US – Tuesday, March 16
The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
Quite the bright, Buble personality
For three very successful records, Michael Buble has reinterpreted standards. But when it came to last fall’s hit album, “Crazy Love,” the pop/jazz singer decided it was time to start telling his own stories and included two originals, including the Sinatra-esque “Haven’t Met You Yet.”
 
The return from being a ‘Runaway’
Cherie Currie’s name may not be as immediately recognizable as Joan Jett’s, but with this week’s release of “The Runaways” movie —which stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning — a new generation is sure to learn at least one thing: Madonna wasn’t the first blond bombshell to don a corset while rocking the mic. Currie did it first.
 
When history books really do suck: Old Abe meets the vampires
Although it strikes most people as an usual combination, vampires and Abraham Lincoln seemed like a perfectly natural pairing to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” author Seth Grahame-Smith.
 
Valerie Harper gets ‘Looped,’ dahling
Tallulah Bankhead was as much of a character as she was an actress. Although she set the screen on fire in such films as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” and garnered rave reviews on Broadway, her scandalous personal life — and her witty take on her indiscretions — made her a legend. Valerie Harper takes on Bankhead in her twilight years in the new Broadway production of “Looped.”
 
Published 00:09, September the 24th, 2009
 
The world is thrown into chaos when everyone, including FBI agent Benford (Fiennes), center, simultaneously blacks out in “FlashForward.”The world is thrown into chaos when everyone, including FBI agent Benford (Fiennes), center, simultaneously blacks out in “FlashForward.”
Photo: ABC/CRAIG SJODIN
 

What does the future bring?

‘FlashForward’ ponders how we would live our lives after catching a glimpse at what fate has in store

‘Lost’ in space

“FlashForward” is just about the most ambitious pilot we’ve seen since “Lost.” So Dominic Monaghan, who stars in both series, explains how he compares the two:

“There are obviously similarities — a large ensemble cast, very ambitious storyline and a very easy way to sell the show internationally,” he says. “I think there’s distinct differences at the same time. I don’t think [with “FF”] we’re dealing with something as deeply rooted in a mythology that needs to be solved. I think this is a show that is, not necessarily to use the word ‘simplistic,’ but is probably not as sophisticated in that deeply rich mythology as ‘Lost’ is.”

AR
 

Premonitions aren’t all they’re cracked up to be — especially when every human on the planet simultaneously blacks out for exactly two minutes and 17 seconds and catches a glimpse into their futures.

That’s the premise of the new ABC drama “FlashForward,” chronicling the exhilaration — and fear — that accompanies the knowledge of what destiny has in store.

Joseph Fiennes plays FBI agent Mark Benford in the series; after the initial chaos of the blackout — the pilot episode is filled with explosions and dead bodies — his character leads a team that aims to collect and organize people’s “flashforwards” on an international Web site known as the Mosaic Collective.  

“I love the conflict element,” Fiennes says of the plot. “I’m attracted to the idea that if you build a strategy in which to either embrace or reject [your flashforward], that it could absolutely bring it about in a sort of a self-fulfilling-prophecy way.”

 
 
Share
 
MMMpod
The March MMMpod features conversation and music from Surfer Blood and The Allman Brothers Band (There's a double-bill you're not too likely to see. However, Gregg Allman does mention Hannah Montana!). We also speak with Vampire Weekend and the Dropkick Murphys.
 
 
 
Metro Life Panel