- Soft polyester fabric is easy to clean with mild soap and water
- Made in USA
- 5-year manufacturers warranty
- Your child's very own furniture
|
Italian fabulist Italo Calvino observed that there are two k! inds of artists--those who are prolific and successful, and the tortured geniuses, each gazing at the other in deep jealousy and admiration. The two rock bands chronicled in the documentary DiG! fall easily into this equation. On the side of the tortured geniuses is the Brian Jonestown Massacre, led by the psychedelic and volatile Anton Newcombe. Portland's the Dandy Warhols, fronted by Courtney Taylor, fulfill the role of the artists who, while unable to plumb the artistic depths of their friendly rivals, achieve a fair degree of popular acclaim (in Europe, anyway). Shot over seven years and containing some astonishingly intimate footage, the film represents a labor of love for director Ondi Timoner, who befriended, lived, and traveled with the bands. DiG! will likely be most remembered for a remarkable scene of rock and roll implosion--a show in LA's Viper Room after which the Brian Jonestown Massacre were expected to ink a record deal. Instead, the band eru! pted in a fist fight onstage. Among themselves.
!
|
Does it go uphill or downhill from here? Depends on your definition of the terms. While dooming their careers, the Brian Jonestown Massacre manage to crank out an insane number of self-distributed albums--including three records in a single year. Courtney Taylor and the Dandies regard the musical output of their peers worshipfully and find themselves virtually ignored stateside but huge stars across the pond. While tens of thousands of fans in Germany and the UK sing along to every word at sol! d-out festivals headlined by the Dandies, Newscombe leads his crew in a nine-hour set in a dingy club for an audience of ten. Throughout the film there are controlled substances imbibed, clothing shed, sitars broken, punches thrown, arrests made. Taylor performs double duty as narrator of the film, begging the question of whether to accept his assertion that he fronts "the most well-adjusted band in America" at face value. The destined-for-greater-things Joel Gion, BJM's tambourine player, is the thief of every scene in which he appears, playing Flavor Flav to Newscombe's Chuck D. For those who want even more immersion, the DVD includes the option to "zoom," or expand, various scenes--a very cool feature. Those responsible for the hilarious excesses of DiG! have made a movie worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as This Is Spinal Tap, as mixed an honor as that might be.
DVD Features
|
The second of this set's two discs is practically its own sequel. Director Ondi Timoner had 1500 hours of footage to work with, so there was plenty of good material left on the cutting-room floor that found its way onto this supplemental disc. The deleted scenes include an unintentionally haunting pre-9/11 interview on a New York rooftop with BJM's Anton Newcombe; the twin towers loom behind the singer as he attempts to justify singing about love yet engaging in violence, drawing tenuous parallels between himself and militant prophets throughout history. This, and Newcombe's delight in listening to Charles Manson's musical recordings, is about as heavy as it gets, though. Other extras include various videos by the bands, with the co! nspicuous absence of the Dandy Warhol's David LaChapelle-directed "Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth." (The omission is understandable in light of the Dandies' sour grapes over the $400,000 video.) The Where Are They Now features find various members of the bands a little older and reflective, with new families and new gigs, reminiscing fondly on the seven years spent under Timoner's watchful spycam. As is the case with the film proper, the mood picks up whenever Joel Gion appears. When is this guy going to get his own talk show? For fans of Timoner's commentary on disc 1 there is--get this--footage of the director and her partners recording that commentary. Why there's no footage of Timoner watching and commenting on the footage of herself recording the commentary is anyone's guess. --Ryan Boudinot
!
Dig These Discs by the Brian Jonestown Massacre
Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective | Strung Out in Heaven | Bravery Repetition & Noise |
And This Is Our Music | Thank God for Mental Illness | Bringing It All Back Home Again |
!-- end6pak -->
!
