song, I hear the music first," she says. "The first time you hear a song, what makes you want to hear it again -- it's the music. It's the sound of it. Of course, maybe there's some lyrics you can connect with and relate to. But usually, I never connect to the lyrics until the second or third or fourth (time)."

Jones has even found herself surprised, once she started scrutinizing her favorite music.

"There are some songs I listened to in high school that I've been digging out and listening to and saying, `God, that's what he meant?' I didn't understand that in high school. I knew the words by heart, but I didn't ever think about them."

Jones has been playing piano for years, and she can play sparingly on guitar. But mostly, she thinks through a song before she commits it to an instrument. For instance, she came up with the melody for "The Prettiest Thing" on an airplane, and then her friends helped her with the lyrics later.

"Most of the songs I've been able to hear in my head, and then I go to the guitar or whatever instrument's just lying around."

For her breakthrough debut songs, she didn't have a piano in the home in New York she had just moved into. So she wrote them on guitar.

"At the time, I only had guitar. I didn't have a piano in my first apartment until I was there a few months," she says. "So I wrote the songs in my head, and I tried to pick it out on guitar."

She's not even a good guitarist. But, she says, "if you know three chords, you can write a song."

Then again, she is a classically trained pianist, to begin with, so she did have a pretty deep music knowledge.

"Because I'm so limited on the instrument, I have to concentrate on the melody, because I'm playing really dumbed down chords, and I don't play rhythm guitar very well. So it's really all about the melody and the lyrics."

She has tried playing simple triads on piano. But it hasn't worked out, yet.

"I find playing really simple chords -- when you're trying to come up with a song -- on piano sounds really elementary school. Where on guitar, it's easier to sound just strummy."

Either way, she has sold millions of albums and garnered much press praise. She used to read what journalists wrote about her, but not so much anymore. Reading about what others think of her music could change how she writes or performs, and she doesn't want that to happen.

"It's not healthy," she says. "Can you imagine reading about yourself all the time? Plus, if it's good, then nice. But if it's bad, you get so inside your own head about it and bummed out. So it's better not to. I don't want to know; that's my rule."

She really had to drive this point home with her family, she says.

"My mom kept, like, sending me links (to stories on the Internet), and I was, like, `Stop sending me this crap!' I don't want to see it. I live my life, I am me. I don't want to read about me, whether it's true or not."

Jones also feels more comfortable onstage, these days. She doesn't get down on herself is she messes up a lyric, she says.

"I used to get so bent out of shape about little things, and I'd get so nervous and awkward, and the littlest thing could turn my show into hell for me, just inside my own head," she says. "But now it's fun, just because I'm having fun. Thank God! It's about time."

Friday, September 17, 2004
Copyright @ Las Vegas Review-Journal

Opening this Week
FACING WINDOWS

Shades of "Rear Window" appear in this World War II-era drama, which swept Italy's Oscars, about two beautiful strangers -- an unhappily married 29-year-old mother of two (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and a bachelor bank manager ("Under the Tuscan Sun's" Raoul Bova) -- who secretly, obsessively study each other through opposite windows. Ferzan Ozpetek ("His Secret Love," "Steam") writes and directs. In Italian with English subtitles. At the Suncoast. (106 min.) R; profanity, sexual situations.

September 03, 2004
Copyright @ Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Year of Usher
From the biggest album of 2004 to a new debit card, the singer is having a banner year
By DOUG ELFMAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Usher -- who was named best male artist at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards -- has a prepaid debit card to "empower" minorities.

Usher is the biggest music star of the year. His sixth album, "Confessions," has sold 5 million copies, more than any other album in 2004. And he's released three big summer hits, "Confessions, Pt. 2," "Burn" and "Yeah!," featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris.

Usher Raymond IV says he has succeeded so far by working diligently and keeping his ear to the ground musically, while incorporating influences from the past.

"I listen to Marvin Gaye. I listen to Michael (Jackson). I listen to the Isley Brothers. I listen to Prince. I listen to the Wynans," he says. "I listen to so many people who have been a great inspiration to me creating my sound. James Brown, even, man. Jackie Wilson. All of them."
.......................................

