rejected

Rejected: A Film By Don Hertzfeldt
$17.00
This is quite possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. If you like dark humor you will enjoy these animated clips of disturbing but adorable characters. Definatly not disappointing.

Big Daddy: Rejected! Turned Down! Ignored! and #*?/@ On! [VHS]
$19.95

Rejected: Tales of the Failed, Dumped, and Canceled
$14.00
A great premise for a book that is executed poorly. This comedy writer/editor contacts a bunch of other unknown comedians and asks them to tell stories of when they have been rejected. It turns into one big gripe book--where they individually tell really boring stories that you wouldn't want to hear from your best friend much less from a know-it-all stand up who you've never heard of. While they try to make the stories funny, they're really all pretty depressing and humorless.

They have an SNL freelance joke writer who has had only one joke used out of 600 submitted! You have a guy who was under contract as a correspondent on The Daily Show who repeatedly wouldn't get called to be on the air. You have a directionless, pot-smoking college grad who decides to use her "talent" for lying to get internships at both Letterman and Conan without mentioning the conflict to either show ("I'm not a liar, really" she writes!)

There are one or two semi-known names (Joel Stein from Time magazine--wow!). There's one "chapter" from a minor performer on "The Office" that is literally one paragraph long and the woman's bio is about as long as her contribution to the book! It's also annoying that the mini-bios of the writers come at the end of the chapter--why not start each essay with it so we know who is writing it?

After reading each short essay the response is, "Who cares?" These aren't stories that you can learn from--they are just opportunities for the unfamous to whine about not being better recognized. It's only going to be of interest to New Yorkers who find conversations while standing in line at Starbucks fascinating. Everyone else should just reject it.

Songs by Armstrong Gibbs
$21.98
After listening to this disc, is becomes clear that Armstrong Gibbs is yet another English composer whose music is inexplicably forgotten today. If you like Vaughan Williams, Bax, and other contemporary English composers, e.g. the songs on Bryn Terfel's The Vagabond, you will enjoy this recording. I was hooked right away with this version of The Bells (words by Walter de la Mare, one of Gibbs' favorite poets) as sung by Stephen Varcoe--surely this is a minor masterpiece of music, poetry, and singing.

This is a generous program, and both Varcoe and soprano Geraldine McGreevy do a nice job, as well as pianist Roger Vignoles. Some songs stand out above the others, such as Silver, Arrogant Poppies, and Ann's Cradle Song, but there are many gems. Since Gibbs wrote over 160 songs, we can only hope to have more of them recorded in the future (not to mention the string quartets and much other music).