What's New and Rad This Week

BOOKS
The Girl Who Played with Fireby Stieg Larsson [Knopf]
+ The Swedish author whose life was cut short in 2004 has been a big hit since his first publication in America. This should be as good as his first detective novel in this series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

MUSIC
John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony - recorded by Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra [Nonesuch]
+ This intense score from John Adams is based upon his "Doctor Atomic" opera and is as odd and intriguing as the title might suggest. Go here and preview the second part "Panic." Makes my eyes flutter a little.

Joshua Redman Quartet - Moodswing[Nonesuch]
+ Joshua Redman is easily one of the best saxophonists alive. Every album, even when not perfect, has a little something worth waiting for. This shouldn't be any different.

THEATERS
Thirst (Park Chan-wook) [Focus Features]
+ Awesome. This film is fantastic. Win of the Special Jury prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and winner of my heart in June, Thirst still bears everything you want from Park: the meditations on violence, the absolutely gruesome scenes, the lush cinematography. But Thirst is more of a drama than anything he's done before. Well worth the wait for new Park to come to America.

Adam (Max Mayer) [Olympus Pictures]
+ This is little heart-warmer here. Adam has Asperger's Syndrome and falls in love with his new upstairs neighbor. It's beautiful and well-written, one of the best indie-films of the summer.

DVD
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America(Tony Stone) [Heathen Films]
+ Ads for this won't stop reminding me of Pathfinder, which was an abysmal piece of dung, but Severed Ways intrigues me so much. It's an independently made film on a pretty large scale. Done by a studio this film would be under-financed and trying to be something it never could be. But this looks like it's far more complicated than that.