Naomi Reiter

Halos Brings SoCal Dreaming to U.K., Scotland with Help from Circa Survive

In less than one month, Southern California's Halos will hit the U.K. with sold out shows, backing Circa Survive—whose third album, Blue Sky Noise, recently debuted at number 11 on Billboard 200. (Check them out on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.)

The U.K. and Scotland will be Halos's first international tour, which they point out is pretty damn hard to make happen with no booking agency nor record label support. 

“But we were lucky enough to be friends with Circa and they've been supporting our music for a long time,” says Halos guitarist Zak Freedman. “Good music prevails and bands like us get to go out and do things like this because other artists still support music they like.”

Halos's music is an alchemy of California dreams being dashed on the cliffs of reality, only to reemerge stronger and wiser. And Halos is ready to share that journey with a new audience—with a little help from their friends in Circa Survive.

“I think it's really cool that can still happen and bands can still move forward and grow while the record industry shrivels and dies,” says Freedman.

Circa Survive and Halos will open the tour at Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach July 12, moving on July 13 to Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, then on to Underworld in London July 14, with further tour dates scheduled.

SoCal Band 'Halos' Emerges From Fabled Sound City Studios Lean, Mean and Ready for Stardom

There is a certain alchemy that yields musical stardom—the kind that puts a Grammy on your mantel. Look at any hot, new act receiving an industry nod these days and you'll see that part of that recipe includes hard work (the sweat and tears kind), strong collaboration with industry vets (like maybe working with Greg Richling of the Wallflowers fame at L.A.'s fabled Sound City Studios) and providing the world with a fresh, unique sound (the kind that packs L.A. venues with discriminating ticket buyers).

Rock band Halos is mixing those elements and serving them up as tight, heart-thumping songs that make you want to memorize their lyrics and learn their guitar riffs. Here, OC Weekly's Nate Jackson checks in with these wonder boys—while he still can:

 

Back to Basics: Ed2010 in 2010

We love Ed2010! It helped us get a toe hold in this slippery industry called publishing. Take a look at this chat with founder and president Chandra Turner (also executive editor at Parents magazine—ooh-la-la-la!).

Method Man: "You Can Act!" Author Shares What Acting Is, Who He Taught

Method acting. I picture Shatner in deep contemplation wearing a polyester bodysuit. But many of the greats employed it, from Broadway to Hollywood, to tap into their shadows and create believable characters.

The process was introduced to America in the 30s by Sandford Meisner, who adapted it from Konstantin Stanislavsky's methods, and this version is still taught today by D.W. Brown, left, at The Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio.

Acting!

For most non-actors, it's hard to imagine how the process works—to pretend to be someone else. How do you begin the process of making someone an actor? What is it to be an actor?

Civilization of Beer President Named New York's First Beer Sommelier

Not just for frat boys and football, beer is coming into its own and being recognized as part of the fine culinary landscape by an increasingly savvy America. A steward in bridging the gap between wine studies and beer studies in the professional culinary community and returning beer to its proper place at the American table, The Civilization of Beer president Samuel Merritt will be named New York's first certified Cicerone™ beer sommelier tomorrow during a brief ceremony and open house for area beer importers, brewers, distributors and retailers.

The brainchild of former Brewers Association board member Ray Daniels—author of The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery and Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles—the program is the first of its kind to be based on objective, independent skills assessment, including tasting skill, knowledge of proper service and storage, and demonstrated expertise in beer culture—including its historic and cultural aspects.

Merritt's nationwide beer tasting events are legend in the craft beer community, and as a “Cicerone,” Merritt is designated a beer expert certified to guide consumers in high-quality experiences with craft beer.

“An educated beer seller is a better beer seller,” he says, which is a mantra of The Civilization of Beer. The company has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show and Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius XM, helped Chef Daniel Boulud launch his new East Village craft beer-focused DBGB Kitchen & Bar, as well as regularly contributing to CHOW.com's CHOW Tips video program.

Follow Civ of Beer on Twitter: @CivofBeer and ping Mr. Merritt at samuel@civilizationofbeer.com.

Acting Coach to Stars Shares all in Book

For most non-actors, it's hard to imagine how the process works—to pretend to be someone else. What is it to be an actor? Does it require continuing education? What celebrities were surprise stars? Can a book teach you how to act? Check back next week for an exclusive interview with acting coach to the stars D.W. Brown.

Elizabeth Barry & Associates Offers Dance Industry E-products

We are Living in a Digital World...

