As Great as One Might Suspect
927744
Fans of Jodorowski and Moebius will not be disappointed. The story is engrossing and tight, and the artwork is undeniably Moebius: fluid, flawless, and beautiful. Very cinematic, and right on the money.
3914965
The reviewer from Portugal may be a bit perfunctory, but the word is well-chosen. This is a wonderful collection, fun, surprising, entertaining and endlessly listenable.
Wim Mertens has been cranking out his idiosyncratic music to a largely uninterested world for a long, long time. Sometimes he hits, sometimes he misses, sometimes you wonder if he even swung. But this is as solid a work as he's done. The playing is so tight and effective that the cacaphony of sounds becomes a collection of beauties only a real genius could audialize (if I may coin a word similar to visualize). And the singing is just gorgeous.
If you've heard of Wim Mertens and wonder whether this is for you, this is a great intro. If you've only heard his solo work, this will be a surprise--more melodious, more textured, more full and better vocals.
A solid winner worthy of a much wider audience!
3301134
Wonderful movie.  I don't know whether it is quite true, but a great premise and interpretation, and of course wonderful acting.
782247
Like, I think, many others, I approached this audiobook with considerable trepidation. Partly because of doubts over anyone's being able to don the writing mantle of Douglas Adams. and partly over the idea of listening to a 'Hitchhiker' in any other format than the classic BBC dramatization with the original cast.
On both scores my fears were allayed. Had I not known that the book was written by someone other than Adams, I really don't think I would have guessed. One characteristic of a good Hitchhiker is that you have to listen through at least 3 times to even half understand the storyline, such is the complexity of the interwoven themes and the speed of the dialogue; and on this score the new version is well up to score. As for the 'performance' of the book by Simon Jones, it's a real eye-opener. It takes a few minutes to get used to the new format, but after that I was quickly absorbed by the brilliance of the performance. Simon adeptly captures the original characters, both male and female, quite exquisitely, demonstrating a flexibility of acting technique that I never would have guessed him capable of.
The last of the original Hitchhikers seemed to round off the series in a pretty decisive and irreversible way. Colfer resurrects the story with considerable cleverness. And at the end he finishes with a pleasantly open-ended termination, leaving the way open for future episodes. One can only hope that they will come sooner rather than later.
1991451
If you don't know these pieces very well, this might be the perfect set for you. Pollini plays flawlessly, with the greatest finesse and sensitivity, very much in tune with each composer's personal style. His performances are exemplary in every respect. The video and audio are quite acceptable, given their 1970s vintage. Bhm and Abbado are at home in this repertoire, and the Wiener Philharmoniker in excellent form, notwithstanding a few strange noises coming from the horns. These are not live performances--no audience is present--perhaps they were filmed at dress rehearsals. If you are, on the other hand, really familiar with these concertos, you may be somewhat disappointed. Pollini is not the reason, as he finds original insights in each score. Bhm, on the other hand, is so much steeped in routine and the Austrian Kapellmeister tradition that he seems unable to shed any new light on the orchestral parts. True, they are perfectly played, if you don't mind his "Viennese" sugarcoating of Mozart. But there are no surprising highlights (many passages in the woodwinds could shine forth, instead they are drowned by the strings, the brass are tame etc.), very few individual accents are produced, and the orchestral accompaniment is occasionally bland to the point of being generic. The best of the lot is the Beethoven 5, which the Philharmoniker must have played dozens of times with other conductors, and here Bhm pretty much gives them free rein. I have often wondered how Bhm acquired his reputation of greatness: drilling an orchestra to perfection does not amount to breathing life into the score. Abbado does infinitely better with his temperamental, often fierce realization of the score, and you will be fascinated by the powerful give and take and the often furious interplay between soloist, conductor and orchestra in the Brahms. This is a truly great performance.
1711782
This is one of those great albums that may suffer from oblivion, unless people who appreciated its beauty begin to share about it. The whole set of songs maintains an amazing level of realization, both lyrically and in terms of its hushed arrangements. Early on, its mood and unassuming depth of feeling, reminded me of another, recent folk jewell: Damien Rice's "O." Like Rice's, this a work profound longing and immediate tenderness. Both these CDs showed the possibilities of nuance and range that new Folk singers are exploring. Its easy access is far from announcing its lack of superficiality. It's hard to recommend songs here, given the quality of all of them, yet "Amanda's Dream," "Poetry and Aeroplanes" and "I Was Just Thinking," are particularly glorious. I love that young men, like Teitur, are willing to shudder and wonder at their lives this openly, in the context of truly wonderful songs.
3867776
In reading and enjoying Handke's work I've been in good company:  he's been shortlisted for a Nobel a few times (his politics may make that award an impossibility now) and Harold Bloom considered him one of the "writers of the century"  in The Western Canon.  True to his supposed avant-gardist status, his styles and forms have been Protean, but common threads in many (Weight of the World, My Year in the No-Man's Bay, On a Dark Night...), this one included, play up his remarkable powers of observation in nature, his subtle and meticulous identification of the connections between outer world and inner consciousness.  His style in these has been a "seemingly casual tone, in which every word bears indispensible weight" (Kai Maristed) creating "..a kind of associative philosophical meditation that both maps and manifests the movements of mind."  (Sven Bikerts)

