I was on the phone with my friend writer/photographer Jay Jorgensen when he told me the news: Ernest Borgnine had passed away. Jay is a huge "The Poseidon Adventure" fan along with many of his friends....who Ernest did many kind things for in the City of Angels.
Here is the official report: Ernest Borgnine, the beefy screen star known for blustery, often villainous roles, but who won the best-actor Oscar for playing against type as a lovesick butcher in "Marty" in 1955, died Sunday. He was 95.
My personal memories or Ernest? "Escape From New York" where he played "Cabbie" - one of the best low budget, not to mention John Carpenter movies ever. Oh, and "Deadly Blessing" with Sharon Stone (yes, I am a SS fan, big time) where he played a crazy Amish Dude.
Of course "Poseidon" and let's not forget this gem....
Pentatonix, the season 3 winners of the NBC a cappella singing competition series, "The Sing Off", have released their debut EP, “PTX Volume 1”. Described by Rollingstone.com to be “impossibly full sound,” the five-member band, named for the world’s most widely recognized five-note musical scale, is comprised of lead vocalists Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying and Kirstie Maldonado with vocal bass by Avi Kaplan and beatboxer Kevin Olusola, each who arrange all their own music using only their vocals as instruments.
Well let's beat box it with and get down in the PTX with Scott Hoying and Avi Kaplan, word!
MS: You guys are amazing! What inspired you to use your voices as instruments?
PTX: We were all in choir and we all love vocal music, it's organic, it comes from yourself, it's such an amazing feeling to perform it for other people. Kevin loves all types of music he came up with the beat boxing and it worked out perfectly.
MS: Most people never think to use their voices for anything other than singing.
PTX: Yeah, totally.
MS: I really love your guys mash-up of Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me" and Katy Perry's "Wide Awake".
PTX: We all listened to both songs and thought about which parts we really loved out of each song. Then we just put it together, and made sure all of the words worked with the melody. We really liked the feel of the Justin Bieber song so we kept the words, and we loved the chorus for the Katy Perry song, it was a very organic process.
MS: It's Amazing that you guys all found each other.
PTX: Yeah, it is really crazy that we all did find each other, it was obviously meant to be.
MS: When it happens organically it is meant, there's no way in your wildest dreams...
PTX: It's so crazy.
MS: You guys were on "The Sing Off" and that's where you met, I am assuming that was a good springboard for you.
PTX: Just to have millions of people watching you every week, the thing that was great about the show is it really was real, it represented you in the way you really are.
Give me a P, give me a T and an X - get yourself some "PTX Volume 1"
Shara Strand is your new “American Idol”….well OK, she isn’t and good thing too. How many winners of that show went onto the success Shara will?! Two…Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
Ms. Strand armed with a great voice and a desire to tell stories is going to better the pop world - with her literally titled single “Jekyll or Hyde” and her more ambiguously titled EP, “Born Tonight” Shara has something to say musically and personally.
Hey Shara, I know you are waiting, let me hand you the microphone!
MS: The thing that is interesting to me is you say you look up to Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand & Whitney Houston, personally I think your vocal quality is more Karen Carpenter.
SS: Ohhhhhhh, that’s kind of cool! You know when someone says something like that, right out of left field for me, I would never think about that, but I love Karen Carpenter.
MS: Your vocals are pure and uncluttered, very direct, much like hers.
SS: I’m more about telling a story than I am about vocal gymnastics.
MS: Let’s talk about your EP “Born Tonight” - you said it has been a long time coming and now you feel born in a metaphorical way.
SS: Where did you read that? I did say that. (laughs)
MS: It was in your press release. (laughs)
SS: Oh, OK (laughs) I had a list of titles for the EP - it’s a great EP and it finally came together within the last year. I was listening to the Rosanne Cash song: “Seven Year Ache” she says in the song “You act like you were just born tonight,” I thought it was interesting as there are all these good connotations to it, you are constantly reinventing yourself everyday. There is always an opportunity to learn more lessons and grow.
MS: When you have been working for a long time to bring something to fruition I can see how you would feel like you “birthed your baby” so to speak.
