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Bashu The Little Stranger - BASHU THE LITTLE STRANGER - DVD

This touching, thought-provoking Iranian children's drama, from 1989 has a simple story, but complex undertones as it is simultaneously a quiet plea for peace and tolerance, an entertaining story and a sly, metaphorical criticism of Moslem fundamentalist thinking. It also presents a view of Iranian rural life seldom seen by Westerners. NTSC/Region 0. Original Iranian dialogue with optional English & Chinese subtitles. 117 minutes. Panorama. 2003.




This touching, thought-provoking Iranian children's drama has a simple story, but complex undertones as it is simultaneously a quiet plea for peace and tolerance, an entertaining story and a sly, metaphorical criticism of Moslem fundamentalist thinking. It also presents a view of Iranian rural life seldom seen by Westerners. Though the Iranian government sponsored the film, they banned it for the above reasons. Bashu is a 10-year-old boy living in war-torn southern Iran. During an Iraqi attack on his village his mother ends up burning to death when her veil catches fire, and his father disappears through a hole that suddenly appears beneath his prayer rug at home. Bashu witnesses the deaths and is so terrified that he leaves his ravaged village and sneaks aboard a northbound truck. Exhausted, he falls asleep and doesn't wake until the truck stops briefly in a northern village. The boy is astounded by the cool green of the place. Suddenly an explosion from a nearby construction site rocks the ground. Thinking the place is being bombed, the lad heads for the forest as the truck rushes off. Bashu wanders about and ends up asleep in a lean-to beside a rice paddy that belongs to a young mother, Nai, who raises her two kids alone while her husband is off looking for employment. At first she tries to get him off her property but then changes her mind and quietly (northern Iranians speak a different language from their southern counterparts, but both share the same writing system) begins to help him. She thinks the help is only temporary and that his parents will soon arrive to get him. He thinks she is adopting him. Bashu proves to be a good, helpful boy. Unfortunately, the townsfolk dislike him because he looks and acts so differently. Good Nai tries to protect him from their prejudice, but it is difficult. Her husband compounds matters when, in a letter, he insists that Bashu leave. Meanwhile the boy is beaten up by the local children and at this point his future is uncertain. Fortunately, Nai's husband returns and decides that Bashu does indeed have a place in their little family.

http://www.allmusicimport.com/586939.html

Johnson, Jack - Sleep Through The Static-Tour Edition CD

Limited two CD International Tour Edition of his smash hit 2008 album featuring a bonus enhanced CD. The bonus disc features six audio tracks, 'Hope' (Nightmares On Wax Remix), 'Losing Keys' (Katalyst Remix), 'Monsoon' (Money Mark Remix), 'Angel' (Kid Koala Remix), 'They Do, They Don't' (DJ Tropikal Remix), 'Hope' (Mario C. Remix) along with three enhanced video tracks, 'Excerpts from The Solar Powered Plastic Plant Sessions', 'Enemy' and 'Adrift'. Recorded directly to tape to achieve analog purity, the album is filled with mellow, acoustic sounds with a bit of electric thrown into the mix, including the single 'If I Had Eyes'. Recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. Packaged in a digipak. Universal.

Song Titles / Track Listing

Disc 1:
1. All At Once 3:38
2. Sleep Through The Static 3:43
3. Hope 3:42
4. Angel 2:02
5. Enemy 3:48
6. If I Had Eyes 3:59
7. Same Girl 2:10
8. What You Thought You Need 5:27
9. Adrift 3:56
10. Go On 4:35
11. They Do, They Don't 4:10
12. While We Wait 1:26
13. Monsoon 4:17
14. Losing Keys 4:28
Disc 2:
1. Hope (Nightmares On Wax Remix) 4:55
2. Losing Keys (Katalyst Remix) 3:37
3. Monsoon (Money Mark Remix) 4:29
4. Angel (Kid Koala Remix) 3:36
5. They Do, They Don't (DJ Tropikal Remix) 4:47
6. Hope (Mario C. Remix)
7. Sleep Through The Static/I Love You And Buddha Too (video)
8. Enemy (video)
9. Adrift (video)

