Friday, June 20, 2008

Favre!, Chinese Cinema!, 12 CD Variety Pack!

DVD

The Quarterbacks - Manning, Brady, Favre by NFL Films.

Come Drink With Me starring [Chinese actors you never heard of]. Golden Swallow is "sent to rescue a kidnapped official from a bandit clan." She teams up with a drunken mentor to help her. The first film to suspend actors from wires for spectacular fight sequences.

Music CDs

Jazz/Blues

Beautiful Day by Jazzamor. What the...? I ordered this? I remember the cover image, I'm sure it's good. Must be another one of those, "Allmusic.com talked me into it" discs.
No. I just checked allmusic and that is not why I bought it.

Night Train to Nashville by Tab Benoit. Louisiana blues musician. I got talked into trying this out by some nerds on the Spyderco forum. A live 2007 performance by Benoit in Nashville on occasion of his Blues Music Association award as Entertainer of the Year.

Country and Western

Troubador by George Straight. Popular guy.

Back When I Knew It All by Montgomery Gentry. These two dudes seem popular so I bought this latest disc.

Rock and Roll

Turbo Ocho by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Roots rock band from Tempe, AZ. Includes a DVD documenting their eight songs in eight days recording process. Website.

Attack & Release by the Black Keys. From Allmusic.com: "From Akron, OH, they play close-to-the-bone, raw blues-rock, the only instrumentation being Auerbach's guitar, Carney's drums, and the occasional organ. Auerbach had a fine, mature, lived-in blues voice for one so young, and the group's material worked in funk, soul, and rock influences from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown that avoided undue repetition of the overdone chord progressions and stock riffs common to so many such acts."

Total Dance : 2008 by Fergie, Ne-Yo, Hilary Duff, others. "The biggest collection of club hits! Continuously mixed by America's #1 DJ, DJ Skribble."
Skribble?

Blame it on Gravity by Old 97's. Latest disc from the Americana/Roots Rock band from Dallas. We also have a live CD of theirs, Alive and Wired. If you like this you can check out their gold-toothed leader's, Rhett Miller, solo albums.

Saturnalia by The Gutter Twins. The Gutter Twins are Greg "Fat Greg Dulli" Dulli (of the Afghan Whigs) and Makr Lanegan (of Screaming Trees). I figured I'd try it out

Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration with Booker T and the MGs, Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor and others. Two disc retrospective.

Sleep Through the Static by Jack Johnson.

Home Before Dark by Neil Diamond.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Three Music CDs: Raconteurs, Sex and the City Soundtrack, and Weezer

Music CDs

Consolers of the Lonely by The Raconteurs. We have the first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, so I figured I would get this second one. Broken Boy Soldiers circ'ed pretty well at 25 check-outs. That's good for a rock n roll CD here in Lake Mills.
I don't know if this is any good or not but a few nights ago PBS was re-playing an Austin City Limits performance by the Raconteurs recorded in 2006; I didn't watch it for more than five minutes.

Sex and the City (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
featuring [crap]. You've successfully avoided the movie, now avoid the soundtrack!

Weezer (Red Album) by Weezer. Another self-titled album by Weezer and it's uber-nerd leader Rivers Cuomo.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Fiction: Girl Books, Shatner!, and a Bunch of Malarkey

Fiction

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. You know the drill.

All We Know of Heaven by Jacquelyn Mitchard. Novel based on the two best friends who got in a car wreck and the survivor and deceased were misidentified in the aftermath.
This is a Young Adult novel but Mitchard is local (sort-of), popular, and was kind enough to answer my e-mails concerning coffee joints in the greater Madison area.

No Choice but Seduction by Johanna Lindsey. "A Malory Novel." Some romance. Lindsey lives in Maine. I don't know if she drinks coffee. She isn't giving a toothy smile on the back cover so maybe she drinks too much coffee.

Large Print

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber. Look it up yourself: Debbie Macomber.

NonFiction

Up Till Now: the autobiography by William Shatner and David Fisher. Canadian.

Stolen Innocence: my story of growing up in a polygamous sect, becoming a teenage bride, and breaking free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer.

Easy Company Soldier: the legendary battles of a Sergeant from World War II's 'Band of Brothers' by Sgt. Don Malarkey and Bob Welch.