From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V8 #250 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, September 8 2002 Volume 08 : Number 250 Today's Subjects: ----------------- ectophilic webcasts? ["John Zimmer" ] **RACHAEL SAGE PAGE: SEPTEMBER SHOWS/NEWS!** [SpiritWe@aol.com] movies, tv, music, nothing important [Paul2k@aol.com] Jorane: new albums coming up ["Gabriel Laverdiere" ] Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important [steve ] Re: Moooovies [WretchAwry ] Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important [Birdie ] Upcoming movies. Long. Sorry! [WretchAwry ] Argh [WretchAwry ] Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important [Joseph Zitt ] Bob Ross' Flashback [kerry white ] Re: Farscape cancelled [Jeff Wasilko ] Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important ["Chad Lundgren" Subject: ectophilic webcasts? The recent discussions of both the "internet debacle" (Janis Ian's phrase) and electronica/trip-hop collided in my brain and got me thinking. Does anybody have any ecto-friendly webcasts/streams they'd like to mention that are deserving of a wider audience -- and hopefully still online? It may conceivably be too little, too late, but who knows, a show of eleventh-hour support might be better than none at all. Here's my own short list to start: - -- Musical Starstreams: http://www.starstreams.com (spacy, eclectic) - -- Digitally Imported: http://www.digitallyimported.com (trance, classical) - -- Radio Paradise: http://www.radioparadise.com ("eclectic intelligent rock") I've even recently gone to the trouble of connecting my computer to my stereo receiver, to listen to these streams and files with better sound quality than most PC speakers and sound cards allow. There are a couple of decent USB-to-RCA interfaces available that bypass the sound card entirely (I use Xitel's), and deliver as much sound quality as encoding and bandwidth permit; to my ears the result sounds pretty good. John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 03:14:13 EDT From: SpiritWe@aol.com Subject: **RACHAEL SAGE PAGE: SEPTEMBER SHOWS/NEWS!** Hey y'all & Shana Tova :) Yep, it's been a while since you've gotten any MPress-spiel, but that's just cuz we've been busy meticulously categorizing and organizing all of the tear-jerking tour-memorabilia she picked up along the way the last (count 'em!) SIX MONTHS out on the road, more or less...since her "Illusion's Carnival Tour" began last Spring in Wisconson - remember? It's been an amazing, incredibleadventure, and it ain't totally over yet...just slowing down to a slightly saner pace! Rachael will primarily be touring the East Coast throughout Sept/Oct/Nov, but the occasional random excursion waaay out-of-town is expected, so we will post all tourdates and conference showcases (autumn is Industry Conference Season...didn't you know?) at WWW.RACHAELSAGE.COM as they are confirmed. Here's the schedule so far: _____________________ _____________________ (((((RACHAEL SAGE - SEPTEMBER SHOWS))))) Monday September 9 Stephen's Institute of Technology Hayden Hall 5pm for more info call 201.216.5679 Hoboken, NJ Wednesday September 11 Special 9/11 Benefit Conert - NYC (details to be posted shortly on the website) New York, NY Thursday September 19 313 Gallery *M.E.A.N.Y Fest* for more info call 212.677.0455 Bleeker and Bowery New York, NY Friday September 20 Smith Opera House *Wild Women of the World Series* For more information call:866-355-LIVE (5483) 82 Seneca Street Geneva, NY Saturday September 21 Juna's Cafe 8pm For more information call: 607-256-4292 146 the commons Ithaca, NY Sunday September 22 WFUV 90.7 FM City Folk Sunday Breakfast with John Platt 8-11am New York, NY Tuesday September 24 Fez starts at 8pm **Songwriter's Hall of Fame Showcase** For more information call: 212-533-7000 380 LaFayette St (at Great Jones) New York, NY Friday September 27 Coffee & Tea Room 8pm for more info call 570.326.1760 125 W. 4th Street Williamsport, PA Saturday September 28 Chatham College 8pm 1 Woodland Road Pittsburgh, PA __________________ __________________ (((((IN OTHER GROOVY NEWS))))) b" In an unprecedented (yay!) show of support for Rachael's fourth release, as of this week 134 college stations are *still* playing her CD after a 12-week run at College Radio! Thanks to all of the incredible college DJ's & music directors across the country for helping make "Illusion's Carnival" the first MPress release to officially crack the CMJ Top 200, where it debuted in it's first week at #151 on the Core chart and #18 on the Most Added chart. **THANK YOU** TO EVERY ONE SINGLE PERSON WHO CALLED THEIR LOCAL STATIONS AND REQUESTED RACHAEL'S MUSIC! :) b" Six of Rachael's tracks from "Illusion's Carnival" have been selected by Laney Goodman for feature in the nationally syndicated public radio show "Women in Music". This program is aired in over 90+ markets each week and you can view the carriage list at: www.womenonair.com. Thanks so much to Laney for supporting Rachael's music! b" One of our favorite indie-friendly websites, GogirlsMusic, is featuring Rachael's new CD on their website this month and giving away limited edition hand-signed copies of "Illusion's Carnival"! check out the mayhem at: http://www.gogirlsmusic.com/ b" Femalemusician.com has recently released Vol. 3 of their music educational series "Listen, Learn, Groove!", a compilation CD that features Rachael's song "Before it Comes" as well as work by Belinda Carlisle, DJ Irene and other creative/educational content...Find out how to receive your free copy of this groovy CD and check out the latest issue of FemaleMusician (featuring one of our faves, the fabulously stylish and extremely intelligent Lisa Loeb!) at: http://femalemusician.com/home.htm. b" Rachael's CD "Illusion's Carnival" has been selected by "Kweevak.com: Music Promotion Portal" to be featured on their main page for September and October 2002. Mucho thanks to the folks at Kweevak.com for their ongoing support of independent music... xoxo, gratitude and apples & (raw) honey, The Folks @ MPress "If you enjoy Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega, Elton John, Ani DiFranco, and vibrant, enthusiastic, New York-flavored artistry, you'll find yourself entranced with Rachael Sage...empowered, awakened, and enlivened. Sage is thoroughly enjoyable--an inspiration for independent spirits, wherever--and whoever--they may be." - Women Of MP3.com ________________________________________________ "ILLUSION'S CARNIVAL" Available Nationwide! Press Contact: Rich Overton/MPressrich@aol.com Radio Contact: Margo Wentzien/MPressmargo@aol.com Toll free 1.877.TRU.SAGE * www.rachaelsage.com * Winner, Great American Songwriting Contest '01 * Winner, John Lennon Songwriting Contest '01 ________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 07:55:30 -0400 From: Paul2k@aol.com Subject: movies, tv, music, nothing important Ectronic: May I suggest Solex, Kym Brown (thanks Neile!), and Tricky (his album "Maxinquaye" is full of femvox from Martine and from Allison Goldfrapp [who's surname monikered group ISN'T ectronic, but more Shirley Bassey-esque, all orchestral and soundtracky swirls with blips and boops]). Interesting. I didn't realize that JoAnn and I had the same birthday. A year apart. You know who else was born on Oct. 1? My man Mark McGwire. And my woman Julie Andrews. Buffy S6: Meh. Not all that enjoyable a season for moi. I could do with a whole lot less Dawn. And please let me erase Doublemeat Palace from my brain banks (it's a giant youknowwhat coming out of her noggin!). And while all the other seasons have been kinda scatterbrained about storyarcs and characters (sometimes leaving things on the backburner in the shack out back for weeks on end, only to have them reappear to contine their storylines as if nothing had changed), this one seemed particularly squirrely like introducing the Legion of Dim and then shelving them for half a season. Sidenote: if any of you miss an episode of a show and you need a recap of what happened, but you want it to be an entertaining, snarky recap, go visit www.televisionwithoutpity.com They have dedicated writers who watch and rewatch television shows and then write really funny play by plays of what happened. They do good and bad shows (Buffy, Alias, Six Feet Under, X-Files, American Idol, Trading Spaces) and treat them all with the same disdain in good fun. And if you're particulary bored and a big ol' entertainment whore like me, go visit a related site www.fametracker.com the farmer's almanac of celebrity worth. Character actors are revered, celebrity status is audited, the hollywood gene project is uncovered (where stars are cloned in an attempt to repeat their success. hello helen hunt/leelee sobieski, hello tom cruise/peter facinelli), and battle royales occur between actors who occupy the same niche (brad johnson vs. bill campbell vs. bill pullman vs. bill paxton vs. jeff daniels in the battle of the generic gentlemen!). Ahh...so much content, so little time. Of the few movies I've seen this summer, the one I enjoyed the most was...oh dear lord...Reign of Fire. *sigh* Then again, I just watched Deep Rising on DVD because I had an itch to watch it again. I likes me some good B-grade movies. Starship Troopers, yeah! While I liked most of Minority Report, the last act just went "ick" for me. I enjoyed the moral quandry aspects and the seemy underbelly layers beneath the pristine coating and the action; but then it seemed like the movie accidently tripped on a curb marked "out of ideas, i don't know how to wrap this up" and through a doorway marked "well here are some fairly conventional twists and devices" into a room called "neat and tidy spielbergian endings." And that was a bit of a letdown. I do love the way