Interview Camp

Released in 1994, “Artifacts II” is the sequel to the ground-breaking Beatles rarities compilation issued the previous year by Italian bootleggers. Like its predecessor, “Artifacts II” is a sweeping 5-CD compilation of newly unearthed Beatles rarities presented in chronological order. It features outtakes, live concert tracks, demos, overdub sessions, and rehearsals covering the group's known recordings from 1960 through 1969 – it's essentially a best-of the rest of the Beatles' unauthorized output, from what were then the best-known sources of every track represented. The "Artifacts" box sets were clearly the prototype for the authorized collection of Beatles outtakes (“The Beatles Anthology”) issued by EMI in 1995. The official Beatles vault releases have made much of what is found on the “Artifacts” boxes obsolete, however, there are some tracks found on the bootleg box sets that don’t appear on “Anthology,” making it a worthwhile addition to any Beatles collection. This is the second 5 CD box set in the series.

Filmed throughout the stunning Himalayan countryside, this geographical guide consists of six episodes. MONTY PYTHON star Michael Palin invites viewers to join him as he treks 2000 miles through the Himalayan region of Asia, encountering everyone including the Dalai Lama, the Bhutanese Royal Family, and the notorious head-hunting tribe of the Konyak. Throughout his travels, Palin offers witty and well-informed commentary on the varying degrees of wealth, poverty, and environmental challenges that are part of the Himalayan experience.

Filmmaker-svengali Josef von Sternberg escalates his obsession with screen legend Marlene Dietrich in this lavish depiction of sex and deceit in the eighteenth-century Russian court. A self-proclaimed “relentless excursion into style,” the pair’s sixth collaboration follows the exploits of Princess Sophia (Dietrich) as she evolves from trembling innocent to cunning sexual libertine Catherine the Great. With operatic melodrama, flamboyant visuals, and a cast of thousands, this ornate spectacle represents the apex of cinematic pageantry by Hollywood’s master of artifice.

Farmers are stingy, foxy, blubbering, mean, stupid and murderous! God damn! That's what they are! But then, who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it! You burn their villages! Destroy their farms! Steal their food! Force them to labor! Take their women! And kill them if they resist! So what should farmers do?

Kikuchiyo, Seven Samurai

Kristin Korb is both a swinging bassist and an occasional jazz singer. Originally she was a guitarist and singer who loved country music; Barbara Mandrell was one of her early musical heroes. Korb also studied piano and violin. She attended the Soundsation Jazz Camp one summer and came away interested in performing jazz. She switched from guitar to electric bass to join a vocal jazz group in the seventh grade, taking up the acoustic bass in 11th grade.

The U.S. Steinway & Sons label, associated with the venerable piano maker, has embarked on a series of handsomely designed, well-annotated releases that often explore undeservedly neglected repertory. The piano sonatas of Viktor Ullmann, who was gassed at Auschwitz in 1944, fit that description. Ullmann has been featured mostly in collections of compositions from the Nazis' "model" concentration camp at Terezin (Theresienstadt), where Jews were permitted some forms of artistic expression and where he wrote the last three of the seven sonatas heard here. But it is becoming clear …..

James Manheim @ AllMusic.com