I'm personally uncomfortable with the term avant-garde;  I prefer to think the very best writers, from Joyce and Proust to the late Gilbert Sorrentino, are not only great craftsmen but formal innovators,  re-inventing fiction and pressing language into service it simply hadn't performed before.  Gauguin averred that if art isn't revolutionary, it's not art;  whatever your definitions, literary art in its most vibrant forms needn't be further labeled.  At any rate, Crossing the Sierra de Gredos is both typical, easily recognizable Handke and something new and full of surprises,  recalling Chaucer and maybe Swift and Cervantes.  Even paragraph by paragraph, there is a playful stylistic richness of invention.  I was baffled by some passages, even extended passages--some seemingly satiric episodes escaped me entirely--but I was enraptured or delighted by others.

It is a testament to the power of this writer that, even though I have several books now waiting to be read that are surely excellent--short stories by Edward P. Jones, John Williams' Stoner,  Solnit's Storming the Gates of Paradise, Seidel's Ooga-Booga,  they all will probably be a step down from Handke.

So there may be some unevenness in Crossing the Sierra de Gredos, representing an attempt that's not fully successful, but Handke is Handke.  Cymbeline can be regarded as inferior only in comparison with other Shakespeare plays, and Handke needn't be made to compete with himself. With apologies to the new translation of Pomuk's Black Book, even slightly-flawed Handke may be the best thing I read all year.  So five stars.
1206401
It's hard to think of a good, thoughtful review of an album that is just plain wonderful. If you like Dylan (any of his musical stages) you should like this. If you're not a Dylan fan but like blues or bluesy rock, check this out. The lyrics are, as always, clever and intelligent. I'm amazed that he gets better with each album. But it's true. I can't say this is his "best yet" because each album is so different, but this is a great record to buy--even if you're not already a Dylan fan, or if you were put off by his folky stuff a million years ago. I happen to enjoy and appreciate it all, but that Dylan continues to make music that draws new fans--people who wouldn't have given him a listen thirty years ago--is awesome.
4044530
I've been putting off reviewing this item - not because I can't make up my mind as to how I feel about it, but because I'm afraid I won't do justice to its excellence.

  In a nutshell, it's difficult to put a price on fine entertainment, but both my wife (for whom "Rumpole of the Bailey - The complete Series" was purchased as a Christmas present) and I agree that the $52.86 that was spent on this series provided us with more pleasure than any number of dinners out.

  The only minus I will mention first.  We were not too pleased with the "Opening Remarks" (by Author John Mortimer) format of each episode.  It was a little depressing to watch this old gent, who appeared to be in a very fragile and debilitated state ( and in fact, he did pass away just recently).  I would have preferred to conjure up a more pleasant image of the author, as I have, for example, of one of his contemporaries whose works enjoy a similar literary prestige, viz. P. G. Wodehouse.

  Now for the pluses - which far outweigh that one minus.  It's easier to list them than to try to frame them in narrative form.

  1) Believability of characters - Rumpole himself and his entire
  supporing cast.  Totally credible.

  2) Rumpole's ambivalence of character - ranging from a mature
  knowledgeable barrister defending a common criminal with eloquence
  to a rather unpredictable wine-sop who sometimes acts quite
  undignified and undecorously.

  3) A superb blending of dry humor and outright pathos.

  4) Rumpole's very apt utilization of famous quotations in varied
  situations.

  5) The ability to bring real feelings and philosophical profundity
  into the most common of unfortunate situations.

  In short, this 42-episode series is a treasure!
1484222
This music by de Breville is a wonderful discovery. I will not bother to repeat the prior reviews here, merely echo them.

