Rock
Sky Blue Sky by Wilco. A more accessible album by Wilco with less 'artful' noise than before. We also a DVD of a live performance by them, Kicking Television.
Headstrong by Ashley Tisdale. Allmusic.com's review says this about one of the stars of High School Musical, "Attempting to give Tisdale an identity outside of High School Musical, Headstrong's sound is much more mature than the soundtrack's teen pop-meets-musicals vibe, incorporating heavy hip-hop beats, dancehall's call-and-response, Middle Eastern elements, and other mid-2000s pop music trends into the Disney pop sound."
Roots Rock
Big Iron World by Old Crow Medicine Show. I'm not sure why I ordered this disc but I listened to it yesterdya and enjoyed it. Old Crow has a roots rock sound that is part country and part traditional rock and roll. If you like it try out some of the programs from Roots Rock Radio.
Pop Standards
Call Me Irresponsible by Michael Buble. More older pop tunes from the Canadian vocalist.
Orchestral
A Song of Islands, Aotearoa Overture, Forest by Douglas Lilburn performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, James Judd, Conducting. Three of New Zealand native Lilburn's (1915-2001) works meant to convey the Kiwi country. I don't think James Judd is related to Kiwi Phil Judd.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
DVDs
Little Children starring Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson. Bored housewife and househusband have an affair and a convicted child molester moves into town. Three academy award nominations. Allmovie.com has a very good review.
Animal House starring John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon. Digitally remastered edition.
Good German starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire. In 1946 Germany the blackmarket is thriving. Journalist Jake Geistner arrives in Berlin and finds that his old love Lena is now attached to a corrupt and scheming black market kingpin, a U.S. Army Corporal.
Animal House starring John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon. Digitally remastered edition.
Good German starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire. In 1946 Germany the blackmarket is thriving. Journalist Jake Geistner arrives in Berlin and finds that his old love Lena is now attached to a corrupt and scheming black market kingpin, a U.S. Army Corporal.
Monday, May 21, 2007
New New New, For You You You
Fiction
Novels
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk. "What 'Typhoid mary' mallon was to typhoid, what Gaetan Dugas was to AIDS, and Liu Jianlun was to SARS, Buster Casey would become for rabies." Collected anecdotes of Rant Casey whose creation of an urban demolition derby, Party Crashing, led to his fiery death. Thoughts that his saliva caused an urban plague of rabies.
You Suck by Christopher Moore. Thomas wakes up with new girlfriend Jody and finds out she is a vampire. Uh-oh, now he is too. Will their love survive? A comic novel.
What's So Funny? by Donald Westlake. Career burglar Dortmunder is blackmailed into an impossible crime. More criminal humour by Westlake.
The Religion by Tim Willocks. The siege of Malta in 1565 by the Ottoman Turks against the Knights of Saint John the Baptist. French countess Carla La Penautier is searching Malta for the child stolen from her twelve years ago. With the help of mercenary Mattias Carla hopes to find and spirit the boy away from the biggest siege in history.
This book receivedly good reviews. Reviews like this: "This is what we dream of: to be swept away, so poleaxed by a book that the breath is sucked right out of us."
Graphic Novels
300 by Frank Miller. The graphic novel - in a huge format, 10" x 13" - that the recent movie was based on.
Mysteries
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny. Chief Inspector Gamache of the Quebec Provincial Police investigates the murder of CC de Poitiers. Unliked by all her fellow villagers, CC was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake in Three Pines, Quebec during a curling tournament. Penny wrote Still Life which garnered tons of positive press and readership - Lake Mills owns a copy - and Fatal continues with lead character Gamache.
The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson. Swedish author of The Princess of Burundi. Inspector Ann Lindell takes the missing persons case of an elderly academic. When two elderly men's bodies are found neither one is the missing man, but the missing man's colleagues suspet a connection between the those deaths and their friends disappearance.
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. This one sounds quite good. 1950s Cambridge student Adam Strickland is asked to travel to Tuscany and write about the famous Docci garden. The garden was built to honor a fifteenth century woman and the garden seems to point to evidence the woman was murdered.
Lethally Blond by Kate White. Eh. Look it yourself.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a true-life hero of the sapce service. Bored of her recuperation on planet Kookaburra she signs on to the first ship out. Big mistake. With a criminal and incompetent crew squared-away officer Scott has plenty of work to deal with, and the unfamiliar territory of dealing with a boyfriend.
White Night by Jim Butcher. A Dresden Files novel featuring Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard.
Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold. This is the first novel by Lindskold we have bought but she has been quite popular elsewhere. Firekeeper was raised by intelligent, talking wolves until she returned to human society in her teens. Her wolf raising has helped her among the intrigues and deceptions of human society.
NonFiction
Finance
You Can Do It!: the boomer's guide to a great retirement by Jonathan D. Pond.
Women and Money: owning the power to control your destiny by Suze Orman.
