Viva Laughlin

Oh my. Did we learn nothing from Cop Rock? Mixing casino drama with a murder mystery, cheesy soap opera/family drama, and karaoke production numbers must have seemed like a good idea to someone at CBS….as hard as that is to believe…but the finished product was…not so good.

Viva Laughlin is bad on so many levels…bad writing, bad acting, poor character development, uninteresting mystery, improbable coincidences…and, oh yes, the production numbers.

Melanie Griffith (am I delusional or couldn’t she really act at some point?), bless her, was a sport to vamp along to Blondie’s “One Way or Another” while trying to seduce an old flame but she really should have re-thought that.

Hugh Jackman (an executive producer and apparently a recurring guest star) strutting with casino waitresses turned backup dancers while singing along with the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” (see above) was not quite as embarrassing…but it was a close call.

Similar fates awaited Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas” and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Let it Ride” (both warbled by Lloyd Owen, the series lead) before the hour was over.

I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying they were deliberately going for “campy”…they missed “campy” by a mile (we’re apparently supposed to take this silly stuff seriously) but I’m going to give them that benefit of the doubt just the same.

Maybe there’s an audience for Viva Laughlin but I’m not going to be part of it.

* * * * *

October 22 addendum:

After two broadcasts CBS has mercifully put Viva Laughlin out its (and our) misery by canceling it. It's Sunday night time slot will be filled with a CSI rerun next week and then with a new edition of The Amazing Race. Presumably no careers have been marred beyond redemption (not likely since not many people watched Viva Laughlin.)

Short Takes: Pink Martini, Carole King, Michelle Shocked

So much music, so little time…here’s a few capsule reviews to help me get caught up (and to get stuff filed into the racks instead of just cluttering up the space around my CD player :-)

Pink Martini – Hey Eugene!

The 14-member band…lead by pianist Thomas Lauderdale and the amazing, multi-lingual vocalist China Forbes…is so wonderfully eclectic that you never know what’s coming next on this great disc. From the big, dreamy, string-drenched, old Hollywood-style ballad (“Everywhere”) that opens the disc to savory Latin flavors of “Tempo Perdido” and “Mar Desconocido” (featuring a sample from a Chopin waltz) to songs sung, quite effectively, in French, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic (as well as English, of course :-) “World Music” is ably represented by this crack band from Oregon :-) Two of the sparkling highlights are the title track, a sly, witty rejoinder to a guy who never called after what seemed like a perfect first encounter, and a sweet, amazing duet between Forbes and the venerable Jimmy Scott on the classic “Tea for Two”. This CD challenges your expectations…unless you’re already a Pink Martini fan…and then rewards you abundantly for your willingness to take the music journey.

Carole King – Love Makes the World

The remarkable Carole King has been making music as a songwriter since the 60’s and as a performer since the 70’s and this disc of songs affirming love and life, put out on her own Rockingale label, shows that she still has the right stuff in spades. This is a a nifty, enormously entertaining pop record that keeps King, in fine voice, squarely in the spotlight even while featuring some fine guest turns by Babyface, Wynton Marsalis (some very nice trumpet work on “I Wasn’t Going to Fall in Love”) , Celine Dion, Graham Nash (a charming, sumptuous duet on “Two Hearts”), K.D. Lang (so fine, as always, on the soaring duet of “An Uncommon Love”), Steven Tyler (some great harmony and background vocals on the rocking “Monday Without You”), Alejandro Lemer (a cool Spanish duet on “Lo Que Tú Eres Para Mí”), and King’s daughter Louise Goffin (a frisky duet on “Where You Lead”.) A simmering revival of “Oh No, Not My Baby” featuring just King’s soulful voice and piano is grand highlight.

Michelle Shocked – To Heaven U Ride

You never know where the muse will take Michelle Shocked but you know it’s always going to be interesting wherever it is. This is a soulfully ragged and heartfelt gospel set recorded live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2003 (the tapes were apparently unearthed fairly recently.) Shocked, backed by a tight band and a gospel quartet, is a credible gospel singer and you can feel the spirit moving through her on her covers of The Band’s “The Weight” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Strange Things Happening Every Day”, on the classic spirituals “Wade in the Water” and “Uncloudy Day”, and on her own “Quality of Mercy”. If the bluesy pathos of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” is just a bit beyond her (it’s a game try nevertheless) she is on sure footing throughout most of this uplifting CD.

(Below is a video of Pink Martini performing the very cool “Hey Eugene” live.)

Led Zeppelin Goes Digital

One of the last digital holdouts, Led Zeppelin, is finally coming into the 21^st Century when their entire catalog will be made available on all the major online music download services on November 13, a date which coincides with the release of their 2-disc compilation, Mothership.

A week later a remastered version of the soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same will come out with 6 songs that weren’t on the original record.

Going full bore into the digital revolution, Zeppelin ringtones and downloads will be available via Verizon.

With this release, one of the few other major catalogs that remains legally unavailable online is that of the Beatles (and rumors abound that those classic albums will be available online in the near future.)

