CORALINE

CORALINE is a brilliant, beautiful, fascinating, and moving film adapted from a graphic novel. Just about everything is well done. The cast is very good, the visual design is amazing, and the combination of stop-motion animation and computer graphics is pretty seamless. I highly recommend the film to fans of animation.

Strauss, Mozart, & Beethoven

Julian Kuerti conducted again tonight for the CSO, a follow-up to his performance with Yo-Yo Ma on Wednesday. The choice of pieces was completely pedestrian, and the small size of the crowd confirmed that. The train coming in was crowded because of the light parade (which was terrible) before the concert, but it appears that no one stayed for the show. A better program might have kept people around.

The opening was Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan, probably the best piece on the program. It's an orchestral showpiece, especially for the conductor. Unfortunately, Julian Kuerti's tempo changes must have been very hard to follow, as this was one of the sloppier performances I've heard form this orchestra. The horns, however, sounded fantastic, and were worth showing up for.

The horn feature continued with Mozart's Concerto #4, featuring principal horn player Michael Thornton. Aside from his obsession with his spit valve, his performance was very good. But it's not the kind of piece that will be a huge draw, even though the final movement is one of Mozart's most popular pieces.

After a lengthy intermission, the highlight of the evening was Beethoven's Symphony #4. One of his shorter symphonies (which resulted in a very short concert), it certainly has its moments. Kuerti did his best conducting on this piece, and got a very exciting performance out of the orchestra, particularly in the final movement.

I look forward to our next concert on New Year's Eve.

STAR TREK

I avoided seeing STAR TREK for quite a while, as I was of fan of the original and was afraid that I would not like the new version. For the most part, I liked the new film. The first two-thirds of the film are very well written, and has some nice character back-story.

However, I was a little put off by some of the massive changes they made to this alternate telling of the Trek story. There are also a few logic leaps in the middle of the movie that require more suspension of disbelief than should be required. It will be interesting to see where they take things in sequels. The last third of the film is a little weak, and doesn't really wrap up very well. But it was still an enjoyable movie.

Yo-Yo, Ma!

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Yo-Yo Ma concert tonight with the CSO as part of our subscription. I've heard him play many times on TV and radio, and I own his recordings, but had never heard him play live.

The concert was an all Dvorak program, bizarrely opening with three successive overtures. The first was In Nature’s Realm, the weakest by far, sounding a little too much like the "Morgenstemning" of Grieg's Peer Gynt, except without the catchy melodies. This was followed by the more common Carnival Overture, which is bold and brassy and exciting, and would have been a better opening to the show. The third overture seemed even more superfluous, the Othello Overture, which seemed a little similar to the New World Symphony, which also ended big and brassy. I would rather have heard one overture, and maybe several of the Slavonic Danses to fill out the concert.

The concert was conducted by Julian Kuerti, assistant at the BSO, who was good, but I would much rather have had regular conductor Jeffrey Kahane.

The highlight of the evening was of course the Cello Concerto as performed by Yo-Yo Ma. During the intermission, I wondered how much life he could breathe into a piece that he had probably played at least 1000 times. He quickly put my fears to rest as he leaped fully into the piece in the opening bars. He is an amazing performer, and very exciting to watch. Unlike some other soloists, he is clearly very happy to be there, and listens carefully to every other instrument in the orchestra. If there was any criticism, it would be that the dark color of his instrument did not carry well in the hall over the orchestra.

As good as the concerto was, his unaccompanied Bach encore was much more moving. I didn't recognize the piece, buti t was very beautiful and he played with a broad emotional range. Well worth the ticket price.

UP

I'm a little late seeing the film UP. Every time I see a Pixar film, I keep thinking, how much longer can they keep doing it? They've been on a roll since TOY STORY and haven't faltered yet.

There's a lot of good in this film, especially the first 15 minute opening, which is basically a film unto itself. Ed Asner was brilliant casting. The story is great, although I was a little caught off guard by the new characters introduced in the second act. But they quickly grew on me. I was also very impressed with the score by Michael Giacchino. He's showing a lot of talent and range.

If there's anyone out there who still hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it.

CSO

The Colorado Symphony had a nice concert tonight of classic fare, unfortunately to a nearly empty hall. I suspect this was the result of several factors, including the holidays this week, several other shows playing tonight, and a somewhat lackluster lineup on the program.

The show opened with one of Beethoven's earlier, lesser known works, the Overture to his ballet Prometheus. It's a nice opening, but certainly not a draw.

The second piece on the program was the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss. It's always a bad sign when the soloist apologies before the performance, giving the excuse of a head cold. Soprano soloist Christine Brewer was actually okay in tone quality, but her enunciation and German pronunciation were weak.

By far, the highlight of the evening was a rousing performance of Brahms' First Symphony, appropriately called "Beethoven's Tenth." He often mentioned that he had to follow a giant, but this is a giant work itself, and Denver is lucky to have a wonderful conductor like Jeffrey Kahane. It was a very moving performance.

