I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

With a title like I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (reportedly a paraphrase of something overheard from an NBA player during a game) you’re almost obligated to come up with a…well…kick-ass disc to justify the boast. Yo La Tengo (its name taken from an anecdotal incident during a baseball game) did just that by reaching into its bag of musical tricks and pulling out an eclectic , thoroughly engaging and entertaining, 15-track gem of a record.

This collection is bracketed with two long tracks (neither of which overstays its welcome): the opening “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” (clocking in at nearly 11 minutes) is a glorious, churning, feedback-drenched, Psychedelic rocker that relentlessly draws the listener into the groove (the vocals are buried in the thick mix); and the closing “The Story of Yo La Tango” (coming in at just under 12 minutes), a slow-building tour de force that features layered guitars building to a majestic crescendo and brings the disc to a powerful conclusion.

In-between those two tracks, the band follows its collective muse wherever it takes them. From insanely catchy pop songs (the sprightly, witty “Beanbag Chair”, the gently propulsive “The Race is On Again”, with its sweet guitars supporting the lovely, intertwining male and female vocals, the punky “I Should Have Known Better”, the dreamy “The Weakest Part”) to reflective piano-accented ballads (the heartbreakingly poignant “I Feel Like Going Home”, the bittersweet “Sometimes I Don’t Get You”, and the wistful “Song for Mahila”) to horn-driven soul shuffles (the sparkling “Mr. Tough” which features cool falsetto vocals that wouldn’t be out of place on a Prince record.)

From multi-layered mini-epics (the stately “Black Flowers”, in which Kaplan’s plaintive vocals are cushioned by sweet harmonies, delicate horns, and soaring strings and the brooding yet delicate, nearly 9-minute instrumental “Daphnia”) to flat out rock and roll (the garage band stomp of “Watch Out for Me, Ronnie”, the sonic assault of “The Room Got Heavy”, which sounds to me like a wondrous mash-up of the Byrds and Santana with a healthy dose of Iron Butterfly thrown in for good measure, and the Beatle-esque shimmer of “Point and Shoot”.)

This is, quite simply, a wondrous pop record (one hour and seventeen minutes well spent indeed.)

Heroes

Hiro Nakamura is a drone in a faceless Japanese company but he aspires to more than just a face in a homogenous crowd. Hiro is a pop culture geek (his breathless exclamations are peppered with references to Star Trek and the X-Men…though my personal geek has to point out that his reference to X-Men #143 is incorrect…Hiro references the character Kitty Pryde from that issue but he misinterprets her powers in the process…but I guess that’s neither here nor there to non-geeks) who wants to be a super-hero and he believes that he does indeed have superhuman powers. And, indeed, he does.

Hiro is one of the titular heroes of this intriguing new series. As is the vogue for network dramas these days, Heroes is a serial with, as a matter of course, plotlines twisting and turning within in the context of a larger picture that we’re not privy to as yet (though reports have it that a super-powered serial killer is going to be the adversary in the first season.) A seemingly unconnected group of people are discovering they have super-powers (teleportation, flight, invulnerability, etc.) without knowing how or why.

The one person who seems to know why…an Indian scientist…is killed by a conspiracy of some sort (what serialized thriller would be complete without a shadowy conspiracy?) and his research is taken up by his son, Mohinder, who finds himself on the run from the same conspiracy and taking a job as a New York cabbie while he does so.

The threads of some of the characters’ individual plotlines are already being drawn together. Mohinder, for example, is spooked by a creepy conspiracy guy who turns out to be the stepfather of Claire, a Texas teenager who has discovered that injuries to her body head themselves miraculously.

Peter, an easygoing nurse who believes he can fly (and the brother of Nathan, an ambitious candidate for Congress who dismisses his brother’s fanciful beliefs), has a crush on Simone, the daughter of one of his terminal patients, who in turn is the girlfriend of Isaac, a tortured artist and drug addict who appears to have the power to see the future (a power channeled through his paintings.) Isaac, in a drug-addled stupor, hints that there is some tragedy that the would-be heroes must stop. (Peter also crosses paths with Mohinder when he takes a ride in his taxi.)

Niki, a stripper on the run from the mob with her son (who himself seems to be extraordinarily intelligent), sees visions of a doppelganger in mirrors and other reflective surfaces…a doppelganger who, apparently, can manifest violently (as evidenced by the killing of two mob goons who tracked Niki down.)

(The pilot episode does not introduce us to Matt, a Los Angeles policeman who thinks that he can hear other people’s thoughts, or to D.L., an inmate who can apparently pass through solid walls…which, my inner geek coming out again, is Kitty Pryde’s power.)

It’s an intriguing start...Heroes (Monday nights on NBC with Friday repeats on the SciFi Channel) may indeed turn out to be worth the season-long investment serialized stories require providing it has the staying power of some serials (Lost, 24, Prison Break) and not the frustrating ratings weakness of others (Surface, Threshold, etc., etc.)

