Entertainment: Las Vegas & The Movies

Las Vegas & The Movies

Written by Iulia Pascanu

Sunny Las Vegas hosted hundreds of movies or movie-scenes. Some of them got repparttar

Oscar. Others got lost on repparttar 110043

way. But Vegas surely remains a classic attraction for film-makers since repparttar 110044

glory of

Rat Pack days.

To be completely fair, repparttar 110046 early 60's weren't really repparttar 110047 first screen action days in Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra's first movie, Las Vegas Nights was set back in 1941. However, repparttar 110048 Rat Pack Days are always a good point to start.

The Rat Packs

Five gentlemen in Las Vegas: Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Frank Sinatra. Good friends. Loved to party. And of course, they had their own favourite place to hang out, that was Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (which was demolished in 1996, nowadays repparttar 110049 site of repparttar 110050 Venitian).

The Rat Pack Days begun in late 50's, somewhat as a reaction to repparttar 110051 Cold War early days; repparttar 110052 guys came up with repparttar 110053 ideea of having their own "summit of cool" in Las Vegas; it lasted seven years. As repparttar 110054 Sands performing scene wasn't enough for them, repparttar 110055 mighty five moved further to movies and recordings.

The seven years brought out seven films: Some Came Running, Ocean's 11, Sergents 3, 4 For Texas, Robin and repparttar 110056 7 Hoods, Marriage on repparttar 110057 Rocks, and Cannonball Run II. Ocean's 11 (1960) is repparttar 110058 most famous one, and also benefited from a modern remake (2001), starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. The action in new Ocean's 11 involves robbery scenes at Bellagio. The Rat Pack, released in 1998 for cable TV, includes scenes from The Sands.

The King

The good old days gave us repparttar 110059 classic Viva Las Vegas (1964), featuring Elvis Presley, who sings his heart out for repparttar 110060 beloved "sin city".

Later, in 1970, repparttar 110061 King starred a documentary filmed at repparttar 110062 International Hotel, nowadays Las Vegas Hilton (Elvis: That's repparttar 110063 Way It Is).

The 1979 Elvis, a memorabilia to The King, stars Kurt Russell. The story goes on in 1988 with Elvis and Me, inspired by Priscilla Presley's autobiography. The 1995 BBC documentary The Burger and repparttar 110064 King: The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley seems to have closed repparttar 110065 Elvis & Las Vegas series, up to this moment.

Stagefright

Written by Tom ''Ketchfish'' Inglis

We all know repparttar

feeling of terror when we take repparttar 110042

stage. That hyper-aware place where your thoughts become jumbled, your voice quavers and your palms sweat. If you say, "Oh, not me! I never get stage fright" I say you're lying or you've never been on stage. Performers in general and musicians in particular are insecure by nature. That's why we seek repparttar 110043

spotlight in repparttar 110044

first place, to gain validation from others. Don't worry, it doesn't have to paralyze your performance or worse, keep you from performing at all. You may not be able to banish it completely, and you may not want to as it can be used to your advantage. Read on McDuff and I'll pass along repparttar 110045

words of wisdom I've absorbed in my years of dealing with stage fright and discussing it with other professional musicians.

MENTAL IMAGERY The very first line of defense against stage fright is using your own mind to blunt it's impact through mental imagery. Remember what that last audience looked like repparttar 110046 last time stage fright negatively affected your performance? Now change that picture in your mind. Imagine those scary people all in their underwear. Briefs and boxers with little pink cupids and superman underoos. They look rediculous don't they? The more rediculous repparttar 110047 better. They don't seem all that threatening any more do they? The next gig you play, just as you're about to play, take a look at repparttar 110048 audience and choose their mental underwear. Then close your eyes for a moment and really try to form repparttar 110049 mental picture. They may wonder what repparttar 110050 hell you're laughing about but they're not going to seem very threatening. PREPARATION Be prepared and you will not feel so insecure. Practice, practice, practice. Know your parts before you get to rehearsal and use repparttar 110051 time in rehearsal to fit repparttar 110052 parts together. That's what rehearsal is for. Take a few minutes before repparttar 110053 show to run over repparttar 110054 first few numbers in your head or on your instrument quietly, preferably in private. Once you have repparttar 110055 momentum going by playing a couple very well prepared songs, repparttar 110056 rest of repparttar 110057 show is a piece of cake. You'll have repparttar 110058 confidence borne of success to carry you through repparttar 110059 rest of repparttar 110060 evening. MEDITATION OR DEEP BREATHING EXERCISES Try this little exercise for relieving stress. Take a slow, deep breath through your mouth. Really fill those lungs up. Hold it just for a half a second and breathe out through your nose very slowly until your lungs empty. Repeat this a few times. Don't you just feel repparttar 110061 stress ebb away? Your perception becomes clear. You become calm and centered. You've just increased repparttar 110062 oxygen level in your brain, increasing it's power and clarity. Feels good, doesn't it? MANTRA Oh Mantra sounds like a mystical word doesn't it? It's just a phrase that you repeat over and over. With each repetition, you believe it more. You can make up your own but, as goofy as they sound, here's some I've used that worked for me. "I'm a musician and you're just regular people. You wish you were me."

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