Dig These Discs by the Dandy Warhols
Welcome to the Monkey House | Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia | The Dandy Warhols Come Down |
!-- end6pak -->
Dig These Documentaries (and One Classic Mockumentary) on DVD
This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) | Metallica: Some Kind of Monst! er
| Hype |
X (The Band): The Unheard Music | End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones | Gimme Shelter |
Poetic Justice
Director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Rosewood) made an earnest effort in this, his second, film to say a great deal that is true and relevant about living and loving in a violent, difficult time in American history. Janet Jackson plays a beautician and poet who withdraws into herself after her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters. The late Tupac Shakur plays a postman who tries to get through to her, and the two travel on a course through urban America, connecting with family and community. Singleton has so much on his mind that the film comes out a terrible muddle, but there is a certain integrity peeking through the fog. Shakur makes a startlingly good impression in his film debut, and Jackson strips away her s! tar veneer to play something like a real person--and entirely succeeds. Maya Angelou wrote the poems that pass as those penned by Jackson's character, and she also appears in the film. --Tom Keogh
Higher Learning
This ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans ta! kes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, b! ut Singl eton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the surrounding culture--is not to be dismissed. --Tom KeoghDirected by twin brothers, Allen and Albert Hughes, this critically acclaimed cinematic masterpiece brilliantly details real life in today's tough inner city. With the powerhouse performances by Tyrin Turner (Deep Cover), Larenz Tate (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and Jada Pinkett (A Different World), the film also features dynamite supporting roles by Charles S. Dutton (Roc) and Bill Duke (Predator).
DVD Features:
Interviews
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer
Poetic Justice
Director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Rosewood) made an earnest effort in this, his second, film to say a great deal that is true and relevant about living and loving in a violent, difficult time in American history. Janet Jackson plays a beautician and poet who withdraws into herself after her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters. The late Tupac Shakur plays a postman who tries to get through to her, and the two travel on a course through urban America, connecting with family and community. Singleton has so much on his mind that the film comes out a terrible muddle, but there is a certain integrity peeking through the fog. Shakur makes a startlingly good impression in his film debut, and Jackson strips away her star veneer to play something like a real person--and entirely succeeds. Maya Angelou wrote the poems that pass as those penned by Jackson's character, and she also appears in the film.! --Tom Keogh
Higher Learning
This ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, but Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the surrounding culture--is not to be dismissed. --T! om KeoghStudio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/08/2! 009 Run time: 98 minutes Rating: RTyrin Turner may not have broken out into stardom as was initially expected, but his work in Menace II Society is one of the more powerful cinematic debuts. The film, from the brother writer-director team of Allen and Albert Hughes, chronicles life in the Los Angeles 'hood. Similar territory was covered in the equally commanding Boyz N the Hood, but what makes this cautionary tale stand out is not only the Hughes brothers' forceful story, (written with their friend, Tyger Williams) and direction, but the naturalness of then-newcomer leads Turner as Caine, Larenz Tate as O-Dog, and Jada Pinkett as Ronnie. They are so credible--occasionally frighteningly so--that the repressive universe of violent ghetto life is captured effectively. Life as portrayed here--and no doubt accurately so--is both figuratively and literally narrow. As a very young boy, Caine witnesses his dad murdered over something inconsequential, and his mom OD. His is a! world where respect comes from intimidation, power from violence. Despite his understanding of right and wrong (values passed on by a good friend, his kind grandparents, a caring teacher), his life and its entrapments are too much to overcome. --N.F. Mendoza
 ! p>
Enclosed youâll also find a meditative CD that complements the material in the book. The CD starts with a morning meditation designed to begin your day with a bright, positive energy frequency and surround you with healing light. The relaxing evening meditation that follows clears away energy that you may have absorbed during the day, and invites angels to enter your dreams and give you divine messages. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Â
âThis book and CD will help you understand the functions of the major chakras,
and esoteric methods for clearing them of fear. Your natural state is one of high energy,
intuition, and creativity. You donât need to add anything to yourself to enjoy
these characteristicsâ"you already own them within yourself. Just like a sculptor needs to
chip away the parts of the statue that arenât part of the ultimate creation, you only
need to clear away fear to reveal your innate qualities.ââ" Doreen Virtue
The chakras themselves are a beautiful progression of shifting colors, starting with the red root chakra at the base of the spine and moving up the body, shade-by-shade, and ending with the royal purple "crown" chakra at the top of the head. Each chakra interacts with a person's issues and concerns in the world. For instance, the root chakra relates to basic survival, such as money, shelter, and material needs, according to Virtue. If a person feels stable in this arena, the "root chakra looks like a brilliant ruby held under a spotlight," she explains. However, if people feel fearful about money or become overly obsessed with their career or possessions, this chakra will be come "dirty" and have a muddy, dark red color.
Virtue offers an extensive assortment of original, guided meditations that are effective in cleaning and clearing all the chakras. The information is well organized an! d clearly presented with a corresponding CD to help readers integrate the meditations into daily life. She also touches upon other cleaning tools, such as what foods and crystals support the chakra system. Advanced energy workers may find this material basic, but beginners should find it an outstanding primer. --Gail Hudson