TV Times
10th June 2001
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'World Beat 2001'


"World Beat 2001" , an musical extravaganza organised by the the College of World Education will come alive on June 17 at St. Joseph's College Auditorium at 7.30 pm.

The funds raised from the show would be channelled towards the education for under-privileged children. This will be for parents who, want to give their children an education but can't afford it.

"World Beat 2001" will feature Wild Fire, Geoffrey Fernando of Purple Rain fame, Bathiya and Santhush and Dejavu.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Frank Jayasinghe, the Principal of the College of World Education said that they presently have children who, need special care; this while helping them will also help others.

"This is going to be a concert with a difference, where parents can come along with their children and have some fun", Dr. Jayasinghe said, adding that the funds would be towards a scholarship for children who can't afford an English medium education at international level.

Derek Wickremanayake, leader of the group Wild Fire will be singing a very special song titled "We are the future", which he had written and recorded with two kids. They will be performing this song at "World Beat 2001".

In addition to Wild Fire, who will be performing for more than one hour, Bhatiya and Santush too will be performing for about one hour. Dejavu will be performing with guest performances by Geoffrey Fernando and African Style Drummers.

This is being organized with the active involvement of the Parent Teachers Association and said that they plan to make this an annual event.



 

Korean Dance, Food Fest

The Korean Traditional Dance Troupe will perform daily during dinner at the Korean Food Festival, which will be held at the Galadari Hotel's Coffee Shop from June 19-23.

The dance troupe consists of 12 members and will sing, dance and entertain with many Korean cultural acts.

The Galadari Hotel in collaboration with Han Gook Gwan Korean Restaurant and the Embassy of Korea will provide this wonderful opportunity to experience authentic Korean culinary specialities at its best. 

The food festival will serve a variety of over 80 typical Korean dishes with ingredients directly flown from Korea and prepared by Korean chefs.


Drama on 'Air Force One'

By Susitha R. Fernando
"Air Force One" action adventure, starring Harrison Ford as the President of the United States is now being screened at the Liberty Cinema.

The President of the United States of America, James Marshall (Ford) is in Russia. He has just delivered a power-packed speech on his political policy of not tolerating the nonsense of terrorists and not negotiating with them. 

He also praises the joint Russian-American commando raid which resulted in capturing General Radek in Kazakhstan. After the speech and dinner, the President is transported back to Air Force One, the official airplane of the President, to be flown back home. There he is met by his wife, the first lady _ Grace Marshall (Crewson), and his teenage daughter, Alice Marshall.

Also on board is a special TV crew from Russia which is assigned to interview the President during the flight. But the actual TV crew members have been killed back in Russia and disguising as them is a group of hijackers, headed by Korshunov (Oldman.) Their plan is simple - take the President as hostage and in exchange of his safety, the Russian government must release General Radek.

Before take-off with the help from an insider in Air Force One, the hijackers manage to take over the plane but American secret service agents have safely brought the President to the escape pod. The escape pod is released from the airplane and finds its way to land. And when, on land, the army opens the escape pod to rescue the President, he is no where to be found. This is because he has secretly remained in the plane. Of course, the hijackers, very frustrated to have lost their prized hostage, do not know about this. Instead they take the crew of the plane as hostages and threaten to kill one.

Controlling the situation at the White House is Vice President Bennett (Close) and Stanton Dean (Stockwell) who have to buy time to think of a way out and also figure out the whereabouts of the President.

Meanwhile, high above in the clouds, the President of the United States the most powerful man in the world, flexes his muscles and lives up to his words that he won't tolerate nonsense from terrorists.

Air Force One on which the whole drama is based, is truly an air-borne presidency. It is designed to transport the President and the Oval Office across the country and across the world. The plane is equipped with the most secure open-and-close voice transmission centre in the world. The telecommunications aboard can communicate privately anywhere, including astronauts on the Space Shuttle or the crew submerged in a nuclear submarine.

The 'Star Wars' series and the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy famed, Harrison Ford is the US President. Among the supporting stars are Gary Olman as the menacing militant terrrorist who holds the plane hostage and Glenn Close- five times Academy Award nominee as the Vice President and Wendy Crewson and Liesel Matthews.

Directed and produced by Oscar nominee for Best Director, Wolfgang Petersen.


Des did show without baila

By Tania Fernando


When you think of Desmond de Silva in concert what thoughts cross your mind? I am sure it must be thoughts of audience singing, clapping and basically having a good time; if you say yes to that, I am Imagesure you were not at the concert last Sunday.

After a lapse of 20 years Desmond performed in Colombo at the BMICH last Sunday backed by the Gypsies to a full house. The hype created was such, that there were persons waiting at the BMICH hoping to get a ticket, while those lucky ones were already standing in line to get in.

