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Basic Fishing Gear : Fishing Level Wind Reels
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Okuma Fishing CL-302L-CL Classic Pro Graphite Trolling Reel Clam Pack (Small, Black) $33.98 CLASSIC PRO 302 LW TROLL REEL… |
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SHIMANO TR SERIES STAR-DRAG LEVELWIND TROLLING REELS SHIMANO TR SERIES LEVELWIND STAR-DRAG TROLLING REELS Here we have from Shimano a versatile star-drag, levelwind reel that’s great for a variety of species. This series of reels is loaded with the features that you have come to expect from Shimano at an affordable price. Reel Features: Non-Disengaging Levelwind System Counter Balanced Handle High Speed Retrieve Ratios H… |
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Tekota Levelwind Star Drag Reel $219.99 This reel give anglers comfort, durability, and features that make fishing adventures easy and more great qualities. Engineered for the long run with a diecast frame, sturdy power handle with a Septon grip, oversized clicker and crossbar forward design for easy access to the spool. This reel is definitely built to last!… |
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Penn 330GT2 Super Level Wind Conv. Reel – 30/350 $109.95 Penn 330GT2 Super Level Wind Conv. Reel – 30/350 -… |
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FUJIFILM 2011 Conventional Bag for FUJIFILM S2950, S3200 and S4000 Cameras – Black $39.99 Featuring durable nylon construction, this FUJIFILM 2011 conventional bag offers a great way to protect your FUJIFILM S2950, S3200 or S4000 camera. |
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Special Forces - $5.99 Special Forces is an hour-long documentary that sheds light on the soldiers responsible for the most secret of wartime missions. The film explains how these brave troops lay the groundwork for greater success with conventional tactics. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi |
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Bush Riverwood TV Stand for Tube TVs Up to 36 or Flat-Panel TVs Up to 60 $379.99 Keep your TV, electronics and videos in one place with this versatile TV stand. It accommodates conventional or flat-panel TVs and features 3 adjustable shelves and 3 drawers for maximum storage capability. |
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The Band Swings $9.99 Lorez Alexandria displayed more conventional jazz phrasing and style on this release, which was supported by fine charts and solid production. Although not the strongest or most dynamic vocalist, Alexandria did attract attention with her often sensual leads and sound. ~ Ron Wynn |
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You in Reverse $11.99 Track Listing: 1. Goin’ Against Your Mind, 2. Traces, 3. Liar, 4. Saturday, 5. Wherever You Go, 6. Conventional Wisdom, 7. Gone, 8. Mess with Time, 9. Just a Habit, 10. Wait, The |
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Cycles $9.99 Track Listing: 1. Let’s Go, 2. Perfect Mistake, The, 3. Faster Ride, 4. Deep South, 5. Only You, 6. It Still Remains, 7. 27 Steps, 8. See Me Now, 9. Typical, 10. Conventional Friend, 11. Retrograde |
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Dyson Groom Tool + Cleanup Kit $99.99 At the release of a button, the collected hair is hygienically sucked into the vacuum, without the mess of conventional dog grooming tools. The tool removes loose dog hair using it’s 364 slicker bristles. THe bristles are angled at 35 and flex to an upright position when you apply pressure, allowing them to penetrate the dog’s coat. |
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Trademark Games MINISTERS Chess Set $19.99 Put opponents in check in exciting new ways with this Trademark Games MINISTERS Chess 1524129 set that features an additional piece and 17 extra squares to put a spin on conventional play. Tournament-size pieces lend authentic style to your games. |
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Plus Corp of America 340 Scroll Board Whiteboard with Rotating Surface $439.13 Most conventional whiteboards on the market today have a flip style design. Because of this, the user is required to vertically flip the entire panel over in order to access the writing surface on the back. This can be extremely inconvenient, break the flow of conversation and take up a lot of space. The PLUS Scroll Board solves these problems! |
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How Hitler Lost the War - $5.99 How Hitler Lost the War is a provocative account that challenges certain conventional theories surrounding the defeat of Germany in World War II. The program argues that Allied victory was due to strategic mistakes on the part of the Germans. Told from the fictional perspective of a high-ranking Reich military officer, the documentary features animated maps, documentary footage, and interview footage. Each source offers eye-opening information. ~ Betsy Boyd, Rovi |
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Bed $12.99 Chicagoans Low Skies deliver dark, moody indie pop on their debut full-length, THE BED. Elements of alt-country and brooding, poetic post-punk (there’s a discernable Nick Cave influence here) mingle with psychedelia and more conventional, guitar-driven indie rock for a sound that is likely to satisfy fans of all those styles. Whether on dramatic rockers (opener “Down Below Him”) or murder ballads (“Stop Me”), Low Skies create a tense, sometimes strident sonic atmosphere full of storm clouds and shadowy figures. |
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Metropolis - $14.99 The biggest-budgeted movie ever produced at Germany’s UFA, Fritz Lang’s gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio’s entire annual production budget. And if it didn’t make a profit at the time — indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio — the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the many decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, … |
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Metropolis – Fullscreen B&W $24.99 The biggest-budgeted movie ever produced at Germany’s UFA, Fritz Lang’s gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio’s entire annual production budget. And if it didn’t make a profit at the time — indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio — the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the many decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, … |
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Metropolis – AC3 Dolby Limited $22.99 The biggest-budgeted movie ever produced at Germany’s UFA, Fritz Lang’s gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio’s entire annual production budget. And if it didn’t make a profit at the time — indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio — the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the many decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, … |
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Metropolis – AC3 Dolby Limited Special $24.99 The biggest-budgeted movie ever produced at Germany’s UFA, Fritz Lang’s gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio’s entire annual production budget. And if it didn’t make a profit at the time — indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio — the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the many decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, … |
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Margaret Leng Tan: George Crumb’s Makrokosmos I & II - $24.99 Explore the infinite possibilities of the piano with “extended piano” proponent Margaret Leng Tan in a release that showcases the remarkable creativity of George Crumb’s experimental “Makrokosmos” compositions. By introducing a virtuoso hybrid of conventional keyboard techniques and unconventional techniques that expose the inner workings of the piano and call on the player to whistle, chant, and whisper, Tan boldly brings Crumb’s “extended piano” compositions into the new millennium for a whole new generation of music lovers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Dyson Groom Tool – Iron $69.99 This groom tool provides dog owners with a way to help keep their home clean of dog hair. It attaches directly to the hose of your Dyson vacuum cleaner, and allows you to brush loose hair directly from your dog’s coat. At the release of a button, the collected hair is hygienically sucked into the vacuum, without the mess of conventional dog grooming tools. |
