(A) When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He’ll Win The Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters The Ring There’s No Body To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is The Greatest Of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where To Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right (Fiona Apple, 1999)-

Soulful, auspicious.

(A) Imaginary Day (Pat Methany Group, 1997)-

Mmmmm.

(A) Thirteenth Step (A Perfect Circle, 2003)-

(M) The Letter (Wyler, 1940) B+

(A) The Creek Drank the Cradle (Iron and Wine, 2002)

Eh; they sound like an even softer incarnation of Coldplay. But it's got some lovely tunes.

(M) /*In the Bedroom/ (Fields, 2001) A

(A) Hearts of Oak (Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, 2002)-

Inventive and classic. Got to hear more of this guy.

(A) Blueberry Boat (The Fiery Furnaces, 2004)

Dazzling, complex, elegant--- well, just ask Teddy. I'll need a few more listens, but I'm pretty sure it's the textbook definition of a masterpiece.

(Th) Ragtime (at the Paper Mill Playhouse; Book by Terrence Mcnally, Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Based on the Book by E.L. Doctorow, Directed by Stafford Arima) A-

(A) Geogaddi (Boards of Canada, 2002)-

I was too distracted by the Salad Fingers backgrounds that occur here. They have a distinctive sound, but their just-before-bed energy only works, to these ears, just before bed.

(M) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Burton, 2005) B

(A) Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (Flaming Lips, 2003)-

(A) Fold Your Hands, Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (Belle & Sebastian, 2000)-

It's all about the melody.

(M) Hope and Glory (Boorman, 1987) B+

(A) Funeral (Arcade Fire, 2004)-

Mmmmm. If "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" is not one of the greatest songs to come out last year, then I do not speak in hyperbole.

(A) Wake Up! (The Boo Radleys, 1995)-

(Th) As You Like It (at the Delacorte Theater; Written by William Shakespeare, Directed by Mark Lamos) The second worst thing about the Public Theater's annual Shakespeare in the Park venture is that in New York, it tends to rain a lot in July and August, and the free tickets are non-exchangable, leaving the audience to its various plans B. Unfortunately, the worst thing these days is that plan B is quite often a better choice than the rained-out show. Indeed, there is so much wasted talent on display in the As You Like It that opened last night--- from the veteran Brian Bedford's perfectly cadenced but meanderingly melancholy Jacques to Richard Thomas' dreadfully misconceived Touchtone--- that one could easily overlook its central flaw: a near-dearth of artistic innovation or craftsmanship on the part of its director, Mark Lamos. The only real draw is the work of William Finn, whose sparkly and imaginative score (though marred by the cast's frequent flat notes) serves both to entertain and highlight the inadequacies of the rest of the production. Our hearts go out to the actors trapped in this enterprise, but it's the spirit of Joseph Papp, the man whose dream of public theater was realized exactly fifty years ago with his inaugural Shakespeare in the Park, who deserves our true empathy.

(A) Whatever (Aimee Mann, 1993)-

Let's go ahead and admit that Mann's voice is not the easiest on the ears--- and unfortunately, for this early album, neither are the arrangments. But her talents as a songwriter are most certainly a force to be reckoned with.

(M) The Gay Divorcee (Sandrich, 1934) B+

(A) Educated Guess (Ani Difranco, 2003)-

Has all the flair and rambunctiousness of vintage Ani, but not quite the polish and soul of Dilate. Also, I'm sorry, but I really can't take the lavish, silver-tongued spoken poetry she scatters between the tracks.

(A) Hot Fuss (The Killers, 2004)-

Categories

Hello, everybody!

For our six-month anniversary (which was June 26, a few weeks ago, but what the hell?) I'm going to list all the movies I've seen since the inception of Hard Rain Falling, categorized by grade:

A

About Schmidt (Payne, 2002)
Bringing Up Baby (1938, Hawks)
Citizen Ruth (1996, Payne)
Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet, 1975)
Gosford Park (2001, Altman)
16mm Mystery (2004, Strouse)
Mr. Death (Morris, 1999)
Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
Rosemary's Baby (Polanski, 1968)
Sideways (2004, Payne)
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950)
The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
The Fog of War (Morris, 2003)
The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
The Simpson Verdict (2002, Ezawa)
Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)

A-

Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005)
Before Sunrise (1995, Linklater)
Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)
Dial 'M' for Murder. (1954, Hitchcock)
Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (Kelly, 2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Gondry)
Ghost World (Zwigoff, 2000)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen, 1987)
Hollywoodschnee" (2004, Jankowski)
Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)
Network (1976, Lumet)
Now Promise Now Threat" (2004, Chan)
Oldboy (Park, 2003)
Sin City (Miller, 2005)
Some Like it Hot (Wilder, 1958)
Stan Brakhage and Company" (at the Museum of Modern Art)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984, Jarmusch)
The Aviator (Scorsese, 2004)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001, Coen)
The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940)
The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940)
The Shoe and the Umbrella" (2004, Smith)
Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam, 1995)
Videodrome (Cronenberg, 1983)
Waiting for Guffman (Guest, 1996)
White Heat (Walsh, 1949)


B+

Adam's Rib (Cukor, 1949)
Best in Show (Guest, 2000)
Body Code (2003, Berry)
Crash (Haggis, 2004)
Inside Deep Throat (Bailey, 2005)
Intolerable Cruelty (Coen, 2003)
Kinsey (2004, Condon)
Mar adentro (Amenábar, 2004)
The Woodsman (Kassell, 2004)
War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005)
Zelig (Allen, 1983)


B

Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
Control Room (2004, Noujaim)
Dick (Fleming, 1999)
Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2004)
Hitler's Hit Parade (2004, Film Forum)
La Mala educación. (2004, Almodóvar)
Nightmare on Elm Street(Craven, 1984)
Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960)
Scream 2 (Craven, 1997)
Shattered Glass. (2003, Ray)
Shi Mian Mai Fu (2004, Zhang)
The Awful Truth (McCarey, 1937)
The Manchurian Candidate (Demme, 2004)
The Terminator (1984, Cameron)

B-

Body Double 4 (1996, Dellsperger)
Happy Rebirth (2004, Melhus)
Million Dollar Baby (Eastwood, 2004)
The Upside of Anger (Binder, 2005)

C+

Coffee and Cigarettes. (2003, Jarmusch)
Meet the Fockers (2004, Roach)
Melinda and Melinda (Allen, 2005)
Weekend (Godard, 1967)

C

The Ring Two (Nakata, 2005)

Looking back, it's clear I made a few stupid decisions. But hey, even Anthony Lane called his book Nobody's Perfect.

(M) *Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki, 2004) A

Book

To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf) - pro

(M) White Heat (Walsh, 1949) A-

As pointed out by David in a recent post, I have been severely neglecting my duties here. Let me then, in one fell swoop, now log the films I've seen in the past few weeks, in alphabetical order:

Adam's Rib (Cukor, 1949) B+
*Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005) A-
Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960) B
The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940) A-
*War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005) B+

Jesus, Cory, where are you?

Book

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) - pro