ALL EARS
1) Nick Cave came to Texas. The ballads were more compelling live than on his latest record; the explosions were just as passionate as we had hoped. And in a state that seems to view Death Row as a competitive sport, the Bad Seeds all but derailed during a frightening rendition of Cave’s electric-chair testimony…
A ROOM OF HIS OWN
It is the sort of off-kilter, elliptical anecdote that you would expect from a young musician who is currently being branded an overnight underground sensation/savant kook. The 21-year-old Banhart appeared mysteriously last October when his debut, a collection of four-track and answering-machine recordings called Oh Me Oh My … the Way the Day Goes By…
CD REVIEWS
The 13 plain-spoken tales on Waters’ debut, Fertile Ground, wander as far afield as reminiscing about the family farm, getting shanked in a dark alley (a consequence, no doubt, of leaving the farm), killing several deserving sonsabitches, and mourning a failed relationship over a plate of enchiladas. Better than the Mexican food are the murder…
FICTION’S FRILLIEST GENRE GETS REAL(ER)
She gasped as he plunged his fingers beneath her heavy skirts. He grinned like a pirate when he found her honeyed folds. No, wait. … when he found the honeyed core of her desire. She reached out, tentatively, until her trembling fingers brushed the soft suede of his breeches. She felt enormous heat and hardness…
ROCKIN’ THE GRAVE
So, just when does a dead rock star officially pass over into the realm of exploited legend? Answer: When a book can be published that merely presents color copies of his private notebooks, and it is part of a massive “re-awareness” campaign on behalf of his former bandmates, his psychotic widow, his struggling record label…
AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU WAITED FOR THE MOVIE?
ADAPTATION “Hilarious, even if you left your Irony Decoder Ring at home” Dir. Spike Jonze; writ. Susan Orlean (novel), Charlie Kaufman; feat. Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox, Cara Seymour, Maggie Gyllenhaal (R) FADE IN. We see John DeFore, a 30-ish, disheveled film critic, hunched over a laptop in his hopelessly…
NEW REVIEWS
CHICAGO “Pure razzle-dazzle” Dir. Rob Marshall; writ. Maurine Dallas Watkins (play) Fred Ebb, John Kander, Bob Fosse (musical), Bill Condon; feat. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski (PG-13) News flash: In the modern world, fame is fleeting, people will do anything to get it, and once you’re in…
STILL PLAYING
ABOUT SCHMIDT “Road trip through pointlessness” Dir. Alexander Payne; writ. Louis Begley (novel), Payne; feat. Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates (R) Schmidt is a road movie set on the other end of life’s cycle from Nicholson’s Easy Rider, as full of metaphoric ambition and as devoid of solid meaning. The actor is…
