the bohemian aesthetic eZine :|: patsy's picks

August 2007

BOOK

The Polysyllabic Spree

(Nick Hornby)

The Polysyllabic Spree collects a year's worth of Hornby's riotous and informative "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from The Believer, in which Hornby lists the books he's read, along with what he bought and may one day read—among them, gems from George Saunders, Zadie Smith, Michel Houellebecq, Janet Malcolm, Jim Shepard, and Haruki Murakami. He ably explores everything from the classic to the graphic novel, as well as poems, plays, and sports-related exposés. And if he occasionally implores a biographer for brevity, or abandons a literary work in favor of an Arsenal soccer match, then all is not lost. His warm and riotous writing—full of all the joy and surprise and despair that books bring him—reveals why we still read, even when there's soccer on TV, a pram in the hall, and a good band playing at our local bar.

All proceeds from the book will be split between 826NYC, a writing center in Brooklyn offering free classes to students between the ages of 8 and 18, and Treehouse, a London-based charity for kids with autism.

FILM

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

(rated 'R' for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality, and disturbing images)

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he attempts to preserve scents in a quest for the ultimate fragrance.

A Mighty Heart

(rated 'R' for language)

On January 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl's world changed forever. Her husband, Daniel, the South Asia Bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew them to Karachi, where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned.

In the face of death, Danny's spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him, and his eventual murderer in her memoir, A Mighty Heart: The Inside Story of the al-Qa'eda Kidnapping of Danny Pearl. Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. She wrote the book to introduce Adam to the father he would never meet. Transcending religion, race and nationality, Mariane's courageous desire to rise above the bitterness and hatred that continues to plague this post 9/11 world serves as the purest expression of the joy of life she and Danny shared.

Starring Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) as Mariane Pearl, and Dan Futterman, Oscar®--nominated for his Capote screenplay, as Daniel Pearl, A Mighty Heart is directed by Michael Winterbottom (The Road to Guantánamo, Tristram Shandy) and produced by Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner for Plan B Entertainment (Year of the Dog, The Departed) and Andrew Eaton for Revolution Films (The Road to Guantánamo). John Orloff ("Band of Brothers") wrote the screenplay.

In addition to Jolie and Futterman, A Mighty Heart stars Irrfan Khan (The Namesake), Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare ("Take Me Out"), Archie Panjabi (Bend It Like Beckham), Will Patton (Remember the Titans), Pakistani television star Adnan Siddiqui (Amer Bail), and Obie Award winner Gary Wilmes ("Red Light Winter").

The film's behind-the-scenes artists are all Winterbottom veterans, including director of photography Marcel Zyskind (The Road to Guantánamo), production designer Mark Digby (The Road to Guantánamo), editor Peter Christelis (Code 46), and costume designer Charlotte Walter (Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story).

The night Danny disappeared, Mariane kept vigil with Asra Nomani, an old friend and colleague of Danny's at the WSJ, living in Karachi. Both women were seasoned international journalists with formidable investigative skills, but they were also foreign women in a country that had become increasingly volatile since September 11. By dawn, they knew they were facing a crisis that required strong allies fully briefed on Pakistan's proliferating terrorist cells, its byzantine bureaucracy and its notorious Inter-Services-Intelligence agency (I.S.I.).

Dozens of local investigators swarmed the house that morning, including a man called Captain, the then head of Pakistan's brand new counter-terrorism unit. With Asra's house as headquarters, Captain's men, along with an American diplomatic security agent, two Journal colleagues and the FBI, dedicated themselves to the search. After five harrowing weeks, amidst escalating media frenzy, they found the kidnappers. Among them was the known militant Omar Saeed Sheikh, aka Bashir, the go-between who had offered Danny information relating to the shoe bomber story. Then came the devastating news that Danny had been brutally murdered weeks earlier.

