ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZorro!
596327
I went into this book having never read an Isabel Allende novel, and with only basic knowledge of the Zorro character.

I didn't set my expectations too high, but I was still disappointed.

I didn't have a problem with the 'postmodern' changes to Zorro's character. The problem was that the story was just poorly constructed.

It was barely about 'Zorro", and could just as well have been written about an anonymous new character from the author's imagination. Instead, she apparently went for the publicity angle, taking on an 'established' (public domain?) character, but making him nearly unrecognizable.

The story rambles without actually going anywhere.

The 'biographical' format, narrated by someone whose identity  we're apparently not meant to discover until the final chapter(big surprise!), is as tedious and tiresome as the story itself.

I'm about two thirds of the way through it, but I've found it so mind-numbingly boring, I just can't force myself to finish.

After reading this story, I can safely say that my interest in both the author and the title character remains unchanged.
2905233
Lucio fulci left the set of Zombi 3 for 2 reasons, he was working with complete idiots and he was still suffering from Hepetitis. Very sick and upset at the way the film was turning out he left and the production was taken over by a former house painter. No wonder Fulci called this film "Complete #@%@!" Fulci himself is only responsible for about 20 minutes of screen time and boy can you tell the difference. The film begins good enough with an exploding Zombie, a gunfight and a man escaping after being "infected" with some sort of ooze that turns him into a crazy murderer who enjoys pushing poor hotel maids faces into mirror's. From then on the movie takes a silly turn for the worst. The acting is horrid, the effects get worse and the cinematography is mind blowingly bad. At one point a Zombi attacks our "actors?" at a garage and for some odd reason the film is speeded up and gives the whole shot a comical, kung fu movie on speed look. Put it this way, I haven't even finshed it yet it was that bad. I have about 30 minutes to go and if it all of a sudden redeems itself I will come back and beg forgiveness. I have a strong feeling no begging will be in order. I am anxiously awaiting the New Release of Fulci's Zombi, being released as Zombi 2 in a special uncut collectors DVD. I cant wait!
2730660
5 stars for unusual repertory in general.

5 stars for Salieri in particular.  For several years he had, arguably, the most prestigious musical job on the planet. That is, court composer of the Emperor of Austria.

Hey, did Salieri kill Mozart?  Never minding the dumb movie (in which Salieri is shown working against Mozart but does NOT actually kill him) ... let us look at a couple of supposed facts which have come down thru history.  They are hard to verify, but they've been around since the beginning.

The first person who accused Salieri of murdering Mozart was ... supposedly Mozart himself!  Mozart was not feeling well, and supposedly said to his wife, "Salieri poisoned me."  And a few days later, he was dead.  Erm ...!!

That nugget was circulated around Vienna from virtually the day Mozart was dead.  It was not invented by Pushkin, or Rimsky-Korsakov, or Peter Shaffer in the 1980s.

And then guess what?  Salieri supposedly DID actually confess to murdering Mozart shortly before his death in the asylum, 34 tears later.  Double "erm"!!!  If the victim named the suspect, and the suspect actually later confessed to it, WHO THE HECK AM I to have an opinion?

And yet, I do have an opinion.  I don't believe it.  I will cite as evidence that Konstanze, Mozart's widow, didn't believe it either.  She took little Wolfgang Jr. to Salieri for music lessons in the years following the supposed murder of her husband.  I think that action proves she didn't believe the gossip, and I say she was in the best position to know.

Now back to the CD ... 5 stars for the orchestral rendition, and the conductor.

5 stars for the CD packaging and the attractive and informative hard-cover book.

None of that, however, can save this CD, for it is a vocal CD, and it is done very ... very ... er ... strangely is the politest term I can think of, by Cecilia Bartoli.

I used to be a great fan of Cecilia Bartoli.  I still have her Vivaldi and Gluck albums, and a few others.  Now, seriously, I am afraid to go back and listen to them again.

This album is frankly very uggy.  She sounds like someone with innate talent, but utterly untrained.  Well, I know she is trained, so it must have been a conscious decision to squawk like a goose being strangled.

Admittedly the worst squawking is on the first track.

