Most Recent Posts

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A tornado-producing storm hit central Indiana on Tuesday, damaging homes southwest of Indianapolis and downing power lines and uprooting trees in the city and its suburbs, authorities said.

It was one of several thunderstorms that sprang up in southwestern Indiana near Terre Haute and became more severe as they moved northeast toward Indianapolis. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Ryan said the tornado struck in the afternoon just southwest of Indianapolis and caused extensive damage to at least three homes.

That storm then headed into Indianapolis, where Public Safety Director Troy Riggs said city emergency officials received reports of house and tree damage and downed power lines on the southwest side of the city.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Rich Myers said no injuries were reported. "That's the good news," he said.

The city of Indianapolis opened an operations center to organize its response to the storm, Homeland Security Director Gary Coons said.

"Something hit here. Whether it was straight-line winds or a tornado, something with a lot of wind hit here," Coons told WRTV. "We're just trying to assess and see how much damage there is."

Indianapolis Power and Light Co. reported more than 1,600 customers without service shortly after the storm in a second straight day of storm-related outages in the city.

As the storm moved into the northern suburb of Carmel, Duke Energy reported about 100 customers without power.

Heavy rains accompanying the storms prompted the weather service to issue flash flood warnings for much of central Indiana.

i i

NEW YORK (AP) — When the bassist turned filmmaker John Carney was young, a borrowed Walkman played while cycling to school was an epiphany.

"The idea of personalized music was outrageous to me," said the Irish writer-director in a recent interview. "My life changed. I could now make this journey in an imaginative state. You could suddenly be listening to a Malcolm McLaren song or Grand Master Flash."

Carney's latest film, "Begin Again," which opens Friday, is a love letter to the transformative power of music — the way it can chart our lives and provide solace for trying times. It's an earnest reminder of the simple majesty of music, even in the disposable age of iTunes. The original title was "Can a Song Save Your Life?" and there's no doubt as to the film's answer.

It's a follow-up of sorts to Carney's 2006 Oscar-winning indie sensation "Once," which chronicles a musical romance between a Dublin busker and a recent Ireland immigrant, who join for an unlikely, uplifting recording session. "Begin Again" moves to New York, but it, too, exudes a heart-on-the-sleeve sincerity about collaborative music-making and an abiding affection for street-level authenticity.

Mark Ruffalo stars as a divorced, middle-aged record executive struggling in the modern, recalibrated music industry. He's grown cynical, furiously tossing CDs out of his car window, desperate for something with feeling. He drunkenly stumbles across it at a Lower East Side club, where an unknown British singer (Keira Knightley) bewilders him. He pursues her and cobbles together a band to back her on an outdoor album recorded around New York.

Knightley's character is also lost, having come to the U.S. with her musician boyfriend (Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine), only to see his sudden onset of pop stardom leave her behind.

The mix of disciplines — music and movies — is seen throughout "Begin Again." CeeLo Green and Yasiin Bey (also known as Mos Def) play supporting roles. Knightley sings despite little previous experience.

"For me, the two things are almost married," says Carney of cinema and music.

Carney, 42, was a member of the Irish band the Frames before turning to directing their music videos. He also wrote some of the songs in "Begin Again," which came out of imagining what happened to A&R guys he saw trolling Dublin in early 90s, looking for "the next U2."

"He's sincere," says Ruffalo of Carney. "He's earnest about his art and his filmmaking."

Ruffalo identified with what he calls "the inner unrest" reflected in "Begin Again," a movie he said that's about people "getting back to themselves."

Shot in only 24 days, "Begin Again" was made with the same lo-fi aesthetic of its music, which meant working quickly, improvising dialogue and finding ad hoc locations.

"I was completely out of my comfort zone," says Knightley. "I'd never really been on films where the space isn't safe. This film was very much like if there was a street corner where it looked like we might get away with shooting for a little while, we'd jump out of the van and try to do it there."

Levine was also trying something different — acting in a movie for the first time. As someone who experienced firsthand what it's like to go from an unknown to enormously famous nearly overnight, he was uniquely qualified to play a character who did the same thing.

"Having that happen to you is a very unique and highly unnatural situation to be put in," Levine says. "The things that kind of went haywire as a result ... it's not going to be a smooth transition."

"That's what connected me to this (character)," Levine says. "I saw so much of myself in him 10 years ago."

Despite the influence of music on Carney's life, he hasn't personally listened to it for some time, following the death of a family member.

"Music is too much for me to listen to because it's like an intravenous expression of emotion," he says. "I can't go there."

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger can't get no soccer satisfaction.

In what's becoming something of a modern World Cup tradition, Brazilians are closely following every team the 70-year-old rock star supports with an eye at mocking him for apparently casting bad spells on his picks.

Italy was the latest victim of what local media have taken to calling Jagger's "pe frio" — a term describing the bad luck that he brings teams that translates literally as "cold foot."

At a concert in Rome on Saturday night, Jagger predicted to 70,000 fans that four-time World Cup champion Italy would pull off a clutch victory over Uruguay to advance to the knockout phase. The Italians lost 1-0 Tuesday and were headed home after the tournament's first round.

At a show in Lisbon in May, the singer predicted that Portugal, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, the game's top player heading into the World Cup, would win it all at the monthlong tournament in Brazil. Portugal is on the brink of elimination after failing to win in its first two group matches.

Earlier in the World Cup, Jagger suffered some good-hearted ridicule after taking to Twitter on June 19 to urge on his native England in a game, also with Uruguay. "Let's go England! This is the one to win!!," he wrote. England lost.

While Brazilians may laugh at Jagger, they love his music. The Stones' 2006 concert on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro drew an estimated 1 million people, a lot more than the 20,000 or so that pack the beach now to watch World Cup games on a giant screen.

Jagger also loves Brazilians, having fathered one 15 years ago with former Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez.

Brazilians' obsession with Jagger's soccer insights, or lack thereof, began four years ago at the World Cup in South Africa. Searching for an explanation for their country's stunning quarterfinal loss to the Netherlands, Brazil's fans settled on Jagger, who showed up at the stadium accompanying his son dressed in a Brazilian jersey.

Earlier in that tournament, he had already earned a reputation for losing picks by showing up in the stands with Bill Clinton to cheer on the United States, which lost to Ghana in the second round, and then a day later watched as England was trounced by Germany 4-1.

Whether Jagger tempts fate and offers up another prediction this World Cup is anyone's guess.

But if he does, Brazilians are begging it's not for them. Within hours of Italy's defeat Tuesday, social media was buzzing with pleas for the rocker to keep quiet, or better yet, lend his reverse rabbit's foot to the country's despised rival, Argentina.

___

Associated Press writer Ana Santos contributed to this report.