American Idol Autumn

It’s the fall of the American Idols…or something like that. American Idol will return to the airwaves come January but between now and then no fewer than 7 veteran contestants from the show will release new CDs (and that doesn’t even count season 3 “diva” Jennifer Hudson’s contributions to the soundtrack of Dreamgirls which will, I presume, include her singing the show-stopping “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going”.)

Clay Aiken (and his unfortunate new haircut) leads the pact this month with A Thousand Different Ways (which will feature 4 new songs and 10 covers of love songs from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s including Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me”, Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wing”, Elton John’s “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”, and Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”, the last reportedly a duet with Rock Star: INXS contestant Suzie McNeil.)

Season 2 winner Ruben Studdard offers up The Return in October, the follow-up to his disappointing debut Soulful and the gospel disc I Need An Angel. Also in October, season 5’s blonde country sweetheart (who was either incredibly crafty or incredibly ditzy depending on who you asked) Carrie Pickler will try to follow in season 4 winner Carrie Underwood’s multi-platinum-selling footsteps.

In November, season 5 winner, Taylor Hicks is supposed to step up to the plate (his CD doesn’t have a title yet…I guess calling it Soul Patrol would be way too obvious, right? Man, I certainly hope not…cause that bit never got old on the show, did it?…) along with discs from the ubiquitous runner-up Katherine McPhee and rock guy Chris Daughtry (who may be working on a song with…Rob Thomas?...um, okay, that’ll probably be cool…)

And also in November, season 3 winner Fantasia promises a fun disc that will be accessible to pop audiences on her follow-up to her fine R&B-flavored debut Free Yourself.

(Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson is waiting until early ’07 to put out her next disc.)

That should be enough AI goodness to keep the fanbase satiated until Simon, Paula, Randy, and Ryan take their places in their hearts...and TV screens...again in January, shouldn't it? We shall presume so.

Star Trek

Call it Star Trek: The Special Edition. Beginning the weekend of September 16, Paramount will be rolling out refurbished editions of the original Star Trek series in syndication (more than 200 stations are signed up as of this writing.) The episodes will be digitally upgraded with new special effects and matte paintings. The plan is to upgrade all of the episodes…though, apparently, they won’t be shown in original broadcast order.

According to a press release, the changes include:

Space ship exteriors -- The space ship Enterprise, as well as other Starships, will be replaced with state of the art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Show opening -- The Enterprise and planets seen in the main title sequence will be redone, giving them depth and dimension for the first time.

Galaxy shots -- All the graphics of the galaxy, so frequently seen through the window on the Enterprise's bridge, will be redone.

Exteriors -- The battle scenes, planets and ships from other cultures (notably the Romulan Bird of Prey and Klingon Battle Cruisers) will be updated.

Background scenes -- Some of the iconic, yet flat, matte paintings used as backdrops for the strange, new worlds explored by the Enterprise crew will get a CGI face-lift, adding atmosphere and lighting.

Even our Earth will be given a makeover in the couple of episodes when the Enterprise returns to Sector 001 as we have images of our planet from outer space that they didn’t have when the show was produced in the mid-1960s. And phaser blasts will be given more “oomph!” as well.

I’m sure some purists will cry foul (as some Star Wars fans did when George Lucas performed similar alterations on the original trilogy of that movie series) but, as someone who was an avid fan of the original series when the show was first being broadcasts, I’m cool with the changes. Hopefully the alien worlds will look really alien and not...oh let’s say…like the backlot of a movie studio in Southern California.

Now if only they could something about some of the dialogue :-)

Overnight Sensational

Sam Moore is an honest-to-Aretha soul survivor. As half of Sam & Dave…along with the late Dave Prater…Moore created some of the most indelible R&B records of the Sixties…including “When Something is Wrong with my Baby”, “Hold On, I’m Comin’”, and the immortal “Soul Man”.

Moore has been a revered soul man making appearances on record every now and again...perhaps most notably his fine duet on “Rainy Night in Georgia” with the late, great Conway Twitty on the under-appreciated 1994 soul/country crossover collection Rhythm, County, and Blues.

Overnight Sensational is not a solo album…it is, instead, a Genius Loves Company- style series of collaborations between Moore and some of his many friends and admirers. Producer Randy Jackson (yeah, the “hipster” dork from American Idol) frames the vocalists in a sturdy, but not oppressive, musical foundation that keeps them right up front where they belong.

Wynonna Judd is in fine soulful fettle…a great match for Moore…on the opening track, Ann Peebles’ oft-covered “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (with Billy Preston on keyboards and Bekka Bramlett & BeBe Winans on backing vocals) while Bruce Springsteen channels his inner gospel man on the boisterous “Better to Have and Not Need”.

