Cartoons (1925 2006)

Numerous New York City dwellers come to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships. Rob and Sophia are a happily married couple, except for the fact that she has never experienced sexual climax. This irony follows her to work because she is a couples counselor who frequently has to deal with the sexual issues other couples have. Two of her patients are Jamie and James, a gay couple who have been …

A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic/sexual milieu converge at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality, and loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in …

A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

U2's first two greatest-hits albums neatly divided themselves by decade, with the first covering the '80s and the second summing up the '90s. Their third hits comp, 2006's U218 Singles, is at once more ambitious and more concise, offering an overview of their first 26 years on a single disc comprised of 18 tracks – and since two of those are new songs, that leaves just 16 songs to tell their whole story. That's not much space for a band with a career as lengthy and ambitious as U2, so it's inevitable that some painful cuts have been made. Nothing from October, Zooropa or Pop is here, and unless you're buying various import editions that have "I Will Follow" as a bonus track, there's nothing from Boy, either. There's only one cut each from The Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum – and bucking conventional wisdom, none of their three widely accepted masterpieces – War, The Joshua Tree, or Achtung Baby – provide the most songs here. No, out of all their albums the one that dominates U218 Singles is All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2000 comeback from the depths of the misguided Pop, and one of two records that they've released since their last hits compilation, The Best of 1990-2000.

The empathetic, hard-hitting tales told in Die Verrufenene (Der fünfte Stand) (a.k.a. The Slums of Berlin) and Die Unehelichen (a.k.a. Children of No Importance) deal with Germany's disenfranchised in a realistic, gritty manner while still adhering to the melodramatic conventions of the day. Although Lamprect enjoyed a long and varied career behind the camera, he was most active as a passionate movie collector and champion of film preservation. The liner notes accompanying this set make it clear that it's hard to apply the auteur theory to someone like Lamprecht, but these particular films demonstrate handily that the director had a keen interest in the medium. As message pictures, they tend towards the preachy and sentimental, and yet there's also a "try something and see if it works" mentality at play here that makes them of great interest to silent fans.

Four CDs and Bonus DVD! For 25 years and counting, Sugar Hill has maintained a tradition of integrity and quality while exploring new frontiers in music. Today, the eclectic Sugar Hill roster includes adventurous artists such as Nickel Creek, The Duhks, Sonny Landreth, Scott Miller, and Sam Bush, as well as award-winning traditionalists like Dolly Parton and Tim O'Brien. Label founder Barry Poss handpicked tracks for Sugar Hill Records: A Retrospective, a collection that illuminates 25-plus years of contributions to American roots music and the evolution of the groundbreaking, Grammy-winning label. The massive Sugar Hill Records: A Retrospective box set includes four discs with 81 songs and a bonus DVD with exclusive artist interviews (Tim O'Brien, Doyle Lawson, Jerry Douglas, and more), music videos, and archival photo gallery. The box set's extensive liner notes by Poss include anecdotes and insights into the artists and times that shaped Sugar Hill's legacy. Liners also include a historical perspective from Country Music Hall of Fame's Jay Orr, as well as artist reflections on the label and Poss.