Trav'lin' Light

The first time I remember hearing Queen Latifah she was rapping with sass and unabashed confidence on All Hail the Queen and I was smitten at once. I was smitten all over again the first time I heard her sing as part of her stellar turn in the underappreciated 1998 movie Living Out Loud. Her first CD of pop and jazz singing, The Dana Owens Album, was a treat and now she’s back with another tasty outing on a collection of classic jazz, pop, and blues tunes.

Trav’lin’ Light kicks off with a fine cover of Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” and then slides smoothly into the rueful “Georgia Rose”, a bluesy ballad featuring some very distinctive, very accomplished harmonica by the ever-amazing Stevie Wonder. The immortal Toots Thielemans adds sweet harmonica harmony to the lilting “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.”

Latifah is just as home in the down home blues of “Don’t Cry Baby” as she is with the big band swing of Peggy Lee’s “I Love Being Here with You” and the propulsive jazz of “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die”. She is elegantly sublime on the title tune aided and abetted with some nice piano work by Joe Sample and appropriately saucy on her take on Nina Simone’s frisky “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”.

10cc’s dream pop hit “I’m Not in Love” is effectively transformed into a big soul ballad while Smokey Robinson’s “What Love Has Joined Together” is presented as a grand mid-tempo jam and she steps right into the funky, sassy spirit of the Pointer Sisters’ “How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side)”. “Gone Away”, co-written by Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield, is another sweetly soaring soul ballad that the Queen knocks out of the park.

The disc ends with “I Know Where I’ve Been”, Latifah’s uplifting showstopper from the movie Hairspray .

Trav’lin’ Light is a wonderful little disc that is destined to spend a great deal of time in my CD player. (See video snippets of some of the songs below.)

Women's Murder Club

I’ve never read any of the James Patterson novels that this ABC show is based on so I came into it with no expectations (well, the title sort of made it sound a bit like Sex and the City only with Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte solving crimes rather than dishing on their lovers :-).

Happily, I found Women’s Murder Club to be smart and witty with the crime drama leavened with enough emotional stuff to keep things interesting while not bogging down the proceedings.

The concept of four friends…a workaholic police detective with no time for romance, a hard working medical examiner whose husband is a wheelchair-bound ex-cop, a smart but emotionally insecure assistant DA, and an ambitious, slightly ditzy newspaper reporter…who pool their wits and talents to solve crimes is elegantly simple and, at the same time, ripe with myriad story possibilities.

Angie Harmon is Lindsay Boxer, the cop whose life is complicated by the fact that her ex-husband has just been made her boss. She is has a nice, banter-filled relationship with her partner, Warren, a “grizzled” (Lindsay’s word) veteran played with acerbic charm by Tyrees Allen. Her friends, Claire Washburn (the medical examiner) and Jill Bernhardt (the assistant DA), are ably brought to life by Paula Newsome and Laura Harris. The three women move between ably doing their jobs and tweaking each other about their love lives…the chemistry between them is very real. Aubrey Dollar plays Cindy Thomas, the reporter, who is not part of the club (her word) yet but you can tell she will be.

The first show deftly sketched out the characters (though, of course, there is much more for us to learn as the series goes on) while solving a murder and then introducing the return of a killer that Boxer failed to put away before. It is not remarkably original but it is very entertaining and that’s more than fine with me.

The Band with the Staple Singers

From The Last Waltz, my favorite version of "The Weight" by The Band and The Staple Singers.

Rest in peace: Roebuck "Pops" Staples, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel.

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is a decidedly off-center delight, an adult fairy tale with a sly, macabre sense of humor. It has a striking appearance…full of vibrant, primary colors and carefully placed light and shadow illuminating and contouring sets that have a dreamy, willfully retro/art deco appeal. The writing is witty, whimsical, and absurdist (even the narration…an affectation that can often be cloying [see Grey’s Anatomy] is slightly arch and very engaging.)

And the plot? Well, the plot revolves around Ned, a man who when he was a boy discovered, in a most tragic way, that he could bring the dead back to life with a touch. The drawbacks include the fact that if he touches the revived ever again they die again forever. And if the revived are returned to the arms of death within 60 seconds then somebody else in random proximity will keel over dead (one presumes to keep some kind of cosmic balance.) Lee Pace plays Ned, a pie-maker who owns operates “The Pie Hole”, with a wistful, but not self-pitying, melancholy. He keeps a distance…emotional and physical…from those around him due to his power (he cannot even pet his beloved dog, Digby, because of having brought the animal back to life after Digby was hit by a truck when Ned was a boy.)

Ned’s insulated life…he mostly interacted with Olive, an employee at the Pie Hole, a slightly daffy blonde with an unrequited crush on him (played with verve by the always delightful Kristen Chenoweth)…when two people entered (or in one case, re-entered) his ordered life.

He teams up with Emerson, a private detective (playfully brought to life by a very droll Chi McBride), to solve murders by having Ned bring the victims back to life long enough to tell them who committed the crime and then returning the victims to death within the allotted minute after which Ned and Emerson collect the reward. You get the feeling that Ned enjoys having something new, and somewhat adventurous, in his life.

