Death Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car. The film pays homage to exploitation, muscle cars, and slasher film genres of the 1970s, and stars Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell as herself.

Death Proof was released theatrically in the United States as part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror under the collective title Grindhouse in order to replicate the experience of viewing exploitation film double features in a "grindhouse" theater. The films were released separately outside the United States and on DVD, with Death Proof going on sale in the United States on September 18, 2007.

Plot[link]

Three friends -– Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd), and radio DJ “Jungle” Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) -– drive down Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on their way to celebrate Jungle Julia's birthday. While bar-crawling, Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement earlier that morning, offering a free lap dance from Arlene in return for addressing her as "Butterfly," buying her a drink, and reciting a segment of the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” They are unaware they are being stalked by an aging and sadistic Hollywood stunt double, “Stuntman” Mike (Kurt Russell). After trailing them to a bar, Mike follows the instructions from the radio announcement to get the lap-dance. Despite some initial trepidation, due to having seen Mike's car earlier in the day, and asking if he has been following them, Mike puts her at ease (partly by saying she's chicken), and Arlene agrees to the dance.

The three women prepare to depart, while Pam (Rose McGowan), another intoxicated female bar patron, has been impressed by Mike and accepts a ride home from him, considering him to be a teetotaler and a safe ride. Mike takes Pam to his matte black 1971 Chevy Nova, which is a stunt car rigged with a safety cage inside. As Mike drives Pam off, it becomes clear he is trying to kill her, reminding her that his car is "death proof", but only to the driver. Since the passenger side has no safety restraints at all, he kills her by driving recklessly and then slamming on the brakes, which smashes her skull into the dashboard. Mike speeds off, leaving behind photos he took earlier of the three other women, so as not to get caught with any evidence. He eventually comes on their car on an empty road, and drives at full speed directly into it. The force of the impact kills all four women. (There was an older lady driver in the car known as Lena Frank, whom they met up with earlier at the bar.)

The local hospital finds Mike with only minor injuries, and asserts that since Mike was sober while the four women were intoxicated, he cannot be charged. This concerns Texas Ranger Earl McGraw, who is convinced Mike is guilty but cannot investigate without evidence. McGraw warns Mike that should this happen again, he'd better "make damn sure" it was not in Texas.

Fourteen months later, three young women, Abernathy Ross (Rosario Dawson), Kim Mathis (Tracie Thoms), and Lee Montgomery (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), are traveling through Lebanon, Tennessee. They stop briefly at a convenience store, where Mike is resting in his new ride, a 1969 Dodge Charger, and is intrigued by the women. The women, unaware of Mike, pick up their friend, stuntwoman Zoë Bell (who is playing herself), from the airport. Zoe informs them she wants to test-drive a white 1970 Dodge Challenger, exactly the same type of car from the 1971 film, Vanishing Point, which just happens to be nearby. After they get to the car's location, Abernathy tries to convince the owner, Jasper, to let them "test drive" it alone. He refuses at first, but after Abernathy tells him Lee will stay behind (under the false pretense that they are in town to film a porno, of which Lee is the star), he agrees. In the process of all this, Zoe reveals to Abernathy and Kim that she has an ulterior motive in taking the car; she wants to play a game called "Ship's Mast", where she rides on the car's hood using only leather belts to hold onto, while Kim drives it at high speeds.

The three enjoy the stunt, until Mike shows up and rear ends their car at high speed. The two cars engage in a harrowing high-speed chase for a distance before they both spin out on opposite sides of the roads, and Zoe is finally thrown from the car's hood. Mike gets out to brag to the girls but Kim fires a gun, wounding him in the shoulder. As Mike gets back in the car and flees, Zoe shows that she is okay, and the three women agree to get revenge on Mike. Wounded, Mike is not able to outrun the women, and eventually his car is T-boned by the women in their car. The women pull him from the car and beat him savagely in the head until he falls unconscious. After a short credits sequence, Abernathy delivers a final axe kick to Mike's head.

