Bridge across the seas
A cloth of honor, kente covers the world….
Frequency
In the what-if scenarios of films such as Sliding Doors, characters wonder what their lives would be like if one pivotal moment in their past were changed, and are sent off to explore the different course they so desire. Frequency is one of the best of these films, because it involves something more than the…
Up at the Villa
At first glance, Up at the Villa seems all too similar to a film such as Tea With Mussolini. In both, a gaggle of upper-class twits (primarily pompous Brits and nouveau riche Americans) insist on maintaining their aesthetically pleasing expatriate life in sunny Italy during the 1930s, despite the fascist country viewing them increasingly as…
Where the Heart Is
If you haven’t seen Where the Heart Is, you’re in good company and for good reason. Despite its obvious talent pool, including Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd and Stockard Channing, this film is flawed by a lack of continuity and obnoxious characters. The story is based on a novel by Billie Letts which was made popular…
Short cuts
Stephen Dobyns represents the most irksome of literary types: the talented multihyphenate. Although his name has never become a household word, his 31 previous books have established him as a novelist-poet-essayist to be reckoned with. Now, Eating Naked reveals him to be a wonderfully gifted short-story writer as well. Fans of Dobyns’ earlier works –…
Shanghai Noon
Shanghai Noon is a hoot and a half, an action-comedy with its heart in the right place. Silly, fun and nowhere near historically accurate, this culture-clash western is a mishmash of styles and temperaments which somehow manages to find its own loopy logic. Based on an idea from star Jackie Chan, screenwriters Alfred Gough and…
In Carterian Fashion
Saxophonist James Carter has established himself as a player of impressive facility, drawing on the post-Trane-Ayler vocabulary of squeals and frenzied tonalities, and integrating it into a hard-swinging, postmodern style that’s alternately edgy and smooth as it threads together various strains from jazz’s past – a typical Carter move is the way he blurs, on…
The preacher & the saxophone
Those who attend one of James Carter’s concerts just might experience the equivalent of a spiritual epiphany. Carter’s new inspirations flow from a Motor City soul; his calling is to elevate jazz to new realms.
Laughing on the outside
Comerica Park, the Tigers’ new home, calls up a tale of two cities….
Short cuts
Small town stories from writer Stephen Dobyns….