Spielberg seemlessly integrates his CGI into his movies unlike, say, George Lucas. "I hate sand. It's rough and coarse, and it gets everywhere. Not like you . . . you're soft and smooth" Aieeeeeee! Well, at least it's better than Episode One. Road to Perdition. *shrug* It could have been great. It became slow and episodic. Like a drawn out comic book. The best part of Lilo and Stitch was when Lilo socked that other little girl in the face. So sweet. With the teasers and the previews, I thought it would be so much funnier and zanier; alas, it wasn't. But still a good romp. sidenote: When did Al Pacino's acting performances become a caricature of his acting performances? I mean, when did it stop being "Al Pacino IS Scarface" or "Pacino IS Michael Corleone" and become "Pacino IS PACINO as Pacino playing some sort of cop, or is he the devil, or maybe a football coach? Who cares, it's PACINO, baby!" I say it started with Dick Tracy and really turned full force with Scent of a Woman. Hooo-ahhhh! Paul ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 10:18:17 -0400 From: "Gabriel Laverdiere" Subject: Jorane: new albums coming up As printed in today's paper (Le Soleil), Jorane will release a live album from the 16mm tour this fall. Her new album will be released in 2003 with lyrical contributions by Simon Wilcox. For a transcript of the interview (french) plus pictures, check my website http://membres.lycos.fr/sousmarinjorane and be aware of her official website www.jorane.com. _________________________________________________________________ Discutez en ligne avec vos amis ! http://messenger.msn.fr ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 10:19:55 -0400 (EDT) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: ectronica Anything I say about electronica should be taken with a grain of salt, because I basically don't like it. Since I absolutely adore Portishead, one would think that there might be a lot of similar groups I'd enjoy, but not so. It must be Portishead's dissonance (both conceptual =and= harmonic) that I'm responding to: in some ways I like the second Portishead album better than the first. (And it's fantastic news they have another on the way.) I do like the first Sneaker Pimps album a lot, and the album by Baxter I belatedly discovered last year, and a few songs by Ruby...but not a lot else. (Speaking of my blind spots, Sugar Plant is about the only Japanese group of =any= style I like...but I would have said they resemble Mazzy Star rather than Stereolab. But I don't know Stereolab that well.) But for electronic dance music with female vocals, one thing I can recommend is Natacha Atlas and the group she came out of, Transglobal Underground. I've only heard one album by the latter, =International Times=, and I only liked the six tracks Atlas sings on (and even those feature odd elements like Cockney rapping). Her four solo albums (=Diaspora=, =Halim=, =Gedida=, and =Ayeshteni=) have each gotten less electronica and more traditionally Egyptian (though all four are produced by Transglobal Underground), and how one responds to any of it will depend on one's tolerance for Middle Eastern music, but I've listened to her albums more than almost anything else the last year or two. (For a reference point, her =least= traditional material sounds something like Ofra Haza.) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 10:03:30 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important On Saturday, September 7, 2002, at 06:55 AM, Paul2k@aol.com wrote: > The best part of Lilo and Stitch was when Lilo socked that other > little girl in the face. So sweet. With the teasers and the > previews, I thought it would be so much funnier and zanier; alas, it > wasn't. But still a good romp. Those who enjoyed Lilo & Stitch might keep an eye out for Spirited Away, which has a limited opening on September 20 and goes wider on October 4. http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/spirited_away.html The official site - http://www.spiritedaway.net - - Steve __________ Break the cursing seal of love, new devil. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 09:11:00 -0700 (PDT) From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: Moooovies At 11:25 PM 9/4/2002 -0700, Greg wrote: > > On Wednesday, September 4, 2002, at 10:50 PM, > WretchAwry wrote: > >> Ah now, "Insomnia" wasn't that bad. Great director, >> great actors, great scenery, great source >> material...it worked for me. > no disagreement on the great > director/actors/scenery/source, but the blindingly > cold look and music -- not to mention the stark > existential (sorry, ex-english major ;) brutality -- > of the original was so powerful that the remake, > while beautifully crafted, just didn't justify > itself for me. but hey, at least they opened up > a market for the original... True. I had never seen the original, but liked the remake so