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Flammen og Citronen – Dubbed $49.99 Festival cause c?l?bre Ole Christian Madsen — the director of critically championed prior efforts including Kira’s Reason (2001) and Prague (2006) — turns away from the domestic drama that characterized his earlier filmography with this unusual period thriller, adapted from historical events. Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen star, respectively, as Flame and Citron. As two members of the anti-Nazi Danish resistance during the Second World War, their activities predominantly consist of hunting down and rubbing out Denmark’s most prominent Nazi collaborators, and thus furthering the way for the Allied cause. Although Madsen opts for conventional subject matter here, and even a traditional perspective given his film’s anti-Nazi stance, his deglamorized presentation retains a certain uniqueness, with the two main characters presented not as conventional heroes, but thoroughly desperate characters from the dregs of society with nothing left to lose except for their own lives — and sociopaths prone to the most sadistic acts of ultraviolence against the enemy. Citron fares worst, as an utterly irredeemable alcoholic and drug addict, crumbling beneath the weight of a miserable, rotten marriage and a less-than-glowing relationship with his young daughter. In touting the film, Madsen openly cited Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969) as one of his key influences. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi |
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Lost Boundaries – Fullscreen B&W $14.99 Until the House Un-American Activities Committee horned in, several postwar Hollywood films dealt with touchy “liberal” subject matter. Lost Boundaries stars Mel Ferrer as a light-skinned African-American, whose family is “passing” in an all-white New England community. When the truth comes out, the more bigoted neighbors demand the expulsion of Ferrer and his family. Considered pretty potent stuff in 1949, Lost Boundaries appears fairly conventional today, especially in its reluctance to cast a genuine black actor in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi |
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Ege Bamyasi (Japan) (Mlps) $49.99 Can: Damo Suzuki (vocals); Michael Karoli (guitar); Irmin Schmidt (keyboards); Holger Czukay (bass); Jaki Liebezeit (drums).Can were one of the most influential bands to emerge from Europe in the 70s, and this 1972 masterpiece marked a crucial stage in the development from the edgy experimentalism of their earlier albums to the softer ambience of their later work. ‘Soup’ and ‘Pinch’ were reminders of their wilder excesses, but on tracks such as ‘One More Night’ and ‘Sing Swan Song’ they demonstrated that they could be equally inventive within tighter song structures. ‘I’m So Green’ and ‘Spoon’ were almost conventional pop songs, to the extent that the latter provided the band with an unexpected chart-topper in their native Germany. |
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Woodenhead - $24.99 For anyone who ever wondered just what was really going on in the minds of the Brothers Grimm as they penned their fantastic and phantasmagorical tales, New Zealand filmmaker Florian Habicht offers a highly stylized take on some of the most imaginative tales ever penned. Every good fairy tale is pregnant with perversion and rife with ominous subtext. In the land of Woodenhead, however, conventional fairy-tale logic is turned on its head as the human subtleties that often help children relate to these strange stories are forced into the rearview mirror by the overwhelming power of humankind’s most twisted instincts. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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American Experience: One Woman, One Vote - $19.99 The 70-year battle for women’s suffrage is the subject of this gripping documentary. One Woman, One Vote documents the struggles both of the leaders and the women who fought along side them. From Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Alice Paul, this film follows the fight for equal rights. Though the U.S. called itself the world’s greatest democracy, more than half of its citizens were denied the right to vote. And yet the struggle for equal suffrage split the movement apart, pitting those who were more militant in their approach against women with more conventional strategies of education and lobbying. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, this is a valuable look at an important chapter in American history. ~ Cara Saposnik, Rovi |
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Genesis $14.99 Track Listing: 1. Let Yourself Go Another Time, 2. Paisley Windowpane, The, 3. I Realized You, 4. By the Sea, 5. You Keep Hanging Up on My Mind, 6. It’s What’s Really Happening, 7. Five O’Clock in the Morning, 8. Endless Pathway, 9. Children Laughing, 10. Winter Is Cold, The, 11. Night Behind Us, The – (previously unreleased), 12. Ice Cream Man Song, The – (previously unreleased, demo), 13. December Sun – (previously unreleased, demo), 14. Cover Our Child – (previously unreleased, demo), 15. Story of a Conventional Man – (previously unreleased, demo) |
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4 Flute Quartets $14.99 Mozart’s flute concertos are a paragon of elegance. Certainly as performed on this remarkable recording, they convey a sense of royalty and a lighter-than-air sensibility, unrooted in any worldly concern.In the hands of flautist Emmanuel Pahud, these pieces take flight. His technique and emotional performance are perfectly matched to the composer’s style. The four quartets cover a lot of ground, from the lighthearted Quartet in D to the more sober Quartet in G. Also, Quartet No. 4 in A is one of Mozart’s musical jokes, a parody of his contemporaries’ compositions. Working its way through a conventional theme, variations, and a brief minuet, it builds to an ending that evokes laughter. With their skill, grace, and humor, Pahud and company make this album a joy on many levels. |
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Scrubs: The Complete Sixth Season [3 Discs] - $19.99 Includes:Scrubs: My Best Friend’s Baby and My Baby’s Baby (2006) Scrubs: My Mirror Image (2006) Scrubs: My Coffee (2006) Scrubs: Their Story (2007) Scrubs: My Turf War (2007) Scrubs: My Friend With Money (2007) Scrubs: My Night to Remember (2007) Scrubs: My Perspective (2007) Scrubs: His Story IV (2007) Scrubs: My Conventional Wisdom (2007) Scrubs: My Rabbit (2007) Scrubs: My Point of No Return (2007) Scrubs: My Cold Shower (2007) Scrubs: My House (2007) Scrubs: My Musical (2007) Scrubs: My … |
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Bron Into 90′S (Bonus Track) (Japan) $49.99 Personnel: R. Kelly (vocals, keyboards, drum programming); Mr. Lee (vocals, programming); Danny Wilensy (saxophone); Bobby West (keyboards); Allan “Byrd” Tatum (programming, background vocals); Timmy Allen (programming); Georgette Franklin, Nicole Wilson, Dana Stovall, Karen Gordon, Joizae Smith (background vocals).One of the last popular New Jack groups, this East Coast unit had some smash singles in 1992 doing both conventional R&B/soul and hip-hop/new jack tracks. They did both originals and covers, had an enthusiastic attitude, were well produced, and stayed on the urban contemporary outlets throughout the year. ~ Ron Wynn |
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In & Out (Japan) (Mlps) (Shm) $54.99 Focus’ debut album is gentler and more low-key and vocal-oriented than their subsequent efforts; fans of Jan Akkerman’s pyrotechnics may be disappointed by his relatively restrained presence, but others may be pleasantly surprised to find a more economic group than they remember. A fair collection of progressive rock tunes without a clear focus, the material is dominated by Thijs Van Leer, often introducing classical sensibilities. But at least as often, it sticks with fairly conventional period folk-rock and blues influences, with occasional jazzy shadings. Akkerman’s “House of the King” is the most accurate Jethro Tull imitation ever recorded. ~ Richie Unterberger |
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The Jayhawkers – Widescreen $24.99 Set in the Kansas territory during the middle of the 19th century, this is a visually evocative but conventional western. The story deals with Darcy (Jeff Chandler), a ruthless man, one of the raiders known as “Jayhawkers” who wants more than what life is willing to offer. Starting out as anti-slavery activists, the Jayhawkers’ origins are barely mentioned in the story, as Darcy uses them to support his growing power. Opposing his unscrupulous bid for control of the region is Cam (Fess Parker, of Davy Crockett fame on American TV) an ex-convict. Cam knows that Darcy is responsible for the death of his wife while he was in prison and he plans to bring him down. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi |
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Saints and Sinners – Widescreen Dolby $14.99 Directed by Abigail Honor, this documentary follows the journey of a gay couple whose sexual orientation — or, at least, the religious community’s reaction to it — is at odds with their devout Catholicism, particularly in regards to getting married. Though the two men are able to conquer the sizeable hurdle of finding a gay priest and a Catholic church willing to host the ceremony, they find an equally intimidating obstacle in the would-be attendees, who, despite being perfectly affable friends beforehand, become worried that their own eternal souls may be put in jeopardy by participating in the wedding. As Saints and Sinners progresses, the conventional line between the holy and the unholy are blurred as the future grooms illustrate the lengths they are willing to go to in order to officiate their love for one another. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi |
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The Legend of King Arthur: Camelot – Dolby $14.99 In the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the city of Camelot plays a vital role, as the seat of power for the wise and mighty king as well as a place of beauty and solace that a great man would gladly call home. But while King Arthur and many of his Knights were at least inspired by characters in real life, it’s long been a matter of debate if there really was a Camelot — and if so, where it was and what it was like. The Legend of King Arthur: Camelot is a documentary which explores the myth and conventional wisdom about the fabled city, as well as historical and archeological research which attempts to clarify if Camelot did indeed have some basis in fact. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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U2: The Best of 1990-2000 - $18.99 Although the conventional wisdom is that Irish rock band U2 lost their way during the ’90s, this compilation of videos shows that the work they did during that period is worthy of further consideration. This plentiful collection contains clips from Achtung Baby era hits like “One,” “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” and “Mysterious Ways,” as well as the more challenging videos for “Numb,” “Lemon,” and the lead single from Pop, “Discoteque.” Sure to please fans of the band, this release may help people reconsider their opinions of U2′s output during the Clinton years. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi |
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Roots: A Documentary Film - $29.99 Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Ga?l’s three-hour documentary opus Gy?kerek (AKA Roots) recounts the life story of classical composer Bela Bartok. Ga?l, however, foregoes conventional documentary elements such as interviews and a narrator, and instead restricts his compositional materials to photographs of Bartok’s life, excerpts from Bartok’s musical compositions, and extracts from Bartok’s memoirs recited by S?ndor Szak?csi – sans outside commentary by “experts.” This approach produces an unprecedentedly intimate exploration of the composer’s spiritual, psychological and creative life-journey. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi |
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The All American Girls Dance Funk Workout - $9.99 High-stepping, fast-paced dance standards flow throughout this aerobic workout tape from Parade video. Follow along with the All-American girls, who hoof their way into peak physical condition. Dance routines include the Robocop, Go-Go, Steppin’ and just Hanging Out. While the steps are intense, there is a beginner level to warm-up before kicking it into high gear with the more advanced versions. This 30-minute workout takes the boredom out of getting into shape, by taking the viewer outside the gym and puts them into the dance halls. The results are a great mix of new age performing arts and conventional exercising. ~ C. Dwayne Smith, Rovi |
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Samsung MZ-7PC256N 256 GB Internal Solid State Drive $344.99 Solid State Drives, or SSDs, are innovative data storage devices that deliver high performance, reliability, and quality by using NAND Flash memory instead of the magnetic disks used in traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). SSDs provide very fast PC booting and application loading speeds and perform exceptionally well in multi-tasking environments – all while consuming less power, emitting very little heat, producing no noise, and offering outstanding stability compared to conventional HDDs. Please visit www.samsung.com/SSD for more information on SSD technology. |
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Sony HDMI Cable / USB 20 Cable Pack for PlayStation 3 $59.99 Learn more about HDMI Cable / USB 2.0 Cable Pack for PlayStation 3. (Flash demo) With this HDMI cable and USB 2.0 cable pack, you’ll have reliable connections that make life a lot easier. The HDMI cable enables the highest quality audio-video experience for HDMI equipped displays. It supports picture quality up to 1080p, five times the resolution of conventional TV, and helps achieve optimized performance from HDMI 1.3 equipped devices, such as PlayStation 3. The USB 2.0 cable can be used to recharge your SIXAXIS wireless controller. It can also be used to connect your PSP to your PlayStation 3 system. |
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Hollywood $12.99 Veteran Finnish experimenters Circle have consistently adhered to the deranged and hypnotic repetition of Kraut rock groups like Can and Faust, and HOLLYWOOD is, in some ways, no major departure. The exploration of grooves remains a hallmark, and subtle metallic crunch has always been an element of their sound. What’s different, however, is a more Americanized feel, courtesy of collaborator Bruce Duff. Duff, the former vocalist for Jesters of Destiny, sings here in his native English, a curious move from a band that’s known for their own made-up language. “Earthworm” almost sounds like an endless echo of part of Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher,” softened up with acid and weed and left reeling while Duff’s clear vocals rant over the top. “Sacrifice” is a bottom-heavy metal motor trucking through dusty highways in an ever-shifting landscape. It’s a hint more conventional than usual for Circle, but not much. |
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Bird – Widescreen Special $16.99 Forest Whitaker stars as the brilliant jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker in this elegiac biopic. Director Clint Eastwood pays full homage to Parker’s musical genius, but also devotes ample time to the musician’s twin demons–drugs and alcohol-which accelerated his death at the age of 34. In his struggles to gain widespread acceptance for his music, “Bird” is forever stymied by his own self-destructiveness, and forever bailed out by the love of his life, Chan Richardson Parker (Diane Venora). The film bemoans the decline of the brand of jazz fathered by Parker, which came to be replaced by more conventional material — as illustrated by the “descent” into the mainstream of Parker’s mentor Buster Franklin. Also starring in Bird is Samuel E. Wright as Dizzy Gillespie. That’s the real Charlie “Bird” Parker on the film’s soundtrack, though most of the background music has been re-orchestrated. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi |
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Shine $7.99 While Trey Anastasio has released plenty of records outside of his former band, Phish, 2005′s SHINE marks only the second time that the singer/virtuoso guitarist has delved deeply into more unadorned pop/rock territory (the first being his self-titled 2002 album). Jam-band fans may be shocked to note that none of the songs exceed the six-minute mark, and, in fact, many numbers, particularly the catchy title track and the energetic “Air Said to Me,” are conventional yet tight and highly melodic rock tunes. Conceived with the heavy involvement of producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Train), SHINE is a showcase for Anastasio’s underrated songwriting ability, and proves to be pleasantly accessible for those not accustomed to the instrumental meanderings of his earlier projects. |
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Cosi Fan Tutte (Wiener Philharmoniker) - $34.99 Cosi fan tutte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s bawdy 1790 dramma giocoso, recounts the randy tale of Ferrando and Guglielmo, two officers, stationed in Naples, who attempt to exchange fianc?es in a wager. Fairly conventional for its time, Cosi failed to raise any eighteenth century eyebrows but (with its lasciviousness) became something of an ire-engendering piece in the more-conservative centuries to come. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle staged a production of Cosi at a Palladian villa in 1988, featuring musical accompaniment by the Nikolaus Harnoncourt-conducted Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Staatsopernchor; a film of that production is now available in the home release, Cosi fan tutte. Luis Lima appears as Ferrando, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Guglielmo, Delores Ziegler as Dorabella and Edita Gruberova as Fiordiligi. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi |
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Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle – Subtitle $24.99 Maverick Japanese director Sogo Ishii takes an unexpectedly conventional approach in this screen adaptation of a well-known Japanese folk legend of the 12th century. In the long-standing battle of the Genji and Heiki clans, the Heiki have emerged triumphant, but they find they have a new adversary in Shanao (Tadanobu Asano), a demon who each night lays waste to the Heiki warriors near the Gojoe Bridge in Kyoto. Retired warrior Monk Benkei (Daisuke Ryu) learns of his wrath, and after capturing the sword of the Demon Slayer, journeys to Kyoto to do battle with Shanao. But Benkei learns that Shanao isn’t a demon after all — he is one of the last surviving Genji, who has taken on the garb of a demon in a final bid to defeat his sworn enemies and restore the honor of his family. A box-office success in Japan, Gojo Reisen Ki was first shown in North America as part of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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Salisbury (Japan) (Mlps) (Shm) $54.99 Personnel: Mick Box (vocals, acoustic guitar, guitar), Ken Hensley (vocals, acoustic & slide guitar, piano, harpsichord, organ, piano, vibraphone); David Byron (vocals); Paul Newton (bass); Keith Baker (drums).Recorded at Landsdowne Studios, London, England in October and November 1970.Includes liner notes by Ken Hensley.With their third release (and second album of 1971), SALISBURY, Uriah Heep issued their first real ambitious work. While their first couple of albums (URIAH HEEP and LOOK AT YOURSELF) were cut from the same monolithic blues-metal cloth as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, it was with SALISBURY that David Byron and co. let their admiration of progressive rock seep in–most notably on the album closing, over 16-minute title track, which featured a 26-piece orchestra. Elsewhere on the album, the songs are shorter and more conventional, such as the acoustic ballad “Lady in Black” and the jazzy track “The Park.” |
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In & Out (Japan) (Remastered) $39.99 This intriguing 1970 debut album from prog-rockers Focus features eight tracks, including “Sugar Island” and “House Of The King.”This edition is digitally remastered.Focus’ debut album is gentler and more low-key and vocal-oriented than their subsequent efforts; fans of Jan Akkerman’s pyrotechnics may be disappointed by his relatively restrained presence, but others may be pleasantly surprised to find a more economic group than they remember. A fair collection of progressive rock tunes without a clear focus, the material is dominated by Thijs Van Leer, often introducing classical sensibilities. But at least as often, it sticks with fairly conventional period folk-rock and blues influences, with occasional jazzy shadings. Akkerman’s “House of the King” is the most accurate Jethro Tull imitation ever recorded. ~ Richie Unterberger |
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Love Walked In [Import] $37.99 Personnel: Steve Kuhn (piano); Buster Williams (bass); Bill Stewart (drums).Recorded at Clinton Studios, New York, New York on September 11 & 12, 1998. Includes liner notes by Don Heckman.Pianist Steve Kuhn has played a wide variety of music throughout his career, including his own intriguing originals and collaborations with Sheila Jordan. This set, a straight-ahead swinger with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Bill Stewart, should greatly satisfy bop-oriented jazz fans, for it finds Kuhn coming up with consistently fresh ideas in a conventional but far from exhausted setting. Whether digging into Duke Jordan’s “No Problem,” “Love Walked In,” a passionate version of “Autumn Leaves,” or even “Sunny,” Kuhn is heard throughout at the top of his game. The presence of Williams and Stewart in supporting but stimulating roles clearly inspired Steve Kuhn, making this an easily recommended date. ~ Scott Yanow |
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In the City of Angels [Bonus Track] $20.99 In 1988, Anderson quit Yes for the second time and released his first regular solo album in six years, In The City Of Angels. Stewart Levine, best known for his work with Culture Club, was brought in to produce; Anderson worked with a team of L.A. session stars and wrote a couple of songs with ex-Motown ace Lamont Dozier. All of this seemed to portend a more commercial-sounding, straightahead pop effort from the usually ethereal Anderson. The result is about half and half: when writing with Dozier, Anderson expresses conventional romantic sentiments, for which he doesn’t really have a feel. His tenor is so chaste and angelic, it’s hard for him to be believable on earthly love songs. And soon enough, especially on later tracks, Anderson is once again in spiritual outer space, where he seems most comfortable. The compromise, however, did not appeal to fans, who avoided this album. ~ William Ruhlmann |
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Piccadilly Sunshine Vol.4 $15.99 Track Listing: 1. I’ll Be on My Way Dear – Barry Ryan, 2. People People – Lace, 3. Rainmaker – The Laurels, 4. True-to-Life – David Morgan, 5. And So to Sleep – Gaslight, 6. Stop! Thief – Keith Field, 7. Conventional Fella – Jago Simms, 8. Visions – Gervase, 9. Musical Man – Paul Raven, 10. Day That War Broke Out, The – Keith Field, 11. House of Lords – The Monopoly, 12. Meditation – Chris McClure, 13. Flowers for My Friends – Joyces Angels, 14. Mr. & Mrs. Regards – Factotums, 15. Mister Personality Man – West Coast Delegation, 16. Dawning – David Morgan, 17. Mr. Travel Company – Brian Connell, 18. Angela – Deuce Coup, 19. Hands on My Clock Stand Still, The – Now, 20. Haunted – Bob Clarke |
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Plenty – Widescreen Dubbed Dolby $8.99 Plenty boasts a cast of actors ranging from John Gielgud as an ethical and caustic senior diplomat to Meryl Streep as Susan Traherne, a woman looking for solace and a decent life in the aftermath of World War II. After World War II has ended, along with her work in the French Resistance movement and an idealized love affair with a soldier, Susan finds jobs in the business and diplomatic worlds. Her life slowly disintegrates as she tries and fails to have a child then marries diplomat Raymond Brock (Charles Dance) and suffers further emotional decline as her rather conventional marriage eventually becomes cool and finally, alienating. Against Susan’s difficulties are tumultuous events in the background — the Suez Canal crisis and Middle East developments among them. David Hare adapted the screenplay from his successful stage play which first opened in 1978. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi |
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Good Intentions – Widescreen Subtitle $8.99 When a frustrated mother sees her life saving slipping away, she turns to a life of crime in order to ensure her family’s financial stability. Etta Milford (Elaine Hendrix) is the last woman you’d expect to find holding up a convenience store with a shotgun, but when it comes to protecting her family all bets are off. Now, in addition to armed robbery, she’s blackmailing the local sheriff and taking advice from a small-town stripper. It may not be the most conventional path to happiness, but if Etta can just avoid winding up in prison, she might just manage to pull her family together once and for all. Co-starring Luke Perry, Jon Gries, and LeeAnn Rimes. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Color of the Cross – Widescreen Dubbed Subtitle AC3 $12.99 Actor/director/screenwriter Jean-Claude La Marre offers a controversial new vision of religious history with this interpretation of the Bible that presents Jesus Christ as a black man and suggests that the crucifixion, may, in fact, have been racially motivated. By exploring the last 48 hours in the life of Christ (La Marre), the director/screenwriter places the relationship shared between the Biblical Messiah and his disciples, the mindset of the Romans who occupied Judea, Joseph’s relationship with his family, and the manner in which Mary and Joseph’s family was affected by Jesus’ persecution under the microscope to challenge conventional beliefs and encourage audiences to question the manner in which the story of Jesus has been interpreted by modern, organized religion. Beginning with the preparations of the Last Supper and ending with the Crucifixion that would set into motion one of the most spectacular stories ever told, Color of the Cross aims to tell a timeless and familiar tale from a fresh and thought-provoking new perspective. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Freakonomics – Widescreen Subtitle AC3 Dolby $19.99 Inspired by authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wildly popular best-seller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, this documentary teams such acclaimed filmmakers as Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), and Seth Gordon (The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) to look at human behavior from a perspective of incentives and statistics. Conventional wisdom gets caught in the crosshairs when Jesus Camp co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady explore how underachieving kids respond when they’re rewarded for hard work with greenbacks; Gibney throws open the curtain on sumo wrestling; Spurlock examines how baby names can affect a child’s development; and Why We Fight director Eugene Jarecki offers a troubling hypothesis on why the early-’90s saw some of the lowest crime rates of the latter 20th century. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Harlem Double Feature: Dirty Gertie From Harlem / Sepia Cinderella - $5.99 Includes:Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA (1946) Sepia Cinderella (1947) Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA Gertie flees New York City, running from an old boyfriend, and finds herself on the island of Trinidad. ~ Rovi Sepia Cinderella As indicated by the title, Sepia Cinderella is an updated retelling of the classic fairy tale, featuring a cast of African-American performers. The “Cinderella” is this instance is a young man, played by Ruble Blakely. A struggling songwriter, Blakely scores an unexpected hit, then finds that he can’t cope with success. He is brought down to earth by his faithful girlfriend (Sheila Guyse). Though produced by blacks for a predominantly black audience, Sepia Cinderella is strictly white-bread when honoring the conventional cliches. There’s even the scene in which the hero must choose between a high-society debutante and the “regular” girl he left behind. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi |
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I Heard It Today $14.99 Far from complacent in the post-Bush era, Mr. Lif asks, “So we all supposed to just start trustin’ the government again `cause we got a friendlier face to it now?” in the opening seconds of his third LP. The Boston lyricist is still in attack-mode, taking on a range of topical issues including the housing crisis (“Welcome to the World,” the title track, and elsewhere) and corporate bailouts (“What About Us?”). It’s all pretty heavy for conventional hip-hop but then again Mr. Lif has never been known to make party music. Lif takes a break from his agitprop onslaught for the reflective “Head High,” a stumbling, piano-driven smoke session with a friend who just came home. I HEARD IT TODAY features guest-spots from Bahamadia and Vinnie Paz, and production by Batsauce, J-Zone, Headnodic, Cut Chemist, and Lif himself. |
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Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle - $14.99 The focus of this two-part British drama was not on the fictional Sherlock Holmes but on his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. Set in 1878, the story found young physician Conan Doyle (Robin Laing) working as an apprentice to Edinburgh forensic specialist Dr. Joseph Bell (Ian Richardson). In keeping with the conventional wisdom that Bell was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, the doctor and his youthful assistant attempt to capture a serial murderer through the means of scientific deductions. The script was full of amusing “inside” jokes referencing future Holmes short stories and novels, while the cast was surprisingly topheavy with comic actors. Originally seen over the BBC2 service on January 4 and 5, 1999, Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes aired on American TV as a single two-hour “movie” on May 18, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi |
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Little Women – Widescreen AC3 Special $12.99 Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel about a family of women in Civil War-era New England is again brought to the screen in this adaptation. The focus is on the March sisters, four young girls raised by their mother (Susan Sarandon) after their father leaves for battle as part of the Union Army. At the center is Jo March (Winona Ryder), an idiosyncratic would-be writer said to be based on Alcott herself, but the film also focuses on the stories of her sisters — the more conventional Meg (Trini Alvarado), the innocent Beth (Claire Danes), and the precocious Amy (Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis, who represent Amy at different ages.) The film spans years, following the girls’ struggles with life’s challenges and illustrating how their family connection remains strong in the face of tragedies large and small. Australian director Gillian Armstrong emphasizes the story’s feminist elements, particularly in Jo’s journey to independence. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi |
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Murmur of the Heart – Fullscreen $21.99 Told with fondness and precision, and set in France at the time of the IndoChina War (which later became an American problem known as the Vietnam War), this controversial feature handles teen coming-of-age, sexuality and even incest with a gentleness that disappointed the prurient and shocked the conservative. This is one of director Louis Malle’s finest films: others include The Fire Within and Au Revoir Les Enfants. Laurent (Benoit Ferreux) is 14 years old and anxious to lose his virginity. However, he has a very close family circle, and, between the family and school, he is too closely watched to get anywhere. He makes the most of an opportunity to neck with the girls at his older brothers’ party and later almost gets to lose his virginity in a bordello, but his boisterously drunken brothers interrupt him. His real opportunity arises while his mother takes him for a rest-cure for his heart murmur at a very conventional spa. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi |
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Octopussy – Widescreen Dubbed Subtitle AC3 $14.99 This (13th) time around, “007″ receives the usual call to come and visit “Mother” when another agent drops off a fake Faberge jeweled egg at the British embassy in East Berlin and is later killed at a traveling circus. Suspicions mount when the assistant manager of the circus Kamal (Louis Jourdan), outbids Bond for the real Faberge piece at Sotheby’s. Bond follows Kamal to India where the superspy thwarts many an ingenious attack and encounters the antiheroine of the title (Maud Adams), an international smuggler who runs the circus as a cover for her illegal operations. It does not take long to figure out that Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a decidedly rank Russian general is planning to raise enough money with the fake Faberges to detonate a nuclear bomb in Europe and then defeat NATO forces once and for all in conventional warfare. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi |
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Clive Barker’s Jericho PRE-OWNED – PlayStation 3 $7.99 SynopsisA lost city mysteriously reappears in a remote desert. From there, an ancient evil breaks through into our world, threatening to unleash a wave of disease, corruption and perversity across the entire planet. It is up to you, as the leader of a paranormal Special Forces squad, to hunt down and destroy the evil that lurks in the heart of the city before it destroys humanity. The master mythmaker, novelist and filmmaker, Clive Barker, has returned to the world of video games to produce a new nightmare. In Clive Barker’s Jericho, you will need to harness your squad’s abilities in conventional warfare and the arcane arts to defeat the darkest of adversaries. With a next-generation graphics engine that brings nightmarish demons and monsters to life along with an ambitious, age-spanning story, this is a game that mixes fear and fun in unique ways. |
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Wii Sports PRE-OWNED – Nintendo Wii $9.99 SynopsisWii Sports takes all of the heart-pounding action of five of your favorite games from the sports arena and welcomes it right into your living room. Unique to Nintendo’s Wii platform, you’ll get into the swing of things with your Wii Remote, and transcend conventional gameplay. Get ready for a lot of high-action fun that won’t land you in the penalty box. Trade in your joystick for a jump at the chance to play some of the most sought-after sports. New twists on classic games, including tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing, are designed with players of all levels in mind. Swing your controller like a racket, bat or club, roll a ball down the lanes, or dish out a fierce right jab. Put your Mii caricatures in the game and play them against your friends’ Miis for a more personalized experience. As you improve, your Mii’s skill level will, too. |
