So while I was driving back from Camp and the family reunion every July 4th in Central Maine, I listened to my wife's IPod and heard Man or AstroMan?

The wife has been getting into Tenacious D and there is only so much I can listen to of it ...

But it made me think how great Man or Astroman were at Pomona College in 2001 and think of my favorite live shows ever.

There are two artists I saw twice both were awesome live.

One is the immortal legend of Rock and Soul, Ray Charles .. once in New Brunswick, NJ at the State Theatre (around a 2,000 seater) in an amazing about 75 minute set ***** .. One of the great shows I ever saw .. I think it w as in the mid-90s? ...

Another was later in Ray Charles's life in a free show outside in Pasadena, CA in 2001 ... It was a fun show but not as amazing **** ... I think its awesome I saw one of my favorite performers of all time live twice.

Another group who was ASTOUNDING live is Living Colour (Cult of Personality is their big single) .. I saw them once at the University of Chicago in Fall 1993? at Mandel Hall, in a 1,000 seat theater usually reserved for classical shows ... Just awesome and insanely great ... Had a "seat" in the pit and had an absolute blast .. One of the best shows ever ***** ...

I also saw them before my really bizarre trip to London in the Summer, 2001 in North London .. They were brilliant there too but the crowd acted posh, and distant ... I loved it though, and thought it was awesome I saw they were in a show in the free paper ****

Other great shows were Lollapolloza 2 at the JFK Stadium Grounds, Philadelphia, Summer 1993 ****1/2 .. A wonderful, hot exhausting show, with Tool, Dinosaur Jr, Fishbone ... Was in the pit a good 5 hours before I just had to get water...

Another was U2 in the Summer of 1992, in the ZOO TV tour, at the floor of Veterans Stadium, Philly ... I had seats about 8 rows away in the acoustic set at the end of a long runway .. Great stadium show *****

Also the Little Steven Underground Rock Festival at Randalls Island, NYC in August? 2004 ... Great show, the Misfits and MANY others were great .. Do wish there was more then one stage ... Lots of fun ... Would have saw Iggy Pop if I wasn't there for 12 hours already, the Strokes didn't play WAY too loud (posers) and there wasn't a hurricane warning out ... And of course the wife wanted to go home .... ****

Awadagin Pratt (classical pianist) given ticket at Mandel Hall, Chicago, 1993 ... ****1/2

BB King blues festival, Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ .. mid-1990s? ... .Buddy Guy was unbelievable so was Koko Taylor (also saw her at the U of Chicago) .... Fun show ****

Also saw Paul Simon live twice (once at the concert in Central Park ****) and once with Bob Dylan in Holmdel ****

What are some of your favorite shows ever?

ecq

Progressive Series on DVD .. and two excellent film reviews ...

I have gotten very in to Lost by watching Season 1 on DVD .... And since Alias had its series Finale tonight, against 24's season finale .. I was curious what people thought of watching these complicated shows that make more sense when you see the entire program, not just bits and pieces ...

Its funny, I watched Lost briefly with my wife during the premiere and didn't get into it ... It has been an absolute joy however to watch on DVD ....

I also saw two very good movies this week ...

One was Match Point **** .... Woody Allen's best movie in many years .. possibly since Crimes and Misdeamors or Even Zelig and The Purple Rose of Cairo .. The acting was great, the script very interesting .. Johnathan Rhys-Meyers was much better then I thought he could be, Emily Mortimer was very cute and quite adorable .. and Scarlett Johnansen is absolutely gorgeous ... Very good film .. Highly recommended ...

What I also liked about "Match Point" is that it didn't star Woody Allen, or even really have a pseudo-Woody (like Branagh in Celebrity .. or the DREADFUL performance by Jason Biggs in the Horrendous Anything Else 1/2*) .. .Very interesting surprising movie .. Catch it when you can ...

I also saw the spellbinding and powerful movie "City of God" **** ... This movie is beautiful, brilliant and heartbreaking ... Really awesome cinematography and very good acting ... Although I thin this would be a hard film to see multiple times ... I would love to see more by this Brazilian director ....

Also looking forward to Rites of Spring this Wednesday-Monday in the Berkshires .. Can't believe I will be there in 36 hours )) .... Vacuumland is over, and the next challenge awaits ...

blessed be ...

ecq

p.s. Read my poem and co-read a children's story "Toot and Puddle" at Church on Sunday as part of a service I helped create ... I had people actually clapping at the end of the children's story .. That was an absolute blast!

