Lynne Cox is certainly a remarkable woman. A swimmer with a built-in resistance to cold, she has attempted and completed some incredible bodies of water in extreme conditions, all with a positive attitude and a genuinely humble approach to her accomplishments. Cox is certainly no polished writer - you won't read any flowery prose describing icebergs, currents, sea creatures or waves with metaphors or an abundance of adjectives. The author is plainspoken and honest, making the book seem like an extended - and completely facinating - conversation over coffee.

I have competed in open-water swimming for a decade in conditions much more favorable than Lynne Cox and tore through this book wanting to know how she crossed each body of water. For me, it was a page-turner. Her detailed descriptions of open water swimming and its challenges were right on the mark.

But the book left me wanting to know more. How did the author deal with her personal and family life in the middle of her training and her travels? What specifically inspired her to complete a certain swim? The author only briefly touches upon her romance with an Egyptian swimmer and her supportive parents' illness. I only wish she wrote about the demands swimming placed on her life on dry land.

In the years between the breakup of Chisel and the beginnings of The Pharmacists, Ted Leo bounced around his record collection, drawing on over 20 years of absorbing rock & roll, punk, indie, soul, hip hop, etc. and translating it to create music that is unique while remaining familiar. We know that we heard that song before when listening to Ted Leo's solo stuff, but we can't pin just where we heard that riff, verse or melody. All we know is that we like it.

Ted's first solo release sounded like a man left alone with his home studio and tape loops. Almost 5 years later, now that Ted has climbed his way near the top of the indie rock sludge heap, he takes a side trip back to his solo roots. This time, he is armed with the experiences and skills gained while rocking out with the Pharmacists. We see a more focused Ted Leo this time around than on his initial solo release.

Ted has long worshipped at the altar of British singer-songwriters. He draws his social commentary and trebly, stop-start guitar style from Billy Bragg and his cool intensity and whiteboy soul from Paul Weller. While these two artists lurk in the background on Ted's past stuff with the Pharmacists, they really step to the foreground on the Balgeary EP. And no one these days interprets Messrs. Bragg and Weller better than Ted Leo. His version of The Jam's "Ghosts", coupled with "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (Split Enz) and The Pogues' "Dirty Old Town" (the latter being a fan favorite) all give us an eye into Ted's English-speaking influences around the globe.

He also grapples with his role as a citizen in "Loyal to my Sorrowful Country", continuing with the political themes raised by "The Promised One" and "The Ballad of the Sin Eater" on Hearts of Oak.

Ted Leo has proven himself to be an honest, courageous songwriter who isn't afraid of where he's been and where he's headed. The Balgeary EP helps round out the world of Ted.

I've long heard about U. of Chicago sociologist Andrew Greeley but never had the opportunity to read any of his works. The Catholic Imagination was a very approchable work for the general reader that looks at the Catholic Church's roots in both the divine and the flesh (as opposed to the condemnation of the flesh and worldly things by Reformation Protestants).

Greeley bends over backwards not to trumpet the superiority of Catholicism over other denominations or faiths. He attempts to take the reader on a tour of Catholic iconography and community and explain to Catholics and non-Catholics alike why Catholics are more attached to art, music, architecture, community (over individuality), sexuality and salvation in an imperfect world than other Christian congregations.

He also argues quite eloquently that much of the above aspects of Catholicism are rooted in folk history and the Church's roots in a illiterate, pre-Enlightenment Europe where local traditions held greater sway than detached theological mandates from a distant Rome. Greeley even touches on this conflict in today's Church, believing that improved communication technologies have resulted in friction between Rome and "ordinary" Catholics as the Holy See has attempted to tighten its control over local clergy and laity.

Again, Greeley aims for the general reader as his audience, not the learned theologian. That is the target of his book and the ingredients in much of his arguments in The Catholic Imagination.

This book would be better served by some more color photos of the artwork Greeley mentions in his book, as I found myself unfamiliar with many of the works of art, films and music listed in the essay.

