Just wanted to mention the new Beatles album entitled "Love"...
If you're not a Beatles fan, then stop reading this and go do something else (loser)! If you ARE a Beatles fan, you definitely need to get this disc. It's being sold as just the CD only, or the CD plus audio DVD (which is the entire CD selection in Dolby 5.1). I bought the latter and have been listening to it for the past two days. The concept is this: Long-time Beatles producer, George Martin and his son Giles Martin, were asked to select and remix approximately one hour of their favourite Beatles tracks to accompany a new Cirque Du Soleil show entitled "Love". The connection between that show and the Beatles is that the late George Harrison was car racing buddies with the owner of the CDS franchise. George Martin, the obvious most-qualified person to undertake such a monumental task, takes the songs you know plus tons of additional studio extras and outtakes to come up with the most incredible, continuous mix of the Beatles' best songs ever. The timeless songs are beatifully overlaid and sampled without sounding overproduced, creating gorgeous new textured versions of the songs you already know and love. There are elements in the songs that come out that you never realized were there, creating an incredible aural journey. The only piece of new music which appears on the disc is some additional string arrangements George Martin wrote to accompany Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". I have yet to see a CDS show, but I can just imagine all of the psychedelic imagery they'll use to translate the music visually. I'm looking forward to seeing it if it tours through Japan. Anyway, when you hear this disc it will all come back to you why you loved the Beatles in the first place and how much their music endures, and why they were probably the most influential band ever on modern music.
Also wanted to recommend a movie we watched a couple nights ago called "Brokeback Mountain" - you may have heard about this one. Now, yes, it is a gay cowboy movie, but it's not "A Gay Cowboy Movie". That is, this is not what defines this movie. It is actually an engaging, tragic depiction of two people that share a forbidden love in a time and place in which it is completely taboo. Ang Lee did a fantastic job with the cinematography and direction, and the actors give so much, both verbally and non-verbally, that the film is emotionally-saturated without being a cheesy Lifetime network drama. I think this movie should have taken more awards than it did at last year's Oscars, especially compared to "Crash". There was so much controversy surrounding this film (in fact, it wasn't even shown on-base here in Yokosuka), but there was amazingly very little sexual content. "Snakes On A Plane", on the other hand, was shown practically around the clock at the theaters for two weeks straight. That's a very sad commentary on what we as an American culture consider quality entertainment. Just feeding more Soylent Green to the Sheep, I guess.
Anyway... go rent this movie.
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