Religulous: funny.... and kinda scary!

Metacritic reviews of Bill Maher's Religulous here.

Happy-Go-Lucky

On the topic of small good things, Mike Leigh's slightly disturbing/mostly endearing comedrama Happy-Go-Lucky is a sweet little film as well. Took me a while to get into it, though Sara loved it from the start.

Azur and Asmar

Visual splendor abounds in Azur and Asmar; The Prince's Quest.

Pretty acerbic review here.

The final sentences of of the review are illuminating:

"Only a special sort of parent would take their kid to see Azur and Asmar: the type that taught them how to read before their first day of kindergarten. They should have let it play the States as a “foreign” film."

I think this is true. Lack of story and cheesy dialogue notwithstanding, this is seriously wonderful eye candy, worth a look.

A Small, Good Thing

The Band's Last Visit, a sweet little movie.

Woodblock Prints tonight Saturday March 14 at Ibeam

Second of a four Saturday residency for Woodblock Prints tonight at Ibeam in Brooklyn. Come on down if you're free.

***

"Mr. Eisenstadt, a restlessly creative drummer, is presiding over a promising new nonet, Woodblock Prints, every Saturday this month."
- NY Times

"Harris Eisenstadt produced one of 2008’s most memorable avant-jazz releases, the African-inspired Guewel. Tonight the highly imaginative drummer-composer performs with a new nonet inspired by Japanese woodblock prints."
- Time Out New York

Happy 79th Birthday Ornette!

Cocktail Chatter: Check out Slate's Political Gabfest

Fourth short plug for a podcast I've been enjoyably consuming. Slate.com's Political Gabfest is pretty great. John Dickerson, David Plotz and Emily Bazelon are all very intelligent and manage to get to a lively level of barely moderated banter each week. The format here is three people talking about three main topicsfor half an hour and each throwing in a last-couple-minutes segment of cocktail chatter i.e. something interesting to talk about while you're sipping a drink at a party on the weekend. Nice for a change instead of the usual and unusual suspects of pundits making the rounds through the various other programs I tune into. Worth listening to.

Woodblock Prints starting this Saturday March 7 at Ibeam

Wooblock Prints Residency starting up this Saturday, March 7. Ibeam website here.

Something Else!

Just spent the evening with Ornette at his loft yesterday. What a treat! He is such a generous spirit! We had some fantastic soul food, talked about creativity and all kinds of other stuff. WOW!