Heart of Gold

Go!

What do you get when you take a body of superb music and perform it in a classic venue with accomplished musicians? You get this fine Jonathan Demme film featuring Neil Young with family and friends. That last part is important because the songs and vibe of this film project true traditional values: hope, optimism, genuine human relationships, and one song even depicts a relationship with a beloved pet. So there you have it--a beautiful film full of live music without artifice, cynicism, irony or any of that postmodern crap. It's a pleasure and you should treat yourself if this is in a nearby theater.

Neil's last album, "Prairie Wind", was just ok but the songs shine in a live setting. Furthermore, even the Neil hits are invigorated here -- to the point "Old Man" made me teary-eyed. How many thousands of times have I heard that song? "Heart of Gold" is not a concert film in that cameras were brought along on a tour, this stand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville was created in order to make the film. Perhaps that accounts for the rich ensemble laying it all out there to see hear and see. I might even go see it a second time this weekend.

I can't wait for the DVD in order to overcome my picky objections to the theater presentation (right side of screen out of focus, bad framing of the image so that feet are cut off, etc.)

Skeptics 1, Believers 0

Prayer doesn't work. Like, duh! However, the really surprising thing in this new report is that knowing one is being prayed for might lead to more complications.
Highlights:

Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found. And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.

...the results ... raised questions about how and whether patients should be told that prayers were being offered for them...

In another of the study's findings, a significantly higher number of the patients who knew that they were being prayed for — 59 percent — suffered complications, compared with 51 percent of those who were uncertain. The authors left open the possibility that this was a chance finding. But they said that being aware of the strangers' prayers also may have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety.

Dinner with the humans

Parrots are naturally messy eaters. They forage, throw, play and flick big and small pieces alike. There's not a damn thing you can do about it, except enjoy the fun.

I definitely do NOT have this

Hyperthymestic syndrome. If anything I think I would have hypothymestic syndrome, if there is such a thing, because I can't remember squat!

Free at last

No more Desperate Housewives for me. I did not watch last night's episode. Cord cut. The show has gotten so bad on all levels (writing, acting, you name it) it is no longer watchable. Now I can spend that hour doing something constructive, like sleep!

The Inside Man

Go. Spike Lee's new film will keep you in knots. It's very suspenseful with a good blend of humor. Definitely worth 2 hours a few bucks.

Lapse

A week without blogging is like...a busy week. However, it seems like my only accomplishment was learning how to use the new iPod and iTunes. When the new MacBook Pro arrives in April I will officially be an Apple cult member.

Failure to Launch

Pass. This aptly titled romantic comedy delivers a few yucks, very few. However, in totality it is lame. I wonder how actors feel after they have participated in a film and then have to live the rest of their lives facing friends and family with crap like this in their portfolio.

Here's hoping Sarah Jessica Parker did not peak with Sex and the City. She's great but is not exactly building a legacy with this and this.

I heart e-commerce

Monday night: ordered iPod online with custom engraving.
Tuesday: FedX track shows package coming from Shanghai, China.
Wednesday morning: iPod arrives at my front door.

38 hours. Amazing.

I heart of gold Neil Young

A recent Neil Young interview covers the long-awaited (10? 15 years?) and mammoth Archives project. The first installment spanning '63 to '73 will contain eight DVD's. If you love Neil's work, you'll love this interview. If you don't, well, you should. Don't be scared off by the foreign language website, the video is in English. Though only 3' 19", it depicts Neil's trademark sincerity, humor and venerable artistic stature.

People are sheep, parts 1347 and 1348

From Rolling Stone, a fascinating, in-depth look at scientology. Money quote (literally):

"...sci-fi writer Lloyd Eshbach describes meeting Hubbard in the late 1940s. "I'd like to start a religion," Eshbach recalls Hubbard saying. "That's where the money is."

And then there's this disturbing photo accompanying today's NYT story with the caption below. People are sheep indeed.

"Russian Communists gathered Monday outside the American Embassy in Moscow to commemorate Slobodan Milosevicof Serbia."

Some good news for a change

Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in Cell

The Soup

I love this show. It's hilarious every time. Of course, when you're mining the depths of TV land it's easy pickings.

(It prompts the question why SNL can't be funnier. This is a weekly show, too. Plus, Daily Show and Colbert are FOUR nights a week and they are consistently better than SNL.)

Theocracy Watch

Looking for morons? Look no further.

Dream job

Some might be angered by this story but I'm envious.

On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library.

“He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday,” gripes a senior counterterrorism official, noting that the former ambassador has a security detail sitting outside all that time in chase cars. Others say they’ve seen the Director of National Intelligence at the University Club, a 100-year-old mansion-like redoubt of dark oak panels and high ceilings a few blocks from the White House, only “several” times a week.

Grizzly Man

And now for a positive post after a couple of negative ones--here is a very strong film recommendation.

How fortunate the raw footage of Timothy Treadwell, who lived a dozen summers with wild bears, fell into the hands of the great filmmaker Werner Herzog. This DVD is worth buying or renting for the beautiful video Treadwell shot in Alaska and the masterful way Herzog organizes this documentary.

Even better is the non-objective way Herzog inserts himself into the film. For example, he listens on headphones to the mauling death of Treadwell and his girlfriend while Timothy's best friend watches Herzog's face--she will not listen to the tape. It's a highly emotional moment. For all the vapid "bear-hugger" motives on display in this film, especially by the misguided Treadwell, the 3 minutes of unadorned footage following the death audiotape, where two bears fight over a mate, is brutally intense and underscores the film's point that these are 100% wild animals and that humans should keep their distance.

Accompanying the DVD is a 50-minute feature showing Richard Thompson and other musicians in the studio for two days recording the soundtrack. It's a worthy film in its own right and not just filler. It's one of those cool moments in art where two geniuses, Herzog and Thompson, combine forces and we see a little light shed on them and their creative juices.

The Academy Awards

Normally I loathe awards shows but I watched most of the Oscars. Shakespeare said it best "much ado about nothing." zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Nancy Grace, bleccch

She's repulsive to me and Andrew agrees. I haven't read the full Observer article he links to but will.

Is this building ugly or butt-ugly?

Am I missing something? This is the newly announced, gargantuan Museum Plaza for downtown Louisville. What do you think? I know nothing about architecture.