More poignant is Ned’s reunion with “Chuck” (Charlotte Charles, played with impish acceptance of her odd situation by Anna Friel), his childhood sweetheart with whom he had shared his first kiss when they were children and whom he hadn’t seen since the deaths of their parents (Ned’s power being an unwitting catalyst for those happenings) had separated them. Chuck is killed after unknowingly stumbled into a smuggling scheme and Ned brings her back to life and, having pined for her since his youth, found that he was unable to return her to death (another person, a larcenous funeral director, takes her place in the afterlife after Ned lets the time limit go by without touching Chuck again.) Ned is therefore reunited with the girl of his dreams…Chuck becomes a partner with Ned and Chuck, joining with them to solve her own murder…but he is unable to give her even the slightest touch or kiss.

Rounding out the regular cast are Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene (both wonderfully weird and sweetly affecting) as Chuck’s eccentric, socially isolated aunts who live in a gothic house with forbidding wrought iron gates. They do not…and cannot…know that Chuck has returned from the dead.

Like the Heroes website, the Pushing Daisies website has an online comic that brings new nuances to the television viewing experience.

I have no idea if something as quirky and smart as Pushing Daisies…created by Bryan Fuller, who created the equally innovative and off-center Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls (the latter of which also co-starred Lee Pace)…has a long term future on network television. I hope that it does but either way I’ll willingly suspend disbelief and enjoy it for however long it lingers.

River: The Joni Letters

It’s been quite the year for Joni Mitchell and her music. First there was the all-star A Tribute to Joni Mitchell collection and then there was Shine, the first new music in a while by the lady herself and now there’s this graceful tribute by her friend and occasional collaborator, the remarkable Herbie Hancock.

River: The Joni Letters finds Hancock, at the top of his considerable game, interpreting music written by (or somehow associated with) Mitchell with his passionate piano work leading a crack quartet including Wayne Shorter on saxophones, Dave Holland on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, and Lionel Loueke on guitar. The playing throughout is expressive, compelling, and sweetly simmering.

Joni’s poetic lyrical prowess is undisputed but equal attention is given to her amazing melodic gifts as well here. Some of the tracks…arranged and produced by Hancock and Joni’s ex-husband Larry Klein… are instrumentals while others feature an eclectic variety of accomplished vocalists.

“Court and Spark” leads off and features a fine vocal by Norah Jones and that’s followed by a stunning version of “Edith and the Kingpin” featuring a beautifully subtle vocal by the one and only Tina Turner over a tasty, gently-swinging groove deftly anchored by Hancock and Shorter.

Hancock plays solo on “Both Sides Now” for two very lovely minutes before the drums, guitar, and bass slip softly onto the track and coax it along to the point where Shorter joins the sweet fray and brings a lilting counterpoint to Hancock’s sweet playing. Shorter’s sax dances delightfully over, through, and about Hancock’s assured melody on the engaging version of “Sweet Bird”.

Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” features Hancock’s piano subtly but powerfully supported by Holland and Colaiuta while Shorter takes the lead on his own “Nefertiti” dueling playfully with Hancock’s nimble piano work. Klein takes the bass and Dean Parks (on guitar) and Paulinho Da Costa (on percussion) join in for a entrancing take on “A Case of You”.

Corinne Bailey Rae more than holds her own with the remarkable band on the title track while Joni herself brings her smoky, but still utterly compelling, voice and phrasing to “Tea Leaf Prophecy” (co-written by Mitchell and Klein). Shorter and Luciana Souza duet…his shimmering sax, her sultry voice…on a plaintively powerful version of “Amelia” while Hancock and the legendary Leonard Cohen duet…the snaky piano of the first, the undeniable gravitas in the recitation of the second.

The disc ends with a sprightly take on “All I Want” with a soulful and playful vocal by Sonya Kitchell.

For jazz buffs, Joni buffs, Herbie buffs, music buffs…River: The Joni Letters is a grand record for all of them…for all of us…to savor and luxuriate in.

Cavemen/Carpoolers

I'm trying to sample as many new network shows as I can but some of them are making that a hard slough. ABC, for example, managed to pull off the trick of putting on a completely humor-free "comedy" hour on Tuesday night with the debuts of Cavemen and Carpoolers. (One hopes and expects that the series finales of Cavemen and Carpoolers are not too far in the distant future.)

The next time somebody decides they want to turn a Geico commercial into a television series they should think about using the gecko, who could've stared at the viewers for 22 minutes and still been MUCH funnier than Cavemen. Yikes.

And Carpoolers' only saving grace is that it's marginally better than Cavemen. Marginally. Very marginally (what the hell was Jerry O'Connell thinking?)

(Good thing I had my entertaining, well-written, truly amusing pals on House and Boston Legal to come along afterwards and wipe the stench of comedy flop sweat out of my numbed psyche and save Tuesday night TV viewing.)

