Latest news with #PolarMusicPrize
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BCB After Dark: Might the Cubs need a Snake?
It's another Monday evening here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and join us. We're so glad to see you. There are still a few tables available. The show will start soon. Bring your own beverage. BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon. Advertisement The Cubs were off today. They're currently tied with the Mets for the best record in the National League. Last week I asked you about a proposed Cubs trade for Pirates ace Paul Skenes. The majority of 58 percent of you wouldn't do the deal that would cost the Cubs Matt Shaw, Cade Horton, Kevin Alcántara and Juan Tomas. I suppose that it's good that you wouldn't do the deal because I'm fairly confident the Pirates wouldn't do it either. Thus the problem with trading Skenes anywhere, at least at the moment. Here's the part with the music and the movies. You can skip that if you want. You won't hurt my feelings. Tonight we have a performance from the Polar Music Prize ceremony from last week. Herbie Hancock was one of the honorees and bassist Esperanza Spalding was there in Stockholm to honor him. There are a few performances to choose from, but I thought tonight we'd feature Spalding and Leo Genovese performing Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' in honor of Hancock's tribute to Mitchell album from 2007: River: The Joni Letters. Spalding and Genovese even sneak in a few notes from Hancock's 'Maiden Voyage' in this performance. Shockproof, the 1949 noir directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight, is one of those movies that starts out so promising then fizzles into an incoherent mess. Even Sirk's direction, which is normally so obsessed with small details, seems to give up somewhere in the second half of the movie. The stars, Wilde and Knight, have little chemistry, which is ironic since the two were married to each other at the time they made the movie. (Although it may explain why they were divorced two years later.) The biggest reason to watch Shockproof is for students who want to trace the development of Sirk and the film's co-writer Samuel Fuller, who are starting to develop themes they would employ more successfully over the next decade. Advertisement Wilde stars as Griff Marat, a straight-arrow parole office who is assigned Jenny Marsh (Knight), who just got out of prison after serving five years for murder. Griff warns Jenny to stay straight and to stay away from Harry Wesson (John Baragrey), her mobster boyfriend whom she committed to murder for. Spoilers, I guess. Griff decides that Jenny needs to understand the simple pleasures of an honest life and introduces her to his family, including his blind mother (Esther Minciotti). Meanwhile, Harry has tracked Jenny down and makes plans for the two of them to run off together. Jenny apparently has some sort of loyalty to Harry because he waited for her while she was in prison. Although it seems like Harry was the reason that Jenny went to the big house in the first place, but they wisely leave the details mysterious. Of course, it's clear to everyone that Griff has fallen in love with Jenny and Jenny begins to feel the same for him. But Harry decides that Griff's infatuation with Jenny is an opportunity. Griff has political ambitions and even in the forties, parole officers really aren't supposed to be dating the parolees. So Harry tells Jenny to lead Griff on, seeing the opportunity for blackmail later. Advertisement This is the most interesting part of the film, where Jenny is torn between her affections for her straight-arrow parole office and her glamorous mobster boyfriend. This could be straight out of the luscious technicolor melodramas that Sirk would direct in the fifties. It's a simple love triangle. But this is also where the film goes off the rails. Jenny finally makes her decision to stick with Griff and dump Harry. But Harry won't go quietly and calls Griff in an attempt to blackmail him. But before Harry can get far into the call, Jenny apparently shoots him dead. Griff then loses it at this point, knowing that committing another killing is at least life in prison for Jenny and maybe the chair. So he decides that the two of them are going to go on the lam in a wild attempt to get to Mexico. Jenny thinks she should turn herself in, but Griff won't hear of it. They become celebrity fugitives on the front pages of the newspapers and on magazine covers. Griff starts stealing food and cars to keep one step ahead of the police. Oh, and it turns out that Harry isn't dead, just badly wounded. Still, Jenny shooting him would be enough to send her back to prison for life on the parole violation alone. End spoilers. The interesting twist here is that while Jenny is the femme fatale that drives Griff into a life of crime, she's an