Reviews Archive

Walter Donway: “The Struggle for Poetry’s Soul”

February 1, 2008 · Category: Atlasphere, Intellectual, Objectivism, Reviews

Walter Donway just sent the following announcement, which explains the significance of his essay as well as anything I might hope to write: My brief essay "The Struggle for Poetry's Soul" just went up on the popular Atlasphere web site. In the essay, I try to suggest why it is important to restore the traditional craft and enduring values of poetry, being lost today in the blizzard of "free verse," deliberate difficulty, and rejection of popular values such as rhyme and storytelling in so much of contemporary poetry. With whatever talent I may have, I am trying to explore the ...

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Charice Pempengco on Ellen Degeneres Show

December 22, 2007 · Category: Music, Reviews

Thanks to C4Chaos for this tip about another phenomenal, world-class singer coming from the Philippines. Her genre isn't really my genre, but I can sure hear the talent. I had a similar reaction to the videos of Arnel Pineda: What is it about seeing such a big voice come out of such a small body? And their guilelessness. Complete unpretentiousness. Talk about mudita! Seeing Pempengco's reaction to Ellen and the crowd, after her first performance, brought tears to my eyes. I stand in awe.

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Journey Finds a New Lead Singer, and He’s Filipino … and He’s Good

December 15, 2007 · Category: Music, Reviews

His name is Arnel Pineda. First things first -- watch this video of him singing Journey's hit "Faithfully" (backed up by his Filipino band The Zoo): Hat-tip to C4Chaos for his post "Journey Welcomes Arnel Pineda with Open Arms," with this fascinating backstory about why guitarist Schon is swooning over a Filipino singer: Filipinos are hopeless romantics who love music. That's why ballads are big hits in the Philippines. Journey [was] one of the biggest bands in the Philippines when I was growing up. I remember listening to Journey songs on the radio, in restaurants, in buses, tricycles, and jeepneys. I ...

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December Movie Trailer Reviews

December 5, 2007 · Category: Reviews

I've not been feeling well today, so I did one of my favorite "comfort" activities: I watched all the latest previews on the Apple movie trailers page. Does the world really need so many new horror movies? A lot of Hollywood's current offerings seem to emphasize themes of extraterrestrial terror or supernatural powers. Not my cup of tea. To me the best movies are those which (a) have no un-natural plot devices -- e.g., space aliens, other-worldly escapades, or murderers blessed with psychic powers -- and (b) reveal the positive possibilities of human nature. Here are my picks. Since I ...

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Web Hosting Reviews

November 29, 2007 · Category: Reviews, Web Development

I'm currently in the market for a new favorite web hosting company (or two). From a technical standpoint, I am a Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL guy with a preference for cPanel and WHM. However, an increasing number of my client projects these days are larger online applications using Ruby on Rails. In the past, I've worked with FatCow (a B minus, at best, ever since they were bought out by a larger company a couple years ago), HostRocket (a C plus since their phone support can be bogus), and The Planet (an A minus for their managed dedicated server I've used for ...

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Vadim Perelman’s “House of Sand and Fog”

October 23, 2007 · Category: Atlasphere, Objectivism, Reviews

Last week I watched the DVD of Atlas Shrugged movie director Vadim Perelman's House of Sand and Fog. (For more background about the Atlas Shrugged movie, I can't recommend highly enough Robert Bidinotto's new article "Major Updates on the Atlas Shrugged Movie" at the Atlasphere.) Since Perelman's going to be the proverbial "god" of the new Atlas Shrugged movie, I figured it would be worth witnessing his previous cinematic work first-hand. This is a dark movie, no question about it. I can easily imagine some Ayn Rand fans liking the movie, and others actively disliking it. The writing, acting, and ...

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Vienna Teng – Dreaming Through the Noise

September 6, 2007 · Category: Music, Reviews

Vienna Teng's new album Dreaming Through the Noise is a thing of beauty. I had half-listened to it a couple times after first buying it. Earlier today, though, I lay down let the full album reveal itself to me -- and was impressed by every song (except the ponderous and dissonant-sounding "Pontchartrain"). This is a more laid-back collection of songs than her previous albums have been, as though she couldn't be troubled to rush. She is a self-assured musician now, and lets the music flow of its own accord, rather than pushing it. I don't hear a forced note on the ...

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Creativity Coaching for Musicians, by Andrew Schwartz

August 3, 2007 · Category: Integral, Music, Reviews

Regular readers of Mudita Journal and Mudita Forum are already familiar with Andrew Schwartz. I've enjoyed his contributions here for many years now, because he's one of those rare souls who lives and breathes the stuff of psychology, creativity, and personal growth. To my delight and hearty encouragement, he has begun offering his services widely as a therapist -- both as a personal coach and by providing creativity coaching for musicians. To be clear, Andrew has been working as a therapist and personal coach for a long while now. But now he's decided to offer his services to clients around ...

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David Gray and the Return to Simplicity

August 3, 2007 · Category: Music, Reviews

I've recently become enchanted with David Gray's albums White Ladder and Life in Slow Motion. Something in his voice ... demolishes mere form. While doing a little reading about him on the internet, I came across this interesting anecdote: In 1996, he found himself running out of patience and, as is unfortunately common for emerging artists, a disastrous run of luck with major record labels. He had released three albums in as many years, first with Caroline, then Virgin and finally EMI. Each received critical acclaim, but Gray still had no more than a devoted cult following, despite opening for ...

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Samsung HL-T6176S 61″ UltraSlim 1080p DLP HDTV

July 30, 2007 · Category: Personal, Reviews

Over the past few years, I've increasingly found that watching an ordinary CRT television gives me a painful amount of eye strain. Since Kathy and I love watching movies together in the evening, we decided it's time for an upgrade. After doing research at our local BestBuy and online, we settled on the Samsung HL-T6176S 61" Ultraslim 1080p DLP HDTV, which we're buying from Amazon. (Shown here with companion TV stand, which I'll probably buy from Circuit City.) Our primary selection criteria were: 61 inches is nice and big (OK, huge) Projection TVs provide much larger size at a lower price point than plasma and LCD ...

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