Thursday, December 31, 2009

December 2009 Books and Movies

Up In The Air

Great movie! George Clooney is his usual yummy self, and the premise, a man who is completely detached from others, is intriguing. I loved Vera Farmiga, I can't believe I'd never seen her in anything else before. She's absolutely stunning. Jason Bateman did a good job directing, although he was totally channeling Steve Carell's Michael Scott when playing Craig Gregory. I also liked Anna Kendrick, apparently she made no impression on me at all when I saw her in the Twilight series. The frequent traveller comparison bits were just hilarious!

Up All Night
Carmen Reid

I generally like Carmen Reid for a light chick lit read, but this one wasn't very good unfortunately. The story was a bit whingy and worst of all, there was a gaping plot hole! Not an important part, but a bit irritating non the less. I didn't invest in the main character (perhaps because she was a mom, and I'm not) but liked the humanization of the ex-husband through his interaction with their children. Meh. Give it a miss unless you are really addicted to Carmen Reid.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Three great concerts, one fab weekend!

Tallis Scholars

Amazing 10 voice (including one male alto!) specialist group of Renaissance polyphony.

Here's a clip.

Dianne Reeves

I have fallen madly in love with a new jazz singer!

I'm so in awe, I'm posting two two clips here and one of them is even an xmas tune! Listen to Roy Hargrove's gorgeous fluglehorn on You Go To My Head.

Trace Element

This is a great new band worth keeping an eye on. Two of it's members are in their 4th year at Humber and pooling their allotted recording time to put out a debut LP. Great sound, great compositions, very cool.

Great weekend for music, looking forward to many more of the same. :)