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Archive for the ‘Arts’ Category

Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris

Posted in Arts, Language and Literature, tagged , , , , on May 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Loved this movie!  What a sweet, beautiful celebration of a single time and place in the history of culture.  However, I wish Allen had squeezed James Joyce in with the rest of his pantheon.  Ewan McGregor played Joyce in a film once; would it have killed Allen to call him up to see if he [...]

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Funky Science Fiction!

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , , on April 9, 2012 | 1 Comment »

I recently rewatched one of my favorite movies, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I intended to read while it played, and just look up when the “best” parts came on, but I was instantly hooked again.  I had to to gaze, amazed, at every second.  Some parts of act III lag a bit, but [...]

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Best Bond Fight In Best Bond Movie

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , on April 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I say that the best James Bond movie was 1963′s From Russia With Love.  My favorite scene is the fight on the Orient Express. The trend in film has always been for fights to become more and more stylized, but this fight scene is the perfect balance of choreography and brutal, realistic brawling.  Add to [...]

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Two Thoughts on Prometheus

Posted in Arts, Humor, Random, tagged , , , , , on March 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I am very excited about Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.  With the arrival of the full trailer, however, I am left with two big questions: 1.  When will mankind learn?  When you find an artifact or message from an alien civilization, going to find them on their home planet is a BAD IDEA.  Something will go wrong, [...]

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Whiffenpoofs

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , on March 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

One fringe benefit of working at a performing arts magnet school is getting to be around some of the professionals who occasionally visit.  A couple of weeks ago, I got to sit in on a performance by the Whiffenpoofs, a men’s chorus from Yale.  Their work was amazing, and they interacted with the kids very [...]

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Thistle & Shamrock

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , on March 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

It’s been years since my local NPR station dropped one of my favorite shows, The Thistle and Shamrock, a weekly hour-long update on all things current in the world of Celtic music.  Luckily, they’ve started keeping some podcasts and archives of recent shows on their web site. I listen to it a lot while grading [...]

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Cast Away

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , on March 5, 2012 | 4 Comments »

I watched this a few weeks ago, and it’s the best movie I’ve seen so far this year.  Not too many actors could have sold the scene of mourning for Wilson so authentically, grieving for a lost volleyball.     Just as impressive is the quiet speech Hanks gives about the inspiring power of endurance.  [...]

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A Las Vegas Scottish Ceilidh!

Posted in Arts, Living well, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

On Saturday I went to Las Vegas’ annual Scottish Ceilidh with two of my children.  As always, it was excellent and we all loved it. Performances included music and dance.  Music was mostly by a local staple, Desert Sky Pipes and Drums.  Here’s a clip of them doing their thing:   Most of the concert [...]

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How Modern Russian Cinema Evolved From Orson Welles

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , , , on February 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Just saw Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil last month.  This impressive opening scene is the best part of the movie.  A lot of technical wizardry must have gone into making this long tracking shot work–not to mention tons of rehearsal. Even more impressive, though, is the 2002 film Russian Ark, which I also saw last [...]

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Another February Song

Posted in Arts, tagged , , on February 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

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Reviews of Movies I Haven’t Seen: Chronicle

Posted in Arts, tagged , , on February 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Actually, every review I’ve read so far says this movie is pretty good.  Still, the plot sounds even more derivative than usual.  Angry, sullen teen starts developing telekinetic powers, and then uses them to exact revenge on the popular kids who tormented him?  Isn’t this basically the plot of Carrie, Stephen King’s debut novel from [...]

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Heavenly Choir Gets Etta James “At Last”

Posted in Arts, tagged , , on January 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Divine R&B diva Etta James died a few days ago.  Especially for anyone whose musical experience begins with Bieber and ends with Swift, enjoy this beautiful view of what more music is capable of.

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Recommended Listening: Bill Miller

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I first came across Bill Miller’s music as a teenager when I saw Tori Amos in concert, touring for her second album.  I remember liking the show well enough, but I remember being blown away by the opening act, a Native American folk rocker named Bill Miller.  I’d never heard anything like him, and I [...]

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2011: My Year In Movies

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , on December 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

I watched a lot of movies in 2011.  This was the first year that I kept track, and I was surprised just how many there were.  Of course, a lot of these were for my project of seeing all of the non R-rated movies on AFI’s top 100 American films list.  I’ll give more details and [...]

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Classic Jazz for a Rainy Monday

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , on December 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

There used to be an older black man in my congregation at church, and someone told me that he was a huge jazz fan, and had heard a lot of the classic stuff when it had first come out.  So I asked him one day what he recommended.  He told me about “Yardbird Suite,” as done [...]

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