RUSSELL HOBAN, 86, RIP
Depressed to hear of the death last week of the American writer and illustrator, Russell Hoban, who had a unique career, exhibiting an eclecticism rarely paralleled in American letters. Though Hoban grew up in the States, he lived most of his adult life in London, where his output never really won him fame, probably due to the breadth of his oeuvre, which prevented him from finding a niche. I am largely unfamiliar with Hoban's children's literature--the Frances
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part III
Today we have a look at some legendary jazz performances of holiday standards. Let's begin with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Canadian born, Peterson has been a jazz icon for the last sixty years (Peterson died in 2007 at 82) with a unique and signature style as a jazz pianist. He recorded with Armstrong, Basie, Fitzgerald, Ellington, Gillespie, and countless other greats. His Christmas album, An Oscar Peterson Christmas, is replete with memorable covers, but none better than the
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part II
Thought I'd focus on some variants on a single tune today. The selection is "Christmas Time is Here," by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. That combo had a surprise hit in 1963 with "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," a wistful little melody that thrilled me upon its release because it sounded like nothing else on the radio. It was a cut from the samba-flavored soundtrack to the glorious film Black Orpheus, which had introduced Bossa Nova (see my post on this form) to the US a little earli
CHRISTMAS JAZZ Part I
People who know me recognize the reverence I hold in my heart for the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, with a special emphasis on Christmas. Best time of the year, followed by that vast wasteland that ends only with the incipient hope provided by the arrival of pitchers and catchers for Spring training. As much as I love the holiday season, I acknowledge that it can be a sad period, leaving one wistfully ruminating about one's failure to achieve personal happi
THANKSGIVING TREAT
Couldn't resist the opportunity on this Thanksgiving to add Arlo Guthrie's immortal Alice's Restaurant Massacree to this blog. Played it for my students most of the years I've been teaching, though many view it as some sort of ancient artifact. Hard to believe that when Arthur Penn's film version of the song (There are more songs than you think that have been adapted into films! Future post.) was released in 1969 that students from Syosset High School piled into school buses
NICK ADAMS-That's How It Is When You're Nineteen!
My students got a big kick out of the just slightly overripe voiceover to this trailer for the 1962 film Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man .
THE AWFUL TRUTH
One of cinema's top ten sight gags-from Leo McCarey's sublime classic comedy of remarriage, The Awful Truth , starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
JAMES HONEYMAN SCOTT
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the last studio recordings of the late James Honeyman Scott, a woefully underrated guitar player who helped create the iconic Pretenders sound. Jimmy Scott's 80s new-wave musical style was singular, but he respected his influences, which included Pete Townshend and the Punk Rock eruption of the late 70s. He acted as a subtle complement to the vocals of the legendary Chrissie Hynde, but it was his dynamism that Hynde acknowledged made th
MR. PEANUT/LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Adam Ross's 2010 novel Mr. Peanut is the best initial work by an author I've read since Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh back in 1988. Ross's recent collection of short stories, Ladies and Gentlemen, released this past June, received excellent reviews as well. The Boston Globe's critic wonderfully suggested that Ross's style was a blend of Raymond Chandler and Raymond Carver. Doesn't get any better than that. Even the legendarily harsh c
TOP TEN Finale (at least until some time in 2012)
To conclude my thoughts on Sight & Sound 's Top Ten lists that appear each decade (in the year ending in 2), let me clarify a few points. There were 144 critics who took part in the Critics' Poll in 2002 and 108 directors who contributed to the Director's Poll. Taste is idiosyncratic. There were 631 films nominated by the critics, and 408 of them received exactly one vote apiece. One can see how personal the selection process is; some voters didn't even list Citizen Kane
