Hear - Kaki King, Glow

I've never listened to a Kaki King album until this one.  I knew about King from the movie August Rush - an incredible story about a boy, alone in the world, connected to his lost parents through music.  The music in the movie is beautiful and unique.  For some reason I felt compelled to listen to Glow and I wasn't disappointed.  This CD is full of lush, complex songs that defy categories.  It is just gorgeously composed, intricately performed, instrumental music that fills your ears with beauty.  It's a CD that can easily be listened to in the background, or actively for its complexity.  I could not recommend this CD more highly, to anyone.  This isn't a gender, or genre specific album.  It's for everyone and it changed the way I listen to music.  Absolutely worth your time and your money.

Watch - Blue Bloods

 Netflix has changed the way many of us watch TV.  A lot of us would prefer to watch an entire season than wait from episode to episode and suffer through irritating commercials.  And then there are shows like Blue Bloods.  Despite how much I dislike CBS and their not sharing their shows with Hulu and despite that their annoyingly loud commercials that often are glitchy, I still watch Blue Bloods.  I love this show.

Its premise is simple, a family of cops and lawyers, often on different sides of an issue, fight for what they think is right.  The thing that makes me come back week after week is that the shows are tightly scripted, well acted, and are provocative in their themes.  Each week the family struggles with justice, honor, integrity and commitment.  Right now, if you made me choose from the few shows I still watch on Hulu, or from the networks themselves, it would be Blue Bloods.     

Read - Kill Shot, Vince Flynn

There is something about a formula.  It's comforting.  Like a Sunday meal at your parents house.  You know it won't be surprising, but it will be satisfying.  That's Vince Flynn and his Mitch Rapp books.  Mitch Rapp is America's killing machine; a 007 without the flashy gadgets.  He knows who America's enemies are and he's in the world to kill them.  Simple.

In this book we've gone back in time to see how Rapp came into being.  He's in France and he's taking out one of America's biggest problem terrorists at the time - Libya.  But there's a problem, they know he's coming.  Rapp finds himself trapped, injured and alone, wondering who set him up and who he can trust.  

The book is fun and fulfilling - like a Sunday meal at your parents house.  It just isn't surprising.  Rapp makes it through and the bad guys loose.  Did I spoil desert?

Read - Lost Light, by Michael Connelly

I am a huge Harry Bosch fan.  If he were real I'd donate to his campaign, even though he would be a terrible politician.  Which is one of the reasons I really like him.  He says what he means and often he doesn't say anything at all.  In this book we continue following Bosch as he's now retired from the police force and is cleaning up an old case that is bothering him.  Encouraged by another ex-cop who could never finish the case, Bosch goes in search of some answers, and as is often the case, he is warned off and threatened, which only makes him more curious.  The case goes deeper and further back than he had anticipated.  As he pursues the leads he comes back into contact with his ex wife who he still bleeds for, and an old FBI colleague who also wants to know the end of the case.  Bosch gets to the bottom as always.  This was one of my least favorite Bosch novels, but that is like saying it was one of my least favorite pieces of pizza.  I still love it.  I still want more.  I still can't wait for the next one.

Watch - Yojimbo

I've always been a huge Clint Eastwood fan.  The Man With No Name made a huge impression on me as a kid - A Fistful of Dollars showed me that there were different definitions of a hero.  I was embarrassed and delighted when I found out that it was a remake ( a direct copy) of Yojimbo, staring Toshiro Mifune, and directed by Akira Kurosawa one of the greatest directors of all time.  This movie is certainly dated but it is fascinating to watch the similarities and differences between it and A Fistful of Dollars - and between Mifune, who puts in an amazing performance that would stand up today, and Eastwood, both masters of subtlety and menace   It is a great movie and well worth your time.

Hear - Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel

I've always been an admirer of uniqueness.  It is a trait rarely seen, especially with music.  It is much easier it seems to copy something that works than it is to create something that stands completely on its own.  Fiona Apple, with her new album, has accomplished something that cannot be compared to any other music out there - in the same way that a schizophrenics view of reality cannot be compared to the general publics.  This album is unrecognizable as anything other than a middle schooler who has first discovered GarageBand.  The music is filled with disharmony, silly, childish lyrics, and strange discordant sounds.  It's as if Fiona is seeing how stupid we are; how much money we'll give her.  This album isn't melodic, it isn't clever, it isn't coherent.  I struggled just to get through it once.  I could not recommend this album under any circumstance.  It's just sad.

Hear - Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

I would not consider myself a jazz fan.  But I find myself drawn to the slow and solitary sounds of this kind of jazz.  Considered to be one of the greatest jazz records of all time, Kind of Blue slides into your ears and really takes a hold.  I love it.

Read - City of Bones, Michael Connelly

I love crime/detective noir.  About a year ago I began reading Michael Connelly and I fell in love with this genre.  In an attempt to understand Connelly's predecessors I stopped reading him and began reading other noir authors.  Last week I finished my journey through noir and came back to Connelly.  City of Bones is my second of three books by Connelly.  Last week I read A Darkness Greater Than Night.  Michael Connelly has created a modern noir detective in Harry Bosch in the shadow of Chandler and Hamnett.

In this novel Bosch hunts down the killer of a ten year old boy with a past of broken bones and failed dreams.  The boy has been dead twenty years, but Bosch is determined to find his killer.  Unfortunately it only leads him through more sadness, death and abuse.  The City of Bones is Los Angelas and the world of Harry Bosch.  I can't wait to read the next one.

Watch - Samsara

Seven years ago I discovered the movie Baraka.  It was like nothing I'd ever seen.  It was stunning images strung together with strange and compelling music.  Since discovering it I've shown it to countless high school classes who make their protestations known regarding the movies lack of dialogue or talking of any kind.  But soon they are drawn into its hypnotic vision.  Samsara is more of the same - more beautiful, more compelling, more hypnotizing.  It is better constructed and sends messages of love and hate, violence and peace, consumption and want, and the endless beauty and ugliness of humanity.  It is a beautiful and provocative movie that everyone should see.  I will own it, show it and promote it.