. . . spotted at Crossgates at the Fresh Healthy Cafe.
March 17, 2012
March 08, 2012
Backstage with the Jersey Boys
BEING FRANKIE VALLI is a full-time job. Ask actor Brad Weinstock. “It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever done theatrically,” he says. “It’s definitely the most challenging.” Weinstock is one of the core quartet in “Jersey Boys,” now playing at Proctors in Schenectady. Once every performance day he progresses from warbling “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” to powerhouse renditions of “Sherry” and “Walk Like a Man” and the many other Four Seasons hits, in a dead-on version of Valli’s signature style.
In order to maintain it, he explains, “I’ve become a very regimented person. I drink a gallon of water a day, I sleep with a humidifier, I steam with a personal inhaler, I have lots of electrolytes. And I sleep probably ten hours a night, because if you lose sleep or are dehydrated, the falsetto is the first thing to go.”
Weinstock and his fellow cast-members were fêted yesterday at the annual spring get-together of the Proctors Guild. Actors who spend time on the road will tell you that a touring company becomes a family; here the dynamic was obvious.
There’s also a physical quality about an actor that goes beyond the merely structural. Actors are comfortable as attention-centers, and stand or sit with an unselfconscious ease that nevertheless says, “I know you’re looking at me.” Even when off script, they tend to express themselves well. It’s very easy to believe, within a few minutes of falling into conversation with an actor, that you’ve become this person’s best friend – and you walk away from the encounter unaware that you did little of the talking.
March 02, 2012
Enough with the Boutique Parenting!
Nine out of ten doctors surveyed say that Metroland readers give their children (or, depending on who's reading, their parents) more enthusiastic tastes of life. Band-Aids not included.
December 24, 2011
December 17, 2011
Christmas Past: Pet Photos With Santa, 1990
B.A. Nilsson, who regularly reviews restaurants, plays, concerts and writes about food for Metroland, has a blog! It's called Words and Music, so do yourself a favor and bookmark it.
In the spirit of the season, when looking back is often more fun than looking ahead, B.A. has excavated a delightful piece about taking his dogs to the mall for a photo with Santa.
My parents forced me into a photo session with Santa when I was four and I have resented them for it ever since. The traditional revenge, of course, is to inflict the punishment on your own children, but I haven't got any. So when the Clifton Country Mall announced its second annual “Pet Day with Santa,” it seemed like a good opportunity to give the brutes a road trip and sooth my damaged sensibilities.
It's more dignified than making the dog wear the Santa hat, isn't it?
December 13, 2011
Holiday Gift Guide: Under the Radar Music by David Greenberger
While music is a constant in people’s lives, the album era is all but gone and shuffle play has become the intermingled soundtrack to all manner of other activities. Great albums are still being made (or, in some cases, reissued), but they are quite easily missed. Here then are some gift suggestions for your musically inclined friends and family who may have been distracted when these all quietly landed in whatever is left of the marketplace.
At the top of the list is Ry Cooder’s Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch). Even erstwhile Cooder fans didn’t seem to know about this one. He revitalized and expanded his recording career over the past half-dozen years with a trilogy of albums that found him, for the first time, flexing his muscles as a songwriter. Having been a great interpreter of songs composed over the past century, he learned his lessons well. With this year’s release he’s brought forth a formidable set of protest songs. They’re rich with character; he’s pulling no punches as an armless soldier ponders an empty Christmas, or a high roller wonders how he’ll get by without his maid. Potent stuff, and some richly supple playing with his usual gang of musical cohorts.
With his Yo Miles! Ensemble, Wadada Leo Smith released two double albums (Sky Garden is 2004, Upriver in 2005) devoted to Miles Davis’ ’70s funk-based music. Heart’s Reflections (Cuneiform) is the second with his band Organic. The extended pieces are comprised of far brighter colors than what Davis was creating 40 years ago. It’s a rich tapestry of electric guitars (including the legendary Michael Gregory), keyboards and bass, drums (Pheeroan akLaff), saxophones and a violin on a few, and Smith’s stunning trumpet throughout.
Ray Bonneville’s Bad Man’s Blood (Red House) is a new peak in his 30-year career. Born in Canada and living in Texas, he writes rich vignettes suffused with the stuff of life: love, regret, hope, and loss. One cannot listen to this album’s “River John” and be unmoved. The performances are built around his acoustic guitar, his tapping foot and some judiciously deployed accompaniment by sympathetic players. As with Greg Brown and Chris Smither, Bonneville doesn’t fit easily into categories, being neither folk nor blues, but falling into both those camps, while always delivering with a soulful honesty.
