Music: Rumer -- 2012's Best New Artist

RUMER -- SEASONS OF MY SOUL **** out of ****

The US is finally catching up with Rumer. A critical and commercial success all over the world, Rumer's gorgeous debut album Seasons of My Soul is finally getting a proper release in North America. It's early days yet, but she's certain to be one of the best new acts of 2012 and the early buzz is proving it. The album hit #1 on the iTunes album chart and #3 on Amazon, thanks in part to a profile on CBS (the video is posted below).

With the pop smarts of Adele, the mellow vibe of Norah Jones, a voice and sound that echoes Karen Carpenter, and songcraft that follows in the footsteps of Burt Bacharach, Rumer's talent is built to last. With just one Top 20 hit in the UK (the gorgeous "Slow") Rumer sold out the Royal Albert Hall. When she performed a showcase in New York in 2011, the New York Daily News rightly named it one of the best live shows of the year. If you're in Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, New York or Boston, make sure you catch her in the next week or so while she's still playing intimate clubs.

If success is making her head spin, it doesn't show. In concert and in person, Rumer is sweet, funny, self-effacing and nice, even as she's clearly navigating the terrain and dealing with new issues like giving a string of back to back interviews. The first question is what to call her -- does she go strictly by Rumer or do friends call her by Sarah, her given name?

"I'm kind of both," says Rumer, chatting by phone from the UK about a week ago.

"I don't mind if someone calls me Sarah. I just don't like it if people change it halfway through [a conversation]," she laughs. "I get confused."

Born in Pakistan to her English parents, Rumer spent her childhood there as the youngest of seven children. They always fell back on entertaining themselves so it was natural for Rumer to grab an instrument and sing or play. It was a sheltered, strange existence but also one that inspired a lot of creativity. When she was 11, Rumer discovered her biological father was their Pakistani cook. Her parents moved back to the UK and divorced. Later Rumer's mother suffered from depression (quietly alluded to in the second single "Aretha") and ultimately died from breast cancer.



Rumer wandered off into a commune based in a stately home and somehow wound up in the music business creating songs with a calm and sureness that belie the rather dramatic events of her early life. It's not so dramatic when you're living it, of course. That commune was more of a company than a cult, for example.

"It wasn't a cult, explains Rumer. "There's a man called Sir Richard Glyn. His family has owned thousands of acres of land since the 1400s. But he happens to be a hippie. He's this guy with long silver hair and he got married in Marrakech. It's like a hippie hotel. One week you get all these luminous people with yoga mats and then they leave and all these guys show up with giant gongs. Then they leave and you get the past life regression groups. And they're quite weird."

Things got even weirder when Rumer dove into music seriously.

"When I was about 18 I started to write a few songs where I thought, this is quite good," she remembers. "Later on I spent time learning structure and song writing. I've definitely done my apprenticeship. But I've done my apprenticeship part one. The first thing that you learn is that there's so much more to learn."

Obviously, she learned quickly. Rumer was in a couple of bands and even recorded a solo album under her given name of Sarah Joyce that was released in South Korea. But when she partnered up with Steve Brown, their collaboration proved magic. Brown is famous in the UK for writing songs for TV shows like Spitting Image and the massive West End hit musical Spend Spend Spend. Her record label thought Rumer was daft when she wanted to work with him, even though he's never produced an album before. The buzz surrounding their work was instantaneous.

Burt Bacharach flew Rumer out to his home so he could hear her sing and share some new songs. Elton John later invited her to be part of his annual charity show. And UK personality Jools Holland debuted her live on national television even before her album came out by giving Rumer a slot on his concert series where a string of musical acts all take turns playing music.

"It's quite interesting with live tv when you've never done anything like that before. Suddenly, it's 5, 4, 3, 2  1...live! It's like jumping off a building," says Rumer. "Especially because you have all these people from the record company saying, if she does a great job we'll jump up and down and decide she's the best thing ever. If she does a bad jump we'll go all quiet and moody. This position I'm in right now is kind of a conditional love nightmare."

Was the show itself intense? As a new artist whose album hadn't even been released yet, Rumer was surrounded by talented veterans.

"Nick Cave was on my right hand side and Brandon Flowers was on my left and Scissor Sisters was in front," she says. "It's lovely. There's a kind of folkiness to it because you've got all these other musicians there. It's a bit like doing an open mike night. If you watch the video of me singing "Slow" online, there's a point where I kind of look to my right, and that's me checking out Nick Cave because he's looking at me like, "Hmm." I caught him looking at me and thought, oh my god Nick Cave is looking at me!"



Clearly, things went well. The album is poised to go double platinum in the UK and now Rumer is set to introduce her music to America. If the songs you hear sound sturdy and well-crafted, it's no surprise. But these things take time.

"Each song for me is like a painting," explains Rumer. "It takes time. I try and let them emerge. I want them to have a soul; I want them to live forever. I let them grow naturally. I start with the sentiment, the emotion, the feeling and then gradually let the song emerge and structure it around that. I don't like to rush it. I definitely have some songs cooking but it takes as long as it takes."

So even though this music was recorded almost two years ago she's happy to keep living with these tunes. Rumer is in fact back in the studio, but she's recording an album of covers.

"I've always wanted to do this project," says Rumer about the album focused on Seventies songwriters, dubbed Boys Don't Cry and set for a spring UK release. "There's a part of me that admires people like Linda Ronstadt who can take songs and make them her own. They make great, great choices. I'm covering Leon Russell, Tim Hardin, Isaac Hayes, Richie Havens, Paul Williams, Jimmy Webb, P.F. Sloan. I love to learn and I love other people's work. If I were an actor I would never limit myself to just performing my own work."

And apparently she won't limit herself quite yet to just one man. Ask Rumer if she's dating anyone and she laughs.

"I've realized I'm the kind of girl who needs more than one man. I do! I realized that. I did the Albert Hall and about five of my ex-boyfriends were there...with some of their parents, which is quite hilarious. My friends were laughing about that. They said, 'Did you see Rumer's boyfriends all standing having a cigarette outside?' My little sister said, 'That's nothing. At her birthday picnic eight of them showed up and they all brought [mail].'

"I haven't got a boyfriend. I've decided that I'm not looking for a boyfriend anymore. I'm looking for a husband," she declares. "I'm 32. The next one's going to have to marry me. I'm going to find a nice American."

Here's the interview that aired on CBS:




Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz was provided with the CD and free tickets to a Rumer concert with the understanding that he would be writing a feature.

DVDs: Should Steven Soderbergh Retire From Directing?

CONTAGION ($29.98 BluRay; Warner Bros.) -- Director Steven Soderbergh has insisted he'll stop directing movies soon, after a few more projects are finished up. He has Haywire out January 20 with a kick-ass female action hero; Magic Mike, a film about male strippers; and a Liberace biopic with Michael Douglas as the pianist and Matt Damon the down-low love interest. Why walk away from a profitable and interesting career? If Contagion is any indication, he might simply be bored. It's a fine rough draft for a smart contemporary drama/thriller about what would help if a pandemic truly broke out in the world, rather than just being a scare like the avian flu or other genuine health threats that don't follow a worst-case scenario. This film does follow that scenario and dutifully covers all the bases, from regular guy Matt Damon (whose wife Gwyneth Paltrow and son are dead in the blink of an eye) to CDC officials like Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet down to conspiracy theory bloggers like Jude Law. After a promising start, the only surprise here is how dull the movie turns out to be. In one typical subplot, Marion Cotillard is a health expert taken prisoner by villagers in China who want to ensure their children are given a vaccine as soon as possible after most of them drop dead. A fine, compelling set-up. Then she is promptly forgotten for most of the film until we pick up her story thread right near the end. The score by Cliff Martinez is not his best; the performances are fine as far as they go. But no one seems to have had their heart in it. This is not a frightening, unnerving film the way it should be. And it's all the more frustrating because all the elements were there. It seemed odd for Soderbergh to announce his retirement, and surely he'll make more movies some day. But perhaps a break isn't such a bad idea.

