Cast[link]

• Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike McKay: A sociopathic stuntman/serial killer who kills women in and with his "death proof" car.
• Rosario Dawson as Abernathy Ross: A make-up artist and mother who complains that her friends always use her having a child to exclude her from fun activities that might be dangerous.
• Zoë Bell as Zoe: A stuntwoman from New Zealand who visits Abernathy, Kim and Lee on their days off from filming.
• Vanessa Ferlito as Arlene / Butterfly: A close friend of Julia and Shanna, who plan to go on holiday together after spending a night out.
• Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Jungle Julia: A popular Radio DJ in Austin, Texas.
• Tracie Thoms as Kim Mathis: A foul-mouthed stuntwoman and close friend of Zoe, Abernathy and Lee.
• Rose McGowan as Pam: A blonde customer at Warren's bar who needs a lift home.
• Jordan Ladd as Shanna: Friend of Arlene and Julia whose father owns a lake house they are intending to use.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lee Montgomery: An upcoming actress.
• Jonathan Loughran as Jasper: The owner of the Dodge Challenger.
• Michael Parks as Earl McGraw, a recurring character in Tarantino and Rodrigez's works.
• Monica Staggs as Lena Frank: A drug-dealing friend of Julia, Shanna, and Arlene.
• Marley Shelton as Dr. Dakota Block: An emergency medicine specialist and Sheriff Earl McGraw's daughter. Like her father, Block is developed more extensively in Planet Terror.
• Quentin Tarantino as Warren: The owner of the bar.

Production[link]

The story for Death Proof developed from Quentin Tarantino's fascination for the way stuntmen would “death-proof” stunt cars so a driver could survive horrific, high-speed crashes and collisions. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his “death-proof” car.^[1] Tarantino remembers, “I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you.”^[2] According to Robert Rodriguez, “[Tarantino] had an idea and a complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He started to tell me the story and said, ‘It’s got this death-proof car in it.’ I said, ‘You have to call it Death Proof.’ I helped title the movie, but that’s it.”^[1] Of the car chases, Tarantino stated, “CGI for car stunts doesn’t make any sense to me—how is that supposed to be impressive? […] I don't think there have been any good car chases since I started making films in ’92—to me, the last terrific car chase was in Terminator 2. And Final Destination 2 had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every time a stunt happens, there’s twelve cameras and they use every angle for Avid editing, but I don’t feel it in my stomach. It’s just action.”^[2]

Quentin Tarantino acted as cinematographer on Death Proof. Death Proof marked Tarantino's first credit as a cinematographer.^[3][4]

Tarantino attempted to cast John Travolta, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Mickey Rourke, Ron Perlman, Bruce Willis, Kal Penn^[5] and Sylvester Stallone^[6] in Death Proof, but none were able to work due to prior commitments. In an interview, Tarantino revealed that he decided to cast Kurt Russell as the killer stunt driver because “for people of my generation, he's a true hero…but now, there's a whole audience out there that doesn't know what Kurt Russell can do. When I open the newspaper and see an ad that says ‘Kurt Russell in Dreamer,’ or ‘Kurt Russell in Miracle,’ I'm not disparaging these movies, but I'm thinking: When is Kurt Russell going to be a badass again?”^[7] Eli Roth, Planet Terror leading actress Rose McGowan and Tarantino himself appear in small roles.

After being impressed by stuntwoman Zoë Bell, who worked as Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's earlier film Kill Bill, Tarantino wrote her the leading female role. This was her first on-screen acting which Bell initially thought was going to be a cameo role. The character Zoë was based on the stuntwoman herself and includes small stories based around her real life experiences, some with Tarantino. When her name was featured on the film posters opposite Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan, she realized how big the role was.

Death Proof uses various unconventional techniques to make the film appear more like those that were shown in grindhouse theaters in the 1970s. Throughout the feature, the film was intentionally damaged to make it look like many of the exploitation films of the 1970s which were generally shipped around from theater to theater and usually ended up in bad shape. A notable example of one of the film's deliberate jump-cuts is seen at the beginning, when the title Quentin Tarantino's Thunderbolt is shown for a split second before abruptly being replaced by an insert with the title Death Proof, appearing in white lettering on a black background.^[8] (Exploitation films were commonly retitled, especially if they received bad press on initial release.)

On the editing of Death Proof, Tarantino stated “There is half-an-hour’s difference between my Death Proof and what is playing in Grindhouse. […] I was like a brutish American exploitation distributor who cut the movie down almost to the point of incoherence. I cut it down to the bone and took all the fat off it to see if it could still exist, and it worked.”^[9] An extended, 127-minute version of Death Proof was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.^{[9][10][11][12]} Tarantino is quoted as saying “It works great as a double feature, but I'm just as excited if not more excited about actually having the world see Death Proof unfiltered. […] It will be the first time everyone sees Death Proof by itself, including me.”^[9]

Soundtrack[link]

The soundtrack for Death Proof consists entirely of non-original music, including excerpts from the scores of other films. It was released on April 3, 2007, alongside the Planet Terror soundtrack. Both albums featured dialogue excerpts from the film.