On the reissue front are an important pair by country soul songwriters. Harlan County by Jim Ford (Light in the Attic) was released in 1969. Sly Stone called Ford “the baddest white man on the planet,” and there is quite a tale to read, but suffice to say songs and performances of this caliber were never going to go away. A contemporary reference point of sorts would be the stripped-down approach that Nick Lowe has adopted over the past 20 years of his career. Bobby Charles achieved greater success as a songwriter during his life than did Ford, but he also released a singular classic. Now expanded to a three-disc set, Bobby Charles (Rhino Handmade) contains the perfect original album along with a couple dozen additional numbers, demos and other fully recorded songs. People often already know his songs without knowing his name (“Tennessee Blues,” “Small Town Talk, “Walking to New Orleans,” “See You Later, Alligator”), or may remember his appearance with the Band in their Last Waltz.
Holiday Gift Guide: Children's Books by Kathryn Geurin
Books are magical in general, sure, but there is a special sort of magic packed in the pages of children’s books, where art and poetry and prose swirl together in the unfettered imagination of youth, where the line between fantasy and reality is a wide watercolor swath to splash about in. There is no better gift.
And year after year wonderful new offerings from contemporary authors and illustrators hold their own against beloved classics, tempting us to dive in from the bookstore shelves. Here are a few of this year’s best bets.
For a stunning bit of seasonal mischief, check out Red Sled from author-illustrator Lita Judge (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $16.99). In the exuberant, almost wordless tale, woodland animals take a child’s sled, left outside, for a whirlwind nighttime ride. The expressive animals in Judge’s bold pencil and watercolor illustrations punctuate the still panoramas with a series of “Whoops” and “Alley-oops” that are a delight to read aloud.
Walter Wick’s award-winning Can You See What I See Series has a new addition with Can You See What I See: Toyland Express (Cartwheel Books, $13.99). Wicks’ spectacular photographs—some of which were recently on display at Canajoharie’s Arkell Museum—are accompanied by rhyming seek-and-find picture puzzles, follows an unpainted wooden train and other toys from the toymakers workshop into the grand world of the toyshop, to birthday party, to playroom, attic and beyond. As always, Wick’s puzzles engage eagle-eye readers, but the exquisitely detailed images and beautiful story are treat enough in themselves.
One of our absolute favorites for young readers and pre-readers this year for its perfect simplicity is Press Here ($14.99, Chronicle Books), from French designer Hervé Tullet, (whose minimalist Game of . . . book series is equally pure and innovative). Press Here takes the seemingly instinctual childhood urge to press buttons, and makes absolute magic with it—no batteries required. Start by pressing the yellow dot on the cover, then turn the page and follow the instructions: Tilt the book, shake the pages, tap five times. The result is an entirely print-and-paper sort of interactivity that challenges the imagination in surprisingly magical ways.
Millions of people are already in love with Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, the star of the similarly titled animated short from Saturday Night Live alum Jenny Slate and author-animator Dean Fleischer. The big world of the endearing little shell with shoes and one googly eye became a viral Internet sensation, but Marcel is no passing meme. Marcel has now become the star of a quirky picture book, which was storyboarded by the authors, shot by a c cinematographer David Erickson and, finally, rendered in brilliant photorealistic oils by Amy Lind. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me (Razorbill, $18.99) is arguably even more charming and inspired than the source, and kids and adults love the awkward, imaginative shell, whose answer to his own question, “Guess why I smile all the time,” is simply, “Because it’s worth it.”
For the older set, Wonderstruck (Scholastic, $29.99) is the latest offering from Caldacott Award-winning, genre-twisting author-illustrator Brian Selznick. Like in his earlier The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the cinematic adaptation of which is currently wowing moviegoers, Selznick has revolutionized storytelling with a magical intermingling of text and pictures, which serve, not to only illustrate the story, but to be part of the storytelling itself. Wonderstruck presents the tales of two characters set 50 years apart. Ben’s story is told in words, Rose’s in pictures, and the two intertwine effortlessly and affectingly through 600 pages in what promises to be another classic from the truly visionary Selznick.
In another curious blend of illustration and story, The Myserious Benedict Society is at it again, with The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums (Little Brown, $12.99), the puzzling companion to the best-selling series from Trenton Lee Stewart and Diana Sudyka. But this one is chockablock mindbending puzzles, brainteasers and riddles that will put you to the test along with your favorite Society members.
And as a true classic, Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, illustrated by Jules Feiffer, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, acclaimed author Leonard Marcus has released the beautiful The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth (Knoph, $29.99), which weaves interviews with the author and illustrator, excerpts from Juster’s notes, literary commentary and historical tidbits unobtrusively but illuminatingly throughout the beloved story. Milo’s adventures into the Lands Beyond represent youth fiction at its best, an instant and enduring classic. The anniversary edition honors the original and offers new morsels for fans of all ages to appreciate.
Holiday Gift Guide: Classical Music by B.A. Nilsson
If you followed my suggestion last year and purchased the 103-CD Jascha Heifetz box set, your investment is now appreciating. The set is out of print and its price is climbing. All the more reason to consider the forthcoming Arthur Rubinstein: The Complete Album Collection. With 144 CDs, packaged in miniatures of their original LP releases, two DVDs and a hardcover book, it’s selling on Amazon right now for $259, a price that surely will climb by the Jan. 31 release date. Its predecessor, a Complete Rubinstein in jewel boxes, was released for $1,600, and the expense of producing the set pretty much killed the RCA Red Seal division. Evidently the original jackets approach is more economical.