BOARDWALK EMPIRE SEASON ONE ($59.99; HBO)
JUSTIFIED COMPLETE SECOND SEASON ($49.95 BluRay; Sony)
SHAMELESS COMPLETE FIRST SEASON ($49.99 BluRay; Warner Bros.)
ROYAL PAINS SEASON THREE VOLUME ONE ($26.98; Universal)

By and large, American television does a TERRIBLE job releasing their new shows on DVD. In the UK, TV shows and movies and miniseries come out on DVD the minute the current season of the show has ended, sometimes even before. In America, the studios rather idiotically have decided to wait until right before the new season has begun to release the previous season. This has two results: one, most people writing about TV write about the new season, rather than the old season coming out on DVD six months after it ended. Two, fans who might want to "join" a show by catching up can't do so because the previous season comes out so close to the new season. Even worse are kids shows, which often see a single season broken up into multi-DVD releases that make them expensive and annoying to collect. HBO has added a new wrinkle to this. They want to encourage people to subscribe to HBO and access their entire library via HBO To Go, so they delayed the DVD release of their high profile series Boardwalk Empire (with the pilot directed by executive producer Martin Scorsese) until one month after the finale of Season TWO! This is a lavish series with a top-notch cast and a very familiar story of gangsters and the feds during Prohibition. I can't speak to its quality yet since I'm still catching up with episodes that aired some 16 months ago and many people have said the show didn't catch fire until season two. But it's certainly well-acted and intelligent. But HBO has it wrong. The more people that watch their shows the more likely they will be to subscribe.

Hiding a show from DVD for a  year longer than necessary goes against everything we've learned about creative content: make it available to consumers any way they want, whether it's digital, on a tablet, on BluRay, on demand, or via their cable subscription. Keeping Boardwalk Empire from DVD doesn't make HBO more desirable. It keeps their shows less well-known and therefore less important. For 16 months, I haven't even been able to discuss Boardwalk Empire or read a single story to avoid spoilers. How is that a good idea? Season two debuted to lower numbers than the season one finale. On the bright side, it's only $60 retail on DVD, far lower than HBO's usual premium price.

No one else has gone as extreme as HBO but they don't do it right, either. Anyone wanting to catch up with one of the wittiest action dramas on TV -- Timothy Olyphant's Justified -- has one week to watch 13 hours before season three debuts on January 17 on FX. I can't quite get over the idea that Shameless is an unnecessary remake of a raunchy UK show. But it has a fun cast and I've been hearing good buzz. Maybe I would have caught up with it before season two debuted on Showtime last Sunday, and if I'd watched one episode a night since the DVD was released on December 27, I could have just barely done that. Imagine if it had come out right after the season one finale, just over nine months ago.

Finally, the USA network show Royal Pains is good junk food with a doctor catering to the filthy rich in the Hamptons. But now they've split up the season into two sets, releasing volume one now and volume two later. Fans don't care about scheduling. In this case, 10 episodes aired from June through August and another six will be broadcast starting January 18. Is that any reason to split the DVD release up? No. wait 'til February 22 and put it all out at once. As you can see, if they can screw up the DVD release of a TV show, they will. The major studios need to radically rethink their approach and understand that putting out the DVD in as timely a manner as possible in a reasonably priced package will increase the long-term value of the show.





MONEYBALL ($40.99 BluRay combo; Sony) -- I don't actually play fantasy baseball but that's about the only way this movie could be more up my alley. I love baseball (I have season tickets to the Yankees in the bleachers). I watch the off-season moves with alarm and interest. I appreciate the revolution that statistics have achieved in how players are measured (though it's gone too far and statistics can be just as misleading as your "gut".) And I loved director Bennett Miller's Capote. And yet this film left me cold on many levels. It never transmitted a love of the game. it never brought the players alive. And it certainly didn't help that Brad Pitt's character avoided the stadium during games. I have enjoyed Jonah Hill, who stars here as a geeky numbers guy feeding to Pitt ideas on who to value on the team and who to let go. But Hill spent the entire film frozen, as if someone were holding a gun to his head and telling him that this was a "real" film, not one of his dumb comedies and if he ever loosened up or got jokey by God they would let him have it. It's arid and unpersuasive emotionally and as a look at the changes roiling the game. I think perhaps the way to humanize the story would have been to focus on the players -- as hard as that is. Watching a catcher like Scott Hatteberg face the trial by fire of adjusting to first base and getting royally mocked by fans and the media while his bosses insist it'll all work out -- that's a sidebar in this film but maybe it's where the real drama lies. I suppose sabermetrics would tell you to focus on Brad Pitt's character, but sometimes you have to go with your gut.





GREATEST SUPER BOWL MOMENTS ($14.93 VIVENDI/NFL) -- Sports coverage provides endless amounts of packaging -- greatest touchdown passes, greatest goal line stands, greatest dunking of coach with water! But this modestly priced DVD contains more than two and a half hours of highlights from the first Super Bowl game to the most recent, including Joe Namath, Tom Brady, Marcus Allen and most every other highlight that springs to mind when you think of the Super Bowl. If you're an addict, this is a good fix and probably a lot more fun to watch than the pre-game shows that will go on and on and on this February 5.





MILDRED PIERCE($49.99 BluRay; HBO) -- This carefully crafted HBO miniseries by director Todd Haynes spared no expense in bringing the James M. Cain novel to life. But what director Michael Curtiz told so deftly in under two hours, this miniseries drags out interminably in over five. The adult cast is solid, with Kate Winslet winning the Emmy as the self-made, self-loathing career gal and Guy Pearce snagging a supporting actor Emmy for his work as a dissolute man about town. But the insufferable, poorly written role of the daughter Mildred sacrifices everything for is not well played by Morgan Turner for the first three, dragging episodes, while the excellent actress Evan Rachel Wood does a little better in the final two. But it doesn't matter: the miniseries includes a plot twist in the fourth episode that is so absurdly laughable that the entire miniseries goes off the rails for good. It's the sort of ludicrous detail that you might include in an old movie where audiences were more gullible but for a modern remake simply readjust at least a little. Seriously, couldn't the daughter have turned out to be a good pop singer, rather than a full-blown coloratura operatic superstar overnight when it's a skill that takes literally a lifetime to master? Plus, drawn out to this length just makes your impatience with Mildred grow and grow. After all, unless the child is a bad seed, it's her fault for raising such a spoiled brat.

THE GUARD ($35.99 BluRay; Sony Pictures Classics)
DR. WILLOUGHBY ($29.99; Acorn)
BLACKTHORN ($29.98 BluRay; Magnolia)
FILM SOCIALISME ($29.95; Kino Lorber)

Four DVDs to catch up on. Don Cheadle is enjoying some of the best reviews of his career for the new Showtime sitcom House Of Lies. Maybe that will bring renewed attention to The Guard, a seemingly standard odd couple paring of Cheadle as a tightly wound FBI agent and Brendan Gleeson as a shoot-from-the-hip Irish cop. I ignored it when it came out but have seen the movie popping up here and there on end of the year lists as unfairly overlooked. With AbFab back on the air (if briefly) Joanna Lumle fans who want to double down on their favorite acerbic actress can catch Doctor Willoughby, a 90s sitcom about a soap star desperate to maintain her position playing a brilliant surgeon on the sleaziest soap on telly. What if Butch and Sundance didn't die but retired to Bolivia? That's the premise for Blackthorn, a western starring Sam Shepard that went completely under my radar. But an online friend touted it as one of his favorite films of the year and I love westerns so it's on my to-do list. Finally, Jean-Luc Godard is one of the giants of cinema but I've let his prickly personality color my appreciation for his films. (I'm a Truffaut man all the way, always valuing story over intellectual ideas.) Yet, I find an increasing number of his classic films appealing to me and can't deny it when his latest work Film Socialisme ranks at #11 on Film Comment's survey of film critics about the best movies of the year. You simply can't talk about the best films of the year until you've checked it out. And that's one reason I haven't put out my list: Godard is waiting.

READERS: So tell me what you think. Should director Steven Soderbergh retire from directing? Or just take a break? And what's your favorite Soderbergh film?

MOST TITLES LISTED HERE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE FORMATS AND IN MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS, INCLUDING DVD, BLURAY, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, VOD, STREAMING AND THE LIKE. THE FORMAT LISTED IS THE FORMAT PROVIDED FOR REVIEW, NOT ALL THE FORMATS AVAILABLE. IT IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE VERSION WITH THE MOST EXTRAS. DO CHECK INDIVIDUAL TITLES FOR AVAILABILITY IN ALL THEIR VARIOUS GUISES AND PRICE POINTS.

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs and BluRays with the understanding that he would be considering them for review. Generally, he does not guarantee to review and he receives far more titles than he can cover.

