Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 12, 2005, edition 1 / Page 9
Part of The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
http://www.thecharlottepost.com Wife Cl^arlotte $o£it THURSDAY MAY 12, 2005 D Section PHOTO/WADE NASH Singer Ron Gattis and Kathryn Mahan prepare for his soio performance with Carolina Voices. Gattis con quered drug addiction to revive his singing career that started when he was a teen. A song of sobriety Tenor !s recovery gets a boost from Carolina Voices By Cheris F. Hodges cIiens.liodges@lhecliaTht1epo5t/:oin Singer Ron Gattis has come a long way since his appearance on the “Tbday” show 23 years ago. But the road that took the Philadelphia native fix)m TV to Carolina Voices’ 50th anniversary is littered with drugs, prison and finally redemption.' Gattis, who has classical voice and opera training, was an up and coming lyric tenor when he was discovered by Broadway star Richard KLley Gattis seemed on the verge of success when cocaine abuse took its toll. “I was strung out on coke,” he said. Gattis said he spent 13 months in prison for writing $8,000 worth of bad checks to support his drug habit. ‘While I was in prison, I needed to do something to ele vate my mind, so I started writing and I reached out to my family to start a business with me as the vehicle musically” he said. When Gattis moved to Charlotte last August, he knew he wanted to get back into music. He was the tenor soloist at the Daybreak of Freedom concert in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When Gattis agreed to sing with Carolina Voices, his plans took an imexpected turn. A producer fix)m the “Tbday” called to make arrangements to attend the choir’s Broadway GOLD! Revue with a camera crew to film Gattis. . Wventy-three years ago, he was featured on “Tbday” as a street performer. In 1980s Philadelphia, he would per form with a cassette tape playing in the backgroimd and made pretty good money “Anyone that wants to go into music should be pre pared to work harder than you have in life. I easily work See SONG/2D ‘College Hiir stirs mixed emotions at HBCUs By Cheris F. Hodges diensJiodges®lhecl>arhttepost/:orti BETs “College Hill” could be considered a blessing and a curse for the image of his torically black colleges and universities. The blessing: More than 1 million people tune in each week to watch the e3q)loits of Langston fOkla.) University students Brittani, Nafiys, Stacey, Coti, Peaches (who was voted off the show mid way through the season), Israel, Jon and Tknisha. If this show has the recruit ing power of “A Different World” and Spike Lee’s movie “School Daze,” then black col leges across the country should expect a windfall of enrollment this fall, some thing Louisiana’s Southern University e3q)erienced, said Stephen Hill, one of the show’s executive producers. “Southern University where we had the first season said their applications increased by double digits,” he said. “And I’m sure Langston University will experience the same thing.” The show was developed by Edmonds Entertainment, which was founded by Ken neth “Babyface” Edmonds and his wife, TVacey. Hill said BET viewers want ed to see a reality show where black participants aren’t tokens. “We are thrilled that BET viewers have once again made ‘College HOI’ a ratings suc cess,” Tl-acey Edmonds said in a release. “This was an incred ibly exciting season to produce largely because of our com- peUing cast and their eclectic personalities. (Jur group cer tainly had their share of con flict, but it was so rewarding to see how they evolved over the course of the series.” Hill said the purpose of “Col lege HOI” is to show viewers, especiaUy younger ones, that going to coOege is cool. The curse: the unscripted reality show has come under fire firom critics for not show ing the most flattering image of black students at HBCUs. According to Black America Web, some Langston alumni claim the show portrays the school in a negative light and may impact its recruiting and fundraising efforts. The web site stated that caUs fix)m outraged alumni began coming in soon after the airing of the fii^t episode, according to David Stevens, national president of the Langston University Nation al Alumni Association. Stevens, whose son attends LU, said the negative depic tion of the school wOl do more damage than good. “HBCUs have had to fight against negative attacks on the quality of education, stu dent fife and faculty,” Steven’s told BlackAmericaWeb.com. ‘“College Hill’ feeds into that negative image that many people have about HBCUs ” The show premiered Jan. 27 and all season, sex, drama and fights have been aired. Peaches was voted off the show after she got into a fight with castmate Jon, Brittani and Israel’s implied sexual interlude in the bathroom caused a rift in Israel’s rela tionship with another stu dent, April. And Stacey was shaking her - er - tail feather on a pool table and licking whipped cream off a male stu dent. Hill said the students aren’t meant to be representative off all black college students. “We are showing a slice of eight students’ lives. The guy on the show who is most buck wild is also one of the best in his class. We also show students in class and we show the pro MOVIE REVIEW ‘Madagascar’ will leave children laughing, too By Janell J. Lewis WE CKARLOTTE POST “Madagascar” is proof that good, wholesome, fam ily animated films do still exist. From the creators of “Shrek” and “Shark Thles,” this innocent comedy stars four best fiiends, Maily the Zebra (Chris Rock), Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Glo ria the Hippo (Jada Pin- kett-Smith) and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwim- mer) who are attractions at New York’s Central Park Zoo. The inquisitive Marty wants to explore life beyond the gates of the zoo and New York, while cocky Alex, “King of the New York City,” and their two fiiends are content with captivity Wth the help of four cun ning and lively penguins who also want to escape confinement, Marty chases his dream of living outside