SS: Totally! When it was released I really felt like it was my baby.
Oscar nominated for John Huston's "Fat City" Susan Tyrrell should have won...that being stated the cult actress who was never a household name, career was best described by her Mother to the LA Weekly where Susan recounted her statement:
“The last thing my mother said to me was, ‘SuSu, your life is a celebration of everything that is cheap and tawdry,’” the actress recalled to writer Paul Cullum, who penned a 2000 profile of Tyrrell for the LA Weekly. “I’ve always liked that, and I’ve always tried to live up to it.”
And live up to it she did! With roles in John Water's "Crybaby" as Johnny Depp's Mother and my personal favorite as "Queen Doris of the Sixth Dimension/Ruth Henderson" in Oingo Boingo's "Forbidden Zone".
SuSu was one of a kind. Oh, and "yes" I did have a personal encounter with this unique and passionate human being. SuSu was friends with Brian Grillo lead singer of the late great homo hardcore Los Angeles based punk/rock band, "Extra Fancy".
One night my friend Brittney and myself strutted out to a now defunct club, "Temple" in Silverlake, CA to see our "Fancy" guys when what to our wandering eyes did appear standing next to us..."yeppers" Ms. Susan Tyrrell!
We were both bouncing around and loving on the music, when out of the blue, SuSu grabbed me by the collar and said, quite sincerely I might add: "I'm going to chain you down puppy" !
Susan was a lover of life and that will always be my memory of her, hey SuSu, I know you are somewhere amazing ..!
Southern California has become a hotbed of talented thrash metal acts in recent years, however only one band has the chops to stand out above all others. Only one band has successfully taken the risks necessary to rise above the rest. From Pomona, CA, that band is “Bonded By Blood“.
Here to crack that thrash metal whip is “Bonded By Blood” bassist, Jessie Sanchez!
MS: Growing up did you like metal music a lot?
JS: Yeah, I grew up listening to a lot of punk and thrash metal. A lot of industrial music, I used to be really big into industrial.
MS: Oh really? I really like industrial too, what are some of the bands you are into?
JS: I’m a product of the MTV Generation, I like “Ministry” and “Rammstein” a lot. “Marilyn Manson” was probably what actually was my introduction to industrial.
MS: Musically I like a lot of “Marilyn Manson” but I can’t stand them live. They toured with “Hole” one time was the reason I even saw them.
JS: Oh really?
MS: Courtney Love would just stand on stage with her guitar and be magnetic, and Marilyn Manson did all these theatrics and I was bored out of my mind. It’s funny when I saw you on stage you were great, you are so kick back normally, but on stage!
JS: It’s like an on and off switch. (laughs)
MS: Yeah, it’s called performing, the way you whipped your hair around I kept thinking about that awful Willow Smith song about “whipping your hair back and forth”. (laughs)
JS: (laughs) Well it’s part of the work uniform that’s for sure!
MS: You guys are a good balance on stage. Talk about the “thrash metal revival”.
JS: The first album was a lot more “thrash” then the albums started to get more technical. And now with “Aftermath” which is our third album we are starting to sound more mature. The album coming out is pretty much the debut of the re-vamp of the band, it’s my first time on a “Bonded By Blood” record.
MS: Congrats!
JS: Thanks. The writing process was a different one this time around than the band was used to. It was a lot more laid back, this time, we were really honest with each other if we did not like something. We jammed out riffs and tossed ideas back and forth until we came up with something that we were all satisfied with. I don’t think the group has had that kind of honesty before, people weren’t as comfortable as far as communicating with each other. With the new line-up changes everyone is more comfortable, as we are all approachable people, and not afraid to be honest with each other. As a result of this we have a new record that there is nothing on I would go back and change. I think the whole band is satisfied.
It’s a Cho, Cho World - with season four of “Drop Dead Diva” already in full swing & her upcoming comedy tour “Mother” not to mention her too cool for school guest spot as Kim Jong Il on “30 Rock” Margaret Cho is in your face B!tches!
She even caught the attention of the Fred Phelps comedy troupe known as The Westboro Baptist Church, who called her a “Lying Pervert” uh, ok, we Cho fans already knew that, duh!