Book Galley Release Date

Week of 6-10-12

Mission To Paris by Alan Furst

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Niceville by Carsten Stroud

6-17-12

Existence by David Brin

Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale

6-24-12

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood

7-1-12

Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill

House Blood by Mike Lawson

Advent by James Treadwell

The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker

7-8-12

True Believers by Kurt Andersen

The Absolutist by John Boyne

The Impeachment Of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L Carter

The Red Chamber by Pauline Chen 

7-15-12

Chapman's Odyssey by Paul Bailey

Murder in Mumbai by Calamur

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card

Skin by Mickey Spillane and Collins

The fear artist by Hallinan

7-22-12

Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller

The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair

7-29-12

Four Views on The Apostle Paul by Campbell et al

Dead Stars by Bruce Wagner

Jam On food book

8-5-12

The Wondeous Journals of Dr Wendell Wiggins by Lesley MM Blume ya

The Crime of Julian Wells by Thomas H Cook

The Exceptions by Cristofano

Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Requiem by Frances Itani

Emily and Jackson Hiding Out by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ya

Wizywig by Piskor

12.21 by Dustin Thomason

8-12-12

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Om Love by George Minot

Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

8-19-12

Wards Of Faeries by Terry Brooks

The Survivor by Gregg Hurwitz

The Devil In Silver by Victor LaValle

The Guardian Of All Things by Michael S Malone

We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen

8-26-12

The Art Of Haiku by Stephen Addis

Death Warmed Over by Kevin J Anderson

Pets at the White House by Barbara Bush

A Floating Life by Tad Crawford sci-fi literary(Borges)

My First Guitar by Julia Crowe

Final Table by Jonathan Duhamel

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

Freedom Burning by Richard Huzzey

Best of Rivals by Adam Lazarus

Every Day by David Levithan ya

A Soldier's Secret by Marissa Moss

Mud Puddle by Munsch

Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

Planet Taco -- growth of Mexican food

9-2-12

The Serpent's Bite by Warren Adler

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Higgs by Jim Baggott

the Water Theatre by Lindsay Clarke

The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech ya

Edge Of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Garment of Shadows by Laurie R King

The vanishing Point by Val McDermid

The Art of making Magazines by Navasky

Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus

John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk

Wilderness by Lance Weller

Pendulum by Williams

An Enemy We Created by Alex Strick van Linschoten & Felix Kuehn

9-9-12

Oscar Peterson by Jack Batten

Prayers of a Stranger by Davis Bunn

The Five Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward Burger

Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis

Grand Old Party by Lewis Gould 

Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg

Wild Grace by Max Lucado

White Forest by Adam McOmber

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Everglades Patrol by Shirley

pie in the Sky by Jane Smiley ya

Following Grandfather by Rosemary Wells

9-16-12

San Miguel by T C Boyle

Low pressure by Sandra Brown

Strange Bedfellows by Rob Byrnes

Michael Douglas bio by Eliot

Unstoppable by Tim Green ya

The rest of the story by Arthur Laurents

Syria by Lesch

Unaccountable by Marty Makary

Waiting for the Barbarians by Daniel Mendelsohn

The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore

Beam, Straight Up by Noe

The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy L O'Brien

Bucko by Jeff Parker

The Black Count by Tom Reiss (Abe digital)

Forever Young by John W Young

What's Left Of Me by Kat Zhang ya

9-23-12

The Assault by Brian Falkner ya

Bad Glass by Richard E Gropp

May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane

A Woman Like Me by betty Lavette

Syria by David Lesch

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers by McKay

An Outlaw's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller

Don't Buy It by Osorio (economics primer)

The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne

Ike's Bluff by Evan Thomas (Eisenhower admin bio)

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini ya

American SciFi five classic novels and another four by Various Artists

9-30-12


Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson (Wired editor)

Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork

Ghosts of Manhattan by Douglas Brunt

The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler

My Last Empress by Da Chen

William E Dodd biography by Robert Dallek

The Quick Fix by jack Ferrialo

The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde

Studio Glass in America by Ferdinand Hampson

Peaches For Father Francis by Joanne Harris

In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helprin

Picturing Illinois by Jackle

That's Not A Feeling by Dan Josefson (pb)

Invisible Murder by Leena Kaaberbol

From The Closet to the Altar by Klarman

The Jewels of Paradise by Donna Leon

Lenin's Kisses by Lianke

Finder: Talisman by McNeil

The Heart Broke In by James Meek 

Little White Duck by Na Liu ya

Fighting To Serve by Nicholson

Islam and the Arab Awakening by Tariq Ramadan

Shakespeare's Common Prayers by Daniel Swift

The Other by Thomas Tryon

10-7-12

Short Nights of the Shadow catcher by Timothy Egan

The Guy Under The Sheets by Chris Elliot

Pop-Up Cards by Mari Kumada

Noighties by Ben Masters

Becoming Holmes by Shane Peacock

Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson

Jesus: A Theography by Leonard Sweet

The Wisdom of Failure by Laurence Weinzimmer

The News From Spain by Joan Wickersham

Skulls by Simon Winchester

10-14-12

Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford

Through the Eye of a Needle by Peter Brown

Duck Boy by Bill Bunn ya

The Panther by Nelson deMille

The Story of America by Jill LePore

Princess Elizabeth's Spy by Susa Elia MacNeal RH

This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees (ya)

The Drive On Moscow, 1941 by Niklas Zetterling

10-21-12

Paradox by Jim Al-Khalili

Commediannes by Littleton (look at female comics)

Bright Island by Mabel L Robinson ya

Light and Shade by Brad Tolinski

10-28-12

Crazy Sexy Kitchen by Kris Carr

Under The Eye of God by Jerome Charyn

Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher (sci fi romance)

Misunderstanding Financial Crises by Gary G. Gorton

Need by Todd Gregory (gay erotica)

Entering The Shift Age by David Houle

Assholes by Aaron James

Biographical Dict of Popular Music by Dylan Jones

An Amish Gift by Cynthia Keller

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Jews and Words by Amos Oz

Scrivener's Moon by Philip Reeve

Elsewhere by Richard Russo

Of Africa by Wole Soyinka

11-4-12

Pray The Gay Away by Barton

Among The Islands by Tim Flannery

Return of the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

If We Survive by Andrew Klavan (ya)

The Last Lion by William Manchester

The Boy In The Snow by MJ McGrath (mystery)

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks

11-11-11

Under The Bridge by Michael Harmon ya

Beirut, I Love You NYRB

The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Rian Malan

New techniques by Jacques pepin cookbook

My Bookstore edited by Ronald Rice

Bartholemew Biddle by Gary Ross ys

11-18-12

Beyond The Checklist: What Else Healthcare can learn from....by Gordon

Picturing The Cosmos by Elizabeth Kessler

Jews and Words by Amos Ox

The City War by Sam Starbuck (gay erotica)

All The Emperor's Men: Shooting Tora Tora Tora by Tasogawa 

11-25-12

Never Hug A Nun -- by Killeen (suburban memoir 60s)

Creamy and Crunch History of Peanut Butter by Krampner

The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O'Brien (OUP)

12-2-12

38 Nooses by Scott Berg

Spilt Milk by Chico Buarque

Creative Strategy by William Duggan

Climates by Andre Maurois

Mac & Cheese Please cookbook by Werlin

12-9-12

12-16-12

Olympic Affair by Terry Frei

12-23-12

12-30-12

Broken by AE Rought (ya)

Kiku's Prayer by Endo Shusaku (first English translation)

1-6-13

A Killer In The Wind by Anfrew Klavan

What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard (ya)

Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates

Encyclopedia of a Life in Russia by Jose Manuel Prieto

Umbrella by Will Self

1-13-13

the Drowning House by Elizabeth Black

Empire Of Ideas: US Foreign Diplomacy by Justin Hart (OUP)

1-20-13

1-27-13

Mating Intelligence Unleashed (OUP great cover) by Geher and Kaufman

On Constitutional Disobedience by Seldman (OUP)

2-3-13

Lonesome Melodies: Stanley Brothers music bio by david Johnson

2-10-13

2-17-13

2-24-13

3-3-13

Finding Florida by TD Allman

Exploding The Phone by Lapsley

3-10-13

3-17-13

3-24-13

3-31-13

4-7-13

4-14--13

Jerusalem by Boaz Yakin

4-21-13

4-28-13

5-6-13

5-12-13

Operation Storm: Japans Secret Subs by John Geoghegan (war nonfiction)