much that I Tivo'd the original, and got it. It is excellent. But I did like the remake too. >> while indies gave us "Frailty" (my favorite of >> the year so far), "Y Tu Mama Tambien," "Sunshine >> tate," "Lovely & Amazing," "The Kid Stays In The >> Picture," "Tadpole," "13 Conversations About One >> Thing" "Possession," "The Good Girl," "One Hour >> Photo," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and "Secret >> Ballot." I've already missed several that I really >> wanted to see, such as "Atanarjuat" and "CQ." > heh, and i missed all of those except "Atanarjuat", > which i loved... but i did catch "Iris" (officially > from last year, i guess) which i liked a lot. BTW, > the soundtrack of "Atanarjuat" was quite > interesting -- touches of "mysterious voice" > Bulgarian chorus which blended quite well with > the Inuit stuff. reminded me a bit of Hector's > Zazou's "Songs from the Cold Seas" Oh my god! I had no idea the music was such. No reviews I've read mentioned the music. Luckily for me, Atanarjuat has re-opened at a cheaper theater here and I'm going to catch it sometime this week. (I thought Iris was pretty good too) > It's not going to be a 1999, but I think we've done > alright so far, and the last 3 months of the year > will/should be a whirlwind of good/great films. > Coming up are at least a couple/few dozen films > that are MUST SEEs for me, including "Bowling for > Columbine," "Gangs of New York," "Solaris," > "Heaven," "The Ring," "Frida," "Roger Dodger," > "Igby Goes Down," "Punch-Drunk Love," "The > Hours," "Far From Heaven," "Adaptation," "The > Magdalene Sisters," "The 25th Hour," "The Pianist," > "Pinocchio," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," > "Catch Me If You Can," and "About Schmidt," among > several others, and, well, of course, the one I'm > waiting most impatiently for, "The Two Towers." > i don't know all of those, but the first three alone > (not to mention the last) are definitely on my list. > looks like it's time to dig into the IMDB... Ok, I made up a list for a movie forum, and, at the risk of much ire, I'm going to repost it here (in another post). Movie lovers will have an embarrassment of riches. > At 09:13 AM 9/6/2002 +0100, Adam wrote: > I highly recommend the Aussie film "Lantana", which > just got a release over here: beautifully acted, > elliptically paced, grips like a vice. Oh yes, it was a favorite from last year. It was also exciting to see Ray Lawrence directing again. He directed one of my Top 5 favorite films, Bliss from 1985, and hadn't done anything since. I had hoped that Lantana's success would get people to dust off Bliss and declare it the classic it is (or at least, release the damn thing on DVD), but neither has happened yet.Still, I'm happy for Lawrence. > I also thought "Minority Report" was great (a canny > collision of Dick and Hitchcock), while "Mulholland > Drive", released here earlier this year, is already > one of my fave films ever. Agreed on both, but I think Mulholland gets better with each viewing, while Minority gets (for me) worse. > Apart from that...well, without wanting to start > another "Magnolia" row, I had the misfortune to see > the appallingly overrated "Royal Tannenbaums", Ah, well, I disagree, needless to say. Here's my definitions: "overrated" means that the critics liked a movie more than you did, while "underrated" means that you liked a movie more than most everyone else. I've seen Royal Tenenbaums 3 times so far, and it just keeps getting better and better with each viewing. I agree with the critics in this case. I didn't agree in the case of Rushmore, which I liked, a lot, but not THAT much. > I still hope to see "Insomnia", though -- I loved > "Memento" and, while I can almost predict Pacino's > performance, I'd love to see what Williams does. It > would be great to see Swank, who was mind-blowing in > "Boys Don't Cry". Agreed on Boys Don't Cry and Memento, though don't expect Insomnia to be on the level of Memento. > At 07:55 AM 9/7/2002 -0400, Paul wrote: > And if you're particulary bored and a big ol' > entertainment whore like me, go visit a related site > www.fametracker.com > the farmer's almanac of celebrity worth. Character > actors are revered, celebrity status is audited, the > hollywood gene project is uncovered (where stars are > cloned in an attempt to repeat their success. hello > helen hunt/leelee sobieski, hello tom cruise/peter > facinelli), and battle royales occur between actors > who occupy the same niche (brad johnson vs. bill > campbell vs. bill pullman vs. bill paxton vs. jeff > daniels in the battle of the generic gentlemen!). > Ahh...so much content, so little time. Too many popups, and they lost me with their stupid article "Battle of the Slightly Roundish, Suddenly Famous Stars" but the writing is funny, and they like Jeremy Piven. Anyone who even knows who Jeremy Piven *IS* is very cool. > Of