It’s been a good year for great pianist. Martha Argerich turned 70 and was celebrated by EMI with three multi-disc sets: Solos & Duos (6 CDs), Concertos (4 CDs) and Chamber Music (8 CDs), much of it drawn from her Lugano Festival collections—to which was added another excellent installment, Live From Lugano 2010, which includes Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 and a charming quintet by Granados among its three discs.
Gould, Glenn: In Concert 1951-1960 (West Hill) is an elusive six-CD set that features a fascinating array of broadcast recordings, including yet another Goldberg Variations and such other Bach works as the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and the Keyboard Concertos 1 and 5; also works by Beethoven, Schoenberg and others.
You can see Gabriela Montero in concert at the Troy Music Hall in early May in a recital featuring her amazing improvisations. There’s a healthy taste of them, along with a number of neglected Latin works, on Solatino (EMI).
A couple of young violinists made a splash this year. Ray Chen performed at Union College in the same program as his self-titled debut recording (Sony Classical), featuring sonatas by Franck and Tartini (“Devil’s Trill”). And even without the brooding, GQ-esque cover photos of the handsome fiddler, Charlie Siem should be selling CDs on the basis of talent. His self-titled collection of short pieces (Warner Classics) includes works by virtuoso violinist-composers Wieniawski, Kreisler, Paganini and Sarasate, and features Bazzini’s finger-busting “Round of the Goblins.” His recording of concertos by Bruch (No. 1), Wieniawski (No. 1) and Ole Bull on Warner Classics affirms his place in the realms of interpretive skill.
The incredibly prolific and fascinating Jordi Savall continued to release recordings old and new. Among the latter: The Sublime Port: Voices of Istanbul, a follow-up to last year’s Istanbul, this time exploring the multinational realm of song over the centuries with an appropriately multinational ensemble. Rereleases included Mozart’s Requiem and five discs of the five books of Marin Marais’s Pieces de Viol, reminding us of Savall’s million-selling success with the soundtrack recording of the film Tous les matins du monde (all on AliaVox).
Two of the 20th century’s bad boys of classical music were Conlon Nancarrow and George Antheil. Ensemble Modern tackled Nancarrow with As Fast as Possible (Wergo), collecting a number of transcriptions of his tough, fascinating pieces for player piano, among other works.
Antheil’s horribly neglected one-act opera The Brothers, his version of the story of Cain and Abel, got a good recording in Germany (cpo), while his four fascinating, widely varied violin sonatas (including one for solo violin) were nicely recorded by violinist Mark Fewer and pianist John Novacek (Azica).
What’s the Mahler news this year? Valery Gergiev’s symphonies cycle with the London Symphony finished with the release of Nos. 5 and 9 (LSO Live), as hot-blooded and dynamically rugged as the rest of the set. Meanwhile, Simon Rattle returned to the Symphony No. 2, this time with the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI) and soprano Kate Royal and mezzo Magdalena Kozena. It features a far more expansive reading of the first movement than he’s given before, but Rattle makes it make sense.
Kate Royal put together A Lesson in Love (EMI), a gorgeous, melancholy look at the arc of a love affair threading together songs by Schubert, Wolf, Copland, Brahms, Duparc, Bolcom and others.
In other vocal recommendations, Nikolaus Harnoncourt tackled Brahms’s German Requiem with soprano Genia Kühmeier, baritone Thomas Hampson, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir (Sony Classical) in version that’s deliberate of tempo but filled with excitement in a showcase of what a good recording should sound like.
Another favorite Requiem is that of Gabriel Fauré, newly recorded by Paavo Järvi in his new position of Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris (EMI). With baritone Matthias Goerne and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, it’s a lovely performance of the full orchestral version, and the disc is filled out with such Fauré rarities as Super Flumina Babylonis and Cantique de Jean Racine.
Fauré’s chamber music also gets its due in a new five-disc Virgin Classics set featuring the Capuçon brothers, Renaud (violin) and Gautier (cello), the Quatour Ebène and others. Here are the two violin sonatas, the two cello sonatas, a piano trio, a string quartet, the two piano quartets and the slightly forbidding piano quintets.
Finally, local favorites the Emerson Quartet are newly arrived on Sony Classical. Their debut there is a revisit of Mozart’s three Prussian Quartets, his last works in this form. Typically with the Emersons, they avoid the sentimentality that can creep into pieces like this, and instead give us music that’s crisp and scintillating and ageless.
Holiday Gift Guide: Kids Stuff by Kathryn Geurin
We tend to have a knee jerk opposition to electronic toys in our house, favoring puppets and kazoos over Let’s Rock Elmo. But we are perfectly willing to acquiesce that good electronic toys can engage kiddos in open-ended play, and prepare them for a techcentric world—without making parents rip their eyes out and stick beans in their ears.
