Heroes: Season Two

For many, the s season of this shoo-in NBC arrive at was hampered by many things: expectations from the first authoritative story spark, a writer's strike that seemed to sap all the life out of the media momentum, a familiarity with the characters and the concept, all of which made a sophomore slump all the more likely. Cut down to 11 episodes, and without the planned Origins prequel serial to back up its premise, many believed that their favorite superhero express was waver before it could altogether catch on. Such assessments were definitely premature.

When last we left the everyday avengers and their evil antagonists, New York City was saved from a cataclysmic event. Four months later, the authoritarian Company continues its investigation and control over the superhumans, focusing specifically on a new disease that could wipe out their limited abilities -- as well as a large part of the population. In the interim, Hiro (Masi Oka) is transported back to feudal Japan, where he discovers something very interesting roughly the legendary Takezo Kensei (David Anders). Elsewhere, fugitives Maya (Dania Ramirez) and Alejandro Herrera (Shalim Ortiz) make their way from Honduras to the United States. Along the way, they suffer up with a now-powerless Sylar (Zachary Quinto). Finally, amnesiac Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) remembers world Health Organization he is, while the cheerleader Claire (Hayden Panettiere) moves to California with her family and tries to have a normal life.


Subtitled "Generations," season deuce of Heroes is really quite gratifying. It does what whatever pop culture phenom attempts to do when granted the go ahead: broaden its approach without abandoning its core audience. For the most part, it does. And unlike other examples of said contrivance -- Twin Peaks, Lost -- creator Tim Kring acknowledges that he and his originative staff weren't always successful. It didn't help that the far more epic scope of this season was shuttered by events both within and outdoor of its control, simply Heroes is already hampered by a viscous bike story arc -- unless the bad guys are going to be allowed to win, good seems predestined to defeat, and therefore marginalise, anyone evil.


Still, Heroes attempts to keep things nail-biting, introducing the new threat known as the Shanti virus and exploring its devastating effects on characters like Niki (Ali Larter) and Sylar. Of course, with the oppressive Company involved, our champions are required to once once more find unwashed ground to defeat a common menace. But with almost a half time of year missing, we end up with something akin to Peaks' "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" quandary. Once we discover the truth, and its implications on the rest of the cast, we grow tired to having taken this untimely stunted plot path. Indeed, Heroes industrial plant best when it uses the smaller issues betwixt the superhumans as a way of preparing for a much larger friction -- and something like that inevitably time to take root and prosper.


Sure, one could argue that Hiro's feudal Japan plot line goes on for far too long, or that new characters like Maya and Alejandro seem tossed in arbitrarily for freshness purposes only. Both subplots sap necessary energy from the main thread, and yet they argue for a series willing to explore the human chemical element of its characters at the cost of nonstop narrative drive. Of course of study, that doesn't mean we need zany family reunions, chemistry-free romances, or the occasional backslide into monetary standard TV plot line stereotypes.


But as an case of boundary-pushing television, of a cinematic conceit victimized to make the dope tube less geared toward the last-place common dominator, Heroes in truth excels. True, this up-to-the-minute season doesn't contain the bang that was the first's expositional setup and nuclear terror, but inside this shortened space, the best of the series still shines through.

Will Miles

   
Artist: Will Miles

   Genre(s): 
Drum & Bass
   

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Discography:


   
 Spork MAH-001 Vinyl

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 2

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Vordr

   
Artist: Vordr

   Genre(s): 
Metal: Death,Black
   

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Discography:


   
 II

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 13

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Deben Bhattacharya

   
Artist: Deben Bhattacharya

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   

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Discography:


   
 Temple Music from Tibet

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 7

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Jude Law - Law Heading To Afghanistan

Elvis Costello, Roots set for first Whistler fest

Music event set for July 19-20 in British Columbia





Elvis Costello and the Imposters, the Roots and Broken Social Scene have been tapped for this year's inaugural Whistler Music Festival, set for July 19-20 at Tube Park at Base II on the side of Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, British Columbia.
Other artists performing at the festival include Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Medeski Martin & Wood, Bedouin Soundclash and Serena Ryder. Additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets for the event go on sale Thursday via WhistlerMusicFestival.com. Single-day tickets are priced at about $67.50, and two-day passes cost $120.
"We'll be in an unbelievable setting in the middle of the mountains," Festival Network CEO Tom Shepard said.
The Whistler Music Festival is produced by Festival Network in collaboration with Tourism Whistler, Whistler-Blackcomb and Resort Municipality of Whistler. Festival Network also overseas such jazz/folk-themed festivals as JVC Jazz Festival Miami, Los Angeles' Playboy Jazz Festival and JVC Jazz Festival New York.
The event brings another major concert to the Whistler area; the inaugural Pemberton Festival will be held just north of the town the weekend after Whistler and will feature performances by Coldplay, Jay-Z and Nine Inch Nails, among others.

Rowland shelves Hollywood dreams

Melbourne (ANI): Grammy award-winning singer Kelly Rowland has temporarily shelved her Hollywood dreams to concentrate solely on her stellar music career, after she lost on a supporting role in the hugely hyped 'Sex and the City movie' to Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson. In a recent interview, the former Destiny's Child revealed that she has always harbored aspirations to make it as a bootylicious big-screen queen. Rowland also said that it would have been "my absolute dream" to have worked alongside the Big Apple's fabulous four. "I didn't get the role, it wasn't for me and I had to deal with that," The Daily Telegraph quoted her, as saying. "It would have been a dream - it's any girl's dream - but I feel like whatever is going to happen is going to happen," she added.

DJ Boomer

   
Artist: DJ Boomer

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Da Bass 7

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 21

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