The Week In Review(s)

Well, it certainly wasn’t a boring week!

I read a great book by UK author Damien Lewis, While he may not be a household name on this side of the pond he is a bestselling author in the UK. Cobra Gold is his 7th book, and this guy writes with style. This is a cracking good yarn and well worth the effort to find in your local book store. I also suspect that Cobra Gold may be just the vehicle to break into the North American market. I believe it goes on sale here next month, and I will be watching the Amazon stats carefully.

Last Monday Jan and I went to the theatre, we saw a preview of A Mighty Heart that opens today. It is a movie about the Daniel Pearl beheading in Pakistan 5 years ago. I must say that I was very impressed with this production. No blood and gore, just a very moving and sad story. I am sure that it is going to have a good opening weekend.

On the video front I reviewed a great Britcom from the 80’s, Rising Damp, the fourth and final season has been released on DVD. It was funny in the 80’s and it is still funny today. Well worth picking up the next time you are in Wally-World.

In the world of TV there was a review of this weeks program in the ‘Big Ideas For A Small Planet’. This Sundance Channel series is really interesting; I get to like it more and more. This week the theme was plastic and it’s grim footprint on the planet. As part of the review I interviewed Frederic Scheer the CEO of Cereplast, a company that makes a biodegradable plastic.

I had a quick foray into the murky world of music piracy. One would assume that when you receive a DVD from a reputable company all should be kosher. However that was not the case. It looked like there was a DCMA takedown notice in my future so I took the review down before it became an official issue. On the upside, I did get an interview out of the deal. And tonight (assuming everything comes together) Jan and I are going to meet Sam and Joyce Moore, they are in Calgary for a gig, and they have invited us to come as their guests.

Transported back in time I had the opportunity to listen to the latest Jethro Tull cd, and I was greatly impressed by it. If you are an Ian Anderson fan, you will want this in your collection.

When I interviewed Al Stewart recently he asked me if I had heard his latest CD, I had to confess that I had not. Well the gracious Al sent me a copy of Beach Full Of Shells, and I like it a lot.

There were also various other music DVD’s that passed through my hands. The Jesus Lizard introduced me to the wonderful world of ‘full contact’ music, and From Zeros To Heroes is a look back at the Brit ‘Boy Band’ Take That.