Leslie Mann

Perfume
$14.98
... of the giddily-demented and lunatic world of high fashion along with its tandem industries, where all the egos come "super-sized". Always with personal dramas big enough to match, as everone is truly an "artiste"... of one type or another, and ALWAYS facing a career-altering and earth-shattering crisis of some kind, it's as if they're all living on some isolated island... cast-off from the real world, sucking-up all the abundant co-dependent and self-perpetuating "it's all about me" energy available just to remain alive, slowing sinking into their own self-importance; they are collectively their own eco/ego-system... but so many of us actually listen to what they have to say!!! Their pronouncements are biblical in proportion. I must admit that I watched this film three times, back-to-back, totally absorbed and fascinated.The many wonderful actors, obviously with specific real people in mind and drawing upon same, superbly paint their characterizations in broadly egocentric stokes, creating a rich glimpse into the closed, insular ghetto-ized world of high fashion, where everone is a STAR... or at least believes themself to be, and certainly behaves "as if ". BRAVO!!!

Thomas Mann: Life as a Work of Art. A Biography
$49.95
I have been a long-time admirer of the novels of Thomas Mann. I read "Buddenbrooks" in one go--never looking up from the pages while my roommate in college was convinced I'd gone crazy. But I'd never read a better novel. And to think, Mann wrote that as a youth of 24! Later, I read "The Magic Mountain" and my admiration only increased.

This is a more literary biography--not a chronological story of a life, but the excerpts of a life as influence in art. I found a lot to ponder about; Mann lived a life of denial as one who was homosexual in nature but decided, consciously, to suppress the expression of it. Yet of course, sexuality comes out in art, and Mann himself described much of his work as sensuous, including the ponderous "Magic Mountain." We learn who was the original Pribislav Hippe, the "Khirgiz-eyed" student upon whom the young Hans Castorp has a schoolyard crush. Typical of Mann, the initial love object (Pribislav) is transmuted into an "acceptable" (but barely) female love, the married and undisciplined Clavdia. Likewise in "Tonio Kroeger", Tonio first talks about his love for Hans Hansen (whom we learn has am actual counterpart as well)and this is quickly converted into a puzzling love for Ingeborg Holm, with whom Tonio barely exchanges a sentence.

But, curiousity aside, there is a lot of literary interest here; the notiion that "Dr. Faustus" was thought to be the literary complement to Hesse's "Glass Bead Game," something I thought of immediately when I read "Dr. Faustus." There are also tidbits about the author that give a lot of insight into his methods and psyche; he possessed a pair of opera glasses, and time and again, either he writes in his diary about observing someone, or it is even noticed that Mann is peering out the window and gazing intently at someone who later turns up in exquisite detail, mannerisms and all, as a character. There are also some short but telling vignettes about each of Mann's six children, troubled, talented, loved or scorned. And quite a bit about Katia, the beautiful and brilliant woman he married. And a bit about his reconcilation with older brother Heinrich.

The most important revelation about Mann's work, however, I think is to be found in "Death in Venice." Mann remarks that von Aschenbach's success was due to his ability to concentrate, for years at a time, and continue to add and polish his work. This is Mann's secret--the book commands its own time and length and the author serves the Muse.

Funny People
$29.98
This is what Hollywood is calling humor these days? Must of been written by the lowly out of work writers during their strike! Crude, demeaning and a waste of my time!

Mozart: The 6 String Quintets; Clarinet Quintet
$23.98
You don't tell us enough. I want to know who the extra viola is, and who plays the clarinet. This isn't a review of the recording, as you can see, but a review of YOU! (Read'complaint' for 'review'. And discount the stars; obviously I don't know yet.)