Release[link]

Death Proof was released in the United States and Canada alongside Planet Terror as part of a double feature under the title Grindhouse. Both films were released separately in extended versions internationally, approximately two months apart.^[13] The additional material includes scenes that were replaced in the American theatrical release version with a “missing reel” title card, such as the lap dance scene. A total of 27 minutes were added for this version. One of the first screenings of Death Proof was made at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 20, 2007, with star Zoë Bell attending the screenings.^[14] The Dutch poster artwork for Death Proof claimed that the film would feature “coming attractions” from Robert Rodriguez.^[15] In the United Kingdom, Death Proof was released on September 21, 2007, and in Australia on November 1, 2007.^[16] Explaining the split in foreign releases, Tarantino stated “Especially if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don’t really have this tradition … not only do they not really know what a grindhouse is, they don’t even have the double feature tradition. So you are kind of trying to teach us something else.”^[17]

Critical reception[link]

This section requires expansion.

Death Proof has received a generally favourable reception, 64 percent of the 38 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive.^[18]

Home media[link]

Death Proof was released on DVD in the United States on September 18, 2007 in a two-disc special edition featuring the extended version of the film, documentaries on the casting of the film, the various muscle cars and Tarantino's relationship with editor Sally Menke, trailers, and an international poster gallery.^[19] On December 16, 2008, a BD release of identical content followed.

A Japanese DVD release has the films Grindhouse, Death Proof and Planet Terror, with extras and fake trailers, in a six-DVD box set (English with optional Japanese subtitles). Death Proof was also released as a German HD DVD, believed to be the last film published in the now-defunct format.^[20]

The Grindhouse double feature was eventually released on Blu-ray Disc in October 2010.

See also[link]

• List of American films of 2007
• Grindhouse
• Planet Terror
• Machete
• Hobo with a Shotgun

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website^{[dead link]}
• Death Proof at the Internet Movie Database
• Death Proof at AllRovi
• Death Proof at Rotten Tomatoes
• Death Proof's review in Cahiers du cinéma (English)

Mark Kermode
Kermode performing with the Dodge Brothers in 2009.
Born	Mark Fairey (1963-07-02) 2 July 1963 (age 48) Barnet, North London, England
Residence	Brockenhurst, New Forest, Hampshire, England
Nationality	British
Citizenship	British
Education	PhD (English)
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Occupation	Film critic, presenter, musician
Employer	BBC, The Observer, Sight and Sound
Known for	Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews, The Culture Show, The Dodge Brothers

Mark Kermode (born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons.^[1] He also co-presents the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show and discusses other branches of the arts for the BBC Two programme Newsnight Review. Kermode writes and presents a film-related video blog for the BBC.

Early life and education[link]

Kermode, born Mark Fairey^[2][3] in Barnet, North London, England,^[4] attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent boys' school in Elstree, a few years ahead of comedians Sacha Baron Cohen, Matt Lucas and David Baddiel and in the same year as actor Jason Isaacs.^[5] He was raised as a Methodist, and is now a member of the Church of England.^[6]

Mark Fairey's parents divorced when he was in his early 20s and he subsequently changed his surname to his GP mother's maiden name by deed poll.^[7] (Neither of them is related to the literary critic Frank Kermode.^[8])

He earned his PhD in English at the University of Manchester in 1991, writing a thesis on horror fiction.^[4] Kermode has stated that "I was a revolutionary communist affiliate in the 80s", but that "none of us had any respect for Stalin".^[9]

Personal life[link]

Kermode lives in Brockenhurst with his wife, Linda Ruth Williams, a professor who lectures on film at the University of Southampton and has written The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema and co-edited Contemporary American Cinema.^[10] In October to November 2004, they jointly curated a History of the Horror Film season and exhibition at the National Film Theatre in London.^[10] Kermode and Williams have two children.^[7] Kermode has been described as "a feminist, a near vegetarian (he eats fish), a churchgoer and a straight-arrow spouse who just happens to enjoy seeing people's heads explode across a cinema screen".^[11]

