This intriguing German-made film is about a world class counterfeiter who is arrested by the Nazis. He survives in the camps by heading up a unit of Jews who are charged with creating convincing copies of the British pound and the U.S. dollar, to support a Nazi plot to undermine their respective economies. This quiet but powerful film offers a facinating mediatation on the complexities of power and the difficulty of knowing what exactly is the right thing to do in difficult circumstances. One of the best films we've seen this year - we highly recommend it!
Have you listened to this Grammy award winning cd of the year yet? If not, you really should because it is amazing. The first jazz cd to be given that award in 43 years, Hancock's River reworks several Joni Mitchell songs including the well known Court and Spark, Both Sides Now, and River, as well as lesser known gems such as The Jungle Line, Tea Leaf Prophecy, and Amelia. Guest vocalists include Norah Jones, Tina Turner and Joni Mitchell herself. The interplay of the piano, sax and vocals in each song is original and stunning, yet accessible. Even if you're not into jazz, you just might want to check this one out.
Last summer I visited Girls Rock! Chicago, a week long camp for girls teaching them how to be in a rock band and culminating in a concert at a local bar. Now comes Girls Rock: The Movie, focussed on a similiar camp located in Portland, Oregon, the first of its kind. The movie does a great job of showing how the camp gives girls an alternative to the standard skinny, quiet, withdrawn girl often promoted in the media, but most of all it's just great fun to see the kids figuring out who they are and how to translate that into performance. Can't wait to show it in my Women and Rock class next year!
Last week we saw "The Power of Forgiveness" at the Gene Siskel Film Center, located in downtown Chicago. The Siskel Center is associated with the School of the Art Institute named after the popular movie critic of Siskel and Ebert fame who died of cancer some years back. The Center shows tons of arty movies in fabulously comfortable theatres. The director of this film, Martin Doblmeir, directed one of our favorite docs of all time, "Bonhoeffer," an account of this Lutheran ministers complex coming to terms with what it means to live in Germany during the Nazi reign.
In The Power of Forgiveness, Doblmeir addresses the concept of forgiveness, in part by visiting several locales / events that seem to many to defy forgiveness -- 9/11 families, folks in Northern Ireland who have had family members killed by the British army, an Amish community in which schoolchildren were shot, Holocaust survivors, and a number of other. Though the film raises some interesting issues, it is sometimes facile in its conclusions and has some weird production values which include an unfortunate reenactment scene reminiscent of a show one might see on the Discovery Channel. If Gene were still around, we think he would say thumbs down on this one -- but check out Bonhoeffer (2003) which is on netflix if you are a subscriber ("two thumbs up, way up" - Kate and Susan)
I read this book in preparation for possible World Tour of Poker participation this summer in Vegas! I liked Phil Gordon's first book (Little Green Book of Poker) so well that I followed up with this one. This book continued where that one left off and contains lessons about various situations and problems that come up regularly in the course of tournament poker. My poker style is pretty consistent with his, so reading all three of his books has helped my game a lot. Of course, there's no substitute for the real thing -- see you all at the tables soon. Fun fact: Phil Gordon donates a portion of all proceeds from his poker winnings and writing royalties to the charity, Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation (CRPF), and encourages poker players in the World Series to "Put a Bad Beat on Cancer" by donating 1% of their winnings to the CRPF. So far they've raised over one million dollars!
In preparation for the Oscars we checked out the animated shorts that were nominated this year, playing at the nearby Landmark Theatre. These included shorts from France, Russia, Canada, and the United States. Our favorite was Peter and the Wolf, claymation and interesting story line to accompany music written by Prokofiev in the 30's. Each of characters is associated with a different instrument. There have been many recordings of it, and at least one animated version, but this one certainly lived up to that long legacy. We'll see whether the academy agrees tonight (or not).
Last weekend we ventured out in the below zero weather to see There Will Be Blood. Good movie, but pretty darned intense. It's based on a book by Upton Sinclair and you can't beat ol' Upton for a class A critique of the excesses of capitalism (and in this movie faith healing religion too). While we like a good rant as well as the next guy we have to admit being pretty worn out by the end of the movie! And would it have killed them to throw in a female character or two?