Magic

I’ve seen at least one review of this CD that calls it Bruce Springsteen’s best record since 1980’s The River. I guess it you’re idea of a Bruce Springsteen record includes lots of soarin’ guitars and wailin’ sax solos and the E Street Band front and center (unlike the last album the band did together…the more somber The Rising…which used the band as sidemen rather than as a integral part of the overall sound) that might indeed be true (personally I think that Springsteen has made a lot of wonderful music since 1980 but to each his own when it comes deciding who the “real” Bruce is and should be.)

Magic has a lot of the classic E Street vibe…this sucker rocks and the Big Man is all over the first few tracks…with lots of radio and concert ready rockers to please the souls of Springsteen fans (like yours truly.)

But Bruce is more than a bit cranky here (the unamused look on Bruce's face in the cover photo is quite appropriate to the lyrical content of this record) at the same time…while the grooves are hard and rock solid, the lyrics are often dark and lacerating. That’s not a criticism…far from it… just a statement of fact. The opening “Radio Nowhere”, for example, is an unabashed slam against the current state of music radio set to insistent, irresistible beat while the acerbic “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” wraps a “what goes around comes around” warning in a rocker so tight that you can almost see the audience dancing as the band plays it in concert.

Clarence Clemmons, in fine form throughout, wails the opening of “Livin’ in the Future” with assurance. Bruce is in fine voice throughout the record with none of the twang that informed his last few records present (the twang fit perfectly on those records but would be out of place on the anthem-like tunes here.)

The bittersweet “Your Own Worst Enemy” lopes along at a nice mid-tempo beat while thick layers of snarling guitars and distinctive bursts of harmonica infuse the driving “Gypsy Biker”.

This is the sound of a great band working as a mighty, unbeatable unit and that’s more than cool to be sure.

Things lighten up a bit with the wall of sound paean to “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” and the relatively jaunty “I’ll Work for Your Love” (the apocalyptic references to the book of Revelation and “the dust of civilizations” making that “jaunty” comment refer to the music and definitely not the lyrics.)

The title track is a brooding rumination while “Last to Die” rocks hard but is decidedly acerbic lyrically. “Long Walk Home” (see video below) with its lacerating guitars and classic sax solo is a cautiously optimistic rocker that soars along relentlessly while the closing “Devil’s Arcade” builds from a whisper to thick crescendo of guitars and strings and then back to a whisper and up again to stunning effect.

Magic is, crankiness and all, a great record plain and simple.

Short Takes (New TV Season, Part 2)

Private Practice (ABC)
I wasn’t crazy about the backdoor pilot that they presented on Grey’s Anatomy last season but I’m pleasantly surprised by the official debut (see cast above). The characters are all introduced fairly smoothly and all given a chance to strut their stuff a little. The melodrama is kept to minimum (though there is soap enough to go around.) And the people on this show are, more or less, adults…instead of the hormonal teenagers in adult suits on Grey’s…and though the remarkable Kate Walsh is the spun-off star they very carefully set this up as a true ensemble show and that’s all to the good.

Back to You (Fox)
Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton are back on a new series. It’s an old school type of work place sitcom. Comedy veteran Fred Willard offers up some welcome wackiness now and again. It’s all very familiar. It’s all very non-threatening. And the laugh track is too often having a better time than the viewers. Back to you, Fox, I’ll pass.

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
I think the title of this show (see cast below) is incredibly lame but the show itself has a breezy, engaging, audacious charm. Peter Krause is more than fine as the idealistic lawyer drawn into the service of the incredibly rich, incredibly famous, willfully reckless and spoiled Darling family (a family he watched grow up as his late father held the same job.) And Donald Sutherland brings a twinkly gravitas to his role as patriarch of the family. The writing on this show is fun…with just enough mystery and drama to keep things from getting too frothy…much in the way that I imagine Big Shots (see below) wanted to be.

Survivor: China (CBS)
I stopped watching Survivor a couple of editions back…the routine of the show is so rote now that there’s really not anything new to be discovered…but I checked into this one because of the decidedly exotic location. The Chinese government, eager to prove themselves a welcoming host before next year’s Summer Olympics, allowed this edition to be filmed in their country. The locale is the only interesting part of the show…the Survivors are again seemingly clueless about the game (doesn’t anybody who comes onto this show watch it before they apply?) and the intrigues have been indulged in so many times…in the same ways…that it’s only vaguely interesting. This edition’s cast is pretty colorless (as of this writing they’ve already tossed out the chicken farmer and the female pro wrestler) and the challenges are dull and predictable…but hey the scenery is nice.

