Friday, January 03, 2014

Around the Tubes: 1/3/14



I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Parks and Recreations, Chasing Shackleton, Frank Sinatra, Tales of Olde, Raising Whitley, Austin City Limits, and Hawking.

- Parks and Recreations will celebrate it’s 100th episode next week and here is a video of the cast reminiscing:


- PBS announced today that Chasing Shackleton, a new three-part series about a modern expedition that follows the path of history’s most extraordinary survival story, will premiere January 8, 2014. The series follows a crew of five intrepid explorers led by renowned adventurer, scientist and author Tim Jarvis as they re-create Shackleton’s epic sea-and-land voyage in a replica of the original explorers’ boat, using only the tools and supplies his team used.
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which launched in 1914, met with disaster when his ship The Endurance was crushed by arctic ice and sank. His heroic leadership in the face of almost certain death saved the lives of 27 men stranded in the Antarctic for more than 500 days, and has inspired explorers and leaders across every continent over many generations.
Jarvis’ team’s recreation included crossing the treacherous Southern Ocean from Elephant Island to South Georgia (800 nautical miles) in a small wooden boat while battling gales, rough seas and stomach-churning swells. Once on land, the crew faced weather conditions they described as “Scotland on steroids” — simultaneous high winds, torrential rain, snow, hail and ice. When the weather eased, Jarvis and two teammates (Barry Gray and Paul Larsen) trekked inland to reach an old whaling station at Stromness on South Georgia, traversing an icy, crevasse-riddled mountain range in unmapped territory, the route Shackleton and his men took as their only hope for rescue almost a century ago.

- With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, set the perfect mood for this special night with the romantic styling of “The Chairman of the Board.” On January 28, 2014, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) will release Sinatra, With Love, a 16-track collection of Sinatra’s romantic classics from his Capitol and Reprise catalogs. This is Universal’s second release under the newly launched “Signature Sinatra” imprint, a deal uniting Sinatra's classic Capitol and signature Reprise recordings.

- If you are looking for new music in the new year, check out indie / folk group Tales of Olde. You can listen to Little Bird below and head over to Pledge Music to help fund their debut EP.



- Actress and comedienne Kym Whitley, known for her larger than life personality and hilarious roles in movies and film alike, returns with all-new episodes of her hit docu-series, Raising Whitley on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network tomorrow at 9:00. Kym’s accomplished career never prepared her for the phone call of a lifetime. While mentoring a troubled young girl, Kym received a call from the hospital saying, “Your baby is ready.” After learning that the girl left the maternity ward leaving her four-day-old baby and only Kym’s contact information, Kym was faced with making a life-changing decision – to become a mother.


- Austin City Limits returns to PBS this weekend (check your local listings) and here is the full lineup this season.
January 4, 2014 | Queens of the Stone Age
January 11, 2014 | Jason Isbell/ Neko Case
January 18, 2014 | fun. / Dawes
January 25, 2014 | Portugal. The Man / Local Natives
February 1, 2014 | Sarah Jarosz / The Milk Carton Kids
February 8, 2014 | Kacey Musgraves / Dale Watson

- Hawking, the first-ever autobiographical documentary about physicist Stephen Hawking, premieres Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS. The film offers rare insights into Hawking’s life, past and present, aided by a cast of stellar contributors and Hawking fans, including astronaut Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., actors Jim Carrey and Benedict Cumberbatch, mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

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