unwilling femme fatale. Rather than being manipulative like a normal femme fatale, Jenny is the one that is constantly being manipulated. In fact, she very much wants to turn herself in and for Griff to go back to being a parole officer, but Griff has gone nuts over her and throws himself into the life of crime, using the knowledge he's learned as a parole officer to keep the authorities from catching them. Advertisement The problem is that there seems to be very little reason for Griff to get this nutty for Jenny. I mean, she's beautiful and all, but she is also a convicted murderer out on parole. She doesn't seem to be the type of woman to throw your life away on—especially since she is specifically asking Griff not to and she was lying to him about not seeing Harry. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't too impressed with the chemistry between Wilde and Knight, even if they were married to each other in real life. Fuller and Sirk wanted to do this 'good guy goes bad' story, but I think they needed to do a better job of setting up the fatal seeds within Griff and giving him more reasons to fall in love with Jenny other than she's gorgeous. To be fair to Fuller, he had written a much better and more fitting ending, but screenwriter Helen Deutsch, at the direction of Columbia Pictures, had to tack on a rather nonsensical Hollywood ending on what could have been a dark classic. So don't necessarily blame the soon-to-be-great Fuller for the mess the second half of this film becomes. The unused ending might have just saved the film, because the first part of the film, with the love triangle, is pretty strong and if it had a punchier ending, we might have been able to forgive Griff's sudden and inexplicable descent into madness. I don't have a trailer for Shockproof, but heck, here's the entire movie. I assume the film is in the public domain because there are like half a dozen copies of the entire thing on YouTube. Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies. Advertisement It's no secret that the Cubs' biggest need at the moment is starting pitching. With Justin Steele out for the season and Shōta Imanaga still probably three weeks away from returning, the starting pitching is thin. It's pretty fortunate that the bullpen, something we once thought of as the team's biggest weakness back in April, has turned out to be one of the best in baseball in May. (The Athletic sub. req.) But if another starting pitcher goes down, well, there's not another Cade Horton to call on in Iowa. The Cubs rotation would be hurting bad if that happened. So picking up a starter should be team president Jed Hoyer's top priority at the trade deadline. Today, Jesse Rogers claimed that the Diamondbacks could be sellers at the deadline. The Diamondbacks have fallen on hard times since early April when they played the Cubs tough. They're three games below .500, eight games back of the Dodgers in the division and five games out of a Wild Card. Ace Corbin Burnes is out with an elbow injury and the team is holding their breath as to the upcoming results of an MRI. But the Snakes have two more right-handed starting pitchers who will both be free agents at the end up this upcoming season: Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen. Brett Taylor over at Bleacher Nation did a good job of summarizing up both Kelly and Gallen. Kelly is having the better season, although Gallen has the better career track record. Kelly is 36 already, a partial function of him not reaching the majors until he was 30. Kelly doesn't throw hard—his fastball comes in at around 92—but that's where he's always thrown. He's not losing any velocity as he ages. But he is throwing it less—only around 25 percent of the time these days. He throws his 88-mile-per-hour changeup almost as often as he throws the fastball and he works in a cutter, a slider and a curve. Advertisement This season, Kelly has a record of 5-2 with a 3.78 ERA. His underlying xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching) is even better at 3.49. He's still throwing strikes and getting swings and misses at the same rate he always has. Taylor makes a point that Kelly has made nine very good starts and three really bad one, which I think you can read either way. It should be noted that two of those three bad starts have been his last two starts. (The other one was at Yankee Stadium back in early April.) Gallen is the bigger name, of course, having been an All-Star and having finished the season with Cy Young Award votes three times, finishing as high as third in 2023. He also doesn't turn 30 until after the trade deadline, so he's a younger arm if that means anything to you. However, Gallen is having a crappy season. So far, he's 3-7 with a 5.54 ERA. His xFIP is a little better at 4.31, but it's still not good. Gallen's velocity is down a touch this year, but the bigger issue is his control: he's throwing fewer strikes and more balls. That means fewer strikeouts and more walks. He's also giving up more hard contact and he's giving up more fly balls. Still, Gallen is the guy that just two years ago finished third in Cy Young balloting and he wasn't a whole lot worse last year. If you think he's just someone in a funk that will snap out of it, there's a real chance for a bargain here. Advertisement I don't think either Kelly or Gallen would cost an arm and a leg in terms of prospects, since they are both in the last year of their deals. They'd be two-month rentals. (Hopefully three months with a long playoff run.) The Cubs wouldn't get either one for a bag of balls and cash, but they likely wouldn't need to part with a top-5 prospect either. I know that a lot of this is dependent on cost, but assuming the cost for Kelly and Gallen is roughly the same, which one would you rather the Cubs trade for? Do you go with the solid and unexciting older guy in Kelly, or would you rather go with the struggling former ace? (I actually think Gallen would cost more, but that might not be true if he continues to pitch as poorly as he has into July.) I will let you vote 'neither.' However, it's completely possible that these two pitchers are the best two starting pitchers on the market in July, especially if the Marlins decide to hang on to Ryan Weathers (and they certainly might as Weathers is not a free agent until after 2028). Advertisement Thank you for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed yourself. Please get home safely. Tell us if you need us to call a ride for you. Don't forget your card. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us tomorrow evening for more BCB After Dark. More from
Edinburgh Live
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Queen's Brian May leaves fans in tears with 'heartfelt' family update
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Queen legend Brian May has shared a touching throwback on Instagram, delighting fans with a heartfelt map his father Harold May created during the band's first European tour in 1974. The rock icon, aged 77 and married to EastEnders and Doctor Who star Anita Dobson, posted: "My Dad's supportive handiwork for our first Queen tour of Europe... 1974! ! ! As honoured in Stockholm last night. Love to all - Bri." The nostalgic post, which commemorates the Queen II tour that saw the band play ten gigs across six countries in just over two weeks, has sparked an outpouring of love from followers. READ MORE - David Tennant's wife reacts to Billie Piper's Doctor Who 'bombshell' READ MORE - Prince William 'grieved' after losing brother Harry in 'secret summit' decision Fans flocked to the comments section to share their admiration, with one fan writing: "Oh what a heartfelt map full of love for you, Sir!". Another added their voice, saying: "Wow! ! What a treasure! ! Can't you just picture him sitting there, drawing, coloring, marking the routes, all the time thinking proudly, 'That's MY boy!'", reports Plymouth Live. A third shared a personal memory: "I saw and crying, I didn't expect than I'm a small girl at 1994 in Russia, my Papa brought me a CD The Works and told 'See, this is a good Music' then a couldn't explain my life without Queen music." An admirer also commented on the detail in the map: "What beautiful attention to detail your father gave to these maps and what a lovely tribute you gave to him last night. Inspiring word." This heartwarming revelation comes hot on the heels of the news that Brian and fellow Queen member Roger Taylor were celebrated with the 2025 Polar Music Prize at a grand ceremony in Sweden on Tuesday (May 27). The musicians were lauded for their impressive careers and impact on music, and accepting the award, Brian May told the audience: "In this special moment, I contemplate how that younger Brian May in 1974 would have felt if he knew that we would be living this kind of dream 50 years in the future." Reflecting on Queen's origins, Roger Taylor said: "When we started our band... we had ambitions, but never dreamed of the journey that was to follow. We were fortunate in the fact that our four wildly different personalities came together to achieve a wonderful chemistry." And, speaking about the uniqueness of the Polar Music Prize, Brian continued: "The Polar Music Prize is exceptional in the fact that, unlike other awards, it recognises the entirety of an artist's career. What an honour to be included in the glittering cavalcade of previous laureates." The evening celebration featured live performances honouring Queen and other recipients, including rock group Ghost who covered Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with Opeth's Fredrik Akesson on guitar. Adam Lambert, Queen's contemporary frontman, then captivated the crowd with renditions of classic hits Who Wants to Live Forever and Another One Bites the Dust.