However, I will add that I discovered de Breville via a piece he composed for Andres Segovia (guitar) in the 1920s, which I found to be unusually interesting and also impressionistic/Debussy-esque.  So based on what I have heard by de Breville, he was a wonderfully talented composer, too little-known for sure.
4111627
This CD is pretty marvelous because of the expected reasons: great playing, superb orchestral accompaniment, excellent arrangements. But it is Easy Listening, even though the Swiss label 'claves' is mainly Classical. Of course the main reason to approach this has to be those great Legrand tunes; a wonderful program, this. If you play this as background (and it would be a successful one) you shall be satisfied. I didn't. I listened with pleasure. However, I suggest small doses. The sax & orchestra combination, in spite of all that is good here, wears a little after a few tracks.  But for that I would NOT subtract a star.
3301903
Reading a review, some of you want the specifics and others just want a layperson's opinion of the product; this is the latter of the two:

They are beautiful; just as beautiful as they look in that picture. Just as beautiful as they look in your dreams.
The ears as you suspect fit over yours, with thick enough pads around the edges to made your ears still seem as though they are unaffected, though the warmth and support of the headphones is obviously there still(just not irritating the ears--I've worn these all day on multiple occasion to no affect, no irritations).
That top bit is sturdy and comfortable.
The sound quality is what you'd want. You have the ability to focus on any particular piece of what's happening in the music(or film or whatever). You can FEEL the bass but it manages to not come across as overpowering.

My main concern is the unprotected feel of the input jack, but that's fairly standard of skullcandy and one should expect it.
You reading this not knowing what to expect makes it sound deterring--it's really not an issue, or hasn't been.

The reason for my title is this:
Because it is so beautiful and so precious, I have a marked reluctance to wear it on casual outings. The thought of it breaking in the midst of play or it getting stolen or whatever gives me a degree of anxiety, so I refrain. I personally consider these Domestic Headphones. That said, they have quickly become a very important piece of my every day life on the homefront.

I hope this helps you make your decision. <3
350506
If you're already a Murakami fan, you will likely love the book as much as I did. The style is unmistakable and, as always, beautiful in its deceptive simplicity. Although there's nothing magical (a la Wild Sheep Chase or Kafka on the Shore), there's plenty of dark and spooky to go around. It's not a perfect book, but it's a welcome return from the self-indulgent 1Q84.
1482425
This is my seventh set of the Op. 87 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich -- Tatiana Nikolayevna, Keith Jarrett, Jenny Lin, David Jalbert, Konstantin Scherbakov, Vladimir Ashkenazy and now this one -- and although all of them are marvelous in their own way, this traversal seems to be altogether at a higher level of poetry and expressiveness. His playing is brilliantly etched without being shrill or feverish. His dynamic range is enormous; his pianissimo playing in particular is the kind that makes you lean forward in your seat to catch every nuance. I'd never heard of Alexander Melnikov before until a friend sent me this set. But I can guarantee that I'll be looking for anything else he records. I, like one of of the reviewers at the Amazon.uk site, would love to hear his take on Shostakovich's piano concertos as well as the Op. 34 Preludes.

Strongly recommended.

[By the way, the complaint of the previous reviewer, Kari, seems a little beside the point. If one has the proper equipment, this set plays without a hitch. I agree that the DVD 'documentary' is probably only worth seeing once; I doubt I'll be going back to it very often although I did find some interesting comments and enjoyed seeing Melnikov and his teacher, Andreas Staier. However, it's the playing, the music, that is the treasure here.]

Scott Morrison
553020
Wonderful; well worth a buck.

Pseudo science at its best -- a sense of humor, mind stretching, a base of reality, wonderfully written.

The "case studies" are fascinating, but the Glossary is fantastic; don't miss it. To whet your appetite:

-- amphibious -- adj. -- equally uncomfortable on land or in water.

-- dorsal -- adj. -- pertaining to the back side of the body; rear facing. "Males of the species are entranced by the dorsal features of proximate females."

I would love to go on ... but you will find great enjoyment for only a dollar here.

Robert C. Ross
February 2016
4725354
Here is a composer that obviously writes for the sheer enjoyment of it. The music is melodic, fresh, well put together, and well instrumented. Unless you must always have a masterpiece, it is suggested that you give it a try. There is nothing to dislike within its conservative framework, and much that bespeaks of sincerity and joy.
4155826
Probably as good as you're going to find.  Other high rated reviews are spot on.

I've bought two for my new house and another for my in-laws.