While tablet computers have a ways to evolve yet, their multitouch interface is an amazingly accessible introduction to the nearly limitless world of computers for the younger set, and kid-friendly apps abound. While we hesitate to recommend a “toy” with a price point that starts at $500, we do recommend crayola’s iPad-compatible Crayola ColorStudio HD ($29.99) if you already have a tablet, or will be tucking one under the tree. ColorStudio HD comes with an iPad stylus that looks like a Crayola marker, but which unlocks the accompanying ColorStudio app’s “paper,” coloring pages, music and animation. Little digital artists can mimic a variety of media—crayons, paints, pencils, markers and more. The app can differentiate between the stylus and tiny fingers to encourage creative manipulation, and kiddos can save and e-mail their creations straight to Grandma. Of course, the virtual version doesn’t replace real finger paints and markers, but it’s a great introduction to digital art, and—parental bonus—it’s mess-free. Although you might want to consider encasing your iPad in an Otterbox ($79.99), which will render it nearly indestructible, before you hand it over to the kids.
And while you may still fumble with the DVD remote, your budding computer programmer will likely take off running with SmartLab Toys’ ReCon 6.0 Programmable Rover ($69.99). At first look, this little guy resembles a bevy of other toy robot buddies. This charming little rover has the potential to dance, navigate courses, deliver a treat to a pet or a personalized message to a family member, even carry a soda or guard a bedroom. But tech-savvy kids need to unlock that potential by actually programming ReCon themselves. The accompanying manual is an engaging intro to computer programming that starts out simple; the more advanced robot tricks motivate kids to keep learning.
Legos meet Light Brite with Laser Pegs, an award-winning glowing construction toy available in a variety of different sets starting at $25. Once a single Laser Peg is connected to the power source, each block added to the ensuing creation feeds the next piece low-voltage current, which illuminates each peg with colorful LED lights. While model kits are available, the pegs themselves encourage the exploration of color and light and the construction of whatever you can imagine.
Of course, when it comes to toys, endurance says a lot about quality and fun, and what’s old-school to you is still new to a kid. Colorforms 60th Anniversary Edition ($49.99) is a rerelease of the original set that launched the beloved brand back in 1951 and earned a place in the Toy Hall of Fame. With 350 bold geometric stick-ons, a reversible two-sided playboard, and a bit of Colorforms history packaged in a spiral-bound book, it’s a nostalgic gift for adults and still a huge hit with kids.
Books and games remain go-to gifts for us, and a handful of top game manufacturers—including Colorforms creator University Games—have teamed up with classic children’s-book brands to create lines of fun, beautifully designed learning games featuring favorite storybook characters. University Games has partnered with Eric Carle and Mo Williams in a series of games based on Don’t Let the Chicken Ride the Bus and the colorful creatures from the Wonderful World of Eric Carle. You Hoo Can You Moo ($10.99) is a favorite in our house. Similarly, Briar Patch has a line of Goodnight Moon and Madeline games, and I Can Do That! Games has teamed up with Richard Scary’s Busytown, Curious George and Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat I Can Do That ($19.99) challenges kids to tackle feats as whimsical and wacky as the cat himself. Bundle a fun new game with a classic book and you’ve got the best of both worlds.
And just about as classic as it gets, eeboo’s Sidewalk Games ($8.50) is a clever packaging of traditional games including Skelly, a coin rolling game, London Calling, a fusion of hangman shuffleboard, and Potsy, a strategic sort of hopscotch. The set includes a rolling coin, sidewalk chalk and a book full of rules, game history and facts about the region of each game’s origin. Not all the games are well-suited to an upstate New York winter, but you can roll coins in the kitchen or paint a canvas Potsy court to ward off cabin fever in the living room with old-school flair.
And, of course, kids will forever delight in the enduring simplicity of wooden blocks, a bag of old scarves, homemade play dough, a tin can drum and a wax-paper comb or a shoebox full of tissue paper, buttons, paint chips and glue. Or give parents and kids alike the gift of a winter outing with theater tickets, museum memberships, or a velvet sack full of arcade tokens.
Holiday Gift Guide: Indie/Pop Music by Josh Potter
Simmer down, Fox News. If anyone’s waging a war on Christmas, it’s Spotify. Ever since the Swedish music-streaming service set up shop on American soil earlier this year and started offering its degenerate, pagan, gay agenda of bottomless free music with limited commercial interruption, it’s made it even harder to justify giving Target that $15 for the new Ke$ha record. Just as the pop/indie genre designation becomes less meaningful, the act of purchasing digital records becomes more and more abstract. And yet, Santa’s elves continue to cobble ones and zeros together in some icy workshop north of Björk’s recording studio for the listening pleasure of the good little boys and girls.
Speaking of Björk, the Icelandic nymph recently released Biophilia, a hugely ambitious science-oriented record complete with an iPad app for every track. The interactive nature of this package is one new way in which recorded music is beginning to transcend its easy disposability and return to the level of durability that could make for a great gift—that is, if you’re a Björk fan. The project has been panned by critics, but then this isn’t a list of year-end critical picks. Look out for those in a couple weeks.
