Filed under: UCF Sports — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:10
The UCF Knights (3-2; 1-0 C-USA) defeated the Thundering Herd of Marshall (2-4; 1-1 C-USA) during an absolute torrential downpour at Bright House Networks Stadium (BHNS) on the beautiful UCF campus on Saturday night. UCF struck early and landed the first touchdown of the game during the first drive of the game. The Knights would also capitalize on a safety in the 2nd quarter and then drive for a second touchdown on the next drive. Marshall’s only points came from a UCF fumble on Marshall’s 10-yard line late in the 3rd quarter that was returned for a touchdown. The Herd then went for a two-point conversion but were unsuccessful. Over a 24-hour period, over 7 inches of rain soaked the field at BHNS and the rain ranged from a steady downfall to a pelting throughout the contest. With the win, UCF moves up to first place in C-USA East and continues to defend its 2010 Championship. The Knights’ next matchup is one that will prove daunting. UCF travels on Saturday to Dallas, TX to take on the SMU Mustangs, who had a bye-week Saturday. SMU (4-1; 2-0 C-USA) knocked-off the then #20 TCU Horn Frogs (at TCU) last Saturday in a game that went into overtime and resulted in some bad blood between the two teams. The game will be broadcast nationwide on Fox Sports Network. Kickoff is set for 3:30pm. The Knights need to secure a win against SMU to propel themselves further up C-USA East to fend off the Southern Miss Eagles (5-1; 1-1 C-USA), who are proving to be a dominant team in the East.
Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 00:37
The Phantom of the Opera turned 25 years old today and an amazing spectacle of the classic show was staged at London’s Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the occasion. Phantom Live was beamed via satellite to movie theaters across the United States and other parts of the world on Sunday. The show began at 2pm ET (8pm London time) and was attended by celebrities and numerous actors, producers, and other key players of the musicals’ success, including composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh. This production was incredible! The ensemble cast was more than double the size of the standard Phantom production, which gave numbers like “Masquerade” and even “Prima donna” an amazing power that was seen in the motion picture version of the film but is impossible to replicate on the stage.
In addition to the large cast, a 200-piece orchestra provided the lush background score for the musical, sending chills up and down my spine countless times during the show. The Phantom score has some incredible woodwind and string accompaniment that sets the darkness of the show and also adds to the music’s rich beauty. With an orchestra of such an enormous size, all of this was amplified amazingly well in this production, yet still not quite to the richness found in the movie version of the musical. The sets and staging were much different here as well. While the sets of the traditional stage are ever-changing and punctuated by special effects and pyrotechnics, much of this was accomplished by large digital projections which spanned the entire stage from left-to-right and above the orchestra, that was placed above the action on the stage. A scaffolding bridge also served to execute certain numbers (eg. the first journey Christine takes with the Phantom down to his liar).
The digital projections worked most of the time and even added to the show’s elements, with a projection of the phantom engaged in the background of various scenes. For example, this is seen when the Opera Populaire’s managers read the Phantom’s notes signaling the need to replace Carolotta with Christine Daae in the opera’s production of Il Muto. Simultaneously, in the superior projection, an image of the Phantom writing the notes is seen along with a scrolling of their words. The only issue with the digital projections came with a few of the closeup shots, where the screens could be seen in the background and appeared slightly pixilated.
The actors in this 25th Anniversary spectacular were phenomenal! They were by far the best cast I have ever seen perform in these roles; and I’ve seen this show presented on Broadway, in Las Vegas, and on countless national tours. Of course, the strongest of the cast were the leads. The Phantom was played by Ramin Karimloo, who not only provided his breathtakingly gorgeous voice for the Phantom, but gave what can only be described as a tour de force performance! I have never seen an actor play that role more perfectly. Christine Daae was played by Sarah Boggess, who gave a spine-tingling performance and made the theater erupt with applause many times during the show, which is quite an accomplishment given I was watching it in a movie theater!
“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” was probably the highlight of the show; and the audience in the Royal Albert Hall applauded for a solid two minutes at the song’s reprisal. Both of these actors are Phantom veterans who were most recently seen in these roles in Webber’s Phantom sequel Love Never Dies in the West End. The supporting players were also great. My only criticism is for Hadley Fraser, who played the role of Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny. While Fraser has a great powerful voice, the role of Raoul has a sense of sweetness and tenderness that seemed to be lacking.
The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall was simply put, beautiful. Anyone who is a fan of the show should see this staging during its encore showings in theaters nationwide. If you’re unable to make it, the show will be released on DVD in November. But, even the most window-shattering home theater systems will not do this production justice. It really should be enjoyed on the big screen in the theater. For a list of showtimes and dates (there are only a few) to see the show at a theater near you, click the link below: http://www.fathomevents.com/performingarts/series/phantomoftheopera.aspx. Below is a trailer for the show:
Filed under: UCF Sports — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:03
The UCF Knights (2-2; 0-0 C-USA) suffered another game of mishaps last Friday night in their 24-17 loss at BYU (2-2; IND) with two turnovers sealing their fate in Provo, Utah. With the loss, UCF is ready to fix their mistakes and are doing so this week in a bye week. The Knights need to focus on improving their punt return average and also need to work on special teams, who have had 2 costly miffed punts that have resulted in touchdowns over their last two contests. Starting quarterback Jeff Godfrey has also struggled somewhat, holding on to the ball a little too long resulting in sacks. Fumbles have also been an issue for the offense. The Knights are moving into Conference USA play for the remainder of the season, starting with their Homecoming game next Saturday against the Thundering Herd of Marshall (1-3; 1-0 C-USA) at 7pm at Bright House Networks Stadium. The Knights have a lot of potential remaining in their season. Last year at this same point, UCF was 2-2 and eventually went on to be an undefeated ranked-team that defeated Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. The UCF College of Nursing has an entire day-long event planned for Homecoming, including a breakfast beginning at 8:30am in the University Towers, attendance at the Homecoming parade, and the College’s Tailgate Party, which begins at 3pm in the Softball Lot.