5-19-13

5-26-13




6-3-13



6-10-13


Queen Of The Air: True Story Love at the Circus by Dean Jensen


6-17-13


6-24-13


7-1-13


7-8-13


7-15-13



7-22-13


7-29-13


8-5-13



8-12-13


8-19-13



8-26-13


9-2-13


9-9-13


9-16-13


9-23-13


9-30-13


10-7-13


10-14-13


10-21-13


10-28-13


11-4-13


11-11-13


11-18-13


11-25-13


12-2-13


12-9-13


12-16-13


12-23-13

The Movies, Books, Theaters, Concerts, CDs Etc I Saw/Read In 2011

Updated December 31, 2011

MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES

1. Secret Sunshine ***
2. The Strange Case Of Angelica * 1/2
3. Welcome ***
4. Shoah ****
5. Downton Abbey (TV series) ***
6. The Red Riding Trilogy: 1980 ***/
7. The Red Riding Trilogy: 1983 ***
8. White Material (good Tindersticks score) ** 1/2
9. Everyone Else *** 1/2
10. Long Ride Home ***
11. Country Strong **
12. Howl * 1/2
13. Judge Hardy and Son (1939) * 1/2 (but good prayer scene for Mickey Rooney)
14. Bluebeard *** 1/2
15. Animal Kingdom ***
16. Inspector Bellamy *
17. Nowhere Boy ** 1/2
18. Cold Weather **
19. Oscar Animated Shorts * 1/2
Madagascar, A Journey Diary ***
Let's Pollute **
The Gruffalo *
The Lost Thing * 1/2
Day & Night ***
20. Oscar Live Action Shorts *** 1/2
The Confession ** 1/2
Wish 143 ***/
Na Wewe *
The Crush ***/
God Of Love *** 1/2
21. Potemkin at Film Forum ****
22. Sapphire (1959) ** 1/2
23. Elsewhere ** 1/2
24. Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) **
25. Bambi on BluRay (1942) ****
26. Morning Glory **
27. Unstoppable ***
28. Eyes On The Prize ****
29. Dexter Season One ****
30. Dexter Season Two ** 1/2
31. Dexter Season Three ***
32. Dexter Season Four ***
33. Songs Of America (Simon & Garfunkel TV special) ** 1/2
34. The Harmony Game: The Making Of Bridge Over Troubled Water) ****
35. The Killer Inside Me ** 1/2
36. Pioneers Of Television: Westerns **
37. Pioneers Of Television: Science Fiction *
38. Hereafter * 1/2
39. How Do You Know? * 1/2
40. The Tourist *
41. Terribly Happy ** 1/2
42. Dancing Co-Ed (1939) * 1/2
43. The Black Power Mixtape ***
44. Rejoice & Shout ***
45. Allegheny Uprising (1939) ***
46. Treme Season One ** 1/2 (very frustrating series)
47. Source Code **
48. Honolulu (1939) * 1/2
49. State Of The Union (1948) *** 1/2
50. The Frozen Limits (1939) * 1/2
51. I Walked With A Zombie (1943) ***
52. Sansho The Bailiff (1954) ***
53. Forbidden Games (1952) *** 1/2
54. The Big Heat (1953) *** 1/2 (great Glenn Ford)
55. Out Of The Past (1947) ****
56. The Reckless Moment (1949) ** 1/2
57. Out Of The Fog (1941) ***
58. Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939) **
59. Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939) * 1/2
60. Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation (1939) * 1/2
61. Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) * 1/2
62. Everything Happens At Night (1939 w Sonja Henie) *
63. Out Of The Fog (1941) ***
64. Thor **

Cannes Film Festival 2011

65. Midnight In Paris **
66. Sleeping Beauty (2011) * 1/2
67. We Need To Talk About Kevin ** 1/2
68. Restless * 1/2
69. Polisse ** 1/2
70. The Fairy ** 1/2
71. The Slut **
72. Habemus Papam/We Have A Pope ***
73. Michel Petrucciani ** 1/2
74. Arirang zero stars
75. Jeane Captive/The Silence Of Joan ** 1/2
76. Hearat Shulayam/The Footnote *** 1/2
77. Wu Xia aka Swordsmen aka Dragon ** 1/2
78. Michael *** or maybe *** 1/2
79. 17 Filles/17 Girls **
80. La Fin Du Silence/The End Of Silence **
81. The Kid With A Bike/La Gamin Du Velo *** 1/2
82. The Artist *** 1/2
83. Take Shelter ***
84. Martha Marcy May Marlene ***
85. House Of Tolerance/L'Apolloniade * 1/2
86. The Tree Of Life ****
87. Hors Satan/Outside Satan **
88. Snowtown **
89. Le Havre ***
90. Skoonheid/Beauty **
91. Bonsai **
92. Hanezu No Tsuki *
93. Melancholia **
94. The Conquest/La Conquete ** 1/2
95. Oslo, 31 August **
96. Ichimei aka Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai **
97. The Skin We Live In/La Piel Que Habito **
98. L'Exercice de L'etat/The Minister ** 1/2
99. Drive **
100. This Must Be The Place ***
101. Play ***


End Of Cannes Film Festival

102. X-Men: First Class **
103. Battle: Los Angeles ** 1/2
104. Chains (1949) ***
105. The Eagle * 1/2
106. Went The Day Well (1942 at Film Forum) ***
107. Way To The Stars (1945) ***
108. Let Us Live (1939) * 1/2
109. Follow Me Quietly (1949) **
110. The Spiral Staircase (1946) ** 1/2
111. Grand Central Murder (1942) ** 1/2
112. Gambling Lady (1934) ***
113. Pale Flower (1964) *** 1/2
114. Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon *
115. Torchwood: Children Of Earth TV miniseries *** 1/2
116. Knight Without Armor (1937) **
117. Q Planes aka Clouds Over Europe (1939) ***
118. Home On The Prairie (Gene Autry)(1939) *
119. Las Acacias (Cannes film truck driver giving mom and baby lift) ***
120. Captain America: The First Avenger ** 1/2
121. Harlem Rides The Range (1939) no stars
122. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes ***
123. Metropolis (restored version 2010 w Alloy Orchestra live) ****
124. The Murder Man w Spencer Tracy ** 1/2
125. Trouble In Paradise at FF (1932) ****
126. Jewel Robbery at FF (1932) ***
127. The Immortal Battalion aka The Way Ahead dir by Carol Reed edited US version 91m (1944) ***
128. Girls Night Out at FF (1931) ***
129. Heat Lightning at FF (1934) ** 1/2
130. Union Depot at FF (1932) ** 1/2
131. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3-D ***
132. They Made Me A Criminal (1939 John Garfield) * 1/2
133. Jane Eyre (2011 w Michael Fassbender) ***
134. Conan The Barbarian (2011) no stars
135. Rally Round The Flag, Boys (1958) *
136. King Of The Underworld (1939) **
137. Fallen Angel (1945) *** 1/2
138. Brute Force (grim prison movie) (1947) *** 1/2
139. Spy In Black (1939) **
140. Mysteries Of Lisbon ** 1/2
141. Intimidation (1960) ** 1/2
142. Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) *** 1/2
143. Life Begins For Andy Hardy (1941) ***
144. A Man's Castle (1933) ** 1/2
145. The Long Voyage Home (1940) ***
146. Harper (1966) **
147. We Can't Go Home Again (Nicholas Ray) *
148. Music According To Tom Jobim ** 1/2
149. Patience (After Sebald) **
150. Tahrir **
151. Dreileben: Beats Being Dead ***
152. Dreileben: One Minute Of Darkness ***
153. Dreileben: Don't Follow Me Around **
154. Society Lawyer (1939) * 1/2
155. Moneyball **
156. Stronger Than Desire (1939) * 1/2
157. Carnage (film version of God Of Carnage) ** 1/2
158. The Bishop Misbehaves (1935) **
159. Dexter Season Five *** 1/2
160. The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) * 1/2
161. All Creatures Great And Small Season One *** 1/2
162. All Creatures Great And Small Season Two ***
163. All Creatures Great And Small Season Three *** 1/2
164. Shanghai Express (1932) ***
165. Four Daughters (1938) ***
166. One Third Of A Nation (1939) **
167. Circo ***
168. They Were Expendable (1945) ***
169. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ****
170. The Four Feathers (1939) ***
171. Koyaanasqatsi (1982) (live at Lincoln Center w orchestra and Glass Ensemble) ****
172. The Great Flood w Bill Frisell at Carnegie Hall ***
173. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943) *** 1/2
174. The Earrings Of Madame De... (1953) *** 1/2
175. The Crowd at Film Forum w live piano (1928) ****
176. Hugo * 1/2
177. The Wind (1928 w Lillian Gish) ***
178. Pariah ***
179. Courageous Daughters (1939) **
180. Weekend ***
181. Arthur Christmas *** 1/2
182. The Muppets ***
183. Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows **
184. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ***
185. The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn **
186. The Bishop's Wife (1947) *
187. They Drive By Night (1940) ***
188. Tokyo Drifter (1966) *** 1/2
189. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974) *** 1/2
190. Diary Of A Country Priest (1951) *** 1/2
191. Danton (1983) ****
192. High and Low (1963) *** 1/2


BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein ****
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King by JRR Tolkein ****
3. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
4. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
5. Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
6. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
7. Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
8. A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
9. A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
10. Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
11. Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
12. Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
13. Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
14. Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
15. A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
16. Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
17. A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
18. The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
19. The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
20. Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
21. The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
22. 21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
23. The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
24. Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
25. Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
26. Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
27. On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
28. Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
29. Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
30. High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
31. Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
32. Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
33. My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
34. Drive by James Sallis **
35. The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
36. The Magician King by Lev Grossman ***
37. The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
38. Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
39. Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
40. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
41. Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
42. East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
43. Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
44. Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
45. A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
46. Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
47. The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
48. Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
49. A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
50. A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
51. The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
52. Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
53. River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
54. When The Emnperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
55. The Sun Also Rises by Eernest Hemingway *** 1/2
56. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
57. Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
58. The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach *** 1/2
59. The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
60. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
61. John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
62. Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
63. Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
64. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
65. Prince Valiant Vol. 4 1943-1944 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
66. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ****
67. Habibi by Craig Thompson *** 1/2
68. The Vicar Of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith ** 1/2
69. The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2
70. George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis ***
71. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien ****
72. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ****
73. The Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ***
74. The Leviathan by Joseph Roth (trans by Michael Hofmann) *** 1/2
75. Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir by John Paul Stevens * 1/2
76. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ***
77. Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls **
78. Pogo: Through The Wild Blue Yonder -- The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Vol. 1 by Walt Kelly ****
79. Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes (trans by Edith Grossman) *** 1/2
80. The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden ***


THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS THEATER CONCERTS

1. The Importance of Being Earnest (w Brian Bedford) ** 1/2
2. The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church (Daniel Kitson show) *** 1/2
3. Other Desert Cities (Jon Robin Baitz w Stockard Channing, Stacey Keach) **
4. John Gabriel Borkman (Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Lindsay Duncan) * 1/2
5. Mavis Staples at Bell House in Brooklyn ***
6. Fitz and the Tantrums at Bowery Ballroom ***
7. The New York Idea **
8. Blood From A Stone with Ethan Hawke ** 1/2
9. Gruesome Playground Injuries ***
10. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore with Olympia Dukakis *
11. The Road To Qatar *
12. Nixon In China at the Met *** 1/2
13. The Whipping Man w Andre Braugher **
14. The Hallway Trilogy: Rose ***
15. The Hallway Trilogy: Paraffin ***
16. The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing **
17. Small Craft Warnings Tennessee Williams revival zero stars
18. The Diary Of A Madman with Geoffrey Rush at BAM ***
19. Timon Of Athens with Richard Thomas at the Public ***
20. The Broadway Musicals Of 1921 at Town Hall w Bobby Steggert ***
21. Nightingale at BAM dir Robert Lepage ***
22. Good People (w Frances McDormand) **
23. Beautiful Burnout (Frantic Assembly at St. Ann's) **
24. The Civilians at Joe's Pub w work-in-progress Let Me Ascertain You ***
25. Three Sisters (w Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard) *** 1/2
26. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark at Terminal 5 ***
27. The Pogues at Terminal 5 ** 1/2
28. Room (Virgina Woolf piece at Women's Project) ***
29. Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert -- The Musical * 1/2
30. Ghetto Klown (John Leguizamo show) ** 1/2
31. Cactus Flower (revival with Maxwell Caulfield) *
32. Teddy Thompson at City Winery *** 1/2
33. The Dream Of The Burning Boy ** 1/2
34. Double Flasehood (Shakespeare play) **
35. Macbeth (with John Douglas Thompson) **
36. Between Worlds/Entre Mundos (w Siudy) * 1/2
37. Arcadia (revival with Billy Crudup) *** 1/2
38. Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend's Boyfriend ***
39. Ron Sexsmith at Highline ** 1/2 (voice shaky that night; he's great)
40. How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (w Daniel Radcliffe) ***
41. Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo (w Robin Williams) **
42. Amadou & Mariam at Cooper Square Hotel ** 1/2 (bad acoustics, hard to see them)
43. Anything Goes (w Sutton Foster) ** 1/2
44. The Divine Sister (w Charles Busch) *** 1/2
45. War Horse (at Lincoln Center) ***
46. Catch Me If You Can (w Aaron Tveit) *** 1/2 production of ** 1/2 musical
47. Sleep No More (PunchDrunk's immersive Macbeth at McKittrick Hotel) *** 1/2
48. Peter and the Starcatcher (dir by Roger Rees) *** 1/2
49. Evans Haile at Etc. Etc. ***
50. The Motherf**ker With The Hat (w Chris Rock) ***
51. Being Harold Pinter at La MaMa ** 1/2
52. kd lang at Le Poisson Rouge *** (would have been **** if she had played a full concert)
53. Wonderland *
54. Jerusalem w Mark Rylance ***
55. Alexandria reading ***
56. Young Jean Lee's We're Gonna Die ***
57. Baby It's You *
58. Die Walkure at the Met w Deborah Voigt ***
59. Born Yesterday revival w Jim Belushi ***
60. The Normal Heart w Joe Mantello ***
61. The House Of Blue Leaves * 1/2
62. Sister Act * 1/2
63. The School For Lies (w Mamie Gummer) *** 1/2
64. Carson McCullers Talks About Love (w Suzanne Vega) * 1/2
65. The People In The Picture (w Donna Murphy) *
66. King Lear at BAM (w Derek Jacobi) ***
67. Pygmalion w Rupert Everett in UK **
68. Lord Of The Flies (Open Air) * 1/2
69. Operation Greenfield (UK Christian rock band) ** 1/2
70. Much Ado About Nothing (UK Globe) ** 1/2
71. All's Well That Ends Well (UK Globe) ****
72. One Man, Two Guvnors (UK) ***
73. Much Ado About Nothing (UK West End w David Tennant) ** 1/2
74. Ladysmith Black Mambazo (UK) *** 1/2
75. The Cherry Orchard (w Zoe Wannamker) ** 1/2
76. The Book Of Mormon *** 1/2
77. Lysistrata Jones * 1/2
78. The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism and Socialism with a Key To The Scriptures ***
79. The Illusion (Tony Kushner at Signature) *
80. One Arm (Tennessee Williams screenplay) ***
81. Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark * 1/2
82. Broadway By The Year: 1996 (at Town Hall) ** 1/2
83. All's Well That Ends Well/Shakespeare In The Park ** 1/2
84. Unnatural Acts (at CSC) ***
85. Zarkana/Cirque Du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall **
86. Measure For Measure/Shakespeare In The Park ***
87. Rickie Lee Jones at City Winery ** 1/2
88. Master Class (w Tyne Daly) ***
89. Silence! The Musical **
90. Hair (revival on Broadway) ***
91. Olive and the Bitter Herbs ** 1/2
92. The Bardy Bunch (FringeFest) **
93. 2 Burn (FF) * 1/2
94. Parker & Dizzy's Fabulous Journey To The End Of The Rainbow (FF) ** 1/2
95. Civilian (FF) **
96. Rachel Calof (FF) ** 1/2
97. Walls And Bridges (FF) **
98. What The Sparrow Said (FF) ** 1/2
99. Hard Travelin' With Woody (FF) ***
100. Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending (FF) **
101. Books On Tape (FF) ** 1/2
102. Paper Cut (FF) ***
103. Leonard Cohen Koans (FF) *** 1/2
104. Yeast Nation (FF) ***
105. Hero: The Musical * 1/2
106. Cymbeline at Barrow St. Theatre ***
107. The Select (The Sun Also Rises) ERS at NYTW ** 1/2
108. Sweet And Sad **
109. Crane Story **
110. Septimus & Clarissa *** 1/2
111. Follies *** 1/2
112. Araby (FF) *
113. The Mountain Song *** 1/2
114. Pearl's Gone Blue (FF) ***
115. Lake Water **
116. The More Loving One (FF) **
117. Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon (New York Musical Festival) ** 1/2
118. Newsies at Paper Mill Playhouse **
119. Kissless (NYMF) * 1/2
120. Crazy, Just Like Me (NYMF) ***
121. Time Between Us (NYMF) * 1/2
122. The Pigeon Boys reading (NYMF) ***
123. Fucking Hipsters (NYMF) **
124. Ghostlight (NYMF) ** 1/2
125. Cyclops: A Rock Opera (NYMF) *
126. Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of A Wild Prairie Dame (NYMF) *** 1/2
127. We Live Here (Zoe Kazan play) **
128. The Submission (w Jonathan Groff) **
129. Jack Perry Is Alive (And Dating) (NYMF) * 1/2
130. The Mountaintop ** 1/2
131. Central Avenue Breakdown (NYMF) ** 1/2
132. Kiki Baby (NYMF) ** 1/2
133. Greenwood (NYMF) *
134. Madame X (NYMF) **
135. Tut (NYMF) * 1/2
136. Gotta Getta Girl (NYMF staged reading) ** 1/2
137. Richard Serra exhibit at Gagosian ** 1/2 (space not tall and airy enough for piece)
138. The Agony & The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs (at Public) ** 1/2
139. Man and Boy (w Frank Langella) * 1/2
140. Rumer in concert ****
141. Relatively Speaking * 1/2
142. PigPen's The Nightmare Story *** 1/2
143. Milk Like Sugar ***
144. Love's Labor's Lost (at Public) ** 1/2
145. The Atmosphere Of Memory (w Ellen Burstyn and John Glover) 1/2 *
146. Other Desert Cities (on Broadway w Rachel Griffiths) ** 1/2
147. 69 Degrees South (at BAM) * 1/2
148. Chinglish * 1/2
149. Sons Of The Prophet *** 1/2
150. Queen Of The Mist (w Mary Testa) ** 1/2
151. Godspell (on Broadway) ** 1/2
152. Hand To God ***
153. All-American **
154. King Lear w Sam Waterston (at Public) **
155. Satyagraha at Met w English National Opera production ****
156. Venus In Fur w Nina Arianda on Broadway ***
157. Hugh Jackman: Back On Broadway ***
158. Fragments (Beckett plays) ***
159. Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays **
160. Radio City Christmas Spectacular ** 1/2
161. Private Lives (w Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross) **
162. Seminar (w Alan Rickman) **
163. White Christmas (at Paper Mill) ***
164. Wild Animals You Should Know ** 1/2
165. An Evening With Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin ***
166. Bonnie & Clyde **
167. The Cherry Orchard w Diane Wiest and John Turturro at CSC **
168. The Man Who Came To Dinner (at St. Clement's) **
169. Misterman w Cillian Murphy (at St. Ann's Warehouse) ** 1/2
170. Once (at New York Theatre Workshop) *** 1/2
171. Maple and Vine **
172. Krapp's Last Tape w John Hurt at BAM ***
173. Stick Fly **
174. Titus Andronicus (at Public) * 1/2
175. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (w Harry Connick Jr.) * 1/2
176. Shlemiel The First ** 1/2
177. Lysistrata Jones on Broadway *
178. Close Up Space *


CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS CDS (Only the CDs I've listened to thoroughly and with a strong emphasis on the ones I like, so don't think I love everything I listen to -- I just don't bother really listening to the ones I don't like more than once and don't think it's fair to rate on a cursory listen)

1. Cake -- Showroom Of Compassion ** 1/2
2. Charles Bradley -- No Time For Dreaming **
3. Chris Riffle -- Introducing Chris Riffle ** 1/2
4. Cyndi Lauper -- Memphis Blues **
5. John Grant -- Queen Of Denmark ***/
6. Local Natives -- Gorilla Manor ** 1/2
7. Antony and the Johnson - Swanlights ** 1/2
8. Olof Arnalds -- Innundir Skinni **
9. Robert Wyatt -- For The Ghosts Within ***
10. Neil Diamond: The Bang Years ** 1/2
11. Adele -- 21 *** 1/2
12. The Low Anthem -- Smart Flesh *** 1/2
13. Voxhaul Broadcast -- Timing Is Everything **
14. Vinicius Cantuaria & Bill Frisell -- Lagrimas Mexicanas ** 1/2
15. Ladysmith Black Mambazo -- Songs From A Zulu Farm *** 1/2
16. George Michael -- Faith reissue *** 1/2
17. Darlene Love -- The Sound Of Love: The Very Best Of Darlene Love ****
18. Robert Plant -- Band Of Joy *** 1/2
19. Amos Lee -- Mission Bell **
20. Charlie Haden Quartet West -- Sophisticated Ladies *** 1/2
21. The Poison Tree -- The Poison Tree ***
22. Rumer -- Seasons Of My Soul *** 1/2
23. Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Del McCoury Band -- American Legacies *** 1/2
24. David Wax Museum -- Everything Is Saved ***
25. Bruno Mars -- Doowops & Hooligans *** 1/2
26. The National - High Violet ***/
27. Tom Jones -- Praise & Blame *** 1/2
28. William Tyler -- Behold The Spirit ***/
29. Various Artists -- The Sounds of Siam ***/
30. Two Door Cinema Club -- Tourist History ***
31. Elvis Costello -- National Ransom ***/
32. 3 Fervent Travelers -- Time For Three *** 1/2
33. Dennis Brown -- The Crown Prince Of Reggae: Singles 1972-1985 ***
34. Ron Sexsmith -- Long Player Late Bloomer *** 1/2
35. Simon & Garfunkel -- Bridge Over Troubled Water ****
36. Teddy Thompson -- Bella *** 1/2
37. Marsha Ambrosius -- Late Nights & Early Mornings ** 1/2
38. Various Artists -- Sucker Punch soundtrack **
39. Henry Wolfe -- Linda Vista ** 1/2 / (but want to listen to more)
40. Various Artists -- Everybody Wants To Be A Cat: Disney Jazz, Volume 1 ** 1/2
41. kd lang -- Sing It Loud *** 1/2
42. Anita O'Day -- Sings The Most ****
43. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues *** 1/2
44. The Secret Sisters - The Secret Sisters ***
45. Frank Sinatra -- Ring-A-Ding-Ding ***/
46. Arctic Monkeys -- Suck It And See **
47. Beastie Boys -- Hot Sauce Committee Part Two *** 1/2
48. The Bo-Keys -- Got To Get Back ***
49. Bright Eyes -- The People's Key ***
50. Fleet Foxes -- Helplessness Blues *** 1/2
51. Brad Paisley -- This Is Country Music *** 1/2
52. Theophilus London -- Timez Are Weird These Days **
53. The Coral -- Butterfly House *** 1/2
54. Cowboy Junkies -- Demons ** 1/2
55. Colin Hay -- Gathering Mercury ** 1/2
56. Art Pepper -- Meets The Rhythm Section ****
57. Field Dasy -- Projector **
58. Gretchen Parlato -- The Lost and Found **
59. Ian Axel -- This Is The New Year **
60. Ingram Hill -- Look Your Best **
61. Jared Mees & Grown Children -- Only Good Thoughts Can Stay **
62. James Carter -- Caribbean Rhapsody ***
63. Heidi Spencer -- Under Streetlight Glow **
64. Joan As Police Woman -- Deep Field **
65. John Martyn -- Heaven & Earth **
66. Young Presidents -- Freedom Of Speech * 1/2
67. John Shannon -- Songs Of The Desert River **
68. Justin Bond - Dendrophile **
69. Justin Hines -- Days To Recall ** 1/2
70. Kate Bush -- The Director's Cut ***
71. Keren Ann -- 101 ** 1/2
72. Khaira Arby -- Timbuktu Tarab ***
73. Kina Grannis -- Stairwells * 1/2
74. The Magic Numbers -- Runaway ***/
75. Chris Young -- Neon ***
76. Leonard Cohen -- The Complete Columbia Albums Collection *** 1/2
77. James Taylor -- Sweet Baby James *** 1/2
78. Paul Simon -- Songwriter *** 1/2
79. Kate & Anna McGarrigle -- Tell My Sister *** 1/2
80. Various Artists -- The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams ***
81. Tom Waits -- Bad As Me ****
82. Darrell Scott -- Long Ride Home ** 1/2
83. Hall & Oates -- all their singles, in order *** 1/2
84. The Jayhawks -- Mockingbird Time ** 1/2
85. Pistol Annies -- Pistol Annies ***
86. Wilco -- The Whole Love ** 1/2
87. Various Artists -- Boardwalk Empire ***
88. Beastie Boys -- Hot Sauce Committee Part Two ***
89. Dale Watson -- The Sun Sessions ** 1/2
90. Miranda Lambert -- Four The Record ***/
91. Radiohead -- King Of Limbs ***
92. Stevie Nicks -- In Your Dreams ** 1/2
93. Lil Wayne -- Tha Carter IV **
94. Mandy Barnett -- Winter Wonderland ** 1/2
95. Dave Stewart -- The Blackbird Diaries ** 1/2
96. Feist -- Metals ***
97. Miles Davis -- Bitches Brew Live *** 1/2
98. Thomas Dybdahl -- Songs **
99. Zuchero -- Chocabek ***
100. John Brown Trio -- Dancing With Duke ** 1/2
101. Emmylou Harris -- Hard Bargain ***
102. Various Artists - Live From The Old Town School Vol 1-4 *** 1/2
103. Toro Y Moi -- Underneath The Pine **
104. George Strait -- Here For A Good Time ***
105. Gregg Allmann -- Low Country Blues ***/
106. Dawes -- Nothing Is Wrong ** 1/2
107. Glen Campbell -- Ghost On The Canvas *** 1/2
108. PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake ***/
109. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins -- Diamond Mine *** 1/2
110. Lindi Ortega -- Little Red Boots ***/
111. She & Him -- A Very She & Him Christmas ** 1/2
112. Justin Bieber -- Under The Mistletoe ** 1/2
113. Mikal Cronin -- Mikal Cronin ***/



Updated December 31, 2011

DVDs: Woody Allen Back On Top

Oh the DVDs are piling up, and these are the dog days of late December and early January when DVD releases slow to a trickle. Let's get to it.