Ugly Betty (ABC)
The consequences of the multiple cliffhangers from last season are explored and Betty, harried to the max, rushes around trying to put out emotional fires. The spark of discovery from the first season is gone but the writing is still taut (and at times audacious preposterous) and it looks like my favorite Americanized telenovela is going to keep the twists and turns…the humor and the romance and the pathos…coming. And that’s cool with me.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Sigh. I know it’s supposed to be a sexy soap opera but these people can be really trying sometimes :-) Actually I have some emotional investment in almost everyone except the central figures…Meredith and Derek…whom I continue to find tedious as a couple. This episode picks up on some of the threads from last season…including and especially Burke’s leaving, Izzy’s declaration of love for George, and Miranda being passed over for Chief Resident…and moves them along at a fairly smooth pace. The subplot in the first new episode of the season about the deer was silly but it allowed Izzy to have a moment with the interns she’s supervising and I guess that was okay. The romantic couplings at the end had me rolling my eyes but I’m guessing that others will find them to be wonderful. Whatever works. I’m on the record (see here) as having said that my favorite couple on this show was Burke and Christina and now that off-camera incidents have put the end to that relationship I got nobody to root for on the romantic front (I was kinda digging George and Callie but that’s not looking so good right now either) but I will continue to watch. As much as last season made me weary with its relentless pathos I’m still invested in these characters enough to stick around and hope for something more upbeat (at least as upbeat as a soap opera can get :-)

Big Shots (ABC)
If this show was twice as clever as it thinks it is it would still be a crashing bore. Nothing in this mess works…not the self-absorbed, whiny lead characters, not the limp writing, not the “clever” plot twists, not the absurd situations, nothing. And those critics that described this as a male version of Sex and the City owes the cast, writers, director, and crew of that far superior show a very big apology.

Goin' Home: a Tribute to Fats Domino

Antoine “Fats” Domino is one of the towering figures in the birth and history of rock and roll and so it’s no surprise that a tribute to him would bring out an eclectic group of musical luminaries (including legendary vets like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, B.B. King, Robert Plant, Elton John, Neil Young, and two former Beatles.)

Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino is a 2-disc collection of performances (some newly recorded, others not) of Domino’s delightful songs (he wrote or co-wrote 24 of the 30 songs here) with the proceeds from the set going towards restoration of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood where the New Orleans born Domino lived until Katrina flooded him out and to the Tiptinia’s Foundation, which is keeping the unique musical heritage of Louisiana alive.

The set gets off to a rockin’ start John Lennon’s raucous take on “Ain’t That a Shame” (produced by Phil Spector) and follows that with a sprightly “I’m Walkin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and bluesy stroll through the title track by B.B. King (backed up by Ivan Neville’s Dumpstafunk.)

Both Elton John (on “Blueberry Hill”) and Paul McCartney (On “I Want to Walk You Home”) stay in their lower registers as they invoke the living spirit of “the Fat Man”. McCartney benefits from the production and piano work of the ever-amazing Allen Toussaint while John, of course, effectively tickles the keys on his track. Randy Newman slips into the sinewy groove of “Blue Monday” with accomplished ease (his grand piano playing ably aided and abetted with a sweet sax solo by Bill Liston.)

Taj Mahal and the New Orleans Social Club are gritty and funky on “My Girl Josephine” and Joss Stone is sassy and sexy on “Every Night About This Time” with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and ace guitarist Buddy Guy. Corinne Bailey Rae is confidently soulful on a live version (recorded at Tipitina’s earlier this year) of “One Night (of Sin)”.

Lenny Kravitz teams up with the Rebirth Brass Band and legendary James Brown sidemen Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker for a rock solid, horn driven jam on “Whole Lotta Loving”. And the good doctor…Dr. John…comes to the proceedings with a sly, growly, mid-tempo stroll through “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” Bonnie Raitt is fine voice (no surprise there, of course) on a rollicking medley of “I’m in Love Again” and “All by Myself” with pianist/singer/producer Jon Cleary.

Art Neville, accompanied only by his own nimble piano work, offers up some fine blues on “Please Don’t Leave Me”. Similarly, Bruce Hornsby lets his piano do a lot of the talking…and an effective “speaker” it is…on his version of “Don’t Blame it on Me”.

Robbie Robertson joins forces with Galactic for the slinky soul of “Going to the River”. Galactic later backs up Big Chief Monk Boudreaux on the dense funky rock of “So Long”.

Robert Plant is in suitably nuanced voice on the swampy blues of “It Keeps Rainin’” supported by the rock solid Lil’ Band o’ Gold. Plant later joins forces with the glorious Soweto Gospel Choir for a heavenly version of “Valley of Tears”.

Neil Young’s graceful version of “Walking to New Orleans” with the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University (from the ReactNow Katrina aid show) fits onto this disc quite naturally.

Norah Jones’ sweet, smoky voice and sweet, nimble piano playing combine for a lovely version of “My Blue Heaven” while Lucinda Williams’ full-bodied blues rasp invigorates her rockin’ take on “Honey Chile”.

Marc Broussard…with the lovely mandolin playing of Sam Bush anchoring the band to nice effect…slides surely and soulfully through a gently loping “Rising Sun” while Olu Dara and the Natchezippi Band slip down a jazzy road with “When I See You”.

Ben Harper and the Skatalites make a joyful noise with their jaunty romp through “Be My Guest” while Toots and the Maytals bring a soulful reggae groove to “Let the Four Winds Blow” and the ever-wily Willie Nelson slows “I Hear You Knockin’” to a stately stroll punctuated by softly-soaring saxophones.