Career[link]

Horror specialisation[link]

Kermode is a visiting fellow at the University of Southampton, having gained a PhD at the University of Manchester in modern English and American horror fiction.^[12] He has also contributed to Fangoria magazine,^[13] authored the monograph The Exorcist (BFI Modern Classics), and worked on film-related documentaries like The Fear of God; 25 Years of the Exorcist, Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of Ken Russell's The Devils, The Edge of Blade Runner, and The Cult of The Wicker Man.^[14] He calls The Exorcist (1973) "the best film ever made".^[15] He recommends The Witch Who Came From the Sea as one of the best video nasties of the 1970s.^[16]

Kermode is sometimes critical of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the censor for film in the UK, calling for horror films from abroad to be shown in their uncut versions. However, in recent years, he has stated on numerous occasions that the BBFC do a good job in an impossible situation, and expressed his approval of their decisions.^[17]

Print media[link]

Kermode began his film career as a print journalist, writing for Manchester's City Life, and then Time Out and the NME in London. He has also written for The Independent, Vox, Empire, Flicks, Fangoria and Neon.^[18] Until September 2005, Kermode reviewed films each week for the New Statesman.^[19] Since 2009 Kermode has written "Mark Kermode's DVD round-up" for The Observer, a weekly review of the latest releases.^[20] He sometimes writes for the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2010, Random House released his autobiography, It's Only a Movie, which he describes as being "inspired by real events".^[21] Its publication was accompanied by a UK tour.^[22] In September 2011 he released a follow-up book entitled The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex, in which he puts forth his opinion on the good and bad of modern films, and vehemently criticizes the modern multiplex experience and the 3D film craze of the early 2000s.^[23]

Radio[link]

Kermode began working at BBC Radio 1 in 1993, on a regular Thursday night slot called Cult Film Corner on Mark Radcliffe's Graveyard Shift session.^[24] He later moved to Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 morning show. He also hosted a movie review show with Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1 on Tuesday nights called Cling Film.^[25] Between February 1992 and October 1993, he was the resident film reviewer on BBC Radio 5's Morning Edition with Danny Baker.

Kermode also co-hosted an early 1990s afternoon magazine show on BBC Radio 5 called A Game of Two Halves alongside former Blue Peter presenter Caron Keating.^[26]

He currently reviews and debates new film releases each Friday afternoon with Simon Mayo on Mayo's BBC Radio 5 Live show, which is also available as a podcast.^[27] The programme won Gold in the Speech Award category at the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards on 11 May 2009. The judges' citation was:^[28]

The winner of the Gold Award made the judges laugh out loud. They found this programme witty and entertaining, cheeky and irreverent, and they admired the sustained passion and energy of its presenters who made listening an effortless and rollercoaster pleasure.

His derisive review of the Christopher Columbus film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief inspired the Australian comedy film Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins.

Television[link]

Kermode is currently a regular presenter on BBC Two's The Culture Show. He also appears regularly on Newsnight Review and Film 24 on BBC News. It was during a 2006 interview with Kermode for The Culture Show in Los Angeles that Werner Herzog was shot by an air rifle. Herzog appeared unflustered, later stating "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid".^[29][30] On 19 May 2007 he was featured on the show playing with his skiffle band, The Dodge Brothers, in which he plays the double bass.

Kermode is also a film critic and presenter for Film4 and Channel 4, presenting the weekly Extreme Cinema strand. He also writes and presents documentaries for Channel 4.^[18] Once a week, he reviews films for BBC News at Five.

Kermode rarely watches television, calling it "trivial" and stating that "I have been doing my best to avoid [TV] for the last 20 years."^[31] On being challenged by The Observer to watch TV, he admitted "if there's one thing I've learned from agreeing to take up the Observer's TV challenge this summer, it's that an awareness of what's going on in television is probably helpful to an understanding of movies. Worse, it may even be essential".^[31]

Kermode appeared in a cameo role as himself in the revival of the BBC's Absolutely Fabulous on January 1, 2012.^[32]

Other work[link]

As of April 2008, Kermode has started a twice-weekly video blog hosted on the BBC website, where he posts clips of himself talking about films and telling anecdotes.^[33]