Leader Live
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Roger Taylor and Brian May ‘so proud' as they pick up Queen's Polar Music Prize
The King of Sweden presented the award to rock band Queen, US jazz musician Herbie Hancock and Canadian conductor Barbara Hannigan during a gala ceremony held in Stockholm on Tuesday. Founded by Abba publisher, lyricist and manager Stig 'Stikkan' Anderson, the gong celebrates the power and importance of music, and is awarded to individuals, groups or institutions for excellence in the world of music. On receiving the award, Taylor, 75, said: 'When we started our band… we had ambitions, but never dreamed of the journey that was to follow. 'We were fortunate in the fact that our four wildly different personalities came together to achieve a wonderful chemistry. 'The Polar Music Prize is exceptional in the fact that unlike other awards it recognises the entirety of an artiste's career. 'What an honour to be included in the glittering cavalcade of previous laureates. True Olympian company indeed. We are so proud to be the recipients of this incredibly prestigious award.' Sir Brian, 77, added: 'In this special moment, I contemplate how that younger Brian May in 1974 would have felt if he knew that we would be living this kind of dream 50 years in the future.' Hannigan, 54, said she was 'deeply thankful for all the collaborations which have nurtured me', adding: 'I am humbled to be among these Laureates of 'musical royalty', and to share the honours tonight with the legends who are Herbie Hancock and Queen.' Hancock, 85, said: 'What an incredible honour to be with you here tonight, to receive the prestigious Polar Music Prize. I'm deeply humbled. 'I accept this award not just for myself, but on behalf of all the musicians, and dreamers who dare to believe that creativity and human connection can change the world. 'I truly believe that music and the arts can illuminate the path towards a more peaceful and compassionate world, and it is vital that we, the artists, give back and share our knowledge and experiences with the younger generations, our leaders of tomorrow.' This year's ceremony took place at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, presented by mezzo-soprano and journalist, Boel Adler. The evening featured live music from artists including and rock band Ghost, who performed a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody with Opeth guitarist Fredrik Akesson, and Queen frontman Adam Lambert who performed the hits Who Wants To Live Forever and Another One Bites The Dust. Guitarist Sir Brian, drummer Taylor, late frontman Freddie Mercury and bassist John Deacon scored numerous number ones during Queen's heyday, as the band became one of the best live touring acts in the world. They were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame by Nirvana's Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins in 2001 and had all four members inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2003. Mercury died aged just 45 in 1991. Previous winners of the Polar Music Prize have included Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Stooges singer Iggy Pop. The Polar Music Prize is awarded by an independent, 11-member board who select the winners from nominations from the public and the International Music Council.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Queen's Brian May, Roger Taylor awarded 2025 Polar Music Prize
Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen have been awarded the 2025 Polar Music Prize by Sweden's King Carl Gustaf. Attending the gala at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, the rockers were recognised for the entirety of their career. Speaking on stage, May shared, "In this special moment, I contemplate how that younger Brian May in 1974 would have felt if he knew that we would be living this kind of dream 50 years in the future." Taylor added, "When we started our band, we had ambitions, but never dreamed of the journey that was to follow. "We were fortunate in the fact that our four wildly different personalities came together to achieve a wonderful chemistry." Known as the Nobel Prize of Music, the Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, best known as the manager of the Swedish band ABBA. It is annually given to one popular musician and one classical musician. Previous winners of the contemporary award include Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dizzy Gillespie and Björk. It is awarded for "significant achievements in music and/or musical activity, or for achievements which are found to be of great potential importance for music or musical activity, and it shall be referable to all fields within or closely connected with music".
