The Week(s) In Review(s)

I have not done one of these in a while. Life has been scooting by in lightning flash!

I have no doubt that you have all probably come to the conclusion that I had got out of the reviewing business, not so! I am busier now than I have ever been. The damn stuff seems to come out of the woodwork.

On the movie front I tackled the mainstream Steven King 1408 DVD, actually it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, and Jan offered to hold my hand if it got too scarey (and it did). I did like the DVD packaging, you get two movies for the price of one. The directors cut version has a very different ending to the theatrical one.

I also tried out a couple of Indy efforts, King Corn, which is a very disturbing look at the state of of our food chain, and I have been playing phone and email tag with the director for the past week. But I will get my interview!

The Calgary Film Festival was the backdrop to Downtown Dawgs, I had interest in this movie because I know some of the people involved. Unfortunately I missed the the actual premiere, I was having too much fun having a stroke, but I did get to interview the director.

Music wise, well where the hell do I start? For those of you that are old, in celebration of the 40th anniversary Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn has been re released. The movie Saturday Night Fever is 30 years old this year, and to celebrate, a two CD special Bee Gees Greatest has been released, great fun!

Refugee may not be a name that many remember, but it was the band that came into being when The Nice collapsed. Patrick Moraz while not the frontman, was most certainly the glue, he was also one of the very few people in the world that could run a Moog Synth. When Rick Wakeman decided to leave Yes it was only a matter of time before he joined Yes.

Jon Anderson was the guy with the strange vocal talent behind Yes, Searching For The Songs is a delightful collection of demo tracks from 1986, Yes influenced, but unique to Jon.

Remember Iggy Pop? Maybe one of the most reviled names in music! Many people consider Iggy to be the father of Punk in North America. Did Iggy have style, or was he a fraud? Everyone has their own opinion.

Every once in a while you come across some real gems, and Willie Nile is one of them, I was most impressed (not that I count).

Oh crap, this is way too long... more later... I haven't even got onto books...