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1374923.html

Primal Scream - Riot City Blues (Mini Lp Sleeve) CD

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2008

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. Country Girl
2. Nitty Gritty
3. Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar
4. When the Bomb Drops
5. Little Death
6. The 99th Floor
7. We're Gonna Boogie
8. Dolls (Sweet Rock and Roll)
9. Hell's Comin' Down
10. Sometimes I Feel So Lonely
11. Stone Ya to the Bone [*]
12. Gimme Some Truth [*]
13. Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar [Live][*]
14. Country Girl [CD-ROM Track]

Reviews

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Riot City Blues is another attempt at straight-up trad rock where the ghosts of the Faces, the Rolling Stones, and others come traipsing into Bobby Gillespie's scope and he goes for it. Some heard an overly strenuous attempt at this on 1994's Give Out But Don't Give Up, where it worked not at all due to the band's attempt at literally mimicking the sounds of the aforementioned bands without adding anything else to the mix. Riot City Blues is a much more relaxed effort, and benefits significantly from that stance. Yeah, it's true that on first listen "Country Girl," the album's opener, sounds like an in-the-studio gathering of the Stones and the Faces riotously attempting a country gospel song -- but on deeper observation, it feels more like Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on Motel Shot. The straight-up raw boogie rock of "Nitty Gritty" takes the Delaney & Bonnie move even deeper and brings elements of R&B into the equation. This is late-night drunken rockism. It's not carefully crafted; it's throwing something at the wall because it's there to throw. Riot City Blues is not an "album as event" as many past Primal Scream records were; this is an "album for its own sake" recording. It's an offering where it really seems that Gillespie doesn't care if he loses his hipster following -- all that matters is that Riot City Blues rocks. One can hear traces of not only the Faces but everything from early Alice Cooper ( la Killer) to Mott the Hoople, David Bowie, the Kinks, the New York Dolls, and a whole lot of other rock & roll bands. Looser than the Black Crowes, thinner than even the Black Keys; it's simply shambolic from top to bottom. This is trashy, nasty rock music that doesn't feel modern but it does feel timeless. The songs are riff-centric, some of them joyous, others darkly freaky -- "When the Bomb Drops" is a fine example, and the complete dope and guitar orgy of "Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar" is in the red zone in the same way "Suffragette City" is. (One can feel the gigantic pub-crawling smile of Mick Ronson from some strange Valhalla.) Most of the tracks here were produced by ex-Killing Joke bassist/Orb collaborator Youth, with a pair recorded and produced by the rather less intense Andrew Innes. Whether "We're Gonna Boogie," with its bluesy harmonica and slide guitar -- with Bobby Gillespie sounding like Donovan singing the Stones' "Country Honk" -- is taking the piss or not is debatable, but it's a gas to listen to, as is the down-home "Hell's Comin' Down," with its fiddle (courtesy of the Dirty Three and Bad Seeds' Warren Ellis), high-strung guitars, 12-strings, and mandolins. The 12-bar blues formula used on the latter cut is particularly refreshing. "Dolls" is such a raucous joy that it's infectious. It's a given that Riot City Blues, issued in 2006, is easily the most unhip record Primal Scream have ever issued. The songs are little more than dressing for the riffs, but they have lots of humor and cleverness and they lack the snide hipsterism of the times. It doesn't matter. Listened to with an open mind, it's a refreshingly retro rock & roll album that uses its waste-oid imagination in capturing every fantasy that entered Bobby Gillespie's teenage mind. Get it. [The U.S. edition of the album includes three bonus tracks (including a cover of John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth") and the "non censored" version of the "Country Girl" video.] ~ Thom Jurek

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1371569.html

Silver - Wolf Chasing Wolf CD

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. Pick up your life
2. Die 59
3. Where vultures gather
4. The resignation song
5. Drenched in comfort
6. Norge Kneler
7. The judge
8. The white logic
9. Any road
10. Sympathy
11. No place left to go + 5min.Pause + Last Lamet (hidden track)

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1408189.html

Primal Scream - Give Out But Don't Give Up (Mini Lp Sleeve) CD

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2008

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. Jailbird
2. Rocks
3. (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind
4. Funky Jam
5. Big Jet Plane
6. Free
7. Call on Me
8. Struttin'
9. Sad and Blue
10. Give out But Don't Give Up
11. I'll Be There for You
12. Everybody Needs Somebody

