MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been listening to, reading, watching?

What not to watch
Ouch - one of the lowest-rated movies I've ever seen on metacritics is out on video tomorrow. "Alone in the Dark" starring Christian Slater received a 9. The only one lower that I've run across is "National Lampoon's Gold Diggers" which rated a 6.

Out of 100.

What to watch
The Life Aquatic is worth a rental and is released this week, as is Al Pacino's Merchant of Venice.

Have you rented Sideways yet?

The Boss
A couple weeks ago, Doug speculated about the inevitable rebukes of backlash that were sure to befall Springsteen with his new CD, Devils and Dust.

When it doesn't sell as well as Born in the USA did twenty years ago, watch him get raked over the coals for campaigning for John Kerry and "killing his career." No one will pay attention to the fact that he hasn't sold at Born in the USA numbers since that album came out.

I think he's right, but in the meantime, the album debuted at #1 on the billboard 100. It's just one week, but will be interesting to see how it holds up. I haven't heard it yet, but it's on its way to my house in an Amazon shipment, along with the new Ben Folds (#13) and the new Beck (#20). I'll let you know next what I think of them. They're on my list of things-I-get-to-do-once-grades-are-in on Wednesday.

The Spielberg Stamp of Approval
Link

Spielberg says, "I saw [Star Wars: Episode 3] about a week ago, and it's absolutely amazing.

"It's the best of the last three episodes. It's the best way you could possibly imagine for George to finish it off, it has a tremendous ending and it's very dark. You'll cry at the end, it's wonderful."

Art
out of sand.....out of watermelons.

Weekend Box Office
1. Kingdom of Heaven
2. House of Wax
3. Hitchhiker's Guide
4. Crash
5. The Interpreter

Can't remember the last time I've seen 2 of the top 5. Plus, I'm really looking forward to Crash (has anyone seen it yet?) even though I don't know too much about it. But, I'm curious: there was a movie version of the JG Ballard novel, Crash, released in 1996. It was not great--and nothing like as interesting as the book though plenty disturbing. My question is can they just re-use film titles like that?

Film Recommendation: The Interpreter
*********** (11 out of 19)
Ok but not great. I may have been expecting too much.

Seen in the ticket line: a notice that Star Wars tickets can be purchased now.