MIDNIGHT IN PARIS ($35.99 BluRay; Sony) -- Director Woody Allen has often expressed bemusement about why some films are embraced by the public and others don't click, and it rarely aligns with his own assessment. I'm with you on this one, Woody. Why Midnight in Paris should become the highest grossing film in his career is beyond me. (Keep in mind, I am not adjusting for inflation but this is still a very successful film.) It's one of the mild late period Woodys, not so godawful that it makes you like his work less but by no means strong. The story -- modest SPOILER -- is a banal look at a Hollywood screenwriter with a miserable marriage who wishes he could have been in Paris during its 20s heyday. Presto, he gets his wish and rubs elbows with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and the like. The movie soon reduces to simply introducing new historical figures as if their very presence was amusing. Look! Toulouse-Lautrec! In an embarrassing finale, our hero ignores the adult woman his own age who actually seems interesting (Carla Bruni) and goes off with a minor character who is little barely out of her teens. The timing of the DVD release is good because it puts the movies in the hands of Oscar voters just as they're filling out their ballots. Audiences and older Oscar members ate this up so I expect this will be one of Woody's best showings come nomination, with Picture, Director, Screenplay all in play and perhaps an acting nod for Kathy Bates, though that's a long shot. Owen Wilson is actually a good Woody, but the film is paper-thin if harmless.




ARCHER SEASON TWO ($39.99 BluRay; FOX) -- My favorite sitcom on TV stumbled out of the gate for an episode or two but soon redeemed itself and built on the silly, raunchy and hilarious work of season one. The voice cast is simply terrific -- special kudos to... well everyone, including H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell and the rest. If any voice cast deserved to be nominated for acting Emmys, these are the guys. The setup of a super agent spy that works for an independent company run by his mom remains surprisingly rich in bringing new life to familiar situations like office politics and the like. Sexy, hilarious and you'll want to watch it again and again.




DOLPHIN TALE ($35.99 BluRay combo; Warner Bros.) -- This year hasn't been a total wash for the talented Harry Connick Jr. He released a live album of his Broadway concert show in March. Now at the end, he is stranded on the Great White Way in the woebegone rethought revival of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. But in between he enjoyed a solid family hit with this movie about a kid who finds an injured dolphin and convinces Connick Jr. to help the animal make it back into the ocean. The big names include Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, but it's Connick, the kid and the dolphin front and center.




DESIGN FOR LIVING ($39.95 BluRay and $29.95 DVD; Criterion) -- This isn't pure Ernst Lubitsch because it's based on a Noel Coward play. But this pre-Code romp allows Lubitsch to add his light touch to a frothy, slightly risque tale of Miriam Hopkins refusing to choose between writer Frederick March and painter Gary Cooper. Cooper is about as convincing as a painter as I would be as a football lineman and this lighter than light comedy isn't quite his speed. But it's presented with care and the extras are great as always with Criterion, including a short starring Charles Laughton that Lubitsch directed and an entire 1964 British TV production of the play introduced by Noel Coward for comparison sake.







KUNG FU PANDA 2 ($49.99 BluRay combo; DreamWorks)
DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME ($29.95 BluRay; Vivendi) -- Kung Fu Panda was better than I expected and the sequel wasn't quite as good as I hoped. But both are fun, entertaining flicks. KFP2 was painted as a disappointment at the box office but in fact it grossed even more than the original worldwide. Since they both hit more than $600 million, you can bet there will be a KFP3. Detective Dee is pure martial arts fantasy flash, with an empty action mystery presented with superior flare. It's fun if you check your mind at the door and don't mind implausibility and empty spectacle. Just wait for the action scenes, though post-Crouching Tiger, we expect more.




THE BORGIAS SEASON ONE ($65.99 BluRay; Showtime/Paramount) -- Whether you're jonesing for The Sopranos or The Tudors, this costume drama about the sleazy, power-mad Borgias (led by an oily Jeremy Irons) delivers the goods according to my brother Chris, who recommends it highly. Overseen by director Neil Jordan who planned a feature film for years but decided he needed a wider -- bigger? Lengthier? -- canvas in which to do the story justice.




SEVEN CHANCES ULTIMATE EDITION ($29.95; Kino) -- The specialty label Kino has been on an extraordinary tear recently, putting out DVD after DVD devoted the shorts and films of Buster Keaton. He's practically their mascot. Lucky him and lucky us because that means we have access to top-notch prints of some of the best comedies of all time. Seven Chances is the one where Keaton must get married to inherit millions and we get the famous shot of him running down a street being chased by seemingly thousands of women in wedding gowns. It's surreal and unforgettable. The strong extras include two more shorts devoted to quickie marriages, including a Three Stooges entry, audio commentary by historians Ken Gordon and Bruce Lawton and more.







THE DEBT ($29.98; Universal/Focus)
BRIGHTON ROCK ($24.98; IFC) -- Helen Mirren is always good, even if the movies she is in don't quite click. The Debt is an unnecessary remake of a fine Israeli film anchored by good performances by Mirren and It Girl Jessica Chastain as the same character at different points in her life. Brighton Rock is a necessary remake that bungles the chance. An earlier version by Carol Reed wasn't faithful enough to the tale by Graham Greene so here was a chance to get it right. Nope. Written and directed by Rowan Joffe, it exhibits none of the subtlety he showed on Last Resort (a gem) or even the George Clooney flick The American (which I'm also not fond of). The cast is certainly top-notch. Sam Riley (from Control) plays Pinkie, the young thug desperate to cover up a murder and maintain control of his gang. Helen Mirren is Ida, the tea shop owner who suspects the worse of him and is determined to get justice. Andrea Riseborough is the timid but determined Rose. Only Riseborough's character captures the character on the page. The first big problem is the casting: the two leads are good but Pinkie and his girl are supposed to be 17 and 16 years-old. Yet Riley is 30 years-old and Riseborough nearly 29. There's a world of difference between those ages. And the time has been moved from the late 30s to the early 60s, which makes their older age all the more significant. A 29-year-old woman in 1964 is a far different creature than a 16-year-old girl in 1938. It throws the entire film off balance. Pinkie's most notable aspect in the book is his disinterest and even disgust with sex and women in general, though he's not necessarily gay so much as creepily asexual. Other than a small twitch in his cheek when he kisses Rose, that crucial lack of humanity is lost. MIrren's character is changed even more. In the book, she's so compelling (and frightening to Pinkie) precisely because her desire to see justice done over the dead man is so random. She doesn't know the victim from Adam, really. In the movie he's a dear friend so her motivation is understandable and thus less disturbing. So without these insights, what are we left with? A young thug and his gal driven to despair by a nosy woman and their past crimes, all of it laid on thick with an over-the-top score that warns of doom and gloom and eternal judgment at every turn. They even change the ending to avoid Greene's final hammer blow to optimism. Not even false hope has a place in his world. What a missed opportunity.




MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: THE SINATRA LEGACY ($24.98; Image) -- Feinstein is more of a curator than a performer, but his sincerity can win you over. This tribute to Sinatra and other Sinatra-era singers is nothing if not worshipful and peppered with anecdotes about the artists and the songs. Feinstein doesn't convince me when he swings (here he's backed by a full orchestra) but on the quiet moments he captures a unique, sensitive style finely tuned to the lyrics that serves him very well, such as on the stand-out track "So in Love." The quieter the better. On the positive side, the direction and editing isn't manic so you get a good sense of the show without constantly whip-cutting from camera to camera. A solid record of his work and if you like him you'll certainly like this.




VIETNAM IN HD ($34.95 BluRay; History/A&E/New Video) -- the first series World War II in Color seemed like an interesting gimmick. They kept coming thanks to big ratings and now we have Vietnam in HD. Really? What's next? World War II in 3-D? (Yes, actually!) Putting aside the meaningless hook, this is Vietnam seen through home movies and other footage alongside the stories of 13 people who were there. Fine as far as it goes, but nothing you haven't heard before.




TWO MINUTES TO GLORY ($19.99; NFL/Vivendi) -- If you're a football junkie, the NFL is determined to package and repackage its footage in every way imaginable. I love the complete Super Bowl sets. But these themed highlight reels are more suspect. They're fine for killing time on TV but do you really need to own more than two hours devoted to analyzing and celebrating the greatest last minute drives in NFL history? You do? Let me get out of your way.






