MS: Hi “Lying Pervert“.
MC: It’s true, when I read that I was kind of like, well, yes! I think that’s fine.
MS: The Westboro Baptist Church is so over the top, I find the the sh!t they say oddly funny.
MC: It’s really kind of flattering. Once they had a big picture of Elizabeth Taylor with the words “Fag Hag” underneath it. I thought it was just so flattering, some sort of signage for people who support gay rights, it’s really kind of amazing.
MS: BTW I watched the season four premiere of “Drop Dead Diva” you look like you are having a blast on that show!
MC: Yes, I have a really good time and I really love the cast. They are all really talented actors and we have really amazing guest stars all the time, which is a lot of fun. My favorite this year have been, Patty Duke…and I didn’t even get to meet Kim Kardashian, but I guess she is coming back soon, so hopefully I will get to see her. We’re always having all sorts of fun people drop in. It’s a great place to be for shooting “Drop Dead Diva“, Atlanta, GA, people are here everyday. Kathy Griffin just came through this past weekend and that was a lot of fun. It’s a cool place to be and being part of cast for four years and playing a character for four years is really great.
MS: The chemistry between the actors on the show rocks. I did watch the season four premiere before we spoke, Kim Kardashian wasn’t bad actually.
MC: She was good.
MS: Let's talk about your upcoming tour “Mother”.
Photo: Austin Young
MC: I have to put my tour schedule together for six months out of the year, because the other six months I am working on “Drop Dead Diva”. Every once in a while I’ll be able to get out and do a gig, but that’s pretty rare, finally I’m actually getting to go back out on the road. People have talked about my “Mother” impression all throughout my career, I wanted to do a show that was just, full on about her (laughs). It’s also about how I have become a “Mother” for the Queer community, I became a maternal figure within that context. This show is about my Mom, dedicated to Mom’s and about a Mom, which would be me I guess. (laughs)
MS: Do you ever want kids for real?
MC: No, no, I mean it is a possibility, it’s important to think, that even if I am not an actual “Mother” I still have to be there for Queer/LGBT young kids. You have to be there as an adult figure within the Queer community. We all have to do that it’s an important thing. In my generation I lost a lot of people that I looked up to in the Queer community. People that are “Generation X’ers” have to have much more of a parental influence to bridge that gap.
MS: There are plenty of people that I do that with. Since we were on the subject of Mom’s I had never really asked you if you wanted to become one, so I had to go there.
MC: You sort of become one by default, in the sense that when you age and get older you just become a kind of a “Mother” even if you don’t literally have child, you have one, we all do.
MS: I caught your guest stint on “30 Rock” as North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il, you played a guy, but it really worked.
MC: Oh yeah, it was insane because I looked just like him. When I went outside, I was standing there in the bald cap and the wig…I got cruised by this hot older Bear. He thought I was a hot young Asian Bear, I’m like: “ I just got “Bear Cruised” - but I could not follow through on it exactly because I am sure he did not know I was a woman. (laughs)
MS: Yeah, I did not recognize it was you right off.
MC: It’s so crazy how much I look like him, it’s really scary.
MS: Tina Fey said it was one of her proudest moments on the show, having you on as Kim Jong Il, how cool is that?
MC: I really love her and am so proud to have been on the show and have played that character, I am actually North Korean. To be from there and to be isolated from my family because of this dictator, and to be able to make fun of him is a great thing, but it is also pretty sad too, it’s a weird situation.
MS: When he died what were your thoughts?
MC: I was hoping there would be some sort of a change, that it would be time for that country to open up, but that hasn’t happened obviously it has gotten a bit worse. There is less contact, less communication and less scrutiny.
MS: How’s your music going?
MC: I will be doing some music on “Drop Dead Diva” this year.
MS: Very cool!
MC: Also I am so excited to go out on tour as well!
MS: Out of everything you do is touring your favorite?
MC: Touring is and will always be my favorite job! I really love stand-up.
Margaret Cho is not a “Lying Pervert” keep up with her at: www.margaretcho.com
