This is an entertaining and captivating documentary about the Palestinian women’s car racing team, who supply their own cars, who race against men (and each other) and who practice in empty parking lots and on local streets.
Month: April 2015
Raptors Best Draft Picks as of 2015
Earlier this season (2014-15), a click-bait article was published on TSN about the “best” Raptors draft picks of all time, given that this was their 20th season and all. They were, according to the author: Bosh Mighty Mouse Mo Pete DeRozan T Mac No explanation was given for why Mo Pete is considered to be …
Classic Trumpet Concerti of Haydn/Hummel (1992) by Gerard Schwarz, Y Chamber Symphony of New York
The trumpet has always been a jazz instrument for me. I guess that’s in part because I came to jazz before I came to concertos and solo pieces from the classical repertoire and because there really aren’t many trumpet pieces out there. It’s an under-utilized instrument, for sure. The trumpet always sounds regal or martial …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Raptors
Last year, as the Raptors neared setting a record for regular season wins in a season, I wondered which was the best Raptors team ever. A weeks later I concluded last year’s edition ranked among the best. But at the beginning of this calendar year, I was optimistic that we were seeing the best team …
Franz Joseph Haydn: Keyboard Works 1773-1779 (1995) by Lola Odiaga
This is a collection of six of Haydn’s keyboard sonatas (played on piano) ostensibly written between 1773 and 1779. (However, there appears to be some debate as to when they were authored.) The sonatas are Nos. 39, 40, 41, 48, 49 and 51, which seems an arbitrary selection. However, the alternative cataloguing of Haydn’s works …
War of Lies (2014, Mathias Bittner)
Let’s get this out of the way: This is a student film. The director freely admitted last night that he made this as his graduation “project” for film school. When he said that before the movie, my expectations lowered considerably. I am always wary of first time directors. And there are definitely signs that this …
Haydn: Cello Concertos; Pereira: Concertino for Cello (2010) by Antonio Meneses, Northern Sinfonia
This is an odd collection that pairs Haydn’s two most famous (and likely sole surviving) cello concerti with a totally unrelated piece of music by the 20th century composer Clovis Pereira. Grumble. Haydn’s first cello concerto is a fine piece of music but it strikes me as typical of the era (though I don’t really …
Super-Cannes (2000) by J.G. Ballard
This is a provocative page turner that raises lots of questions about where late 20th century capitalism is headed. FYI, it’s also the first Ballard novel I’ve read, but I have seen both of the films that were adapted from his books. I found it entertaining and mostly provocative, but I did have a few …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Maple Leafs
I watched as little of the Leafs this year as I have since I was 16, more than half my life ago. I did this because Burke and then Nonis killed my passion for the team after JFJ made me more passionate, albeit passionate as to wanting him fired. I’m sort of kidding. I was …
Haydn: London Symphonies (2010) by Les Musiciens du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski
This is an excellent collection of Haydn’s final symphonies, the “London symphonies.”
Heaven and Hell (1980) by Black Sabbath
I’m struggling here, really struggling.
British Steel (1980) by Judas Priest
I have heard that this was sort of the Black Album of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal – the genre’s more popular and most accessible record to date. I don’t know Judas Priest, and I have no idea how much of a departure this was from earlier Priest albums, but it’s certainly significantly …
Los Angeles (1980) by X
In 2010 I wrote the following: On the whole this is a pretty great record and Xene is pretty damn alluring. There is a little too much Manzarek here for my liking. From the liner notes it sounds like the Doors cover and, perhaps, by extension, his involvement, was somehow a condition of the release, …
Haydn: Piano Concertos in D / F (2008) by Ralf Gothoni, Finlandia Sinfonietta
This is a hodgepodge of the 2nd, 6th and 11th concertos for keyboard, all played on a piano (shock horror).
2014-15 NHL Awards
I watched as little hockey this season as I have since I was 16 (i.e. half a lifetime ago) in part because Nonis was still in charge of the Maple Leafs until very recently and in part because basketball is slowly winning the battle of allegiances in my heart. So I’m not making any post-season …
The Age of Innocence (1920) by Edith Wharton
Scorsese’s version of this book is, in my opinion, one of his very best films and on the short list of films I would recommend to anyone wanting to understand good direction. This despite Michelle Pfeiffer’s supposedly miscast as the female lead.
