Edo G

Bobby Womack

California Dreaming (Love comparing this to the interpretation by Lee Moses) Close to You

Fish Tank

Directed By: Andrea Arnold

Wow. Characters true to human emotion.  Especially impressive was the acting of Katie Jarvis, who plays a 15 yr old female, Mia, growing up in a poor neighborhood, raised by a selfish mother who just wants to party. Starved of any positive encouragement, she fronts a tough persona to every one: her mother, her younger sister, neighborhood peers.  But privately, she enjoys dancing to hip-hop and likes animals, at one point, trying to set free a captured horse.

Michael Fassbender plays a character who dates Mia's mother and tries his best to exert a positive influence on all 3 female characters.  He shows special attention to Mia, encouraging her dancing talents, but does not act as responsible, emotionally mature adult and things lead to the inevitable.

Some of the turns are a bit predictable (c'mon dancing auditions?), but the emotional impact is still there.  I'll have to check out more of Andrea Arnold's films.

Sarah Chang

Jascha Heifetz

The one and only Jascha Heifetz:

Anamanaguchi

Japanandroids

This stuff reminds me of being in High school, listening Sunny Day Real Estate and other bands on college radio stations/

Miley Cyrus - Jolene

Miley Cyrus - Jolene (Cover) Here's the original Dolly Parton

Doris Troy - Just One Look

Shakey Graves

hitRECord and Levi's Collab

An ad / music video / animation, but quite lovely: One more:

Brave

Brave 
Directed by Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman

This movie is not an adventure movie.

The name, trailer and poster are all misleading.

The movie really is about the relationship between a daughter and her mother and once you accept that, this is a well-done film and actually an interesting step in a new direction for Pixar.  Pixar has always excelled at conveying a story and weaving in scenes, which elicit strong emotions from the audience:  ex.  Finding Nemo - the death of Nemo's mother,   Toy Story 2 - Jessie's feelings of abandonment, Toy Story 3 - the garbage melting scene.

In Brave, it's a bit like the balance between the story and the emotion line have swapped.  It's about the relationship between the characters and the coming-of-age emotional growth of the protagonist and yes, there's a bit of a story, but that's far secondary, making for a much, more subtle payoff.

Strangely, it had me asking myself - what's stopping Pixar from going ahead and making a movie, geared for adults?

That being said Brave still straddles that line quite well, having characters and a storyline that kids will understand and follow, but adding jokes and emotional layers that truly engage adults.

A small aside.  It was apparently an incredible technological achievement to get the rendering of the hair done so realistically and the folks there deserve all the acclaim they get for that.  The hair looked astounding. And boy, did they go crazy with shots and shots of the Princess's tousled, bright red hair - it was like a little boy's fascination with a girl's pigtails in elementary school meets an encyclopedic knowledge of every shot of  female bedhead, tom-boy and and shampoo commercial rolled in one.

The more I think about this movie, the more I find myself truly liking it and thinking it will go down as an under appreciated film.  I do, however, think that if Pixar were to create another film with a smart, capable female lead in a more structured story-oriented film (think female Jason Bourne movie), it would do gang-busters.

Paganini Liszt La Campanella

I don't play the piano, but this is damn impressive.

 

Sherlock (BBC TV Series)

Overall, this BBC tv series features very solid writing, fantastic acting and high production values.  The stories are modernized versions of the original writings (ex. Watson writes a blog); however, the storylines are loyal to the originals and more importantly, the series still maintains the emphasis on the intellectual problems and the reveals.  There is some humor throughout, but the tone is more serious (than say the more light-hearted Robery Downey Jr Sherlock versions).

My only complaint about the series are that there are occasional missteps in the writing, which veer into the cheesy.  The revealed code at the end of Season 2, episode 1, A Scandal in Belgravia, comes to mind, but there were other instances in Season 1 as well.

However, overall, it's an enjoyable series and well worth a watch.  Both Season 1 and 2 are now on Netflix.

Mandy Patinkin - Over the Rainbow

Man oh man, what a performance. It starts at 0:15 and if you can get past his hand gesturing and his interesting choice for falsetto, it pays off in spades.

And yes, this is the same guy who played the lead in Princess Bride.