Moore and Fantasia rescue “Blame it on the Rain” from its ignominy of being a Milli Vanilli hit with an infusion of solid soul. Jon Bon Jovi joins Moore for a credible cover of the old Bobby Womack hit “Lookin’ for a Love”.

Moore and Steve Winwood sound utterly grand together on the propulsive “Ain’t No Love” (featuring some nice keyboard work by Winwood) while Sting steps up to the plate to join Moore on “None of Us Are Free” (which also features Sheila E. on percussion.)

Moore takes the lead on a heartfelt cover of Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe” with some wonderful background vocals by the unlikely combination of Vince Gill and Mariah Carey.

“Don’t Play That Song”, a hit for the immortal Aretha, is revived to wonderful, soulful effect in a jumpin’ duet between Moore and Bekka Bramlett.

Perhaps the most surprising song on the disc is a funky cover of Tony Toni Tone’s “If I Had No Loot” featuring vocals by Nikka Costa and Van Hunt along with some tasty guitar work by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

Moore and Travis Tritt make a fine pair on soul-infused cover of “Riding Thumb”, an obscure Seals & Crofts ode to hitchhiking. Robert Randolph ups the energetic ante with some grand pedal steel guitar work. Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers joins in on a soaring gospel-infused take on Garth Brook’s brotherhood anthem “We Shall Be Free”.

The final cut on the album is a heartfelt version of the late Billy Preston’s “You Are So Beautiful” (made famous by Joe Cocker’s version) featuring Preston (whom Moore describes as his best friend) on vocals, Eric Clapton with a sweetly mournful guitar solo, Robert Randolph on steel guitar, and Italian R&B star Zucchero on background vocals. It’s a lovely tribute and sweet coda to the collection.

Moore is in fine voice throughout and seems to be having a great deal of fun (as do his collaborators.) Overnight Sensational is a fine, fun album.

Celebrity Duets

Have you ever wondered how it would sound if Cheech Marin sang a duet with Randy Travis? Or how it would be if Lucy (Xena: Warrior Princess) Lawless sang with Michael Bolton? Yeah, me neither.

But that didn’t stop American Idol's Simon Cowell from presenting this show featuring 8 celebrities not known for singing sharing duets with accomplished music stars.

Along with Lawless and Marin, the celebrities include: Alfonso Ribeiro (best known as Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air), Hal Sparks (late of Talk Soup and Queer as Folk), Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast Carly Patterson, actress Lea Thompson, WWE wrestler Chris Jericho, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Jai Rodriguez.

The lineup of music stars for the first show was impressive enough. Along with Travis and Bolton they included: Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Lee Ann Womack, James Ingram, Peter Frampton, and Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams (who suffered the indignity of being upstaged by her duet partners.)

Future shows will feature stars such as Chaka Khan, Kenny Loggins, Patti LaBelle, Clint Black, Macy Gray, Cyndi Lauper, Aaron Neville, Taylor Dayne, and Richard Marx.

Wayne Brady…often looking uncomfortable as he tried to pump life into this cheesy spectacle…is the host. And the requisite panel of 3 judges includes a perky Marie Osmond, a befuddled Little Richard (sometimes I wasn't sure if the “architect of rock and roll” really knew where he was), and a bemused David Foster (too solicitous and too gentlemanly to really be the snarky one he’s apparently supposed to be.)

It’s all very familiar (it looks like the show was broadcast from the American Idol stage), all very predictable (some of the celebrities did okay…Rodriguez and Ribeiro especially…and some were, to use a word Cowell would have dragged out, horrid…Patterson and Jericho were troopers but….), and all very dull.

Cowell…who spent the summer trying to convince us that “America’s got talent” by showcasing finger snappers, rapping grandmothers, and strange winged Russian guys…is going to keep cranking this stuff out (I’m sure it took him all of 5 minutes to “create” Celebrity Duets) for as long as the audience buys into it. Make him stop…just say “no”, people!

Modern Times

It’s been 5 years since our pal Bob put out the wonderful Love and Theft (itself a sequel to the Grammy-winning, and equally engaging, Time Out of Mind) but it was worth the wait. Modern Times is a delightful little jewel of a record that should touch the hearts of Dylan fans young and old (yeah that’s me enthusiastically waving my hand…)

Some of the early praise for this collection has been effusive (Rolling Stone, not surprisingly given its worshipful regard for Dylan over the years, waxed rapturously about it in a 5-star review) and just a bit excessive. Look, me and Bob go way back…his songs are often insightful and sometimes downright magical and his voice (definitely an acquired taste) is a ragged, expressive wonder that I’ve come to appreciate enormously over the decades…but I think it piles too much baggage on Modern Times…a sweet (“Beyond the Horizon” is an unabashed love song so warm that you just know that other people are going to be climbing over each other to cover it), witty (Alicia Keys is name-checked to cheeky effect on the jaunty opener “Thunder on the Mountain”), often fun, occasionally haunting (the loping rewrite of the old blues chestnut “The Levee’s Gonna Break” invokes last year’s Gulf Coast disaster to fine effect…and the closing “Ain’t Talkin’” is filled with palpable menace, mystery, and rueful dark humor), relaxed and unassuming record…to act like it’s the second coming of Blonde on Blonde or some such.

