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Music & Musicals
in issue 59
False Consonance and False Consciousness: Contrarian Notes on the Ideology of Film Music — "Defenseless against music, I must submit to its despotism and, depending on its whim, be god or garbage." — E. M. Cioran
in issue 58
The Devil Wears a Fatsuit: John Travolta in Hairspray — "Even if the new Hairspray seems a welcome return to camp for Travolta, his mock-seriousness is as frozen as ever."
Will the Shark Bite? G. W. Pabst and The Threepenny Opera — "Macheath: I'm not asking you to put on an opera." — Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, Act 1, scene 2
in issue 57
Space Here We Come: P. J. Harvey's Please Leave Quietly Redefines the Concert Film DVD — "It flashes before our eyes, and we are not even sure what we have witnessed."
in issue 53
Clouds and Scattered Sun: Kelly and Donen's It's Always Fair Weather — "Shot in earthbound Eastman color, It's Always Fair Weather doesn't look or feel like the Technicolor froth that preceded it."
in issue 52
When Fred Met Red: Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, and Vera-Ellen Commingle in Three Little Words — It's Bert and Harry, together again! Why are you not excited?
The Hip Hooray and Bally Hoo: Busby Berkeley Explodes on DVD — Come and meet those dancing feet, and pianos, and buildings, and . . .
Gene and Judy Go Wild! Thoughts on Minnelli's The Pirate — The best of the Garland-Kelly collaborations?
in issue 51
What the Sound Is Saying: How Music Moves in Bertolucci — "Who doesn't want to be rescued by their narrator?"
in issue 50
The Barkleys of Broadway: Fred & Ginger's Last Dance: Ten Pounds Shy of a Gem? — "You'd be hard to replace"? Damn near impossible!
in issue 48
In Your Easter Bonnet, with All the Frills Upon It: Irving Berlin's Easter Parade — Fred and Judy celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ
The Good, the Bad, and the Disingenuous: Jazz on DVD — You get what you pay for, if you're lucky
in issue 47
Shocking Times: Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue on DVD — While the counterculture turns on, Miles plugs in — with startling results
in issue 46
Norbert, We Hardly Knew Ye: Rethinking the Late German Composer — He composed "Lili Marleen" — and, oh yeah, hundreds of other songs and scores
How to Murder John Williams: Toward an Ideology of Contrapuntal Antirealism — To construct musicality through expressionism, or to express musicality through constructivism?
Blue Skies? Well, Partly Sunny — Fred 'n' Bing 'n' Irv, Part II
in issue 45
Steal This Picture ... Please — Fred almost suffocates in Minnelli's Yolanda and the Thief
in issue 44
Follies Is Right! — Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly barely survive Ziegfeld Follies
AfroPunk: The Rock 'n' Roll Nigger Experience — Making up reality: race, rock, and wrestling
Outside In: Documentaries on Gary Wilson, Jandek, and the Song-Poem — "We accept you, we accept you, gibble gobble, gibble gobble . . ."
Wish Upon a Star! Robert Wise's Musical Mess on DVD — Or, a turkey returns
in issue 43
Fred Meets Joan Leslie and The Sky's the Limit — "Never let it be said little Freddie can't carry his load"
in issue 42
Shakespeare Improved! Cole Porter Teaches the Old Bard New Tricks in Kiss Me Kate — "Why, you'd make a perfect shrew!"
Fred and Rita Go Latin in You Were Never Lovelier — Chiu chiu to you, baby
in issue 41
Too much Bing, not enough Fred — There's not much room at the Holiday Inn
in issue 40
What's Rita in the Hay Worth? — Fred finds out in You'll Never Get Rich
The Sound of Jazz, the Sound of Gene — New DVDs offer rare TV appearances by jazz greats Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Coleman Hawkins, and Benny Goodman. But where's Thelonious Monk?
Desperately Seeking Ginger — Hollywood Rhythms, Vol. 2 offers relief for the Gingers-deprived
Bad Film, Great Soundtrack: New Orleans on DVD — How Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday saved New Orleans from the Yankees
in issue 39
Fred Astaire Meets Artie Shaw in Second Chorus — New DVD also includes Ezio Pinza, Lena Horne, and Duke Ellington
in issue 38
Fred Goes Over the Top with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940 — The semi-sweet smell of excess
in issue 37
Fred & Ginger Fade to Black in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle — Fred dies, Ginger cries
in issue 36
Fred & Ginger, Together Again, yet Not Quite Carefree — "Colorblind," and maybe just a little bit tone-deaf
in issue 35
Fred Astaire Goes Solo in Damsel in Distress — Nice work if you can get it
in issue 34
Mozart's The Magic Flute on DVD — Ingmar Bergman does it again!
Fred and Ginger Miss a Step in Shall We Dance — "Let’s call the whole thing off?"
Dixiana on DVD Has Everything but Bill Robinson’s Feet — Where’s the rest of him?
Rave On: Five Indie Music Docs on Four DVDs — Jello Biafra meet ‘90s D.I.Y. meet Patti Smith meet Rave Kulture meet…
in issue 33
Fred and Ginger Savor La Belle Romance in Swing Time — "Shall we take it straight through?"
Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back on DVD — The dude with the ’tude
Louis Prima: The Wildest! on DVD — The illustrious history of the king of the hepcats (and the queen of deadpan)
Stephen Sondheim’s Company on DVD — Life is shit: Let's put on a show!
Feedback from the Global Village — From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China offers three documentaries on DVD for the price of one; Genghis Blues is too shaggy for words
in issue 32
Fred & Ginger Get Their Feet Wet in Follow the Fleet — "There may be trouble ahead"
Too Haute to Handle: Jazz on a Summer’s Day on DVD — The best jazz documentary just got better
in issue 31
Fred & Ginger Hit Their Highest Peak in Top Hat — What's black and white and simply reeks with class?
The Fabulous Baker Boys — Why there are no people like show people
in issue 30
Irving Berlin on Film — Forget Barry Manilow — this is the guy who really wrote the songs
Derek Jarman's Jubilee — Punks hail Brittania in their own peculiar way in this little-seen gem by the late queer auteur
in issue 29
Roberta — One of the least known, and one of the very best, of the films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did together
The Sex Pistols in The Filth and the Fury — Julian Temple’s engaging documentary about everybody’s favorite spitting, puking punk band
in issue 28
The Gay Divorcee — Fred and Ginger get continental on your ass
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains — Girls on film, punk style
in issue 27
Bernard Herrmann's "The Twilight Zone" on CD — Serling's groundbreaking series was also a warm haven for Hollywood's greatest composer
in issue 26
Murder at the Vanities — This 1934 musical mystery has girls, grins, guns, and Duke Ellington, too
Flying Down to Rio — The film that put Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together on a dance floor
The
King of Jazz
Hot licks and high kicks
in a rare early musical
in issue 25
The Jackson Twins: What Next for Michael and Janet? — Self-invention and self-love: Can you tell the difference?
in issue 23
Words and Music — How can an MGM musical with Judy Garland, a young Perry Como, and a pre-Depends™ June Allyson be obscure?
in issue 21
Whoopee — A chunk of Flo Ziegfeld's Roaring Twenties Broadway, preserved in glorious, 1930 two-color Technicolor
in issue 20
Love's Debris — Thrill as withered opera hags revisit their vital past!