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Wolfenstein PRE-OWNED – PlayStation 3 $19.99 SynopsisWar rages between the Axis and Allied powers, and more than mere conventional weapons have come into play. The Nazis’ obsession with the occult is well known, but when evidence emerges pointing to the Nazis’ possession of a new and mysterious supernatural power, you are sent on a special mission into the heart of the Reich to investigate. The terrible weapon you will discover there may have drastic consequences that could change the course of history forever. In Wolfenstein, the Nazis are in the process of creating a weapon of war-ending mass destruction by harnessing the power of the Black Sun through a dark parallel dimension called The Veil. You’ll take on the role of BJ Blazkowicz, a decorated member of the Office of Secret Actions, and must face the strange and ferocious enemies that lurk in the landscape. Team up with resistance fighters and unleash the power of a diverse range of weaponry, including occult-enhanced weapons. Will you be able to put a stop to the Nazis’ sinister plot, or will the world fall prey to their dark and perverse ambitions? |
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Wolfenstein PRE-OWNED – Xbox 360 $19.99 SynopsisWar rages between the Axis and Allied powers, and more than mere conventional weapons have come into play. The Nazis’ obsession with the occult is well known, but when evidence emerges pointing to the Nazis’ possession of a new and mysterious supernatural power, you are sent on a special mission into the heart of the Reich to investigate. The terrible weapon you will discover there may have drastic consequences that will change the course of history forever. In Wolfenstein, the Nazis are in the process of creating a weapon of war-ending mass destruction by harnessing the power of the Black Sun through a dark parallel dimension called The Veil. You’ll take on the role of BJ Blazkowicz, a decorated member of the Office of Secret Actions, and must face the strange and ferocious enemies that lurk in the landscape. Team up with resistance fighters and unleash the power of a diverse range of weaponry, including occult-enhanced weapons. Will you be able to put a stop to the Nazis’ sinister plot, or will the world fall prey to their dark and perverse ambitions? |
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One Way $13.99 Conventional wisdom states that drum solos become very boring, very fast. After hearing Chicago drummer Jerry Steinhilber’s maiden album, “so much for conventional wisdom.” Steinhilber has a light touch and a unique sense of the rhythmic potential offered by the drum set. He follows in the footsteps of Elvin Jones, Billy Higgins, and others who moved the instrument beyond keeping time and laying down the beat. Steinhilber opens “A Sense of Fairness” with a lengthy solo, managing to create a rhythmic wash of percussive sounds that eventually melds into the motifs of the other members of the band as they join in, especially Brian Sjoerdinga on tenor. His musical foil is pianist Jim Trompeter on “One Way,” a track that recalls blowing sessions of the 1960s. But unlike many modern drummers, Steinhilber makes relatively little use of ride and hi-hat cymbals. When he brings these percussive ingredients into play, he does so with a subtle and delicate touch. He also is an equal partner in the development and execution of improvisational ideas, and does so without becoming meddlesome. In this sense, he takes on the traditional role of the drummer, urging other members of the band to extend themselves. How he does this is best heard on “Monk’s Mood,” where he moves underneath Sjoerdinga’s tenor and, to a lesser extent, Trompeter’s piano, gently nudging these two to expand their ways with Monk’s masterpiece of musical impressionism. The appropriately named “Balance” brings some lightness to an otherwise serious session, as everyone is quite sprightly while moving along on this bright tune. Kelly Sill’s light touch on the bass is prominent on this cut. A solid session of modern jazz, this album is recommended. ~ Dave Nathan |
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Close My Eyes [LP] $15.98 The Slackers: Victor Ruggiero (vocals, harmonica, melodica, piano, organ, percussion); Marc Lynn (vocals); Thomas John Scanlon (guitar); David Hillyard (saxophone); Glen Pine (trombone, background vocals); Marcus Geard (bass, Chapman stick, background vocals); Allen Tebout (drums).Recorded at Noise New York, Mount Vernon, New York and Landmark Studios, Brooklyn, New York.The Slackers return with Close My Eyes, and it might be their most mature album yet. Whether that’s a compliment or a slight depends on your opinion of ska, and if you say you don’t have one, you’re lying. Eyes mixes dub and ska rhythms with Vic Ruggiero’s increasingly conventional songwriting, which can be really effective, as it is with the concise, soulful “Mommy.” But sometimes the Slackers seem to slip in the integration department. The puttering, rocksteady-inspired groove of “Axes,” for example, seems completely disconnected from Ruggiero’s conventional (and clunky) vocals — the track could have easily been an instrumental. And while the band’s ruminations on 9/11 are no doubt inspired, “Real War” gets a bit uncomfortable when it begins pleading for racial equality from warmongering politicians. The sentiment is respectable, to be sure. But the track’s by-the-numbers dub begins to work against it, mostly because it seems to rest on your perceptions of past reggae/dub protest songs. This is a persistent issue with the third wave and beyond, since the music is by design tradition-minded but still wants to push things forward like any functional band would. The Slackers may or may not have succeeded at achieving this balance, but they’ve likely made an album their established fan base will love, if nothing else. Close My Eyes is also perfectly recorded, aping the flat, splashy Studio One sound. This is especially apparent on the opening and closing instrumentals, as well as the light dub of “Lazy Woman.” ~ Johnny Loftus |
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Tales of the Rat Fink - $14.99 Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a genius of outlaw art who took America’s obsession with all that is fast, loud, and streamlined and built it into an empire. In the 1950s, Roth was a hot-rodder who moved from bodywork and helping guys fine-tune the look of their jalopies to building unique custom machines. Roth threw out the rule book of conventional automotive design and created fantastic visions of chrome, fiberglass, and supercharged engines that took one of America’s most conventional consumer items and turned it into a freaked-out vision of post-adolescent cool. Roth was also a gifted cartoonist, and along with his cars he also created freaked-out automotive cartoons that made the artwork in Mad Magazine look sedate; his trademark character was Rat Fink, a maniacal, grinning rodent who was usually seen popping the clutch behind the wheel of one of Roth’s outlandish cars. Between Roth’s crazed automobiles, which drew thousands of fans to auto shows; the reproductions of them (in the form of model kits), which sold in the millions; and the Rat Fink and Monster T-shirts (which are still on the market today), Roth was one of the most influential figures in popular culture in the 1960s, and Tales of the Rat Fink is a documentary by Ron Mann that features interviews with Roth’s friends and fans as well as animated sequences that bring his cars and creatures to life onscreen. John Goodman, Tom Wolfe, Brian Wilson, Matt Groening, Jay Leno, and Ann-Margret are among those who contributed their voices to the project; acclaimed indie rockers the Sadies composed and performed the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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The Fountain – Widescreen Dubbed Subtitle AC3 $5.99 Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky switches gears from drug-induced urban malaise to abstract science fiction with this time-tripping symbolic tale of a man’s thousand-year quest to save the woman he loves. Moving between representational stories and images, this meditation on life and death focuses on the concept of the mythical Tree of Life that is said to bestow immortality to all who drink of its sap. In one of the film’s allegorical timelines, a 16th century Spanish conquistador played by Hugh Jackman sets out to find the tree in order to save his queen (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. Another conceptual story finds Jackman centuries later, struggling with mortality as a modern-day scientist desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi. The third and most abstract concept finds Jackman as a different incarnation of the same character-idea, this time questing for eternal life within the confines of a floating sphere transporting the aged Tree of Life through the depths of space. Even more avant-garde than his breakthrough film Pi, The Fountain finds Aronofsky almost completely abandoning conventional story structure in favor of something more cinematically abstract. Though the film was originally slapped with an R by the MPAA, Aronofsky and co. re-edited it to conform to a PG-13 rating. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi |
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Chasing Liberty – Widescreen Dubbed Subtitle AC3 $12.99 Television director Andy Cadiff turns toward feature films to direct the romantic comedy Chasing Liberty, which appears to be loosely based on the 1953 Audrey Hepburn classic Roman Holiday. Mandy Moore stars as Anna Foster, the 18-year-old daughter of President of the United States James Foster (Mark Harmon). Anna has led quite a privileged life, but she has grown to resist the constant presence of Secret Service agents getting in the way of her independence. While on a family trip to Europe, Anna manages to get away from security for a brief time. She inevitably falls into the romantic arms of British boy Ben Calder (Matthew Goode), with whom she enjoys a fresh and clean European vacation. Not wanting to ruin her fun, she doesn’t tell him about her upper-class social status. But, alas, Ben surprises her with a secret identity of his own. Jeremy Piven and Annabella Sciorra play two Secret Service agents. Caroline Goodall plays the wise, conventional First Lady. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi |
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Summer Holiday – Fullscreen $24.99 Summer Holiday is a musical remake of the 1935 MGM comedy-drama Ah, Wilderness!, which in turn was adapted from the play by Eugene O’Neill. Mickey Rooney (who played a supporting role in the 1935 film) stars as O’Neill’s alter ego Richard Miller, a young man coming of age in early 20th century New England. Anxious to live life to the fullest, Richard ignores the cautionary admonitions of his father Nat (Walter Huston), preferring instead to follow the example of Uncle Sid (Frank Morgan), the family’s “black sheep”. In his ongoing quest for wine, women and song (he gets precious little of the first two commodities, but plenty of the third!) Richard ignores the fact that the true love of his life, sweet young Muriel (Gloria De Haven), has been under his nose all along. Director Rouben Mamoulien’s obsession with cinematic innovations is largely absent here; what emerges is a staid, conventional MGM musical, albeit gorgeously photographed in Technicolor by Charles Schoenbaum. Filmed in 1946 but not released until 1948, Summer Holiday would not be the last musicalized version of Ah, Wilderness!; that honor went to the 1959 Broadway musical Take Me Along, which starred Jackie Gleason as Uncle Sid. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi |
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Cowards Bend the Knee – Fullscreen B&W Subtitle $24.99 The wildly idiosyncratic Canadian auteur Guy Maddin created this exercise in semi-autobiographical impressionism. Guy Maddin (Darcy Fehr) is a gifted but weak-willed hockey player who has helped drive the Winnipeg Maroons to a championship season. However, Maddin’s sense of triumph is dashed when his girlfriend Veronica (Amy Stewart) informs him that she’s pregnant. Incapable of dealing with parenthood, Maddin escorts Veronica to The Black Silhouette, a combination beauty shop and brothel where a cross-dressing doctor performs abortions. As Veronica is on the operating table, Maddin spies Meta (Melissa Dionisio) and immediately falls in love with her, leaving Veronica behind. While Meta is attracted to Maddin, she will not grant him her favors until he passes a test — he must track down the man who murdered her father and kill him using her late father’s own blue hands. Shot on Super-8 film, Cowards Bend the Knee was originally created by Maddin as an art installation presented at a Toronto gallery and at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where viewers watched the film in six-minute segments through peepholes; it was later released in a conventional full-screen version. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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Definite Article $14.99 Briefly available on CD upon its 1996 release but not widely distributed until Anti Records reissued all of Eddie Izzard’s early albums in 2004, Definite Article is the second of Izzard’s mid-’90s run of stand-up showcases. A huge creative leap forward from 1994′s much more conventional Unrepeatable, Definite Article was recorded in December 1995 on the last night of a ten-week stand at London’s Shaftesbury Theater. (The first several minutes, in fact, are a hilarious routine about how difficult it is to locate the theater.) Coming as it does at the end of a long run of doing the same material, Definite Article features Izzard being so comfortable with the material that he’s largely dispensed with his usual linking material and just sort of rambles back and forth between routines. Unlike comedians like Robin Williams and Billy Connolly, whose routines were primarily improvised, Izzard is working from a script, which means that although the album’s central long routine — 20 hilarious minutes about supermarkets — is broken up by digressions about Hitler’s vegetarianism and the Queen Mum’s hip replacement surgeries, he always returns to his main themes, making Definite Article a meandering but quite often hilarious journey. ~ Stewart Mason |
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Two of a Mind [Bonus Tracks] $6.99 Personnel: Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone); John Beal, Wendell Marshall, Joe Benjamin (bass); Connie Kay, Mel Lewis (drums).Principally recorded at RCA Studio A, New York, New York on June 26, July 3 & August 13, 1962. Originally released on RCA (2624).A pinnacle of coolly understated improvisation, 1962′s TWO OF A MIND is a highly successful collaboration between the contrapuntally inclined baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and the lyrical, urbane altoist Paul Desmond. As was Mulligan’s penchant during most of his career, this group forgoes the presence of piano or guitar as accompaniment. But the conventional back-up isn’t missed at all, as the two master jazzmen dance and weave around each other, filling potentially empty space with an elegant call-and-response that provides a rich harmonic content all on its own. It also helps that the other players include the subtly masterful drummers Connie Kay (from the MJQ) and Mel Lewis. A leisurely and exploratory “Stardust” is a highlight as is the fast tempo “The Way You Look Tonight,” a workout to keep all concerned on their collective toes. |
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Percussion in the Sky/Wild Strings $22.99 2 LPs on 1 CD: WILD STRINGS (1969)/ PERCUSSION IN THE SKY (1962).Liner Note Author: Oliver Lomax.Bandleader Werner M?ller’s LPs for the London Phase 4 label remain some of the most seriously deranged easy listening records ever released. A bizarrely beautiful m?lange of wordless vocals, pioneering production techniques, and oddball instrumentation, the music possesses an otherworldly splendor unique in the annals of space age pop. Released in 1962, Percussion in the Sky remains M?ller’s masterpiece: a concept record assembling a dozen pop standards linked thematically by their celestial titles (e.g., “You Are My Lucky Star,” “I Got the Sun in the Morning,” “Over the Rainbow”), its use of cosmic sound effects, vocal delays, and other chicanery still sounds revolutionary — if Spike Jones collaborated on an album with Galileo, it would sound exactly like this. This two-fer release also features 1963′s Wild Strings, a similarly far-out subversion of more traditional favorites — though not quite so over the top in its stereo gimmickry, the album retains its predecessor’s disdain for conventional sound and structure, stretching compositions like “The Breeze and I,” “Lady of Spain,” and “Hora Staccato” far past their breaking points. ~ Jason Ankeny |