Irma Thomas brings the indomitable music spirit of the Big Easy to the fore with “I Just Can’t Get New Orleans Off My Mind” featuring great piano playing and harmony vocals from Marcia Ball while Herbie Hancock leads a crack quartet through an irresistibly funky take on “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”.

Los Lobos chug and churn through their way through a potent take on Domino’s theme song, “The Fat Man”, with guitars and saxophones combining to make pure rock and roll joy.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and Theresa Andersson bring things to a righteous close with a rousing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

Goin’ Home is a grand tribute to the great Fats Domino, to the rich musical history of the city of New Orleans, and to the eternal spirit of rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

Short Takes (New TV Season, Part 1)

Chuck (NBC)

The first show was fast-paced and engaging with a nice mix of action, comedy, and romance and some interesting chemistry between the leads. Chuck was better than I had expected to be honest and it could become something enormously charming if the balance of adventure and humor is maintained.

Heroes (NBC)

They certainly hit the ground running. It’s “four months later” and the characters are all in new situations and new Heroes are introduced. The first episode managed to catch us up on the status quo for almost all of the main characters from last season (the exceptions being Nikki, D.L., and Micah), introduce several new intriguing mysteries, and bring one supporting character’s story to an apparent end…and, most importantly, leave you wanting more (is it Monday yet? :-) Looks like Heroes might avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.

Journeyman (NBC)

The pilot was convoluted…time travel stories tend to have that problem…and it was a tad too soapy for its own good but there was enough of a hook to make you want to give it a chance to get better. I’m not loving it yet but I’m willing to give it a couple more episodes to win me over.

House (Fox)

Gregory House is the most irascible lead character on network television…and ain’t it grand? (No disrespect to James Spader…I’m a big Boston Legal fan…but Hugh Laurie got robbed at the Emmys.) The new season starts off with House trying to prove that he can do his thing without a team (all of whom quit or were fired at the end of last season…I expect the band to get back together before season’s end) and finding, much to his chagrin, that he cannot. It was great beginning to the new season (hopefully with no maniacally overzealous cops dragging down the season like last year.)

Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)

Gordon Ramsay takes his act (you know, the screaming, the cursing, the derisive nicknames) out of Hell’s Kitchen and out onto the road to restaurants that need his special brand of TLC to get their acts together. It’s all very predictable. It’s all very stagey. It’s all only mildly interesting.

Bionic Woman (NBC)

There’s some good stuff here. And a lot of cliched stuff as well. Michelle Ryan, as Jamie Somers (the titular Bionic Woman), is very pretty but a bit blank in the pilot (maybe we can write that off to her character being in shock over her new status quo as a “$50,000,000 woman” (inflation don’t you know? :-) with super-powerful enhancements (legs, arm, eye, ear) as well as having been swept up into a dark world of espionage. The first episode sets up the series fairly nicely…but the set up is full of tough talking cliches (as opposed to characters) each with their own…drum roll please…DARK SECRETS and nebulous pacing (it’s not clear, for example, exactly how long Jamie is incapacitated after the accident (which, of course, is not really an accident) that leads to her being fitted with bionic parts.) Throw in an angry but apparently precociously intelligent teenager (Jamie’s sister) and a lover who hasn’t told her a lot of important things about himself and we’re getting into deep soap from the jump. And the series is remarkably humorless…a super-hero story (and that’s what Bionic Woman is, of course) shouldn’t take itself quite as seriously as this one does. Now that the setup is in place, it has the potential to get better. We shall see.

Life (NBC)

Not sure what to make of this one yet. The premise is intriguing…a police detective wrongly convicted of murder is exonerated after 12 years of very hard time and returns to the force despite the fact that he collected a multi-million dollar settlement for his wrongful incarceration. He’s partnered with a detective with baggage of her own (she’s less than 2 years out of rehab for a drug problem) and the unlikely team (who will, of course, come to bond) sets out under the skeptical eyes of superiors and fellow cops. There’s a certain quirky charm to it (it has faint but insistent echoes of the failed Jeff Goldblum vehicle, Raines) and it could turn into something quite compelling given a chance to find its way.

* * * * *

This is, according to Blogger's count, the 300th Neverending Rainbow post. Yay! :-)

Shine

We won’t call it a comeback…she didn’t go anywhere she just decided to stop making new records for a spell…but it’s very cool to have some new music from the wondrous Joni Mitchell. Her first collection of (mostly) new material in a while starts off with a curve ball: a ruminative instrumental, “One Week Last Summer”, featuring Joni on piano and Bob Sheppard on alto sax. It’s a soothing and intriguing way to start Shine.

Joni’s burnished voice comes into play afterwards, of course, beginning with the acerbic “This Place” and the bittersweet, rueful “If I Had a Heart”. Mitchell is looking at the world around her and while she doesn’t much like what she sees, she seems to be holding on to hope that things can change…that people can change.

The vibe on Shine invokes the jazzier Mitchell offerings (think The Hissing of Summer Lawns) with keyboards and saxophone accents dominating the mix alongside the poetic rush of words and images. Joni’s voice is in that deeper, smoky range we’ve come to know from her later recordings and it is quite effective.