Advisory Board: Governor Kenny Guinn, Chairman; U. S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign, Vice Chairmen; U. S. Representatives James Gibbons and Shelley Berkley, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Executive Directors.
U. S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
Chairperson
Dr. Tony T. Lei
President
District Judges Mark Denton and Valorie Vega
Vice Presidents
Dr. William N. Thompson
Director of Public Administration Institution
Dr. E. Lee Bernick and Dr. G. Keong Leong
Deans of Graduate School of Business and Public Administration
Dr. Sue Fawn Chung
Director of Culture Institution
Justice of the Supreme Court William Maupin, Attorney General Brian Sandoval, and District Judge Stewart Bell, Honorary Chairmen of Clark County District Attorney and Police Civil Commission (CCDAPCC)
District Attorney David Roger and Clark County Sheriff Bill Young
Chairmen of CCDAPCC
(702) 255-9058
*It's our pleasure to pay a tribute to the above officials who dedicate to the civic and community service spects of our organization in an honorary or adjunct capacity.

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Dr. Stephen Tong's USA/Canada Gospel Rally in Las Vegas
By Tiffany Chang

Rev. Stephen Tong led a team to have his "Dr. Stephen Tong USA/Canada Gospel Rally" in Las vegas on June 21, 2004. He had his speeches for the public and welcomed by Chinese people on Monday and Tuesday. Rev. Tong will continue his final speech on "Wisdom of Life" today at the convention room of China Town. Before came to Las Vega, he had completed his Gospel Rally in Toronto, Canada and Atlanta, U. S. A. on 6/11-13 and 6/18-20, respectively. He will also have the Gospel Rally in New York, Vancouver, and Los Angeles on 6/25-27, 7/2-4, 9/20-22, respectively.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong is an evangelist and a theology lecturer. He is also the founder of the Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministeies International(STEMI) and the Reformed Institute of Christianity and the 21th Century. At the age of 17, Rev. Tong gave of himself to the Lord to serve Him in evangelism. To date, his ministry has lasted more than four decades, and he continues to travel widely, preaching for the sake of the name of the Lord, His Word and His church. By the power of the Lord, he has been fighting the good fight, battling with the fallen reason and corrupted souls of men, all in the hope to bring them back to Jesus Christ. Despite his age, his perseverance and tenacity are reasons why we often give thanks to God for him.*1

The following is the first song chosen by Rev. Tong for his Gospel Rally. It is entitled "We're Marching to Zion":

1. Come, we that love the Lord, and Let our joys be known; join in a song with sweet accord, joint in a song with sweet accord and thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.

2. Let those refuse to sing, who never knew our Gog; but children of the heav'nly King, but children of the heav'nly King may speak their joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad.

3. Then let our songs abound, and very tear be dry; we're marching thru Immanuel's ground, we're marching thru Immanuel's ground to fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high.

We're marching to
Zion,beautiful,beautiful,Zion; we're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.*2

The Music Director of this Gospel Rally is Jahia Ling. He is a very famous music director with performances and grand prizes from many countries all around the world. His name in Chinese is Lin Wong Hja (by Chinese pronounciation). "I'd experience to invite him to peformance on our Gospel Rally at U. S. $20. 000.00 for just one night," said Rev. Tong in his speech on June 21, 2004 in Las Vegas. Jahia is now the Music Director of Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, U. S. A.

Dr. Stephen Tong wrote the book entitled "Wisdom of Life" in Chinese on March 1984.*3 Glory to the God that we are pleased to post the following good words about wisdom from the "Bible":

If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding , and if you look for its as silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you willunderstand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. ---Proverbs 2:3-6

The fear of the Lord-- that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding. ---Job 28:28*4

Jesus said, "Everyone who bears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."
---Matthew 7:24-25*5

God bless you! Please join Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong of his Gospel Rally at 6:30 p. m. this evening at the convention room on the second floor in China Town of Las Vegas.

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References

*1. Tong, Stephen. his "A brochure of Dr. Stephen Tong USA/Canada Gospel Rally," (June 21-23, 2004), Las Vegas, Nevada: STEMI.
*2. Ibid.
*3. Tong, Stephen. (1999) "Wisdom of Life," First Edition on March 1984, 10th printing on April 1999, Taipei, Taiwan: Campus Evangelical Fellowship.
*4. New International Version (2000)
"WISDOM,' "God's Words of Life for Dads," Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation.
*5. Ibid.

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LIVING -- Sunday, June 20, 2004

***Click image for enlargement.
Illustration by Anton. (Please check it with LVRJ.)

FATHER'S DAY: King of the Grill

Today, as Americans celebrate both Father's Day and the official arrival of summer, the odds are good that the valley will be peppered with plumes of smoke rising from backyard barbecues.*1

It's safe to say, most of these burning pits o' charcoal or gas-spewing barbecue jets will be manned, as it were, by men.

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Reference

*1. LVRJ. 'FATHER'S DAY: King of the Grill,'
"reviewjournal.com of LVRJ," (June 20, 2004), Las Vegas, Nevada: Communitylink of reviewjournal.com.