Anyway, I'd love to hear these selections done by someone else.
622805
Curse you, Johnny Marr for putting out such an excellent album! I woke up this morning humming the melody to New Town Velocity from my dreams (the first time THAT has ever happened before). I figure another night or two of this and I'm going to need either an exorcist or a deprogrammer.
2248368
Here are some insanely outrageous cheesefests that should satisfy any B flick lover's cravings.  With the huge success of Conan and the Beastmaster I guess it's only natural that the Cannon Group get their fingers in the pie.  These films are both Italian productions.  Hey, why not?  After all, the Italians had the market cornered on sword and sandal flicks back in the day.  Writer/Director "Lewis Coates"(American companies insisted on Italian directors to use more American sounding pseudonyms) is actually Luigi Cozzi, who as everyone knows, directed the box office smashes Starcrash and everyone's favorite exploding chest flick, Contamination.  Both movies look like they were shot at the same time, and actually feel more like a three hour film than two seperate ones.  The first film starts with some poppycock about astronomy, then has Zeus creating our hero to shift the good/evil balance.  Hercules falls in love however and goes after his love who has been kidnapped by the evil King Minos.  Minos constantly rants about the power of science over that of the gods even though he's constantly using supernatural means to do his deeds.  Not to mention that he wants Herc's girl as a sacrifice to a phoenix fire-god.  On his quest Hercules flexes, bends swords, fights giant windup toys, battles stock footage, punches everyone, throws styrofoam boulders, throws a grizzly bear into outer space, breaks swords on his shins, grows huge, seperates Africa from Europe, and refuses the advances of two women(one of them Sybil Danning!)  How noble.  Once Minos is defeated and his chick saved, Zeus kinda just plucks him into outer space and turns him into a flexing constellation, storing him for further use.  In the second film, Zeus releases him from his suspended flex pose to retrieve seven thunderbolts(they're actually lightning bolts, not that you really give a crap) stolen by renegade gods, Poseidon, Hera and Aphrodite.  These gods resurrect the evil King Minos who's still using magic whilst flapping his gums about the power of science.  Once again Hercules flexes, punches alot of folks, fights slime people and a guy in a makeshift Chewbacca outfit, doesn't hit on either of the two chix who would gladly have him, turns huge again, and transforms into an animated gorilla for some unknown reason to fight the final battle.  Classic.  Cozzi's imagination clearly exceeds his budget, but that's part of the magic of these films.  Both films have tons of scenes in outer space with characters standing on rocky sets which are supposed to be the moon(Mythology tells us the gods hung out on Mount Olympus, but they hang out on the moon in the first film.  By the second film they're supposed to be on Olympus, but it still looks an awful lot like the moon to me.)  Also lots of superimposed shots of the actors on top of the earth.  There are constant scenes of flashing lights and animation accompanied by BLIP! PING! BOINK!-type sound effects that sound like they came from a 60s sci-fi film or an Atari game.  Cozzi has no shame at all as he lifts scenes from Conan, Clash of the Titans(the scene where Herc faces the gorgon is identical to Perseus' in Clash!), and The Beastmaster.  The entire opening credits of the second film directly ripoff the credit sequence from Superman 2, with the blue credits in outer space floating into the screen intercut with scenes from the first film!  The second film goes a bit overboard with animation, even including a fight that could have come straight from a Ralph Bakshi movie.  Lou is a fantastic Hercules(eat your heart out, Sorbo!).  He's no Olivier, but do you really need to be for this kind of film?  I don't think there's a single actor in the world who looks more like a Hercules than Lou Ferrigno.  I love these two films, love em to death.  They're weird, wacky, silly and 100% fun.  Peter Jackson can keep his sillyass gazillion dollar hobbits.  I'll take Hercules.
1203538
Why is this pabulum constantly on regular rock stations? The singer's overearnest bubblegum yodeling bring to mind more than anything a lively game of soggy biscuit. His masturbatory stylings over a bed of rehashed bruce springsteen cliches is so incredibly annoying! AHHH make him stop!
2800779
The celebrity--and staggering sales--of this very modestly talented performer is a crossover phenomenon that makes the Three Tenors pale in comparison. Sure, everyone agrees "T3T" is schlock, but those  artists are real professionals with real voices, capitalizing shamelessly  on real careers. What does Bocelli have? Nothing at all except hype. If the  man weren't blind, he couldn't even get an audition, let alone cut a  record. To his millions of fans, I'd like to say: the Emporer has no  clothes. Go buy a Mario Lanza disc if you want to listen to better bad  singing, with at least a shred of integrity; and if you want to hear a  tenor who actually has a voice, take your pick of, say, Corelli, Bergonzi,  Bjoerling, Gedda, Vickers, Del Monaco, McCormick, Kraus, Heppner,  Nartinelli, Lauri-Volpi, Gigli, Melchior, Schipa, Domingo, Pavarotti,  Carreras, Gianni Raimondi, Labo, in no particular order, literally any  tenor who's ever made a record. Heck, go buy a Fillipeschi record; how  about Cioni or Barioni? have a wallow with Gianni Poggi,even. This disc  earns a single star rating for its real niche: it's a cruel party record.  At least Anna Russell and Stefan Zucker knew they were making fools of  themselves. "Superstar" Boccelli, may be blind, but his fans must  be deaf.
10003
ALLES BILD SATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGION!
1048914
Some decisions by Maiden simply amazes me... It seems that sometimes they dont'know how ridiculous they can be. This once majestic band decided to release a show mixed with a magician presentation. Alright, I'm not against innovations... But to release a show featuring the tour when Bruce Dickinson had already decided to leave, when the atmosphere amongst the band member were not good due to that (check their official biography, RUN TO THE HILLS) is not a ver clever choice. Also, to face that guy Janick Gers is a real test of perseverance. He's the most untalented guitarist ever to front a mega band. I think he runs and runs around to disguise his lack of playing.

