October 2006 Reviews

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care.

October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on...and on...
-- U2, "October"

These are the reviews I'm working on for this month.

Amazon: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (their major label debut, inspired by this Japanese folk tale), Nellie McKay - Pretty Little Head, Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic, Hinder - Extreme Behavior, Aimee Mann - One More Drifter in the Snow (her first Christmas album), Totally Awesome (the title is sadly inaccurate), 9/11: Press for Truth, Riptide - The Complete First Season [three-disc set] ('80s cheese with Perry King and Joe Penny--yeehaw!), Taking You Higher (Cedric the Entertainer in variety show context), Windy City Heat (Eminem and Johnny Knoxville dig this Bobcat Goldthwait mockumentary), Lewis Black - Red, White & Screwed, The House of Sand (click here for alternate take), U2 - Zoo TV Live From Sydney The Best of the Electric Company - Volume 2 [four-disc set], and The Oh in Ohio.

Resonance: Amy Arbus - On the Street (collection of her 1980-1991 snaps for the Voice), Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55 (music by Air and lyrics by Jarvis Cocker), and a "Threads" timeline of Ari Up 

(the Slits, the New Age Steppers, etc.).

Seattle Film Blog: Free Zone (Amos Gitai; with Natalie Portman and Hiam Abbas), The Fall (Peter Whitehead; with Paul Auster, Arthur Miller, etc.), Tales of the Rat Fink (documentary about Ed "Big Daddy" Roth), and Claude Chabrol's The Bridesmaid.

1980 image of U2 from their official webite.