Looking at my list here, the most economical, if discriminatory, way of breaking down my suggestions in the pop/indie umbrella category is by gender. Let’s start with the ladies.
Annie Clark just might be all things to all people. Performing as St. Vincent, Clark has managed to craft songs that highlight both her sweet, seductive vocals and absolutely menacing electric guitar playing. Strange Mercy is destined to top year-end lists and is a safe bet for both conventional and experimental musical tastes. It’s something to dance, rock and swoon to. On the vocal end of things, Clark owes a debt to Leslie Feist, who also has a new record. The former Broken Social Scene singer is virtually the archetype of the contemporary indie songstress, as powerful in her vocal approach as she is innocent at times. Adding to the physical appeal of the CD, fans were asked to vote on the cover art for Metals. Julianna Barwick’s debut album The Magic Place was originally filed under the new-age and ambient genres when it first came out, but don’t let that prevent you from checking it out. The singer is a one-woman choir, using loops and effects to stack her crystalline vocals into gorgeous, pastoral blankets of sound.
On the male end of the vocal spectrum, James Blake (the British musician, not the American tennis player) has crafted one of the most distinctive records of the year with James Blake. The former dubstep artist rebranded himself as a singer-songwriter, drawing on a toolbox of electronic effects—namely, vocal delay and window-rattling bass—to complement his icy, atmospheric songwriting. On his debut as Bon Iver, Justin Vernon also went the cold, lonely route, but with Bon Iver things took a turn for warmer climates. With detours into ’80s production values, the record goes for a big, swallow-you-whole sound, padding Vernon’s gorgeous falsetto with plenty of horns and guitar. Robin Pecknold completes the triad of distinctive male voices. Fleet Foxes’ debut absolutely bulldozed the industry a few years back, and this year’s Helplessness Blues was one of the year’s most anticipated. It was worth the wait. Here’s a record you can get for the 20-something indie rocker and 60-something classic rocker in your life. Just make sure it’s on vinyl.
But, wait: Tom Waits has a new record too. Most Waits fans would be content to listen to him sing the Betty Crocker cookbook (which I’m sometimes convinced he’s doing on certain tunes) and Bad as Me doesn’t disappoint. There’s as much jukebox growl on this record as on anything he’s ever put out.
So, I’m tempted to weigh in on the hip-hop side of the equation, but be careful here. You don’t want to go giving an Odd Future fan that Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration. They’ll be, like, “swag?” Watch the Throne was rivaled only by Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV and Drake’s Take Care this year in the realm of larger-than-life mainstream rap. It’s no wonder, then, that so much independent stuff spilled out from under the radar. There were about six dozen Odd Future releases, but the single strongest freestyle-oriented record came from A$ap Rocky in LIVELOVEA$AP. However, if you like your beats with a strong dose of weird, Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up is a ranking record-of-the-year regardless of genre.
Holiday Gift Guide: Cookbooks by B.A. Nilsson
Sure, I like to curl up with a good cookbook. That’s why I enjoy ones that balance the recipes with narrative. The narrative in Shaw Rabadi’s Savor the Spices of Life (Food for Thought) starts out like a spy thriller and ends up exhorting you in the nicest possible way to take another look at the way you cook for the betterment of your health. Rabadi, chef-owner of BFS Restaurant in Guilderland, offers a refinement of the Mediterranean rich in flavor, low in all the bad stuff. Find the book at his restaurant and in local bookstores. It’s ring-bound for kitchen-counter convenience, which means that Barnes & Noble, according to corporate policy, won’t carry it. But they’ll make an exception on a local basis, right? Wrong. The magic of big-box stores.
Although American Flavor by Andrew Carmellini (ecco) purports to focus on domestic dining, it reminds us that we’re really poly-gluttons. Carmellini’s acclaimed NYC eatery the Dutch made its name serving this compelling mix of foodstuffs, the development of which is detailed in a fascinating intro. Then on to Mac-‘n-Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf, Lamb Chili with Chickpeas and Raita, Wax Beans with Popcorn and Parmesan and more why-didn’t-I-think-of-this fare.
How about a potato-chip omelet? That’s one of the novel items fed to the staff at El Bulli, acclaimed as the world’s finest restaurant. It closed earlier this year (it never turned a profit), but chef Ferran Adrià’s The Family Meal (Phaidon) gives a month’s worth of daily three-course dinners, lavishly step-by-step illustrated. Beautiful and inspiring!
Two similarly gorgeous restaurant-centered books are Eleven Madison Park by Daniel Humm and Will Guidara (Little, Brown) and Bluestem: The Cookbook by Colby Garrelts and Megan Garrelts (Andrew McMeel). Eleven Madison Park is an oversized volume that screams to live on the coffee table, with the most breathtaking food photos since Charlie Trotter’s gustatory porn of a few years back. Bluestem’s recipes feel a little more home-cook accessible, with a nice seasonal contextualization of it all.