the few movies I've seen this summer, the one I > enjoyed the most was...oh dear lord...Reign of Fire. > *sigh* Then again, I just watched Deep Rising on > DVD because I had an itch to watch it again. I > likes me some good B-grade movies. Starship > Troopers, yeah! I liked Reign of Fire (and Starship Troopers!) and I'm disappointed that it didn't do well, because now there probably won't be a sequel. I want more Christian Bale/Matthew McConaughey dragonslaying please. > While I liked most of Minority Report, the last act > just went "ick" for me. I enjoyed the moral quandry > aspects and the seemy underbelly layers beneath the > pristine coating and the action; but then it seemed > like the movie accidently tripped on a curb marked > "out of ideas, i don't know how to wrap this up" and > through a doorway marked "well here are some fairly > conventional twists and devices" into a room called > "neat and tidy spielbergian endings." And that was > a bit of a letdown. I do love the way Spielberg > seemlessly integrates his CGI into his movies The ending of Minority Report works for me when I look at it one of two ways. Either (SPOILERS here) everything after Anderton gets put into the "pod" is a dream, or, and I like this one better, Agatha instigated the whole thing, as a way to get revenge on her mother's murder and get out of the soup. There are arguments for this, but I'm not up to writing them up. I'm not that invested in the movie, though I did like it (more the first time than the second time). V Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 09:18:42 -0700 From: Birdie Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important "Spirited Away" is very good and there is a newer one, which hopefully will come out down the road, by the same director, called "The Cat Returns"....cheers. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 09:18:23 -0700 (PDT) From: WretchAwry Subject: Upcoming movies. Long. Sorry! First and foremost, The Two Towers is my #1 MUST SEE. The only thing besides death or dismemberment that would keep me away from opening night would be a Kate concert. Or a Happy concert. These are all my other MUST SEEs for the rest of the year. Some of these might/will not open wide until early 2003: - - 8 Mile (dir. Curtis "LA Confidential" Hanson; Eminem. Gotta see it) - - 25th Hour, The (dir. Spike Lee; killer cast starting with Edward Norton) - - About Schmidt (dir. Alexander "Election" Payne; Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis) - - Adaptation (dir. Spike "Being John Malkovich" Jonze, writer Charlie "ditto" Kaufman; Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep) - - All or Nothing (dir. Mike "Topsy Turvy" Leigh; I'll see anything he does) - - Ararat (dir. Atom "The Sweet Hereafter" Egoyan; ditto) - - Auto Focus (dir. Paul Schrader; biopic with Greg Kinnear as Bob Crane) - - Below (dir. David "Pitch Black" Twohy, writer Darren "Requiem For A Dream" Aronofsky ) - - Bloody Sunday (about Sunday, January 30th, 1972 in Northern Ireland) - - Bowling for Columbine (Michael "Roger & Me" Moore's new one) - - Catch Me If You Can (dir. Spielberg; Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio) - - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (dir. George Clooney, writer Charlie Kaufman) - - Crazy as Hell (dir. Eriq La Salle. Sounds warped. I like warped) - - Decade Under the Influence, A (dir. Ted Demme (RIP); doc about 70's filmmaking) - - Equilibrium (stars Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Sean Bean. Grim futuristic thriller) - - Far From Heaven (dir. Todd "Velvet Goldmine" Haynes; Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid) - - Frida (dir. Julie "Titus" Taymor; Salma Hayek, about the artist Frida Kahlo) - - Gangs of New York (Scorcese, DiCaprio, Day-Lewis) - - Grey Zone, The (dir. Tim Blake Nelson; Harvey Keitel, concentration camp film) - - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (oh why not) - - Hours, The (dir. Stephen "Billy Elliot" Daldry; Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore) - - Heaven (dir. Tom "Run Lola Run" Tykwer, writers Krzysztofs, Kieslowski and Piesiewicz, Cate Blanchett) - - Igby Goes Down (Kieran Culkin) - - Life of David Gale, The (dir. Alan "Birdy" Parker; Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney, Kate Winslet) - - Magdalene Sisters, The (dir. Peter "My Name Is Joe" Mullan) - - Moonlight Mile (Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Jake Gyllenhaal - can't pass up) - - Naqoyqatsi (another one of those "quatsi" movies) - - Personal Velocity (Fairuza Balk, Parker Posey, Kyra Sedgwick. getting raves at festivals) - - Pianist, The (dir. Roman Polanski; Adrien Brody. won Palme d'Or, 2002 Cannes) - - Punch-Drunk Love (dir. PT Anderson; Emily Watson, some dork) - - Pinocchio (dir. Roberto Benigni; don't laugh, I think this will be wonderful!) - - Rabbit-Proof Fence (dir. Phillip "Dead Calm" Noyce; Aborigine youth tragedy, score by Peter Gabriel) - - Red Dragon (prequel to Silence of the Lambs) - - Ring, The (remake, schemake, who cares, I want to see it) - - Roger Dodger (tiny film that's gotten great reviews at Venice Film Festival) - - Safe Conduct (dir. Bertrand Tavernier. about WWII French filmmakers) - - Solaris (dir. Steven Soderbergh; George Clooney) - - Spider - (dir. David Cronenberg, Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave, Miranda Richardson) - - Talk to Her (dir. Pedro Almodsvar; Ebert says it's his best yet) - - Truth About Charlie, The (dir. Jonathan Demme; Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton, remake of Charade) - - Veronica Guerin (story of the murdered reporter, starring Cate Blanchett) - - Welcome to Collinwood (Willian H. Macy, Sam Rockwell, George Clooney comedy) I will be EXTREMELY depressed if I can't see all of those. These look promising, and on the surface I want to see them all, but I have to learn more about them, read more, see reviews. - - Abandon (I had no interest until I heard that Zooey Deschanel and Melanie Lynskey were in it) - - Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (documentary about South African music during aparthied) - - Banger Sisters, The (cringe, I know, but Sarandon and Hawn? Gotta see it, if only in matinee) - - Barbershop (just sounds good to me) - - Between Strangers (dir. Edoardo Ponti; directs his mom Sophia Loren, Mira Sorvino) - - Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (documentary about, well, Hitler's secretary) - - Blue Car (just sounds interesting) - - Chicago (just because) - - Children of the Century (dir. Diane "Entre Nous" Kurys; Juliette Binoche as George Sand!) - - Core, The (um, er, I'm a sucker for Aaron Eckhart) - - Crime of Father Amaro, The (stars Gael Garcia Bernal of Y Tu Mama Tambien) - - Das Experiment (fascinating premise, partially filmed in Wuppertal!) - - Die Another Day (just because) - - Down and Out with the Dolls (comedic story of the rise and fall of an all-girl indie rock band in Portland) - - Emperor's Club, The (Kevin Kline, could be good) - - Evelyn - (dir. Bruce Beresford; Pierce Brosnan, John Lynch, Aidan Quinn AND Stephen Rea? Wow!) - - Femme Fatale (film noir by Brian De Palma) - - Formula 51 (dir. Ronny Yu; Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle) - - Four Feathers, The (dir. Shekhar Kapur. I loved Elizabeth) - - Friends and Family (comedy about gay hitmen) - - Ghost Ship (title says it all) - - God is Great, I'm Not (newest one with Audrey Tautou) - - In Praise of Love (dir. Jean-Luc Godard) - - Interstate 60 (cool cast, inc. James Marsden, Gary Oldman, Ann-Margaret !!) - - Just a Kiss (dir. Fisher Stevens; Marisa Tomei) - - Love in the Time of Money (Steve Buscemi, Rosario Dawson) - - Love Liza (Philip Seymour Hoffman as a bereft widower) - - Max (John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski. Noah Taylor as Hitler!) - - Maid In Manhattan (dir. Wayne "Joy Luck Club" Wang; Jennifer Lopez. Oh shut up, I like her) - - Man from Elysian Fields, The (Andy Garcia as a writer moonlighting as a male escort) - - Mesmerist, The (Edger Allen Poe story set in modern LA) - - No News from God (stars Javier Bardem and Penilope Cruz. sounds warped. I like warped) - - Phone Booth (dir. Joel Schumacher; Colin Ferrell. They made a great team in Tigerland) - - Pipe Dreams (plumber tries to change his image with women) - - Pinochet Case, The (doc about, well, Pinochet) - - Rising Place, The (I heard some buzz about this intimate indie set in the 1940's) - - Rules of Attraction, The (dir. Roger "Killing Zoe" Avary; based on Bret Easton Ellis novel) - - Russian Ark (I have no idea, but someone said it was beautiful) - - Skins (dir. Chris "Smoke Signals" Eyre; Graham Greene) - - Secretary (sounds warped. I like warped) - - Shanghai Ghetto (doc about Holocaust survivors sneaking into China) - - Slap Her, She's French (the previews are funny, maybe the movie is too) - - Standing in the Shadows of Motown (documentary about Motown's Funk Brothers) - - Star Trek: Nemesis (I'm not into Star Trek, but this could be good for non-Trekkers) - - Sweet Home Alabama (dir. Andy Tennant; Reese Witherspoon, but I'd see it for Melanie Lynskey) - - Transporter, The (dir. Corey Yuen, writer Luc Besson; courier gets into trouble) - - Trapped (I don't know, but I like Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love) - - Two Weeks Notice (Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant? C'mon, you know they're cute) - - Weight of Water, The (dir. Kathryn Bigelow; Sean Penn) - - White Oleander (nice cast, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Fugit, Robin Wright Penn, Renee Zellweger) - - Young Unknowns, The (tiny indie, but was compared to Hurlyburly) I'm sure there are more that I don't know about or forgot to add. I'm also sure that I won't see a fraction of these films due to lack of money. Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 09:25:37 -0700 (PDT) From: WretchAwry Subject: Argh Freakin hell, must be a Yahoo mail thing, or a Eudora thing, that messes up all my formatting. If anyone else is seeing my Upcoming movies post as ugly as it looks to me, sorry sorry. Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 15:38:18 -0700 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important On Sat, 07 Sep 2002 07:55:30 -0400 Paul2k@aol.com wrote: > sidenote: When did Al Pacino's acting performances become a caricature > of his acting performances? I mean, when did it stop being "Al Pacino > IS Scarface" or "Pacino IS Michael Corleone" and become "Pacino IS > PACINO as Pacino playing some sort of cop, or is he the devil, or > maybe a football coach? Who cares, it's PACINO, baby!" I say it > started with Dick Tracy and really turned full force with Scent of a > Woman. Hooo-ahhhh! > > Paul > If it's the performance I vaguely remember, Dick Tracy struck me as "Al Pacino IS Leonard Cohen." - -- | josephzitt@josephzitt.com http://www.josephzitt.com/ | | http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt/ http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt/ | | == New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems == | | Comma / Gray Code Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 19:03:01 EDT From: AzeemAK@aol.com Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important In a message dated 07/09/2002 23:48:17 GMT Daylight Time, jzitt@metatronpress.com writes: When did Al Pacino's acting performances become a caricature > of his acting performances? I mean, when did it stop being "Al Pacino > IS Scarface" or "Pacino IS Michael Corleone" and become "Pacino IS > PACINO as Pacino playing some sort of cop, or is he the devil, or > maybe a football coach? Who cares, it's PACINO, baby!" I say it > started with Dick Tracy and really turned full force with Scent of a > Woman. Hooo-ahhhh! Greetings ectofolks, I'm new to this list, and thought as this is the first post I've received from it so far, why not dive right in and respond to this one. Actually, I think Al is - miraculously - turning back from the gates of Hamsville. I thought we'd lost him for good until I saw The Insider, which seemed like a pretty considered performance to me. And he's pretty darn good in Insomnia too. I think it's a great question, though: a lot of performers reach a point beyond which, in hindsight, they will never be great again. Maybe pretty good, maybe awful, maybe mediocre, maybe approaching greatness, but usually missing it. Jack Nicholson? After (and probably including) The Shining he was just phoning 'em in and counting his money. I can't claim to have seen all of his films since then, but most of those I have seen stink to high heaven. With The Pledge, he seemed to find a tough director who wouldn't let him get away with his usual schtick, and was very good. Makes me think I ought to see The Crossing Guard, his other Sean Penn collaboration. Anyway, I won't bang on any more for now. For the record, I'm in London, England (are there many of you in the UK?); I'm a huge music and film buff/bore [delete as applicable]; I've never heard Happy Rhodes, though I'm sure I will in due course; I love the ectoguide site; and Christine Collister is the best singer on the planet, and please will someone use one of her songs on a soundtrack and make her famous?? Er, thanks for your attention. Azeem in London ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 09:20:23 +1000 From: Sherlyn Koo Subject: Farscape cancelled Hey folks, There's been a persistent rumour floating around for a while that Farscape had been cancelled. Unfortunately, it's just been confirmed by the show's executive producer - SciFi channel have decided to exercise the opt-out clause in the 2-season renewal contract they signed last year. This means the current season (season 4, the last episode of which is apparently shooting as we speak) will be the last. http://www.farscapeweekly.com/cancelled.htm has a transcript of the chat with David Kemper, Ricky Manning and Ben Browder... - -sherlyn - -- Sherlyn Koo | sherlyn@pixelopolis.com | Sydney, Australia ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 18:39:12 -0500 (CDT) From: kerry white Subject: Bob Ross' Flashback Hi, I inquired along the back channels of PBS. That was a comic "doing" Bob Ross. Anyone going off script by that much would never make it to air. A person did do it but not Bob Ross. This almost became an Urban Ledgend. bye, Kerry R White ............................... ............................. zzkwhite@washburn.edu KTWU PBS TV kerrywhite@webtv.net Topeka KS ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 20:21:32 -0400 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Re: Farscape cancelled On Sun, Sep 08, 