Movie: Lightning in a Bottle
Our Rating: 4.00 Executive producer Martin Scorsese plays host as a virtual firmament of blues stars take over Radio City Music Hall for a night of lovingly played standards and shared memories. For all the talk of the form’s indomitable spirit, the picture that emerges is of a cultural artifact in desperate need of preservation…
99 PROBLEMS, 106 MINUTES
Movie: Fade to Black
ONLY DREAMS TASTE BETTER
There I was, set for a big paella feed. I had the scene all laid out in my head: We’d sit down at a round table, because round tables are inherently more jovial. The round table would be covered with a red-checked tablecloth. Or maybe the tablecloth would be white. Doesn’t really matter. We’d toast…
Movie: Closer
Our Rating: 2.50 Fresh from treating Garden State to her affected bohemianism, Natalie Portman puts her sorority-smooth bum forward as the world’s most unlikely stripper … and somehow emerges even less scathed from her latest brush with potentially fatal miscasting. There’s something accessible about the woman, and it extends to co-stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law…
Review – The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions
Artist: Norman Granz
Movie: I Am David
Our Rating: 2.00 Former messianic bop bag Jim Caviezel signs on for more punishment, this time playing a work-camp inmate enduring institutionalized evil in the Bulgaria of the 1950s. But Caviezel’s latest role as a sacrificial lamb – which appears to have required about a day or two of shooting – is supplementary to the…
Review – We Also Create False Promises
Artist: Character
Movie: Lightning in a Bottle
Our Rating: 4.00 Executive producer Martin Scorsese plays host as a virtual firmament of blues stars take over Radio City Music Hall for a night of lovingly played standards and shared memories. For all the talk of the form’s indomitable spirit, the picture that emerges is of a cultural artifact in desperate need of preservation…
Review – The Map
Artist: Tan Dun
Review – Lowflow
Artist: Thomas Fehlmann
99 PROBLEMS, 106 MINUTES
Movie: Fade to Black
Movie: Closer
Closer Length: 1 hour, 40 minutes Studio: Columbia Pictures Website: http://sonypictures.com/movies/closer/ Release Date: 2004-12-03 Cast: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen, Michael Haley Director: Mike Nichols Screenwriter: Patrick Marber WorkNameSort: Closer Our Rating: 2.50 Fresh from treating Garden State to her affected bohemianism, Natalie Portman puts her sorority-smooth bum forward as the world’s…
99 PROBLEMS, 106 MINUTES
Movie: Fade to Black
Movie: I Am David
I Am David Length: 1 hour, 35 minutes Studio: Lions Gate Films Website: http://www.iamdavidmovie.com Release Date: 2004-12-03 Cast: Ben Tibber, James Caviezel, Joan Plowright, Maria Bonnevie, Silvia De Santis Director: Paul Feig Screenwriter: Paul Feig, Anne Holm WorkNameSort: I Am David Our Rating: 2.00 Former messianic bop bag Jim Caviezel signs on for more punishment,…
Movie: Closer
Our Rating: 2.50 Fresh from treating Garden State to her affected bohemianism, Natalie Portman puts her sorority-smooth bum forward as the world’s most unlikely stripper … and somehow emerges even less scathed from her latest brush with potentially fatal miscasting. There’s something accessible about the woman, and it extends to co-stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law…
Review – The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions
Artist: Norman Granz
Movie: I Am David
Our Rating: 2.00 Former messianic bop bag Jim Caviezel signs on for more punishment, this time playing a work-camp inmate enduring institutionalized evil in the Bulgaria of the 1950s. But Caviezel’s latest role as a sacrificial lamb – which appears to have required about a day or two of shooting – is supplementary to the…
Review – We Also Create False Promises
Artist: Character
Movie: Lightning in a Bottle
Our Rating: 4.00 Executive producer Martin Scorsese plays host as a virtual firmament of blues stars take over Radio City Music Hall for a night of lovingly played standards and shared memories. For all the talk of the form’s indomitable spirit, the picture that emerges is of a cultural artifact in desperate need of preservation…
Review – The Map
Artist: Tan Dun
SUBTLE BUT COMPLEX PERSIAN SKEWERS
For grammatical correctness, the name of this Winter Park newcomer should be “House of Kabobs” – plural, not singular, as the family-owned enterprise serves several varieties of grilled skewers. But the sound of the singular “House of Kabob” has a quirky ring to it – “Hey, I’m headed over to House of Kabob, want something?”…
Review – Lowflow
Artist: Thomas Fehlmann
Review – The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions
Artist: Norman Granz
99 PROBLEMS, 106 MINUTES
Movie: Fade to Black
Review – We Also Create False Promises
Artist: Character
Movie: Closer
Our Rating: 2.50 Fresh from treating Garden State to her affected bohemianism, Natalie Portman puts her sorority-smooth bum forward as the world’s most unlikely stripper … and somehow emerges even less scathed from her latest brush with potentially fatal miscasting. There’s something accessible about the woman, and it extends to co-stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law…
Review – The Map
Artist: Tan Dun
Movie: I Am David
