A new year...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. We're all back to work, out of holiday mode and with our noses to the grindstone.
Before Christmas I went to see Sweeney Todd with my sons. Excellent adaptation of the play, and I have to say that cutting out a couple of the songs and streamlining it didn't hurt the story. Good performances all 'round and the wonderfully murky cinematography just added to my delight. I've seen three or four different productions of Sweeney Todd, not counting a couple of other versions of the story (by Dibdin Pitt, for one) but I did enjoy Johnny Depp!
Also saw Walk Hard, and thoroughly enjoyed that too. Sorry to hear it's not finding its audience but I laughed and laughed.
I bought the Amazing Journey DVD, that tells the Who story. Excellent. Finally Roger has his say! The Rolling Stone cover to cover DVD-rom is loads of fun to browse through. Every RS magazine for 40 years! Wow!
Can't wait to read Ronnie Wood's autobiography Ronnie. I also scored a copy of his 2-CD Anthology which has one disc of solo material and one of the bands he's been with, the Birds, Creation, Jeff Beck, Faces, Stones, some pretty good bands.
Lots of McCartney around these days. Another special edition of memory almost full this time with a live DVD, a download of Paul's secret concert at Amoeba Records, an A&E TV special from the Olympia. And next...Ringo's new album comes out today...it's a Beatles spectacular.
A new Fretboard Journal with John Scofield on the cover made me go back to listen to John's tribute to Ray Charles CD. Wow! And there's also a big article on Norman and Nancy Blake.
Still listening to Steve Earle's washington square serenade which may be the album of the year for me. Well, not counting Ry's My Name is Buddy. But the two of them have been on my playlist since they came out! Steve also had a TV special on Canada's Bravo which was a raw solo performance of much of the wss album.
Saw a couple interesting videos...Breaking and Entering and Perfume. Slow moving but quite interesting nonetheless. And one last recommendation...read Roddy Doyle's The Deportees, a set of short stories all dealing with immigrants in Ireland. One story is a sequel to The Commitments. See ya!