We still have three more concerts before the end of the year, and I ook forward to each of them!

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a great little film from 2007 that was overlooked in may ways, although it was nominated for an Oscars for screenplay by Nancy Oliver and a Golden Globe for lead actor Ryan Gosling. It did not do well at the box office. And who would have thought that a movie about a guy falling in love with a blowup sex doll would be one of the best love stories I've seen in years! It's a very sweet movie. I'm surprised it did not get a lot more word of mouth business.

The entire cast is fantastic. There are a lot of great, layered performances from everyone in the film. The script is very good as well. It's tough to believe the whole town would play along with his delusion, but the script and performances quickly make you forget that. The characters are wonderful. There's also an interesting subtext as to what determines reality. Bianca, the doll, is not real, even though the whole town pretends that she is, yet none of the other characters in the movie are any more real to us than the blowup doll. Yet we still care for her. And everyone else.

I highly recommend this weird little film.

HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN

HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN is a nice documentary from the BBC and WNET about the influence of the Beatles in the old Soviet Union. At first it sounds rather ludicrous that the Beatles might be even partially responsible for the fall of the Iron Curtain, but the filmmakers make a very good case for Western Rock music being a subversive influence on the Russian youth, much like American Jazz had been during WWII.

This is definitely worth a viewing for students of the social impact of music.

Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)

I've only watched two episodes of Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut), but this is quickly on its way to becoming a favorite documentary. The first episode alone is full of interview and archival material that I've never seen before, and is well worth the hour spent watching it on IFC. It also confirms a number of my suspicions about the indiviuals, including the fact that Terry Gilliam is probably the second luckiest man in the world (after Ringo Starr) for being in the right place at the right time even though he is completely talentless. Unlike Ringo, though, his ego is completely insane and out of touch with reality. Otherwise, a very enjoyable viewing.

RACH-TOBER CONTINUES - RACH ON!

Olga Kern completed her cycle of Rachmaninoff works with the Colorado Symphony tonight, with the Concert #2, the most popular of his works. The concert opened with two choral pieces, one movement of the Vespers, which was gorgeous a capella chorus. This was followed by The Bells, a work based on Poe's poem. Not quite as good as the other lesser-known works we heard (we were also at last week's performance), but entertaining nonetheless. The soprano and bass solos were very good, but the tenor expressed almost no emotion while singing. He also could not be heard over the orchestra.

The highlight of the evening, of course, was Miss Kern, who wore a flashy yellow dress, and hammered away at the Rach 2 like it was written for her. Perhaps if there is a criticism to be made tonight, the piece could have used a lighter touch in some places, although her playing in the third movement was gorgeous. One of the light moments in the second movement was ruined by an idiot audience member's cell phone ringing. There was audible disgust in response throughout the rest of the audience.

Miss Kern was very gracious after her standing ovation, and spoke quite niceley to the crowd, or "her public" as she called us in her thick accent. She then played a lovely duet with conductor Jefferey Kahane, playing it twice through, with the two of them switching positions at the piano for the repeat. They made a lovely pair.

I believe all of these concerts were sold out. I wish more of the concerts had decent audiences, this is a stunningly good orchestra, and they deserve more local support.

Olga Kern: Rach Star!

Russian pianist Olga Kern won the Van Cliburn competition playing Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto, and we were lucky enough to hear her play it last night with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to a sold-out house (a rarity in Denver). She will be doing a rare feat in Denver, playing all five of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra over a nine day period as part of a festival dedicated to the composer. Next weekend we will hear the 2nd Piano Concerto as well.

Her performance of the 3rd opened last night's program. Serge Rachmaninoff's pieces are notoriously difficult, not only because of the technical demands on the player, but because at six and a half feet tall, his hands were large enough to play full chords covering an octave and a half with each hand. Kern does not publicize her height, but she is very tall (almost comical standing next to the wonderful conductor Jeffrey Kahane) and clearly had no problem with the technical aspects of the piece. She was quite stunning on stage, wearing a dress that made her look like a mermaid. The audience adored her, and rightfully so, as she played both fluidly and beautifully.

The second half opened with a piece I had never heard, the Isle of the Dead. Kahane has a knack for discovering underplayed pieces. This was a really beautiful work based on a simple ostinato in 5/8 time, played with dark Bernard Herrmann-like orchestration, and building to a wonderful climax at the end. Like several of Rachmaninoffs works, it incorporates the Dies Irae many times, and to great effect.

The evening ended with one of Rachmaninoff's most popular works, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. She played it with both beauty and humor. It's always a great joy to see musicians enjoying themselves when they perform, and both she and conductor Kahane bring intense joy to their music.

I can hardly wait for next week!

Rockies Lose Again

The Rockies were eliminated from post-season play tonight, even though they had a 2-run lead going into the 9th. For the second night in a row, Street took the loss and Lidge got the save. Eyre also had a hold both nights.

