Pheaturing Sarah D

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Welcome to the Phile for Star Wars Month... Episode 2. This is the second year that I will pheature a whole month of the Phile to Star Wars. I love Star Wars, and millions of people across the world loive Star Wars, especially Bob Iger. When I was growing up I thought by time I hit the 40s I would look like Luke Skywalker. Instead I look more like Jabba the Hutt. Manchy kabook noonee Solo. The Phile has a new sponsor, and it's kinda fitting for this month.

I don't like gin, but I want to try some of that Qui-Gon's Gin, from Star Booze.  Well, yesterday was May the 4th Be With you Day, today is Cinco de Mayo. Does that mean tomorrow is Revenge of the Sixth?  Alright, what has been happening this week in the news?  Washington Wizards center Jason Collins has become the first American athlete in a major team sport to come out as gay. Do you know what a breakthrough this is? Finally an NBA player who won’t have any illegitimate kids. Collins said it was not a tough decision to tell people that he’s gay. He said it’s easier than telling people he plays for the Washington Wizards. That’s the hard part. An NBA player who is gay... your turn MBL and NFL. He's a free-agent now, but his last team was the Washington Wizards. He's not the first openly gay wizard. That trail was blazed by Dumbledore. So far the reaction from fans and teammates has been nothing but positive. Why shouldn't it be? Jason Collins has nothing to be ashamed of. It's not like he plays for the Lakers. The positive reaction to Jason’s announcement is a great sign. It shows us that NBA fans are ready to embrace diversity. And they really want to concentrate on what unites them... hating the Miami Heat.  He wrote an article in Sports Illustrated. He said, “I'm a 34-year-old NBA center, I'm black, and I'm gay.” For those who don't follow sports, this is like a contestant on “Project Runway” coming out as straight.  Here's a disturbing bit of progress. Microsoft is allowing video gamers to order pizza directly from their Xbox. Previously they had to yell for their mom to make them a sandwich. Thanks to the new pizza app, you can place an order using your controller. Please don't tell Michelle Obama about this. Xbox will not stop until humans and couches become one.  According to a new study, fatty foods can boost your memory. Eating junk food can make your memory better. There was a similar study done five years ago. It was April 17, 2008, at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. I remember it was drizzling. I wore a Foghat t-shirt and sneakers. I remember it like it was yesterday.  Hey, football fans, the Tim Tebow era lasted about 16 games. The Jets fired him. He was so angry he picked up his helmet and he threw it. It went about 10 yards.  The 99 Cent Store founder passed away. He would still be alive if he hadn't gone to a 99 cent doctor.  Congratulations to Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s the most beautiful woman alive, according to People magazine. I thought to myself, “Wow. Thank God, finally some hope for good-looking, thin blondes.” Gwyneth, by the way, still has to be confirmed by Congress.  You know, now that Disney owns Star Wars, there are placing the characters anywhere they can. Check out this new screenshot from a brand new commercial.

 
Those clever marketing bastards.  So, I work at Disney, which you probably know, right. Well, working there I get the inside scoop on a lot of things. So, here is an exclusive you can only read about on the Phile... Disney has already started to film Star Wars: Episode 7, and I have an exclusive screenshot. Wanna see it?

What planet is that supposed to be I wonder. So many people like Star Wars, but did you know President Obama likes Star Wars as well? Recently he was in a book shop shopping and guess what he picked up.

That's a good book.  Alright, this year is the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi. That movie introduced us to Jabba, the Ewoks, a new Death Star and most importantly, one of George Lucas' best creations... Slave Leia. So, all through the month of May on the Phile we will be honoring Slave Leia. Thanks, George!

And now for some sad news...