Iraq
On the Hunt: how to wake up Washington and win the war on terror by Colonel David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.). I heard this guy on C-SPAN plugging his book and he had some interesting comments and ideas on the ongoing wars. He's also a Fox News analyst.
Blackwater: the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army by Jeremy Scahill. Expose of the massive and sudden growth of Blackwater; founded as a training company, Blackwater has grown into a massive security contractor in Iraq and around the world. Funny, the people at Blackwater seemed upset with this book.
Biography
A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah. First person account by Beah of his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone from when he was thirteen until the Red Cross got him to the U.S. when he was 16.
Child of the Jungle: the true story of a girl caught between two worlds by Sabine Kuegler. Plugged as a true life Mean Girls. Sabine was raised by her missionary parents in West Papua, Indonesia among the Stone Age tribes. As a teenager Sabine is forced by circumstance leave Indonesia and attend boarding school in Switzerland.
Self-Serving Biography
At the Center of the Storm: my years at the CIA by George Tenet.
Novels
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk. "What 'Typhoid mary' mallon was to typhoid, what Gaetan Dugas was to AIDS, and Liu Jianlun was to SARS, Buster Casey would become for rabies." Collected anecdotes of Rant Casey whose creation of an urban demolition derby, Party Crashing, led to his fiery death. Thoughts that his saliva caused an urban plague of rabies.
You Suck by Christopher Moore. Thomas wakes up with new girlfriend Jody and finds out she is a vampire. Uh-oh, now he is too. Will their love survive? A comic novel.
What's So Funny? by Donald Westlake. Career burglar Dortmunder is blackmailed into an impossible crime. More criminal humour by Westlake.
The Religion by Tim Willocks. The siege of Malta in 1565 by the Ottoman Turks against the Knights of Saint John the Baptist. French countess Carla La Penautier is searching Malta for the child stolen from her twelve years ago. With the help of mercenary Mattias Carla hopes to find and spirit the boy away from the biggest siege in history.
This book receivedly good reviews. Reviews like this: "This is what we dream of: to be swept away, so poleaxed by a book that the breath is sucked right out of us."
Graphic Novels
300 by Frank Miller. The graphic novel - in a huge format, 10" x 13" - that the recent movie was based on.
Mysteries
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny. Chief Inspector Gamache of the Quebec Provincial Police investigates the murder of CC de Poitiers. Unliked by all her fellow villagers, CC was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake in Three Pines, Quebec during a curling tournament. Penny wrote Still Life which garnered tons of positive press and readership - Lake Mills owns a copy - and Fatal continues with lead character Gamache.
The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson. Swedish author of The Princess of Burundi. Inspector Ann Lindell takes the missing persons case of an elderly academic. When two elderly men's bodies are found neither one is the missing man, but the missing man's colleagues suspet a connection between the those deaths and their friends disappearance.
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. This one sounds quite good. 1950s Cambridge student Adam Strickland is asked to travel to Tuscany and write about the famous Docci garden. The garden was built to honor a fifteenth century woman and the garden seems to point to evidence the woman was murdered.
Lethally Blond by Kate White. Eh. Look it yourself.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a true-life hero of the sapce service. Bored of her recuperation on planet Kookaburra she signs on to the first ship out. Big mistake. With a criminal and incompetent crew squared-away officer Scott has plenty of work to deal with, and the unfamiliar territory of dealing with a boyfriend.
White Night by Jim Butcher. A Dresden Files novel featuring Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard.
Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold. This is the first novel by Lindskold we have bought but she has been quite popular elsewhere. Firekeeper was raised by intelligent, talking wolves until she returned to human society in her teens. Her wolf raising has helped her among the intrigues and deceptions of human society.
NonFiction
Finance
You Can Do It!: the boomer's guide to a great retirement by Jonathan D. Pond.
Women and Money: owning the power to control your destiny by Suze Orman.
Iraq
On the Hunt: how to wake up Washington and win the war on terror by Colonel David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.). I heard this guy on C-SPAN plugging his book and he had some interesting comments and ideas on the ongoing wars. He's also a Fox News analyst.
Blackwater: the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army by Jeremy Scahill. Expose of the massive and sudden growth of Blackwater; founded as a training company, Blackwater has grown into a massive security contractor in Iraq and around the world. Funny, the people at Blackwater seemed upset with this book.
Biography
A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah. First person account by Beah of his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone from when he was thirteen until the Red Cross got him to the U.S. when he was 16.
Child of the Jungle: the true story of a girl caught between two worlds by Sabine Kuegler. Plugged as a true life Mean Girls. Sabine was raised by her missionary parents in West Papua, Indonesia among the Stone Age tribes. As a teenager Sabine is forced by circumstance leave Indonesia and attend boarding school in Switzerland.
Self-Serving Biography
At the Center of the Storm: my years at the CIA by George Tenet.
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