Traveling around the Mediterranean, we find Food From Many Greek Kitchens by Tessa Kiros (Andrews McMeel) which, although short on narrative, offers such a variety of dishes (nicely photographed) that it’s the kind of tome that makes you antsy to cook. I’ve already had a great success with the baklava recipe.
He’s photographed to a fare-thee-well within, and titles one of the chapters “Dude. Preserved Lemons.” Nevertheless, Mourad Lahlou knows how to put an arm over your shoulder and lead you into the kitchen, which is the feeling you get from Mourad: New Moroccan (Artisan). A more classical look at the cuisine comes through A Month in Marrakesh by Andy Harris (Hardie Grant)—ready for Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Orange and Honey Syrup?
Phaidon Press has had great success with The Silver Spoon (and its offshoots) and Recipes from an Italian Summer. This year’s treat is Tuscany, a city-by-city tour of recipes, background and photographs. You know it’s good when it can demystify the classic peasant soup ribollita.
Let’s get down to basics. The supermarket meat counter is scary these days; better to buy your meat from a farmer you know. In which case, The Art of Beef Cutting by Kari Underly (Wiley) shows you, step-by-step, how to break down that steer—and why particular cuts respond to cooking the way they do. Great just for an understanding of the biology of carnivorousness.
Two of the mothership books are back. The Professional Chef, Ninth Edition (Wiley) is what’s used at the Culinary Institute of America. I haven’t seen it since edition six, and it’s been intelligently rethought and redesigned to make the techniques and recipes (now presented together) more accessible. Escoffier: Le Guide Culinaire (Wiley) was one of two books I was handed when I started my kitchen training (the other was Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking), but it was an earlier Escoffier version. This new one is what the master chef meant us to have—although you still need to know what you’re doing to get started with his recipes.
Staying in France, Ginette Mathiot’s I Know How to Cook is that country’s Joy of Cooking, so her take on pâtisserie is long-awaited. The Art of French Baking (Phaidon) presents her 20-year-old classic newly translated, a bible of techniques and recipes that well may inspire you make your own puff pastry.
What promises to be a more comforting guide (geared, that is, more for beginners) is Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie and Baking Foundations (Cengage). Coming from the international cooking school, if the about-to-be-published volume is like its predecessors, it takes a teacherly approach (with hands-on illustrations) to ease you through this most scientific aspect of the culinary arts.
But if you really want to show your gift-giving love, pony up for a boxed set of Le Cordon Bleu Cuisine Foundations Gift Package (Cengage). This lavish set includes Cuisine Foundations, detailing all the techniques you’ll need to get through Escoffier, and Cuisine Foundations Recipes, so you don’t need Escoffier after all. It’s handsomely packaged with an official Cordon Bleu side towel, which will drive your kitchen-loving recipient stark, raving fou.
Holiday Gift Guide: Music Books by David Greenberger
From a few ounces to half a dozen pounds, the season is rich with books for any of your music-loving friends and family. First, let’s look at the new offerings on the perennials front. George Harrison: Living in the Material World by Olivia Harrison (Abrams, $40) is a companion to the recent HBO documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s a large and luxurious collection of rare photographs and ephemera. The early years of his well-known band are celebrated in The Beatles in Hamburg by Spencer Leigh (Chicago Review Press, $19.95).
Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown by David Yaffe (Yale University Press, $24) examines four aspects of Dylan’s career: the underrated influence of his singing style, his relationship to racial matters, his image in films, and his songwriting methods. David Bowie: Starman by Paul Trynka (Little Brown, $25.99) looks at the ongoing influence of the man who hasn’t released a new album in more than eight years. The still-touring Judy Collins has brought forth her autobiography, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes (Crown, $26). Tom Waits on Tom Waits (Chicago Review Press, $19.95) is a bracing collection of interviews with Waits from the past four decades, edited by Paul Maher, Jr.
The life of the R&B-loving son of a Turkish diplomat who built Atlantic records is detailed in The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun (Robert Greenfield, (Simon & Schuster, $30). Who else would have jacket blurbs from Henry Kissinger and Kid Rock? Post-baby-boom musicians are popping up more and more on the shelves. New tomes include This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan (DaCapo, $26) and See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody by Bob Mould with Michael Azerrad (Little Brown, $24.99).
There’s a pair of fine wonders for the eyes. Rock Seen (Abrams, $45) is a glorious spread of photos by Bob Gruen, from the iconic Clash shot on the cover to a multitude of John Lennon portraits that have become fixed in our collective consciousness. From the Ramones at CBGBs to Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden, it’s five pounds of photos! Instrument by Pat Graham (Chronicle, $29.95) offers his photos of favorite instruments belonging to members of Wilco, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Wire, New Order, and many others.
