The News Review:
- Black Snake Moan DVD Review
- ANIME AT THE ALAM PRESENTS: NERIMA DAIKN BRTHERS VL. 3
- Classic blues rock: US events have it all from highbrow to grunge
- n the loose: Ann Hampton Callaway
Black Snake Moan DVD Review
UG – Jun 26, 2007
Fearing what the white police might think if a black man arrived at a hospital with a beaten and nearly-raped white girl Lazarus chains Rae to his radiator and uses the power of the blues and the Bible to purge Rae of her sex-hungry ways. Black Snake Moan is the kind of movie that directly asks you to suspend your disbelief listen to the music and go along for the ride. Like blues music itself Moan isn’t so much about being technically proficient but instead it’s more about the emotion feeling and enjoyment that comes from what you see and hear. Black Snake Moan isn’t a movie that holds up well under a microscope. The only thing you can do is just sit back and enjoy the vibe thrown out by writer-director Craig Brewer. If you’re looking for an explanation of the vibe and tone of the film or to understand what Brewer set out to accomplish the feature commentary definitely underscores the passion and fire the director utilized to approach Black Snake Moan. Thankfully the extras don’t end there.
ANIME AT THE ALAM PRESENTS: NERIMA DAIKN BRTHERS VL. 3
activeanime.com – Jun 26, 2007
3 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Houston Texas on June 26 at 7:30 PM. Cast and crew of the show will attend the screening. Synopsis: Could it be?! Could the Nerima Daikon Brothers actually make a deal that will give them their very own concert dome?! Could baseball apple pie and blues music actually come together to make the daikon field a thing of the past?!!! Pick up volume three of Nerima Daikon Brothers (right now!) and pop it in your DVD player to answer these and other burning questions such as: What's wrong with Mako's face? Why is she so interested in plastic surgery? Who is this Yukel Hakushon fellow? Is he really a 'Thriller'? Is there a Pandaikon pandemic? Can Hideki Ichiro Mako Yukika Pandaikon and all the rest sing ever-more hilarious songs in their quest for justice peace and wheelbarrows full of money? This is it folks the last volume of Nerima Daikon Brothers. No collection of hilarious fast-paced song-filled anime is complete without it! Whaddaya waitin' for?! (We're making absolutely no mention on this volume of the bushel-full of hot chicks.
Classic blues rock: US events have it all from highbrow to grunge
Monsters and Critics.com – Jun 26, 2007
\nAll in one place open air often in the rain. \nFast forward 38 years and the particularly US form of marathon music festivals has grown into a national industry. From April to ctober hundreds of music festivals tune up classical and jazz blues and rock country and religious in every corner of the country often for days at a time with fans sleeping in the open or in tents. \nBut before Woodstock before Lollapalooza (August 3-5 in Chicago this year) before the New rleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (always in April and May) there were the homages to classical music – like the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. \nAspen like Salzburg has turned its rarified high-altitude atmosphere and dramatic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains into a year- round mecca for the international elite in the worlds of money and music: skiing in the winter concerts at the June 21-August 19 music fest in the summer. \nCultural notables like the late Hunter Thompson and corporate figures like the disgraced and convicted Enron chairman the late Ken Lay have lived there. \nThe nine-week 350-event festival is one of the longest in the US and this year is devoted to exploring the influences of jazz on classical music with the theme of \’Blue Notes.
n the loose: Ann Hampton Callaway
phillyBurbs.com – Jun 26, 2007
“I sing from my heart. When people try to rigidly call me one thing or another that really gets to me. Music is this incredible language. Different kinds of music are a part of who I am and what I love. “Discovering the blues is so freeing so liberating just breaking free of some of those rigid constraints. Now when you say jazz I think of myself as a pop jazz singer. But I always think lyrics first.