Friday , March 29 2024
The best of the week, Valentine's edition.

BC Magazine Editors’ Picks: February 12 through February 18

You need it, we got it. Every week our editors comb the site for the best of the best and round it up for you. Read on.

MUSIC

From Music Editor Connie Phillips:

Mat Brewster's Bootleg Country: Nanci Griffith – 11/29/98 is a wonderful look at the artist and her music blended with a nice little story about how he came to discover her music.

In When White Bands Covered Motown Hits, Holly Hughes reflects on the recent Grammy awards and the history of Motown, as well as those who covered some of their biggest hits. It's a really nice stroll down music's memory lane.

DJRadiohead's Music Review: Norah Jones – Not Too Late digs deeper than the surface of this latest release and looks at pop trends and the industry as a whole. It's a personal perspective well worth the read.

BOOKS

From Books Editor Natalie Bennett:

Not having a language in common with an author might, you might think, be an impossible barrier to conducting an interview. You'd be wrong, as Richard Marcus proves with this interview with the Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra. Richard gets prizes for tenacity, effort, but most of all for producing a fascinating interview that gives a personal but highly illuminating account of life in a turbulent and little-known country.

"Imagine you're on Barbara Walter's television show and you foolishly tell her that you can reproduce a drawing never seen by you that lies concealed in an envelope on her desk…" Want to know what to do? Then read Ed Rust's review of the Skeptical Inquirer, which not only explains the magazine, but also recent events in what used to be the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

From Asst. Books Editor Gordon Hauptfleisch:

"I’m shamelessly fascinated with books on the life of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes," Ms. Strega says, "for reasons I can't always pinpoint." For the purposes of her compellingly written review of Lover of Unreason, it doesn't matter — Ms. Strega's enthusiasm and passion has her infusing her analysis with an extra degree of expressiveness and resonance.

C. Michael Bailey says that the author of Beethoven: The Universal Composer captures the "bigness" of the larger-than-life composer "without hyperbole." In backing up and illuminating his points, C. Michael in turn provides an accessibly cohesive summation of Beethoven's life, art, and place in the history of music.

TV/FILM

From TV Editor TV and Film Guy:

People just aren't watching as much anymore, but despite all that blowback it's still awfully popular and awfully wonderful. Need to catch up? Need a sneak peak into the future? Well, if Desmond's not around to give it to you, Chris McVetta can help you get up to date on Lost.

From Film Editor Lisa McKay:

It's that time of year. The upcoming Academy Awards are the subject of lots of speculation and conversation in the BC Film section. Kati Irons has a lot of opinions about who might win and why we should care.

"[As] painful as the movie had become by the end, I could have happily sat through the first half a second time, though I was barely able to sit through the second half once," says Alan Dale of Dreamgirls. Read the review to find out why.

CULTURE

From Culture Editor Diana Hartman:

History comes a-calling as well-written and interesting attempts are made to sort out the pasts of one person and one nation.

Bob Felton historically, and a bit jovially, illustrates the rise and potential fall of America's technological supremacy in Sputnik Hysteria: We Could Use Some of That Today.

Richard Marcus recalls his familial history with great interest, discovering it has more personal relevance than first thought in Family History: Facts And Hopes.

POLITICS

No picks this week.

SPORTS

From Sports Editor Matt Sussman:

You may have noticed (or not) that I haven't made my editor's picks in the last 56 years. I blame this phenomenon on one or more of the following:

  • real life
  • writer's block
  • wind resistance
  • Robert Goulet
  • heart dropsy
  • losing the will to live after Bowling Green's stupefying loss to Buffalo
  • unwanted pregnancy
  • The Irish

But here we are, ready to make picks again. It was a light week, but we had some gems.

Jeff Kallman is new to the site — has anyone shown him his cubicle yet? — but provided us with a lesson on how not to use a bullpen after the sudden retirement of Keith Foulke. Although he coulda just said "Cleveland curse" and it would have been much shorter.

I was confused for a second. Daytona 500 isn't the name of a movie, it's the name of a race. But … Chris Beaumont wrote it. This made little sense. Fortunately his preview of the race made plenty.

And then there was … nope, that's it! Ha! Sorry to get your hopes up, everyone else.

GAMING

From Gaming Editor Ken Edwards:

Nintendo DS Review: Diddy Kong Racing DS by Kevin Cortez — Leaves memories of the N64 original tarnished.

SCI/TECH

From Technology Editor Daniel Woolstencroft:

This week's Sci/Tech editor's picks are all about the technology of the future, today!

Kaonashi wonders if people still but CDs, or whether digital distribution is taking over, and asks CD? What's That?.

Raoul Pop loves photography, and after looking at the SLRs of yesteryear in a past article, he now takes a look at a more modern piece of equipment as he reviews the the Olympus EVOLT E-500 DSLR.

From Science Editor John Vaccaro:

A early generation bionic eye has completed initial clinical trials. StalkingTiger fills us in on the details of this potentially revolutionary science.

TASTES

No picks this week.

About Lisa McKay

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