Ted Leo + Pharmacists Galaxy Theater, Santa Ana, CA 2/18/05 It was a dark and stormy night, unusual for Orange County, even during the winter. The recent, sporadically torrential, rainstorms had had a daunting effect on the locals. Most stayed home, safe from the elements, tuned to the local channels …

2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Solomon Burke, known as the king of rock ‘n’ soul, follows up his Grammy-winning Don’t Give Up On Me with a new collection of songs; some of which were penned by fellow inductees: Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Van Morrison, Hank Williams. Those …

Directed by Antoine de Caunes Written by Rene Manzor Monsieur N. is a film about the final days of Napoleon’s life during his exile on St. Helena. Before I watched the film, I had no idea that some of the facts were in dispute. The main questions addressed in the …

Directed by Joel Gilbert Gilbert’s documentary will be many things to many people, depending on how deep your interest in Dylanology is. From its title, the documentary purports to be about two of Dylan’s most famous world tours as seen through the lens of tour photographer Barry Feinstein. Those tours …

Directed by Judy Irving The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a documentary about the relationship between former San Francisco street musician/odd-job worker Mark Bittner and a pack of approximately 45 wild parrots, mostly cherry-headed conures with the occasional blue-crowned and mitred in the bunch. The flock is comprised of …

The Branford Marsalis Quartet’s latest release is Eternal, a collection of ballads that Marsalis says on his Web site is an “expression of emotion … In particular it’s about the expression of melancholy. I was aiming for what Billie Holiday could do, which was to get to the emotions of …

This is the easiest album I’ve ever had to review because it can be summed up with one word: phenomenal. That’s all you need to know. After typing that word, I could walk away with the satisfaction of a job well done and fully completed because this is an amazing …

The British film magazine Empire has named Mel Gibson’s Braveheart the worst Best Picture Oscar winner, maintaining that writer Randall Wallace’s dialogue for the film “has all the thudding subtlety of a parody.” Runner-up was 2002’s A Beautiful Mind, which was faulted for its “willfully dishonest screenplay.” In third place …

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. -Hunter S. Thompson It’s that time of year when serious film aficionados bemoan the fact that their favorites were overlooked by the chumps that make up the voting body of the A.M.P.A.S. Those half-wit sycophants …

Directed by Greg Spotts Spotts’ documentary is about the toll that working Americans and the economy have suffered as a result of the NAFTA treaty and low-wage foreign competition. It is being released along with a companion book entitled CAFTA and Free Trade: What Every American Should Know just at …