MUSIC
This Kind of Love – Carly Simon (Hear Music)
Those who feared that Carly Simon’s creativity was in an overly long fallow period can rejoice. Her newest album, “This Kind of Love,” is adventurous, sexy, sensuous and fun, with the kind of playfulness we used to depend on from the sultry Ms. Simon.
(According to some interviews released in conjunction with the album, it was Columbia, her previous label, who kept steering her to more conservative choices.) Here, we have rhythmic surprises, lyrical confessions, emotionally honest confessions and a touch of the sexy playfulness we always expected from the lady of “No Secrets”. With some songs (and accompaniment) from her kids Ben and Sally (both fully grown) and production work from the inestimable Jimmy Webb, Simon sings with mature confidence through a range of material, including the lovely “Hold Out Your Heart,” the intense “People Say a Lot When They Want the Job” (reminiscent of a Queen Latifah rap), and the title song. Carly is back as an artist, not just as an icon doing covers, and the result is as welcome as ever.
A Long and Winding Road – Maureen McGovern (PS Classics)
One of the classiest and most 
sophisticated voices in the business, Maureen McGovern became a cabaret staple receiving praise for her brilliant work with the songbooks of Gershwin, Bergman, Arlen, and other staple American composers. It was a reputation hard-won, required in some circles to overcome the misperception as the “Disaster Queen,” having introduced such pop movie themes as “The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure and “We May Never Love Like This Again” from The Towering Inferno. More than two decades on the club and recording circuit plus many Broadway musical credits (including Nine and Little Women) changed her from pop diva to, well, a rather classy dame. Throughout it all, the sheer purity and bell-like clarity of her instrument made folks sit up and take note. But now in an unexpected move, she has gone back to what were (unbeknownst at least to me) her roots of folk and protest. A Long and Winding Road allows her to let her hair down and to make (for her) some “unpretty” sounds in order to tap some raw emotions and thoughts. (Okay, a slight rasp occasionally on the incredibly wonderful vocal instrument is hardly “unpretty,” but you get the idea.) Songs by James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, The Beatles and numerous others provide an unexpected canvas that McGovern approaches with the same freshness and clarity that she’s approached the Gershwins. The effect is arresting, and the album’s appeal grows and grows with repeated listening. Among the many jewels: a terrific cover of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “And When I Die,” a moving version of Mitchell’s “The Circle Game,” and a Bobby McFerrin-tinged “Feelin’ Groovy.” Jimmy Webb raises his head again here, with the lovely lady recording a track she was destined to cover: “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress,” one of the lushest and loveliest ballads of the last 30 years. Those who have never jumped on the McGovern bandwagon should start here---it may be in this material that we meet the “real” Maureen McGovern.
FILMS
Okay, I don’t get out enough, I know—but here are two on cable that may have escaped you in their short theatrical runs that should be caught now!
THE NAMESAKE
Kal Penn is more than just the Harold and Kumar movies and his new role on TV’s House. Working with the great director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), he gives a wonderfully believable performance as a young man crossing two cultures and two worlds in The Namesake, based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri. The movie tracks a Bengali family now living in New York City in the final quarter of the 20th Century and its challenges in staying true to one culture while assimilating into another. The film is both entertaining and power, masterfully shot, and imparts a valuable lesson: when navigating terrains of past and future, old world and new, the best tact to navigating the path is being true not to any one culture slavishly but to one’s true self. The close-up shots of the Taj Mahal alone make this film worth viewing, but there’s much more to it than that. Also, watch for a stunning performance by the incredibly beautiful Indian actress/singer, Tabu, as the family matriarch.
WAITRESS
Adrienne Shelly’s untimely murder will forever haunt this lovely little film, her legacy that shows what might have been. Shelly wrote, directed and co-stars in this lovely tail of a trapped young woman who finds herself pregnant by her awful husband. Keri Russell plays the waitress, whose bullying husband (Jeremy Sisto) is thrilled by a pregnancy that the young woman herself doesn’t want. Her journey takes her through an odd friendship (with Andy Griffith, who’s wonderful), an affair with her obstetrician (played with humorous uncertainty by Nathan Fillion), and a quirky obsession with the baking of designer pies (“I Hate My Husband” pie, “Unwanted Baby” pie, “Dirty Cherry” pie, etc.). Along the way, her co-workers (played winningly by the late Shelly and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines) dispense dubious wisdom and friendship. It’s a small film, but a charming one, and one can only imagine what would have come next, were Shelly’s life not tragically cut short. Still, we can’t stop time, so curl up some rainy evening and treasure this little gem.
POLITICS
In the next few weeks, one way or the other, we will have a Democratic candidate to challenge John McCain. Can supporters of Clinton or Obama come together? Of course—both candidates have viable policies and either can lead this country to much-needed change. But the real apology owed the American people is from Howard Dean and the bosses of the Democratic Party. I like the candidates, but have never been so ashamed to be a Democrat. One of the most exciting and positive possibilities for change in years has been turned into an embarrassment by politico greed. The manipulation of this campaign by party honchos has been as bald and embarrassing as the manipulation of our country by the current administration. After years of being “the Party of the People,” Dean and his cronies have made it painfully clear that they have no more respect or care for the American people than their Republican counterparts. Fear, lies, and gross distortion have been the order of the day. Back room deals and intimidation tactics have been rampant. In short, a self-centered politician is a self-centered politician, regardless of affiliation. Yes, the candidate will get my vote—but it will be a long, LONG time before the party can approach me (or most of the Democrats I know) for financial support or endorsement. I call on all fellow disgruntled, trodden-upon Democrats to join in rebellion against a party that clearly has taken on a life of its own and feels it neither needs nor respects us. Good luck to Hillary and Barack—but SHAME ON YOU, DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
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