Kermode has recorded DVD audio commentaries for Tommy, The Ninth Configuration, The Wicker Man^[34] and (with Peter O'Toole) Becket.^[35] He also appears in the DVD extras of Lost in La Mancha, interviewing Terry Gilliam. Kermode has written books, published by the BFI in its Modern Classics series, on The Exorcist^[36] and The Shawshank Redemption^[37][38] and his documentary for Channel 4, Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature, is on the film's 10th anniversary special edition DVD.^[39]

Opinions[link]

Kermode's appreciation of genre cinema is not always in line with popular taste. He dislikes all four Pirates of the Caribbean films,^[41] all of the live action Transformers films, and considers the Star Wars series to be a "gross infantalisation of the dark hearted 'serious' sci-fi" that he grew up with.^[42] Kermode has also expressed his dislike of director Chris Columbus, labelling him an "accountant director" and producing a negative analysis of the first two Harry Potter films, which Columbus directed. However, Kermode says he has "grown into the Potter story" as the films have advanced in their mature themes and content.^[43] He dislikes 3D films, and is particularly disdainful of the trend for what he calls "retrofitting" 2D movies into 3D,^[44] and he also detests the Cannes Film Festival. Kermode's emphasis on genre cinema has also meant he often expresses a liking for films panned by other critics, such as Basic Instinct 2 (2006)^[45] because it follows genre expectations. Kermode has been critical of documentary maker Michael Moore (despite praising Capitalism: A Love Story on his radio show), accusing him of "feeding his own ego".^[46]. However he expressed his admiration for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, directed by David Slade, a film dismissed by the majority of critics. Kermode has very strong views and is well known for his rants against certain blockbuster movies such as the Michael Bay films mentioned above, often citing the director as a bad example of filmmaking.

Music[link]

Kermode played double-bass for a skiffle/rockabilly band called The Railtown Bottlers in the early 1990s. The Railtown Bottlers were also the house band on the BBC show Danny Baker After All for a series, starting in 1993,^[47][48] where he performed with Madness lead singer, Suggs.^[49] He currently plays bass in skiffle quartet The Dodge Brothers.^[48]

Awards and other recognition[link]

Kermode is 75th on The Guardian's Film Power 100;^[52] According to The Screen Directory, Kermode is tenth in the list of the best film critics, in company that includes Alexander Walker, Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, David Thomson, and James Agee.^[40]

Kermode is a patron of the Phoenix Cinema in North London.^[53]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile of Mark Kermode at the University of Southampton
• Archive of selected articles by Kermode in Critics / Authors Review and Articles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mark Kermode at BBC Programmes
• Kermode Uncut: Mark Kermode's Movie Blog at BBC Online
• Interview with Mark Kermode at subtitledonline.com
• Video interview with Mark Kermode regarding The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex at subtitledonline.com

Kate Nash
Kate Nash in 2010.
Background information
Birth name	Kate Marie Nash
Born	(1987-07-06) 6 July 1987 (age 24) Harrow, London, England[1]
Genres	Indie pop, indie rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, synth, keyboard, bass, drums
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Fiction Island Def Jam Ireland Moshi Moshi Universal-Island
Associated acts	The Receeders Ryan Jarman SUPERCUTE!, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players Jason Trachtenburg, Kano
Website	www.katenash.co.uk

Kate Marie Nash^[2] (born 6 July 1987) is an English^[3] singer, songwriter and musician.^[4] She had a UK number-2 hit "Foundations" in 2007, followed by the platinum-selling UK number-1 album Made of Bricks. She was named Best Female Artist at the 2008 BRIT Awards.

Her second studio album, entitled My Best Friend Is You, was released in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2010 and in the U.S. on 11 May 2010. It spawned her second biggest chart hit to date, the single "Do-Wah-Doo".^[5]

Nash is currently signed to The Island Def Jam Motown Ireland Group.

Early life[link]

Nash was born on 6 July 1987 in Harrow, London^[1][6] to an English father, Steven Nash, and an Irish mother, Marie (née Walsh). Marie is a nurse in a hospice.^[1][7][8][9] Nash learned to play the piano while at at Sandbach School. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St. John Fisher School, Pinner, before moving onto the St Joan of Arc Catholic School, Rickmansworth. She was also taught guitar by Saskia van Berkel and studied Theatre at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in South London. She auditioned at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, but was rejected. Soon afterward, she fell down a flight of stairs, breaking her foot. During her recovery, she was housebound and unable to move, so her mother bought her an electric guitar. Nash used this time to focus on her songwriting: she began to write some new songs, finish old ones and decided that she would book a gig at a local bar ("Trinity") in Harrow to showcase her songs.^{[citation needed]}

Music career[link]

Nash in 2006.