Harvard grad Rob Cohen has directed his best cinematic experience since 1987's "Hooperman", but Vin Diesel is certainly no John Ritter!
Wow, where did these writers come up with a "hip" and "cutting edge" title like "XXX"? Get it? I bet that some dumb teenagers think that because the film is named "XXX" that it contains adult content and they will get a thrill seeing this movie. Vin Diesel and his character, Xander Cage, battle bad guys, get beautiful women, blow things up, and say catchy phrases that all my buddies emulate. With a cool, totally original name like "Xander" (get it? It's a play on the word "Xtreme" one of the hippest words out there), our guy Vin walks to his own beat, without the advice of Hollywood marketing types. He also has tatoos, which are all about being a loner, and with a name like Diesel, I bet his entire family is really mad cool.
This DVD will hopefully tie me over until XXX2 is released in 2004.

Canadians always seem funnier than us uptight Americans because they can laugh at themselves and their idiosyncracies without offending any interest group other than uptight Canadians. They have Mike Meyers and the timeless Kids in the Hall for comedy; we have Carrot Top and "Family Guy." That being said, this film is utterly sophomoric. Almost twenty years later, it still keeps me laughing out loud at its absurd plot, silly jokes and barrage of references and inside jokes about Canadian culture. I went into this film already knowing a bit of Canada (I am a big hockey fan) and came out of this thinking that most NHL players like beer, back bacon & donuts as much as Bob & Doug McKenzie. And I loved every minute of it.
Hats off to the disc's producers for making the audio and video quality superior to the faded-out versions I've seen on cable TV and VHS. They also did an admirable job of including lots of extras on the disc. I've never seen SCTV, but a classic McKenzie Bros. sketch from the legendary show is included on this disc, as well as the film's trailer and a new animated short that includes Canada's favorite siblings since the Dionne quintuplets.
Perhaps this film rivals Caddyshack in having the greatest number of one-liners repeated over beers by white thirtysomethings. That alone should make it a cult classic of Canada you knobs!

Set in the decaying (and fictional) Maine town of Empire Falls (which is reminiscent of Russo's earlier books set in Mohawk, New York), Russo creats a Dickensian cast of characters and an ambitious story that spans more than a century as history intersects with the present and the future along banks of the Knox River.
As with his earlier works, Russo is a master artist in creating realistic, three-dimensional characters and settings. After a few pages, you feel like you personally know the characters and can picture every corner of the town of Empire Falls in your head. It has always been his strongest quality. This time, Russo takes you inside the minds and hearts of Miles Roby, a modest, decent man who occasionally stalls due to self-doubt but who eventually realizes that he and the entire town have long been held back by a single, powerful individual.
Roby is a fascinating character; in most other books, we would call him boring, but Russo gives us so much information about his past and how he thinks and feels that we see him as more than just a single parent and local restauranteur. The author also populates Empire Falls with a diverse cast of individuals who challenge Miles along the way - some humorous and others with deadly results. I found a few faults with the book when Russo would spend a chapter or two following the exploits of a relatively minor character, pulling my gaze away from Miles. Better editing could knock 100 pages from the book and still keep it an excellent piece of fiction. However, these isolated vignettes sometimes it made me laugh (Miles' father, Max, seems to be a dead ringer for Sam, Ned Hall's father in Russo's "The Risk Pool.") and provided a better picture of Miles and the city of Empire Falls.
The book holds your attention enough for you to put it down for long stretches and then dive right back in a few days or weeks later. I wouldn't have awarded it a Pulitzer Prize, but I enjoyed it immensely and regard it as some of the best fiction I've read in a while.

