(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.