What's New This Week

BOOKS
Undiscovered Gyrlby Allison Burnett [Vintage]
+ This book is a sort of diary/blog of a girl. Which sounds a bit like Gossip Girl, but it's not. This is a dark, strange book that sounds like more of a mystery than a book filled with teenage angst.

Self's Murderby Bernhard Schlink [Vintage]
+ Part of the Black Lizard/Vintage Crime series from Vintage (which is releasing some fantastic pulp), Self's Murder is the third book in the Gerhard Self series, which are pretty dark compelling pulp mysteries.


MUSIC
Bobby Bare Jr. and David Vandervelde - American Bread EP [Junket Boy]
+ Yes, Bobby Bare Jr. continued making music after "You Blew Me Off." Yes, a good deal of it is pretty good. Unfortunately the Junket Boy website seems to be kind of unusable at the moment.

Box Elders - Alice & Friends[Goner Records]
+ Box Elders are what should happen when pop and punk get together. Not the hyphenated bastardized version of both genres, but great pop tunes sung frantically with a lo-fi aesthetic mixed in to give the catchy hooks some grit.


THEATERS
It Might Get Loud (David Guggenheim) [Thomas Tull Prod./Sony]
+ A documentary about the rock guitar, filmed from the point of view of Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. Awesome. Seems like a logical film to follow Guggenheim's last, An Inconvenient Truth.

Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki) [Studio Ghibli/Disney]
+ The master of animated films is back with a new award-winning film. I don't think Miyazaki's missed yet. Even if you're not into anime it's hard not to love everything the guy does. He's kind of like a one man Pixar, minus the 3-D-o-rama.

DVD
The Class (Entre Les Murs)(Laurent Cantet) [Haut et Court/Sony]
+ This award winning French film follow a novelist who tries to become a teacher in a rough Parisian neighborhood. It's like Dangerous Minds for fans of Rohmer and Rosselini. I know.