The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope
I thought I was completely unfamiliar with this story as I had not seen the movie nor did I know anything about the book. However, it turns out that I have indeed seen a similar movie, Dave! It turns out that story has been used over and over again by various people. I don’t know …
L’age d’or (1930, Luis Bunel)
I am an optimistic guy – albeit with a realistic streak, I like to think. I tend to believe that, more often than not a (slim) majority of people will do “the right thing” (as I see it, anyway) and humanity will persist despite our flaws. But every so often I counter behaviour or historical …
King Solomon’s Mines (1888) by H. Rider Haggard
I was only familiar with this story from the ’80s Hollywood version, which I had been told was drastically different from the book. Sure enough, it absolutely was. So much of it is utterly different as to be (nearly) a different story. But anyway…
Is Alex Ovechkin the Greatest Pure Goal Scorer of All Time?
A few weeks ago, Alex Ovechkin joined some elite company, he became only the fifth player in NHL history to score 30 goals per season in his first 10 seasons. More recently, he joined even more elite company, he became only the sixth player in NHL history to score 50 goals six times. Now while …
The Partner (1997) by John Grisham
I only know Grisham from the old days when his novels were constantly turned into “event movies” – or the closest thing we had to those back in the ’90s. I watched many of them, though not every one, and, at least as a teenager, thoroughly enjoyed a couple of them, particularly A Time to …
Summer of 49 (1989) by David Halberstam
I am not a Yankees fan or a Sox fan but I am a fan of The Breaks of the Game, probably the best book I have ever read about sports. Summer of 49 is not on that level, but, for someone like me who was not alive during the summer of 1949, and who was …
Fear of a Black Planet (1990) by Public Enemy
This is the first Hip Hop album I have ever given my requisite 3 listens to. I am 33 years old. There have been a number of R&B (or “urban”) albums containing raps and Hip Hop that I have listened to, and I listened to an EP recently that might have sort of qualified, but …
Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) by Strapping Young Lad
I know Devin Townsend’s music for one reason and one reason only: I lived in residence in university with his current rhythm guitarist. And so I’ve been given a CD or two and been to some shows. And honestly, I was never blown away. I was always like, ‘this man is really talented, and really …
Oliver Twist (1839) by Charles Dickens
Two different reviews!
Toys in the Attic (1975) by Aerosmith
I grew up during Aerosmith’s reunion: I was eight when Pump came out and twelve when Get a Grip was released – which was apparently old enough to stay up to watch that SNL skit pointing out all Aerosmith ballads are the same. My introduction to Aerosmith was therefore Much Music (Canada’s version of MTV) …
Simplicius Simplicissimus (2012) by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, performed by Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Choir, Juliane Banse, Petermarsch, Will Hartmann conducted by Markus Stenz
From the very opening bars it’s clear that this is no ordinary opera. And though that’s true of the most path-breaking and challenging operas of the early 20th century – I am thinking chiefly of Berg’s work – this one is perhaps more shocking given the (seemingly) more traditional stance of the composer.
Killer Legends (2014, Joshua Zeman)
I remember sort of enjoying Cropsey, finding it kind of frustratingly made, but compelling enough to give it a pretty decent rating. I didn’t write a review, so I have no idea exactly what I liked/disliked about it. But watching this film, which could be called Cropsey II, I worry I was far too generous.
The Age of Stupid (2009, Franny Armstrong)
Somewhere in this movie there are the makings of a great “message” documentary about climate change. With some more money and a different “director” – if it was indeed directed by one person – maybe this could be the movie they wanted it to be, the movie some critics apparently thought they saw. But this …
Is This It (2001) by the Strokes
So I avoided this like the plague when it came out: it was too trendy for me, but I also didn’t like Casablancas highly affected voice (it’s not that I dislike his voice, it’s more that I dislike the way he uses it most of the time), and, when picking between the “The” bands, I …