Things kick up a bit more up-tempo with “Hana”, a portrait of a proud woman taking on life on her own terms, with steady beat and electronic flourishes. “Bad Dreams” is a stately, wistful piano-dominated ballad that was borne out of a phrase that Mitchell’s young grandson said to her: “bad dreams are good in the great plan”.

A jaunty guitar line informs the resurrection of “Big Yellow Taxi” to nice effect. The older tune fits into the overall tone (with all of its spiritual, emotional, and ecologic overtones) of the disc and the new version is significantly different from the original. The rocking yet atmospheric “Night of the Iguana” is, Joni says, based on the old film of the same name and its propelled nicely with some sweet bass playing (by Larry Klein) and some rock solid drumming (by Brian Blade).

“Strong and Wrong” is an angry denunciation that takes to task when Mitchell sees as the hypocrisy of ego-driven fundamentalism (as well as President Bush personally) while “Shine” is almost a languid prayer…hopeful and acerbic and ruefully witty all at once…that encourages us to “let your little light shine”.

The closing “If” (which you can hear in full on the Tune Feed widget...just below "I Power Blogger"...in the column to the right; the little picture says John Williams for some reason but it's Joni), a hopeful, reassuring song based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling, cruises along on a pleasing samba-like beat and it brings the disc to a grand little finish.

I have no idea if Shine will enter the pantheon of what I consider to be great Joni Mitchell records…though on first blush I would guess not, but I’ll have to live with it for a while, explore its nuances and textures on repeated plays, before I can make really decide one way or the other…but, that said, it is nice to have new music from the lady and that’s more than good enough for me.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

20 years ago it began…and the Trekkers were skeptical. I am, of course, talking about Star Trek: The Next Generation. When STNG (as it shall be abbreviated from here on in) debuted those of us who had been fans of the original Star Trek series (of which I was one from the very beginning) were dubious that another series…with another Enterprise and a bald Captain…would fly (see what I did there? :-)

We were wrong.

Granted STNG didn’t really hit its stride until the 3^rd season but right from the beginning you could see that there was real potential. And when the first episode featured an aged (VERY aged) Bones McCoy passing the proverbial torch to the…well…next generation, it seemed to promise that our hopes for something special could possibly be met.

And so they were.

We came to appreciate the wondrous cast of characters: the gently-imperial Captain Picard, the puckish Commander Riker, the noble Klingon Worf, the inquisitive android Data, the beautiful empathy Deanna Troi, the enterprising (pun intended) engineer Geordi LaForge, the learned Doctors Crusher and Pulaski, the precocious Wesley Crusher, the impish all-powerful scoundrel Q, the enigmatic Guinan, the feisty Tasha Yar.

STNG turned into a wonderful science fiction TV show. Was each episode a gem? Nah…but when they were on their game, the actors, writers, and directors made some sweet sci-fi magic.

Entertainment Weekly has a special 20^th anniversary insert (a cool little 26-page booklet) in their September 28^th issue which lists their picks for the 10 best STNG episodes of the 7 year run. Their picks:

1) “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (Season 3)

(Time is warped and the Enterprise comes into contact with the long-lost Enterprise C)

2) “The Best of Both Worlds (Parts 1 & 2)” (Seasons 3 & 4)

(The action-packed 2-parter in which Captain Picard is captured by the Borg and transformed into Locutus)

3) “The Inner Light” (Season 5)

(Picard lives an entire alternate life in less than an hour after being hit with a beam from an mysterious probe)

4) “Tapestry” (Season 6)

(Q takes Picard back to relive the events that lead to him needing a heart-replacement)

5) “All Good Things…” (Season 7 – the series finale)

(The past, the present, and a possible future come together thanks to Q and the end of the series.)

6) “The Measure of a Man” (Season 2)

(Picard has to defend Data from a Starfleet officer who wants to dismantle the android for study.)

7) “Sins of the Father” (Season 3)

(Worf must battle Klingon politics in order to try to clear his father’s name)

8) “First Contact” (Season 4)

(Riker goes undercover to find out if a developing world is ready for full-fledged Federation interaction)

9) “The First Duty” (Season 5)

(Wesley Crusher and the other members of his Starfleet cadet squadron face an inquiry into the accidental death of one of their teammates.)

10) “Chain of Command (Part 2)” (Season 6)

(Picard, captured while on an undercover mission, is tortured by a Cardassian interrogator)

Interesting choices…though I’m sure every STNG could list favorites of their own which aren’t on this list.

Kid Nation

After all of the controversy and finger pointing, Kid Nation is just another “reality” show. It’s Survivor in an Old West ghost town with a cast of 40 kids (8-15 years old), no tribal councils, and no million-buck prize at the end (though each week one of the campers will be given a literal gold star worth $20,000.) It’s Survivor with a more emotionally mature cast :-)

The thing about the kids building a new society alone is, of course, nonsense. They’re surrounded by an army of cameramen, sound men, producers, medics, technicians, etc., etc. (and that’s not to mention the host who shows up several times an hour) That aside, the show is mildly engaging (the kids often seem like they’re vamping for the camera but that’s to be expected…and when one little miss says in all earnestness that she doesn’t do dishes because she’s a “beauty queen” you wonder how many of these “ordinary” kids are looking towards a career in showbiz with this show as a stepping stone.)