"Caroline's a Victim" (2005-2006)[link]

Nash started her career in 2005. After several gigs, she uploaded her music to MySpace, found a manager and then producers for her music.

Nash's debut was a single, "Caroline's a Victim"/"Birds", produced and recorded in Iceland by Valgeir Sigurðsson and released through Moshi Moshi Records in February 2007. The release was limited to 1,000 copies and available only on 7" vinyl. Due to demand, another 1,000 copies were made and these also sold out. CD-promo copies were produced for distribution to the press and DJs and are occasionally available for sale. The single is featured on the CD Moshi Moshi Singles Compilation. A video for the song, directed by Kinga Burza, was released and received airplay on MTV2. The single's B-side, "Birds", later featured on her début album Made of Bricks. Both tracks have also been released as MP3 downloads.

[edit] Made of Bricks (2007-2009)

In April 2007, Nash was signed to the Polydor offshoot Fiction Records.^[10] Her second single "Foundations", which she co-wrote with producer Paul Epworth, was released by Fiction on 18 June 2007 and reached number two in the official UK Singles Chart. Following this success, Fiction announced plans to bring forward the release of Nash's début album Made of Bricks to 6 August 2007. The album, also produced by Paul Epworth, included many of the tracks she had been performing during her two nationwide tours.

Made of Bricks was leaked to filesharing networks a few days before its official commercial release and subsequently received mixed reviews, with The Independent describing it as being in "pole position for worst album of the year."^[11] It proved, however, to be successful and reached number 1 in the UK album charts.^[12]

During mid-2007, Nash performed at numerous festivals, including the Wireless Festival, Bestival, Electric Gardens, Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds, Oxegen and T in the Park. She made her official TV performance début on Later with Jools Holland.

Throughout late 2007 and early 2008, Nash released three more singles from the Made of Bricks. "Mouthwash" and "Pumpkin Soup" both made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. Although her fifth single "Merry Happy" didn't chart well in the UK, the song enjoyed some success in other countries, including the USA and Canada. The album topped out at number 36 on the United States Billboard 200 chart on 26 January 2008.^[13] In 2010, Made of Bricks was certified Gold in Germany.^[14]

[edit] My Best Friend Is You (2009-2011)

Nash performing in May 2010

In late March 2009, Nash revealed that she was in the early stages of recording her second album. She was introduced by her boyfriend Ryan Jarman to Bernard Butler, the producer for Duffy's debut album Rockferry and a former guitarist for Suede. He began working with Nash, working in the studio with her over a period of months and producing her second album.^[15] In August 2009, the pair worked on eight songs at RAK Studios for the album.^[16]

On 14 January 2010, Nash revealed that the second album was complete. On 11 February, a song from the album, "I Just Love You More", was available to download free from her official website.^[17]

On 11 March 2010, Nash announced her nine-date North American tour that began on 26 April with the all-female travelling festival Lilith Fair to promote her new album My Best Friend Is You. Her opening act was Supercute!, a psychedelic pop teen girl trio from New York City.^[18][19][20] She is also scheduled to take part in the 2010 V Festival.^[21]

The first single from the album was called "Do-Wah-Doo", and was released on 12 April 2010. The album was released on 20 April. The sound was described as completely different from her debut album and having a "Girl Group" sound, taking influence from Motown stars such as Diana Ross and The Supremes. Nash explained that maturity is the reason for the change in musical style.^[22] The album has been described as having a wide variety of sounds from wall of sound, Motown to No Wave and Riot Grrrl.^[23][24][25] As of 11 May, the album was number 6 in Germany and number 16 in Europe.^[26] As of 27 May, the album was at number 62 in the United States.^[27]

On 24 February 2011, her concerts in Circo Voador, Rio de Janeiro and in HSBC Hall, São Paulo were the first contact with her Brazilian fans. It was so intense that Nash has said on stage "Here (Rio de Janeiro) was the happiest place I have ever been. You are beautiful, incredible" and promised a return soon.^[28] On her Twitter, she finally declared "Rio, you're just too good to be true. I must be dreaming. Thanks for giving me the best concert of my life".^[29]

Third studio album (2012-present)[link]