The magic part is ludicrous, annoying, childish. this show is all cliche and no quality. Skip it and stick to LIVE AFTER DEATH, or, even better, the show at The Rainbow with Paul Di'anno.
2018836
Elsewhere, I have stated my admiration for Jean Moulin. He died a hero. Even so, I fear he was upstaged, bravery-wise, by Barry Keenan, Johnny Irwin, and Joe Amsler. Who are they, I hear you ask? Simple! They're the madmen who kidnapped Frank Sinatra Junior in the winter of 1963.  His father, Ol' Blue Eyes, was never one to turn the other cheek - or hand out the astronomical sum of $240K in ransom money "to rats and punks." It was a race between the FBI and Franky's wider circle of friends to find the culprits. Lucky for the trio, the former located them first - otherwise, Klaus Barbie might have been summoned to Vegas as Frank's guest.

Now, if the trio had wanted some dutch courage at the time, there'd be no use sending Jeggy's performances of Beethoven Fifth and Seventh to them via a time-machine. For sure, these are two of the most heroic utterances ever created by mankind. They should make us walker taller when played appropriately . . . . . . . .

To be blunt, this is Beethoven without a wanger.  Yet again, Jeggy thinks he can fake his way through these masterpieces with mere lightness and transparency. Yes, you've guessed it: what a crucifix is to a vampire, what krypton is to Superman, what normal underpants are to Batman and the Boy Wonder, majesty, profundity and stillness are to Jeggy. Fundamentally, he's scared of this music. How else does one explain his tepid, walk-on-eggshells response, abetted by a tin-pot ensemble of no distinction whatsoever?  As a correspondent wrote to me recently, he plays Beethoven as if it is JC or CPE Bach - and don't tell the Vicar!!!  Just listen to his shallow, weedy, prosaic phrasing at the start of the Seventh. How it short-changes the listener! Much the same could be said of the Allegretto: it's gutless and lacking in menace. The Fifth is cut from the same cloth. As played, the opening chords of the finale could serve as the national anthem of Lilliput.

It's time for a giggle. John Kwok is the Generalissimo of Five Stars Reviewers at Amazon. He's a Big Apple culture-vulture. Read his review - it implies that he graced this concert in question. Who knows - perhaps he supped with greatness (ie, a gin and tonic with Jeggy) at the after-party (what a lark that would be).  He panegyrizes "it . . . is one of the best CDs coupling both symphonies together, worthy of comparison with Carlos Kleiber's legendary recording with the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) for Deutsche Grammophon." One can only laugh. Is it the last days of Pompeii?

Don't be fooled by mere Zeitgeist and hyperbolic vulturine gabble. There are plenty of Sevenths in the market-place that don't wee their pants when heroism is required.  And travel back in time to May 1969 in Moscow if you want to hear a barnstorming rendition of the Fifth (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Karajan-in-Moscow-Vol-1/dp/B001HWW9X6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Karajan in Moscow, Vol. 1</a>).

Let's close with a quote from Frank:

"May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine (and not Jeggy's)."
4045176
The moment you begin to listen to this recording, you know what is in store. Petrenko adopts a slow, heavy, sluggish stupor of a tempo with legato phrasing on virtually every note. A march with legato. Completely unforgivable. I gave it more time, to see if the legato is alleviated, or if the stupor dissipates. It does not.

Petrenko is not only with this legato tendency. He is in good company with the likes of Mravinsky, Temirkanov, Polyansky, Mata, Wigglesworth, Gergiev, and even others. So it appears to have become acceptable practice. If you can tolerate it, congratulations. Petrenko's legato is among the most extreme. (For no legato, look for Barshai/WDR, Svetlanov/Swedish Radio, Nelsons, Bychkov, Paavo Jarvi, Kofman, Ashkenazy, Rozhdestvensky/USSR Ministry of Culture Orch.)

