Picks of the week - October 21, 2011
1. It seems like it was only yesterday that Death Cab for Cutie was wearing sloppy T-shirts and playing to 100 equally sloppy people at the Starfi sh Room. Now the Pacifi c Northwest band is headlining Rogers Arena Oct. 21, frontman Ben Gibbard is married to actress Zooey Deschanel and the band looks like proprietors of a hip new Prohibition-inspired bar/deli/butchershop/ haberdashery in Gastown. Who knew? The always rockin' Hold Steady opens. Tickets at Red Cat, Zulu Records and all Ticketmaster locations.
2. Vancouver Opera kicks off its new season by easing up on the opera and going Broadway with its production of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. The high-energy show, which premiered on Broadway in 1957 and was adapted for fi lm in 1961, transplants the tale of Romeo and Juliet to 1950s New York City, where the Sharks and the Jets are rival gangs who, conveniently enough, are also great singers and dancers. It all goes down Oct. 22 to 29 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. For tickets, call 604-683-0222 or go to vancouveropera.ca.
Hollywood turning self-proclaimed hillbilly into global brand
-->Hollywood's glow is helping turn the Rev. Sam Childers from a self-proclaimed Pennsylvania hillbilly into a global brand. It's also shining the glare of international scrutiny on his once-obscure Somerset County charity.
The new movie "Machine Gun Preacher" portrays Childers, 49, of Central City as killing paramilitary terrorists with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to rescue children in an African war zone.
His group, operating under several names, including Angels of East Africa, runs orphanages and schools. With help from Hollywood backers, it's raising money and expanding programs like never before.
But the attention brought new criticism. Neighbors claim his flagship orphanage in South Sudan is neglecting children, leaving them hungry and crammed into small rooms. Portrayals of Childers' violent tactics in the movie and his autobiography ignited uproar among advocates and aid workers over whether he might cause more harm than good.
"Anybody that's getting any type of notoriety, this is just something that comes with it," Childers told the Tribune-Review on Friday by phone from Sudan. "Look at Jesus Christ himself. What was he called? He was known to be a rebel. So I don't see why we feel we deserve any better than he got.