Deanna Durbin
Dec 4, 1921 - April 28, 2013
Let's call it Every Sunday but ONE

In my fantasy world, every summer weekend brings a new pop achievement to movie theaters. These aren't just spectacles, they're important; they stand up over time and they move audiences for generations to come, successful as entertainment and as art. Your brain, your heart, your soul, your aesthetic sensibility, your politics, your values, all full-throttle engaged by creative people with nothing to sell but well-executed personal visions.  Iron Man 3 would like to sell you a car. Maybe an energy drink. Definitely a future ticket to the next Avengers film. It's a gigantic product in the service of other products, a malleable enterprise that ingratiates itself to both you, multiple corporate entities and China (they shot extra footage with popular Chinese actress Fan BingBing that will play only in that country). It's a thing made to sell other things.  And that's fine. It can still be entertainment. And sometimes it is. But it's not the pop art masterpiece my fantasy world needs. Not even close.  When the numbers in the title start to rise in a franchise, the element of surprise becomes a valuable commodity. So in terms of plot I'll tell you that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a little shaken from the events of The Avengers (but not so rattled that it affects the precision sculpting of his beard-stripe) and he suffers from panic attacks. He was always neurotic so that's not such a big deal. But Earth-grown villains have been working overtime while Iron Man was busy battling space-bads and someone called Mandarin (Ben Kingsley, acting like no one's watching) is wreaking havoc, terrorism-style. Meanwhile, a biological agent that regrows missing limbs has been developed by extreme-nerd Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Too bad it also blows up the people implanted with it. You could say everything and everybody is unstable here, even Stark's ongoing romance with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, whose oil-and-water chemistry with Downey is one of the franchise's ongoing pleasures). And then stuff happens. That stuff comes with writer-director Shane Black's imprint. And there's a lot of his trademark (PG-13-ready) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang style going on here: the fast-paced banter and crazy explosioning, the bluntly sarcastic line deliveries, everything you already know about the man right down to his Christmas obsession. It's what gives the film its energy. Black is the reason for the season and Downey is his Santa Claus.  But the movie never stops remembering that it's got a big money obligation to meet and that involves a serious tradeoff. A big product from a big studio with big expectations riding on it almost automatically means that my original wishful definition of pop art masterpiece (or even pop art prettygoodsterpiece) isn't going to be satisfied. That's just not how the world spins. These kinds of movies are less directed than they are engineered by various teams of creatives and executives and marketers to guarantee smooth performance. Once its made its way through those gates it's less like an offering to cinema and more like the Audi Tony Stark drives around. No real danger is on the menu because that would involve death and that's not happening; the villains don't pose a coherent threat because that might be insurmountable even for Iron Man; confusing battle sequences where the camera just gets shaken around like a snow-globe are glossed over because there's a Downey punch line coming to make you forget that what you just watched didn't make any sense; it's like that.  So distract me (okay, delight me) by throwing a piano at a helicopter all you like; kill bad guys with exploding Christmas tree ornaments. I like those mini-spectacles. From one to 10, it gets a 10.

Alright, before we continue, I have to mention something. Phile reader named David Vandenberg sent me an email saying that late Friday night on April 26th a little 5 year old girl named Lydia Haney's dad was shot and killed while attempting to stop a fight in Denver. In the goodness of Dave's heart, he is gonna have an auction on Facebook which will begin on May 17th at 12 pm MST. & end on May 19th at 11:59 pm MST. He will be auctioning of concert photographs of different bands and it is a highest bidder format with bids for each photograph placed on the given artist photo. This will be a one of one photo in 8x10 format unframed. This is one of the pictures being auctioned...

It's my dad, Lonesome Dave Peverett, playing with Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown in 1993. Go to facebook.com/david.vandenberg1 for more information.  Okay, so last year during Star Wars Month on the Phile I introduced you to a brand new character who is a Bounty Hunter by night and a stand-up comedian by day. Straight from the Outer Rim, please welcome back to the Phile...

A ladies man was Boba Fett. Whether redhead, blonde, or brunette. If he saw a skirt he’d shamelessly flirt. And give ‘em a night they’d regret. Here's another... They say Poggle's people were skilled, and that every Jedi was killed. So why in tarnation did that Battle Station take over two decades to build? Thank you, very much. Don't eat the Bantha.

Alright, the 30th artist to be pheatured in the Peverett Phile Art Gallery is Chris Hamer, and this is one of his pieces...

Chris will be a guest on the Phile next Sunday.

Today's pheatured guest is a singer and dancer from Australia whose debut EP "Only You" is available on iTunes right now. Pleader welcome to the Phile... Sarah D.

Me: Hello, Sarah, welcome to the Phile. How are you?