It was a strange game. Both tonight and last night, the Rockies did as much to lose as they did to win. It's hard to imagine how the team will do next year. They will lose some players and will need to make decisions on others. Unfortunately the team owners have never invested heavily in making the team win.

Rockies Lose to Phillies

I've been to numerous baseball playoff games and other sold-out games in several cities, including Los Angeles, Anaheim, Oakland, San Diego and Boston. I was even at the all-time attendance record game when the Dodgers played the Red Sox at the Coliseum to a crowd of 115,000. Coors Field has by far the worst line management of any ballpark I have ever been to.

We took a shuttle bus to the game. One would think they would time these buses to get you to the game on time, but apparently they forgot to take into account the fact that a Broncos game would be ending as the bus left. We still arrived at the park about 40 minutes before first pitch, but at the gate where the bus lets you off - right field - there wasn't even a line, it was just a huge block of people all merging together.

My wife & I decided to walk to the home plate gate, which I knew, based on previous experience, had many more entrances and moved more efficiently. Unfortunately Blake Street was so crowded with people we only got as far as the first base gate before it became impassable. We merged into one of the lines there as we had no choice. Forty minutes later, the game began with at least hundreds of people waiting to get in, and probably thousands at all gates. They were not a happy crowd. If this were a less patient city - Boston or NY for example - there would have been violence. Amazingly, only two gates at the first base entrance were open even though there were about eight. Why? Didn't they know the game was sold out?About ten minutes before game time they opened two more, and about ten minutes after the game started they opened one more. They knew 50,000 people were coming, and they knew the bus schedule; what were they thinking???

Oh, and this was the coldest game in post-season history. The temp dropped from 35 to 28 during the course of the four-hour game. We got in at the bottom of the first, only because the game was being badly pitched and moving slowly. Because of the lack of queue management, we actually got in much faster than many people who should have been in front of us, but the lines all kept merging. Many people cut directly to the front of the line and it was almost impossible to stop them without starting a riot.

My wife & I spent most of the game in one of the bars. We have excellent seats right behind home plate, but on the top level, where the wind chill would have been unbearable, so we decided to walk around the field level where it was warmer. (Coors is one of the few parks where you can go to the field level without a ticket on that level). We actually went to the bar early enough that we got a good table; an inning later and the place was wall-to-wall frigid people.

Game time was 8PM for us, which made it a 10PM start for Philly fans. This is the result of MLB giving all post-season games to the same TV network (TBS) and letting them decide start times based on potential audiences. This game was rescheduled because of the snow and cold from the previous day. MLB should have made the delay announcement sooner - they knew the weather forecast Friday - and the should have rescheduled this to an afternoon game, when the sun was out and the temperature a lot warmer. It also would have made it a reasonable start for Phillies fans. You would think they would want the last game of the day to be the west coast game, so Angelenos would have their game in prime time, but instead we got a game with frigid fans and Philly night-owls.

The game itself was a mess. Granted, it's tough to pitch in 30 degree weather, but this was one of the worst-pitched games I've ever seen. The two teams went through 13 pitchers in a game that lasted over four hours, ending after midnight for us and at 2:15 AM for Philly fans.

The Rockies are the only team that was made it to a game four in the divisional series this year (all the others were swept). Now they are a loss away from elimination. Let's hope they can pull it together today and extend the series. Jimenez pitched well in game one, but lost in the late innings. I hope he does better today.

ROCKIES IN 11

Tonight was the 13th Rockies game I attended this year, rounding out my mini-plan, and it was a lucky 13, in the 11th inning anyway. The Rockies took a 5-2 lead into the 9th, only to see Huston Street blow the save against the Brewers. Jason Marquis had his troubles early on, loading the bases in two innings, but managed to make it through 6 innings with only 2 runs given up. With Atlanta losing, this broadens their lead to 3 games in wild card race.

Chris Ianetta was the hero in the 11th, hitting a walk-off pinch-hit homer.

The crowd was for a playoff run game at 39,000, but was quite loud at times.

I hope to see more games in post-season!

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

It's been a while since I recorded ACROSS THE UNIVERSE on my DVR, and even longer since it came out, so I'm way behind on reviewing this, but it's pretty much a complete mess. I love Julie Taymor, especially TITUS and FRIDA (maybe she should stick to five-letter titles), but this is a misfire.

One could argue that this should have been easy with all the Beatles music, but the truth is that Beatles covers are very hard to pull off, and this movie supports that. A much bigger problem than the music is the story itself, which is maudlin and portentous. The dialogue scenes are so bad, it's like they cut the dialogue scenes out of a porno and stuck them in here. The musical sequences are better, but the best ones happen in the second half of the film, long after I had lost interest in anything going on.

Early on the visual design is not very creative, but again it gets better later on. Perhaps the most inspired sequence turns "I Want You" into an army recruiting song with robot-like automatons dancing in army uniforms.

I can't recommend this.