We love smart women! Especially those savvy in the ways new media can nourish a business. Elizabeth Barry of dance marketing agency and PR firm Elizabeth Barry & Associates (EB&A) fits the bill with her unflagging e-offerings.

...and Barry Is a Digital Girl

The former dancer and dance teacher with 12 years of dance magazine marketing and record-breaking sales experience under her tutu may be waif-like in stature, but she's center stage with her Web 2.0 initiatives. Three years ago Barry launched EB&A and has since consistently added dance industry verticals (Jam Cosmetics for dancers, Sequins Direct for dance instructors); an online dance magazine, gendance, geared toward young dancers; related blogs (the gendance blog, the EB&A blog, and EB&A Marketing Tips); newsletters; charitable campaigns and offered white papers and interactive videos.

White papers are hot commodities in B2B media these days, and agencies like Barry's are discovering that they can produce them in-house. "I developed this white paper in an effort to use it as a PR leader for our press release for the launch of this first microsite for dance to announce the first board game for dance, DANCE-OPOLY," says Barry. "I contacted 10 of the best choreographers I know and asked them for their top audition advice." 

She included the choreographers' most recent headshots and encouraged users to check out the product with an iPod give-away. Guess what else that did? Yes, she built a lead gen database for future marketing efforts. Hooray for this smart lady!

The Glamorous Life

Here, Barry poses with client Luis Salgado, assistant Latin choreographer for In the Heights (left), and the ever debonair Antonio Banderas. Stay tuned for the latest incarnation of gendance.

RHNYC Book Title Chosen After Reunion Carnage

Wow. I watched The Real Housewives of NYC reunion last night. The word "bloodbath" comes to mind. Our girl Alex McCord handled herself with grace in the face of, sorry, unbridled bitchiness and gets to close that chapter with the opening of a new one--she and husband Simon van Kempen have agreed on a title for their new parenting book, published by Sterling & Ross Publishers.

“Little Kids, Big City: Tales from a Real House in New York City” will launch in January 2010 and shares McCord and van Kempen’s real life parenting adventures while raising two young boys in New York.   

“I can’t tell you how delighted we are to be bringing you their wonderful stories of urban parenting to the market place,” says Sterling & Ross publisher Drew Nederpelt of the duo.

While I thoroughly enjoy being horrified by all the nation's Housewives, after having interviewed McCord about her urban parenting philosophy, I have to admit I like these two. They're pretty real in an over-the-top, winter-in-the-Caribbean sort of way. If you, too, are a fan, McCord and van Kempen will be at Book Expo America Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30–3pm at NYC's Jacob Javits Center to sign book covers and kiss babies.

In other news, is anyone else completely terrified of / fascinated by The Real Housewives of New Jersey? Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Real Housewives of New York City Alums Challenge Parenting Status Quo

Don't even pretend you don't have guilty pleasures. We all do--it's cool. One of mine is the Real Housewives franchise. It's decadent, if not naughty, and so it surprises me that Real Housewives of New York City (RHNYC) alums and hubbies Alex McCord and Australian-born Simon van Kempen--married nine years--have been selected in the midst of a deal-killing recession to write a book about parenting.

The duo has been panned on RHNYC for their laissez-faire parenting style and want viewers to know that editing has a lot to do with that perception. 

"People tend to think that what they see on the show is the whole story. It isn't," says McCord, a Washington, D.C. native raised in Texas, Kansas and the Virgin Islands, who has been a New Yorker since 1996. "Children this young change their behavior in a nanosecond, and you can't blame the producers for wanting to include the most dramatic moments." 

Good TV

"Cute kids behaving beautifully doesn't make must-see TV as much as three-year-old François shouting in Ramona's face at 10 p.m. does, which happened at the end of one night in 2007 at a party we did not want to take him to, two hours after we were supposed to leave," she says.

From ZZ Top to Steve McQueen: Cool Gets Cooler

Rabbit feet, lucky coins, worry stones—carrying talismans is nothing new. They are often sentimental in some way, and always special to their owners. ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons wears Steve McQueen’s bottle opener on a chain around his neck, exponentially increasing his cool factor. Not that Gibbons isn’t cool in his own right—the blues rock legend moonlights as an actor on Fox’s Bones (said bottle opener was spotted last night at Fox hangout Bull and Bear in New York’s Waldorf Astoria). But Steve McQueen had more cool in his little bottle opener than most of us manage to cultivate in a lifetime.