Mariane and Danny believed that by bearing witness to events and allowing all voices to be heard, truthful journalism could bridge communities in conflict. Mariane has remained devoted to this principle, refusing to succumb to hate or fear. After Danny's death, she went home to her native France to await Adam's birth. She and Adam now live in Paris, France.

MUSIC

Theology

Sinéad O'Connor

The uncompromising Irish artist, spiritualist, and provocateur gives a twist to the critical truism that double albums would generally be stronger if edited into a single disc. With what she terms her "attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war," Sinéad O'Connor consciously risks charges of not merely padding but redundancy, as the two discs feature practically the same set of material recorded in different settings. The "Dublin Sessions" are more minimal and acoustic, and the "London Sessions" incorporate full-band arrangements including harp, strings, horns, and percussion. Finding dual inspiration in Jerusalem and Jamaica, the material proves all the more revelatory in the contrasting settings, as the minimalist approach underscores vocal intimacy while the band arrangements build to majestic intensity. The opening "Jeremiah (Something Beautiful)" ranks with O'Connor's loveliest music to date, with "Job (Watcher of Men)" among her most tormented. The cover(s) of Curtis Mayfield's "We Are People Who Are Darker than Blue" fits perfectly, though a misguided attempt at "I Don't Know How to Love Him" (from Jesus Christ Superstar, mercifully featured only on the second disc) proves that some musical miracles are beyond even Sinéad's power. The second disc sounds more like pop; the first disc sounds more like prayer. -Don McLeese for Amazon

"Damages"

(Tuesday - 10 pm/9c; FX)

Legal thrillers usually fall victim to one of two fatal flaws: Either they don't show enough of all sides of the story, leaving viewpoints completely unexamined, or they forget to take the drama outside of the courtroom for some fresh air and new possibility. In this difficult balancing act, "Damages" evens out the scales perfectly. FX's new drama welcomes us into the lives of a young lawyer, her family and her high-powered boss while granting us backstage passes for their biggest and most high profile cases.

Starring Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, New York City's premiere high-stakes litigator, this stunning and utterly flawless story has twists at every turn. And then there are the mind games, the lying, the bribery, murder and revenge. And it's just getting started…definitely not the kind of stuff you see sitting before a judge and jury

Who's That?: As if Glenn Close weren't enough to get you tuning in, the stellar cast also includes Tate Donovan, Aussie stunner Rose Byrne and Ted Danson (in all his silver fox glory) as a corrupt CEO with some bad habits, even worse press and a target on his back that Patty Hewes is aiming for.

Buzzed About: It's not very often that you get a seasoned pro like Close to work primetime television hours, so FX was smart to snag her up for another series after her Emmy-winning turn on "The Shield". They're even smarter to give her such a well-matched and supremely fascinating role.

The "Ooh" Factor: There's a woman running through the heavily-trafficked city streets, half-naked and covered in blood in the beginning scene, which lands her a prime spot in a police interrogation room. From there, it all flashes back in pieces, tying a murder, a huge corporate conspiracy, a happy couple and a dream job-gone-bad to this one spine-tingling conclusion.

The "Eh" Factor: The only downside? We have to wait an entire season to get to the bottom of what has really happened! It looks like a movie and thrills like a movie, but since it is still television, we've gotta be patient.

The Verdict: Simple: This is the best new show on television. -Maggie Furlong for Metromix

"Meerkat Manor"

(Thursday - 8 pm; CBS)

Meerkat Manor is a television series made by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet. It presents the daily activities of a family (or mob) of wild meerkats as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project. Although the show has elements of a documentary, and is based on actual events, the narrative is presented in a style similar to a soap opera.

The show is narrated by Bill Nighy in the UK and Canada, Mike Goldman in Australia, and Sean Astin in the USA. The series was originally shown in the UK, and is its primary home, but was picked up in Australia, Canada, and the United States, and is now a worldwide hit. -Wikipedia

WEB

The Word Detective

the online version of "The Word Detective", a newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language | "The Word Detective" is written by Evan Morris and appears in finer newspapers in the U.S., Mexico and Japan.