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1371565.html

Primal Scream - Vanishing Point (Mini Lp Sleeve) CD

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2008

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. Burning Wheel
2. Get Duffy
3. Kowalski
4. Star
5. If They Move, Kill 'Em
6. Out of the Void
7. Stuka
8. Medication
9. Motorhead
10. Trainspotting
11. Long Life

Reviews

Primal Scream found themselves in danger of losing their hip audience in the wake of their misconceived trad-rock record, Give Out but Don't Give Up. As a reaction, they returned to the genre-bending, electronic dance-rock of the seminal Screamadelica for Give Out's follow-up, Vanishing Point. Instead of recycling the dazzlingly bright neo-psychedelia of Screamadelica, Primal Scream reaches deep into cavernous dub and '60s pop. Vanishing Point is a dark, trippy album, filled with mind-bending rhythms and cinematic flourishes. The addition of former Stone Roses bassist Mani to the Scream gives their music an organically funky foundation that had been lacking. Over those rhythms are samples, reverbed guitars, and synthesizers that echo spy movies, Southern soul, and the Stones. Above anything else, Vanishing Point is about sound and groove. Words remain a weak point for Bobby Gillespie, who only manages cohesive lyrics on the swirling "Burning Wheel" and "Star," but that is a secondary concern, since Primal Scream is at its best when working the rhythms. Songs like "Kowaliski" and, in particular, the extended instrumentals of "Get Duffy" and "Trainspotting" illustrate that the group is still capable of creating exotic, thoroughly entrancing sounds, which is what makes Vanshing Point a remarkable comeback

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1371566.html

John Legend - Evolver CD

International pressing of the R&B star's 2008 album includes two bonus tracks, 'Can't Be Our Love' and 'It's Over' (Teddy Riley Remix). The album Evolver features superstars Kanye West, Andre 3000 and Estelle. 15 tracks including the single 'Green Light'. Columbia.

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. Good Morning Intro
2. Green Light (featuring Andre 3000)
3. Its Over (featuring Kanye West)
4. Everybody Knows
5. Quickly (featuring Brandy)
6. Cross The Line
7. No Other Love (featuring Estelle)
8. This Time
9. Satisfaction
10. Take Me Away
11. Good Morning
12. I Love, You Love
13. If Youre Out There
14. Can't Be Your Lover (Bonus track)
15. It's Over (Teddy Riley remix) (Bonus track)

Reviews

Evolver is more clever and appealing as an album title than Dabbler, yet the latter would be much more emblematic of John Legend's third studio album. Legend is up-front about his lane changes, which begin with the album's lead single, "Green Light," decked out in giddy synthesizers la Paul McCartney's "A Wonderful Christmas Time" (or, OK, the glitziest part of Kanye West's "Flashing Lights") while benefiting from Andr 3000's off-the-cuff appearance. Following it is "It's Over," a relatively characteristic breakup song continues to set the tone for the album's anything-goes nature. There's a show-stopping ballad, a reggae-flavored Estelle feature, flashes of tropical lushness, a couple throwbacks to soul-informed soft rock, a track full of chunky synth riffs, a brave topical message song to close, and a couple other diversions throughout. Legend often sounds like he is occupied by the satisfaction that comes with hearing what his vocal cords are capable of achieving.

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1429943.html

1999 release, French DJ/Artist Stéphane Pompougnac's second installment in this popular series featuring the best tracks heard at France's premiere club, bar and cafe. The Hotel Costes series serves as a ''tastemaker'' (read: trendsetting) for the rest of the world. His penchant for choosing the very best music for this series burns bright as he incorporates tracks on this outing from De-Phazz, Pink Martini, Mo' Horizons, I:Cube and others. Feel free to luxuriate with the sounds and splendor of the most relaxing place in Paris with the upper crust. The ''Côstes'' brand is forever linked with the ultimate in quality and is renowned with patrons as the home of luxury in Paris. After all, the overriding theme is ''all things in excess.''