We finally got to our seats at 7.00 pm after having stood in line for one hour, because of the body search that was being done as a VIP was present. The young, and even the not so young did not seem to mind the hour-long stand, as they were all looking forward to see this Baila King in action.

The show got off the ground around 7.10 pm with Corrine, Ginger and Lulu doing an Abba rendition of Waterloo. After which Desmond made his way on to the stage and started off his show with a Neil Diamond original, 'Crackling Rose'.

From Crackling Rose he moved on to more English songs like Oh Danny Boy, Travelling Salesman and medley of Elvis Presley songs and even the latest song Amazed By You, of which he did a wonderful job. After more than half-an-hour of English songs he finally sang one of his Sinhala originals 'Yanna Rata Wate', that definitely got the hopes up of everyone thinking that we were going to get more of his popular hits. But it was back to more English songs.

There were dancers who suddenly appeared while he was singing, and the only thing that they did was distract the audience from the performer. 

After performing for one hour, we were given an intermission of half hour. I could hear people bickering at the back wandering why he was not singing his originals, but cover versions. The entire Desmon Silvacrowd had gathered wanting to see Desmond perform his songs for which he became ever so popular.

The second half of the show took off again with 'Amazing Grace' and went on to Harry Belafonte's calypso songs like Matilda Matilda, Day-O (Banana Boat Song) Jamaica Farewell.

Meanwhile, a highly dejected crowd was not getting what they expected. He was not able to get the crowd to participate. You could have heard them clapping in fits and starts. At one stage he requested the crowd to join him and yes you could feel the crowd trying to get enthusiastic hoping for something to happen.

Desmond left the stage once more where Corrine, Ginger and Lulu performed Sister Sledge's 'We are Family'. 

Desmond made his way back to the stage and started off with 'Yaman Bando Wesak Balanna' at which time too there were dancers from Budhawatta's troupe once again on the stage. However, the performers left before he could come to the end of the song. He continued the baila session with 'Polkatu Handa Mita Wage','Galle Road Thara Putting' and a medley of those songs. He also sang 'Silvala Dolosdenai' from one of his latest albums, which he said was dedicated to all his uncles and aunties. With that I thought he still have the baila power in his blood.

'Mathakai Ammai Obey Daru Nalawilla' which he dedicated to his mother and to all mothers was next. His final medley was the ever-popular 'Chuda Manige'. He said that no one knew who had composed it, but now it was decomposed.

Desmond left the stage and returned when there were a few solitary shouts calling for his return and his final was "I did it my way", a fitting way to end a show. Yes Desmond definitely did it his way, but it definitely did not go the way the audience expected to be. This was supposed to be a Desmond Show, where everyone shouts, sings along and don't sit in their seats. That was Des we used to see on stage years ago.

The show finally came to an end around 10.15 pm. Well I for one was a bit disappointed with the show, I was looking forward to hearing some of his baila's but I think instead I had an overdose of English songs.

However, Sarath Kotelawela of Torana Music contacted TV Times after the show and paid tribute to all those who graced the occasion of the above event.He apologizes for the inconvenience caused at the start due to security measures adopted.

" I have to thank Gypsies, Dr. Vijaya Corea, Corrine, Antionette, Ginger, Rajive Sebastian and our sponsors Shri FM, Swarnavahini, SriLankan, National Insurance, Cream Soda, Arpico Finance and Lion Brewery for all their support" he said.


One year old 'Adahas'

By Sanath Weerasuriya
'Adahas', the media, public relations and communications consultancy outfit put together by Kumar de Silva of Bonsoir fame and his wife Tharindra Dharmasiri, completes one successful year this month.

Since its launch in June last year, both have been very busy handling a wide range of clients and an equally wide range of activities.

"We thoroughly enjoy the work we do and pay attention to the minutest detail. All our clients get a personalised service and I believe that goes a long way", Tharindra said.

Husband Kumar went on to add, "Whatever we do is a 'creation', be it a product launch, press conference, trade stall or media campaign. I believe in changing so called ordinary events into something out-of-the-extraordinary. This way it is far more appealing and caters to a wider clientele".

Adahas specialises in interestingly diverse areas ranging from 'producing' launches, dealer conventions, coffee mornings, press conferences and film premieres to creative interior decor such as trade stalls.

With his experience as a print and electronic media journalist for the past two decades, Kumar also specialises in commercial copy writing for press, radio and TV, apart from handling entire media campaigns, organising press conferences and writing finely tuned press releases.

Since its launch last year, Adahas has branched out into newer areas like producing television commercials and documentaries. "The numerous television training stints I've had in Paris over the past several years and the everyday experience of producing and presenting for television since 1986, have come in good stead", Kumar said.