2002 at 09:20:23AM +1000, Sherlyn Koo wrote: > Hey folks, > > There's been a persistent rumour floating around for a while that Farscape had > been cancelled. > > Unfortunately, it's just been confirmed by the show's executive producer - > SciFi channel have decided to exercise the opt-out clause in the 2-season > renewal contract they signed last year. This means the current season (season > 4, the last episode of which is apparently shooting as we speak) will be the > last. > > http://www.farscapeweekly.com/cancelled.htm has a transcript of the chat with > David Kemper, Ricky Manning and Ben Browder... :-( ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 22:45:58 -0500 From: "Chad Lundgren" Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important 'Lo there, > Road to Perdition. *shrug* It could have been great. It became slow and episodic. Like a drawn out comic book. Trying to bite tongue....trying to bite tongue......do I taste blood? I will have to chalk this up to personal tastes. Like my differing opinion on a lot of David Lynch's films and the frequently quoted "genius" of Baz Luhrmann. Everyone involved with the film, when receiving their awards would speak of the genius of Luhrmann as if he was the inventor of the musical. Moulin Rouge was a good film. A work of genius? I dunno. On the Road to Perdition front, as a comic book reader and collector, I bristle whenever someone uses the words "comic book" in a negative review of a film. It's usually in the context that a comic book is inferior source material for a screenplay and are somehow a lower medium than novels. Each has its own merits. There is nothing in the pacing or structure of that movie that would tell someone who had no previous knowledge that it was adapted from a comic book...or more specifically a graphic novel. It originally appeared in trade paperback form. It's just one of my few buttons. I know that some people went to Road to Perdition expecting a ganster flick, but the true focus of the movie is the relationship between father and son. It featured one of the best performances I've ever seen from Tom Hanks. Usually I watch Hanks on screen with the thought that I'm seeing Tom Hanks playing Tom Hanks. There were times in this movie that I actually lost Tom Hanks in his character. A damn good performance. It was probably my favorite movie of the year so far. Or at least tied with Frailty. Chad ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 00:23:34 EDT From: Paul2k@aol.com Subject: Re: movies, tv, music, nothing important Heeee. It's weird, I had actually written a longer bit trying to figure out why I didn't like Road to Perdition that much, including an explanation of my comic book comment and an appreciation of the various themes of father/son, betrayal/loyalty/revenge, and coming-of-age, but AOL actually blipped out that email, and I didn't feel like rewriting all that stuff again. So, that long ass post of mine to ecto last night was actually a shortened version of what I'd originally written. Scary, huh? ;) Anyways, I am a comic book fan myself. I don't hold it as an inferior medium to anything and often wonder why movies or tv actually dumb down great source material from comic books. My comic book comment in regards to Road could have just as easily been a comment that the scenes each felt like a small episode of a longer tv series. In other words, like each issue or episode of a comic or tv show, each scene, while contributing to the overall story, seemed to build and resolve tension within itself (sort of like a Simpsons episode, where you have some conflict and then it's resolved by the end of 24 minutes, and while there might be growth in subsequent episodes, you're still pretty much back where you started. sort of. of course, in the movie, you're back on the road to perdition and the mission that tom hanks is on, but still it seems like self-contained scene after self-contained scene with just a little dramatic tension buildup). I FELT like i was watching a series of vignettes, a series of issues instead of one long, flowing narrative. I think that this episodic nature of the movie dissipated the overall dramatic tension and didn't give it an adequate chance to really build to the climaxical confrontation. It's like, when you study the flow of narrative in school, the teacher draws a line from the left going diagonally up to represent rising tension, with an apex for climax and then a steeper fall off for denoument. Or something. And the movie seemed to be more like a series of little rising tension/climax/denouments that made for a flatter rising tension area. And all that did a disservice to the heavy and intriguing themes that the movie was trying to explore. God, I hate when I can't explain myself better. Stupid brain! Be more smarter! :) Paul ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V8 #250 **************************