Love on The Quiet

The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.

Although “Dancing on the Wind” is only pianist Shoshana Michel’s second album, and her first as a composer of original material, she is already being recognized for her talents and is making a name for herself in the solo piano category. Shoshana’s musical background has had a number of twists and turns through various genres, in addition to starts and stops through the years. However, sometimes, fallow periods can be a time for germinating and realizations. A good example of this is the album’s opening track, about which Shoshana shared: “’When Leaves Dance’ is the first piano solo that I composed after not composing for about twenty-four years. I was drawn to and inspired by the movement of the leaves on the tree that is just outside the window by my piano as I was composing this piece.” This song makes a wonderful entry into the album and I loved the rippling arpeggios that capture the feeling of leaves moving in the breeze. I also really liked the minor key chord progression that added a subtly dramatic feel – a mellow drama, so to speak.

When Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan stepped on the moon in December 1972, he left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust. This film takes Cernan back to the launchpads of Cape Kennedy to tell his story of burning ambition, fulfilment, love and loss. Using a wealth of rare archive, home movies, scrapbooks and interviews, it recounts how Cernan's burning ambition carried him from a quiet Chicago suburb to the spectacular and hazardous environment of space.

Motown's series of Commodores two-fers paired "Hot on the Tracks" with "In the Pocket" and, in doing so, spanned a rather drastic breach in the group's evolution. Lionel Richie and company had recorded Hot on the Tracks just as they were hitting their stride in the mid-'70s, fresh off the burgeoning, yet still relatively modest, success of Caught in the Act and Movin' On. It's an excellent album, surely one of the group's best. On the other hand, the Commodores had recorded In the Pocket in 1981, after five steady years of chart-topping quiet storm ballads and a gradual shift from loose funk to stiff disco. Furthermore, by the time the Commodores recorded In the Pocket, Richie had become the group's de facto hitmaker and was on the brink of jumping ship for an incredibly popular solo career.

When Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan stepped on the Moon in December 1972 he left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust. Only now, over forty years later, is he ready to share his epic but deeply personal story of fulfillment, love and loss. Cernan's burning ambition carried him from a quiet Chicago suburb to the spectacular and hazardous environment of space, and ultimately, to the Moon. Five years in the making, The Last Man on the Moon unveils a wealth of rare archive material, and takes Cernan back to the launch pads of Cape Kennedy, to Arlington National Cemetery and to his Texas ranch, where he finds respite from a past that refuses to let him go.