Modern Times is a laidback…but never dull…record that Dylan produced (using the pseudonym of Jack Frost) using only his crack touring band as his support musicians (a grand idea…the players all compliment each other beautifully) and it feels lived-in and familiar (in a very good way) from the very first listen.

Survivor: Cook Islands

Sight unseen, I know that somewhere out there in cyberspace some wag has already dubbed the upcoming season of the show Survivor: Jim Crow Islands.

Both the producer and the host of the show call the twist…segregating the new cast (see above) by ethnicity (four teams: one white, one black, one Latino, and one Asian-American)…a bold “social experiment” (they’ve started seasons with teams separated by gender and by age so why not race?)

A more cynical soul (such as yours truly) might call it an incredibly cynical and manipulative stunt designed to pump up the slowly-fading ratings of what used to be the most popular “reality” TV show (American Idol has seized that particular crown and seems unlikely to give it back anytime soon.)

But, that said, the publicity stunt is also, to be fair, actually quite brilliant. Survivor is getting more press and attention than it has in a long while (some civic officials in New York have already weighed in to express their outrage and, this being an election year…and the media always being a handy target…I’m sure other politicians will jump on the bandwagon before all is said and done) and chances are that all of that will turn into killer ratings…at least for the first few episodes of the new season…as people tune in to see what’s going to happen (and maybe root for their favorite ethnic group.)

Perhaps my misgivings about the concept are misplaced and Survivor: Cook Islands will turn out to be compelling, enlightening television and that give us all new insights on race and interpersonal relationships while at the same time being smart, sparkling entertainment….I’m not holding my breath on that but hey could happen, couldn’t it? Yeah, I didn’t think so either…

Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan

In the mid-Seventies, Maria Muldaur had a fluke top 40 hit with the charming novelty song “Midnight at the Oasis”; as far as I can remember she never hit the top 40 again. But during the ensuing years she has made a good number of wonderful albums...including great discs celebrating the blues, the music of Louisiana, and the immortal Miss Peggy Lee...combining the blues, folk, soul, gospel, and rock & roll into a tasty musical gumbo all her own.

This notion of combining Muldaur’s smoky… sweet, husky, and downright sexy….pipes with Bob Dylan’s poignant, poetic, heartfelt love songs was an inspired one (her record label’s president suggested a collection of Dylan songs after seeing a documentary on the man and Maria came up with the idea of doing Dylan love songs) and it pays off grandly on this delightful little collection.

With the able backing of a crack band, Muldaur puts a bluesy spin on Dylan tunes from different eras…some (a softly-sassy reading of “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, a sultry “Lay Lady Lay” [recast here as “Lay Baby Lay”], a soulful twist on the oft-covered “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”) perhaps a bit more familiar than others (“Golden Loom”, “To Be Alone with You”)…and makes them smolder, sizzle, lope, swing, and soar with masterful aplomb.

When the celebratory “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”…with Muldaur playing some tasty fiddle…ends you’re surprised at how quickly 49 minutes have passed. Heart of Mine is a very worthy addition to the expansive body of Bob Dylan covers that have been recorded over the years.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Aaron Sorkin…the creator of the criminally-underappreciated Sports Night and the acclaimed The West Wing… is a man with an ear for clever dialogue, a knack for developing interesting characters who interact in sometimes mundane situations, and decidedly liberal political point of view. All of these things are showcased in the pilot episode of his new NBC series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The dialogue in Studio 60…which is set behind-the-scenes of a Saturday Night Live type show… is, almost as a matter of course with Sorkin’s work (which also includes the scripts for the movies A Few Good Men and The American President), whip-smart and intricately paced and the cast is stellar.

Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford (Josh from The West Wing) are the leads (though they don’t show onscreen until almost 20 minutes into the pilot) with Perry playing a slightly ditzy writer and Whitford playing his more stable (relatively speaking) director friend. The chemistry between the two is, at first blush, quite effective and both actors are in fine form. Amanda Peet brings sparkling and impish wit to her role as the newly-hired president of the network (NBS – the National Broadcasting System) and Steven Weber (probably best known for his role in the old sitcom Wings) has the thankless task of being a priggish network executive.

The rest of the main cast…including D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson, and Nathan Corddry as the lead stars in the show-within-a-show and Timothy Busfield as the director of the show…are sketched out a bit in the pilot but, with such a large ensemble, it will take a while to get a handle on all of the characters.

