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| April-July 2008 |
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BOOK |
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The Post-American World |
| (Fareed Zakaria) |
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"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes, with equal prescience, a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. |
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| He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination. |
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FILM |
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| Before the Devil Knows You're Dead |
| (rated R for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language) |
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Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet (The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon Serpico) scores big with this absorbing suspense thriller. Oscar®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman is Andy, an overextended payroll executive who lures his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is the store owners are Andy and Hank's real mom and pop; and when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage sends them hurtling toward a shattering climax. |
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| Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts |
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PG) |
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Academy Award® nominated director Scott Hicks (Shine) documents an eventful year in the career and personal life of distinguished composer Philip Glass as he interacts with a number of friends and collaborators—including Chuck Close, Ravi Shankar, and Martin Scorsese. |
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MUSIC |
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| Neon Bible |
| Arcade Fire |
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| For their second full-length, the Montréal-based seven-or-eight-piece Arcade Fire show themselves capable of Big Rock, as original, and as potentially marquee-topping as TV on the Radio and Sigur Ros. Regardless, the intentional murkiness of these pleasantly anthemic New Wave dirges makes it sound as if the music has already reverberated through a crowded cement stadium. Named after cult author John Kennedy Toole's first novel, Neon Bible is smart and subtle enough to present itself as a personal discovery for every listener, every word to be pored over by fans (as with those of Tori Amos, Pavement, and Radiohead). Surely, lines like "The sound is not asleep/ It's moving under my feet" have already been scribbled onto the margins of countless textbooks. Such words are delivered with less intensity this time, but no less import. For vocal influences, lead singer Win Butler seems to have traded his '80s Bowie in for an '80s Springsteen, at least on the songs "Antichrist Television Blues" and "Windowsill" (though "Intervention" sounds an awful lot like '80s era Go-Betweens). The kitchen sink arrangements include the use of an Eastern European orchestra, pipe organ, hurdy gurdy, and a military choir. -Mike McGonigal for Amazon |
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| Little Voice |
| Sara Bareilles |
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| For many listeners, Little Voice will be their first exposure to this soulful singer/songwriter, but it's actually Sara Bareilles' second record. Her first, the self-released Careful Confessions, led to a deal with Epic. Since then, Bareilles has opened for Marc Broussard and Maroon 5. She's also become a bonafide soundtrack queen with tracks featured in female-centric films Girl Play, Loving Annabelle, and Monster-in-Law. As with her out-of-print début, the UCLA grad wrote every song on her first major label recording (Little Voice features re-worked versions of several demo numbers). Like the portrait on the back of the CD—Bareilles in strappy black dress and lace-free high-tops—the piano-playing chanteuse combines the sweet with the scruffy. While her jazzy pop melodies are radio-ready, her relationship-oriented lyrics can be unexpectedly salty ("Bottle Up" and "Come Round Soon" wouldn't pass FCC muster). A little profanity here and there, however, doesn't indicate tough-girl attitude—Amy Winehouse can rest easy—so much as a desire to express herself freely. As Bareilles explains in "Love Song", "I'm trying to let you hear me as I am." (Not surprisingly, her degree is in communications.) Fans of Sarah McLachlan and Alicia Keyes will find much to like here. -Kathleen C. Fennessy for Amazon |
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| Self Portrait |
| Lalah Hathaway |
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| Critically acclaimed vocalist and song stylist Lalah Hathaway continues the musical legacy with her Stax Records début, Self Portrait, a contemporary urban soul collection that takes you on a journey through joy and sadness and everything in-between, and that features the new single "Let Go". The daughter of soul legend Donny Hathaway, Lalah is well respected in both Jazz and R&B. This album is an introspective journey into the contemporary adult R&B world that will truly satisfy Lalah's core fans and is so refreshing that it will guarantee new fans, as well. -Amazon |
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TV |
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| (Tuesday
- 9 pm; CW) |
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Fall 2007's most engaging, clever and funny new series is about an amiable slacker who’s been sold into indentured servitude to the Devil. But what about the hell of toiling for a little-seen network like the CW? Your fantastic show doesn’t get nearly as much buzz as the similarly-themed, hotly hyped hit "Chuck" over on a bigger network, that’s what. |
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| In any case, a well-tailored Ray Wise is showing up that hoary old satyr Jack Nicholson week in and week out, playing Satan as a sublimely patronizing alternative father figure whose oily charm belies a taskmaster you don’t want to upset. -L.A. Weekly |
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WEB |
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As colleges and universities continue to introduce and support courses in film and media studies in general, and Buffy Studies in particular, there's a growing body of Buffy curricula at undergraduate and graduate levels of study. Slayage provides an important forum for publishing graduate and professional scholarship in BtVS matters. Seriously. |
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interactive site of brilliant Singapore-based graphic designer Jonathan Yuen |
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