Michael Caine

Brian Henson, the son of Muppet founder Jim Henson, took over directing duties after the untimely death of his father for The Muppet Christmas Carol, a sluggish re-telling of the Charles Dickens tale. Michael Caine, surrounded by legions of fuzzy, felt puppets, plays it straight as the crotchety Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who could care less about Christmas and the joy the season brings. Working for the skinflint is his faithful employee Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog), who begs Scrooge for a day off for Christmas. Scrooge reluctantly agrees and goes home on Christmas Eve filled with bile at the holiday merrymakers. But then he is visited by the sprits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and Scrooge, after revisiting his sorrowful past, hate-filled present, and doomed future, turns over a new leaf and becomes the most generous and celebratory person in town.

Obsession, jealousy, and deceit define the tense relationship shared between two turn-of-the-century magicians in Memento and Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan's dizzying tale of sleight of hand. Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are London-based magicians of the highest order, both blessed with spectacular powers of deception and both cursed with unrelenting envy for one another's skills. When Alfred performs an awe-inspiring trick for which there seems no logical explanation, the friendly competition shared between the pair turns to deadly rivalry as the enraged Rupert determines to uncover his rival's deepest secrets. In the world of illusion, however, nothing is ever quite as it seems, and the rules of the physical world simply don't apply. Now, as bitter competition quickly begins to consume the souls of both performers, the firestorm birthed by their anger threatens to consume all who surround them. Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie co-star in a feature that finds director/screenwriter Nolan reuniting with brother and Memento story author Jonathan Nolan to adapt author Christopher Priest's original novel.

Uri Caine & Gustav Mahler - Dark Flame (2003) {Winter & Winter 910 095-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 412 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 184 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 30 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2003 Winter & Winter | 910 095-2
Jazz / Classical / Modern Creative / Third Stream / Piano

In his time, European classical composer Gustav Mahler (b. 1860, d. 1911) had both his supporters and his detractors. Some people in Europe understood his work; some people didn't. And in the 21st century, the same thing can be said about Uri Caine, a risk taker who has been called everything from ultra-pretentious to a musical visionary. The latter, not the former, is accurate; Caine's jazz/Euro-classical experimentation has had its excesses at times, but dismissing him as pretentious or silly is unwarranted – and his pluses greatly outweigh his minuses.

Basically, one of the great attributes of this ambitious project is based upon Caine's ability to inject humor and disparate elements into his writings and arrangements; although, there's much more than meets the eye here as ideas abound....

Uri Caine - The Goldberg Variations (2000) {2CD Winter & Winter 910 054-2 rec 1999-2000}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 768 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 362 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Winter & Winter | 910 054-2
Jazz / Classical / Modern Creative / Avant-Garde Jazz / Baroque / Post Modern / Turntables / Electronic

In the 21st century, it's easy to take technology for granted and forget that in the time of Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685, d. 1750), there were no cars, busses, airplanes, TVs, radios, movies, tape recorders, electric lights, or computers. People used candles to light their homes, and horses were the fastest way to get around. There were excellent plays and opinionated theater critics to review them, but no cameras to film the actors and actresses. Recording technology had yet to be invented, so the only way to hear classical musicians was to hear them performing live. Although the classical artists of Bach's time could not be recorded, they left behind their compositions, and today's classical musicians continue to keep them alive.