Sorkin, as I said before, has an unabashed point of view (and, apparently, a chip on his shoulder) and his script doesn’t shy away from lambasting President Bush’s intelligence or from flat out calling Pat Robertson a bigot. Guest star Judd Hirsch, playing the executive producer of the show, is given a fiery monologue cribbed straight from Paddy Chayefsky’s “I’m mad as hell” rant from Sidney Lumet’s classic 70’s movie Network (a fact duly noted in the script) that rips on network television (including, in a cheeky “biting the hand that feeds you” riff, taking potshots at NBC offerings such as The Apprentice and Fear Factor) with special venom.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, judging by this introductory episode, has the potential to be a challenging, entertaining, wickedly subversive show…presuming it finds enough of an audience (one of those deplorable network practices is the fact that good shows are often not allowed the time it takes to find an audience) to reach that potential.

NBC released DVDs of the pilot through Netflix (which is how I saw it, of course), which is an interesting way of promoting the new show. (The DVD also included the pilot of Kidnapped, a mildy-interesting crime serial, and 5-minute previews of Heroes and Friday Night Lights.)

Back to Basics

Christina Aguilera never met a one-syllable word that she couldn’t stretch to five or six unnecessary syllables and she’s never come across a musical space she couldn’t fill with wailing, soaring, nearly-operatic vocal runs and fills (whether the space needed them or not)…but, all that said, I have to give proper credit to the lady for this record. The best of this two-disc collection is a sparkling pop confection that solidifies her position as one of the most talented vocalists of her generation of pop singers (and this coming from someone is who not really a fan of most of her previous offerings.)

And this indeed a pop record…some of the early rumors about Back to Basics suggested that it was going to be some of kind of honest-to-Billie jazz, torch song, or classic R&B album and there are touches of all those (and shout outs to folks like John Coltrane, Etta James, Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, and others) on the first disc (produced by D.J. Premier) and more than touches on the second disc (produced by Linda Perry) …but this is, despite any affectations to the contrary, a pop record from start to finish (and that’s all to the good.)

Despite the self-conscious (and quite unconvincing) boasts of the track “Still Dirrty” (and the clumsy come-ons of “Naughty Nasty Boy” on the second disc…about which more later), Ms. Aguilera has toned down the sex kitten act and embraced a more adult perspective in her music on the first disc of Back to Basics with defiant self-affirmations like the quietly funky “Here to Stay”, sweet, gentle paeans like the lilting “Oh Mother”, and playful struts like the smokin’ hot tribute to her husband “Ain’t No Other Man”.

When Aguilera puts her powerful pipes to the gospel soul of “Makes Me Wanna Pray” (featuring some righteous keyboard work by Steve Winwood), you want to be in the choir that backs her up and sing “Hallelujah!”

(Okay, she could have left off the ego-stroking “Thank You” which is filled with snippets of fawning “Christina, you’re so wonderful and inspirational” messages from fans…but I guess I can give her a pass on that.)

If the first disc is filled with hip hop flavored beats and tasty pop, the second disc is more jazz and blues flavored and it’s just a little bit problematic for that.

“Candyman”, is a blatant, though admittedly still sassy, rewrite of the Andrews Sisters’ classic “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” but it is still a lot of swinging fun just the same.

There are more stumbles on the second disc than on the first…the salacious, brassy ballad “Nasty Naughty Boy”, for example, is much more embarrassing (for Xtina and, especially, for listeners) than it is sexy (which she was apparently going for.)

“I Got Trouble” is a stab at singing honky-tonk blues that doesn’t work because Aguilera, for all of her talent, just doesn’t have the credible blues chops to pull it off.

“Hurt”, on the other hand, is a big, string-laden pop-rock ballad that is elevated above its clichéd lyrics by her powerful and multi-faceted vocals (expect to hear this on pop radio a lot in the very near future.) The gospel confession of “Mercy on Me” soars so powerfully that you want her to have the forgiveness she pleads for in the song.

The acoustic (accompanied by a guitar and an unobtrusive string section) “Save Me from Myself” features some of Christina’s most subdued, and effective, vocals ever.

The strings are brought to the fore on “The Right Man”, the melodramatic tribute to her husband and her wedding that brings the disc to a close on an unfortunately overblown and sappy (if probably very heartfelt) note.

There are very few two-disc CD sets that wouldn’t have been more punchy and powerful if edited down to one disc…and Back to Basics is certainly no exception to that rule…but overall I have to give Ms. Aguilera (and her producers) kudos for putting together a double-disc collection with many more highlights than disappointments.

Testimony: Volume 1, Life and Relationship

India Arie is arguably the most positive person in pop music…and that’s an incredibly cool thing indeed. Even when she’s singing about heartbreak and ended relationships…as on the jaunty “Wings of Forgiveness”, the reflective “These Eyes”, and her shimmering cover of Don Henley’s “The Heart of the Matter”… she does so with an unshakeable emphasis on forgiveness and positive lessons learned.