Sarah: Hey! Thanks for having me! I'm doing great. Hope you are too.

Me: I'm not doing bad. So, I have to ask, what does the D stand for? And why not just go as Sarah? 

Sarah: Well, I figure I have a bit of a challenging last name for some... it's Polish, so I thought I'd stick with the last letter of my name. Sarah alone is too common.

Me: Before we start, I have to ask, are you gonna be on "The Voice"? For some reason I think I read you are.

Sarah: I wish I could audition but not being from here, legally I can't. If I did we'd have some messed up issues which I don't want to think about.

Me: Oh, I guess I don't know what I'm talking about. LOL. I don't watch that show but was planning on watching it if you were gonna be on it.

Sarah: Maybe if I audition for the Australian one you can watch it via YouTube ;)

Me: Do you like shows like that and "American Idol"?

Sarah: I like them to watch and learn but I've been exposed to the other side of 'reality' TV before having auditioned for the Australian "So You Think You Can Dance" and it's a whole other story. What you see through the TV isn't how it always is in real life.

Me: You're from Australia, am I right? What part?

Sarah: Yes, I'm from Adelaide in South Australia. It's along the south coast and is famous for it's churches and has some pretty amazing beaches for surfing.

Me: We always wanted to go to Australia, and I told my wife one day. But it's so big, I wouldn't know where to go first. Melbourne, Sydney... which one is Adelaide by?

Sarah: You should take her! At least once in your life. She'd love it. Adelaide is closer to Melbourne. It's a one hour flight or 8 hour road trip.

Me: You're now living in LA. What made you decide to move to the States? Is it because of your music?

Sarah: I felt like I outgrew Adelaide in terms of places I could train and get better. I love to travel too and knew that the real big music business is in the States for the type of music I want to do so I found a music school and attended for 18 months and since then I've been working on my craft.

Me: You got received a music scholarship, am I right? From which school and did it help you a lot?

Sarah: I received a scholarship to a Vocal Summer Intensive called VocalizeU. I was super blessed to have received it as so many people applied for it and there could only be one winner and I won. I shocked myself. I'm truly blessed.

Me: Have you always wanted to be a singer, Sarah?

Sarah: Pretty much. Since I was 9 but my thing was having enough confidence to tell people that was what I wanted to do. But the longer I've been doing it the more people are so supportive and admire what I do.

Me: You write your own music, which is cool. What was the first song you wrote?

Sarah: I used to write a whole bunch of poems and song lyrics here and there but my first official song I could say I was proud of was "Gone"  which is actually on the EP.

Me: I have to ask, what did your family say when you told them you were moving to America?

Sarah: They were actually really supportive of the idea. They knew it would come with some challenges but with every challenge there is a way to fight through it and I've been doing that. Of course my mum misses me terribly cause we used to do many things together, mainly shop for new clothes and my dad is a dad. If I'm not calling him with troubles he knows I'm okay.

Me: Did you have a boyfriend that you left behind?

Sarah: No, thank goodness! I'm glad I didn't have to go through any of that!

Me: What is the biggest difference between Adelaide and LA?

Sarah: Mainly the size, the traffic, the amount of time it takes to get to a beach and the music is more indie orientated over in Australia. But I'm not complaining. I love LA.

Me: Your music is very pop and relevant. That's your biggest genre I take it. I can hear you singing country though as well. Are you a country fan?

Sarah: I love country. I look up to some great country singers and bands like Carrie Underwood and Little Big Town.

Me: Sarah, do you play any instruments? I like it you do all your own songwriting, that's really cool.

Sarah: I've started learning guitar to help me more with the songwriting process and I love it. I write a lot of songs myself but for the EP my producer Andres Torres and I co-wrote some of the songs together.

Me: Do you have any siblings who are also in the music biz?

Sarah: Not in the music business as such but my sister is an actor/model.

Me: One of your influences is Kelly Clarkson, who Phile readers say I am 'obsessed' with. Have you listened to her since she was on "Idol"?

Sarah: Yes, I definitely have. I study a lot of artists' songs and albums and it's so cool to see how much she has developed as an artist. Each album gets better and better in my opinion.