On 2 May 2012, Nash announced the "Faster Pussycat Run Run Tour", which will see her play 12 shows across the UK throughout June 2012.^[30] Her third studio album will be released later in the year.^[31] She will also star in two feature films this year, details of which are yet to be announced.^[31]

Other music career activities[link]

Nash performing in June 2007

Nash co-wrote a song titled "Almost Isn’t (Good Enough) Is It?" with Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players member Jason Trachtenburg for his 2009 album File Under Pop Male Vocal.^[32]

As a side project in late 2009, she joined a punk band called The Receders where she plays bass.^[22] On 17 December 2009, the band played a live gig on the stage of 93 Feet East.^[33] Nash likes to refer to the band as her "side project" as she says for 2010 she will be mainly focusing on her solo material. Her music was used as part of an exhibition at the British Library tracing the history of Cockney English. The exhibition, which runs from 12 November 2010 through 11 April 2011, uses Nash's music to demonstrate today's younger urban mode of Cockney English.^[34]

On 23 March 2010 Nash, a founding director of the Featured Artists Coalition, a musicians' lobbying group,^[35][36] launched the Kate Nash's Rock n Roll for Girls After-School Music Club as a platform to inspire teenage girls to get into songwriting and making their own music, due to the shortage of female artists in the UK- something that shocked and motivated Nash the previous year. On her UK tour of 2011, Nash visited schools such as City of Portsmouth Girls' School, Woodchurch High School, Avonbourne High School and John Madejski Academy.^[37]

Nash has worked with the teen indie pop band, SUPERCUTE!, producing their first album.^[38] Nash also appeared in the band's music video for their first single, "Dumb-Dumbs". Nash has also worked with indie act Brigitte Aphrodite (who has toured with Kate on many occasions) on Nash's label 'Have 10p Records', releasing Aphrodite's début single 'I Dream Myself Awake' in 2011.

Nash has recently recorded and written a song with the St. Pauls Cathedral Protesters with Sam Duckworth of Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly.

Willow Smith tweeted in April 2012, "So cool meeting @katenash today. Can't wait to work together!" along with a photograph of the pair. Kate then tweeted back confirming the pair would be meeting again the following Friday.

Personal life[link]

In 2008, following intensive touring, Nash had what she described as a "proper breakdown", including a relapse of the mild obsessive-compulsive disorder which she had experienced as a child.^[1] She has railed against the "anaemic" model figure, noting in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that she herself is a "curvy size 12".^[39]

On 2 September 2009, Nash began using her MySpace and Facebook pages to help spread the word of a young girl called Tilly who lost her hands due to meningococcal disease. She used an auction on eBay to help donate money to the five-year-old girl's parents so that she can afford a pair of [prosthetic?] hands.^[40]

During the 2011 England riots, Nash volunteered to collect donations for those made homeless by riots in Tottenham, setting up her own public donation stand and delivering donations to Tottenham Leisure Centre in her car.^[41]

Nash has made appearances in two films due to be released in 2012, as well as a short horror film which has appeared on several websites online.

Discography[link]

• Made of Bricks (2007)
• My Best Friend Is You (2010)

Awards and nominations[link]

On February 20, 2008, she received a BRIT Award for Best Female artist.^[42]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kate Nash

External links[link]

• Official Kate Nash website
• Photos of her concert in Paris in 2010

Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2009
Born	Quentin Jerome Tarantino (1963-03-27) March 27, 1963 (age 49) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, actor
Years active	1988–present
Notable work(s)	Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds
Influenced by	Sergio Leone, Brian De Palma, Howard Hawks, John Woo, Jim Jarmusch, Jean-Luc Godard, Elmore Leonard, Samuel Fuller, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Sam Peckinpah, Jack Hill, Douglas Sirk, Jean-Pierre Melville, Enzo G. Castellari, Sergio Corbucci[1]

Quentin Jerome Tarantino^[2] (pronunciation: /ˌtærənˈtiːnoʊ/; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. He has received many industry awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and the Palme d'Or and had been nominated for an Emmy and Grammy.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino was an avid film fan. His career began in the late 1980's, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday. Its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence. His films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003, 2004), Death Proof (2007), and Inglourious Basterds (2009).

His movies are generally characterized by stylistic influences from grindhouse, kung fu, and spaghetti western films. Tarantino also frequently collaborates with his friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.