Testimony: Volume 1, Life and Relationship is filled with songs of faith and empowerment…songs of self-awareness and hope for humankind…songs that could be insufferably cloying were it not for India’s sweetly earnest outlook that colors each of them. She also paints her songs from a rich, warm and welcoming sonic pallet (rich keyboards, warm guitars, gentle beats) that draws the listener in and holds them fast (and totally engaged) from beginning to end.

From the self-affirmations of “I Am Not My Hair” (this mix featuring rapper Akon…though I actually preferred the rap-free version of the song that was released as a single a few months back) and the gospel-flavored “I Choose” (featuring some tasty guitar by Bonnie Raitt) and “Good Morning” to tributes to the better angels of human nature like the sunny “There’s Hope” and the optimistic “Better People”, India is unflaggingly upbeat and it never seems forced or affected.

Along the way she name checks some of her heroes…Jesus, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela…and on “Private Party”, she slips in a sly quote from a song by her mentor and inspiration, Stevie Wonder…and it all flows smoothly without coming off as too precious or too naive.

Testimony (which was India’s first #1 album on the Billboard chart) is a sweet, uplifting, entertaining journey…a journey I will continue to take happily for some time to come.

The 50 Greatest Pop Culture Sidekicks

Entertainment Weekly loves to make lists…which is cool with me because, for some reason, I’ve had a fondness for making lists since I was a child (I used to make my own weekly Top 40 list of singles and then tape a show counting them down like I was some half-baked Casey Kasem…it’s a good thing those tapes are long lost…)

Their current list, like all of the others, is subject to debate…which is a big part of the fun, of course. Their current list is “The 50 Greatest Pop Culture Sidekicks of All Time”. The top 10:

1) Ed McMahon (Johnny Carson’s jovial yes man on The Tonight Show)

2)

Robin the Boy Wonder (Batman’s partner-in-crimefighting)

3)

George Constanza (Jerry’s conniving, sadsack best guy pal on Seinfeld)

4) Chewbacca (Han Solo’s beastly best bud)

5) Ethel Mertz (Lucy Ricardo’s best friend and partner-in-crime)

6) Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes’ able friend and assistant)

7) Samwise Gamgee (Frodo Baggins’ faithful fellow adventurer in The Lord of the Rings)

8) Ed Norton (Ralph Kramden’s affably ditzy best friend on The Honeymooners)

9) Tattoo (Mr. Roarke’s plane-spotting major domo on Fantasy Island)

10) Dwight Schrute (Michael Scott’s craven sycophant on The Office)

Others who show up on the list are Donkey (Shrek), Robin Quivers (The Howard Stern Show), Gromit (Wallace’s long-suffering partner), Keith Richards (who would probably balk at being called Mick Jagger’s sidekick), Silent Bob, Barney Rubble, Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen, and Don Quixote’s faithful aide Sancho Panza.

The list gives no love at all to worthy sidekicks like my main man Tonto (who saved the Lone Ranger’s ass more than once), Public Enemy’s irrepressible Flavor Flav (below- and yes his reality shows are embarrassing to all involved but that doesn’t detract from the…well…flavor…he brought to PE’s best records and live shows), and Pinky (The Brain’s delightfully daffy cohort in repeated attempts to take over the world…Pinky and The Brain are finally coming out with a long-overdue DVD set later this month…yay!!)

Superman Returns

Okay, it was probably about 20-30 minutes too long (the denouement dragged on and on) and Lex Luthor’s master plan was a bit too, you’ll pardon the expression, “comic book-y” (but since he’s comic book super-villain I guess we should cut him a bit of slack on that one…) but, all in all, it was fun.

Superman Returns wasn’t quite the triumphant return to the movie theaters that Batman Begins was last year…but it had some spectacular effects (the bit with the plane was VERY cool), a fair amount of interesting character interaction (though the chemistry between Brandon Routh’s Superman and Kate Bosworth’s Lois Lane wasn’t nearly as compelling as that between Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder back in the day), and a charming sense of wonder (especially to folks like me who’ve been Superman fans since childhood.)

I could have done without the Christ analogies (overblown in the first movie…the ghost of Marlon Brando sonorously intoning about sending Earth his only son here as back then) but they’re ignored easily enough.

Kevin Spacey brought a sense of menace and malevolent whimsy to Luthor (Gene Hackman went for camp back in the original movies) and made for a reasonably credible opponent for the Man of Steel. Routh and Bosworth were fine…a bit bland but fine (though it was bit disconcerting that this movie takes place 5 years after the events of Superman II and yet both of them look much younger than the actors who played their characters in the earlier film)…but veterans Frank Langella, as Daily Planet editor Perry White, and Eva Marie Saint, as Superman’s mom Martha, was woefully underused (though Langella did get to use White’s catchphrase…”Great Caesar’s Ghost”…which tickled the fanboy in me anyway.)