Saw some more movies this week, and also watching the first disc and a half of Lost Season 1 ...

The first thing I will review is "Lost" .. Its quite good, very interesting, very rich ... Excellent show which I want to keep wanting to know about .. I really like the hunter w/ the wheelchair, the hot female criminal, and the big guy ... good show ***1/2 ...

Then there is Waters famous .... "Pink Flamingos" .. John Waters (1972) movie of disgusting things ... It was OK .. ** ... I liked the Waters commentary on the DVD better then the movie itself... I am glad to say I have seen it though, I definitely can't recommend it though ... It was bizarre though.

I have also seen "Good Night and Good Luck" .. It was most deserving of an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and Best Actor for David Straitharn .... **** .. An excellent movie well worth seeing, I could easily see it as a companion to Miller's "The Crucible" and of discussing 1950s politics, would be an excellent movie to see for students ... It is also quite enjoyable ...

I also resigned from the vacuum gig, the job literally makes me sick, and its time for the next thing .. Unfortunately I think it will be another McJob ...

Wish me luck, its time for me to get fulfilling work .. A much more difficult challenge then we were led to believe in school, or by the "knowledge worker" revolution talked about in Robert Reich's "The Work of Nations" or the late Peter Drucker's "Post-Capitalist Society" ...

I think I just might make the plunge and become an academic .. .also check out my poetry from the last post ..

ecq


There is also one more thing I want to review .. the absolutely brilliant book of living with the "Worst Dog in the World" .. Marley and Me ... ***** .. It is absolutely great, if you have ever loved a dog especially ...

Just a warning though, its going to pull at your heartstrings and might make you want a dog again .. If you love dogs, despite how crazy they can be you should most definitely read this at the Library, Bookstore, or borrow it from a friend ...

Its just great ...

e. charles quinn

12 Monkeys .. ***1/2

Saw Twelve Monkeys Again ... wife rented it on her netflix queue ... ***1/2 .. really interesting movie .. possibly Brad Pitt's best acting performance ...

.. I also really do love how the plot keeps circling itself .. a very good movie ...

Listened to some of Gilliam (and another's) commentary and it seemed reasonably interesting.

A film quite worth seeing if you haven't seen it before ...

Not quite as good as Brazil, but you do wonder what could come next in the movie, like the great Brazil *****(my favorite movie) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail ***** (possibly the funniest movie ever made) ...

Tarnation, Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix (PS2 game), Naked Gun, and Oldboy reviewed today ... All are very good and VERY VERY VERY different.

First Midnight Club 3 .. .I rented this like 9 months ago for over a month .. I almost bought it then but couldn't afford it ...

This game is utterly fantastic.... There is brilliant cars, difficult races, and lots and lots of fun .. the music is wonderful too ...

My favorite game for PS2 and one which will be played for many many hours .. >I love that it is street racing too ... ***** .. Superb! ...

The greatest hits version is 19.99 and includes a few more cars as well as a new city, Tokyo .. Excellent Game!

Naked Gun is one of my favorite films growing up and I think the film I have seen most ***** ....

I have seen this movie probably 30 times but not in a while, I find it absolutely hilarious and just loads of fun .. If you like Airplane and such you have probably seen this, if not see it now.


Tarnation is one of the most unique movies I have ever seen. Its a hard movie to review ***1/2 ... The movie was made on IMac on IMovie with many old home movies and such.

I am very very happy not to be Johnathan Collette, if you enjoy documentaries, and want to see a film about a tough childhood, and a mother who may have gone crazy by shock therapy, this is a very interesting movie. It is also a very challenging one... Not for everyone, but a brilliant, difficult film.

The third movie I am reviewing is "Oldboy" ... This is a Korean film that I heard excellent things about... It is a movie that is also very tough to review without spoilers...

The main character in this was acted outstandingly and the film took turns I completely did not respect.

There are many issues of imprisonment, revenge and voyeurism in this movie.... It is fascinating and the main actor reminded me of Kuroshawa's great actor, Mufume ... Very good movie ****

Had "Cinderella Man" rented for a while but never saw it .. .the first 5 minutes looked eh .. will see it eventually ...

e. charles quinn

Oscars ... A Rant

I think John Stewart did a very good job, much better then I thought he would ...