VELVET GOLDMINE ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
NOTHING SACRED ($24.95 ; Kino)
CITY OF GOD ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
A FAREWELL TO ARMS ($24.95 ; Kino)
HEAVENLY CREATURES ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
TORA! TORA! TORA! ($34.98 BluRay; FOX)
SHERLOCK HOLMES ($34.95 ; Kino) -- Velvet Goldmine looks better all the time. It's a wacky updating of Citizen Kane, with the mysterious figure a Bowie-like glam rock star played well by Ewan McGregor. I'd love to think some fans of the Dark Knight will watch this Christian Bale film and discover he's enamored by this god of pansexual freedom. Great soundtrack, too! Nothing Sacred is a long overdue decent print of a very fun Carole Lombard comedy that satirizes a public's hunger for scandal. Some things never change. City Of God remains a vivid crime flick about the struggle to survive in Rio. No wonder it spun off a sequel and a TV series. Gary Cooper tackles Hemingway and since he's so reticent in general you'd think the fit would be better for A Farewell To Arms. But they both get tamped down here. Peter Jackson unintentionally helped make the case for his directing The Lord Of The Rings via the fantasy sequences in this lurid, fascinating tale Heavenly Creatures, the story of two girls urging each other on to murder. Tora! Tora! Tora! is dutifully accurate in depicting the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. It makes the Michael Bay Pearl Harbor seem positively sprightly in comparison but the BluRay is handsome. Finally, John Barrymore doesn't quite ham it up as Holmes in this 1922 silent film version of a popular stage play that is somehow off just a tad, making the whole exercise not nearly as fun as it should be.

MOST TITLES LISTED HERE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE FORMATS AND IN MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS, INCLUDING DVD, BLURAY, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, VOD, STREAMING AND THE LIKE. THE FORMAT LISTED IS THE FORMAT PROVIDED FOR REVIEW, NOT ALL THE FORMATS AVAILABLE. IT IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE VERSION WITH THE MOST EXTRAS. DO CHECK INDIVIDUAL TITLES FOR AVAILABILITY IN ALL THEIR VARIOUS GUISES.

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs and BluRays with the understanding that he would be considering them for review. Generally, he does not guarantee to review and he receives far more titles than he can cover.

Books: Well Dog My Cats! "Pogo" Gets Dee-luxe Treatment!

POGO: THROUGH THE WILD BLUE YONDER -- THE COMPLETE SYNDICATED COMIC STRIPS VOLUME 1 BY WALT KELLY ($39.99; Fantagraphics)

For many years, the comic strips that deserved legendary acclaim had to be taken on faith. We can watch old movies and TV shows and listen to classic albums and read great books. But practically speaking, many classic comic strips hailed as influential, ground-breaking, hilarious and the like were simply unavailable or in such a bastardized and incomplete form that it was nigh on impossible to judge them fairly. Even something as wildly popular as Peanuts wasn't really available to read from start to finish the way you would with any other work of art.

No more. We're finally seeing comic strips receive the attention and care they deserve. Classic works like Krazy Kat and Gasoline Alley (aka Walt And Skeezix) and Prince Valiant and yes Peanuts are receiving or have received gorgeous reprints in multi-volume sets that for the very first time since they first appeared in newspapers or magazines lets us appreciate the work and see how it's stood the test of time.

The latest to be lovingly restored is Pogo, Walt Kelly's strip that I have dutifully recognized as probably one of the greats (according to everyone else, at least) though I'd never seen so much as a single panel of it. Fantagraphics has made the wait worthwhile with Volume 1, which covers strips from October of 1948 through December 31, 1950. The book is bursting with useful, entertaining extras, from a foreword by Jimmy Breslin to an in-depth introduction by Steve Thompson that helpfully spells out Kelly's life and the history of the strip to footnotes (called Swamp Talk) by R.C. Harvey. The heart of the book are the daily strips presented with six days of work on every two page spread with the color Sunday comics in a separate section followed by the early daily strips for the New York Star before Pogo was syndicated. Here's a look at this gorgeous, enjoyably hefty volume.



That's all well and fine. The book is lovingly made and the strips presented with care and pleasure. But is it any good? Oh yes. It's funny and charming, bursting with witty wordplay and vivid characters you love immediately. You can see the influence the Marx Brothers and Krazy Kat and Mark Twain had on Pogo and its love of silly grammatical puns and Southern dialect. And you can see the influence Pogo had on Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes in its playful recognition that it was a comic strip (Pogo acknowledges letters about the strip just as Doonesbury would occasionally open a mail bag to answer reader letters) and gentle humor. The lovably grumpy Porkypine is surely a cousin of Eeyore and (later) Oscar the Grouch. Pogo even ran for President, with the catchy slogan of "I Go Pogo" to counter "I Like Ike."

In short, read Pogo and you can immediately see it slide into the pop cultural matrix and how it drew upon the work that came earlier, moved forward the art form of comic strips and influenced artists after it for generations to come. But most of all you'll laugh and savor catch phrases like "We have met the enemy and he is us!" (surely the strip's most famous) as well as Southernisms like "Dog my cats!" and the like.

Pogo is famous for its political satire but in this first volume the denizens of Okefenokee Swamp are (swiftly) defining themselves. Some modest teasing of newspaper reporters and elections don't really square with the image I had of the strip, but that is surely yet to come. Here we engage in simpler pursuits by Pogo Possum, Albert the Alligator (forever swallowing -- by accident -- fellow critters), Porkypine and the rest. They dive deliriously into baseball in October, take care of a stray pup, search for the Fountain of Youth, try to convince little critters to go to Owl's new school ("It's Saturday!")  and so on.

Whether they go digging in the dirt for a square root for math class or insist it ain't cricket to hit a baseball with your tail ("Who's playing cricket?" shouts Albert the Alligator as he rounds the bases. "Look out for Home Run Baker!"), the heart of this first volume is Kelly's delight in language and Southern improvements on it. MIlwaukee is "fraught and ree-plete" with cows and other Western wonders. When Albert tries to learn his numbers he insists that eleven follows seven. "Like the night the day...seven come ee-leven. Anybody knows that!" (The teacher gives up, graduates Albert and makes him a truant officer.) When Owl suggests Pogo actually break some of his New Year's resolutions instead of being a do-gooder, Pogo asks what kind breaks easy. "Any kind I makes," says Owl. "Man, I is got resolutions left over from last year what I isn't even had time to break yet!" Pogo responds, "Bring a couple over, size 6 1/2."

Here's a New Year's resolution for you: dive into Pogo, one of the best comic strips of all time. You don't have to take my word for it anymore; you can read it yourself.

BOOKS I'VE READ -- 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand *** 1/2
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin ****
Two Adolescents by Alberto Moravia *** 1/2
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard ** 1/2
Cart & Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones ** 1/2
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ****
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin ***1/2
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg * 1/2
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible by A.C. Grayling ***
Dodsworth in Rome by Tim Egan ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster *** 1/2
A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Queen Of The Falls by Chris Van Allsburg ** 1/2
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
The Greater Journey: Americans In Paris by David McCullough ***
The Great Night by Chris Adrian ** 1/2
Empire State Of Mind by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel * 1/2
21: The Story Of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago ** 1/2
The Siege Of Washington by John Lockwood & Charles Lockwood ***
Malcolm X; A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable ****
Dawn, Dusk or Night by Yasmina Reza ** 1/2
Unforgivable by Phillipe Djian **
On Being: A Scientist's Exploration Of The Great Questions Of Existence by Peter Atkins **
Mygale by Thierry Jonquet **
Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Kruschev And The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by Frederick Kempe *** 1/2
High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story Of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry by Stephen Tignor ** 1/2
Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon ** 1/2
Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon ***
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara ***
Drive by James Sallis **
The Magicians by Lev Grossman ***
The Magician King by Lev Grossman ** 1/2
The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka ****
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinage ***
Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara *** 1/2
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler ** 1/2
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller *** 1/2
East Of The West by Miroslav Penkov ***
Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman ***
Green Grass Of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara ***
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin *** 1/2
Willie & Joe Back Home by Bill Mauldin ***
The Cut By George Pelecanos ** 1/2
Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar ***/
A Matter For Men: War Of the Chtorrs by David Gerrold **
A Rage For Revenge: War Of The Chtorrs by David Gerrold * 1/2
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout ***
Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh *** 1/2
When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *** 1/2
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway *** 1/2
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson *** 1/2
Cousins: A Memoir by Athol Fugard **
The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach ***
The Rings Of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ****
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse * 1/2
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides ** 1/2
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ***
Prince Valiant Vol. 4: 1943-1944 by Hal Foster ***
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson ** 1/2
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin ***
The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz ** 1/2
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ****
The Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ***
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien ****
The Leviathan by Joseph Roth (trans by Michael Hoffman) *** 1/2
Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir by John Paul Stevens * 1/2
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ***
Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls **
Pogo: Through The Wild Blue Yonder -- The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Volume 1 by Walt Kelly ****

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews. 


NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review, including digital and physical galleys as well as final review copies. He typically does not guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.