Special kudos for dedicating the movie to Christopher and Dana Reeve. Very classy and appropriate.

A solid effort…I wasn’t completely blown away but I was entertained (and left with real hope and anticipation for a sequel.)

Piece by Piece

This disc starts off with a grand one-two punch…the silky, jazzy “Shy Boy” and the wistful, engaging “Nine Million Bicycles” (with lilting “ethnic flute” accents)…both of which were written by the collection’s producer/arranger/pianist Mike Batt. And though the rest of the set doesn’t match those highpoints there is much to enjoy and appreciate here.

Melua and Batt co-wrote the jaunty “Halfway Up the Hindu Kush” (no, I don’t know what that means.) Navel-gazing, naïve, high school poetry-like lyrics bog down some of the songs that Melua wrote by herself (“Spider's Web”, for example, asks “If a black man is a racist, is it okay?/If it’s a white man’s racism that made him that way?”…which I guess must have sounded profound when she wrote it…)

But the disc is enlivened with a handful of eclectic, nice-arranged covers: Johnny Mercer’s classic “Blues in the Night” (delivered with just enough soulful conviction to make it work), an interesting, low-key take on Canned Heat’s “On the Road Again”, and a sweetly earnest version of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”.

Melua also shines on “I Do Believe in Love”, the lovely closing song, which she wrote and which features just her lovely voice and her piano (this is the only cut on which Batt did not play piano.)

This is not a perfect CD by any means but the best parts of it are soothing, inviting, and even downright wonderful.

KatieMelua.com

Treasure Hunters

What a disappointment. The promos for this thing made it look like it would be smart, challenging, fun, intriguing, and involving (a combination, perhaps, of the globetrotting adventure of The Amazing Race and the on-the-fly puzzle solving of The DaVinci Code.)

But after watching the first two hours, Treasure Hunters turns out to be none of those things. It’s silly, poorly-edited, stuffed to the gills with intrusive product placements and, perhaps worst of all, just plain boring.

And, of course, a show like this rises and falls on the strength of its casting and none of the Treasure hunters made a positive impression on me (special kudos going to the pastor who freely admits to being ready to lie to win and who actually wrestles a clue out of the hand of a woman who found it first…and to the “geniuses” [as their team are labeled and a description they are more than happy to claim every time they're on camera] who come off as pretty clueless through the hunt so far.) And with no one to root for it’s hard to care about the show.

Maybe things will pick up as the field of contestants narrows (there are 30 players…in 1o teams of 3...in the first two hours and that's a lot of folks to try to keep sorted out) but I’m not going to bet on that.

The Most Controversial Movies of All Time

Entertainment Weekly, one of the many magazines that love to make all kinds of lists, has released their ranking of the "25 Most Controversial Movies of All Time". Their Top 10:

1) The Passion of the Christ (2004-directed by Mel Gibson)

2) A Clockwork Orange (1971-directed by Stanley Kubrick)

3) Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004-directed by Michael Moore)

4) Deep Throat (1972-directed by Gerard Damiano)

5) JFK (1991-directed by Oliver Stone)

6) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988-directed by Martin Scorsese)

7) The Birth of a Nation (1915-directed by D.W. Griffith)

8) Natural Born Killers (1994-directed by Oliver Stone)

9) Last Tango in Paris (1972-directed by Bernardo Bertolucci)

10) Baby Doll (1956-directed by Elia Kazan; written by Tennessee Williams)

2006 supplied two films to the list: The Da Vinci Code ranked at #13 and United 93 at #16.

Among the other rabble-rousing movies on the list are: Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous pro-Nazi documentary Triumph of the Will (1935) at #15, Paul Verhoeven’s lurid Basic Instinct (1992) at #19, Spike Lee’s incendiary Do the Right Thing (1989) #22, Larry Clark’s harrowing Kids (1995), and Disney’s (?!?!) Aladdin (1992), which drew fire over its Arabian stereotypes, at #25.

Oliver Stone, who has two films in the top 10, may have a shot at placing another film on a future list with his film World Trade Center due to be released in August. And Jesus, the subject of two of the top 10, may join him when Nativity, a biography of the Virgin Mary that features Jesus’ birth at his climax, comes out in December.

Taking the Long Way

The Dixie Chicks have come back after all of the controversy (following lead singer Natalie Maines’ disparaging remarks about President Bush and the war in Iraq) unapologetically loaded for bear and, with the help of super producer Rick Rubin and some other famous friends (including Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, and Mike Campbell), they’ve delivered a very solid, feisty and tender and enormously entertaining, disc.