Two new books are each devoted to a pair of Californians who are unlikely to ever record together: Eddie Van Halen and Beck. The former is by photographer Neil Zlozower (Chronicle, $29.95) and finds the guitarist backstage, onstage and in the studio. The latter is a playfully artful endeavor by photographer Autumn DeWilde (Chronicle, $35) with a dust jacket printed on both sides that opens up into a large circle, and a foreword by the sympathetically inclined filmmaker Michel Gondry.
Electric Eden by Rob Young (Faber & Faber, $25) is subtitled “Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music.” You’ll learn about everyone from the expected (Incredible String Band, Fairport, Pentangle, Nick Drake) to the lost and obscure (Mr. Fox, Bill Fay, Dr. Strangely Strange). While some might argue that there’s too much Jethro Tull and not enough Soft Machine within, Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock Since the 1960s by Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell (Continuum, $24.95) follows the threads from King Crimson and Yes right up through Radiohead. Another often unfairly maligned genre, fusion, is explored in Birds of Fire by Kevin Fellezs (Duke University Press, $23.95). And banjo players and enthusiasts will be glad to receive Crowe on the Banjo (University of Illinois Press, $19.95), Marty Godbey’s biography of the influential J.D. Crowe.
A pair of books look at different eras and aspects of New York City’s music and cultural scene. Love Goes to a Building on Fire by Will Hermes (Faber & Faber, $30) is subtitled “Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever” and covers the era when punk, loft jazz, salsa and disco were all bubbling in the mid-’70s. Ed Sanders’ Fug You (DaCapo, $26.99) explores the Lower East Side counterculture scene of the mid-1960s, which spawned the author’s store (Peace Eye Bookstore) and band (The Fugs).
Rock and Roll Always Forgets by Chuck Eddy (Duke University Press, $24.95) is a collection of 25 years of music criticism, covering everyone from Emmett Miller to Marilyn Manson, the Ramones to Debbie Gibson. At more than 800 pages, Dorian Lynskey’s 33 Revolutions Per Minute (Faber & Faber, $19.99) offers as complete a history of protest songs as you’re likely to find, from Woody Guthrie to Fela Kuti to Public Enemy. Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll (Duke University Press, $24.95) is a wonderful collection of interviews with an assortment of musical eccentrics, originally published in editor Jake Austen’s long-running Roctober magazine. The 33 1/3 series is pushing towards 100 small volumes (Continuum, $12.95 each). Three new ones delve into an album each by an artist from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s: Johnny Cash (American Recordings by Tony Tost), The Rolling Stones (Some Girls by Cyrus R.K. Patell), and Television (Marquee Moon by Bryan Waterman).
Holiday Gift Guide: Christmas Music by Shawn Stone
Ho ho ho! What new holiday music does Santa have in his bag?
At the top of the list there’s the duo She & Him with the appropriately titled A Very She & Him Christmas (Merge). Zooey Deschanel’s blank-sounding, 3 AM-and-the-bar’s-closing vocals prove perfectly suited to traditional seasonal tunes. “The Christmas Waltz” will make you wistful; “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” will make you sad; and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” will make you laugh, because Deschanel and M. Ward switch gender roles on what has become known among the younger set as “the date-rape song.”
The weirdest holiday release, by far, is Scott Weiland’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Atlantic). Weiland’s singing has always had an appealingly mannered side, but it’s hard to know how to take the STP and Velvet Revolver dude as a flat-out crooner. Some of the songs work well, including a reggae arrangement of “O Holy Night,” but on others, Weiland sounds, well, distracted. (And heavily auto-tuned, of course.) But since that’s part of his MO, this is a good bet if you know someone who likes Christmas music and whacked-out frontmen.
In a more traditional mode is sometime fiddler, sometime violinist (see what I did there?) Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas (OMAC Records). O’Connor has a lot of cool friends, and a bunch of them show up to sing and play on this lovely album: Renée Fleming, Jane Monheit, Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor and Alison Krauss. The various genres they represent should give you a good idea of the album’s musical range.
If you know someone who likes old-school Nashville-style singers (and if you don’t, why not?), then Mandy Barnett’s Winter Wonderland (Rounder) has a classic honky-tonk sound that pleases. Really, she’s terrific—and she’s the only person other than Brenda Lee you’ll ever want to hear sing “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Lyle Lovett just released Songs for the Season (Lost Highway), a three-song EP that’s available via download only. There’s one wry original, “The Girl With the Holiday Smile,” and two covers, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmastime Is Here.” Lovett is joined on the covers by the very fine Texas-based jazz singer Kat Edmonson.
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a couple of worthwhile reissues. Tony Bennett’s The Classic Christmas Album (Columbia Legacy) is a “greatest hits” culled from his many holiday records recorded for Columbia over the last six or seven decades. All the usual holiday suspects are included; his version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of the most beautiful.
Finally, the 1960s were a golden age of slightly nutty, overarranged instrumental music and a golden age of Christmas records. A prime example of both is Sony Classical’s reissue of Andre Kostelanetz’ 1963 album Wonderland of Christmas. Swirling strings, eccentric solos and a devotion to melody: It’s all there is this very tasty, rum-soaked musical fruitcake.
