Unholy RacketFather Murphy, "...and He Told Us to Turn to the Sun", Aagoo [8/06/09] Am I evil? Yes, I am.-- The MisfitsAre we evil? We are evil. -- Father MurphyThis Father Murphy isn't a kindly Irish priest or a cozyBritish sitcom, but a musically voracious Italian trio. Singingprimarily in English, Torino's Rev. Freddie Murphy, Chiara Lee,and Vicar Vittorio Demarin raise an unholy racket (okay, they ask-ed for that). Actually, they also throw in a few folk-oriented, or-gan-fueled dirges, but a sonic explosion is always just aroundthe corner. Not as overtly psychedelic as their pals JenniferGentle, I can still envision them playing on the same bills.

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Magnificent ObsessionI've been writing about Douglas Sirk for eight years now, so I thought it might be a good idea to create a blog post with a couple of links and a short profile. As I get—or create—more opportunities to write about this amazing auteur, I plan to add them to this entry. Reel News:Douglas Sirk - In Praise of MelodramaAmazon:Criterion Collection - Magnificent ObsessionAnd this piece for the Northwest Film Forum's 10th anniversary book:Douglas Sirk once noted, "There is a very short distance be-tween high art and trash." Mentor to Rainier Werner Fassbinder and inspiration to Todd Haynes, few filmmakers from the but-toned-down 1950s hav

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Notes from Under (the) Ground I don'tusuallytake not-es at pressscreenings, because I find it easier to watch the screen—especially when subtitles are involved—than to watch, listen, and/or read while trying to guide my pen across paper in thedark (and I'm not about to use a lighted implement and irritateeveryone around me). That said, I make an exception every on-ce in awhile, and I've always found these chicken stratches al-most as amusing as enlightening. Here are a few examples.CITY OF GOD / Cidade de Deus(Museum of History and Industry, 2/03)It was all about the influences.Amores Perros, The Harder They Come, Pulp Fiction,Black Orpheus...Otário,

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Unforced EaseDoug Gillard, Call from Restrict-ed, 347 Records [9/8/09]With breezy vocals and fuzzy guitars, former Guided by Voic-es sideman Doug Gillard dishes up power pop perfect for summer days—or winter evenings ripe for a blast of light.Call from Restricted combines bright Red Kross harmonieswith driving Cars rhythms and classic Beatles melodies (Gillardhas also done stints with Death of Samantha and the Hold Steady).When a pop record works as it should, everything seems effort-less—as if the music just emerged magically from out of the ether.And yet, despite the fancy fretwork on tracks like "Entwined" and"Gogol Was Rollo," an unforced ease per

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Movie of the Month: Part SevenI recently reviewed the following film for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.STRANDED [****](Gonzalo Arijón, France, 2007, 130 mins.)Piers Paul Read's Alive!, the 1973 bestseller that inspired FrankMarshall's 1993 feature film, previously recounted the story ofthe Andes crash survivors, but Gonzalo Arijón's Strandedallows them to explain what happened in their own words.Like Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void, convincingrecreations, in tandem with footage from yesteryear andoral history-style interviews, help to bring their harrowingexperience to life, making it almost as much of a docudramaas a

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Wear and TearDark Room Notes, We Love You Dark Matter, Gonzo Records [import]This city berates me. Dublin type wear & tear.-- "The Same City Awaits Me"Next to Seattle's Curious Mystery, Dublin's Dark Room Notes boast the four coolest names in contemporary music:Ronan Gaughan (vocals), Ruairi Ferrie (guitars, synth), Dar-ragh Shanahan (drums), and Arran Murphy (keyboards).Though I prefer CM's woozy psych-blues, DRN's debut marks arespectable dive into the more wide-awake world of synth-pop.If We Love You Dark Matter isn't quite as addictive as CutCopy's In Ghost Colours, my favorite synthesized dance discof recent years, this darker, sexier CD seem

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(My) Summer HoursThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVD: The Secret Life of the Am-erican Teenager - Season Two [three-disc set] and ParkerLewis Can't Lose - The Complete First Season [four-disc set].Amazon Theatricals: Cold Souls (with Paul Giamatti), The Stoning of Soraya M. (with Shohreh Aghdashloo and Jim Ca-viezel), Chéri (Stephen Frears directs Michelle Pfeiffer), andPublic Enemies (Michael Mann! Johnny Depp! Sharp suits!).Still playing (or yet to open): Food, Inc., Hunger, Sin Nombre, State of Play, Summer Hours, Sunshine Cleaning, Two Lovers, and Tyson.SIFF: Links to my notes for this year's program guide:

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