Country radio is shying away…especially with the soaring, defiant “Not Ready to Make Nice” having been released as the first single…but that didn’t stop Taking the Long Way from debuting at the top of both the pop and country charts with more than an half-million copies sold in the first week (nowadays radio is not nearly as important in generating CD sales as it used to be, of course.)

The twang in Maines’ voice is still unmistakable and the country flavor is still very apparent but this disc has more of a pop sheen than their earlier collections…and that’s not a bad thing. The Chicks co-wrote all 14 songs on the collection (Sheryl Crow and Keb’ Mo’ being included among the co-writers) and they deliver a nice set of songs. Maines is in fine voice both on upbeat tunes like the title track and the driving “Lubbock or Leave It” as well as lovely ballads like “Easy Silence”. There are some amazing harmony vocals as well…especially on the delicate, stunning “Lullaby”.

The disc ends with a fine new version of “I Hope”, the gospel-inflected song the Chicks co-wrote with Keb’ Mo’ and performed during a benefit for Hurricane relief last year.

The only drawback…and it’s a minor quibble…is that Rubin and the Chicks succumbed to the tendency to want to fill up the space on the CD by stretching songs to 4 or 5 minutes when some of them would have been just fine at 3 and ½ minutes or so. (But a lot of performers have done that since the compact disc became the dominant recording format and they will continue to do so.)

Taking the Long Way is a shining return to form after the mixed results of their last studio disc (2000’s Home) and it’s lovely to have the Dixie Chicks back.

The Da Vinci Code

All things considered, they probably did as well as they could in telescoping an expansive novel into a feature film (always a tricky and mostly thankless task…one wonders how the massive Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is going to fare next year.) It’s certainly not a great movie…neither director Ron Howard nor star Tom Hanks need to clear any space on their awards shelves for their work here…but, if you just suspend disbelief and go with it, it’s a somewhat entertaining (if sometimes poorly paced) movie.

That said, one of the drawbacks of the movie is that it lacks the energy and sense of wonder and discovery of Dan Brown’s novel. The book is, at its core, a combination of a potboiler thriller and a detective story that keeps you reading despite some occasionally mundane prose and some preposterous suppositions. The movie’s characters spend an inordinate amount of time pulling answers out of thin air and ponderously explaining plot points (though, to be fair, some of the flashbacks accompanying some of these soliloquies are stylishly filmed.)

The movie touches on most of the book’s major plot points…rewriting some stuff (because that’s what Hollywood guys do) for reasons that escape me…but it sacrifices character development (and some continuity rhythm) to do so. People who’ve read the book can fill in the blanks when it comes to character motivations. People who haven’t can enjoy it as a mildly engaging treasure hunt of a film. In fact it might be a more satisfying movie going experience for those who haven’t read the book since some of the big “reveals” might actually surprise them rather than coloring the way they look at characters as soon as they appear on screen.

Howard tried to walk the fine line between telling the story and skirting the controversy of its main plot points…near the end Hanks is twice given lines aimed at the audience saying, truthfully enough I suppose, that what’s important is “what you believe”…and more or less (and for better or for worse) he succeeds in that.

A Random Pop Culture List

The 50 Best Film Adaptation of Books...

...at least as chosen by Great Britain’s Book Marketing Society (personally I would have included Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate...but that's just me.) The best film adaptation will be chosen by a poll of British book buyers online and in bookstores and announced in June.

The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
Goodfellas Nicholas Pileggi
The Vanishing Tim Krabbe
Lord Of The Flies William Golding
Remains Of The Day Kazuo Ishiguro
Close Range (Brokeback Mountain) Annie Proulx
Empire Of The Sun JG Ballard
Schindler's Ark (filmed as Schindler's List) Thomas Keneally
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold John le Carré
Different Seasons (Shawshank Redemption) Stephen King
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
Jaws Peter Benchley
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (filmed as Blade Runner) Philip K Dick
The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
The Hound Of The Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle
Heart Of Darkness (filmed as Apocalypse Now) Joseph Conrad
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
Pride And Prejudice Jane Austen
Tess Of The D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (filmed as Dangerous Liaisons) Choderlos de Laclos
1984 George Orwell
Alice In Wonderland Lewis Carroll
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
A Kestrel For A Knave (filmed as Kes) Barry Hines
Breakfast At Tiffany's Truman Capote
Get Shorty Elmore Leonard
Goldfinger Ian Fleming
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
Day Of The Triffids John Wyndham
The Outsiders S E Hinton
The Railway Children E Nesbit
Watership Down Richard Adams
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
Orlando Virginia Woolf
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
Brighton Rock Graham Greene
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak
Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk
The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
LA Confidential James Ellroy
The Godfather Mario Puzo
The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
Trainspotting Irvine Welsh
Sin City Frank Miller
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
Devil In A Blue Dress Walter Mosley