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. To Ulrike M. Zero 7 Mix 5:49
2. Jazz Music / De-Phazz 3:32
3. Symphatique / Pink Martini 2:34
4. Flyin' Away / Mo' Horizons 3:54
5. Lizzie's Ballroom / 45 Dip 3:43
6. Palais Mascotte / Rollercone 5:46
7. Adore / I:Cube 5:20
8. Carnaval de So Vicente / Csaria vora Jazzy Carnival Mix 6:25
9. You Are Love / Lovetronic Jay's Afrotonic Vocal 6:39
10. Salvation Live / Pascal Pioux 5:21
11. Get a Move On / Mr. Scruff 5:32
12. Night over Manaus / Boozoo Bajou 4:52
13. The Assassin, Act I / Streetlife Originals 4:37
14. Sorry Sorry / Femi Anikulapo Kuti Old School Afro Dub 7:24
15. Guess I Was a Fool / Another Level MJ Cole Mix 6:50

Reviews

An eclectic collection of jazz-styled funk with a dash of cocktail lounge marks Costes La Suite as another standout by France's Stephane Pompougnac. And the resident DJ of the famous Hotel Costes certainly knows his stuff, mixing up more funky, uplifting house that powers these predominantly English-sung tracks. The funk-filled beats of Lovetronic's "You Are Love" is a standout, while "Carnaval de Sao Vicente," sung by Cesaria Evora, is a mood-setting piece worthy of any '70s-styled B-grade film. Occasionally the album careers towards the cheesy end of lounge, as in "Symphatique," but, otherwise, there's nary a low point. An eclectic mix which maintains a steady groove, Pompougnac continues to find a much sought after balance: music that stands out in its own right and yet makes the perfect backdrop while entertaining friends. Just like at the Hotel Costes, really.

http://www.allmusicimport.com/531353.html

African Queen - DVD

NTSC/Region 0. Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn star in one of the greatest motion pictures of all-time, The African Queen directed by John Huston. Bogart won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Charlie Allnut, a hard drinking river trader who offers to take Rose (Hepburn), the sister of a murdered missionary, from the remains of her destroyed village back to civilization. They encounter an adventure together that leads to romance. The African Queen was nominated for five Oscars in 1951 (Bogart was the only winner) and won for Best Film at the British Academy Awards. It has also been called one of the greatest films of all time by critics throughout the decades. For over half a century, this film still deserves every accolade that has ever been thrown at it.




After years of wooing director John Huston via good reviews, film critic James Agee was given a chance to write the screenplay for a Huston picture. Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, The African Queen stars Humphrey Bogart in his Oscar-winning portrayal of Charlie Allnut, the slovenly, gin-swilling captain of a tramp steamer called the African Queen, which ships supplies to small East African villages during World War I. Katharine Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, the maiden-lady sister of a prim British missionary (Robert Morley). When invading Germans kill the missionary and level the village, Allnut offers to take Rose back to civilization. She can't tolerate his drinking or bad manners; he isn't crazy about her imperious, judgmental attitude. However it does not take long before their passionate dislike turns to love. Together the disparate duo work to ensure their survival on the treacherous waters and devise an ingenious way to destroy a German gunboat. The African Queen may well be the perfect adventure film, its roller-coaster storyline complemented by the chemistry between its stars. The profound difficulties inherent in filming on location in Africa have been superbly documented by several books, including one written by Katharine Hepburn. Screenwriter Peter Viertel (who worked, on an uncredited basis, on the script of this film - assisting with some of the dialogue) incorporated some of the African Queen anecdotes in his roman a clef about a Huston-like director/adventurer, White Hunter, Black Heart.

http://www.allmusicimport.com/949449.html

Grace Jones - Hurricane CD

2008 album from the original New Wave, Art/Disco diva, her 10th album and first studio release in almost 20 years. Hurricane features an all-star production team led by Ivor Guest, including Brian Eno, Tricky, and Sly & Robbie. Other participants on Hurricane are Wally Badarou, Wendy and Lisa, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, Mikey 'Mao' Chung, Barry Reynolds, Don-E and Tony Allen, Nine tracks including the singles 'William's Blood' and the haunting and twisted 'Corporate Cannibal'. Wall of Sound. 2008.

Song Titles / Track Listing

1. This is
2. William's Blood
3. Corporate Cannibal
4. I'm crying (Mother's tears)
5. Well Well Well
6. Hurricane
7. Love you to life
8. Sunset Surprise
9. Devil in my Life

http://www.allmusicimport.com/1434009.html