This 1993 gem is only the second film to be shot on the Notre Dame campus (following Knute Rockne: All-American in the 1930s) and it follows Rudy's struggle to overcome dozens of obstacles and realize his abbreviated dream of playing for the Fighting Irish football team.
The plot and dramatic music can get schmaltzy at times, but the campus shots are beautiful and captures a bit of the Notre Dame mystique visitors and alumns claim to feel when walking under the Golden Dome. Rudy is persistent in his struggle, and Sean Astin masterfully plays him so he remains sympathetic without becoming annoying. Look for appearances by former Notre Dame president Fr. Ted Hesburgh, a young Vince Vaughan and Lili Taylor and a great big Jon Favreau as Rudy's pal. The football game scenes during the film's climax capture a bit of the gameday atmosphere in South Bend; more importantly, they capture Rudy's focus and realization that he has reached his life's goal.
I was disappointed in the selection of extras included on the disc. I enjoyed the impressive mini documentary interview with the real Rudy Ruettiger (which debunked some of the critiques I heard comparing the film with the real story), but I was disappointed that scenes of the film's premiere in South Bend were left off (they were included on some "Special Editions" of the VHS tape).
Second, where was the trailer for the film? I can't believe that the disc's producers included irrelevant trailers for "Brian's Song" & "Jerry Maguire" (the only connection I can see here is that they also deal with football and redemption, but that's it) and left off the "Rudy" trailers.
Perhaps in 2003 the producers will release a 10-year anniversary edition of the DVD and correct some of these omissions and unnecessary additions.

The earlier stuff by the Action -- who achieved notoriety through the support of Beatles' producer George Martin -- was your standard collection of guitar-driven, English mid-60s interpretations of American R&B tunes, but in 1968, the world was changing, and the Action changed along with it.

Like their contemporaties the Who and the Small Faces, the Action began to move away from traditional mod melodies like "I'll Keep Holding On" to more expansive pieces like "Come Around," "Brain" and "Strange Roads."

What results is not a full "mod" or "psychedelic" collection, but a fantastic collage of great British pop that can hold its own with the big stars of the era (Beatles, Kinks, etc). Each song gets better after each listen.

The songs on Rolled Gold were recorded as demos for an upcoming album but never released. Thankfully, they were remastered and repackaged as a CD with liner notes from band members and modern-day popsters like Matthew Sweet and Brent Rademaker of Beechwood Sparks.

In fact, listening to this disc immediately draws parallels to many indie pop icons of the present day, most notably Robert Pollard and his Guided by Voices. I don't even know if these artists intentionally drew their work from that of the Action's Rolled Gold days, but the parallels are striking.

Placing this CD in my player with the Kinks "Arthur" and the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" will complete your fun trip through edgy psychedelic pop of a time long gone.

OK, I only watched this film because it was shown on a recent transcontinental flight, and because I forgot my CD player, this seemed like the best option. I dreaded something out of the pits of Nickelodeon marketing bin, but ended up laughing out loud many times and disturbing my sleeping planemates.

Impressive teen actor Frankie Muniz and veteran Paul Giamatti (who are both perfectly cast in their respective roles) lock horns in classic slapstick style. Unlike the "Home Alone" movies, however, the continuous battle of pranks doesn't get old as the movie rolls along. Giamatti shines as the classic evil Hollywood type, bringing back memories of his magnificent part as Pig Vomit in "Howard Stern: Private Parts." I hate to typecast him, but he plays the role to a perfection.

Amanda Byrnes fills in nicely as the token female 'friend' of Muniz, giving the viewers a taste of gentle teen angst.

Parents, if you have kids between the ages of 10-17, then you'll have a blast watching this movie with them, airplane or no airplane.

Didja ever see one of those movies where the guy a woman marries isn't REALLY the guy he seems? You probably did, because this is one of thousands of movies that follows the same tired Hollywood formula.
This cliche-filled series of plot twists pits Ashley Judd as a trendy yuppie lawyer right out of central casting and James Caviezel as her oh-so-wholesome and sensitive carpenter husband (he is too well-groomed to be a carpenter, IMHO) against a military court who claims that James Caviezel once served in the military and was involved in a brutal crime against civilans in Central America.
So Judd goes on her mission to prove her husband's innocence, and Morgan Freeman and Adam Scott desperately try to save this movie from being the Hallmark thriller of the week.
But hey, there are coverups and military power struggles (it's the government, remember?) and a glimpse into Freeman's battles with his own private demons. There are also many suspenseful moments as plot filler, and yeah, did I mention a suprise ending?
If you want to watch a more fufilling thriller, check out "Memento."