I'm coming to Biola University!
FYI: April 22nd and 23rd, I'll be at Biola for their media conference.Read more
Have you READ "Revenge of the Sith" yet?
Doesn't it take some of the fun out of OPENING DAY to know that the novelization of Star Wars, Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith is already available at your local bookstore?Read more
When "Reality" TV Tries to Alter the Reality of You
Here's a sad story about a family participating in an segment of ABC's PrimeTime Live . The segment was supposedly about different family dynamics, comparing and contrasting them. But it seems ABC's "journalist" (I refuse to use this term without the quotation marks, considering their tactics) had already made up her mind about these families, and tried to make them play into the ugly caricatures she had in her own head.
A "typical Roman Catholic family," the Farinholts, was deceived into participating without realizing that they were being "set up" as anti-homosexual bigots.
Ahhhh, prime-time "journalism."Read more
Anthony Lane on "Sin City"
Here's The New Yorker's Anthony Lane on Sin City, clever as always:
“We have, it is clear, reached the lively dead end of a process that was initiated by a fretful Martin Scorsese and inflamed, with less embarrassed glee, by Tarantino: the process of knowing everything about violence and nothing about suffering."
“Needless to say, a short course in movie history would teach them that graphic novels themselves are soaked to the bone in a style that was brought to refinement by film noir."
“Rodriguez is pleased to flash his hipster credentials, proud of the hole where his heart is supposed to be…”
"Never Let Me Go" ... by the author of "The Remains of the Day"
The less you read about this novel before you actually read the novel ... the better.
I'll avoid spoilers here and just say this:
I remember when I saw M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, I thought, "There's a great horror story waiting to be told about a community cut off from the modern world ... and this isn't it."
Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, on the other hand, is it!Read more
Au Hasard Balthazar
My favorite moviegoing experience of last year was Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar.
Now, Darren Hughes at Long Pauses has given me the best news I've heard all week...Read more
UPDATED: "Sin City" responses, reviews...
Keep checking back to this post, and I'll include some Sin City reviews that are worth reading.Read more
New Records by Beck and Over the Rhine Arrive
If you have a surround sound DVD system, do not buy the new Beck album Guero on CD.
Instead, purchase the DELUXE DVD version!! It has the entire album, plus several extra tracks, videos for the songs, and more. The surround sound experience is fantastic. Beck clearly conceived of these songs for this format--they're busy with little details, and they're spacious enough that you can explore them in different ways with each listen. I rarely listen to an album three times through without a break, but I did tonight, and I can't wait to hear it again. Beck is one of the few rock artists recording in surround sound. His 5.1 surround version of Sea Change is an awe-inspiring experience. Guero is an entirely different experience, but equally enjoyable.Read more
I'll be blogging a bit less this week...
A new assignment has suddenly commandeered my calendar for the rest of the week. The demands of the next few days are going to test my limits, but I am excited to try and meet the challenge.
Are you curious yet?Read more
All Credit to Richard Seven
I can only thank Richard Seven once again for letting me be a part of Pacific Northwest Magazine. Look at the letters coming in to The Seattle Times. I hope the higher-ups take note of this and give the guy a bonus.Read more
