Fourteen years before he took home Oscars for writing, directing and producing Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu made his feature film debut with Amores Perros. It’s a much better film.
Last year, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was robbed of the big prize, which made it impossible for me to cheer on Iñárritu, who I’ve rooted for ever since he blew me away in 2001 — even as each film that followed Amores Perros was a little less successful than the last.
Today’s Random iTunes selection comes from an album of Disney Princess songs we bought for my daughter’s years ago.
It’s a pretty great album, featuring such songs as ‘A Whole New World,’ ‘Part of Your World,’ ‘Colors of the Wind,’ ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight,’ and ‘Belle.’ I always thought it was weird that it didn’t include ‘Beauty and the Beast.’
I’ve written about this before on the blog, but it was almost five years ago so I don’t mind repeating myself.
I discovered Los Lobos’ Kiko at a listening station in a Blockbuster music store just outside of Coral Gables. I listened to a handful of tracks until I’d heard enough to know I had to buy the thing right then and there. That’s what a spur-of-the-moment music download looked like in 1992.
Our Time in Eden was the last 10,000 Maniacs album to feature Natalie Merchant on lead vocals, and therefore the last 10,000 Maniacs album worth hearing.
I am familiar with only two of the five albums that do feature Merchant — this one and their 1987 breakthrough In My Tribe — but I love both of those records whole-heartedly.
I was actually surprised to discover that Our Time in Eden came out in 1992, because I don’t really associate it with that summer. I believe that’s because I listened to it briefly and dismissed it as an inferior follow-up to Tribe. Only later did I pull it back out and come to truly appreciate it.
Bob Dylan’s late career resurgence is generally tied to the 1997 release of Time Out of Mind, which won Grammy’s Album of the Year award and kicked off a spate of original albums that number among his best.
But I would peg the start of that comeback to a modest release five years earlier — Dylan’s first covers album, 1992’s Good As I Been to You.
Meet Me In Montauk 