Movie Review: Don’t say a word By Poppy When expert teen psychiatrist Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) is called into see a young 18-year-old girl by his friend and colleague, things are not what they seem. The girl has a history of unexplained violence, failed treatment and misdiagnosis. As his friend is also a teen psychiatrist, Douglas is unsure why his services have been called for but with a little flattery he accepts. The only words he can get the patient Elizabeth Burrows to say is, “I’ll never tell.” When Douglas wakes up the next day his 8-year-old daughter is no longer in the apartment and the chain has been cut on the apartment door. He gets a phone call from the kidnapper (Sean Bean) and his instructions: the kidnappers don’t want money they want a number from the girl and the time frame given is to the end of the day, or the doctor’s daughter will be killed.
Although the kidnapper theme has been done many times before this is a little different and never boring. The story moves all the time making it an exciting movie and interesting to watch. The acting is excellent, you actually experience feelings of suspense and compassion. Director: Gary Fleder Cast: Michael Douglas
Gentle Giant - Edge Of Twilight by Mott the Dog **** 4 Star Rating Gentle Giant were one of the first bands to manage to successfully merge medieval madrigals with snippets of classics into some of the most unique sounding progressive rock. They created a style of almost traditional sounding early English music that seemed to hop around, taking in all their influences, from verse to chorus. Gentle Giant have been labeled as one of the most complex groups of any age.
What accounts for this strange inconsistency? When the Shulman brothers, Derek, Ray & Phil decided to reinvent themselves after an unsatisfying two hit career as “Simon Dupree & The Big Sound” (their biggest success coming with 1967 U.K. top ten hit “Kites”) as the nucleus of “Gentle Giant”, whilst adding the superb Gary Green on lead guitar & the classically trained keyboard player Kerry Minnear (drummers came & went during the first four albums). Vowing to go their own way, they signed with the prestigious Vertigo label, home of many great progressive rock outfits of the era. They decided to concentrate on compositional quality, rather than use cliches & flashiness to please the masses. As a result they created a strange & wonderful music that may not appeal immediately to the ear, but like fine wine, sits in the soul & slowly ferments into something pleasureful. This turned away potential fans who did not have the time to listen closely. “Edge of Twilight” is a double CD collection concentrating mainly on their first four CD’s of uneasy listening, which basically invited the listener to “Take us or leave us”, something that was certain to get up the rock presses collective nose. That they remained an underground cult band for most of their eleven year career from 1969 - 1980 was due to the antipathy of the music press which steadfastly refused to grant them column inches despite their burgeoning reputation at fan level. The secret of Gentle Giant longevity is in the variety, depth & beauty of the music. Their influences spanned rock, jazz, blues, renaissance, 20th century classic music, & the just plain outright bizarre. Between them they played over 30 instruments, even in their live shows, adding strings, brass, woodwinds harpsichord & homemade percussion to the usual rock line up. All band members sang (which is finely shown on the song “Knots”, where their voices are all they use, forsaking all instruments). Lead vocals were mainly shared between Derek for the hard rock songs, Kerry for the ballads, & Phil for the inbetweenies. Of the four albums this compilation brings together “Gentle Giant” was a strong debut album, tinged with elements of blues & 1960’s British soul, the music is strikingly original ranging from rock ensemble to string quintet. “Acquiring The Taste” was perhaps Gentle Giant’s most experimental album. The liner notes state that the band’s goal was to “expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music” which sounds a little pretentious now in 2001. “Three Friends” encompasses many styles as it follows the lives of three school friends, and was Gentle Giant’s first concept album. The title track, in my opinion represents their most beautiful work. “Octopus” is a harder rocking album (with the addition of hard bashing drummer John Weathers). The many stand-out tracks on this album make it a favorite of most fans. “Edge Of Twilight” gives you over two & a half hours of Gentle Giant’s unique sound, so is excellent value, especially with the excellent 16 page booklet that comes with it. If you need further information on Gentle Giant look up their webpage at www.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/gentlegiant.html Octopus line up Kerry Minnear - keyboard, vibraphone, percussion,
cello, moog, vocals Track Listing CD One 1. The Advent Of Panurge CD Two 1. Proclamation
Updated every Friday Updated by
Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk. |
What the compiler Matthias Klein has done is to attempt
to sift through and simplify the confusing rules and regulations, normally
kept privy by the post office staff themselves.
Billy Liar
Douglas realizes that they know every move he makes; they
can see and hear him; his wife is bedridden with a broken leg and very
vulnerable.
Mott’s CD review:
“In Britain it’s not been low profile, it’s been
no profile,” that’s how Derek Shulman once summarized the career of
Gentle Giant, one of progressive rocks’ best kept secrets. There is no
other band quite like Gentle Giant, held in the highest esteem by their
fanatical fans, but meaning little to all else.