Our Rating: 2.00 Former messianic bop bag Jim Caviezel signs on for more punishment, this time playing a work-camp inmate enduring institutionalized evil in the Bulgaria of the 1950s. But Caviezel’s latest role as a sacrificial lamb – which appears to have required about a day or two of shooting – is supplementary to the…
Review – Lowflow
Artist: Thomas Fehlmann
Culture
How I Became Stupid By Martin Page (Penguin, 160 pages) In a situation many of us can relate to, a French, tea-drinking student of dead languages (who, naturally enough, was named “Reader of the Year” at his local library) is bedeviled by his own crushing intelligence, highly fraught moral compass and unceasing sense of introspection.…
Culture
Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965-2003 By Jean Valentine (Wesleyan University Press, 285 pages) Jean Valentine made her poetic debut in 1965. While her contemporaries turned the blank page into a confessional, Valentine fashioned a magic carpet out of it instead, transporting readers to cloudy dreamscapes, where ordinary things take on secret…
Culture
Journal of Light: The Visual Diary of a Florida Nature Photographer By John Moran (University Press of Florida, 144 pages) “Florida nature photography.” The very thought elicits grumblings along the lines of, “Just what we need: another coffee table collection of sea turtle nests, coral reefs and swamp grass.” However, where most collections are concerned…
GLOBAL GRILLING
NOISE OF THE WORLD: NON-WESTERN ARTISTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS By Hank Bordowitz (Soft Skull Press, 384 pages) Hank Bordowitz is an excellent writer and a man of exquisitely ephemeral musical tastes. His championing of non-mainstream and non-Western artists has played a large role in bringing much-deserving music to the attention of people who otherwise…
MAXIMUM IMPACT
ART OF MODERN ROCK: THE POSTER EXPLOSION By Paul Grushkin and Dennis King (Chronicle Books, 492 pages) “It was our ambition to increase the public’s visual-anxiety quotient.” – Jim Evans, TAZ In 1987, Paul Grushkin produced The Art of Rock: Posters From Presley to Punk. That book chronicled what then seemed to be a soon-to-be…
FLYING LOW
Spencer Pigot, 11, was just clocked driving 70 mph. His father has a serious issue on his hands. “He’s simply not going fast enough,” explains Barry Pigot. “This won’t do at all.” The problem is that during the Snap-On Stars of Karting National Championship, the de facto go-karting championship hosted by Disney World in November,…
TESTS OF DECENCY
I noticed at the Lakers/Magic game a few weeks back that a lot of kids were sporting a Lakers No. 8 replica jersey. You know, Kobe Bryant? The guy who had to admit to the world that he cheated on his wife when he faced rape charges? Parents, the last-stop role models for their spawn,…
SUBTLE BUT COMPLEX PERSIAN SKEWERS
For grammatical correctness, the name of this Winter Park newcomer should be “House of Kabobs” – plural, not singular, as the family-owned enterprise serves several varieties of grilled skewers. But the sound of the singular “House of Kabob” has a quirky ring to it – “Hey, I’m headed over to House of Kabob, want something?”…
Gay Days and Disney fall out of love and Kuhn makes it a last call for Scruffy’s
Gay Days and Disney World have always had a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” relationship, whereby Disney pockets big bucks from the annual red-shirt confab while maintaining plausible deniability to boycott-happy wing nuts who think gays ought to be stoned if caught in public. It’s a pretty profitable gig for the Mouse, now that…
PATHWAYS TO UNKNOWN WORLDS
Mexico City’s Plaza de Garibaldi sits only a few blocks away from the art-deco Bellas Artes, home to the internationally renowned Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, but it’s the come-as-you-are to Artes’ black-tie. During morning hours the rifle-stacked guitars are the only clues to Garibaldi’s Mexico-wide reputation as the home of mariachi music, but once afternoon…
DYER, ANNOTATED
It’s easy to dream big – and Mayor Buddy Dyer certainly did that in his annual State of Downtown address Oct. 27. A performing arts center, a new arena, a renovated Citrus Bowl, perhaps a new baseball stadium and a bunch of other projects are officially on the mayor’s agenda. He asks us to share…
“Tekken out the trash”
On Nov. 23, a consortium of watchdog groups named its picks for the 10 most violent video games currently on the market, including Doom 3 and Mortal Kombat: Deception. Amid the ensuing hue and cry, few consumers paid attention to the titles that came in at the bottom of the list. Here they are for…
BARELY A PULSE
Knowing me, knowing you, uh-huh, there is nothing I can do. In between inhaling the brackish red-tide death smell of my latest sinus infection and staring at the taunting recession of my hairline, I can barely muster an eye roll in the direction of nightlife nuancing. This is the sickest I’ve ever been, and I…
Marilyn Manson, Velvet Revolver, Battles, Beer School and more
Thursday • 2 MARILYN MANSON It took us a while, but we think we’ve finally gotten on board with Marilyn Manson. OK, it took us a looonng while and we’re not entirely on board, but 1) his surprisingly eloquent appearance in Bowling for Columbine and 2) a recent best-of collection that displayed a wide array…
