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

Lots to go over today - I saw No Country for Old Men (wow), caught up in Dexter watching (eh), film awards are starting to come out, and as Lewberry reminded me a couple nights ago, DVD box sets are coming out now for the holiday season. So come back often today for the updates and have at it in comments. Lewberry, which DVDs most interest you? And to the rest of you, are DVD sets something you buy and/or watch?

Radio, Radio
Doug's got a great post over at his place about new music and the radio, and a lively discussion too - though it will fill your head with all kinds of unpleasantries. Actually, lots of the great music he talks about I heard for the first time not on SNL and not on college radio but just overheard, while hanging out at his house playing Stratego (or The Stock Market Game, or Gary Carter or whatever) with Stevie T and Kenny B. So, here's to the positive influence of older brothers - even when they're not your own.

No Country...
The Coen Brothers' newest leaves a stinging impression. Much more Blood Simple than Big Lebowski, and more Fargo than Raising Arizona, it's frightening and only the darkest of dark humor. I don't know if it's a great film, but it has the most harrowing villain I can remember. Still, in Coen fashion, the antagonist seems to be more about the universal place of injustice and misfortune in the world, beyond the particulars of this specific texas town and community of folks trying to escape its wrath. I recommend it heartily, but if Arizona and Lebowski are you primary associations with the Coen Brothers, prepare for a shock...

Film Awards
The LA Film Critics have given out the earliest 2007 film awards, and the big winner was PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood, starring the amazing Daniel Day-Lewis, based on Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil." I saw the very intense preview before No Country for Old Men, which won the NY Film Critics Awards. You can see the "Blood" preview below:


Weekend Box Office

1. The Golden Compass
2. Enchanted
3. This Christmas
4. Fred Claus
5. Beowulf