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Here's What Happened at the Royal Swedish Ceremony That Honored Queen's Brian May & Roger Taylor and Herbie Hancock
Legendary rockers Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, master jazz artist Herbie Hancock and conductor/soprano and contemporary classical musician Barbara Hannigan received their Polar Music Prize awards from the hands of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in the Vinterträdgården room of Stockholm's elegant Grand Hôtel on Tuesday (May 27). The 500-plus-person audience, made up of Swedish royalty, music industry players (artists, songwriters, publishers, execs and more) and friends and family of the laureates, rose to its feet many times during the six-hour event, as each of the laureates delivered heartfelt speeches. Hannigan thanked her mentors with a special mention for her (five minutes older) twin brother Brian; Hancock spoke of his father's support for his musical career even though he wanted his son to be an engineer; and May also talked about his late father Harold, who helped him build his original Red Special electric guitar (also known as the 'Old Lady'), which May owns to this day. More from Billboard Looking Back on 30 Years of Sweden's Polar Music Prize Morgan Wallen's 'I'm the Problem' & 'What I Want' With Tate McRae Launch Atop Billboard's Country Charts Post Malone Brings Out NBA Legend Allen Iverson for 'White Iverson' Performance in Philadelphia The event began with a royal ceremony, in the presence of not just the King but several members of Sweden's Royal Family, followed by a multi-course banquet. The laureates were serenaded during both halves of the Polar Music Prive evening by a number of Swedish and international musicians playing music written by or performed by the three musical icons during their careers. Jazz vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding and pianist/producer Robert Glasper got an ovation for their rendition of the Hancock composition 'Trust Me,' and returned to the stage to perform Hancock's seminal 'Watermelon Man.' Spalding then teamed with Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese for a stunning performance of Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now,' in honor of Hancock's 2007 album River: The Joni Letters. That tribute album to Mitchell won the Grammy for album of the year in 2008. The audience did not wait for that performance to end to give it a standing ovation. Similar ovations showed the attendees' love for Adam Lambert's versions of Queen's 'Who Wants to Live Forever' at the ceremony and 'Another One Bites the Dust' at the banquet, as May and Taylor looked on approvingly. The biggest ovation of the night went to Sweden's Ghost, who recently topped the Billboard 200 with their album Skeletá. Frontman Tobias Forge donned a golden mask and was accompanied by Swedish heavy metal guitarist Fredrik Åkesson and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, singing a cappella from a balcony high above the banquet tables, for a tour-de-force on 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' As the evening was coming to a close, Marie Ledin, managing director of the Polar Music Prize and daughter of the award's founder, ABBA manager Stig 'Stikkan' Anderson, received an overwhelming response from the banquet guests as she thanked her father as well as her mother Gudrun, the Royal Family, the laureates and the entire assembled audience. Ledin spoke about each of the laureates in turn: 'Let me begin with Queen – this much-loved band are truly rock royalty! As a big fan myself, I've been lucky enough to have seen them in concert several times here in Stockholm. They taught me that music can be bold, dramatic, fascinating and fun. 'Herbie Hancock is a true musical pioneer and one of the most influential musicians of our time. He has taught us that music can challenge us intellectually even as it enriches our soul. Herbie has deservedly earned the admiration of musicians across all genres. 'Barbara Hannigan is a visionary soprano and conductor, and a passionate advocate for contemporary music. With her avant-garde experimentation, she proves that classical music does not have to live in the past, but is a living, breathing art form in itself.' The 2025 laureates were also honored by the presence of three previous laureates, Max Martin (2016), Anne-Sophie Mutter (2019) and Nile Rodgers (2024). One more special guest was Anita Dobson, who was in attendance with her husband Brian May. Dobson is having an especially great week, as she has guest starred on every episode of the current season of the BBC's Doctor Who and will play a large part in the season finale on Saturday (May 31), though she wouldn't reveal any details about the conclusion of her story arc to Billboard (as she shouldn't). The Polar Music Prize was first awarded in 1992, to Paul McCartney and the Baltic States, newly independent from the former Soviet Union. Since then, the prestige of the prize has only grown, with awards going to artists from all over the world. A partial list includes Elton John, Ravi Shankar, Metallica, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Renée Fleming, Grandmaster Flash, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Isaac Stern, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Sonny Rollins, Diane Warren, Gilberto Gil, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, Yo-Yo Ma, Miriam Makeba, Björk, Wayne Shorter, Patti Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Chris Blackwell, Iggy Pop, Angélique Kidjo, the Kronos Quartet, Youssou N'Dour and Chuck Berry. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