It was also very very odd to see Ben Stiller's package in a green jumpsuit.

Why oh why for the love of god, are they playing music DURING the beginning of the speeches ...

It is so mean, and annoying ...

There were so many bloated tributes on this show, why cant they give the winners 2 minutes to speak ...

Good speeches especially by Clooney and the foreign film winner ...

Was also lovely to see how nervous Philip Seymour Hoffman was ...

Next year director and Conti .. let people talk ...

Ang Lee just won for Brokeback Mountain, I bet he will win for Best Picture now too ...

Even the music over Ang Lee ... Never started the speeches with music before... I cannot say how annoying this is.

I do need to see Brokeback Mountain too, have only seen Crash among the best picture nominees ...

Walk the Line still my favorite movie of the year *****

WOW Crash won for Best Picture.. Its the only one of the nominees I have seen ...

I will be interested to see what Haggis writes or directs next after Crash **** and Million Dollar Baby **** ... Two straight Best Pictures written ...

Congratulations Paul Haggis and Crash...

edmund davis-quinn

p.s. How for the love of god did the cut off the Best Picture speech .. I really hope they fire the director Horovitz and Bill Conti for that ... That was simply atrocious ...

Two three star movies with great acting performances .. neither easy to watch .. "The Lord of War" and "Love Liza" ...

Just saw "Love Liza" today *** ... Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant in it, in one of the most depressing movies ever ... Man is Hoffman's character sad .. [spoiler] You would be too if you lost your wife .... and friends don't let friends huff gasoline [/spoiler] .. the movie was hard to watch but really wonderfully acted ... I really like Philip Seymour Hoffman a lot, but still rooting for Jouquin Phoenix for his amazing portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" my favorite movie of 2005. *****

Second, Lord of War ... I also saw "The Lord of War" on DVD this week .... *** ... Another great performance by Nicolas Cage as one of the great salesmen ever .. .illegal guns are his trade ...

Interesting movie, its tough what to think of someone who give guns to help make African Civil Wars bloodier. His moral ambuguity was both interesting and hard to watch. Cage's character is not the most likeable person in the world, but it is a great performance. Like "Love Liza" .. it is not an easy movie to watch. But I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Its amazing how close the nominees are between the Independent Spirit Awards and the Oscars this year and that the Best Actor/Actress were Hoffman and Huffman .... I have also never seen so few best picture nominees .. I have only seen "Crash" which I enjoyed a lot ****....

edmund davis-quinn

Primer/ Gunner Palace

Reviewing 2 very different movies today...

1. is Primer ... This is one of the most interesting debuts I have ever seen ... It does not have the clearest narrative ... **** ... It is a movie about time travel, discovery and causality ...

Here is a short discussion ...

I really enjoy this movie ... yes its confusing, yes some of the sound and camerawork isn't perfect .. but its really interestign and involves engineers tinkering that find something they don't expect ...

It would be very interesting if they could go farther back then they thought they could ... Basically in my mind things got weird and when they tried to fix it things got weirder ...
.. i think seeing the subtitles helps too ...

I really enjoy this film and it was the second time I saw it ... ***1/2 ...

I would be very curious to see what else Shane Carruth does with more then $7,000 .....

Here is a plot explanation of the movie .. I will put the website in spoiler tags ...

http://www.francisshanahan.com/detail.aspx?cid=375

This movie is very interesting, very thought provoking, and intriguing ... the narrative is not completely clear but very very interesting .. .would love comments ...


The other film I am reviewing right now is TOTALLY different. Its Gunner Palace, a documentary about a unit that was stationed in Uday Hussein's old pleasure palace in a hostile neighborhood called Adamihya, which the US doesn't control well ... It has around 300 troops stationed and basically acting like cops trying to find insurgents in post-"war" Iraq.

This movie deals with the fact that most soldiers are very young and that in Iraq, the main armed conflict and taking of Baghdad is/was much, much easier then winning the peace. I do hope Iraq finds stability, but there were many errors made in Gulf War II... Chief among them was the immediate dissolution of the army and police and not protecting Baghdad's cultural treasures.

Its an interesting film, and i enjoyed it. There is one really interesting cat out of Colorado that plays a great guitar and some good freestyle rappers.

This movie took me a few tries to get into .... ***

that it for now.

E. Charles Quinn