Me: If you got to meet Kelly, what would you ask her?

Sarah: I'd ask her if we could write a song together and if she could show me her process of writing. 

Me: Who else do you listen to?

Sarah: A whole range of genres, artists and bands. I absolutely love Jessie J, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry. But then there's bands like Daughtry and Lady Antebellum. I appreciate all sorts of music.

Me: Who did you listen to growing up, Sarah? Being from Australia I am guessing Kylie Minogue. Am I right?

Sarah: Oh yeah, Kylie. She's great. What I love most about her is her work ethic and how she works hard to get everything she wants.

Me: And I'm guessing Britney. What do you think of Britney?

Sarah: Ahh Britney. She's trying and I like that about her. It must be hard to go from success to not a whole lot with you career in the public eye and returning to it and trying to rebuild it. She's human like everyone else. Things happen. What's most important is how you get back up from it.

Me: Okay, let's talk about your music. I downloaded your EP from iTunes and I could picture Kelly singing your songs or vice versa. Was the EP recorded in Australia or LA?

Sarah: Thank you, you are so sweet. I recorded it at my producer's studio here in LA.

Me: One of your songs is already in a movie, right? Starting From Scratch I think is the title. That is pretty good for an artist just starting out.

Sarah: Thank you. Yes, it's great and has definitely helped add value to all the things I do. I'm really grateful to have been a part of such a cool film.

Me: You are very good looking, which goes without saying and I don't think you took any bad photo's. Is acting something you want to do in the future?

Sarah: You make me laugh! Oh, I can have a bad photo don't you worry! Seriously, if I tried acting I think the only character I could play is myself. I'm really not that great at it.

Me: Q: I watched some video's of you doing a Pink cover and a Maroon 5 cover, and it's you and some guy with an acoustic guitar in a hallway by a emergency exit door. I think I have a screenshot of it.

Me: You looked like you got kicked out of somewhere, Sarah. What happened?

Sarah: I'm a badass to say the least...! No, it's just a hallway I found a hallway with some great acoustics and decided to sing a series of songs in this hallway. They've been pretty successful at gaining some new fans!

Me: Have you been playing a lot of shows? How are they going?

Sarah: I play as often as possible, mainly locally for now. They're always great and fun to gain additional fans and I get to create really great relationships with the owners of the venues so it really helps if I want to return and play.

Me: Is there any show you did that sticks out as being really cool?

Sarah: I recently played with my band at the Hard Rock Cafe for a Battle Of The Bands competition. We absolutely rocked it! I was so happy with it and the guys had a great time. Another show would have been my EP release party as so many people were there to help celebrate and everyone had a great time.

Me: So, what do you have planned for next, Sarah? A full length album?

Sarah: Yes! I am working on some writing at the moment so hopefully soon you'll be hear more from me!!

Me: Hey, I have to ask, I saw a picture of you and the Ninja Turtles. What was that from?

Sarah: I was actually one of the turtles... cool, right?!

Me: Yeah.

Sarah: Back in Australia I used to do a lot of entertaining jobs and mascot work. That was from me performing a two week school holiday show in a well known shopping mall. It was so much fun!!

Me: Okay, so here on the Phile I ask random questions thanks to the game Tabletopics. Here's yours... What do you most enjoy or miss about being single? That's a lame question, Sarah. Answer it if you want, but here's another... Which celebrity would you most like to see in person? That's a better question.

Sarah: I'd seriously die if I saw Justin Timberlake or Bruno Mars.

Me: I saw Justin years ago at work. I'll tell you about it sometime. Sarah, thanks for being on the Phile. I hope it was fun and I hope you'll come back again soon. Go ahead and mention all your websites, I know there must be a lot.

Sarah: Thanks again for having me. It's been a blast. You can find me at: sarahdofficial.com,  facebook.com/sarahdofficial, twitter.com/sarahd_official, youtube.com/thesassysings, soundcloud.com/thesassysings.  

Me: Thanks again, take care, and please come back.

Sarah: Thank YOU!

That's about it for this entry. Thanks to Sarah for a great interview. Okay, the Phile will be back tomorrow with musician Carrie Johnson. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. May the Force be with you.