Archive for October 8, 2010
New DVDs
1. Cats & Dogs The Revenge of Kitty Galore
9. Micmacs
10. The Other Guys
12. Restrepo
13. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
14. Step Up 3
15. The Switch
17. Vampires Suck
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
How far would you go for your ex? Would you move to a house in the middle of nowhere (that potentially has ghosts, if you believe in that sort of thing) to look after two delinquent kids? That’s what Andromeda Miller does for her ex-husband in Jennifer Crusie’s latest, Maybe This Time. Now, Andie and I both scoffed at these so-called ghosts. After three nannies have been run off because they say they saw spooks, and there are two kids with serious attitude problems, would you really believe in ghosts? Maybe it is the kids and maybe there really are specters going bump in the night. I’m not going to give it away – that’s what reading the book is for. I will say that a crazy Tarot card-reading mother, a spiritual medium, a parapsychology professor, a TV reporter with a super fake smile, and a really creepy housekeeper are thrown into the mix, not to mention a love triangle when both Andie’s fiancé and her ex-husband show up to win her affections.
I’ll also say that I thoroughly enjoyed Crusie’s latest book, and I’m very pleased with the supernatural bent she’s on. Her last book, Wild Ride, featured demons in an amusement park. Demons. Amusement park. Just sayin’ it can’t get much better. In the ranks of authors who can combine humor, action, and a little something weird, Crusie is up at the top.
- Heather Botelho
Miss Emily’s JukeJoint, 10.6.10: Tar-Nation
I like to go through our CD collection for oddities and stuffyouwouldn’texpect. Today I found “In The Pines-Tar Heel Folk Songs and Fiddle Tunes”. This is a collection of “old-time music of North Carolina 1926-1936.”
In the Pines cover art
Besides being the home of NASCAR, John Coltrane and Thomas Wolfe, the genre of music we know today as “Bluegrass” has deep roots in North Carolina. The title “Bluegrass” has alot to do with the influence of Bill Monroe, the title of his group-”The Bluegrass Boys”, and his birth in Kentucky, but the music has roots all over Appalacia and the Southeastern United States. But, this collection isn’t bluegrass-its old-time acoustic country music as practiced by working class farmers, small shopkeeps, millworkers and the like in schoolhouses, on streetcorners and porches during the Harding, Hoover and Roosevelt Administrations. Bluegrass is the “modern” genre that folks would most easily find similar. Well, that and a kind of Country music that hasn’t been on the radio in a looong time. You may find it, though, played by scruffy longhaired, bearded middle-class college students in coffee houses from Seattle to Boston. Enough of my rambling…
Carolina Tar Heels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL4bu6OCIJo&feature=related
Wade Mainer interviewed and pickin’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkexeI2N6YA&feature=related
And, this has nothing to do with music per se, but somehow another Carolina native, Earl Scruggs’ lightning banjo style reminds me of another Carolina native, NASCAR legend Junior Johnson running ‘shine “thru the woods of Caroline” , to quote Bruce Springsteen in “Cadillac Ranch”.
Until next time, put those CDs, albums, 45s and 78s back in their sleeves!
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