The editing of the show will not show any danger or exploitation, of course…the kids seem to be having an adventure that is at turns fun, challenging, and instructive on the matter of social interaction (one boy, the youngest of the group, opts out at the end due to homesickness…a very understandable reaction, of course.)

It’s not, as some have opined, Lord of the Flies, it’s just a “reality” show whose purpose escapes me.

I was wondering if CBS was going to put Kid Nation on after the firestorm of protests but they did (“controversy” makes for great pre-broadcast advertising) and the end result seems hardly worth all of the sanctimonious hand-wringing. Any ire about the inappropriateness of putting children in a potentially dangerous situation…apparently a couple of the kids got hurt during the filming of the series but not, insofar as I’ve heard, really seriously hurt…should be directed not only at the producers and the network but also…and especially… at the 40 sets of parents who signed the onerous contracts required for participation and gave their children over to the tender mercies of “reality” TV stardom.

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory, a new sitcom that debuts on CBS on September 24, is unassuming and occasionally quite amusing (though not nearly as funny as the annoying laugh track tries to make you think it is.) They’re not trying to reinvent the sitcom wheel with this show, it’s an old-fashioned comedy show with characters rattling off one-liners in a way that nobody talks in real life but the easy chemistry between the two leads helps makes it work…to an extent.

Leonard (a perky…in a geeky but endearing way…Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (a droll Jim Parsons) are socially inept geniuses who share an apartment (complete with big white boards covered with arcane equations and hair products in bottles shaped like Star Wars characters) whose world is changed when an attractive blonde moves into the apartment across the hall from them. That’s the plot…nothing more, nothing less.

As Penny, the new neighbor, a waitress just out of a bad relationship with a brutish lout that she still has feelings for, Kaley Cuoco is not asked to do much besides be pretty and affably sweet and she does that quite well. Though surrounded by eager beaver nerds (besides the roommates, we also have Simon Helberg as Wolowitz, a clueless would-be Casanova and Kunal Nayyar as Koothrappal whose fear of women is so great that he is unable to utter a single word to Penny) who act like they have never talked to a pretty girl before, Cuoco’s Penny doesn’t seem to look down on her new neighbors. Instead she is at turns patiently amused and guilelessly amazed (and completely unthreatened) by them.

But it is Galecki and Parsons who give this show what juice it has. Galecki’s wide-eyed enthusiasm is leavened by Parson’s mordant dry wit. They make a good team.

Judging by the pilot (available as a free download on iTunes as of this writing) The Big Bang Theory will be mildly diverting while it’s on and quickly forgotten once the episode is over. Though, that said, it could blossom into something more if the writing is strong...time will tell.

Kanye West and Rainn Wilson at the Emmys

Kanye West showing that he does indeed have a sense of humor (and the ability not to take himself so seriously) in this cute Emmy bit with The Office's Rainn Wilson and Don't Forget the Lyrics host Wayne Brady.

K-Ville

The new network television is starting to roll out slowly but surely (the debuts and season premieres stretch well into October) and I’m not really excited about much. But I’ll approach it with as open a mind as possible.

K-Ville, Fox’s new cop show, uses post-Katrina (hence, the “K” in K-Ville) New Orleans as a background. The lead character, Marlin Boulet (the always amazing Anthony Anderson), is a cop who lives in the devastated upper Ninth Ward and who is trying to get his wife and daughter to return to what he still considers home. Boulet’s new partner, Trevor Cobb (a very fine Cole Hauser), is an Army vet with a dark secret who’s joined the New Orleans Police Department seeking a kind of redemption. Boulet and Cobb are, as a matter of course, opposites…one black, one white, one hot-headed and hard-drinking, one calm and adverse to drinking while on duty, one with his passionate heart on his sleeve and one close-mouthed and guarded…and, of course, you know that they will become trusting partners as the series continues.

And that’s the problem. When all is said and done K-Ville is, New Orleans location aside, just another cop show that hits a lot of the familiar cop show beats. A cop show complete with a squad of colorful cops, a gruff Captain with a heart of gold (John Carroll Lynch), frenetic car chases and shootouts, and tired plots with “shocking” twists that are neatly tied up by the end of the hour. New Orleans is, in the end, mostly just window dressing for an otherwise ordinary police procedural with soap opera touches that carry most of the character development.

Andrews and Hauser do, however, raise the bar with their strong performances (even as they deal with the melodrama of their characters: Boulet’s family problems and drinking and Cobb’s dark secret which is revealed at the end of the first episode.)

K-Ville is okay…and it may grow into something better but it’s not enough to sway my attention from the return of Heroes in the same timeslot on September 24th.