Holiday Gift Guide: Video by Shawn Stone
This is the year DVD died.
Major studios are deleting catalog DVD titles by the hundreds—just check the bargain bin at your favorite music-and-moves retailer—and recent films are, more and more, available only as Blu-ray/DVD “combo packs.”
So, let’s have a wake. Dive into those bargain bins; you’ll find all sorts of treasures, from first-class editions of Japanese monster movies to stone-cold classics that barely got released. Seriously, bargain DVDs make great stocking stuffers. A good example of this is the once-elusive Paramount Centennial Collection 2-disc edition of Chinatown, which was pulled from shelves when director Roman Polanski wandered into Switzerland and got himself arrested. It’s turning up here and there for less than $10.
As for recent releases, the format has no mightier tombstone than the DVD megaset for the longest-running drama in television history: Law & Order. For 20 seasons, we followed the show’s detectives and prosecutors as they solved one ripped-from-the-headlines murder after another. (Trivia time: Which series regular appeared on the most episodes? Sam Waterston? Nope. Jerry Orbach? Nope. Jill Hennessy? Not even close.) Universal’s monster-sized Law & Order: The Complete Series retails at $699.99, but you can find it for considerably less.
This is not, however, the year DVD-R died. Burn-on-demand discs have thrived, as studios looked at the success of Warner Archive and ramped up their own release schedules of obscure and/or specialty titles. Notable among these included Richard Lester’s satire How I Won The War (MGM), starring John Lennon; Federico Fellini’s Casanova (Universal), starring Donald Sutherland as a particularly icy great lover; and Housekeeping (Sony), Bill Forsyth’s haunting version of the Marilynne Robinson novel.
The pioneers of MOD (manufactured on demand) DVD-R discs, Warner Archive, recently ventured into new territory (for them) with the seven-film, seven-disc Jean Harlow 100th Anniversary Collection. It’s their first formally packaged box set with extras, which include a set of still photos and, on the discs, newly discovered trailers, a Harlow radio drama appearance and other goodies. All of the films are worth a look, but the best are Bombshell, a hilarious Hollywood satire about a screen sex goddess not unlike Harlow herself; Riffraff, a gritty waterfront drama costarring Spencer Tracy that’s marred only by the lousy political spin MGM favored in back in the day; and Saratoga, Harlow’s last film, a racetrack comedy set you-know-where and costarring Clark Gable, Frank Morgan and Hattie McDaniel.
For home video collectors—yes, Virginia, there are still plenty of people who don’t prefer their movies streamed—Blu-ray is The Way.
Warner Home Video released two major collections of classic animation at the beginning of the fall: Tom & Jerry Golden Collection Vol. 1, and Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 1. Warner never did right by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera’s iconic cat-and-mouse duo on DVD, but this Blu-ray set makes everything right. It’s the first 37 MGM Tom & Jerry cartoons in chronological order, restored, uncensored and in all their senselessly violent glory. (Doesn’t that cover art just get you?) The Looney Tunes Blu-ray set, however, annoyed a lot of collectors by recycling cartoons from earlier DVD sets. Still, it’s a fine overview of the studio’s best characters and directors, and includes a few genius one-offs like Katnip Kollege.
The fall and winter have seen a bounty of contemporary and old-school classic titles. The folks at Criterion Collection recently remastered one of their most popular titles for Blu-ray, Jean Renoir’s heartbreaking, funny Rules of the Game. It’s always ranked in critic’s polls as among the top four or five films ever made for reason—it’s a delight. And they also just released Ernst Lubitsch’s sharp-edged, sexy reworking of Nöel Coward’s Design for Living, starring Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March as the three corners of the eternal triangle.
For the comedy lover, Kino’s Buster Keaton Blu-ray reissues continue this month with Seven Chances, which finds our stone-faced hero off in search of a bride. After four reels of fruitless effort, the best he can manage is not being flattened in a rockslide. (Progress!) Know someone who loves feature-length animation? Disney has given the deluxe remastering treatment to Dumbo, a 1940 classic that’s rich in character and delirious imagery (“Pink Elephants”). And for the fan of classic musicals, there’s the loaded-with-extras West Side Story 50th Anniversary Edition (MGM).
For classics of a more recent vintage, there’s Nicole Kidman, deliciously wicked, in Gus Van Sant’s black comedy To Die For (Image); Peter Jackson’s last great film before he became obsessed with elves and monkeys, Heavenly Creatures (Miramax Lionsgate); Todd Haynes’ love letter to glam rock, Velvet Goldmine (Miramax Lionsgate); and George Clooney’s directorial debut, the letter-perfect satire Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Miramax Lionsgate), starring Sam Rockwell as TV game-show guru Chuck Barris.
And if you prefer to wait until the last minute, two of this year’s unlikely big hits arrive in stores Dec. 20: Woody Allen’s charming Midnight in Paris (Sony), and the heartwarming Dolphin Tale (Warner Home Video, in both 3D and flat formats).
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