So I think I LOVE dance...

"So You Think You Can Dance"  is wonderful this year.  Yes Nigel and Mary can be crazy (and LOUD) at times, but they actually know what they are talking about (unlike their American Idol counterparts... sorry Paula and Randy)  The judges encourage the contestants to do better and the audience is exposed to all kinds of dance during the process.  It's a win-win situation for everyone.  I find the show very musically gratifying.

Cat Deeley (the host) is adorably chic.  I feel she really cares about the contestants where Seacrest tries to be witty at the contestants expense.

The result show (on Wednesdays) is packed with amazing group numbers, a guest dance artist, and a guest musical artist.

and choreographer Mia Michaels is a genius!!!

Here are my favorite routines so far this year...

Joshua and Katee dancing to "No Air" - choreography by Tabitha and Napolean

Mark and Chelsie "Bleeding Love" - choreography by Tabitha and Napolean

Joshua and Katee "Hometown Girl" - choreography by Mia Michaels

Twitch and Katee "Mercy" - choreography by Mia Michaels

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE airs Wednesdays and Thursdays on FOX for two more weeks!

There's always room for CELLO

I am in love with the debut cd "Learning to Bend" by Ben Sollee.  He first caught my ear on NPR's "All Things Considered" about a week ago.

This is folk/americana at it's best.  Ben provides soulful vocals and very interesting ways of making music with his instrument of choice... the cello.  Artists he can be compared to are Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, Iron and Wine, or even Nick Drake.

He is an amazing songwriter.  "A Few Honest Words" is directed to the future president of the United States.  On "It's Not Impossible," he remarks on the state of masculinity and how boys aren't supposed to cry.  

I also love "Panning for Gold" a beautiful song inspired by his grandparents who are suffering from dementia.  He wrote the song using God as a character losing track of things and not remembering what he created.  He sings... it's up to us to show God the beauty that He created.

There is also an excellent cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."  Ben's version is WONDERFUL and very relevant during this election year.

I highly recommend this album...

Check out the NPR interview.

Here is his website and myspace profile.

 This passage is from his bio and really sums up why I love his music...

"The single most salient quality of Learning to Bend, is Ben’s contagiously optimistic worldview. Ben is not just expressing his personal quest for flexibility, he is asking the entire country to learn to bend, learn how to cry, learn how to see the sun rise… He is at the forefront of a movement that is happening right now: a zeitgeist in which a nation can face reality and empower itself to evolve and feel deeply and stand up for the power of hope."

Also of interesting note.... recently Kanye West was very late for performing at a festival.  This enraged many fans.  Ben composed a song commenting on this and posted it on his myspace.  Simply recored into his computer's internal mic, he sings.. "you don't need a light show, just good flows!"  This may be the first rap/folk war!

You can download the track HERE.

Cut Loose...

This caught my eye in this week's Entertainment Weekly.

A cover of the entire soundtrack of FOOTLOOSE by the artist "Doveman" (aka Thomas Bartlett.)  



After a google search I came across these words written by Thomas' friend Gabriel Greenberg.

"When I was very young, my half-sister Jenny died tragically. She was a teenager, and it was the 80's. She left behind a wardrobe of brightly colored clothes, rainbow stickers, life-size paintings, doodles on lined paper, and hundreds of tapes. These constitute most of my memories of her. It's sad for me to look at these things, and usually I don't. But a couple of summers ago I found a tape of hers with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together.

I asked my friend Thomas to cover the album, which, sheltered as he is, he had never heard before. I was clear that I wanted to him to cover the whole album - the point wasn't to rework any one song, but to re-imagine the picture they made together. With a new Footloose we could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made."

-- Gabriel Greenberg

This is AMAZING and very moving.  It was available as a free download, but it got taken down.  You can still here the album on this site...  

http://www.dovemanmusic.com/footloose.htm

Addicted to FOREIGN!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post...  it's been crazy busy.  I will try to get back to my posting at least once a week.  

I have SO much to comment on... Wall-E... Wanted... some AMAZING music I've discovered... today's release of the film soundtrack to "Mamma Mia"...

However,  this post I'm sticking to sharing my obsession with FOREIGN movies.... in particular 2 recent DVD releases.  

Both of these movies were Oscar nominees, and both are adaptations of autobiographical books.

The first is the very inspiring "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."  



In 1995 Jean-Dominique Bauby (editor for French Elle magazine) suffered a stroke and awoke from a coma completely paralyzed except for some movement in his head and left eye.   Not able to speak, he and his therapist eventually come up with a way for him to communicate... for him to blink his left eye.  He eventually decides to write his memoir with the help of a transcriber.  She will read the letters of the alphabet and he blinks when she says the correct one.  

The film is truly a piece of art.  It starts out showing life from his perspective from the moment he opens his eye from a coma.   The cinematography  eventually opens up as he allows his mind to be free and find a passion for life.  This is a beautiful film and is based on his very moving memoir.

Here's the trailer...

The other film is also autobiographical but is based on a graphic novel.  It is the stunning PERSEPOLIS.  



This movie is the coming of age story of Marjane Satrapi a very outspoken girl in Iran during the Islamic revolution.  I LOVED this movie!!  This is true art animation.  Not some cheap comedy relying on celebrity voices.

Check out both of these wonderful films... and while I'm on the subject...

Here is my list of favorite FOREIGN FILMS

Amelie 

Triplets of Bellville

Y Tu Mama Tambien

A Very Long Engagement

The Motorcycle Diaries

Pan's Labyrinth

All About My Mother

Bad Education

City Of God

La Vie En Rose

Ma Vie En Rose (very different from La Vie!)

8 Women 

The Science of Sleep (part French, part Spanish, part English)

What are yours?