Kenton Larsen

Ain't love grand..., Jan 29 2002

This set is definitive evidence that Stephin Merritt is the best songwriter working in music today. It's lucky for us that he's also one of the most prolific, as "69 Love Songs" clearly proves.

While the Magnetic Fields have always been a good band and Merritt has always been an intriguing songwriter, nothing that they have recorded before has even hinted at this sort of ambition.

How ambitious? Try 69 songs over three CDs (23 a piece!)and three hours, which run the gamut in style from showtunes ("The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side"), jazz ("Love is Like Jazz"), Irving Berlin ("A Pretty Girl is Like...") and Johnny Cash ("Papa Was a Rodeo") to new wave ("Promises of Eternity"),… Read more

One of the best films ever made, Jan 28 2002

Vittorio De Sica's 1949 cinematic classic is, quite simply, one of the best films ever made.

The film features Lamberto Maggiorani as an impoverished man whose job hanging movie posters depends on his bicycle. When it's stolen, so is his livelihood. He and his young son (Enzo Staiola) undertake a desperate search through Rome to find the stolen property, becoming increasingly more desperate as the search progresses.

The story is simple and eloquent, quiet and powerful, harrowing and moving. Poetry in motion, the Bicycle Thief will stick with you long after you've seen it.

Barry Levinson's first and best film, Jan 28 2002

Barry Levinson has been hailed as a great director on the basis of such films as Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam and Bugsy. Diner is where his career began and remains the best film in his entire catalogue.

Diner takes place in Baltimore in the 1950s and tells the story of five young men hanging onto their high school antics by the skins of their teeths while coming to terms with fast-approaching adult responsibilities.

College, work, marriage, and responsibility in general threaten the quality time they spend hanging out at the Diner, discussing "What's on the B-Side?" and "Who's better: Sinatra or Mathis?" (The answer, of course: "Presley").

The film's laughs originate from its… Read more