Filed under: Popular Music — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 00:47
Pop superstar duo Erasure are nearing the release of their first studio album in over 4 years. Tomorrow’s World releases next Tuesday from Mute Records on iTunes and retail outlets nationwide. Below, take a look at a very good short-film about the creation and recording of the new album, featuring snippets from new songs on the album and their collaboration with producer Frankmusik:
Filed under: UCF Sports — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:45
The UCF Knights (2-1; 0-0 C-USA) were handed a shocking defeat Saturday night against the FIU Panthers (3-0; 0-0 Sun Belt) at a sold-out FIU Stadium in Miami. Both programs were coming off of huge wins. UCF obliterated Boston College (1-2; 0-0 ACC) 30-3 last week at home while FIU knocked-off Louisville (2-1; 0-0 Big East) at Papa John’s Stadium in Kentucky. With that win, the Knights knew they would have a tough battle ahead of them. But in the end, they doomed themselves with two very costly turnovers and the inability to stop FIU’s potent blitzing defensive scheme. Quarterback Jeff Godfrey was rattled the entire game. While he hadn’t been sacked all season, the Panthers somehow managed to sack him 7 times during the game. The 5,000+ Knights fans who made the trek down to South Florida for the game were left perplexed at how UCF made so many costly mistakes and hope the effect will not be felt this week amid rabid conference expansion talks.
UCF has worked long and hard to bring their program into serious consideration for a BCS AQ bid. To perhaps make matters worse, the Knights won’t get much of a break. The team travels into Provo, Utah on Friday to take on the Cougars of BYU (2-1), who are coming off a crushing loss to Utah 54-10. The Knights are hoping to make some major improvements to prevent the same errors that occurred Saturday against FIU from recurring. The UCF vs. BYU football game will be nationally televised on ESPN. Kickoff is set for 8:00pm. Photo: UCF QB Jeff Godfrey fumbles late in the second quarter, giving FIU an instantaneous touchdown return. Courtesy Orlando Sentinel.
Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 18:16
While the Melbourne production of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to his beloved musical The Phantom of the Opera is making its move to Sidney to resume its run, the final performances in Melbourne were filmed for an international DVD and Blu-Ray release in February of 2012. Take a look at some behind the scenes footage with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber himself by accessing the link below. Reports indicate Webber supervised the entire filming of the production, which is sure to be incredible intimate for sure:
Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 17:56
It looks like U2’s Bono and The Edge, the two main composers of the smash Broadway hit Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark currently playing at the Foxwoods Theater in NYC have been hard at work producing a music video for a version of the show’s most memorable number “Rise Above.” The video will feature leading man Reeve Carney, who just extended his stint as Peter Parker/Spider Man, through May of 2012. Take a look at the video below:
Filed under: Popular Music — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 02:24
Below is some exclusive footage (courtesy of ERASURE Information Service) showing ERASURE rehearsing their new single “When I Start to (Break it All Down)” for their Tomorrow’s World Tour. The tour stopped at the House of Blues Orlando two weeks ago. The pop duo gave an incredible performance (see review below) to a sold-out raucous audience which included this song. Tomorrow’s World releases October 3rd from Mute Records.
A video that will get your blood pumping and heart beating surfaced today from Kiev. A handful of teenagers scaled the Moscow Bridge without harnesses and videotaped the entire adventure. Watching this video made me almost as short of breath as the filmmaker and amateur climber, who is heard breathing heavily throughout. It is over 12 minutes long; but once you start to watch it, you won’t be able to stop. Take a look:
Filed under: UCF Sports — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 02:15
Defeat is never an easy pill to swallow. But when that defeat is absolutely stifling, the pill leaves behind an even more bitter taste! That’s exactly what the UCF Knights (2-0; 0-0 C-USA) football team delivered to the Eagles of Boston College (0-2; 0-0 ACC) in-front of 46,000 fans that filled a sold-out Bright House Networks Stadium Saturday night on the beautiful UCF campus. The Knights and Eagles played a very close game for most of the first 3 quarters. But that all took a dramatic change when the Knights’ defense forced two turnovers and paralyzed any type of offensive effort from BC. The UCF defense put up some major roadblocks for BC, allowing them to put up only 141 total yards of offense and just 3 points!
The final score of 30-3 reflects the gasoline the Knights’ offense poured on between the end of the 3rd quarter and entire 4th quarter using a running attack that wore down BC’s defensive line quickly. The gorgeous evening of football and fanfare was punctuated by an amazing show of solid support for a Boston College hero–Welles Crowther. Crowther was a BC Alum and former lacrosse player who was killed in the World Trade Center Attacks on 9/11. He was famous for wearing a trademark red bandana, one he eventually used as a mask when he re-entered the South Tower and saved countless people before being killed in the building’s collapse. Thousands of UCF students, fans, and Alumni wore red bandanas to show their love for the BC Alum, who gave his own life so that others could live.
The win was sweet for the Knights in many ways. It marked the first win ever against a BCS-AQ conference team for UCF since moving to their home on the UCF campus. The Knights also picked-up more votes towards a top-25 ranking. A solid win against Florida International (2-0; 0-0 Sun Belt), a team that handily defeated the Louisville Cardinals (1-1; 0-0 Big East) last Friday, should help push the Knights further towards a top-25 spot in the polls. That game will be nationally televised on ESPN3. Kickoff is set for 6pm at FIU Stadium in Miami, Florida.
