Two Words, One Answer.
ebullient
 Short Cut To Nirvana $2.99 I found this film juvenile and shallow. First, the MTV format of choosing three American post-teenagers and a highly pliant semi-swami as our commentators was very trivializing, a nod to "reality TV." Why use westerners to describe this event to westerners? Don't we already know what westerners will say? Second, the film degenerated into pageant and puffery; it focussed on the weirdly exotic, and turned it into mere show-business. For example, the Tanzanian with the plate in his lip would have much more believable if he didn't serve every word on the protruding plate...towards the end of the film, when all these swamis and pandits were parading down towards the river in their oxcacts, you really had the sense of a carnival, a spectacle, something pathetically ridiculous, a rolling pageant of gimmickry and spiritual schtick. Thirdly, most of what the swamis were saying was word-shaped flatulence, pure clouds of verbal puffery and platitude. In place of this docu-drama, I would highly recommend Louis Malle's wonderful "Phantom India", which depicts Malle's four month wandering odyssey through India. Not only are the situations he films piquant and indelible, but his commentary, even as a westerner, is highly insightful from both a philosophical and sociological perspective. You come away from his film with a grounded sense of wonder, of unplumbable depths of complexity in Indian society, not the surface carnival, the cheap folklore.  Bazooka Classic Cartoons: Superman $9.99 These fast-paced, ebullient Superman cartoons were sponsored by Bazooka Bubble Gum and produced by Paramount Studios in the 1940s. Extremely dated but still enormously fun, they were animated by the well-known Fleischer brothers, Max and Dave. Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander provided the voices for the Man of Steel and the intrepid lady reporter Lois Lane.  Saint-Saens String Quartets (2) Ops. 112 and 153 $17.99 I don't understand why a lot of Saint-Saens music has been essentially swept under the rug. I get the feeling that there are two reasons; 1) Saint-Saens was a bit of an anachronism, writing these truly Romantic-era style quartets into the mid-1910's; and 2)while a full-blown Romantic, he did not necessarily adhere to the Sonata form, with the exception of his most famous works, i.e. Piano Concertos 2 and 4, Symphony No. 3, Violin Conerto No.3, and Cello Concerto No.1, along with a few others. Unfortunately, as a result of this, musical purists have essentially excluded almost all of his works from the standard repetoire, and therefore beautiful music like this goes unnoticed. Don't get me wrong; I love the quartets of the masters, like Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schubert and the like; but these quartets in my opinion stand with some of the formers' masterworks. Saint-Saens was a musical prodigy who could play all of Beethoven's piano sonatas by the age of 8; and while he often broke the rules musically speaking, he shouldn't be punished for it. (re: Wagner). The performances couldn't be better. The musicians easily tackle his demanding scores and bring the music the breath of life it needs. The second quartet is wonderful - it is in e Minor - I think I prefer it to the first. The opening leads you into a lovely, melodic allegro which is full of polyphonics (he was obsessed with fugue, thus his nickname "the French Mendelssohn") and wonderful harmonies. The second movement contains a great string fugue - anyone who likes late Beethoven quartets will definitely want to hear this. the slow movement is beautiful, and the finale is amazing, with a bombastic ending. The G Major quartet more closely adheres to classical sonata sound, if not form ; in spite of this "shortcoming",it is also a lovely piece with a lot of memorable melodies. I don't really want to write a full review of every track, but suffice it to say that this album is worth picking up. Saint-Saens is mostly forgotten, but these pieces deserve their place. |
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