He still handles 'Bonsoir" (Mondays/lTN), 'Fanclub' (Tuesdays/lTN), "Business.Com" (Wednesdays/TNL), Star Gallery (Thursdays/TNL) and "Dhamma in Daily Life" (Poya Days/lTN).

We're just branched out into handling the English subtitles for Sinhala films. A lot of our films are now presented to foreign audiences and at several foreign festivals hence the need for good quality English subtitling is great. This is yet another major area we plan to focus on as 'Adahas' turns one year old this month", Kumar and Tharindra said.


Sons of the Jungle

This week Bonsoir features a quite fascinating subject, the sons of the jungles; the veddhas who are regarded as the most primitive of the existing races.

Bonsoir digs into their origins and rituals, a look at the Veddhas in Dutch times and their ancient rock paintings. And then move to some exclusive shots depicting the Veddha chief's visit to Colombo, a shining example of the French Sri Lankan Cultural Cooperation and you will then be a spectator at this very rare ceremony of the Veddhas, which was captured exclusively by the Bonsior cameras.

The programme is produced by Yasmin Rajapakse.

"Bonsoir" 11 June on ITN At 8.00p.m.



 

The Den provides all that pleases

The atmosphere is refreshingly different. Novel in its approach to the contemporary scenario in Colombo's posh restaurants, which cater to an increasingly fastidious clientele. It is not yet another run of the mill family outlets. The ambience and decor has its own confident appeal, tastefully selected by its owner Keerthi Fernando of 'Rattlesnake' and 'Venom' fame. Yes it's the Den! uniquely different Pub and Cafe at Colombo 3. 

A quiet start to an exciting evening can begin with many speciality cocktails, one can choose from a wide selection for the more conventional type if you are not in the experimental mood. Slowly but surely things start happening around the place. Music is recorded or live with guest artiste thrown in for good measure. The lighting, the chatter and the action takes you to a typical pub atmosphere of Europe. After a few rounds of favourite drink time and mood becomes right for a meal.

The menu on offer is quite in line with the theme of the Den. The Den offers a wide variety of Western and Eastern food with such exciting dishes like the Sea Food Casserolle priced moderately at Rs. 275/- Rockers Crumbed Fried Seer at Rs. 250/ Heavy Metal Mix Grill for Rs. 350/- or Grilled Sirloin of Beef Ledzepplin at Rs. 250/- to name a few and many more special dishes to experience. Also very exciting Eastern dishes are on the A-La-Carta. Den offers classical rice and curry lunch for executives, chicken buriyani or lampraise for just Rs. 85/-.

According to their Manager, Raymond Pillai, they will be updating the menu from time to time introducing new dishes from round the globe. 

'Recently we introduced some new Italian dishes - Spagetti - Alla Pavorotti Spagetti - Alla - Marinara, Mecoroni - Alla - Panna just to name a few.

There are days where the Den goes open market with Sea Food specials ordered from its sea food market. Then there is a comprehensive wine selection for the connoisseur's delight. A choice of fine desserts and fruits can round off a perfect meal, but not before the more adverturous will order a round of finest Liqueurs or Cognac and a Cuban cigar to boot.

Furthermore for the romantically inclined there are those cosy Air Conditioned private dining rooms or airy balcony for a natural setting with the cool breeze of the Indian Ocean.

The Den is also a unique venue to hold Cocktail parties, Birthday, Office or Home parties, meetings and private conferences. The obliging and well mannered new staff of the Den will respond to your need,' he said.

The Den is now open from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. and 7. p.m. onwards.


'Go Bananas' at Keells Super

'Keells Super and Super K' launched what they termed 'The biggest Raffle for the Supermarket Industry for the Year which will entitle the lucky winner of the Grand Draw to the latest Volkswagen Beetle and a host of other prizes.

The campaign which is also called 'Go Bananas Raffle Draw' at all Keells Super and Super K outlets commenced on May, 30 while the float carrying the Volkswagen Beetle will visit all Keells Super and Super K outlets from the 31st.

There are a host of exciting prizes in store for all who patronise the Keells super and SuperK outlets. Explaining the workings of the Raffle Draw, Ms. Gunewardene said that in addition to the Grand Draw, monthly draws will also be held.

Apart from the Volkswagen Beetle, the other Grand Draw prizes include 175,000 'Asia Miles' which is equivalent to 5 return Air Tickets to Bangkok courtesy Cathay Pacific, 3 Hewlett Packard Computers and Printers, A Sharp TV, a Sharp Mini Stereo System, Moulinex Food Processors, a Sharp Vacuum Cleaner and 2 Gold Necklaces.

"All you have to do is purchase goods to the value of Rs. 850/- or more and that customer will be eligible to participate in the draw" said Jaykay Marketing Finance. Director Raji Gunewardene.

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