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Elephant Tales – Widescreen Fullscreen Dubbed $12.99 Wild animals unite to free one of their own in this adventure tale for the whole family filmed in the Zulu country of Africa. Tutu is a baby elephant growing up on the African savanna with his older brother, Zef. Tutu and Zef live a carefree life, playing together and having fun with the other animals living nearby, including chimps, giraffes, lions, and rhinos. However, Tutu and Zef’s lives take an unpleasant turn when their mother is captured by poachers, who they call “the badness.” With the help of some of their animal friends who have already been orphaned, the elephants set out to find their mom and bring her back home. Elephant Tales was shot in Kenya using rescued wild animals who were not trained in the conventional sense, but allowed to plot their own movements. When certain actions were requited for the sake of the story, they were subtly guided through play and interaction with their minders rather than rote memorization. Elephant Tales received its North American premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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Revenge of the Electric Car - $24.99 In 2006, filmmaker Chris Paine examined the short and troubled history of General Motors’ EV1, an electric powered automobile that was fast, efficient and taken off the market under mysterious circumstances, in his documentary Who Killed The Electric Car?. A few years later, with the price of gas skyrocketing and the environment an even greater issue for many Americans, alternative vehicles are finally making their way into the mass marketplace, and Paine takes a look at four firms who are trying to put electric autos onto America’s highways in his follow-up The Revenge Of The Electric Car. Bob Lutz of GM, after dropping the ball on the EV1, spearheads an effort to launch the Chevy Volt, one of the first plug-in hybrids from a major American automaker. Carlos Ghosn of Nissan puts his firm’s resources behind an innovative fully electric auto, the Nissan Leaf. Elon Musk, who made a killing in the dot-com boom, is gambling his fortune on the Tesla, a sleek and high powered electric sports car aimed at the luxury market with a price tag of $100,000. And Greg “Gadget” Abbott is an ambitious mechanic who has launched a business transforming conventional autos into gas-free electric vehicles, though not without problems. The Revenge Of The Electric Car was an official selection at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi |
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Nadja – Widescreen B&W $5.99 This stylish combination of expressionistic horror and deadpan black comedy centers on the activities of a beautiful female vampire on the streets of New York City. Playing fast and loose with the Dracula legend, the film examines the legendary count’s children, particularly the alluring and mysterious Nadja (Elina Lowensohn). At the film’s beginning, Nadja is celebrating her father’s demise and hoping to begin a new life. She hopes that this life will include Lucy (Galaxy Craze), a spunky young woman that she seduces after an encounter in a New York bar. Unfortunately, Lucy is already married, to the nephew of eccentric vampire hunter Van Helsing (Peter Fonda), who disposed of Nadja’s father and has now set his sights on capturing the daughter. Matters are further complicated when Nadja’s brother Edgar (Jared Harris), a vampire who wishes to give up his blood-sucking nature, also becomes involved. Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Jim Denault in a mixture of 35mm black-and-white and low-budget Pixelvision video, the film resembles a combination of the surrealist visions of co-producer David Lynch and the quirky humor and stylized sensibility of Hal Hartley. The convoluted narrative sometimes fails to gel, and the self-conscious, arty approach will not appeal to audiences looking for conventional thrills, but those with a taste for the unusual may find the film an appealing contemporary spin on a familiar legend. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi |
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Violin Concertos $14.99 This disc received 1996 Grammy nominations for “Best Classical Album” and”Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (With Orchestra).”Prokofiev and Shostakovich were superficially quite different in artistic outlook, but both experimented in their violin concertos with the genre’s typical form and expressive range. Pairing the first concertos of these composers, the prodigiously talented violinist Maxim Vengerov takes the listener on a brilliantly played voyage through extreme emotions from searing pain to bustling exuberance.The Shostakovich concerto, dating from 1947 but unperformed until 1955, is the more obviously “symphonic” of the two: It is twice as long as Prokofiev’s 1917 composition, spanning four movements with Mahlerian titles such as “Nocturne” and “Burlesque” and an overwhelmingly dark mood akin to Shostakovich’s own symphonies. Not simply a showpiece, there is nonetheless ample opportunity for virtuosic display, especially in the prolonged cadenza connecting the last two movements.Prokofiev’s far less harrowing work is imaginative in form; the outer movements are full of mood and tempo shifts, while a motoric central Scherzo–an unusual movement title in a concerto, which Shostakovich also adopts–takes the place of the conventional, lyrical middle movement. The youthful Vengerov has the full measure of these works, often echoing the classic interpretations of David Oistrakh, and Mstislav Rostropovich is a convincing conductor in the repertoire he knows best. |
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Terminator: Salvation [Original Soundtrack] $14.99 Composer: Danny Elfman.Producers: Diarmuid Quinn; Marco Cimino; Danny Elfman; Carter Armstrong.Danny Elfman, the prolific former leader of the cult new wave band Oingo Boingo, started earning Hollywood acclaim for his work scoring movies by director Tim Burton. Elfman has also composed the exciting music for 2009′s Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the blockbuster science fiction franchise. Brad Fiedel originally composed the hauntingly memorable synthesizer-based music for 1984′s The Terminator and 1991′s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Marco Beltrami took the reins for 2003′s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which featured a more conventional orchestral score and a new take on Fiedel’s original theme. Elfman’s Terminator Salvation work is also orchestral and contains subtle nods to Fiedel’s theme while maintaining a consistent vision. The strings, brass, and percussion superbly reflect the moods of the scenes: relentless action, dramatic tension, and emotional vulnerability. It’s the deft little touches Elfman briefly adds here and there that give this music depth, most notably ethereal classical guitar lines, soft piano chords, and sputtering percussion. |
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Military History Collector’s Set: Hitler’s Britain/How Hitler Lost the War - $5.99 Includes:How Hitler Lost the War (1989) Hitler’s Britain (2002) How Hitler Lost the War How Hitler Lost the War is a provocative account that challenges certain conventional theories surrounding the defeat of Germany in World War II. The program argues that Allied victory was due to strategic mistakes on the part of the Germans. Told from the fictional perspective of a high-ranking Reich military officer, the documentary features animated maps, documentary footage, and interview footage. Each source offers eye-opening information. ~ Betsy Boyd, Rovi Hitler’s Britain Filmed on location in Britain and using real Nazi and Allied artifacts and documents, this film examines the chilling “what if” of how history would have unfolded, had the Nazis overtaken England during World War II. Exploring both the strategies that the British employed to avoid this terrifying force, and the most likely outcomes that would have resulted had the English failed to defend their nation from a complete occupation, the documentary offers a sobering look at what might have been. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi |
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The View from Here $20.99 Random Hold: Bill MacCormick (bass instrument); Peter Phipps (drums); Dave Ferguson , David Rhodes.Compared to their 1979 debut EP, Random Hold’s first full-length release features more conventional rock guitar and some tortured vocals reminiscent of Bryan Ferry. Musically comparable to the EP, the album suffers from lyrics that are at best unimaginative and at worst, on songs like “Dolphin Logic” and “Etceteraville,” clich?d. The title track is one of the band’s best efforts, showcasing Bill MacCormick’s headlong bass playing before sliding into an exhilarating ending that repeatedly shifts tempo, then catches its breath and soars, abruptly ending where the EP’s “Meat” began. Standing quite apart from the rest of the album, “Fear Eats the Soul” uses minimalist piano, synth effects, and madhouse laughter to create an unsettling horror film soundtrack, with a softly sung, understated lyric adding to the sustained creepiness. Although a couple of shades lighter and less innovative than their eponymous EP, The View from Here is worth a listen. ~ Michael Waynick |