| 'Steep' (an extreme skiing history) -- 3 1/2 stars
Opening: Jan. 25 at the Music Box Theatre.
Written and directed by: Mark D. Obenhaus; photographed by Erich Roland; edited by Peter R. Livingston Jr. and Chris A. Peterson; music by Victor Magro and Anton Sanko; produced by Tom Yellin, Obenhaus and Bill Kerig. A Sony Pictures Classics release. More articles Get chicagotribune.com news by e-mail. Sign up for Daywatch. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune .
Blues in box seat
Earlier, the Blues took four wickets late on day three to hold a commanding position after amassing an imposing 485 to take a 96-run-first-innings lead. Doug Bollinger (3-42) and Beau Casson (2-54) rammed home the advantage late on day three with two-wickets apiece to leave the visitors in deep trouble at 4-45 at the close of play. First-innings centurion Liam Davis (2) was the first man to fall adjudged lbw from the bowling of a fired-up Bollinger to leave visitors 1-13. Justin Langer (14) signalled his intent immediately with three early boundaries but Bollinger had the final say trapping the former Australian opener in front of the stumps for his second scalp of the innings. Chris Rogers (9) was the next man to fall also adjudged lbw from Beau Casson's second delivery of the innings but things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Voges (2) was smartly caught in close by Simon Katich to give Casson his second wicket of the innings.
Desperately shuttered Susan: movie-inspired U.K. musical to close ...
The curtain will fall next month on the British stage production of Desperately Seeking Susan, the musical based on the screwball 1985 comedy starring Madonna. Producers of the West End show announced on Friday that the stage musical will close Dec. 15 — a month after its official opening at London's Novello Theatre. Deborah Harry, flanked by British actresses Kelly Price, left, and Emma Williams, attended the launch for the Desperately Seeking Susan musical in July. (Matt Dunham/Associated Press) "Ticket sales have not been sufficient and the producers have had to make the difficult decision to close the show," according to a statement released on Friday. The plot of the stage show revolved around the same mistaken-identity premise of the movie, but instead of including tracks by Madonna, producers featured the music of 1980s icons Blondie, including a new song by lead singer Deborah Harry.
Iginla keeps on giving
Should the Calgary Flames captain go on a scoring spree in today's showcase event, it'll cost him cash. A chunk of cash. Iginla, one of the NHL's premier snipers, is pledging to donate $5,000 to charity for every goal he scores for the Western Conference squad during the game at Atlanta's Philips Arena. "Try something new, I guess," he said. "Also, to pay back for not scoring before. What's that called, retroactive? Interest? "I just thought I'd have some fun with it. Hopefully I'll get on the sheet one of these days." At the break, Iginla is tied for third in the league with 32 goals, most among Western Conference players. However, the two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner hasn't clicked on a red light in a trio of all-star games.
United States still needs the F-22 Raptor
That kind of either/or scenario could best be described as penny-wise but pound-foolish. The United States needs both. The F-35 is a magnificent plane. Its projected ability to carry out missions against fixed or mobile ground targets is eight times more effective than legacy aircraft. Its air-to-air combat abilities will be second only to the F-22's. But production on the F-35 doesn't really crank into high gear until 2014 or 2015. The F-22 is ready to go — today. Civilians hate to think about issues like “first-look, first-shot, first-kill" capabilities, but that's exactly how the tools of war must be evaluated. The F-22, with its speed, maneuverability and stealth, provides just those advantages. It is the ideal first-day fighter against enemy air forces. It blows the screens off the porch and kicks down the doors on Day 1 to make sure that nothing jumps up to contest air superiority.
Details surface on the MacBook Air
Newsweek's Steven Levy weighs in with The Skinny on the MacBook Air and USA Today's Edward C. Baig writes MacBook Air: The sexy kind of skinny but with some flaws. For those that are too busy to read, Gizmodo has posted a handy MBA review matrix. You can also check out the preliminary unboxing pictures and the size comparison to a Sony Vaio. Move fast if you want to see the video of opening the bottom case to peek at the battery (better check the Google cache on this one, Apple spanked Gizmodo for opening their loaner machine). The bottom casing has 10 screws, all #00 Phillips, but there are 3 different screw lengths… Nine screws hold the battery in. Engadget has the full skinny (sorry) on the MBA's Remote Disk feature (no movie playback, no HD support).
Pistons' Afflalo hoping for double duty
Pistons: Notebook Pistons' Afflalo hoping for double duty He'd like to participate in rookie challenge event, plus being a player rep at All-Star Game. Chris McCosky / The Detroit News AUBURN HILLS -- Sometime this week, the league will announce the rookie and sophomore teams that will compete in the annual rookie challenge game on All-Star Saturday. Arron Afflalo of the Pistons is on the bubble. "It would be a fun experience if it happened," he said. "If it doesn't, I'm not too worried about it. At this point, I just want to win a championship. That's my only worry. But I would be very grateful if it happened." .
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