Guitar Superstar Competition
Great American Music Hall
September 13, 2008
Better Than: Playing stupid guitar video games.
Download: Video of Vicki Genfan in action.
Words and Photos by Tyler Callister
Hundreds of music fans and shred-heads squeezed into the Great American Music Hall last night for Guitar Player magazine's fourth annual Guitar Superstar Competition. It was an American Idol-style search for lovers of those six little strings. In the judges corner were a host of modern guitar masters: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, George Lynch (Dokken and Lynch Mob), Elliot Easton (The Cars), and Brendan Small (co-creator of Adult Swim's "Metalocalypse" series). Master of ceremonies for the evening was Andy Summers of The Police.
Our blogger had some technical trouble at Toronto, but insists on keeping you in the loop though the festival's now long gone. Read Day 1 of Meredith Brody's Toronto International Film Fest dispatches here if you've yet to. And here's her Day 2 report. Day 3 will follow shortly.
Faubourg 36Friday, September 5, 2008
Recap by Meredith Brody
Even though I arrived in Toronto having already seen more than 20 of its movies, thanks to Telluride and other screenings, I already feel behind, which is endemic in this setting. Yesterday was a pretty crummy viewing day, all in all, more notable for re-connecting with old friends than the movies. But I dive in again, undaunted.
Today I start, self-indulgently, with a piece of pure kitsch, Faubourg 36, a French movie set in a Paris music hall during WWII by a director, Christophe Barratier, whose previous movie, Les Choristes, I skipped because it seemed like the kind of kitsch I don’t like. Faubourg 36 proves to be, indeed, the kind of kitsch I do like: sentimental, vivid, well-acted (if over the top), in beautiful sets – a fantasy Paris constructed, as it turns out, outside Prague. I enjoy the musical numbers, which are all originals designed to sound like period songs. It’s not a movie that anyone is going to be talking about during Toronto, but I’m happy while I’m watching it.