the zoo and heads towards Grand Central Station. Of course Marty’s best fiiends escape to find him once they discover he’s gone. The animals had no way of knowing that it wasn’t normal to see a hippo, giraffe, zebra and certainly not a lion, roaming the streets - even if they were in NYC. Needless to say, they are soon tranquilized, captured and stuflfed into crates on a ship to Afiica by humans who actually are trying to help Qree them into the wild. The conniving little pen guins strike again, when they sabotage the ship, caixsing the crates to go overboard and wash onto the shore of Madagascar. New York City may be tou^, but these New York ers are no match for life in the wild. After seeing the white, sandy beaches, they deduce that they are in San Diego, but once they me^t some jungle animal fiiends (fix>m a species unknown) the zoo posse learn their true location and the scenes that foUow show them try ing to adapt to the other species and devise plans to get off the island and return to their homeland. Areal climax came just as Alex was beginning to transform into a true “wild lion,” but it falls as quick as it rose. Tb a kid, that won’t matter, thou^. “Madagascar” readily provides amusement to both children and adults. There’s the fun, carefi*ee zebra, the timid giraffe, the easygoing lion and the bold hippo who doesn’t take no for an answer. In the end, they aU affirm that New Yorkers ai^e tough, gritty and adaptable. Dreamworks; Animation, Comedy, Family, 80 min utes Rated PG (mild language, crude humor and some the matic elements) Written by Mark Burton, Billy Frolick ^ Produced by Karey Kirk patrick Directed by Eric DameU (“Antz), Tbm McGrath (“The Ren & Stimpy Show”), Conrad Vernon Voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett- Smith, David Schwimmer (“Friends”), Sacha Baron Cohen (HBO “Da Ali G how”), CJedric the Enter tainer, Adam Del Rio, Andy Richter (“Elf’), Gwen Ste- fani fessors and how they are pro fessionals.” Hill said that after season one of the show, it got tougher to get universities to allow the show on their campuses. ‘T think people in the deci sion making positions that aren’t of this generation only saw the negative part and not the overall benefit of having us on their campus,” he said. HiU said that one of the three HBCTJs in the (Char lotte area - Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone and Baiber-Scotia colleges - were contacted by the show, though he wouldn’t say which one. He also wouldn’t say if BET or the school decided not to participate. David Belton, spokesman at Barber-Scotia, said before allowing a reality program to be filmed on campus, the col lege would have to examine the program. Please see COLLEGE /2D MOVIE REVIEW National TVeasui*e Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Sean Bean and Justin Bartha Jon Turteltaub, direc tor Walt Disney Home Entertainment Disney’s live-action films suffered mightily until “Pirates of The Caribbean: Secret Of The Black Pearl” became a huge hit two years ago. Was this a sign the mouse company was getting its act together? Sorta. Its films have still been spotty but interesting. “National Treasure” is such a good film. The idea is great but the execution sometimes makes you scratch your head. The premise is fine. The film is based on a legend of the Knights Tbmplar trea sure worth billions that has been gathered fix)m ancient civilizations. These knights eventually became the Mason organization which allegedly holds the key to this treasure. The twist is that the Decla ration of Independence has an invisible map on its back that leads to this treasure. Or at least that’s what Ben jamin Franklin Gates (the lukewarm Nicolas Cage) thinks. He has to steal the document to keep his greedy partner Ian (Sean Bean) fi:x)m stealing the document to get the treasure. Sounds simple. Sometimes it is - a little too simple, in fact. The act of stealing the declara tion is spine-tingling, but once it’s stolen the document is handled with kid gloves at one moment, then tossed about as if it’s a basketball. , The movie then has great peaks, but also too many val leys. Cage is engaging, but is always too cynical. Jon Voight shows up as his father but isn’t used enou^. Harvey Keitel is also under used as an FBI agent who seems to know more than he’s letting on. The film works better on the psycho logical level than action. It makes you think this could happen, but actually watch ing it happen makes you think otherwise. The DVD has plenty of spe cial features to keep the interested busy You have to figure out some clues to get to certain features. There’s a featurette on the Knights Tfemplar, an alternate end ing and a couple of puzzles to solve. “National Treasure” is an OK movie with better-than- average features. It’s worth a second look if you saw it in the theater or certainly worth seeing for the first time. This ‘Kingdom’ goes medieval on fanaticism By Sommer Brokaw THE CHARLOTTE POST “Directed By Ridley Scott, “Kingdom of Heaven” is an epic adventure that takes place during the 12th centu ry crusades. While the plot revolves around the simple journey of a young man to become the perfect knight, the underly ing message depicts the hypocrisy of religious fanati cism and the atrocity of war. The story begins with the character Balian of Ibehn, based loosely on a real per son who fought for the peo ple of Jerusalem against the Muslim General Saladin. Unlike the real Balian, who was a lord, this fictional character is a blacksmith in France. Perhaps, Scott’s first stab at religious fanaticism is when Balian murders a local priest who tells him his wife is going to hell because her murder was a suicide. The hypocrisy of using religion to justify condemnation and the anger it can invoke is ejqxjsed in a gruesome scene where Balian kills the priest with a flaming sword Please see KINGDOM/2D Ratings Classic; Ejosellesit; Good Fair Why? No stars - A mess
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 12, 2005, edition 1
9
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75