This is a drunken, slurring sleepwalk. The glowing reviews make no sense to me.
141173
Los Lobos Lite!!!  Pretenders! Fakes! Phonies! Wannabes! Yawn! Should go back under the rock where Willie Nelson found them!!!NEXT!!!
4284036
My headline is what watching this movie will be like for you with this shoddy Bluray release - SUBTITLED!! Kino Lorber once again has gone on-the-cheap with another Bava release. Their last offering was "Black Sunday" which like this one DOES NOT include the American Version of the Film!! The version we all grew up on playing on TV and before that at the drive-in was a recut, rescored, and most importantly ENGLISH version which included Boris Karloff's real voice. This version will ONLY feature the Italian Version of the movie WITHOUT Karloff's inimitable intonation AND SUBTITLES (unless you speak Italian). Now, admittedly the Italian Version is the stronger of the two - the 3 stories appear in a different order and slightly different cuts than they do in the American Version, which softens the horror and dumbs things down a little for the US Market. But for the Bluray release BOTH versions should most definitely have been included. A very small label from the UK recently released this title with BOTH versions as well as a SLEW of mouth-watering extras that are also not present in this lame release! Kino Lorber is a bigger label with more funding at their fingertips but has just decided to sloppily slap the same Italian version released on DVD a decade ago onto a Bluray and reel in the cash with the least amount of effort. Say NO to these slapdash releases and demand that Kino Lorber treat these iconic classics with the care and respect they deserve!
2412659
I was a little disappointed in the third talking Chihuahua novel starring Pepe and his owner Geri.  I wish that Geri would get her PI license and they would get rid of the Jimmy character.  He's proving to be annoying - he's like a less endearing Inspector Gadget, Geri (Penny) and her dog Pepe (Brain) solve the crimes and he gets the credit.  He's not even teaching her anything, she's reading a how-to book!  Maybe he can get killed off in the next installment and Geri has to figure out his murder!

This installment has Geri investigating a cult whose leader "speaks" wisdom through an ancient weimaraner.  Geri's tasked with finding Tammy, whose husband has retained their PI services.  As per cozy mystery laws, dead bodies get stumbled upon and it's up to Geri to solve the crime.

There's a sub-plot involving Geri's paramour, Felix, and the movie he's working on as an animal trainer.  It doesn't really flow with the rest of the book so it seems like there's two different stories going on.

There's another subplot involving Geri's long-lost sister.  I feel like some of these subplots were just in there as filler and could have easily been fleshed out into full novels on their own.

One other thing that bugged me (and this author is not the only one guilty of this!) is two characters having similar names.  This happens quite a bit in cozies for some reason and sometimes I forget which character they are talking about.  This time it was Tammy, the lost wife and Terry, the lost sister.

I am still in love with little Pepe! What a hoot of a character.  As long as he's written well, I'll keep on reading these books.
848520
Peter Ferro!  Peter Ferro!  Peter Ferro!  OK, I said it three times looking in a mirror... he was supposed to appear to me... no deal!  He is so HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think I like him better than Sean!

Gina keeps running into him.  Everywhere they run into each other they cannot help devouring each other with their eyes.  Gina be smart... stay away from the Ferros and dump Anthony!

Something is up with Mrs. Ferro.  She gives me the creeps.  Someday I would love for HM Ward to write Mrs. Ferro's life story with every dirty little detail so we can psychoanalyze her and understand why she is such a monster.  Now she is looking at Gina... that would scare the heck out of me.

Watch for the scene where Gina is setting up a HOT and SEXY night at Anthony's.  Your jaw will drop!!

I am so concerned for Gina.  I do not see a bright future ahead of her!
1207503
I was really looking forward to finally seeing this opera. I still don't feel that I have seen it. I concur fully with those who condemn the fact that we are constantly jumping back and forth from the stage to the orchestra. If the violins are required to play pizzicato, we cut to watch them pluck the strings. If a musician has a solo phrase, we watch him blow. Never does the timpanist strike a drum without the camera cutting to him. From what I can follow on stage it appears that that the production had a director who didn't trust the material and so worked in incongruous and silly bits. I still don't feel that I have seen this opera and certainly will not put myself through trying to watch this horror again. I'll stick to the CDs. You should, too.
3364004
Le dara no slo 5 estrellas sino 10!!! que libro ms bello! lo le muy rpido porque est magistralmente escrito. Lo recomiendo! fue una agradabilsima sorpresa. Lanlo! Dios los bendiga!